"Locked Up" Workshop Explores Tracing Ancestors in Prisons and Asylums

Following the trail of an ancestor in trouble with the law or plagued with mental illness is often difficult. On April 14, the Tennessee State Library and Archives will host a free workshop entitled “Locked Up: Finding Ancestors in Prisons and Asylums.”

Using examples from actual records in Tennessee and elsewhere, State Librarian and Archivist Chuck Sherrill will discuss how to locate the records, what to glean from the information and how to deal with confidentiality restrictions.

“Learning from Chuck Sherrill, who has written and edited 21 books on Tennessee genealogical records, will be a valuable tool to anyone interested in genealogical research,” said Secretary of State Tre Hargett. “I would encourage anyone interested to reserve their seats for this fascinating event as soon as possible.”

The workshop will be 9:30-11 a.m. CDT Saturday, April 14, in the Library and Archives auditorium. The Library and Archives is located at 403 Seventh Ave. N., directly west of the Tennessee State Capitol in downtown Nashville. Free parking is available around the Library and Archives building.

Although the workshop is free and open to the public, registration is required due to seating limitations in the auditorium.

To reserve seats, please visit https://prisongenealogy.eventbrite.com.

Chuck Sherrill has served as State Librarian and Archivist of Tennessee since 2010. He has a unique combination of skills as librarian, archivist and genealogist. His education includes master’s degrees in History and Library Science from Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio. Sherrill has been active in genealogical research and publishing since he was a teenager. He has written and edited 21 books of Tennessee genealogical records. Among them are “Tennessee Convicts: Early Records of the State Penitentiary,” and “Tennesseans in Court.”

The Tennessee State Library and Archives is a division of the Office of Tennessee Secretary of State Tre Hargett

Meet the (former) staff... Mrs. John Trotwood Moore

By Darla Brock

I would like to introduce you to a former staff member and a remarkable woman—Mrs. John Trotwood Moore. Mary Daniel Moore took the helm of the Tennessee State Library and Archives following the unexpected May 1929 death of her husband, the noted poet, scholar, historian, and State Librarian and Archivist John Trotwood Moore. She used the knowledge she had garnered from 10 years working alongside her husband to pick up the mantle and guide this institution through the challenging years of the Depression and the Second World War.

Tennessee State Librarian and Archivist Mrs. John Trotwood Moore (Mary Daniel Moore) pictured in 1938.

Left alone to nurture two college-age twin daughters, manage a large household, and care for elderly and ailing family members, every working day Mrs. Moore climbed the one hundred steps to the State Library’s home in the Capitol to undertake her awesome responsibility. She served patrons, historical societies and genealogical associations, the legislature, the judiciary, the governor and state government departments alike. Regardless of the stress involved or the political maneuverings she would have to endure over the course of her career, she remained a devoted state employee.

Mary Brown Daniel in 1888 at the age of thirteen.

Mrs. Moore, with the help of a small and dedicated staff, accomplished mammoth tasks. She utilized TERA (Tennessee Emergency Relief Administration) and WPA (Works Progress Administration) funds to index state records. She held a leadership position in the WPA's Historical Records Survey that preserved county records and so much more. She continued Dr. R.L.C. White's transcription of the Senate and House Journals of Tennessee for the years 1797 and 1798; she indexed them and had them published. This project and the transcribing of Tennessee militia commissions were done on her own time and did irreparable damage to her eyesight. She published scholarly articles about the history of the Tennessee State Library, the Tennessee Historical Society, and the history of libraries in Tennessee. She parlayed her social and professional connections into donations of numerous premier manuscript collections for the state. She served as the custodian of the state's Law Library in the Capitol, and in 1936 oversaw the transfer of 19,000 volumes to the Law Library in the new Supreme Court Building. She procured the first microfilm reader for the State Library and Archives through an exchange with the Genealogical Society of Utah. The Genealogy Department created by John Trotwood Moore flourished under his wife's hand. Authors and researchers from across the country were served on a previously unknown scale, and State Librarian and Archivist Mrs. John Trotwood Moore regularly welcomed busloads of school children to the Capitol and to their State Library.

Mrs. Moore working in her home away from home at the State Library in the Capitol.

But perhaps Mrs. Moore's greatest accomplishment was securing the funding in 1947 for our present State Library and Archives building. Governor Jim McCord proclaimed she “almost dreamed this building into existence.” In reality, Mrs. John Trotwood Moore had carried on the fight for new quarters for the State Library and Archives outside the Capitol Building for many years, as had her husband before her. In late 1946, Mrs. Moore galvanized Tennessee’s women’s organizations, which had long supported her and our institution, to take on this battle. These women had recently labored in support of the war effort, and they now stood shoulder-to-shoulder to fight for us. In December 1946, presidents of women’s statewide organizations came together to campaign for a new State Library and Archives building, as the State Library Building Society. When Governor McCord signed the appropriation bill March 12, 1947, the press gave these ladies credit for obtaining the initial legislative funding.

Mrs. John Trotwood Moore’s true home had been the State Library in the Capitol, a setting she likened to a Victorian parlor. She faced mandatory retirement in 1949. She maintained an emeritus status thereafter and remained a presence in the Capitol’s State Library to assist her successor, historian and Vanderbilt professor Dr. Dan Robison, as he took the reins of the institution. Mrs. Moore watched as Dr. Dan and architect H. Clinton Parrent designed our present facility, state-of-the-art for its time.

She submitted her official letter of resignation June 4, 1953. She wrote Dr. Dan, “The last load of books will be sent to the new State Library and Archives building today or tomorrow. I feel that my services should end with the closing of these doors.” A lovely little office was created for her in this building, but ill-health meant she seldom used it. Around this time, she wrote to a researcher, “I think it is time for the old lady of 79 to fade out of the picture.” But her heart remained with us until her death in August 1957. After that, not only the official papers of State Librarians and Archivists Mr. and Mrs. Moore took up residence here, but the family’s personal papers, as well.

It is hard to believe that one woman, one family, could have given so much, but their belief in the importance of the Tennessee State Library and Archives never wavered. For almost 18 years, I have searched her portrait for strength, inspiration and direction; I have researched her collections for wisdom and marveled at her legacy. Having been made an honorary member of the Moore family by her gracious descendants, I feel I can hazard a guess at her message for us today. To the staff, Mrs. John Trotwood Moore would say, “Serve this great state with all your abilities, and love your institution with all your heart.” To our patrons, she would repeat one of her favorite sayings, “The State Library is a library by the people, for the people.”

Portrait of Mrs. John Trotwood Moore painted by R. Gregory Gifford in 1946.

The Tennessee State Library and Archives is a division of the Office of Tennessee Secretary of State Tre Hargett

Library and Archives, Nashville Zoo Partner to Highlight Grassmere’s Unique History

The Nashville Zoo at Grassmere is one of the most visited locations in Nashville, but the property’s historical significance is often overlooked. On April 5, the Tennessee State Library and Archives and Nashville Zoo will co-host a free program highlighting the history of the property and historic home through a new digital collection.

The program will show how two sisters’ love of animals led to the zoo's relocation. The collection includes photographs, letters, oral history audio excerpts, maps, memorabilia and land records.

The home, built in 1810, is one of the oldest residences in Davidson County open to the public. The property served as a family farm for 175 years. Sisters Margaret and Elise Croft willed the Grassmere property to be used as a nature preserve upon their deaths, and the Nashville Zoo began management of the site in 1997 to honor that request.

Margaret Croft (in black) with her sister Elise (in white).
Image from the Tennessee State Library and Archives Grassmere Collection.

“This program will highlight a true treasure of our state. Through this collection, we honor the legacy of two sisters who generously gifted their land, house and its contents for future generations to enjoy,” said Secretary of State Tre Hargett. "We are grateful for the collaboration that is making this event possible."

Tori Mason, Historic Site Manager of the Nashville Zoo at Grassmere, will share some of the more than 250 items included in the new Tennessee Virtual Archive (TeVA) collection curated by the Library and Archives staff.

“One of the most frequently asked questions we receive from visitors is, ‘Where can I get more information about this family and the property?’ Up to this point, we have not been able to guide visitors to a site to access more information other than the zoo's website and our social media pages,” Mason said. “Thanks to the Library and Archives’ staff, we now have the ability to direct those questions to the TeVA site and all of these wonderful documents, photos and oral histories.”

Megan Spainhour and Jami Awalt from the Library and Archives will also present on how to browse the collection through TeVA, which is available at bit.ly/GrassmereTeVA.

This free program is open to the public and will take place at 7 p.m. CDT Thursday, April 5, at the zoo’s Croft Center. The Nashville Zoo at Grassmere is located at 3777 Nolensville Pike in Nashville.

The Tennessee State Library and Archives is a division of the Office of Tennessee Secretary of State Tre Hargett

2017 Civics Essay Contest Winners Honored at the Tennessee State Capitol

The winners of our 2017 civics essay contest were recently honored in the Tennessee State Capitol. The students range from kindergarten to 12th grade representing school systems and programs across the state.




More on the winners here: 2017 Civics Essay Contest Winners Announced.

The Tennessee State Library and Archives is a division of the Office of Tennessee Secretary of State Tre Hargett

A Forgotten President

By Lori Lockhart

Can you identify all the presidents of the United States? You might start your list with George Washington. But, what about names like John Hanson, Elias Boudinot or Thomas Mifflin? They are often left off any presidential roll. Yet, all of them (among others) were selected to be presidents of the United States Congress under the Articles of Confederation. Take Elias Boudinot (May 2, 1740-Oct. 24, 1821) for example, he was elected to be the president of the Confederation Congress Nov. 4, 1782. This made him the presiding officer of the first formal national government in the United States when the Treaty of Paris was signed with England that effectively ended the American Revolution.

J. W. Paradise engraving of Elias Boudinot (1740-1821).
THS Picture Collection, Tennessee State Library and Archives

Functioning as the head of the United States Congress wasn’t Boudinot’s only claim to fame. He also served on the board of directors of the College of New Jersey (Princeton), was a lawyer, a U. S. Representative, an author and a supporter of Native American rights. But, perhaps his greatest achievement was founding the American Bible Society (ABS) in 1816.

American Bible Society Lifetime Member Certificate for Rev. R. C. (Robert Clopton) Hatton, 1841.
Peyton Family Papers, Tennessee State Library and Archives

The British and Foreign Bible Society was formed in 1804. Four years later, the first Bible society in the United States was established in Philadelphia. Soon, similar Bible groups were being organized all over the Northeast. By June 1816, a published list would show the existence of 128 similar groups spread out over 21 U.S. states and territories. Tennessee was even home to several Bible societies.

Franklin County Bible Society membership list, ca. 1830s.
Carrick Academy Board of Trustees Minutes, Tennessee State Library and Archives

A plan for a national Bible society was suggested in 1815 by Boudinot, who was the head of the New Jersey Bible Society at the time. He thought a national society would unify the efforts of smaller local organizations and also be more effective at getting the Bible into unsettled areas of the U.S. that were still little more than wilderness.

According to “The Manual of the American Bible Society,” a convention was held May 8, 1816, in the “Consistory Room of the Reformed Dutch Church, in Garden Street, in New York” with 60 people from many different denominations in attendance. The meeting’s mission was established with harmony: “Resolved, That it is expedient to establish, without delay, a general Bible Institution for the circulation of the Holy Scriptures without note or comment.” The gathering was a success with a constitution being adopted and “Executive Officers” as well as a “Board of Managers” being selected for the new national group. (Boudinot would serve as the first President of the society.) With this illustrious start, “the American Bible Society entered at once upon its career of benevolence and Christian usefulness.”

The constitution of the ABS stated that “the sole object of the Institution is to encourage a wider circulation of the Holy Scriptures without note or comment.” It was unsectarian and did not want remarks included in the Bibles it published to contain denominational bias. The ABS prided itself on being made up of members from many different denominations and also strove to “circulate the Scriptures among all classes impartially,” giving away Bibles to those who could not afford them and charging only what the Bible cost to manufacture to those who were more affluent.

Excerpts from the William Driver Family Bible. Driver (March 17, 1803-March 3, 1886) was a sea captain and longtime Nashville resident who coined the moniker “Old Glory” for the U.S. flag. He is buried in Nashville City Cemetery.
William Driver Family Bible, Tennessee State Library and Archives

The society worked with many different organizations to distribute scriptures, including the United States military. The ABS gave Bibles to sailors on the USS John Adams in 1817 and has supplied Bibles to soldiers in every American war since the Mexican-American War in 1846. In fact, many Civil War (both Union and Confederate) and WWI soldiers carried pocket testaments published by the ABS.

Title page of pocket New Testament (1861) given to Jasper B. Griffith, Co. E, 3rd Wisc. Inf. Regt., USA. He was from Font du Lac, Wisconsin and moved to Lawrence County, Tenn. after the war. He died at the National Soldiers Home in East Tenn. in 1915. This New Testament edition also went to World War I with one of Jasper Griffith's descendants, Pvt. Samuel F. Clifton.
Looking Back at the Civil War Digital Collection, Tennessee State Library and Archives

Inside front cover of New Testament (1917) printed by the American Bible Society and given to Pvt. Euliss Grant Hallowell, 63rd Art. Brig., Coastal Art. Brig. He was assigned to Ft. Pickens and later Ft. Barrancas near Pensacola, Florida. Hallowell ultimately served in France beginning in September 1918. He remained overseas until March 1919. Hallowell farmed in Carroll County after the war and died in 1984.
Over Here, Over There WWI Digital Collection, Tennessee State Library and Archives

Through the years, the American Bible Society has been a leading innovator in the publishing world. According to John Fea (author of “The Bible Cause: A History of the American Bible Society”), the ABS was the “first publisher in the United States to use steam-powered presses.” The ABS also published the first braille Bible.

While the ABS’s mission/vision has changed slightly in recent years and their headquarters has moved from New York to Philadelphia, they continue to “make the Bible available to every person in a language and format each can understand and afford.” This continues the legacy started long ago by a largely forgotten president.

To explore items in the Library and Archives holdings related to the American Bible Society, browse through materials here.

To view more military memorabilia from the Civil War and World War I, please visit the Looking Back: The Civil War In Tennessee and the Over Here, Over There: Tennesseans in the First World War digital collections.

The Tennessee State Library and Archives is a division of the Office of Tennessee Secretary of State Tre Hargett

African American music traditions recorded in the Tennessee Virtual Archive

By Heather Adkins

Music traditions are fundamental to record-keeping in African-American communities. Profoundly unique, these traditions take the shape of storytelling and shared experience across one of the largest cultural populations in the United States. They are often characterized by the use of polyrhythms and rhyme and are passed from generation to generation.

Oak Grove Church of Christ Gospel Group, Chester County, July 20, 1980.
Tennessee State Parks Folklife Project, 1979-1984.
Image online: http://teva.contentdm.oclc.org/cdm/compoundobject/collection/p15138coll21/id/826/rec/104

Excerpt from Andrew Jones’ interview, relating a story about his Model T Ford, recorded July 14, 1981.

Tennessee State Parks Folklife Project, 1979-1984.

Audio online: http://teva.contentdm.oclc.org/cdm/compoundobject/collection/p15138coll21/id/637/rec/6

One such tradition is the “toast.” A toast is performed narrative poetry. Similar to tall tales and ballads, toasts celebrate heroic deeds. The tradition is mostly performed by men, and improvisation of stories is highly valued. The recitations can be traced back to the Reconstruction Era in both rural and urban communities. Toasts are considered a precursor of rap and hip-hop and are still performed today.

Toast “Boll Weevil” performed by Ed Harris at the Chickasaw State Park Festival, recorded May 6, 1980.

Tennessee State Parks Folklife Project, 1979-1984.

Audio online: http://teva.contentdm.oclc.org/cdm/compoundobject/collection/p15138coll21/id/481/show/473/rec/1

Another tradition, not necessarily including spoken word, is fife and drum music. Fife and drum bands became popular in black communities in the South after the Civil War. Loosely based on militia bands, fife and drum music is a fusion of the Euro-American military drum tradition and African polyrhythms. “Talking drum” influence and call and response patterns are characteristic of the music. Black fife and drum bands are still prevalent in the South, in areas stretching across Northern Georgia to Northern Mississippi and covering the southern border of Tennessee.

Unidentified fife and drum song, performed by Ed Harris and others at the Chickasaw State Park Festival, recorded May 6, 1980.

Tennessee State Parks Folklife Project, 1979-1984.

Audio online: http://teva.contentdm.oclc.org/cdm/compoundobject/collection/p15138coll21/id/481/show/477/rec/6

Call and response is also typical of spirituals. The tradition of spirituals is most closely associated with the enslavement of African people in the American South. Spirituals developed in the late 1700s and remained a unique form of expression up through the abolition of slavery in the 1860s. Introduction to and uptake of Christianity in the 1600s and 1700s by Africans enslaved in the American colonies was slow; however, the enslaved Africans eventually became fascinated by certain parallels drawn between biblical stories and their own lives. These parallels, combined with African traditions of music and dance, eventually resulted in the creation of spirituals. This “Africanized Christianity” expressed the community’s new faith, in addition to its sorrow. Spirituals are the precursor to African-American Gospel music, which became popular in the 1930s. Both spirituals and Gospel were significant vehicles of protest for civil rights activists.

Unidentified spiritual, performed by Ed Harris, Emmanuel Dupree, James Tatum and Annie Marie Valentine, recorded Aug. 6, 1980.

Tennessee State Parks Folklife Project, 1979-1984.

Audio online: http://teva.contentdm.oclc.org/cdm/compoundobject/collection/p15138coll21/id/169/show/167/rec/1

Blues is a secular African-American music genre that developed from earlier traditions such as work songs, field hollers, spirituals and minstrelsy. Noted for its focus on emotion and experience, blues derived from the American South by the 1890s. Memphis composer W.C. Handy lent the genre national (and eventually international) popularity when he began publishing sheet music adaptations of blues songs in 1912. Blues artists and musicians recorded and entertained regularly by the 1940s. Like spirituals and gospel, blues became another mode of protest over civil rights, war and prison labor. The genre also boasts its own dance tradition, complete with style-specific aesthetics. Modern blues includes a broad range of styles due to developments in technology and instrumentation (many developed by black blues musicians) and regional influences.

“Low down blues,” slide guitar and vocals performed by Lottie “Wolf” Murrell at the Chickasaw State Park Festival, recorded May 6, 1980.

Tennessee State Parks Folklife Project, 1979-1984.

Audio online: http://teva.contentdm.oclc.org/cdm/compoundobject/collection/p15138coll21/id/471/show/464/rec/19

If you are interested in these music traditions and more, check out the Tennessee State Park Folklife Project records, available on the Tennessee Virtual Archive: http://tsla.tnsosfiles.com/digital/teva/sites/tnstateparksfolklife/index.htm. The records include an invaluable array of images, oral histories and musical recordings.

“Milk Cow Blues,” vocals and fife performed by Ed Harris, Emmanuel Dupree, James Tatum and Annie Marie Valentine, recorded Aug. 6, 1980.

Tennessee State Parks Folklife Project, 1979-1984.

Audio online: http://teva.contentdm.oclc.org/cdm/compoundobject/collection/p15138coll21/id/181/show/179/rec/5

The Tennessee State Library and Archives is a division of the Office of Tennessee Secretary of State Tre Hargett

From the Tennessee Supreme Court Case Files: Tempe Downs v. James C. Allen et al.

By Lindsay Hager

In 1883, the Supreme Court of Tennessee ruled that Temperance “Tempe” Downs, “a free woman of color,” was entitled to a dower (one-third) of her deceased husband’s estate. Her suit, sensationalized in the Daily American (Nashville Tennessean), was considered “one of the most noted cases in the jurisprudence of Tennessee.” However, Tempe Downs’ recorded struggle to emancipate herself, remain in Tennessee and later receive her rightful inheritance as the widower of William B. Downs started over 45 years earlier when she saved the money to purchase her freedom.

Before Emancipation in Tennessee, enslaved and free black residents navigated state and local laws and customs, challenging the institution of slavery and laws that enforced white supremacy. In 1837, Temperance Crutcher (Tempe Downs) petitioned the state Legislature to allow her to remain in Tennessee upon her emancipation. Since about 1835, Thomas Crutcher, who purchased Tempe from James Barrett, had permitted her to “act as a free person” with the understanding that she “refunded” him the price of her purchase.

1837 petition to the Legislature submitted on behalf of Temperance Crutcher for permission to remain in Tennessee upon her manumission. It contains the signatures of 17 white Tennesseans who knew Tempe and the request of her enslaver, Thomas Crutcher. Part of the legislative petition collection in Record Group 60, Tennessee State Library and Archives.

Tempe paid Crutcher from money she earned working as a chambermaid at the Nashville Inn. It was there she met her husband, William “Billy” B. Downs, a free black man, who moved from Brownsville to Nashville with James B. Ferguson around 1832 to work as the steward for the Inn. Mr. William B. Downs, the son of an enslaved woman and a white enslaver, purchased his freedom in 1830 from William P. Downs, who had inherited him from his Uncle James P. Downs.

Unable to legally marry, Tempe and Mr. Downs cohabitated as man and wife and in 1837, with the consent of Thomas Crutcher, were married by Methodist minister Reuben P. Graham, “a free man of color,” who had a barber shop below the Inn. According to William P. Anderson Cheatham, employed at the Inn, “Nearly every respectable servant about town and nearly all the old settlers were there.” A reception dinner took place at the Inn following the ceremony. It was reported that from then on, despite the State’s denial of their marriage, black and white persons in the community of Nashville treated them as man and wife.

Drawing of the courthouse in Nashville as it looked in 1832, including the Nashville Inn and the City Hotel. Tempe Downs lived at the Inn and tried her cases in the neighboring courthouse. Her 1837 legislative petition would also have been heard here before the construction of the Tennessee State Capitol.

Close-up of Nashville Inn, at the corner of Public Square and Second Avenue, where Tempe and William B. Downs lived and worked. The Inn was considered the gathering place for many Jackson Democrats. The image is a lithograph by T. Sinclairs announcing the leasing and refitting of the Nashville Inn by J. Mosher, late of Mammoth Cave.

Although she paid Crutcher her purchase price, an 1831 Tennessee Law required that all enslaved people leave the state upon their emancipation and any slaveholder intending to emancipate any person was required to provide bond for their hasty removal. Despite the requests of “a number of [white] ladies and gentlemen of the city of Nashville” to grant special permission to Temperance to remain in the state, the legislature denied her request, claiming they already rejected a bill that session on the subject and another could not be passed. In order to not “be driven from the home of her nativity kindred and friends, to seek a [sic] home in the land of strangers,” Tempe had to legally remain enslaved.

1838 response of Julian Frazier, Chairman of the Legislative Committee on Propositions and Grievances, to Temperance’s Dec. 2, 1837, petition to the state Legislature. Record Group 60, Tennessee State Library and Archives.

Tempe and William P. Downs lived and worked together at the Nashville Inn until the early 1840s when she started working as a chambermaid on the Steamer Nashville that traveled the rivers to New Orleans. The same year, Thomas Crutcher conveyed Tempe to John H. Eaton and James B. Ferguson (host of the Nashville Inn) in a trust that stated they set her free as soon as possible and until then, she was “to have and enjoy her own time and be subject to her own control without the interference of anyone.”

With the money they earned, Mr. Downs purchased several lots in Nashville, including one on College Street where they planned to retire. Betsy Craighead, Tempe’s friend since childhood, testified she had planted evergreen trees on the lot “at Billy’s request.” Tragically, in 1846, shortly before the completion of their new home, he was stricken with smallpox. Downs died within a few days and was buried in the Nashville City Cemetery. The State did not legally recognize their marriage or the life they built together. Therefore, Tempe’s right to his estate and status in Tennessee were equally untenable.

Not until after the Civil War and the amendment of the state constitution in 1865 was Tempe legally emancipated and free to personally file suit against James C. Allen et al., the heirs of William P. Downs, to recover the estate of her husband. In 1866, she first filed her suit with the Freedmen’s Bureau but their court dissolved leading her to refile in the state court in 1868. Tempe testified that she was paid the $550 with the threat from William P. Downs that any further claims to her husband’s estate through her legal emancipation would be met with her expulsion to Liberia.

Newspaper excerpts about the case of Tempe Downs v. James C. Allen et al from the Daily American, July 18, 1879, and March 6, 1883, respectively. Complete article for “Tempe’s Trouble” available at the Tennessee State Library and Archives.

Though the laws at the time of the case entitled her to all the property of her husband, the law at the time of his death limited her to a claim of dower, despite her more than fifty-percent contribution to the estate. The Supreme Court of Tennessee declared that since she was functionally not “imprisoned,” though technically enslaved, before Emancipation, the statute of limitations barred her from collecting the entire estate.

Cover, cases style and parties of Tempe Downs v. James C. Allen et al. in the Tennessee Supreme Court Case files at the Tennessee State Library and Archives. Check out our growing database: http://supreme-court-cases.tennsos.org/

In 1887, the last known record of Tempe places her at 502 Melvina [Malvina] Street (now 10th Avenue) between Gleaves and Division Streets. Tempe Downs v. James C. Allen et al., detailed in the Library and Archives historic Supreme Court holdings and Tennessee Reports, spanned from 1868 to 1883 and offers valuable insight into the lives of the Downs, other local persons and places and the legal history of Tennessee. Her story illustrates the strength and persistence of enslaved and free black men and women to build their lives in Tennessee despite state-sanctioned slavery and oppression.

The Tennessee State Library and Archives is a division of the Office of Tennessee Secretary of State Tre Hargett