Evelyn Glenn Hunter Collection

Evelyn Glenn Hunter donated the first portion of this collection to the Montgomery County Archives in 2003. Her daughter, Millie Armstrong, donated additional materials in 2011. Through her mother's side, Evelyn traced her ancestry through the local Smith family back to John H. Bowman (1798-1878). Born in Virginia, John was one of ten children born to Isaac Bowman (1757-1826) and Mary Chinn (1773-1830), including a brother named Washington M. Bowman (1812-1857). Both John and Washington eventually made their way to first to Kentucky, and then to New Providence in Montgomery County, Tennessee. They both owned mills, including the Cedar Grove Mill which they appear to have operated together to some degree.

John married his first wife Jane Ann Matilda Williams (b. 1798) in 1818. The couple had two children, Mary Louisa Bowman (1819-1871) and Jane Ann Matilda Bowman (1821-1905) before Jane died suddenly in 1821 in Jefferson County, Kentucky. John remarried to Mary P. Lawson (1807-1862) in 1825. The couple went on to have several children, including daughters Amelia Bowman (1837-1909) and Sally M. Bowman (1852-1933). Amelia married Guilford Slaughter (1828-1897), a merchant and Tennessee legislator, and settled in St. Bethlehem.

Mary Louisa Bowman married Samuel D. Hopkins (b. 1771) in Montgomery County, Tennessee on October 21, 1843. The couple made their home in Kentucky until Samuel died on January 8, 1858. In December of that year John K. Smith (1822-1911) of Clarksville, Tennessee obtained a marriage bond in Hopkinsville, Kentucky with the intention of marrying Mary L. Bowman Hopkins. They were married in 1859 and Mary moved to John’s home in Clarksville. John was a wealthy tobacconist and prominent businessman. He purchased the two-story brick house originally built for Ben Gold in the New Providence area of Montgomery County, Tennessee. He eventually sold the house to the Odd Fellows for use as a nursing home. John and Mary had two children together, John Kimball Smith II (1861-1923) and Christopher Kropp (C.K.) Smith (1864-1957).

C.K. Smith (1864-1957) married Eva Homer (1867-1934), the daughter of Serepta Mildred Jordan Homer (1839-1894) and Bladen Beverly Homer (ca. 1819-1873), on November 27, 1889. A prominent tobacconist, C.K. Smith commissioned G.B. Wilson to construct a gabled Victorian house at 303 Market Street. The Smith family lived at the residence until 1911; at that point, they purchased Oak Top, a Greek Revival mansion located 107 Madison Terrace that was occupied by the Sterling F. Beaumont family for a number of years. C.K. and Eva Smith raised four children: Homer Fraser Smith (1892-1960), C.K. Smith, Jr. (1896-1907), Mildred Louise (1899- 2001), and Sory Smith (1909-1996).

The eldest son, Homer F. Smith, served during World War I. He entered the military on September 21, 1917, and was discharged on July 30, 1919. On November 14, 1923, Homer married Annie Laurie Lowe, who was five years his junior. Following in the steps of his father, Homer worked as a tobacconist. The 1940 Census shows that the couple had a nine-year-old son. Homer's brother C.K. Smith, Jr. died at the age of ten from a mastoid infection. The youngest of the three Smith brothers, Sory, graduated from Clarksville High School and then started his military education at West Point in 1929. Sory joined the US Air Force and retired as a Major General. He died in California, but his body was interred at Riverview Cemetery in Clarksville.

Mildred Smith graduated from Clarksville High School in 1918 and attended Southwestern Presbyterian University. Mildred played on the women's basketball team while in college. She eventually found work at the library at Southwestern in Memphis, where she met William "Bill" R. Glenn. The pair married on August 4, 1926. Their daughter Evelyn was born on September 20, 1927, at Oak Top. Evelyn's parents divorced in 1929 when she was 18 months old. The 1930 Census shows Mildred and Evelyn living in the household of Mildred’s parents, C.K. and Eva Smith. After teaching elementary school for nineteen years, Mildred worked as a bookkeeper at Orgain Building Supply for another twenty-five years.

From 1938 to 1941, Mildred Smith Glenn and her brother Sory remodeled C.K. Smith's house on Hill Crest Avenue. A contract and specification of materials and other labor document the alteration of the residence into apartments. In her notes, Mildred expressed dissatisfaction with the workmanship and pace of J.H. Ellarson & Son, the contractors hired to work on the house.

Mildred Smith Glenn carried on the correspondence with Annie Rutherford Carnohan (1877-1963) in Texas for at least thirty years. Annie's parents were J.D. Rutherford (1840-1900) and Virginia Clarke Rutherford (1844-1907). Annie married Wilis Judson Carnohan (1845-1910) in approximately 1896. The couple had one son named Rutherford Judson (1897-1924) born in Longview, Texas. It appears that Annie's mother Virginia moved to San Antonio following the death of Annie's father, who was buried in Greenwood Cemetery. The 1920 Census lists Annie as a widow in Kingsville, Texas, with both her and Judson working as clerks at the railroad office. Judson died on April 5, 1924 at the age of 27 in Beaumont, Texas. He was buried at City Cemetery #6 in San Antonio alongside his father Wilis Judson and grandmother Virginia Clarke Rutherford. The 1940 Census places Annie living alone in Kingsville and working as a secretary at a doctor's office. It is noted that she completed four years of college. From 1934 until her death in 1963, Annie corresponded regularly with Mildred Smith Glenn in Clarksville. She was also buried in San Antonio's City Cemetery #6.

Annie's brother Santa Anna Rutherford (1875-1960) worked in the hotel management industry. In 1895, he served as a first clerk at the Clarendon Hotel in Memphis, Tennessee. From there, he moved to the Peabody Hotel where he served as a cashier at its cafe in 1897 before becoming a clerk by 1899. He remained in Memphis until at least 1906. From there, he moved to Texas to manage the Menger Hotel (San Antonio), the Tremont Hotel (Galveston), and then the Bender Hotel (Houston). Santa Anna married his wife Margaret around 1915. In 1917, the "Texas Hotel News" featured an article, "S.A. Rutherford Manager Hot Wells Hotel", that announced Santa Anna's new position as managaer of the Hot Wells Hotel in San Antonio. He briefly moved to Macon, Georgia to work as a hotel manager, as noted in the 1920 Census. Within three years, he had moved back to Texas to work at the Hotel Beaumont. By January 1929, Santa Anna was the operator of Hotel Judson in Houston, Santa Anna predeceased by his wife Margaret, passed away October 5, 1960 in Kingsville, Texas.

Evelyn Glenn (1927-2013), known as Ebbie, attended Clarksville High School. Football programs and "Purple and Gold" literary magazines from the 1940's date to Evelyn's time as a student. After graduation from Clarksville High School in the mid-1940's, Evelyn attended Austin Peay State College. In Evelyn's collection are a 1945-1946 "Farewell and Hail" yearbook and "All-State" newspapers from 1945 to 1947. She eventually married Lee "Buddy" O. Hunter and worked as an elementary school teacher with the Clarksville-Montgomery County School System. Evelyn and her mother Mildred both completed genealogical research on their family connections. Their research is reflected in the papers in this collection.