McNAIRY COUNTY, TN - HISTORY - Old Falcon
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   		   YEARS AGO AT FALCON

	McNAIRY COUNTY INDEPENDENT Friday Jan. 18,1924 

One of the first towns to be established after the Mobile and Ohio
was built in 1858 and 1859, was Falcon.  It was then the first
railroad stop after leaving Bethel Springs, being situated about
seven miles south of that station.  In the county forty and more
years ago were railroad stations at McNairy, Bethel Springs, Falcon
an Ramer.  What is now Selmer was then an old field, and between
what is now Selmer and Falcon was an old water mill.  The road
leading from the east went to that old mill under a long trestle
that has long since been filled, and that old road abandoned,
nothing but old ruins mark the place where once the scattered
citizenship went to mill and watched "their turn."

The town of Falcon was originally laid off in lots, there being
about 54 in number.  The business houses fronted the railroad, and
their was a wide space or street between these business houses, and
the railroad property.  Beautiful mulberry trees grew a long this
front and these furnished ample shade in the summer time, and
adorned the street as well.  There was not much business done there
until about the year 1871, Rev. Bob Young removed his store from
where he had operated it some two miles east.  This old store stood
on the north side of the lane just west of where J.C. Gilbert now
lives.  The old oak tree that stood near the store has long since
fallen down, and there is nothing to indicate that any house ever
stood on the spot.

When Uncle Bob Young began the mercantile business at Falcon in
1871, there was nothing of what afterwards was a beautiful little
village.  But soon C.M. Jeans opened up a store, and then came D.
Horn & Co, Jeans & Prather, J.L. Smith, W.E. Tedford, H.C. Gooch,
H.A. Hunter, J.B. Maxedon, Prather and Simpson, J.M. Nelson, F.P.
Browder, R.H. Freeman, W.E. Atkins, Phil Holcombe and others.

The early doctors were Drs. C. Prather, Jones, W.E. Atkins, J.L.
Smith.  The drug store was operated for nearly fifty years by Polk
Browder, who died a short time ago.

Some of the early teachers of the old town were Profs. H.D. Norman,
Fronabarger, Kirkpatrick and M.R. Abernathy.  The latter taught
school 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. Colman, J.L. Swain, Pink Harris, Pierce Winningham, John
Basinger, David Surratt, John R. Thrasher, James M. Jones, Steve
Dickey and sisters, Andrew Lavton, Samuel and Josie Hostetterl Lee
and Frank Nethery, Minnie Nelson, Clint and Ed Stone, C.C. Taylor,
B.T. Baker, Ben Basinger, Mary and Rosa Hostetter, Moxie Pahles,
Frank Locke, John Rosson and sisters, W.K., Terry and Florence
Abernathy, Jim Warren, Nora Jeans, Mose and Davy Horn the Carman
boys, John and Callie and Lee and Dave Holcombe, Oliver Gooch,
Charlie McCullar, Ed and Callie Smith, Tonie, Eulah, Due and Ed
McAfee, Dave and Willy Mitchell, Bettie Brooks, Frank Higginbottom,
Fayette Fisher, Mattie Warren, Emma and Etta Jones, Jim and Lucinda
Dunaway, Rachel Roten, Will and Ben and Annie Boatman, and many
others whom a hazy recollection now fails to call to memory.

The old blacksmiths were M.L. Carman and Aaron Gage, and Josh
Mitchell and Dan Callicut, the latter two being colored ones.  At
one time in the remote past, a Jew, by the name of Mendall who came
from Corinth, operated a saloon.

The old schoolhouse stood on the hill about where the new one now
stands, and the only Church, one erected by the Methodists, was
just across the branch on the south side of the town, on the right
of the road as you went out towards the Si Jeans place.  All
denominations used it.  Within its walls long since fallen, Revs.
W.J. Williams, Sullivan, R.P. Meeks, T.G. Pettigrew and Robert Lee
Harris, preached strong and forceful sermons.

About 1884, the county seat was removed there from Purdy, and
courts were held there for some time before the removal question
was settled by a Supreme Court decision.  The lawyers there were
J.W. Pace, A.W. Stovall, D.A. McDougal, J.D. Christopher and T.J.
Braden.  This election that took the county seat to Falcon was held
on the 23rd day August, 1884.  There was cast 1921 votes for
removal and 560 against it.  On the 6th day of October, 1884, the
County Court met and canvassed the vote, and declared that the
constitutional two thirds majority had voted for removal.  Dr. J.L.
Smith, W.H. Stone and others living then at Falcon, were selected a
committee to transfer the books and records to the new county seat.
Very soon there after, those opposing the removal obtained an
injunction.  Chancellor Nixon, a venerable jurist, heard the case
after the taking of 500 depositions.  His decision was in favor of
Purdy and no removal.  The case went to the Supreme Court, where
action of the lower court was affirmed.  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 the courts at Falcon was T.B. Bateman, and the Attorney
General was M.H. Meeks, T.F. Dalbey was then the Circuit Court
Clerk, J.R. Adams, the County Court Clerk, J.H. Curry, Register,
W.D. Jopling, Sheriff, J.L. Littlefield, Trustee, J.T. Barnhill,
County Representative, R.E. McKinney, Clerk and Master, Jo
Williams, the railroad agent.

The first newspaper ever published in the town was the Falcon
Worker, by M.R. Abernathy.  After that W.E. Grimes and C.C. Lewter
published papers in the town.  The old Holcombe hotel was situated
on the south end of the row of buildings, just south of the
printing office.  Mrs. E.E. Warren later ran a good hotel on the
hill over looking the town.

The old graveyard on the east, about one mile out, was laid off
nearly fifty years ago, and the first grave in the old cemetery was
that of an infant of Dr. and Mrs. J.L. Smith, its name being Lelia.

W.R. Carman a resident of Falcon since 1876, is the only one of the
number left of those living there then.  The old Moss Nelson store
yet stands.  On the front of the old store is written in pencil
"First bale of cotton brought in by Charlie Hill and sold to J.M.
Nelson Sept. 23, 1886 at 9 cents."  In another place "First bale of
cotton, Geo. Perry Sept. 13 1887"  The Charlie Hill referred to was
the father of J.H. Hill, and the grandfather of Mrs. O.S.
Abernathy.

But time has changed all these things, and only a few of the many,
now remain.  The old Town, once populated with a prosperous and
contented citizenship, is no more. And verily:

        "Few are left to greet us,
          Tom, and few are left to know
        Who played with us upon the green
          Some forty years ago."