MCNAIRY COUNTY TN - HISTORY - REFLECTIONS OF FALCON
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REFLECTIONS OF FALCON
by Nancy Wardlow Kennedy
Going down the hill and across the railroad all you see is a couple of houses,
a corn field and woods. Nothing remains to even remind us that once a bustling
little town with doctors, lawyers, stores and saloons was nestled between the
hills and lined the railroad. On the hill was a hotel overlooking this
vibrating town. It's all gone. For almost a hundred years now. Even those that
remembered are gone. Only the railroad remains and that too could be obsolete
soon. All that is left of Falcon is a reflection.
Falcon was one of the first towns to be established after the Mobile & Ohio
railroad was built in 1858. It was then the first railroad stop after leaving
Bethel Springs station, being seven miles south of that station. In the early
days, after the railroad was built, stations were McNairy, Bethel Springs,
Falcon, Ramer and Guys.
What is now Selmer was then an old field and between what is now Selmer and
Falcon was an old watermill. The old mill, located on Cypress Creek, was then
known as the Brooks mill and it was one of those famous, old, water mills
common on our streams a century ago. There was the old race and the big pond
and the crude machinery, the power for which was found in rushing water onto
the wooden wheels. The neighborhood for miles and miles gathered there on
Saturday afternoon and many stayed all day, fishing in the waters above the
mill and below it. In the deep and shady place in the turn of Cypress Creek
and east of the long trestle was where the boys of the neighborhood would
gather for a swim. The road leading from the east went to that old mill under
a long trestle that has long since been filled and the old road abandoned soon
after the turn of the century.
In the early 1870's the town of Falcon was ushered in as a little, village
town. Oral traditions has it that it was named for a man named Falcon. A man
by the name of Ben Person had a switch put in and a depot was built and a
survey made. Streets and 54 lots were laid off and a little village began to
grow.
The business houses fronted the railroad, on the east side, and there was a
wide space or street, about 200 feet, between these business houses and the
railroad. Beautiful mulberry trees grew along this front which adorned the
street and provided ample shade in the summer.
There was not much business done there until Rev. Bob Young moved his store to
Falcon. Rev. Young and his son had operated a store about one to two miles
east of Falcon. They moved the building and the goods to Falcon. An old oak
tree stood near that store. When Bob Young began the mercantile business at
Falcon in 1871 there was nothing of what afterwards was a beautiful little
village.
Soon C. M. Jeans opened up a store and after awhile the following business
houses were established. Starting at the south and running north were: W
Rossen, a saloon; W. A. Tedford, a saloon; Smith & Peoples, general
merchandise: D. Horn & Co, a general merchandise and grain store.
Old man Halcomb ran a good hotel in the 1880's on the south end of the row of
buildings. Later Mrs. E. E. Warren ran a good hotel on the hill overlooking
the town. Aaron Gage had a Buggy and Wagon Shop.
The early doctors were H. L. C. Prather, Jasper Jones, W. E. Atkins and J. L.
Smith. The drug store was operated by Polk Browder. Huse Freeman also ran a
drug store.
Rev. Bob Young was one of the preachers then. Jo Williams, Sam McCullar,
Richard Patrick and C. C. Taylor were depot agents and J. A. A.. Coleman was
for a long time the station agent. P. Halcomb had the first cotton gin and W.
H. Stone was postmaster.
Blacksmiths were M. L. Carman (called Uncle Billie) and Aaron Gage, Josh
Mitchell and Dan Callicut, the two latter, being black. At one time a Jew by
the name of Mendall came from Corinth and operated a saloon.
Other businesses at one time or the other: H. C. Gooch, W. E. Atkins, G. W.
McCullar, P. J. Howard, W. A. Gooch, Tid Jones, F. P. Browder, R. Young and
Son, Erwin Brothers, Null, G. W. Farris, J. L. Smith, Phil Halcomb. Cicero
Jeans' house was occupied by Maxedon and Hunter and later by Shytles and
Newman.
The school in the 1880' and 1890' stood on a hill were a new one stood in
1924. The only church which was erected by the Methodists was just across the
branch on the south side of town, on the right of the road as you went out
toward the Si Jeans place. All denominations used it. Within its walls, fallen
now for almost a century, Revs. W. J. Williams, Sullivan, R. P. Meeks, T. G.
Pettigrew and Robert Lee Harris preached strong and forceful sermons.
Hostetter mill, half a mile below Falcon and the McCullar mill, half a mile
above was two very busy places.
Silas Jeans was the money king of Falcon. He died in 1892. His estate was
valued at $42,000 in coins and currency and $13,000 in government bonds. Miss
Susan said the rest he gave to her for her part.
About a mile east of Falcon, the old graveyard was laid off and is the resting
place for many of the old citizens of Falcon. Little Lela Smith, infant
daughter of Dr. and Mrs. J. L. Smith, was the first to be buried there in
1885.
The first newspaper published in the town was the Falcon Worker by M. R.
Abernathy. C. C. Lewter published another newspaper later.
Some of the lawyers who practiced in Falcon were A. W. Stovall, M. H. Meeks,
W. M. Ingle, Israel Huddleston, James W. Pace, A. W. Campbell, S. D. Hayes and
Col E. L. Russell.
On the front of the J. M. Nelson store was written in pencil, "first bale of
cotton brought in by Charlie Hill and sold to J. M. Nelson, Sept 23, 1886 at 9
cents." The Charlie Hill referred to was the father of J. H. Hill and the
grandfather of Mrs. O. S. Abernathy. In another place it says, "first bale of
cotton, Geo Perry, Sept 13, 1887."
The J. Moss Nelson store was elevated several feet in front and was approached
from the street up a flight of steps. Inside this building, one hundred years
ago, the shelves and counters were laden with all sorts of merchandise. Sugar,
potatoes, flour, lard, tobacco, snuff, candy, toys, perfume, and a thousand
other articles. In the side room was stored thousands of pounds of meat, lard,
sugar and coffee and hundreds of barrels of flour.
Some of the early teachers of the old town were Professors H. O. Norman,
Fronabarger, Kirkpatrick, and M. R. Abernathy. The latter taught there in 1880
and 1881. Among the list of the old students, those attending school in those
latter years were: Henry Horn, J. D. A. Coleman, J. L. Swain, Pink Harris,
Pierce Winningham, John Bassinger, David Surratt, John R. Thrasher, James M.
Jones, Steve Dickey and sisters, Andrew Layton, Samuel and Josie Hostetter,
Lee and Frank Nethery, Minnie Nelson, Clint and Ed Stone, C. C. Taylor, B. T.
Baker, Ben Bassinger, Mary and Rosa Hostetter, Maxie Phales, Frank Locke, John
Rossen and sisters, Terry, W. K. and Florence Abernathy, Jim Warren, Nora
Jeans, Mose and Davy Horn, the Carmen boys, John, Callie, Lee and Dave
Halcomb, Oliver Gooch, Charlie McCullar, Ed and Callie Smith, Tonie, Eulah,
Due and Ed McAfee, Dave and Willy Mitchell, Bettie Brooks, Frank Hugginbottom,
Fayette Fisher, Mattie Warren, Emma and Etta Jones, Jim and Lucinda Dunaway,
Rachel Roten, Will, Ben and Annie Boatman and many others.
In 1884, the county seat was moved from Purdy to Falcon and courts were held
there for a few months before the removal question was settled by a Supreme
Court decision.
At the July 1884 session of the County Court a group of citizens of Falcon
approached the Court and agreed to build and donate a 60 X 40 foot, two story
courthouse at Falcon with four rooms on the first floor and walls two brick
thick. These citizens consisted of L. J. M. Nelson, John Ray, J. J. Horn,
Prather and Simpson (merchants), W. E. Darby, Erwin & Bros (merchants) F. P.
Browder, H. C. Gooch, Josiah Jeans, W. H. Stone and W. E. Tedford.
The election that took the county seat to Falcon was held August 23, 1884.
There was cast 1921 votes for removal and 560 against. On October 6, 1884, the
County Court met and canvassed the vote and declared that the constitutional
two-thirds majority had voted for removal. The committee appointed to remove
records and secure building in Falcon was J. L. Smith, W. H. Stone, W. J.
Darby, John F. Gilmer and W. E. Atkins.
There is nothing recorded in the minutes of the McNairy County Court from
October 1884 through April 1885. From May 1885 to May 1886 court was held at
Falcon.
Immediately, those opposing the removal obtained an injunction. Chancellor
Nixon heard the case and his decision was in favor of Purdy. The case was
settled by a Supreme Court decision also in favor of Purdy. Short lived was
the county seat at Falcon. In June 1886 the county was back at Purdy.
The lawyers in that important litigation were Pitts and Hayes for Purdy and A.
W. Campbell and W. M. Ingle for Falcon. The Circuit Judge who presided over
courts at Falcon was J. B. Bateman and Attorney General M. H. Meeks. T. F.
Dalbey was Circuit Court Clerk, J. R. Adams was County Court Clerk, J. H.
Curry was Register. W. D. Jopling was Sheriff, J. L. Littlefield was Trustee,
J. T. Barnhill was County Representative. R. E. McKinney was Clerk and Master
and Jo William was the railroad agent.
Some of the Falcon business men and citizens: W. Rossen, W. E. Tedford, Dr J.
L. Smith, Benton Peoples, D. Horn, Josiah Horn, William Horn, Henry Horn, John
Taylor, Dr A. L. Sanders, Albert Adams, N. D. Erwin, N. A. Erwin, Arlie and
Edgar Prather, G. W. Farris, J. D. Null, W. J. Null, H. C. Gooch, P. J.
Howard, E. Jeans, F. P. Browder, J. M. Nelson, Frank Locke, W. R. Coln, Ed
Stubblefield, John Carter, William Carman, J. W. Prather, J. W. Simpson, R. H.
Freeman, Dr Bud Shytles, Dr Tom Shytles, Dr Frank Young, Dr L. C. Prather, Dr.
W. E. Atkins, A. W. Stovall, Attorney Christopher, James Pace, Dr. John Smith,
Dr Ernest Smith, John W. Hooch, John Deaton, L. C. Roten, Dock Locke, Mrs.
Edith Warren boarding house, William Chatman, G. W. Alexander, U. S.
Alexander, Hostetters, Robert Browder, Rev. W. H. Williams,
Rev. Dickey, James Brown, Robert Gray, W. H. Stone, Clint Stone, Edgar Stone,
George Carman, Nat Carman, Henry Carman, Prof Norman, Richard Wise, Peck
Busby, Brown Ahearn, Carroll McCullar, Bob Emmons, Charlie Lewter, W. E.
Grimes, John Brooks, Wilson Moore, Robert Bell Sr, J. A. A. Coleman, J. F.
Williams, Sam McCullar, Richard Patrick, C. C. Taylor.
For two decades Falcon was a thriving little town by the railroad but after
Selmer bid and won the county seat in 1890 Falcon began to go down. Time
changes everything and the old town that once populated with prosperous and
contented citizen is no more. And verily "None are left to greet us, Tom, and
none are left to know - who played with us upon the green one hundred years
ago."
A Photograph taken outside the Old Holcomb Hotel (see McNairy County Tn page at
http://www.rootsweb.com/~tnmcnair/falconphoto.htm
Sources: History of Falcon by Joe Alexander, Dec, 9, 1949
Visit to Old Falcon May 1934
Years Ago at Falcon, Jan 18, 1924
All printed in the McNairy County Independent.
Documentation of McNairy County 1890-1899 by Nancy Kennedy.