by Leslie Lytle, Messenger Staff Writer

“If it’s not a city road, I’m gonna block it off,” said Susan Congrove appealing to the Monteagle Council at the Feb. 24 meeting to control motorist speeding on Bluff Circle where she and her husband Dennis Congrove resided. The council also addressed concerns about traffic congestion at the Pilot and Wren’s Nest Avenue.

Daniel Congrove said in the past the town had maintained Bluff Circle, tar and chipping the surface, and had installed speed bumps when he complained about speeding, but the speed bumps had recently been removed, and the speeding problem had resumed.

Mayor Greg Maloof cited a 2010 ordinance stipulating Bluff Circle was not a public street. “My issue is it’s listed as a private street, and if we do public work on a private street, that’s not appropriate,” said Alderman Nate Wilson. “We’re not supposed to be spending public money on private streets.” Wilson also pointed out Bluff Circle was “awfully narrow” for public street status.

Alderman Dean Lay said the street list had changed over the years as administrations changed. The Congrove’s asked to have Bluff Circle designated a public street to allow for speed control measures. Lay recommended deferring action until the March meeting so other Bluff Circle residents could be notified. Alderman Grant Fletcher argued property deeds needed to be reviewed to determine if the documents defined a road.

The council approved a resolution introduced by Lay asking the Tennessee Department of Transportation (TDOT) to remedy traffic safety issues at the Pilot at I-24 exit 135 and where Wren’s Nest Avenue entered Highway 41 at I-24 exit 134. Lay noted Police Chief William Raline had cited the Pilot as an “accident zone” and the faded Highway 41 turn lanes at Wren’s Nest needed restriped to prevent motorist confusion. Maloof said TDOT was aware restriping was needed at exit 134. He will contact the agency again about the problem and will request a traffic study at the Pilot.

The council also voted to retain Inc Codes to assist Monteagle with zoning ordinance reform. A $65,000 grant from the Lyndhurst Foundation will fund the project, said Wilson, explaining the intent was for zoning ordinances to better reflect the goals identified in the Imagine Monteagle Plan and to clarify the ordinances for developers. The Monteagle Planning Commission and Imagine Monteagle Steering Committee received proposals from two planners. Town Planning and Urban Design Collaborative proposed rewriting Monteagle’s ordinances from scratch, a costly two-year project. Inc Codes’ one-year proposal focused on downtown development and zoning ordinance modification. Inc Codes will supply “specific recommendations” for ordinance changes, Wilson said, and rely on the Planning Commission “to come up with the language.” Lay and Alderman Dan Sargent voted against retaining Inc Codes to lead the ordinance revision process.

Revisiting a request from the Grundy County Food Bank, the council approved a $500 donation. Fletcher commented that since other Plateau municipalities made donations, Monteagle should as well. Maloof will examine the budget to determine which category has money available.

The council approved, on second reading, two water rate increases, with one rate increase going into effect March 1, 2025, and the other going into effect July 1, 2026. Fletcher explained a water-rate study recommended a graduated increase over a five-year period. The two rate increases approved are the first two phases of the proposed five-year rate increase platform. Lay abstained from the vote.

The new 911 contract approved by the council calls for Marion County sharing in the 911 service expense. Monteagle’s cost will decrease by almost $11,000.

by Blythe Ford, Messenger Staff Writer

Enid Graham’s new play “How to Save Ourselves” premiered for the very first time on Feb. 26 at the Proctor Hill Theatre in the Tennessee Williams Center, and performances will continue through March 2. “How to Save Ourselves” follows a group of young, college-age people volunteering at a struggling food bank as they learn to work together, even as they are faced with personal biases, community challenges, and the effects of severe weather. This production is in partnership with local nonprofits that deal with the issue of food insecurity, and a panel discussing the topic followed Thursday’s performance; the members of the panel included Alyse Getty, Food Mission Director at Morton Memorial United Methodist Church, Stephanie Colchado Kelley, Director of Growing Roots, Sara McIntyre, Sustainability Manager at the Office of Environmental Stewardship & Sustainability at the University of the South, and Jess Wilson, Farmer and volunteer President of the TN Young Farmers Coalition. There is a display in the Tennessee Williams Center lobby featuring these organizations and how to get involved in local efforts to combat food insecurity and climate change, which will remain while the play is in production.

The play was commissioned by The Farm Theater, an organization that offers education and mentorship opportunities for both actors and playwrights. Each year as part of their College Collaboration program, they select an early career playwright to write a play specifically for college students, focusing on issues that concern young people, which is then produced in the academic year by colleges and student actors. Formed in 2014, Farm Theater Artistic Director Padraic Lillis explained that the program “was created to create development opportunities for early career playwrights that had demonstrated a unique voice, excellent writers, and were ready to take the next step in their career,” and was also intended to help young artists develop their skills and confidence, “because it is important for student artists to work on new work. It is empowering to the student to know that their contribution shaped the script and will have a lasting impact on the life [of the] play.” To that end, students begin their participation in the program with a workshop in the summer before the academic year the play will be produced, expanding their skills under the mentorship of professional actors. The playwright works with the students and all those involved in the production from start to finish. According to Lillis, “The most valuable thing for a playwright’s growth is to have their plays produced in front of a live audience. This process allows for the play to remain in process throughout an entire academic year. The playwrights have a rich experience of collaborating with multiple artistic teams at each school that strengthen their play, and the year-long process strengthens them as artists.”

Graham, this year’s selected playwright, has had a successful acting career including roles on Broadway and in TV series, and has written 12 other full-length plays. She was invited to submit a topic on which to write a play for the College Collaboration program, and “was torn between proposing to write about the climate catastrophe and the current epidemic of loneliness, so I decided to propose them both. As I wrote, I saw how the two topics are intertwined, and I think I’ve come up with a play that wrestles with both issues.” The idea to set it in a food distribution center came as a result of her own volunteer work and deep thought about how humanity deals with vital resources like food and water in times of fear and uncertainty. She wanted to create a play that both explored these issues and provided a sense of hope; in her words, “I knew that if young people were going to spend their precious hours working on a play, then I wanted to give them one that wrestled with today’s world, but also contained hope — one that didn’t pretend our problems were easy to solve, but that pointed at a way to begin solving them. Can we work together to find solutions? Can we sustain hope in the face of tragedy? Can we, even with all of our differences, join forces to help others?” She found her own answers in her experience volunteering at a food distribution center in her neighborhood in NYC, during which she was thrown together with a group of complete strangers to box up food for families. They all had to work together to efficiently package the food in order to fulfill the number of boxes requested, and according to Graham “I was interested to see how we all, with our own personality quirks and various limitations, learned to work together. I was inspired by how, despite our differences, we managed to form a unit and were able to work together to help improve food insecurity for some families in our city. And then I thought…hmm, this could be a play!” This sense of hope and collaboration is also what she wants the audience to experience while watching “How to Save Ourselves.” When asked what she thought community members should know before attending, she said there’s no need for special knowledge but that “I do hope that, as they come, they bring with them the excitement of having the chance to see something completely new. We all love the classics, but there is something especially exciting about new work, plays that are written to specifically respond to our times and that are fresh and untested. The theatre is a totally collaborative art form, playwrights and actors and directors and designers all work together to create the show, but the ultimate collaboration is between the production and the audience. I hope our audiences will arrive feeling the thrill of being among the first to participate in that collaboration.”

This year, the University of the South is participating in the College Collaboration program with the enthusiastic involvement of Professor Sarah Hamilton, who is directing the production of “How to Save Ourselves.” The production stars Amelia Barakat as Angela, Dante Studenko Chamorro as Antonio, Eleora Ephrem as Marci, Joe Harned as Colin, Bryce Johnson as Jake, Trinity Reddick as Rook, Pete Stone as Stephen, and Sofia Tripoli as Tamara. Grayson Davis and Hannah Diehl are understudies. Hamilton explained that as the first-ever production of “How to Save Ourselves,” these performances in Sewanee play a unique role in the creation of the play. “Unlike other forms of writing, plays are created to be embodied and shared with an audience.” Hamilton said, “When a playwright is working on a new piece, the best way for them to understand how their play is working is to see it performed on its feet. This production of How to Save Ourselves gives the playwright, Enid Graham, a chance to do that. From here, she’ll revise the work based on what she’s learned through our production process, and then the play will have another production at Centre College later this spring. The process repeats again.” She is thrilled that Sewanee is participating in this process not only for what it means for both student actors and the playwright, but also because of its larger implications. The University of the South was bequeathed the royalties from Tennessee Williams’ plays in his will, with the intention of cultivating new plays. “His most famous works such as ‘A Streetcar Named Desire,’ ‘The Glass Menagerie,’ and ‘Cat on a Hot Tin Roof’ are only known to us today because theatres decided to take a risk and produce them when they were still new and untested,” Hamilton explained. “Our production of ‘How to Save Ourselves’ is exactly the kind of thing Tennessee Williams would have wanted. By investing in the development and production of new work, we provide opportunities for plays by emerging writers to become a part of the canon. As play development opportunities dwindle across the country, this is more important now than it’s ever been. It is an honor for me, the students, and my colleagues to follow in Tennessee Williams’ footsteps by producing new plays in his namesake facility on Sewanee’s campus.”

Performances of “How to Save Ourselves” are at 7:30 p.m., Feb. 28-March 1 and 2:30 p.m., March 2, in the Proctor Hill Theatre in the Tennessee Williams Center. Tickets are free, but space is limited. You can reserve your tickets online at Eventbrite <https://www.eventbrite.com/e/h...;utm-campaign=social&utm-content=attendeeshare&utm-medium=discovery&utm-term=listing&utm-source=cp>.

St. Andrew’s-Sewanee School (SAS) has finalized the sale of a 63-acre parcel of land to Sewanee Mountain Partners, LLC. The property, located across from St. Andrew’s-Sewanee School, will be developed into a thoughtfully designed residential community aimed at alleviating the area’s housing shortage.

The new development will include walking paths, natural water features, and greenspaces, providing residents with opportunities to enjoy the natural beauty of the space that backs up to the Mountain Goat Trail.

“The availability of housing on the Mountain, and especially near SAS and the university, is increasingly limited. The development of this land will increase the supply of housing, both large and small options, for a wide range of potential homeowners,” said Karl Sjolund, Head of School at St. Andrew’s-Sewanee. “We received a great offer from a development group that loves Sewanee and has committed to building a development worthy of the ‘front door’ of both SAS and the University”.

Sewanee Mountain Partners, LLC, has expressed a commitment to integrating the new neighborhood into the fabric of Sewanee, ensuring that the design reflects the character and environmental priorities of the region. The inclusion of greenspaces and walking paths underscores their vision for a vibrant, connected community.

“The housing demand in Sewanee continues to rise, and we are excited to bring a development that not only meets this need but also enhances the natural landscape,” said Richard Courtney, a representative of Sewanee Mountain Partners, LLC and a graduate of the university. “We look forward to working closely with the community as we move forward with this project.”

St. Andrew’s-Sewanee School remains dedicated to its mission of fostering a strong sense of place while supporting the needs of the greater Sewanee area. The school will continue to invest in its students, faculty, and campus with proceeds from the sale.

For more information, please contact: Sewanee Mountain Partners, LLC.

by Leslie Lytle, Messenger Staff Writer

Early Monday morning, on the way home from his walk, two neighborhood dogs attacked Maxon Lane resident Daniel Holmes. “These two dogs came running at me. A black dog and a golden dog. I was accustomed to it and just kept walking. But they were more aggressive than usual and started biting my jacket and legs,” said Holmes describing the incident. He suffered lacerations on his legs and a puncture wound through the fabric of his tracksuit pants.

Holmes’ wife Stephanie McCarter phoned the Sewanee Police Department. The couple filed a police report and submitted photographs of the injuries. McCarter, like Holmes, a classics professor at the University, spoke with the Messenger in January about the same neighborhood dogs chasing her 11-year-old son on his bike and barking at her when she checked her mail. According to other community members who spoke with the Messenger, the same dogs attacked a cyclist and trail runner. [See Messenger, Feb. 14, 2025]

“I’m worried,” Holmes conceded. “I have two children. They wouldn’t know what to do.” Holmes explained he grew up with dogs in the countryside in Australia. “I know not to engage with them. If they think you’re playing, they’ll start biting back ... Once I got to my house, they gave up,” he said.

The Sewanee Police Department contacted Franklin County Animal Control. “We [Animal Control] went up there,” said Officer Heather Snyder. “I don’t know exactly what happened,” Snyder conceded. Animal Control did not impound the dogs.

Tennessee Annotated Code states violation of the “Dogs not allowed at large” law “is a Class A misdemeanor punishable by fine only if the dog running at large causes bodily injury.” Most jurisdictions also assess court costs of $300 or more even if the dog owner pays the fine prior to court.

Asked if the Sewanee Police Department intended to issue a citation, Police Chief Jeremy Smith replied, “The officer who responded to the call is preparing a report, and until I have the opportunity to review it once completed, I do not have any further details to share at this time. However, I can assure you that the police department is committed to looking into this matter further. Our priority is ensuring that all members of our community feel safe, and we will take the necessary steps to address any concerns.”

“I’m very angry,” McCarter said. “It could have been my child. My husband is big and very experienced with dogs, and he was able to stay calm. If he would have tried to run, they would have attacked him full on aggressively ... I told my son he is not allowed to walk past the [dog owner’s] house. He has to take the long way around.”

“The dogs need to be chained or to be inside a fence or kept inside,” Holmes insisted.

University policy stipulates, “All dogs must be under obvious and effective control of their owners ... Effective control means that a dog will respond to a command given by the owner.” However, nearly all the consequences are prefaced by the word “may.” “Multiple warnings or citations MAY result in referral to Franklin County Animal Control ... If a dog is causing a public hazard or nuisance, the Sewanee Police Department MAY issue a warning or a citation to the owner of the dog. Additionally, Franklin County Animal Control MAY be called and the dog MAY be impounded ... An owner who is issued a citation for a dog running at large or for a dog creating a public nuisance or hazard MAY be subject to fine in accordance with Tennessee law.” [Note: capitalization of the word “may” for purpose of emphasis.]

The policy holds the victim of a dog attack to more rigorous standards: “Any person who is threatened or attacked should (1) inform the dog’s owner, if known; (2) notify the Sewanee Police Department; and/or (3) notify Franklin County Animal Control.”

by Leslie Lytle, Messenger Staff Writer

At the Feb. 18 meeting, the Sewanee Utility District Board of Commissioners elected officers, voted to adopt a commissioner training policy, and discussed fire-hydrant flushing state requirements relative to ISO scoring for the Sewanee Fire Department.

The board reelected Charlie Smith president, elected Johnny Hughes vice president, and elected Clay Yeatman secretary for 2025.

At the January meeting the board discussed utility boards being more closely monitored to verify all commissioners completed the minimum required commissioner training hours. The policy adopted by the board holds reelected commissioners to the same training-hours requirement as newly elected commissioners. The policy stipulates, “Sewanee Utility District wishes to go above and beyond the minimum training requirements ... every Board member will, upon election or re-election to the Board, complete a minimum of 12 hours of continuing education training within an initial period of 12 months of said election: And, furthermore, all Board members will complete a minimum of 12 additional hours of continuing education training within the 3 year period following the initial 12 month period.” SUD manager Ben Beavers commented that, in addition to meeting the state requirement, the board completing commissioner training could positively impact SUD’s ability to receive grants.

Commissioner Donnie McBee initiated the discussion about fire hydrant flushing. “The fire department lost 13 points on their ISO calculation,” McBee said. “Chief Terry Smith feels like it could affect residents’ homeowners insurance. It had something to do with fire hydrants and attention to fire hydrants. Are the hydrants required to be serviced on certain terms?”

“Not on the ISO terms,” Charlie Smith said.

“What we’re required [by state law] is every year we have to flush all the dead-end lines. There are 50 or 60 of these. Once every five years we have to flush the other hydrants,” Beavers said. SUD flushes these hydrants on a rotating basis. “We’re not required to put a gauge on them and do a flow test. What ISO requires to get the most points is every year you have to flow test every hydrant. We have 269.” The fire department’s ISO rating did not change, according to Beavers.

“[Hydrant flushing] is only one small element of the whole ISO rating,” Charlie Smith added. “Sewanee has big city [fire protection] problems in a rural community. There are multiple high-rise buildings, a rural utility district, and a volunteer fire department.”

“On some of these buildings [for fire suppression] they want 3,500 gallons per minute of sustained flow for four hours,” Beavers pointed out. “Our best hydrant by the water plant will flow 1,700-1,800 gpm, and as you get farther away it decreases.” As to the feasibility of annually flow testing and flushing all hydrants, Beavers said, “It would take one-third to one-half of one worker’s time over a year plus the water loss.”

In a related matter, Beavers said the University had still not installed meters on the fire lines at Hamilton Hall and Biehl Commons. “I’m going to turn the water off on the fire suppression at Biehl Commons until they get it fixed. They’ve had plenty of time to get a meter and put it in the ground. It’s been a year or more.”

by Leslie Lytle, Messenger Staff Writer

“Be willing to tell your stories,” Minister Devron Holman insisted at the Feb. 15 annual Black History celebration hosted by the Cowan Mt. Sinai Missionary Baptist Church. The stories told that evening testified to the critical role of storytelling, offering rare and intimate glimpses of both local and global truths, some never before publicly shared.

Author and historian LaNetra McLemore recounted highlights from her book “100 Years of Black Franklin County.” The book chronicles the life events and circumstances of African American Franklin Countians from 1865-1966, post slavery to integration. “Newspapers used to be like social media,” McLemore said, citing the Nashville Globe and Chicago Defender as publications that gave voice to the black community.

McLemore focused her remarks on three eras, Reconstruction, Jim Crow, and Integration. During the Reconstruction era, Blacks working land as tenant farmers were bound by labor contracts, but the black community defied these contracts to attend church Sundays. “The black churches connected and built community,” McLemore stressed. Black schools also thrived, providing not only education for children, but night classes for adults. By 1871, 66 black men qualified to vote, meeting the criterion of owning land to do so.

Although many regard Jim Crow as a dark time, McLemore called attention to the loud and resonant heartbeat of the black community then. “These are people who should have been in history books,” McLemore stressed. From 1900 to 1947, the Sewanee Black Tigers’ community football and baseball teams were the champions of the south, winning every game they played. Eighteen-year-old Liber Miller from Winchester served in the navy in WWI and was the first black man to go on a naval ship overseas. A graduate of the segregated Townsend Training School was among the first 76 women recruited into the Women’s Army Auxiliary Corp (WAACs). A. M. Townsend who graduated from Townsend Colored School, the school named after his father, went on to become a physician, esteemed member of the American Medical Association, and president of Roger Williams University. “There was a thriving black culture, and yet this was the Jim Crow era,” McLemore said, pointing to black literary societies and social clubs, black doctors, black farmers, and black business owners, including a black woman motel owner in Estill Springs. And, yes, there were several lynchings, one making national news that brought NAACP members from throughout the country to join the 2,000 who marched in protest.

Martin Luther King, Jr., who studied at Highlander Folk School, established the local branch of the NAACP that led the 1960s lawsuit to desegregate the Franklin County Schools. McLemore noted in closing, “It [the 1960s] was a time of growth and excellence, and yet, then we see integration, and so many black teachers lost their jobs.” McLemore’s book “100 Years of Black Franklin County” with sections devoted to black teachers, black churches, and black sports has many more stories to tell.

Following McLemore’s dynamic glimpse into the backrooms of local history, the Nashville theater company Dream 7 Productions presented excerpts from Olugbola Gubasavi’s new play, “Weusi.” A translator and interpreter who speaks fluent Kiswahili, Gubasavi described the play as “the story of black history from the beginning of the continent until now. Weusi means blackness, but it also means we the people in our community honor the family and the individual.” Designed as immersive theater beckoning audience participation, spontaneous singing and rhythm tapping from the audience joined the performing cast. Dream 7, middle Tennessee’s oldest African American theater company, will perform “Weusi” at Nashville’s Looby Center Theater through Feb. 23. For tickets see <https://www.dream7productions....;. Dream 7’s first musical, produced in 2020, recounted the story of the Fisk Jubilee Singers and the behind-the-scenes story about why Nashville is called Music City, which has nothing to do with Country Music — when Queen Victoria heard the Jubilee singers perform, she remarked, “You must be from the city of music.”

Rising to the inspiration of the evening, Minister Holman said in closing, “Knowledge is one of the few things you can give away without reducing the amount. We have to keep educating our own.” A special shout-out to Sandra Brown, longtime organizer and coordinator of the annual Franklin County Black History Celebrations. Several commented that this was the best Franklin County Black History Celebration yet.

by Leslie Lytle, Messenger Staff Writer

“I stole them,” Annie Armour Morgret joked, explaining how two paintings gifted by her great-grandmother to her mother came to be in her possession. For Morgret, an archivist at the University for 28 years, the theft was an act of love. She rescued the paintings from inhospitable display in glaring sunlight on the walls of the house where she grew up. Little did Morgret know the two watercolors had secrets to tell. Secret 1: her great-grandmother purchased the two watercolors at a Chicago auction house in 1879. Secret 2: the unsigned paintings were the work of an artist internationally renowned for his watercolors and oil paintings, Winslow Homer.

Morgret took the paintings home, photocopied them, and stored them in archival boxes. Fond of the paintings, a boy and girl at a well and a boy and girl swinging, she displayed the framed prints on her office walls. Seeing the prints, art history professor Mishoe Brennecke mistook them for originals. “Mishoe commented something to the effect, ‘I didn’t know the University had any Winslow Homer’s,’” Morgret recalled.

Stunned, Morgret and Morgret’s daughter Sarah Campbell, herself an artist, began researching the possibility.

An art appraiser could not draw any conclusions from the photocopies Morgret sent. On a hunch, Morgret applied to have the paintings appraised on Antiques Roadshow. Rejected, Morgret continued to apply for the next 14 years and, along with her daughter, continued researching the paintings’ story.

Among what Morgret and Campbell learned, Morgret’s great grandmother purchased the paintings from a Chicago auction house just down the street from where she lived, and Homer had done a series of watercolors depicting children in outdoor settings.

In April 2024, Antiques Roadshow phoned Morgret. She was being considered for a spot on the show. Campbell began to dig deeper, searching out verification the paintings were not done by someone imitating Homer’s style. Campbell observed a particularly stunning likeness to another Homer watercolor: the stumps in the background of the boy and girl at a well painting appeared to be the same stumps in the background of the Winslow Homer painting, “Boys on a Hillside.”

Morgret’s paintings were selected for the May Antiques Roadshow taping. “We lucked out with one of the best appraisers in the business, Betty Krulik who is very knowledgeable about 19th century American art. One of her last comments when we were being filmed was, ‘He signed these paintings with every stroke of the brush.’”

A curious coincidence reared its head with the paintings’ authenticity confirmed. The Chattanooga Hunter Museum of American Art owned another Winslow Homer painting from the same series, “Girl on a Swing.”

Ultimately Morgret and her three siblings decided to sell the paintings, putting to rest a difficult decision about who would inherit them. But at the Jan. 23 sale at Christie’s Auction House, Morgret struggled with wanting to bid on “Boy and Girl on a Swing.” Although the watercolor with the lower appraisal value, due to fading from exposure to light, “Boy and Girl on a Swing” is Morgret’s personal favorite. “The color of blue in that painting is my favorite color and it just makes me feel good. And kids swinging on a swing is more like play than bringing water up from a well.” The scene contrasts sharply with the anti-slavery theme of some Winslow Homer oil paintings.

With fees, “Boy and Girl on a Swing” sold for $75,600. “Boy and Girl at a Well” sold for $113,400.

Antiques Roadshow will feature Morgret’s two paintings in an upcoming “Best of Antiques Roadshow” special.

For Morgret, the paintings’ story has unpeeled like an onion. Each layer has revealed new secrets and new questions, which may never be answered. What did her great grandmother pay for the two paintings? What attracted her great grandmother to these two paintings which are unique for being the only paintings in the series featuring both a boy and a girl? Why did her great grandmother give the paintings to her mother, which Morgret speculates is the case since she recalls the paintings being on display in her childhood home long before her grandmother died, suggesting her grandmother likely never owned them.

And finally, and most perplexing to Morgret is why no one in her family ever mentioned who painted the watercolors. “My entire female line of my mother’s family is college educated. And you would think they would pass that kind of information down,” she said with a sigh.

“Hopefully they went to someone who will either loan them for exhibits or lots of people will come to their house so they get wider exposure,” Morgret mused, her voice betraying a hope others will have the opportunity to love them, as well.

by Leslie Lytle, Messenger Staff Writer

Post Civil War from 1883 to 1896, the Lone Rock Stockade, known by locals as the Branch Prison, housed convicts leased from the Tennessee State Penitentiary by Tennessee Coal and Iron (TCI) to work in the Tracy City coal mines and coke ovens. The coke oven jobs, unarguably the worst tasks, went to the African American convicts who made up 70-90 percent of the prison population. The intense heat on the ridge where the convicts fed coal into the ovens below melted the soles of their shoes while they breathed the toxic fumes emitted by the coke cooking process. With rations consisting of nothing but potatoes or grits, body lice so abundant 500 were found on a single shirt, four convicts housed in each seven square-foot wooden enclosure with two narrow wooden benches for beds, a wheelbarrow for waste that would overflow into the lake that was the drinking water supply, dysentery and other diseases common, and those shot attempting to flee, not surprisingly the annual mortality rate was 10 percent. What gave birth to the Lone Rock stockade convict lease practice, why did it die, and did it? Follow the money. At the Feb. 8 unveiling of the South Cumberland State Park Visitors Center exhibit, “Condemned to Labor: Convict Leasing and the Lone Rock Stockade,” Dr. Tiffany Momon and Dr. Camille Westmont walked the brave back in time to examine the convict lease system and its role in shaping post-Civil War Tennessee.

Introducing the exhibit, Director of Installations Rob Barret observed, “The way we used to think about telling history in state parks was we didn’t want to make people sad, they were here for fun.” The Lone Rock exhibit departs from that norm. Momon, professor of Public History at the University of the South, assigned the task of crafting the exhibit to her class. The students’ original proposal far exceeded what the single wall allocated to the project could accommodate. Momon hopes going forward the park will grant her more space for stepping out of bounds to tell the story of the complex and harsh truth. Archaeologist Westmont, currently a professor at the University of Alabama, initiated research on the stockade in 2019 when teaching at Sewanee.

Westmont laid out a timeline of the circumstance that earned Tracy City a prison complex designed and built for the sole purpose of working prisoners at the coke ovens and in the mines, with the towering stockade as the central focal point. Pre-Civil War, the Sewanee Mining Company, which donated the land for the University, went bankrupt building the railroad line up the mountain from Cowan, Westmont explained. Post Civil War, enterprising Arthur St. Clair Colyar seized on two opportunities: transforming the low-quality coal on the mountain into highly marketable coke by burning off the impurities and leasing convict labor.

The end of slavery resulted in a labor vacuum for southern planters. “We have accounts of how come harvest time the sheriff would go out and start rounding up people [former slaves], charging them with loitering or vagrancy,” Westmont said. But that was just the tip of the iceberg in the practice of re-enslaving African Americans. In 1860 the Tennessee prison population was less than 5 percent African American; by 1890 it was 75 percent black. Backed by New York City investors rallied by Colyar, Sewanee Mining reemerged as Tennessee Coal and Iron with the Tracy City mining and coke oven operation a silver spoon in the mouth of the rich.

“Prior to the Civil War, there wasn’t much of anything up here,” Westmont observed. Leasing convicts to work Tracy City area mines began in 1871, with a new stockade built in 1883 to replace the Union army structure initially used to house convicts. To begin with, Colyar leased 300 convicts from the state. By 1890, TCI was leasing every convict in Tennessee, yielding the state revenue of $1 million per year. “In many Southern states revenue from leasing prisoners made up a significant portion of the state budget,” Westmont stressed.

By 1890, the stockade constructed to house 200 inmates, housed 666. African Americans were regarded as “not totally human,” Westmont insisted. It was believed African Americans “didn’t feel pain the same way white people did,” thus the rationale for tasking them with the grueling coke oven operations. Most were arrested for petty crimes. Theft of a fence rail earned a man time at Lone Rock. The average age was 30. Financially, the system was far more cost effective than slavery. TCI did not have the expense of feeding and housing the laborers when they were children too young to work or too elderly and feeble to work. “These prisoners, we don’t own them. If one dies, get another,” said a former enslaver praising the system.

TCI exploited the free miners, as well, by controlling not only the miners’ source of revenue and using convicts as strike breakers, but also by controlling how the miners spent their earnings. The mining company owned most of the local businesses. In 1892, the free miners rebelled, burned the stockade, loaded the convicts on coal cars and sent them back to the Nashville penitentiary.

The Tracy City stockade burning trailed upon a wave of rebellions at other Tennessee coal mines. Known as the Coal Creek Wars, six stockades were burned in two years. Except in Tracy City, the convicts were set free, but not necessarily for humanitarian reasons. The $25 bounty offered for escapees proved the system’s downfall.

The bounties owed to those returning escaped convicts soared to huge sums. “Tennessee is the only state in the South where convict leasing ended for financial reasons,” Westmont pointed out. “TCI made it clear they would not pay the $25 per prisoner bounty, and the state said, ‘We are done with this. We are losing money.’”

When Tennessee abolished convict leasing in 1896, the convicts at the Lone Rock Stockade were sent to Brushy Mountain State Prison which had its own coal mining operation. The practice of subjecting convict laborers to inhumane working conditions continues today in the meat and poultry industry, according to Westmont

TCI moved its center of operations to Birmingham and merged with U.S. Steel. The people of Tracy City were left with the financial basis of their culture gone, a polluted water supply, and extensive environmental damage. Local resident Travis Turner recalls when he was growing up “a layer of soot and coal dust still blanketed” some areas. “Tracy City never recovered,” Westmont said.

South Cumberland State Park hopes to receive a grant to maintain and refurbish the Lone Rock Stockade coke ovens at Grundy Lakes. A longer-range plan envisions Grundy Lakes as a state historic park also highlighting Westmont’s excavation of the stockade site. Among the unanswered questions is where was the stockade graveyard? LiDAR investigation under Westmont’s direction failed to yield insight, but Westmont is hopeful more advanced imaging techniques will offer clues. The Lone Rock Stockade is a story of a horrific past with a future of a far different kind. “We have the ability to understand what happened on the land under our feet,” Barret said, “to internalize that to make decisions moving forward ... who was here before me, what were their lives like, and how did my community get to be what it was.”

by Leslie Lytle, Messenger Staff Writer

“A parole hearing is all about storytelling and who can tell a better story, but the story of the crime is so far out in the lead, so powerful, most people requesting parole are rejected,” said Correction author Ben Austen. In a Feb. 3 conversation with Sewanee Review editor Adam Ross at the McGriff Alumni House, Austen talked about parole’s role in the criminal justice system and his new book, “Correction: Parole, Prison, and the Possibility of Change.” Correction tells the parole stories of Michael Henderson and Johnny Veal, imprisoned for nearly a half century for crimes committed when they were teens.

Austen described a parole hearing as a scene of high drama. The families of the accused and the victim sit side by side, along with those who have no personal stake in the outcome but hold strong feelings about why the accused should remain incarcerated — or not. They all have stories to tell. There is also the story about the accused’s decades in prison and who the accused became as a result. But Austen stressed, “Every parole hearing begins with a ‘statement of facts,’ information passed down from the prosecutor and police. They tell the story of the crime, and it doesn’t matter how long ago it was, it feels present tense and like the crime needs to be punished.”

“The United States locks up more people than anyone else in the world, about one in six of all incarcerated people,” Austen said. “Tennessee has a higher incarceration rate than every single country except El Salvadore, but it’s beaten by five other southern states.” As governor of California, Ronald Reagon pressured the criminal justice system to reduce prison overcrowding with parole. Then the state with the highest number of inmates, 27,000, California reduced its prison population by 10,000, nearly half. But not long after, parole fell into disfavor, attacked from all sides. Liberals and inmates argued parole was racist, and an indeterminate sentence of 25 years to life meant forever. Conservatives argued parole was too lenient and longer sentences were needed to reduce crime. “One third of the states eliminated parole,” Austen observed. “And every state limited who would come up for parole.”

Austen provided an overview of two new practices that evolved. Fixed term sentences allowed inmates to earn their way out with good behavior. “It’s a numeric formula rather than a person [deciding],” Austen said. In another innovation, mandatory minimum sentences got longer and frequently required an inmate to serve at least 85 percent of the sentence. Federal Truth in Sentencing legislation required states to adopt mandatory minimums to receive federal funding for correctional facilities.

Citing an argument for parole, Austen pointed to prison overcrowding, the high annual cost of incarcerating an inmate ($106,000), and an aging prison population with costly medical needs. Ross asked Austen if he was a “journalist” or an “advocate.” “I’m a journalist,” Austen said, “but you get immersed in these stories, and you’re not neutral.” Austen’s previous book, “High-Risers,” about a failed inner-city Chicago housing complex, touched on the murder of two police officers and resulted in his being contacted by the friend of a man convicted of the murders: Johnny Veal. Veal was coming up for parole and claimed he was innocent. Over the course of the next year, Austen attended every parole hearing in Illinois. He interviewed Johnny Veal over 100 times. “I don’t know if he’s innocent,” Austen said. “What I know is he spent 50 years in prison, has this remarkable record, and was convicted not as the shooter but the accomplice. To me that equals freedom. Part of the problem [of parole] is focusing on the crime. We need systems with second chances.”

But Austen is clear eyed about the complexity of the problem. While he proposes it is unlikely a man in his 70s will return to a life of violent crime, he acknowledges the pain and needs of victims’ families. “The thing victims’ families often say is ‘You didn’t murder my son for 30 years. You murdered him forever,” Austen said. One family member told him, “Many families have weddings and funerals that connect them. We have parole hearings.”

“I saw how the system fails those families,” Austen insisted. “Someone has been punished 50 years, and they felt no different than they did at the start. They feel no level of vengeance or sense of comfort and healing ... That doesn’t feel like justice. We have to do more for people. We have a system called restorative justice which is also about healing.”

“What do we want a prison sentence to do?” Austen asked. “We don’t have an answer for that.”

“Correction: Parole, Prison, and the Possibility of Change” is available from the University Bookstore and numerous online vendors. Ross said of Correction, “You read this book, and you have a better understanding of what it means to be an American in the best and worst of ways.”

South Cumberland Community Fund (SCCF) kicks off its grantmaking year with community conversations on Feb. 22, 24, and 25. “We are asking that any eligible organization seeking funding in 2025 send a representative to one of those meetings,” said Tom Sanders, executive director. In 2025, the Community Fund will make over $200,000 in grants in three competitive rounds with application deadlines, and in one noncompetitive grant round with no deadlines.

Eligible organizations include nonprofits, municipalities, public schools, and churches (for non-religious projects) in Grundy County and the plateau portions of Franklin and Marion counties.

Meetings will be held on this schedule:

10 a.m., Feb. 22 — Grundy EMS, 90 Phipps St., Coalmont

noon, Feb. 24 — TN’s South Cumberland Tourism, 115 Depot St. Tracy City

5:30 p.m., Feb. 25 — Morton Memorial United Methodist Church, 322 W. Main St. Monteagle

Send an email to <director@southcumberlandcommunityfund.org> to reserve your spot.

“In years past, the grant orientation meetings were a chance to go over our policies,” said Sanders. “We will still do a little of that, but we are really hoping that organizations will come with ideas they would like to discuss for funding. The meetings will be an opportunity for organizations to discuss their ideas with other partners, so they can get advice and also see possible ways to partner.”

While the grant kickoff meetings will focus on grant ideas, the Fund will also announce two new policies that will allow organizations to apply for more unrestricted funds than they have in the past. In addition, the Fund will announce new ways it can support applicants with training and services.

“We want this to be a powerful community conversation, so even if you think your organization might not be eligible for a grant this year, we hope you will attend,” said Sanders. “We have been thinking hard about how to make our grantmaking more reciprocal, and these meetings will be a good place to connect with us in a new way.”

by Leslie Lytle, Messenger Staff Writer

Discussion about the Teneessee Legislature’s approval of the Education Freedom Scholarship Act weighed heavy on disappointment at the Franklin County School Board Feb. 4 meeting. In a Jan. 27 Special Session vote on the voucher-like program, the House voted 54 in favor, 44 against; the Senate voted 20 in favor, 13 against. Senator Janice Bowling voted against the bill. Representative Iris Rudder voted in favor of the bill which, beginning in the 2025-2026 school year, will award scholarships to pay students’ tuition at private schools.

Rudder also voted against or to table amendments that addressed critics’ concerns about the bill. She voted to table an amendment that would have subjected scholarship recipients to the same TCAP testing used in public schools and to table an amendment that would have required private schools receiving scholarship funds to follow the same rules as public schools for age-appropriate materials, teacher certification and academic standards set by the state board of education. On an amendment that went to the floor for a vote, Rudder voted, no. The amendment that would have provided protections for students with disabilities by stipulating, “a private school shall not discriminate against a student participating in the program based on the student’s disability.”

“If a special ed student with an IEP [Individualized Education Program] leaves us to receive this voucher, the IEP does not go with them,” said Board Vice Chair Lance Williams, pointing out private schools were under no obligation to address the needs of special ed students.

“Kudos to Senator Bowling for supporting us,” said Board Chair CleiJo Walker. “She was one of six republicans in the senate that voted against the bill.”

Board member Sara Liechty contacted Senator Bowling and provided her with information on the bill and similar programs in other states. Leichty spoke with congresspersons in neighboring districts, as well, one who expressed concern about “what a monster this could grow into.” The 20,000 scholarships provided in the first year will cost over $400 million. Half the scholarships will go to students who are not required to demonstrate financial need. Liechty received no response when she attempted to contact Rudder. “There was no discussion,” Liechty said.

An amendment to the bill, which did pass, provides a one-time $2,000 payment to teachers to offset the anticipated loss of state funds due to decreased enrollment. “There is nothing for support staff,” stressed Walker. Nor does the amendment provide supplemental funding for administrators, supervisors, instructional coaches, and counselors, pointed out Director of Schools Cary Holman

To get the $2,000, the board must pass a resolution that the LEA [Local Education Agency] would like to participate,” Walker observed. Liechty argued, as a result of the requirement, “misinformation will appear in the headlines, what I call lying by omission,” suggesting local school boards supported the Freedom Scholarship Act initiative.

On the horizon is another new bill under consideration by the legislature, “Say, Yes, to Recess.” “What the ‘yes recess’ bill is proposing is wanting children to have 90 minutes of recess and reduce reading to a minimum,” Holman explained. “We were told to do that a couple years ago,” said board member Sandy Schultz, a former teacher and principal. “We couldn’t do it, get 90 minutes in, and still have time for class.”

“What he [bill sponsor Rep. Scott Cepicky] is not realizing is for children that need tier three supports, wanting them to play more and read less will produce a report card that says they’re failing,” insisted Holman. Significantly, the “Say, Yes, to Recess” bill also calls for reducing testing.

by Leslie Lytle, Messenger Staff Writer

Following a lengthy discussion about procedure at the Feb. 4 Monteagle Planning Commission meeting, the commission tasked town planner Jonathan Rush with drafting an ordinance amendment allowing retail and commercial businesses in C-3 commercial zones. Rejection of Dollar General’s request to locate a store in a C-3 zone prompted Monteagle Alderman Dean Lay to push for the amendment. Dollar General’s location choice, in the C-3 area around I-24 interstate exit 135, primarily has businesses of the convenience-store and truck stop-variety, which C-3 zoning allows.

“Why can there be truck stops in C-3 and not something else that sells retail?” asked Lay. “It’s government overreach.” At the January council meeting, Lay made a motion to allow retail in C-3. Mayor Greg Maloof advised Lay to take the request to the planning commission.

Rush explained zoning ordinance amendments could originate in three ways: the council could formally request the planning commission to amend an ordinance, which amendment would then be submitted to the council for final approval; the planning commission could recommend an ordinance amendment and send it to the council for final approval; a resident could make a formal application for a zoning ordinance change.

“I need more information,” said Commission Vice Chair Richard Black, objecting to voting immediately on Lay’s request for allowing retail in C-3.

Commissioner Alec Mosley concurred, arguing he wanted to see the amendment request from the council, “somebody needs to put something down on a piece of paper ... I want to know why, what the argument is for retail in C-3.”

“I think there’s probably a reason it [retail] is not in there [allowed],” Black insisted.

Lay pushed for a vote on retail in C-3 that evening.

Rush said he would need to draft an amendment for the commission to vote on.

Alderman Grant Fletcher suggested the commission ask Rush to draft the amendment rather than waiting for a formal request from the council. Rush agreed, pointing out waiting for the council’s formal request would delay the process for another month.

“All you would be doing is delaying a decision you will need to make,” said developer Jessie Goodman, who has plans for a residential development across from the National Guard Armory. “You deter a lot of developers by delaying decisions.”

The commission unanimously approved a motion for Rush to draft an amendment allowing retail in C-3. The commission will vote on whether to approve or deny the amendment at the March 4 meeting.

The commission also approved a plat combining three lots into two lots. One lot is tagged for the proposed Hampton Inn and the other for future development. In January, the commission tabled approval of the Hampton Inn site plan, because a plat had not been approved or presented which conformed to the project’s footprint.

Black announced Ed Provost had stepped down as chair for health reasons. The commission elected Black chair, Mosley vice chair, and reelected Katie Trahan as secretary.

Beginning in March, the commission will meet at 4 p.m., rather than 5 p.m.

Housing Sewanee (HSI) is accepting applications for a resident for the newest Housing Sewanee home at Sherwood Spring on Sherwood Road. HSI selects potential homeowners whose financial situation makes home ownership otherwise difficult or impossible.

Founded in 1993, Housing Sewanee has built more than 20 homes in the Sewanee area, providing affordable housing for qualified community residents. Construction of these homes comes from community volunteers and construction costs are covered by fundraising and community grants including the Sewanee Community Chest and the South Cumberland Community Fund.

Applications are available through the end of February, and can be found and submitted at the Housing Sewanee website at <www.housingsewaneeinc.com>. Applications are reviewed by the application committee and a new client is selected by the HSI board. A client is selected based on the application, displayed needs, and the proven ability to meet home ownership costs.

Applications will be reviewed as received until a new resident is selected. For more information, please contact Rob Matlock at <rmatlockconstr@gmail.com>.

The Sewanee Civic Association invites nominations for the 2025-26 Board of Directors. Experience working in fundraising and for nonprofits is a plus, but any adult who resides in the area and shares concerns of the community is welcome. The Sewanee Civic Association manages the Sewanee Community Chest and the Sewanee Classifieds, and sponsors projects deemed by the membership to be beneficial to the community. The Board of Directors includes president, vice president, secretary, treasurer, and members at large. Nominations are due by Monday, Feb. 10, via email <sewaneecommunitychest@gmail.com>. The slate of officers will be presented at the membership meeting on Monday, March 3. Voting for the officers will be at the membership meeting, Monday, May 5. For more information, email <sewaneecommunitychest@gmail.com> or go to <www.sewaneecivic.org>.

The congregation of Christ Church (Episcopal) in Tracy City will observe the 100th anniversary of its current building on Sunday, Feb. 16, said Beth Thomas, senior warden. Christ Church is the oldest continuously operating Episcopal church on the South Cumberland Plateau, she said.

To commemorate the event, the Rev. David Goodpaster, Vicar, will celebrate the Holy Eucharist at 11 a.m. in the church, followed by a potluck luncheon in the Father Adamz Memorial Parish House. The parish house has served as a fellowship hall and community center since 1952. All current members, former members and the public are invited to attend. Please bring a dish to share.

The church began in 1868 when the Rt. Rev. Charles Todd Quintard, Bishop of Tennessee and Vice-Chancellor of the University of the South, conducted the first service in a sawmill shed across from the railroad depot in Tracy City. Worship services continued there until a community structure, Temperance Hall, was built for people of all denominations.

In 1873, local Episcopalians erected their own church — the town’s first — under the leadership of Milnor Jones, a student at the School of Theology at Sewanee. He had the financial backing of three widowed sisters. Jones was among countless Sewanee seminarians who trekked to Tracy City by train, horseback and on foot to conduct services at the mountain mission. In gratitude, church members fed and lodged them.

The Rev. Henry Easter arrived in 1891. A master carver who served Christ Church until 1896, he left his mark by carving the altar in memory of his mother. He also created the bishop’s chair, priest’s chair and desk, lectern and communion rail.

In 1925, a new church replaced the original one damaged severely by a storm. Miraculously, Father Easter’s hand-carved works survived the storm and were installed in the new structure. Three inspirational stained glass windows were added above the altar. St. Margaret’s Guild raised the money to purchase the windows, while other windows, including one by Tiffany, were gifts of several prominent church families.

Christ Church welcomes all people and fosters a deep connection with God through worship, education, service, spiritual growth and community engagement.