Obituaries

Posted on by
1

Sympathy is extended to families of those who have lost a loved one in the past few months.

Mrs. Shirley (Bowlin) Allison, Class of 1955, passed away October, 2016.

Mr. Charles Henry McWherter, Class of 1949, passed away October of last year.  He is survived by a daughter Lisa Carol and a son Vic.

Mrs. Lucille (Grubbs) Rainbolt, one of the older citizens in Weakley County, passed away October 23, 2016 at the age of 104. She is survived by her children Billy Joe, Norma, and Anna.  She was preceded in death by her husband Riley and her son Jerry Mack.

Ms. Lucille worked as a custodian at Palmersville School while in her 80s until the school closed.  Afterward she worked at McDonald’s when in her 90s and held a second job cleaning a local office building.

Mrs. Jessie Lou (Rickman) Davis, who resided in the Austin Springs community most of her life before moving to Murray, KY, passed away on October 20, 2016 at age 92.

After moving to Murray, she volunteered for 23 years at the Murray-Calloway County Hospital. Mrs. Davis was preceded in death by her husband Cecil Davis; she is survived by her son Danny Davis.

What an inspiration these ladies should be to all of us.

Trail of Tears Update

Posted on by
Reply

click to see larger version

In the late fall of 1838, a group of over 1000  passed through Benton, Henry and Weakley counties–one part of a large scale forced migration known as the Trail of Tears.  This particular group was led by Capt. John Benge, a Cherokee sub-chief, and was known as the Benge Detachment.  Beginning in DeKalb County, AL and consisting of  959 Cherokee Indians, 144 black slaves, 60 wagons and 480 horses, the detachment made their way into Paris.  They continued through Henry County toward the Little Zion community of Weakley County, then through Palmersville and headed toward Kentucky.

The group reached their destination in Oklahoma in January of 1839. Thirty-three deaths occurred during the trek; two of those being were buried in Weakley County.

For the past two years, Henry County Historian David Webb has worked with the National Park Service to obtain signs marking this historic trail.  Henry County has received their signs and will likely have a dedication ceremony in the spring.  It is the goal of Dr. Webb to have signage from Fort Payne, Alabama all across the trail in Tennessee. Signage is already in place at the Kentucky line.

Palmersville Historical Society has committed to this project and is currently working with the National Park Service to obtain the signage for marking the trail which passed through Palmersville.

The signs are provided by the Park Service, but posts, bolts, etc. and the installation itself will have to be provided locally.

The Old Big Tree

Posted on by
Reply

This is a photograph of what was the third largest American Sycamore Tree (Platanus occidentalis) that had ever been documented to have lived in Tennessee.

It was located on highway 190, three miles south of Palmersville, belonging to Harold and Faye Reynolds of Reynoldsville, close to Palmersville. The tree was removed and destroyed by the State of Tennessee for the expansion of a new bridge right of way; it was located about a 100 yards from Little Cane Creek.

It had been measured by the Tennessee Forestry Service about 15 years earlier. As you can tell it was at one time much taller before the top was broken out from a storm. The tree was dying and was believed to have just about lived out it’s age. It had been part of the Reynolds Farm since December of 1941. Its age was never dated. It’s name was “The Old Big Tree”.

Credit to the PalmersvillTN Blog. 

B-17 Flying Fortress Crash – Sep 1943

Posted on by
12

We have a first-hand account of a member of the crew! Be sure to read that, too.

On Sunday, September the 5th of 1943, during WWII an Army B-17 Bomber crashed between Palmersville and Latham, Tennessee, resulting in the loss of nine airman’s lives. Seventy three years ago today, the crew, consisting of ten Army airmen, who where flying out of the Dyersburg Army Air Base, close to Halls Tennessee, in route to Gulfport Mississippi, became lost just after takeoff. Fifty miles off course, in the opposite direction that it was first charted. While flying over the northern part of Weakley county, local witnesses stated the plane suddenly exploded midair over the Palmersville and Latham, Obion River bottoms.

Mr. Hugh Brann of Palmersville, who was only twelve years old at the time, said he witnessed the plane explode and fall, while riding his bicycle with friends,west of Palmersville. He said “the plane just seemed to come apart as it flew over them ” and said he could hear it as it fell from the sky, in what he describes, to have been approximately five miles northwest of Palmersville.

According to the Dresden Enterprise, others in the Latham and Palmersville area had also witnessed the plane catch fire and explode and that it had been scattered over a large area between the two towns. And stated some of the wreckage came to rest on, at the time, the Wilkinson, Stowe and Bondurant farms. Also that two men had parachuted from the plane and had survived, but later reports, other than the newspaper, said that one of the two had passed away shortly after being transported back to the air base by Army personnel during the night. [actually, three survived the crash – ed.]

The newspaper also stated, Continue reading →