Dr. Thomas Jefferson Elam (great grandfather of Ed ‘Sonny‘ Elam) was the surgeon for the 45th Tennessee (Confederate) during the Civil War. After the war he returned to the Rucker Community to continue his medical practice and raise his eight children with wife Elizabeth Snell Elam. He opened the original Elam‘s Mill on the West Fork of the Stones River from 1880 till it was washed away in 1903.
Dr. Elam‘s son, Ed Elam rebuilt the mill in 1904. The mill was sold several times and was last purchased by Avery Clark in 1920. Mr. S.A. Maples purchased the mill at some point. In 1951 the mill washed away.