Knoxville Chronicles
Knoxville Chronicles is a podcast series produced by the Knoxville History Project highlighting some of the most interesting of the city’s old stories that still have relevance today.The Knoxville History Project is an educational nonprofit with a mission to research, preserve and promote the history and culture of Knoxville, Tennessee.Learn more at KnoxvilleHistoryProject.org
Knoxville Chronicles
The Conjure Man
The Knoxville area once known as the Bowery included hundreds of little shops: secondhand stores run by immigrants, some early African American barber shops and movie theaters, some of the city’s first Chinese laundries, some of the city’s last livery stables and blacksmiths, and drugstores that sold things that mainstream drugstores wouldn’t. It was also the epicenter of an underground economy, the herb men.
To most people, one such herb man, known as Doc Mullins, was a complete mystery. His death certificate listed him, rather matter-of-factly, as a “Herb Doctor.” But by reputation, he was known as a conjurer. Thanks to curious News-Sentinel columnist Bert Vincent we know some of Doc’s strange story.
Written by Jack Neely. Read by Don Thress.
Special thanks to producer Pete Carty.
Knoxville Chronicles is brought to you by the nonprofit Knoxville History Project.
Learn more at KnoxvilleHistoryProject.org
Funding for this episode has been kindly provided by the City of Knoxville and Friends of the Knoxville History Project.