Bay Mare and Stud Colt

In 1857, businessman John Dixon established the Eureka Cotton Mills near what is now Englewood where they used regionally-grown cotton to produce yarn. The small mill community that developed around the mill became known as Eureka Mills. By 1875, Elisha Brient, a partner of Dixon, and several of Brient's relatives had acquired Eureka Cotton Mills, and in 1894 the Brients renamed the town of Eureka Mills "Englewood". The name was suggested by Nancy Chestnutt, a sister-in-law of James Brient, who thought the area resembled the English forests of the Robin Hood tales she had read about as a child. In the late 19th century, the Brients began building shops and gristmills approximately 2 miles (3.2 km) northeast of their milltown at a railroad stop called Tellico Junction, where the Atlanta, Knoxville & Northern Railroad (which roughly followed modern U.S.