Preserve and Promote OUR local history!
History buried too long

April 7, 2021, Tayla Courage, The Murfreesboro Post Murfreesboro resident Kenneth Sawyer is raising money to restore the neglected resting place of two Rutherford County families from the Antebellum era buried near his home. Sawyer, an independent truck driver, bought his home in Murfreesboro last August. The day of the…
American Legion Bob Brown Post 16
Ernie Johns, Air Force ROTC Cadet
1970 Map of Smyrna, Tennessee
The McFadden Family Slaves: The story of Hollie McFadden and her family
Robert Lee Jones was First President of Middle Tennessee State Normal School in 1911
Uxor Hill was Renamed Bellwood and Stood Tall as Finest Home in mid-19th century in Murfreesboro
Who was the Rutherford County mortgage innovator?

Frow Chips, March/April, 2021, Greg Tucker, Rutherford County Historian During the first half of the 20th Century, Andrew L. Todd was Rutherford’s most influential businessman, lawyer, educator, farmer, landowner, politician and socialite. See “Rutherford Ramblings” (RCHS 2014), pages 125-8. In or about 1915, Todd developed an innovative proposal to use…
“Unconstitutional” 231 School Had Short History

Frow Chips, March/April, 2021, Greg Tucker, Rutherford County Historian In 1962, eight years after the U. S. Supreme Court unanimously ruled that segregated education was unconstitutional, the Rutherford County school system opened a new segregated school facility on U. S. Highway 231 South. The all black faculty taught black students…
The McFadden-Eagleton-Kerr-Wilson-Spain Place

Researched and by Barry Lamb and Carol White, Froe Chip, March/April, 2021 The impressive Greek Revival style home of William Ralph McFadden, formerly located at 632 East Main Street on western corner of Hancock Street, was built for McFadden and his wife, Clementine Brock McFadden, around 1860. Mr. McFadden was…
Primitive Mills are a Cornerstone to the Heritage of our County
‘It’s beyond time’: Effort underway to honor those enslaved at Murfreesboro’s Oaklands Plantation

March 10, 2021, Nancy DeGennaro, Daily News Journal In a far corner of Evergreen Cemetery on Highland Avenue near Murfreesboro Police Department headquarters is an open field. It’s lumpy in some places where the ground is visibly sunken. Beneath that fertile soil are the unmarked graves of at least 30 people once enslaved…
The House of Aldermen
Researched and Written by Barry Lamb, Froe Chip, January/February, 2021 Many of you aficionados of local history are familiar with the home known as the House of Mayors, located at 500 North Spring Street. It was known by that moniker due to the fact that four Murfreesboro mayors resided in…
President’s Grandpa Spoke his Peace

Greg Tucker, Rutherford County Historian, Froe Chips, January/February, 2021 James K. Polk had some close ties to Rutherford County. He attended school in Murfreesboro in 1814, and in 1824 married Sara Childress, daughter of a prominent Murfreesboro family. Shortly before his marriage, Polk was elected to the Tennessee General Assembly.…
William Holland—Hero of the American Civil War

Carol Berning, RCHS Frow Chips, January/February, 2021 Just outside the Hazen Brigade Cemetery wall at Stones River National Battlefield stand two military grave stones. They mark the resting place of William Holland (1834-1909) and William Harlan (1895-1979). William Holland began his life as a slave. I have created a brief…
Cross Lanes School (Christiana) 1868-1908

CROSS LANES SCHOOL, sometimes called CROSS ROADS and KATY’S ACADEMY f 1. 1868-1908, was located about four miles southeast of Christiana on the south side of Wayside Road at its intersection with Woodfin and Sledge Roads. Judge Tillman Davis Johnson wrote in his “Memoirs”: “During that same period I went…
Big Springs School, 1918-1941
Big Spring School, 1874-1918
BIG SPRING SCHOOL 1874-1918 was two miles east of the Manchester Highway on the south side of Big Spring Road. It was a lower school, just west of the Big Creek and across from the intersection of the present Cobb Road. On March 2, 1874, Wesley Lowe deeded to School…
Big Spring School, 1881-1899
Beech Grove Male and Female Academy, aka Beech Grove College, 1869-c1892

BEECH GROVE MALE AND FEMALE ACADEMY, frequently called BEECH GROVE COLLEGE chartered Dec. 9, 1869-c 1892, was located on College Hill on the north side of Garrison Road about one-half mile east of Beech Grove and the Manchester Highway. The land, overlooking the Garrison Fork, was given by Alfred Jacobs.…