The Princeton-Caldwell County Trail of Tears Commission held its annual meeting on Saturday afternoon at the Princeton Tourism Center.
In addition to electing officers for the upcoming year, they heard from Historian Rick Gregory about stories from the Trail Of Tears, the Black Patch era, and the Bell Witch.
Gregory from Adams, Tennessee in Robertson County explained how he ended up speaking to the group. Gregory said he and his wife were on vacation in Florida when a car pulled up beside them in a parking lot and he saw it had a Kentucky license plate. It was none other than Linda Johnson Higgins who is Secretary of the Trail of Tears Commission. He said the conversation between them soon went to their mutual interest of the history of their two communities, with the Black Patch area covering both of their home places with Adams, Tennessee on the southern end and Princeton on the northern end. Also, he said several stories that happened in Caldwell County had ties to Robertson County, Tennessee. As a result, Gregory said that Higgins invited him to come to Princeton to share his stories.
Dana Hobby said she and her family attended the program because it is important to support our community and hear our history.
click to download audioGregory gave his thoughts on the Trail of Tears but with maybe a different angle. He said it was indeed a horrible experience but history also showed that people in the area reached out to help those making this journey. He stated that even though many died during the 800-900 mile walk that many were also strong showing the perseverance they had to survive.
He talked about the Black Patch and how the Knight Riders were established with the tobacco association trying to take away the profits of local farmers to benefit their own earnings. The association caused tobacco to go from 8 cents a pound to 1-3 cents. The farmers then banned together to keep the association from controlling their profits and the activities spread from Caldwell County in Kentucky to Robertson County in Tennessee.
The Bell Witch was a local tale from the Adams, Tennessee area that went on to spread over the entire world as a “believe it or not tale”. It is told that in 1817 the Bell family moved into Adams. Shortly after that strange things began to happen inside the house such as hearing mysterious things, people getting slapped with no one in sight, and even hints of murder. People would come into the house to experience for themselves if it was real or not. Some left swearing it was all true. The thought was if you did not believe, the Bell Witch would kill you. In 1820, the Father of the Bell family was actually killed.
The question still is locally and worldwide, does the Bell Witch exist?
Lynn Jones, a member of the Trail of Tears Commission, said she learned a lot during the program and it was entertaining.
click to download audioLinda Johnson Higgins ended his part of the program with “To Be Continued”. Around 75 people attended the program and seemed to be excited to hear there would be more to come at a later time.
Trail of Tears Commission Treasurer, Debbie Smiley said a good crowd was on hand to hear Gregory and they were really happy with the program.
click to download audioAlso at the annual meeting, officers were elected for the upcoming year and included President Robert Ward, Vice President Boone Chambers, Secretary Linda Johnson Higgins and Treasurer Debbie Smiley.
(Story By George Kilgore)
