Baxter, Tennessee “The City of Goodwill”

This week’s stop in our tour of the Upper Cumberlands is Baxter, Tennessee.  Dubbed “The City of Goodwill,” The March of Progress publication devoted three pages and eight beautiful black and white photographs to the city of Baxter, Tennessee.    

Located along the Tennessee Central rail line, it is described as a “convenient trade center” and said to ship hardwood and pulp wood products as well as poultry and dairy products, corn, tobacco and livestock. 

The city offers greetings and a welcome to “kindly folk out on the plains, to other thousands in metropolitan communities, North, South, East and West.”  The article seems to reach out specifically to people who have their roots in the Upper Cumberlands in hopes those people would return to enjoy the traditional hospitality and natural beauty of the Baxter area.  Or, perhaps this welcome is issued to folks with no attachment to the area and an offer for them to make it home. 

Unlike the articles for many of the towns in this booklet, this welcome is the only recruiting hint in the article.  While the natural beauty and fertile land are touted, it is in the education offered there that the most emphasis is placed.

Baxter Seminary was established by the Methodist Episcopal Church in 1908.  At the time of our tour, the school was thriving with enrollment of boys and girls from a large area.  The Seminary dedicated itself to vocational training not necessarily of church leaders as the name would lead you to think, but for “good citizenship and public service.”

I am not personally very familiar with the Baxter area and I was fascinated to read about this school.  At www.ajlambert.com, I found a “History of Baxter Seminary”.  From that document, it seems that there was a traditional seminary program in addition to the high school and collegiate studies.  The basis of all the programs seems two-fold:  Christian values and self-help. 

There were many opportunities for tuition to be waived and it seems that all of the students had to work.  Much of the building projects were completed by the students, in fact there is a drawing of a stained-glass window depicting children pulling a plow which broke ground for the first building on the campus. 

Baxter Seminary was sold to the county in 1959 and reopened as Upperman High School. The high school is still open although it was relocated in 1976.

Gainsboro, Tennessee: “The Switzerland of the Upper Cumberlands”

The March of Progress tags the Jackson county seat as “The Switzerland of the Upper Cumberlands.”  As the pattern has been with these town titles, there is no explanation for the name and I can’t help but wonder if the typical 1940’s reader would have immediately understood them.  Comparing Gainsboro to Switzerland the main commonality is the mountain terrain.  However, with mean elevations of ranging from 968 to 7,021 feet the Cumberland Mountains surrounding Gainsboro seem a bit squat.  Still, Switzerland’s geography does seem more indicative of this middle Tennessee town than do its renowned neutrality, four official languages or cultural diversity. 

The article is careful to note that this is an area safe from tornadoes.  I found that very interesting and it made me do a little research.  Sure enough, the Tornado History Project maps the EF scale and location of tornadoes since 1950; it shows no tornado activity in Gainsboro, although her neighbors in every direction have been hit. 

The 1930 census showed 1000 people living in the city limits; the 1940 March of Progress publication indicated a 2 percent increase.  The 2010 census reflected a change that an awful lot of small town America has experienced since then and it showed a population of only 962.

None of the articles in the booklet credit an author, nor does the book indicate contributors other than an initial notation: “compiled and edited by Dr. William Baxter Boyd.”  However, the Gainsboro article notes 3 men with the final one being “Mr. John L. McCawley, Mayor of Gainsboro, President of the Upper Cumberland Chamber of Commerce, President of the McCawley motor Company, an active civic worker, and a most enthusiastic leader of the Cumberland River Development Project.”

There is an additional 2 page article on J. Mack Draper, including pictures of his home and cattle, and a prized saddle horse ridden by the book’s editor, Dr. Boyd.  This second article opens with a genealogy of the Draper family going back to the middle of the Seventeenth Century in Wales.  Mr. Draper does seem to be an Upper Cumberland success story as it reports he received only an eighth grade education and inherited none of his fortune.  Yet in 1940, he owned a business with $750,000 revenue and the pictures do show a nice home and impressive herd of mules. 

"Prince Cumberland"
Owned by J. Mack Draper
Ridden by Dr. Willis Baxter Boyd

Mr. Draper seems to have been involved in many different business interests, not the least of which was his farm.  And from his success, the article springboards to the benefits of nature and that “an over-mechanized age is affecting negatively the finer sentiments and the more delicate reactions of people physically and spiritually.” 

Livingston, Tennessee A City Surrounded by Beauty

As we continue our 1940’s tour of the Upper Cumberlands, today we’ll make a stop in Livingston, Tennessee.  For those of us native to the plateau, Livingston is distinctly “under the mountain”.  The nearest movie theatre to Jamestown, it was a frequent destination for young people.  Unfortunately, that theatre closed and with it some of the Livingston traffic surely turned another direction.  However, in 1940, hopes were high for the little town on Highway 52.

The 1940 census counted 1,527 people within the city limits of Overton County’s county seat.  It was strategically located with state highways leading directly to Celina, Jamestown, Cookeville and Byrdstown.  There was also a planned highway that would be designated Cordell Hull Parkway and would lead to Monterey. 

The March of Progress publication reports Livingston had, “nine different manufacturing and processing establishments in active operation; seventeen retail stores supplying the town and the country around; two drugstores, and an up-to-date hospital; the town enjoys the services of four hotels and five cafes… nine courteous filling stations and auto repair shops.”  The city was served by nine public utility agencies. 

Overton County Farmer in 1940.
Can anyone identify the implement he's using?  Please leave a comment if you recognize it.
My best guess is a planter

Notice the pictures that were offered to represent Overton County.  The town shot shows off a line of 1930’s era automobiles.  The rural shot shows farm machinery pulled by an early tractor, with a second man required to ride on the implement.  I’ve mentioned several times on the blog how long horses and mules were still utilized in our rural communities.  In fact, I’ve just recently had an opportunity to visit with a World War II veteran who confirmed that at the time he was drafted, his father still did not have a car.  And, his grandfather actually never drove despite living until 1976.  So, I can’t help but wonder if the pictures were very carefully framed if not actually staged.  Of course, this being a promotional publication, we would certainly want to show the most progressive side of every community. 

The rich natural resources of Overton County are not touted quite so loudly as in some of the other communities.  Crawford was part of the Wilder-Davidson mining complex; while the operation was declining somewhat by the end of the 1930’s, it is surprising that this community is only mentioned in a long list of the rural communities of Overton County.  The Dale Hollow Reservoir wouldn’t be completed for a few years after this article was written and probably its recreational asset was not fully understood. 

The article is summarized with an invitation to tourists and industrialists alike.  Hospitality, friendship, willing and anxious laborers are presented as the best reasons to visit or relocate to Livingston, Tennessee.

Replacing Ann: Last FREE Day

I wanted to post a little note to remind you that today is the last day you can pickup the Replacing Ann eBook for free.

Now, I will do another free period, but Amazon makes me wait 90 days so I can’t offer it for free again until December.  So I really hope that all of you will download a copy of it today.

Several of you have said very kind things about the book and I certainly appreciate that.  And, several have left reviews on Amazon.  I want to remind you now to please leave a review – you can click here and do that right now. 

Only with a lot of good reviews does Amazon promote the book.  Without promotion from some of these major sites, I can’t hopes to “sell” more than a few hundred copies.  And it will take a few thousand to convince a publisher to buy my other books.

So please be sure to download the book, ask your friends to download and then be sure you go to Amazon and leave a review.

I really appreciate all of you loyal readers and I certainly thank you for your help on this project.  I look forward to providing you with lots of other book and stories that I hope you will enjoy.

Replacing Ann available Now on Amazon

I am so excited to share today’s blog article with all of you and announce that I have published an eBook entitled Replacing Ann on Amazon.

And I need your help!

I am very thankful for every one of you faithful readers.  And I would love the opportunity to share our mountain stories with even more people.  One of the best ways to do that is for folks to find a book on Amazon (and there are about 615 million people shopping on Amazon), enjoy it, and then start visiting the website.  Also, if people enjoy Replacing Ann, that will signal to publishers that they ought to publish my other books.

Oh, did I mention that I’m GIVING AWAY this book?  Yep, it’s FREE. 

Well, at least it will be free as often as Amazon will allow it.  And when it’s not free, it will only cost 99 cents.

Some of you may not be very familiar with eBooks, but it is simply a book that you can read on your computer, tablet or smartphone.   If you have any questions about HOW to get it downloaded, click here for directions from Amazon. 

Now, here is the helping part.  Please pass the word along to as many people as possible asking them to download this book.  Replacing Ann will be free September 4 – 8, 2015.  Then, I will make it available for free as often as Amazon will allow it and I will pass the word along to you each time.  Unlike lots of other ‘free’ stuff, an eBook on Amazon really is completely free; there’s no shipping, handling or other miscellaneous charges. 

Finally, after you’ve read the book, please consider posting a review.  You can click here to go directly to the review section in Amazon.  If you are a member of other online book clubs or social media, a review in those places would be wonderful too.  If you’ve been reading TennesseeMountainStories for very long, you will remember this book as the serial novel I published on this blog about a year ago.  Therefore, many of you may be able to write a review right away.  Please remember that I really need lots of people to write a review.

Please don’t be intimidated by the idea of “writing a review”.  All you have to say is just what you think.  It could be as simple as, “good book, you should read it” or even, “I liked this book”.

You all have been so kind to me both in referring others to the website and in encouraging me to continue this work.  So, I want to thank you in advance for reading and promoting Replacing Ann.

If you have any questions at all, please post them in the comments section below – if you’ve got the question, chances are good others have the same one.

Thank you so much for helping me with this project and I truly hope you enjoy Replacing Ann.