I am posting this history as it appeared in the Shopper's Weekly Journal October 17, 1968. The article was written by my father in law Dick Poplin and was titled "Scraps of Poplin."  "Scraps of Poplin" was a feature article in the Shopper's Weekly Journal and later in the Shelbyville Times Gazette from 1968 through June of 2006. I hope you find something of interest in this post. Richmond is in southwest Bedford County and within close proximity of "The Ridge." Many of our old families resided in that area.

RICHMOND

Richmond like other Bedford County towns, has become smaller with the passing of time. Also, also as in the cases of the twin villages of Longview and Center Grove, and Fairfield and Petersburg, Richmond and Branchville co-existed for a time. But of these twins Richmond, Fairfield and Longview survived while their sister villages of Branchville, Petersburg and Center Grove quietly but surely receded into the pages of history.

We wrote some time ago about Longview and Center Grove. After Longview was incorporated as a town and a school was established, Center Grove began its decline and eventually faded away. Some still  live who attended the school at old Center Grove and can remember the birth of Longview.

According to an 1878 map of Bedford County, the place where Longview now is was designated as Fairview. There was another Longview over in the edge of the eight district near North Fork Creek.

Fairfield , first called Davis Mill, was one of the most flourishing towns of the county from 1835 to 1850. The land on the west side of Garrison Fork Creek was owned by Dr. J. L. Armstrong and was called Petersburg. That on the east side of the creek was owned by Mr. Henry Davis and was called Fairfield. The two towns laid off lots in the 1830's, but the name of Petersburg was soon dropped and the whole town became Fairfield.

We wrote about Branchville, also, some weeks ago. It flourished for a while just a mile from Richmond, having been established by H. C. Dwiggins in 1871. He succeeded in getting the post office there in 1876. But although Branchville still exist in the memories of prominent older citizens of that section, it finally gave up the ghost and left Richmond to carry on as the community center.

Richmond itself has had a far more illustious past than present. The Tennessee Gazetteer, published in 1834, identified Richmond as "a post town in Bedford County, established in 1831."  The 1878 map of the county, a copy of which was given to the Argie Cooper Public Library by Mr. and Mrs. Tim Marsh, shows Branchville as having the post office and none indicated at Richmond. Did Richmond get the post office away from the sister village? If so, Richmond seems to have the last laugh. There still remains a church and two stores at Richmond. One store is operated by Miss Lois Moore for Mr. G. W. Sanders. The other is operated by Jim McAdams.

An Academy was chartered at Richmond in the 1850's (Goodspeed's Tenn. History, 1886). It is said that students from other parts of the county boarded there and attended the school there. The village is said to have had sidewalks at one time also.

A later school came into being in Richmond as a result of a meeting of "Friends of Education" who met in the Christian Church building in January 1878. The pupose was to have a graded high school. Dr. I. S. Davidson was made chairman of the group and Dr. W. E. Sutton was appointed secretary.  Superintendent Jno. R. Dean addressed the group on the subject of general education "as well as better mode of reaching the masses through the public or free school system."

"After the conclusion of the remarks by Professor Dean, Professor Rowls showed the advantages and utility of the Indiana Public School System."

After that Professor Dismon spoke in favor of the public school system and advocated the establishing of a graded high school. The chairman appointed a committee consisting of W. W. Gant, L. J. Dysart, J. M. Davis, W. E. Sutton, and W. R. Loving to confer with the citizens and take steps toward incorporation.

This information came from minutes of the meeting in an old ledger in the possession of Paul Wallace of Davis Street. The school seems to have gotten under way (could that have been the first graded high school in the county?) because an old picture belonging to Miss Maggie Davis shows two teachers and about 40 pupils standing in front of a two story, frame school building soon after that time.

Much of the history of Richmond has been closely connected to the Church of Christ there. The building shown in the picture was probably built as early as 1880. New Herman is usually credited with being the oldest Church of Christ in Bedford County, but Mary Phillips, born March 21, 1817, was baptized at the age of 14 by a brother Hopwood near the village of Richmond. That would have been in 1831 about the same time as the beginning of the New Herman congregation.

John Phillips, father of Mary Phillips, gave the land where the first church house and school house was built. His wife was Nancy Scott Phillips. Nancy Scott, at the age of 14, was one of the twenty women and nine men who in 1785 defended Fort Buchanan, on Mill Creek near Nashville against 700 Indians until help arrived from Nashville and saved the fort.

John and Nancy Scott Phillips were the great, great, grandparents of Mrs. R. L. Moore who still resides at Richmond. The land he gave is now part of the Dysart farm. The church sat near the little creek. In 1896 the church building was moved to its present location on land given by by Mr. and Mrs. J. P.  Carlisle. The deed was executed on Nov. 6, 1920 by the heirs of S. A. Carlisle to E. A. Davidson, J. M. Young and John Nelms, elders of the church.

At a later time we hope to write about Dr. T. W. Brents who lived in Bedford County not far from Richmond. He was a noted physician, teacher in medical school, college president and writer.

Contibuted by:
Bobby Prosser
prossergenealogy@comcast.net