Archaeology at Bosley Spring

This information to The Dutchmans Curve Project by provided by Prehistoric Archaeologist Aaron Deter-Wolf

Today, the stream terraces overlooking Richland Creek are part of the modern city of Nashville. However, hundreds of years in the past, long before the first European settlers ever set foot in Tennessee, this area was home to a large town of prehistoric Native Americans.

In 1877, archaeologists from the Smithsonian Institution and Harvard University excavated five prehistoric mounds at Bosley Spring on a farm belonging to Ms. Gertrude Bowling. These mounds were located east of Richland Creek, between what is today Harding Rd. and the Nashville, Chattanooga, & St. Louis Railroad. The largest of the mounds at Bowling Farm measured 50 feet in diameter and stood 6 feet high. Each of the five mounds contained large numbers of prehistoric burials and artifacts including pottery, shell, and stone tools.

From these artifacts, archaeologists know that the mounds were built sometime between A.D. 1000 and 1300. This is part of the era known as the Mississippian Period. The mounds at Bowling Farm were the center of a prehistoric town and surrounding villages that stretched for several miles along both sides of Richland Creek. Artifacts from this settlement have been found beneath what is today McCabe Park, the Whitland neighborhood, and along White Bridge Pike.

This information to The Dutchmans Curve Project by provided by Prehistoric Archaeologist Aaron Deter-Wolf

A Brief History of the Nashville Jewish Community
Courtesy,the Archives of the Jewish Federation of Nashville

Nashville dates its beginning from 1780, and by the 1840s there were enough Jewish men to meet for services. In 1851, the group established a Hebrew Benevolent Burial Association, and purchased property for a cemetery. This property is part of The Temple Cemetery, and was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2004.

1851 marks the founding date of The Temple, Congregation,Ohabai Shalom, which celebrated its 150th anniversary in 2001. This congregation, the first in Nashville and in the State of Tennessee, was first chartered in 1854 as Mogen David, in honor of Davidson County. A second congregation, Ohava Emes, was chartered in 1860.
Mogen David and Ohava Emes united in 1867, and the merged congregation was called Ohavai Shalom. The Vine Street Temple, now The Temple, was dedicated in 1876, and became one of the first members of the Union of American Hebrew Congregations.

Congregation Adath Israel, which became West End Synagogue, Nashville’s Conservative synagogue, was chartered in 1876, and built a synagogue on Gay Street in 1902. In the early 1870s the Hungarian Benevolent Society was organized. It met in a little house next to the Ryman Auditorium, pictured in the murals of Nashville landmarks at Opryland Hotel. Chartered in 1905, the Orthodox congregation Sherith Israel built a shul on the site of the house next to the Ryman Auditorium in 1920. All three of these congregations moved to their present locations in the 1940s and 1950s.

Congregation Micah, a Reform congregation, began in 1992, and celebrated its tenth anniversary in 2002.

The YMHA was founded in 1902, and celebrated its centennial as the Gordon Jewish Community Center. The Jewish Community Council began in 1936 and became the Jewish Federation of Nashville and Middle Tennessee, the central voluntary communal organization of the Nashville Jewish community.

Akiva School, the Jewish community elementary day school began in 1954 and moved to its present location on the campus of the Gordon Jewish Community Center in 1999.

Jewish Family Service in 2003 celebrated its 150th year of social service to the Jewish and general communities of Nashville. The Nashville Section of National Council of Jewish Women in 2001 observed its 100th year of volunteer community service. Hadassah was founded in 1926 and continues its support of the State of Israel today. B’nai B’rith began in 1863.

Congregation Beit Tefilah, based on Chabad, was founded in 2001. In 2002, the Ben Schulman Center for Jewish Life was opened on the campus of Vanderbilt University. It houses Grins, a kosher vegetarian restaurant,

These organizations and institutions help to make a vibrant Jewish life for the eight thousand Jews comprising the Nashville Jewish community.

St. Mary’s Orphanage
Used with Permission

In 1863 Rev. Joseph A. Kelly, O.P. acknowledged the need for an orphanage when three small homeless children appeared at the door of the cathedral residence. A suitable building was acquired, children seeking a secure environment were registered, and Dominicans from Somerset, Ohio were placed in charge. Within the first three months fourteen children were received.

In December of 1864 a Union soldier, in the words of Sr. Miriam Walsh, “hurriedly galloped up to the gates of the asylum and informed the sisters at the orphanage that they must leave the premises without delay, and seek for themselves and the orphans a place of greater safety, as the one they were occupying was liable at any moment to be riddled by shot and shell.” The two armies were about to converge. Sr. Rose Marie writes, “Having no place to go, nor any conveyance, the sisters and children, terrified, watched as the Union army planted its guns between the orphanage and the city. At about midnight Father Kelly and Father John McDonald, a U.S. cavalry chaplain, drove up with an ambulance and some army wagons. By dawn the inhabitants of the orphanage and some of their belongings were at the cathedral. They were given the basement for a temporary home. As it turned out, however, the basement home was not so temporary, because the asylum was destroyed in the Battle of Nashville. After four weeks another home was found for them near Fort Negley.

In May of 1864 St. Mary’s Orphan Asylum became the charge of the Dominican Sisters. The numbers of orphans increased dramatically after the Yellow Fever Epidemic of 1878. (Sixty orphans were relocated to St. Mary’s from Memphis.)

In 1903 a larger stone structure was built on Harding Road with every “modern” convenience. Included was a working farm and playground.

Bobby Boyd
Meteorologist
National Weather Service
Nashville, Tennessee

January 6, 2000

Weather Service Established within the Army
Used with permission by Mark Rose

On February 9, 1870 President Ulysses S. Grant signed into law a resolution1 requiring the Secretary of War to provide meteorological observations at military stations and other states and territories. This agency was called the Division of Telegrams and Reports for the Benefit of Commerce. The new agency operated under the Signal Service from 1870 to 1891.

Nashville Office among the First Established

The Nashville office was established by the U.S. Army Signal Corp Sergeant George H. Witmer on October 20, 1870 at 70½ Cherry Street (between Church Street and Union Street). The first weather report was sent on the morning of November 1, 1870. Nashville was one of twenty-four newly established locations to take and transmit weather observations via telegraph. The office had a wind vane, anemometer, and rain gage well exposed on the roof of the building. The instrument shelter projected from a window, which was not unusual in those days.

Sergeant Witmer's stay was short-lived as he was relieved on account of drunkenness January 31, 1871, and was succeeded by Sergeant W. Moore, who was relieved for the same cause on February 10, 1871 by Sergeant Thomas L. Watson, who remained in charge of the station until August 4, 1871, when he was relieved for failing to transmit his mail reports promptly. Sergeant J.H. Gerrard was placed in charge and assisted by newly assigned Private William Henderson, who was sent to the station on July 6, 1871.

Office Moved Several Times

The Nashville weather office moved several times while under the Army Signal Service, but remained in the same general area of the Nashville business district. The first move came on March 1, 1871 to 30 North College Street (3rd Avenue between Church Street and Union Street) where it would remain until moved again on August 1, 1882 to the Southwest corner of the Public Square and Market Street (2nd Avenue, 4th floor, Burns Block Building). The office remained at this location until July 1, 1889, when it moved to the roof of the Vanderbilt Building at 311-313 North Cherry Street (West side of 4th Avenue between Union Street and Deadrick Street).

Agency Transferred to the Department of Agriculture
and
U.S. Weather Bureau Created

On October 1, 1890, at the request of President Benjamin Harrison, Congress created the U.S. Weather Bureau within the Department of Agriculture. The actual transfer of weather stations, telegraph lines, apparatus, and personnel did not take place until July 1, 1891.

At the time of the transfer to the Department of Agriculture, the newly created U.S. Weather Bureau office in Nashville was located on the roof of the Vanderbilt Building and would remain there until September 1, 1894 when it was moved to the roof of the Chamber of Commerce Building at 307 Church Street. The office was moved again on June 30, 1905 to the Custom House at the corner of Broadway and 8th Avenue. Then, on March 25, 1909, the office was moved to the Stahlman Building on the 12th floor at 3rd Avenue and Union Street.

The Old White Bridge

By George Boyles

Three or four generations ago, White Bridge Road was called Whitworth's Lane, and simply identified
on most maps as just "County Road". The bridge was a narrow, dirty looking, sand colored crossover
just off Harding.

About 1912, or a little later, the county officials and railroad officers agreed that the rather dangerous wagon crossing should be replaced by a bridge, and the road be raised above the *swag.

After some months, it was finished and a white cement coating layered all over it to smooth it and prevent
weathering. It was white. Gleaming, shining, dazzling white. It was so white that coming up on it hurt your eyes. It could be seen from beyond Belle Meade Blvd. to the west, from the hill of St. Mary's Orphanage
eastward, and from Dutchman's Curve down the railroad. It was The White Bridge.

*swag, a depression in the earth

An excerpt from an oral history interview with Historian George Boyles, 1983

More interviews with Mr. Boyles are available at the Nashville Public Library

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Train Wreck at Dutchman's Curve, West Nashville, Tennessee July 9, 1918
By Betsy Thorpe

The worst passenger train accident in U.S. history occurred in a rural corn field three miles west of downtown Nashville the morning of July 9,1918. Two passenger trains on the Nashville Chattanooga and St. Louis Railway collided head on near The White Bridge at a section of tracks known as Dutchman's Curve. Researchers are still trying to tally the actual death toll. Official reports record 101 deaths; however that number has been in dispute since 1918.

An inbound train from Memphis collided with an outbound train from Nashville. Veteran engineers William Lloyd and David Kennedy were killed instantly. Engineer Kennedy had time to pull his emergency brake, Engineer Lloyd did not.

In spite of his reputation as a cautious engineer the responsibility for the accident has been placed on Mr. Kennedy. However a series of unfortunate circumstances were at play that resulted in the tragic event.

The United States Railroad Authority took control of U.S.rail service in March of 1918 and new schedules were implemented. Wartime travel required more trains to be on the move. Much of the workforce was away at war and many inexperienced rail workers were on duty. Trains were overcrowded. Wooden cars were in use. Jim Crow laws were in effect.

A number of factors contributed to this accident. The change of schedules and the increase in traffic caused confusion for experienced engineers and their crew. Inexperienced personnel compounded the problem. The morning of the accident a local switch engine was misidentified as the arriving Memphis to Nashville train,signals that should have held the Memphis bound train at the New Shops near Centennial Park were either misunderstood or ignored. Both trains were running late. Overcrowding on the Memphis bound train caused Conductor Eubanks to be in the cars taking tickets, rather than watching for the superior inbound train to pass. Two Pullman cars were on the rear of the inbound to Nashville train, all other cars on both trains were constructed of wood. Near the front of the inbound train behind the boiler and the baggage car, was the Jim Crow car carrying more than a hundred passengers of color.

The head on collision was heard more than two miles away. Residents of West Nashville, Bell Meade, and the West End district of Nashville rushed to the site offering assistance. An African American newspaper, The Chicago Defender reported that local residents gave aid with no regard to race. The trapped and dying could be heard crying for water. Local housewives brought ice. West Nashville bootleggers ignored the "Bone Dry" laws, bringing whiskey to alleviate the pain and fear of the trapped. The Nashville Chapter of the Red Cross responded to their first local disaster.

By late afternoon, wrecking crews cleared the tracks w and the night train to Memphis made its scheduled run departing Nashville around 10:00 P.M.

The United States Railroad Authority fearing the public would lose faith in their ability to operate rail service, requested newspapers not write about the tragedy. By July 12, 1918 most newspapers stopped reporting on the accident.

On May 21st 2007, the Metro Historical Commission voted to approve a Metro Historic Marker near Dutchman's Curve. It will be dedicated on July 9th 2008.

On July 9th 2007, descendants of victims, survivors and rescue workers attended a ceremony near Dutchman's Curve marking the 89th anniversary of the accident.

Sisters and Children of Saint Mary's Orphange offer aid
at Dutchman's Curve

By Betsy Thorpe

Shortly after coming on duty at 7 AM on July 9th 1918, NC&StL dispatcher
C.T. Phillips realized a terrible mistake had occurred and two passenger
trains on the Nashville Chattanooga & St. Louis Railway were sharing a
single track and would meet head on before the outbound train reached Harding Station.

Mr. Phillips quickly rang St. Mary's Orphanage to request the children go
to the railroad tracks and
halt the first train to come by. The residents of Saint Mary's(located
between Harding Road and a set tracks known as Dutchman's Curve)possessed
one of the few telephones in West Nashville. The phone only rang once,
then the connection died. The trains had collided at Dutchman's Curve and
derailed cars had knocked down and disabled the phone lines.

The children and Sisters of Saint Mary's hearing the collision rushed to
the scene. They offered aid and solace to the slightly injured and respite
to displaced travelers. The Dominican Sisters and their wards responded to
the tragedy at Dutchman's Curve with speed and compassion, and the good
deeds they performed as Nashville's worst disaster unfolded, is still
remembered
through the oral renditions and local lore of the terrible train wreck
that occurred on a summer morning long ago near Saint Mary's Orphanage and
Asylum.

Elizabeth Lowenhiem, A Young Girl At Dutchman's Curve

By Betsy Thorpe

In July of 1918 exciting changes were taking place in Nashville. America was at war and the citizens of Nashville were caught up in the Labor for Victory movement. The Dupont Powder plant near Nashville began production of smokeless gun powder on July first. The Dupont plant at Old Hickory was the largest powder plant in the world and laborers and skilled workers arrived in Nashville everyday hoping to find work.

On the Fourth of July patriotic parades, assemblies,
picnics and band concerts were held in Nashville's neighborhoods and parks. Most businesses were closed for the day and residents used their free time to enjoy the holiday.

It was cool in Nashville on the morning of July ninth. Orioles sang their morning song and more than a thousand grackles filled the sky over Centennial Park and West End Avenue, a quiet dusty road that ended near the White Bridge.

At 3400 West End Avenue twelve year old Elizabeth Lowenhiem and her sister Mary Jane were sleeping upstairs in a screened in porch. Around 7:15 the girls were awakened when their quiet world was disrupted by a very loud noise. By the time Elizabeth and Mary Jane were truly awake the quiet had returned. Their mother, Tessie couldn't tell them what had caused the terrifying sound , but they all knew it came from the west,in the direction of the White Bridge. In a short time the news reached them that two passenger trains had met head on at Dutchman's Curve. Many passengers were trapped and hurt. Suddenly West End Avenue was busy with cars, trucks, buggies, wagons and horse drawn ambulances. It seemed all of Nashville was hurrying west to Dutchman's Curve.

Elizabeth's natural inclination was to comfort and assist her neighbor, and she wanted to help, but she was just a little girl. The trapped and injured train passengers needed strong people to get them out of the wreckage and move them to Vanderbilt, St. Thomas and City Hospitals. Hoping to find a way to help, she accompanied her Aunt Frances who owned an automobile and was a Red Cross volunteer to the accident site.

The first car on the outbound train was a combination mail and baggage car. Like most of the cars on the two trains, the combination car was made of wood. It was shattered by the impact of the collision and disordered mail and contents of the baggage, scattered into the fields of corn growing next to the tracks. Volunteers walking along the banks of Richland Creek, and into the fields gathered the mail and passengers personal belongings. Elizabeth and her aunt carried the collected mail back to town. The hoard of people making their way down West End Avenue to Dutchman's Curve made the drive into Nashville difficult, but they were finally able to reach the Broadway Post Office where they returned the mail.

By early evening the wrecking crew had the tracks cleared and the ten o'clock night train to Memphis left on time carrying wary passengers and the morning's mail. Soon, people in Western Tennessee and points beyond received their mail, thanks in part to the efforts of a determined,twelve year old Nashville girl.

Elizabeth Lowenhiem Jonas Jacobs lived to be 101 years old. She performed many good deeds and acts of kindness in her long and fruitful life, but her early actions in Nashville's biggest calamity is an example of how a community benefits when a child is willing
to be of service.