The Williamson County Historical Society
by Campbell H. Brown
Publication No. 1, Fall 1970
"The first meeting of the Williamson County Historical Society was held at the Williamson County Courthouse on May 3, 1966, at 7:30 P.M. The meeting was called to order by Col. Campbell Brown, County Historian. The invocation was given by Rev. Thomas Meadows of St. Paul's Episcopal Church here in Franklin," - so read the minutes as officially recorded by Mrs. Mike Murray, recording secretary.
The minutes of the first meeting, however, do not reflect the background events leading to its origin. It really started with a letter from an unknown person who addressed his letter to the secretary, Williamson County Historical Society, a non-existent organization at the time. Because that unknown person thought there should be an historical society, the thought gave birth to the deed and one was created.
The task of organizing a society seemed monumental at first, but, this historical society practically organized itself. Mr. T. H. Alexander, Jr., headed up the committee to write the constitution and bylaws, and John Beasley, II, chairman of the nominating committee, nominated a slate of officers for the first incumbency. The whole thing happened so spontaneously and so easily that, before we knew it, we had an historical society operating just as though it had been functioning for a hundred years or so.
Initially the news media, notably the REVIEW-APPEAL and the WAGG WORD, until it went out of business, could not have cooperated more effectively. It is well recalled that James Armistead of the REVIEW-APPEAL told this writer that he would print anything that was submitted - consequently the Society was given a first-class public-relations treatment. Notices ran weekly for a month, and, as a result, the initial meeting had a record attendance.
At the second meeting, held on July 25, 1966, in the courtroom on the second floor of the County Courthouse, 96 Williamson countians became charter members. A committee had prepared a slate of officers, and after the acting chairman had asked for nominations from the floor, the nominees were elected by unanimous vote. The first president was Steve Lawrence; the first vice-president, Duncan Callicott; second vice-president, Judge James Warren; recording secretary, Mrs. Mike Murray; corresponding secretary, Mrs. Joseph Waggener; and treasurer, Charles Haffner.
One of the significant activities of the Society from its foundation has been the inauguration of historic tours around Christmas time. These have been to historic homes in Williamson County - most of the owners of which are members of the Society. A total of sixteen sites have been visited so far. They are the homes of:
Dewees Berry, Claud Callicott, Mrs. James Campbell, Mrs. Joseph T. Dickinson - "Montpier", Tom Gregory - "Forge Seat", Harpeth Presbyterian Church, Willis H. Hayes, Jr., Harry Morel, Mrs. Marshall Morgan, Mrs. Ed Nixon, Paul Ogilvie, Miss Eloise O'More, Miss Mary Pope, Vernon Sharpe - "Inglehame", Reese L. Smith - "Ravenwood", W.H. Wyatt - "Wyatt Hall".
The annual tours have been of value in more ways than one. They have, first given the membership an awareness of the history with which we daily live and the tradition of which we are a part; secondly, they have helped established architectural and historical standards fro the county; third, they have demonstrated to the world outside of Williamson County that we have a heritage of which we are proud; and fourth, they have served to show to the world at large one of the attractive faces of the county, one which we are prone to accept as a matter of course.
There is another field in which this Society is engaged - the matter of publications. As a prelude to the production of a creditable history of the county, I appointed myself as a committee of one to produce a directory of the permanent residents of Williamson County, in other words, a list of the burials in the county. I first estimated the total number of cemeteries to be about 200. The books are closed on our inventory - the final count is 533 with 15,000 names.
Another publication project is the production of the County's census of 1850. A few years ago, I allowed myself to volunteer to produce a typescript of this census for an organization which is now defunct; however, I had the foresight to make carbons of all my work. This material had been refined by Miss Margaret Sawyer in her spare time at home from her labors in the State Archives. The index to the census has become the spare-time project of Mrs. Frances Gibbs. A written history of Williamson County has also been undertaken by the membership on a volunteer basis, with each volunteer choosing a subject dealing with some aspect of our county's history. The present publication is the first in the series.
The past four years have been busy and fruitful - we have accomplished much, but there is even more left to do in the future. Our Society has a great potential - the membership is composed of people sincerely interested in inspiring the community to appreciate the historical beauty of Williamson County and to be proud of its heritage.