Rhonda Kay, The Murfreesboro Post, March 15, 2016
The community as it was when the store was open, with the milk truck
and J.D. walking toward it. Mama is standing on the ground looking toward
the house where my Daddy is with his truck.
Does Possum Trot exist in Rutherford County? Of course it does. We just had the “Possum Trot Community” sign erected. If you head toward Franklin, Tenn., on Highway 96, make a left on Rehobath Road and you’ll run slap dab into it. It’s always been there, but most people who don’t know it like we do, just call it the Patterson community.
According to archived records, there was a short-lived post office just down the road from the old school. And just a little farther down the same road, there was once an old store. It was the main “hub” of Possum Trot, know as “Rich Pate’s Store.” Many of the neighbors came there to buy feed, canned goods, Double Cola in glass bottles, cigarettes and maybe some tools or some hardware. Some of the men would gather and play cards for long hours and enjoy each other’s company. Some of those same men would coon hunt together each Friday night. There was even a gasoline pump at the store as well. Many a time, I walked or rode my bicycle to the store to get something for Mama or Daddy.
Every place was within walking distance from each other. The post office, the school, the church and the store. Possum Trot School, which was built in 1878, was where many of the neighbors actually attended school before it shut down in 1896. But today, everyone in that particular area attends Eagleville School. Bill Pate was the bus driver for the 12 straight years I attended school. I hear he was even earlier than that, and possibly dropped off kids at the old Possum Trot School before it closed in 1953. His wife, Georgia Lee, was the best math teacher ever. Bill Pate had milk cows, from which he sold milk to the Murfreesboro Milk Company. Mr. J. D. Yeargan drove the milk truck to haul the milk to town each day. Richard Vaughn was his helper with driving the milk truck to Murfreesboro.
Rich Pate’s store after the gas pumps were gone and he passed away. Years later, it burned down.
The U. S. Post Office is gone. To my knowledge there are no pictures of it, only records showing that mail came on horseback from Murfreesboro to the Possum Trot Post Office. It didn’t stay in existence long because Eagleville and College Grove both had post offices. The post office stayed long enough, however, to become a part of the history of Possum Trot.
The Patterson Baptist Church is still in existence and has several members. Magnus Snell and her husband,Ed, lived next to the church for years. She played piano for services there until she passed away. Ed would help local farmers on their farms however he could be needed. Both were great friends and neighbors to everyone.
All the neighbors helped each other. The main crop for years was tobacco. We all had vegetable gardens, and we shared our harvest. We all hauled hay together and helped drive cows to put back in the lots when they got out. We played our own music outside under the stars at night. Our mothers or grandmothers made our clothes. We made our own sausage and we took our own cows to be slaughtered for beef. Owen Layne was a great help hauling the cows in his large truck. He ran “Layne’s Grocery” on Highway 96, near the Bill Rice Ranch. In Possum Trot, you never had to call first to go for a visit with your neighbors; dropping in was OK. Everyone was on the same “party line” at the Triune Telephone Exchange. Living in Possum Trot was a perfect way of life.
My daddy, Hiram Braswell, worked 35 years for a man who owned several hundred acres and lots of cattle in Possum Trot. James R. Harrell and his family still own property there today. He is now in his 90s and is loved and respected by many in the area. He and his wife, Usie, had two children, Anita and Mack.
Richard “Mack” Harrell recently wrote a song about our Possum Trot community. I had the pleasure of recording the song earlier this month. It holds a special meaning to me and I’m grateful to Mack for writing it and allowing me to sing it. He has written many other good songs as well.
So many have gone on now, but we all remember our neighbors who lived there. Their last names are worth mentioning because they kept Possum Trot alive: King, Patterson, Pate, Jones, Anderson, Braswell, Hewett, Spain, Hill, Floyd, Morris, Jordon, Vaughn, Morris, Walls and McPeak are some, and there are others. What great memories we have of all of them. I go often and enjoy going back in time over and over again.
Yes, Possum Trot does exist, and now we have the sign to show those who pass through or stop for a visit. It will always be a special place to those who once lived there and those who are still living there and call it “home”.
I truly believe in keeping the history of the old communities alive. Sometimes it has to be by telling stories, like I have to my children when they were little. But as time keeps passing away, the older generations are surely going to pass on too. Then who will tell those stories? It’s left up to each generation to tell their story about a place that once was a “happening” place to be. That’s why I am telling this story today about a place that means so much to me.