RESOURCES – BOOKS

Along The Old Stage-Coach Road – Morning Sun and Brunswick
Shelby County, Tennessee
by Ellen Davies-Rodgers

Published in 1990 by The Plantation Press
Davies Plantation – Brunswick, Tennessee 38014
305 pages
   Steeped in a geographical historic setting of note and accented by Indian lore, the title of this account has been appropriately chosen. An Indian trail for many years, the road became a stage-coach route from the banks of the Mississippi River to Nashville. Sturdy planks well secured to hand hewn crossties paved the route from Memphis to Somerville. Settlements along the road came into existence, among which were Morning Sun and Brunswick, to the north of the stage-coach route. This writing covers numerous facts related to these communities.

An Illustrated History of the People and Towns of Northeast Shelby County
and Southeast Tipton County
by Historic Archives of Rosemark and Environs, Inc.
- John Phipps McCalla, Editor-In-Chief

Published in 2010 by Historic Archives of Rosemark and Environs, Inc. (H.A.R.E.)
588 pages
   This illustrated history attempts to capture the stories of those people and the places where they lived. Through a series of articles and interviews, maps, photographs, diaries, and letters, one can experience the people who lived on the farms and worked in the towns of Salem, Portersville, Idaville, Kerrville, Armourtown, Bethel, Tipton, Mudville, Macedonia, Gratitude, Barretville, and Rosemark.

Arlington – A Short Historical Writing of the Town
by Rachel Herring Kennon Burrow

Published in 1962 by E.H. Clarke & Brother
124 pages
  This history was written and compiled through the interest and cooperation of many people. Many families of Arlington today (1962) have called the town home for many years. Though their individual families may not be included in the family writings in the second section of this book, it is on the present citizens that the progress and development of our town depends. They form its government, its businesses, and its cultural life.

Bartlett
by Robert W. Dye

Published in 2010 in Images Of America Series by Arcadia Publishing
128 pages
   Author Robert W. Dye, whose family has called Bartlett home for more than 100 years, has drawn on family photographs, museum archives, and oral interviews to create a history of Bartlett that shows not only its agricultural roots, but also its people and their story.

Collierville, Tennessee – Her People And Neighbors
by Clarene Pinkston Russell

Published in 1994 by the Town of Collierville & the Collierville Chamber of Commerce
535 pages
   This book offers, in vivid detail, the history of Collierville from its very beginning to the present day (1994)- concentrating on the earlier times as opposed to the later and on the people as opposed to things.

Collierville
by Main Street Collierville

Published in 2003 in Images Of America Series by Arcadia Publishing
128 pages
   Once a stage-coach rest stop and later a railroad stop, Collierville anchors the southeast corner of Shelby County, lying about 30 miles east of Memphis and the Mississippi River. Main Street Collierville has a mission to preserve and enhance the historic area as the heart of Collierville. The group has selected images that capture the ambience of the turn-of-the-century Collierville.

Cordova
by Darlene Hooker Sawyer and Dr. Jane Howles Hooker

Published in 2013 in Images Of America Series by Arcadia Publishing
128 pages
   The simple lifestyle once shared by many families on rural farmlands in Cordova is but a dream of yesteryear, as those days are long gone. Early settlers spread into the adjacent communities of Sanga, Bethany, Pisgah, Lenow, and Morning Sun, and children from these areas went to the original brick Cordova School. At one time, 92 percent of the fresh flowers sold in Memphis were grown in Cordova; thus the town’s motto: “Farms, Flowers, Fellowship”.

Cotton: From Southern Fields to the Memphis Markets
by William Bearden

Published in 2005 by Arcadia Publishing
128 pages
   Cotton created empires in agriculture, transportation, banking and warehousing. It also shackled the dreams and lives of those born into slavery and sharecropping. Although many of the day-to-day dealings have moved to manicured office parks and high-rise buildings, cotton’s influence still remains at the core of southern economy and Southern society. Through vivid images and intriguing text, this book presents the captivating history of cotton’s profound influence in American society.

Early Families of the Memphis Area
by Paul A. Matthews

Published in 2008 by the Descendants of Early Settlers Of Shelby and Adjoining Counties
416 pages
   In these pages, one will meet the frontiersmen; soldiers from every war in which America has participated; surveyors who amassed huge tracts; circuit-riding preachers; brave an resourceful wives left to operate farms and protect their homes from marauding troops, Mardi Gras and Cotton Carnival, etc. Each of these men and women lived in Shelby County, Tennessee or one of the five surrounding counties before 1870. Illustrations, photographs, and maps inform the text and help convey insight into this colorful, personal history of the Memphis area.

Early Memphis And Its River Rivals
by Edward F. Williams, III

Published in 1969 Memphis Sesquicentennial, reprinted in 1969 by the West Tennessee Historical Society
36 pages
   How Memphis got its first firm foothold over nearby communities in its climb to success as a metropolitan center of the Mid-South and how it overcame the competition of neighboring towns (Randolph, Fulton and Fort Pickering) that aspired to become commercial centers on the Mississippi River, too, are covered through this story of early land speculation, real estate promotion, politics, and nineteenth economics.

Forgotten Days Of Farms, Flowers and Fellowship In Cordova, Tennessee
- Stories By Those Who Lived Them
by Darlene Hooker Sawyer and James A Wadell

Published in 2015
400 pages
   The days of rural Cordova re long gone, but not the memories that were recorded from the old folks in 1987 by the Cordova Civic Club and the History Department of the University of Memphis. These oral histories describe a lifestyle that only can be told by those who lived it on the farms and through the descriptions of the various daily tasks involved in making a farm successful against many odds, and without modern conveniences.

Germantown
by Russell S. Hall

Published in 2003 in Images Of America Series by Arcadia Publishing
128 pages
   Great pains have been taken by the city planners I preserving the small-town atmosphere, while still being quite mindful of the future progress of a growing city. Intriguing old photographs spanning150 years of local families, businesses, schools, and churches weave the fabric of Germantown amongst countryside, magnificent old trees, prestigious homes and pastures of fancy horses scattered throughout the area.

Historic Shelby County – An Illustrated History
by Dr. John E. Harkins

Published in 2008 by the West Tennessee Historical Society
   The first general history of Shelby County since Goodspeed’s in 1887, this pictorial format is a “coffee table history”, and its research draws on a wealth and variety of sources that should be of significant interest to scholars and local history enthusiasts, as well.
208 pages

Millington
by Rita Hiltenbrand Hall

Published in 2012 in Images Of America Series by Arcadia Publishing
128 pages
   This books present the town’s first photographic history, presents people, places and events – great and small – from a huge national military presence in WW1 and WW2; educators that achieved nationwide recognition; musicians such as Justin Timberlake or even professional athletes, all have contributed to the community’s success.

Old Cordova
by Darlene Hooker Sawyer

Published in 2010 by Darlene Hooker Sawyer with the permission of Cordova Community Center
280 pages
   The century-old Cordova Community Center stands on Sanga Road and has become an icon for residents of the area as well as a primary gathering place for all families to become acquainted. Cordova is a community built on “Farms, Flowers and Fellowship” and many of these memories are shred throughout these pages.

Shelby County
by Robert W. Dye

Published in 2005 in Images Of America Series by Arcadia Publishing
128 pages
   Author Robert W. Dye has created a visual history of Memphis and the surrounding communities of Shelby County from its funding in 1819. Cities such as Bartlett, Germantown and Collierville began in the mid-1800s as small farming communities and have grown significantly.

The Genesis of County Organization in the Western District of North Carolina
by Roy W. Black, Sr. (1948)
WTHS Papers 2, p95-118

Early Fairs in Shelby County
by Aaron M. Boom (1956)
WTHS Papers 10, p38-52

Arlington: A Short Historical Writing of the Town
by Rachel Herring Keenon Burrow (1962)

Settlers of Shelby County, Tennessee and Adjoining Counties
by Bernice Tylor Cargill & Brenda Bethea Connelly (1989)

History of Cuba, Tennessee with Family Accounts and Genealogy
by Shirley Sigler Chamberlain (1984)

The Courthouses of Shelby County
by Walter Chandler (1953)
WTHS Papers 7, p72-78

I Remember Raleigh
by Mary Winslow Chapman (1977)

The Baptists of Shelby County to 1900
by Leslie H. Coleman (1961)
WTHS Papers 15, p8-39

The Baptists in Shelby County, 1903-1950
by Leslie H. Coleman (1962)
WTHS Papers 16, p70-103

Collierville: A Place Called Home
by Contemporary Club (1999)

The Holy Innocents: The Story of a Historic Church and Parish
by Ellen Davies-Rodgers (1965)

The Romance of the Episcopal Church in West Tennessee
by Ellen Davies-Rodgers (1965)

Turns Home Again: Life on an Old Tennessee Plantation
by Ellen Davies-Rodgers (1992)

Binding The Free: Apprentice Indentures in Shelby County, Tennessee, 1829-1858
by John Dougan (1994)

Goodspeed’s History of Hamilton, Knox and Shelby Counties
by C. and R. Elder Booksellers (1974)

Memphis and the Interurban Era
by Roger H. Grant (Spring, 1987)
THC Quarterly 46, p43-48

Folklore of Shelby County
by Maude Greene (1940)

The Creation of Shelby County
by Dr. John E. Harkins (1983)
WTHS Papers 37, p96-102

Memphis, Tennessee: Federal Occupation and Reconstruction, 1862-1870
by Ernest Walter Hooper (1957)
University of North Carolina Dissertation

Raleigh Sesquicentennial Scrapbook
by Ruth Wyckoff Hunt (1973)

The Election of 1896 in the Tenth Congressional District of Tennessee
by Marilyn J. Hutton (1978)
University of Memphis Dissertation

The Railroad Comes to Tennessee: The Building of the LaGrange and Memphis
by Forrest Laws (1976)
WTHS Papers 30, p24-42

Welcome to Rosemark: A History of Our Town: Rosemark
by Shirley Williams Lowe (1986)

The Northern Exodus of Memphis During the Secession Crisis
by Charles L. Lufkin (1988)
WTHS Papers 42, p6-29

Good Abode: 19th Century Architecture in Memphis and Shelby County
by Perre Magness (1983)

The Three Lives of Raleigh
by Laura G. Mallory (1959)
WTHS Papers 13, p78-94

Organizing Jackson’s Purchase: Land Law and its Impact on West Tennessee
by Nathan K. Moran (1995)
WTHS Papers 49, p192-208

Fanny Wright: Rebel In America
by Celia Morris (1992)

The Human Continuum of Shelby County
by Charles H. Nash (1960)
WTHS Papers 14, p5-31

Park Field – World War I Pilot Training School
by John Norris (1977)
WTHS Papers 31, p59-76

Shelby County Government: A Brief History, 1820-1977
by Stephen Nunn (1977)

Old Folks of Shelby County - The Old Folks (Historical) Record
by R. C. Hite (1875)

Old Shelby County Magazine: History, Humor and Folkways of West Tennessee
by Cathy Marcinko & Lydia Spencer

Millington, The First One Hundred Years
by Faye Osteen (2002)

The History of Education in Shelby County, Tennessee
by W.C. Roberts (1934)

The Founding of Memphis, 1818-1820
by James E. Roper (1970)

Reclaiming a Historic Landscape: Frances Wright’s Nashoba Plantation
by Sheree Simpson (2000)
THQ 59 (Winter, 2000), p290-303

A History of Fisherville and a History of the Fisherville Civic Club
by Suzanne Schaffer (1981)

A History of the Shelby County Training and Industrial School
by Randall G. Sheldon (Summer, 1992)
THQ 51, p96-106

The New Guard, Shelby County, Tennessee Party Politics, 1952-1970
by Henry Clay Shelton III (1970)

Bartlett: A Beautiful Tennessee City
by Jonathon Keenon Thompson Smith (2001)

Politics of Change: The Restructure and Administration of Shelby County Government, 1974-1994
by Thomas R. Stone (1996)

Social and Economic Life in West Tennessee Before the Civil War
by Bette B. Tilly (1974)

Early Railroad Development at Memphis
by Ronald W. Waschka (1992)
WTHS Papers 46, p1-12

Road Building in Memphis
by Ronald W. Waschka (1993)
WTHS Papers 47, p50-64

Beginnings of West Tennessee, in the Land of the Chickasaws, 1541-1841
by Samuel Cole Williams (1930)

The Early History of Millington, Tennessee
by Thelma Sigler Williams (1975)

The History of Germantown: Utopia on the Ridge
by Sidney Albert Witherington, III (1997)