Bryant Grove Historical Marker Rededicated, June 18, 2011
Long hunter State Park, July 18, 2011 A special ceremony was held at Long Hunter State Park on Saturday, June 18, to rededicate the newly located Sherrod Bryant Tennessee Historical Marker. Bryant (1781-1854) was a farmer who settled in an area that later became known as Bryant Grove and is…
Recognizing History: Long Hunter State Park
Dan Whittle, Murfreesboro Post, June 19, 2011 Significant Tennessee history was unveiled Saturday, June 18, when Friends of Long Hunter State Park held a ceremony to unveil a Tennessee State Historical Marker honoring the life of pre-Civil War free black Sherrod Bryant, namesake of Bryant’s Grove who owned slaves. Bryant’s…
Experience a day in the life of a Union soldier at the Battlefield
The Murfreesboro Post, June 14, 2011 The gates of Stones River National Battlefield will open at 4:45 a.m. Saturday, June 18 giving the public a chance to experience the start of a typical day for soldiers in the Union Army of the Cumberland. Members of the Ninth Kentucky Infantry, USA…
Taverns, Bars and Juke Joints
Greg Tucker, The Daily News Journal, June 12, 2011 By the middle of the 20th century, Rutherford County was widely recognized as a mid-south transportation center. A directory from the era observed: “From Murfreesboro, heavily traveled federal and state highways spread out in eight directions. Buses and freight trucks arrive…
Dr. ‘Seat Belt’ Oral History, April 20, 2004
Dr. Robert Grayson, MD, American Academy of Pediatrics, April 20, 2004 This most wonderful interview can be downloaded as a PDF file at www.aap.org/en-us/about-the-aap/Pediatric-History-Center/Documents/Sanders.pdf Interviewed by Robert Grayson, MD, April 20, 2004, Murfreesboro, Tennessee This interview was supported by donations from the following institutions and individuals: Phyllis F. Agran, MD, MPH, FAAP Marilyn J. Bull,…
Tennessee Waltzed in, then out of Union
As published by the Daily News Journal, Sunday, June 5, 2011 By Jonathan Fagan “All we ask is to be let alone,” said Jefferson Davis, February 18, 1861 upon delivering his inaugural address as President of the Confederate States of America from the portico of the Alabama Capitol in Montgomery. …
Historic Farm Venue for The Summer Party
MURFREESBORO, DNJ — From the second-floor picture window of the historic Tarpley home in Walter Hill, Bev MacSherry looked out toward West Jefferson Pike and said, “Can’t you just see those Civil War soldiers, battered and weary, trudging that path?” Indeed, it isn’t hard to imagine. The view is authentic,…
Lamplighter’s tackles war crimes in new drama
The Murfreesboro Post, May 31, 2011 Set against the turbulent, raw-edged backdrop of the American Civil War, The Andersonville Trial is a striking courtroom drama that is just as relevant today as it was when the real trial was being conducted in 1865. Saul Levitt based his play on the…
Lamplighter’s tackles war crimes in new drama
As published in the Murfreesboro Post, May 31, 2011 Set against the turbulent, raw-edged backdrop of the American Civil War, The Andersonville Trial is a striking courtroom drama that is just as relevant today as it was when the real trial was being conducted in 1865. Saul Levitt based his…
From Vietnam to Blue Angels, retired Navy admiral Jimmie Taylor at home in sky
May 29, 2011, Taylor Loyal, The Daily news Journal Growing up in Rutherford County in the 1940s and 1950s, Jimmie Taylor always found himself looking up. A banker from Eagleville named Russell Puckett had a J-3 airplane that he would fly right over Taylor’s grandmother’s house off of Shelbyville Highway.…
County Agrees on Courthouse Demolition
As published by the Daily News Journal, Sunday, May 30, 2011 By Greg Tucker, President Rutherford County Historical Society “Now how about a better courthouse,” headlined the Rutherford Courier in April 1937. Focusing on the Depression Era square, the local newspaper observed: “A bare, worn, dusty surface is what we…
Happy Birthday, Murfreesboro!
As published in the Murfreesboro Post, Ashley Guck, Special to the Post, May 29, 2011 Murfreesboro is having a big – really big – birthday party beginning in October. Consider this your personal invitation. In celebration of the city’s bicentennial, the city council is planning a 13-month long string of…
The ‘Unsinkable’ Mary Kate
The Murfreesboro Post, May 29, 2011 Confederate Spy ‘Kate’ Weaved In and Out of Mid-Tenn Union Camps “The Unsinkable Mary Kate” was not a Civil War battle ship. La Vergne resident Mary Kate Patterson, who had the audacity and courage to take on multiple personalities and appearances, is credited with…
Battlefield’s Memorial Day events
The Murfreesboro Post, May 26, 2011 Stones River National Battlefield and Cemetery will hold a series of events to commemorate Memorial Day in 2011. On Saturday May 28 at 10 a.m., local scouting groups are invited to assist in placing flags on more than 7,000 headstones in the Stones River…
City, church grew up in shadow of each other
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…
J.N. Puckett Store, Eagleville, Tennessee
By Don McCord and Bobbie Sue Shelton, ‘Eagville’ At the intersection of Highway 99 and Mt. Pleasant Road (present day) was a community that was established first as ‘Needmore’. There was a general store on the north side of the road opposite the Puckett Store of later years. The grocery…
A Nation Divided—The Quest for Freedom
As published in the Murfreesboro Post, Erin Edgemon, May 18, 2011 A workshop designed to discuss African-American community building in the post-Civil War South will be held Tuesday, May 24, from 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. at the Bradley Academy Museum and Cultural Center located at 415 S. Academy Street…
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…
Civil war sniper rifle on display Tuesday
The Murfreesboro Post, May 9, 2011 A rare public display of a prolific Civil War instrument of death, to wit, a sniper’s rifle is scheduled for 7 p.m., Tuesday at the Rutherford County Court House. Area residents will have an opportunity to view, at no charge, when Circuit Judge Ben…
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.…