As published by the Daily News Journal, Greg Tucker, Sunday, August 12, 2012
Andrew L. Todd, “A head taller than others, he wore a white, Panama hat … (and) tipped his hat to every lady… He was always outgoing, greets everyone.”
Andrew Lee Todd (1872-1945) put Middle Tennessee Normal (now Middle Tennessee State University) on the east side of Murfreesboro and put himself in the middle of the resulting development.
Todd was born and raised on a modest farm near Rucker, a railroad community in south Rutherford. A capable student, he graduated from Southwestern Baptist University (now Union University in Jackson) and taught in the public schools for several years before enrolling at the University of the South (Sewanee) to study law. One source reports that Todd was for a time the principal for Wartrace High School.
In 1900 he graduated from the Cumberland University School of Law (Lebanon) and began his law practice in Murfreesboro.
According to a presentation to the 2008 meeting of the “Todd Cousins,” Todd’s Murfreesboro law practice “was successful from the start.” In his practice he apparently developed a client relationship with Thomas Harrison, an aggressive Rutherford note trader, lender and land developer.
Todd’s physical appearance and demeanor were the equal of his intellect, according to several accounts. “A head taller than others,” remembered Joe Davidson, his barber. “He wore a white, Panama hat … (and) tipped his hat to every lady … He was always outgoing, greets everyone.”
Soon after initiating his law practice, Todd was elected superintendent of the Rutherford County school system. In 1905, he was appointed by Gov. James Frazier to the Tennessee State Board of Education. By 1909, he was serving both as assistant state superintendent of education and as chairman of the Tennessee Textbook Commission.
Todd was a central figure in drafting and promoting the1909 General Education Bill, which called for establishment of a “normal school” to train white public school teachers in each of the state’s three grand divisions. (A school for black “agricultural and industrial” teachers was to be established near Nashville.) Following enactment, Todd became one of three committee members appointed to recommend locations for the new normal schools.
Although other possible locations were identified and considered, Todd’s home county was chosen as the site for the Middle Tennessee school. The actual site within the county, however, remained an open question pending recommendations to the State Education Board from a second selection committee.
Todd was not a voting member of this second committee, but was asked to be the committee’s host when potential Rutherford sites were inspected. By the time of the committee visit, the choice of sites had narrowed to two properties near Murfreesboro.
One was the Keeble homestead, a large tract south of the city and west of the Murfreesboro-to-Shelbyville turnpike. The second was a tract owned by Thomas Harrison and Joe Black beyond the eastern city boundary between the Murfreesboro-to-Woodbury and Halls Hill turnpikes.
According to Homer Pittard’s 1961 history of Middle Tennessee State College, the Keeble proponents were aggressive and had “conducted a private campaign by letters to the Board and by personal contacts.” As a result, the Board was “somewhat favorable” to the Keeble site. Todd, however, according to Pittard, manipulated the visit in favor of the Harrison-Black property.
“Loading the Board into his Lincoln, Todd pulled out from his law office, circled the square, and began the descent down Maple Street into the Bottoms … the most deplorable assortment of hovels and dilapidated structures for a town of comparable size anywhere … South Maple Street was one avenue to the Keeble property … there were others, of course. The Lincoln eased through the litter and flood water that stood in the streets … In silence the Board members viewed the unpainted shacks, the gapers on the porches, and the half-clad children splashing in the water.”
By the time the car climbed out of the Bottoms, according to Pittard, the board representatives had no further interest in property “depending upon the approach just traveled … not conducive to the best interests of a new normal school.” After a quick ride back through the Bottoms, through the square and out to the farm lands east of the city, the Harrison-Black property was chosen.
Why did Todd deliberately manipulate the selection process in favor of the Harrison-Black property? Rutherford County deed records provide some insight.
The Harrison-Black partnership owned not only the site for the new school, but also all surrounding property extending from what is now the vacant hospital site to the east side of today’s university campus. In their 1910 deed transferring property to the State Board of Education, Harrison and Black specified that roads and other infrastructure would be built at public expense to facilitate private development.
In August 1914, the Harrison-Black Subdivision, dramatically changing the size, shape and future of Murfreesboro, was registered with the county.
It included 239 residential lots filling the area between the new campus, East Main and the Lascassas Pike (now Greenland Avenue). [See “Rutherford…for Real,” (2011), pages 61-65.]
On Dec. 10, 1914, the partnership filed a deed transferring to A. L. Todd 18 prime residential lots and 35 acres on the north side of Halls Hill Pike. The deed was signed by Harrison and Black three months before registration of their subdivision. Todd’s cash investment in the development was $20,000, mostly in deferred payments spread over five-years.
Todd built his own home on Lot 4, on the northwest corner of East Main and the new boulevard. His holdings included all lots facing East Main and five lots facing the boulevard behind his home.
Other lots included 525 feet of boulevard frontage and 280 feet of street frontage on the north side of the subdivision, plus 35 acres on the north boundary of the normal campus.
Greg Tucker can be reached at [email protected]
Please click here for an excellent video produced by MTSU for the history of Todd Hall and the man after whom it is named.