Clarksville-Montgomery County, Tennessee
EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR
Frank Lott
MANAGING EDITOR
Shana Thornton
GRAPHIC DESIGN MANAGER
Summer Lucio
MARKETING MANAGER
Myranda Harrison
PHOTOGRAPHY
Justin Kaicles
CONTRIBUTING WRITERS
Dr. Richard P. Gildrie
Laurina Isabella Lyle, PhD
Larry Richardson
Here we are—wrapping up another year at the Customs House Museum & Cultural Center. This 40th Anniversary year flew by at warp speed and I’m just now able to stop, take a breath, and look back on our accomplishments. With new records for membership, fundraising, and annual visitors, we have made this a special year. The numbers bear this out, but statistics are only great when you’re applying for grants or touting your marketing success. In the grand scheme, does it answer the question: Where does this lead us?
I believe it is leading us to a better understanding of our community and how important it is to share Clarksville’s unfolding story with our fellow citizens, especially younger generations following us. Living in a community that has grown rapidly over the past four decades has presented challenges as well as opportunities. The Customs House Museum has not only witnessed the dramatic growth of Clarksville and Montgomery County, but we have also experienced it within our own organization. Since opening our doors 40 years ago, in conjunction with the 200th anniversary of Clarksville’s founding, your museum has worked to help foster this growth by creating new programs, events, activities, and exhibits to meet the expectations of a broader, more diverse audience.
As the museum continues to observe, preserve, interpret, and present local history and culture, we rely heavily on our supporters, sponsors, and members to share their stories. This keeps the museum relevant and meaningful, and we are mindful of the importance of these connections in fulfilling our mission.
With the culmination of such a momentous year, celebrating the Museum at 40, we owe tremendous gratitude to so many of you who continue to keep the museum moving in an innovative direction. Our success is attributable to all of you, supporters of this treasured asset. Thanks to our talented and dedicated staff, our invested board of trustees, our amazing museum guild, and all of our loyal members and sponsors for making this year a truly memorable 40th Anniversary…YOU ALL are the Customs House Museum & Cultural Center.
CONTACT
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Please email Shana Thornton at shana@customshousemuseum.org.
customshousemuseum.org/second andcommerce
Enjoy this issue of Second & Commerce!
Our mission is to foster creativity and champion our area’s unique cultural diversity. SECOND & COMMERCE expands the Customs House Museum & Cultural Center’s purpose through supporting the arts community, exploring local history, and telling stories about the past, present, and future of Clarksville.
CUSTOMS HOUSE MUSEUM & CULTURAL CENTER BOARD OF TRUSTEES
Larry Richardson, Chair
Dan Black, Vice Chair
Frazier Allen
Kell Black
Joe Creek*
Kyong Dawson
Darwin Eldridge
Carolyn Ferrell*
John Halliburton
Tracy Knight
Lawson Mabry
Deanna McLaughlin*
Linda Nichols
Nick Nicholson
Jane Olson
Brendalyn Player
McClure Poland*
*denotes ex-officio
Lisa Gleim: Keepers of the Animals THROUGH JANUARY 1
Michael Griffin: A Wandering Palette THROUGH JANUARY 5
Alison Fullerton: FLY GIRLS THROUGH JANUARY 25
Water/Ways Presented by Google THROUGH FEBRUARY 9
A Walk in the Garden Artists in the Collection JAN 11 - FEB 26
Landscape Memories: Where My Heart Is The Art of Jackie Langford JAN 8 - FEB 23
Lifestyle in the Countryside: Celebrating Thailand JAN 6 - MAR 1
African Americans & Labor: Recognizing Black History JAN 14 - APR 20
50 Birds - Prints by Richard Sloan FEB 1 - APR 29
Based on her recent TEDx Talk, Brendalyn Carpenter Player shares her strategy for her new company and book, The Unapologetic Introvert.
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Artist Jammie Williams has sculpted bas-relief portraits for the Country Music Hall of Fame inductees every year since 2015, and they are displayed in the Hall of Fame Rotunda in Nashville.
From the Negro Agricultural Fair of the 1950s to the Deluxe Dry Cleaners of the East End, father-son entrepreneurs Pope Garrett Sr. and Jr. influenced the economics of Clarksville. 10 /
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River expert Larry Richardson takes us along the Cumberland River’s storied history and journey, while water biologist Laurina Lyle shares water proverbs from a variety of cultures.
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The Sevier Station Massacre of 1794 is a dramatic story of shattered families and forlorn hopes among both Native Americans and settlers. The Sevier Station site is undoubtedly on property owned by the City of Clarksville and within walking distance of Fort Defiance, yet the location currently marked by the City needs to be reevaluated.
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Sundays at 3:00 is a free, monthly adult-learning lecture series featuring regional professionals. Created by Stephanie Stafford, Curator of Education at the Customs House Museum, the schedule runs through June 2025.
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Nashville artist Alison Fullerton creates encaustic wax portraits of the Women Air Force Service Pilots, known as the WASPs.
The Customs House Museum's premiere Art in Bloom event will feature florists' unique arrangements paired with works of art, artifacts, and items from the museum’s collection.
Tony Biagi, Oil on Wood Panel, 1997
Donated by Reliant Bank from The James T. Mann Collection. A longtime Clarksville resident and a 101st Airborne veteran, Biagi’s artwork is in museum and university collections and is owned by corporations and individuals around the world.
Read more on page 30.
Brendalyn Carpenter Player is an unapologetic introvert, entrepreneur, and writer. This did not happen easily or by chance. Player coached herself, just as she now coaches other introverts.
As a child, Player was asthmatic and spent the hot, Chicago summers in the one room in her family’s house that had air conditioning. Her companions were books, and when not immersed in books, she lived in her imagination. Even now, Player’s personal artform is still writing. This fall, Player participated in a TEDx Talk at the Customs House Museum & Cultural Center about her company and book, The Unapologetic Introvert (November 2024).
“I’m so grateful and proud to be among those people who presented for the TEDTalk,” Player said. She emphasized the privilege to speak alongside leaders whom she admires.
Player’s The Unapologetic Introvert is designed to help introverts, especially women over 45, develop confidence in their quiet nature, countering the impression that their thoughtful demeanor is a deficiency in some way. She added, an introvert's natural tendency for deep thinking, spending more time in careful analysis, is often misunderstood. Feeling pressured to behave differently, they may downplay their own gifts.
“We are conditioned to want to see evidence before we move forward,” Player said. “Artists can’t do that. The artist has to draw the stroke and write the word, and that’s how the artist follows intuition. My own business is helping other people who are similar to me. I provide support through mentorship, coaching, and guiding others through their self-acceptance journey. The goal is that individuals develop quiet confidence, the courage to stand in their truth and challenge societal biases about introversion.”
After a twenty-year career as an Army public affairs professional, Player recently retired. She pointed out that though journalism has been a major component in her career field, writing for an organization is a lot different than writing for yourself. “The feeling of vulnerability when you’re writing is similar to what an artist goes through, and I can say that because I’m married to an artist. I know the struggle that he goes through when he is at a block. It’s the same way with writing. The process of self-expression, getting your feelings out—whether it’s with a pen and pad, a piece of charcoal on a canvas, or you’re typing away on your laptop, those are gifts and we artists have to make time to take advantage of those gifts; otherwise, we lose those very special creative moments.”
Player is a proud fan of old buildings and says that she discovered the Customs House Museum during a personal visit when she first moved to Clarksville. She was drawn to the 1898 building. “I absolutely fell in love. It was the architecture and the history. I appreciated that they included in the history of the city of Clarksville, the experience of African Americans and our heritage
and how we were a historical tapestry of this city. I appreciate the Customs House Museum because it has really been my entry point into the community. I arrived here because of my job at Ft. Campbell, but I lived in the city of Clarksville. I chose to stay here because of the community.”
As Player was preparing to retire from her Army public affairs career, someone asked her to join the Customs House Museum’s Board of Trustees. This was Player’s chance to get involved with her passion for art, history, and culture. Player emphasized that the museum opened so many doors for her, along with the personal satisfaction that she received from taking her professional experience and combining it with her passion.
“That is the ultimate experience that a person wants to have,” Player said. “I appreciate that I’ve been able to combine those two things. The caliber of artists and art exhibitions rivals any major city, and I’m from the city of Chicago and have traveled as a military member. I think the museum does a great job of bringing in both national and local artists at the same time.”
Player wants artists and writers in the community to feel as if they belong, to feel like the Customs House Museum & Cultural Center is their space. She finds that there is something in the museum that can resonate with each person. “The Customs House Museum makes a very strong effort to tap into the demographics that they serve,” Player said. “They provide not
only an exhibit but it’s an experience, so the purpose of the education program, adult lecture series, summer studios, special events, themed exhibits, children’s activities—the purpose of all those is that we make the community aware that here is a space for them and they belong. And not only that, but we are listening to their needs. The museum is not static. It is an evolving community member for the city of Clarksville and Montgomery County.” The recent TEDx Talk is also an example of the museum’s commitment to Clarksville's stories.
Within a year of joining the board of trustees, Player became the chair of the marketing and membership committee, which aligned with the work that she already did with Ft. Campbell as a public affairs professional.
Her pitch to military families has been that the museum is inexpensive, entertaining, impactful, and educational. The museum offers a military discount, and it is a place of opportunity for those families to get involved.
Player was a military spouse and understands what it feels like to PCS and live in a new community. “Because I understand from that perspective, then I know what a family member might need or want,” Player said. “I’m always thinking about what I would have appreciated when my children were young, where I could have taken them, and I can tell you emphatically that the museum is a safe space and doesn’t cost a lot of money.”
Working with the museum’s board of trustees has given her the opportunity to see people of all levels who are serving and love to serve in the community. “These are people who have families and children, and they serve others in the same fashion that they would serve their own loved ones,” Player said.
Not only did Player find a community for her passions, but she decided to start a new company and write a book after her retirement. For Player, the Customs House Museum offered a full circle—a place to be inspired and learn the past, become involved with her passions, see artists such as her husband share their work, and finally it is a space that recently validated her new business and book.
“I can’t say how proud and grateful I am to be able to be a part of a community that has that level of commitment,” Player said. “You don’t find that everywhere. For someone who has been a military spouse, who has traveled and been to other installations, I don’t say that lightly—this is a very unique and caring community.”
BY SHANA THORNTON
unapologeticintrovertspace.com
Brendalyn Carpenter Player is an Unapologetic Introvert on a mission to showcase the power of quiet leadership. A retired Army Civilian Public Affairs Director, she navigated over 20 years in hightempo and dynamic work environments, consistently overcoming challenges and shattering expectations. Now, as CEO of Brendalyn Player Communications and Founder of Unapologetic Introvert, she champions introverts in professional spaces. A 2024 Leadership Clarksville graduate, Brendalyn actively serves on local nonprofit boards, embodying her commitment to community impact. Connect with her at https://www.linkedin.com/in/brendalyn-carpenter-player/.
1. The
2. To be sculpted and cast in bronze, each portrait goes through a process. Williams’ sculpture of the late Toby Keith, a 2024 inductee, is a plastic copy in the middle stage of the process. This copy went to a plaque design company and then a foundry to be cast in bronze.
Every year since 1961, the Country Music Association (CMA) elects country music professionals as new members into the Country Music Hall of Fame. The honorees’ likenesses in basrelief plaques are displayed in the Hall of Fame Rotunda located inside the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum in Nashville.
Since 2015, Jammie Williams, Exhibit Preparator at the Customs House Museum & Cultural Center, has been commissioned as the sculptor of the bas-relief images for the plaques.
“In total, I've sculpted 31 reliefs with 38 portraits,” Williams said.
Williams usually completes three reliefs each year. Some of the sculptures include more than one person. Many of the inductees are a single individual like a singer, musician, record producer, or songwriter, but inductees also include musical groups.
Brenden Oliver, the Director of Awards Stewardship for CMA has worked with Williams for almost ten years. “Over that time, we've developed a unique respect in the sense that his creative vision and our technical requests are blended seamlessly,” Oliver said. “It's become a language of sorts. I will send over things that might seem too abstract like, ‘Can you make the smile cheerier?’ or ‘Can you take the heaviness out of the eyes?’ and Jammie knows how to translate that into the plaque in a way that really amplifies the authenticity of those iconic looks.
“A great example of this was Jerry Lee Lewis,” Oliver said. “For Jerry Lee, we started out with a traditional artist headshot, but quickly realized that the energy of Jerry Lee at the piano is so much more iconic and authentic to him, so Jammie was able to pivot and add that. The final product felt so representative of Jerry Lee’s image and speaks to Jammie's way of remaining flexible.”
This year's inductees are guitarist, James Burton, along with artists, John Anderson and the late Toby Keith. Williams begins his process with several images that the CMA sends to him. In the images, the inductees will be in several poses and sometimes they include pictures from different years throughout the inductee's career.
“I will choose a single photo or combination and will use that as a starting point to make a sculpture in clay,” Williams said. “While sculpting the commissions, I always receive feedback from the CMA team. They are great about suggesting things that I would never have
known, like adding someone's favorite hat or a necklace that has an important meaning for them.”
After a few rounds of critiques and final tweaks, Williams makes a rubber mold and a copy in plastic. The copy then goes to Francis & Lusky, a company that designs the plaques and has done so since the first ones were made in the 1960s.
Each plaque will be sent to a foundry and cast in bronze through a process called sand casting. The entire project takes a few months from the first idea to the finished plaque.
“Each sculpture has its own unique challenges,” Williams said. “Sometimes it is taking multiple photos that each show a different characteristic and trying to find a way to combine them.”
Yet, at the end of the process, Williams said, “The most rewarding part is knowing that I was able to help make a gift of appreciation for these incredibly talented people.”
“We task Jammie with the challenge of creating busts with consistent style year after year, capturing each inductee at their peak point of prominence,” Oliver said. “The ultimate goal is to put something together in a way that people can look up at the wall of the hallowed Rotunda and whether the name is there or not, they recognize who they are looking at, and Jammie does an amazing job at achieving that."
Williams’ background in sculpting started in art college. Over the years, he has worked with different artists learning
sharing what he knows made him very aware of the
The first inductees into the Country Music Williams. In 1962, Roy Acuff was the
Of course, Williams was not born then, but he grasps the importance of honoring the inductees. His work highlights those who made country music what it is today. As Williams said, “I hope that when visitors see the plaques cultural history that the Country Music shares and preserves.”
BY SHANA THORNTON
Over on the East End of Clarksville by what is now Dixon Park, Black businesses thrived during the 1900s—a full and vibrant community existed with barber shops, cafes, hotels, nightclubs, churches, pool halls, funeral homes, and all manner of businesses, as well as Burt High School. In 1935, Pope Garrett, Sr., saw it as the perfect location to build and open Deluxe Dry Cleaners at 1016 Franklin Street. Deluxe Dry Cleaners was the place to have your finest clothing laundered and tailored, and it offered a stylish edge and a gathering place as Clarksvillians dropped off and picked up their attire. Not only that, but word on the street was that Garrett could repair anything you brought in. He just had a knack for fixing things, and so he would.1
Every year, the premiere event of Clarksville’s agricultural boom was the County Fair, and during the era of racial segregation, two fairs took place. Near where the Dunn Center is now located on Austin Peay State University’s campus, booths with Montgomery County’s healthiest and best animals, canned goods, handsewn items, and much more lined the paths crowded with laborers of all industries—from farmers to laundresses, from quilters to cooks, The Montgomery County Negro Agricultural Fair filled up the whole area at what was Lee and Drane Streets, stretching into what is now Edith Pettus Park.
Pope Garrett, Sr., the secretary of the Negro Fairground Board for the full fourteen years of its existence from 1948 to 1962, addressed the people and encouraged them to bring their finest goods, results of their labors and care for their communities and families. 2 “The Montgomery County Negro Fair is a people’s fair, providing three big achievement days for its patrons, both
rural and urban. You are invited to take full advantage of every opportunity provided”.3 This was the first item in Garrett's letter to the community printed in the fair program.
The legacy of building community through agriculture is at the heart of most middle TN cities. In fact, the United States’ first Black-founded Fair started in Sumner County, Gallatin, TN, just after the Civil War and continued through the 1970s.4 Like the Gallatin Fair, the Montgomery County Negro Agricultural Fair was an annual event that compelled neighbors from surrounding communities to bring their livestock, woodcrafts, art, and food ways to Clarksville for competitions.
Labor not only contains the sweat of physical work and craftsmanship skills, but the definition of the word labor includes mentally challenging work and achievements. Well known as a builder and hardworking, dependable businessperson, Garrett, Sr. was vital to not only the Negro Agricultural Fair but also the Fifth Ward Missionary Baptist Church and the Negro Progressive Club. Furthermore, he cared for his community politically. Elected as an alderman in 1955, Garrett, Sr.’s reputation for service grew. He was one of the first Black Montgomery County commissioners, elected in 1968, and serving until 1978.
Garrett, Sr.’s son, Pope Garrett, Jr., followed in his father’s footsteps after returning home from WWII and took over Deluxe Dry Cleaners in 1942, also with the reputation of being able to fix just about anything. Garrett, Jr., continued the tradition of giving back to his community and operated the family business until his death in 2004. Yet, the reputation of the Garretts’ commitment
didn't fade. Newspaper articles, written in the 1990s and 2000s, even 2014, shared the news about the Garrett family’s achievements and influence on Clarksville. Then, in 2022, the Tennessee African American Historical Group presented research to the Tennessee Historical Commission and finally honored the Garrett family with a marker. Their labors and those of many African Americans who participated in the Negro Agricultural Fair would not go down in history unnoticed.
Marking the location of the Montgomery County Negro Agricultural Fair, a Tennessee Historical Commission marker is at the corner of Drane and Farris Streets on the APSU campus.
To view images from Deluxe Dry Cleaners and more, visit the African Americans & Labor: Recognizing Black History Month exhibition from January 14 through April 20 in the Harvill Gallery at the Customs House Museum.
BY SHANA THORNTON
References:
1 Interview with Joseph Roberts; Leaf Chronicle article from Sunday, Feb 16, 2014 (accessed September 4, 2024).
2 The Tennessee African American Historical Group (tnafricanamericanhistoricalgroup.com) (accessed September 10, 2024).
3 The Montgomery County Negro Agricultural Fair program, printed 1959. Courtesy of the Montgomery County Archives.
4 WPLN. “The country's first Black-founded fair started in Middle Tennessee. Its legacy lives on from Gallatin to Detroit” by Rose Gilbert (wpln.org) (accessed September 10, 2024).
The history and river lore surrounding the Cumberland River date back to before the Revolutionary War. However, humans inhabited the area when the last Ice Age ended, about 10,000 years ago. PaleoAmerican camp sites dot the area. The Shawnee tribe, which was mainly north of the Ohio River, was aggressive enough to try to claim the Cumberland River basin. Yet, the Cherokee and Chickasaw inhabitants pushed them northward across the river, but not without frequent hunting forays. During the mid-1700s, European immigrants and their offspring began seeking new lands for a livelihood. One of the most famous explorers, Daniel Boone, led settlers westward through a low point in the Appalachians known as
the Cumberland Gap, where modern-day Middlesboro, Kentucky, was established. Clashing with the natives for salt licks and wild game slowed the movement, but due to increasing numbers and strong fortresses, Boone and his fellow long hunter families endured. Independence after the war with Great Britain cleared the way for more westward expansion. The Cumberland River played a large part in providing an avenue to new lands.
The explorer Thomas Walker is credited with naming the river in 1758 after the Duke of Cumberland. The Cumberland River was also called Warioto by Native Americans and Riviere des Chaouanons, or "river of the Shawnee," by French fur trappers. For years after Walker's trip,
the river was known as the Shawnee or Shawanoe River. Important first as a passage for hunters and settlers, the Cumberland River eventually supported riverboat trade, which extended travel to the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers. Villages, towns, and cities were established at landing points along its banks. Throughout the 19th century, settlers depended on this river for trade and travel. Both U.S. Presidents, Jackson and Polk, traveled down the Cumberland, up the Ohio River to Pittsburg then across land to their inaugurations in Washington, D.C.
The Cumberland River has always played a role in commerce, but it was an important gateway for the Union Army to advance during the Civil War. After the
fall of Ft. Donelson at Dover, in 1862, the advantage was decidedly tilted in favor of the Union forces on the western front.
From its origin near Harlan in eastern Kentucky, the Cumberland River flows 695 miles westward through Kentucky, southwesterly through Tennessee then northward back through Kentucky, before joining the Ohio River at Smithland. The basin encompasses over 18,000 square miles of drainage. Although this area is half the size of the Tennessee River drainage, the Cumberland River is about forty miles longer. Worth mentioning, a canal at mile 33 connects the Cumberland and Tennessee Rivers. Nashville and Clarksville are the only major ports, leaving most of its shoreline in farmland and forest. It is the sixteenth longest river in the U.S. The largest tributary rivers are Big South Fork, Rockcastle, Obey, Caney Fork, Stones, Harpeth, and Red.
Harlan County, Kentucky, is where the Cumberland River begins. Three creeks meet just outside of Harlan to form the almost 700-mile-long river. Installation of five river-impeding dams with locks in the mid-20th century have aided river navigation and electric power production: Barkley, Cheatham, Old Hickory, Cordell Hull, and upper-most Wolf River (Lake Cumberland). There are five tributary dams, as well. Before that, low dams with locks were installed beginning in the late 1800s to accommodate steamboats and barges. In the pre-dam days, flat boats and small steamboats would travel as far as Burnside, Kentucky, when sufficient water levels were available. Today, for all practical purposes, commercial traffic stops at Celina, Tennessee, on upper Cordell Hull Reservoir. Rail expansion was the nemesis for steam river travel and the vessel Rowena was the last of the steamboat era, which ended in 1933.
Regardless of vessel size or power, upstream travel stops abruptly at Cumberland Falls, river mile 566. This is the second largest waterfall in the eastern U.S., Niagara being the largest. Cumberland Falls is one of two places in the world where a “moonbow” can be observed at night. The other one is at Lake Victoria in Africa. Cumberland Falls is 60 feet tall and 128 feet wide. Fall Creek Falls in a distant Tennessee tributary is taller, standing at 256 feet.
River bridges are more abundant today, which has reduced ferries to only two, one in KY and one in TN. The Cumberland City ferry is only fifteen miles west of Clarksville, connecting southwest Montgomery and Stewart Counties (TN) for $.75 a trip. The other ferry on the Cumberland River is in southern Kentucky and connects Monroe and Cumberland Counties (KY). The small tug and barge are located at Turkey Neck Bend, just below river mile 394. Access is by State Route 214 and the ferry ride is free.
Clarksville has always played a key role in commerce on the Cumberland River. As tobacco was developed into a worldwide commodity, a U.S. Customs House was established in 1898 to collect taxes on exports. Today, following several other tenants, the building houses the Customs House Museum and Cultural Center, recently celebrating its 40th Anniversary.
The 19th century iron ore industry also kept the river busy from Montgomery County down to the Ohio River. Large limestone furnaces were erected throughout the lower river basin to smelt ore and carry it to Pittsburg. Some of these dormant furnaces exist today, with the Great Western being one of the largest, sitting along The Trace roadway in Land Between the Lakes (LBL).
Where there’s water, wildlife abounds. Several state and federal agencies manage reserves on Cumberland River reservoirs, where you will find a myriad of waterfowl, shorebirds, upland game, and smaller animals. Bottomland vegetation thrives here as well, much of it serving as food and shelter to animals that live and migrate there. A federal fish hatchery below Wolf River dam in eastern Kentucky produces rainbow trout for stocking in cold-water steams.
Municipalities along the winding riverway depend on the Cumberland for transportation, drinking water, industrial uses, recreation, and fire prevention. With growing populations driving agriculture and construction, especially in middle Tennessee, nonpoint source pollution continues to hamper water quality. Government agencies are tasked with seeing that the river’s resources remain safe to use. Those who inhabit the watershed have that responsibility, too. Your legacy, your river.
cumberlandriverartist.com
Larry Richardson’s home is in the Cumberland River city of Clarksville, where he is Chairman of the Board of Trustees at the Customs House Museum. He earned a bachelor’s and master’s in biology from APSU and has worked in parks and wildlife conservation, retiring from Ducks Unlimited, Inc. Besides being an avid outdoorsman, he is a landscape artist and at times a writer.
and
3.
4.
Tennessee and Kentucky
across both states
still stands on State Route 49 in Stewart County, TN. Courtesy of Larry Richardson.
BY LAURINA ISABELLA LYLE, PhD
Water is essential to life on Earth, flowing through every aspect of our lives. Water is a free, natural resource: critical to our survival and needed in the production of almost all goods we consume either directly and indirectly. This simple molecule plays a crucial role in connecting Earth’s natural systems through the water cycle thus renewing fresh water supplies.
Not only does water play a critical role in our daily lives, water makes a strong spiritual impression as well, evoking emotions of peace, calmness, and a sense of wellbeing. Imagine your own favorite water location: canoeing on a lake, listening to a river, or meditating on a beach overlooking the ocean. This mystical connection to water often inspires varied art forms such as paintings, music, literature, and cultural traditions.
Proverbs are traditional sayings found in all cultures passed on from one generation to the next. Ancient Sumerian clay tablets dating thousands of years ago show that proverbs have been a long-established literary form. Through proverbs, adages, axioms, or simple expressions, water often serves as a metaphor to convey ageless words of wisdom.
Let's explore a collection of water-related proverbs from various parts of the world. Some may be familiar, bringing back memories from your childhood. Others may be new to you, as they have been gathered from different countries and cultures.
Water is life.
Lakota Native American Axiom
Meaning: The arid environment of North America's high plains makes water a life-giving commodity for the indigenous Lakota tribes of North & South Dakota. Surviving in this seasonally harsh landscape means careful planning around this precious resource.
Water is so precious in fact, that some people advocate granting legal protection to rivers and other water bodies. In New Zealand, the Whanganui River has been granted the same legal rights as a person, represented by a governing board tasked with protecting its interests.
For the Beauty of the rose, we also water the thorns. African Proverb
Meaning: In life, there are always tradeoffs. It's rare to have everything exactly as we want it. Learning this important lesson ensures a happy life.
Water, water everywhere but not a drop to drink. Netherlands Expression
Meaning: The Earth contains an immense amount of water, but only a small fraction of it is suitable for consumption. To put this in perspective, if you would imagine a 1,000 ml container representing all the water on our planet, only one drop of that would be fresh potable water.
When you are dying of thirst, it is too late to dig a well. Japanese Proverb
Meaning: This wise advice reminds us to plan ahead for the future. When we find ourselves in need of a crucial resource like water, it may be too late to make any meaningful changes or preparations.
Water you won’t drink, let it flow. Spanish/Mexican Adage
Meaning: We are urged to prioritize our time and energy on what truly matters to us. If something is not important, don’t waste your time trying to hold on to it.
The greatest crime in the desert is finding water and keeping silent. Arabic expression
Meaning: Natural resources, especially water, are essential for life and should not be hoarded. The United Nations World Health Organization recognizes water as a basic human right. However, according to a 2023 report by the UN's World Water Development Organization, 2 billion people, accounting for 26% of the world's population, do not have access to safe drinking water.
"The deeper the waters are, the more still they run."
Korean Proverb
Meaning: You might have heard this expressed differently, "Still waters run deep,” and often spoken as a reminder to not underestimate things or people. This wise saying warns us to proceed with caution, lest we find ourselves “In over our heads” or “Skating on thin ice.”
Over the years, I have accumulated a substantial collection of proverbs related to water. Out of all the ones I've come across, this next one is my favorite. It's humorous and lighthearted, but also holds a great deal of truth.
Even if you sit on the bottom of the sea, you cannot be a fish. African Proverb
Meaning: Fantasizing possibilities will not lead you to success. Despite our deepest desires, there are certain things that we simply cannot attain or acquire. Even if a person possesses all the accoutrements associated with the desired outcome, that won’t change reality. One can never be a fish if you weren’t born one.
And finally, I’ll end with a proverb I coined when I taught high school students and their teachers about water and water quality.
Even a Macroinvertebrate knows when to let go.
Macroinvertebrates are small, spineless animals without a backbone and can be seen with the naked eye. They are commonly used as a measure of water quality, with the caddisfly larvae as a notable example. These insects, often found clinging to sticks and debris in freshwater streams, indicate excellent freshwater conditions. Fly fishing enthusiasts know that where you find caddisflies, the fishing will be good.
Meaning: We can all learn from the humble caddisfly. Despite lacking in brainpower, they have a strong instinct for selfpreservation. They don't hold on to bad situations; instead, they have the courage to let go and face the unknown when things take a turn for the worse.
As we are reminded by the Lakota Indians, Water is Life. There is no substance on Earth to replace water. Water is finite, yet freshwater is renewed constantly. Let's emulate the Lakota’s resilience and adaptability in our own lives starting with protecting the waters of North America.
laurinalyle.com
Laurina is a biologist, naturalist, and writer. She served as the national executive director of the water education foundation, Project WET, Bozeman, Montana. Today, she directs the Clarksville Writers Conference. Her latest publication is, A Child’s First Bird Guide: An Interactive Book of Common Birds Found in Eastern North America. In September 2024, she gave a TEDx Talk at the Customs House Museum and Cultural Center on water and climate change.
Water|Ways exhibition dives into how essential water is to life on our planet environmentally, culturally, and historically. Water|Ways is in the Crouch Gallery at the Customs House Museum from Nov. 30 - Feb. 9.
Water|Ways is funded locally by a Google Data Center Community Grant. Water|Ways was developed by the Smithsonian Institution Traveling Exhibition Service and inspired by an exhibition developed by the American Museum of Natural History, New York.
When aquatic conditions deteriorate, these aquatic insects will simply let go and float downstream where conditions are favorable.
The Sevier Station Massacre of 1794 is a dramatic story of shattered families and forlorn hopes among both Native Americans and settlers. A formative episode in Clarksville’s early history, it is a “foundation tale” that epitomizes the complex origins of Clarksville. The Sevier Station site is undoubtedly on property owned by the City of Clarksville and within walking distance of Fort Defiance Interpretive Center, yet the location currently marked by the City needs to be reevaluated.
By Dr. Richard P. Gildrie, APSU retired emeritus professor of history
Just before noon, November 11, 1794, a party of Creeks and Chickamauga Cherokees attacked Sevier Station, a cluster of houses near the Cumberland River in what is now New Providence 1
According to Valentine Sevier, the station’s owner who survived the assault, “about 40 Indians…were in almost every house before they were discovered.” They had emerged “from the woody, bushy hollow just back of the houses.” Then, they looted and burned the buildings of the settlement, except a stout blockhouse, successfully defended by Sevier and his wife with a blunderbuss, a swivel gun usually mounted on a second floor to cover the door 2
The raider’s first target was a gun and blacksmith shop, run by Charles Snyder, Sevier’s son-in-law. Both Snyder and Sevier’s eight-year-old son, who was
also in the building, were killed. Snyder’s teenaged apprentice escaped, dislocated his elbow while vaulting the yard fence, and yet “ran up the river over two miles and, in the crippled condition, swam over the [Red] river at the mouth of West Fork.” He then “made his way to Bell’s Station” to raise the alarm. Another set of marauders entered Snyder’s house and slew his wife and child. Next, a party broke into John King’s cabin, killing his wife and toddler. The latter they threw into the fire as the building burned. King “was away shucking corn a short distance off” while James Sevier, one of Valentine’s sons, and a “negro man” were “in a neighboring field pulling corn.”
“Hearing the screams,” but being unarmed, “they ran for the river, and [paddled] a canoe to alarm ... Clarksville.” The attackers tried to attack the blockhouse, partially scalping teenaged Rebecca Sevier who was running to the building. She later recovered 3
“At the fire of the blunderbuss, which was understood as a signal of attack or danger,” men from Clarksville and Bell’s Station rushed to the rescue. By the time they arrived, the raiders had dispersed: “Yet, after crossing the Cumberland, [some] stood in open view of Clarksville, apparently in defiance, which caused the greater part of the inhabitants of the town to move off, which seems to leave
the West Fork people more exposed than usual.” Letters were written the next day to General James Robertson in Nashville requesting immediate reinforcements 4
Valentine Sevier, after lamenting the loss of life, complained that “the Indians have robbed all the goods out of every house, and have destroyed all my stock.” Of particular significance to one observer was that “several guns…placed in the upper part of Snyder’s shop, with no ladder or stairs to get up,” were found nonetheless and taken by the raiders 5 Striking quickly, they were familiar with the work schedules of the inhabitants and the contents of the buildings.
The accounts of the massacre raise clues and questions about the nature of Sevier Station, the intentions of settlers and raiders, and the larger economic and political contexts surrounding the event.
The precise location of Sevier Station is a vexed question 6 Historians studying the early Cumberland Settlements have noted several common characteristics to help pinpoint the site. All are near navigable rivers or streams but are above the floodplains. They are also adjacent to major trails, most often ancient Buffalo traces, long used by both Native Americans and early settlers. Each settlement also required a
convenient spring, as creeks and rivers were frequently muddy. Naturally, most settlements were commonly above, rather than below, the springs. There should also be sufficient flat, arable ground to grow crops and erect buildings 7
By these criteria, Sevier Station was most likely located near a now intermittent spring along a geologic contact between two limestone formations some 800 feet east of Trice’s Landing and 1,000 feet west southwest of Fort Defiance. A spring was noted on the land when it was owned by James Ford, who built a station there prior to Valentine Sevier. The spot offers a superb view of and access to the Cumberland River without danger of flooding. A portion of the old buffalo trace, which the early settlers called “The Mouth of the Red River to Nashville Road,” is visible behind the playground on A Street and is within sixty feet of the spring. There is sufficient flat land above the spring and adjacent to the road for multiple buildings, and fairly large arable areas are north and northwest of the site. A hollow is near the northeast that fits the attack accounts.8
In 1794, Sevier Station was one of the two westernmost of the Cumberland Settlements and yet was not fortified, except for the proprietor’s blockhouse residence. There were no palisades or walls mentioned, other than a “yard fence” around the gun and blacksmith shop.
There was little sense of danger despite the ongoing Chickamauga War, as three men working in a nearby corn field were unarmed at the time of the attack. The site was convenient to the Cumberland River and to the forest trails heading west and north. Given the location, the open clustering of cabins, and the presence of the gun and blacksmith shop, it seems probable that Sevier Station was a trading post for hunters, Native American and Euro-American, at least as much as it was a farming venture.
Hunting and preparing deer skins and bear hides was a major commercial enterprise along the rivers and their tributaries for at least a century prior to 1794. Indian and European hunters established semi-permanent camps along navigable waters and buffalo trails. At these spots, hunters rested, collected their kills, and did at least the initial skinning and cleaning of hides preparatory to shipping them to market. Such work required running water. These camps also served as informal trading centers. The presumptive site of Sevier Station, with easy access to both the Cumberland and Red Rivers, was a likely meeting place for hunters and traders long before James Ford settled
on it around 1786. By adding a gun and blacksmith shop, along with a store, cornfield, and a handy market for hides, Sevier was further developing an already valuable intersection in a well-established Anglo-Indian frontier economy.
Yet, this was hardly a peaceful frontier at any time during the eighteenth century 9 War and trade intermingled for the hunters; both Indian and AngloAmerican were also warriors. At least since the 1690s, Indian nations competed for control over hunting lands and trade routes. European nations fought with each other and the Indians to control the trade. After 1774, settlers and the famed “Long Hunters” fought with Native Americans over the same resources.
The Sevier Station Massacre is generally regarded as one of the last significant episodes of the Chickamauga War, 17771795 10 This long, bloody struggle primarily, but not exclusively, involved AngloAmerican settlers of the Tennessee and Cumberland River valleys and a faction of the Cherokees and their allies, called the Chickamauga. Both Valentine Sevier and Doublehead, the reputed leader of the raiders who struck his station, were
veterans of that war. Indeed, both men had been active in it from its inception. They were not strangers.
Valentine Sevier was a brother of John Sevier, a militant east Tennessee leader against the British and the Cherokee, as well as a founder of the “Lost State of Franklin.” He later became the first Governor of Tennessee. In the 1780s, Valentine Sevier often accompanied his brother in raids on Cherokee towns and rose in militia rank, political influence, and wealth accordingly. By 1785, he was a Lieutenant Colonel in the Franklin militia. Late that same year, under the auspices of Franklin and Georgia, he attempted to establish a settlement on the Great Bend of the Tennessee, near present South Pittsburg, to flank the Chickamauga towns around what is now Chattanooga. The Chickamauga successfully forced the new settlers out by early 1786 11 Like his brother, he was also an active land speculator and Indian trader. In 1790, he moved his operations to Nashville and then shortly to Clarksville.
Doublehead, too, was a member of his people’s military elite, with kinship ties to its most prominent leaders 12 Born around 1744, he was among the earliest
followers of Dragging Canoe who led the Chickamauga movement until his death in 1792. Doublehead was also closely related to Old Tassel, a Cherokee diplomat murdered by east Tennessee militia under a flag of truce in 1788. His sister was married to John Watts who succeeded Dragging Canoe. From 1790 until his assassination in 1807, Doublehead was a principal war leader and diplomat, dealing with the United States, Spanish authorities, and various Tennessee governments. Before the attack on Sevier Station, he traveled to Pensacola, Mobile, Savannah, and Philadelphia, where he conferred with George Washington and Henry Knox the summer before.
During the long Chickamauga War, Doublehead was the founder and leader of the westernmost Chickamauga outpost. Doublehead’s town was on the eastern edge of Muscle Shoals. Because Chickamauga power depended on control of the Tennessee from Lookout Mountain to Muscle Shoals, his location and role were important. Conflict over Muscle Shoals and the water and land routes to and from it date at least from 1715. From that date, the region marked the traditional boundary between the Cherokee and Chickasaw nations. As allies, they expelled the Shawnee from it and from the Cumberland River Valley and defended it against Creek incursions.
Doublehead’s relations with the Chickasaw were vital to his people.13
During the War of American Independence, despite some tension, the Chickamauga and Chickasaw remained allies, albeit in different theaters. But after 1783, their diverging interests gradually led to open conflict. The growing tensions between these nations helped lead to the attack on Sevier Station.
From their point of view, the Chickasaws, even though they were British allies, were among the winners in the War of American Independence. By their siege of Fort Jefferson and raids into the northern and western portions of the infant Cumberland Settlements in 1781, they successfully prevented American expansion into western Kentucky and west Tennessee. By treaty with Virginia in 1783, and later confirmed by the United States, they gained American recognition of their traditional land claims. Although they maintained diplomatic ties with Spain, which succeeded to British claims in west Florida and Louisiana, many Chickasaw leaders came to see the United States as a decent successor to Britain and a major trading partner. Of course, there were factions which disagreed, which made Chickasaw politics as complex as those of the Cherokees. However, overall, this relationship was carefully cultivated by both the United States and the Chickasaw until the War of 1812. The guns taken from Snyder’s shop during the raid on Sevier Station belonged to the Chickasaw and were being repaired under contract from the U.S. government.14
In contrast, the Cherokee were badly mauled during the American Revolution and the Chickamauga, after 1783, were the faction most determined to resist further settler encroachment. But their independence was compromised by their increasing reliance on the Upper Creeks, a traditional enemy, for trade connections to Pensacola and Mobile. From a Creek point of view, the Chickamauga were a military buffer between them and the Americans. To support that buffer, they allowed Chickamauga settlements in the previously contested territory between them and the Cherokee heartlands and joined in Chickamauga raids on the 4
Cumberland Settlements. Doublehead’s diplomatic and personal positions, particularly after 1792, when the other Chickamauga leaders began serious negotiations with the United States, were delicate, to say the least.
They became even more precarious in February 1793, when the Chickasaws declared war on the Upper Creeks for attacks against Chickasaw hunters “on neutral ground” east of the lower Tennessee River. The Chickamauga begged them to desist, suggesting instead a combined offensive against the settlers and the United States. The Chickasaws remained adamant and, strongly encouraged by the Americans, fought the Creeks until 1798. In this contest, Doublehead remained neutral. Trading with both sides, of course, was lucrative, despite the dangers.
The year of the attack on Sevier Station, 1794, marked a major turning point in the history of the Tennessee and Cumberland River valleys. Spanish support for the Creeks, and by extension the Chickamauga, diminished as the Wars of the French Revolution engulfed Europe. In fact, Spanish colonial authorities advised the Chickamauga leaders to pursue peace vigorously with the United States. In August and September, militia from the Cumberland Settlements and east Tennessee, in two separate attacks, successfully invaded the Chickamauga core, the Five Lower Towns, near Chattanooga, causing immense destruction and demoralization.
Meanwhile, Doublehead was in Philadelphia negotiating and collecting the annual payment for Cherokee lands, according to earlier treaties. In October, he returned to the devastation. He distributed the bulk of the $5,000 to the survivors of the Lower Towns, keeping a significant portion for himself and his followers. On October 30, he wrote to the territorial governor that he was “ready to go hunting,” and he hoped that the settlers would not “hunt the hunters.’’ He was in Nashville in early November, conferring with James Robertson about the negotiations in Philadelphia. He then left, with several followers, by canoe for Clarksville. He went to Sevier Station, where Charles Snyder repaired their guns without charge while he met with
Valentine Sevier. The two probably discussed their interests in the deerskin trade and the peace negotiations. However, there must have been some tension, because in 1792 some of Doublehead’s followers had killed three of Sevier’s sons in an ambush at Blooming Grove Creek near Sevier Station. Of course, Sevier was at least present at the killings of Doublehead’s relatives.
Whatever the mood, Doublehead and his party left to go up the Red River. There, they encountered a party of Upper Creeks, who had been hunting and raiding in southern portions of Logan County, Kentucky, and along Spring Creek, a tributary of the Red, where they struck several outlying farms. They claimed they were acting in retaliation
"Doublehead and the Creek warriors discussed the long trail of assault and revenge."
for the raids on the Chickamauga Lower Towns. Doublehead and the Creek warriors discussed the long trail of assault and revenge. The Creeks planned to attack Sevier Station, particularly Charles Snyder’s shop because he repaired the weapons of their adversaries, settlers and Chickasaw. Probably out of deep sorrow and mounting frustration, Doublehead agreed, even though some of his followers were against it. Thus, the Sevier Massacre.
Afterwards, Doublehead put the primary responsibility for the attack on the Creeks, which was partly so, but no one then and few since have agreed. Later, as he accepted the military and economic changes gripping his world, he too became a successful merchant and land speculator like the leaders of his old adversaries. In fact, he was assassinated in 1807 for trading Cherokee land for personal gain.
Following the attack, Valentine Sevier went to Nashville with his family to attempt to repair his fortune and recuperate. He returned to Clarksville
in 1796. Having been in poor health for several years, he died in February 1800 and was buried on land he owned on the Clarksville side of Red River. This hillside later became Riverview Cemetery. As his estate was settled, his widow bought the family Bible, and a surviving son purchased the blunderbuss. After all debts, the estate was valued at $6.32 15
Local lore places the site of Sevier Station at an old, stone building on Walker Street in New Providence. This location is also owned by the City of Clarksville. There is no doubt that this is one of the oldest surviving structures and merits careful preservation and historical interpretation. There are, however, several problems with designating it as the location of Sevier Station. It meets none of the criteria described in the body of this report. There is no natural water source, such as a spring. Access to both the Cumberland and Red Rivers is comparatively difficult as the site is about midway between Trice’s Landing and the mouth of Red River and some distance inland. There is no river view. Also, the site is not adjacent to the old road, or buffalo trace.
A professional archeological report, completed in 2001, noted that there was no evidence of occupation of the site prior to the 1820s 16 The stone building material and design are inappropriate for a blockhouse of the 1790s, which were normally log structures. Given its wide windows, two entry points, and interior dividing wall composed of a large fireplace, it was indefensible in any case. One person with a blunderbuss could not have prevented anyone from entering. It is far more likely that the structure was a detached kitchen, safe from fire, for a house or tavern owned by one of New Providence’s founders, Thomas Atkinson.
November 11, 2024, marked the 230-year anniversary of the massacre at Sevier Station, and though it is a tragic story for all involved, both the story and the location deserve careful preservation.
References and Notes:
1 The author wishes to thank David Britton, ranger at Port Royal State Park, for his assiduous research, particularly in the Draper Manuscripts, and longtime collaborators, Howard Winn and Phil Kemmerly for their assistance and companionship on this and other projects.
2 “Valentine Sevier to General John Sevier, 18 December 1794” in J.G.M. Ramsey, The Annals of Tennessee (rept. Kingsport, TN, 1967), p. 619; Interview with Hugh F. Bell in Lyman C. Draper Manuscript Collection (Wisconsin State Historical Society microfilm at the Tennessee State Library and Arichives, Nashville, TN). A good secondary account is John P. Brown, Old Frontiers: The Story of the Cherokee Indians from Earliest Times to the Date of their Removal to the West (Kingsport, TN, 1938), pp. 438-41.
3 Ibid.; Interviews with Rebecca Sevier Rector and Colonel G. W. Sevier, Draper Manuscripts.
4 Interview with G.W. Sevier, Draper Manuscripts; “John Eaton to General Robertson, 12 November 1794” and “Anthony Crutcher to William Crutcher, 12 November 1794” in American State Papers: Indian Affairs, I, 542 at http://memory. Loc.gov/amlaw for home page guide and then hard copied for personal file (accessed 27 November 2012); Drumgoogle to Isaac Shelby, Shelby Family Papers, mf 62, reel 1, 1024, Tennessee State Library and Archives.
5 Valentine Sevier to John Sevier, 1794 op. cit, and Interview with G.W. Sevier, ibid.
6 The traditional alternative site is discussed in the appendix of this report.
7 Doug Drake, Jack Masters, & Bill Puryear, Founding of the Cumberland Settlements: The First Atlas, 1779-1804 (Gallatin, TN, 2009); Stephen T. Rogers, 1977 Historic Site Survey (Tennessee Division of Archaeology, Nashville, TN, 1978).
7. Valentine Sevier's grave at Riverview Cemetery. Photo by Summer Lucio. 5 6
8 “Interview with Colonel G. W. Bell”, Draper Manuscripts. These conclusions were reached by David Britton, Phil Kemmerly, Howard Winn, and the author after surveying the area. Photographic evidence, pictures by William Miller of Lebanon, TN, are available from the author.
9 An excellent overview is Kathryn E. Holland Braund, Deerskins & Duffels: The Creek Indian Trade with Anglo-America, 1685-1815 (Lincoln NE, 1993). For a conjectural view of such camps, see Drake et al., Founding, p. 15.
10 A convenient overview of the Chickamauga War and its ramifications is in Drake et al., Atlas, pp. 68-75. Brown, Old Frontiers, is essentially a history of that war, albeit one sided. For another view, see Robert J. Conley, The Cherokee Nation: A History (Albuquerque, 2005).
11 Brown, Old Frontiers, pp. 196, 199, 251, 254, 286-90.
12 Rickey Butch Walker, Doublehead: Last Chickamauga Cherokee Chief (Killen, AL, 2012); Stanley W . Hoig, The Cherokees and their Chiefs in the Wake of Empire (Fayetteville, Ark, 1998). The Chickamauga are an understudied group. A good introduction is Colin G. Calloway, “Declaring Independence and Rebuilding a Nation: Dragging Canoe and the Chickamauga Revolution” in Revolutionary Founders: Rebels, Radicals, and Reformers in the Making of the Nation, eds. Alfred F. Young, Gary B. Nash, and Ray Raphael (NY, 2011).
13 Baker, Doublehead; Rickey Butch Walker, George Colbert: His Family and Country (Killen, AL, 2012); Colin G. Calloway, “Tchoukafala: The Continuing Chickasaw Struggle for Independence” in his The American Revolution in Indian Country: Crisis and Diversity in Native American
Communities (NY, 1995), pp. 213-43.
14 Arrell M. Gibson, The Chickasaws (Norman, OK, 1971), pp. 58-106, for a general account.
15 Anne Alley, “Green Pastures and Still Waters,” in Historic Clarksville, 1784-2004 (Clarksville, TN: 2004), p. 21.
16 Larry McKee and Raymond Ezell, Archaeological Investigations at Fort Defiance/Bruce and Sevier’s Station, Clarksville, Tennessee: Archaeology and History of a Preserved Civil War Fortification and a Possible Frontier Outpost on the Cumberland River in Montgomery County (Nashville, 2001).
Images:
1. Drifting Downriver. David Wright, Stretched Giclee Canvas, 24x19.
2. The Beginning. Peg Harvill, Watercolor.
3. Never Far Away. Peg Harvill, Watercolor.
4. Treed. David Wright, Stretched Giclee Canvas, 12x18.
5. The Sevier Station blockhouse as it is currently marked by the City of Clarksville. Photo by Justin Kaicles.
6. Interior of the Sevier Station blockhouse. Photo by Justin Kaicles.
As the Curator of Education, it's easy for people to assume my role primarily involves school field trips, children’s programs, and family activities. While those are important aspects of what I do, I hold a special place in my heart for providing learning opportunities to people of all ages. Learning doesn’t end once we receive a diploma or degree—it’s a lifelong process that keeps us engaged and our minds active. As Henry Ford said, “Anyone who keeps learning stays young. The greatest thing in life is to keep your mind young.”
With that philosophy in mind, we launched Sundays at 3:00 at the Customs House Museum & Cultural Center, a free monthly program designed specifically for adults to explore new ideas. Held on the first Sunday of each month at 3 p.m., this series brings together a diverse range of presenters—from artists and historians to scientists and local experts. Whether you're interested in art, history, science, or local culture, each session offers a chance to dive into something new and enrich your understanding of the world.
The beauty of Sundays at 3:00 is that it’s designed for everyone, whether you’re an avid learner or just curious about a new subject. The program draws from professionals within the Clarksville, APSU, and Fort Campbell communities, as well as from a wider network,
COMING UP IN 2025:
inviting presenters who are not only knowledgeable but also engaging and approachable. Each month, attendees are treated to in-depth talks, live demonstrations, or insightful discussions, all within a welcoming setting. The goal is not just to inform, but to spark curiosity and encourage conversations that continue long after the program ends.
"What a beautiful way to spend a Sunday afternoon."
- Patty Spencer
One of the things I love most about Sundays at 3:00 is the variety of topics we cover. From local history to global issues, from the creative arts to scientific discoveries, the breadth of knowledge shared in these sessions is truly remarkable. We’ve had presentations on everything from Victorian customs to wildlife conservation, from political history to groundbreaking art, and we’re constantly seeking new voices and topics to bring to our audience.
As Execuitve Director Frank Lott said, “The diversity of the topics and expertise of the presenters has been engaging, informative, and entertaining. We will soon begin our second year of unique presentations as interest continues to grow. I congratulate the museum’s
Education Department for providing this valuable community resource at no cost to all who attend.”
Looking ahead to 2025, we have an exciting lineup of speakers and presentations that promise to keep this momentum going. Our community has shown incredible enthusiasm for Sundays at 3:00, and it’s clear that people are eager for these kinds of enriching, adultfocused learning opportunities.
As B.B. King once said, “The beautiful thing about learning is that no one can take it away from you.” Lifelong learning isn’t just about gaining knowledge—it’s about staying curious, keeping your mind active, and engaging with the world in meaningful ways. Whether you're a regular participant or have never attended before, we invite you to join us for Sundays at 3:00 at the Customs House Museum & Cultural Center. It’s the perfect way to spend a Sunday afternoon— learning something new, meeting fellow community members, and leaving with a fresh perspective. We look forward to seeing you!
BY STEPHANIE STAFFORD, Curator of Education
stephanie@customshousemuseum.org
Email to learn more about being a featured speaker.
JANUARY 5
SCOTTY KILMER. LIVE. ANSWERING ALL YOUR CAR QUESTIONS with Scotty Kilmer, YouTube mechanic with over 2.8 billion views
FEBRUARY 2
BIODIVERSITY AND HUMAN WELL-BEING
with Dr. Jack W. Sites Jr., Maeser Professor of Biology, Brigham Young University (retired)
MARCH 2
THE CUMBERLAND RIVER–AN AMERICAN LEGACY with Larry R. Richardson, Artist, Author, Naturalist
APRIL 6
TENNESSEE'S TEXTILE MILL GIRLS: FROM THE LABOR MOVEMENT TO THE WAR YEARS with Amanda McCrary Smith, Doctoral Candidate, MTSU, Regional Historic Preservation Planner, SCTDD
MAY 4
THE IMPORTANCE OF PUBLIC ART IN CLARKSVILLE AND BEYOND with Luke Warren, APSU Sculpture Professor and Artist
JUNE 1
BEGINNING AT THE END: GUIDANCE FOR ELEMENTARY GENEALOGY with Raymond Rosado, Senior Public Service Associate at The Clarksville-Montgomery County Public Library
Nancy Harkness Love organized and directed the Women's Auxiliary Ferrying Squadron (WAFS). Love learned to fly in her late teens and continued after WWII. Stationed at Newcastle Army Air Base, Wilmington, Delaware, and Long Beach Army Air Base, California, Love commanded the first units of female pilots during World War II. She fought gender stereotypes, training members of the WASP the same as male pilots and pushing for them to fly the same missions. She continued to work for WASPs to be recognized as veterans. Nancy Harkness Love by Alison Fullerton will not be shown in the exhibition at Customs House Museum & Cultural Center. Photos are used with permission from Texas Women’s University WASP archives.
Artist Alison Fullerton’s FLY GIRLS features the WWII WASP (Women Air Service Pilots) in a ten-portrait series. Each portrait is larger than life at 30”x40” on wood panel and is made using vintage photos, artifacts, digital art, and encaustic wax paint. Traveling and studying with master artists in various countries, Fullerton’s career kicked off when she was invited for membership in Germany’s oldest art guild, the Künstlerbund Stuttgart, founded in 1876. Fullerton’s works are showcased in galleries, museums, Vanderbilt University, and in collections across the U.S. and Europe. Her traveling exhibition, FLY GIRLS, is on view at the Customs House Museum & Cultural Center until January 25.
Nashvillian Cornelia Fort (1919-1943) was one of the first WASPs. A graduate of Sarah Lawrence College, she was a debutante before becoming a WASP in her early twenties, and she was one of the first 25 women in the WASP.
In the Ladies Home Companion of July 1943, Fort wrote, “I, for one, am profoundly grateful that my one talent, my only knowledge, flying, happens to be of use to my country when it is needed. That's all the luck I ever hope to have.”
While flying over Honolulu, Hawaii, Fort saw Pearl Harbor being attacked. Later, during a training exercise in Laredo, Texas, Fort was the first WASP to lose her life and the first American woman pilot to die while on active duty.
According to Fullerton, the military did not pay for the women’s bodies to be returned home if they died in service, so “the WASPs all pitched in and paid for their fallen sisters.”
As a new Army spouse, Fullerton began meeting military women and learning about their careers when her husband was stationed abroad. In 2016, they lived in Stuttgart, Germany.
“2016 was the first time I had lived in a military community. 2016 was also the first year that the military lifted the ban on women in combat,” Fullerton said. “Despite that, I saw female soldiers still struggling to be treated as equals. I began researching women in the military, and I had a hunch that there were some untold stories. Sure enough, I learned about the WASP.”
From 1942-44, during WWII, over 1,000 women flew planes for the Army Air Force as WASPs. The Army Air Force was combined until 1947, when the Air Force split off. Two pilots, Nancy Harkness Love and Jacqueline Cochran, founded the two programs— Women’s Auxiliary Ferrying Squadron and Women’s Flying Training Detachment—that became the WASP. Nancy Harkness Love is featured in Fullerton’s exhibition. The WASPs transported airplanes from factories to military bases across the country; these were known as ferrying missions and were extremely dangerous. According to Fullerton’s website, “WASPs flew every aircraft in the Army’s arsenal. In addition to ferrying, they towed gunnery targets, transported equipment and non-flying personnel, and flight-tested aircraft that had been repaired before the men were allowed to fly them again.”
In fact, thirty-eight WASPs died while in service to the U.S. during WWII, but their families did not receive any benefits or honors. While the women pilots met all the training requirements of their male counterparts, lived on military bases, adhered to military regulations, and performed military roles, the U.S. did
not consider them to be a part of the military; thus, they did not receive military compensation, veterans' benefits, or death benefits. At the end of the war, “the WASP expected the program to continue, there was pending legislation, it just never happened, and the political climate towards the end of the war made the women feel like they should quietly step aside...patriotically and give their pilot jobs to the men returning from the war. Not all were quiet,” Fullerton reminds us. At the same time, the U.S. military disbanded the WASP and sealed their records.
In 1974, the United States Air Force decided to allow women to fly planes, after the media headlines calling them the “first women to fly for the military” mobilized the WASPs to re-group and petition Congress for recognition. In 1977, the U.S. military finally acknowledged WASPs as veterans.
Texas Women’s University houses the WASP Official Archives that contains images and records. Once Fullerton learned about the WASPs, it wasn’t long before she realized that most of the original photographs and artifacts were located at the archives in
Texas. “It was an honor to work with the archivists, many of whom stay in touch with the few remaining living WASPs and their families,” Fullerton said.
"The archivists spent hours poring through the artifacts that they have with me, showing me pilots, licenses, diaries, letters, newsletters, and personal mementos,” Fullerton said. “The things I found the most interesting—and that I used in my art—were the newspaper and magazine headlines such as ‘flying blondes,’ ‘glamour pilots,’ and ‘the girls deliver the goods.’ Life magazine did an article about the WASPs, and they all had to put on their bathing suits and pretend that they were sunbathing in the airfield. They found that ridiculous—they were busy studying and practicing their flying skills. But, they were told to do their hair and makeup. They didn’t want to be bothered with such nonsense—they had to study and practice their drills. Also, the women had very strict rules about not ‘fraternizing’ with the male pilots on base. The women leading the WASP worked very hard to make sure that there were no concerns of improprieties.”
Fullerton’s traveling exhibition is the first visual art project about the WASP. Lisa Reed Preston did the digital retouch on the vintage photos, enabling Fullerton to enlarge them to 30”x40”, larger-than-life portraits. The enlargement process required Preston to make the photos 1,000 times larger than the originals.
“While I was aware of Cornelia Fort and her role in women’s aeronautics,” Preston said, “The WASPs were not familiar to me until Alison [Fullerton] brought this project to me. I was so inspired by their story, bravery, tenacity, and mystery. And yet they were overlooked by our government and by our society. It
was a story I was proud to be part of telling.”
Fullerton said of working with Preston, “She is a digital whiz— I am not! It didn’t take me long to realize that I had stepped WAY too far out of my comfort zone! Lisa stepped in, offered her help, and made sure that FLY GIRLS happened. She believed in this project, and she has a personal connection as an amateur pilot!”
One of Preston’s creative endeavors is the use of digital editing tools. AI made the FLY GIRLS even more impactful.
“While I started working with Alison on this project, Adobe introduced artificial intelligence in Photoshop, making the tool even more powerful,” Preston said. “Alison provided the digital images from the archives, and they were high quality scans but extremely small. Using Photoshop, I was able to enlarge them to life size dimensions, but this created fuzziness in the images. I was able to define settings with AI that maximized the clarity while maintaining the new larger size.”
After working with Preston to enlarge the images, Fullerton later added more artistic layers to the work. As Preston reminded, “While I feel the work that Alison and I did together with the digital images was beautiful, what she did with encaustics, and the additional work, added a level of depth and beauty that I was so impressed by."
BY SHANA THORNTON
https://www.alisonfullertonart.com https://www.instagram.com/matmcreative/
The Customs House Museum & Cultural Center’s Art in Bloom event is a testament to how artists focus on flowers, plants, wildlife, and the natural beauty around us. The Museum Guild presents Art in Bloom on the evening of Friday, January 10, 2025. Local florists will create arrangements to accompany works of art and artifacts from the museum’s collection.
One of those artworks is A Touch of Spring Rhododendrons by Tony Biagi, whose talent began after he was injured in Vietnam as a Paratrooper Ranger in the 101st Airborne Division. While in the hospital, the Red Cross provided Biagi with a paint-by-numbers set when he was anxious. They told him that painting would occupy his mind. Once he started painting in his hospital bed, Biagi looked for images in magazines that he could paint on his own. Word of his talent spread through the hospital, and fellow soldiers asked for his paintings; even his doctors requested artwork.
Biagi never stopped making art, beginning a new career for himself upon returning to the U.S. Biagi’s masterful oil painting, A Touch of Spring Rhododendrons, (on the cover) communicates temporary spring delights of not only the rhododendron flowers,
but also the fleeting hummingbird and ephemeral butterfly in the shadows.
Biagi is not alone in his focus on nature as a subject, and Art in Bloom showcases a variety of artists and artifacts. The evening highlights the complementary relationship between the art in our lives and flower arrangements. While many Art in Bloom events hosted by other museums solely focus on paintings and photographs, the Customs House Museum’s event will include decorative items such as textiles, clothing, accessories, and interior furnishings.
One of the most lavish items on display is an outfit first worn by Clarksvillenative Finley Elder Gracey in 1924. Chosen to represent Tennessee in the Queen’s Court of the Texas Cotton Palace Exposition by Governor Austin Peay, Gracey wore a long-sleeved robe of blue Chinese silk with gold trim. The silk is patterned with hand-embroidered red flowers. She wore a matching pair of silk slippers and a shawl with pink flowers and green leaves. She carried a parasol made from Chinese silk, but one of the most incredible accessories was the headdress, which is quite heavy and hosts blue beads, multi-colored pompoms, and beaded fringe all on a wooden frame with padded, red silk lining.
Join us for the inaugural Art in Bloom event this January, sponsored by Planters Bank. Experience the enchanting beauty and fragrance of flowers and plants as florists showcase their artistry alongside captivating works of art.
Hosted by The Museum Guild, this event will take place from 6 to 8 p.m. on Friday, January 10. Tickets start at $75 per person, with additional sponsorship opportunities available. Mix and mingle with friends while enjoying vibrant, fragrant displays that will brighten your winter during this snowy season.
BY SHANA THORNTON
SCAN HERE
