Because of the scarcity of food in East Tennessee, the Sanitary Commission sent some supplies from Cincinnati to relieve it, but the evil was too great to be overcome without extraordinary means. Not long after Mr. Taylor’s visit to Philadelphia, it was advised by his Eastern friends that an association should be organized in the destitute region, to receive gifts and administer help to the needy; and also that a competent committee, representing the distant contributors should visit the afflicted people, to observe their condition, confer with the society located among them and to report. Accordingly on February 8, 1864, at a public meeting in Knoxville, a relief association was formed and officers elected: Rev, Thomas W. Humes, President; Executive Committee, William Heiskell, Samuel R. Rodgers, John Baxter, O. P. Temple, William G. Brownlow, R. D. Jourolmon, George M. White and David Richardson; John M. Fleming, Secretary; M. M. Miller, Treasurer. Mr. Fleming was soon succeeded by George M. White as Secretary; and after one year David A. Deaderick became Treasurer of the Society. Needful agents were appointed for purchase and transportation of supplies. About the same time, two Commissioners of the Pennsylvania Relief Society, Lloyd P. Smith and Frederick Collins, expended at Cincinnati, on their way to East Tennessee, over $8,000, in buying and shipping to that region, articles of food, chiefly flour, bacon, salt, sugar and coffee. These were transported to Nashville, free of charge, by means of a credential letter from Chas. H. Dana, Assistant Secretary of War, to Gen. Grant. Soon afterwards, $28,000 were used for like purchases at the former city by Mr. Hazen, agent of the Knoxville Society, which were forwarded by means of $2,000, kindly loaned by Hon. Joseph E. Fowler, of Nashville.