Briceville is an unincorporated community in Anderson County, Tennessee, United States. It is included in the Knoxville, Tennessee Metropolitan Statistical Area. The community is named for railroad tycoon and one-term Democratic U.S. Senator Calvin S. Brice of Ohio, who was instrumental in bringing railroad service to the town. The Briceville zip code, 37710, which also includes a large remote mountain area west of the community formerly served by the now-closed Devonia post office, had a population of 1,441 as of the 2000 U.S. Census. Briceville's economy was historically based on coal mining. Briceville played an important role in three major late-19th and early-20th century incidents related to the region's coal mining activities: the Coal Creek War in 1891, the Fraterville Mine disaster of 1902, and the Cross Mountain Mine disaster of 1911. Demographics History The Knoxville Iron Company, cofounded by Welsh immigrants in 1868, began mining coal in the Coal Creek Valley in the late 1860s, initially hauling the coal from the mines via wagon, and later by railroad after the completion of a Knoxville and Kentucky Railroad line between Knoxville and Coal Creek (now Lake City) in 1869. In subsequent years, Knoxville Iron and other companies gradually worked their way up the Coal Creek Valley, opening mines in The Wye, Fraterville, and Slatestone Hollow. In 1888, at Senator Calvin Brice's behest, a railroad spur was built connecting Coal Creek with Slatestone Hollow. After this line's completion, the Slatestone Hollow community was renamed "Briceville." Briceville and the Coal Creek Valley grew rapidly in the 1890s as the demand for coal soared. By 1900, the valley had over 4,000 residents, and by 1910 Briceville was the largest community in Anderson County. Briceville's most prominent structure, the Briceville Community Church, was built by volunteers in 1887 on a hill near the center of the community. The church was initially non-denominational, but as the community's population grew, Baptists and Presbyterians built their own churches, and in 1896 the Briceville Community Church became a Methodist church. Coal Creek War In the early 1890s, Briceville played a central role in the Coal Creek War, a labor uprising that grew out of local coal miners' opposition to the state's practice of leasing prisoners to businesses, which reduced the need for conventional labor. Three of the conflict's chief instigators— Eugene Merrell, George Irish, and S. D. Moore— lived in Briceville. Merrell, a French-born Knights of Labor activist,