Share and Fare

The other day, I talked to a group of ladies from the Home and Community Section of Family and Consumer Sciences about the history of James County.

 

I had not done this of any consequence before and I was quite intimidated. But, all turned out well. Everyone seemed very interested and learned some things that they may not have previously known.  Ultimately, that is my goal.: to have people walking out of the meeting more informed than when they entered.

 

There is so much to learn. The history of James County is not a widely publicized topic.  Most people have never heard of James County. And yet, the history of this area is very turbulent which makes it very interesting. Thanks to the James County Historical Society for allowing me the privilege of sharing the history of "Tennessee's Lost County."

 

Thanks also to the Home and Community Section of Family and Consumer Sciences for allowing me to speak and enjoy the lovely lunch afterwards. I also had the pleasure of  speaking with everyone about their experiences and answering their questions.



The Ooltewah Flour Mill

Thomas Carter, Sam Brown and others applied  for permission to buy and operate a flour mill in Ooltewah, Tennessee sometime before the summer of 1913. Sam Smith must have been one of the other men who invested in the mill or there was an error transcribing the name into the logbook. It made it into a manuscript called The Iron Age on November 13, 1913.

 

They obviously purchased their mill and operated it for a short time. The purchase must have been just for investment only, because by August 13, 1913, the mill was being offered for sale. There was an advertisement for the sale of the mill in the  Booster Edition for James County. It appears that this was an existing mill before they bought it. If anyone knows who owned and operated it before Smith and Carter, please contact me and let me know.

 

 

 

OOLTEWAH  FLOUR MILL

CARTER & SMITH, PROPRIETORS

 

This mill which was recently purchased by Carter & Smith is located one mile north of Ooltewah on Wolf Teaver Creek. By some repairs on dam this mill could be run 12 months by water power but at present is using steam power for lack of a sufficent dam to hold the water. Has a Chandler & Taylor 40 horse power engine and boiler in fair condition. Mill consists of four stands, built by Richmond City Mill Co. and they are in good condition, just been worked over and among other machinery has jarrator, reel, purifier, bran duster, in other words a complete 60 barrel mill. This is a fine mill stand and in a wheat growing section and not competitors nearer than Cleveland, Tenn, and Chattanooga, Tenn, a distance of 15 miles to each point. The present owners are doing well and the mill has not been on the market but owing to other business the proprietors would consider a proposition to sell same.

Address Lock Drawer C, Athens, Tenn.   for further information

 

They must have sold the mill soon after to  W.I. Newton.  He is listed as owning the mill in 1914 and again in 1923.

 

 

 W.I. Newton was born in 1876 in Bradley County, Tennessee near Cleveland, reared on a farm and was well educated through the public school system. In the fall of 1908, he came to Ooltewah and purchased a livery business from W. H. Howard. He also owned some mountain land which had a  year-round, flowing spring on it. The water was piped into the livery stable which was used for watering the animals and  cleaning the vehicles. This helped to create the first-rate establishment that he was known for.

 

"When we say that this place  is one of the best conducted and best equipped livery barns in a town of this size in the State we are only stating facts and it is run on strictly business principals at that. He has recently added a new Ford five passenger car to his livery service and is doing a splendid business with same."

 

 

 

 

 

 

Mr. Newton is a charter member of the James County Telephone Co., and lead the construction work of putting the system into service. 



The James County Times  Ooltewah Tennessee   front page     December 2, 1914  Wednesday

 



Southern Junior College Yearbook 1923 Collegedale, TN from Ancestry.com



Jim's Big Day

James County Times, Monday, March 20, 1916; page 1

Jim's Big Day

April 3rd

1 County Court!

2 Farmers' Institute!

 

Have you ever attended a Farmers' Institute? If you have you will be glad to hear that you are to have one in your own county. The Agricultural Experiment Station of Tennessee University have been invited by some of James County's farmers and citizens to hold an Institute in James County.

 

April 3rd and 4th

 

Here are some of the topics to be discussed! Improvements of Farm Soils, Farm Crops, Live Stock, etc, etc. Look for program in next issue.

 

 

 

 

If your family was a farmer during the time that James County existed, they probably attended this special day. It was free and it educated the farmers how to manage their crops for better productivity.

 

The University of Tennessee was kind enough to send me a book concerning the history of this project, A History of the Tennessee Agricultural Experiment Station by Thomas J. Whatley. Thanks to them!

 

As early on, as the the beginning of the 1800's, our agricultural society and government leaders would debate the issues on how to obtain a safe and adequate supply of food for our growing population. The railroads allowed farmers to transport their goods out of their immediate area to other areas around the county. The Industrial Revolution was creating a larger and more diverse population that required various forms of agricultural specialties. These debates by the leaders took into consideration the farmers themselves did not have the resources or the education to conduct the necessary research to meet the growing goals. The decision from the government was to create higher education that specialized in the fields of agriculture and mechanical arts, in addition to, the more sought after fields of the ministry, medicine and law.

 

President Lincoln signed the Morrill Act in 1862 that created a system of land grant colleges and universities where agriculture and the mechanical arts were part of the education roster. The Hatch Act, followed in 1887, that established an agriculture experiment station in each state and territory, as the primary agricultural research center. The government appropriated $15,000 per state.

 

In 1869, after the Civil War, East Tennessee University at Knoxville, which later became the University of Tennessee, was our state's location for the research center. The College of Agriculture was created, land was purchased, and experiments were conducted. "The objective of the Station was to promote the agricultural interests by practical and scientific investigations. Analyses were to be conducted of seeds, fertilizers, soils, minerals, drinking waters, and botanical determinations of benefit to the public ..." Later, dairy and ranching were added to the curriculum.  Agricultural societies were organized on a county basis. Farmers began to send in samples that were then analyzed. The University would then correspond with the farmers of that county the results of their research.

 

These farmers' agricultural societies across the state provided an opportunity for the "Station" to promote themselves to the farming communities around the state in the form of county conventions. Speakers would follow the railroads and travel from one convention site to another to give their discussions on agricultural topics. These conventions were usually well recieved by the farmers.The farmers would use these conventions to display their farm products and learn the latest agricultural information.

 

In summary: These county farmers' institutes were used to promote the adoption of the latest approved methods of crop production, the improvement of live stock, the conservation of soil fertility and the improvement of agricultural conditions.

 

 





 

Our Founder- Polly Watkins Donnelly

A few weeks ago, we lost an individual that was instrumental to the creation of James County Historical Society. Polly Watkins Donnelly, a retired teacher and historian, died January 25, 2013 in Florence, South Carolina after an extended illness. She was a long-time resident of Cleveland, Tennessee.
She was the founder of our James County Historical Society and was significantly involved in our publication of JAMES COUNTY: A LOST COUNTY OF TENNESSEE in 1984. We would like to thank her for all of her hard work. Without her, we would not be here today.
As an active historian, she was a Regent of the Ocoee Chapter of Daughters of the American Revolution. She was also involved with the First Families of Franklin, as well as, many other historical societies.
You can read all about the wonderful life that she led in her obituary from the Morning News in South Carolina. There will be a memorial for her in Cleveland with a date to be set later. Rest in Peace, Polly.

2013 Winter Meeting

The next quarterly meeting for James County Historical Society will be held February 3, 2013. The meeting will be held at the Ooltewah United Methodist Church in Ooltewah, Tennessee at 2:30 p.m.

Everyone is always welcome. It is always free.

Our speaker will be Doug Roy. He will present a program about the history of the Roy Family that lived in the area. Roy Lane, north of Ooltewah, bears the family's name.

Come learn about your neighbors and James County. Also, remember to follow James County Historical Society and "like" us on our Facebook page located here.

Out with the Old and In with the New

Before I got too involved with items that are scheduled for  2013, I thought that I would tell you what happened here in 2012 at the James County Historical Society.

Even though, I began the process to start the blog in 2011, it did not really begin as an educational tool until the beginning of 2012. I did a presentation to the society explaining the concept of social media and how this blog can keep people informed and educated. Since the beginning, in one year's time, we have had over 2400 hits on this blog. The stats show that almost all of the people that had found our site were actually searching for information about James County. Who Knew!  I can only think of a few instances where a search for something unrelated showed up on our site. Those are amazing statistics!

The most popular post was "A Mystery Solved" followed closely by "A Census Listing for 1880-part 1". Right behind were "The Crime of Lewdness" and "None Whatsoever".  Three fourths of the searches came from Google. Thank you Google for putting us at the top of the list for James County searches. The remainder of the people found us through Facebook, Geneabloggers or by typing in the name of the blog. Friends, these are amazing stats for the first year of the blog concerning a topic that most people don't even know about.

The Facebook page was then created. This also has drawn alot of traffic. It has been read by alot of people, even though there are not many "likes" on the page. When you "like" a page on Facebook, it automatically puts any posts from that person or entity onto your home page. You do not need to keep looking at it for new content. Every time the page is updated, the new content will be sent to your homepage. As the page gets more "likes", Facebook has special perks for that page. Let's start a campaign to get more "likes" in 2013.

I have begun to scan and archive some of the photos and documents that are in the Historical Society's possession. I also have begun to scan the same items that are in the possession of some of our society members and others that are willing to share their documented histories that are in their homes. I would like to personally thank everyone for sharing and being patient with me as I work on this project. It is a very large undertaking. I am looking forward to sharing some of these items with you in the very near future. If you know of anyone that has photos, documents, books, heirlooms that they would like to share, please let me know and I will contact them and get those items archived before something happens to them. Mother Nature is very unpredictable these days!

I have also been working on a new logo for the society that we can include on the blog, Facebook page, and brochures. The brochures that are almost done will be ready for distribution at the local libraries, workshops and other areas of interest around town. I will be posting a copy of the brochure here on the website shortly for viewing or printing. The hope is that more people will know that there is an active Historical Society and that we do have meetings. This should encourage more people to attend and will increase our membership. This will mean there will be more stories that can be shared and allow for more interaction between members. This is a win-win situation for everyone involved.

I have also attended 2 national conferences concerning genealogy and societies. I took many classes and learned about how societies are having to make changes in order to accommodate the growth in technology and a demographic change in its membership. You can read all about it here in my blog post. I hope to put many of these ideas into use in the coming year.

The other addition that I have included in this blog is giving you notice of some of the other historical and genealogical events happening around the area. This way, you could be involved in other parts of this genealogical community, as well. I have notified you of workshops, genealogy meetings, festivals, and conferences. I will continue to do this for your benefit.

I have many other pots in the fire and will talk to you about them later. But if you have any other ideas that you would like to see included, please let me know. Also, if you have any questions that maybe I can research, I will be happy to do it.  If I can not, I will put the question out on the blog and maybe someone in the this vast community will have the answers that you seek. Let's use this blog as a tool and work together.

Hope everyone had a great 2012 and will have even a better 2013!  Help us to spread the word  about James County.

Chattanooga Delta January 2013 Meeting

Tuesday, January the 8th of the brand new year of 2013 will be the first meeting for Chattanooga Delta Genealogy Society. The meeting will be held at the Rossville Public Library at 7 pm. I will be introducing you to the educational platform of a "webinar". A webinar is a class that is conducted on the internet through presentation slides. Topics of webinars can range anywhere from technology lessons to resources and databases.
Come see what new ideas and/or resources will be examined tomorrow. Look forward to seeing you there.

504 McFarland Avenue   Rossville, Georgia