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.

The Call of the trail in the Picturesque Cumberlands

As we continue our 1940’s tour of the Upper Cumberlands, let’s think about the natural beauty that surrounds us and the draw that has always been to tourists.  I have written here about Monterey’s history as a resort town.  And I suppose when I think about the early part of the twentieth century, when the plateau was less populated and less modernized, I fail to imagine residents seeking outdoor recreation.  That’s a silly assumption.

The March of Progress publication places great importance on the natural beauty of the mountain, and the public’s desire to enjoy it.  Early in the book, the area recreational parks are presented.  Today, we may take for granted the number of choices we have to fish, picnic or hike in a well-maintained, public park.  But in 1940, these parks were a pretty new concept.

Seven specific parks are mentioned: Fall Creek Falls, Cumberland State Park, Pickett State Park, Standing Stone State Park, Morgan State Forest and The Rock Island Area.  Except for Rock Island, all of these parks came into existence in the 1930’s with most being built using the labor of the Civilian Conservation Corps.  A recreational area in Rock Island grew up around a private hydroelectric dam built on the Caney Fork River in 1917.  That park wasn’t formally established until 1969 which explains our historic document referring to it only as an area.  By including this sectionin their book, we see the pride citizens already had in the wilderness’ beauty.  And, we can see that they already knew tourism was an industry that needed to be tapped.

The facing page of the park details is a collage of equine adventures.  I am fascinated to see this because horseback riding has grown to be such a big attraction.  While I grew up loving horses and riding and everything associated with the two, the attraction seems to have really grown up in the county over the past twenty years.  Certainly the improvements to the Big South Fork River and Recreational Area in the 1980's offered a huge boost.  Then, others who were passionate about those big ole’ loving horses opened other stables with riding trails and the trailers started rolling in.  Well, those stable managers might correct me that it took just a bit more work than that, but can you imagine how happy the developers of the magazine would be to see the lines of horse trailers on a holiday weekend?

It is a short part of the book, but nestled between the beckoning calls of Livingston and Gainsboro, the reader of this document could have easily imagined the rest and relaxation he could enjoy on our “magnificent sweep of mountain”.