Near Cemetery Street at South Glade Street, on the right when traveling north.
Born August 13, 1799; died
April 9, 1880.
A founder of Rose Hill Cemetery,
dedicated Mason, devoted
Methodist, Confederate patriot.
He built more fine houses
than any man ever in Maury County.
Married Lucretia J. Journey
and Sarah . . . — — Map (db m196634) HM
On Public Square, on the left when traveling north.
Knoxville was the capital of Tennessee and John Sevier was Governor when Maury County was created by the Tennessee Legislature on November 24, 1807, and named for Abram Maury, a pioneer surveyor. The site of Columbia, the county seat, was land . . . — — Map (db m189310) HM
Near Natchez Trace Parkway (at milepost 401.1) north of Sheboss Road, on the right when traveling north.
Tobacco Farm- You see here a typical early 1900's tobacco farm. A 10-minute loop walk takes you through the field and to the barn where you see tobacco hanging to dry.
Old Trace- From here you may drive north on a narrow 2 -mile section of the . . . — — Map (db m60218) HM
Near Eastern Flank Circle 0.4 miles south of Lewsiburg Pike (Business U.S. 431), on the right when traveling west.
The last state to leave the Union, Tennessee became the first to reenter in 1866. But the end of the Civil War did not bring an end to hardships. No other state except Virginia experienced more military engagements than Tennessee. Roads, bridges, . . . — — Map (db m189008) HM
On Old Nashville Highway, on the right when traveling north.
A tombstone can only tell so much about the life of a man. From the shape and standard design of the markers you see ahead, you can tell that two veterans of the United States military lie here in graves just outside of the wall of the Hazen Brigade . . . — — Map (db m82570) HM
Near Zion Road at Old Zion Road, on the right when traveling south.
Samuel Rush Watkins and his wife, Virginia (Jenny) Mayes Watkins, who worshipped here at Zion Presbyterian Church, are buried in the cemetery. In his book Company Aytch: or, a Side Show of the Big Show, Watkins left an incomparable memoir of . . . — — Map (db m85997) HM
Born in Franklin County, Georgia
January 25, 1803 Died at Liberty, Texas, April 20 1878 An officer at the Siege of Bexar and at San Jacinto 1837 appointed by Congress Surveyor of Liberty County 1841, Colonel of the 2nd Regiment of the 2nd . . . — — Map (db m195844) HM
On Easter Ferry Road south of Morris Road (County Road 49), on the right when traveling south.
In the fall of 1806 a group of settlers led by William and James Sims, traveled from east Tennessee on flatboats down the Tennessee River and up the Elk River to this area. They landed near Buck Island and spread out into the surrounding . . . — — Map (db m250556) HM
Near Eddy Lane south of Fort Granger Drive, on the right when traveling south.
On March 24, 1863, President Abraham Lincoln told Tennessee Military Governor Andrew Johnson, “The colored population is the great available, and yet unavailed of, force for restoring the Union.” In September 1863, Johnson gave permission to Maj. . . . — — Map (db m189735) HM
Near Cemetery Street at Whatley Street, on the right when traveling north.
Born in Williamson County, A.O.P. Nicholson attended the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill at the age of fifteen. When he graduated four years later, Nicholson studied medicine and, later, law. He was admitted to the bar in 1831 and began . . . — — Map (db m196593) HM
On Bear Creek Pike (U.S. 412) at Tom J. Hitch Parkway, on the right when traveling west on Bear Creek Pike.
The Tennessee Farm Bureau Federation was founded and shaped by farmers in 1921 to serve as the voice of agriculture across “The Volunteer State.” Mr. Joe Frank Porter, a farmer from Williamsport was elected the first president and established the . . . — — Map (db m297460) HM
On 2nd Avenue South at Millcreek Drive, on the right when traveling south on 2nd Avenue South.
An agreement was made with the Masons to build and share the two-story wood clapboard building. Different protestant denominations contributed labor, materials, and money. The graveyard, donated in 1908, became Loretto Cemetery after the church . . . — — Map (db m101814) HM
Near Cemetery Street at Whatley Street, on the right when traveling north.
Carmack was born in Sumner County, Tennessee. Just a few years after his birth, his father died, leaving his mother to care for the small family. She found employment at the fledgling Webb School in Culleoka and brought her young family to Maury . . . — — Map (db m196614) HM
On South Main Street at East 8th Street, on the left when traveling south on South Main Street.
On February 25, 1946, racial tensions in Columbia, Tennessee, erupted following a dispute at a downtown department store involving James Stephenson, a young Black Navy veteran, and a White store clerk.
As lynching rumors spread, Black . . . — — Map (db m305663) HM
On West 7th Street at North High Street, on the right when traveling west on West 7th Street.
James Knox Polk was born in Mecklenburg, North Carolina in 1785. The Polk family moved to Tennessee's Duck River Valley in 1806 when he was eleven years old. His father, Samuel Polk, was instrumental in the creation of Maury County and the town of . . . — — Map (db m262470) HM
Near South Rhodes Street north of East Cemetery Street, on the right when traveling north.
City Recorder of Pulaski
Member, Tennessee State Legislature
Governor of Tennessee 1847 - 1849
United States Minister to Russia 1850 - 1853
Speaker of the Tennessee House of Representatives
A native Giles countian, Neill S. Brown was born . . . — — Map (db m151141) HM
John Benge's Route of the Cherokee Trail of Tears in Alabama, Tennessee, Kentucky, Missouri, Arkansas and Oklahoma, 1838-1839
John Benge led one detachment of approximately 1100 Cherokee with 60 wagons and 600 horses that left from Alabama on . . . — — Map (db m29812) HM
On Matilda Street just west of South Union Street, on the left when traveling west.
The land was acquired by James K. Polk, Jr. and others on October 23, 1845 as a family cemetery for the descendents of Ezekiel Polk. Colonel Polk, the patriarch of the Polk family in Tennessee, was the grandfather of President James Knox Polk. The . . . — — Map (db m148497) HM
Near 4th Avenue South at Oak Street, on the right when traveling south.
With the outbreak of the Civil War, Tennessee allied with the South in June 1861, making Nashville a Confederate capital. Unable to defend the city after the fall of Ft. Donelson, Nashville was surrendered to the Federal army in February 1862. . . . — — Map (db m256526) HM
On Santa Fe Pike 0.1 miles north of U.S. 412, on the left when traveling north.
GrafTech Internaitonal
Since 1937, GrafTech has called Maury County home, welcoming multiple generations of employees and supporting thousands of families. The site was chosen in part because of the newly formed Tennessee Valley Authority, . . . — — Map (db m151182) HM
Consecrated Sept. 4, 1842, by James Hervey Otey, first Episcopal Bishop of Tennessee, this church was built by Leonidas Polk, then Missionary Bishop of Southwest and his three brothers, George, Lucius, and Rufus, who divided a grant received from . . . — — Map (db m28651) HM
On North Main Street (Tennessee Route 243) east of Rattle and Snap Drive, on the left when traveling north.
Designated a National Historic Landmark by the U.S. Department of Interior in 1971. Rattle and Snap was built between 1842 and 1845 by George W. Polk and his wife, Sallie Hilliard. Restored to its original character and furnished with period . . . — — Map (db m28660) HM
On Old Hillsboro Road (State Highway 46) 0.1 miles east of Wilkins Branch Road, on the left when traveling east.
Born near Hillsborough, N.C., and in 1801 moved his widowed mother and seven siblings to a 2,500-acre tract on Leiper’s Fork Creek. This settlement was originally called Bentontown, then Hillsboro. Upon this site stood the Benton log home until . . . — — Map (db m149964) HM
Near Blackburn Hollow Road 0.2 miles south of Clock Creek Road, on the left when traveling south.
Here on February 10, 1867, James Knox Polk Blackburn and Mary “Mackie” McMillan Laird were married on the porch of the Lairdland farm house. She was the daughter of Robert H. and Nancy Mildred Gordon Laird, who owned the thousand-acre farm called . . . — — Map (db m75135) HM
On South Main Street at Public Square when traveling north on South Main Street.
Walking from Decatur, Alabama to Columbia in the 1820s as a poor illiterate boy in his teens, Andrew Johnson came to Columbia to seek work as a tailor's apprentice. Not much is known about his time spent here. We know his home was on or near 207 . . . — — Map (db m168626) HM
Near Cemetery Street at Whatley Street, on the right when traveling north.
Known as the “Silent Man from Tennessee” and the “Grand Old Man of the Turf,” Ed Geers was born just west of Lebanon, Tennessee in Wilson County. There in Wilson County, he made a name for himself training and racing horses, and that is what . . . — — Map (db m196598) HM
On West Cemetery Street at South 3rd Street, on the left when traveling west on West Cemetery Street.
Two Cherokee Detachments traveling on the Trail of Tears crossed Richland Creek in Pulaski just two weeks apart in the autumn of 1838. John
Benge led one group of nearly 1100 Cherokee with 60 wagons and 600 horses through Pulaski, possibly on . . . — — Map (db m151136) HM
"Miss Camille" was a Maury County native and lifelong resident of West Seventh Street in Columbia, Tennessee.
She was a graduate of the Columbia Female Institute, where she taught a number of years. She studied organ music at the Cincinnati . . . — — Map (db m151179) HM
On Public Square at West 7th Street, on the left when traveling east on Public Square.
James Carpenter was born in Columbia during the Civil War. He was educated in Columbia, and in preparation for a professional career, studied architecture at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and in Paris at the Ecole des Beaux Arts. He . . . — — Map (db m177497) HM
Near Natchez Trace Parkway (at milepost 401.4), 6.4 miles south of Williamsport Pike ( Route 50) when traveling north.
This monument, located on the Natchez Trace at the site of the Tobacco Farm, honors the farming industry of Maury County, Tennessee. Maury County was named in honor of Abram Maury and was the home of the 11th United States President, James K. Polk. . . . — — Map (db m84584) HM
On Mooresville Pike at Morrow Lane, on the right when traveling south on Mooresville Pike.
Maury County was created by act of the General Assembly of Tennessee Nov. 16, 1807
Organized Dec. 21, 1807 in the log home of Joseph Brown about 400 yards west of this point.
The county seat was moved to Columbia Dec. 21, 1808
First . . . — — Map (db m156895) HM
Near Navasota Street at East 8th Street, on the right when traveling north.
Who served under General Jackson in the Creek War, 1813
Soldier in the Army of Texas, 1835
Born in Maury County, Tennessee January 12, 1792
Died in Guadalupe County, Texas February 15, 1871
His wife Kissiah Hines Tom
Born October 15, . . . — — Map (db m44738) HM
Near Cemetery Street at Whatley Street, on the right when traveling north.
The Cheairs Family moved to northern Maury County in 1811. The Cheairs patriarch (also named Nathaniel) purchased three hundred acres of land just south of present-day Spring Hill. It was on this land that young Nathaniel was born in 1818. He was . . . — — Map (db m196619) HM
On East 6th Street at Woodland Street, on the left when traveling east on East 6th Street.
On this site, on June 26, 1977, a fire broke out in the
Maury County Jail, claiming the lives of forty-two
people, both inmates & visitors. The tragedy began
when padding in a cell was set ablaze and smoke
rapidly filled the building. Despite . . . — — Map (db m308388) HM
On Public Square at 3rd Avenue South, on the right when traveling east on Public Square.
After the Emancipation Proclamation was issued, the U.S. War Department created the Bureau of Colored Troops on May 22, 1863. Approximately 200,000 African American men enlisted in segregated U.S. Army regiments under white officers and served in . . . — — Map (db m146135) HM
On South Main Street at W 8th Street, on the left when traveling north on South Main Street.
In 1860, Maury County had just over 32,000
residents, of whom 14,654 were enslaved. The
lives of White and Black people were closely
connected though shaped by profoundly
unequal conditions.
The end of the Civil War and the abolition . . . — — Map (db m299727) HM
On Downs Boulevard, on the left when traveling south.
Mark Andrews (1740-1821), Revolutionary soldier
and his wife, Winifred Lyell, grandparents of the
Reverend, were the first of the Andrews family to
migrate from Virginia to Williamson County, arriving
just prior to 1800. Purchasing the NC land . . . — — Map (db m205399) HM
On South McGee Street at Franklin Street, on the left when traveling north on South McGee Street.
In 1876 the Texas legislature created Hutchinson County, naming it
for attorney and judge Anderson Hutchinson. The county remained
sparsely populated for several years and was not organized until
1901. Pioneers and ranchers John F. and Maggie . . . — — Map (db m248417) HM
Thin black lines indicate changes in relevance. Between each pair of lines entries are ordered geographically but all have the same relevance.
* Inflectional forms of words are their plurals, singulars, and possessives as well as gramatical tenses and similar variations.
