Bethel Masonic Lodge Completed in 1850 as a joint effort of local Masons and Methodists, Bethel's Masonic Lodge has served as a church, school, and community center. The building survived an assault by Federal soldiers in 1862 and a 1954 fire . . . — — Map (db m211056) HM
Tennessee State Senator 1821 - 1825
Tennessee State Representative 1831 - 1833
U.S. Congressman 1839 - 1845
Governor of Tennessee 1845 - 1847
Postmaster General of the United States 1857 - 1859
Born in Brunswick County, Virginia August . . . — — Map (db m151140) 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
The land that was to become Giles County was claimed as hunting lands by both the Chickasaw and Cherokee Nations. The treaties of Hopewell between the U.S.
Government and the Cherokees (1785) and the Chickasaws (1786) established boundaries between . . . — — Map (db m151150) HM
Thomas Jones was born in Peron County, North Carolina on December 12, 1816 and moved to Giles County with his family in 1817. Jones received his early education at Wurtemburg Academy and studied at the University of Alabama and University of . . . — — Map (db m75174) HM
(Preface): In September 1864, after Union Gen. William T. Sherman defeated Confederate Gen. John Bell Hood at Atlanta, Hood led the Army of Tennessee northwest against Sherman's supply lines. Rather than contest Sherman's "March to the Sea," . . . — — Map (db m82213) HM
James M. McCallum was born in Roberson County, North Carolina in 1806. At an early age his family moved to Giles County where he eventually studied law and opened an active practice in Pulaski.
In 1842 McCallum was elected Clerk and Master of the . . . — — Map (db m151142) HM
John Calvin Brown was born on Giles County, Tennessee on January 6, 1827. He was one of nine children born to Duncan and Margaret Brown and the brother of Neill S. Brown, Governor of Tennessee (1847-1849). A graduate of Jackson College in Columbia, . . . — — Map (db m75175) HM
Dr. Louie Edmundson was the last of a long line of country doctors in the Bethel Community of Giles County, TN. The youngest member of his class, he graduated from the University of Tennessee Medical School in 1912. After serving in the Army Medical . . . — — Map (db m211059) HM
(Side 1)
From about 1775 until his death on August 9, 1807, Chickamauga Cherokee Chief Doublehead controlled the Muscle Shoals of the Tennessee River. Two major Indian trails, Sipsie Trail and an east-west trail, intersected in the . . . — — Map (db m99972) HM
Edward Eslick, son of Merritt and Martha Abernaty Eslick, was born near Pulaski on April 10, 1872, attended public schools in Pulaski and Bethel College in Russellville, Kentucky. He studied law under William H. McCallum, was admitted to the bar in . . . — — Map (db m75182) HM
Welcome to Giles County, Tennessee!
Get ready to visit small towns with big stories.
Tennessee Civil War Trails tells riveting stories of battles and leaders, and much more. You'll learn about some of the state's 275,000 enslaved men and . . . — — Map (db m296389) HM
West of the Nashville Turnpike stands the home of Mary Kate Patterson, a Confederate spy. She assisted Capt. Henry B. Shaw's Coleman's Scouts, a Confederate cavalry unit and spy network that served the Army of Tennessee, from 1862 to 1865. She . . . — — Map (db m146609) HM
Sam Davis was born on October 6, 1842 in Smyrna, Tennessee, attended Nashville's Western Military Academy and, like many other young men, left school to join the Confederate Army in 1861. He served as a private in Company I for the 1st Tennessee . . . — — Map (db m151144) HM
Bell's Route of the Cherokee Trail of Tears in Tennessee, Arkansas, and Oklahoma, 1838-1839 Overview
The detachment headed by John Bell differed from the parties under Cherokee Chief John Ross's supervision. Bell's detachment was composed of . . . — — Map (db m29811) HM
Side A
The settlement of what is now eastern Lauderdale County (known as "Over Elk)" by non-Native Americans commenced by 1807.
Federal land sales were held in Huntsville during the spring of 1818.
Although much of the land was described . . . — — Map (db m281246) HM
Born enslaved in Giles County, R. F. Boyd earned degrees from Meharry's Medical (1882) and Dental (1886) departments. In 1887 he joined the faculty. He ran for a seat in the Tennessee General Assembly in 1892 and was the first African American . . . — — Map (db m286791) HM
Though black public education existed in Giles County by 1869, Bridgeforth was the first black high school. Designed by America's first black architectural firm, McKissack and McKissack, which had local roots, and named for black educator J. T. . . . — — Map (db m81559) HM
During the years following the Civil War, Gabriel Moses McKissack (1840-1923) laid the foundation in Giles County for a family building tradition that included the first black architectural firm in the United States, Nashville's McKissack and . . . — — Map (db m75129) HM
Served under Gen. Andrew Jackson, War of 1812, and participated in the Battle of Horseshoe Bend before receiving a commission as a lieutenant in the Tennessee State Militia. He was the first circuit court clerk in Giles County and served 24 years. . . . — — Map (db m263434) HM
Confederate Gen. John C. Brown, a native of Giles County, Tennessee, commanded one of the Southern army’s most formidable divisions. It numbered more than 3,700 soldiers; most hailed from Tennessee, but some called Georgia and South Carolina home. . . . — — Map (db m202808) HM
Walter Aiken Roberts (June 4, 1865 - July 3, 1948), born in Pulaski (Giles County) Tennessee, son of Dr. Joseph Coleman Roberts (11.18.1821 - 3.24.1898) and Sarah Jane Anthony Roberts (1.23.1832 - 12.24.1901).
W.A. Roberts married . . . — — Map (db m161311) HM
The first school in Pulaski/Giles County was chartered by the State of Tennessee on November 23, 1809, just nine days after the passage of the legislation establishing the county. Chartered as the Pulaski Academy, the designated trustees were . . . — — Map (db m151162) HM
The Tennessee and Alabama Railroad connected the "town of Thompson" to Nashville in 1855 and south to Columbia in 1859. Antebellum investors envisioned the railroad, which traveled through some of the most productive lands in Davidson, Williamson, . . . — — Map (db m208537) HM
A leader in Texas colonization, Alexander Thomson, Jr., was born in St. Matthew's Parish, South Carolina, the only son of Alexander and Lucy (Fontaine) Thomson. He later lived in Georgia before moving to Tennessee. There, in 1830, he became a . . . — — Map (db m210613) HM
The tallest office building in Nashville was purchased from American General Life and Accident Insurance Company by the State of Tennessee on January 3, 1994.
It was originally built in 1970 as the National Life Center, home of the National Life . . . — — Map (db m166570) HM
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 November 14. 1809, the Tennessee General Assembly passed an Act which brought Giles County, and its County Seat, Pulaski, into being. The new six hundred square
mile county was formed from land ceded to the State in 1805 by treaty with the . . . — — Map (db m168698) HM
From the summit of the prominent high ground ahead of you, White and Black Union soldiers peered over the ramparts of Fort Lilly, keeping an eye on traffic clattering along the "macadamized," or paved, Columbia Turnpike, which followed the . . . — — Map (db m275558) HM
During the Civil War, many African-American men escaped slavery to become soldiers in the U.S. Army.
Here in Giles County, the U.S. Army organized the 110th & 111th Regiment U.S. Colored Troops (U.S.C.T.) in late 1863 and early 1864. Most . . . — — Map (db m246051) HM WM
Born in Giles County, Tennessee, Joseph Peter Davidson moved to Texas and settled in Palo Pinto County about 1856. Davidson established a trading post near this site. In 1865 he started a ranch in present Eastland County and later helped organize . . . — — Map (db m97807) HM
Born in Giles County, Tennessee. Came to Palo Pinto County, 1859, among first settlers in region. Married Jane Allen, July 18, 1860. Served in Co. B, State Troops, during Civil War, protecting frontier. Built this house in mid-1870s. Founded city of . . . — — Map (db m268795) HM
In November 1863, while carrying intelligence on Union troop movements, Sam was captured near the Alabama border and jailed in Pulaski, Tennessee.
Interrogated by General Grenville Dodge and others, he was told that if information were not . . . — — Map (db m69102) HM
Giles County
Established 1809: named in honor of Senator William B. Giles of Virginia. One of the strongest advocates for the admission of Tennessee to the Union; he served in U.S. Senate from 1804 to 1815 and was Governor of Virginia, 1827-30. . . . — — Map (db m146816) HM
Born in Giles County in 1870, J.T. Bridgeforth was educated at A&T State College. In the early 1900's he became interested in securing a county school for black children living outside the city limits of Pulaski and was the prime mover in organizing . . . — — Map (db m151147) HM
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
Early settlers, who came to this area from Giles County, Tenn., founded an academy at this site in 1859, hired fellow-Tennessean Thomas Hart Benton Hockaday (1835-1918) as the first teacher, and named the new school in memory of their southern . . . — — Map (db m311131) HM
Moving rapidly south through Franklin, Stephen D. Lee's Corps with Chalmers' Cavalry Division attached, took up a delaying position in this area about 1:00 P.M. They beat off attacks by Wood's IV Corps & Wilson's Cavalry. Here, Gen. Lee was wounded; . . . — — Map (db m104201) HM
On Nov 20, 1863, scout Sam Davis stopped here while carrying dispatches to Confederate Gen. Braxton Bragg. According to local tradition, he was asleep under a plum tree when two members of the 7th Kansas Cavalry, disguised as Confederates, arrested . . . — — Map (db m75197) HM
In 1854, the City Board of Mayor and Aldermen of Pulaski recognized the need for an additional cemetery. The initial purchase of what is now Maplewood Cemetery was approximately seven acres. The first lots were sold in 1855. This original design of . . . — — Map (db m75168) HM
Elijah Sterling Clack Robertson was born in Giles County, Tennessee, August 23, 1820. His father, Empresario S.C. Robertson, brought him to Texas to learn Spanish and to help him in his land office translating and copying land grants to Spanish. For . . . — — Map (db m212459) HM
The first courthouse in Giles County, a rough log cabin, stood in Kirk's Settlement near this spot. Court was held here from February 1810 until December 1811. — — Map (db m151133) 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.
