By: E.H. Marshall, Orig Pub. 1941, Reprinted 2019, 270 pages, soft cover, ISBN #0-89308-934-6. Obion County was created in 1823 from ceded Indian lands in the northwestern corner of the state. This land was first settled in 1819 when the western portion of the state was being opened for settlement. This book is not too different from other county history books of this era. With such topics as trade and transportation, labor, farming, politics, and race relations - all important in the development of the county - are discussed. This type of county history book can help one develop ideas or paths to those missing ancestors by showing the customs and traditions of the local residents.
The author describes her family's life in a small town in Tennessee before World War II, where, as the first Jews in town, they owned a dry goods store and struggled to prosper in a place where Jews were treated as outsiders
Tennessee has never had so complete a place-names volume as this. With over 1,900 entries, this volume covers virtually all the cities, towns, villages, hamlets, and communities of Tennessee. Here you can learn when and how towns got their names. Although current names are the primary focus, previous names are also provided and discussed when information is available, and many interesting stories attached to a place have also been included. This is an essential and fascinating reference book for scholars, teachers, students, and any individual interested in the history of Tennessee.
A notable and tragic case of the struggle between legal and social justice Reelfoot Lake has been a hunting and fishing paradise from the time of its creation in 1812, when the New Madrid earthquake caused the Mississippi River to flow backward into low-lying lands. Situated in the northwestern corner of the state of Tennessee, it attracted westward-moving pioneers, enticing some to settle permanently on its shores. Threatened in 1908 with the loss of their homes and livelihoods to aggressive, outsider capitalists, rural folk whose families had lived for generations on the bountiful lake donned hoods and gowns and engaged in “night riding,” spreading mayhem and death throughout the region as they sought vigilante justice. They had come to regard the lake as their own, by “squatters’ rights,” but now a group of entrepreneurs from St. Louis had bought the titles to the land beneath the shallow lake and were laying legal claim to Reelfoot in its entirety. People were hanged, beaten, and threatened and property destroyed before the state militia finally quelled the uprising. A compromise that made the lake public property did not entirely heal the wounds which continue to this day. Paul Vanderwood reconstructs these harrowing events from newspapers and other accounts of the time. He also obtained personal interviews with participants and family members who earlier had remained mum, still fearing prosecution. The Journal of American History declares his book “the complete and authentic treatment” of the horrific dispute and its troubled aftermath.
This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it. This work is in the public domain in the United States of America, and possibly other nations. Within the United States, you may freely copy and distribute this work, as no entity (individual or corporate) has a copyright on the body of the work. Scholars believe, and we concur, that this work is important enough to be preserved, reproduced, and made generally available to the public. To ensure a quality reading experience, this work has been proofread and republished using a format that seamlessly blends the original graphical elements with text in an easy-to-read typeface. We appreciate your support of the preservation process, and thank you for being an important part of keeping this knowledge alive and relevant.
This fabulous work is a county-by-county guide to the genealogical records and resources at the Tennessee State Library and Archives in Nashville. Based largely on the Tennessee county records microfilmed by the LDS Genealogical Library, it is an inventory of extant county records and their dates of coverage. For each county the following data is given: formation, county seat, names and addresses of libraries and genealogical societies, published records (alphabetical by author), W.P.A. typescript records, microfilmed records (LDS), manuscripts, and church records. The LDS microfilm covers almost every record that could be used by the genealogist, from vital records to optometry registers, from wills and inventories to school board minutes. There also is a comprehensive list of statewide reference works.
The earliest surviving federal enumerations of the Tennessee Country consist of the 1810 census of Rutherford County and an incomplete 1820 census. But since the first settlers arrived at the French Lick as early as 1779, the first forty years of settlement in the area we now call Tennessee are a blank, at least in the official enumerations. This work is an attempt to reconstruct a census of the Cumberland River settlements in Davidson, Sumner, and Tennessee counties, which today comprise all or part of forty Tennessee counties. To this end, Mr. Fulcher has abstracted from the public records all references to those living in the jurisdictions between 1770 and 1790. From wills, deeds, court minutes, marriage records, military records, and many related items, the author has put together a carefully documented list of inhabitants--virtually the "first" census of Tennessee.
