Every Day in Tennessee History
Excerpts for February:
FEBRUARY 1
1825, Nashville. Governor Sam Houston appointed Matthew Fontaine Maury a midshipman in the United States Navy. Maury served in this capacity on a number of ships and had nine years of sea duty to his credit by 1839, when on the return trip from Tennessee to New York a stage accident in Ohio kept him permanently crippled. Abel P. Upshur, President William Tyler's Secretary of the Navy assigned Maury to the Depot of Charts and Instruments in Washington D.C. on July 1, 1842. The "Depot" would evolve into the National Observatory and late the Naval Observatory. His work there consisted of cataloging old log books from which he made observations concerning the currents and depths of the oceans and the prevailing winds. His work helped produce a series of charts which enabled American and European ships' masters to cut their sailing time. Before his charts it took on the average 188 days to sail the outward passage to nearly one-half the time and in some cases even more. During the Civil War he joined the Confederate cause, where he served mostly in Europe. Matthew Fontaine Maury was given the sobriquet "the Pathfinder of the Seas." On May 31, 1946 a bust of Maury was unveiled at the Capitol, during the state's sesquicentennial celebrations.
1888, Nashville. An incident at the editorial offices of the African-American newspaper Free Lance caused a great deal of excitement in Nashville's black community. Julius Cox, a young black man from Louisville and a clerk at the Free Lance some six months, had sent an insulting letter to Miss Annie Ridley, a niece of Mrs. S. Sumner, a leader in the black community. Mrs. Sumner, upon learning Cox was the letter's author, visited the office of the Free Lance on this day and severely whipped Cox with a cowhide. The editor of the paper, J.H. Keeble was out of the office at the time but soon fired Cox who was thought to be headed back to Louisville. Also in Nashville, a battle between the Reverend J.A. Edmonston, pastor of the South Spruce Street (North) Church and the Reverend J.M. Carter, presiding elder of the Middle Tennessee district of the Methodist Church reached the newspapers. Carter, with the backing of church stewards, demanded that Edmonston relinquish his parish because of charges about his behavior, which were considered unbecoming a minister of the gospel. Edmonston refused and in turn charged Carter with spreading slanderous remarks about his character. The matter was to be submitted to an ecclesiastical tribunal.
FEBRUARY 2
1869, Nashville. The Nashville Republican Banner published the official city police statistics for January, 1869. According to the paper there were a total of 389 arrests in January, 68 for assault and battery, 83 for drunkenness, 19 for carrying concealed weapons, 51 for larceny, 42 for using hydrant water without a license, 20 for merchandising without a license, 11 for violations of the market house ordinances, 1 for murder, 3 for highway robbery, and 92 for various miscellaneous petty crimes. 45 of those arrested were born in the United States, 26 in Ireland, 11 in Germany, and 1 each from England, Canada, Sweden, France, and Italy. 61 were married, 228 single, 205 were literate and 184 illiterate. 296 were male, and 93 were female. 55 were laborers, 51 were prostitutes, 31 servants, 22 thieves, 22 soldiers, 17 farmers, 32 housekeepers, 27 merchants, 15 vagrants, and 122 followed undesignated occupations.
1920, Bristol. The Bristol Herald Courier announced that a home town girl, Rosemond Newcomb, of the Hotel Bristol, with her mother and several friends, had completed a journey from their winter home in Jacksonville, Florida, to Duluth, Minnesota. The nearly 3,000 mile journey, according to the Duluth News Tribune, set a record for the longest trip taken in an automobile by a woman.
FEBRUARY 3
1876, Memphis. Victoria Woodhull, radical advocate for equal rights, free love, suffrage, America's first candidate for President and anti-prostitution reformer, spoke to a large and mixed audience. Her topics were "The Human Body the Temple of God," and "Sexual Slavery." She wore a simple but elegant brown dress. According to Ms. Woodhull: "For years women have been held in bondage, a bondage which has brought misery, crime and death. No woman should have to bring into the world an unwanted child. Let there be an end to forced pregnancies, to abortion, to undesired children. Let there be born love children only. This is what will end crime, degradation, and poverty." While her remarks were noble her goal was attained neither in Memphis nor the world.
1915, Crossville. According to the Chronicle Dr. J.S. Anderson, "the negro [sic] doctor who has headquarters in Bristol, passed through Crossville over the T.C. on a special train returning to Kingston." He had been in Nashville to consult with state health authorities about sanitary conditions at his Kingston sanitarium. He had a number of patients with him on the train. One Crossville native brought his invalid daughter to him for a cure and his hospital was very popular in Cumberland County. Dr. Anderson claimed to be a Choctaw and a graduate of the Choctaw Indian Medical College on an island situated some 600 miles from the African Coast. Most of his patients came from Middle and East Tennessee and he was said to make an astounding $250 a day. The special train was rented by Anderson for $670.
FEBRUARY 4
1896, Chattanooga. According to a story in the News there were now a total of 693 telephones in the city, twenty of which had been added in January. There was a battery of eight female operators, one of which had been added in January. Six of the operators worked in the day, and two at night. There were thirty-four stations which could be reached by outside lines, "as large a number as is shown by any city in Tennessee."
1904, Memphis. In response to raids on bordellos, gambling dens and saloons an article in the Memphis Commercial Appeal by Michael Connelly contended: "In very truth had the tenderloin been smothered in the robes of reform and the blaze of lights did not invite to the gilded quarters to sin. The crimson lamp was extinguished at the stroke of 12 and the foolish virgins had no care to tend the wicks. Over all the pink precinct was stillness, stillness, stillness....It is said that the red lights will soon give place to blue, to be in harmony with the spirit of the crusade."
FEBRUARY 5
1852, Memphis. Unionized journeymen printers went on strike. Editors of the Memphis Eagle & Enquirer, not unexpectedly, made it a point to"denounce the so-called 'Typographical Society,'" the journeymen's union that called the strike to obtain higher wages and a shorter work week. Labor unions were being formed in antebellum Memphis.
1864, occupied Nashville. John Wilkes Booth, thespian and the future assassin of Abraham Lincoln, was performing at the Nashville theater on the west side of Cherry street. His characterizations of Cardinal Richlieu and Hamlet received rave reviews. Who knew?
1944, Memphis. The Memphis Press-Scimitar announced that the city had its own prisoner of war camp. Indeed, some 250 Italian soldiers were shuttled up to Memphis from the prison camp in Como, Mississippi. The prison was located at the Memphis Armed Service Forces Depot.
FEBRUARY 6
1796, Knoxville. Tennessee adopted its first constitution as a prelude to statehood.
1892, Knoxville, at 2pm a law student, Hugh Young startled the people on Gay street by firing a pistol in the air. He had been drinking for a few days and while on the street he insulted a Mr. Stare's wife. Mr. Stare, who saw Young's pistol, took it out of the inebriated Young's hand and hit the law student soundly on the jaw with the butt of the pistol, knocking him senseless.. Because Young was well and highly connected it was assumed he had probably suffered enough and would face no further legal complications.
1899, Manila, the Philippines. Private John F. Bright of the 1st Tennessee was with his regiment ordered back to Manila. For the first time the men saw the results of the previous day's battle, homeless Filipinos, the hundreds of dead and near dead. Bright wrote in a letter of the experience: "We had not realized what war was until marching back over the battlefield and viewing the ruin and desolation on all sides."
1962, downtown eateries in Memphis are desegregated. Two years of nonviolent, yet bitter dispute had ended and the Bluff City entered a new era of race relations. It was also demonstrated that the black community didn't require the help of "outside agitators" but could rely upon their own community leaders and unity.
FEBRUARY 7
1885, Nashville. The Nashville Banner, in the midst of a crusade to end the convict lease system and a libel suit which resulted from that effort, published a cartoon accompanied by a poem, "Only a Convict." The cartoon shows a convict stripped of his clothing and held prostrate on the ground by three guards. The fourth guard lashed the convict with a cat-o-nine tails. The poem went like this
Only a convict, placed under the lash
Of the law he has broken only a man
Who suffers for sinning, and who.
thoroughly depraved
Has a body of flesh and a soul to be saved.
But who cares for that?
As he sowed, let him reap.
There's money to make
And his labor is cheap
Then sell him
Enslave him
And damn and degrade
The rings must now grow rich and money to
be made.
Only a convict, bought body and soul;
The price has been paid -- a pitiful dole,
Now work him and task him to the
ultimate strain,
For the harder the work, the greater the gain
Bought body and soul;
The price, thirty cents;
There's money to make - -
Cut down the expense
Half clothe him
Half feed him
But work him always
For out of his body the rich must have
pay
Only a convict, enfeebled and sick!
Do not believe him: 'Tis only a trick.
The knave has no right to be ill or
repine;
In the sweat of his face, the rich men must
drink wine
The coffer and coffin
Both may be filled
So beat him,
And bruise him
With bludgeons and throngs
Neither church nor the state will give
heed to his wrongs.
Only a convict. But what if he dies?
Well, that is no matter for grief or surprise;
For Hell is as sweet as the life he has
led
And convicts come cheap -- get another
instead,
Coin blood into gold
Who cares for the cost?
There's money to make,
Though a soul maybe lost.
Then cut him
Throw his flesh to the hog,
It is only a convict who has died like a
dog.
�
1904, Coal Creek, Anderson County. Sheriff G.W. Moore of Anderson County telegraphed governor James Beriah Frazier that there was a riot at Coal Creek. Three men had been killed and he asked the chief executive to send four companies of militia immediately. "If not here by night" telegraphed the anxious sheriff, "great loss of life will follow. Answer quick." Frazier went there himself and found that the sheriff had greatly exaggerated the difficulties and so the use of military force was not warranted. Order was restored by civil authorities.
1918, Dunlap, Sequatchie County. In order to meet the high demand for coke, the Chattanooga Iron and Coal Company announced the construction 200 new coke ovens in this small coal mining community near the escarpment of the Cumberland Plateau. The move would create jobs and new housing, doubling the population of Dunlap.
FEBRUARY 8
1886, Chattanooga. George Weaver, a printer, was ironhandedly beaten with a cane wielded by his ex-wife on Market Street. There was no report of an arrest.
1921, Bluff City, Sullivan County. Ann Lee Keys Worley became the first woman to serve in the Tennessee Senate. She was elected to fill the unexpired term of her deceased husband, J. Parks Worley. Among the pieces of landmark legislation introduced by Senator Worley and voted into law was the act "removing disabilities from women" which made females eligible to hold any public office in Tennessee She likewise introduced and had passed a law granting an increase of $15.00 per quarter to every Confederate pensioner in the Volunteer State; the Mother's Pension Bill; and the County Highways Bill. She was also designated a number of times by the Senate Speaker to preside over that body's deliberations. She died on May 3, 1961 and is buried in Boswell, Indiana.
FEBRUARY 9
1919, Washington, DC. Henderson, Tennessee, native Sue Shelton White, a radical suffragist, burned President Woodrow Wilson in effigy in front of the White House. Police soon appeared with fire extinguishers to douse the flames. White was arrested but soon rejoined her colleagues at the National Women's Party headquarters and began a national speaking tour advocating women's right to vote.
1926, Memphis. Heavyweight boxing champion "of the universe," Jack Dempsey, who had been visiting in the Bluff City, gave an exhibition bout with his regular sparring partner and three local favorites. All were knocked to the canvas, none lasted more than one round. According to the Memphis Commercial Appeal: "Dempsey hardly knows what pulling a punch is."
FEBRUARY 10
1821, Nashville. An unidentified New York Yankee wrote in his diary about the night life in Nashville. "Cotillions are but little understood and the reel is therefore usually danced. A few of the most dignified ladies retire early but the greater number seemed bent on 'Holding out to tire each other down.' The company danced till a late hour & when their exhilaration had reached its climax, the long loud laugh -- the boisterous stamp of the foot & the velocity of their bolongez [sic] gave me so little pleasure that I retired to bed -- tho' not to sleep 'till they had broken up." He noted further of people in Nashville that "whatever is bad is sure to be attributed to the Yankees -- whatever partakes of knavery, is of course, 'a Yankee trick.'"
1971, Memphis. Pat Boone, the popular love ballad singer from Nashville declared bankruptcy. The fortune he made in the music industry was wiped out by bad real estate investments.
FEBRUARY 11
1886, Memphis. Firemen John Kehoe and Thomas Cox were presented with gold medals from an appreciative citizenry for their bravery and courage.
1890, Memphis, one of thirteen black policemen appointed in 1878 retires from the force and left the Police Department.
FEBRUARY 12
1888, Knoxville. Nine of ten convicts who escaped from the Knox County Workhouse on the 11th were still at large. The ten had used pocket knifes to create a hole in the wooden floor of their barracks and make their escape. All were from East Tennessee counties. A reward of $5.00 each was offered for their return.
1918, Estill Springs. Jim McIlherren, black, was accused of wontedly killing two white men on the morning of the previous day. It was alleged that he shot them both "with no apparent provocation" murdering Jesse Tigert and Pierce Rogers, wounding Frank Tigert. McIlherren fled to McMinnville where he was holed up in a log cabin near the town. The posse found him and waited until daylight on the 12th. McIlherren was taken by train to Estill Springs where a mob of 1,600 took the hapless African-American into their custody. In a bizarre act of mob vindictiveness, McIlherren "was laid on the ground where his victims fell." Then "all the negroes in the community were rounded up and made to pass in review, at the same time being warned that the same fate would be meted out to all others of the race who committed similar crimes." McIlherren was then taken to the home of one of his victims about a quarter mile from town, where speeches were made. The mob was "urged to be orderly but no attempt was made to suppress the plan for the lynching." One of the victims' sisters "addressed the mob and expressed her hate for the negro who had slain her brother." McIlherren was then chained to a tree and tortured with white hot irons in an effort to force a confession. He made no confession, insisting on his innocence. He was then drenched in kerosene and the pyre was lit. He died in about ten minutes. Women and children attended the lynching. This served as entertainment before the advent of television and the movies.
FEBRUARY 13
1836. The Twenty-first General Assembly of Tennessee on this date reiterated its ban against lotteries saying "that all laws which authorized any person or body corporate or politic to draw a lottery for any purpose whatsoever, are hereby repealed."
1882, Maryville. Faculty at Maryville College met with students protesting the admittance of an African-American student into their Animi Cultus Society, even though the by laws stated that any student at the college could become a member. At the meeting a number of students, members of the society, entered the building before any discussion had begun and removed the furniture and other property in the college hall that they claimed belonged to their society.
1896, Humboldt. After two weeks of intense revival effort local Protestant ministers announced that 20 had been converted and 55 backsliders had been reclaimed.
1919, Bristol. Tennessee Ernie Ford was born. One of his most famous hits was "Sixteen Tons."
1960, the first full-scale sit-ins in Nashville were initiated by black college students at Kress's, Woolworth's and McClellan's, all on Fifth Avenue North. The students were from Fisk University, Tennessee A&I, and the American Baptist Theological Seminary. All protesters made small purchases and remained until the lunch counters closed. Their action marks the beginning of non-violent battles of the Civil Rights Movement in Tennessee and the deep South in the 1960s.
FEBRUARY 14
1868, Nashville. Judge Alvin Hawkins, later to be Governor of Tennesse (Republican, 1881-1883) was walking with one of his sons in Edgefield. His son was carrying a loaded pistol in his pocket which accidentally fires and seriously wounded the boy in the leg, barely missing the femoral artery. It was thought the boy would recover in due time.
1882, Maryville. Twenty three of the students who had taken furniture from a Maryville College Hall were suspended from school and the Animi Cultus Society was disbanded.. These students could return, stated faculty negotiators, if they would sign a paper expressing "regret for acts of disorder and insubordination and promising obedience to the authorities of the College." Only two signed the paper.
FEBRUARY 15
1858, Memphis. After the City Council passed an ordinance prohibiting fire companies from pulling their engines to fires on the sidewalks when the streets were muddy, the Memphis Fire Association agreed in a meeting strike and not answer any further alarms until the ordinance was repealed. The Bluff City was left without protection from fire and inasmuch as most of the town's buildings were wooden frame dwellings this was no mild threat.
1862, Fort Donelson, C.S.A. General Gideon J. Pillow enthusiastically telegraphed his commanding officer, General Albert Sydney Johnston: "On the honor of a soldier, the day is ours!" U.S. Army General U.S. Grant thought otherwise. Forces under his command overran and took the fort by 1:00 P.M. on the 16th. Pillow retreated and received a censure from the President of the C.S.A., Jefferson Davis, for letting the fort fall to the enemy. He was given only noncombatant assignments for the duration, such as bringing Confederate deserters back to their units and tracking down draft dodgers.
1987, Nashville. The Tony and Susan Alamo Foundation's church property was put up for sale. The property, at 1202 17th Avenue S. was valued at $80,000. the Tony and Susan Alamo Foundation had been at odds with the government over disputes about church tax exemptions and minimum wage laws.
FEBRUARY 16
1868, Nashville. The working men of Nashville were selling stock to establish a cooperative store, similar to the kind that existed in northern industrial cities. The worker was to purchase as much stock as he could afford and buy his goods at the cooperative store. When the profits were divided at the end of a stated period the stockholder was entitled to a proportion equal to the amount of stock the worker owned. Thereafter, the worker would constantly be paying money into his own pockets while at the same time he reaped the benefits of trade. The cities workers worked together to better their lives, knowing that capitalists would not have their interests at heart.
1918, Chattanooga. W. J. Gladish, of 503 Broad street, announced his plans for a "flying torpedo" were being considered by the War Department. According to Gladish: "Starting from the ground the machine will rise at an angle of 45 degrees to a height of one or two miles and then go straight to the place of the enemy, say a distance of one or two hundred miles, when the motor is cut off and the machine drops to the ground killing the enemy, causing death and destruction over a large area. This machine does not need a pilot. It will go in any direction desired. All you have to do is to get the distance [to the target] set the compass and the flying torpedo will go to the spot, it matters not how hard the wind may blow against it." It may be that Gladish had designed the forerunner to the ballistic missile.
1928, McNairy County, Selmer. Dr. Otis Floyd, the first African American to ever head a university system in Tennessee was born. He was named chancellor of the Board of Regents on June 29, 1990 after being nominated by Governor Ned McWherter. He earned his bachelor's degree in social science from Lane College in Jackson and then began his educational career as a teacher in a one-room school in Purdy, Tennessee. He received a master's at Tennessee State University and a doctorate from Memphis State University. He served also as vice president for administration at Middle Tennessee State University and acting commissioner for education for the Tennessee Department of Education. He died on May 19, 1993 of cardiac arrest.
FEBRUARY 17
1862, Nashville. As news of the surrender of Fort Donelson reached Nashville the city experienced "The Great Panic" as many Confederate officials and sympathizers find discretion the better part of valor and leave the city rather than to stay and defend it against the advancing Union Army. They left on board railroad cars, steamboats, by wagon. and on foot. It wasn't a pretty sight.
1868, Knoxville. The City Council declared it "unlawful for any female of known bad repute to walk the streets of the city of Knoxville for the purposes of soliciting or with intention of attracting attention or notice from the opposite sex after seven o'clock p.m." Apparently such behavior was lawful before 7:00 P.M.
1891, Chattanooga. At about 4:00 P.M. the first trolley of the Chattanooga & Northside Street Railway Company crossed the Walnut Street Bridge. The car was pulled by mules because county authorities forbade the use of electricity to power trolley cars on the bridge.
1960, Knoxville. Students from Knoxville College carried out the first civil rights sit-ins there.
FEBRUARY 18
1858, Memphis. The volunteer fire companies recently on strike ended their action as the city government repealed the hated ordinance prohibiting the use of sidewalks by the numerous fire companies and remitted the fines companies 1 and 4 had earlier received for running on the sidewalks. Thus the volunteer firemen successfully held the city at bay and forced it to agree to their demands.
1926, Jackson. The American "dance mad vogue," the Charleston, came under attack by local Protestant ministers. On Wednesday the 17th, a Charleston dance contest was held which drew people away from Wednesday night religious services. The contest, according to a story in the Memphis Commercial Appeal of February 20, "made theatrical history here, as far as attendance was concerned, as the theater was crowded and lines [formed] down the street on either side" so the management had to hire another nearby theater and have a second Charleston contest. The event caused a "remarkable decline in attendance at midweek prayer services and that this fact brought the matter forcibly to the attention of the ministers."
1943, Oak Ridge. Ground was broken by the Stone & Webster construction company at the "Manhattan Engineering District." The first "Alpha racetrack" building at the Y-12 facility to house Calutrons designed to carry out electromagnetic isotope separation of U-235 which would be used in the first atomic bomb. Eventually, the Y-12 cyclotron near the town of Oak Ridge would produce 268 grade U-235, essential to the ColdWar policy of Mutually Assured Destruction (M.A.D.).
FEBRUARY 19
1892, in Chattanooga the Central Union Hall hosted a speaker, Mr. Hawkins whose topic was "Labor, the King Uncrowned and Why." Inclement weather kept many away. Mr. Hawkins spoke against the Tennessee Convict Lease System, while he urged more workers should pay closer attention to education.
1926, Kenton, Weakley County. According to the Memphis Commercial Appeal of February 20: "The body of Pauline (Armstrong) Smith, prominent actress of New York City, who was killed there [New York] by a fall from the fourteenth story of the Shelton Hotel, reached Kenton this morning." In spite of the blinding snow storm raging scores of friends and relatives were at the train to greet the body. The funeral was held at the Cumberland Presbyterian Church and he internment was held at the "Sunny Side Cemetery."
FEBRUARY 20
1855, Nashville. Hume Fogg Public High School was dedicated today. A huge parade of bands, local officials, fire companies, churches and other organizations led spectators to the dedication ceremonies in Nashville.
1863, occupied Nashville. The original hospital for the insane, built in 1840, burned. It was being used as a hospital for sick and wounded Union soldiers and the entire edifice was destroyed. Some 240 sick and wounded were safely evacuated.
FEBRUARY 20
1893, Charlotte, Dickson County. In an unusual case local blacks threatened to lynch two white men who were held in jail for raping Joseph Vanleer's wife and daughter and another woman, all black. Several other white men were implicated in the crimes and a posse was said to be in search of them. The two white men, Mathias and Elliot were in jail for their own safety. The ultimate outcome of this affair is not known, although knowing the racial climate of the time it is unlikely any white man ever went to trial and the Vanleers never received justice. It is also highly doubtful white authorities would have allowed a black mob to lynch white men. Turnabout was not, apparently, fair play.
1903, Nashville. The gauge of all streetcar rails in the city were changed to the standard.
1960, Nashville. over three hundred students participated in the Nashville sit-ins which once again shut down lunch counters and drove merchants to ask for police protection. As police arrested the students others filled their ranks at the lunch counters. Attention had been drawn toward the segregated nature of downtown commercial facilities.
FEBRUARY 21
1824, in Monroe County John Crawford Vaughn was born. He was Captain in the Fifth Tennessee Infantry during the Mexican War; organizer and commanding officer of the Third Tennessee Infantry, C.S.A., which first saw action at the first Battle of Bull Run. He was promoted to Brigadier General and captured at the Battle of Vicksburg, July 4, 1863 and after exchange became the commanding officer of a brigade of Confederate Cavalry which in April 1865 escorted President Jefferson C. Davis on his flight from Richmond. He was later speaker of the Tennessee Senate. He died near Thomasville, GA, on September 10, 1875 and was buried there.
FEBRUARY 21
1828, Brainerd. The first issue of the Cherokee weekly The Phoenix appeared as a bilingual -- Cherokee and English -- newspaper. The new Cherokee press and newspaper greatly made the work of the Christian missionaries much easier, allowing them to print and distribute their religious music, literature, news and to overstate the Cherokee assimilation into white civilization
1973, Nashville. Tom T. Hall and Gene Dobbinss won the top Songwriter's Association Award, along with twenty-two others who were not Tennesseans. Hall won song of the year for his song "The Year that Clayton Delaney Died," and Dobbins was honored for his two songs, "Red Skies Over Georgia," and "Sing Me a Love Song."
FEBRUARY 22
1813, Andrew Jackson wrote to Rachel, his wife, that he was saddened at learning of the defeat and capture of General Winchester and his Tennessee troops near Frenchtown, Ontario, Canada.
1865, Slavery was officially abolished as Tennessee approved the Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution of the United States.
1876, Knoxville. The McGhee Guards, an African-American malitia unit, named after C.M. McGhee, paraded through the streets of Knoxville in front of a huge crowd. "A beautiful flag...was presented to the Company by Reverend Mr. LeVere...Color Sergeant W. F. Yardley, Esq., received the [flag] and responded in his usual good style." The Guards paraded on Gay and on the other principal streets of the city. Afterwards two white paramilitary units, Dickinson Light Guards and O'Conner Zouaves paraded later that day in a separate but equal procession.
1960, Chattanooga High School Students protest segregated lunch counters with a sit-in.
FEBRUARY 23
1832, The Alamo, Texas. General Santa Anna demanded the surrender of the garrison at the Alamo, which encompassed the thirty three Tennesseans, including David Crockett. The demand was refused.
1874, Memphis. According to the editor of the Memphis Public Ledger: "Police raids on disreputable houses under the direction of Captain Walsh are all the rage at present. The unfortunates are driven through the streets to the station house like a lot of wild Texas cattle, but they are released on payment of ten dollars, which is ruled to be the exact value of the crime supposed to have been committed."
FEBRUARY 24
1817, Nashville. Andrew Jackson wrote to his nephew Andrew Jackson Donelson, recently appointed to West Point, that "you should alone intermix, with the better class of society whose charectors [sic] are well established for their virtue and upright conduct. Amonghst [sic], the virtuous females, you ought to cultivate an acquaintance, and shun the intercourse of the others as you would the society of the viper or base character -- it is an intercourse with the latter discription [sic], that engenders corruption, and contaminates the morals, and fits the young mind for any act of unguarded baseness, when on the other hand, the society of the virtuous female, ennobles the mind, cultivates your manners, and prepares the mind for the achievement of every thing great, virtuous and honourable, and shrinks from every thing base or ignoble....I recommend oeconomy [sic] to you as a virtue, on the other hand shun parsomony [sic] never spend money uselessly, nor never [sic] withhold it when necessary to spend it...."
1838, Mr. R. G. Williams of Maryville, in a letter to the Boston based abolitionist newspaper The Emancipator asking for what many slave owners and legislators considered subversive literature: "We could form a good anti-slavery society in this part of the State but we choose to work in an unorganized manner a while yet, before we set ourselves up as targets."
1907, Knoxville. The Knoxville Socialist party adopted a prohibitionist position. It blamed alcohol a capitalist tool that created all the workingman's problems.
FEBRUARY 25
1900, Knoxville. The city intended to enforce its new ordinance which was to force the closing of all fifty saloons in town, as well as drug stores, tobacco stores and candy stores. The city had a force of nine police officers to carry out the work of enforcement, two of whom were ill.
1946, Maury County. The Columbia Race Riot began when four police officers were wounded, allegedly by blacks. Blacks in the "Mink Slide" area of town boarded up their houses and prepared for the onslaught. Highway patrolmen and National Guardsmen were sent to help restore order. The Highway Patrolmen destroyed blacks' property. It was not really a riot and the soldiers and state police left by March 3. It showed that Tennessee had no plan to quell civil disturbances. The riot and disturbances helped give the black community strength for the troubles of the 1950s and 1960s.
FEBRUARY 26
1862, Nashville. Captain John Hunt Morgan with a few good men, entered Union-occupied Nashville. His mission was to sink the ferry steam-boat MINNETONKA. They were successful in their efforts, demonstrating that federal forces had not yet consolidated their control of Tennessee's capitol city. It likewise added to Morgan's reputation as a daring and dashing Confederate officer.
1866, Nashville. African Americans are extended the franchise by a legislature controlled by Radical Republicans. The effect of this action would be made clear in August, 1867.
1882, In Knoxville, a large and zealous anti-Mormon mass meeting of local Protestant congregations was held on Sunday at the Opera House. Pastors of various churches and hundreds of citizens attended. Resolutions condemned Mormonism for promoting polygamy, a "destructive of the social and moral well being of mankind, as well as disgraceful to our civilization and...[our]...nation...." The anti-Mormon resolutions were to be sent to all U.S. Representatives and Senators. Judge Ingersoll asked the assemblage: "Have Christian ministers and editors failed in their duty in condemning the gigantic evil?" Colonel H.R. Gibson, a speaker at the meeting claimed that Mormonism wasn't really a religion but a "political scheme to possess this whole country." Reverend Park regarded polygamy as a threat to church and society and he held "it must be crushed." There was much paranoia and very little religious toleration in Knoxville that day.
FEBRUARY 27
1788, Washington County, Tipton farm, near Jonesborough. Today marks the beginning of open warfare between John Sevier, governor of the state of Franklin and his bitter political opponent, John Tipton, North Carolina state senator for Washington County. Sevier's forces took a position about a quarter mile from Titon's house. They "marched within sight of the House of...John Tipton...with a party of one Hundred...with a drum beating, Colours flying, in Military Parade and in a Hostile Manner...sent a flag [of truce] demanding...surrender within the space of Thirty minutes...and submit themselves to the Laws of Franklin...." Tipton anticipated the attack and was holed up in his house with his own force, numbering about 45. A band of reinforcements from what is now Carter county arrived to help John Tipton. Sevier's men fired on the column, killing three horses. Two women who came out of the Tipton house were fired upon, and one was wounded in the shoulder.
1867, Nashville. A state law takes effect that gave black males the right to vote but not to sit on a jury or hold political office. Governor Brownlow wanted the African-American vote but did not want to lose the white vote by addressing the African-American concerns about jury duty and holding political office.
1879, Murfreesboro. Several weeks ago a W. Waltham, Jewish piano tuner, registered at the Ready House. He tuned a number of pianos in the city, work which was satisfactory to his clients. On the night of February 26 he purchased thirty grains of strychnine from McDermott's drug store, and then went to the boarding house at which he was staying, ate super, and remained all night. That night he was became very sick, and to relieve himself, took several small doses of strychnine. He arose early on the 27th and went back to his old quarters at the Ready House and told Mr. Jones, the proprietor, that he had taken strychnine, was sick, wished to retire, and not to wake him until 11 A.M. [sic]. As soon as he reached his room he became very ill, lay down on the bed, and was dead in fifteen minutes. His death was ruled a suicide by strychnine. The deceased was 39 years old, had a fair complexion, blue eyes, light hair, of heavy build, with small chin whiskers and mustache. He was also an alcoholic and had been on a binge for a number of days before his death.
1892, Jellico. African American William R. Riley, a United Mine Workers' organizer wrote a letter to the United Mine Workers' Journal. In it he expressed his views on the debilitating effect hypocritical white miners toward black miners. According to his letter: "I would like to know how under heaven do the do the white miners expect for the colored people to ever feel free and welcome in the...United Mine Workers of America when their so-called brothers don't want them to get not one step higher than the pick and shovel. And yet, whenever there is anything in the way of finance these very same [white] men will come up to the colored man and say, 'Brother J. we must all stick together, for we are all miners and your interest is mine and mine is yours; we must band together.' This talk...reminds me of the spider and the fly, the majority of the white miners only need a colored brother in time of trouble."
1907, Clarksville. After nearly 70% of the voting citizens of Clarksville had approved a new prohibitionist city charter the editor of the Clarksville Daily Leaf-Chronicle ebulliently exclaimed that the citizens had "voted out whisky and corruption, enthroned morality as ruler over our beautiful city of churches, schools, fine homes, placid streams, rugged hills....making the old town ring out with all her redemption, gladdening the hearts of all good people, bringing in new prosperity. Not only will the city but the whole country, take on a new life and courage, profiting by the result."
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1788, Washington County, near Jonesborough. Hostilities between Franklinites and Tiptonites continued as Sevier's forces laid siege to Tipton's farm. Guns were fired sporadically at Tipton's home but there were neither causalities nor damage to Tipton's house.
1945, Hill 362, Iwo Jima. Pharmacist Mate First Class John Harlan Willis, twenty three years old, United States Navy platoon corpsman attached to the U.S. Marine Corps and a native of Columbia, Tennessee, was pinned down while administering plasma to a wounded Marine in a shell hole. Japanese soldiers began throwing hand grenades into the hole and Willis calmly continued administering aid and threw them back at the enemy. His fidelity and raw courage inspired his companions in the hole that, despite the fact they were heavily out numbered, they launched an effective counter attack and repulsed the Japanese forces. The last hand grenade Willis picked up to throw back exploded, killing him instantly. He was posthumously given the Medal of honor.
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1788, Washington County, near Jonesborough. John Sevier's forces fired upon a party of men coming to the assistance of Tipton. The guns of the State of Franklin killed two men, the Washington County Sheriff, Jonathon Pugh, John Webb of Sullivan County and wounded six more, among them Captain William Delancy and John Allison. Had it not been for a blinding snow storm the casualties would certainly been higher. There was no victory.
1868, Murfreesboro. At a Radical Republican meeting two white party bosses, "Colonel" William Bosson and Mr. William Yandell Elliot, spoke to a mostly African-American audience and, according to a report in the Nashville Republican Banner, used intemperate language "exciting the darkies [sic] beyond measure." When a conservative Negro tried to speak to the assembly a fight started. "Pistols, guns, and rocks were fired in all directions, which caused great excitement and a stampede of whites, negroes [sic], horses and wagons." An estimated eight persons were seriously wounded, three were mortally wounded and one was reported dead in the riot. The Nashville Union and Dispatch was of the opinion that Bosson and Elliot had provoked their black audience when a conservative Negro wanted to speak but was refused the podium. Both men were "scalawags." Yandell was born in Rutherford County in 1827, and during the Civil War was a strong Union man. Bosson was born in Massachusetts in 1803. He moved settled at the Falls of the Caney Fork in White County in 1841. He moved to Murfreesboro in 1862 and during the Civil War he was strong Unionist, serving as a spy for Union commanders passing between lines and gathering and reporting information about Confederate troop movements.
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