Every Day in Tennessee History
Excerpts for May(1999):
MAY 1
1845, the Hermitage. George Peter Alexander Healy started painting the last portrait of a moribund Andrew Jackson, completing the job late in the same month. He was at the Hermitage when Jackson died. The artist reported that the ex-President initially refused to sit for him, saying "not for all the Kings of Christendom." Finally he relented due to the pleading of his daughter-in-law, Sarah Y. Jackson. The original hangs in the Louvre Museum in Paris. A copy made by Healy hangs at the Hermitage.
1900, Chattanooga. Concern was expressed that the use of cocaine was spreading throughout the city. It was found in half a dozen preparations on the market such a remedies for hay fever and catarrh. These medicines were "sniffed into the nasal cavities and at the outset the afford considerable relief" but led to addiction, said one pharmacist. "A clerk in a well-known drug store said...that it was amazing to know the number of people who were addicted." The clerk had earlier been employed in Knoxville where the drug's use was widely on the increase also. Cocaine was becoming a drug of choice in Tennessee, indeed, in the nation, long before the Columbians exported to the U.S..
MAY 2
1855, Memphis. The Memphis Weekly Appeal exhorted its readers to contribute substantially to the volunteer fire companies. Their annual parade was coming up on the third and the volunteers demanded that through their gratuitous services in behalf of the public that they "be held in the estimation and honor which is ever grateful to the hearts of men who labor...for the public good."
1876, Clarksville. Members of the Tennessee Historical Society and many dignitaries were on hand to witness the unveiling of a monument honoring Governor Willie Blount. It was believed that by so doing memory of this man would be perpetuated and serve as an example for future generations of Tennesseans to emulate. Few, however, have patterned their life after Blount, noted for his near treason with the Spanish before Tennessee became a state.
1917, Dunlap. The Superintendent of the Chattanooga Iron and Coal Corporation, John E. Smith, shot and instantly killed William Davis at about 7:00 P.M. The killing took place in the streets of Dunlap, where Davis was shot twice and Smith was immediately arrested. Smith, 40 years old, took great offense at remarks Davis had made to his daughter while flirting with her. Smith was released on $10,000 bail and was to go to trial on May 22.
MAY 3
1825, Nashville. The Marquis de La Fayette arrived in Nashville on board the steamboat MECHANIC at 8:00 P.M. He was on board the NATCHEZ but it was too big to float in the Cumberland River. Thus the switch was made.
1860, Murfreesboro. At a meeting of the Rutherford County Medical Society, John H. Morgan, M.D., presented a paper entitled: "An Essay on the Causes of Abortion among our Negro Population." Dr. Morgan held that slave women were often anxious to produce an abortion, using remedies such as "the infusion or decoction of tansy, rue, roots and seed of the cotton plant, pennyroyal, cedar berries and camphor, either in gum or spirits.." Tansy was, he held, the most commonly used because of its convenience. Working oneself to exhaustion was the most effective way to produce an abortion. Dr. Morgan believed it was "a very rare thing for negroes to resort to mechanical means to effect an abortion, probably less than white women, on account of their ignorance." By "mechanical means" Dr. Morgan meant a steel rod to which is attached at one end a steel or steel-wire loop. Inserting and reinserting produced an abortion. Morgan said nothing about any motives slave or white women might have had for wanting or creating abortions. Perhaps they were "pro-choice" in outlook, long before the current controversy over abortions developed. For slave women it might have been a desire not to have a child born into slavery.
MAY 4
1825, Nashville. Curious and excited crowds assembled in the public square. In the midst of speeches, cheers and flags, the Marquis de LaFayette had arrived in the city. He was to stay at the residence of Dr. Boyd McNairy.
1849, Nashville. A letter was printed in the Daily American which complained that journeymen mechanics (those who made their living with their hands) aren't getting as much pay as before because "Property holders complain that they are 'taxed to death'" and therefore must hold their houses and slaves at a rate sufficient to enable them to make a percentage on capitol so invested. The city's free and white working classes, said the letter, were usually renters and hirers and therefore they are in the end forced to bear all the burdens of taxation. "Only a few mechanics make over $10 a week and most with families not even one half that," the mechanics' advocate wrote.
1917, Memphis. Patriotic exercises were held at the Florida Street Negro Public School. Speeches were made and songs were sung. The students "stood and with uplifted hands, pledged their loyalty to the flag and country." The audience sang "Dixie," and when the "Star Spangled Banner" was sung, an immense American flag was raised. America had just entered what would be known as the First World War and everyone was anxious to demonstrate their patriotism.
1920, Jackson. The Tennessee Federation of Labor convention denounced Governor Albert H. Roberts for setting "the classes against the masses" in the Volunteer State. The labor organization held that Roberts' use of newly created state police and federal troops to break strikes in Nashville and Knoxville was reprehensible. The convention likewise charged Roberts with originating "law and order leagues" for the "sole purpose of suppressing labor unions and reducing the wage workers of this commonwealth to a state of serfdom." The organization set in motion a campaign against Roberts who needed the Federation's 125,000 members to vote for him. Roberts was later defeated at the polls, in part because the state's working men would not support him.
MAY 5
1825, the Hermitage. La Fayette boarded the steamboat MECHANIC and visited Andrew Jackson at the Hermitage, leaving Nashville about 5:00 or 6;00 A.M.
1849, Nashville. Yet another letter appears in the Daily American complaining that "It is these capitalists that advance or hold up rents and keep wages down." White free masons had to compete with slave masons rented out by their owners at much cheaper wages. In many cases "white workmen are discharged and negroes employed..." The work of slaves was, according to the letter, shoddy and put free white masons out of work in Nashville. Slave owners and capitalists argued the letter writer, "will soon have nothing but themselves, their money and their negroes to look after - they are working a system which will surely drive off white mechanics and laborers because [slaves] work [for] so low [a wage] that they cannot afford to pay proper wages to a good journeyman." You just can't trust those capitalists and their need to control the price of labor to boost their profits. Slavery was not in the interest of the white-working-class mechanic in the antebellum South, but it did pay large slave holders big dividends in Tennessee towns and fields.
1914, Knoxville. Mayor Samuel G. Heiskel announced at a city council meeting that houses of prostitution scattered throughout the city had to be concentrated to be better controlled. According to Mayor Heiskell, "'from time to time, women were induced to move'" until, he proudly declared, the Knoxville red-light district emerged as "'one of the best, if not the best regulated district in the United States....The women remain...to themselves, there was very little lawlessness in the district and it gave the police very little trouble.'"
1925, Dayton. John T. Scopes, a coach, and mathematics, physics, and chemistry teacher for the Rhea County School system, was arrested in Robinson's Drug Store on charges of violating the Butler Act which prohibited the teaching of evolutionary theory in Tennessee's public schools. The battle between evolutionists and creationists which would follow put Dayton on the map. A re-enactment takes place every summer, and there is an interesting museum in the basement.
MAY 6
1825, Nashville. LaFayette ended his visit to Nashville and sailed on toward the Ohio River on board the MECHANIC.
1860, in Nashville the National Typographical Union, one of the first labor unions in America, holds its annual meeting. The delegates met in the Senate Chamber of the State Capitol Building. The convention ended on May 9.
1882, Electricity was produced for the first time in Chattanooga, when a small generator lit a few arc lamps down town. It was more an advertising gimmick than a demonstration of domestic lighting.
1911, Johnson City. According to the Chattanooga Daily Times, "Alfred Taylor Markwood, the Johnson City inventor of a perpetual motion device which occasioned much comment a year ago, resulting in the sale of much stock throughout East Tennessee and especially in Knoxville, has recently made a statement that he has not by any means abandoned the idea of making his machine a success. He declares he will be able to make the machine go and to this end he proposes to call a meeting of the stockholders to arrange to finance the work of completion. It is said that there were but one or two minor obstacles to be overcome in the original machine." One minor obstacle was gravity.
1923, Scottsville, Kentucky. Anna Belle Clement O'Brien was born. She served in the 89th General Assembly (1975-1977) as a Democratic Representative, and in the 90th-96th Assemblies as a Senator (1977-1991) from Dickson County. During her service in the House O'Brien, wife of Tennessee Supreme Court Justice Charles H. O'Brien, she was a member of the Finance Committee and Transportation Committee. As a Senator she was selected to chair the 1981-1982 Comprehensive Education Study Task Force, the first study of its kind in 26 years, which developed plans for public education in the Volunteer State. Ms. O'Brien was the first woman in Tennessee history to chair the Senate Transportation Committee (94th Assembly), chairperson of the Senate Education Committee and vice chairperson of the Energy and Natural Resources Committee, and during the 95th Assembly served as Democratic Majority Floor Leader. Senator O'Brien was actively involved in guiding legislation through the legislature on public education, mental health, the handicapped, retired teachers, and state employees. She was recognized as the twelfth best legislator in the 1986 Assembly. Not only was her brother, Frank Goad Clement, governor of Tennessee (1953-1959, 1963-1967), but aunt of United States Representative Robert Clement, elected to the Congress from the Fifth Congressional District in 1988.
MAY 7
1788, East Tennessee. Francis Asbury, a Methodist circuit rider, conferred in his diary that at "Half-Acres and Keywoods...we held conference three days and I preached each day. The weather was cold; the room without fire and otherwise uncomfortable, we nevertheless made out to keep our seats until we had finished the essential parts of our business." Give me that old time religion....
1834, Lowell, Massachusetts.. David Crockett, while on his tour of the New England states, visited the famous Lowell textile mills. Mr. Lawrence, the owner of one of the factories, presented him with a wool suit. Crockett praised the quality of the cloth. His tour was to support the Whig party which was in opposition to President Andrew Jackson.
1912, the Southern Sociological Congress (S.C.C) convened in Nashville. They proposed to study the civic, social and economic problems of the South and to suggest improved methods for dealing with them. The S.C.C remained headquartered in Nashville until it moved to Washington, D.C. in 1916.
MAY 8
1541, Lower Chickasaw Bluff. Hernando De Soto and his troops began a thirty day stay in huts and established a unfinished shipyard where four piraguas (barges) were constructed. This represents the first time white men set foot in what is today West Tennessee. They stayed until June 18 when the conquistadors crossed the Mississippi.
1824, Nashville. William Walker, the famed "Grey-Eyed Man of Destiny" was born. Walker, a medical doctor, a lawyer and a newspaper editor, led a small band of adventurers and filibusterers known as "The Immortals" on an expedition to successfully conquer Nicaragua by September 1854. He reinstated slavery there. A coalition of Costa Ricans and Nicaraguans forced Walker from power in 1857. Walker then toured the U.S. and was wildly and popularly acclaimed. He gathered support for yet other attempts to reconquer Nicaragua and by September 3, 1860, he was captured by the British Navy while making yet another attempt. He was handed over to Honduran forces, tried and summarily executed. His lonely grave was said to be found on the Honduran Atlantic Coast.
1918, Memphis. Bootleggers managed to unload about two thousand bottles of beer ("Bud" [sic]) at a point on the Mississippi River some six miles north of Memphis. The beer was brought in on a river boat. None of the bootleggers were caught and the beer most likely made its way to imbibing Memphians.
1922, Crossville. Three bootleggers were caught in the act of distilling liquor at their still. One of those was a twelve year old boy, while the other two were perpetual offenders. They were caught while attempting to convert 2,000 gallons of beer into moonshine whisky. U.S. Marshall V.C. Lyles secured the arrest. Alcohol was a drug of choice in Tennessee and America at large, but it was illegal.
MAY 9
1879, Memphis. At 3:00 A.M. black Police-Patrolman Charles Wilson was shot by "two men who were riding in an open coach with two lewd women." Officer Wilson's admonishment that the party to be quiet due to the lateness of the hour was responded to with gunfire. While the police officer was shot twice, he also shot back but did not hit either of the men. His wounds were very serious. The two men were arrested the next day at noon and would be held for trial. Their companions were two prostitutes, aged eighteen and nineteen and staying at a house of ill fame at 32 Hernando street. The outcome of the trial or the recovery of officer Wilson are not known.
1934, Nashville. The arrogant Luke Lea and his son, who attended the state supreme court session which decided negatively on their extradition to North Carolina, were taken into custody outside the supreme court building. According to one account: "In the hallways outside the supreme court room, a cordon of Nashville and Davidson county police had been placed but their lines were broken continuously, as the Leas marched out, by numerous friends who reached out to shake hands with the former U.S. Senator and artillery colonel." No doubt the scene warmed his heart while he was in prison.
MAY 10
1855, in Memphis, the National Typographical Union convention passes the following resolution: "That while, we, as working men...depreciate 'strikes'...still we believe...'strikes,' like revolutions, are sometimes necessary to a proper vindication of the rights of the working man."
1862, Federal Forces bombard Fort Pillow, the next Confederate stronghold below Island No. 10. The fort would fall to Union forces and later be the scene of the bloody Fort Pillow Massacre (55l Negro soldiers, 221 white soldiers) committed by troops commanded by Nathan Bedford Forrest in 1864. If Forrest didn't order the slaughter he was responsible for it, inasmuch as officers are responsible for the actions of their command.
1899, Chattanooga. Printers ended a strike begun in November 1898. They demanded an eight hour day.
MAY 11
1849, Nashville. A letter in the Nashville Daily American rallied to the defense of Sarah Estell, a black confectioner and caterer. A letter in the same paper of May 6, had criticized her, saying in part that a "respectable class of our community have not only been slighted but insulted" on account of her race and thriving business. The second letter explained that "Sarah is peculiarly fitted for this sort of business. She makes a profession of it, it enabled to procure not only caked and sweet meats but everything, such as meat and vegetables and...performs to admiration all of the other duties of the best housekeeper, all of which is out of the regular business of our confectioners....As for Sarah, personally, she is industrious, neat, accommodating and unassuming...and anxious to perform her duties fully and promptly. In fact she is very much of a lady....With the fairer proportion, she is quite a favorite and they never hesitate to encourage and respect her. Her being a negro cook is so much the better - it is the sort of thing we are all accustomed to and most of us...prefer them." Sarah was a free black woman during the era of slavery and free blacks, an extremely tiny percentage of the total black population, were by law restricted from engaging in any kind of business at all. She provided for the annual banquet needs of the city's firemen and many political dinners and operated an ice cream "saloon." She competed successfully with white men working in a similar line of business from 1840 to 1860 when all written notice of her existence ends. A historical marker in Nashville recognizes her achievements.
1934, North Carolina State Penitentiary. Luke Lea, political boss and newspaperman who was convicted of bank fraud, entered prison saying in part that he was not responsible for the failure of the banks, that it was the fault of the economy. His son, Luke Lea, Jr., also was incarcerated, but apparently said nothing. Instead of pin stripes they now wore prison stripes. Colonel Lea's number was 29408.
MAY 12
1843, Greeneville. A committee of mechanics read a petition on the subject of leasing convicts to do the work of mechanics. Andrew Johnson, then a tailor, was on the committee. The resolution asked employers not to hire prisoners or slaves but honest working white men because the practice cheapened labor and honest work. Employers knew it, too.
1868, Lincoln County. A four legged child was born in the western part of the county. The head, arms, breast, etc. to the waist were normal but from the waste down the child was duplicated -- that is, the lower extremities are four in number, all well formed, instead of two. The child's father, William Corban, a Confederate veteran, would later, on June 17, 1868, take the child to Nashville where it could be viewed at Room 32 of the Commercial Hotel. Tickets were on sale at all the principal drug and book stores in the city. Corban did not expect to stay in the city for more than a day or two.
1918, Knoxville. The city school board unanimously voted to remove the study of the German language and culture from the public high school curriculum. American patriotism was fiercely anti-German in World War I.
1977, Nashville. Hariette Louise Allen, former Director of Forensics in the Department of Dramatics and Speech at Fisk University, was chosen as Tennessee's "Ambassador of Letters" by House Joint Resolution 222. Ms. Allen, a native of Savannah, Georgia, is acclaimed widely as an oral interpreter, storyteller and poetess.
MAY 13
1927, Nashville. The Ryman Auditorium was the scene of the first Fiddler's Convention for the Southern Championship. Atlantan Clayton McMichen won with his rendition of "Bully of the Town."
MAY 14
1841, Jonesborough. Newspaper editor William G. Brownlow, after having moved from Elizabethton to Jonesborough, met Landon Carter Haynes, editor of the Tennessee Sentinel, (owned by Haynes' brother-in-law, Lawson Gifford) in the streets of Tennessee's oldest town. An altercation followed in which Brownlow bludgeoned Haynes with a cane, while Haynes shot Brownlow in the thigh. A year later the animosity was not over and Brownlow was severely beaten at a camp meeting by parties unknown. Some say he was never the same again.
1858, 2.5 miles west of Blue Springs, at Midway, Tennessee. The last spike (silver) was driven by the President of the East Tennessee & Virginia Railroad, Samuel B. Cunningham of Jonesborough, amid bands and a jubilant crowd that had gathered from miles around via a special excursion train from Knoxville. The road, as completed, comprised 130 miles of track, laid under extremely adverse physical as well as financial difficulty, and credit was due to the tireless efforts of the railroad's president, Dr. Cunningham and to the back-breaking and back-lashed efforts of slave work crews who did the actual work. (You know, the workers.)The completed line, with its connections with the ET&G, gave direct connections between Washington, D. C. and the East with Chattanooga, Knoxville, Nashville, Memphis, Pensacola, Augusta, Atlanta, Charleston and nearly every commercial center of the South.
1862, Memphis. The editor of the Memphis Avalanche endorsed the idea that there "is no punishment too severe for men who make a practice of whipping their wives. We had supposed the poor women had a respite, and that their belligerent husbands found abundant occasion to exercise their propensity in the army. It seems, however, that we were mistaken. Lois Kasse is a wife-beater and is not in the army."
1890, Nashville. Architect Joseph Holman was born. After graduating from preparatory school in 1907 he studied engineering at Vanderbilt University for a year. From 1904 to 1908 he was employed as a draftsman to Thomas S. Marr and in 1908 he became a partner in Marr and Holman.
1940, Zenith, Fentress County. Called to arrest a drunk miner, veteran and gray-haired Sheriff H.E. Taylor, was shot to death by C. E. Markel. Markel, after wounding the coal mine foreman at Zenith, Ed Slavey, was confronted by Taylor who tried to talk Markel into surrendering. Taylor, however, was shot to death. Just before he went down, however, the Sheriff shot Markel to death as well. A wave of indignation swept over Fentress and other contiguous counties.
MAY 15
1846, Memphis. A mass meeting was held to recruit men for the U.S. Army to fight in the war with Mexico. Within two weeks over 500 men had formed seven companies. Nearly half would die of disease in Mexico.
1874, Daughtery's Gap some thirty miles from Chattanooga. Jesse Corn was killed by his son-in-law, Ben Hughes over a dispute arising from a card game. In the ensuing fight Hughes hit Corn in the head with a mallet and killed him. Both were known as rough characters, Hughes being noted for his skills as moonshiner. "Corn liked 'corn juice'" which no doubt was the underlying cause for the murder. Hughes "lit out" after the murder and has not been heard of since. "The last run he made" claimed the Chattanooga Daily Times "was to run away from the ghost of his father-in-law."
MAY 16
1838, Knoxville. The City Council passes an ordinance prohibiting "bawdy houses" within the city limits. Knox County legislators did not pass a similar law. This was probably the first anti-prostitution law in any Tennessee city.
1868, Washington, D.C., the Senate Chamber. The Senate took its vote on one of the articles of impeachment against President Andrew Johnson. Vote after vote was turned in and against the President. Then the Chief Justice called the name of Tennessee Senator Joseph Smith Fowler. He was the first to render a vote of "not guilty," in a low voice. Johnson's nemesis Senator Charles Sumner was incredulous and asked Fowler to repeat his response and he did. Fowler's vote established a pattern that eventually saved Johnson from the ignominy of being the first-ever President to impeached.
1905, Memphis. The equestrian statue of Nathan Bedford Forrest was dedicated at Forrest Park. His great grandson and namesake, Brigadier General Nathan Bedford Forrest, was reported missing on June 13, 1942, while on a bombing mission over the German city of Keil. The fierce demeanor of the statue has been said to scare pigeons away.
1916, Nashville. At the May 16 meeting of the Tennessee Chapter of the National Association Opposed to Woman Suffrage, with their ranks swollen to over two hundred, the members discussed the legal status of married women and the notion that woman's suffrage would be dangerous in the South because it would mean the enfranchisement of African-American women as well. In this manner they hoped to show that if white women were given the right to vote then so would black women, implying social and political equality. They were thus "playing the race card" long before the O.J. Simpson trial.
1955. Knoxville born James Agee died. Agee graduated in 1932 from Harvard University. He served on the staffs of Fortune magazine (1936) and Time magazine (1939-1943), and was the film critic for the leftist intellectual weekly magazine, The Nation, for five years starting in 1943. He was likewise the author of Death in the Family, and Let Us Now Praise Famous Men. He wrote screen plays, one of which, African Queen, starred Humphrey Bogart and Katherine Hepburn.
1974, Las Vegas. Nashville native and defending champion of the World Series of Poker, W.C. ("Puggy Wuggy") Pearson was eliminated from competition held at Binions Horseshoe Club. In 1973 he won $66,225 and the championship. However, in 1974 his queen straight was beaten by a queen high full house. You gotta know when to hold 'em, you gotta know when to fold 'em....
MAY 17
1849, Nashville. Volunteer firemen parade in "one of the grandest and most beautiful exhibitions ever witnessed in our city." Seven fire companies, took part. Perhaps the most colorful uniform was that of Capitol Hill No. 4's company, which consisted of green shirts, white pants, firemen's hats. There were five Nashville companies and two visiting companies from Cincinnati and Louisville. Later that night they attended a dinner and toasted one another until late at night.
1892, Nashville. The city's white Barbers' Union met with full attendance. The dance arrangements committee reported that their hop was a huge success, socially and financially.
1911, Chattanooga. A letter in the Daily Times expressed moral outrage concerning two movies, "The Nun," and "The Conflict." He wrote that it was "a disgraceful feature and a disgusting one. Anyone who saw the picture, regardless of creed, felt a repulsion at the [movie] house that would consent to put on such an irreverent picture." The writer objected to scenes in the first movie that depicted an eighty-year old friar making improper advances upon novitiate nuns and in the second, which depicted young people living the high life in a bordello. "The whole program was disgraceful and disgusting and I am heartily in favor of some censuring [of] motion pictures before they are allowed to go before the public." There was no movie rating system in 1911.
MAY 18
1836, Washington, D.C.. In the U.S. Senate the Treaty of New Echota which provided for the gentrification of the Cherokee Nation, passed but only by one vote above the required two-thirds majority, 31-15.
1892, Nashville. The Hod-Carriers' Union met at Keeble Hall and made arrangements for the Labor Day celebrations and they initiated a new member. Labor unions were enjoying a period of growth in Nashville.
1916, Killin Yates Rockwell, a native of Newport, was the first American aviator to down an enemy aircraft over France on this date. He joined the French Foreign Legion in August of 1914 at the outbreak of what would become World War I. He was wounded in May, 1915. Joining the French Air Forces and helped found the famous Escadrille LaFayette, a French air command. He was killed in a dog fight on September 23, 1916. He was buried in France.
1925, Dayton High School Biology teacher John T. Scopes was indicted by the Rhea County Grand Jury for having taught evolution and so violated the so-called "Butler-Act."
1933, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt signed legislation creating the Tennessee Valley Authority.
MAY 19
1831, the Nashville Republican and State Gazette featured a letter advocating the hiring of free mechanics, not slaves, to do construction work in Nashville. The fact that there were too few honest white mechanics in the capitol city was because "the influence of slavery may be mainly referred to as the source of this evil." This shows us that working men in the cities down south did not like slavery but not so much because it was inhumane in their view but more because it created unfair and cheaper competition for their labor.
1886, Memphis. Ida B. Wells, the great civil rights advocate, attended her first professional baseball game and apparently was carried away with enthusiasm. She wrote in her diary: "...lost my temper & acted in an unladylike way toward those in whose company I was [in]...."
1886, Memphis. Negro Memphis Policeman Chastine was suspended for striking in the face an old white woman who was resisting arrest.
1902, Fraterville, Anderson County. The oldest coal mine in Anderson County, opened in 1870, exploded and took the lives of 184 miners, both men and boys. The disaster also meant tragedy for the miners families and beleaguered coal companies as well. There were a plethora of damage suits that resulted. One of the rescuers, George M. Camp, said of the calamity: "'Not a man, not a rat, not a mule came out of that mine alive. I identified 184 men, everyone who entered the mine that day.'" ["Have you seen my wife, Mr. Jones?"]
1925, Chattanooga. Boosters and city leaders made an unsuccessful attempt to have the Scopes` trial to Chattanooga in an effort to attract business. Dayton entrepreneurs made sure the trial would be held in their town.
1957, Carl Perkins' classic rock and roll song "Blue Suede Shoes" peaked in the charts at No. 2. Perkins was from Jackson, TN.
MAY 20
1845, Nashville. William Strickland submitted a plan for the State Capitol Building, including a doric basement, four Ionic porticos four feet in diameter, surmounted by a Corinthian tower in the center of the roof which measured 170' from the summit of the site. He estimated the cost at $240,000 to $260,000. The capitol became his burial monument.
1897, Shelbyville. The editor of the Gazette expressed his intense anti-female suffrage feelings by writing: "What more do the women want? Are they not already the bosses of everything that moves? Do they not do just as they please? Are not the men of the land bending an kneeling to them on every side? What more do they want? Why the necessity...to get up a hurrah! for woman's rights, equal suffrage and such like nonsense? Women to vote! to scramble at the polls side by side with the toughs and the darkies! Pretty sight that would be....They even demand a constitution provision in favor of admitting them to the ballot box. They say they will restore the ballot to its ancient purity. Bosh. Let the women vote and many of their votes would soon be for sale just as is the case with the vote of some men." Those whacky women, huh? First you let them out of the house then they want to vote!
1918, Erwin. A mob burned the body of Negro Tom Devert, who had allegedly attacked a sixteen year old white girl. As he tried to swim across the Nolichucky River with his captive he was shot twice in the head and died. The girl died also. His body was retrieved from the river and taken to the Negro section of Erwin where wood and railroad cross ties were piled upon his body. The Negroes were forced to watch the proceedings and were ordered to leave Erwin within twenty four hours, which they did with haste. However, the managers of industries in the town found themselves without an adequate labor supply and were forced to re-recruit the blacks from the neighboring towns to which they had fled. It is not known how many of the Negro workers returned to work in Erwin, but it would seem safe to say not many.
MAY 21
1858, Greeneville. A crowd of some 1,500 citizens and slaves gathered to witness the driving of the last spike of the East Tennessee & Virginia Railroad. Each of the railroad's directors gave the spike one blow until it was driven home. Under the shade of apple trees the crowd feasted on foods prepared by local ladies and slaves. According to the Greeneville Democrat of May 28, "the crowd make the woods and hill echo...." The nature of human existence would change dramatically as new markets could be reached and new goods could be introduced that heretofore would have been prohibitively expensive. It also made possible the rapid movement of troops during the Civil War.
1892, Memphis. Tennessee social and political radical Ida B. Wells wrote an anti-lynching editorial in her newspaper the Free Speech. In it she wrote: "Nobody in this section of the country believes the old thread bare lie that Negro men rape white women. If Southern white men are not careful, they will over-reach themselves and public sentiment will have a reaction; a conclusion will then be reached which will be very damaging to the moral reputation of their women." Ms. Wells meant that she believed black men did not force themselves upon white women but were invited by them to share intimate moments.
1902, Pulaski. The Giles County Medical Society met and hear a paper on "Trachoma." Next week's paper was on the subject of "Gastro-Intestinal Catarrh in Children Under Two Years Old." Too bad if you missed it - s.r.o.
1908, Belle Meade. William Howard Taft, President Theodore Roosevelt's Secretary of War and soon to be elected President of the United States, visited the Belle Meade mansion owned by Judge Jacob McGavock Dickinson. He attended a large barbeque in his honor. Because Taft was rather portly and could not fit in the mansion's bath tubs, Dickinson had a special shower stall placed in the mansion to accommodate the future president's girth. After Taft won the election in November, Dickinson, a Democrat, was appointed United States Secretary of War. Post hoc ergo propter hoc. The moral is: if you are fabulously wealthy and travel in the right circles, and a fat president visits you, you can become Secretary of War if you can install a shower custom-built to fit a portly president, a lesson from which we can all learn! I know it has changed my life.
MAY 22
1838. The deadline for the removal of all Cherokee who "voluntarily" agreed to leave Tennessee and Georgia and move west to Arkansas. They volunteered at the point of a bayonet.
1886, at the Mt. Olivet cemetery a ceremony was held to honor the Confederate dead. The Master of Ceremonies, Colonel George B. Guild said: "We are here to remember those gallant spirits who, forgetting self, gave their lives as sacrifice to our cause...and returned no more." Large crowds were in attendance and floral arrangements abounded.
1917, Memphis. Ell Persons, a Negro who allegedly murdered and then decapitated a white girl weeks earlier, was lynched by being burned at the stake at 9:30 A.M. at the end of the long bridge across Wolf River bottoms on the Macon Road. According to the Memphis Commercial Appeal: "A crowd of some 5,000 men, women and children cheered gloatingly as the match was applied and a moment later the flames and smoke rose high in the air and snuffed out the life of the black fiend [sic]" When the body had been "burned sufficient [sic] to satisfy the lust of the executioners, one man in the crowd cut out the negro's [sic] heart, two other cut off his ears, while another hacked off his head." "It was," according to the Appeal," an execution probably without parallel in the history of the south." Who can doubt that, unless one counts the hanging of Big Mary the elephant, in Erwin on September 13, 1916 - but that�s another story.
MAY 23
1864, Dixon Springs. Death of David Burford at his home in Dixon Springs. He served in the State Senate in the 18th, 19th and 20th General Assemblies, (1829-35). Although he had little formal education, attending school for only six months, he worked his way up after moving to Tennessee in 1799. He worked as a journeyman tanner and later established his own tannery in Carthage, Smith County and in time moved to his farm in Dixon Springs. Served as a 2nd lieutenant in the War of 1812 in the 7th Regular Army and served as quartermaster at Fort Pickering.
1874, Lebanon. The Lebanon-Methodist Sunday School picnic was held today.
1913, the first commencement at what will become Tennessee State University in Nashville took place.
MAY 24
1861. Governor Isham Harris wrote to Jefferson C. Davis that he was making every effort to procure a military force large enough to protect Tennessee. It seems the Confederate leaders seceded before they realized the needed rifles and black powder, and more men.
1862, Fort Warren, Massachusetts. Confederate Colonel Randal W. McGavock, a prisoner-of-war, wrote in his journal that: "The notorious scoundrel and liar, Parson Brownlow of East Tennessee made a visit to the Fort today....Brownlow sent for Lieutenant Colonel White of Hamilton County, East Tennessee and offered to parole him....He also sent for Colonel Lillard and Lieutenant Colonel Odell of East Tennessee and made the same offer to them. They are not required to take the oath but to go home and not take up arms again." Lillard and Odell did not endorse the offer.
1886, Memphis. The Shelby County Court approved the payment of poll taxes owed by Richard Haynes and Lois Jones. The wanted to pay in wildcat pelts.
1918, Knoxville. East Tennessee farmers held their annual meeting in Knoxville. They heard an address by the Commissioner of Agriculture H.K. Bryan who castigated the German Kaiser as the source for all the world's miseries and pain. He claimed the Kaiser had planned the war as early as 1892.
1970, Memphis. A.F.S.C.M.E leader Joseph Epps was ousted.
MAY 25
1795, Cocke County. George Mann, a revolutionary veteran, was ambushed and killed by an unidentified group of Native Americans. He was checking a noise in his barn where the Indians captured and killed him. The Indians later attempted to force entrance into his log cabin house, where Mrs. Mann fired at them, wounding. The Indians, after scalping and otherwise mutilating Mann's body, then burned the barn and other out buildings before returning to the forest.
1861, Nashville. Governor Isham Harris cabled a New Orleans gun firm with an order "at any reasonable price" for some "ten thousand stand of arms" with the "Endfield [sic] saber [sic] rifle bayonnet [sic] or rifle musket...." He never got them. It seems the governor and the secret session of the legislature considering and approving secession went off half-cocked and didn�t even know how many weapons they had in state arsenals. [Hello?! Good planning guys! Doh!]
1866. African-American men in Tennessee had their right to serve as witnesses in Tennessee trials legitimated.
1886, Memphis. Bluff City iron moulders working at the Chickasaw Foundry and the Milburn Iron Works began a strike. They wanted ten hours pay for nine hours work. The story of the role and activities of workers in the Volunteer State's past is not generally taught in the state's history classes. Why not?
1917, Memphis. According to a story in the Commercial Appeal: Mrs. W. A. Carnes, temporary chair of the Mothers Day Nursery announced the appointment of community chairmen to help aid in the raising of funds for the nursery. "It will mean a place for the women to leave their children while they are at work in the North Memphis factories and will also be a place where children can be taken for the day when the women are forced to do the man's work when they are called to the colors."
MAY 26
1827, Memphis. At the utopian Nashoba Community. Managers Whitley and Richardson decreed the following rule: "No slaves shall...be allowed to receive money, clothing or...anything...from any person...at this place...and that any article so received shall be returned in the presence of the slaves and trustees....slaves shall not be permitted to eat elsewhere than at public meals." It is doubtful that they actually consulted the slaves about the rule.
1879, Murfreesboro. Governor Albert Smith Marks (Democrat, 1879-1881) spoke to a large gathering of citizens at the court house at 5:00 P.M.. The Governor said that he came to Murfreesboro to talk and reason with the people. He and the people throughout Tennessee sympathized with Rutherford countians in their recent troubles, but expected them to join with him in an honest, earnest effort to uphold and enforce the law. For three months past the county had been ravaged by an integrated gang of thieves, murderers, and incendiaries. The gang members had recently been captured and were in the Rutherford County jail awaiting trial. There had been talk that the accused should be lynched. Marks said that although some advised him to move the prisoners to another county so as to protect them from a mob he would have none of it. He believed the people should guard their own prisoners. It was their court-house, their jail, and their law to exercise, and that he intended to give the people every assistance in his power to enforce, uphold, and vindicate the law. Rutherford County had given him a solid majority in the last election and he pleaded with them not to put a blight on his administration by resorting to mob law. Local dignitaries seconded the Governor's remarks. Marks concluded: "I am now going back to tell the people that the prisoners are safe, for they are guarded by the hearts and hands of a law-abiding people." The Governor took the 10:00 P.M. freight train back to Nashville, leaving a citizenry divided about the wisdom of his counsel. It's a good thing we don't have such an alarming incidence of crime in the late 20th century.
1935, Chattanooga. The first (and last) All-Southern Conference for Civil and Trade Union Rights was to be held but American Legionnaires, fearful of "Reds" pressure the Negro owner of the beer garden where the conference was to take place, to stop the 100 delegates, including Myles F. Horton, from having their meeting. It was a biracial meeting as well, which only added to their paranoid fears of "red revolution" in rightist circles in Chattanooga. According to the Chattanooga Daily Times: "The debacle of the All Southern Conference was at the hands of the American Legion opposition, which radicals think will really prove a triumph for red propaganda purposes, came as a climax to three weeks of activity...." The Conference members claimed the action by the Legionaries was "unofficial Hitlerism," saying the meeting would go on as scheduled at Cleveland. They conferees went, however, to the Highlander School in Grundy County, leaving the Legionnaires on a "wild communist-goose chase" through Benton and Polk counties. The Highlanders thought their trick quite funny, however, freedom of speech, expression and association meant little to the American Legionaries who claimed to be in support of "100% Americanism," what ever that meant. Horton was a true American radical and worked tirelessly for social change and justice. As such he was high on many conservatives' " hit list." Martin Luther King learned much about civil resistance at the Highlander.
MAY 27
1892, Memphis. Offices and equipment for the civil rights paper published by Ida B. Wells are destroyed by a fearful white mob. She was out of town when the vandalism occurred and was convinced, upon hearing the news that a return trip to the Bluff City would be a bad idea. She moved to Chicago where she lived for the next thirty-nine years continuing her civil rights struggles.
1933, Unicoi. Two hundred white enrollees arrived at Unicoi to establish Civilian Conservation Corps Camp Cordell Hull. The pitched tents in a downpour of rain and made other preparations to start their work of protecting and conserving the forests. Company 1455 was most likely the first C.C.C. company to be established in Tennessee. They lived up to what would become the C.C.C. motto: "We Can Take It."
MAY 28
1795, a large party of Creek Indians attacked, killed and scalped two white women near Log Town in East Tennessee. Such was life on the Tennessee frontier only one year before statehood.
1845, The Hermitage. A visitor from New York, William Tyack, made the following observations concerning a seriously moribund Andrew Jackson. On this day he noted of Old Hickory: "His feet and legs, his hand and arms are very swollen with dropsy, which has invaded his whole system. Bandages are drawn tight around the parts most affected, to prevent as much as possible, the increase of water. He has scarcely any use of his hands. The bandages are removed several times in the 24 hours and the parts rubbed severely to restore animation and the circulation of the blood. He has not the strength to stand. His respiration is very short and attended with much difficulty and the whole progress of the disease, accompanied with great suffering. He gains sleep...by opiates. His left lung was ruptured many years ago during the Seminole campaign...and is entirely destroyed and the other much diseased. When the dropsy commenced, the cough was extremely severe and expectoration profuse....This was followed by a loss of appetite and constant nausea and prostration. This change took place early in April; and about the first of May a diarrhoea [sic] commenced, which seemed to threaten an immediate dissolution. This continued for a few days but fortunately reduced the swelling of the whole system. The abatement of the diarrhoea [sic] was succeeded by the swelling in all parts, with violent pain and extreme difficulty of breathing, when nature would again relieve itself as above described." Was this Jackson's karma?
1900, Nashville. The first of six night-time bicycle races with seven competitors representing European and American countries began at the Coliseum. One of the feature shows was billed as the Gray and Dudley Band and Dog Show.
1923, the Governor's Flag design was finished by the United State War Department. No act of the state legislature, however, has established it as the official governor's flag. The design was described as: "...on a wreath of silver and red is a green hill upon which is a hickory tree bearing three five-pointed stars, each one separated from the other two and all three silver." This flag is rarely seen.
1974, Nashville. Lamar Alexander, a gubernatorial candidate, disclosed the names of more than 1000 campaign contributors. They had given in excess of $100,000 to his drive for the Governor's Chair. According to Alexander: "I do not think a candidate can be elected if he doesn't disclose his contributions." The President of the Commercial Union Bank, Ed Nelson gave $2500, Nashville Metro Councilman James R. Tuck gave $50.00. The thirty-three year old Alexander also disclosed that his wife had contributed $1000, while the Gary Nelson's at 2907 Tyne Blvd., provided the largest amount of money, $6,000. No doubt Alexander will be as forthcoming in the 2000 primaries.
MAY 29
1882, Knoxville. At about 4:15 P.M., 200 Negro men gathered at the car-shed to wait for the train. As the train rolled in the crowd of black citizens gathered around the door of the first class coach. Scuffles resulted as the conductor tried to hold them back. As he closed the door two black women and one black man managed to get on board. Some ten African-American men were on the platform, pressed up against the door by their comrades who demanded entrance. Two constables arrived to help enforce segregation but police demands for order were met "with unearthly yells" from the sable crowd encouraging the ten to stand their ground. It was feared that the crowd would become unmanageable. More police reinforcements arrived and one resolute Negro was told to take the Jim Crow car or get off the platform or be jailed. He refused and was slammed into the car door by the policemen. The crowd of nonviolent male and by now female black supporters clustered closely to inspire the protesters with shouts of support. Ultimately the train left the station with three civil rights' protesters in the first class section. Claiming they were victorious, the crowd of nineteenth-century African-American civil rights protesters "gave a yell" as the train pulled out. Their triumph, however, was brief and the authorities enforcing segregation held sway until after the middle of the twentieth century. Stories such as this one are not taught because they do not jibe with our notions of the "good old days." In any event, we have an example of class and racial conflict in Tennessee history, which cuts across the nerve of consensus history.
1932, Memphis. The first principal of Booker T. Washington High School, Green P. Hamilton, died.
MAY 30
1806, Logan County, Kentucky, just above the Tennessee State line near the Red River. Andrew Jackson killed Charles Dickinson in a duel that was strictly forbidden by Tennessee law. The two men stood but twenty four feet apart and Jackson wore an oversized cloak. Dickinson, an expert marksman, fired first and shot Jackson in his ribs. Jackson took aim but his piece misfired as the pistol stopped a half cock. Jackson drew back the hammer, fired and killed Dickinson. Jackson carried the ball with him for many years thereafter, causing him intense discomfort. Townsfolk in Nashville were aghast at hearing of the incident, which started over disagreement over a horse racing bet between friends of the two antagonists, which escalated to an alleged insult to Jackson's wife, a wrong he could not abide. Had the duel taken place in Tennessee Jackson would have committed murder. The difference between a killing and a murder is just the Tennessee/Kentucky border.
1845, The Hermitage. A moribund Andrew Jackson "passed a bad night, no sleep.... Mr. Healy [a portrait artist], with considerable exertion on the part of the General, was enabled to finish the portrait....It was presented to the General. After examining it, he remarked to Mr. Healy 'I am satisfied, Sir, that you stand at the head of you profession; if I may be allowed to judge my own likeness, I can safely concur in the opinion of my family, this is the best that has ever been taken.'" I don't know about you, but the description of the moribund Jackson above seems not to agree with the use of such eloquent language, or any language at all.
1886, Carthage. Deputy U.S. Marshall James W. Higgins was gunned down by local hotel keeper W.H. Geigger. The two men had had an row a few months earlier involving the fidelity of Mrs. Geigger. Geigger was infuriated at Higgins's advances to his wife and held a grudge. On this day as Higgins walked down the opposite side of the street he went by Geigger's house. As the lawman "passed a gun was leveled at him from Geigger's family room and discharged. Higgins fell riddled with buckshot and died in twenty minutes." Geigger was arrested on murder charges. Marital infidelity is not pretty. (The outcome of any trial is unknown.)
1895, Maryville College. Paris A. Wallace, an African American, won the commencement competition first prize for the best oration and the $15.00 prize. His topic was "Preface." The award of the prize to a Negro, however, caused bitter feelings among some whites and because of the antagonism the Commencement of 1895 was the last one in which there were a prizes given for best oration.
MAY 31
1862, Hamilton County. James J. Andrews was hanged, the leader of the famous Andrews Raid. He escaped captivity and was recaptured by Confederate forces and was hung on William's Island in the Tennessee River. Walt Disney Studios made a movie about this exploit. The members of the raiding party were the first in the United States to receive the Medal of Honor.
1865, Nashville and Chattanooga. It was announced that between January 21 to May 31, 5,203 Confederate deserters were received by the Union Army. The closing date was about six weeks after Lee's surrender at Appomattox Court House.
1994, Columbia. The Sons of Confederate Veterans culminated a twenty year campaign to bury a deceased Confederate veteran. Pall bearers, dressed in recreated Confederate uniforms, carried the remains of Lieutenant Simon W. Cummings "in the rich dirt of Dixie." Lieutenant Simon W. Cummings, Confederate States Navy, was laid to rest in Columbia after being interred in South Africa for 131 years. Pall bearers were dressed in recreations of Confederate uniforms as a crowd of some 500 witnessed his reburial in Tennessee. Cummings was an assistant engineer on the C.S.S. ALABAMA, a commerce raider. He joined the C.S. Navy in 1861 while in New Orleans. While on a hunting expedition near Capetown, South Africa, he accidentally shot himself, but he did so with great valor and gallantry. He was buried on a South African farm in 1863 and a monument was built for him. The Sons of Confederate Veterans had been trying to recover the remains since 1969 and were finally successful. A similar burial and ceremony was held in Columbia On December 7, 1900 for another deceased Confederate, Patrick H. Cooke.
April (1999)'s Archived Excerpts
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