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By MIKE WEST
Courier Editor
Rainy clouds held back Friday, March 17 as the temperature lifted for the unveiling of a new state Historical Marker about Stone's River.
Some 50-60 onlookers were on the Courthouse Square for the event which featured Tennessee State Historian Carroll Van West.
Col. Jim Stone, a descendant of long hunter Uriah Stone, lead the two-year project to get the marker. The river was named in honor of Uriah Stone.
"Colonel Stone did all the leg work. Colonel Stone's many years in the military taught him how to follow orders and when he came to me with this idea I told him let's just have a couple of people and keep it real small. You see how he follows orders. He doesn't take orders from me that's obvious," said County Executive Mike Gannon, who emceed the program.
"When this whole project started from Colonel Stone. Mike Gannon called me and said this idea has come up and we need you to support it. He didn't know it at the time, but I was way out in Missouri on the Trail of Tears," West told the crowd.
"He said, well we are going to put it on the Square and I just thought this was meant to happen because right through here (Woodbury) was the Trail of Tears. 10,000 Cherokees moving out to Oklahoma," West said. "I was out on one end of the Trail, working on it with the Cherokees and the National Park Service."
West said the Courthouse Square was the perfect location for the monument.
"It's always been a very special place here, the town Square, the Courthouse, the monuments we have up, they all tell any visitors we have to come up here the importance of this place in this county that has contributed to our nation's history," he said.
The State Historian said, "The last thing I was here for was the Civil War Trail Marker and that reminds us of Forrest's Raid on Murfreesboro and how that was a turning point not only in his career but also in the whole course of the Civil War in Middle Tennessee.
"So that's why, Colonel, I was really excited about this marker because it also reminds us that, we all take for granted the land and everything around us. It's beautiful. We've all seen it our whole lives. We don't give it that much of a thought, but this is where the Stone's River starts in Cannon County," West said.
"And it and the water helps all of Middle Tennessee as it flows from here and into the rest of the state. That's just like another important story we have to share. We have the Trail of Tears, we have the Civil War, we have the importance of our little town squares across the state of Tennessee. That's the real roots of the state. We have our core cities, but its places like this that tells another story," he said.
Colonel Stone told how he first heard the story about Stone's River.
"I remember as a 6-year-old kid, my father took me up there and told me this is the start of Stone's River. I said, awww, you're nuts. You don't know what you are talking about. But then he told me the story as we came back down the river and I saw how the river became bigger and bigger," Stone said.
It was a phone call from a former Woodbury resident that got Stone started on the monument project.
"Two summers ago this lady from Hoover, Alabama called me and said I've got my grand kids and we're sitting up here at the head of Stones River. And if you've never been to the head of Stone's River. It's up close to Short Mountain. You need to go because all it is a little pipe coming out of the hill," Stone said.
"This lady called and said I'm up here and I've got my grand kids and I'm telling them the story about Stone's River ... how it got its name. I want you to get a monument up here at the head of Stone's River.
"Of course," Stone continued, "the state Historical Society won't do that. It has got to be in a secure area. So that's why it's here (at the Courthouse) and rightfully so because it will tell the story. ...This is an important story. The way this place contributes to the rivers of our state and how we have shaped the land. It's a legacy we enjoy and we want to perpetuate into the future."
The lady, Nancy Smith Griner. in question was the daughter of Hayden Smith, who once owned The Cannon Courier newspaper, and Lillian Smith.
"She had planned to come with her two daughters and actually do the unveiling, but illness prevented that," Stone said.
"She used to live in the house where Charlie Harrell lives now on College Street. A beautiful white house with a yard with a hedge all the way around it. That was our ball field. If you knocked the ball over the hedge you got an automatic home run.
"We had more fun in that yard than you will never remember. In fact today when I drive past that house on the corner, I can still hear the laughter and the giggling of the kids playing in that yard," Stone said.
So her best friend, Jane Hood Lester, will unveil this monument for her, he said.
Cannon County Historian Robert Bush shared remarks about the marker.
"This marker tells a story of long hunters back in the day when Nashville was just a buffalo wallow. Uriah Stone had explored this one river so much they just had to name it after him," Bush said. "Long hunters sparked the effort that lead to migration of others to this land."
Bush recalled the remarks of the late State Rep. Jim Cummings when state Route 70S was improved in the 1950s.
"The late Mr. Jim Cummings with the iconic Short Mountain standing in the background, told a reporter 'a dusting of snow upon these hills the view would be just like the Alps.' Mr. Jim took great pride in his Cannon County roots. That paved highway opened up an isolated town," Bush said.
State Sen. Mae Beavers shared brief remarks with the audience.
"History is important to all of us, to our children especially. It is so good to see so many children here today. This is something that's had our attention for such a long time ... the history of this area. It's an honor to be here today to celebrate with you," Beavers said.
Col. David Faulkner, commander of American Legion Post 279, said "I think that is very appropriate that we have a monument on our Square that recognizes the greatest God given resource we have in Cannon County and that is water the elixir of life.
"This monument recognizes the settlers who came here that 10 years prior to the war of independence to settle his area and is very instrumental in teaching the youth of our county, as well as the adults, the spirit that was the hallmark of being an American," Faulkner said.
