Every Day in Tennessee History
Page design and maintenance by his son, Boyd R. Jones.
Excerpts for July:
JULY 1,
1947, Memphis.
Police were searching for Robert Waddy who allegedly had dynamited a fortune teller's house and shot two men who were there at the time. Waddy committed these acts in order to break the curse he believed his dead wife had put on him.
JULY 2,
1865, occupied Memphis.
The U.S. Army ended its occupation of the Bluff City and civil government was restored.
JULY 3, 1972, Memphis.
"Mississippi" Fred McDowell, blues artist, died. One of his songs "You Got To Move" was made famous as a result of being recorded by the Rolling Stones.
JULY 4,
1829, Covington.
David Crockett, then a candidate for Congress, spoke with two other candidates at a barbecue held on the hill just southwest of the town.
JULY 5,
1835, Memphis.
David Crockett left Tennessee for Texas. One account mentioned he was wearing a coonskin cap. Four months later he was killed at the Alamo.
JULY 6,
1863, occupied Nashville.
U.S. Army Provost Marshall Lieutenant Colonel George Spalding had all prostitutes rounded up and sent on a forced exile on the commandeered steamboat the IDAHOE.
JULY 7,
1926, Cumberland County, Flynn Cove.
"Aunt Ezylpha" Flynn celebrated her 101st birthday at her son's house. Hundreds came to visit their "Aunt Zilph" to pay their respects and to wish her a happy birthday. There was but one more senior in the county, a Mrs. Hulda Eastelry who turned 101 in late January.
JULY 8,
1897, Washington, D.C.
Isham Green Harris, member of the Tennessee Senate during the 27th General Assembly, died.
JULY 9,
1925, Dayton.
John Thomas Scopes "Monkey Trial" began, to end ten days later.
JULY 11,
1794, Knoxville.
The following advertisement, by Benjamin White appeared in the Knoxville Gazette: "TAKE NOTICE -- YE WHISKY Drinkers. That I, the subscriber, will positively sue every person indebted to me, in 21 days from this date, if they do not make payment."
JULY 12,
1920, Chattanooga.
The Chattanooga Daily Times reported: "Every social Bolshevik, I.W.W. and anarchistic organization in the country favors suffrage [for women]....�
JULY 13,
1821, Bedford County.
Nathan Bedford Forrest was born.
JULY 14,
1872, Washington, D.C.
The man who synthesized the antibody for hog cholera, Marion Dorset, died. He was born in Columbia, Tennessee, on December 14, 1872.
JULY 15,
1914, Cumberland County.
Near Daddy's Creek there was a freight train wreck. The engineer was scalded to death as the train left the track of the Tennessee Central railroad. The engine and five cars were lost.
JULY 16,
1811.
Despite all that Native-American shamans and white physicians could do, Cherokee chief Black Fox, a staunch friend of Euro-American settlers died.
JULY 16,
1900, Cripple Creek.
Briceville a coal strike occurred, caused by a company refusal to recognize and negotiate with the miners' union. Sixty miners struck.
JULY 19,
1868, Nashville.
The Daily Press pointed out that the city's canine population was swelled to unacceptable levels. These dogs howled at night and whelped and barked in the day.
JULY 20,
1908, Memphis.
The Memphis Postmaster announced he had received orders to confiscate any cocaine sent through the mail. It was hope this would help diminish the widespread consumption of the drug.
JULY 21,
1925, Dayton.
John T. Scopes was found guilty of violating the Butler Act and was fined one hundred dollars. He left Tennessee for the University of Chicago to become a geologist.
JULY 22,
1920, Nashville.
J.C. McQuiddy, editor of the Gospel Advocate, wrote: "I do not believe that the good woman of Tennessee want the ballot; but even if they did, the question which man must determine is not affected by what women WANT but what the OUGHT to have."
JULY 23,
1955.
The Father of the United Nations and Franklin Delano Roosevelt's "right arm in the cause of peace," Cordel Hull died.
JULY 24,
1918, Chattanooga.
The new Wauhatchie Pike was dedicated. It measured only twenty feet wide as it passed around the base of Lookout Mountain. It had to be widened in 1930.
JULY 24,
1918, Crossville.
A report in the Crossville Chronicle held that there were believed to be 65 slackers and deserters from the U.S. Army holed up in "the Gulf." The Gulf was the name for a very rugged area through which the Caney Fork river flowed.
JULY 25,
1913, Nashville.
Former governor Malcolm R. Patterson was caught in a raid of a local bordello. One newspaper account stated he was found "scantily clad" lying across a bed in a room with eight women, some wearing negligees and three young men.
JULY 26,
1891, Jackson, Madison County.
A Negro, John Brown had apparently shot an Illinois Central Railroad engineer and was taken to prison. A mob stormed the jail and hung John Brown.
JULY 27,
1903, Memphis.
The city, claimed a newspaper report, was "rapidly becoming a famous coke center," according to a physician. The ordinance of June 7, 1900, limited sales of cocaine to a minimum of one pound but most drug stores paid it no heed. The use of cocaine was on the upswing.
JULY 28,
1958, Memphis.
Dr. Joseph Edison Walker, founder of the Universal Life Insurance Corporation and first president of the Tri-State Bank of Memphis was murdered by a deranged man who claimed Edison owed him money.
JULY 29,
1933, Memphis.
Oscar Johnson ate a five pound piece of watermelon in 52 seconds to win the Rozelle Civil Club water melon eating contest at its annual social. He won a 40 pound watermelon for his efforts.
JULY 30, 1864, occupied Memphis.
The U.S. Army's Gangrene Hospital opened. By September 1 it had forty-six patients.
JULY 31,
1964, Davidson County.
James Travis "Jim" Reeves died in an airplane crash.
June's Archived Excerpts
May's Archived Excerpts
April's Archived Excerpts
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