MATERIAL CULTURE AS A PRIMARY SOURCE FOR UNDERSTANDING BEDFORD COUNTY, TENNESSEE IN THE CIVIL WAR ERA Amanda Jane Townes A dissertation presented to the Graduate Faculty of Middle Tennessee State University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy December 2011 UMI Number: 3506849 All rights reserved INFORMATION TO ALL USERS The quality of this reproduction is dependent on the quality of the copy submitted. In the unlikely event that the author did not send a complete manuscript and there are missing pages, these will be noted. Also, if material had to be removed, a note will indicate the deletion. UMI 3506849 Copyright 2012 by ProQuest LLC. All rights reserved. This edition of the work is protected against unauthorized copying under Title 17, United States Code. ProQuest LLC. 789 East Eisenhower Parkway P.O. Box 1346 Ann Arbor, Ml 48106-1346 MATERIAL CULTURE AS A PRIMARY SOURCE FOR UNDERSTANDING BEDFORD COUNTY, TENNESSEE IN THE CIVIL WAR ERA Amanda Jane Townes APPROVED: v ^PD// 5. fm^Qi^A^&z^ Date 4A> Macv S. Hoffschwelle, Ph.D., Chair *? A/aw ZJP// Date Lynr^A. Nelson, Ph.D., Reader ^-^-v*^ Date % NOV L6 11 Leslie N. Sharp, Ph.D., Readej^-—" ~Z> Date 7 /»»/ ZLof / Date 8&/JGJ- 3*i>. it, Ph.D., Chair, Reader ~~ Date Michael D. Allen, Ph.D., Dean of Graduate Studies To Martha Stackhouse Grafton who lived life-long learning and would enjoy this ACKNOWLEDGMENTS Universities are full of professors, but occasionally a graduate student gets lucky and finds teachers. I have been exceptionally lucky in the composition of my dissertation committee. The members of my committee are all skilled historians and innate teachers who share a concern that I master not only my chosen subject, but the craft of history as well. If I accomplished that in any degree, it is to their credit. Any shortcomings are mine and are in spite of their efforts. My first and lasting thanks are to Dr. Mary Hoffschwelle, the chair of my committee, who accepted an unknown student for directed study and wound up with a multi-year obligation. From directed study, to class, to dissertation, her guidance improved my proficiency as a historian and interpreter of material culture. Dr. Hoffschwelle's patience and support beyond her job description made my completion of the dissertation possible. As I began work on my dissertation, Dr. Lynn Nelson's comments helped organize my thinking on some critical points. Particularly helpful was his caution to remember the land in cultural landscapes. I am grateful for his advice to consider the land first, rather than starting with man- made alterations. From it, I gained insights on how natural features influenced the cultural landscapes I studied. Class projects for Dr. Leslie Sharp when she taught at MTSU were early germs of ideas for this dissertation. As a teacher, she did not require agreement with her thinking or with that of "authorities" if contrariness was supported with sound argument. My approach to the analysis of material culture in this dissertation benefited from that open-mindedness and ii from her teaching that buildings are more than a collection of features, that they have meanings connected to their surroundings and to the activities associated with them. I am extremely grateful for her willingness to serve on my committee after her move to Georgia Tech. Dr. Van West asked the first question that launched this dissertation. Learning my interest was Bedford County where gaps exist in public records, he encouraged my idea of using other sources including material culture. I am grateful for his help with information on objects and sites and for his yard sale find that became my key resource for Bedford County's history. Although not a member of my dissertation committee, Dr. Antoinette van Zelm is a teacher who guided my early identification of resources available for a study of Bedford County. I am grateful for her help and scholarly example as my mentor in a professional residency in Public History, and I thank the Tennessee Civil War National Heritage Area and the Center for Historic Preservation at Middle Tennessee State University for sponsoring my residency. The support of Middle Tennessee State University through a Provost's Dissertation Writing Fellowship encouraged and hastened the completion of my dissertation. I am grateful for that institutional support and for the support of colleagues in the university's Ph.D. Program in Public History, particularly the long-running encouragement from fellow Guinea Pigs Dr. Brian Hackett and Dr. Tara White. To locate the extant Civil War era material culture resources of Bedford County, I cast a wide net. It brought many people into my project. Some were iii colleagues, some friends; many were strangers until they answered a question in an unexpected phone call or email, or invited me to see their homes or private collections. I am grateful to all of them for their courtesy, help, and shared enthusiasm for history and material culture. Some particularly large debts are to: Don Ball for his generous response to a cold call, many follow-up emails and phone conversations, for sharing copies of his published and unpublished work relevant to my subject, and for his encouragement to a stranger with a big job; Joe D. Brooks III for his uncommon generosity with his unpublished research on Duck River, and for a great deal of time spent instructing me on local mills and industrial history; Mary Ella Burke for her time and for the use of publications on the Civil War from her personal library; Jerry Wayne Cook who graciously fielded many questions and took the time to share his extensive knowledge of local history in long conversations; Tom Huffman who shared information from his personal collection, patiently responded to questions, and provided valuable references to other collectors of local material culture; Dick Hulan for his overall expertise in material culture, his help with Bedford County objects in particular, and for valuable referrals to other collectors; Ralph McBride for access to his collection of historical images of Bedford County, and for information he provided on early schools, and histories of lot ownership in Shelbyville; Donna Sepull for her constant enthusiasm for my work, for unlimited access to Lucretia Eakin's house, and for early images she located of the house in its original form. Doug Murphy, Roby Cogswell, and Paul Cross responded to inquiries that aided my iv understanding of the Duck River and the county's architecture. Jennifer C. Core of the Tennessee Sampler Survey provided images of Bedford County samplers and key information on them. Collectors of images and artifacts shared their material culture of the Civil War era, and hospitable homeowners and guides to sites made the cultural landscape accessible to me. I am very grateful for the hospitality and help of: Elsie Bell, Stephen Caine, Milbrey Nance Campbell, Holty Caperton, Ike Farrar, Joe Farrar, Bob Finney, Vivia Fletcher, Lauren Hayes, Jean Howe, Normanda Huffman and Sally D. Huffman Hunt, Elaine Huffman Mann, Geraldine and Howard Phillips, Dwight Smith, and Peter Whalen. Several institutions provided valuable help during my dissertation research. I am in debt to the Argie Cooper Public Library for locating and providing access to many necessary sources that were not in the library's collection. Pat Hastings made several acquisitions of sources with Bedford County material for the library. My research would have been much more difficult without Betty Fox's persistence and success in obtaining inter-library loans of needed materials. At a critical stage in research requiring internet access, the staffs of Grafton Library and the Computer Information Services at Mary Baldwin College arranged for my online user privileges during a stay on campus. I greatly appreciate the help of the library and CIS staffers who assisted me with the daily complications of making stranger hardware work through security firewalls. In numerous trips to the Tennessee State Library and Archives, many staffers there v were extremely helpful locating resources I thought might exist but for which I did not have a name or a reference to a collection. Their patience with odd questions and their ability to come up with the right sources are both admired and appreciated. Ron Westphal, Curator of Science and Technology at the Tennessee State Museum, provided access to artifacts of Civil War era Bedford County. Every historical researcher working on Bedford County, Tennessee stands on the shoulders of Helen and Tim Marsh. I used their articles, maps, and transcriptions of primary sources. Without their comprehensive work on the county's cemeteries, my analysis of graveyards would not have been possible. Without their foresight and preservation efforts, gravemarkers and county documents critical to my work might not have been available for use. I am both grateful for and in awe of the scope of their work. Without understanding what I've been doing, or why I've been doing it, friends and family have put up with my work and many inconveniences to their lives. I am extremely grateful to them. Linda Fly politely listened to more historical minutiae than any non-historian can enjoy, identified my first tollgate house and only gravehouse, and provided company on river float trips. Because my brother and sister-in-law Dan and Natalie Townes, nephews Daniel Townes, Jeffrey Townes, Travis Townes, Ben Townes, Andy Townes and niece-in-law Becca Townes have had Civil War era Bedford County with meals for years and refrained from asking "So what?" they have my thanks. My greatest outstanding vi debt is to my parents, George Townes and the late Katherine Townes, who were inconvenienced more than anyone by the time I spent working on this dissertation.