Preserve and Promote OUR local history!
Lack of Private Funds Ended Murfreesboro Hospital Plans
March 5, Greg Tucker,, The Rutherford County Historical Society With funding from the philanthropic Commonwealth Fund, the first hospital in Rutherford County opened in 1927, but the Rutherford Hospital facility was not the first planned for Murfreesboro. A private venture in 1911, Murfreesboro Hospital Company, may have been abandoned for…
A short story about the life of Henry Tecumseh Linebaugh
March 4, 2020, The Froe Chips, Mike J. Liles Henry Tecumseh Linebaugh died in Tampa, Florida December 17, 1943 at the age of 78. At the time of his death he was living in an eighteen room house on five acres of land on the northern outskirts of Tampa at…
Murfreesboro Mayors: 31-35
March 3, 2020, A Series by Barry Lamb Reed, Robert Donnell was born on May 3, 1832 in Rutherford County to James and Eleanor Rankin Reed. His paternal grandparents were Revolutionary War soldier John Nash Reed and Mary Barksdale Reed, who came to the Jefferson area of Rutherford County from…
Stickney and Griffis Drug Store
March 3, 2020, March/April Froe Chips, written by Richard Stickney My Grandfather, Richard H. Stickney, was a pharmacist and a chemist. He had a Drug Store on the square for sixty years. He made medications. He had shelves of chemicals and liquids. He also knew the history of each medicine…
Hillcrest, also known as, The Crest
March 3, 2020, March/April Froe Chips, written and researched by Barry Lamb “It was in this home, with its red brick walls and tall white columns, that five hundred persons attended what has been called the ‘most beautiful wedding celebration ever held in Murfreesboro’.” These words, written by Mary Boddie…
Ransom School House Offers Historical Conversations
February 27, 2020, Lee Rennick, The Rutherford Source On Saturdays at the old Ransom School House, history is not dull facts memorized from a school book, but it is a provocative conversation about stories of people and events that have passed. The same people and events that laid the foundation…
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…
Ridge School House, 1850
RIDGE SCHOOL HOUSE. On February 11, 1850, William C. Coleman and James Smith deeded one acre of land to William F. Coleman, Thomas Bennett, E. C. Jobe, James Coleman, J. L. Dickie, and W. H. Allen. The land was on the east boundary of W.C. Coleman. There was a free…
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…
Milton Seminary (aka Milton Academy), 1857-1956
MILTON SEMINARY or MILTON MALE AND FEMALE SEMINARY 1857-1956 is shown on the Beers Map of 1878. It was on the northeast corner of State Road 96 and the North Milton Road. By 1850 William Byrn, Green Byrn, and Enoch Jones contracted with the Rev. Jared Warren, a Baptist preacher…