In 1809, following the 1806 cession of Cherokee lands north of the Tennessee River to the United States government, the General Assembly appointed five commissioners to select a site for the seat of newly formed Giles County. The act required that the site be on Richland Creek and near the center of the county. The commissioners surveyed the land of what is now Pulaski and divided it for auction. By 1810, a log courthouse stood at the center of the town square.The second courthouse was a log building covered with wide boards which burned in 1814.The third courthouse was of Federal style, completed around 1815. It was razed in 1850 and the fourth courthouse was completed in 1852.The fourth courthouse, completed in 1852, survived the Civil War and is pictured in this entry. It burned in 1907.The fifth and current courthouse was completed in 1908.

The current Giles County Courthouse, constructed in 1908

The 4th Giles County Courthouse, constructed in 1852

The 4th Giles County Courthouse, constructed in 1852, pictured during the Civil War. The soldiers pictured are of the U.S. Army during their lengthy occupation of the city. Some suspect this photo was taken on the day of Sam Davis's hanging.

The current courthouse, completed in 1909, is the fifth to sit at this location. A courthouse has sat at this location since 1811, with two of the five courthouses succumbing to fire. The interior of the current courthouse features lovely details and an operational bell in the cupola.The surrounding commercial district is comprised of buildings dating from the 1860s to the 1930s, exhibiting a range of architectural styles.(see below for additional information)

Pulaski Courthouse Square

A broad heritage tour designed to highlight sights of significance to Giles County's history and development.

Giles County Memory, Legacy, and History

Created by the Giles County Historical Society

Historic Downtown Pulaski Walking Tour

Director

The location of the Bridgeforth School has its roots dating back to the Civil War, when Union Soldiers, particularly the 103rd United States Colored Troops, occupied Fort Hill. A contraband camp formed at the base of the hill became the foundation of the early African-American Community. The first city-funded school for African American students was built in 1889. Ten years later, the first county-funded school for Black students was formed in Pulaski in the basement of the Campbell Church and later the Big Harper Church. These schools did not offer a full high school curriculum, stopping at eleventh grade. In 1931-1932, the two schools merged and added a twelfth grade. By 1936, increased student enrollment necessitated the building of a new school.The school was built by Jackson Taylor and designed by the architectural firm McKissack &amp; McKissack, now one of the architectural and construction firms in the U.S. The pair won numerous contracts during the Great Depression from the Works Progress Administration, and today, a plaque reading “U.S.A 1936-1937 W.P.A” can still be seen on this former school building.Students living within Pulaski were provided free education while students living outside the city limits were required to pay tuition. When it first opened, the Bridgeforth School offered grades 9-12, by the 1938-1939 school year, grades 7 &amp; 8 were added. A public bussing system was not brought to the school until 1945. In 1950 grades first through six were added when an addition was erected. In 1959, to white school officials hoped to forestall integration by building a new high school for African American students. At that time, this school was converted to hold grades 1-8.In 1966, the county and city finally integrated the school system in Giles County and consolidated the schools, resulting in the closing of the Bridgeforth Elementary housed in the original building and the conversion of Bridgeforth High into the Pulaski Junior High School.

Named in honor of J.T. Bridgeforth, a prominent Black educator, this building held the first African-American high school in Giles County. The structure was built with funds from the Works Progress Administration and initial construction began in 1936 under the direction of nationally recognized African-American architects Moses and Calvin McKissack, founders of the modern architecture firm Mckissack and Mckissack. The grandfather of the McKissack brothers had been enslaved nearby. Weeks before the school opened, large-scale flooding along the Upper Cumberland River forced citizens to take refuge in the school. In March of 1937, sixty-eight students and three teachers held the first school sessions. In 1950 the school expanded to the school to include grades 1-6. In 1959, school officials decided to build a new high school for African American students next to this building and moved the lower grades into the original Bridgeforth School. In 1965, Giles County became the first county in Tennessee to desegregate schools voluntarily.

Historic Bridgeforth High School 

Regarded in local memory as the “Boy Hero of the Confederacy,” Sam Davis was 21 years old and a combat veteran when he was captured by Union secret service in 1863 and charged with espionage. After receiving wounds at the battles of Shiloh and Perryville, Davis had been assigned to “Coleman’s Scouts,” a company charged with moving behind enemy lines to collect information on Union activities. On a scouting mission at Minor Hill in Giles County, Davis and several other scouts were discovered and taken into custody by the 7th Kansas Cavalry, who found papers in his shoes disclosing information about Union fortifications and troops. The scouts were imprisoned in the Giles County Courthouse while Union troops questioned Sam Davis, attempting to get him to disclose the name of his source and commanding officer. Sam’s refusal to give them any information won him a beloved spot in local memory, especially after the popular publication Confederate Veteran immortalized his story three decades later. The Sam Davis Memorial Museum, located near the spot where Davis was hanged, was dedicated 87 years to the minute after his death. 

Sam Davis Memorial Museum

The burial spot of ten former Pulaski mayors, the Old Graveyard Memorial Park was the site of Pulaski’s first designated burial ground. First in use by 1817, three years before Pulaski was chartered, this graveyard remained the primary burial ground for Pulaski citizens for several decades, before the creation of what would become Maplewood Cemetery, which opened in 1855. Burials continued at the old graveyard until 1883. Over the course of the 20th century, the graveyard fell into neglect. In 1968, concerned citizens joined together to revive the space, turning it into a park in honor of the deceased who found their final resting places here. Though the park does not follow modern best practices in cemetery preservation, it stands as a memorial to Pulaski’s earliest residents, with a marker listing the names of every known person interred here to preserve their memory in perpetuity, even as the original engravings fade.

The official name for this cemetery is The Old Graveyard Memorial Park located within the borders of Cemetery Street, S. Ist Street and S. 2nd Street. It was used as a burial ground from 1817 to 1883 and contains many early settler's graves. In 1967-68 it was turned into a memorial park with many of the gravestones moved and displayed at the north end of the park. An obelisk in the center provides the names of those known to be buried here and shows a map of where the actual graves are located.

Old Graveyard Memorial Park

<a target="_blank" rel="nofollow" title="Link: null">Constructed in 1907, the Pulaski Original Church of God is the
oldest known extant sanctuary of the predominantly African American
denomination. The Original Church of God, also known as the Sanctified Church,
began as part of the Holiness movement of the early twentieth century. In 1900,
elder C.W Gray began preaching the gospel on the front porch of Cora and
Allison Smith’s house outside of Wales Station, a community northwest of
Pulaski. As the congregation grew, area families hosted services in their homes.
Within a few years the group purchased a tent to hold revivals which was
erected where ever they could rent or borrow a space. On April 27, 1907, within
a week of the Giles County Court House burning down, the community of The
Original Church of God purchased an empty lot on Gordon and North First Street.
Using doors and bricks from the burned-out courthouse the congregation built
their first permanent building. The building was dedicated in 1909 and remained
in use by the congregation </a><a target="_blank" rel="nofollow" title="Link: null">until _____.&nbsp;&nbsp;</a>

&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; The symbology of using the bricks
from the legal power center of the community, one that enforced the segregation
of the community, held powerful meaning during the Jim Crow era in Giles
County. Not only did the church serve the spiritual needs of the citizens, it
also acted as a safe place for the African-American citizens to gather without
fear. The neighborhood near the church has traditionally been the
African-American part of town resulting from the Union occupation of Pulaski
during and immediately after the Civil War. During this time, a fort was
constructed on the hill above town and whose garrison included troops from the
USCT. Many of the soldiers, some of whom were contraband slaves from nearby,
relocated their families to the contraband camp forming around the fort.

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The Original Church of God is noted as being the first African-American Original Church of God congregation in Tennessee. The congregation formed in 1900 by C.W. Gray, who held the first meeting on a front porch. As the congregation grew, the need for a permanent sanctuary became obvious. In 1907, the church purchased a lot in between Phillips and Gordon streets. Within weeks of the purchase, the Giles County Courthouse burned down. Using the salvaged bricks and front door from the courthouse, the Original Church of God erected their church, completed in 1909. The structure is recognized as the oldest Original Church of God sanctuary in Tennessee. 

Original Church of God

<div>The second designated public burial place in Pulaski, the oldest section of Maplewood Cemetery opened in 1855 as “New Pulaski Cemetery.”&nbsp; It is a distinctively Victorian cemetery, characterized by open space, trees, curvilinear roads, and winding pathways amongst ornate headstones. A section to the east of the curving roads contains pauper and possibly African American burials as well as the remains of 85 Confederate soldiers. Adjacent to the Confederate section, but south of the original cemetery boundaries, are the graves of a number of fallen United States Colored Troops.&nbsp;</div><div> </div><div>In 1878, the city purchased an additional six acres, much of which was designated African American. The white and Black sections of the 1878 addition are distinguished by the lack of roads among the African American burials. The city expanded the city two more times, in 1907 and 1940. The cemetery contains a number of notable burials, including Governor John C. Brown, U.S. Congressmen John Goff Ballentine, Sr., Edward Everett Eslick, and Ross Bass, and Confederate Brigadier General John Adams. Interpretive plaques throughout the cemetery tell of significant interments.&nbsp; &nbsp;&nbsp;</div>

Maplewood Cemetery has served Pulaski as a public burying ground since 1855. It expanded in 1878 to include a new African American section and again in 1907 to what is now "New Maplewood Cemetery." The older sections are designed to reflect a park-like atmosphere, which was popular in Victorian-era cemeteries. It holds the graves of many prominent Pulaski citizens. 

Maplewood Cemetery

The Wilkinson-Martin House is among the oldest houses in Pulaski. Built of timber frame
construction, this Federal Style home was built 1830-1835 for early settler
Francis H. Wilkinson (sometimes written Wilkerson). Francis (Frank) Wilkinson was born a
Virginian in 1804. In November of 1809, the Wilkinson’s moved to what would
become Giles County&nbsp; following the cession of Chickasaw land.&nbsp; They
were among the first white settlers to arrive in the recently acquired
territory.&nbsp;Frank Wilkinson&nbsp;gained prosperity as a mechanic, building cotton gins
to process the region’s biggest cash crop. In 1854, he was selected to oversee construction of the Giles County Courthouse, designed by Adolphus Heiman. By 1860, Frank
Wilkinson had accumulated $36,000 in real estate and $25,000 in
personal property, which included 21 enslaved people.During the Civil War, Union troops occupied Giles County and the town of Pulaski due to its strategic location along the Nashville &amp; Decatur Railroad. During the occupation, an African American&nbsp;"contraband camp" formed on Fort Hill, just west of the Wilkinson-Martin house. The residential neighborhood now occupying the site was originally settled by descendants of the camp. Enslaved people from around the area often followed the Union army, establishing contraband camps at sites of Federal occupation.&nbsp;&nbsp;

In 1875, the house passed to Wilkinson’s daughter Mary L. Martin and her
husband David Martin, who served two terms as mayor of Pulaski.&nbsp;A succession of Martin
family members owned the house until 1968, when Henry Sims, the Industrial Arts
teacher at the Bridgeforth High School purchased the property. As a prominent
member of the African American community, Sims had lived in a home adjacent to
the property since 1945 and had a close personal relationship with the last
generation of Martins in the house.&nbsp;

&nbsp;Little has changed to
the houses exterior since its construction, giving the Wilkinson-Martin house
the distinction as being one of the last remaining Federal style home in
Pulaski. Not only is it possibly the oldest house in town, but an enormous
Mulberry tree, possibly the largest in the state, grows in the back yard.&nbsp;

The Wilkinson-Martin house is one of the oldest remaining structures in the area. It was built in the Federal style for cotton gin mechanic Francis Wilkinson, son of War of 1812 veteran Thomas Wilkinson. The Wilkinsons were some of the earliest white settlers in Giles County, arriving in 1809. Today it is privately own but available for use by community groups and organizations. 

Wilkinson-Martin House

After fighting his way to the top of the candy industry, Franklin Clarence Mars, founder of Mars, Inc. and creator of the Milky Way candy bar, purchased 2,805 acres in the rolling hills of Giles County to raise Thoroughbred horses and Hereford cattle. His Tudor Revival home here was completed in 1933. The estate included 30 barns and 70 worker cottages. The enterprise employed as many as 900 laborers, including African American day laborers like Mack Reynolds who lived in nearby African Hollow and gained notoriety for negotiating a higher wage. In 1934, Frank Mars passed away leaving Milky Way Farm to be run by his wife, Ethel Veronica Healy Mars. While her brother, a longtime salesman for Mars, Inc., ran the candy manufacturing side of the business back in Chicago, Veronica Mars focused on the Milky Way Farms and made a name for herself in Thoroughbred racing. Under her leadership, in 1936 the Milky Way Farms stables became the most successful racing stables in the country, bringing in $206,450 in winnings. In 1940, her colt Gallahadion won the Kentucky Derby. She passed away in 1945 while visiting friends in La Jolla, California. 

Milky Way Farm

Bodenham Mill in rural Giles County is a flour and grist mill that is best known as a historic center for commerce and community in its neighborhood. Built circa 1930, this mill, on a limestone and mortar foundation, replaced the earlier mill that burned down between 1925 and 1930. Local highways improved and allowed local farmers to drive farther distances, which prompted the Bodenham Mill to serve smaller operations and offer more specialized services. The technology within the mill remained water-powered since the 1830s, but the success within the community let the mill keep up with new milling techniques and was able to introduce new technologies. The mill served the local community for twenty-five years until 1955. The building still stands and holds much of the original technology.

Bodenham Mill 

Learn more about recent work to maintain the site as a community center here https://mainstreetmediatn.com/articles/lifestyles-pulaskicitizen/work-begins-for-bodenham-community-center-2/

This rural high school was started in 1928 and closed 50 years later in 1978 as part of the consolidation of schools in Giles County, TN. What still stands today of the school has been converted into a Head Start Center with the street address of 21142 Hwy 64 W., Pulaski, TN.A park is next door that also talks about the Cherokee group that passed here on the Trail of Tears.

Bodenham School

Lairdland is a small part of a 5,000 acre tract of land that belonged to John Laird. An Irish immigrant, Laird served in the Continental Army during the Revolutionary War and was gifted this tract of lack by the state of North Carolina. At the time of the gift, this property on Lynn Creek, and Tennessee itself, was still Indian Territory. In 1831, Thomas J. Lane built a house on a property in the Brick Church community an, in 1857, Robert H. Laird, John’s son and Thomas’s brother-in-law, purchased the property, which was then called the Lairdland Farm. The Lairdland Farm is closely associated with the Civil War narrative. During the Civil War, the Laird family took in and nursed Confederate soldiers, even burying one who passed on the land. Captain James Knox Polk Blackburn of Terry’s Texas Rangers (8th Texas Cavalry) recuperated at the farm after one battle and, after the war, returned to Lairdland to marry a daughter of the Laird family. The Lairdland property stayed in the Blackburn family until 2002 and today holds an extensive collection of Civil War artifacts.

Lairdland Farm 

See an article about the history of the Brick Church community at https://mainstreetmediatn.com/articles/lifestyles-pulaskicitizen/giles-paths-brick-church-then-and-now/

Brick Church is a historic Presbyterian church, located in the community of Brick Church in the Northeast Giles County. It was organized in 1840 and built on land deeded to the church association in 1820 by settler Robert Gordon. Originally located in a brick building, the present frame structure was constructed after the Civil War. This site has served as both a well-known school and church, with the school being one of the best in the state. The cemetery associated with the church holds many unmarked graves and many of Giles County’s earliest residents. The congregation is still running.Brick Church Meats &amp; More is a new meat processing center that also sells meats and other items in their gift shop in the neighborhood. Owned by Brad &amp; Brooklynn Young, they provide custom processing and USDA inspected processing for Giles, Marshall, Lawrence, Lincoln, and surrounding counties. While the address is 3865 Blackburn Hollow Road, it is located at the intersection of Hwy 31A (Lewisburg Hwy) &amp; Buford Station Road. It is adjacent to the Old Brick Church Cemetery &amp; Presbyterian Church.

Brick Church

Campbellsville, a town located in Northwest Giles County, was named for early settler Hamilton Crockett Campbell, who donated the land for a public square. Campbellsville was established in 1808. During the Civil War, federal troops came through and burnt many of the buildings. In 1864, a battle was fought near Campbellsville where federal troops were pushed out of the city and continued on Minnow Branch. By the 1880s Campbellsville had a full business district with stores, Blacksmith shops, a church, a school, a cotton gin, a tavern, and a post office had been established. In 1896, an ax handle factory moved from Williamson County to Campbellsville and bolstered the economy even further. 

Education was important to the community of Campbellsville. In the later 1880s, the Johnson Brothers and J. T. Crossno ran a private school for girls. After the present Cumberland Presbyterian Church building was constructed, the old log building was used as a school. A new school building was constructed in 1872 and an addition was added in 1883 for the Masonic Lodge to use. The Masonic Lodge of Campbellsville later became a part of the Pulaski Lodge No. 101. Owen School at Liberty Hill was located at the current site of Liberty Hill Baptist Church. This church was built from materials from the old school. In 1978, Campbellsville High School closed when the county school system was consolidated.


Campbellsville

The Happy Hill Missionary Baptist church was founded, built, and pastored by Reverend Henry Harrison Braden in 1908. Braden was born in Lynnville on December 11, 1856, and grew up in the community. He joined the old Round Hill Missionary Baptist church congregation in June 1882 and was licensed to preach in the same year. Reverend Braden was ordained in 1887 and later married Mary Marsh. The church founded in 1908 sat on a high hill southeast of Lynnville and across from Richland Creek.

Happy Hill Missionary Baptist Church

First located down the road at what is now Waco, Lynnville is one of Giles County’s oldest settlements. Named for Lynn Creek, this town was put on the map by the Nashville and Decatur railway branch line. Even though the first settlers came in the early 1800s, the earliest buildings in Lynnville date back to 1860. Old Lynnville (now Waco) was settled near Lynn Creek in 1810, with the post office established in 1814. The name was changed to Lynnville in 1839. When the Civil War hit Tennessee, Federal Troops burned part of Old Lynnville. In addition to this and the construction of the Nashville and Decatur Railroad, the present Lynnville was established and then finally incorporated as a town on February 14, 1907.

Historic Lynnville

Round Hill Missionary Baptist Church and Round Hill AME church have separate histories that share one common trait: both agreed to be at the same site. Round Hill MB was first built in 1866 and was the first church of the area to build its own building. Green Edmonson, a Blacksmith at a shop at Cross Road, contacted David Anderson of Nashville and organized the church. For those in the community, the church was the center of social life. David Anderson pastored 1872 and sent people out to proclaim the word. Well known pastors included HH Braden, William Braden, James Monroe Wells, Thomas J. Marsh, and Lott Edmonson. The nearby cemetery, also known as Braden Cemetery, holds remains of the church leaders and pastors, with the oldest known grave dating back to 1886. The church was rebuilt in 2011.

Round Hill AME was founded in 1884 under the leadership of Jack Lowery. The congregation met in a schoolhouse for several years on the first and third Sundays of each month. At the time of founding, trustees of the church bought one acre of land near the Round Hill School for $30. Once the land was bought, the community constructed the building through collections of materials and money and through volunteer labor. The school was heated by a pot-bellied stove in the middle of the auditorium and oil lamps lit the rooms until electricity was brought in. The membership of the congregation was mostly farmers. Over the years, the church has updated their interiors with padded pews and a foyer with bathrooms, plus a new brick façade on the exterior.


Round Hill

During the first half of the nineteenth century, historians estimate that approximately 100,000 Native Americans were forcibly removed from their Eastern homelands and relocated to lands west of the Mississippi River. The purpose of the removal, which was supported and enforced by various state and federal agencies, was to secure Native American lands for the expansion of non-Indian settlements. The removal policies that were enacted in the Southeast focused on the displacement of the members of five primary tribes; Choctaw, Seminole, Creek, Chickasaw, and Cherokee. It is important to note that these policies also targeted the removal of all Native American peoples located throughout the Southeast, which included the descendants of smaller tribes such as the Timucuas, Natchez, Shawnee, Catawbas and Yuchis. Although various acts of removal had been on-going throughout the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, the final effort to secure all Eastern Native American lands culminated with the passage of the Indian Removal Act on May 28th, 1830. The Indian Removal Act had become a primary initiative under the direction of President Andrew Jackson's administration and was effectively used to remove the remaining Southeast Native American tribes. Although the act was met with much resistance by both Indian and non-Indian representatives, it's passage eventually resulted in the signing of the treaty of New Echota. With the signing of this treaty, the Cherokees conceded their remaining land holdings to the United States government in exchange for 15 million dollars and a claim of land in the western territory known as Oklahoma. This led to the final steps of the removal process. In the early stages, approximately 4000 Cherokees voluntarily relocated to the western territory. However, a number of Cherokees did not agree with the establishment of the treaty of New Echota and refused to leave their homeland. As a result, the United States government rounded up approximately 17,000 Cherokees and placed them in stockades. From these stock aids, which were located within former Cherokee lands, the Native Americans were led along pre-established land and water trails to the western territory. The journey along these trails was designated "Nunna-da-ul-tsun-yi" by the Cherokee people, which translates as "the Trail Where They Cried.". To subsequent generations, the removal policies and actions have come to be known as the Trail of Tears.​The City of Pulaski, located in Giles County, Tennessee, has the unique distinction of being one of the only cities in the country where two of the Trail of Tears land routes overlapped. Beginning in 1838, John Bell led a group of approximately six hundred Native Americans along a land route that entered the City of Pulaski from the east. During this time, John Benge led another group of approximately 1,000 Native Americans along a land route that entered the City from the south. It is believed that both groups crossed Richland Creek is in the same bridge. After crossing the creek, the two groups continued westward along the same trail for approximately six miles. At that point, each group chose to follow a separate route.Prior to and subsequently following the events set in motion by the 1830 Indian Removal Act, Native Americans found that they had many advocates who supported their efforts to remain on their homeland territories. David Crockett, a native of Tennessee who lived near the City of Pulaski, was one of the many supporters who lobbied at the state and federal level to protect the Southeastern Indian tribes and ensure their right to remain on lands slated for non-Indian settlement. Crockett, a member of the United States Congress was vehemently opposed to the removal of Native Americans and spent much of his time and effort defending the rights of the Native American people. In 1834, Crockett lost his bid for re-election to Congress and left Tennessee for the western frontier. Two years later, he was killed in the Battle of the Alamo.

This interpretive center is situated in Memorial Park at 229 Stadium Street, Pulaski, TN.The site is dedicated to telling the story of two groups of Native Americans (Benge &amp; Bell groups) passed through Pulaski late in October 1838 because of the Indian Removal Act of 1830. One group (Benge) of 1100 people traveled north from Fort Payne, AL. The other group (Bell) of about 650-700 people traveled west from what is now Charleston, TN near Cleveland, TN. While a few days apart when they passed through Pulaski, it was the only place where two groups crossed paths.Inside are interpretive panels providing national and local viewpoints of this event. A statue of a Cherokee family is on the property and signage, but the entrance is graced with a colorful map outlining the paths taken by the two groups.Located in the old Rock Church, previously home to the Immaculate Conception Catholic Church, which was located at 416 S. First Street. The building is built of materials from Milky Way Farm.

Trail of Tears Interpretive Center

Though little remains of the community today, African Hollow was once populated with dozens of formerly enslaved people from nearby plantations during and after the Reconstruction era. The first African American landowner here was Lilburn Reynolds, whose descendants remained here for several generations. Smith Reynolds, who administered the will of Lilburn Reynolds and may have been a brother or other close relation, served in the 111th United States Colored Infantry and also owned property in African Hollow. Smith’s son Mack, who is also credited with founding Lilburn Chapel, the only original structure still standing in African Hollow, worked at Milky Way Farm toward the end of his life. 

Giles County Memory, Legacy, and History

Pulaski Courthouse Square

Introduction

Images

Backstory and Context

Sources