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Sjauo^ |»3un;0}^ afwnoj^ u00mRj||ij||g WILLIAMSON COUNTY HISTORICAL SOCIETY PUBLICATION Nvunber 20 Spring 1989

Published by Williamson County Historical Society . Franklin, Tennessee 1989 WILLIAMSON COUNTY HISTORICAL SOCIETY

Publication Number 20 Spring 1989

Published by the Williamson County Historical Society

EDITORS

Mary Trim Anderson Richard Warwick

OFFICERS

President Robert Hicks

First Vice President Gert Uthman

Second Vice President Ruth Fowlkes

Recording Secretary Evelyn Lester

Corresponding Secretary Mary D. Crawford

Treasurer Herman Major

The WILLIAMSON COUNTY HISTORICAL SOCIETY PUBLICATION is sent to all members of the Williamson County Historical Society. The annual membership dues are ten dollars for an individual and twelve dollars for a family. This includes this publication and a frequent NEWSLETTER to all members. I N

M E M 0 R I A M

Campbell H. Brown - Murfreesboro

Bob Bell - Nashville

Mary Ellen Hendricks - Franklin

Alice Elizabeth McCampbell - Franklin

Ellse Park - Jackson

A. Battle Rodes - Franklin

i ^ A MESSAGE FROM THE PRESIDENT

WITH THE PASSING OF OUR FOUNDER AND FIRST PRESIDENT-. UE ARE ALL CALLED UPON TO REEVALUATE THE SOCIETY'S HISTORY AND ITS FUTURE. FOR MANY YEARS THE WILLIAMSON COUNTY HISTORICAL SOCIETY

HAS SERVED AS A MEETING PLACE FOR MEN AND WOMEN WHO LOVE WILLIAMSON COUNTY AND HER HERITAGE, THROUGH THE JOURNAL AND ITS SPECIAL PROJECTSn WHOSE ASPECTS OF THE COUNTY'S HISTORY HAVE BEEN

REMEMBERED-i IF NOT ALWAYS SAFEGUARDED. THE SOCIETY HAS BEEN MADE

UP OF A BAND OF STRONG-HEARTED INDIVIDUALS-. MANY OF WHOM HAVE

COMMITTED LONG AND THANKLESS HOURS TO THE TASKS AND PROJECTS

BEFORE THEM. WE COULD FILL THIS ENTIRE EDITION OF THE JOURNAL

WITH THE HISTORY OF THOSE-. PAST AND PRESENT-. IN THE SOCIETY WHO

HAVE MADE A DIFFERENCE IN WHAT WE UNDERSTAND OF OUR HERITAGE.

YET-. WHILE OUR PAST IS THE FOCUS OF OUR INTEREST^ THE

FUTURE ALWAYS LIES BEFORE US- NEVER BEFORE HAS OUR HERITAGE BEEN

MORE THREATENED THAN IT IS TODAY. AT TIMES OUR LOCAL NEWSPAPERS

READ LIKE A RECORD OF OUR DIMINISHING MATERIAL CULTURE-

IF WE ARE NOT GOING TO SEE ALL THAT REMAINS VANISH BEFORE OUR VISION-. THE SOCIETY IS GOING TO HAVE tO CONTINUE TO

SERVE AS A FORUM FOR THOSE WHO ARE WILLING TO SPEAK OUT AGAINST.

THIS LOSS. COLONEL CAMPBELL BROWN AND HIS CONTEMPORARIES HAVE

LEFT US A PRECIOUS HERITAGE- IT IS UP TO US TO BUILD OUR

COUNTY'S FUTURE UPON IT-

ROBERT HICKS STATEMENT

From The Editors

N^ne.te.e.n hand^td and z-ightcf-n^ne. maAk-S. thz tcoznt-Czth y&aA that thz WttZtam6on County HtstoA-CcaZ Soctzty ha.6 pubtt£h&d thd JouAnat. We, aAz the bznz^actoAS a I thd lOoAk and dzdtcatXon CotondZ Campbztl BAown, ouA County HtitoAtan tn 1970, MaAy Snz&d Jonz6, ChatAman o^ thd PubZtaatton Commtttdd that pubZt&hdd thd itA&t JouAnaZ and GzoAgz F. Wat£on, O/tZZtam^ on County Ht&toAtzaZ SocZdty'6 PA&^tdznt Zn 1970. In th& 6ucc.dddZng yzaAi, ouA hdAttagd hai bztn pA&6dAv&d and pAopagatdd wZth thd puBZZcatton o^ zach zdZtZon Oj{ thz JouAnaZ. We o^^&A thZ6 ddZtZon Zn thz &amz tAadZtZon coZth thd hopd that thz6z aAtZcZdS ZncAza6d ouA knouiZddgz o{^ thz past and ZnStZZZ a dzsZAz to AzszaAzh ^uAthzA OUA County's hZstoAy. We voouZd ZZkz to zxpAzss OUA gAatZtudz to thz contAZbutoAS ^oA takZng thz tZmz to shaAZ thzZA Zn^oAmatZon. SpzzZaZ thanks and AzzognZtZon shouZd bz gZvzn to Ruth PowZkzs ^oa hzZpZng wZth thz pAoo^AzadZng and ZndzxZng, Vanzz LZttZz ^oa hZs znzouAagZng advZzz and MaAy CAaw^oAd ^OA pAzpaAZng thz aAtZcZzs ioA pAZntZng.

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L\ CONTENTS

Two Young Ladies Of The South Rick Warwick 1

Early Recollections Of Franklin George S. Nichols 7

A School Called "Battle Ground Academy" Rosalie Carter 12

The House With The Glass Dome Derry Carlisle 17

A People With A Dream Mattye Jackson 25

Garrison Methodist Episcopal Church M. h. Meacham 28

A Fellowship, A Family, A Forum Perry C. Cptham 35

Hardy Murfree Judith Grigsby Hayes 63

Nicholas Nichol Cox Frances Anderson Gibbs 65

Sneed Acres Sarah Sprott Morrow 70

History Of McClanahan Hollow Elizabeth McClanahan Mayfield 76

The Roberts Family Of Williamson County Elizabeth Roberts Redford 88

The 1909 Garrison Cyclone Marion Joyce Poynor 92

Slavery In Williamson County Thomas Vance Little 101

Burke Hollow Elizabeth Burke Plattsmier 130

Almost Heaven - Nolensville Marie Williams Batey 136

Contributors 149

Members 153

Index 102 TWO YOUNG LADIES OF THE, SOUTH

Rick Warwick

The term "moonlight and magnolias" is sometimes used to capture the romantic feeling that swelled in the hearts and memories of the Southern female during, and long after, the Civil War. Two examples of Southern pride and emotion will be shared for their beauty as nineteenth century prose. They are appropriate for this issue of the Journal because they were written in Williamson County, and 1989 is the , one hundred twenty-fifth anniversary of the Battle of Franklin. The first essay entitled "The Sunny South" was found in a trunk among the family papers of Mrs. Nan Rodgers Chapman of Bingham. It is very possible that one of Miss Nan's .aunts wrote the essay while attending the Franklin Female Institute. "A Woman's Farewell to Sam Davis" was written by Ella Hughes McKennie of Triune, a relative of Mrs. A. Battle Rodes. A copy was found in the Williamson County Historical Society's files, which are housed in the Old Jail. I hope you are open to the literary style and flowery language expressed here. I find it uplifting and innocent. My students are puzzled by the unfamiliar references to. "myrmidons" and "toscin of war" but appreciate the call for patriotism and defending the home from the Northern vandals. The boys can identify with the hero-scouts who met their destinies, while the girls try to visualize the possibility of romance between Miss Ella and the brave Sam Davis. Both items have been copied as written, without Os, editing. THE SUNNY SOUTH

The subject I have selected is of thrilling importance to everyone present, for it concerns us all. While I attempt to read to you these few, disconnected lines, my heart throbs with unusual emotion. Our hitherto happy and united land is threatened with war, the worst of all wars a civil one. Where once was heard naught but the sound of bustling active and thriftly pursuits. Now the Earth itself groans beneath the tread of armed squadrons. Why all this arming? Why these heartrending separations? Why does the mother send her darling boy to the tented field? Why does the happy lover, instead of whispering the words of impassioned love in rose clad bowers, speak the sad farewell? Why is it, that brothers, friends and loved ones are torn from us to go forth to the battlefield, to lay down life and all that is sacred? These are solemn questions, but there are many here that can quickly answer; many have brothers, friends, and fathers aye and perhaps not a few have those that are dearer still upon the tented field, armed to protect their loved country from the foul tread of a disolating enemy. The stern necessity, has come upon us of meeting a fierce, relentless foe; yes, our sunny south is threathened with invasion her sons have torn themselves from every tie that binds them to home, and gone forth to meet the myrmidons who intend disolating our southern homes. May God bless and protect from harm our gallant defenders. A more sacred cause than that of revolution is now before us. We are fighting to liberate ourselves from the usurpation of a tyrant, who talks of subjugating the south, this is the cause which now demands our attention. God grant that our southern armies may be victorious, that our brothers, and friends maybe shielded from the ravages of the sword, and may those who do fall in this noble cause be prepared for that upper and better land where war is a stranger. I cannot stop without mentioning my own loved state, Tennessee, she won in years past the proud title of volunteer state, and how nobly has she sustained that proud position; her sons have been the ardent devotees of freedom, this has been verified by the action of her gallant sons, who in defense of her glory left their bones to bleach upon the earth from Kings Mountain to the Capital of Mexico. She is now engaged in the holy struggle of liberty. At the first sound of the toscin of war, eighty-thousand took their places ready for the contest. We will aid them with our prayers where ever they may go, whether upon the soil of the Old dominion, beating back the advancing foe who wish to invade the soil in which repose the remains of our Washington, Jefferson, Madison and Monroe, or, at home, defending us from the vandal touch of the ruthless soldiery. I wish not to seem too certain of success, but is it not reasonable to suppose that the men who defied the British in eighteen and fifteen, will renew the splendid deeds of their fathers in defending the sacred cause of liberty and right but while these have gone forth to do or die, must not those, who remain, prepare for the great conflict? If there are any who are not willing to defend Tennessee's honor, let them be known; so that their wives, daughters and sisters may throw off the restraints of the weaker sex and renew the heroism of the women of the revolution. My countrymen of the land of Polk and Jackson; you need to be only reminded of your duty; a tyrannical foe is on your very borders; will you hesitate to fly to arms; will you prove recreant to the glorious past? No never; then be ready to assist your gallant companions, who are already on the battlefield. I do not think you need such chidings, you have too often displayed your patriotism to need an admonishing word. We feel that Tennessee's honor is safe in your hands, and that her proud name will never be sullied by one act of yours. Prepare yourselves for the great conflict, beat the invaders or else die in the attempt; let the last entrenchment be your graves, ire hostile foes pollute the soil of the volunteer state with their unhallowed tread. Then Tennesseans to arms. "Strike till the last armed foe expires Strike for your altars and your fires Strike for the green graves of your sires God and your native land." A WOMAN' S FAREWELL TO SAM DAVIS

Near Triune, Tennessee.

One bright morning late in November of 1863-just about sunrise-my mother heard quite a commotion in the poultry yard. Going out to inquire the cause she found Aunt Johanna, our faithful cook, busy catching chickens. When questioned about it she only replied, "0, miss Sally don't you mind." Old Aunt Johanna had been notified by York, another faithful slave, that she must prepare breakfast for three strangers. York had risen early that morning, as he usually did, to feed the stock and as he was passing through a woodland near the house, he came suddenly upon three sleeping soldiers, their horses tied nearby and with their paraphernalia still upon them, ready to move at a momenta warning. York crept a little closer and recognizing his young master exclaimed-"Why Marse George-what you doing here?" "Resting York-but don't you betray me!" "No Marse George-that I won't-I would die first." "Well-you go to the house and tell Aunt Johanna to prepare us a bountiful breakfast and you bring it to us. Tell her not to let anyone but mother know-and not to tell her till after breakfast." It did not take long for York to bring the news and to carry back the breakfast piping hot to the three tired, hungry soldiers. They were Confederate scouts, my brother, George Hughes and his two friends-Dee Job and Sam Davis. As soon as breakfast was over-my mother, my sisters and I hastened out to see them and it was then that I met Sam Davis for the first and last time. I found him a genial, pleasant companion, full of promise for a grand future and full of hope for the Confederacy. I thought at the time how noble and good he was. All day we laughed and talked and cried. They told many a merry joke and many of their experiences full of thrilling interest. I remember Sam Davis talking proudly of the new suit of gray he wore that his mother had made for him in which he looked very handsome and he laughingly showed us the gayly colored plaid lining in his jacket. When four o'clock came they said they must go and then our laughing was changed to tears-as they bid us farewell and waved their hats as they rode away. A last farewell for two of them. I remember how cheerful these brave young scouts were as they begged us nOt to worry-for they felt sure-they said, that our cause would win. As they rode away I thought that I had never seen three handsomer, nobler looking boys all dressed in their full Confederate uniforms. They went towards Pulaski-separating about three miles from that place-never meet again. History has told you the rest of what happened to one of the three-how he was captured and martyred in a few days. You remember too how the gay plaid lining of his gray jacket was used to identify his body-matching the scrap sent by the broken hearted old mother. Also proving that he was captured in his Confederate gray and not disguised as a spy. When they separated near Pulaski-my brother, George, went south into Alabama, was captured the following day and held for trial. Fortunately for him he fell into the hands of an old college mate, the Colonel of the regiment—who delayed his examination until the following day. This gave my brother an opportunity to destroy the papers he carried. While the officers who lay beside him slept, he chewed his papers, little pieces at a time and cut holes in his blanket, through which he mixed the paper into the dirt floor of the old sheep barn in which they were sleeping. The next morning when they examined him they found no information on his person and so his life was spared-but he was sent to a Northern prison. A few months later. Dee Job, the other companion was captured near Triune, Tennessee. The enemy came upon him while he was sleeping on a hillside and tied him hand and foot. They must have tortured him everyway to force him to tell what he knew-but failing in this purpose, butchered him horribly and then rode to his mother's home, called her out into the yard and said, "Madam, we have just killed your son, as brave a soldier as ever died." Thus all three of these brave young soldier boys, full of life and hope - after our farewell to them, fell into the hand of their foes. One to languish in a Northern prison. The other two to give their young lives as martyrs to the cause so dear to their hearts. The name of Dee Job,unknown to history and yet his death that of a hero. Witnessed only by the angels of God - who doubtless sang a triumphal glory song. Sam Davis - a name handed down to generations as the Southern hero that gave his life rather than betray a confidence. "Tell me his name and you are free."

Mrs. Ella Hughes McKennie EARLY RECOLLECTIONS OF FRANKLIN

George S. Nichols

(NOTE: This article was printed by the Review-Appeal on January 11, 1923. It was taken from the files of a grandson, James A. Britt).

Franklin has always played an important part in the history of her state, and there are but few towns with more glorious achievements written into the records of time. Certainly it is, she is beloved by every citizen within her borders, and nothing holds for them more interest, present and future, and every bit of information found, either from the simple trend of her life or those important epochs which stand out as the milestones of her days, are eagerly seized upon to be written and treasured into their hearts. The Review-Appeal has been able to obtain through a friend something of the early life of Franklin, as told in the reminiscences of the late George Nichols, one of our brave and valiant soldiers in the war of 1861-1865, of Company D (Captain James Banner's company), Williamson County "Greys", First Tennessee Regiment, C.S.A. Mr. Nichols said that the citizens of Franklin living when his mother, Mrs. Jack Nichols, came here from Kentucky to visit her brother, Alexander McCowan, were as follows: "Hinch Petway, dry goods merchant, who built the brick storehouse on the west corner of Main Street, 1808, now occupied by the Harpeth Bank, and his dwelling stood in the middle of Main Street near the -Episcopal Church, opposite Mrs. Gordon's residence; Mr. Horton, hotel keeper; Mr. Smith, hotel keeper; Tom Robinson, public house; Mr. Boyd, Angus McPhail, Fountain Carter, Mr. Gilbreath, Murry and Samples, store keepers. At the hotel kept by Mr. Horton, later in the early forties, a school was taught by the Reverend A. N. Cunningham, a Presbyterian, one of the most popular ministers and teachers who ever lived in this vicinity. In those early days of 1800 Preacher Sanders built the Marshall House; John Nichols built on the Big Harpeth, three miles east of town (afterwards owned by Dr. Hughes, Dr. Alexander Ewing's grandfather), and built the first grist and saw mill in Williamson County and Nichol's Mill Road was the first and oldest road in the county. The first public house in Franklin was built by Benjamin White, who also owned a smith and wood yard. His house stood where the present jail is. Below this jail General Carroll's soldiers crossed the Big Harpeth in 1814. General Andrew Jackson, Felix Grundy and Thomas Benton used to make frequent stops at Ben White's hotel. Mr. McCabe lived up the river at what was later the fort constructed by the Federal soldiers in the Civil War. This property had been previously owned by Colonel Thomas Henderson, his widow afterwards marrying Norfleet Figures, who then owned the property. Mr. Ewing Cameron built the first residence in Franklin opposite the Masonic Hall. Mr. Clem built the Crutcher House, now owned and occupied by Mrs. Richardson. Dr. Sappington, who lived here at this time, was a most prominent physician and a relative of Dr. Gentry's. Mr. Squires built the brick house on the lot now owned by the Craig Lumber Company, called then the Dempsey Corner, and long since burned. The old factory store, owned by Plunkett & Parkes, joined the Dempsey property. Where Mr. Hunter Mayberry lives was owned by Wilson McCowan, having been sold to him by Anthono Kemp, who had married one of Antony Sharpe's daughters. McCowan later sold it in 1830 to Jack Nichols. Major Antony Sharpe was a great land-owner, owning many thousands of acres on the other side of the river, which were bought later by Robert Foster, next Mr. Rozelle, next Mr. Robert

Webb. The Primitive Baptist Church used to stand just across the Harpeth on the Murfreesboro Road. The Natchez Trace Road used to pass up what is now North Fifth Avenue by the German home, coming from the river just below where the jail now stands. After passing where the German home stands it kept on to a rock bridge, then Baptist Neck and on to Hillsboro. General Jackson used to race his horses along this

road. Mr. Nichols also gives an account of some of the houses in the early days, who built them and the occupants now. On Main Cross Street, the house on the west side where Dr. Cochrane lives was built by Holland White. Dr. Dickerson built the Cochran Flats. The first jail stood where the home of Mr. Stanton Watson now is. Where Dr. Hewlett lives, the first house was built by John H. Eaton. On the corner of Main and the Square, Mark West had an undertaking shop. Judge Maney, father of General George Maney, built the house now owned by Mrs. R. N. Richardson. The Perkins home, now owned by Mr. McCampbell, was occupied in Mr. Nichols' earliest recollections by Dr. Mat

Whitfield. On the south side of the Square, where the Court House now stands. Dr. Stith had an office. There were also one or two shoe shops and Robert Toone had a stone shop where he cut tombstones. The house occupied by Mrs. Ella Terrill was built by

Dr. Stith. Dr. O'Brien built both the dwelling and office of Dr. Pope. He was the father of Miss Fannie O'Brien, a noted and beloved school teacher. Where the Atwood home stands (the place now owned by Mr. Corn), Mr. Nichols' brother-in-law, George Seawright, lived and died in 1846. The present Baptist Church stands where the first edifice was erected, both for a school and a church, the upstairs being used for the church services and the school being taught downstairs. Mr. Nichols says he went to school there in 1853. Dr. Powell was later stationed there and his wife taught school in a blue brick building on the Briggs site, now occupied by Mrs. 10

Ed McGavock. Mr. Willicun Folk's lot was owned by a Frenchman, Joe Fry, who built the first house there, and Mr. Nichols' mother boarded with the Frys in 1816. The Pointer home stands where once a dwelling and storehouse combined stood. It was built before 1813, and Mr. Nichols remembered Mr. Hughes Duff living there when he was a boy. The Marshall home was built by Preacher Sanders, who taught school there. The Bullock place was built by a Mr. Stone. Mr. Nichols thought he was the father of Charley Stone and Mr.

Crouch's first wife. On the east side of this street, where Dr. Alex Ewing lives, a man named Denton built the first house. This house was later occupied by Dr. Henderson and then Dr. Park. The place owned by Newton Cannon was built by Jesse Benton, brother of Thomas Benton. A small brick building used to stand where the McDaniel place now stands, Cory Harris' mother owning it. William Childress, second sheriff of Williamson County, built the first house on the lot later owned by Dr. Hanner. Mr. John S. Park built the house owned by Miss Sallie Cayce. He lived there at one time and from here to Waggoner's on the Square there were only two frame buildings, occupied by James

Karr and an undertaker. Waggoner's store was built by the Odd Fellows, the upper floor being used as their hall and the lower as a dry goods store. Howell Nicholson owned the store when Mr. Nichols was a small boy. A dry goods store built by Dr. Tappen occupied the site of the Interurban Station. Mr. Green Williams lives where Burkett McConnico, father of Lafayette McConnico lived. Mr. McConnico occupied a home built by Tom Panky."

This concludes the reminiscences of Mr. Nichols. He 11 was a man of remarkable memory, and while he suffered great bodily pain at the time he gave these out, his mind was alert and keen as that of a younger man. The Review-Appeal feels very happy to give to its readers something of the town's past to let them see, through the reminiscences of their late townsman. Franklin's early days and some of her citizens. 12

A SCHOOL CALLED "BATTLE GROUND ACADEMY"

Rosalie Carter

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One hundred years ago, in 1889, a group of prominent men of Franklin, Tennessee^whose names have been lost with the passing of time, raised almost ten thousand dollars for the purpose of building a boys' preparatory school to be called "The Battle Ground Academy of Franklin, Tennessee". In the Charter of Incorporation issued by the State of Tennessee thirteen years later, in 1902, we find the names of men still remembered as having made a difference in the life of the community: K. S. Howlett, W. W. Faw, J. H, Henderson, H. P. Fowlkes, Walter A. Roberts, D. E. McCorkle and James P. Hanner. The first teachers

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employed were W. D. Mooney and S. V. Wall and, as was the custom, the school was often referred to as "The Mooney School" for the headmaster. Even as late as 1919, diplomas were engraved with the name of the headmaster, but the official name of the school was, from the beginning, "Battle Ground Academy". We do not know who suggested the name "Battle Ground Academy" but a more fitting name could not have been chosen. The school was truly built upon a battleground. Twenty-five years before, on November 30, 1864, this ground had been stained with the blood of men killed or wounded in the Battle of Franklin, some dressed in Blue, some wearing Gray. The site chosen was almost six acres located on the east side of Columbia Pike, formerly owned by Fountain Branch Carter who had operated a cotton gin across the road from the Carter House, for cotton was a leading crop in the early days. He had died in 1871, and now the gin field was owned by his oldest son Moscow Branch Carter, Sr., who had served as Lieutenant Colonel of the Twentieth Tennessee Regiment, Volunteer Infantry, C.S.A., until he was captured at the Battle of Fishing Creek. The purchase price was three hundred eighty dollars. The cotton gin, a large barn-like structure, stood one hundred twenty yards south of the Carter House and eighty yards east of Columbia Pike. It marked the most advanced position of the Union Army's main line of defense, as shown in the drawing by Colonel Carter. Timbers to be used as head-logs in the breastworks had been stripped from it just before the Battle. After the Battle, only a skeleton remained, as shown by the sketch made the morning after the Battle by Frank Baltish Weiler, native of Saint Gallen, Switzerland, here on detached service from the 58th New York Regiment, for map-making duty.

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Over and over again the cotton gin is mentioned by General Jacob D. Cox, Union Field Commander under General John M. Schofield in his history. The Battle of Franklin (1897). It was near the cotton gin that a break occurred in the Union line of defense. Without waiting for orders. Colonel Emersen Opdycke ordered his brigade of seven regiments forward into the conflict. They had been lying in reserve on the ground on the slope north of the Carter House, directly in front of the Albert Lotz house. Opdycke wrote in his report: "The battle raged with indescribable fury." Another wrote: "In a general hand-to-hand melee the men fought like demons." Some used bayonets, sponge-staves, axes and picks. Another wrote: "It is impossible to exaggerate the fierce energy with which the Confederate soldiers threw themselves against the works, fighting with what seemed the very madness of despair." Between the cotton gin and the Columbia Pike the fighting was fiercest and the Confederate losses the greatest. It was here upon this battlefield that Battle Ground Academy was built. Cotton from the gin was placed under Confederate General John Adams' head as he lay dying, by order of Union Colonel John S. Casement who said, "You are too brave a man to die." General Patrick R. Cleburne fell "nearly in front of the cotton gin and only a few rods from the Union breastworks," wrote General Cox. Colonel Carter erected a stone marker where he fell. It is shown in the photo of the original building of. Battle Ground Academy . . . the Mooney School. In 1902 this building was destroyed by fire leaving the stone marker still standing, as shown in a photograph published in the Confederate Veteran Magazine in July 1904. It was still standing in 1909 on the forty-fifth anniversary of the battle. 16

In 1902, Mr. John B. McEwen sold to Battle Ground Academy twelve acres of land on the west side of Columbia Pike for two thousand dollars cash, according to records in the office of the Williamson County Register of Deeds. The school was rebuilt and here it is today, again being located on the Franklin battlefield which extended from the Lewisburg Pike on the east to the Carter's Creek Pike on the west. As they follow with interest the events planned during the year 1989 for "Operation Jubilation", the people of Franklin rejoice that there has been here for a century a distinguished school called "Battle Ground Academy".

Copyright 1989 Used by permission.

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THE HOUSE WITH THE GLASS DOME

Derry Carlisle

The house with the red-framed glass dome startles many people as they travel New Highway 96-West out of Franklin. A lot of them can not believe what they are seeing: a structure that is more or less out of place on its hill. It seems that it should be located in a complex of public buildings. Indeed, it was, originally. It was built for the Tennessee Centennial Exposition held in Nashville in the area that is now Centennial Park. The Centennial was planned and designed to celebrate the one hundredth anniversary of Tennessee's statehood and should have been held in 1896. According to "The Official History of the Tennessee Centennial Exposition", plans for the event had started as early as 1893, and in 1895 work was well underway and funds had been obtained for a magnificent celebration. However, at the - beginning of the year of 1896, the opening of the Centennial was postponed for several reasons: that the year of a presidential election is not a good time to have a major public event and that the "scope of the enterprise" had grown to such a magnitude that additional time and money would be necessary. In the Centennial the domed house was headquarters for the Knights of Pythias, a fraternal order that still has a great number of chapters with large memberships throughout the United

States. The house is now owned by Mr. and Mrs. Walter Carlisle, who bought it from the other heirs after the death of Mr. Walter Oscar Carlisle, Sr., in 1955. The Carlisle family has lived in the house since 1922, when Mr. Carlisle, Sr., bought it and moved his family and dairy herd from Robertson County. 18

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Carlisle Home Todav 19

The Carlisle family also acquired the large book that is "The Official History of the Tennessee Centennial Exposition". Several members of the family have gone through the book to find references to the Knights of Pythias building, and they have found it mentioned only one time in the text of the history. In an early chapter of the book "the Pythian headquarters" is listed among all of the structures that contributed to the plan and design of the Exposition in a brief overall view of the scene. However, a picture of the building with members of the order in front is included in the illustrations, and it is also in an "aerial" view of the Parthenon from the top of the "great seesaw . The first of these two pictures accompanies this

article. The buildings of the Exposition' were of temporary construction so that they could be easily erected and also easily removed. The Parthenon that now dominates Centennial Park, as it did almost a century ago, was rebuilt of permanent material and was not completed until the early 1930's. Several buildings were bought at the end of the Centennial in the fall of 1897. They had to be dismanteled and moved to another site. They were either, rebuilt as replicas of their historic existence, or the materials that could be used were incorporated in another structure. The Carlisle house is thought to be the last of the structures that resembled original buildings that remains standing. The Knights of Pythias headquarters was probably used in the Centennial as a place for the good brothers of the fraternal order to rest and relax during their visits to the Exposition. It probably was used for exhibits, of projects for the brotherhood as well. After the close of the Centennial the house was bought by Mr. Joe Parkes, a member of a prominent Franklin family who lived in a twO-story red brick house on Columbia Avenue in the area where Carter's Court is now. The Parkes house was hit by a cannon ball during the Battle of Franklin, and Mr. Parkes' father put a steel rod through it to hold it together. The house was 20

later torn down. Mr. Parkes had interests in several business ventures, one of which was ownership of Del Rio Pike. In those days a road could be owned by one man and those using his road had to pay the owner to travel his road. A road could also be owned by several residents along a road, and travelers had to pay each owner as his portion of the road was covered. These were toll roads. Until about thirty years ago there was a house on Del Rio Pike about one hundred yards east of the entrance to the Reese farm that had been a tollgate house. The gate across the road was a tree trunk that was swung back to parallel the road and allow the traveler to pass after he had paid the toll. This Del Rio operation was very likely one of Mr. Parkes' tollgates on his pike. He had bought several pieces of adjoining property to make a nice farm that faced Boyd Mill Pike, This was long before New Highway 96-West caused Boyd Mill to be rerouted. A bachelor, he had been courting Miss Sophia Pitts, also a resident of Franklin. He surely must have had matrimony in mind when he purchased the Pythias building at the Centennial. The Carlisles have not been able to find out when the house was moved to its present site. Deeds do not show when improvements were made, nor is there any indication on tax records, but it was probably around the turn of the century. The building was taken apart, various pieces numbered to indicate where they would go in the rebuilding, and then moved by wagon train. Two neighbors, the late Mr, Will Reese and the late Mr. Carl Henry, told the Carlisles that they were teenagers at the time the house was moved and that they worked on the Wagon train. They said the wagons left very early in the morning to go into Nashville. The road they took into the city was Hillsboro Road, which at that time crooked and curved even through Forest Home for twenty-five miles, much more of a trip than it is now. The wagons were loaded and the trip back was started in time to get back by dark. The next day the wagons were unloaded, and again the 21 third day the trip back to Centennial Park was made. They could not remember how many trips they made to get the materials for the house moved. Stone for the foundation of the new house was guarried on Mr. Parkes' farm and was dressed on the site. A few changes were made when the rebuilding was done. Windows were added to each side of the front door to give more light in the entrance hall from the porch. The wings on each side of the dome-topped center section were lengthened, as can be seen in the two pictures of the house, before and after moving. The decorative rail around the roof edge was replaced when the house was rebuilt but had been removed when the senior Carlisles bought the property. Legend has it that before the house was completed - the roof had not been pui: over one room - Mr. Parkes brought Miss Sophia out to see what he thought was a mansion. The tale is that, after he had shown her around the house, he proposed matrimony, but she threw up her hands and said, "Never!". "That old fool wanted me to leave my nice, comfortable house and move out to that monstrosity!" They never married, each other or any one else. However, they continued courting because several present-day residents recall seeing Mr. Parkes walking to Miss Sophia's "nice, comfortable house", which was the yellow brick where the Franklin Fire Department is now located. Mr. Parkes continued to live in the family home on Columbia Avenue until his parents died, according to Mrs. William Montgomery, Mr. Parkes' niece. After their deaths he moved to Nashville, she said. Even though Mr. Parkes and Miss Sophia continued to see work on his house on the hill halted and the structure was not completed for several years. The Parkes land and unusual house were taken by the organization that had financed them, and the property had several owners until the Carlisles bought it and operated the land as a dairy farm. The dome is the most unusual feature of the house. It is covered with pieces of plate glass about thirty inches long 22

that are wider at the bottom than at the top. Each piece is dipped into the red-painted frame with the top layer overlapping the next layer down, and so on down to the bottom rim of the dome. These layers are repeated all around the dome. At the very top is a weathervane and part of it was blown off by a high wind a few years ago. The room under the dome is twenty-five feet in diameter and the top of the dome is twenty-seven feet above the floor. The Carlisles use this room as a dining room. The dome has four windows on the rim underneath it spaced equally apart. On the walls, about, five feet above the floor are four small wooden doors, each directly under a window. Inside each door is a cord hanging down inside the wall from the window above. A tug on the cord opens the window above, which is hinged horizontally. The Done

sailteJllP

Outside

s

mm ■ ■

*

Inside 24

The house was open during the annual spring tour four years ago. A visitor arrived a little before the opening time and said she wanted to see the second floor. The hostess explained that the house has no second floor. The visitor left without seeing anything in the house.

The Carlisles have named their home Centennial Hall. However, it was recently placed on the National Register of Historic Places as the Knights of Pythias Pavilion. The architect for the structure is listed as Henry Gibel of Nashville. As shown in the photographs it is a one-story frame of Neo-Classical style with standing-seam metal roof around the glass dome. The facade, which faces south, has a one-story pedimented porch with six Ionic wooden columns which have terra-cotta capitals. The floor of the porch is Italian marble. Inside, the poplar woodwork is all original and the door and window frames feature "dogears" at the top. The ceilings of the rooms across the front of the house are thirteen feet high. During a remodeling project the ceilings in the back were lowered to nine feet which is at the top of the doors. Originally an eight-foot hall encircled the dome room on three sides with a more narrow hall on the back side. Again, during remodeling, portions of the hall were incorporated into the living room and den-kitchen combination. The kitchen and breakfast room on the back of the house became the master bedroom, bath and mtidroom. The two bedrooms on the west side were divided into three bedrooms. The house originally had only one closet and a very shallow one, at that. Storage space of all kinds has been added in the house. Most buildings in Williamson County have to be antebellum to be considered important historically. But Centennial Hall's unique construction and reason for being give it a significance all its own. A PEOPLE WI TH A DREAM

Mattye Jackson

More than a century ago, in the mid-1800's, 1852 to be exact, a group of Cumberland Presbyterians and people of that leaning who lived in the area of Triune, Arno and College Grove, began to meet for purposes of worship in a wooded area in the Arrington community about eight miles east of Franklin. These people, with their dream of a real church home, gathered in this grove on the first Sunday of every month for two years. From a sketch written by J. M. McPherson, who evidently preached, and from other sources, we learned that only three days proved unsuitable for meeting out-of-doors. Two of these days were filled by gathering in a nearby cabin and one failed because of a heavy snow. This faithfulness paid off, and in 1854 a subscription was raised for building a house of worship. Persons in the vicinity of the meeting place raised one hundred twenty-five dollars; Brother J. T. Allison from the vicinity of College Grove gave twenty dollars. About two hundred dollars was raised in the vicinity of Triune, and a few other donations made a total of about five hundred twenty-five dollars. A building was begun the same year on land given by a Mr,. Waters. This spot was about one-half mile east of the meeting place. J. H. Lampkin was the contractor and he actually built a structure for five hundred twenty-five dollars including the covering, doors and windows. the church was ready for use, a protracted meeting was held in October. Brother W. D. Chaddick preached the opening sermon on a Lord's Day and continued the meeting through the week. Eighteen people joined this church which was about to be organized. Brother James M. Hunter continued the meeting through another week, and eighteen other persons were received as members. About fifty people made a profession of faith during 26

the progress of this meeting. J. M. McPherson related, "Taking all the circumstances into consideration, a more glorious revival has seldom been recorded." The people persevered, but sadly their records during the period between 1854 and 1928 were burned; thus little is known about their first years in the new building. From a Mr. Thomas Ham, we know that, despite small numbers, the church has grown from the standpoints of both finances and morale. Attendance remains stable, contributions are adequate and there is evidence of sustaining interest on the part of both old and young. Today, nestled among the cedar trees on a hill overlooking Highway 96-East, one can quickly recognize this simple white frame building as a church common to the type found in many rural areas of our country, and certainly in Tennessee.

This church was named Be11view whether from the fact that it does have a beautiful view or whether its name came from another loved and remembered Bellview, we do not know. This Bellview typifies the traditional Cumberland Presbyterian Church, the denomination being established to serve rural areas and small towns in Tennessee and Kentucky. Most members of Bellview live on farms in the area. The smallness of the congregation, usually fifty to fifty-five in a Sunday morning worship service, is also typical of other Cumberland Presbyterian churches. Simple white weatherboarded churches have been a symbol of Christianity in America for more than one hundred years. The Bellview congregation still worship in their original building, one hundred thirty-five years old. Improvements have been made through the years. Aluminum siding has been installed over the original wood. A hardwood floor with a carpet has replaced the original pine floor. An automatic gas heating system warms the building instead of the potbelly stoves once used to keep worshippers comfortable. Mr. Ham recalls that these stoves have been used during his lifetime. He says that he literally grew up in this church, since he represents the third generation of his family to worship in Bellview. 27

A new entrance and restrooms have been added and three Sunday School classrooms have been attached to the original structure. However, the charm and character of the small church building have been preserved. The pews are the same handmade seats placed in the building when it was built in 1854. A cluster of four brass kerosene lamps, once the only source of light, still hangs from the ceiling. Bellview now has a full-time pastor, the Reverend Jesse H. Harris, who has served there for seven years. Services held each Sunday morning mark progression from once a month and from each second and fourth Sunday. They have been served by unordained ministers, by college students and even by visitors. One minister rode a train from Nashville, got off at a stop two city block lengths away and walked to the church. Today, Sunday morning services begin at nine thirty with Sunday School and regular church service at ten o'clock. Elders serving are John Ham, Jr., David Hughes and Johnny Koelz. Annual revivals, homecomings and singings are well attended. Visitors come often and are always welcomed. I have been privileged to worship with them several times in recent

years. For these fifty-odd people, the original dream of their forefathers has come true, and they will carry it on while they live. Truly they have been a people with a dream. I want to give credit to the people who had possession of the few materials which I have used. Mr. Vance Little kindly let me borrow some of his articles. One article was printed in the Williamson Leader on November 10, 1974. Another article was prepared by Mrs. Rebecca H. Nolan for the Review-Appea1 as a Bicentennial feature in 1976. Mrs. David Hughes of the Bellview congregation let me use a sketch written by J. M. McPherson, who may have been a one-time early minister. Other information came from the minister and a few of his members with whom I spoke. I have tried to compile their materials. 28

HISTORY

GARRISON METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH, SOUTH

M. A. Meacham May 1933

A careful examination and research among imperfect records and inquiry, has developed the fact that Garrison Methodist Episcopal Church, South, was founded and organized by Carroll C. Mayhew, pastor of the Nashville Circuit, in 1851. He had, prior to that time, served as pastor of the Nashville Circuit for the period from 1847 to 1849, and during that period had held a great and celebrated revival meeting at Smith's Springs School, ■ the springs thereafterward being known as Fernvale Springs, and the religious organization as Fernvale

Methodist Church. The records show that he was an itinerant, or traveling preacher in the Middle Tennessee Section from 1845 to 1857, during which time he preached three thousand two hundred seventy-six times and had three thousand two hundred twelve conversions. A simple calculation shows that he preached an average of two hundred seventy-six sermons a year for the entire twelve-year period and was rewarded with two hundred seventy-seven conversions per year. Such is the brief record of the successful ministry of a few short years of the great preacher who founded and established this church. This great preacher held the first revival meeting in the Garrison community at Barr's School-house, as it was then known, in 1851, which was the beginning of this church society. But the records fail to disclose by whom he was invited, or at whose instance the meeting was arranged and held. This church was named Garrison Methodist Church because of its proximity to an old fort, or military garrison, located on a hill close by, which had been occupied from 1779 to 1802 by soldiers stationed there to keep the Indians west of the Natchez Trace Road, which was the dividing line between the white 29

American settlers and the Indians, and to protect the scattered residents who had ventured west of this line. This church became a member of the Tennessee Methodist Conference in 1853, and has continued to be an active, consistent and faithful congregation, except for two or three years during the Civil War, down to the present time. While Garrison Methodist Church is situated in a sparsely settled rural section, its eighty-one years of faithful and consistent service reads like a religious romance, and not only arouses the pride of its membership, but may well arouse a desire in other church congregations to emulate it. During the eighty-one years it has had an aggregate enrollment of three hundred seventy members, most of whom have died in the church, and very few of whom have been stricken from the rolls because of unbecoming conduct. Not only has it been the gathering place for Christian fellowship and worship of the Master, but it has also been the social center of the people of this community through all the years. Church services and worship have continued without interruption, except during the Civil War, and even then the Reverend Wesley Irvin of Santa Fe, Maury County, Tennessee, M. L. Andrews and A. W. Horton, local preachers of Franklin, Tennessee, occasionally preached. Sunday School was more or less regularly conducted during the war period by two faithful members, S. B. Peach and T. W. Locke, residents of the community who were too bid to go to war. About seventy members now remain as the active membership of the church, as shown by the church rolls, and this membership continues loyal and true to their church society, notwithstanding good roads, automobiles and the modern tendency to attend the more fashionable churches located in the surrounding towns. The organizers and first members of this church were Charles M. Poynor, Catherine Poynor, Eliza Poynor, Elizabeth Poynor Carter, Sally Peach, Susan Bailey, Celia Sheffield, Catherine Barr, Nancy Aldridge, James Poynor (colored) and Hasty Poynor (colored). 30

There were two other charter members whose names on the roll have become illegible and, for that reason, cannot be given

here. This membership list is,: furthermore, interesting and important in preserving the history and illustrating the manner in which the masters during the time of slavery treated their servants and sought their spiritual welfare, as well as taking care of them in a material way. These colored members remained regular worshiping members as long as they lived, and certain former slaves continued to attend the church and worship there long after they were freed. Such was the customary manner of masters with regard to their slaves, and the new generations of men may look back to this record for a correct understanding of the true relation between the masters and their slaves. Quite a number of the descendants of the members who are named above still live in this church community and have their membership in Garrison Methodist Church. The compiler of this historical sketch was born within less than a.mile of the church nearly eighty-one years ago; he went to church and Sunday School there from his infancy to the present time, and his membership has been upon its rolls during the full period of his Christian life. Many others who have passed on to the Beyond first became members of the church and continued loyal and true throughout the remainder of their lives. It would be of some interest to name and comment upon the lives and characters of those good citizens and church members, but this is a historical record that states, mainly, facts relating to the church organization and further religious romance will not be indulged in here. 31

■

Garrison Methodist Church 1917

A

rOMtk

Garrison Methodist Church 1988 32

PASTORS OF GARRISON METHODIST CHURCH FROM 1853 TO 1933

NUMBER OF NAME YEARS DATE(S)

John M. McCurdy 1853

William P. Hickman 1854 Coleman Harwell 1855

William P. Hickman 1856 Henry C. Wheller 1857 James M. Campbell 1858

Robert S. Hunter 1859

Frank M. Hickman and Azariah T. Crawford, Junior Preacher 1860

James G. Hinson and F. L. Thompson, Junior Preacher 1861 G. W. Russell and F. L. Thompson, Junior Preacher 1862 (No Conferences because of the War) 1863-1864 John R. Thompson 1865 W. D. Cherry and P. T. Martin, Junior Preacher 1866-1867 Henry D. Hogan 1867-1868 John R. Reagin 1870

W. P. Hickman 1871 Henry S. Ledbetter 1872

William P. Hickman 1873-1875

B. F. Stone 1876 Eugene A. Carsey 1877

Samuel W. Bransford 1878

H. C. Tucker 1879

J. T. Blackwood 1880 Henry 0. Moore 1881

William P. Hickman 1882

A. W. Horton 1883-1884

J. W. Hatcher 1885 Percy J. Luster 1886

A. W. Horton 1887-1888

D. F. Ostnne 1889 33

PASTORS (Continued)

NUMBER OF NAME YEARS DATE (S)

W. S. Peach One 1890

A. W. Herton One 1891

A. C. Matthews One 1892

Joel S. Harrison One 1893

Felix W. Johnson Four 1894 •1897

J. C. Roberts Two 1898 ■1899

A. Z. Mays Four 1900 ■1903

D. T. Reed One 1904

A. N. Doyle One 1905

G. W. Jones Four 1906-1909

J. B. Spurlock One 1910 C. E. Hammons One 1911

W. L. Brown One 1912

Zach Sullivan and J. R. Stevens One 1913

J. R. Stevens Two 1914-1915

B. J. Rochelle . One 1916

Robert Waite Two 1917-1918

Allen Miller Three 1919-1921

J. B. Cheek Four 1922-1925

R. C. Reid One 1926

C. N. Jolley One 1927

T. Earl Hillard One 1928

George R. Allen Three 1929 ■1931

*Earl C. Parker Three 1933 ■1935

*No record for the year 1932 34

PRESIDING ELDERS FOR GARRISON METHODIST CHURCH FROM 1853 - 1933

NUMBER OF NAME YEARS DATE(S)

John W. Hanner Three 1853-1855 William D. F. Sawrie One 1856 Adam S. Riggs Four 1857-1860 A. L. P. Green Six 1861-1868 (No Conference 1863-1865 due to War)

William Burr Four 1869- 1872

R. P. Ransom ... Four 1873- 1876 John F. Hughes Two 1877- 1878 Robert K. Hargrove Two 1879- 1890

W. D. F. Sawrie One 1881

J. W. Hill Three 1882- 1884 T. A. Kerley Two 1885- 1886 R. A. Young Three 1887- 1889 T. B. Fisher Three 1890- 1892

John A. McFerrin Two 1893- 1894 J. T. Curry Four 1895- 1898

H. B. Reams Four 1899- 1902

Sowell Four 1903- 1906 George L. Beale Four 1907- 1910 J. J. Stowe Three 1911- 1913

W. J. Collier Four 1914- 1917

W. L. Jackson One 1922

W. B. Ricks Four 1923- 1926 H. W. Seay Four 1927- 1930

H. B. Reams One 1931 35

A FELLOWSHIP^ A FAMILY^ A FORUM A Brief History Of The Owen Chapel Church Of Christ

' Perry C. Cotham

Motorists heading south from the Brentwood business district toward Franklin on Highway 31 South are likely to notice a quaint ■ church meetinghouse which is about a hundred feet from the road arid is marked simply "Owen Chapel Church of Christ - Established 1859". Long-time Brentwood residents may have long taken note of ^ the small, historic meeting site with its two tall front doors and wondered about its history and whether any congregation of people still assembles there. After all, except for only two hours each' week there seem to be no signs.of ordinary life and activity on the church property (though, in fact, the parking lot has been ^ used for leaving parked cars or for patrolmen to sit in their ' patrol cars). The significance of the meetinghouse has not escaped the attention of Williamson county and mid-state history buffs and Or even those who delight in touring historic buildings and sites; In the brief bits of literature which are published occasionally- about Owen Chapel in newspaper articles and brochures, visitors to the site are told of the solid brick walls which were erected with bricks made on the site, of the original roof of tongue and groove pin which was imported from England, and of the two front doors which complement the partition which runs down the center of the church pews. Entering the building's forty-foot by seventy-foot' sanctuary, visitors may be struck by the plain and austere worship' environment - the small, original pews in three sections with the partition in the middle section; the simple, slightly-elevated pulpit; a small communiori table adorned with antique silver trays and plain white cloth; the long, three-sash windows; the high ceiling from which are suspended antique lights; the antique, pendulum clock on the north wall. i The Owen Chapel meetinghouse seems to be an anachronism. Worshipping inside the; building takes one back generations in time to an age in which there were no modern housing developments, roads were not paved, and worshippers converged on the church grounds 36

riding in mule-drawn wagons and carriages and on horseback. To stand on the church grounds today and look about, however, one sees a four-lane highway passing the site where once stood a toll house for travelers on a dirt road between Nashville and Franklin; and less than a mile or so east is access to a modern interstate highway paralleling Franklin Road. One also sees a neighborhood of fine brick homes which bespeak prosperity and affluence. It's almost as though the unique building had been plucked from some historic village and placed like some antique church in a con temporary neighborhood. The Owen Chapel meetinghouse was completed in 1867. Interest ing accounts on the time and nature of the construction on the building have been handed down orally. More important for our purposes here, however, is understanding the life, doctrine, and worship of the generations of men, women, and children who com posed the Owen Chapel Church. The claim is often made about Owen Chapel that Christians have assembled for worship every Sunday since the founding of the congregation in 1859 with only three exceptions - twice related to Yankee soldiers foraging in the area and once related to a "cloudburst" of rain. While there is ample evidence that this claim of regularity in assembly worship has been somewhat exaggerated, generations of church members within the broad stream of the great American Restoration movement - a movement which church historians are more commonly calling the "Stone-Campbell Movement" - have met and worshipped at Owen Chapel. While the congregation has not exactly thrived numerically or financially, to its credit it has survived to this day and has no plans to padlock its doors.

THE MODERN OWEN CHAPEL .

The current Owen Chapel Church is composed of thirty to forty congregants. Within this group, on a typical Sunday, are mostly members of the Church of Christ. There are, however, a few worshippers who have come to the assembly from other religious backgrounds and have not submitted to the church's doctrine on 37

baptism. On almost every Sunday a few visitors will be present for worship at 11:00. Few, if any, children or adolescents will be in attendance. The members of Owen Chapel in more modern times have seemed ambivalent about the modern world closing in on their simple beliefs and practices. Until recent times the members have listened to simple, Bible-based sermons, have followed a simple, weekly ob servance of the communion in ritualistic fashion, read scripture aloud from the King James Version of the Bible, have met for the Sunday School hour at 10:00 and studied Bible lessonS out of the Church of Christ-Gospel Advocate "quarterlies," and have adhered to a simple, but strict, order of public worship. Owen Chapel members, on the other hand, are aware of the contemporary world. They have no objection to being addressed by a well—educated speaker — so long as his theology is conservative. The church is currently being served in the pulpit by Douglas Davis, a former Church of Christ preacher and long—time teacher in labor education. Almost single-handedly through the persistent efforts and fund-raising of Davis and his wife, Nell, the church has been motivated to restore the old meetinghouse to much of its original appearance and structural value. Davis came to the church in 1985 when the attendance had declined to only three or four families. He volunteered to preach and his offer was accepted by the small group in August, 1985. Convincing the members and interested friends of the need to act immediately to restore and preserve the historic building, the Davises both solicited and made financial contributions. In 1986 a central heating and air conditioning system was installed. That same year in July, a homecoming service which featured Collins in the pulpit, a dinner on the grounds, and an old-fashioned song fest attracted an audience of former members and friends which filled the building. In 1987 the exterior walls were given a complete exterior restoration. In 1988 extensive redecoration was completed on the interior of the building which included the redesigning of the pulpit area, the removal Of the baptistry which had been in the building for exactly three decades but used for only one baptism, the installation of antique lights. 38 and a painting of the walls and ceiling. (At this writing additional work is planned for the floor and original pews.) Though Davis, who holds a Ph.D. in communication from Indiana University and has served as a located minister and a missionary, does not like to think of himself as "the minister," there is every evidence that he is considered by the members to be their preacher and minister. From a career of rhetorical training and practice, he has brought both competence and experience to his practice of religious public speaking. Though Davis has been trained in and is easily conversant with the church's accepted doctrinal inter pretations, his sermons most surely are filled with more positive thinking and "pop psychology" and less doctrinal exposition than the sermons from any regular speaker in the church's rather long history. On occasion there have been small but acceptable variations in the order of worship. The Gospel Advocate "quarterly" is no longer used in the Sunday School class. On the other hand, the congregation seems to cling tenaciously to its identity as a small, family-type church and the concept of large growth and extensive, varied community outreach would likely be rejected by the handful of members who have chosen to stay at Owen Chapel for at least the past three or four decades. Owen Chapel is now celebrating one hundred thirty years of history. How did the congregation begin? What was its place in the religious community of the middle Tennessee area? What was its role within the Restoration movement? What identity has the church maintained? The balance of this article will attempt to deal with these questions. Primary sources for this study include, first and foremost, the old leather-bound record book which survives and was maintained from the church's inception until 1915.^ Financial ledgers with each financial expenditure enumerated survive from the year 1916 to the present date. Additionally, oral history has been gathered from interviews with several members with long tenure and with previous pulpit ministers. And finally, as author, I have felt free to draw from my own personal recollections and records. I served Owen Chapel as pulpit minister for exactly one year, from April, 1975, to April, 1976, and have served as a 39

monthly and fill-in speaker in the same pulpit from 1985 until the present time.

A CHURCH IS FOUNDED Despite the sectional differences over political beliefs and social custom which were soon to erupt into Civil War, the religious values and sentiments of the people of Middle Tennessee in 1859 seemed, by contrast, to be both solid and simple. The common working people of the towns and rural communities believed in the authority of the Bible and in the positive values of church membership. Yet the fervently debated differences among Christian leaders and laymen over Christian doctrine and the proliferation of Christian denominations provided an ideological soil in which

\ the seeds of a new unity movement would produce growth in the minds and hearts of thousands. The Restoration movement, with its plea to restore simple New Testament Christianity in both doctrine and ecclesiastical practice, appealed to hundreds of Middle Tennesseans in the early and mid-nineteenth century. By 1832 congregations in this new movement had been established in Williamson COunty at Leiper's Fork 2 and in Franklin. The need to establish a congregation and meeting place in their own area of the county for the sake of convenience provided, most certainly, the chief motivation for the establishment of the Euclid Church. Plans were eventually formulated for interested Christian men and women to meet in the summer of 1859 to found a new congregation and to conduct a service of worship. At the outset they followed a common practice, particularly among the Baptists, of preparing a "church covenant" (the roots of the church covenant may be traced to New England Puritanism in America). The wording of this quasi-legal document is terse:

STATE OF TENNESSEE, WILLIAMSON COUNTY, JULY 24, 1859. We whose names hereafter enrolled do, hereby, as members of the Kingdom of Christ, agree to congregate ourselves together for the purpose of worshiping God according to his own appointments: and we agree, furthermore, to be governed by the Bible, in all things relating to our spiritual advancement. 40

These words, written with flourishing penmanship and adorning the front page of the old church record book, proclaim the intention and sentiment of the fellowship of people who founded the congre- 3 gation which soon became Owen Chapel Church.

EARLY PULPIT MINISTRY

The speaker for founding Sunday, and undoubtedly one of the leading lights in this venture, was Tolbert Fanning. Called "the prince of the (Restoration) movement in the South" by historian 4 Leroy Garrett, Fanning was born in Cannon County, Tennessee, in 1810. Converted as a teenager through the preaching of B. F. Hall, Fanning aspired to be a preacher. During the years of 1830-31 the young Fanning gave himself to evangelistic efforts in north Alabama and Middle Tennessee, eventually baptizing hundreds of people and establishing several congregations. Nashville then be came his base of operation. Fanning was undoubtedly influenced by Alexander Campbell, having traveled and worked with the gifted and active religious leader on two extensive preaching tours through several northern and New England states and having visited in Campbell's home.5 Fanning maintained a strong interest in the church in the Nashville area. Believing in the value of the printed word, he began his Christian Review in 1844 and, with William Lipscomb, the Gospel Advocate in 1855. Fanning pioneered in Christian education in the South when, with his wife Charlotte Fall Fanning, he founded Franklin College in 1844 near Nashville (on the present 6 site of the Nashville International Airport). The school attempted to combine a literary education with a practical study of agricultural and mechanical crafts, and a pronounced religious orientation permeated,all the activities on campus. The impact of Fanning's school and personal influence upon Tennessee and southern church leaders cannot be questioned. Among a number of distinguished Franklin College alumni were at least two which had 7 an Owen Chapel connection - David Lipscomb and E. G. Sewell. Fanning's theology was conservative. His style and method of preaching is described by church historian Robert Hooper; 41

(Fanning) was not the typical itinerant evangelist; he was not a revivalist; he did not use the emotional appeal that was so prevalent in his day. Nor did he call upon the people to have an experience to witness their salvation. Instead, he stood for 2 or 3 hours in the pulpit expounding the teachings of the Bible without embellishment. He wasted few words. He urged his auditors to accept the Bible as the word of God, neither adding to or taking from it. The Bible was to Fanning the revealed will of God to man and it must be obeyed and followed for man to be saved.

Fanning believed that the emergence and success of the Restoration churches in Middle Tennessee was due to a Bible-centered, elder-oriented ministry, without the aid of a professional preacher. There was no subject that Fanning enjoyed speaking and writing on throughout his career more than the sub ject of church organization. Undoubtedly, much of this doctrine on church polity was shared at the first meeting of Christians at Euclid. The record for that day states; "On Sunday the 4th Lord's day in July, Brother T. Fanning preached a most edifying and instructive sermon on church organization, from which we date the establishment of a church at Euclid."9 The chronicler also cites a wide range of Scriptures, all from the New Testament, which were selected by Fanning in developing his sermon. The church at Euclid was small, though no mention was ever made of the exact number of worshippers in attendance. We can know that for the first three decades of its existence, the ser vices at Euclid, and then Owen Chapel, alnost invariably involved the singing of hymns, the reading of Scriptures, and the partaking of the Lord's Supper. On most Sundays there was a preacher present to expound upon some biblical theme; however, on numerous Sundays there was no formal sermon. The record of Sunday, November 13, 1859, indicates a typical approach to a Sunday without a preacher as well as something of the attitude toward worship "held by members of new congregation:

Today Brother Fanning preached in Franklin, in consequence of which but few of the brethren and sisters met at our revered little church, though we who met had quite a pleasant meeting. We sang a few songs in adoration of our blessed Redeemer, read and interrogated each other on the 17th and 18th (chapters) of John and all left happy in being permitted to meet and interchange thoughts on subjects pertaining to our happiness and prosperity in this life, and our eternal rest beyond this world also. Oh how . pleasant, once a week, to disrobe our minds of earthly 42

thoughts and commune with our Heavenly Parent - the giver of all good and perfect gifts.10

SEWELL AND LIPSCOMB Despite Fanning's obvious influence upon the founding of Owen Chapel, the chief direction and influence from the pulpit on the young church in the first two decades of its history was wielded by two outstanding religious leaders and preachers - E. G. Sewell and David Lipscomb. These two young Tennesseans, who were friends and colleagues in various religious ventures, predominated the church's public instruction in the 1860s and 1870s. Elisha G. Sewell began preaching at Euclid (Owen Chapel) during the early years of a long and distinguished preaching career. Born in Overton County., Tennessee, on October 25, 1830, as one of fourteen children (including eight sons, all of whom were given biblical names), Sewell was reared on the farm and later educated at both Burritt College and Franklin College. As a young preacher in the 1850s, he held meetings in schoolhouses, private homes, in tents, and under trees to establish pioneer con gregations in many Tennessee counties. He came to Owen Chapel when there were only two congregations of disciples in Davidson County, one on Church Street in Nashville and the other at Franklin College. Sewell graduated from Franklin College in June, 1859, and then gathered up his family and moved into the home of James C. Owen. It was only natural that he would be the first preacher of the church Owen helped.to found. Sewell's first sermon at Euclid was delivered on April 6, 1860 - a Saturday evening lesson on the parable of the ten virgins from the text in Matthew 25. He spoke again the next morning. Though he would maintain a connection with Owen Chapel for over twenty years, his reputation as a preacher, a writer/editor, and a gentleman opened doors of ministry in numerous other ventures. His interests were varied and he freely lent his name and support to Christian education (he helped to found Nashville Bible School, later David Lipscomb College), Christian writing and publishing 43

(he co-authored with David Lipscomb the material in niomerous questions and answers in the Gospel Advocate which, as edited by J. W. Shepherd, became the 767-page Queries Answered ), Christian journalism (he was associate editor of the Gospel Advocate for over a half century), and Christian missions (his interest in a mission project in Japan is undoubtedly the reason contributions 1 9 from Owen Chapel are recorded in the financial ledger). Sewell continued preaching and leading public worship at Owen Chapel throughout the 1860 s and, to a much lesser degree in the 1870 s, though he always rotated with other speakers. The white- haired, bearded preacher was a devoted student,and expositor of Scripture. F. B. Syrgley, a contemporary of Sewell and later one of Owen Chapel's many preachers, describes his mentor as a speaker:

Brother Sewell not only lived a plain, simple, earnest life, but he preached in the, same plain, simple, earnest way. On one occasion, many years ago, a little boy heard Brother Sewell preach; and I asked the boy what Brother Sewell preached about, and he told me so many things that the preacher had said that I was astonished. I mentioned the matter to Brother Sewell the next day, and he replied; "If I can make the gospel plain enough for a boy to understand it, the older ones certainly will be able to comprehend it. 13

When Sewell died in 1924 as perhaps the oldest minister in Tennessee, he had been instrumental in founding some sixty to seventy-five new congregations, had collaborated in writing or editing thousands of pages, and had outlived most if not all of the Owen Chapel charter members to whom he had prea:ched in the mid and latter nineteenth century. Sharing the pulpit with Sewell in the early years at Owen Chapel was a young man who was destined to become the better known of the two, because of the influence of the Gospel Advocate and then later because of the college which was named after him. David Lipscomb preached his first sermon at Euclid, a lesson on "the operation of the Spirit," on April 15, 1860 - one week after Sewell's first sermon there.14 Lipscomb, a young farmer of about thirty years of age, was slated to appear in the Owen Chapel pulpit on numerous occasions in the twenty or so years following his first

homiletic effort. 44

Like Sewell, Lipscomb was educated by Fanning. Born in Tennessee in 1831, Lipscomb was a continual student of the Word. Eventually, he became both an educator (with James Harding, founding Nashville Bible School in 1891) and an editor and active editorialist (editing the Gospel Advocate for forty-six years). He was truly one of the outstanding leaders of the Church of Christ in the South. Like Sewell, his pulpit message was a plain and fundamentalistic exposition of biblical texts. When Lipscomb died in November, 1917, Sewell delivered a sermon at the funeral services for his friend and co-laborer. Not all of the religious rhetoric of the early years at Euclid was channeled into evangelistic efforts. Nineteenth century and frontier religionists in America were avid fans of the art of controversy and debate and this practice was occasionally followed in the new congregation. The entry for Thursday, November 26, 1863, offers an interesting report:

After singing and prayer and a few remarks by Brother T. Fanning the question, "Has the throne of David been established or has the kingdom of Christ been set up on earth" was examined and after investigation of some length it was agreed Christ's kingdom has been established and not to be yet established as some suppose. The question, "What is the duty of an evangelist?" was then taken up and ably discussed for some time by the brethren, when it Was agreed by those present that the work of an evangelist is to preach the gospel, plant churches, set them in order, and teach them till they are able to edify one another. Next question, "What is the duty of disciples in regard to Lord's Day meetings?" This proposition was closely investigated by several brethren, when they unanimously agreed that the meeting of Christians on the first day of the week is a matter of divine authority and not of human arrangement, and that no Christian can willingly absent himself therefrom without disregarding God's authority and doing himself a spiritual injury. 16

EARLY CHURCH LIFE AND CONCERNS

The young church maintained close ties with the church in Franklin. At times there were cancellations of regular assemblies so that the members could attend "cooperation meetings" with the Franklin brothers and sisters. Gospel meetings were also highly 45

popular in the mid and late nineteenth century at Owen Chapel. A regular time for Bible class study was set aside early in the church's history - the secretary records for September 25, 1859, that "our Sabbath School commenced today at the appropriate time." Saturday night was a convenient evening for the Christians to assemble for worship and listening to "an able discourse" from the Bible, although apparently all other nights of the week were available for scheduling such meetings. So few were the diversions available to rural folk in Tennessee that on many weekends in those early years the church assembled both on Saturday night and Sunday morning. There were a few Sundays when the church did not assemble for worship because of a big rainfall; the unpaved roads were not easily passable by wagon when the rains turned them to mud. The only other circum~ stance which prevented the congregation from assembling related to the presence of federal soldiers in the area. For December 14, 1862, the record reads; "We had no meeting on account of the federals foraging in the neighborhood," and for the following Sunday the record shows singing,, prayer, and reading of Scripture and then a quick dismissal "on account of the federals out foraging (and) we did not have the emblems of the supper to partake of."^® On numerous occasions the church secretary records a decision or decisions made for baptism ("making the good confession") at a Saturday service and then records that the church re-convened for a baptismal service at the water site, likely the Little Harpeth River, On the following Sunday afternoon at 4:00 to worship again and witness the baptismal rites. Then, at the next assembly of the church, the secretary would record that "the right hand of fellow ship was extended" to the new converts. A typical report is the one for November 1, 1868, when it was noted that there were four responses forbaptism, "one from the Missionary Baptist, two from the Cumberland Presbyterian, and one from the world. The record for September 18, 1866, a Tuesday night meeting, states that "two colored persons made the confession and were baptized at 9:00 the next day."20 On one hapless day (July 15, 1861), the young man who had "come forward" on the previous Sunday night for baptism did not make his appearance at the baptismal site, but 46 this did not prevent Sewell from preaching to those who attended the anticipated immersion.21 The names of all new members, whether by baptism or by "letter of commendation" from another church confirming the status of "member in good standing," were entered in the big record book along with the date of the membership placement. Just as the men and women sat segregated by gender in the assembly, they were also listed in the membership rolls separately. Little is recorded about the business affairs of the nascent church. For the first nine months or so, church records were main tained by A. T. Reid. The secretary's assignment was then given to Lancelot Johnston at a business meeting on Wednesday night, March 28, 1860. Johnston, who was the grandfather of current member Samuel L. Richardson, offered for his first official entry in the record book a terse account of church finances:

The books being examined we found that the contributions had amounted to $61.55, and the disbursements amounted to $47.75, leaving in the treasury $13.80. Brother Reid not being so he could attend as our secretary, it was the wish that L. Johnston should take the book and act as secretary which he has agreed to do. Also agreed to meet on the next Wednesday at early candlelight for the purpose of worship. R. B. Sangster's wish for a letter having been reconsidered, the members that were present concluded that they could not grant him a letter under the circumstances of reports from members of this and the brothers of Franklin, that Brother Sangster must come up and make acknowledgments or the church would withdraw from him and erase his name from the church books as a member. 22

Obviously, as concluded from the above passage, church membership was taken seriously by members of Restoration churches in the nineteenth century. The Owen Chapel members believed in the importance of attendance at worship assemblies and, like other congregations, wrestled with the problem of absentee members. Excessive absenteeism, apparently, was reason enough for the church to "withdraw" from a delinquent member. Delinquency among the members could cause great anguish. On one occasion (October 24, 1860), Sewell met with some church members in the home of James Owen who had been examining passages regarding "the duty of members." "We proceeded to appoint some of the brethren and sisters to visit some of the members and try and reclaim them if they 47

could/' the secretary recorded. "If not we are to withdraw our Christian fellowship from them. The old record book does, in fact, contain a listing of the members who had either voluntarily or involuntarily been removed from the church rolls. From the beginning of their venture, the members of Christ's church at Euclid must have planned to have a meetinghouse of their own. One of the charter members, James Owen, had donated a plot of land for the purpose of building a church building. The record does not report precisely when the construction effort began, nor how many men and how much money the effort entailed. The story is often told that the construction began during the war years, but the record book does not sustain this legend. The secretary recorded for April 12, 1866, that "after singing and praying by E. G. Sewell, we consulted about building a meetinghouse and ap pointed a committee to ascertain what a house would cost and report.2 4 Also the record shows clearly that expenditures for building materials were made in 1866. Undoubtedly, many of the male members of the congregation assumed much of the construction work detail. The record shows that outside workmen were contracted for some of the labor. S. L. Richardson tells the story of the woodworker who was assembling and installing the pews for the meetinghouse at the moment when a big wind storm, perhaps a tornado, blew through the area and ripped off the roof from the new building. The worker was "scared to death" by the experience. A large section of the roof ing had to be retrieved and secured once again to the Structure. Owing to the largesse of the Owen family, and perhaps because of its prominence as charter members in the congregation, the Euclid church was re—named Owen Chapel sometime after moving into its new facility. As was true for other Restoration ill the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, there was no rigid fixation upon the term "Church of Christ." The various churches were known additionally as "Christian Church," "Christ's Church," and "Disciples." Further splits and ^ivisiveness within the ranks of the movement along with a closing of the ranks of fellowship had to occur before "Owen Chapel Church of Christ" became a permanent label. 48

LATER CHRISTIAN MISSION, MINISTRY, AND OUTREACH Owen Chapel remained a small, family-oriented church during the latter nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Contributions seemed, at least by today's standards, to be small; weekly con tributions for 1887, for example, ranged from $2.60 at its lowest to $14.30 at its highest,. Quite obviously, the cost of goods and services was proportionally lower; an 1887 purchase of one dozen "popular hymn books" cost the church $1.50. A regular item is the purchase of homemade wine for the communion from a "Bro. Jackson" for $1.25 (presumably for a month's supply). Owen Chapel had a benevolent outreach both inside and out of Williamson County. Funerals were occasions for bringing the entire church together for a discourse which was both a eulogy and a sermon; such occasions were recorded in the church ledger. The church treasury was also used to purchase coffins and burial clothes for the deceased whenever necessary. The church was particularly interested in the plight of orphans and widows. On occasion, a medical bill was paid for a member who did not have sufficient funds. The church at Owen Chapel also supported mission efforts among black congregations, the Indians, and the Japanese. Fre quently there are references to helping "sufferers" in some distant locale, although the record does not specify in what way the people who made the plea were suffering. In retrospect, what seems like one of the more frivolous church expenditures, made on August 14, 1888, may well have been essential for male comfort and general sanitation during the worship assemblies - $6.00 for forty spittoons (at a rate of fifteen cents each) for placement at the end of pews in the meetinghouse.26 The list of the expenditures in the late nineteenth century indicates the diversity of needs and interests:

To Bro. D. L. - support of the "Gospel Advocate" Lamps and wicks Clothes and burial e:^enses for a deceased member South Chattanooga mission Board for Sis. Benton and shoes Indian mission Indian orphan school SS papers for colored church 49

Perkins school house Colored brethren at Pinewood Japan mission Cisco, Texas sufferers S. H. Hall - mission work in Atlanta and for building an orphanage

Two interesting items appeared on the ledger before the church moved into its meetinghouse. One for December 29, 1861, recorded five dollars "to negro man Ben for attending to house" and another for May 28, 1865, noted an expenditure "to needy brethren south through hands of Bro. D. L." The latter was undoubtedly in response to a call for help made through the pages of the Gospel Advocate for "the destitute brethren of the South" which was administered through the Metcalfe firm in Nashville. Unfortunately, we have no detailed account of the worship assemblies after 1884, but we are able to know the names of the men who preached at Owen Chapel and the length of their tenure by consulting the financial records. To compile a list of such preachers is to compile a veritable Who's Who among Church of Christ leaders in middle Tennessee and the South during the turn of the century. Among the pulpit ministers who have served this small church are the following (listed with no effort to indicate any date or a chronological order since there was so much pulpit rotation and many return appearances); W. Y. Kuykendall, Granville Lipscomb, William Lipscomb, F. B. Srygley, F. D. Srygley, J. C. McQuiddy, E. A. Elam, F. C. Sowell, F. W. Smith, James Harding, S. H. Hall, H. Leo Boles, J. E. Scoby, S. P. Pittman, Andy T. Ritchie, and C. E. W. Dorris. Salaries paid the preachers seemed to fluctuate with the vicissitudes of church attendance and contributions. At best, Owen Chapel preachers were only paid a few dollars remuneration for their instructional and homiletic services. Actually, from the post-Civil War days through the depression, the weekly church contributions varied very little (usually from $5.00 to $15 or $20).

OWEN CHAPEL IN MORE RECENT TIMES

The story of Owen Chapel in more recent times can be reconstructed not simply from the financial ledgers which have been 50 meticulously maintained, but also through the stories and re collections of some of the families who still attend and maintain membership in the church. Two families who have done more to keep Owen Chapel's doors open than any other person or family in the twentieth century are Mr. and Mrs. Sam Richardson and Mr. and Mrs. Earl Alexander. Sam Richardson, who had relatives among the charter members, was raised at Owen Chapel. Among his boyhood memories is the worship attendance of a small number of blacks ("they sat on the back row on the South side"). Richardson attended Lipscomb with J. Ridley Stroop and both studied under S. P. Pittman. Pittman placed great emphasis on old-fashioned oratory and memorization. Richardson remembers Pittman requiring his students to memorize the entire Sermon on the Mount. "There was one student who had a lot of trouble with the memory work and told Brother Pittman that the class would just have to forgive him because he couldn't memorize long passages. Brother Pittman told the boy, 'the class might forgive you for not having done your memory work, but I can't forgive you!'"27 Pittman, who remained a dramatic elocutionist until the end of his life, preached on numerous Sundays at Owen Chapel as did several of his students, including J. Ridley Stroop. Each year Owen Chapel conducted gospel meetings and pro cured the services of some well known speaker in the "brotherhood." Richardson heard stories as a boy of the meetings in the early years of the church. "Back in those days they'd have a gospel meeting and the building was full," he explained. "Word was, people would be sitting in the windows. The entire community turned out. The members at Jones Chapel and at Franklin turned out in big numbers to support our meetings and we would do the same for them."28 The meetings were times of harvesting decisions which had been incubating all year. Baptisms were frequent. Richardson relates that in more recent times Leonard Jackson, a preacher at the Fourth Avenue congregation,, gave him a key to the Franklin building so that it could be used at any time for baptisms by the Owen Chapel members. From 1928 until the present (1989), Richardson has kept the church's financial records. "Uncle George (Johnston) liked to take care of the money, but he didn't enjoy keeping the books, so I 51 kept the books," Richardson recalls. "Uncle George was my mother's sister's (Carrie) husband. When I started keeping the books in 1928 there was only $1.72 in the treasury."9 Q In 1908, Richardson's father bought the log cabin in which the old Euclid group conducted its first service and it was eventually torn down. Gladys Richardson, who was born and raised in Nashville and who attended congregations at Grandview, Lindsley Avenue, and Park Circle (later becoming West End), came to Owen Chapel with Sam in October, 1933. A few eyebrows were raised when the couple sat on the same side of the partition. Sam Richardson's recollections of courtship and of one preacher of notoriety remain clear:

I had a Model A Ford Roadster and my job during the gospel meeting was to provide transportation for Brother Hall Calhoun. Brother Calhoun lived near Lipscomb. I would first go get Brother Calhoun and then I would go get Gladys at West End Circle and then we would ride out to church together. Then I would take them home after the service. I led the singing during the meeting. Calhoun would stop the invitation song and make another strong appeal and he would get even more responses. He really knew how to bring the people in. On the last night he would say, "I know we're supposed to close meeting now, but I'm going to extend it one more night and I've got a sermon ready and it's cut and dried - very dry." Calhoun went off into the digressive group and later he came back. 30

Owen Chapel has been the very heart and life of Sam and Gladys Richardson since the 1920's. Living on Franklin Road only, a few yards from the meetinghouse, they have walked or driven over to the church building literally thousands of times to attend to the needs of the church - attending services, teaching classes, leading in worship (Sam was the church's song leader for many years), opening and closing the building, loading coal or wood into the stoves, providing transportation to assemblies for ones needing it, maintaining the treasury records, writing and de livering checks, making deposits, and entertaining ministers and their families. It is a fair comparison to say that the Richardsons have been to Owen Chapel in the twentieth century what James Owens was to Owen Chapel in the nineteenth century. Earl and Louise Alexander started attending Owen Chapel in October, 1943, just prior to Earl's stint in the military service. When they moved to a house on Brentwood's Murray Lane, the 52

Alexanders transferred from Woodson Chapel to Owen Chapel, be lieving that "it wasn't right to pass by one church so close to home to attend another."31 Fifty to sixty people were attending Owen Chapel when the Alexanders and their nine-year-old son Will placed membership. Louise Alexander offers a recollection;

When Earl and I started attending (Owen Chapel), the women sat on the left side and the men sat on the right side. There was no rule or reason for this separation - it was just a custom that remained there for a long time. Also, when we first started out worshipping there, there would be a call to "let us stand and pray" and a lot of the people would then kneel down for the prayer.32 The Alexanders remember the heating and cooling of the building during the 1940s and 50s:

There were two pot-bellied stoves that were used in the winter, one on each side, and they burned either wood or coal. It was not very hot in the summer, but all we had to do was to raise the windows. The only "air conditioning" we had was with the hand fans which were given by the funeral home.33 While the Richardsons remember Owen Chapel being the largest in their time during the preaching tenure of John Rainey, a Lipscomb professor of Bible and Greek, the Alexanders remember the church being the largest in membership during the ministry of Wayne Poucher. Poucher was a native of Largo, Florida, and was raised as a Methodist., He attended Freed Hardeman College because of his infatuation with N. B. Hardeman and his ambition to become an equally eloquent orator. Poucher later enrolled in David Lipscomb College and studied under Batsell Barrett Baxter, the Bible Department Chairman and a great influence on his life. At the time Poucher preached for Owen Chapel he was working for WLAC-TV as a staff announcer; he also was an emcee for the Saturday morning "Pop-eye" show for children. Wayne Poucher began preaching for Owen Chapel in March, 1957. He was assisted in the ministry by another Lipscomb student, Neil Anderson, currently the president of the Gospel Advocate Company in Nashville. Members considered Poucher to be "an effective speaker." His theology was conservative. He and his family were well liked and respected, a warmth which continued even after 53

Poucher returned to live in Florida. T^derson's role was that of song director, teacher, and assistant preacher. His recollections of days at Owen Chapel are vivid:

I think Owen Chapel must have been in its heyday when Poucher and I were there. At that time there were about one hundred people in attendance. The church - was growing when we were there. I'd say there were around sixty attending there when we first came. We had a hice group of children and young people attending at the time. In fact, on Sunday morning there were seven classes meeting at once during the Sunday School period - two in classrooms, one in the hallway, and one in each corner of the auditorium. Then, on Sunday night we had a "Pew-packers" class which met on the first few rows. It was a children's class which met right before the evening worship assembly. Wayne's son wrote a little song for the class which was based on the Pop-eye tvine. 35 The church was also served by three elders during the Poucher-late 50s era - Earl Alexander, George Croft, and Robin Little. The influence of Poucher and Anderson upon the church is clearly evident. "Poucher wanted to upgrade the building," Anderson recalls, "and so we planned to add the education wing and the baptistry." The plans for improvement, completed in 1958, were not forwarded without opposition. Anderson remembers:

We had one strong objector to our plans - Martha Fowler. Her real concern was a matter of "desecrating the historic building." She fought our adding the baptistry for that reason. Yet there was money in the treasury, something like $3000, and there was a need for us to make those improvements. I remember the objections. She'd say, "We need to save that money for a rainy day." I remember what I said in return: "Well, it's really stormy right now and we need to stop saving that money and spend it!" So we moved ahead. One of our members, Malcolm Savage, and I built that baptistry. We worked a lot at nights and on the weekends. 36 For certain, the addition of the small educational wing in the back of the building (made of painted cement building blocks and a flat roof), and providing two small classrooms, two restrooms and a closet, did produce the first and only major change in the building's exterior in nearly a century. (Currently, the two classrooms are not being used; only a small adult class convenes 54 in the auditorium at 10:00 each Sunday and there is no evening assembly.) The list of preachers who have served Owen Chapel, in addition to the ones already cited in this history, would be lengthy. In the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, the financial ledger books usually listed only the last names of the speakers. Included in any listing of preachers who appeared for several Sundays in the pulpit for several weeks or months on Sunday or who spoke in a series of meetings would be: the afore-mentioned Hall Calhoun (a preacher who, according to Garrett, was the first Church of Christ minister to take a Ph. D. at Harvard and who was not allowed to teach at the old Nashville Bible School because he would not take a hard line against both the instrument in worship and missionary societies 37), H. Leo Boles, Theodore Lillie (a speaker who began preaching in June, 1932, for $3.00 per Sunday and who maintained some kind of association with the church through 1943, then returned to serve as preacher in the late 70's and early 80*s), John Rainey, Fred Mosely, Cecil Richardson, J. M. Powell, J. L. Jackson, Max Hammrick, Dwight Bell, Roy Shaub, V. M. Whitesell, Herbert Robinson, Prentice Meador, Jr., George Walden, Axel Swang (a Lipscomb College Business Department Chairman had the unenviable position of following the popular Poucher, but served the church as preacher from January, 1959, to 1965), Jim Bill Mclnteer (who "holds a meeting" in 1970), Donald Jenkins, Lloyd Johnson, Jim Barron, Ron Long, Don Phillips, Duncan Rushing, and Joe Gourley. In the early 70's, Wayne Poucher returned from Florida to resume a ministry at Owen Chapel. Che meeting that is recalled with interest is the one held in May, 1973, by Foy E. Wallace, Jr. Wallace had the reputation of a high-powered, ultra-conservative evangelist who could command handsome sums for his services in a gospel meeting. Due to the efforts of Poucher, Wallace was brought to Owen Chapel and paid $500 for preaching plus about $170 for board and lodging - the most ever paid an evangelist for a similar service at Owen Chapel. Current members recall that a good part of the "gospel" proclaimed by Wallace was his scathing criticism of modern versions of the Bible and his uncritical allegiance to the King James Version. Wallace was also irritated by the college students who visited 55

during the meeting. Seems that many of the students looked up his Scriptural references while he spoke and a distracted Wallace publicly reprimanded the young listeners, asking them to refrain from this practice while he was speaking.^® Lipscomb students played a role in my coming to Owen Chapel in 1975. A group of some twenty or so students from Lipscomb had been worshipping at Owen Chapel each Sunday, most of whom rode the church bus (an old Ford schoolbus of early 60's vintage which had been acquired for $1000) to services. Many in this group were bright and conscientious about spiritual commitment and they took the lead in planning and conducting the worship services. Rick Tbylor did much of the speaking and Lee Milain directed the singing. Some of the young college women taught classes for the young children. I was invited to become the regular speaker at the Sunday assemblies, aided on occasion by some of the young men aspiring to church ministry. Two of the young men I selected to speak in my place, David Sampson and Gary Pearson, were students in my political science classes at Lipscomb; each has done well in the professional ministry since completing graduate school in religion and law respectively. In the fall of 1975, the students and I gained permission from the older members to conduct a lectureship and we brought-to the old meetinghouse for worship and study several guest speakers - Harvey Floyd, Dennis Loyd, Marlin Connelly, Dean Freetly, and Kenneth Schott - all of whom served with me on the Lipscomb faculty. One catalyst-for classroom thought and discussion, and for church life in general, was Mrs. Robert Fowler, a long-standing member who died in 1986. Martha Fowler, who at one time was married to a son of H. Leo Boles, was a most ihtelligerit and articulate woman. Anyone could have surmised from the first public statement she uttered, delivered with a vocal style of formality and punctilious precision, that she had once been a teacher of elocution; her tone of voice conveyed a sense of dignity and presumptuousness. On numerous occasions while I was teaching the adult Sunday School class, "Sister Fowler" would correct me on some point of Bible commentary or interpretation. She was quite fOnd Of invoking the name and views of H. Leo Boles. I recall on several occasions that she would reprimand a college student for reading 56 from a modern translation with words such as "Young man (or woman), could you please tell us where you picked up that translation and why you are reading it in this class?" At times during my sermon presentations when I would say something with which she disagreed, she would immediately squirm painfully in the pew and begin to mutter audibly words such as "no way" or "that's not so." One incident I vividly recall. Once while teaching the adult class and in the presence of some good friends and neighbors who had never visited Owen Chapel (and seldom attended any service), Mrs. Fowler continued to interrupt my presentation in order to make unsolicited corrections in my understanding and application of some little-known narrative from later Hebrew history. After struggling with my embarrassment and frustration for several minutes, she offered the proverbial "last straw" criticism and I unwisely and impulsively blurted out my challenge; "Sister Fowler, I'm trying to do the best I can with this difficult Old Testament passage. Now if you think you can do a better job with this lesson than I'm doing, why don't I just sit down right now and you come up here and teach the class!" Mrs. Fowler promptly, but unapologetically declined my offer and, I must say, had considerably less to offer orally during the remainder of the class time. In all fairness, Martha Fowler was an outstanding and diligent student of the Bible who, had she been of the opposite gender, would most certainly have been a preacher much like S. P. Pittman in oratory and Foy Wallace or H. Leo Boles in theology. Ann Freeman, who was raised in the congregation, describes her as "a 39 person with a rough exterior but with a good heart." Fowler took great pride in her heritage and membership at Owen Chapel, as did her mother before her. There is no doubt of her influence upon the decision-making processes of the church - an influence all the more ironic in a fellowship which has tenaciously clung to the doctrine of female subservience and quietude. In 1976 I had several discussions with Jay Smith, who at that time had recently discontinued his ministry with the Harpeth Hills congregation. A group of his staunchest supporters and friends were interested in beginning a new congregation and they proposed merging with Owen Chapel. My own view at the time was that this 57 merger would produce an instant growth spurt for Owen Chapel. Smith and I planned a joint meeting of the two groups for a Wednesday night in the spring, 1976. We had prayer and singing and I delivered the message. Then followed a general session in which a merger proposal was for^varded by the Smith-led faction and discussed. The plan included establishing committees with equal representation to utilize both Smith and myself as preachers, and to maintain and never raze the historic chapel if and when a new facility were to be constructed. The joint meeting ended amiably and a decision from the chapel members was promised soon. However, as I remember, the proposal was considered by the Owen Chapel members clearly not worthy of any further formal discussion, and I remember informing Smith that the merger would not materialize. ; I ended my work with the congregation a few days later, on Easter Sunday, 1976.

CONCLUSION Our brief history of the Owen Chapel Church of Christ has only highlighted some of the events, developments, and anecdotes within the church's one hundred thirty years of history. Three dominant themes have emerged from the historical materials and recollections from oral history gathered during this project; 1. Eirst and foremost, Owen Chapel has been a place of simple worship and Bible Study. The Bible has been taught and proclaimed as the literal, authoritative Word of God. On almost every one of the past 6750 Sundays of its history, the Bible has been read and the Lord's Supper eaten. When the Restoration movement divided over various issues, Owen Chapel generally maintained a con servative position; for example, in keeping with mainline Church or Christ doctrine, no instrument of music has ever been used in worship there or even brought into the building for any other purpose. From the early years of the twentieth century, the name "Church of Christ" became more firmly and then inflexibly attached to Owen Chapel.

2. Owen Chapel has always been a small, family-centered church. As such, the church resisted the trend toward full-time 58 professional staffs and large congregations; it has never supported an employee or preacher on a full-time basis. In each generation throughout its history, many members of the congregation had relatives who were also members. Long-standing members have some times actively sought to maintain this rural, homogeneous, family-centered identity. Owen Chapel is rich testimony that a church is more than a religious institution - it is also a social institution which represents, preserves, and forwards the values of family and community and gives meaning to ordinary existence.

3. Owen Chapel has been both a forum and a training laboratory for a large number of both young preachers and speakers, and also a forum for older, experienced speakers. The number of young men who have led worship in speaking or singing over the course of Owen Chapel history would likely run into the hundreds. The professional achievements of many of these men are both diverse and significant.40 Additionally, it is impossible to conceive of any congregation of similar size within the Churches of Christ of having been addressed and instructed by as many speakers and 41 preachers holding the earned doctoral degree or its equivalent. The explanation for this phenomenon, of course, is found in the long-standing, intimate relationship the congregation has maintained with the faculty and administration of David Lipscomb College (now a university). Perhaps it is this ultimate irony - the fact that so many men of education and distinction have stood in the Owen Chapel pulpit, but have seemingly made so little impact on the church's corporate life and family traditions - which underscores best this little church's understanding of its mission as a simple. New Testament church in the midst of a modern, complex world. 59

ENDNOTES

The author is happy to acknowledge gratefully the reading given this manuscript and subsequent suggestions given by three personal friends who are careful students of church history in general - Douglas Foster, Robert Hooper, and Carolyn Wilson, all of David Lipscomb University. A word of thanks and acknowledgment also go to Mary Trim Anderson for soliciting and offering encouragement for this project.

1. The Owen Chapel Records book has been in the safekeeping of the S. L. Richardsons for many years. The book has complete worship accounts which include name of speaker, texts used, participants in singing and prayer, and mention of the Lord's Supper for each Sunday through 1884; unfortunately, it does not record the number in attendance. The book contains financial records from 1859 through 1915. Additional financial records from 1915 until this present day are in the hands of the Richardsons. The Owen Chapel Records, 1859-1912 (one volume), hereafter cited as Records, must have been opened and examined literally hundreds~of~trmes. Through the encouragement and assistance of Carolyn Wilson and Doug Foster, this book has been microfilmed by the Tennessee State Library and Archives and is available to future scholars and students through Microfilm Accession Number 957.

Among the brief, journalistic accounts of the Owen Chapel Church are the following: Gordon H. Turner, "Old Owen's Chapel Smashed its Spittoons," Nashville Tennessean, July 25, 1951; J. M. Powell, "Owen's Chapel Churcb," Gospel Advocate. October 2, 1952; Edmund Willingham, "Christianity Key to Peace (A Reporter Goes to Church)," Nashville Tennessean, Deceirber 2, 1963; "Owen Chapel Puts Others First (Williamson Churches - One of a Series) Williamson Leader, May 26, 1974; "Owen's Chapel Dates to 1859 Congregation," Harpeth Herald, December 29, 1977.

2. Herman A. Norton, Tennessee Christians: A History of the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) in Tennessee (Nashville: Reed and Company, 1971), p. 26. According to Earl West, Fanning and Absalom Adams established the church in Franklin in Williamson County in 1832 with twenty members. The South Harpeth church began two years later. See West's Search for the Ancient Order, Vol. 1 (Nashville: Gospel Advocate Company, 1964), p. 254.

3. Among the"family names of charter members inscribed in the old recordrbdok are: Moulton, Poiner, Sangster, Callender, Allen, Collins, Redmond, Cook, Scott, and McDavid. Other early leaders were 0. T. Craig, H. Zellner, M. F. Smithson, Joel Brown, and R. B. Trimble.

4. Leroy Garrett, The Stone-Campbell Movement: An Anecdotal History Of Three Churches IJoplin, Missouri: College Press, 1981), p. 307.

5. Robert E. Hooper discusses the relationship between Fanning and Campbell in his definitive biography. Crying in the Wilderness: A Biography of David Lipscomb (Nashville: David Lipscomb College, 1979), pp. 9-10. See also H. R. Moore, "Tolbert Fanning," 60

Franklin College and its Influences, ed. James E. Scoby (Nashville; Gospel Advocate Company, 1954), p. 126.

6. This was only the third college to be founded in the Restoration movement, preceded only by Bacon College in 1836 with Walter Scott and Bethany College in 1840 with and through the efforts of Alexander Campbell.

7. For a discussion of Franklin College as experienced through David Lipscomb the student, see Hooper, Crying in the Wilderness, pp.'36-43. For a briefer summary of the work of Fanning and the impact of Franklin College, see Hooper's A Call To. Remember: Chapters in Nashville Restoration History (Nashville: Gospel Advocate Company, 1977), pp. 23-29.

8. Crying in the Wilderness, pp. 35-36.

9. Records, p. 11.

10. Records, p. 12.

11. West, Search for the Ancient Order, Vol. II (Indianapolis: Religious Book Service, 1950), pp. 150ff. Biographical information about Sewell's long life may also be found scattered throughout Hooper's Crying in the Wilderness and in a memorial issue on Sewell published by the Gospel Advocate, Vol. LXVI, No. 12 (March 20, 1924). An attempt to moralize from the biographical data of Sewell's life may be found in a lecture by Keith Parker, "Restoration Leaders: E. G. Sewell," at the Freed-Hardeman Lectureship. World Evangelism at Home and Abroad (Henderson, Tenn.: Freed- Hardeman College, 1982), pp. 296-99.

12. From a news article on Sewell by Wayne Burton in the Nashville Tennessean and re-published by the Gospel Advocate, March 20, 1924, p. 282.

13. F. B. Srygley, "In Memory of our Brother, E. G. Sewell," Gospel Advocate, March 20, 1924, p. 270.

14. Records, p. 17..

15. The funeral and the message are discussed in Hooper's Crying in the Wilderness, pp. xiv-xv.

16. Records p. 50.

17. Records, p. 11.

18. Records, p. 43.

19. Records, p. 94.

20. Records, p. 75.

21. Records, p. 31.

22. Records, p. 16. 61

23. Records, p. 77.

24. Records, p. 71.

25. Interview with Mr. and Mrs. Samuel L. Richardson, Brentwood, Tennessee, January 14, 1989 (hereafter, Richardson interview).

26. Surely the spittoons were all placed on the men's side of the meetinghouse. The oft-repeated story is that the women of the church rose up indignantly in opposition to the presence of spittoons in the house of worship, removed them from the building, and chopped them up. Gladys Richardson remembers many of the men sitting through the worship with a plug of tobacco in their mouths and that the women usually found the custom to be disgusting. Richardson interview.

27. Richardson interview.

28. Richardson interview.

29. Richardson interview.

30. Richardson interview.

31. Interview with Mr. and Mrs. Earl Alexander and Will Alexander, Brentwood, Tennessee, January 16, 1989. Hereafter, Alexander interview.

32. Alexander interview.

33. Alexander interview.

34. Biographical information on Poucher is drawn from Alexander and Anderson interviews and feature article in Williamson Leader> May 26, 1974.

35. Interview with Neil Anderson, Nashville, Tennessee, January 25, 1989. Heretofore and hereafter, Anderson interview.

36. Anderson interview.

37. Garrett, The Stone-Campbell Movement, p. 603.

38. Alexander interview.

39. Interview with Ann Freeman, Nashville, Tennessee, January 25, 1989.

40. To cite only a few examples from more recent times of men who gained some of their very earliest training in public worship leadership and later impacted the Church of Christ fellowship at large - Prentice Meador, Jr. (a professor of communication who has taught at UCLA and the University of Washington at Seattle and has served large churches in Springfield, Missouri, and Dallas, Texas); Bill Banowsky, who supposedly preached his first sermon at Owen Chapel on February 13, 1955 (formerly the minister of the large Broadway church in Lubbock, Texas, a university president at Pepperdine and University of Oklahoma, and president of the 62

Gaylord Communications Corporation); James Lee McDonough, who preached several Sundays at Owen Chapel (noted Civil War historian, long-time professor of history at David Lipscomb, then later at Pepperdine and Auburn, a published historian); Larry Connelly (also a university professor. Civil War historian, and published author); Harold Roney (late and distinguished attorney in McMinnville, Tennessee); Norman Parks (Lipscomb administrator, teacher, and author of numerous articles and letters to the editor representing the liberal element among Churches of Christ); and aforementioned David Sampson (now in Arlington, Texas, as minister) and Neil Anderson (president of the Gospel Advocate Company). The list could go on. One song director in recent years (1985-86), David Slater, began appearances on Ed McMahon's "Star Search" and piled up victory after victory until winning the final, first place award as a vocalist and eventually landed a recording contract. From the years 1985-88, guest speakers at Owen Chapel have included Doug Foster, Myron Keith, Danny Cottrell, Robert Hooper, Perry B. Cotham, Ed Neeley Cullum, and Robert Kerce.

41. All-be-it many of the doctorates were not in religion but in various other fields as diverse as education, communication, biology, business, and psychology. 63

HARDY MURFREE

Judith Grigsby Hayes

Buried in the Fourth Civil District of Williamson County, approximately ten miles southwest of Franklin, near Burwood, is Hardy Murfree. Colonel Hardy Murfree was a distinguished Revolutionary War officer for whom the city of Murfreesboro, originally spelled Murfreesborough, is named. He was born in Hertford County, North Carolina in 1752, the son of William and Mary Moore Murfree. Before he was of age, Murfree was a captain in the Hertford Militia. Serving in the Second Regiment of the Continentals, Murfree soon became a captain. He fought in several battles, and during the Battle of Stony Point, he was such a gallant soldier he became known as the "Hero of Stony Point. His rank quickly rose from that of Captain to Major and just a year later to Lieutenant Colonel. Being so highly regarded. Colonel Murfree was soon placed in charge of supplies, presided over court martial trials, and helped reorganize the North Carolina forces. Hardy Murfree was a member of the North Carolina Legislature in 1784, and served as a member of the convention which ratified the Federal Constitution. Murfree married Sara Brickell, daughter of Matthias and Rachel Noailles Brickell, in 1752. As a soldier Murfree was entitled to a large acreage of land. He came to Middle Tennessee in 1784 to locate good land in Williamson and nearby counties. Combining his grant and purchased land, it is said that he owned as much as forty thousand acres total. Murfree's wife died in 1802 and he came to Williamson County in 1806. (Reference was made by Reverend John Pope in his papers that Hardy Murfree was his nearest neighbor in the year 1806). When Murfree died on April 6, 1809, he had finished 64

building only two rooms and a passageway of his new home on this beautiful West Harpeth site. Inscribed on Colonel Hardy Murfree's tombstone are these words: "In Peace the Citizen and Soldier in War. Reverent to God and respected by man." Hardy Murfree's land holdings were so extensive that in 1812 the Tennessee Legislature passed an act to equitably distribute these holdings among his seven children. In 1842 Samuel Perkins bought a seven hundred seventy-five acre portion of the original Hardy Murfree land from William Law Murfree, grandson of Hardy Murfree. Samuel Perkins' daughter, Agatha Susan Perkins, married William Perkins Cannon, son of former Tennessee Governor Newton Cannon. They lived in the house that had been started by Hardy Murfree. After this house burned, the family moved to what had been the overseer's house. Federal troops had camped on this farm during the Civil War and significant damage was done. Over the years this land has passed down the family line. The present owners are Edgar Brown Cannon, great-grandson of Samuel Perkins and his wife. Marguerite. They own the original seven hundred seventy-five acres, and an additional ninety acres. The Cannons live in the mid-nineteenth century farm house, now such a beautiful show place. No one would ever guess it to be the same overseer's house or that damage was ever done to the surrounding land. 65

I C H 0 LA S N I C H 0 L C 0 X

Frances Anderson Gibbs

Colonel Nicholas Nichol Cox, who moved to Williamson County in the 1860's, was born near Unionville in Bedford County, Tennessee, on January 6, 1837. He was the thirteenth child born to Caleb and Nancy Cox, natives of North Carolina, who came to Tennessee about 1811. Caleb was born August 4, 1789, and died July 29, 1837. He was buried in the Enon Primitive Baptist Church Cemetery. His widow, Nancy, died in Texas many years later. Caleb served in the War of 1812 from January 26, 1814, to May 10, 1814. Nicholas was about six months old when his father died. After a few months his mother took Nicholas and his youngest sister to Arkansas where several members of the family had settled. In a short time they left for Texas. Two of his brothers had settled in Seguin, and it was there that Nicholas attended school and also served v/ith the Texas Rangers : in skirmishes with the Indians. He decided to return to Tennessee to enter Cumberland Law School at Lebanon, from which he was graduated in 1858. He went to Hickman County to yisit his sister, Mary Minerva, who had married Joseph R. Sutton. (They were my great-grandparents). They were then living near Farmer's Exchange. It was there that he met Mary Slayden and they were married on January 5, 1859. From there they settled in Linden, Tennessee, where he began his law practice. When the War began in 1861, Company C, made up of men from Hickman and Perry Counties, was organized, being part of the Second (Biffle's) Tennessee Cavalry Battalion, and Nicholas became Major on July 9, 186 1. He took part in many of the battles and was taken prisoner when he was in the Battle of Parker's Cross Roads in West Tennessee. He was confined to Camp Chase for some time. During his imprisonment his troops were 66

organized into the Tenth Tennessee Cavalry. Upon the recommendation of General Forrest, while Nicholas was still in prison, he was appointed Colonel of the Regiment until the end of the War.

THE MILITARY ANNALS OF TENNESSEE-CONFEDERATE was published by the Southern Methodist Publishing House in 1886. It contains a review of military operations, with regimental histories and memorial rolls. In this book is an article written by N. N. Cox, Franklin, Tennessee. He describes in detail many of the skirmishes and fights the Tenth Tennessee Cavalry participated in. He stated that "the Regiment was engaged in the following important fights: Thompson's Station, Brentwood, Straight's raid, a number of skirmishes as the Army fell back to Chattanooga, the battle of Chickamauga, the fight at Philadelphia in East Tennessee, the fight at Knoxville, the fights at Franklin, Nashville and all the principal engagements which belonged to the Army. It finally surrendered at Gainsville, Alabama, in May 1865, under command of General Dibbrell. It is utterly impossible to giye a list of the killed." On July 5, 1866, the executors of the estate of Nathan Owen sold two hundred five acres on Moore's Lane to Nicholas. By that time three children had been born: Imogene, Lula and Parmenio E. The youngest child. Carter, was born at the Moore's Lane home. Nicholas continued to buy more land and practice law in Franklin. He was one of the organizers of the Farmers National Bank of Franklin which was chartered October 18, 1883. He served as President of this bank which was later consolidated with the National Bank of Franklin, where he served as Vice President for ten years. He had become interested in politics as early as 1860, when he was Presidential elector on the Democratic ticket of Breckenridge and Lane, and that of Greeley and Brown in 1872. It was in 1890 that he was elected congressman of the Seventh Congressional District, serving in this office for five terms through March 3, 1901, at which time he declined to be a candidate for renomination. During his term as congressman he 67 served on the committees of Banking and Currency, Claims, and Military Affairs. An article appearing in a Nashville newspaper on March 4, 1897, entitled "Congressman Cox's Views" quoted from the American Bureau, Washington, D. C., dated March 3, 1897, as follows: "Next to the Ways and Means Committee of the House, the committee on Banking and Currency is admittedly the most important, and of the members on the latter committee it is conceded that Representative Nicholas Nichol Cox of the Seventh Congressional District of Tennessee is the most able and the most experienced. He gains his ability by study and he has acquired this experience by long service, being now the senior member in point of consecutive membership on this committee. Mr. Cox has some other characteristics that have made him a leading member on the committee. These are in the line of independence - he is fearless and intrepid to a degree . . ." Prior to being elected to Congress Nicholas had asked John T. Woods, an architect with the Nashville firm of Woods and Crabb, to draw plans and specifications for the house on Nashville Pike that was later to become Harpeth Academy. It was to be ready for occupancy by December 9, 1890. The parlor was to be finished in cherry, the dining room and halls to be finished in quartered oak and the library in ash. All the porches were to be made of cedar. He returned to this house when his congressional duties were completed and he died here on May 2, 1912. His wife, Mary, lived here until her death in 1925. The property belonged to the family until shortly before the death of the son, Parmenio, in 1932. The oldest child, Imogens, was married to John D. Tulloss on December 1, 1880, at Brentwood Methodist Church. After the ceremony they went to her parents' home for an elaborate reception. They later went to the home of his parents, Inglehame. His parents were Major John E. and Fannie German Tulloss. Their house was one of the Wilson houses and remained in the Tulloss family until 1938 when it was sold to Mr. and Mrs. Vernon Sharp. After a few months Imogens and John D. Tulloss bought Ravenwood, located across from Inglehame and built in 1825 68

by James Hazard Wilson II. They continued living here until John's death in 1931. The farm was sold and is now owned by Mr. and Mrs. Reece Smith. Imogene Cox Tulloss died in 1933, and she and her husband are buried in Mt. Hope Cemetery. They had only one child, Nicholas Cox Tulloss and he was married to Alice Herbert. They had no children and Nicholas C. Tulloss died in Fredericksburg, Texas, in 1954. His widow returned to live in Franklin and died here in 1975. They were also buried in Mt. Hope Cemetery. The second child of Nicholas and Mary Cox was Parmenio E., who was born in 1864 and died in 1932. He was educated at the Campbell School and Webb School in Culleoka. He received his LL.B degree from the College of Law, Columbia University, and practiced law in Franklin for a number of years. He was a public-spirited citizen and was very much interested in the development of Williamson County and surrounding sections. He was instrumental in organizing and establishing the Nashville-Franklin Interurban and was its first legal counsel. He was instrumental in procuring the construction of the Nashville-Centerville-Dickson Turnpike which was the forerunner of State Highway Number 100. He was also interested in all history, particularly the history of Tennessee and the preservation of its historical data; this caused him to close his law office in 1927, and at the time of his death he was Assistant State Archivist and Archaeologist.

He was never married. The third child of Nicholas and Mary Cox was Lula who was born in 1866. She was married to a Mr. Roberts and they were divorced. She was later married to Frederick G. Coldren of Washington, D. C. He died in 1931. Several years later Lula returned to Tennessee. She lived in Franklin for a number of years and commuted each day to Nashville to work at the Junior League Home for Children where she was called "The Thank You Lady". She was noted for her gracious thank-you notes to the many people who contributed to the Home. She died in 1964 at the age of ninety-eight and was buried in Mt. Hope Cemetery. 69

Carter Cox, the youngest of the Cox children was born at the family home, Coralto, later Maple Lawn, in 1869. He was married to Bessie Gordon of Maury County, Tennessee. They were the parents of one child, Marie Gordon, who died at the age of three. They later adopted a son, Edward, who continued to live at the home place until in the 1970's. Bessie Cox died in 1937 while Carter died in 1933. Carter was a prominent farmer and was influential in civil and church activities. At the time of his death he was Vice President of the Williamson County Bank and Trust Company and had served as a director of that institution for a number of years.

Note: The main sources of information used in this article were the Nicholas Cox family papers given to my family by Lula Cox Coldren and Alice Herbert Tulloss. They included a diary. Bibles, scrapbooks, letters, obituaries, newspaper clippings and resolutions on the deaths of various members of the family. The last direct descendent of Nicholas N. Cox was his grandson, Nicholas Cox Tulloss.

Harpeth Academy Built by Nicholas N. Cox in 1890. 70

SNEED ACRES

Sarah Sprott Morrow

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KEgP-AC

A historical marker on Old Smyrna Road in Brentwood, which was sanctioned by the Williamson County Historical Society, reads as follows: "Sneed Acres was established as a plantation in 1798 by James Sneed — 1764-1858 — and wife, Bethenia Perkins Sneed. They came to this area from Halifax County, Virginia. Three original buildings remain on this site with the portion of the old log house being incorporated into the present house. Three sons built homes nearby: Windy Hill, 1825 by Constantine; Brentvale, 1830 by William Temple and Foxview, by Alexander Ewing Sneed. Several family members are buried in the cemetery just south of here. Dr. William Sneed, grandson of pioneer James, was 7 1

one of the founders of Meharry Medical College." Lying in Williamson County on the Old Smyrna Road, this farm is a part of the six hundred forty acres originally granted to James Sneed, a Revolutionary War veteran, for his military service. He and his wife were granted these acres in what was then a largely uninhabited part of the country. Often a man, with his wife riding a pack horse, a rifle, a few clothes and a skillet and small sack of meal, an axe and a hoe, without a dollar in his pocket, became a large land owner. It is not knowable how much money James Sneed had when he came to Middle Tennessee, but he took care of his acres which are a testament to his ingenuity and his enterprise. His descendants became prominent, civic, social, political and military figures in the Middle Tennessee area. Today seventy-two acres of the original grant remain in the Sneed family. It is owned by two sisters, Callie Lilly Owen and Mary Sue Owen Renegar, widow of the late G. W. Renegar, who are direct descendants of original settler James Sneed- They are the daughters of Constant Sneed Owen and Lilly Wilson Owen. They enjoy this home, which is a restoration of the original three-room dwelling. Added rooms make it a large and commodious home. It is furnished with original furnishings, with two notable exceptions -- the television and the refrigerator. Among the most revered possessions of the Owen sisters is an elongated baptismal gown of some distant kin, which has been attractively framed for display. Early Brentwood settler, James Sneed, was descended from the first Sneed immigrants to America, Samuel and Alice Sneed. They are thought to have come to America from, or near, the ancestral home of the Sneed family, Keele Hall, located in the County of Staffordshire, near Chester, England. The original home has been restored and is the center of a flourishing university called, Keele University. James and Alice Sneed came to America in 1635 and settled near the fledgling settlement of Jamestown, Virginia, which had become permanently settled only a few years before. At 72

that time it was a small village of crude brick and mud buildings, but it was established as the site of the first government of the Colony of Virginia when the first Sneed stepped upon American soil. The settlement of Jamestown was in a low, marshy district, which proved to be unhealthy. The seat of the Colonial Virginia government was changed some time later from Jamestown to the Middle Plantation, now Williamsburg. From this Tidewater Virginia beginning, the Sneeds multiplied and they moved westward. They moved into the Piedmont, then beyond the Appalachian Mountains into Tennessee and Kentucky. From the Tennessee Valley they moved across the Mississippi River into Missouri, Arkansas, Texas and Oklahoma. They finally crossed the Rocky Mountains to California and other Pacific Coast states. In 1952 many of these far-flung Sneeds gathered at the old homestead, Sneed Acres, for a family reunion. It was determined to organize a family association for the purpose of promoting future reunions and gathering and preserving information about the Sneed family. The resulting organization was the International Association of Sneeds, which includes Sneeds of all spellings, Snyde, Snead, Sneid, et cetera. Today the International Association of Sneeds boasts over one thousand members from almost every state in the Union and from Canada. A reunion is held every other year, with the reunion being held in Brentwood every fourth year. In 1981 over five hundred Sneeds attended the reunion in Brentwood. The last reunion held in Brentwood was in 1987. President of the organization then was Brentwood native, T. Vance Little. The nucleus of the group is made up of descendants of James Sneed of Brentwood, but there are many other genealogical lines included in the membership. One of the leaders in the International Association of Sneeds since its inception was Mary Sneed Jones, now deceased Brentwood native and civic leader. She died unexpectedly on October 21, 1984, and was buried among her well-beloved ancestors in the Sneed Cemetery beside her brother, John. She was the daughter of Mary Sneed and John Harding Jones and also a 73

descendant of Bethenia and James Sneed. She cherished her heritage and tried valiantly to instill that appreciation in family members. In honor of Mary Sneed Jones the International Association of Sneeds has established a collection of family information, genealogical data, historical books and publications and family artifacts at the Brentwood Public Library. It is called the Mary Sneed Jones Memorial Collection. A display case was recently purchased by the Association which has been placed in the Brentwood Room of the Library and will be used to display artifacts in the Sneed Collection, or other items of historical interest to the Brentwood community. Another project in which the Sneed Association, and particularly Mary Sneed Jones, was interested, was the restoration of the gardens at Keele Hall in Staffordshire, England. Before her death. Miss Jones had visited Keele several times, and she, along with other members of the Association, contributed generously to this restoration project. The gardens were officially dedicated in 1986, and Princess Margaret was in attendance at the dedication ceremony. At this writing the display case at the Brentwood Library contains, among other items, the Bible of Turner Williams. This gift was made by Otto Lemmer of Madison, Tennessee. His mother was Bethenia Mae Sneed, and his grandfather was Constance Ellis Sneed. As well as being Sneed descendants, they were descended from Daniel Williams, another original settler of the Brentwood area. The William^s came to Tennessee in the 1770's from South Carolina. They lived on an adjoining plantation to James Sneed and his family. Both ^families were founders of the Old Smyrna Methodist Church, then located on Old Smyrna Road. The Turner Williams Bible contains birth, death and marriage data from the early Sneed and Williams families of Brentwood. The thirteen children of original settler, Daniel Williams, are enumerated, along with their marriages. This Bible is only one of the many papers, letters and documents in the Mary 74

Sneed Memorial Collection at the Brentwood Library. The collection has been cataloged by Association members, and the books are available on interlibrary loan to members all over the country. Mary Sneed Jones was an avid collector of family data, and much of the material in the Brentwood Library is the direct result of her efforts to preserve family history. The collection is a fitting tribute to the efforts of this lady and will do much to keep her memory alive. While visiting Sneed Acres, this writer walked over to the cemetery, a short distance from the house, in the company of Callie Lilly Owen and Mary Sue Renegar. When I asked how many graves there were in the cemetery, Callie Lilly Owen replied, "About two hundred graves." We walked about, and I saw a flat stone of Charles E. Sneed, the first buried there in 1838. He was born in 1792. A tall marker beside the grave bears this information. Miss Owen went on to say, "Tom put this fence around the cemetery, and he made sure he brought in Mammy." Thomas Lawson Sneed, a kinsman from St. Louis, had charge of bringing the cemetery up to date, and among his specifications was the thought that "Mammy" should be inside. When asked who "Mammy" was. Miss Owen pointed to a handsome gravestone. I walked over and read, "Black Mammy. Aunt Kittie Sneed — aged 96. A true servant of God and man. REST." Mammy needed that final word she had served the Sneeds for ninety-four years. We walked away from the burial ground and Miss Owen insisted that we share her usual hospitality. We went in for a piece of pecan pie and a drink while I viewed a beautiful amaryllis lily in full bloom, a table full of African violets and several pots of chrysanthemums. A gaze out of the window showed roses safely covered to prevent damage from cold and frost. When we left Sneed Acres, Miss Owen reminded us to go carefully down the steps. The immense stone marking the access to the house was one that was used in marking the entrance nearly two hundred years ago. A rush of memory reminded me that here were two sisters who valued the past, but I was also reminded that they were busy 7 5 entertaining, reaching out to persons to share their appreciation for this particular house and its furnishings. We rode along by the houses that were built by Sneed sons, which were enclosed by pre-Reconstruction days and stone fences that have had excellent maintenance. I felt that I had entered days long past, that someone cared enough to see that we enjoyed our visit. 76

H I STORY OF McCLANAHAN HOLLOW

Presented by Elizabeth McClanahan Mayfield on March 15, 1988, at Scales School, Brentwood, Tennessee

When I started thinking and writing this research last week, I thought that I should check with Lula Fain Major as I knew that she had done research on the Catos. I didn't reach her that day, so I called Williamson County Historian, Virginia Bowman, to see if she had any Cato information. She had Lula Fain Major's research on the Catos. Levin did purchase six hundred plus acres for less than a thousand dollars. Mrs. Bowman quoted the figure which, as I recall, was very minimal. This was in 1823. Levin married widow Martha Wyatt while living in North Carolina. Martha had several Wyatt children and she had her own money. She and Levin signed a marriage contract and she bought a farm on Manley Lane.. Martha traveled back and forth to North Carolina. Moses, the son of Martha and Levin, was born in North Carolina December 23, 1823 and he died January 4, 1894. Levin had a general merchandise business in North Carolina, with a Mr. Armstrong. It was known as Cato and Armstrong. After coming to this valley. Levin purchased additional land to round out the Cato valley. Levin was born October 18, 1770, and died March 15, 1848. He is buried near Beech Creek on his farm. Highland View, which is now being developed into a subdivision. Levin worked hard building little cabins and clearing the land. Levin had none of the good life, as we will see that his son, Moses, had. There were an Indian lady and her husband who lived and worked all their lives for Levin and are buried near his grave on Beech Creek. This we were told by Levin's granddaughter, Ophelia. Levin and Martha Cato also had a daughter named Martha Cato McAlaster. Levin had a nice still and 77

made good liquor for his wife and whoever desired a good drink of whiskey. Levin's wife died from palsey in 1839. The last three years of her life she could not travel back and forth in their valley; she stayed on her own farm where she was when she died. "Moses Cato inherited this beautiful valley in 1848 upon his father's death. Levin's daughter, Martha Cato McAlaster, inherited one hundred dollars from her father's estate. Levin was an old man of fifty-three when Moses was born. Levin's own home was in shambles when he died at age seventy-eight, but he did leave Moses stock and machinery to get a good start. Levin was a very old and broken-down man at the time of his death due to primitive conditions and hard work. His son, Moses, rode fancy horses and raced in horse races here in this valley as well as at the Hermitage and other places." (This is a quotation from Ophelia to me. In 1852 Moses married Mary Sicley Edmiston, one of the many daughters of Major William Edmiston who served under Andrew Jackson during the War of 1812. Their plantation was several hundred acres of land. It was located on Edmiston Road and Hillsboro (now Old Hickory Boulevard). The white brick house and smoke house still stand. This house was built in 1830. The log house was torn down. The land is now Laurelwood and Wildwood subdivisions. "'i

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Mary and Moses' first child was Mary Ophelia. She was born December 23, 1855, and died May 16, 1927. Mary Sicley died from childbirth with her second daughter. The child died November 24, 1857; Mary Sicley died November 30, 1857. Several years later Moses married the widow, Harriett DeMoss from

Bellevue. Mary Ophelia divided her time with her father and stepmother and her many Edmiston aunts and uncles. Ophelia was a beautiful child and young lady. Her hair was so long that she could sit on it. I'm told that she did not comb her own hair until she was sixteen years old. It was done by servants. Moses really worked hard here in this valley, but I am told by my grandmother, Ophelia, his daughter, that he strutted here on his fancy horses and he was known as "Mr. Cato". Moses was held in the highest esteem by all who knew him. Dorothy Boyd Dale was told by her grandfather that this valley was one of the most beautiful places that he had ever had the opportunity to visit. He said that the mansion, the cabins, barns, fences and fields were perfectly manicured. Moses would have big barbecues two or three times a year for the slaves, neighbors and friends . . they would play music, dance and eat for two whole days. Everything was provided for, and made, here on this place. Moses had his own sawmill, sheep-shearing equipment and fabric-making machinery. There was a grist mill, also. Bricks were made near where I now live. There was also a lime kiln that supplied the fields with lime. Coal was mined from one of these hills, a poor grade I'm sure, that was used in the blacksmith shop for shoeing horses and repairing machinery. Coal was also used for other purposes. We never knew which hill supplied the coal. However, the valley was absolutely self-sustaining. Moses started building his southern mansion in the late 1850's. He would help Ophelia down from the buggy and she would open the gate for him when he would bring her over to see the house being built. Ophelia would tell this when she was in the mood to reminisce. Moses did not finish the house until the early 1860's. The house was made of yellow poplar lumber that he 80

obtained from a neighbor, as all the poplar had been cut by Levin and used on this property. The house had four front rooms and an entrance hall with a spiral stairway. The downstairs rooms had thirteen-foot ceilings and the upstairs rooms had ten-foot ceilings. There was a back wing of eight rooms with a ten foot-wide porch winding around the entire back of the house and a beautiful buggy house, as I recall. There was also a huge brick smoke-house built by the slaves in the yard. Moses bought the best of parlor furniture and a baby grand piano for Ophelia, who was an accomplished pianist. (Ophelia graduated at the age of sixteen from Fanning's Girls' School in Nashville.) The parlor furniture and piano were saved when the mansion burned in 1913. The furniture is now in Earl McClanahan, Jr.'s home in Memphis. The piano wouldn't fit into anyone's home at the time and was stored in a barn. The barn burned in the 1930's . . . piano and

all. The Yankees cleaned Moses out when they came through during the Civil War. They took all the horses, mules, sheep, cattle, hogs, chickens, ducks, geese and all his machinery. They left him with one old blind mule and a broken-down wagon. Ophelia often told us how broken her daddy was from all the destruction by the Yankees. She said he would watch them tear the sides from the barn and buildings and burn the lumber. Each group that came through would add additional damage to the plantation. Moses was a very broken and bitter man fromm all this loss, but he did start over, and once more restored the plantation to its original beauty. Grandmother Ophelia said he remained bitter until his death at age seventy-one. His bitterness was a result of all the Yankees' destruction. Ophelia carried the family jewels sewed into her clothing around her waist to keep the Yankees from stealing them. Moses was called upon to help solve many problems during these times. I would like to pass along one story of kindness that Moses performed after the war. A widow who lived across the road in a log house on the property that is now owned 81 by Jim Charron needed help. The lady's husband had been killed on Broad Street. His mules ran away with him and his wagon. He was thrown under the wheels and died, leaving his wife with four small children and an unborn child. Her husband owed a relative an unpaid note of several hundred dollars and the relative demanded payment. The widow could not feed her children, much less pay a note. She sent her oldest son to Moses Cato's house and asked that he come down to her home. He went without delay. She tearfully told him the story and he told her that he would be back. He rode down to the relative's house, asked to see the note and told him to sign it "Paid in Full". Moses paid him, came back and told the widow she did not have to move and she did not have to pay him back . .. he took the note home for safe keeping. I could tell you who this widow and the relatives were, but this would serve no purpose, and I choose not to do so. This is one of the many kind deeds that this beloved man did for his fellow man. One of Moses' last requests was to tell his daughter, Ophelia Cato McClanahan, that it was her responsibility to take care of his ex-slaves and their descendants as he had done with his father's slaves. With this note we leave Levin and Moses Cato's reign in the valley that lasted almost one hundred years. Now we move on to the valley which became McClanahan Hollow. Moses'only surviving child, Mary Ophelia Cato, married William Byrd McClanahan from Centerville, Tennessee. The wedding was performed at Stockett Presbyterian Church which is now known as Harpeth Presbyterian Church. They were married on December 12, 1882. Ophelia and William moved into the mansion with her father and stepmother, Harriett. Ophelia and William had seven children; Thomas Edward, Frank Cato, Lee Bullock, Katherine Reid, Mary Sicley and Earl Berry. One child died at birth. After the birth of three of these children, Moses and Harriett decided that they would get more peace and quiet on Harriett's farm in Bellevue. William Byrd McClanahan was a well-read and informed person. He was much in demand for speaking and debating; he would debate anyone. In fact, in the early 1900's. 82

the International Harvester Company hired him as a sales person. He became a top sales representative very soon after joining the company. William Byrd McClanahan kept books for all food and supplies for all the workers as Moses had taught him. Fabric was no longer woven on the place. Ophelia bought material by the bolt so that all the workers could have nice clothes for Sundays, Easter and Christmas. The recession of the late 1880's and •90's wiped out a nice bank account that Ophelia and her father had together. It became such a burden to feed and clothe so many people; but Ophelia never asked that anyone leave. They would kill close to one hundred fifty hogs two or three times in the winter months to feed everyone all through the year. They would dry their beef and aljso dry fruit. William and Ophelia set out a large orchard of ninety acres which was very productive when the frost did't kill all the fruit. Fruit, wheat, corn, barley, cattle, hogs, sheep and dairy products were William and Ophelia's, and their farm families', livelihood. Ophelia bought the Guthrie place (about ninety acres) which is on either side of Murray Lane and to the first hill that one comes to going toward Franklin Pike (owned by the St. Charles family). It had a nice house on it and this is where Ophelia died. She bought a small tract where Sam Moran, Jr. now lives (Murray Lane) to tie her in with her inheritance from the EdmistOn family on Edmiston Road (now Old Hickory Boulevard). In 1890, the first log one-room Ballew school burned. It was on top of the Ballew hill on the old stage coach road on property now owned by George and Frances Harris. Moses and Ophelia deeded land on the side of Beech Creek Road for the second Ballew school. Ophelia and William had the logs cut and sawed, and their workers built most of this school. This school became known as Punch'n'Point. A student would punch his seat mate and point toward the window to the travelers. Ophelia and William sent their boys to Branham and Hughes School in Spring Hill, Tennessee; the girls went to Saint Cecilia and Nashville Bible School (later David Lipscomb College). There were many fires on this plantation . . . one big 83

barn burned during Moses' life and he lost many beautiful horses. Moses won a sterling silver water pitcher from an Andrew Jackson rider during one of their races. My cousin, Anna Mary Hammonds Price, has this pitcher. I am sure that Moses was quite young, as Andrew Jackson and Levin Cato were too old and "stove up" to

race horses. The mansion burned in March 1913 from a chimney fire. My grandmother, Ophelia, lost many treasures and records. Ophelia and William McClanahan lost their son, Frank Cato McClanahan, in World War I. He was the first Williamson Countian to lose his life in the first World War, and he died in Ballou Woods, in France, on June 7, 1918. He was such a brilliant young man, and this was a sad time for this family. There was much, in the papers regarding this soldier's death. . . . In 1919, Ophelia bought a tractor to use to help build roads. She wanted to get the roads out of her fields and woods. The road she wanted removed was through her property directly in front of the Highland View entrance, and to the left, when traveling toward. Holly Tree Gap Road and Murray Lane. It was where Ola McClanahan's road entrance is now. It meandered through the fields and woods and came out on top of the first hiii you come to on the new Murray Lane. I have traveled this road many times in a buggy. Ophelia asked the county to send their graders down to grade off the side of the hill on the present Murray Lane. Williamson County did not send the grader to help her with the building of the new road. She started at the present three-pronged intersection of Holly Tree Gap Road and Murray Lane and went toward Franklin Pike, building two bridges over a creek and a one-mile road, then deeded this to the vy.lliamson County Highway Department. In the 1920's, Ophelia obtained Jim Lazenby's permission to go through his field. With her workers, neighbors, friends and a barbecue, a road was made out of Beech Creek which is now Jim Charron's property . . . and built in front of what is now Jim Charron's property. I have traveled this creek road in a Model T and in a buggy. I carried ice water in a 84

gallon bucket from a barrel to these workers. This creek road ran all the way to what is now^Beech Creek Road and the bridge behind what was Mr. Bob Sawyer's farm. Mr. Sawyer had previously put the road in front of his property prior to the big work day so we only had to tie into the road on his farm, which is now

Duncan McDonald's farm. Also in the 1920's, Ophelia and her son-in-law, Tyler Hammond, begged and pleaded with Williamson County to get a bridge over the Little Harpeth River near the present Johnson's Chapel Road. She furnished the rock and workers to help build the pillars for this bridge. This was built about 1923. I almost drowned trying to ford this river coming from school one day. In the 1920's, Ophelia furnished the locust logs for the first replica of Fort Nashborough that was built on the Cumberland River. The logs were not picked up for some time after her death. Ophelia also gave the logs for the new Johnson's Chapel Church building that was dedicated May 27, 1925. Lee and Tom McClanahan and workers helped haul these logs to Julius Morel's saw mill to be sawed into lumber for the building of this church. Julius Morel donated his time and labor to help build this new chapel, along with Lee and Tom McClanahan. The building of this new church was a community project, as well as a church project. In 1920, Ophelia gave an acre of land to the Blacks for a church which was called Beech Creek Baptist Church. There are fifty-seven Blacks buried there who worked here, or were descendants of workers on this property. Moonshininq . . . Sometime in the early 1920's, moonshining became a big industry in McClanahan Hollow. The Whites and Blacks all rode around in shiny new cars, and we were stuck with our old Model T. I saw my first still when I was about nine years old up on Stage Coach Road, just north of Ballew School. My mother made my father move because she was so tired of seeing little airplanes flying over, and in a few days the headlines would read, "Another Big Copper Still Destroyed in McClanahan Hollow." It seems that Ridgetop and McClanahan Hollow were vying for top place in the headlines for moonshining. A 85

group of revenuers came to ask my grandmother Ophelia if she knew that her workers were making whiskey. She was bent over from rheumatism and arthritis and she was almost stone deaf. She told them that "as long as they don't ask me for money, I don't care what they do." She also said, "How do you think that I can walk these hollows and creeks and see who is making whiskey?" I am told that after the revenuers left Ophelia laughed. McClanahan Hollow got the most publicity as it was larger and had more people, but, I can tell you that whiskey making was rampant at other places besides McClanahan Hollow. The plantation was getting to be a burden . . . people were moving away to the city; it became so hard to provide for Miss Ophelia's workers, but I remember her saying that one of. the workers came and said, "Miss Ophelia, my little chaps are not gonna have any Christmas." Miss Ophelia told the workers to go in the Ballew field hollow and cut shakes, shingles and ax handles and take them to town and sell them for their Christmas money. This they did for many years afterwards. This is just a tip of the so-called iceberg of all the contributions that the Cato and McClanahan families have made for the beauty of this

hollow. William Byrd McClanahan was born in Centerville, Tennessee, January 15, 1848, and died March 23, 1940. Mary Ophelia Cato McClanahan was born December 23, 1855, and died May 15, 1927. They are buried in the McClanahan cemetery plot at Mt. Hope in Franklin, Tennessee. Moses Cato was removed from Mt. Olivet Cemetery and is also buried in McClanahan plot in Mt. Hope in Franklin. Frank Cato McClanahan was born February 1, 1886, and died in Ballou Woods in France, on June 7, 1918. He was moved to Mt. Olivet Cemetery in Nashville and then to McClanahan plot at Mt. Hope in Franklin, Tennessee Now it's my turn. In 1975, I could not fight the Williamson County School Board to keep them from putting a school on this (my) property. I had been in and out of hospitals in California for six years from two spinal surgeries. I chose not to fight the battle. When I sold this property for this school. 86

I asked that it be put in the contract that the school be named, preferably, McClanahan School, or, secondly, Cato School. The Superintendent of Schools said one had to contribute some land, or something to the community in order for a school to be named for him/her. He said it had been decided to name the school W.

P. Scales. In the 1960's, McClanahan Road (formerly Beech Creek Road) that runs in front of this school, without any opposition from the County Court, was named Murray Lane. Adding insult to injury, this past February 18, 1988, Pat Jones and I met at Highland View to try to find Levin Cato's grave and stake it so that it would not be bulldozed by developers. When I turned into Highland View, I saw that a beautiful brick smokehouse, built by slaves before the Civil War, had been felled by the developer. I was under the impression that it was going to be saved. Pat Jones and I walked down and found Levin Cato's grave. Two workmen came over and one said that it really hurt him to see a historical slave-made structure destroyed; the other gentleman said that he begged that the smokehouse be saved. He also said that he and a friend of his made a whole roll of pictures of the

structure and that I could have some of them. Destroying ,that beautiful landmark ends the Cato and McClanahan contributions and ties to this beautiful valley that has been known for over a hundred years as McClanahan Hollow.

NOTE; Elizabeth McClanahan Mayfield - daughter, granddaughter, great-greanddaughter and great, great granddaughter.

The following letter was written by M. W. Cater (Moses) to Mary Sisley Edmiston on January 17, 1852. Modern spelling has been used to enhance clarity. The original is in the possession of Frances McClanahan Vaughn, Nolensville, 87

Tennessee, the daughter of Thomas Edward and Nellie Austin McClanahan, granddaughter of Mary Ophelia McClanahan:

This 17th of January, 1852

Miss Mary, from the length of our acquaintance, you must have discovered that my heart is devoted to you. I have constantly endeavored by every attention in my power to prove the tenderness with which your numerous charms have inspired me. I have flattered myself that I am not disagreeable to you, and that I might expect a mutual degree of attachment from you. Say there. Miss Mary, may I venture again to make you an offer of my hand - my heart you have long entirely possessed. To this I can only add, that my happiness or misery through life depends altogether on the reply you make to this offer. I shall employ no compliments, neither shall I insult your good sense by idle promises; but should you accept me as your protector through life, all my anxiety will be how to promote your happiness, and at the same time to retain possession of your heart for which I shall be deeply repaid in seeing that you are gratified with my conduct. On the contrary, should you reject my offer, I shall never again enjoy true peace of mind; yet, I trust, even in that case, that you will be happy with the man whom you may bless with your hand, and that you will honor with your friendship.

Your very affectionate, and faithful friend,

M. E. Cater

P.S.

Miss Mary - you will do me the kindness to answer this letter as soon as convenient and oblige your friend. If it is not (consistent) with your feelings to answer it, you oblige me very much if you will return this. Yours forever 88

THE ROBERTS FAMI LY OF WI LLIAMSON COUNTY

Elizabeth Roberts Redford

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Although the history of the Roberts family can be traced to England, the pioneer father who settled in Williamson County was from Virginia. Benjamin Roberts was born May 20, 1776, in Charlotte County, Virginia. He married Judah Fuqua, also from Charlotte County, Virginia, but she died early in their marriage. Benjamin's second wife was Nancy Fuqua, Judah's sister. Benjamin, a farmer, and Nancy were married in Virginia on July 31, 1800. The young couple moved to Williamson County in the early 1800's and settled near Arrington Creek where they built a five room log house. To this union were born nine children: Elizabeth B. (1801-1859), John L. (1803-1868), Nancy W. (1805-1829), Judah F. (1807-1808), Benjamin (1809- ), Sally C. (1811- ), Thomas H. (1812-1886), Anna M. (1813- ), William Richard (1817- 1898). All of Benjamin and Nancy's children later made their homes in Williamson County, many of them in the Arrington area. Benjamin Roberts died June 15, 1830, at the age of fifty-four. The following is his last will and testament executed from his 89 death bed. Too ill to sign his name, Benjamin "made his mark" consummating the document.

LAST WILL AND TESTAMENT OF BENJAMIN ROBERTS

Will Book, 1825 - 1830, p. 515 ff.

Be.njamZn Robe.^t-i , Ve.c'd Juty 1 830. In tke. name. ol God Amen, I Bznj'amZn Robe.^t6 the. County OjJ Wttltam6on tn the. Statz of^ Tenne^^ee, bztng uizak In body, but iound tn mtnd and mzmofiy, do makz, oA.datn and dzctaAZ tht6 to be my ta^t ivttZ and tz6tamznt, Kzooktng alt othzn. hz^zto {^oaz by me madz. It l& my will and dz-ilAz that a^tzh. all my ju&t dzbt4> anz paid, which I dz&l^z to be donz ai 6oon a{^tzK my dzath a& po&itlblz, that my zitatz be dlvldzd In thz following mannz^. Itzm thz Ut. I gl\JZ and bzquzath unto my wl^z Nancy all oi my pn.opzfity oi zvz^y dl6cAlptlon dun.lng hzi natural ll^z oa. widowhood and a^tzA. hzA. dzath oA. maA.A.lagz I wlih It dloldzd a& hzA.za^tzA. dlA.zctzd. Jtzm 2nd. I glvz unto my ion John RobzA.ti, a{^tZA. thz dzath oA. maAAlagz o^ my wl^z, thz following pA.opzA.ty, thz tA.act o^ land puA.chaizd 0^ John Slmmoni, containing ^l^ty acA.zi, alio thz gin that li on thz placz, alio a NzgA.o man callzd Anthony,^ to him and hli hzlA.i ioA.zvzA.. Itzm 3A.d. I giue unto my ion Bznj'amln RobzA.ti a^tzA. thz dzath oA. maA.A.lagz o^ my wl^z Nancy, thz tA.act o{, land I puA.chaizd oj5 Thomai A. Fanhzy, containing il^ty acA.zi, alio thz following plzcz oA. tA.act 0(J land,_ bzglnnlng at Rodham Tulloi • A.ock coA.nzA., alio onz o^ my coA.nzAJ> In McNzzl'i llnz, thzncz wzit to thz bzglnnlng, alio I glvz unto my iald ion Bznj'amln a Ne.gA.o callzd Billy, to him and hli hzlA.i ^OA-ZOZA.. Itzm 4th. I glvz unto my ion Thomai HlllzA.y Robza.ti , a^tzA. thz dzath oa. maA.A.lagz o^ my wliz, thz onz hal{^ o^ thz tA.act oi land on which I llvz, con taining, I iuppoiz thA.zz hundAzd and twenty acA.zi, to be laid o^^ In iuch mannzA. ai to glvz him a i u^^Iclzncy o^ tlmbzA. to iuppoAt thz clzaAzd land, alio a NzgAo boy namzd Sandy to him and hli hzlAi ioAzvzA. Itzm 5th. I glvz unto my ion dlllllam RobzAti a^tzA thz dzath oA maAAlagz o^ my wl^z, thz othzA hal(^ oi thz tAact o^ land on which I llvz, and I wlih hli hali to Include thz houiz A.n which I llvz, and thz outhouizi, and thz hal^ he gzti I wlih to have a iulilclzncy o^ tlmbzAzd land to iuppoAt thz clzaAzd land.^ ~T have dzilgnatzd no boundaAy between Thomai and William, but WA,ih thzm to divide ai dlAzctzd In thli my will. I alio glvz William two NzgAo boyi, Clzm and fAanklln to him and hli hzlAi ^OAZVZA.. Jtzm 6th. I glvz unto my daughtzA Elizabeth, the wl^z oi Bznj'amln Lzwli, a NzgAo glAl callzd Hannah, alio a NzgAo boy called Elijah to hzA.and hzA hzlAi {^oAzvzA. Jtzm 7th. I give unto my daughtzA Sally, a NzgAo glAl callzd Lucy, alio a NzgAo boy callzd T^ioyi avid a Q'Lh.JL caZZzd Sa-H-dk, clL^o d koh.^Zp ^dddlLz dvid bAldlz, woAth izvznty dollaAi, to hzA and hzA hzlAi ioAzvzA. 90

Jt&m 8th. J gtv& to my daughter Anna, a NzgJio gtKt caZZe.d Lztty, atio a Neg-to gtA.Z caZZe.d MouAntng, and am calZzd MaAtnda, aZ&o a hoJue., AaddZz and bfLldZo. ivoAth 6tve.nty doZZau to htK and h&A he.tA6 ioAzve.A. Itzm 9th. At the. dzath ojJ my wl^e. I w-c4h my He.gAo man ?A04,pzA and hZi, wlie. Ce.Za to take. the.lA aholae., vihtah o^ my chZZdAzn to Zlve. lalth, and the. ZncAza^z o^ the woman, togzthzA with thz chlZd ihz now hai,, I wl^h at thz dzath OjJ my wl^z zquaZZy dlvldzd amongst my thAzz daaghtzAi, oA thzlA hzlA&, zach ihaAz and ■ihaAz aZlkz. Ttzm 10. It li my wlZZ and dz&lAz a^tzA thz dzath OjJ my wl^z that aZZ my itock oi zvzAy dzizAlptlon and my houizhoZd ^uAnltuAe. and ^aAmlng utznilZi, bz ioZd and thz monzy aAl^lng ^Aom thz i>aZz, to bz zquaZZy dlvldzd amongst my ^ouA 40wa, zach ^haAZ and ithaAz aZlkz. Itzm 11th. I comldzA thz tAact o\ Zand I glvz my ion Bznjamln o^ Zzi6 vaZaz than J havz glvzn thz othzA boy-s thzAZ^OAZ It li> my wlZZ that Thomas and WlZZlam pay to Bznjamln thz ium oj{ thAzz hundAzd, whzn thzy gzt po^^z^.6lon Oj{ thzlA Zand. Itzm 12th. I nomlnatz and appoint my wl^z Nancy, ExzcutAlx and my ion6 John and Bznj'amln ExzcutoA^ to thl^ my Za-it wlZZ and tZ'itamznt, having ^aZZ con^ldzncz In my wl^z and ion-s, that thzy wlZZ caAAy my wlZZ Into z^^zct. I do not wl&h thz couAt to auZz thzm to 6zcuAlty. Itzm 12th. [.ilc) My bAothzA Thomas hoM madz my homz hl^ homz ^OA moAz than twznty yzdAi, It li my wlZZ that hz itlZZ makz my hoiuz hlh homz, and bz sappoAtzd out ojJ my zitatz. Slgnzd, thl6 my Za^t wlZZ, and izaZzd It with my &zaZ, thli thz 19th day o^ May 1830.

hl6 Bznj'amln RobzAti maAk

SEAL Slgn'd, 6zaZzd and acknowledged In pAZianti OjJ , Jno. L. Ru^^zwuAm Thz State oi Tznnz66zz UlZ^oAd H. Raln^

According to the will, Benjamin Roberts left to his youngest child, William Richard, half of the tract of land on which he and his wife, Nancy, lived. William Richard Roberts married Charity Demonbrum, January 27, 1840, and they had three children: Mary R. (184i- ), Nancy A. (1845- ), and William Thomas (1850- ). Charity died in October 1855, when her youngest son was only five years old. William Richard Roberts, a widower with three children, built a colonial home across the Roberts' Road from the log house his father, Benjamin Roberts, had built. The two-story home was built with yellow poplar, timber grown on the Roberts' land. Huge sills and joists were pegged and mortised together. Square nails were 91

used throughout this substantially built house. Each of the seven rooms in the house measured twenty by twenty feet. A beautiful staircase in the spacious foyer led upstairs to the boys• bedroom. Access to the girls' upstairs bedroom was provided by a staircase in the family room downstairs. A dog trot ran from the family room to the dining room. The home was furnished with beautiful cherry furniture, much of which came from Virginia. William Richard Roberts * second wife was Rebecca Fain Merritt, whom he married in 1856. She died in 1859. His third wife was Ella Bradley. William Richard Roberts died in 1898 at the age of eighty-one. William Thomas Roberts, the youngest child of William Richard Roberts, married Elizabeth Bradley in 1876. She was the younger sister of Ella Bradley, his father's third wife. On August 31, 1879, Thomas and Elizabeth had one son, William Richard Roberts II, who was given his grandfather's name. When little Will was just seven years old, his mother, Elizabeth Bradley Roberts, died. His father, William Thomas Roberts, died in 1900 at the age of fifty. On December 4, 1904, William Richard Roberts II, married Willie Flippen (1880-1963). They continued to live in the colonial home and had seven children; Thomas Herbert (1905-1974),Sol Flippen C1908-1985), William Richard III (1909-1976), Anna Elizabeth (presently living in Franklin), Rebecca Mai (presently living in Nashville), Margaret (1919-1946), and Mary Berry (1921-1946). William Richard Roberts II died on February 26, 1930, at the age of fifty. Willie Flippen Roberts and her children maintained the farm until 1956, at which time it was sold. It had been in the Roberts family for one hundred twenty-two years. Elizabeth Redford has one son, Clyde Redford. Clyde and his wife, Mary Ellen, have three children: Matthew Thomas (born March 14, 1974), Margaret Elizabeth (born July 25, 1977), and William Benjamin (born March 24, 1981). They have made their home in Williamson County. 92

THE 1909 GARR ISON CYCLONE

Marion Joyce Poynor

The term "cyclone" will be used throughout this article to describe what meteorologists today call a tornado. After a balmy windy day on April 29, ]909, between eleven p.m. and midnight, a killer cyclone slammed into the Garrison Community. Within seconds, homes were leveled and people were killed. Daylight the next day broke onto a scene of unbelievable destruction. The families of Jeff Marlin, W. T. Poynor, Alex Meacham, John Jones, Pink Peach, Bryant Fox and several Black families, all, experienced damage to homes, barns and farm livestock. The most tragic of all was the destruction of the Jeff Thomas and Finis Cowsert Marlin Home. Merle Marlin Carlisle and Gladys Marlin House, cousins, remembered hearing their respective parents, Davis and Bertha Davis Marlin, Clifford and Lucy Sparkman Marlin, describe the tragedy of the cyclone that almost wiped out their grandparents' home and family. Mr. and Mrs. Jeff Marlin lived between the creek and the Garrison schoolhouse facing the railroad. They had nine children. Two older children, Mattie and Davis, were married and living in their respective homes. Gladys Marlin House remembered her dad, Clifford, talking about the cyclone. Clifford, age sixteen, along with the other children, was asleep upstairs. Mrs. Marlin went upstairs to waken them. Clifford remembered sitting on the side of the bed trying to find his shoes. The next thing he remembered he was lying on the creek bank, hearing his little sisters and baby brother crying. One little sister, Rena, was lying on a feather bed in the field holding seventeen-month-old brother, Odia. Another sister, Daisy, was sitting in a chair in the creek in front of the house crying. They all had deep cuts on their legs. 93

Clifford, of course, was barefoot; his feet were cut from walking on barbed wire;, glass, timber with nails and other

debris. Mrs. Carlisle remembered her mother's talking about the deaths. Two sons, Wilburn age eighteen, and Freddie age ten, were found dead that night. They were buried in the same grave the next day. As the family was returning from the burial, a neighbor met them in the road and relayed the message that a third son, Carrol age thirteen, was dying. The six remaining children lived to be in their seventies or older. Mrs. Marlin was found in the front yard, partially covered with rocks from the chimney. She died the fourth of May. Mr. Marlin lived four years after the cyclone, but was never well. He was a patient in a Nashville hospital many times during those four years. Golden Coleman, a carpenter, who had been working in the area and staying at the Marlin home was killed. Mr. Coleman was buried in the Garrison Cemetery. The inscription on his tombstone verified that he was killed in a cyclone. Mrs. Carlisle remembered her parents, Davis and Bertha Davis Marlin, talking about how good Mrs. Joe Hardison (Mary Addie), who lived in the house on the next farm, was to the Jeff Marlin family. She took care of the injured and dying until the older brothers and sisters could manage. Mrs. Carlisle said, "To this day the Marlin family talks of the compassion Mrs. Hardison had for the Marlins." Mrs. Carlisle remembered hearing that her grandmother's ^^iffin? rissdles were imbedded into a limb blown from a sycamore tree and straws were stuck into fence posts. The family dog, Newet, survived the storm under the front porch floor and lived until 1918 with Mrs. Carlisle's family. She remembered a deep snow catching Newet outside; he could not walk. The children brought him to the house in a red wagon. He died in their kitchen. 94

- ' I' • -i ^ - .; ' ,,- '.WL^ A.

it

sst -» fc *•«/ ' I^W'lim'.^4^' teff '• e Ji® .4t«vfc« yv - •.i-.-^ "«£?<* i6

The W. T. Poynor family home was badly damaged. Mr. and Mrs. Poynor had five children at that time. They lived in a log house behind their store on the Garrison Road between the

Methodist Church and the Alex Meacham farm. The house had a dog-trot in the center. Three boys, Ewin, Clifton and Dewey and a cousin, Eugene Rader, were sleeping in a room across the dog-trot from the main room, where Mr. and Mrs. Poynor, Annie Pearl and baby Jerry were sleeping. Mrs. Poynor saw the lightning and was trying to get the sleepy boys to come to her room. Dewey, my father, remembers he was sleeping in a bodice that buttoned to his pants. He did not have on any pants. He was nearly five years old. He was the last to make it across the dog-trot 95

because he was looking for his pants. The wind struck, blowing completely away the room just seconds after Dewey made it to his mother's room. Mr. and Mrs. Poynor and all the children stood with their backs to the door trying to keep it from blowing open. Dewey remembers the wind blew under the door and raised the door up, rubbing his bare back. He never found his pants. He also remembers looking up to the ceiling and feeling the rain falling on his head. The roof was completely gone. Mrs. Poynor went to the kitchen door and said, "Lord have mercy, Thomas, my kitchen is gone!" She suddenly remembered baby Jerry. Again she said, "Lord have mercy, Thomas, where is my baby?" Jerry was soundly asleep in a cradle with three boards from the roof lying across the top of the cradle. A big yellow chimney rock was on the boards. Remember, this was in the middle of the night. Mr. Poynor hurried the family out of what was left of the house, fearing the walls would collapse. Mr. Poynor had the children to stand in the road while he tried to get some clothing, shoes, blankets and pants for Dewey, from the blown-over store. Everything from the shelves in the store was in the floor; broken glass was everywhere. It was hard walking in the road: tree limbs and lumber were scattered everywhere. Pieces of clothing and bed linens were hanging on limbs. Mr. Poynor led the way on the road by the Methodist Church, which was blown on its side, to his father's (W. D. Poynor) home. While walking to his grandfather's home, Dewey vividly remembers looking to the southwest and watching a building burning on the Dock Hill. He thinks it was a dwelling. Some others think it was a church building attended by Black people. A Black woman, Nellie Murray, was killed that night along with her four-day-old baby. The W. D. Poynors were still asleep; the cyclone had not touched them. Mrs. W. T. Poynor and the children stayed there the rest of the night. The men went to check on other neighbors. The next day the W. T. Poynors went back to what was 96

left of their home. Only a meat platter and a salt cellar from the kitchen were found. The boys were sleeping in a spool bed that night. The spools were broken apart and scattered over the garden and barn lot. The boys later played with the spools. The larger ones were used as wheels under planks to make a go-cart of sorts to ride down the hillside. Mud was washed from between the logs in the wall. Dewey remembers helping c'arry buckets of sand and water from the creek to wash the mud from the floor, and to wash the bed linens left in that room. The Alex Meacham farm received minor damage to the house. The chicken house was blown against the front porch knocking the porch down and leaving the chicken house in splinters. One barn was destroyed. Heavy pieces of timber were blown on livestock, injuring the animals so badly that they had to be killed. Chickens were found without feathers. The weather vane from the top of one of the barns was found several miles away at South Harpeth. Fences were demolished. The Page family from Fernvale came and spent several days helping to repair fences and barnyard buildings. The cyclone touched down in Peach Hollow, completely destroying the Bryant Fox home, leaving only a sewing machine sitting on the floor unscratched. Mr. Fox had a head injury. The skin oh his forehead was cut and laid back beyond his hair line. A neighbor remembers riding to Theta behind his father on a horse to get Dr. Cox to come and sew the head injury. Fourteen people were spending the night in the two-story Joseph (Joe) Jones home. It was completely swept away leaving the floor in place. A rocking chair was left sitting on the floor. Margaret Jones Locke was two years old. She was sucked out of the house as all fourteen people were. Her father caught her in his arms as she was falling to the ground. According to Mrs. Locke, there were no serious injuries. One brother was blown over telephone wires. While he was hanging over the wires, he saw the family shot gun fly by him. The gun was later found in a field and a shot had been discharged. He remarked later that "the Lord blew me away and then shot at me!" 97

A thirty-year-old woman, Gerdy Sweeny, was killed. The clean-up was a community effort. Mr. Jollie Wall helped move logs and trees from the road with a team of oxen. Neighbors helped neighbors; the community was involved in setting the Methodist Church and the W. T. Poynor's store back on their foundations. Several days after the cyclone, the convicts came from Franklin to help clear the road so that the United States mail could travel. Dewey Poynor remembers watching these men work. They rode in a covered wagon. Each convict wore a striped shirt, pants and a cap. All wore leather boots. Two men were fastened to each end of an iron rod. Other men had chain

shackles on their ankles. Both the physical and the emotional pain and grief .had long-lasting effect upon the people living in the Garrison Community. Many storm cellars were dug in front yards after the cyclone. People who did not have a storm cellar hurried to the nearest neighbor's cellar for protection when they saw a dark funnel-shaped cloud approaching. A great fear and respect for storms was in every household for years to come. "A cloud is coming up." This was the expression used when the wind was blowing and when a cloud with lightning was approaching. It seemed to Dewey that every time it thundered it was "a cloud coming up!" Mr. Poynor, not having time to dig a storm cellar of his own because he was busy repairing the house, would herd the family to a neighbor's storm cellar. A few nights after the cyclone, a cloud was approaching, lightning was flashing, the family, half-running, half-walking, were trying to make it to Grandfather's. Dewey could hardly keep up. Mrs. Poynor had Jerry in her arms. She ran into a mail box in front of the Methodist Church. Again she said, "Lord have mercy, Thomas, I have killed my baby!" After examining Jerry and finding no injuries, Mr. Poynor proceeded to go to the cellar of a Black family just a few yards across the road from the church. When the Poynors got to the cellar door. Chug Spears pushed the door open from the inside. The cellar was full of people - not even standing room for the Poynors. By this 98

time the cloud had moved away. The Poynors went back home, walking more slowly and watching for mail boxes. April 29, 1909, was remembered by families living on the Garrison Creek as the night the big cyclone hit. 99

PEOPLE INTERVIEWED

Dewey Poynor

Merle Marlin Carlisle

Gladys Marlin House

Margaret Jones Locke

Mary Meacham Fishburn

Hardin Meacham 100

GARRISON 1909

To Forest \\ j To Franklin \\ h>■ To Pinev/ood • 'I \V W\\ li!i \\ M h n li Leipers ^ ^ V\ , HardiSQiL \\ house" M \ Cunningham » |V Marlin ^ To Boston house 13

I ^ rarrison, , school House JoneSj-H . houseM n Meachanr arns house^ ^ > W.T. Foynor'ovnor V house store Pink Pe^h 5| f Bryant Fox - To li house...-^":^"-'-'"" . Natchez Garrison yi^.r:— Trace Methodistyi PeachWas/ Hollow Road Church

"M

11 X U I To Bending I. f Chestnut v' z"^-— Road

Garrison Creek

Not to Scale 101

SLAVERY I N WI LLIAMSON COUNTY

Thomas Vance Little

INTRODUCTION First of all, an expression of appreciation to Louise G. Lynch is in order for m^ing available the information contained in this work. Most of the facts herein come from her six volumes of Miscellaneous Court Records of Williamson County. She is to be commended for telling it like it was. There is no pretense or trying to varnish or in any way distort the truth. Those court records speak for themselves and present a picture of life in the nineteenth century Williamson County as it was. This work was begun with few preconceived notions about the Blacks and Whites in Williamson County, but collecting the in formation detailed here has enabled the writer to draw certain conclusions about the two races and their relationship to each other. In the beginning (early 1800's) there was a close personal relationship between Whites and Blacks. They lived and worked together in certainly not pure harmony, but in concert with each other. As anti-slavery sentiments began to be expressed nationally, we see a greater effort to "clamp down" on the slaves and to "keep them in their place." Open antagonism began to exhibit itself as we approached the mid-1800's. This shift in feeling coincides with the Abolition Movement and public outcries for an end to slavery. It was a case of the age-old resentment of outsiders trying to tell homefolk how to run their business. There is no doubt that slavery in the South would have died a natural death with the passage of time and that the Blacks would have been better assimilated into society, but such was not to be the case. As this work will reveal, there was widespread feeling that the institution of slavery was inherently wrong, but it was such an integral part of the economic and social system that a natural death would have been no doubt a long time coming. The first Black people came to Williamson County with their White masters. A part of the incentive for the Westward Movement of the settlers from the Atlantic Seaboard was the eroding of their lands and the multiplying of their numbers, both Black and White. 102

Land was plentiful; therefore, there was no motivation to practice soil conservation. The practice was to move westward and acquire new land when the old wore out. Likewise, the number of slaves grew by natural attrition, thus providing a new labor supply to help cultivate the new Western lands. Thus, the pioneers, many of them younger members of large slaving-holding families, brought their slaves from Virginia, North Carolina and South Carolina and came to Williamson County and other Western lands. According to the 1820 Census, by far the largest slave-holding family in Williamson County was the Perkins family. It is to be noted that at least three of that family were named Nicholas. The numbers of slaves owned by that family were Nicholas T. Perkins, forty-four; Daniel Perkins, twenty-seven; Thomas H. Perkins, ninety-one; Nicholas Perkins, sixty-one; and Nicholas Perkins, forty-nine. Others who owned large numbers of slaves were John Bond, twenty-seven; Archibald Lytle, twenty; John Wilson, thirty; Abram Maury, twenty-seven; John Bostic, thirty-four; Hendley Stone, twenty-nine; James Wilson, thirty-three; John AlSon, twenty-one; Joseph Stockett, twenty-two; Thomas Bradley, thirty-three;"" Samuel Morton, twenty; Sherwood Green, twenty-nine; Matilda Puryear, fifty; Abram North, thirty-four; William Jordan, thirty-^four and Newton Cannon, twenty-six. The first recorded scouting party into Williamson County after the Cumberland Settlement at Nashville included a Black man. He, along with three White men, lost his life at Holly Tree Gap. They had killed a bear and were cooking it when they were attacked by Indians. Records reveal that this incident occurred in 1795. The first census that is available is for the year 1810. The total number of Blacks in the county in 1810 was three thousand nine hundred eighty-five, as compared to nine thousand one hundred sixty-eight Whites. By 1820, the population was almost a third Black, there being thirteen thousand eight hundred fifty-eight Whites and six thousand seven hundred ninety-two Blacks. The gap narrowed between Blacks and Whites until 1860, when there were more Blacks than Whites in the county, there being eleven thousand three hundred fifteen Whites and twelve thousand four hundred sixty-seven Blacks. 103

FREE BLACKS IN THE EARLY DAYS There was a large number of free Blacks in Williamson County from the earliest days of the county. The 1820 Census enumerates seventy-five free Blacks. Three who were named were Charles / Elizabeth Franklin and Wallis Harris. Others who were not enumerated in the 1820 Census included Thomas Williams, "a free man of color," who in 1817 made oath that he had been restrained against his will in Franklin for three months. Many free Blacks joined the Westward Movement and came to Williamson County to seek their fortune along with the White man. It was customary for them to register their emancipation papers along with a description of themselves. In 1820, Norman Davis, "a free man of color," registered his emancipation certificate from Virginia. He had no distinguishing marks or scars. Caswell Brown was born free in Alabama and registered himself as being twenty-one years old, six feet tall, of "dark coffee complexion," and with a scar over his right eye. In 1845, William Henry Graves made an affidavit that he was age twenty—nine years, had been born free in York County, Virginia, and had come to Williamson County in 1826. He stated that he was "copper colored" and five feet, seven and one-half inches tall. In 1842, John Gant registered an affidavit to the effect that he was born free in Williamson County of a free woman, Matilda. He described himself as about eighteen years of age with "light yellow complexion" and with some small scars on two middle fingers on the left hand and a scar on the top of his right foot. He was five feet, ten inches tall. In 1861, Ferris Ross filed an affidavit stating that he had been born free in Bath County, Kentucky, and had moved to William son County. He stated that he desired to go into slavery and chose John 0. McKay as his master. Another example of a free Black in Williamson County was "Dilsey, a free person of color" who was described as being from Moulton, Alabama. In 1830, she brought suit against Pryor Reynolds of Williamson County, charging him with trespass, assault, battery and false imprisonment. At least one Black received a grant in Williamson County for 104 services in the Continental Army during the Revolutionary War. He was named Parker Rogers. He was described in a deposition by Joshua Hadley as a mulatto boy who had gone into the Army with his master,Captain Robert Raiford, to act as a "waiter and cook." He later was a drummer in the North Carolina Line and was in that service at the end of the War in South Carolina. He received Grant Number 63 for three hundred nineteen acres of land.

SETTING SLAVES FREE

Williamson County records reveal scores of cases of Blacks being set free by their masters. It was done by filing an emancipation petition with the County Court, or by will. As early as 1807, a record is found that Major Locklear, a free-born Black man, had come to Williamson County in 1807 from North Carolina, He had purchased his wife, Sabina, from Thomas E. Sumner and petitioned the Court that she be set free. In 1817, Thomas E. Sumner filed several emancipation petitions on behalf of his slaves. In one petition he requested that Moses Soloman and Wilson Davy be set free because they had been faithful servants. He filed another petition to set free Harry Willis and Cyrus Africanes, stating that they had been in his possession for a long time and had served him faithfully. In 1816, Sumner filed a petition on behalf of Phillip Sumner, a mulatto and blacksmith about twenty-five years old, and his mother, Julie, about forty-two, "in memory and gratitude for services rendered." Jimmy Hill of Williamson County had been set free by Ben Grawley in Amelia County, Virginia, in 1787. He purchased his wife and two children from William Moseley of Chesterfield, Virginia, in 1798. They came to Williamson County where she died leaving four children. In 1812, Hill petitioned the Court to set the children free. In 1822, John S. Russworm, as executor under the will of William Gardner, petitioned the Court to free a slave named Phillip. Gardner had directed in his will that Phillip be freed when he reached the age of twenty-one. He had reached that age and was described as being very black, five feet, seven inches tall with no particular distinguishing marks. 105

In 1827, Henry R. W. Hill petitioned the Court to free Pleasant Homer Lesley, a five-year-old "bright mulatto boy with blue eyes." In the petition Hill stated that he was much opposed to slavery and wanted to send the boy to Ohio where he could be educated. Daniel Craig filed a petition with the Court in 1827 when he was "upwards of eighty years old" stating that after the death of himself and his wife he wanted his slave, George, freed. The petition stated that George had belonged to Craig over twenty years and that he was about fifty-five years of age, five feet, nine inches tall, with a scar on his right cheek. A slave named Daniel, age sixty, was set free in 1822 by the terms of the will of Joseph H. Stockett. Another slave named Reuben was set free in 1822. He purchased his own freedom from John Nichols for three hundred dollars. He was, at that time, about forty—five years old and had been purchased twenty—five years before by Nichols' father. Nichols said that he "had the manage ment of the whole plantation" when his father was living. He further said that Reuben had acquired property in Davidson County by his hard work. A black man named Jacob was freed by Marshall Jamison in 1828. In his petition for emancipation, Jamison stated that Jacob, then about forty-four, had been raised by his father and had always lived with the family. He also said that when his father had grown old and the children "settled off," Jacob managed "the whole business without an overseer." Jamison's father had said, in his death bed, that he wanted Jacob freed. In 1829, in a case almost identical to the Jamison case, David McClaran petitioned the court to set free his slave, Clemm, whom his father had raised from the age of two. He had been with the family over forty years, and the father on his death bed requested that Clemm be set free. In 1843, Daniel Baugh, as executor under the will of Nathaniel Griffin, filed a petition with the court to set free a slave named John. He had been instructed to set the slave free by the terms of the will of Griffin. The petition stated that John was about forty years old, of good moral character and industrious habits. It stated that he was a blacksmith by trade. 106

Also, in 1843, one James Park of Williamson County filed an emancipation petition to free a slave named Betsy. She was described as being between forty-five and fifty years old and had lived in Tennessee over twenty-five years. In 1820, one John Tisdale stated that he wanted his slave, Charles, to be "liberated and freed from the Shackles of Slavery." In his affidavit he stated that Charles was fifty-two years old, five feet, eight inches tall, small, and that he had a scar on the right cheek and another scar on his left forehead. Tisdale declared that Charles had always been honest and had performed his duties to the best of his abilities. In some instances free Blacks, themselves, owned slaves. In 1843, Jacob Jamison, "a free man of color," petitioned the court to have two slaves that he owned freed. They were Lucy and James, his wife and his son. The petition stated that Jamison had no relatives who were not slaves and that he had no one to whom to leave his own slaves to see that they were cared for after his death. Another instance of a free person of color owning a slave wife was Sanders Scott. In 1857, he requested that his wife, Juda, a slave, be.set free. He said that he was growing old and wanted her set free before his death. It was also the custom for bond to be set by a court to insure the good conduct of freed slaves. In the case of Jacob Jamison, who set his wife and son free, bond was set at five hundred dollars, which was made by Marshall Jamison and Richard W. Robinson. In the case of John, set free under the will of Nathaniel Griffin, the freed slave made his own bond. In 1857, Jesse Cowles, John B. McEwen and John W. Miller renewed their bond for Jesse Cowles, a free person of color.

TRANSFER OF SLAVES BY BILLS OF SALE

Unemancipated slaves were, of course, considered to be property; and as such, they were subject to being freely sold, given away, or bequeathed by their masters. Many were held to be hired out on a periodic basis to others in the community. For most slaves who were sold, a bill of sale was recorded in the Register 107

of Deeds Office in the Courthouse. Such bills of sale are recorded from the earliest days of Williamson County. In 1819, Joseph Love recorded a bill of sale stating that he had sold a "negro woman Patsy about 22 years old to Abner, Boyd." The bill of sale further said that she was "healthy and sensible." Also in 1819, Henry Waller filed a bill of sale in which he stated that "for love and affection" that he had for his daughter, he gave her "one Negro girl Harty, 11 years old." The bill of sale said, too, that "she was raised by the family." Margaret Patton in 1819 filed a bill of sale in which she transferred to her son, James Patton, "with whom I have lived since the death of my husband," two Negro men, Charles and Abraham, age forty years, and two women, Easter and Jinney, also about forty years old. In the same bill she gave her son four Negro girls: Vina, Eliza, Patsy and Nancy. The bill contained a statement to the effect that James Patton had promised to support his mother for the rest of her life in consideration of her transferring to him these slaves. In a bill of sale in 1819, Joe Dillard sold a Negro woman named Printer who was eighteen years old to John Thomas for nine hundred dollars. In the same year, Nicholas P. Hardeman sold for nine hundred dollars a Negro woman and her two children, Martha and Harriett, to Daniel Goodrum. The bill of sale stated that they were "healthy, sound and sensible." Elizabeth A. Vaughn, in 1819, filed a deed of gift in favor of her daughter, Susanna Harper. For love and affection she trans ferred a Negro girl, Eliza, "whom I have partly raised from an infant, she being hired out for the present year." She also included as a gift one spinning wheel. To her daughter, Nancy Vaughn, she gave one Negro, John, and four other slaves named Harry, Paschal, Henry and Dilsey. In 1819, Alexander Ewing deeded to Randall McGavock and James McGavock, as trustees, Negro men, Humphrey and George, a woman, Minta, and children, John, Handy, Sylva and Mary, and a woman, Delpha and her children, John and Caty, and a girl, Sinah, for the "use, support and maintenance" of his daughter, Lucinda McGavock for life, and then to her children. He specified that at no time was the control of any of these slaves to be given to James McGavock, husband of Lucinda Ewing. 108

William Stone, by deed of gift from his father, Hendley Stone, received a Negro woman named Patsy and her child, Henderson, in 1819, In the same year, John Thomas deeded to Joel Dillard a Negro woman. Printer, age about eighteen, for nine hundred dollars. Also, Daniel Goodrum sold to Nicholas P. Hardeman a negro woman, Sina, and her two children, Martha and Harriet. They were all said to be "healthy, sound and sensible." Elizabeth Brock, in 1830, was fined fifty dollars for "harboring a slave." He was apparently a young boy named Nat who had hidden under Mrs. Brock's house. He was discovered, and his owner, James Swanson, came and got .him. It seems that Mrs. Brock was aware that the boy was on her premises, because it is stated that she wanted to buy him if she could sell her own slave. It may have been that she was trying to offset the price with the fifty dollar reward being offered for the return of Nat. Not all slaves were easy to sell. In 1840, Richard Beal, who was serving as administrator of the estate of Lewis T. S. Jennings, petitioned the Chancery Court for permission to sell a slave be longing to the estate. There were eighteen slaves in the estate, but one named Eli was "of notoriously bad character." He had broken into "twelve or fifteen houses" and had stolen property from several persons. He had been found guilty of stealing and whipped within the "past two or three years." He had received "several thousand lashes." He was, at that time, in jail in Franklin for breaking into the house of a "widow woman." Neighbors armed themselves and threatened to kill Eli on sight. He, in turn, threatened to burn their houses. He was sold to George G. Boyd for four hundred seventy-five dollars on November 26, 1840. A vivid example of how slaves were bought and sold is given in a lawsuit between David J. Gray and Samuel W. Edmondson. The two men had entered into a partnership to buy and sell slaves. The partnership went sour, and a suit was filed. The following details are given in the suit:

when they began business, Edmondson had bought two or three and had borrowed eight thousand dollars and Gray became liable for half of this amount. Gray thinks the slaves were bought out of the eight thousand dollars that was borrowed and the sum should be reduced to about six thousand five hundred dollars. Gray made cash advancements 109

out of his own means of about two hundred thirty-three dollars. In 1852, they purchased the following slaves: Kitty at six hundred thirty-five dollars, Marie at six hundred thirty-five dollars, Vina at six hundred ten dollars....Slaves Robert and Nat at one thousand dollars, Nelly at six hundred fifty, Sidney at five hundred fifty, Sarah at seven hundred sixty-five, Amos at seven hundred seventy-five, Rebecca at eight hundred dollars, Isham at one thousand dollars, Saunders at one thousand dollars. In January or February 1853 they bought Alfred at six hundred fifty dollars, Sandy at six hundred thirty dollars, John at five hundred seventy-five dollars, two mules at two hundred twenty-five dollars and a two horse wagon and harness at one hundred twenty-five dollars and a mule at one hundred thirty-five dollars. The trip was made with the slaves and livestock. The slaves were disposed of as follows: Nelly sold in Springhill, Tenn. for eight hundred dollars, Bob and Nat for one thousand four hundred dollars, Sidney for seven hundred dollars, Saunders for one thousand dollars, Alfred for eight hundred dollars, Vina was swapped for Martha and twenty-five dollars extra, and Martha was sold for eight hundred dollars, Maria for eight himdred dollars, Amos for nine hundred dollars, Sarah for nine hundred dollars, Charles for six hundred seventy-five dollars, Sandy for seven hundred dollars. Two mules two hundred twenty dollars and Edmondson took the other mule at one hundred fifty dollars. Isham, Rebecca and Kitty were not sold on the first trip.

In September or October 1853, they started buying slaves to make the second trip south. They purchased: Rachel and her two children, Roderick and Pascall for two thousand one hundred dollars, Ann for seven hundred seventy-five dollars, William and Emily for one thousand three hundred fifty dollars, Minny for nine hundred dollars, Harriett for nine hundred dollars, two mules two hundred sixty dollars, trunk for twelve dollars. In December they started south with the above slaves and Isham and Rebecca, and they were disposed of in the following way: Ann was swapped for a girl in Greensboro in Alabama and received two hundred dollars to boot and girl and she brought nine hundred dollars, William and Emily brought one thousand dollars, Harriet one thousand two hundred dollars, Roderick eight hundred dollars, Rebecca one thousand dollars, Rachel eight hundred dollars, Minny swapped for a girl and given two hundred dollars to boot, and girl swapped for a boy, Joe, and he and Paschall brought one thousand two hundred dollars, Isham eight hundred fifty dollars, and two mules for three hundred dollars and wagon used on first trip eighty dollars and Edmondson kept the trunk at twelve dollars. The profits of this trip were seven thousand two hundred nineteen dollars exclusive of the prices and sales of Kitty, Beccie and Isham left over 110

from the first trip. After deducting the expenses, the profit of the first trip was three hundred eighty-two dollars. Edmondson had possession of all of the money.

Gray returned from the south in September 1854 and they decided to buy slaves for the next trip. A slave was purchased from John Edmondson for eight hundred twenty-five dollars, but Gray and Edmondson agreed to dissolve their partnership and abandon the plans for the third trip. The slave was sold in Nashville for eight hundred dollars and the partnership was dissolved in November or December 1854.

TRANSFER OF SLAVES BY WILL

In addition to slaves being transferred by bills of sale and deeds of gift, they were subject to bequests in decedents' wills. Hundreds of wills probated in Williamson County between 1800 and 1864 make mention of family slaves. One such will is that of Robert Henderson datdd September 19, 1833. After making provision for his wife and children, the will states that he wished to make provision for "my Black family." He directed "my old woman Hannah, the mother and grandmother of the rest" was to remain with his wife. He also left to his wife "my man Martin and his wife Leanna, the youngest child Alfred, her oldest son Scott and any other children that Leanna may have." The will directed that slaves Davy, George, Billy and Thomas be sold "to meet demands against me." In division of estates, slaves were divided just the same as other personal property. In 1837, the estate of Elisha North was divided among his children. His son, Isham North, received his share - one Negro named Robin, one clock watch and one gun. A daughter, Mary A. North, received as her share two Negro girls and a mare. Another daughter received one Negro man and five head of cattle. Still another daughter, E. A. Warren, received one Negro girl and one set of silver spoons and ladle. One of Williamson County's wealthiest families and largest slaving holders was the Perkins family. In his will Nicholas Perkins tells how he divided his land and his slaves among his children; Ill

I have given a certain amount of land, Negroes and money to each of my family. My desire is that my Negro man, Ned, and his wife and their two grandchildren, Maury and Elvina remain with them on the place where they now live during the life of Ned. Exrs. to give each of their sisters twenty Negroes in addition to what they now have.

....We ascertained that we had eighty Negroes and valued our lands at twenty thousand dollars....We concluded to give him (a son) eight negroes and two thousand dollars worth of land, instead of giving any land, he having got by his marriage a good farm, we paid him two thousand dollars in money, one riding horse, yoke of oxen, mare, mule, wagon, cows, sheep, one bedstead and furniture. Afterward I purchased from my son, Thomas Z. H. Perkins the Negroes we gave to him and some other Negroes he got by his wife, E. G. S. Hunt, and all his land.

My son, Thomas H. Perkins' first wife died leaving two children, Mary Malvina and Thomas Harden Perkins. His second wife died leaving no children. His third wife, Louisa Kuykendall had one child, Mary Thomas, who is now at my farm with its mother, he having died in Arkansas. The children of his first wife are entitled to some land in right of their mother, it being part of the farm occupied by me and called the brick house. The balance of the tract is mine. That which is mine, I give to said Mary Thomas Perkins and desire that she may occupy it with her mother, also some Negroes. The Negroes to be given to Malvina Perkins if my sons think it advisable.

My grandson, Thomas Harden Perkins, to have no part of my estate for reasons known to my sons.

Constantino Perkins, our second son married June 12, 1821. We gave him two thousand dollars worth of land and Negroes and C. On April 1, 1846, I gave him twelve more Negroes and three thousand dollars in lieu of land.

William O'Neal Perkins, our third son, married July 21, 1836. My father-in-law, Thomas H. Perkins, made his will and gave William twenty Negroes besides land and after he made his will sent him seven more Negroes. I have given him about four thousand dollars in money. On April 15, 1846, I gave William fifteen Negroes.

Mary Elizabeth, our oldest living daughter, married Leland J. Bradley September 1836. We have never given her any land or Negroes but design for her use the Mont Pier tract of land and Negroes.

Philip Gasper Stiver Perkins, our fifth, son, was married in 1842 to Miss Mary Clack. I gave to him what is called the Shultz place together with some small pieces of land supposed to contain four hundred acres on which he now lives....On April 1846 I gave him Negroes. 112

Margaret Ann, our second daughter, married Robert H. Bradley 184_. I design for her use the tract of land in the bend opposite the old town and Negroes. Also the house and lots where she lives in the town of Franklin.

I have given my son, Peter, the Paw plantation and the land opposite it adjoining Bateman and twenty Negroes.

I have given to my son, Nicholas Edwin, the plantation on which Peter Perkins old house and twenty negroes.

I have given to my daughter, Aggatha Sally, the land called white house, the land on the south side of the West Harpeth nearly opposite the stone quarry, the Echols tract and C.

CONCERN FOR WELFARE OF SLAVES

There has been much discussion about the way that slaves were treated during the days of slavery. It is foolish to make sweeping generalizations about how they were treated on a personal basis by their masters. There were good masters, and there were bad masters, just as there are good fathers and bad fathers and good husbands and bad husbands. There were also, indeed, good and bad slaves. How a man treated his slaves was totally an individual matter. He may have been just, or he may have been cruel. It depended upon the personalities and the relationship they had with each other. It is not to be forgotten that slaves, in addition to being persons, were property. As items of property, their productivity was directly related to their well-being, both physical and mental. One can imagine that this fact had a lot to do with how slaves were treated, which is not to say that all slaves were well fed and cared for just because they were property, because many people were, and are, careless with their personal property, but it is to say that the fact that they were property lessens the likelihood of mistreatment on a personal level. As has been pointed out, slaves were not only held for the service that they might perform for their masters; they were held for being hired out as a source of income. A deposition of Johnson Wood taken in 1858 clearly indicated how the practice of hiring out slaves worked. He said: 113

I married Amanda Claud in September 1851. i think I took possession of the Negro, Jane, on Christmas day of the same year. I had possession of her two years before I hired her out. I hired Jane out to C. S. Rountree in 1854 for ten dollars and after I paid her doctor bills I had five or six dollars left. She had a child during that year. The next year I hired her for twenty-five dollars and after having a child the second year I gave Mr. Rountree ten dollars back. The third year I hired her for ten dollars. I hired Jane to L. H. Crutcher in 1857 for her food and clothes." Peter and Green Pryor, brothers, were left orphaned at an early age. Their step-father, Hendley Stone, was appointed their guardian. Their main assets were nine slaves and their children. Each year in January these slaves would be hired out for the year. Dorris Douglas, in an article on these two minors in the Williamson County Historical Journal points out that the guardian must have made quite an occasion of the hiring out day for among his accounts was a charge for three and one half gallons of whiskey consumed on hiring out day. She also points out that it was the law that no child under the age of ten could be separated from its mother. Many slave holders in Williamson County expressed concern for their slaves whom they were leaving behind at their deaths. Ann Evans, in her will of 1847, gave two slaves to her friend. Colonel James Marshall, because she believed "they will be better satisfied with him as their master than any other man." she went on to say that she had sold two women and children of the same family during her life to him. She further provided that her slaves, Tom and Lucy, were to be sold privately to masters of their own choosing and that Lucy and her children "are not to be parted." Antionette Smith, in her will probated in 1852, also provided that her two Negroes, Archie and Lucy, be sold "privately to persons the slaves select." Mrs. Rebecca Stevens gave a deposition in a suit in the 1840*s concerning the sale of a slave girl named Charlotte. She allegedly had "tuberculosis and other diseases" and died in 1846. The girl had waited on a Mary Davis who knew of her health problems. Mrs. Stevens said that Mary Davis took care of Charlotte "because of her mother being taken away from her when she was so young." 114

Mrs. Stevens said that she knew the girl's mother as well as her grandmother. John Turner of Williamson County was killed in 1830 by a^slave. The slave was convicted and executed. A controversy arose as to the ownership of one of Turner's other slaves. Apparently Turner's wife had another husband, and there was some controversy as to the legitimacy of Turner's son, Jackson. Attorneys for Jackson were trying to prove that a slave named Ester and her son, Andres, belonged to the son, Jackson, rather than to the father, thus bypassing the issue of legitimacy so far as inheritance was concerned. While the outcome of the case is unimportant for our purposes here, some of the testimony is quite revealing in respect to the relationship of Whites and Blacks in the 1820's. James Toon testified that he heard the elder Turner say that he had bought Ester "to raise some young Negroes for his two children." Toon went on to say, ''I told him if he did not abuse and harass about the Negro like he did the others, that he might raise some." The Blacks of Williamson County have always had an excep tionally high cultural level. The reason for this fact is that there were a great number of slave owners who owned very small numbers of slaves. The fertile land of this county fostered a large segment of the population living and prospering on relatively small tracts of land. It was not unusual for a land owner who owned only one hundred fifty acres of land to have one, two or three slaves. This small number of slaves in the household provided for a close relationship between slave and master. The male members of the f^ily worked side by side with the slaves in the fields, and the female members of the family worked side by side with the slaves in the house. In 1922, when he was seventy-nine years old. Dr. Robert Nathaniel Herbert of Brentwood responded to a questionnaire concerning life before the Civil War. He revealed that his family owned fourteen slaves and three hundred acres of land at the time of the Civil War. He stated that the family lived in a six-room log and frame house with plastered rooms. In response to a question asking what kind of work he did as a young man, he replied, "When school was out, I plowed with the Negroes until crops were laid by and all other work to be done finished. Every neighbor 115

was a slave owner. Their boys worked on the farms with the slaves." In response to a question about what kind of work his parents did, he stated, "My father managed his farm, put handles on plows and made gates for the farm. My mother looked after all work done in the house with two Negro women to do the cooking, spinning and weaving, and making clothes for all the family. The Negroes wore the best of cotton and jeans clothes, all made at home, and I wore the same. Servants were well fed." There were, indeed, several large slave—holding families in ^iliisnison County. Some such families were the Perkinses, the Scaleses, the Watsons, the Holts and several others. There was, no doubt, more namelessness on these plantations than on the smaller farms. In such instances there may have been a perceptible in the cultural levels of the slaves who worked in'the house and those who worked in the fields.

AMERICAN COLONIZATION SOCIETY the mid—1800's, when opposition to slavery began to "grow, an organization called the American Colonization Society was formed to send slaves back to Africa to the state of Liberia. Many were sent, and today the descendants of those former American slaves form the governing classes of that country. In 1856, Henry Bateman of Williamson County died. In his will he directed that his slaves be sent to Liberia. He further directed that they be hired out until sufficient funds could be raised to send them to Liberia to see that they were properly cared for after their arrival in that country. He requested that John P. McKay see to their being hired out. Samuel Winstead, in his will, provided that the large number owned be set free, that certain lands be sold to provide funds to transport them to Liberia. The slaves were set free by the Emancipation Proclamation before his instructions could be carried out.

PUNISHMENT FOR CRIMES While the,relationship between slave and master was a highly 116 individualized matter and not subject to generalization, the same cannot be said for the public, political and social treatment of slaves. This area is subject to generalization. In the early days of slavery, politically slaves were not recognized as being persons at all. They had no rights of citizenship. They could not vote. They could not own property. They could not even be taught to read and write. We are able to see in the records of Williamson County the emergence of slaves from being non-entities to their being recognized as persons with personal rights. Perhaps an example of this emergence of human rights is exemplified in a resolution passed by the County Court in 1831 to the effect that a fence be built around the county jail and that the windows be filled with glass. It was stated that there was a Negro man in the jail who had been there since the past July and that he was entirely naked and had been so for some weeks. The court further resolved that he be required to stay with other Negroes and that he be furnished with such clothing "as would hide his nakedness." The slaves were sometimes punished more severely than their White counterparts for the same crime. One reason for the extra severity was the control that the White men felt that they must exercise over the Blacks. There were then, as there are today, two elements of punishment for crimes: one is the penalty itself for breaking the law, and the other is trying to make an example of the offender in order to deter others from committing crimes. The same rationale still exists today as justification for the death penalty. In the early 1800's most punishment was cruel and inhuman according to present-day standards, whether it was administered to Whites or Blacks. There was a pillory on the Public Square in Franklin, and it was common practice to have offenders stand in the pillory for hours. It was also a common practice to whip offenders with a prescribed number of lashes on the bare back, and it was the custom to brand, with a red-hot branding iron, horse thieves and others guilty of theft. The records reveal how one Black was punished in 1805 that probably went beyond what a White would have received. He was convicted of larceny and was ordered to be whipped and have his ears nailed to the whipping post after which the soft part of his ears were to be cut off. 117

In the Franklin Gazette it was reported, in 1823, that Negroes, Jim and Harry, had been convicted of burglary. Jim was "swung off" after making a "full confession" of a crime in which a White man was "strongly implicated." The newspaper reported that Harry had received "respite" of two weeks, after which time he would be hanged if not pardoned before. It was said that Jim died "with great firmness" for he had been baptized a "day or two previous" and that he expressed "a full confidence in the mercy of a saviour." As usual, there was a lesson for the innocent in that Jim is said to have "exhorted the Negroes to quit their evil practices." As a matter of fact, there was insinuation of a rash of thefts, reporting that "three instances of theft occurred that evening." There were crimes against Blacks committed by Whites. In 1855, the Coroner of Williamson County was called to investigate the death of a Black woman who was the property of Mr. James Bolton. The Coroner found the body "terribly mutilated, besides having her neck dislocated." Mrs. Bolton confessed to having killed the slave, but claimed self defense. She was convicted of murder in the second degree. In 1836, Thomas S. Wyatt shot at a slave named Jo, who was the property of Michael Doyle. He was found guilty of attempting to commit murder and was sent to prison. Some crimes against slaves did, however, go unpunished. In 1828, Matthew Moore and Levi Crosby were charged with killing a slave belonging to Rodham Tupios. He was shot in the back. The two were out squirrel hunting when they came upon the slave making baskets in the woods. He said that he had a wife "at Figuers." They said that they thought he was a runaway and were going-to Figuers with him to see if he were telling the truth. The slave began to run, and they shot him in the back. They said that they did not intend to kill him. In 1856, George Washington Sumner, "a free man of color," received three years at hard labor for stealing from Sinclair and Moss Store. He stole a "fancy raw skin" vest worth eight dollars, a fancy worsted vest worth three dollars, a pair of black "casimer pants" worth five dollars, four suits of boys' clothes worth ten dollars and a blue coat with brass buttons worth twelve dollars. 118

TOWN AND COUNTRY LIFE

The Town of Franklin adopted comprehensive city laws in 1836. Several of the laws dealt with controlling the behavior of slaves. In the by-laws of the town there was created the position of Town Watchman whose duty it was to patrol the streets to see that no slaves were out past the hour of ten o'clock. He was to sound a trumpet each night on the Town Square at nine o'clock as a signal for the slaves to be heading home. He was directed to watch or patrol "the different streets, lanes, squares and alleys, to examine kitchens and other suspected places of resort for slaves." He was to "disperse all disorderly assemblies of slaves." It was his duty to arrest and commit to jail any slave found on the streets after ten o'clock without a written permit from his master. Other laws in the 1836 ordinance pertaining to slaves made it a misdemeanor for any person to buy from, sell to, or trade with any slave without the permission of the slave's master. Town residents were also punished for allowing slaves to assemble in a disorderly manner on their property. Slaves were prohibited from hiring themselves out. Any slave found in the town who was there without a master to answer to was to be jailed until a master came forth to claim him. Free Blacks and mulattos were prohibited from entertaining in their homes any slaves on Sundays or between sunrise and sunset on other days. A Tennessee Court of Appeals case in the 1850's State vs. Henry gives us a good view of Franklin in 1850 and slave life there at that time. The case concerned the murder of two young Franklin men, John G. Eelbeck and William P. Barham, allegedly by a slave named Henry, The two slain men came upon the accused on the street when he was hurrying home with four hams of bacon that were supposedly stolen from the home of a Franklin resident. Most of the witnesses to the crime were slaves who were re turning. from a prayer meeting at the home of Hannah Henderson on Margin Street. One of the witnesses was a slave named Grey. Other witnesses were Malinda and Jenney as well as Fanny, Peter, Amanda and Henrietta. On Sunday about one o'clock on the day of the murder, Tom, a slave, met the accused Henry "at Ragsdale's gate" and asked him where he was going, to which the accused replied 119 - that he was on his way to "the Campbellite Church, to prepare for the sacrament." Bill, another slave, saw Henry later that day at "Ragsdale's shop" playing cards. He saw him again that evening at Park's corner." The accused, Henry, was employed to work at the tanning yard on Columbia Pike. Mourning, a slave who belonged to a Mrs. Doyle, testified that Henry came to Mrs. Doyle's house on the evening of the murder for Tenniswood's supper." Henry was married to a slave named Susan who lived on "McConnel's premises." Another slave named Isabella aroused Henry and Susan after the murder. The couple showed "apathy and unconcern." Another slave, Jeff, testified that he saw Henry the next morning at King's Grocery sweeping out the store. The unidentified Tenniswood testified that he saw Henry later that morning at the tanning yard washing something in water with a reddish color. Henry was convicted by the trial court in Franklin. The conviction was upheld by the Court of Appeals. As an example of the daily routine that occurred on a Williamson County plantation is contained in a contract between Thomas H. Perkins, a plantation owner, and Jarred Boxley, an overseer. A suit arose over the contract with Perkins contending that Boxley was neglecting his duty and would not cause the Negroes "to do their duty." The contract read as follows:

"1834 Articles of Agreement - January 1, 1834

Jarred Boxley agrees to live with said Thomas H. Perkins in the capacity of an overseer during the year 1834 and perform all duties of an overseer under the direction of said Perkins and particularly to cause the Negroes to do their duty and not to treat them with cruelty. To attend the Negroes in case of sickness, to attend to the stock of every kind and see them regularly and properly fed and to mark calves and pigs before they are weaned. To attend particularly to the plow horses and to keep plows and gear in order and repair and to lose no time from said business. To conduct himself prudently and soberly in the discharge of his duties as an overseer. To patrol the. Negro houses upon the plantation at least twice a week and every week during the whole of said year. To blow or wind a horn or trumpet every morning about daybreak except Sunday through the year for the purpose of wakening and calling the Negroes to their labour and as far as in the power of Boxley to prevent, intrusion upon the land and property of said Perkins and not to strike the Negroes with a stick or club, but correct them with a common switch or 120

light cowskin whip in moderation. To cause the Negroes to labour and attend to business until eight o'clock in the evening and to remain with them until that time except Sunday. Perkins is to pay Boxley one hundred fifty dollars and furnish him the use of a cow to give milk for his family, said cow to be fed moderately with Perkins' corn until the first day of April and not afterwards, ten barrels of corn to be measured and put in a crib to itself and six hundred pounds of pork. For the true and faithful performance of the above covenants and agreements the above named are bound for five hundred dollars."

THE COURT SYSTEM

Things did not always go well for the Blacks during days of slavery in Williamson County. They were a visible, helpless and vulnerable minority. In the beginning they had no personal rights or freedoms. The first Ten Amendments to the Constitution applied only to their White masters. It was not until 1835 that slaves were entitled to trial by jury. Prior to that time they were tried before a group ,of six men assembled for that purpose, with the requirement that all six jurors be slave owners. The first recorded case in Williamson County of a slave being tried before a slave court was State vs. Harriet. In this case an eleven-year-old slave girl was tried for the murder of the six-year-old daughter of the girl slave's master. The girl's body was found drowned in the creek, face down, in eight inches of water. There being no apparent explanation for the death, all eyes focused on Harriet. Neighbors of the slain girl's family took Harriet into the woods and by compulsion and physical abuse elicited a confession from her. She was tried and convicted, even though she had Thomas Hart Benton as her court appointed defense attorney. He was newly admitted to the bar, and though inexperienced at the time, came to be one of the most influential men in America through his tenure in the United States Senate. The only appeal from a slave court was directly to the governor of the State of Tennessee. Benton made such an appeal even though the seat of the State government at that time was in Knoxville and even though the execution date was set for two weeks from the verdict. The Governor granted Harriet's pardon when he was deluged with 121 accounts of the slave girl's lack of maturity, lack of mental capacity and lack of knowledge of right and wrong. It is interesting to note that Harriet was convicted by being a victim of mass hysteria, but she was saved by the petitions of the same people (or their counterparts) through their appeals to the Governor. It is obvious that reason prevailed in the end. This fact says a great deal when We consider that this period of our history was a time of ignorance and prejudice. Thomas Hart Benton, perhaps because of the injustice he saw in this case, campaigned for the slaves' right to trial by jury. He was before his time, for such a right was not granted until twenty-five years later. Another case involving slaves in Williamson County after slaves were accorded the right to trial by jury was State vs. Henry. This case occurred in 1850. By this time slaves had been accorded full rights to trial by jury with the right to appeal to the appropriate appeals court. In the case State vs. Henry, which has already been alluded to in this paper, Henry was convicted of the murder of two Franklin residents. He was convicted by a local jury. The conviction was appealed to the Supreme Court. Henry was represented by an able Franklin attorney, John Marshall. The Supreme Court was asked to set aside the^ conviction because it was obtained on circumstantial evidence. Another celebrated Williamson County case involving a slave was that of State vs. Ann. In this case Ann was accused of having given a drug called laudanum to a baby under her charge to induce sleep so that she could meet her paramour in their trysting place. Ann belonged to Sarah Perkins Marr, a daughter of Nicholas Perkins, one of Williamson County's wealthiest men and largest slave holders. Ann, too, was convicted by a local jury. She was, howeyer, acquitted by the Appeals Court. The basis of the holding was that a master was responsible for the morals of his slaves. The overseer had been aware of the improper behavior between Ann and Henry, a fifty year old slave on the same plantation, and had said nothing. The case was a landmark decision in that the court ruled in favor of a slave over the master. 122

WORSENING RELATIONS Williamson County saw the best and the worst of a bi-racial society. It saw the culturing of an uncultured race of people. It saw the emergence of their rights from those of mere chattels to those of citizens, albeit second-class citizens. But, as 1861 approached, Williamson County saw reason, justice and a sense of fair play turn to mass hysteria, unreasonableness and irrational behavior. The stronger the Abolition Movement became in the North, the stronger opposition to it became in the South. The result was a breakdown in all relationships between the races except those that were of the closest personal nature. The Abolitionists were.determined to free the slaves and give them a new way of life. While this spirit was never the prevalent one in Williamson County and the rest of the South, there was a strong element of it, and Williamson County records prove that there were affirmative steps in that direction. But a negative ireaction, rather than reason and rationalism, were to rule the day. Nothing could incite the populace of Williamson County to a riot frame of mind quite so quickly as cries of "rape." No greater crime could be perpetrated on a woman than this, the most heinous of crimes, especially when perpetrated by a Black man. In 1822, Allen, a slave belonging to one Pleasant Russell, was accused and convicted of the crime of rape. The victim was Phoebe Powell, a White woman. She was going to visit a neighbor when she met the accused on a path. He hit her five times with a stick and, according to her testimony, violated her person. A special slave court was convened, as was the practice at that time, of three slave holders in the county. They found the accused guilty and sentenced him to be "hung on Saturday next." A news paper account said of the execution: "It is expected that masters of slaves, generally, will permit them to witness the punishment inflicted on one of their own class, as the reward for crimes, that they may, by example, be deterred from commission of like offences." In an effort to insure that justice was done. Judge Thomas Stuart granted him a new trial, but he was again convicted, and this time hanged. A slave named Dick was convicted of "felonious assault with intent to commit rape" by a Franklin court in 1842. Depositions 123

given in the case reveal very circumstantial evidence. Dick was taken, however, to a "convenient place near Franklin" and hanged. In 1857 a slave named Frank was tried and convicted of raping Prudence Young. The case was appealed to the Supreme Court, but the conviction was upheld. Peter, a slave of John Blackman, was charged with attempting to rape Manerva Skelly in 1844. She was a white female, eight years old. The Grand Jury returned a true bill. The trial was requested to be delayed until the next term of court because of the public "excitement." Her father, William Skelley, testified that he had hired Peter for the season and that on the day of the rape Manerva was at home alone. The father said that when he returned to the house he found Peter attempting to assault the child. He caught Peter by the hair of the head and dragged him, from the house. The uncle of the alleged victim testified that the father whipped the Negro with "maybe a thousand lashes." No outcome of the case is given.

THE CIVIL WAR

By 1862, it is estimated that the value of slaves in Williamson County was six million dollars. The institution of slavery was of enormous influence, and the economic interests of thousands in the county were deeply vested therein. Moral issues paled beside these vested economic interests. Thereafter, the conflict was not always between slave holders and non-slave holders and Abolitionists and non-Abolitionists. It was sometimes a conflict of a man and his own conscience, a question of his feeling that he should do one thing, and doing.quite another thing, succumbing to the dictates of his vested economic interests. A good example of one who did not practice what he preached was indeed a preacher. Green Hill, sometimes called the Father of Methodism in Middle Tennessee, and himself a lay preacher. He lived on his plantation near Brentwood where he owned several slaves. His home there was the scene of a meeting of the Western Con ference of the Methodist Church in 1808, the first such meeting held west of the Alleghanies. Ironically enough, one of the main - topics of discussion at this meeting was the Methodist Church's position on slavery. 124

In his last will and testament, probated in 1826, Green Hill acknowledged that he was opposed to the institution of slavery, but he took no steps to do anything about this conviction. He said;

"Rz^pe-ct-ing my aolofizd pzoptz v)kom I noiv my ilnzziz dt&lKt that whznzvzn. GovzAnm&nt A hall pz^mtt that thzy bz Itbzuatzd iJoA I zon&tdzK ita\)Zfiy to bz dnju6t and tnzonititznt u)tth thz iptutt and doztitnz oi thz Go^pzZ oi Chfitit, But undz^ pAz^iznt law wz afiz Kz&tfiatnzd that Itbzfity, thzAz^oAz, until that dz^lAablz zvznt 4)hall takz plazz I dl&poiz o{i thzm a& iollowi, "

Before the Civil War the Abolitionists had, for years, condemned slavery and advocated freedom for all slaves. The message caused much discontent among the slaves. One by-product of the Abolitionist Movement in Williamson County was the out-migration of slaves by way of the "underground railroad." No one knows how many slaves left the county by this route, but it is certain that hundreds did so. In 1838, Howard Watts gave to George, a slave belonging to John L. McEwen, a forged certificate of freedom to aid him in running away. The slave was later found in jail in Rutherford County. Meanwhile, Watts had skipped town and evaded prosecution. A mass exodus of slaves from Williamson County did riot come, however, until the beginning of the Civil War and the occupation of Nashville, which fell into Union hands early in the war. Then \ the slaves had a place to go, a refuge. Williamson County physician and plantation owner. Dr. Samuel Henderson, noted in his diary on September 26, 1862, that his slave. Little Bill, had run off, "gone to the Federals in Nashville, I suppose." Later he entered into his diary the fact that his boy. Jack, along with neighboring John Hughes' Issac and Adam "ran off last night." One of the real tragedies of slavery in Williamson County was the story of Will Wright. It occurred in 1862 when a large contingency of Federal troops were marching through Franklin, as they did on several occasions during the war. Will Wright was a farmer and justice of the peace who lived just north of Franklin on the Nashville Pike. When he heard that the Federal troops were coming, he, along with a slave named Henry, drove his wagon out the Liberty Pike to hide it from the Yankees so that they could not 125

steal his mules and wagon. During the episode, Wright was with an axe by the slave Henry, He took charge of the wagon and drove it away with the Yankees. He later had second thoughts and became so conscience-stricken that he returned to Franklin. He was immediately apprehended by local authorities and jailed. Some time later the citizens of Franklin broke into the jail and took Henry to the outskirts of town where he was hanged.

AFTER THE WAR The wounds of the Civil War healed slowly in Williamson County, and they did not heal until after there had been additional violence and confrontations between the races. In the county once-splendid plantations were in ruins, and the slave-based economy was in shambles. The governmental foundation was shaken apart, and there was no law and order nor any one to enforce it. There-were thousands of newly freed slaves in the county who now had freedom but knew not what to dp with it. They were not prepared to assume the responsibility of full citizenship, nor were they prepared to assume the economic responsibilities for themselves and their families. The only way of life they too had known was, indeed, gone with the wind. All of the interracial strife and antagonism erupted in one of the most violent clashes in Franklin that has occurred anywhere in the nation. It was an outright war between the races that created animosities and ill feelings that it has taken generations to overcome. It began on July 18, 1868, with yet another cry of rape. The purported perpetrator of the crime never even had, the faintest vestige of a trial, other than by public outcry and the newspapers. The Nashville Union and American carried a strongly prejudicial account filled with loaded epithets and blatant accusations. It read:

"A Negro Devil....Yesterday....a terrible outrage was perpetrated in Williamson County Miss Ezell, a step daughter of Mr. Henry King....was returning home from a visit to her brother-in-law....When within some six hundred yards of her home, she was met by a Negro man who is employed on the farm of Thomas F. Perkins, who seized her and violently outraged her person. He grasped her by the throat and choked her 126

until she was senseless....He had observed her as he passed along the road....He left the young lady in a state of unconsciousness and fled. A citizen coming along soon found her and after her mind was restored, she recited the story....A party of neighboring gentlemen immediately armed themselves and started on the tract of the devil....They succeeded in capturing the villain."

We note the reference to the Black as a "Negro devil" and the reference to the vigilante posse as "gentlemen." In any event, the Black was captured and taken to jail. A band of Ku Klux Klansmen took him from jail and took him "some four miles from town" and shot him. The newspaper account described the execution as an "act....approved by every person in the county and

elsewhere." So far the story is history repeating itself, but there is another chapter to this story. Perhaps emboldened by the Union victory during the Civil War and the instigation of a "few mean Whites," the Blacks in Franklin armed themselves and banded to gether to avenge the death of their fellow Black. Accordingly, a party of fifty to seventy-five armed Blacks and some Whites waylaid the alleged rape victim's brother and shot him to death. A newspaper account said that "among the ambushing party Cwas) a sprinkling of incendiary Whites, who are known as the ringleaders of the worse Negroes." There resulted a clash between Whites and Blacks that was known as the Franklin Riot. The newspaper again reported that Blacks were streaming out of Franklin with stories of "a hundred

thousand Ku Klux Khnsmen in Franklin." One said he was shot one hundred times. The Blacks sent out into the county for reinforcements from the plantations. A body of armed Blacks entrenched themselves on the north side of the Harpeth River. The Whites, too, received reinforcements from the county. Even the telegraph wires were cut. The riot was finally quelled by United States soldiers from Nashville sent to Franklin for that purpose. Perhaps Lincoln would have helped to bind up the nation's wounds, but his life was cut short by a well-known assassin's bullet. The government which followed only made the situation worse. Williamson County, too, saw the unwelcome carpet baggers •and the hated scalawags. Faced with this difficult set of 127 circumstances, Williamson County residents came to their own rescue. It came in the form of the Ku Klux Klan, which was a desperate attempt to reinstate law and order. The reign of the Ku Klux Klan in Williamson County, too, ran its course, but not before several people, both Black and White, fell victim to this vigilante rule. Racial strife continued into the 1870's. The Grand Jury of Williamson County in July of 1873 indicted Ben Rhea "a man of color," for attempting to set fire to the home of Constantino W. Davis testified that Ben came to his place in the company of a woman and three children. He was looking for work. Davis hired him for a year. According to Davis, Ben became "lazy and neglectful of his work and finally left." Davis made him come back and get his things, the woman and the children. Davis and Ben got into an argument. Davis struck Ben several times with a stick. Davis later heard that Ben was "sulking about the Negro cabins on his place and making threats against him." The Ku Klux Klan was still riding in Williamson County in the 1870"s. One Mary Redmond testified that they came to her house with "long gowns and covers over their faces and caps on their heads." In the same case an Ed Knight testified that four Klansmen had been to his house and that he had not stayed at home since. He said that he was in a cedar thicket on that night lying under a cedar tree when four men rode up on horseback. He said, "they dismounted and put on their faces." They were indicted of assaulting Mary Redmond. On the seventeenth of March, 1877, a "colored boy" named James, about seventeen or eighteen years old, was hanged. Ac cording to the official report, he was taken from jail by "unknown parties and hung by the neck until dead." In October of 1878 another Black, John Thompson, was hanged on the Liberty Road "by a large crowd of citizens for the offence of rape." Finally, an uneasy treaty of peace was reached between the races. The leaders of both communities realized that life must go on and that the races must accommodate themselves to each other. Thus, the two races formed two societies. They existed side by side in the same area, but never did'the twain meet. They tacitly agreed to a peaceful coexistence that would give lip service to the 128 separate, but equal doctrine. It was not until 1954 and a United States Sup;reme Court Decision called Topeka vs. Board of Education that racial barriers in Williamson County began to tumble. Comparatively speaking, integration in Williamson County has been a painless process. Perhaps the painlessness has come from the common heritage, the exceptionally high cultural level of Williamson County Blacks and memories of a time when we were all "in it together." 129

BIBLIOGRAPHY Douglas, Dorris Callicott, "Peter and Green Pryor, Pioneer Jouma?! county Historical Douglas DorrisCallicott, "A Plantation Dispersed," Williamson County Historical Journal, Vol. 12, 1981. Franklin By-Laws, 1836. Howington, Arthur F., "Slaves on Trial: Three Williamson County cases, Williamson County Historical Journal, Vol. 9, 1978. Little, T. Vance, Historic Brentwood, J. M. Productions. Brentwood, Tennessee, 1986. Lynch^ Louise G., Miscellaneous Records of Williamson County. Tennessee. Vol. 1, 1973^ Lynch^ Louise G., Miscellaneous Records of Williamson County. Tennessee. Vol. 2, 1978. — Lynch_, Louise G., Miscellaneous Records of Williamson Conni-v. Tennessee. Vol. 3, 1980. Lynch_, Louise G., Miscellaneous Records of Williamson Conntv. Tennessee. Vol. 4, 1981. Lynch, Louise G., Miscellaneous Records of Williamson Conn^Vr Tennessee. Vol. 5, 1983. ^ Lynch, Louise G., Miscellaneous Records of Williamson Conntvr Tennessee. Vol. 6, 1984. ^ Marshall, Park, History of Franklin. McCormack, Edward Michael, Slavery on the Tennessee Frontier. Tennessee American Bicentennial Commission, 1977"! Presley, Mrs. Leister E., 1820 Census of Williamson County. 130

BURKE HOLLOW

Elizabeth Burke Plattsmier

The name Burke comes from the Teutonic "burg" meaning stronghold. The family crest is a cross on a shield with a lion in the left-hand corner. The motto is "Uno Roi, Uno Foi, Uno Loi" ("One King, One Faith, One Law"). It is thought that Burke Hollow got its name because so many Burkes lived there. The first Burke settling there was Anson Burke, a Revolutionary soldier,- son of John and Rhoda Burke of Rockingham County, North Carolina. He came with three sons and a daughter to Williamson County in 1819. One son went to Franklin, Missouri. Anson also brought grandchildren - two sons were already married - and two slaves. He died in 184Q, and is buried in the Burke graveyard in the Seventeenth District according to the Susie Gentry Scrapbook. The Burke graveyard has no markers, but is right at the line of the Seventeenth and Nineteenth Districts, at the old homeplace site where other family members are buried. At one time, I am told, five Burke brothers lived in a row with adjoining farms; Sam, Hubbard, Ransom, Tom and Jack, sons of Thomas H. and Martha Irvin Burke. Anson bought one hundred acres on the headwaters of Mill Creek from Byrd Hamlet and Epa White in 1821. Byrd Hamlet is credited with having raised the first hogshead of tobacco in Middle Tennessee, according to Goodspeed's History. Burke

Hollow Road winds from Clovercroft Road to Wilson Pike. Before it was called Burke Hollow, it was called Burke Knobs or Burke Hills. The route of the road seems to have changed a few times. In 1841, the Fishing Ford Road's west prong went through Burke Hollow to Wilson Pike then to Rock Hill, Atrington, cross the Harpeth River and continued eastward. On the 1878 map, it seems to make a loop around Burke Hollow. Before the Civil War, Mount Zion, part of the Charge of Tennessee Conference, Methodist Episcopal Church South, was located on Burke Hollow Road. The Federal troops tore it down 131

and moved the materials to Daddy's Knob to build quarters for the Signal Corps around 1863. There are still remnants of a trench and lookouts or mounds used as cannon stations on sides of the hill toward Murfreesboro and Franklin. This is the highest hill in this area and has a great view of miles around. Members of Mount Zion transferred their place of worship to the Trinity Methodist Church on Wilson Pike. Trinity Methodist Church was compensated by the United States Government for the wrecking of Mount Zion in 1907. During the War, the Yankees raided nearby homes. Once at the Hunter home, as the family were leaving, a little girl of the family was outside, and when one of the soldiers saw her, he just put his ham he had taken upon the gate post and kept walking. Hannah Lamb Stephens was forced to cook for as many as ten or twelve Yankees at a time. The Stephens family also hid meat from the soldiers in the loft of the home, and the family's prized horse was hidden in a large crevice in the hillside. As some soldiers were passing one day, one soldier waved his hat at Hannah Lamb as she was ploughing on a hillside, she waved her bonnet in return; a month later-he returned and married her. John Anson Burke, my great grandfather, grandson of Anson, enlisted in Blackman's Cavalry in 1862, and was transferred to Company F, Fourth Tennessee Cavalry. He surrendered in Washington, Georgia, in 1865. This was the area and time when Jefferson Davis and Mrs. Davis were traveling in two different parties of wagons: the Confederate Treasury was in a wagon in Mrs. Davis* group. Cavalrymen were assigned to guard the wagons. Among others who served from Burke Hollow were T. H. Burke., W. C. Burke, Gilbert H. Lamb and my mother's father (she was one of two second marriage). He was son of Davis and Mary Evans Lamb who came to Williamson County from North Carolina in 1810. Louis Jenkins, another great-grandfather, son of Jeremiah and grandson of Green Jenkins, who came with his family from Warren County, North Carolina, in the early 1800"s, and Sam Burke, who was at the Buck Cherry home when some neighbors trying to gain favor with the Yankees went to Franklin and reported his 132

presence there. They went looking for him; he was upstairs and shot the man they forced to go up the steps in the lead. He then escaped out an upstairs window although the house was surrounded by ten Yankees. In 1868, The Republican Banner published the "Famous Snake Tales" written by Dr. William M. Clark, intended as a joke but taken seriously by many people. One tale concerned the Triune Monster, the bellowing monster from the Burke Knobs. It told of a sighting in the Burke Hills by a Mr. Vernon; it was supposedly thirty-five or forty-five feet long and eight or ten inches thick, his head about the size of a frying pan and almost flat; he would give a low, bellowing sound like the suppressed lowing of a cow. When the ground was clear of obstruction, the story was, he traveled with his head near the earth, raising it as he approached a fence or bushes. He entered a hole in a hill that overhangs the residence of Mr. Thomas Burke. It also told of a failed attempt to capture the snake that frightened Mr. Burke into convulsions and they were afraid of the effect on his mind. Mr. Clark published affidavits using the names of well-known citizens of Williamson County and Triune Community attesting the truthfulness of the story. Then one article told of the shooting of the snake, pulling the carcass to Nolensville by a team of horses. It was to be stuffed, presented to Andrew Johnson and exhibited in all large cities "from here to Washington". He used the names of Burke, Palmore, Neely, Irvine, Vernon and Robinson, well-known families in the Burke Hollow area. The article said, "It even deceived the scientists of the

East." In earlier days in Burke Hollow they had brush arbor and tent meetings. One brush arbor was located up in Warren Hollow on top of a hill. The Church of Christ met at Warren School with Sims Jones as preacher; also Willie Irwin preached there, and a group of Mormons met there. The Nazarenes were also represented. Some residents went to Belleview Presbyterian; Mrs. John Anson Burke was on the rolls in 1854. There was a story told about a lady preacher visiting her, selling Bibles. 133

"Miss Lizzie" drew a small pension from her husband's Civil War service. Her son, Charles Anson, my grandfather, died at an early age leaving a wife and seven children. "Miss Lizzie" told her she helped Charlie's children. The lady told her if she bought a Bible God would help Charlie's children. The widowed grandmother's reply was "I'll help Charlie's children and God can help you." The Stephens School was built about 1900 by John Page Stephens; then when they needed more acreage later. Warren School was built. In "Who's Who" in The Review-Appeal. Nora Burke Jenkins said she attended Pleasant Hill and Arrington Schools. Pleasant Hill, now located on Pleasant Hill Road, was first built in 1800. The Arrington School was a one-room school in 1882, located where Wilson-Harpeth Pike intersects Highway 96, at the corner of the J. H. Crockett farm. Transportation in those days was by buggy and horseback, sidesaddles for ladies. I remember a sidesaddle that Mama had kept for years that I loved to play on as a child. It was covered with a velvet-like material, black on red design. Walter Burke and Irene Lamb, my parents, had their marriage performed by Squire Dick Harrison as they sat in a buggy at his home off Wilson Pike. In those days families grew their own vegetables and raised their own chickens and hOgs. I was told this produced a typical breakfast in earlier days: "In a big iron pot add water and lye and dissolve, add corn and cook. Take out and wash real good, get off husks. Soak in water all night. Next morning drain, cook for breakfast. Cut shoulder and fry and serve with big hot biscuits. Hominy, pork and biscuits." Lamb's store was run by Sercy and Nancy Lamb at the end of Burke Hollow Road and Wilson Pike. Claude Stephens has run a printing business in his home in Burke Hollow since 1925. He has printed many handbills and business cards. Claude is ninety years old now, and has many memories of Burke Hollow, where he was born and reared. He says that as a child he remembers Hannah Lamb telling his mother about the Civil War, and that he had 134

found many minie balls as he was ploughing, I don't think the name Burke is found in Burke Hollow any more, but there are still descendants of Anson Burke living there. As far back as I can remember, my parents would talk of "going through Burke Hollow". This was where they were both born and grew up. "Going through Burke Hollow" wasn't just driving through. It was stopping to visit with everybody, if just for a few minutes. Even when Mama was in the nursing home and had to be brought to the car in a wheel cha.ir, she still enjoyed "going through Burke Hollow" especially in the fall when leaves were changing colors. 135

SOURCES

Rockingham County, North Carolina Will Books Rockingham County, North Carolina Deed Books; 1792, 1799, 1819, 1820 ' Susie Gentry's Diary

Goodspeed's History

"The Long Surrender", Burke Davis

The Review-Appeal. April 1, 1948, July 14, 1938

"The History of Trinity Station Methodist Church," Mary Herbert Republican Banner. 1868

Jordan Papers, State Library and Archives

Nashville Magazine. "Williamson County's Living Legends." Jane Powell ^ '

Williamson County Historical Journal Number 10, "Eastern Williamson County," J. W. Covington

Trinity Methodist Church, Miscellaneous Business Sara Tune, Claude Stephens, Erma Hunter, Katherine Scruggs 136

ALMOST HEAVEN - NOLENSVILLE

Marie Williams Batey

ALMOST HEAVEN - that's how my parents felt about their hometown of Nolensville. Many people never lose that hometown feeling even though they don't live there anymore. I have been away from Nolensville for several years now and part of my heart remains there. I go back home in my heart often and still treasure many memories - some precious, some wonderfully exciting and some sad.

Located some sixteen miles south of Nashville on State Highways 31 and 41-A, the town of Nolensville is nestled in the heart of the Tennessee hills. Today, it is no longer the small, sleepy village of even some twenty years ago. It has developed and is continuing to develop rather rapidly because of its proximity to the Metropolitan-Nashville area. Residents of Nolensville are considered to be those who are served by the post office and its routes. Even before Tennessee became a state in 1796, many people were already settling or passing through the territory. Before the white men came, there were Indians inhabiting the area. There have been several mounds located in the immediate vicinity of Nolensville. One notable find was written up by archeologists as "The Owl Creek People," and covered an area between Owl and Mill creeks on the Williamson-Davidson County line.

Settlement of the lands now known as Tennessee was the result of the movement westward by the white people. Mostly considered to be the Territory of North Carolina, that state began issuing public service and military grants for land in the Mero District in payment for services rendered to that state. Part, or maybe all, of Williamson County was known as the Mero District. This district did encompass the part of Williamson 137

County that included Nolensville. These grants ranged from one hundred to five thousand acres, depending upon the length and importance of service rendered by both public and military service personnel. In some instances, grants were known to range from five thousand to ten thousand acres or more. Persons receiving grants did not always travel to the new territory to claim them. Many grants were purchased sight-unseen from persons not desiring to tear up roots and travel to the new territory. In some cases where the grantee had died, the land was sold by his heirs. In many instances where large amounts of land were involved, the grantee would often hire a land agent to come, or send a family member (often a son) to the new territory, and dispose of this land. William Nolen came to what is now Nolensville, Williamson County, about 1797, according to data issued by some of his descendants. We do know that he was granted some land and that he also purchased grants from other people and claimed these lands. This small town was named for him, and he decided to set aside a certain portion of his land and sell lots. He made a plan for the town, lots ranging from one-quarter acre to three acres in size. On November 13, 1818, William Nolen's Plan of Nolensville was supposedly registered in the County Court Clerk's office in Franklin. No record has been uncovered where this was filed with the clerk's office; however, when the courthouse was remodeled during Tom Tansil's term as Clerk, a plat was discovered, but its whereabouts is still unknown. Tom Tansil was County Court Clerk during the late 1930's. The authenticity of this plan has been proven, in that whenever any of the lots, ranging in number from one to twenty-four, was always referred to in the deed when they were sold. As late as 1906, Lot number twenty in the original plan of Nolensville was mentioned when it was surveyed in the bankruptcy case of A. S. Ogilvie. These lots changed hands many times over the years. Some types of businesses located in Nolensville in the early days were harness shops, blacksmith shops, general stores, taverns, livery stables and hotels, funeral homes, feed mills. 138

cotton gins, doctors' and dentists' offices, buggy shops, furniture shops, drug stores and many more. This writer has done extensive research on the lots in Nplensville as set aside by William Nolen, Sr., and has traced several of them down to their present-day owners. From both research and information from members of Mr. Nolen's descendants, as well as word-of-mouth information to me from elderly members of my. own family, William Nolen, Sr.'s, home was part of the house where Newt McCord, Jr., now lives. I had a great-aunt who died in 1983 who helped me for some twenty years with my research of the town. This great-aunt was born in 1885, and I figured she knew a great deal about the town and many of its citizens. I have read one report that Mr., Nolen laid out the town where his peach orchard was located, but this is questionable to me because Nolensville is virtually situated on a solid rock! I have no doubt that part of his land was used for gardens and orchards, but probably not that portion. Maybe that is why he chose to lay out his town on this part: the fact that it was not suitable for growth. At any rate, he did sell lots and start the town. Mr. Nolen and his wife, Sarah Cantrell, were parents of sixteen children:Cl) General Lee, born 1785; (2) Sally, born in 1787; (3) Stephen, born in 1790; (4) William, Jr., born in 1793; (5) Delia C., born in 1795. It has been reported by the Nolen descendants that William came to the area in 1797. In view of this date, he brought with him his wife and the five children named above. After moving to Nolensville, the Nolens became parents of the following children: (6) Frances, born 1799; (7) Nancy, born 1802; (8) John, born 1803; (9) Anne Simmons, born 1806; (10) Green, born 1808; (11) Caroline, born 1810; (12) Belinda, born 1812; (13) Emily, born 1815; (14 and 15) twin sons, Auslum and Zebulon, born 1817; and (16) Sarah W., born 1818. Most of these children remained in the Nolensville area and married into prominent families. However, Zebulon and Auslum did go on further west. John Nolen, son of William, was twice Postmaster of the Nolensville Post Office. William Nolen, Sr., died in 1850, and was reportedly 139

buried at the rear of his home on the banks of Mill Creek. No one knows today exactly where his grave is and time has taken its toll. Mr. Nolen's will was proven at the June 1850 session of court and is dated May 2, 1848. It is recorded in Will Book 9, Page 407. Though many of his descendants are no longer living in the area, the town continues as a memorial to William Nolen who settled here before Williamson County was carved from Davidson. In addition to Mr. Nolen and his brother, many other persons received grants ranging from one hundred acres to over one thousand acres. John Hay, son of William Hay, came to Nolensville to represent his father's interest and oversee the one thousand-acre grant received from North Carolina. This land was located southwest of Nolensville in the Clovercroft Road vicinity. Another large grant was made jointly in the names of Dr. James Fergus and Mrs. Ann McKee. This grant consisted of several thousand acres and was located on both Harpeth River and Mill Creek. Some seven hundred acres of this land in Mrs. McKee's name was located in the Owl Creek-Pleasant Hill Road area. Mrs. McKee did not come to Tennessee and it is uncertain if Dr. Fergus came. Mr. Thomas Carsey acted as land agent for Mrs. McKee in disposing of the property on Owl Creek and Mill Creek. Dr. Fergus* land is mentioned in many transactions as a boundary as well as his having sold parts of his grant. John Nolen, brother of William, was given a grant in Williamson County in 1793 for his services in the Commissioners Guard. John Nolen was born before 1744 in Albemarle County, Virginia, and died October 1811, in Tennessee. John Nolen is reportedly buried on his homestead. John's land was located west Pf Nolensville on Owl Creek. He and his wife, Annie, were parents of five children, one of whom was Littleberry Nolen. Littleberry Nolen was buried in the old cemetery off Highway 96 near the site of the old McConnico Meeting House. This spot is marked by Historical Marker 30-40 and reads as follows: "About one hundred yards southwest stood the church where Garner McConnico, a pioneer from Lunenburg County, Virginia, organized a 140

Primitive Baptist congregation about 1799. Destroyed by storm in 1909, the church was rebuilt at its present location on the Liberty Pike, about three miles northwest. The old cemetery remains." It is said that Littleberry Nolcn was visiting his family in this county from his home in Alabama and died while on this trip. His family buried him in this old cemetery. His tombstone indicates that he was born in 1777. The John Nolen homestead remained in his son David's family for many years. There were several other large land grants issued (or some purchased from grantees) in the area around Nolensville during the late 1789's. Some were Jason Thompson, Edmund Haggard, Sherwood Green, John Lovett and Earth Stovall. A Mr. John Smith was owner of nearly one thousand acres of land located on the east side of Nolensville on what is now Rocky Fork Road. It is possible that John Smith was some relation to Thomas Benton

Smith and Dewitt Smith Jobe. Mr. Jethro Sumner received a sizable grant near Nolensville towards Triune. Mr. Sherwood Green was a surveyor and often would take parcels of land in payment for his services. He became quite a large landowner through this method. The father of Sherwood Jenkins came to Tennessee with his wife, children and many other family members. Being left an orphan at age fourteen, Sherwood was taken into the home of his uncle. Wash Kidd, who initiated him into the art of hard work with his Negroes. At the age of eighteen, Sherwood joined the Fourth Tennessee Cavalry, serving under Generals Forrest and Wheeler and made the rank of Sergeant. He was paroled at War's end, returned home, married Charlotte Jane Fowlkes and they had nine children. One of Sherwood and Charlotte's children was Elmer Sherwood Jenkins. Mr. Elmer was a long-time, much loved school teacher at the Nolensville School and a prominent surveyor. Mr. Elmer and his son, Jim, have at one time or another, surveyed many of the farms located in the Nolensville

area. I owe considerable thanks to Jim Jenkins for his assistance to me in my research, as well as a great friendship, both to me and to my parents. He is very knowledgeable about the 141

history of Nolensville. Some other prominent past citizens of Nolensville were Samuel Morton, Benjamin Kidd, Green Vernon, John Page, William Scales, John Brittain, Ben and John Waller, Samuel Burke, David Gooch, the Carmichael family, the Murreys, Samuel Bittick, James Williams, Charles Johnson, Benjamin Johnson and many others. Benjamin Kidd is credited with having the first grist mill in the area. Later, he owned and operated a general store in Nolensville. His farm was located on both sides of Nolensville Road adjacent to Kidd Road. This land was purchased in 1821, by Mr. Kidd from Thomas Simmons. This original grant was issued to Mr. James Mulherin and bought from Mr. Mulherin by Mr. James Todd. Mr. Todd sold this property to Mr. Henry Phenix in 1803. This land was then sold to Mr. Thomas Simmons by Phenix in 1814. This property was inherited and owned by members of the Kidd family until 1907, when it was purchased by B. H. McFarlin at the death of William G. Kidd. Cotton was grown on almost every farm and Mr. James Johnson, who married Frances Nolen, daughter of William Sr., operated a cotton gin during the 1840's and 1850's. This gin was located in the vicinity of the Waller Funeral Home garage. Tobacco was another crop that was grown by many farmers. Mr. Byrd Hamlet is credited with growing the first hogshead of tobacco in Middle Tennessee, according to Goodspeed's History. Mill Creek begins in soithwestern Rutherford County and runs through Nolensville, meandering on through Davidson County to join the Cumberland River below Antioch. In the past, this creek was a more active stream and held enough water to operate many grain and cotton mills and sawmills by the score, thereby earning its name. Mill Creek has many forks and is located on both sides of Nolensville. Before the age of bridges, all good streams boasted of one or more footlogs. These footlogs varied in size and height, depending on the size of the creek and its rising out of the banks after a good rain. Many of these footlogs remained in use until the 1940's. 142

As the town and surrounding areas began to grow, need for schools and churches was felt. Churches of several denominations were organized, their buildings sometimes being used for schoolhouses during the week. Many of these church buildings were desecrated during the Civil War and had to be torn down. Some of the earliest organized churches were Mt. Olivet (now the Nolensville United Methodist) Methodist Episcopal Church, South, Concord Baptist Church, nearby Arrington Church of Christ, and in the 1860's, Ebenezer Methodist Episcopal Church at Nolensville. Later, in the late 1800's, the Nolensville Church of Christ was organized. There were many small schools located in the Nolensville vicinity other than the Nolensville Academy. Some were Pleasant Hill School, Warren School, Johnson School, Fields School, Williams School and Split Log School, just to name a few. Of course, the reason for so many schools was the fact that most 1 ■ • of the children would have to walk to school and none were ever located more than two to three miles from the homes involved. With the coming of public education, many of the smaller schools were consolidated and others closed. The Nolensville Academy was organized in the late 1840's and was situated near the present Nolensville Cemetery. Later, it served as the first public school for white children and remained in use until about 1938 when a new school was built to the north of the town on the . main highway. This building now houses the Nolensville Public Library and Recreation Center. The old Negro Lodge Hall and the Ebenezer Methodist Church served as a school for the Black children until the early or mid-1940's when a school was built on Rocky Fork Road. This school was abandoned with the integration of all public schools in the 1960's. The first post office was located in , the .Green and Jenkins General Merchandise Store. This old building burned in the late 1950's and was being used as a restaurant and bus depot at the time it was destroyed. Since that time, the post office has been in several locations, and many men and women have served as postmaster over the years. Mr. Frank Wilson has been. 143

postmaster at Nolenisville now for many years. John Nolen, son of William, Sr., served as the first postmaster of the Nolensville

Post Office. Several hotels (or ordinaries, as they were called in early days) and liveries have served the community over the years. The most notable and the longest in operation was the King's Inn or Nolensville Hotel. This hotel was operated from the very early days of Nolensville (1800) until about the 1920's or early 1930's when it became a private residence. This old hotel changed ownership and operators many times during its life as a public facility. It was finally torn down after the death of Mr. Joe Jenkins (the last owner) and sold for the logs. The need for good roads has always been important. The Nolensville Turnpike was organized in 1841 under the leadership of Mr. H. Blackman who sold shares of ownership. In the early days, wagon trains, buggies and horsemen would travel from Nashville to points south. The stagecoach continued to operate until about the First World War. With the advent of the automobile, the demand was no less important for a good road to travel. This road was paved in the late 1930's and was named Horton Highway. This road has been called by many names over the years. When the Turnpike was organized, the owners and operators set up toll gates and houses to help maintain and finance the roads. There were two toll houses and gates on the Nolensville Road area. One of those toll houses was located about one half mile south of the Davidson County line on the right hand side of the road. This house stood for many years, uj^til about the middle 1960's when it was torn down. The other tollgate stood about one and one half miles south of Nolensville going up a long hill, known as Toll Gate Hill. It later became the home of Sam and Nettie Pomeroy. Their daughter, Mrs. Allie Pomeroy Williams, was rural mail carrier for the Nolensville Post Office for many years. This old house was used for storage and burned in the 1870's. Many doctors have lived and.practiced in Nolensville over the years. Some were William Clark, David Gooch, Madison 144

Green, a Dr. Jenkins, H. W. Winstead, John Morton and John W. Sneed. We are sure there have been many more throughout the years and it is not intended that they be left out - they are just unknown. Just as schools, businesses, churches and doctors were important to the growth of a town, so were cemeteries. Burial methods and embalming were very crude and it was necessary that people be buried soon after death. Also, many diseases reached the epidemic stage and people had to be buried soon after death. This, in part, was the cause of graveyards being established on the farms. Also, in some cases, it was probably lack of transportation that made it necessary to bury family at home. The Williamson County Historical Society has done a tremendous job in locating and recording cemeteries on farms. However, we all know that it is impossible to pinpoint all of the early graves, and as a result, many have been plowed or bulldozed unknowingly. In 1847, the first public cemetery, to my knowledge, was established at Nolensville. In that year, Mr. James J. Green sold a plot of land to Mr. Samuel Bittick and mentioned in the deed that he was setting aside one half acre on top of the hill to be used as a community cemetery. It was located just at the rear of the second location of the Mt. Olivet Methodist Episcopal Church, South, and is located on the farm now owned by Peggy and Frank Wilson. It did not take long to fill this one half acre lot, and, when Mr. Isaac Neely sold his farm closer to Nolensville, he reserved a burial spot for his wife and himself. Mr. Williams decided to add to this small spot and set aside about an acre to be used as a burial ground for the public. He and his family decided to move their parents and other family members from their old family farm to this new cemetery. Later on, after the Jenkins farm was sold, Mr. Williams added another acre or so to this cemetery. This cemetery is located on Clovercroft Road and extends almost to the Nolensville Highway to the east. There are several other cemeteries that are maintained by the Negroes, one being further south on Highway 31-A. 145

Over the years, Nolensville has experienced sporadic growth. In the early 1900's, the Nolensville Bank was organized and continued operation until the 1930's when it failed with many others. Many years later, the Harpeth National Bank opened a branch in Nolensville which is now the First Tennessee Bank. Automobile dealerships, garages and service stations, various small repair shops, shoe shops and barber shops have come and gone throughout the years. Around 1915, a cooperative creamery was organized with farmers as stockholders. This enabled many farmers who sold milk to keep their product at home. Nolensville Creamery developed a very favorable reputation over the years for the guality of its butter. Butter from the creamery was entered in the 1939 World's Fair. This creamery was soon phased out because of many farmers going into the milk business in a large way and having their milk picked up at the farm by trucks. Many of us still remember milking the cows by hand and using a separator to run the milk through. Cleaning of those separator discs really played havoc with a girl's hands in those days. Through the years, several natural disasters have hit this small town. A storm in 1900 blew away many houses, and several lives were lost. Again, in 1905, a storm blew away several homes in the Clovercroft-Burke Hollow Roads area and caused several deaths. In more recent years, the town has suffered three major fires, some which almost destroyed the entire town. Floods and ice storms have contributed their toll throughout the years. The citizens have learned, as all people do, to live with the disasters of nature. The many wars our country has been involved in have reached down, even to Nolensville and its folk. Our men and women answered the call to protect our freedom, and many did not return. Others returned wounded and heartsore, but the town has not forgotten the price, they paid for all of us. A memorial stands on the Recreation Center land as a tribute to those who gave their lives for us and our way of life. Talks of incorporating Nolensville erupted about two years ago. My great-uncle, Wallace J. Smith, often told me that 146

Nolensville was at one time incorporated at an early date and that during the late 1880's this action was rescinded. On January 29, 1833, Nolensville, Williamson County, by an Act of the General Assembly, was incorporated. At this time, John Ray, James Green, Littleberry Johnson, R. D. Maury, John Nolen and Biddix were appointed commissioners to set off the line of the town and file the same with the County Clerk's office in Franklin. This act was signed by John Cocke as Speaker of the House and Terry H. Cahal as Speaker of the Senate. This action was recorded in the volume titled "The First Session of the Twenty-Second General Assembly of the State of Tennessee, 1837-8." Evidently, for some reasons, this plan of incorporation did not work out as planned. On March 2, 1885, by amendment of the State Legislature, this charter was repealed. This is recorded in Chapter 30, Section 1, of the Acts of Tennessee and signed by J. A. Manson, Speaker of the House; C. R. Berry, Speaker of the Senate and approved March 5, 1885, by William B. Bate, Governor of the State of Tennessee. Thus, Nolensville is no longer an incorporated town. The roots of my own ancestors (Stevenses, Williamses, Ozburns, Hamptons, Mitchells, Smiths, Colemans and more) were firmly entrenched in this small town of Nolensville. My parents were fortunate to have retained ownership of a small part of the land that my great-grandfather purchased from James Williams. Some of this land also was purchased from Stephen Nolen, a son of William. Also, Mr. James Davis owned part of this land. Mr. Davis was a landowner of some importance in the early settlement of this area. To date, I still own about two acres of this land that has been in my family since the early 1830's. This short history barely skims the surface of the town of Nolensville. I have always intended and still plan to pursue a deeper history of this small town. My information would be on the subject of ownership of lands. The forthcoming book, Nolensville 1797-1987, written by a committee of which I was a part, is one that all history 147 lovers, and especially those who have any connection with the town, will want to own. The information and pictures included in this book came from many folk, some now living away, and they are priceless. No one individual, over several lifetimes, could collect all the data that are included in this book. The sharing of these many people of their family treasures is a good example of their willingness to give so that all can have their heritage available. It is hoped that members of the Historical Society will support the Nolensville Recreation Center in their efforts to make the past come alive. 148

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Byrd, Thomas, Information from Family Bible of Johnson-Nolen.

Goodspeed's History of Tennessee, published 1882.

Jenkins, James Sherwood, The Jenkins Family History.

Parker, Tirri, A Brief History of Nolensville and the Nolen Family.

Williams, Mrs. Rosa, and Lane, Mrs. Billy, History of the Nolen Family

Much of the research in this paper came from various books and records in the Williamson County Library and the Williamson County Court House, old cemetery and miscellaneous records of many people, and were jotted down over the years. It is not intended to take credit for all the work of others, but like most researchers, sometimes I have failed to make a notation of where some information came from. 149

CONTRIBUTORS

BATEY, Marie Williams, was born in Williamson County and attended public schools here. She has written several articles for theWilliamson County Historical Journal. She is the author of "A Legacy of Love", a history of the United Methodist Women of the Tennessee Conference United Methodist Church. She is a member of the Williamson County Historical Society, the Marshall County Historical Society and the Tennessee Historical Society. She was a member of the committee appointed to write Nolensville 1797-1987 sponsored by the Nolesville Recreation Center.

BRITT, James A., was born to Mary Nichol Britt and James A. Britt, Senior, October 15, 1907. He is a graduate of Battle. Ground Academy and Fall's Business College. After completing his business training, Jim gained business experience with Southern Bell Telephone Company and with Foster Creighton on a large government construction job in Tullahoma, Tennessee, where he was in charge of the weekly payroll for over eighteen thousand employees. He went from there to Boise, Idaho as the Office Manager for Morrison Knudsen Company. . In 1950, the Britts moved back to Tennessee where they purchased Mrs.. Brown's Foods which, they operated until 1965. In that year, they sold the restaurant and bought a home on McCrory Lane where they are now living and enjoying community life in Middle Tennessee.

CARLISLE, Derry, is Mrs. Walter Carlisle and retired four years ago as Editor of the Review Appeal. She and Mr. Carlisle have worked to make the house livable and not Miss Sophia's "monstrosity".

CARTER, Dr. Rosalie, was born in Franklin, Tennessee, next door to the Carter House, her ancestral home. A graduate of Vanderbilt University, she is listed in Marquis' "Who's Who of American Women", Chicago; and international "Who's Who in Poetry", London. She has served as President of the Tennessee Branch, National League of American Pen Women and President of the Tennessee Federation of Business and Professional Women. She is a member of the Tennessee Historical Society. Dr. Carter is the granddaughter of Lieutenant Colonel Moscow Branch Carter.

COTHAM, Perry C., is an educator, speaker and writer living in Brentwood, Tennessee. He has taught at David Lipscomb University, Belmont College and Nashville Tech, and most recently taught as a Labor Education Specialist at the Tennessee Center for Labor-Management Relations. Dr. Cotham also is the author and editor of several books and articles in the areas of church history, labor history, Christianity and political science, communication and social ethics. He has received degrees from 150

Lipscomb (B.A.) and Wayne State University (M.A. and Ph.D.) and has completed post-doctoral studies at Middle Tennessee State University and Vanderbilt University.

GIBBS, Frances Anderson, is Mrs. William Moss Gibbs. A native of Perry County, Tennessee, she holds a B.S. degree from Peabody College, Nashville, ; Tennessee. She was a librarian in the Franklin, Tennessee, city schools and the Williamson County Public Library from which she retired in 1978. She is a member of Colonial Dames of the Seventeenth Century, Daughters of the American Revolution, United Daughters of the Confederacy and is a charter member of the Williamson County Historical Society.

HAYES, Judith Grigsby, is a native of Williamson County and Burwood. She was born in Eastview, home of the Reverend John Pope. She attended Burwood Elementary and graduated from Franklin High School and David Lipscomb College. She did some master's work at Trevecca and Peabody Colleges and taught school for ten years. Ms. Hayes is currently serving on the Board of Directors of the Williamson County Chamber of Commerce and is an elected County Commissioner representing the Third Civil.District and serves on many county committees. She is actively involved with the Heritage Foundation Special Committee helping to identify and preserve Priority Historical Sites throughout the county.

JACKSON, Mattye, is a native of Dyer County in West Tennessee, and has been a resident of Williamson County for seven years. She is a graduate of Tennessee College for Women, University of Tulsa and George Peabody College, and did graduate work at Columbia University. She was an English teacher and librarian for forty-eight years including posts in Memphis, Tulsa, Long Island, U.T. Martin and Dyer County. Her last post was Director of Forked Deer Regional Library covering seven counties of West Tennessee with eleven libraries.

LITTLE, Thomas Vance, a native of Williamson County, Tennessee, is a member of the Law Firm of Gordon & Bottorff of Brentwood. He holds a Bachelor of Arts and Doctor of Jurisprudence degrees from Vanderbilt University and is a graduate of the National Graduate Trust School, Northwestern University, Chicago, Illinois. He specializes in property, trust and probate law. He holds membership in the American, Tennessee and Nashville Bar Associations and the Nashville Estate Planning Council. He is a member of the Tennessee Historical Society, the Sons of Confederate Veterans and Sons of the American Revolution. Among the honors that he has received are the Patron of the Year Award from the Heritage Foundation of Franklin and Williamson County, the Distinguished Service Award from the Williamson County Historical Society and Citizen of the Year from the Brentwood 151

Chamber of Commerce. He is a well-known writer and lecturer both professionally and in the historical field. He has taught at both Nashville Tech and Columbia State Colleges. In addition to numerous articles, he has written several books, including Historic Brentwood and Legal Terms for Genealogists. He has frequently served as editor and co-editor of the Williamson County Historical Journal. ^

MAYFIELD, Mary Elizabeth McClanahan, is a descendant of Moses Cato and Mary Ophelia Cato McClanahan and a native of Williamson County. She has returned to her beloved McClanahan Hollow for her retirement after many years in California. She is a new member of the Williamson County Historical Society and looks forward to preserving her heritage.

MEACHAM, Matthew Alexander (1852-1934) represented the Third Civil District in the Williamson County Quarterly Court for over forty years. As a successful farmer, bank director, school trustee and astute businessman, he served as a model for. the Leiper|s Fork community. He was a member of the Garrison Methodist Church for sixty-six years, a teacher of the Sunday School for fifty. He attended the quarterly conference for approximately fifty years, either as trustee or steward. He married Alice Kirby in 1873, and their ten children became leaders in their professions. Their only living child is Harold C. Meacham, a well-known landholder in Williamson County.

MORROW, Sara Sprott, is a Nashville, Tennessee, native. Her first successful short story was based on Tennessee history. Later, fiction set in Williamson County was published in the Southern Agriculturist. She has had several articles in the Tennessee^ Historical Quarterly and in the Tennessee Valley Historical Reyiew. She was, for ten years, the drama and dance critic for the Nashville Banner.

PLATTSMIER, Elizabeth Burke, was born and grew up in Williamson County, Tennessee. She attended county schools, graduating from Franklin High School. She is a member of the Williamson County Historical Society. John Nolen D.A.R. (membership pending). She has written articles for the Nolensville Homecoming Book. She is married to Dan Plattsmier from Rayne, Louisiana, and has two children and five grandchildren. Her hobby is working on genealogy.

POYNOR, Marion Joyce, is a native of Maury County. She holds a Bachelor's and a Master's degree from Middle Tennessee State University. She has lived in Atlanta and Boston while working with textbook companies. Most of her working years, however, were spent as a teacher and a supervisor in the Maury County 152

School system. She has published several articles on education and, in 1982, a book: History and Genealogical Data of the Poynor, Barnes, Meadow, Sudberry and Conyer Families. She is now retired and lives in the Theta Community of Maufy County with her parents.

BEDFORD, Elizabeth Roberts, was born in the Arrington Community in the house built by her great-grandfather, William Richard Roberts. She was educated in the local school during the early grades, in the Triune school during the middle grades and in College Grove High School. Mrs. Bedford received her B.S. degree from David Lipscomb College and her M.A. from George Peabody College. For eleven years she taught in the Williamson County School system and for twenty-nine years she taught third grade in the Franklin Special School District. Mrs. Bedford retired in 1982 after forty years of service and is now enjoying her home on Columbia Avenue and spending time with family and friends. She was married to the late Clyde Bedford of Franklin and has one son and three grandchildren.

WARWICK, Richard, is a native of Knox County and a seventh generation Tennessean. He received a Bachelor of Science and Masters of Arts in history and library science from Middle Tennessee State University. He has served as librarian at Hillsboro School since 1971. He and his wife, Elaine Ladd Warwick, live in a log house in the Bingham community near Boyd's Mill. His interests include collecting and restoring Williamson County antiques, basket making and local history. He served as president of the Williamson County Historical Society for 1987-1988. He is a member of the Board of Trustees at Carnton. 153

WILLIAMSON COUNTY HISTORICAL SOCIETY

CHARTER MEMBERS

Mrs. Joe Bowman III 1135 Lewisburg Pike, Franklin, Tennessee 37064 Miss Evaline Gibbs 1002 West Main Street, Franklin, Tennessee 37064 Mrs. William M. Gibbs 1002 West Main Street, Franklin, Tennessee Mr. and Mrs. Curtis Green P. 0. Box 517, Franklin, Tennessee 37065-0517 Mr. and Mrs. Charles Haffner, Jr. Owl Hollow Road, Franklin, Tennessee 37064 Mr. and Mrs. Herbert Harper 1119 Warrior Drive, Franklin, Tennessee 37064 Mrs. George Harris Route 8, Brentwood, Tennessee 37027 Alfred E. Jaqueth P. 0. Box 6, College Grove, Tennessee 37046-0006 Mrs. J. Dobson Johnson 308 Battle Avenue, Franklin, Tennessee 37064 W. F. Little P. 0. Box 266, Franklin, Tennessee 37065-0266 Mrs. Clyde Lynch P. 0. Box 561, College Grove, Tennessee 37046 Eleanor Pewitt 122 Lancaster Drive, Franklin, Tennessee 37064 Mrs. Margaret Sawyer 807 Sneed Road, Franklin, Tennessee 37064 Mr. and Mrs. George F. Watson 613 Hillsboro Road, Franklin, Tennessee 37064 Mrs. Jordan Williamson Route 1, Box 168, Highway 31-A, College Grove, Tennessee 37046

Miss Mary Trim Anderson 305 Highland Avenue, Franklin, Tennessee 37064 H. Harvey Barfield P. O. Box 14415, Riverdale, Illinois 60627

Charles Baker 6305 Ramsgate Court, Brentwood, Tennessee 37017 154

G. L. Barnhill Route 2, Sedberry Road, Franklin, Tennessee 37064 Mr. and Mrs. Harry Batey Route 1, Box 134-B, Lewisburg, Tennessee 37091

Mr. and Mrs. Robert Battle 4108 Crestridge Drive, Nashville, Tennessee 37204

Mrs. Sara Bechick Meadow Apartments 1-10, Del Rio Pike, Franklin, Tennessee 37064 Mrs. Bob Bell, Jr. 1125 Glendale Lane, Nashville, Tennessee 37204

W. J. Bethurum 601 Clearcreek Drive, Merian, Idaho 83642 Dunklin C. Bowman, Jr. 2133 Belcourt Avenue, Nashville, Tennessee 37212 Mr. and Mrs. James Britt 8044 Russell Road, Nashville, Tennessee 37221 Mrs. Jane Gray Buchanan 114 Berwick Drive, Oak Ridge, Tennessee 37830 John D. Calud, Jr. 710 Hillcrest Court, Cedar Hill, Texas 75104 Dorothy N. Carl 111 Bosley Springs Road, Apartment 510, Nashville, Tennessee 37205

Dr. Rosalie Carter 701 West Main Street, Franklin, Tennessee 37064 .

Ben H. Chrisman 3717 Hewlett Drive, Nashville, Tennessee 37211

Mr. and Mrs. Abram B. Church Route 1, Box 12, Thompson Station, Tennessee 37179 Mr. and Mrs. Glynn A. Clark 6512 Edinburgh Drive, Nashville, Tennessee 37221 Charles and Rebecca Clark, Route 1, Box 137, Nolensville, Tennessee 37205 Mr. and Mrs. Woodrow Coleman 1206 Belle Meade Boulevard, Nashville, Tennessee 37205 Nancy P. Conway P. 0. Box 156, Franklin, Tennessee 37065-0156

Mrs. Joe T. Cooke 6325 Chickering Woods Drive, Nashville, Tennessee 37215 Mrs. Kathryn Cotton Route 1, Box 128, Thompson Station, Tennessee 37179 Mary E. Covington Route 1, Box 39, College Grove, Tennessee 37046 Mr. and Mrs. H. Eugene Crawford P. 0. Box 242, 305 Third Avenue South, Franklin, Tennessee 37064 Dorothy Boyd Dale 128 Harrington Avenue, Madison, Tennessee 37115 155

Dr. and Mrs. William J. Darby Route 1, Box 151, Highway 31, Thompson Station, Tennessee 37179 Mrs. Joseph W. Dickens 222 Green Gate Court, Charlotte, North Carolina 28211 Mrs. Roy Donnahoe .309 Berry Circle, Franklin, Tennessee 37064 Tim Easter P. 0. Box 973, Franklin, Tennessee 37065-0973 Martha H. Eaton 216 Jefferson Street, Warren, Pennsylvania 16365 Mrs. Veron Edens Route 1, Box 231, College Grove, Tennessee 37046 Mrs. J. D. Edmonson P. 0. Box 215, Medford, Oklahoma 73759 Marie L. Ehresman Route 1, Box 362, College Grove, Tennessee 37046 Mrs. Gladys P. Evans 18038 Millwood Drive, Visalia, California 93291 Radney and Mary Springs Foster Route 4, Indian Valley Road, Franklin, Tennessee 37064 Mrs. Ruth Fowlkes Route 4, Boyd Mill Pike, Franklin, Tennessee 37064 James Galloway 915 Chancery Lane, Nashville, Tennessee 37205 Mrs. Clayton Gatlin 1164 Columbia Avenue, Franklin, Tennessee 37064 Mr. and Mrs. John 0. Gaultney 6109 Johnson Chapel Road, Brentwood, Tennessee 37027 Mr. and Mrs. Bob Gentry 719 Murfreesboro Road, Franklin, Tennessee 37064 Mr. and Mrs. Steven George Old Highway 96, Franklin, Tennessee 37064 Mrs. John M. Gibbs 4205 Queen Mary Drive, Olny, Maryland 20832 Mrs. Malcolm M. Gibbs Thompson Station, Tennessee 37179 Gladys Boyd Giles 1305 North J Street, Fort Smith, Arkansas 72091 Mr. and Mrs. Robert T. Glenn 901 Pheasant Run Court, Brentwood, Tennessee 37027 Mrs. Virginia C. Graves 4109 Kennedy Avenue, Nashville, Tennessee 37216 Harry E. Gray, Jr. 801 Del Rio Pike, Apartment K-2, Franklin, Tennessee 37064 Mr. and Mrs. Charles Haffner Owl Hollow Road, Franklin, Tennessee 37064 156

Charles L. Hailey 1920 Rosewood Valley Drive, Brentwood, Tennessee 37027

Mr. and Mrs. Thomas W. Hales 171 Boxwood Drive, Franklin, Tennessee 37064

Mr. and Mrs. Richard H. Hall Old Natchez Trace, Franklin, Tennessee 37064

Sandra Hall Country Road, Franklin, Tennessee 37064 Mrs. Inez W. Harvey 355 Franklin Road, Brentwood, Tennessee 37027

Mrs. Alfred Lee Hathcock 925 Todd Preis Drive, U-403, Nashville, Tennessee 37221 Judy Hayes Route 1, Pope's Chapel Road, Thompson Station, Tennessee 37221 Jennifer U. Hayes 1920 Old Hillsboro Road, Franklin, Tennessee 37064

Joe P. Herbert Route 5, Box 369-A, Franklin, Tennessee 37064

Mrs. Robert Hill Carriage House, Apartment 98-A, 2260 University Boulevard, North Jacksonville, Florida 3221

Robert B. Hicks III Indian Valley Road, Franklin, Tennessee 37064 Joe Mack Hight Route 4, Box 13, Greenbrier, Tennessee 37073

Mrs. Cornelia B. Holland 801 Hillsboro Road, Franklin, Tennessee 37064

Mrs. John Hubbard 10600 United States Highway 42, Prospect, Kentucky 40057 Neverette L. and Mary F. Huffman 612 Shenandoah Drive, Brentwood, Tennessee 37027

Marian Hutchison 1115 Carnton Lane, Franklin, Tennessee 37064

Mrs. B. F. Inman 102 Revere Lane, Franklin, Tennessee 37064 Mrs. M. D. Ingram 100 Basil Court, Franklin, Tennessee 37064 John A. and Myra M. Ishee 710 Shenandoah Drive, Brentwood, Tennessee 37064 Mattye Jackson P. 0. Box 98, Franklin Road, Franklin, Tennessee 37064

Irma Janicek 1602 Fowler, P. 0. Box 151132, Irving, Texas 75015 157

Sharon S. Jennette 446 White Avenue, Henderson, Tennessee 38340 Mrs. Howard E. Johnston 434 Watercress Drive, Franklin, Tennessee 37064 M. Chris Jones 1140 Deerlake Road, Franklin, Tennessee 37064 Donald J. Jones Route 2, Meade Drive, Spring Hill, Tennessee 37174 Howard V. Jones, Jr. 18 Winter Ridge Road, Cedar Falls, Iowa 50613 Hunter Kay Route 4, Stillhouse Hollow Road, Franklin, Tennessee 37064 Howard V. Jones 18 Winter Ridge Road, Cedar Falls, Iowa 50613

Dolores M. Kestner P.O. Box 524, Berry Chapel Road, Route 7, Franklin, Tennessee 37064 Mr. and Mrs. George A. Kinnard 4215 Harding Road, Apartment 1110, Nashville, Tennessee 37205 Annette Knoblock 3106 Tanglewood Drive, Greenville, North Carolina 27858 Deanna M. Kordik 1141 North 42nd Street, Lincoln, Nebraska 68503

Ed Ladd Cox Road, Arrington, Tennessee 37014 Mr. and Mrs. David M. Lassiter Route 1, Osburn Road, Arrington, Tennessee 37014 Mr. and Mrs. John F. Lee Beech Creek Road, Brentwood, Tennessee 37027 Miss Ammie Lauri Leech 412 Fifth Street South, Apartment 1, Columbus, Mississippi 39701 Mr. and Mrs. John T. Lester Route 10, Mallory Station Road, Franklin, Tennessee 37064 T. Vance Little Route 1, Brentwood, Tennessee 37027 Mrs. John R. Lyle . 1421 Eastland Avenue, Nashville, Tennessee 37206 Mrs. W. C. Magli Sneed Road, Franklin, Tennessee 37064 Mrs. Clyde Middleton 6636 Whittmore Lane, Antioch, Tennessee 37013 Mrs. Milbrey Mahan 4058 Old Hillsboro Road, Franklin, Tennessee 37064 158

Mr. and Mrs. Herman E. Major 2305 Hillsboro Road, Franklin, Tennessee 37064 Ronny W. Mangrum Route 1, Peytonsville Road, Franklin, Tennessee 37064

Hal Manier Route 2, College Grove, Tennessee 37046 Mrs. M. P. Maxwell 1304 Parker Place, Brentwood, Tennessee 37027 Elizabeth M. Mayfield Fischer Court, Brentwood, Tennessee 37027 Mr. and Mrs. Robin Pierce Miller • 640 Durrett Drive, Nashville, Tennessee 37211 Jane M. Montague P. 0. Box 733, Franklin, Tennessee 37065-0733

Joanne Cullom Moore Corona Frenchman's Bayou, Arkansas 72338 General and Mrs. William G. Moore, Jr. 932 West Main Street, Franklin, Tennessee 37064

Miss Ann Moran Old Natchez Trace, Franklin, Tennessee 37064

Jeff Moran 13906 Hummingbird Circle, Choctaw, Oklahoma- 73020

Edward Glen Morton 8555 North Candlewood Loop, Tucson, Arizona 85708 Mrs. Marie P. Moseley 323 Backusburg Road, Mayfield, Kentucky 42066 Mr. and Mrs. D. M. Muir 205 Foxwood Lane, Franklin, Tennessee 37064 Miss Katherine Murray 3013 New Natchez Trace, Nashville, Tennessee 37215 Mr. and Mrs. James McCanless P. 0. Box 214, Route 1, Nolensville, Tennessee 37135 Miss Tennie McGhee 107 Lancaster Drive, Franklin, Tennessee 37064 Louis B. McMillan Route 6, Old Highway 96, Franklin, Tennessee 37064 Gene McNeil 122 Trace End Drive, Franklin, Tennessee 37064 Mrs. Clyde Middleton 6636 Whittemore Lane, Antioch, Tennessee 37013 Mr. and Mrs. Ralph E. Naylor P. 0. Box 294, 815 Murfreesboro Road, Franklin, Tennessee 37064 Mr. and Mrs. Alma P. Newman 217 Boxwood Drive, Franklin, Tennessee 37064 Callie Lillie Owen 9207 Old Smyrna Road, Brentwood, Tennessee 37027 159

Mrs. Eloise C. North 1115 Carnton Lane, Franklin, Tennessee 37064 Paul B. Ogilvie 1139 Carnton Lane, Franklin, Tennessee 37064 Mr. and Mrs. John T. Pigg 6408 Eastbourne Drive, Brentwood, Tennessee 37027

Mrs. Joe Pinkerton 105 Tarragon Court, Franklin, Tennessee 37064

Mrs. Dan Plattsmier 308 Albert Circle, Franklin, Tennessee i37064 Mary Herbert Pope 933 Brentwood Pointe, Brentwood, Tennessee 37027

Mr. and Mrs. W. D. Potts 921 Fair Street, Franklin, Tennessee 37064 Miss Joyce Poynor Route 8, Box 269, Columbia, Tennessee 38401

C. D. Rader 70032 Irving Drive, Edwardsburg, Michigan 49112 Mrs. E. M. Ragsdale 907 Mercer Court, Columbia, Tennessee 38401 Mrs. Thelma H. Richardson 1812 Hillsboro Road, Franklin, Tennessee 37064 Mr. and Mrs. Robert Ring 1240 Moran Road, Franklin, Tennessee 37064

Mrs. A. Battle Rodes 6610 Hillsboro Road, Brentwood, Tennessee 37027 Jo Sharp Ryden 2088 Old Hillsboro Road, Franklin, Tennessee 37064

Mae Sanders Coleman Road, Franklin, Tennessee 37064 Anita M. Reyna 410 Church Street, Franklin, Tennessee 37064 Mrs. G. T. Sanford, Jr. Walnut Grove Farm, Nolensville, Tennessee 37135 Mr. and Mrs. William R. Sawyer 6401 Panorama Drive, Brentwood, Tennessee 37027 Mr. and Mrs. Barry Scales P. 0. Box 216, Eagleyille, Tennessee 37060 Mr. and Mrs. Robert Schmidt 1417 Adams Avenue, Franklin, Tennessee 37064 Mrs. C. Harry Scott 107 Lancaster Drive, Franklin, Tennessee 37064 Dr. B. Q. Scruggs 4228 Old Leeds Lane, Birmingham, Alabama 35213 160

Mr. and Mrs. Robert E. Shelhart 1304 Ashby Drive, Brentwood, Tennessee 37027 Mrs. Cletus J. Sickler 325 Jeb Stuart Drive, Franklin, Tennessee 37064 Mrs. Mary A. Sims 2510 West Fern Street, Tampa, Florida 33614

Mrs. L. T. Sinclair 136 Fourth Avenue South, Franklin, Tennessee 37064 Evelyn Smith 302 Ridgeway Drive, Lawton, Oklahoma 73505 Mr. and Mrs. Virgil T. Stallings Route 1, Osburn Road, Arrington, Tennessee 37014 Mrs. Fred Sweeney Route 4, Boyd Mill Pike, Franklin, Tennessee 37064 Peter and Paula Lloyd Taylor 1538 Mooreland Boulevard, Brentwood, Tennessee 37027

Mrs. Jane C. Trabue 214 Fourth Avenue South, Franklin, Tennessee 37064 Katharine S. Trickey Route 1, Box 790, College Grove, Tennessee 37046

Mrs. Earline Tille 14418 Sindywood, Houston, Texas 77079

Mr. and Mrs. Gert Utham 244 First Avenue South, Ftanklin, Tennessee 37064

Mrs. James M. Warnock Box 54-S-2 Hahce Road, Port Republic, Maryland 20676

Richard and Elaine Warwick McMillan Road, Franklin, Teririessee 37064 Mr. and Mrs. James B. White 1293 Waddell Hollow Road, Franklin, Tennessee 37064 Mr. and Mrs. R. L. White 686 Kittrell Road, Franklin, Tennessee 37064

Mrs. John H. Whitfield 1051/2 Carroll Avenue, Waverly, Tennessee 37185 Mrs. Mary Jo Moran Whitefield 115 Boxwood Drive, Franklin, Tennessee 37064

Elizabeth Alford Williams 734 Mayer Street, Greenville, Mississippi 38701 Mr. and Mrs. Larry D. Williams 6355 Panorama Drive, Brentwood, Tennessee 37027

Mrs. John U. Wilson 212 Vaughns Gap Road, Nashville, Tennessee 37205 161

Mrs. George B. Woodring Route 1, Brentwood, Tennessee 37027 Mrs. W. R. Young Route 8, Box 148, Manley Lane, Brentwood, Tennessee 37027

NEW MEMBERS

Charles Baker 6305 Ramsgate Court, Brentwood, Tennessee 37027 Walter and Derry Carlisle P. 0. Box 67, Franklin, Tennessee 37065-0067 Mary Evins 109 Seventh Avenue North, Franklin, Tennessee 37064 Beverly E. Field 2094 Sunnyside Drive, Brentwood, Tennessee 37027 Radney and Mary Springs Foster Route 4, Indian Valley Road, Franklin, Tennessee 37064 Mrs. Joe Long 120 Glencourt, 615 Bellemeade Boulevard, Nashville, Tennessee H. L. Meacham 4214 Hillsboro Road, Nashville, Tennessee 37215 Calli'e Lillie Owen 9217 Old Smyrna Road, Brentwood, Tennessee 37027

E. D. Rader 70032 Irving Drive, Edwardsburg, Michigan 49112 Mrs. Earline Tille 14418 Sindywood Drive, Houston, Texas 77079 Mrs. Miriam Yarbrough 500 Hillsboro Road, Apartment 6-7, Nashville, Tennessee 37215 James and Judith Auer Boxley Valley Road, Franklin, Tennessee 37064 Mary Frances Marlin Adams Street, Franklin, Tennessee 37064 162

INDEX

Adams - Absalom 59; Gen. John 15 Britt - James A. 7 Africanes - Cyrus 104 Brittain - John 141 Aldridge - Nancy 29 Brock - Elizabeth 108 Alexander - Louise 51, 52; Brown - 66; Caswell 103; Mr. & Mrs. Earl 50, 51, Joel 59; W. L. 33 52, 53, 61; Will 52, 61 Bullock - 10 Allen - 59; George R. 33 Burke - Anson 130, 131, Allison - J. T. 25 134; Charles Anson 133; Alston - John 102 Hubbard 130; Jack 130; Anderson - Mary Trim 59; John 130; John Anson Neil 52, 53, 61, 62 131; Martha Irvin 130; Andrews - M. L. 29 Mrs. John Anson 132, Armstrong - Mr. 76 133; Ransom 130; Atwood - 9 Rhoda 130; Sam 130, 131; Samuel 141; T. Bailey - Susan 29 H. 131; Thomas 132; Banowsky - Bill 61 Thomas H. 130; Tom Barham - William P. 118 130; W. C. 131; Barr - Catherine 29 Walter 133 Barron - Jim 54 Burr - William 34 Bate - William B. 146 Burton - Wayne 60 Bateman - 112; Henry 115 Byrd - Thomas 148 Baugh - Daniel 105 Baxter - Batsell Barrett 52 Cahal - Terry H. 146 Beale (Beal) - George L. 34; Calhoun - Hall 51, 54 Richard 108 Callender - 59 Bell - Dwight 54 Cameron - Ewing 8 Benton - Jesse 10; Sis. 48; Campbell - 59; Alexander Thomas 8, 10; Thomas 40, 60; James M. 32 Hart 120, 121 Cannon - Edgar Brown 64; Berry - C. R. 146 Newton 10, 64, 102; Biddix - 146 William Perkins 64 Bittick - Samuel 141, 144 Cantrell - Sarah 138 Blackman - H. 143; John 123 Carlisle - Merle Marlin 92, Blackwood - J. T. 32 93, 99; Mr. & Mrs. Boles - H. Leo 49, 54, 55, 56 Walter, Jr. 17, 19, Bolton - James 117; Mrs. 117 20, 21, 22, 24; Walter Bond - John 102 Oscar, Sr. 17, 21 Bostic - John 102 Carmichael - 141 Bowman - Virginia 76 Carroll - General 8 Boxley - Jarred 119, 120 Carsey - Eugene A. 32; Boyd - Abner 107; George G. 108; Thomas 139 Mr. 7 Carter - Cbl. 15; Elizabeth Bradley - Elizabeth 91; Ella 91; Poynor 29; Fountain Lealand J. Ill; Robert H. 7; Fountain Branch 13; 112; Thomas 102 Moscow, Sr. 13 Bransford - Samuel W. 32 Casement - Col. John S. 15 Breckenridge - 66 Cater - M. E. 87; M. Brickell - Matthias 63; W. (Moses) 86 Rachel Noailles 63 Cato - Harriett 81; Levin Briggs - 9 76, 77, 80, 81, 86; 163

Cato (cont'd.) - Martha 76; Cunningham - Rev. A. N. 7 Mary 79; Mary Ophelia Curry - J. T. 34 79, 81; Mary Sicley 79; Moses 76, 77, 79, 80, Dale - Dorothy Boyd 79 81, 82, 85; Ophelia 76, Davis - Burke 135; 77, 79, 80, 82, 83, 84 Constantine W. 127; Cayce - Miss Sallie 10 Douglas 37, 38; James Chaddick - Bro. W. D. 25 146; Jefferson 131; Chapman - Mrs. Nan Rodgers 1 Mary 113; Mrs. 131; Charron - Jim 81, 83 Nell 37; Norman 103; Cheek - J. B. 33 Sam 1, 4, 5, 6 Cherry - W. D. 32 Davy - Wilson 104 Childress - William 10 Demonbrum - Charity 90 Clack - Mary 111 DeMoss - Harriett 79 Clark - Dr. William M. 132, Dempsey - 8 143 Denton - 10 Claud - Amanda 113 Dibbrell - Gen. 66 Cleburne - Gen. Patrick R. 15 Dickerson - Dr. 9 Clem - Mr. 8 Dillard - Joe 107; Joel Cochrane - Dr. 9 108 Cocke - John 146 Dorris - C. E. W. 49 Coldren - Frederick G. 68; Douglas - Dorris 113; Lula Cox 69 Dorris Callicott 129 Coleman - 146; Golden 93 Doyle - A. N. 33; Michael Collier - W. J. 34 117; Mrs. 119 Collins - 59; Willard 37 Duff - Hughes 10 Connelly - Larry 62; Marlin 55 Eaton - John H. 9 Cook - 59 Echols - 112 Corn - Mr. 9 Edmiston - 82; Mary Cotham - Perry B. 62 Sicley (Sisley) 77, Cottrell - Danny 62 86; Maj, William 77 Covington - J. W. 135 Edmondson - John 110; Cowles - Jesse 106 Samuel W. 108, 109, Cox - Bessie 69; Caleb 65; 110 Carter 66, 69; Dr. 96; Eelbeck - John G. 118 Edward 69; Gen. Jacob Elam - E. A. 49 D. 15; Imogene 66, 67; Evans - Ann 113 Lulu 66, 68; Marie Gordon Ewing - Alexander 107; 69; Mary 67, 68; Mary Dr. Alexander 8, 10; Minerva 65; N. N. 66; Lucinda 107 Nancy 65; Nicholas Ezell - Miss 125 Nichol 65, 66, 67, 68, 69; Parmenio E. 66, 67, Fanhey - Thomas A. 89 68 Fanning - Charlotte Fall "Crabb - 67 40; Tolbert 40, 41, Craig - Daniel 105; 0. T. 59 42, 44, 59, 60 Crawford - Azariah T. 32 Faw - W. W. 12 Crawley - Ben 104 Fergus - Dr. James 139 Crockett - J. H. 133 Figures - Norfleet 8 Croft - George 53 Fishburn - Mary Meacham 99 Crosby - Levi 117 Fisher - T. B. 34 Crouch - Mr. 10 Flippen - Willie 91 Crutcher - L. H. 113 Floyd - Harvey 55 Cullum - Ed Neeley 62 Forrest - Gen. 66, 140 164

Foster - Douglas 59, 62? Hargrove - Robert K. 34 Robert 8 Harper - Susanna 107 Fowler - Martha 53, 55, 56; Harris - Cory 10; Frances Mrs. Robert 55 82; George 82; Rev. Fowlkes - Charlotte Jane Jesse H. 27; Wallis 140; H. P. 12 103 Fox - Bryant 92, 96 Harrison - Dick 133; Franklin - Elizabeth 103 Joel S. 33 Freeman - Ann 56, 61 Harwell - Coleman 32 Freetly - Dean 55 Hatcher - J. W. 32 Fry - Joe 10 Hay - John 139; William 139 Fuqua - Judah 88; Nancy 88 Henderson - Col. Thomas 8; Dr. 10; Dr. Samuel Gant - John 103 124; Hannah 118; J. Gardner - William 104 H. 12; Robert 110 Garrett - 61; Leroy 40, 54, Henry - Carl 20 . . 59 Herbert - Alice 68; Dr. Gentry - Dr. 8; Susie 130, Robert Nathaniel 114; 135 Mary 135 German -8, 9 Hickman - Frank M. 32; Gibel - Henry 24 William P. 32 Gilbreath - Mr. 7 Hill - Green 123, 124; Gooch - David 141, 143 Henry R. W. 105; Goodrum - Daniel 107, 108 J. W. 34; Jimmy 104 Gordon - Bessie 69; Marie Hillard - T. Earl 33 69; Mrs. 7 Hinson - James G. 32 Gourley - Joe 54 Hogan - Henry D. 32 Graves - William Henry 103 Holt - 115 Gray - David J. 108, 110 Hooper - Robert 40, 59, 60, Greeley - 66 62 Green - 142; A. L. P. Horton - A. W. 29, 32, 34; James 146; James J. 33; Mr. 7 144; Madison 143, 144; House - Gladys Marlin 92, Sherwood 102, 140 99 Griffin - Nathaniel 105, 106 Howington - Arthur F. 129 Grundy - Felix 8 Howlett - Dr. 9; K. S. 12 Guthrie - 82 Hughes - David 27; Dr. 8; George. 4; John 124; Hadley - Joshua 104 John F. 34; Mrs. David Haggard - Edmund 140 27 Hall - B. F. 40; S. H. 49 Hunt - E. G. S. Ill Ham - John, Jr. 27; Hunter - 131; Erma 135; Thomas 26 James M. 25; Robert Hamlet - Byrd 130, 141 S. 32 Hammond - Tyler 84 Hammons - C. E. 33 Irvin (.Irvine) - 132; Hammrick - Max 54 Rev. Wesley 29 Hampton - 146 Irwin - Willie 132 Hanner - Dr. 10; James 7; James P. 12; John W. 34 Jackson - Bro. 48; Gen. Hardeman - N. B. 52; Nicholas Andrew 8, 9, 77; J. P. 107, 108 L. 54; Leonard 50; Harding - James 44, 49 W. L. 34 Hardison - Mary Addie 93; Jamison - Jacob 106; James Mrs. Joe 93 106; Lucy 106; Marshall 105, 106 165

Jefferson - 3 Little (Lytle) - Archibald Jenkins - 142, 144; Donald 102; Robin 53; T. 54; Dr. 144; Elmer Vance 72, 129; Vance Sherwood 140; Green 131; 27 James Sherwood 148; Locke - Margaret Jones 96, Jeremiah 131; Jim 140; 99; Mrs. 96; T. W. 29 Joe 143; Louis 131; Locklear - Maj. 104; Nora Burke 133; Sabina 104 Sherwood 140 Long - Ron 54 Jennings - Lewis T. S. 108 Lotz - Albert 15 Job (Jobe) - Dee 4, 5, 6; Love - Joseph 107 Dewitt Smith 140 Lovett - John 140 Johnson - 148; Andrew 132; Loyd - Dennis 55 Benjamin 141; Charles Luster - Percy J. 32 141; Felix W. 33; James Lynch - Louise G. 101, 129 141; Littleberry 146; Lloyd 54 McAlaster - Martha Cato 76, Johnston - George 50, 51; 77 Lancelot 46 McCabe - Mr. 8 Jolley - C. N. 33 McCampbell - Mr. 9 Jones -G. W. 33; John 92; McClanahan - Earl Berry 81; John Harding 72; Joseph Earl, Jr. 80; Frank (Joe) 96; Mary Sneed 72, Cato 81, 83, 85; 73, 74; Pat 86; Sims 132 katherine Reid 81; Jordan - William 102 Lee 84; Lee Bullock 81; Mary Ophelia Cato Karr - James 10 85, 87; Mary Sicley Keith - Myron 62 81; Nellie Austin 87; Kemp - Anthono 8 Ola 83; Ophelia Cato Kerby - T. A. 34 81, 82, 83, 84, 85; Kerce - Robert 62 Thomas Edward 81, Kidd - Benjamin 141; Wash 140; 87; Tom 84; William William G. 141 Byrd 81, 82, 83, 85 King - 119; Henry 125 McClaran - David 105 Knight - Ed 127 McConnel - 119 Knights of Pythias - 17, McConnico - Burkett 10; 19, 24 Garner 139; Lafayette Koelz - Johnny 27 10 Kuykendall - Louisa 111; McCord - Newt, Jr. 138 W. Y. 49 McCorkle - D. E. 12 McCormack - Edward Michael Lamb - Davis 131; Gilbert H. 129 131; Hanna 133; Irene McCowan - Alexander 7; 133; Mary Evans 131; Wilson 8 Nancy 133; Sercy 133 McCurdy - John M. 32 Lampkin - J. H. 25 McDaniel - 10 Lane - 66; Mrs. Billy 148 McDavid - 59 Lazenby - Jim 83 McDonald - Duncan 84 Ledbetter - Henry S. 32 McDonough - James Lee 62 Lemmer - Otto 73 McEwen - John B. 16, 106; Lesley - Pleasant Homer 105 John L.124 Lewis - Benjamin 89 McFarlin - B. H. 141 Lillie - Theodore 54 McFerrin - John A. 34 Lincoln - 126 McGavock - James 107; Lipscomb - David 40, 42, 43, Lucinda 107; Mrs. 44, 59, 60; Granville 49; Ed 9, 10; Randall William 40, 49 107 166

Mclnteer - Jim Bill 54 Mosely (Moseley) - Fred McKay - John 0. 103; John 54; William 104 P, 115 Moss - 117 McKee - Ann 139 Moulton - 59 McKennie - Ella Hughes 1, Mulherin - James 141 6 Murfree - Hardy 63, 64; McNeel - 89 Mary Moore 63; McPhail - Angus 7 William 63; William McPherson - J. M. 25., 26, Law 64 27 Murry (Murray) (Maury) McQuiddy - J. C. 49 (Murrey) - 141; Abram 102; Mr. 7; Madison - 3 Nellie 95; R. D. 146 Major - Lula Fain 76 Maney - Gen. George 9; Neely - 132; Isaac 144 Judge 9 Nichols - George 7, 9, Manson - J. A. 146 10; Jack 8; John 8, Margaret - Princess 73 105; Mrs. Jack 7 Marlin - Bertha Davis 92, Nicholson - Howell 10 93; Carrol 93; Clifford Nolan (Nolen) - 148; 92, 93; Daisy 92; Anne Simmons 138; Davis 92, 93; Finis Annie 139; Auslum 138; Cowsert 92; Freddie Belinda 138; Caroline 93; Jeff 92, 93; Lucy 138; David 140; Sparkman 92; Mattie 92; Delia C. 138; Emily Mrs. Jeff 92; Odia 92; 138; Frances 138, Rena 92; Wilburn 93 141; Gen. Lee 138; Marr - Sarah Perkins 121 Green 138; John 138, Marshall - 10; Col. James 139, 140, 143, 146; 113; John 121; Park 129 Littleberry 139, Martin - P. T. 32 140; Mrs. Rebecca H. Matthews - A. C. 33 27; Nancy 138; Sallie Mayberry - Hunter 8 138; Sarah Cantrell Mayhew - Carroll C. 28 138; Sarah W. 138; Mayfield Elizabeth Stephen 138, 146; McClanahan 86 William, Jr. 138, Mays - A. Z. 33 146; William, Sr. Meacham - Alex 92, 94, 96; 137, 138, 139, 141, Hardin 99 143; Zebulon 138 Meador - Prentice, Jr. 54, North - Abram 102; Elisha 61 110; Isham 110; Mary Merritt - Rebecca Fain 91 A. 110 Milam - Lee 55 Norton - Herman A. 59 Miller - Allen 33; John W. 106 O'Brien - Dr. 9; Miss Mitchell - 146 Fannie 9 Monroe - 3 Ogilvie - A. S. 137 Montgomery - Mrs. William 21 Opdycke - Col. Emersen 15 Mooney - W. D. 13 Ostnne - D. F, 32 Moore - H, R. 59; Henry 0. 32; Owen (Owens) - Callie Matthew 117 Lilly 71, 74; Constant Moran - Sam, Jr. 82 Sneed 71; James 46, Morel - Julius 84 47, 51; James C. 42; Morton - John 144; Samuel 102, Lilly Wilson 71; 141 Nathan 66 167

Ozburn - 146 Poynor (Poiner) - Ewin 94; Hasty 29; James Page - 96; John 141 29; Jerry 94, 95, 97; Palmore - 132 Mrs. W. T. 94, 95, Panky - Tom 10 97, 98; Thomas 95; Park (Parks) - Dr. 10; W. D. 95, 97; W. T. James 106; John S. 10; 92, 94, 95, 97, 98 Norman 62 Presley - Mrs. Leister E. Parker - Earl C. 33; 129 Keith 60; Tirri 148 Pryor - Green 113, 129; Parkes - 8; Joe 19, 20, 21 Peter 113, 129 Patton — James 107; Margaret Puryear - Matilda 102 107 Peach - Pink 92; S. B. Rader - Eugene 94 29; Sally 29; W. S. 33 Ragsdale - 118, 119 Pearson - Gary 55 Raiford - Capt. Robert Perkins - 9, 115; Agatha 104 Susan 64; Aggatha Rainey. - John 52, 54 Sally 112; Charles Rains - Wilford H. 90 103; Constantine 111; Ransom - R. P. . 34 Daniel 102; Margaret Ray - John 146 . Ann 112; Marguerite 64; Reagin - John R. 32 Mary Elizabeth 111; Reams - H. B. 34 Mary Malvina 111; Bedford - Clyde 91; Mary Thomas 111; Elizabeth 91; Nicholas 102, 110, 121; Margaret Elizabeth Nicholas Edwin 112; 91; Mary Ellen 91; Nicholas T. 102; Peter Matthew Thomas 91; 112; Philip Gasper William Benjamin 91 Stever 111; Samuel 64; Redmond - 59; Mary 127 Thomas F. 125; Thomas Reed (Reid) - D. T. 33; .H. 102, 111, 119, 120; A. T. 46; R. C. 33 Thomas Harden 111; Reese - 20; Will 20 Thomas Z. H. Ill; Renegar - G. W. 71; Mary William O'Neal 111 Sue Owen 71, 74 Petway - Hinch 7 Reynolds - Pryor 103 Phenix - Henry 141 Rhea - Ben 127 - Phillips - Don 54 Richardson - Cecil 54; . .. Pittman - S. P. 49, 50, 56 Gladys 51, 61; Mr". Pitts - Miss Sophia 20, 21 & Mrs. Sam 50, 51.,. Plunkett - 8 52, 61; Mrs. 8;. Mrs. Pointer - 10 R. N. 9; S. L. 47, . Polk - William 10 59; Samuel L. 46 PomerOy - Allie 143; Nettie Ricks - W. B. 34 143; Sam 143 " Riggs - Adam S..34 Pope -Dr. 9; Rev. John 63 Ritchie - Andy T. 49 Poucher - Wayne 52, 53, 54, Roberts - Anna Elizabeth 61 91; Anna M. 88, 90; Powell - Dr. 9; J. M. 5|4, Benjamin 88, 89, 90; 59; Jane 135; Phoebe Elizabeth B. 88, 89; 122 Elizabeth Bradley 91; Poynor (Poiner) - 59; i^nie J. C. 33; John L. 88, Pearl 94; Catherine 29; 89, 90; Judah F. 88; Charles M. 29; Clifton Margaret 91; Mary 94; Dewey 94, 95, 96, Berry 91; Mary R. 90; 97, 99; Eliza 29; Mr. 68; Nancy 88, 89, 168

Roberts {cent'd.) - Simmons - John 89; Thomas Nancy (cont'd.) 90; 141 Nancy A. 90; Nancy W. Sinclair - 117 88; Rebecca Mai 91; Skelly (Skelley) - Manerva Sally C. 88, 89; Sol 123; William 123 Flippen 91; Thomas 90; Slater - David 62 Thomas H. 88, 89, 90; SIayden - Mary 65 Thomas Herbert 91; Smith - 146; Antionette Walter A. 12; William 113; F. W. 49; Jay Richard 88, 89, 90, 91; 56, 57; John 140; William Richard II 91; Mr. 7; Mr. & Mrs. William Richard III Reece 68; Thomas 91; William Thomas 90, Benton 140; Wallace 91; Willie Flippen 91 J. 145 Robinson - 132; Herbert 54; Smithson - M. F. 59 Richard W. 106; Tom 7 Sneed - Alexander Ewing Rochelle - B. J. 33 70; Alice 71; Bethenia Rodes - Mrs. A. Battle 1 Mae 73; Bethenia Rogers - Parker 104 Perkins 70, 73; Roney - Harold 62 Charles E. 74; Ross - Ferris 103 Constance Ellis 73; Rountree - C. S. 113 Constantine 70; Dr. Rozelle - Mr. 8 William 70; James 70, Rushing - Duncan 54 71, 72, 73; John 72; Russell - G. W. 32; John W. 144; Kittle Pleasant 122 74; Mary 72, 73, Russewurm (Russworm) - 74; Samuel 71; Thomas Jno. L. 90; John S. Lawson 74; William 104 Temple 70 Soloman - Moses 104 Samples - Mr. 7 Sowell - 34; F. C. 49 Sampson - David 55, 62 Spears - Chug 97 Sanders - Preacher 8, 10 Spurlock - J. B. 33 Sangster - 59; R. B. 46 Squires - Mr. 8 Sappington - Dr. 8 St. Charles - 82 Savage - Malcolm 53 Stevens (Stephens] - 146; Sawrie - William D. F. 34 Claude 133, 135; Sawyer - Bob 84 Hannah Lamb 131; J. Scales - 115; William 141 R. 33; John Page 133; Schofield - Gen. John M. 15 Rebecca 113, 114 Schott - Kenneth 55 Stith - Dr. 9 Scoby - J. E. 49, 60 Stockett - Joseph 102; Scott - 59; Juda 106; Joseph H. 105 Sanders 106; Walter 60 Stone - B. F. 32; Charlie Scruggs - Katherine 135 10; Hendley 102, I Seawright - George 9 108, 113; Mr. 10; Seay - H. W. 34 William 108 ;-/f:/. /. -1. • Sewell - E. G. 40, 42, 47, Stovall - Barth 140. 60; Elisha G. 42, 43, 44, Stowe - J. J. 34 46 Stroop - J. Ridley 50 Sharpe (Sharp) - Antony 8; Stuart - Judge Thomas 122 it" Mr. & Mrs. Vernon 67 Sullivan - Zach 33 w Shaub - Roy 54 Jr- Sumner - George Washington t ff"- Sheffield - Celia 29 117; Jethro 140; Shepherd - J. W. 43 Julie 104; Phillip 104; Thomas E. 104 / :■: - )V'> /:i '

/ ■ 169

Button - Joseph R. 65 Wheeler - Gen. 140 Swang - Axel 54 Wheller - Heniry C. 32 Swanson - James 108 White - Benjamin (Ben) Sweeny - Gerdy 97 8; Epa 130; Holland Syrgley - F. B. 43, 49, 9 60; F. D. 49 Whitesell - V. M. 54 Whitfield - Dr. Matt 9 Tansil - Tom 137 Williams - 146; Allie Tappen - Dr. 10 Pomeroy 143; Daniel Taylor - Rick 55 73; Green 10; James Tenniswood - 119 141, 146; Mr. 144; Terrill - Mrs. Ella 9 Rosa 148; Thomas 103; Thomas - Jeff 92; John Turner 73 107, 108 Willingham - Edmund 59 Thompson - F. L. 32; Willis - Harry 104 Jason 140; John 127; Wilson - 67; Carolyn 59; John R. 32 Frank 142, 144; James Tisdale - John 106 102; James Hazard - Todd - James 141 II 68; John 102; Toon - James 114; Robert 9 Peggy 144 Trimble - R. B. 59 Winstead - H. -W. 144; Tucker - H. C. 32 Samuel 115 Tulloss (Tullos) - Alice Woods (Wood),- John T. Herbert 69; Fannie 67; Johnson 112 , German 67; Imogene Wright - Will 124, 125 67, 68; John D. 67; Wyatt - Martha 76; Maj. John E. 67; Nicholas Thomas S. 117 Cox 68, 69; Rodham 89 Tune - Sara 135 Young - Prudence 123; Tupios - Rodham 117 R. A. 34 Turner - Gordon H. "59; Jackson il4; John 114 Zellner - H. 59 Vaughn - Elizabeth A. 107; Frances McClanahan 86; Nancy 107 Vernon - Green 141; Mr. 132

Waggoner - 10 Waite - Robert 33 Walden - George 54 Wall - Jollie 97; S. V. 13 Wallace - Foy 56; Foy E., Jr. 54, 55 Waller - Ben 141; Henry 107; John 141 Warren - E. A. 110 Washington - 3 Waters - Mr. 25 Watson - 115; Stanton 9 Watts - Howard 124 Webb - Robert 8 Weiler - Frank Baltish 13 West - Earl 59, 60; Mark 9