"History of White County", Chapter VII

History of White County is a 1935 book by Reverend Monroe Seals.
==CHAPTER VII==
===White County Today===
In this chapter it is the purpose to give a brief survey of the principal
institutions and industries of the County.
====Population====
The total population of White County according to the census of 1930, was
15,543. Of this number only 49 were foreign born, while the total negro
population was 785. The rest of the people in the County are mainly descended
from the first settlers. White County was settled mainly from Virginia and the
Carolinas. The racial stock is overwhelmingly Irish and Scotch with a small
sprinkling of English, Welsh, and French. In 1810 the population of the County
was 4,028. By 1850 it had reached 11,444. This slow growth in population is
accounted for from the fact that since 1820, there has been a slow movement
westward of White County people, so that White Countians and White County
descendents are found in nearly every community westward to the Pacific Ocean.
Sparta had a population in 1930 of 2,211.
====The Masonic Lodges of Sparta====
On the night of March 20, 1820, Nathan Haggard presided as Master of the first
Masonic meeting held in White County and gave the Lodge a dispensation from the
Grand Lodge of Tennessee, Grand Master Oliver Bliss Hayes authorizing the Lodge
of Sparta to organize and hold meetings in Sparta as Lodge No. 32, the
dispensation was dated February 5, 1820, Nathan Haggard to act as Master,
William H. Campbell, Senior Warden, John J. Farmer, Junior Warden, and these
others, Jesse H. Vermillion, Adam Huntsman, William Mitchell, George Ailsworth,
and George W. Eastman. Haggard was the pioneer lawyer of White County. He and Ms
partner, Nelson, founded the Sparta Review, the first newspaper in the County,
in 1822. The first Lodge when its charter list was complete consisted of Nathan
Haggard, William Campbell, John K. Farmer, William Mitchell, Adam Huntsman,
Jacob, A. Lane, George Ailsworth, John C. McLemore, and Jesse H. Vermillion. The
charter from the Grand Lodge was received on Ocetober 3, 1820. Officers were
elected December 8, 1820. At an early meeting Jacob A. Lane was elected a member
and a Committee on By-Laws reported. April 17,1820, two petitions were received,
Levi Oliver, a brick mason, and Dr. Madison Fisk. Some other early Masons were
Richard Nelson, Archibald Overton, Jesse Lincoln, John Catron, Samuel Turney,
and John H. Anderson.
The charter to this old lodge was surrendered and for a number of years there
was no Masonic Lodge in the County. Under the leadership of Dr. W. S. Findley
the Sparta Lodge was reorganized soon after the Civil War as Sparta Lodge No.
99. At the present time the Lodge is in flourishing condition. The following are
the officers, John Snodgrass, Worshipful Master; Claude Austin, Senior Warden;
Walter Fowler, Junior Warden; James Snodgrass, Senior Deacon; Quill Cope, Junior
Deacon; C. G. Bostick, Treasurer, and J. T. R. Dillon, Secretary. There is also
a Chapter of Royal Arch Masons in Sparta. The other Masonic Lodges in White
County at the present time are Doyle Lodge No. 522 and Bon Air Lodge No. 611.
There was for more than fifty years a Masonic Lodge at Cherry Creek, but in 1934
this Lodge surrendered its charter and was consolidated with the Lodge at Sparta.
===Churches===
In another chapter is given an historical statement of the churches of White
County. In this chapter the purpose is to give a brief statement about some of
the churches which have a definite program.
====Churches of Sparta====
Methodist Episcopal South. Numerically the Southern Methodist Church in Sparta
is the laregst church in town. The minister is Rev. B. F. Isom who is now
serving his first year as pastor of this church. The church is very efficient in
its organization, has a good Sunday School with C. T. Mayberry as
Superintendent, an Epworth League, Woman's Missionary Society, and the other
societies usually found in connection with a church of this type.
Church of Christ. This church has a large membership and a very active
congregation. The Minister is Elder A. R. Hill, who is now serving his first
year as minister in this church. Dr. E. F. Richards is Superintendent of the
Sunday School. In addition to the ministry of its own congregation this church
through its members does a considerable relief work and ministers to some of the
other congregations in the County.
Presbyterian. This church is the oldest church counting from its first
organization in Sparta and was for a generation the only church in Sparta. Rev.
G-. D. Robison is the minister. Professor J. Arliss Passons is Superintendent of
the Sunday School. The church has a Young Peoples Society, a Westminster Guild,
a Woman's Missionary Society, and a Men's Brotherhood. The minister is at the
present time the Moderator of Cumberland Mountain Presbytery, and the Alternate
Commissioner Elect to the General Assembly.
Baptist. The minister of this church is Rev. F. M. Dowell, Jr. The
congregation is just now building a beautiful new stone church. Charles Nelson
is the Superintendent of the Sunday School. The church also has a B. Y. P. U.
Society, and a Woman's Missionary Society, and other organizations for young
people.
First Christian Church. The minister of this church is Rev. John T. Meadows,
who is serving his first year as minister of this church. This is the youngest
congregation in the town. Has an organized Sunday School with M. C. Wallace
superintendent. It does its mission work, home and foreign, through its Womans'
Council. It also has a Christian Endeavor connected with the National Organization.
The Church of the Nazarene. The minister of this church is Rev. S. W. Turner.
The church has a Sunday School, a Young People's Organization and carries on a
Missionary Program. H. C. Greene is Superintendent of the Sunday School.
Outside of Sparta some of the outstanding churches with a regular program are
the following: Mount Gilead, which is the oldest Southern Methodist Church in
the County, has a live Sunday School and regular preaching service. Shady Grove,
another Southern Methodist Church, has a similar program, as has also Mount
Carmel, Dodson's Chapel, Mount Pisgah, and Doyle Methodist Church. The Methodist
Episcopal Church has two churches in the County at each of which is carried on a
good program of church work. These are Peeled Chestnut and the church in Wild
Cat Cove. The Baptist Church in Doyle has a good church program with a good
Sunday School and other organizations and a resident minister who also carries
on an extension program. The Congregational Church has a larger parish
organization with a splendid parish program and a staff of competent church
workers. The center of this large parish is pleasant Hill in Cumberland County,
but the following places in White County are included in this larger parish: Bon
Air, DeRossitt, Ravenscroft, Eastland, Clifty, and Mobray. The executive of this
larger parish is Dr. Edwin E. White who has written some delightful books and
who is widely known. He lives at Pleasant Hill. The Presbyterian Church in
Hickory Valley has a resident minister, Rev. Ura A. Brogden, a Sunday School,
Woman's Missionary Society, Young People's Organization, and has three out
stations connected with it. In the territory north of Sparta is a Presbyterian
larger parish, the first larger parish organized in the South, composed of the
following churches: Blue Spring, Spring Hill, Johnson Church, Cherry Creek and
Robinson Chapel. In this parish is a Parish Council composed of the following
members: For Blue Spring, G. S. Pennington, for Cherry Creek, G. T. Morris, for
Spring Hill, Reed Hale, for Johnson Church, Robert Henry, and for Robinson
Chapel, J. J. Robinson. This Council directs the policy of the parish, though
each church has its own officers. The chief minister of the parish since 1917
has been Paul E. Doran and his assistants are now Paul McCormick and Ura A.
Brogden. This is the largest parish in the point of membership in the County.
The parish house and office is at Blue Spring. New churches have been built this
year at Johnson and a beautiful stone building at Blue Spring.
===Roads===
Broadway of America. This road was designated to be a road running through
Knoxville to Nashville by the state of North Carolina in 1785. Soldiers were
furnished to escort people over the mountain because it was so full of travelers
and as a result robbers and hostile Indians beset it. It was piked from
Knoxville to Nashville about 1828, and became a link in a national highway. It
was by far the most traveled road across from the East to the "West and was
called the gateway. Indian trails and this road was the way almost all of our
settlers came, Robert Burke piked the road from Rockwood, then in White County,
to Bon Air; Barlow Fisk, Charles Barker Lowery and Daniel Clark piked from Bon
Air to Smithville and a Mr. Waters piked it on to Lebanon and to Nashville. A
road also ran by McMinnville to Nashville over which mail was carried as well as
by Smithville. Sam Clenny, aged fifteen, carried the first mail over the
mountain in 1826, coaches carrying the mail after they came. The old stable near
the Rock House was built soon after the road was piked. This road was traveled
so much that from fifty to a hundred wagons could be seen coming down the
mountain at a time with trees tied behind for brakes.
A road with stage coaches on it carrying sixteen or seventeen inside and
outside went by McMinnville and another ran the old Kentucky Road. William
Price, a Revolutionary war veteran, kept a hotel on it at the old Linn place.
Barlow Fisk ran the Fisk Inn at the top of the mountain. The old road through
Sparta was the most traveled road crossing the mountain. It was a pike with
stage coaches. It was the only road crossing the mountains that was passable in
fall, winter and spring. This was the road over which Jackson traveled to
Washington.
The economic value of this road to White County cannot be over-estimated. In
the early days the immense travel from the East moving over this road left a
golden thread on the way. Merchants and inn and hotel keepers along the road
reaped a fortune. What is now the Broadway of America was begun as a modern
project in 1918 as a County Unit to help complete a road from Memphis to
Bristol. The road was completed in 1923. This is now a national highway
beginning at Battery Park, New York, and going to San Diego, California.
Sparta-Cookeville Road. The road from Sparta to Cookeville was surveyed in
1823 by Moses Fisk and was named by him the Meridian Road, but the people
generally called it the Fisk Road. It is now a State Highway.
In 1897 the County built hard roads, appropriating sixty thousand dollars,
then later finishing them with another appropriation of fifty thousand dollars.
J. D. Goff was then the County Judge. J. R. Lee, Franklin Wilhite, and Perry
Officer were the Committee to build the roads. Officer did the engineering. The
road beds were laid off twelve feet wide which was soon found to be too narrow.
This program of road building had some opposition at first, but it seemed
largely to disappear when it was seen how small the increase in taxes was for
road purposes. A few years ago with the advent of the automobile a new interest
in road building was created and the County bonded itself for road purposes,
then came the gasoline tax to supplement the road funds, then road building on a
large scale was begun., Sparta now has seven hard roads passing through it. In
all there are more than three hundred miles of good roads in White County, which
is more than half the total road mileage in the County. The dirt roads in the
County are for the most part neighborhood roads.
===Hotels===
Sparta has two excellent hotels and some inns and private boarding houses. The
Rhea House was originally built for a branch of the State Bank. During the many
years the Rhea House has run as a hotel it has enjoyed a fine patronage of the
traveling public and has been through all the years a Mnd of family hotel as
well, many of the business and professional men and women of Sparta making their
homes there. A number of famous men and women from the outside have spent a
while at the Rhea House. James Whitcomb Riley once spent a part of the summer
there, and while; there wrote some of his best known poems, among them being, so
it is said, "The Old Swimming Hole" and "An Old Sweetheart of Mine." Opie Reed
spent a summer at the Rhea House once and while here wrote probably Ms most
famous novel, "The Jucklins." It is said also that he gathered the material for
"The Waters of Caney Fork" while here. At present it is owned by Mrs. Stanton
Dibrell, and the managers are her son and daughter, Mr. and Mrs. S. S. Dibrell, Jr.
The Lee Hotel is probably the costliest hotel building in this section of the
State. It was built by Lee Brothers a few years ago. The manager is Mr. and Mrs.
Will F. Lee. Being located on the Broadway of America it enjoys a good patronage.
In addition to these good hotels Sparta has a number of tour-is homes and
private inns. Among these are, Fancher Tourist Home, Wilhite Tourist, Willbanks
Corner, Maple Shade, Mountain View Tourist Home, and the Marchbanks Tourist
Home. There are also hotels and inns in Walling, Quebec, Doyle, Clarktown, and
Bon Air.
===Towns and Villages===
There are three former White County villages that have now disappeared. These
are River Hill, which once had two stores, a cotton gin, a school, a negro
church and a doctor's office and a blacksmith shop. This is now an open country
community. Mitchell's Mill once had a grist mill, flour mill, cotton gin,
furniture factory, sawmill, planing mill, shingle mill, store and pulp mill. All
these are now gone. Old Bon Air had a post office and a great tourist hotel and
what else we do not know.
The towns and villages of today are Sparta, Doyle, Onward, Quebec, Walling,
Fall City, Bon Air, DeRossett, Ravenscroft, Eastland, Clifty, and Clarktown.
Sparta of course is the chief town of the County, being the County site and the
business and professional center of the County. The County High School is
located here and the town is incorporated and has its own police force and fire
company and maintains its own school system. In addition to the excellent
grammar school for white children there is Rosenwald school for colored children
with a college man at its head. In recent years Sparta has become a small
manufacturing center. The town has a band, Music Club, a Young Business Girls'
Club, which has as its objective the establishment of a public library in the
Community Building which is now under construction, a Woman's Club, which has
several different departments, Civitan Club, besides fraternal lodges, and other
social clubs. Doyle is the home of the Burrough-Taylor Factory, has a good
school, three churches, and a number of business enterprises. Onward was once
the site of a famous school, Onward Seminary. This school has long ago
disappeared and Onward now has only a public school. It is now little more than
open country. Quebec was once the site of a normal college. It still has a large
lumber interest and other good business enterprises and a good public school.
Walling has a good public school, some tourist homes, stores and other business
enterprises and near there are some summer camps. Fall City has a great dam, one
of the greatest in America when it was built, and generates electricity for the
Tennessee Electric Power Company. It is also a pleasure resort with a number of
good boarding houses and inns and cottages. The modern Bon Air was made by the
coal interests and is still a large mining camp. The most of the workers work at
Ravenscroft. It is the property of the Tennessee Products Corporation. It has a
goods chool, a baseball park, a commissary and one of the company doctors lives
there. DeBossett is a thriving little village with two churches, a school, a
tourist camp, and a number of stores and other business enterprises.
Havens-croft is now the largest mining camp on the mountain. It has a
commissary, the offices of the Tennessee Products Corporation, a school, and one
of the company doctors lives there. Eastland is a mining camp where once were
located a great number of coke ovens. These are no longer in operation. The coal
and lumber interest here have declined in recent years, but there are several
hundred people who still live at Eastland. Many of these still find employment
with the Tennessee Products Corporation. Still others find employment in other
places. Clifty was at one time called the model mining camp of the South, in
those days the mines were running full force, the town had an excellent club
house, school, and public library. For the last few years there has been little
mining here, and the lumber interests have not been large and the town has
declined, but there is still a fine population there and farming operations are
increasing. Clarktown has for many years been a health resort. It is famous for
its water and its healthful location. Many people from a distance come here to
spend the summer.
===Industries===
Insurance. The White County Mutual Fire Insurance Company was organized July
14, 1923, with T. H. Fancher, President, Henry Verble, Vice-President, S. B.
Johnson, Secretary, and John Brock, Treasurer, and with a Board of Directors of
twelve. They began business with fifty-five thousand dollars of insurance, but
reached one hundred and seventy-five thousand dollars by the end of the first
year. This company is a local assessment company. A small payment in premium is
made at the time one insures and when a loss occurs, an assessment on all the
members is made with which to care for the loss.
The other companies operating in White County are Bostick & Potter who are
agents for old line life insurance and a number of standard fire insurance
companies. They also carry automobile liability insurance. They also are agents
for two large bonding companies. The managers of this firm are Charles G.
Bostick and Thomas K. Potter.
S. R. Ware Agency handle bonds, fire and life insurance, and are real estate
agents. Commander A, Gr. Dibrell is the manager.
Gleason Officer specializes in fire insurance.
Miller and Davis also specialize in fire insurance. Tom Miller is the manager.
Sims and Smartt specialize in farm insurance and life insurance. The managers
of this firm are Mark Sims and Richard Smartt.
Burroughs and Taylor Factory. In 1876 a factory for making cloth was organized
by J. W. Taylor and J. Taylor. It was incorporated in 1890 as Burroughs and
Taylor Company. At that time it added the garment making industry, having
previously made cloth only. The annual output is now from one hundred and
twenty-five thousand to two hundred thousand, consisting of men's pants and work
suits. The company employs eighty-five persons annually. It is now located at
Doyle, the cave plant being abandoned because of the dam at Fall City. J. M.
Taylor operates the plant.
Sparta Spoke Factory. The Sparta Spoke Factory is due almost entirely to the
energy and business ability of J. B. Tubb. At various times since its
organization the company has had mills located at various places where spokes
were club turned partly turned and then brought to Sparta to be finished. The
mill at Sparta buys great quantities of timber to be delivered at its plants
here and which are made as a finished product. It is the largest spoke factory
in the world. It ships spokes to Europe. In some years they finish as many as
two million spokes a year. The company has brought into the County more than a
million dollars. This has been of great advantage to small farmers having a
little timber and who in cutting their firewood could sell the saleable part of
the trees to the spoke, factory.
Sparta-Welwood Silk Mills, Inc. In 1920, largely due to the activity of the
Civitan Club, one of the units of the Welwood Silk Mill was located at Sparta.
Sparta and White County furnished the capital for the erection of the plant.
Since that time the mill has been running almost continuously, even during the
worst depression years it was kept running. Its payroll was during those years
of inestimable value in the stabilizing of life in Sparta. The Trnll operates on
a twenty-four hour schedule. It employs several hundred hands and weaves several
hundred yards of broad silk a week. The raw silk is imported principally from
Japan.
Sparta Manufacturing Company. In 1902 W. H. Hudgens organized the Sparta
Manufacturing Company. It was at first a cabinet shop. Business was enlarged in
1915, and at its best it has employed as high as thirty-five men, and has
produced as high as one hundred and fifty thousand dollars worth of goods in a
year. At its best its payroll has been as high as six hundred dollars a month.
Most of their products have been sold in this County. They have made various
types of furniture, truck bodies, and have done truck repairing and refinishing
work. They also do repair work on radios and phonographs, and carry a full line
of household furnishing goods.
John I. Shafer Hardwood Co. The John I. Shafer Hardwood Company, one of the
largest Lumber Companies in the United States, has yards and offices in Sparta,
under the management of Mr. H. N. Clouse, a native White Countian. The John I.
Shafer Hardwood Co. has yards in Louisville, Kentucky, Logansport, Indiana,
Ozark, Alabama and Sparta, Tennessee. For many years the Shafer Company has
specialized in Appalachian Furniture and Automobile stock and has furnished
millions and millions of feet of White County lumber to the largest Automobile
manufacturers in the United States. Many of the cars of today are built with
materials from our County, and much of the fine furniture is built from
Tennessee Appalachian Maple and Walnut.
Mr. H. N. Clouse's son, E. C. Clouse, has charge of their Ozark, Alabama, yards.
Sparta Laundry. In 1928 Joe Mitchell established the Sparta Laundry. It is
equipped with the best modern equipment and is sufficiently large to handle all
the laundry that may come to it. It gives employment to a number of people and
is an asset to the business interest of Sparta. It is now owned by Gordon Wallace.
Modern Dry Cleaners. A. D. Brown equipped a modern dry cleaning establishment
in Sparta in 1920. It is one of the best equipped plants of its kind in the
State. It enjoys a good patronage.
Handle Factory. The Turner, Day and Welworth Factory at Sparta makes all kinds
of handles. The cost of raw material runs from about three hundred to six
hundred dollars a year, and the output has run as high as fifteen hundred dozen
bundles a year.
Timber and Wood. The great forests of White County have for the most part been
cut, but there is still considerable lumber and timber products manufactured in
the County. The chief manufacturers aside from those mentioned above are the
John I. Shafer Hardwood Company, Lee Lumber Company, E. E. Carter Lumber
Company, and the Tennessee Saw & Planing Mill at Quebec. The Lee Lumber Company
manufacture all kinds of lumber and have a cabinet shop and are retail dealers
in all kinds of building supplies. John I. Shafer Hardwood Company has a unit at
Sparta managed by H. N. Clouse and are manufacturers of hardwood lumber,
particularly walnut, maple, oak, poplar and beech. E. E. Carter conducts a
general lumber business and manufactures and sells all kinds of lumber. The mill
at Quebec is owned and operated by Karl Cooper and makes a specialty of floors,
though the company handles also other types of lumber and operates a cabinet
shop. Besides these there are a number of small sawmills scattered over the
County. Some of these are steam mills and some are operated with gasoline power.
At various places in the County there are small cabinet shops where old
furniture is remade and new furniture is built on a piece work basis. These are
too numerous to list separately here.
Sparta Water Company. The Sparta Water Company has a reservoir one hundred by
one hundred feet supplied by a large spring. It has a capacity of a million
gallons. It has a stand-pipe ninety feet tall and fifteen feet in diameter. It
has at the present time four hundred and twenty customers. The manager is Mrs.
Mary Kate England, there are two other persons employed by the company. It is
owned by a St. Louis company.
Coal Mining. The chief coal mining interest in the County is operated by the
Tennessee Products Corporation. This corporation was formed in 1917 by W. J.
Cummings who bought the old Bon Air Coal & Iron Company and consolidated with
the other large coal companies operating in the County. At its organization the
corporation had for its officers James R. Oldfield, President, W. J. Cummins,
Vice-President and General Manager, John McE. Bowman, Treasurer, Frederic Leake,
Secretary, and William Wrigley, Chairman of the Board of Trustees. In 1920 Dr.
W. B. Young was made General Superintendent. He is now vice-president of the
company. The different companies which entered into the formation of the
corporation when its organization was completed in 1926 were the Bon Air Coal &
Iron Corporation, the Chattanooga Coke and Gas Company, the J. J. Gray Iron
Works, the Clifty Coal Company, and some smaller companies. Coal has been mined
in White County since 1836, when Brice Little opened his mine five miles from
Sparta. In 1902 the first shaft was sunk at Bon Air. The Tennessee Products
Corporation owns a total of about one hundred and eighteen thousand acres and
does a business of more than a million dollars a year.
In addition to the Tennessee Products Corporation there are a number of small
mines operated by individuals, among these are Fate Weaver, and Sam Breeding.
Farming has always been the chief industry of the County and the following
statement of the agricultural interest in the County was furnished by H. W.
Andrews, County Agent:
White County has a general diversified farming system.
The field crops are corn, hay, wheat, rye, oats and barley. (Value of grain
crops, $604,548, in 1929.) The cash crops are burley tobacco (very fine
quality); Nancy Hall sweet potatoes (12,000 bu. capacity curing house); Irish
potatoes (mostly Irish cobblers); cotton, about 100 acres, fruits, vegetables
and melons, locally sold; seed corn, fine quality; korean lespedeza seed (mostly
dodder free).''
Live stock—hogs valued in 1929 at $91,000; beef cattle, both pastured and fed;
dairy cattle( cream marketed at local creamery and cream stations and valued at
$150,658 in 1929); sheep for wool, spring lambs and stockers. All cattle valued
at $383,692 in 1929. Good mules and horses grown locally; also a large number of
high class Western mules brought here for farm use. Mules in County valued at
$238,943 in 1929; horses and colts valued at $79,334.''
Poultry—pure bred for hatching eggs, and marketing in cooperative shipments in
car lots for live poultry, and to local produce people. Poultry valued at
$132,674 in 1929, and eggs at $146,594.''
Our hay crops are lespedeza, clover and grass, red top, timothy, alfalfa, soy
beans, peas and wild hays, sorghum and corn stover for feed. Most of our hay and
grain crops are marketed through livestock feeding. Practically no feed is
shipped from this County. We grow almost anything in White County except
tropical plants.''
Timber and wood—about $159,000 worth sold in 1929.
Fairs—White County has one of the best county agricultural fairs in the South.
It has been termed by the Commissioner of Agriculture as the best balanced fair
in Tennessee. This fair is run as a free fair, financed by County tax levy. The
fair exhibits go from here to State Fairs and International Fairs, and have won
thousands of premiums. Our farmers hold a number of championships on field seeds
from the International Stock Show at Chicago.
County Agents—White County has had a County Home Demonstration Agent for about
seventeen years and a County Agricultural Agent for about twenty years.
Tennessee Electric Power Company. On April 24,1912, the Tennessee Electric
Power Company was organized. In that year the corporation got control of the
property belonging to the Great Falls Power Company which had been organized In
1901. This property was located on the White County side of the Great Falls of
Caney Fork River. Soon after the incorporation of the Tennessee Power Company it
began buying land and preparing plans for power development. Complete plans were
drawn up for the construction of a dam and power house at Falls City. A force of
men were put to work and the building of coffer dams, making excavations for the
dams was begun, but a great food swept away the coffer dams before they were
completed. In 1915 the Tennessee Power Company began work again and a forty foot
dam was built. The demands for electrical energy increased and in 1923 the
Tennessee Electric Power Company began the work of raising the dam. A new 20,107
horse power generator was installed and the old one was increased to 15,416
horse power, a new brick power house was erected and the resevoir was cleared.
The work was completed in 1925.
Transmission lines have been built out of the Great Falls Power Station from
time to time to serve communities in Middle and East Tennessee. The Smithville
11,000 volt line was constructed in 1919, the Sparta 11,000 volt line was
constructed in 1923, the McMinnville 11,00 volt line in 1925, the Estell Springs
44,000 volt line in 1927, and the 44,000 volt line to Sparta with 11,000 volt
extension to Mayland in 1929.
N. C. & St. L. Ry. The N. C. & St. L. Ry., was built in 1884. For a long time
it was the largest tax payer in White County. Since the building of highways and
the trucking interests were developed and bus lines were established the
railroad has declined, but it is still a great industry in White County. It
furnishes employment to a number of our citizens and is still used both for
hauling passengers and freight. The express office in connection with the
railroad office still does a large business. S. M. Arnold is the agent at Sparta.
Potter Freight Lines, Kelly Potter, Manager, was estabtablished in Sparta in
1930. They operate a fleet of freight trucks in all directions from Sparta.
Garages. Barr Chevrolet Company handle General Motors cars, have an excellent
repair shop and a storage department. The manager is Clay Barr. Ford Motor
Company, Manager, E. C. Trawick, sells Ford and Lincoln cars, has a repair shop
and does a general storage business. Wall Motor Company, Jim Wall, Manager,
handles Dodge and Plymouth cars, has an excellent repair shop and stores ears.
Hudgens Motor Company, W. H. Hudgens, Manager, handles Plymouth ears and used
cars af various types and operates a repair shop. S. O. Townsend operates a
general motor repair shop. In addition to those listed in Sparta there are a
number of car repair shops in the County.
Banks. The First National Bank was first organized as a State Bank in 1807,
became a national bank in 1886. It was one of the few banks in the State which
was able to keep open in the Panic of 1907. It has a capital stock of one
hundred thousand dollars and more than a million dollars on deposit. Robert L.
Hill is the president and R. L. Snodgrass is cashier. The bank employs six
persons. The Commerce-Union Bank was first organized in 1900 as the People Bank.
In 1905 it became the American National Bank. In 1932 it became a branch bank of
the Commerce-Union Bank of Nashville, a link in a chain of banks with a capital
stock of eight hundred thousand dollars. This bank has deposits of more than
half a million dollars. T. K. Potter is manager of the Sparta branch, Hub-bard
Bay is cashier. The bank employs four people. The Peoples Bank & Trust Company
was organized in 1921. It has a Capital stock of twenty-five thousand dollars.
The President at the present time is Leslie Tubb, O. L. Davis, cashier.
Sparta enjoys the distinction of never having a bank failure.
===Some of the Principal Stores in White County===
There are five drug stores in White County. Gooch Brothers own and operate a
drug store at Doyle and one in Sparta. Charles Nelson operates a drug store in
Sparta; he also has a drug store in Spencer. The oldest druggist in Sparta in
point of service is Casto Gist. The other drug store is the Royal, formerly
Merchbanks Drug Company, but now operated by Dr. T. H. Alexander.
Funeral Directors. The undertaking business of Beecher Hunter is the oldest in
this section of Tennessee. Mr. Hunter having begun business with his uncle, J.
L. Quarles when he was a young man. The Goff Funeral Home has only recently been
established. It has capable men in charge and is doing a growing business.
Another undertaking establishment at Sparta recently organized is Thurman and
Thurman.
Grocery Stores. Sparta has one large wholesale grocery company, Ragland Potter
Company, of which W. C. Brown is the General Manager, and the following retail
grocery stores: H. G. "Rill, Gates Grocery Company, Knowles Grocery Company, and
McDole Grocery. A number of other merchants carry staple and fancy groceries in
connection with general merchandise. Sparta has one up-to-date fruit store,
Grizzard's, which also carries staple and fancy groceries.
Some of the other important stores in Sparta are the following: J. M. Smith &
Company, Herbert West, and the Hutchings Brothers are among the largest produce
dealers in this section of the State. The Nashville Pure Milk Company operate
cream trucks all over the County. General merchants are, T. M. Bonner, S. C.
Robinson, A. D. Waggoner, Floris Tompkins, Tubb's Variety Store, The Economy
Store, Five to Five Store, Elkin's Hardware Company, Jenkins-Darwin, W. M.
Mitchell, Little Hat Shop, White County Mercantile, W. M. Young Feed Store,
Stacy Dry Goods Company, Marie Fashion Shop, Geer Brothers, Ernst Cooper, J. B.
Dick & Company, B. K. Mitchell, M & H Hardwarer Company, Ellis Furniture Store,
and Hershel Mitchell. Some of these merchants have been in Sparta long enough to
become household words. C. G. Stacy has been selling goods in Sparta since 1881.
Martin Young is a name long familiar to our people. There are a number of stores
out in the1 County who do an annual business equal to some of the best of those
in Sparta. Among these might be mentioned the Terry Company at Doyle, Hollaway
at DeRossitt, Slagle Brothers, Fred Huddleston, and Sam Cooper.
Sparta is well supplied with barber shops and beauty shops, the best known of
these are the City Barber Shop, and Rush Miller Barber Shop. The beauty shops
are, Ruby Ann Beauty Shop and Lee Beauty Shop.
Sparta is well supplied with restaurants and eating houses. The most popular
of these being the Lee Hotel Coffee Shop, B. & B. Restaurant, and the Rhea House.
Sparta has two excellent weekly newspapers and printing shops. The Expositor has been running under the present management about twenty-one years. It occupies its own building, and has a good job print shop. It is owned by R. L. Sutton and wife. The Sparta News is owned and run by Brown Brothers who also do excellent job printing and binding.
Sparta has one excellent photographic studio, owned and operated by D. L.
Johnson.
The Oldham Theatre is a motion picture house which is trying hard to give
Sparta and White County clean pictures. Mr. James Cardwell is the manager.
===Recreation Centers.===
In recent years White County has been forgoing ahead as a playground and
recreational center. Some of the centers which have been established are
educational as well as recreational. Perhaps the largest of these is Camp Bon
Air under the supervision of Mr. E. L. Spain of Nashville. Various groups come
to this camp every summer and some of them spend the summer there. The camp
accomodates about two hundred. Vanderbilt University also maintains a camp
chiefly for its surveying students at the Overton property at Bon Air. Near
Walling is a camp of the Future Farmers of Tennessee. This camp combines
recreation with real teaching in agriculture. Webb School also has a camp and
summer school on the Caney Fork under the supervision of Mr. Will Webb and Mr.
G. Webb Follin. A number of private individuals have cottages on the Caney Fork
in White County where they spend a part of each summer. Among these are Dr.
James E. Clarke, on the editorial staff of the Presbyterian Tribune published in
New York City, and George H. Mack, President of Missouri Valley College. Plans
are under way now for the erection of the Sparta Eecreational Camp. This will be
one of the largest and finest camps in the County when completed.
===Education===
There are at present no private schools in White County, but the County has a
good system of public schools. Heading the system of public schools is the White
County High School which was established in 1910 under the administration of
Miss Ella Snodgrass as County Superintendent. C. G. Sipple was the first
principal. The present faculty consists of the following: Walter Fowler,
Principal; W. A. Walker, History; Claude Austin, Science; C. O. Jett, English;
J. C. Fooshee, Mathematics; T. L. Leonard, Agriculture; Quill Cope, History and
Science; Kermit Keisling, Commercial; Mrs. Lena Walton, Music and French; Miss
Bessie Mitchell, Latin; Miss Nan Grissom, Domestic Science.
Since 1914 the school has operated as a Class A High School under the State
Department of Education. It is recognized as one of the best high schools in
this section of the State and is the pride of the County. Through its department
of agriculture it carries on an extension program in the County and conducts
night classes for farmers at a number of places in the County. It also works
through the Future Farmer organization.
The Superintendent of public instruction is Charles B. Johnson. Outside of
Sparta there are something more than fifty schools. The schools on the mountain,
Bon Air, Ravenscroft, Eastland and Clifty are run by the County in cooperation
with the Tennessee Products Corporation which supplements the public funds in
support of these schools. The consolidated school movement has made considerable
progress in White County in recent years and the County has consolidated schools
employing from two to five teachers at the following places, Quebec, Doyle,
Hickory Valley, Old Zion, Shugart, Yankeetown, and Big Spring. There are still,
however, a number of one teacher schools in the County. The following statement
about the City Schools is furnished by Professor T. A. Passons:
Control: The Sparta City Schools are controlled by a local Board of Education
composed of six members elected by the Board of Mayor and Aldermen. Two are
elected at the first regular meeting in July and serve for a term of two years.
The City Superintendent of Education is elected by this Board annually and
becomes the executive officers of the school.''
Organization and Administration: The organization of the school during the
year 1934-35 is a Modified Platoon school. Departmentalization is carried on
from the third grade through the eighth. The work in the first and second grades
is based on the Activity Methods. Each child is given an opportunity to develop
according to his ability. The present tendency in the administration is toward
activity or unit work in all grades of the school.''
Home work is being eliminated and directed teaching is practiced. Health,
Physical Education, Science, Nature Study, Art, and Music are being emphasized
in the Curriculum as essential to the best interest of the child.''
The total enrollment for 1934-5 is 536. The City School carries no High School
work at all.''
Building and Grounds: The present City School building was erected during 1924
at a cost of $75,000.00 and on the site of the old Dibrell Normal School. It
contains 16 class rooms, a gymnasium, a large* auditorium and offices.''
During the summer of 1934 an excavation was made under the East wing with T.
E. R. A, labor and a modern school cafeteria was installed. T. E. R. A. labor
was also used in terracing and beautifying the campus.''
The Faculty: T. A. Passons, Superintendent; William Little, Mathematics,
Science, and Physical Education for boys; Willie Officer, English, Reading and
Penmanship; Mrs. Toy Taylor, History, Geography, and Music; Mrs. A. L. Cooper,
Geography, Arithmetic, and Art; Margaret Boyd, English, Reading, and Physical
Education for girls; Frances Camp, English, Reading, and Penmanship; Mrs. S. A.
Davis, Geography, Arithmetic, and Art; Myrtle Gist, English, Reading and Music;
Elnora Davis, Geography, Arithmetic, and Health; Ruth Hamilton, Second Grade;
Jane Mitchell, Second Grade; Cora Townsend, First Grade; Willie Gist, First Grade.''
THE END
Category:"History of White County"
Category:Texts