Friends of Metropolitan Archives of Nashville and Davidson County, TN
The Friends of Archives is a nonprofit chapter of The Friends of the Public Library of Nashville and Davidson County
Nashville Facts
It has been widely reported that in January of 1781 Felix Robertson, son of James and Charlotte Robertson, was the first white male child born in what is now Davidson County. It is not as well known that in 1780 Anna Wells, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Haydon Wells was the first white child born in the newly founded settlement.
Davidson Academy, the first public institution of higher learning in Nashville, was created by an act of the North Carolina legislature in 1785. The school was located 6 miles from Nashville out the present Gallatin Road where Springhill Cemetery is now. The school shared the building that served as a meeting house for a Presbyterian congregation led by Thomas B. Craighead.
The first African-American owned hotel in Nashville was operated by a slave named Robert Renfro. Renfro obtained a license in 1794 to operate his establishment. His tavern, known as Black Bob's was on the north side of the Public Square. The leading businessmen of Nashville signed a petition asking that Bob be granted freedon. An announcement in an 1802 Nashville newspaper stated that Black Bob had purchased his freedom from Robert Searcy and would now be known as Bob Renfro.
The punishment for horse stealing in Nashville, 1799: "The said Andrew Pierce shall stand in the public pillory for one hour and shall be publicly whipped on his bare back with 39 lashes well laid on, and at the same time shall have both his ears cut off, and shall be branded on the right cheek with the letter H and on the left cheek with the letter T".
Nashville's first industry was the manufacturer of cotton spinning machinery by George Poyzer in 1802.
In 1809 the State of Tennessee approved an act to "authorize the mayor and aldermen of the town of Nashville to raise a sum of money by lottery for the purpose of bringing water to town,"
The quarry that furnished the stone for the State Capitol was located between 12th and 14th Avenues , now the site of the Henry Hale Housing Project. The owner, a brick maker named Samuel Watkins, died a wealthy man. He left the bulk of his estate to form Watkins Institute.
The capitol of Tennessee was moved four times before settling in Nashville. Jonesborough to Knoxville to Nashville to Murfreesboro and then finally to Nashville in 1843.
Capt. William Driver, buried in Nashville's historic City Cemetery, named the American Flag "Old Glory" and it was his flag that rose over the state capitol when Nashville fell to Union Forces. Although Capt. Driver's loyalties remained with the Union, three of his sons served in the Confederate army and one of them died from wounds suffered in battle.
The Nashville Gas Light Company, founded in March of 1850, was the first gas works in Tennessee to manufacture gas from coal. The firm continues today as the Nashville Gas Company and is the oldest corporation in Nashville.
The first street lamp was lighted on February 13, 1851 at Second Ave. and the Public Square.
Aside from Nashvillian Sam Houston, the only American to become president of another country was William Walker, a Nashvillian who became president of Nicaragua in 1856. When he attempted the same thing in Honduras, he was shot by a firing squad.
The 1857 Nashville Business Directory announced that John A. Petty, Chief of Police was assisted by twenty-three stout men.
Nashville Plow Works at 8th Ave. and Palmer Place turned plowshares into swords for the Confederacy before Nashville fell to the Union. So rare are these swords today, you can easily turn one into cash to the tune of $15,000.
One of the first black institutions of higher learning in Nashville, Fisk University was founded in 1866 by the American Missionary Association and the Western Freedmen's Aid Commission. The school was chartered as a University in 1867.
Edward Hazzard East son of Edward Hyde East and Cecelia Buchanan East born on Oct. 1,1830, graduated at the Lebanon Law School in 1854. He was "a Whig of the Henry Clay school." He opposed secession and was Secretary of State of Tennessee under military Governor Andrew Johnson. President Andrew Johnson summoned him to Washington shortly after his election and offered Judge East "any position then open, all of which he declined." He was an eminent jurist and a noted orator, both before and after the Civil War. Judge East was one of the five original members of the Board of Trust of Vanderbilt University.
In 1867 Montgomery Bell, owner of the Cumberland Iron Works, gave $20,000 to establish the Bell Preparatory School. The school now named Montgomery Bell Academy.
Mount Ararat Cemetery, located at 800 Elm Hill Pike was founded in 1869 and is the oldest black cemetery in Nashville. In 1982 it was purchased by Greenwood Cemetery and renamed Greenwood Cemetery West.
Elected in 1872, Sampson Keeble, a Nashvillian, was the first black legislator in Tennessee.
Vanderbilt University was founded in 1873 by Commodore Cornelius Vanderbilt who gave $1,000,000 to start the university and expressed his wish that it should "contribute to strengthening the ties which should exist between all geographical sections of our common country."
Meharry Medical College, established in 1876 for the training of black physicians, was one of only two such colleges in the United States. By 1920, approximately 2/3's of all black physicians were educated at Meharry.
The world's first air mail stamp was printed in Nashville for use on the 1877 hot-air balloon mail run from Nashville to Gallatin.
December 25th, 1879 the high fashion Maxwell House offered the following for Christmas fare: Cumberland Mountain Black Bear leg, Kentucky Raccoon, Canvas-back duck and Wild Goose. For dessert; English Walnut cake and Oranges in Sherry Wine.
The equestrian statue of General Andrew Jackson on the State Capitol grounds was unveiled during the 1880 Nashville Centennial. Five veterans who had served under Jackson were present for the ceremony.
The first electric light was lit at the State Capitol on May 1, 1882.
Nashville was the first city in the south to receive telephone service in 1877. By 1883 the telephone directory was one page long and contained 350 names.
The Nashville Athletic Club and the Nashville Football Club played their first game on Thanksgiving Day, 1885. The Nashville Athletic Club won with a final score of 6-4.
The first black city councilman was James Carroll Napier, who served three terms from 1878-1889. Napier, a prominent lawyer, was appointed Registrar of the United States Treasury in 1911 under President Taft.
On March 16th and 17th, 1892, Nashville received a record snow fall of 17 inches in a 24 hour period and 21 inches over two days.
The first car in Nashville was a Mueller-Benz driven in the Tennessee Centennial Day Parade, October 28, 1897.
Cocaine use in Nashville was legal until the council passed an ordinance that only physicians could dispense the drug. That was October 23, 1900.
The constant croaking of the alligators in the fountains around Union Station finally caused their removal in the early 1900s.
The Nashville and Hillsboro Turnpike Company charged $.03 for horse or mule, $.20 for 20 sheep and $.25 for beef cattle. The Turnpike closed in 1903.
Nashville street names were changed to numbers on November 1, 1904.
In 1904, the One Cent Savings Bank, now Citizens Bank, became the first minority owned bank in Tennessee. Citizens Bank is the oldest continually operating minority owned bank in the United States.
In 1906 Preston Taylor established Greenwood Park at the corner of Elm Hill Pike and Spence Lane for the black community. . The privately owned park covered about 40 acres and included a club house, shooting gallery, merry-go-round and baseball park.
October 2, 1907 Buffalo Bill Cody arrived in Nashville with 63 train cars of cowboys, dancing girls, wild Indians and 550 horses.
The Nashville Humane Society proclaimed in 1907 that there are "ten drinking fountains for stock, including the handsome bronze fountain ...which are a great convenience and benefit."
In July of 1918 a train accident occurred in Davidson County, at Dutchman's Bend near the present day Belle Meade Shopping Center. Two trains of the Nashville, Chattanooga & St. Louis Railroad collided and over 100 people were killed.
The Fugitives were a group of 16 Southern poets associated with Vanderbilt University. In 1922, they published the first issue of The Fugitive magazine, beginning the southern literary revival of the 1920s. The members of the group were John Crowe Ransom, Donald Davidson, Allen Tate, Robert Penn Warren, Merrill Moore, Jesse Wills, Alec Brock Stevenson, Walter Clyde Curry, Stanley Johnson, Sidney Mttron Hirsch, James M. Frank, William Yandell Elliott, Laura Riding, William Frierson, Ridley Wills, and Alfred Starr.
In Nov. of 1925, the radio show that was to become the "Grand Old Opry" was first broadcast from Nashville as the WSM Barn Dance.
The first electric streetcar ran from Fourth and Charlotte to Tenth Avenue on December 10, 1890. Electric streetcar service ended in February, 1941.
In 1913, Julius Rosenwald, President of Sears, Roebuck and Co., granted an endowment of 20 million to be used to equalize the educational opportunities for blacks in the South. Headquartered in Nashville, the Rosenwald fund produced almost 5000 new schools in 15 states during the 20 years of its charter. Metro Archives is partly housed in the former Mt. Zeno Elementary School, built in 1947, the second school on this site. The first was constructed in the 1920s using matching funds from the Rosenwald Foundation.
Southern Motor Works produced the Marathon Automobile in Nashville from 1910-1914. The plant, still standing on 12th Ave. North and Clinton St., provided parts and service until closing in 1918.
Nashville's worst fire occurred in East Nashville on Wednesday, March 22, 1916. 648 buildings were destroyed, 3,000 left homeless yet only one life was lost.
In 1930 it was illegal in Nashville to drive a car faster than 15 miles per hour through an intersection.
In 1946, Nashville native Jack DeWitt made headlines around the world when he be came the first man to bounce radar off the moon. DeWitt designed a device during WWII to detect location of enemy mortars. DeWitt and his device are credited with saving thousands of lives during the war.
1949 saw the establishment of the Board of Magazine Censors. Created by city ordinance, the board had the authority to "ban immoral, obscene or vulgar materials, with the exception of newspapers."
January 31, 1951 will always be known as day of the "Great Blizzard." Over 16,000 homes were without power and over 2,000 telephones were out during a period when the temperature dropped to -13.
The new Public Library of Nashville and Davidson County was opened on January 16th, 1966. First American Bank furnished 10,000 shopping bags for books checked out of the library.
The socks worn by Neil Armstrong during his first moonwalk were made by the May Hosiery Mill, 424 Chestnut Street, Nashville.
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