Preserve and Promote OUR local history!
Sam Davis Home in Smyrna approved to sell land as ‘last resort’ to fund maintenance
February 26, 2020 Nancy DeGennaro, The Daily News Journal The Tennessee Historical Commission has approved a waiver that will allow the Sam Davis Memorial Association to sell a 4-acre parcel of farmland owned by the historic Sam Davis Home in Smyrna. Sam Davis Home Director Jenny Lamb said the proceeds…
Battle of Stones River: The Harding House and the Brick Kiln
2004 Stones River National Battlefield, Historic Resource Study The Harding House present at the time of the battle was a two-story log structure located near the Wilkinson Pike. This was the home of Giles Scales Harding and Mary Hollowell Blackman Harding and their family. Prior to the war, the Hardings…
Rupert Smith of Murfreesboro was an Acclaimed Vanderbilt Football Player
February 24, 2020, Susan Harber, The Daily News Journal Talented Rutherford County athletes have played Vanderbilt football since the end of the 19th century, and they have offered supreme contributions to the sport and success of the team. Rupert McAdoo Smith (January 28, 1897-August 28, 1959) of Murfreesboro was one…
City Café serves up 120 years of down-home dining
February 21, 2020, Jason Reynolds, The Murfreesboro Post (Photography credit Frank Caperton) On Feb. 10, 1900, President William McKinley was running for a second term and Spanish-American War hero Theodore Roosevelt was only one of several contenders to run as his vice presidential partner. In other news on that date,…
Murfreesboro Storytellers (February, 2020) – African American Heritage Society of Rutherford County
February 1, 2020, Murfreesboro City TV Host John Hood interviews members of the African American Heritage Society of Rutherford County. The program was shot at the Bradley Academy Museum and Cultural Center.
New development preserves history downtown
February 19, 2020, Jason Reynolds, The Murfreesboro Post The Murfreesboro Planning Commission on Wednesday scheduled a public hearing to convert the old Franklin Synergy Bank downtown into a mixed-use development with a hotel, parking garage, residences and more. The project named One East College, will redevelop the bank building while…
True Blue Pioneers: First African American Athletes Honored
February 14, 2020, Michael Linn White, Murfreesboro City TV MTSU’s first African American Athletes were honored at a special event on campus. These trailblazing former students discussed what it was like to be a minority in the 1960’s and how their time at MTSU impacted not only them, but the…
Battle of Stones River: The Cowan House
2004 Stones River National Battlefield, Historic Resource Study The Cowan House was a substantial brick structure surrounded by wooden piling or stockade fences with several outbuildings. The 1860 census indicated that the prosperous farm family of Varner D. and Susan B. Cowan occupied this home. By 1860, most of this…
Murfreesboro Mayors: 26-30
February 1, 2019, A Series by Barry Lamb Palmer, Joseph Benjamin was born on November 1, 1825 in Rutherford County to William H. and Mildred Johns Palmer. The mother died when Palmer was a child and he was raised by his maternal grandparents, Joseph B. and Elizabeth Vaughan Johns, who…
Memories of Mom and Old Jefferson
January/February Froe Chips, Written by Susan Harber As with so much of life, familial bonds are the essence of our time on this earth, in which some humans live well beyond a span of 100 years. The small core of kin is our ultimate heartfelt circle, whom we affiliate our…
Battle of Stones River: The Widow Burris House
2004 Stones River National Battlefield, Historic Resource Study The Widow Burris House is located on Asbury Lane, a rural road that intersects the Nashville Pike. During the 1860s, Asbury Lane was an unpaved dirt road providing access for a few farms to the Nashville Pike. Census records indicate that in…
The Carney-Elliott-Anderson-Ransom-Ewing-Batey Mansion (In memory of the two story brick mansion once located on the 500 block of North Spring Street)
January/February Froe Chips, Researched and written by Barry Lamb A notice in the October 6, 1932 edition of the Daily News Journal piqued the curiosity of this writer. The notice stated that a two story home was constructed during the 1840s by Ed Arnold and was the former home of…
1986-87 Riverdale High School Warriors basketball Team
November 12, 1986, The Daily News Journal Front row from the left are John Dietrich, Ivie Burns, Rob Gardner and Joey Richardson. Back row from left are Tim Corder, James Sweeney, Brian Melton and Tim Williams.
1986 Salesman of the year – Tom Beckwith!
‘The Square’
January/February 2020, Froe Chips by Richard Stickney I was raised on the Square. I was just a kid, but that world belonged to me. I knew every alley and every secret that men kept. I knew who went where and why. I remember walking out of the Princess Theater when…
Melvin Scarlett was Dynamic MTSU President
January 20, 2020, Susan Harber, The Daily News Journal The name ‘Scarlett’ has a Norman French origin and is a surname for ‘seller and dyer of rich, red expensive escarlate cloth.’ The first recorded spelling was derived from William Scarlet of Staffordshire (1185) in the Templar Records of England. Many…
Alfred Miller Home
January 15, 2020, Renee Duke Miller Alfred Miller built this house on the corner of College and Academy Streets in Murfreesboro. Photo source: O.E. Camp Photo – 1930-1939 The walls of the three-story red brick are 14″ thick with a foundation of stone. There are two chimneys on each side…
La Vergne Academy, 1893-1900
LA VERGNE ACADEMY 1893-Nov. 1, 1900 was just south of the railway overpass and across the road from the LA VERGNE PREPARATORY SCHOOL FOR BOYS. It was near the site of the Christian Church which is shown on the 1878 Beers Map. The property was bounded on the north by…
La Vergne School (Black), 1877-1884
LA VERGNE SCHOOL BLACK 1920’s-l952 was on a dirt lane which ran south of La Vergne and was between and parallel to the present Buster Mason and Waldron Roads. The lane is no longer there. The school was a one-room weatherboarded building. Grades taught were one through eight. Teachers were…
Jarman Farm in Lascassas is a Historical Landmark in Tennessee
December 30, 2019, Susan Harber, The Daily News Journal The name Jarman has a pre-9th Century Old French origin and is interpreted in Latin as the baptismal name ‘Germanus’ or German. In ancient history, Jarman was first recorded in a family crest in Suffolk, England before the Norman Conquest of…