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Evelyn Glenn Hunter Collection

 Collection
Identifier: 2003.009

Scope and Contents

This collection contains family papers, genealogical research, business records, newspapers, newsletters, books, journals, and photographs. Evelyn's papers includes materials on the Smith-Glenn, Bowman, Homer, and Rutherford-Carnohan families.

It features the letters and business papers of John Hite Bowman, Washington M. Bowman, and family members from primarily the 1820's through 1860's. Checks, receipts, and bills document the Bowman mill operations. Through the Smith family line, Evelyn Glenn Hunter was descended from John H. Bowman. The owner of a mill, Bowman was married to Mary P. Bowman. Their daughter Amelia Bowman married Guilford Slaughter, a merchant and Tennessee legislator, and settled in St. Bethlehem.

The collection includes Mildred Smith Glenn's correspondence with Annie Rutherford Carnohan as well as photographs of her brother Santa Anna Rutherford and family in Texas. Other photographs show Smith family relatives and houses.

A series of letters called the Dear Rep letters from 1852-1894 provide insights into nineteenth-century Montgomery County. These letters are primarily addressed to Rep., otherwise known as Serepta Mildred Jordan Homer (b. January 27, 1839, d. September 25, 1894) of the New Providence area in Montgomery County. Serepta was the great-great grandmother of Evelyn and is buried at Greenwood Cemetery. Her funeral announcement and death notices are housed in this collection.

High school and college school memorabilia, including an autograph album, "The Purple and Gold" literary magazines, football programs, "All-State" newsletters, and a "Farewell and Hail" yearbook, highlight Evelyn's time as a student in the 1940's.

Dates

  • 1796 - 2014

Conditions Governing Access

This collection is open for research use.

Conditions Governing Use

Some material may be copyrighted or restricted. It is the patron's obligation to determine and satisfy copyright or other case restrictions when publishing or otherwise distributing materials found in the collections.

Biographical / Historical

Beginning in 2003, Evelyn Glenn Hunter and her daughter Millie Armstrong donated this collection to the Montgomery County Archives. Through her mother's side, Evelyn was related to the local Smith family. John K. Smith purchased the two-story brick house originally built for Ben Gold in the New Providence area of Montgomery County, Tennessee. Smith eventually sold the house to the Odd Fellows for use as a nursing home. Christopher Kropp (C.K.) Smith (b. July 3, 1864, d. July 23, 1957) of New Providence married Eva Homer (b. March 11, 1867, d. July 24, 1934), the daughter of Serepta Mildred Jordan Homer and Bladen Beverly Homer, 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 (b. February 2, 1892, d. February 14, 1960), C.K. Smith, Jr. (b. August 13, 1896, d. March 23, 1907), Mildred Louise (b. November 18, 1899, d. March 25, 2001), and Sory Smith (b. July 31, 1909, d. December 27, 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 brother, 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 her grandparents' Greek Revival mansion, Oak Top, located at 107 Madison Terrace in Clarksville. Dr. Frank Runyon attended the delivery. Evelyn's parents divorced in 1929 when she was 18 months old. The 1930 Census shows Mildred and Evelyn living in the household of 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 (b. December 10, 1877, d. April 28, 1963) in Texas for at least thirty years. Annie's parents were J.D. Rutherford (b. May 5, 1840, d. September 26, 1900) and Virginia Clarke Rutherford (b. February 11, 1844, d. July 1, 1907). Annie married Wilis Judson Carnohan (b. 1845, d. 1910) in approximately 1896. The couple had one son named Rutherford Judson (b. April 5, 1897, d. April 5, 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 (b. June 9, 1875, d. October 5, 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 (b. September 20, 1927, d. December 16, 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 University. 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.

Extent

6.26 Linear Feet

Language of Materials

English

Abstract

Family papers, genealogical research, business records, newspapers, newsletters, books, journals, and photographs belonging to Mildred Smith Glenn and Evelyn Glenn Hunter.

Arrangement

Arranged in 8 series: Series I: John H. Bowman & family papers, 1813 – 2000 Series II: Mildred Smith Glenn and family papers, 1861 – 2001 Series III: Letters from Annie Rutherford Carnohan and genealogical research, 1908 – 1996 Series IV: Letters to Rep (Serepta Mildred Jordan Homer), 1852 – 1899 Series V: Smith family papers, 1796 – 2000 Series VI: Notebooks, school memorabilia, newspapers, and newsletters, 1940 – 2004 Series VII: Books & journals, 1833 – 2001 Series VIII: Photographs, 1861 – 1972

Processing Information

All photographs are stored together in the Archives Photograph Collection.

Jill Hastings-Johnson, Merrie Morrison, and Scott Danfoth inventoried some parts of this collection. Collection fully processed and finding aid written by Jenna Stout, 2018.

Title
Evelyn Glenn Hunter Collection
Author
Jenna Stout
Date
2018
Description rules
Describing Archives: A Content Standard
Language of description
English
Script of description
Latin

Repository Details

Part of the Montgomery County Archives Repository

Contact:
350 Pageant Lane
Suite 101D
Clarksville Tennessee 30741 United States
931-553-5159