Brian Wilson, Daily News Journal, January 29, 2015
The Readyville Mills is the home of Goodness Gracious at the Mill. The Mill is still used to grind both corn and wheat. (HELEN COMER/DNJ)
READYVILLE – The 13-mile move from Murfreesboro seemed short enough for Goodness Gracious restaurant owner Karen Ford.
But three years after she and her husband moved to a historic Readyville home, turned it into The Corners at the River event space and eventually moved her longtime Murfreesboro eatery to the Readyville Mill, she said the community split between Rutherford and Cannon counties could be a rural destination onto itself.
“It seems like you’re 10 minutes away from the big city, but you’re lightyears away as well,” Ford said.
The Fords’ move to Readyville provide two of the newest businesses in a community that longtime residents said is managing to stay afloat.
The 56-year-old said she moved out to Readyville for the rural peace and natural beauty of the area.
“It’s worth coming out here for,” Ford said. “It’s a place to disconnect. It really is.”
It’s been decades since people have had to drive through the little town to get to Woodbury, said Russell Reed, who has lived near in and around Readyville for all of his life and owns Russell’s Market since the 80’s with his wife Mary.
Helen Comer, DNJ
“A lot of people don’t know where Readyville is anymore,” Reed said.
The drop in traffic, however, didn’t prove fatal for several of the businesses along Murfreesboro Road. The Reeds’ gas station is placed between the town’s post office and beauty salon with a lumber company winding down the old Memphis-Bristol Highway.
Russell Reed said the Readyville Mill, renovated by Tomm Brady from a state of disrepair, proved to be a boon to the town after it reopened in 2009.
“That’ll keep it going for a lot more years,” Reed, a Cannon County Commissioner, said. “That was mighty nice of him to do that.”
Brady sold the mill and restaurant to Ford about 10 months ago, and Goodness Gracious soon reopened in the space for breakfast and lunch on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays. The family operates a catering business out of the same location.
Ford was quick to credit the former mill owner for having the vision to come to Readyville and restore and eventually expand the facility on the edge of the east fork of the Stones River.
She said the mill can prove to be a destination spot for old and new customers who have to make more of an effort to make it out to eat.
“People come who want to talk a little bit and want to learn a little bit more,” she said.
Those customers can learn about the community from her or the Reeds, whom she describes as the “anchor of the community,” or about the historic mill where her son Eric Ford operates modern corn and flour mills.
He took a few weeks to learn how to work the corn and grain mills before the mill was sold and now produces the flour and grits used in the restaurant.
With an increasing number of contracts, it’s an added responsibility he’s more than happy to take.
“I don’t wake up at two or three in the morning to do a job I don’t care about,” he said.
That passion provided added sense of energy into the Readyville community — one Russell Reed said tries to “keep plugging along.”
As his wife Mary Reed walked back into the market, he asked her whether the description was fair for the town.
“We’re hanging in there,” she replied.
Contact Brian Wilson at 615-278-5165 or [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter @brianwilson17.