High School Frats Focused on Dancing

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…

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Carmack Never found his Place of Purpose

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.…

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Fan’s Laughed at his Name, Liked his Name

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…

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Sgt. York’s son recalls humble hero of war

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…

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Stone’s River: ‘History Channel’ before television

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…

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Yankee Captain Found Opportunity Here

As published by the Daily news Journal, Sunday, February 20, 2011 By Greg Tucker, [email protected] 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…

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Genteel lifestyle depended on ‘Duskies’

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…

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Memoirs Portray Rutherford Lifestyles in the 1900’s

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…

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Macon’s Traveled Divergent Paths

As published by the Daily News Journal, Sunday, January 9, 2011 By Greg Tucker, President Rutherford County Historical Society The legendary David Harrison Macon (1870-1952), a Rutherford County icon known far and wide as Uncle Dave Macon, was the first “full-blown star” of WSM’s Grand Ole Opry. He also fathered…

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