| Sources |
- [S4] Knoxville News-Sentinel (Tennessee), 7 May 2004.
Charles Robert Braden Sr. obituary
- [S27] The Daily Times, http://www.thedailytimes.com/, (Blount County, Tennessee), 21 Jul 2011.
The birth of a small town: Friendsville’s unique past chronicled in new book
By Melanie Tucker melt@thedailytimes.com
The city of Friendsville covers roughly 3 square miles and houses a population that hovers around 1,000 or so, but there’s no mistaking the stamp it’s left on Blount County and the world.
Friendsville was settled in the 1790s by the Religious Society of Friends, better known as the Quakers, who opposed both war and slavery. The town became a key player in the Underground Railroad which aided runaway slaves and others who wished to escape to the North. William Hackney was a Friendsville Quaker who helped more than 2,000 people leave the South using a cave called Cudjo’s Cave that is located in Friendsville. It is even the subject of a book written by John Trowbridge in 1863, called “Cudjo’s Cave.”
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If you want to know anything about Friendsville, its historian, George B. Henry, is the one to seek out. He’s been collecting stories, photographs, documents and other historical information for decades. Henry taught eighth grade history for 35 years at Friendsville and has lived all of his life in this small Blount County town with the exception of a brief move to Maryville.
He and Daily Times Sunday Life editor Linda Braden Albert have collaborated on a just-released book in the Images of America series published by Arcadia Publishing. “Friendsville” makes its debut Monday.
“People have been after me for years to do a book,” Henry said. “This is what I like to do. I’ve given talks all over the place. I collected these photographs from 40 or 50 people, but a lot of this stuff I collected for myself.”
Fascinating history
The book contains more than 200 photos that are divided into six categories — churches, education, marble quarries, other businesses, structures and people. Those selected for this project were pared down from about 4,000 that Henry has in his possession as well as a number loaned by others with ties to the community.
Henry and Albert started work on the book about a year ago. And while he’s heard the stories of Friendsville’s early years over and over again, Henry said perhaps the most fascinating tales are the ones centered around the Underground Railroad and the Hackney family. Henry was even close once to locating Hackney’s ledger where he recorded the names of those he helped escape, but it wasn’t to be. He said its whereabouts today are unknown.
As a child, Henry said he used to explore every cave around Friendsville, including Cudjo’s Cave. It is located on private property and the owners wish to keep it hidden.
Friendsville natives and history buffs will recognize some of the families pictured inside. The Dunlaps, Endsleys, Crisps, Lees, Tiptons, Frenches, Craigs, Greggs, Greers, Hamils and Painters have a long-standing relationship with this small town. Some were part of the marble industry that thrived here. Some operated flour, saw and grist mills. Some were instrumental in teaching school or they played athletics, or both.
One of the most famous visitors to Friendsville had to be William Forster, a Quaker from England who also visited several governors and the president of the U.S. Henry said he died while making this trip from England and was buried in the Friends Cemetery. His body, Henry said, was floated down the river to his final resting place.
Friendsville has always placed importance on education, beginning with the establishment of The Newberry Institute that was organized by the Friends in 1854. It later became Friendsville Academy, which closed in 1975. Henry was one of its graduates.
Ralph Waldo Lloyd, who became president of Maryville College in 1930, has a connection to the Academy. His father served as principal there.
There was a black school in the community named George Washington Carver. Friendsville Elementary opened in 1919 and continues today. Friendsville High enjoyed a long existence before shutting its doors in 1979. Big Spring and Disco schools are also part of Friendsville’s not-so-distant past.
“At one time, there were seven principals in Blount County who came from Friendsville,” Henry said.
Commercial hub
Henry’s brain is filled with dates spanning across decades. He knows the banking history. Like, for instance, the State Bank of Friendsville operated from 1908 to 1912. The Peoples Bank came along next, from 1915-1936. That first bank was the only bank in the county outside the city of Maryville at the time, Henry pointed out.
Albert, who coauthored another book in the Images of America series with Kenneth Cornett, entitled “Blount County,” said working on this second one has been both fun and educational. She didn’t grow up in Friendsville but has gained so much knowledge about the town through this partnership, she feels like she’s at least an adopted daughter. “George is the one who knows everything,” she said.
For Albert, one of the most fascinating pieces of Friendsville’s history is the list of businesses that once operated here.
“What really intrigued me was what a commercial hub Friendsville was,” Albert said. “You wouldn’t think about it now with it being such a small place. This place was humming back yonder.”
The first flour mill was built here in 1810. There was also a furniture factory, gristmills for grinding corn, sawmills, a tannery and even a cannery.
Henry also talked about a large store operated by T.R. Lee back in 1891. Customers could find most anything they desired, and they came from outside the community. “This was like going to Wal-Mart today, Henry said.
This book by these two friends wouldn’t be an accurate depiction of Friendsville without the chapter on marble quarries. Several operated in the area, aided by the convenience of the railroad that was built in 1891.
The John J. Craig Company was one of them. It got its start in 1894. Others that followed included the Brown Quarry, Evans Marble, J.B. Jones Company, Vermont Marble Company, Luck Stone and Tennessee Marble Company, which continues today.
Tennessee Marble supplied marble for the Grand Central terminal in New York City, the U.S. Capitol Visitor Center in Washington, D.C. and the Ritz Carlton in Charlotte, N.C., this book points out. Marble from Friendsville was also used in the construction of the Smithsonian Institute and the National Art Gallery.
This is Henry’s first book, but with his wealth of knowledge, probably not his last. He coached basketball at Friendsville for years, so a book related to sports would certainly make sense. This historian who will turn 77 in August is just glad to have this opportunity — to put a lot of what he has collected into book form for others who will appreciate and remember.
“I have always loved history,” Henry said. “To see people get more excited about it — that tickles me.”
- [S27] The Daily Times, http://www.thedailytimes.com/, (Blount County, Tennessee), 6 Dec 2012.
Where everybody came together: Maryville’s Broadway figures prominently in new book in series
By Melanie Tucker | (melt@thedailytimes.com)
When local authors Linda Braden Albert and David R. Duggan claim to have had a little help from their friends, they aren’t exaggerating.
These two have collaborated on this latest project, a pictorial history called “Maryville,” in Arcadia Publishing Company’s “Images of America” series. Albert, a section editor and columnist at The Daily Times and Duggan, a former Alcoa city attorney who is a circuit court judge, have included more than 200 vintage photographs in the book, many that have never been seen in print previously. The Arcadia series of books is familiar to both. Albert has written two others in the series — one on Friendsville with co-author George Henry and the other on Blount County with Ken Cornett. Duggan and George Williams teamed up with the book on Alcoa.
Maryville was incorporated on July 11, 1795 by a single territorial legislative act that also created Blount County. Maryville, which is the county seat, was named for Mary Grainger Blount, wife of territorial governor William Blount.
So where did all of these photographs depicting Maryville in days past come from?
Who you know
“A lot of different places and a lot of different people,” Albert said.
That includes the Blount County Public Library, The Daily Times, the City of Maryville, Maryville City Schools. Maryville College, Blount Memorial Hospital, and ordinary citizens like Becky Darrell, Louise Crawford Berry, A.B Goddard, Sarah Brown McNiell and the list goes on. As with any project, there was more collected than could be placed in the book. The next step, then was paring down the collection into a series of photographs that take readers on a journey back to Maryville’s early days.
Pictures of prominent families like the Badgetts, Cates, Crawfords, Proffitts, Callaways, Deloziers, Everetts, Goddards, LeQuires and Gambles are found within the book’s pages. Landmarks including the Blount County Courthouse, the hospital, East Side And West Side schools, Thompson-Brown House and former businesses along Broadway are documented as well. Duggan said some might be wondering why he’s one of the ones responsible for this book, since he’s the city historian for the City of Alcoa and grew up there, not in Maryville.
“A lot of things I am involved in are in Alcoa,” Duggan said. “In fact, I asked Arcadia if they were sure they wanted me to be doing this because I am so identified with Alcoa. But as far as I’m concerned, it’s all Blount County. And the other thing is, Broadway sort of belonged to all of us. It was inside the city, but was where everybody came to shop. We all came to Broadway as far back as I can remember.”
Duggan saw his first movie there, at the Capitol Theater. His dad worked as a butcher in a store located in the heart of downtown. And when he discovered he needed glasses as a small boy, he was inside one of three theaters there on Broadway trying to read a clock. The movie showing that day was “Tom Sawyer.”
Surprises
Both Duggan and Albert were born and raised here. Duggan graduated from Alcoa High School and Albert, from Everett High. They already knew a lot of the history that surrounded them, but researching the book even gave them new things to ponder and be amazed at.
Like for instance, the fact that a baseball player in 1927 at Maryville College, John Stone, went on to become a professional baseball player for the Detroit Tigers and Washington Senators. “And you can get on eBay today and find his old baseball cards for sale,” Duggan pointed out. “In fact, at some point in time I am probably going to get one, because of this book.”
Something else these two authors already knew but still find fascinating is that MC and the University of Tennessee played each other in football. Duggan said he doesn’t believe that MC ever beat UT but there were some close ones. In 1926, MC lost by a score of 6-0 and the following year got beat by the Vols 7-0. They tied in 1923, Duggan said he discovered.
“And here’s another amazing thing — in 1946 Maryville College actually played in the Tangerine Bowl,” this coauthor pointed out. “They didn’t lose a game during the regular season. They lost to Catawba in the Tangerine Bowl.”
That same year, MC’s football coach, Lombe Honaker, received votes for national coach of the year. Tennessee’s Bob Neyland received votes that year as well. The Scots played the Vols until the early 1930s.
Building on their strengths
The book by Albert and Duggan contains those intriguing facts many of us didn’t know. It is broken down into six chapters — Early Days, Downtown, Maryville College, Maryville’s Schools, Professionals and Government and Maryvillians.
Albert worked on three of them — the Early Days, Maryville College and Maryvillians, while Duggan took the others.
“But (Duggan) did everything that had to do with sports,” Albert said. “If I had done it, it wouldn’t have been so well done. I give credit where credit is due.”
She was after all, a member of the Math Club, not the basketball or softball team, she pointed out.
But Albert did have some influence in getting her alma mater, Everett High, highlighted in the pages of the book, despite it being part of the Blount County Schools. “I convinced him to let me sneak in a few pictures,” she said.
Duggan didn’t argue. The school actually sat on city of Maryville property and as Albert pointed out, there were a lot of influential Maryvillians who tracked through its halls.
One of the Everett photos is of the 1941 football team that included Daily Times Editor Dean Stone. Also on that team was Charles Burger, the first athlete from Maryville who was named to an all-state team.
What we can all take away
These two authors are hoping lifelong residents of Blount County and newcomers will find this information as intriguing and interesting as they do. For Albert, it’s been a passion that started when she was just a girl.
“When I moved around a lot back several years ago, the first thing I would do is find a history of the area,” she said. “That’s just what I did. When I was just 11 or 12 years old I was looking through our family Bible. That is something I have always enjoyed — thinking about the people that were there and the things they did.”
The other outcome they hope develops is an interest in preserving family history, no matter whose it is, and sharing it with others.
Albert and Duggan did sit down and come up with a list of photographs they wanted for the book as the project got underway. Some they never found. Those uncovered now might just be fodder for another book.
“You know they are out there somewhere,” Duggan said. “Probably every picture we would like to have is sitting somewhere in someone’s photo album but we didn’t know they have them and they didn’t know we would like to see them.”
As Albert likes to say, “History hoarded is history lost.”
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, d. 19 Aug 1979, Blount County, Tennessee 