Susan Daniel, Rutherford County Historical Society, September, 2016 In the spring of 1779 Robertson and a small party of Wataugans, traveled to a site along the Cumberland River known as French Lick. There they selected a suitable location for a new settlement. Late that same year, Robertson returned with a group of men…
Susan Harber, The Daily News Journal, August 13, 2016 Lights! Camera! Action! Today’s story centers on glamour, sophistication and the lure of Hollywood. Lascassas was home to one of the greatest character actors to grace the big screen. This performer was cast by his original name, John Pickard, and attained…
Susan Harber, Daily News Journal, July 17, 2016 “Take what you have and make what you want” is my favorite all-time phrase for community, workplace and family. These famed words were the anthem of acclaimed principal Anderson D. Washington and can be viewed on the Hilltop Park Trail today. Smyrna…
Susan Harber, Daily News Journal, Sunday, July 31, 2016 Jess Claiborne Neely, a Smyrna sports legend, was born January 4, 1898, to William and Mary Gooch Neely. Jess was the grandson of John Gooch, a farmer and breeder of thoroughbred horses at Goochland. John was well-known and highly respected as…
Nancy De Gennaro, Daily News Journal, June 19, 2016 MURFREESBORO — To hear John Oldham and Frances Victory talk about their first meeting is almost like listening to teenagers. With his arm wrapped around her tightly, he grinned from ear to ear as she spoke. She giggled as they shared…
Susan Harber, Daily News Journal, June 19, 2016 Bennett Smith is not a proverbial name to historians, yet this pioneering settler shaped our Rutherford County of today. Smith was a man of strengths and weaknesses and was definitely rough-hewn and unpolished as a wealthy and influential leader. Maj. Smith was…
Susan Harber, The Daily News Journal, June 5, 2016 General Barksdale Drive in Smyrna is a longstanding homage to a man of local heritage, who has been portrayed in the films ‘Gettysburg’ and ‘Gods and Generals’. William Barksdale Sr (1778-1834) and Nancy Lester, immigrants from England, gave life to a…
Greg Tucker, Murfreesboro Post, May 17, 2016 According to Southern vernacular, if you can fire a shotgun through an open front door and the pellets pass through one or more interior doorways and out the back door, hitting nothing, it’s a “shotgun house.” The most common domestic construction in the…
Susan Harber, The Daily News Journal, May 8, 2016 I have always been fascinated by quilting as an artistic expression in Rutherford County. Both my grandmother Emily Johns and great-grandmother Helen Johns of Smyrna hand-quilted all of their lives. The historical value of these treasures is highly valued as a…
It was a memorable affair and dalliance of his youth, rekindled 57 years later. While serving in the military in Germany in the mid-1950s, young John “Bubba” Woodfin, III became infatuated with a bright blue British import. “It was a 1956 MGA at a new car dealership in Frankfurt,” explains…