Athens of the South Design

Robert Wayne Henderson II (Bob), veteran, businessman, and historian, died on February 14, 2026, in his Smithville home at the age of 68. He graduated from Belmont University and later served as an Aviation Officer in the United States Navy and the Tennessee Air National Guard. Bob was a pioneer in historic preservation efforts, utilizing technology to document and digitally preserve historic…

by Billy Pittard A tour of ancient Phillips, Henderson, Williams, and Waters family cemeteries in Wilson County, Tennessee 

November 29th sixteen distant cousins from Wilson, Rutherford, Dekalb Counties, St. Louis, Kansas City and Cincinnati visited six family cemeteries in Wilson County. One near Greenvale,  three near Norene (formerly Henderson Crossroads) and three close to Watertown. The main connection to our group of men, women and teenagers were the Hendersons, Phillips, Bass and Williams families. Judge Harry…

Alex De Anquinos I have an original Alex De Anquinos. My great-great grandmother died in 1876, so it is sometime before that. It says MURFREESBORO, TENN at the bottom Sarah Jane Bass Henderson (1840-1876) was a direct decendant of American Indian Princess Keziah Elizabeth Tucker, daughter of Nansemond Chief Pattanochus “Robin The Elder” Winansiske (Tucker) 1590 – 1676. They lived in Henderson…

A round-robin from Nashville, Natchez, New Orleans, Mobile to Pensacola and back OPERATION FULL MOON I left Nashville on Thanksgiving morning to be gone that day, but that is a story for another day. I intended to take the Natchez Trace parkway, but in my haste to get on the road, I realized I did not have time to make my destination in Natchez before the required holiday check-in time. So I…

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Worlds First Circumnavigation Aerial Flight Nashville native son Lt. John (Jack) Richard Harding, IV co-piloted one of two planes that survived the journey. The New Orleans, was a Douglas World Cruiser single-engine two-seater biplane. It resides today in the Museum of Flight in Santa Monica, California near the Douglas Aircraft factory that built it. Four Douglas World Cruisers set off on 6…

The genesis of free public school lunch for impoverished children in Nashville, TN Teacher Cornelia Barksdale and her amazing works. When my grandmother passed in 1978, it was a devastating loss to the family. She was the rock of our world and the most influential woman in my young life. I was astonished to read in the paper a few days after her death, of the early works of her as a school-girl…

Part II of Brown's Diner 19th century Street Cars.

Car #2 Revealed Last week 90% of historic Brown’s Diner Street Car #2 was demolished to make way for a larger diner kitchen. I observed the entire project and salvaged what I could, but very little of the original car was left, probably due to decades of updates, and at least two fires. They were fortunate that Ladder 16 was across the street for most, if not all of their 96 year old…

Brown’s Diner Street Cars

Most people call it a Trolley Car, but the actual terminology in “the day” was Road Railway or Street Car. Right after the American Civil War in 1865, Memphis and Nashville added these public forms of transportation. Initially they were horse or mule drawn vehicles. Around 1889 they began the conversion to electric power. In 1927 Brown’s Diner was opened using two former street cars as the…

A Virtual Native Village

My moments of stupidity are well documented, but my strokes of genius may have been under reported… I was going round and round about the best use of the long abandoned playing field at Brookmeade Park in West Nashville: open space, dog park, soccer field? Native American Living History Village!? After all, it was the sight of one of the largest archeological digs in Middle Tennessee.1 Artifacts…

Native American Graves Shrugged

In 1997 I started documenting the building of the new mega shopping center near Charlotte Pike and Davidson Drive. The limestone rocks photographed here, were just some of the components of 141 Native-American Stone Box graves containing 173 individuals. The remains were warehoused for a period of time, and then reinterred at an undisclosed location in Brookmeade Park at Kelley’s Point…

In 1997 I started documenting the building of the new mega shopping center near Charlotte Pike and Davidson Drive in Nashville. The limestone rocks photographed here, were just some of the components of 155 Native-American Stone Box graves (mostly from where the Lowes footprint is now). The remains were warehoused for a period of time, and then reinterred at an undisclosed location in Brookmeade…

220 Year Old Homestead John Phillips 1768-1846 Founding Father of Round Lick, Tennessee 2016 In 1797 or 1801 1 brothers John (29) and Benjamin Phillips (31) (born Philips) migrated from the Pittsburg, PA region to what was then called Round Lick and then Three Forks in Wilson County, Tennessee. It was renamed Watertown in the mid-1800’s in honor of Wilson T. Waters, the grandson of one of…

Harry Phillips, My Inspiration for a Lifelong Pursuit in Genealogy

Another inspirational family member of the Phillips clan.