Brownsville, designated as County Seat circa 1823, was laid out on 50 acres the county purchased in December 1824 from Thomas M. Johnson for one dollar with Mr. Johnson retaining one lot. Public buildings were paid for by the sale of these lots. The first courthouse, a 28 by 33 log structure, stood on the west side of court square where Roy Drug Store now stands. In 1826, a frame building was constructed just south of the first one. In…
This post and photos are submitted by Bettye Seaton Liberty in January, 2026. Scroll the photo album using the arrows below the photos. Maranatha Baptist Church was founded in the mid-1940’s as an Independent Baptist congregation. It remains a vibrant worship center serving multiple communities today. The First Pastor Rev. John W. Seaton, Jr., was called to the ministry as a young man and held pastorates in Woodville and Edith before he was called to Maranatha about 1947 to…
Also See Dancyville by J. Dancy — good site. Goodspeed, History of Tennessee, Haywood County, 1887 Dancyville, named after Isaac Dancy, an old settler, is a post village thirteen miles south of Brownsville. It was established in 1837 by Fennel T. Carpenter and John Southerland, who were its first merchants. These merchants are followed by Payne, Moore and Wellii, and they by R. G. and A. Folts. At present it contains three stores, two churches-Methodist and Presbyterian-a wagon and blacksmith shop, and has…
Allen is about halfway between Brownsville and Bells on Highway 79 and also on the railroad. In the past, as many as six passenger trains a day passed through and four stopped at Allen Station. Sometimes the trips were short … a few miles up to Bells or over to the county seat at Brownsville. Freight trains were loaded with apples, strawberries, milk and hides. And at one time Allen had two stores, a cotton gin, grist mill, sawmill, barber…
Keeling is in the southwest corner of Haywood County near the Tipton County Line. An old 1877 county map shows the name as Keelan’s Station. Settlers were in the area before the railroad came, but that is when Keeling began to prosper. One source says the railroad ended at Brownsville before the war began in 1861, so maybe the Memphis leg wasn’t finished until after the war. (Need a Railroad Buff) Major Murnam, of Ireland and a Union Quartermaster when Memphis…
The community has been known as Jones or Jones Station and had its beginning with the coming of the railroad prior to the Civil War. Sometime in the late 1850’s, possibly 1857, social unrest halted railroad construction at Brownsville. Between 1857 and the end of the war a Mr. Jones, father of Ned Jones, gave about 4 acres of land at the railroad as a train stop for shipping and receiving goods. The earliest record of shipping is in the 1900’s. The…
First called Eureka, the community was later named Eurekaton because another town in Tennessee was already named Eureka. The area was settled in the 1830’s and 40’s by families from Virginia: Howse, Jeter, Jones, Mason, Miller, Newsum, Short, Stoots, Stuart, and Wilkes. From North Carolina came the Etheridge, Givson, and Nicholson families. The Craig’s and Griffin’s migrated from East Tennessee, and Hilliard’s came from both South Carolina and Alabama. The Post Office is located in Fletcher T. Seymour’s store. Mr. Stott who worked in the store…
The Cliff Creek community was settled in the early 1800’s according to one source and after the Civil War according to another. The general location covers an area 6 to 9 miles east of Brownsville between Mercer Road (State Highway 19) and Cliff Creek Road. The first settlers in the area were mostly from North Carolina families and bore the following surnames: Clement, Coburn, Forrest, Mann, Shaw, Stokely, and Whitelaw. In the late 1800’s families by the names of Austin,…
Belle Eagle is located seven miles north of Brownsville on Highway 54. The Green, Herd, Lee, Lewis, Macon, Mullen, Parks, Taylor, Thornton, Walker, and Williams families were among the early settlers. Some of the land was developed as early as 1820 as shown by land deeds and much of the area remains in large farms. Businesses through the years included Grist Mill owned by Edgar Parks Blacksmith Shop operated by Joel Harrell, later by Tom Pruitt Barber Shop operated by…
Present day Asbury is on the Dancyville-Stanton Road very near I-40 in the area between I-40, Hatchie River, Highway 70 and Stanton and may be better known to area residents as Harris’s Store. The area was first settled by a wagon train of related families from North Carolina: Thomas Sheppard and the families of Ashe, Grove, Hay and Rogers. The area surrounding Asbury is heavy with timber land and not many people settled in the area early on. Thomas Sheppard…