28 DISCOVER TODD COUNTY <strong>Todd</strong> <strong>County</strong> <strong>Standard</strong> <strong>Todd</strong> <strong>County</strong> <strong>Standard</strong> DISCOVER TODD COUNTY 29
SMALL COMMUNITIES HADENSVILLE We know Hadensville exists if for no other reason than there is a sign to prove it. Today this tiny southeast <strong>Todd</strong> farming area is home to several houses, some large farms and, like many <strong>Todd</strong> <strong>County</strong> communities, a railroad crossing. Once the area was said to have been located where “Guthrie, Clarksville, Russellville, Hopkinsville, Trenton, Keysburg and Adams roads crossed...” In 1821 Joseph Haden was granted a license to operate a tavern in his home in Hadensville; in 1850 a school opened briefly. The Memphis branch of the Louisville & Nashville Railroad was routed through Hadensville on a plantation owned by two of the wealthiest and most influential families in the area, the Wares and Gradys. They were the largest tobacco growers in the vicinity and among the first to join the Dark Tobacco Growers <strong>Association</strong>. Sometime around 1950 most of the property between the railroad and north to the creek at Reeves Hill was owned by M.B. Nickell of Centerville, Tenn., who divided his hundreds of acres among four of his daughters and their husbands: Christine and Bill McClannahan, Anne and Jesse Reeves, Mary and Al Rochelle and Martha and E.L. Warren. Much of that land is still owned by their heirs. Old-timers familiar with the area remember Belcher’s Grocery Store next to the railroad. Torn down many years ago, memories of the rustic one-room store bring back fond remembrances of penny The Tack Store in Penchem is the perfect place to outfit both you and your horse. candy and bottles of Coca-Cola on ice. Hadensville is considered part of the Guthrie district. WILHELMINA This little area didn’t always have such a fanciful name. The community formerly known as Collier Springs, Wilhelmina is directly off Highland Lick, slightly northwest of Elkton and, according to a 1923 deed, on the waters of Clifty Creek. In the Collier Springs Baptist Church history, it’s noted that citizens were “pleased the little community of Wilhelmina would have its very own woodframed church house.” People must have been pleased: this one-room church with outdoor restrooms was dedicated in 1914 and stayed in such a primitive state for 70 years. MT. TABOR You can really say this community is built around its church. Mt. Tabor Missionary Baptist is the area’s most outstanding feature, with a wonderful view of the lovely hilly countryside. While its presence is a stalwart, Mt. Tabor Missionary did change venues; the old church was on Tuckertown Road while the new building is two miles north of Allegre on Kirkmansville Road. Originally called Powell Grove and built in 1857, Mt. Tabor School succumbed to consolidation when Allegre School opened, but until it did, according to local legend, a Mrs. I.D. Jones rode a horse to her teaching job every day from 1904-06. MT. SHARON The Mt. Sharon neighborhood, like Mt. Tabor, is associated with its eponymous Methodist church. The first Mt. Sharon was built out of logs in 1819—and was roughly the same style and shape as the newer structure, which was built in 1894. TABERNACLE Even the name sounds like a church—and Tabernacle Methodist features heavily in this Butler Road area. Three incarnations have existed in this spot: once a log building, the current church was built in 1878 and renovated in 1963. BRADSHAW A band of fed-up farmers made for Bradshaw’s juiciest tale. In the early 1900s, <strong>Todd</strong> tobacco growers were among the 5,000 who formed the Dark Tobacco Productive <strong>Association</strong> in opposition to price fixing by the American Tobacco Co. Their belief that farmers should set their own tobacco prices led to the infamous Black Patch Wars, and demonstrations SeeNextPage 30 <strong>Todd</strong> <strong>County</strong> <strong>Standard</strong> DISCOVER TODD COUNTY