You Know Johnson City, New York, But Do You Know Johnson City, Tennessee?

Last year, I decided to look around the country for communities that had the same name as some of our local communities like Binghamton, Endicott, Vestal, and Johnson City.

I found two other Binghamton communities, one in California and one in Wisconsin. There are Endicotts in Kentucky, Nebraska, Virginia, and Washington. In addition to New York, a Vestal community can be found in Virginia, Tennessee, and California.

A community named Johnson City can be found in New York, Kansas, Missouri, Oregon, Texas, and Tennessee. Johnson City, Tennessee is the only one I was aware of. I can't count the number of times I have searched for something in our local Village of Johnson City, only to find something in the search from Johnson City, Tennessee.

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So for fun, I thought I'd take a look at what Johnson City, Tennessee is all about. I found some interesting things about the city that has the same name as our village. According to City Town Info, the city began as a railroad station by Henry Johnson. The city is nestled in a valley surrounded by the beautiful Southern Apalachin Mountains.

Johnson City, Tennessee became famous in the 1920s for bootlegging activities and is rumored that Al Capone used to frequent the city. It currently has a population of just over 71,000, much larger than Binghamton, it's warmer throughout the year than the Triple Cities, and snowfall averages about 15 inches a year according to Wikipedia. I could live with that type of climate.

There also are (or were) a couple of odd laws in Johnson City, Tennessee according to Wikipedia including the 'Barney Fife' ordinance which gave the police force the option of deputizing citizens for aid, and a law that prohibited local merchants from banging drums to, well, drum up business.

via City Town Info, Wikipedia