James G. Sterchi
James Gilbert Sterchi was an American businessman, best known as the cofounder and head of the furniture wholesaler, Sterchi Brothers Furniture Company. At its height, Sterchi Brothers was the worlds largest furniture store chain, with sixtyfive stores across the southeastern United States and a worldwide customer base. In 1946, the company became the first Knoxvillebased firm to be listed on the New York Stock Exchange. The companys tenstory headquarters, now called Sterchi Lofts, stands prominently along Knoxvilles skyline, and Sterchis home in northern Knoxville, Stratford Mansion, is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
Sterchi was born on the farm of his grandfather, Swiss immigrant Francois Sterchi, in 1867. Francois Sterchi had been a commissioner and archivist for the Canton of Vaud, but had fled to the United States in the late 1840s following political upheaval. Like many of Knoxvilles Swiss immigrants, the Sterchis initially settled in Wartburg, atop the Cumberland Plateau, in 1848. Disappointed with the Plateaus poor soil, however, the Sterchis moved to the Beaver Creek Valley in north Knox County, where they established a farm called Bellefontaine. Francois, trained as a civil engineer, helped survey Gay Street in Knoxville in the early 1850s.
Source: Wikipedia