1905 Tobacco Hearing in Congress

Tobacco and Robertson County Visited the U.S. Senate in 1905

J. Mark Lowe

[Photo: Felix Grundy Ewing, courtesy of Robertson Co. Tenn. Historical Society]

Tobacco has always often been at the center of controversy. Whether taxation or health, the subject has fueled passionate debates. Robertson County Tennessee and Tobacco were featured in an article in the New York Times in March of 2007. The discussion was the proposed comprehensive ban on workplace smoking in Tennessee.  On October 1, 2007 all public places, including restaurants, became smoke free. 

The subject of tobacco was also the focus of the United States Senate in January 1905.  A resolution passed by the House of Representatives was being considered by the Senate, which would have allowed farmers to sell their unprocessed tobacco without taxation. These statements from the hearings were transcribed exacted as printed in the Congressional Record and published accounts of the activity.

Hearings before the Subcommittee of the Committee on Finance, United States Senate on H.R. 14896, for the Relief of Tobacco Growers. 

Washington, D.C., Monday, February 6, 1905.

The subcommittee met 11 o’clock am. Present: Senators Allison (acting chair, Iowa), John W. Daniel (Virginia)  and Arthur P. Gorman (Maryland) of the subcommittee; also Senators William B. Bate (Tennessee) , and Edward Ward Carmack (Tennessee)  and Hon. John Wesley Gaines, Representative from Tennessee. 

Statement of Felix Grundy Ewing, Esq. of Glenraven, Tenn., Chairman of the Executive Committee of the Dark Tobacco District Planters’ Protective Association of Kentucky and Tennessee.

"Chairman:  Mr. Ewing, please state your occupation and business, so that we will know what significance there is to your testimony.

Mr. Ewing: My name is Felix Grundy Ewing. I am a tobacco planter living in Robertson County, Tenn. I am the chairman of the Executive Committee of the Dark Tobacco District Planters’ Protective Association.

Mr. Chairman and gentlemen, we are a trust-ridden people. We are suffering very much from the methods that they have resorted to in buying tobacco from us. It has been the custom for the past four years for one buyer to come to a barn and make one bid on that tobacco, and, generally speaking, he does not come any more. He comes and says: “I will give you 4-1/2 cents,” or “I will give you three and one,” or “I will give you something else;” and it is that or nothing. Most frequently we will not have another opportunity for selling.

We see an outlet now for our crop. We are organizing the farmers and demanding a better price. We know that our tobacco is not raised anywhere else in the world. We know that our good tobacco can not be duplicated and we are making a very earnest effort to organize the farmers, with a view of making them pay a fair price for tobacco. But there is another thing that affects us very much. The trusts have been buying the best of it at their own prices, and then they will say, “20 or 25 per cent of this tobacco is nondescript, and we will buy it for nothing. We will give you 3 cents for that,” or “we will give you 2 cents for it.”

Chairman: That is the refuse?

Mr. Ewing: That is what they call nondescript, but we call it low grade or lugs. 

Chairman: And that is what you want to retail?

Mr. Ewing: That is what we want to retail; and if we had the opportunity of simply saying to them, “This tobacco that you call nondescript you need not take unless you want; we can make another disposition of it,” then we would be satisfied. We want to have the privilege of selling that tobacco at retail.

Chairman: Where would you sell it, then?

Mr. Ewing: It is a very coarse character of tobacco, and we would sell it largely to miners and persons of that kind. I do not believe it would be possible for us to take it to a store in New York, or possibly in Washington City, and sell it to a fashionable class of trade. I do not think that would be a possibility. But everybody in that district chews and smokes our own tobacco, and they prefer what we call the “lugs” – that is, the lowest grade. They prefer it because it is not quite so strong as the higher grade tobacco. Eighty per cent of our whole crop is exported.

Chairman: What do they do with it? How do they prepare it in order to use it?

Mr. Ewing: I presume you mean this tobacco we desire to retail at home. If they chew it they just break off a part of the leaf. 

Chairman: They just chew the leaf?

Mr. Ewing: Sometimes they put it in a twist, you know. A man can put it in a twist if he does not dispose of it. Sometimes they do that; but at other times you will find a man with just a hand of tobacco in his pocket, and he will break off a part of the leaf. If they smoke it they crumple it in their hands and put it in their pipes. It is a coarse grade of tobacco that is not popular with the better class of trade; but we see that it has an outlet in this way.

Again, we recognize the fact that this is the only agricultural product that is taxed. Ours is a tobacco country, a tobacco soil, and a tobacco climate. We can not raise wheat and corn in competition with other sections of the country. Our grass is not spontaneous. We do not raise stock as they do in other sections of the country. We are absolutely dependent upon tobacco."

Watch for more installments from this Congressional Hearing.  Learning about individuals can be found wherever the story is shared.  Keep the story alive.  - Mark

Communication Speed Found in Telegraph

(As published in Robertson County [Tenn.] Times in January 2007 by J. Mark Lowe - Photo Credit: Library of Congress)

Today, we have cell phones, e-mail, instant messaging, and even blackberries, but the first method of electronic communication was the telegraph. Thomas Edison is most famous for inventing the light bulb, phonograph and moving pictures. He was granted 1,093 patents for his inventions. But 150 of these patents related to telegraph technology. Edison started his career as a telegrapher. At age 15, in 1862, he started work in a small town Western Union office. As his skill grew he moved to higher profile jobs. By 1869 he had positioned himself in the telegraph service and manufacturing business. 

After the Civil War, as American business expanded across the globe, telegraph was essential as a communication tool. Congress held hearings to consider making the postal telegraph system part of the Post Office. Other companies scrambled to fight the Western Union  monopoly.

JW Mackay founded the Postal Telegraph Cable Co. This company was the major competitor to Western Union.

A young local telegraph operator was George Christopher. George was born outside Murfreesboro Tennessee in 1895 to James and Louisa Christopher. He loved spending summers on his grandparents farm in Robertson county, Tenn. He especially enjoyed riding the train over the ridge.  However his family circumstances were about to change. His grandparents were caught in a typhoid epidemic in Florida. His grandmother died and his grandfather was unable to provide for himself. James E. Allen moved to Rutherford county to live with the Christophers. In the next year, George Christopher’s father and grandfather died. His mother was forced to sell the farm and they relocated to small two-story home in Nashville which Louisa Christopher operated as a rooming house. In addition to George and his mother, there are George’s two brothers, two sisters, a brother-in-law and two nieces. By 1910, George had been working as a messenger for the Postal Telegraph Company in Nashville for three years. George was photographed by Lewis Hine as part of an effort to record Child Labor actions across the U.S.  

This hard working young man continued to work for Postal Telegraph. In 1920, George accepted the position of Chief Telegraph Operator in St. Louis, Missouri.  At that time, his mother, Louisa,  and his brother, Mitchell, joined George, his wife, Katherine and their daughter, Thelma, as they moved to their new home on Olive Ave in St. Louis.  George continued to work for telegraph companies until his death. 

 

The history of the Postal Telegraph Cable Company is simple. When Mr. John W. Mackay, the famous Bonanza gold millionaire, and Mr. James Gordon Bennett, of the N. Y. Herald, associated themselves together for the purpose of building a commercial cable across the Atlantic, they readily recognized the fact that the existing cable was operated in conjunction with the Western Union lines. Mackay resolved to organize the Postal Telegraph Cable Co., and to provide equipment and  resources which would enable it to compete with any and all existing lines.

“Mr. Mackey, who has thus come forward to assist, even if indirectly, in the task of destroying the powerful telegraph monopoly, is a man of about the medium height, if anything, somewhat above rather than below the average stature, and neither stoutly nor thinly built. His features are somewhat prominent and be token a resoint will. His face is clean-shaven and somewhat florid. He is quiet in manner and dress. He appears like a man who does not hesitate long in forming a decision, and when his mind is made up allow no obstacles to remain in the way of execution. 

The capital stock was fixed at $3,million  which might be increased to $7 million.”

James Gordon Bennett was certainly an adventurer himself.  From 1874 to 1877 he had Henry M. Stanley searching for Dr. Livingstone, in Africa In 1879 he fitted out the Jeannette Polar Expedition. In 1899 he engaged William Marconi to transmit by wireless accounts of the American Cup Races between the “Columbia” and Sir Thomas Lipton's first “Shamrock.” In October, 1906, he used the wireless to broadcast news of the World Series of baseball games,

In 1928, the company became part of ITT under the name of Postal Telegraph & Cable. On October 3, 1943, Western Union merged with the Postal Telegraph and Cable Company. Locally, the telegraph offices remained connected with the local railroad office, until  Western Union opened an office on the corner of 6th and Main, where the Birdie Whirlie store is located. 

Sources: New York Times; NY Herald; Census Records, Nashville American, Christopher Family Records, Library of Congress 

Historic Tennessee Wedding and Traditions

As printed in Then & Now, Robertson County Times 18 Mar 2009

Weddings have been a time for celebrating the marriage of a couple and the joining of two families. This week we will learn about historic weddings of our area.

Stories from the very first weddings in Middle Tennessee were recorded by Jo C. Guild in his book, Old Times in Tennessee (1878). 

The first wedding in the colony which settled at the Bluff, near the French Lick (now the city of Nashville,) was that of Capt. Leiper and his wife [a Miss Susan Drake] in the summer of 1780. They were married by Gen. James Robertson, who was the founder and a trustee of the Cumberland settlement [and namesake for Robertson county.] This wedding was followed by a feast and dancing. It is mentioned that roasting-ears were the great delicacy for the ladies on this interesting occasion. 

A short time afterward, Mr. James Shaw, also a trustee, married on one day, Edward Swanson to Mrs. Mary Carvin [the widow of Ned Carvin], James Freeland to Mrs. Maxwell, Cornelius Riddle to Jane Mulherrin and John Tucker to Jenny Herod [daughter of James and Elizabeth Herod], all in one day. [John and Jenny Tucker moved to Robertson county.] Several traditional stories have survived about the marriage of Cornelius Riddle to the beautiful Jane Mulherrin. The Cumberland settlement was then in its infancy and the settlers were not supplied with the means to make a wedding occasion brilliant. They possessed neither  … “gorgeous dresses, a table laden with rich viands and luxuries to tempt the fastidious appetite, and a fine band to furnish music while the guests ‘tripped the light, fantastic, toe,’ as the older settlements [in the East] could do.” There were those  immediately interested in making this wedding affair as grand and imposing as circumstances would admit, especially as it was among the first weddings in the new settlement. They were well supplied with game of almost every description, but there was neither flour nor meal in the whole colony with which to make bread, nor had there been for six months. In this emergency two of the settlers mounted horses and hurried off to Danville, Ky., for a small quantity of corn in order to supply the wedding table with bread. The couriers returned in a few days, bringing with them each one bushel of corn, which soon found its way to the mortar and pestle, where it was converted into excellent meal. From that meal was baked the first ‘bride’s cake’ of which this new settlement boasted. It was made of pounded corn meal, with the only additional ingredients, a little salt and water. All things were in readiness and the happy pair pledged their love and fealty to each other; their lips and lives expressed the sacred vow that they professed. 

“Amid the dangers that environed the settlement, the hearts of this band of pioneers grew happy while celebrating this wedding with song, dance, and feast, rendered exquisitely delightful by the introduction of the wedding ‘pound cake,’ and perhaps no cake on a similar occasion before or since was enjoyed with more zest.”

One hundred and twenty-one years later, a young couple were married in Robertson county. Let’s learn about Richard and Birdie Qualls from a biographical sketch published in 1922.

On the 22nd of September, 1901, occurred the marriage of Mr. Richard E. Qualls to Miss Birdie Holman. Miss Holman was born January 1881, near Springfield, the daughter of R[obert] S. and [Mary Catherine] ‘Katie’ Porter Holman. Her father was a veteran of the Civil War, having served throughout that conflict in the Confederate army and was still living [in 1922] at the age of eighty years. Mrs. Holman was also from one of the most prominent families in the state. She is still living [in 1922] at age 78 years. Mr. and Mrs. Qualls were the parents of four children: Rayburn W. who was a student at the Peoples-Tucker School; Paul Richard, who [in 1922] was attending high school in Springfield; Katherine Rebecca; and Mary Wilmouth. Mrs. Qualls was a woman of much culture and refinement and was prominent socially. She was a consistent and active member of the Methodist Church. 

A man of good business capacity , R[ichard] E. Qualls, who was owner and active in the conduct of the Qualls Motor Company in Springfield, and the owner of the Ford Agency at Elkton, Kentucky. He was born in Robertson county, 13 March 1878, the son of Jesse E and Emmaline Purcilla (Porter) Qualls, both native of this county. Jesse E. Qualls [in 1922] was 76 years of age and actively engaged in farming 400 acres of valuable and well improved land in the 5th district, near Cedar Hill. His wife, who was a daughter of  Edward  and Cordelia (Henry) Porter of Cedar Hill, was deceased. [Emmaline Purcilla Qualls died 19 Nov 1910.] 

In the acquirement of his education R.E. Qualls attended the common schools of this county until he was 19 years of age. At that time he put his textbooks aside and engaged in farming with his father for two years. At the termination that time, he made his initial step into the business world as bookkeeper for W.T. Henry and taking advantage of every opportunity offered him, he acquired a fine knowledge of salesmanship. For some time he was engaged in selling pianos and organs and subsequently he ventured into the grocery and hardware business of Adams. He was active in the conduct of that business from 1908 to 1914, in which latter year he took the Ford agency at Adams. At the end of two years he saw the necessity of locating in a larger town and moved to Springfield, where he has since resided. In the most recent year, 1922, Mr. Qualls sold 366 cars & 65 tractors. He has sold over 200 tractors in this county. In early life Mr. Qualls learned the value of close application to the thing at hand and he had taken only one week’s vacation in five years. He was a progressive and public-spirited man and conducted his business on a modern basis, making each department self-sufficient. 

Mr. Qualls gave his political endorsement to the democratic party and the principles for which it stands. Fraternally, he was a Knight of Pythias. He was a member of the Methodist church and served as superintendent of the Sunday school and chairman of the board of stewards. He was also active in the Kiwanis Club and in furtherance of every movement for the development and improvement of the general welfare. 

Tickets ($15 each)are now available for “A Historic Presentation of Robertson County Brides” that will include a reception, presented on April 25, 2009 at 2 pm, Robertson County History Museum. Call 382-7173 for more information.

Sources: Old Times in Tennessee, Tennessee, The Volunteer State.

1909 Air Balloon Race comes to Robertson County Tennessee

(originally published in the Robertson County Times)

J. Mark Lowe - Robertson County Historical Society

Thomas Scott Baldwin was born in 1854. He was a circus trapeze artist in his youth, made his first hot-air balloon ascent in 1875 and entertained at thousands of shows and fairs over the next decade. He is also known as the father of the modern parachute. On January 30, 1885, Baldwin decided to spice up his balloon performance and made one of the first parachute jumps from a balloon in history. 

By 1900, Baldwin was generating motorized balloons. Using a motorcycle engine built by Glenn Curtiss, Baldwin created the dirigible, the California Arrow, which flew around the U.S. in 1904. The Army Signal Corps became interested in the airship and offered him a contract to develop a practical dirigible with navigation potential. He completed that task and the Army designed the craft “SC-1” (Signal Corps No. 1).

When the United States entered the World War I, Baldwin volunteered his services to the Army, even though he was 62 years old. He was commissioned a captain in the Aviation Section of the Signal Corps. He personally inspected every lighter-than-air craft built for and used by the Army during the war. He was promoted to the rank of major during the war. After the war, he joined the Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company in Akron, Ohio, as a designer and manufacturer of their airships. 

Thomas Scott Baldwin visited Robertson County in June 1909. Although his final destination was not formalized, the people of Greenbrier and northern Middle Tennessee participated in a national event.

Follow this account of the Aero Club of America’s National Balloon Race. 

“All Sky Races are Heard From – No Mishaps Reported – Two Parties of Aeronauts Say Kentuckians Shot at Them. Indianapolis – June 7, 1909 – All of the balloons that started in the Aero Club of America’s great national race here Saturday have been heard from. The New York, with A. Holland Forbes, came down at 5:10 today and the Hoosier, Capt. T.[homas] S.[cott] Baldwin, pilot, landed at Greenbrier, Tenn. No details regarding the landing of either has been received. The Indiana, Carl Fisher of Indianapolis, pilot and G.A. Bumbaugh, assistant, had come near enough to ground at Shackle Island, Tenn. at 6 o’clock last night to let down two buckets and get a fresh supply of water. They had then lightened ballast and mounted again to the higher currents to continue the race. Shackle Island is twelve miles north of Nashville. 

The Cleveland, A.H. Morgan, or Cleveland, pilot, and the University City, J.S. Berry of St. Louis, pilot, have dropped out of the big race. The Cleveland landed eight miles west of Columbus, Ind. At 8 o’clock Saturday night, making but little over forty miles and attributing the poor flight to poor gas. The University City landed near Fayetteville, Lincoln county, Tennessee at 7 o’clock Sunday night after being up twenty-five hours and making approximately 340 miles.

Dr. Goethe Link, pilot, and R.J. Irwin, assistant, flying the Indianapolis, won both the trophies in the handicap race which started at 3:45 Saturday afternoon, just preceding the national race.

The Indianapolis just cleared the Kentucky-Tennessee line and landed at Westmoreland, Tenn. , 45 miles northeast of Nashville. The Chicago landed just north of the state line, at the fair grounds in Scottsville, Ky., 16 miles north of Westmoreland, while the Ohio, the third contestant landed a half mile northeast of Nashville, Indiana at 6:20 Saturday night.

The Indianapolis by its flight won the cup offered for the greatest distance by the Indianapolis Merchants’ Association., having approximately 7 miles the best of the Ohio, and she also won the Fisher trophy for time in the air, having a margin of almost two hours on the Chicago.

The victory of the Indianapolis men and their good cubic feet capacity balloon is considered remarkable in as much as they are new in the game and they started on their flight with but five bags of sand or approximately 230 pounds of ballast. They were provisioned very light. They made 335 miles and were in the air nineteen hours. 

A message to the Associated Press from them says their highest altitude was 13,000 feet – approximately two and one-half miles. They were shot as twice as they went over Kentucky, but were not hit. The weather, they reported, was perfect, and the night trip was very pleasant.

A.H. Morgan, pilot, and J. A. Wade, assistant, of the Cleveland, returned to Indianapolis today. They were much displeased over the snowing made by their balloon and while the manufacturer of the craft charge the failure of the flight to a poor quality of gas given that balloon and the Ohio, the two Cleveland men were attributing failure to defective seams.”  

Sources: Fort Wayne Sentinel, Indianapolis Star, June 7, 1909.

Next post: we will learn more about the balloon, the Hoosier, that landed in Greenbrier Tennessee and learn what local residents had to say about the craft from the sky. 

Washington Family in Tennessee

Baker’s book turns focus on Washington family

Then and Now • By J. Mark Lowe • Robertson County Historical Society • As printed in the Robertson County Times, December 10, 2008

 

We have all heard of the Washington family who settled in Robertson county, and the stately homes they built in the Cedar Hill area. The stories and connections to the Washington family are about to be presented in a new, well-researched book written by John F. Baker, Jr. The Washingtons of Wessyngton Plantatation: Stories of My Family's Journey to Freedom will be published in February 2009, by Atria Books, a division of Simon & Schuster.

John Baker started writing this book about three years ago, but he has been collecting the information contained in this book his entire life. The book begins in 1796 when Joseph Washington, a distant cousin of President George Washington, came to Robertson county and continues with the heritage of the entire Washington and allied families (white and black) until the beginning of the twentieth century.

Baker added, “The title may lead one to believe it is only about my family, but this book tells about the white Washingtons, the black Washingtons and many other families in Robertson county who interacted with those families. Over 700 names are included in the index.”

John is surrounded by very family oriented individuals. “It was always my plan to preserve this family information in a book for future generations.”

John's interest began when a picture of four former slaves in his 7th grade history book attracted his attention. When he learned that two of those individuals were his grandmother's grandparents, he was hooked. As I continued to find other stuff about the other connections on the Wessyngton plantation, I became as curious about other family's history as my own. It will probably never stop. One of the first “older” folk I interviewed was Mattie Terry. She died in 1982 at age 93.

Since I continue meeting people connected with the family and learning about the birth of new family members, the stories about life from the past are meant to be shared. The theme of this book is the importance of family as the key to survival. 

John Baker was born in Springfield, Tennessee to John Baker, Sr. and Georgia Cobbs Baker. 

He graduated from Springfield High School, continued his education at Nashville Tech, worked in the banking industry and developed a career with Verizon for the next twenty years. 

The average Tennessee slaveholder owned three to five slaves. The Wessyngton Plantation and Washington family owned 274 slaves in 1860, making this family the largest slaveowners in this state with the largest tobacco plantation in America. The Washingtons of Wessynton Plantation: Stories of My Family's Journey to Freedom is intended to let the family and others learn about the accomplishments of these former slaves in spite of their hardships. They purchased land and farms, they founded schools and churches. 

The white Washington family kept black family members together during slave times. The records were precise and exact on their family; with farm records detailing information on the slaves and contracts. Descendants will learn about their history. 

This book is filled with stories John collected from older family members and historic records. John related a story of the Antioch Baptist Church just after the Civil War. The church members met to determine for whom they would vote. Every male on Wessyngton was a registered voter, as indicated in Washington Family Papers. 

As John met with family members, he learned new stories and delved deeper into those told. Mary Washington Holly sent a picture of John's Great-Great-Grandfather that he had never seen. She told him stories that her father had shared with her. John also learned that Granville Washington's daughter raised a neighbor of a co-worker of John. The neighbor was 106. Granville's daughter married the neighbor's Uncle and raised this young lady. She knew Granville Washington's wife personally. 

Granville Washington was the son of the slaveowner and a slave. 

John looked for literary agents that dealt in subject matter of the book. He signed with an Agent in April 2007, and began working with that agent in early June. The book contains 17 Chapters with over 100 photographs. It is fully documented and includes the following topics: Civil War, Emancipation, Cherokee removal, Reconstruction, Andrew Jackson, Cheatham family, Nat Turner's insurrection, and a family DNA study.

John great Aunt, Maggie Washington, died in 2003 at age 99. She always encouraged John's research. 

“She always felt that I was destined to write and share this story.” John is already planning his next project. He plans to continue to learn from other descendants, collecting additional photographs and stories. He would also like to develop a genealogy guide for researchers, including children. This book is a compelling tale of survival and understanding in a different time and place

. It will help every family learn to appreciate their siblings. Look for upcoming book signing by John Baker, Jr. in Robertson county. Visit John's website (www.wessyngton.com) to learn more about his book. To learn more about Robertson county and her people, visit the history museums located throughout the county. Call 615-382-7173 for more information.

Who's Visiting Your House This Week?

As we approach another Hallowe'en, I wonder who will visit my house this year. As my community has become larger and less personal, the number of youngsters who visit for treats is decreasing each year. There are only a few young children on my block these days.

Since I grew up in a small rural community, it was traditional for everyone to "trick or treat" throughout the community. One year, I remember that Dr. Goodman and his family were out-of-town for the evening, so Miss Polly left a full tray of goodies on the front porch, knowing that people would just take their fair share. It was always interesting to learn what "characters" my friends would choose. I remember many cowboys, Davy Crocketts, witches, ghosts, and other TV characters appearing in our community as goblins. My great-niece and great-nephew appeared as Wonder Woman and Spider Man last year.

All holidays are important in our research, because we can formulate ideas about what our parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins did in their lifetime. The concept of learning about daily activities and special events will help us build our skills as researchers. If you still have siblings or older family members around, why not ask them about what they remember about a childhood Hallowe'en or other holiday.

Perhaps you will earn a treat and keep the story alive.

Mark

Do Location Names Matter?

While visiting in Springfield, Illinois this past week, several of the locals were surprised to learn that I live in Springfield, Tennessee. At dinner one evening, I learned that one of the hotel staff had family from Springfield, Kentucky. Someone brought up the Simpsons movie promotion last year looking for the hometown of those characters.

Is it worthwhile to investigate the history of a city with the same name as the city from which our ancestors moved? I know that the community of Neosho in middle Tennessee was the home of many folks who moved to Neosho, Missouri; Nutbush, Tennessee was named for Nutbush, North Carolina in Granville county.

How could the city of Springfield, Missouri have anything to do with the city of Springfield, Tennessee except having the same name? Springfield, Missouri has a population of 5.6 million folks while Springfield, Tennessee has a population of only about 16,000 people. The cities are both the county seat of government: Greene County, Missouri and Robertson County, Tennessee.
Springfield, Missouri was established around 1835, while Springfield, Tennessee was established about 40 years earlier in 1796.

J.G. Newbill in his paper, Springfield [Missouri] Express, 11 November, 1881, says: "It has been stated that this city got its name from the fact of a spring and field being near by just west of town. But such is not a correct version. When the authorized persons met and adopted the title of the "Future Great" of the Southwest, several of the earliest settlers had handed in their favorite names, among whom was Kindred Rose, who presented the winning name, Springfield, in honor of his former home town, Springfield, Robertson county, Tennessee. Mr. Rose still lives on his old homestead, 3½ miles southwest of the city, where he has continuously resided for nearly fifty years."

This connection provides a proven migration trail for at least one family. Is it possible that other neighbors of Mr. Rose in Missouri also came from this area of Tennessee? Check it out and keep the story alive.