Representatives of Freed-Hardeman University are going Tuesday, August 11, 2009, to retrieve the bell from the Essary Springs church building. Plans are to use it each year in August at the beginning of the school year in the "Tolling of the Bell" ceremonies. It is believed that this is the same bell that was erected in 1889 by A. G. Freed in his new school at Essary Springs, TN, Southern Tennessee Normal College.


The photo above was probably taken in 1933 after the original school building was "chopped." Both ends of the building were removed and some time later an auditorium was added at the rear of the building. The original building had a basement.



Here are some dimensions of the bell. It is a 26 inch bell manufactured by the C. S. Bell Co., Hillsboro, Ohio. The bell measures 26 inches at the bottom of the bell. The bell is marked with a 26 which probably indicates the size of the bell. The bell is 18 inches tall not including the yoke. The yoke holding the bell and wheel is 34 inches wide. From the top of the yoke to the bottom of the bell is 34 inches. The diameter of the wheel is 27 inches. The clapper is four inches across at the bottom and 18 inches in length. The bell appears to be about two inches thick. Also, there appears to be no date on the bell at Essary Springs. It is believed the bell weighs about four hundred pounds.

Here is some history of Essary Springs and Southern Tennessee Normal College.

"On September 16, 1889, Arvy Glenn Freed, an alumnus of Valparaiso University in Indiana, became the first president of Southern Tennessee Normal College at Essary Springs, Tennessee, about 60 miles south of here [Henderson]. Enrollment grew from 72 the first year to 450 by 1893." (Sam Hester).

Freed taught in this school from 1889 to 1895, then he came to Henderson to become president of West Tennessee Christian College which was renamed the next year, Georgie Robertson Christian College.

Grace Roland, in her book Walking Down Memory's Lane, wrote, "After he [Freed] left, some others including Dr. Bishop, kept the school going for a few years, then I. N. Roland [C. P. Roland's father] returned to take charge of it in 1903. The school grew rapidly under his supervision and since it was principally a teacher-training school, there were hundreds of young men and women that received their training there.... Mr. Roland was a student of Bro. Freed and was very thorough in his work" (40-41).

Sister Roland continues, "Everybody used the school building for church services because there were no church buildings. Today there is one small store, no post office, no school since consolidation of schools. However, there are two small church buildings, a Baptist and a Church of Christ building. The Baptist church house is on the site of the old "hotel" just above the spring and the Church of Christ building is a renovated part of the school building with some additions. I have described the "hotel" elsewhere. When it was completed, the school building was rather imposing for the time--1889--the location and was in fair shape when we lived there. I shall try to get a picture of it in this story. A. G. Freed and D. S. Nelms worked with the patrons of the community to raise funds to erect the building and equip it. The Nelms families were very much involved. C. P. Roland's greatgrandfather, William Nelms, built the largest boarding house near the spring. It was known as "The Hotel." Young women lived there while attending school. C. P.'s mother, Maggie Nelms, and Cora Belle Baynham who later became Mrs. A. G. Freed, roomed together one session in this building. Several of the Nelms families owned nice homes and farms near the village and others of them moved there for the advantages of the school and to help take care of boarding students·, which numbered over four hundred much of the time. D.S. Nelms lived in one of the finest homes about two finest homes about two miles west of the village. This house was a kind of antebellum type which much like the ones in Southern Mississippi. Brother Freed boarded there and wa lked to and fro from school daily~ a distance of two and a half miles" (48-49).

In describing the Essary Springs school building, sister Roland wrote, "The school building was built on a hillside just above a deep ravine. The front end was on the level of the ground but the back was high enough with just a little excavating, that there were classrooms below the auditorium. The auditorium was a large room lighted with three beautiful chandeliers and wall lamps with reflectors every fifteen feet around the walls. These wall lamps and also the chandeliers used kerosene as fuel for lights. When the building was razed, C. P. and I salvaged one of these wall lamps and have it in the Historical Collection here at Freed-Hardeman College. We found no trace of those crystal chandeliers and we suspected antique dealers of swiping them ahead of us" (49).

The school building later (maybe 1913) was used as a public school. Leon Isom, Jr., a member at the New Hope church of Christ, attend school there in 1937-40. His father, Leon Isom, Sr., helped renovate the building and install the bell in a new bell tower in 1933-34.

Georgia Robertson Christian College Monument at Mammoth Cave



It is believed that R. P. and Mollie Larimore Meeks visited Mammoth Cave in 1899 and left a monument. The hand-painted sign atop a stone monument in Mammoth Cave's Gothic Avenue. Photo is courtesy of Jackie Wheet, National Park Service. A full story was written by Laquita Thomson and reported in Past, Present, & Future, Erin Adams, Freed-Hardeman University Archivist.

Mary A. Fuqua, mother of E. C. Fuqua
Birth: March 3, 1838; Death: November 26, 1900
Inscription: Wife of Nathan Fuqua & mother of Edward C. Fuqua




Picture above is Al Price who visted the grave at Long Branch Cemetery in Yalobusha County, Mississippi in the 1970s. Al has some photos of the old homeplace.

E. C. Fuqua debated Thomas B. Warren in the 1950s.

E. C. Fuqua is buried in Escondido, Calif. Alan Highers visited him when he lived in Fort Worth around 1955. He published The Vindicator for about 30 years and sold it to Dillard Thurman. G. C.Brewer tells about visiting Fuqua when Fuqua lived around Florence, AL. He even had a paper there called Fervent Appeal. Brewer described him as "strong as a lion."

Another story is that when brother Fuqua held a meeting at Burgess, MS. One night he went to the services and a mound of dirt was piled up at the front
door in the form of a grave and a sign there read, "Here in this grave E. C. Fuqua lies, and in this meeting only told lies." Or something similar.

Fuqua preached around Water Valley, MS once, holding meetings in various communities and stayed there for a while living in a cabin used for cotton.
His mother visited him while he was down there and died. Below are some pictures taken on the spot where the cabin stood. Since they lived in
poverty, she was buried there in the Long Branch cemetery. It was later that some of the brethren erected a small marker. Fuqua's father is buried near Lebanon, TN.

Photo and information are from Al Price, Henderson, TN.



Cemetery entrance photo by Donald G. Dalrymple, www.findagrave.com

HUBERT THOMAS McGEE (1864-1946)
Hubert Thomas McGee was born in Henderson, Tennessee on June 7, 1864. His father was Dr. Thomas H. McGee, a physician who practiced at Henderson, Tennessee for many years.
McGee was educated in Henderson and became an architect. He drew the plans for the following buildings: Young Men's Christian Association building in Jackson, Chester County Courthouse, Henderson High School, Georgia Robertson Christian College, and several Freed-Hardeman dormitories.
In Memphis, he drew the plans for various Clarence Saunders buildings, one of which is now known as the Pink Palace Museum. It is built of pink and gray Georgia marble.
McGee is buried in the Henderson City Cemetery, across the pavement from the grave of N. B. Hardeman.

I have been looking for the grave site of a preacher I knew when I first started preaching. I was living in Smithville, MS between 1969-1974. Arnold Shattock, Jr. was preaching for the Liberty church of Christ in Dennis, MS. I meet him several times at our area preacher meetings. He was always very excited about preaching the gospel. I remember he walked with a limp, but I never knew why. He was a young man, but died suddenly while living at Dennis. This week the church secretary at Liberty sent the following information: Arnold Shattuck was buried on July 25, 1972 in the Forest Hills Cemetery in Chattanogga TN, located at the hill of Look Out Mountain, Section 14 Lot number 140. Even though he died 36 years ago, I still think about him and rejoice in his hope.