Dan Whittle, The Murfreesboro Post, May 22, 2011 Wartime destruction or devastating tornadoes could not keep the doors shut at Murfreesboro’s historic First Presbyterian Church. Murfreesboro, the name, came before formation of First Presbyterian, but barely. “When Capt. William Lytle donated 60 acres for downtown from the 1,200-acre grant ordered…
As published by the Daily News Journal, Sunday, May 15, 2011 By Greg Tucker, President Rutherford County Historical Society It was about fellowship, but mostly it was the dances. The Epsilon Chapter of Sigma Phi Omega was the first high school fraternity in Rutherford County. The national SPO organization was…
As published by the Daily News Journal, Sunday, May 1, 2011 By Greg Tucker, President Rutherford County Historical Society Edward Ward (“Ned”) Carmack, Jr. was heir to a prominent political legacy. He was also a self-proclaimed killer that no one believed and a businessman with a history of repeated failure.…
As published by the Daily News Journal, Sunday, April 3, 2011 By Greg Tucker, President Rutherford County Historical Society Johnny Beverley Gooch, born November 9, 1897 in Smyrna, was a victim of Murderers’ Row in 1927. In 1942 the government took the family’s historic home. The first Rutherford County native…
As published in the Murfreesboro Post, Ken Beck, April 3, 2011 The most famous soldier of World War I, Tennessee born and bred Sgt. Alvin C. York, was a reluctant fighter and a humble hero. Yet most Volunteer State residents might be surprised to know his most personal legacy was…
As published by the Murfreesboro Post, Sunday, March 6, 2011 By Dan Whittle Want to trace the history of your community? Follow the channel! Middle Tennessee historian Toby Francis recently floated Friends of Long Hunter State Park (nature park preservation group) back in time, tracing the impact of the “Stone’s…
As published by the Daily news Journal, Sunday, February 20, 2011 By Greg Tucker, gregorytucker@bellsouth.net This Yankee came south to quell the rebellion. Seriously wounded at Stones River, he recuperated in a local home. After the war he returned to Rutherford to make it his home. He also made a…
Ken Beck, KBTAG@AOL.com, The Murfreesboro Post, Sunday, February 13, 2011 During World War II in the U.S.A., life on the home front meant ration books, victory gardens and scrap drives, but there was a lot more going on around Murfreesboro. In Rutherford and other nearby counties it meant thousands of…
As published by the Daily News Journal, Sunday, February 6, 2011 By Greg Tucker, President Rutherford County Historical Society There was a vast social distance between the wealthy Rutherford County upper class of the 1900s and the slave descendants of the period, but the practical relationships were close and often…
As published by the Daily News Journal, Sunday, January 23, 2011 By Greg Tucker, President Rutherford County Historical Society Elizabeth Ophelia Howse (Mrs. G. S. Ridley Jr., 1896-1984), at the urging of her children, wrote and published her memoirs in 1960. Despite complaints from a few, her writings give us…