Jackson Purchase Historical Society

Born May 20, 1861 to Robert Chappell and Fredonia Charlotte (Stephens) Mayes in Mayfield, Kentucky, William Harding Mayes attended Paducah District Methodist College at Milburn, Kentucky, Norton’s English and Classical School at Union City, Tennessee and Vanderbilt University where he earned his law degree.  His legal studies completed he was admitted to the Kentucky Bar in 1881 and practiced in Mayfield.  Admitted to the Texas Bar in 1882 he practiced in Brownwood, Texas until 1886.   From 1882 to 1883, he was Brown County’s county attorney.  He was editor and publisher of the Brownwood Bulletin from 1887 to 1914.  He served as president of the Texas Press Association from 1899 to 1901, and the National Editorial Association of the United States from 1908-09.

In 1912, he ran for lieutenant governor of Texas.  “When announcing his candidacy, he declared that he would accept the office if the voters so desired, but refused to make speeches, to spend any money other than for postage or stationery, or to leave his job to campaign extensively.”  (see page 61, Presiding Officers of the Texas Legislature, 846-1995, printed by the Texas House of Representatives, Austin, Texas 1995).   He won! And presided over the Senate of the 33rd Legislature from 1913-14.  Mayes was the first newspaperman to hold the office of lieutenant governor of Texas.  He did not seek re-election.

Leaving politics, he established the journalism school at the University of Texas, its first.  He served as its first dean from 1914 to 1926.  During his 12 year tenure as Dean, he also was the president of the Association of American Schools and Departments of Journalism.  Mayes wrote at least one book, “Texas Empire Builders of 1936″.

In 1936 he served as Executive Vice-President of the Texas Centennial Committee.  Mayes died June 26, 1939 in Austin and was buried in Greenleaf Cemetery, Brownwood, Texas.

(This posting created from the following resources:  The Handbook of Texas - Online, www.tshaonline.org/handbook; Presiding Officers of the Texas Legislature, 1846-1995, Published by the Texas Legislative Council, Revised 1995, Printed by the Texas House of Representatives, Austin, Texas; and Genealogy Trails at www.genealogytrails.com)

Marshall County, 92nd created in the state in 1842, was named for U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice, John Marshall (1801-1835); it was carved out of the northern portion of Calloway County.     It is bordered on the north by Livingston, Lyon and McCracken counties, on the east by Trigg county, on the south by Calloway county and on the west by Graves County.    Its county seat is Benton, named in honor of Senator Thomas Hart Benton of Missouri.

For 10 years in a row, 1999-2009, Marshall County has been named the best county to live in within the State of Kentucky.

Kentucky Lake and Barkley Lake, both created by the Tennessee Valley Authority by impounding  the Tennessee and  Cumberland Rivers,  make up one of the largest man-made bodies of water in the country.  It lies on the north/northeast boundary of Marshall County.

Benton holds its annual Tater Day Festival in April.  This festival has its origins in a trade day began in 1842 and is the world’s only celebration of the sweet potato.

Held annually the fourth Sunday of each May, is the Big Singing, which originated in 1884 and is the oldest continuously operating indigenous music festival in the United States. The Big Singing was founded by James R. Lemon, publisher of the Benton Tribune-Democrat.

One of Benton’s most famous sons was Joe Creason a journalist who was a columnist for the Courier-Journal from 1946-1963.  Creason also wrote two books based on the research he did for this columns before he died suddenly in 1974.

Calvert City was founded by Potilla Calvert and is known for its chemical and manufacturing plants.  Mr. Calvert’s home, Oak Hill, is on the National Register of Historic Places.

Marshall County was the site of Cherokee State Park, located on the grounds of the current Kenlake State Resort park in Aurora.  This park operated as the only segregated resort facility for thousands of Negro citizens until the early 1960′s when it was closed after the state park system adopted a complete integration policy.

Calloway County was created out of Hickman County in 1822 and named for Col. Richard Calloway who came to Kentucky with Daniel Boone about 1776.  Calloway was one of the founders of Boonesboro and was killed there by Indians in 1780.

Calloway County is bounded on the north by Marshall County, on the east by the Tennessee River, on the south by the Tennessee/Kentucky border and on the west by Graves County.  When created, its northern boundary was the Ohio River.

As Calloway County grew, typhoid fever raged through the county, more severe in the warmer months.  The common house fly was identified as the carrier of the disease but as few windows had screens and sanitary conditions miserable, a rich breeding ground was readily available for the flies.    Warnings from various county and state officials sometimes generated sporadic campaigns to control the flies.  “The Women’s Club sponsored spring drives to get rid of the flies by awarding youngsters free movie tickets for each 25 early fly carcasses submitted in evidence, in late April and May, in the firm opinion that the destroying of the first flies would hold in check the summer’s population- Calloway’s first experiment in fly birth control.  The uncanny capacity of youth to outwit their elders found maximum ingenuity in perfecting a screen fly trap fashioned a bit along the lines of an ice cream cone shaped net.  Result:  A fly panic broke the Woman’s Club bank in a youth stampede on the Woodruff Opera House.  Moments later an official moratorium ended once and forever the Fly War of 1912.”  (The Story of Calloway County, 1822-1976, by Dorothy and Kerby Jennings, 1978, Murray Democrat Publishing Co., 615 Maple St., Murray, KY 42071, pages 168-169).

Dieter Ullrich

The Summer Meeting of the JPHS was held on July 24, 2010, in the auditorium of the Wrather Museum on the campus of Murray State University.

Dieter Ullrich was the speaker on the topic of the Battle of Lochridge Mills, Tennessee.  Mr. Ullrich holds a Masters in Science in Library/Archival Science and a Masters in Arts in History.  He is currently the Special Collections Librarian/Archivist of the Pogue Library at Murray State University.

Among other publications, Mr. Ullrich has written “They Met At Lochridge Mills” (West Tennessee Historical Society, Vol. 51, 1998 Annual Issue, pages 1-20) and spoken about this battle before other historical groups.

Lochridge Mills was located in Weakley County Tennessee and the battle involved Union troops from Iowa and Minnesota and were primarily of German descent.  The Confederate troops were primarily Tennesseeans of the 6th and 7th Tennessee Calvary.  Mr. Ullrich presented a slideshow to accompany his speech and showed not only maps of the battle area but pictures of the various generals and a picture of how the battlefield looks today.  A question and answer period followed.  Several visitors were descendants of the Lochridge family who brought to share pictures and a newspaper article concerning the battle.

New officers were also elected at this meeting for the 2010-11 year.  Our new officers are Marion Claybrook, President; Sarah Strange, Vice President; Melissa Earnest, Secretary; Marvin Downing, Treasurer; and Cecelia Edwards, Member at Large.

Dues for the 2010-2011 year are now being collected.  At this meeting, we were thrilled that  Charles and LaDonna Bobbitt and John and Melissa Earnest became life members of the Jackson Purchase Historical Society.  If you have not paid your dues yet, please send them to Marvin Downing.  Individual membership dues are $15.00.

The podcast features our Summer Meeting speaker, Dieter Ullrich.   Mr. Ullrich holds a Masters in Science in Library/Archival Science and a Masters in Arts in History.  He is currently the Special Collections Librarian/Archivist of the Pogue Library at Murray State University.  Among other publications, Mr. Ullrich has written “They Met At Lochridge Mills” (West Tennessee Historical Society, Vol. 51, 1998 Annual Issue, pages 1-20) and spoken about this battle before other historical groups.

UPDATE: You can now listen to the podcast here on the site or via your subscription in iTunes.

Obion County is one of 95 in Tennessee created in 1823 and included was is now Lake County until 1870.  It is bounded on the north by Fulton County Kentucky, on the west by Lake County Tennessee, on the east by Weakley County Tennessee and on the south by both Dyer and Gibson Counties Tennessee.   It is generally considered to be named after the Obion River; Obion thought to be an Indian word meaning “many forks”.

Troy was the first county seat and the first incorporated town (March 1, 1843) in the county.   Davy Crockett was there when Troy was laid out as county seat.  Crockett would go on to represent Obion County in the U. S. House of Representatives.  Crockett’s fame as a bear killer (his record was 103) was made in Obion County.

Union City is now the county seat.  Laid out in 1854 on land owned by General George Gibbs, Union City came by its name because it was where the Nashville and Northwest Railroad and the Mobile and Ohio Railroad met.

(This posting created from the online Tennessee Encyclopedia and the Jackson Purchase Historical Society Sesquicentennial Publication, 1969)

The official flag of the United States of America was adopted June 14, 1777 by resolution of the Second Continental Congress.   Believed to be celebrated first in 1861, in Hartford Connecticut, it was Woodrow Wilson, in 1916, who issued the proclamation that officially established June 14 as Flag Day.  National Flag Day was established by an Act of Congress in August of 1949; however, Flag Day is not an official federal holiday.  The week in which Flag Day falls is designated National Flag Week.  Presidential proclamation is usually made to urge citizens to fly their national flags not only on Flag Day but the entire week.

Flags are symbols and have been popular through the ages.  They generate feelings of intense national pride, patriotism,  and respect for country.   On the field of battle, the flag marks the warrior’s headquarters and is a rallying point.   In 1861, a private in the 1st Tennessee Infantry Regiment recalled: ‘Flags made by the ladies were presented to companies, and to hear the young men tell of how they would protect the flag, and that they would come back with the flag or come not at all, and if they fell they would fall with their backs to the field and their feet to the foe, would fairly make your hair stand on end with intense patriotism, and we wanted to march right off and whip twenty Yankees.” (The Flags of the American Civil War 1: Confederate, by Katcher and Scollins, ISBN 9781855322707, page 3, para. 1).

The scientific study of the history and symbolism of flags is called vexillology.   If you are interested, visit the North American Vexillological Association website where you can find information on flags from not only all parts of America but all over the world.

Lake County Tennessee is located in the far northwest corner of the state bordered on the west by the Mississippi River, on the north by Fulton County Kentucky, on the east by Obion county, Reelfoot Lake, and on the east and south by Dyer county.  Mostly flat it contains approximately 104,950 acres of land and about 15,000 acres in lakes.  The county was created in 1870 out of Obion County and named for Reelfoot Lake, which was created by the 1811-12 New Madrid earthquakes.  Tiptonville is the county seat.

Lake County’s most famous son is Carl Perkins, the King of Rockabilly.  He was born near Tiptonville in April 1932.  When he was fourteen, his father moved the family to the Memphis area.   Perkins was best known for writing the song, Blue Suede Shoes, which made both Perkins and Elvis Presley famous.  Perkins played his guitar commercially for over 40 years and toured with Johnny Cash for over 10 years.  Perkins died in Jackson, Tennessee on January 19, 1998.

Today, Tiptonville’s visitor center is named after Carl Perkins and the city holds an annual Blue Suede Shoes and BBQ event in the summer.  This year the event will be held July 15, 16, and 17.  Ya’ll come!

(This post created primarily from information found on the Internet)

This is the day our nation remembers its sons and daughters who died while in the military service.  Although celebrated since 1866, it didn’t become a national holiday until 1967.  First called Decoration Day, it’s alternative name, Memorial Day, was first used in 1882.

Commemoration takes many forms: placing flags on military graves, a moment of remembrance nationwide, the flying of flags at half-mast, parades honoring the dead and the veteran, a national concert, picnics, family gatherings, and sporting events such as the running of the Indianapolis 500.  The Veterans of Foreign Wars sell paper poppies to promote remembrance; John McCrae’s poem, In Flanders Fields, forever ties the image of the poppy to Memorial Day.

But do we remember our warriors’ sacrifices at any other time?  Do we stop during the course of our busy days and mentally thank them for our freedoms.  Do we care how our warriors are treated and cared for when they return, whether dead or alive?  Do we attend our local government meetings to see how, and if,  they are protecting and advancing those freedoms our warriors paid for with their blood and sweat and tears?  Do we do that simplest of all tasks of thankfulness – voting?

Remember

It is the soldier and the sailor, not the reporter

who has given us the freedom of the press,

It is the soldier and the sailor, not the poet

Who has given us freedom of speech,

It is the soldier and the sailor, not the campus organizer,

Who has given us freedom to demonstrate,

It is the soldier and the sailor,

who salutes the flag

Who serves beneath the flag

Who’s coffin is draped by the flag

Who allows the protester to burn our flag.

-Father Denis Edward O’Brien, USMC

Most of us value our nation and the wonderful life it provides and the freedoms it protects to allow us to do and say pretty much exactly what we want.   Most of us are good citizens.  We decorate our cars and our T-shirts with catchy slogans like “Home of the Free, Because of the Brave”.  But sometimes even with the slogans and even amid all the activity of the various Memorial Day festivities, we forget that our warriors willingly placed, and continue to place, themselves in positions of danger to keep our United States of America strong and safe and solvent and free.

We sleep here in obedience to law,

When duty called, we came

When country called, we died.

-Engraved on the state of Georgia’s statue

to its Confederate Dead, Antietam Battlefield

In gratitude, this Memorial Day 2010, we remember -

Fulton County was created on January , 1845, the 99th, out of Hickman County.  It was fittingly named for the famous steamboat inventor, Robert Fulton, “the engineer who helped usher in the era of the paddle wheelers and turned the river into an even more important artery of commerce”.  (Paducah Sun article, September 6, 1966, by Bruce Gardner)

Containing 184 square miles, its creation was the result of efforts to keep the town of Moscow from becoming the county seat of then Hickman County.  Moscow was a thriving trade center strategically located near the center of the County.  Those wanting to keep Clinton as county seat teamed with resident in the town of Hickman and surrounding areas to get their State Representative to introduce a bill establishing Fulton County.  The bill was enacted with the interesting and unusual provision that the town of Hickman should be the county seat upon condition that the sum of $4,000 should be pledged and secured on or before the month of August following enactment for the purpose of erecting a courthouse. (Hickman County Kentucky Pictorial Book)  The courthouse was raised in 1847.

Fulton County contains the “thumb” (called Madrid Bend) that sticks out into the Mississippi (dividing the county into two parts) and runs eastward until it ends at the Graves County boundary.  Its southern boundary is the Tennessee state line and its northern boundary is part of the Mississippi River and  Hickman County.

Operating continuously (more or less as it closed for a short period 1991-199) since 1840, a ferry service connects Hickman (Fulton County), Kentucky to Dorena, Missouri.  This 12 car capacity ferry operates from April 1 to December 24 yearly and is located at River Mile Marker 922 (from New Orleans) approximately halfway between St. Louis and Memphis.

The largest city in the county is the City of Fulton.  Incorporated in 1872, the city grew and in the 1890s, the Illinois Central consolidated the rail line serving Fulton linking it to the rest of the nation.  The city became the system’s primary banana refrigeration stop in the early 20th century and was once called the Banana Capital of the World.   The International Banana Festival began in 1963 but has since been discontinued.