-Chapter IV- TOWNS, COMMUNITIES, AND MILITIA DISTRICTS (1880-1980)
Tennga District #1713
One of the smallest Murray County militia districts in land area, Tennga, is located at the northern edge of the county. The town of Tennga is on U.S. 411 and the Louisville and Nashville Railroad at the Tennessee-Georgia line. A settled community has existed in the area since Cherokee times and the Indians called the place "Whip" for the whip-poor-will. Upon the building of the railroad, officials coined "Tennga" from the abbreviations of the two state names. Some people pronounce the name "Tenngee," a pronounciation passed down from the Indians though the name is of twentieth-century origin. According to the Georgia Code, Tennga was chartered August 14, 1909. but the charter was repealed in July, 1924. In 1937 Tennga had a population of 175.
Among the early settlers of Whip was W.P. Gordon who operated a small grocery store and served as postmaster (appointed in 1902). The name was changed to Tennga in 1906 and Newt Gordon succeeded his brother as postmaster after that time. On February 20,1920 Charles L. Wilson, also a merchant, was appointed postmaster. Mr. WiJson retired in 1964 and was succeeded by his son, Harold, who retired in 1985.
Early residents, James A. Forsythe (1903-04) and Giles Dunn, were mail carriers in the Tennga District near the turn of the century. Others who lived in the area before 1900 included the Shields. Cole, Hartley, Tucker. White, Ross, Ledford, Wiggins, Graves, and Peden families. Mr. D.M. Peden was a photographer. Another pioneer family, the T.W. Eppersons, owned a large farm which included much of present-day Tennga. The late Henry Epperson remembered the extremely cold winter of 1894-95 when the temperature dropped to 12 degrees below zero with a foot of snow and a frozen Conasauga River. Mr. Epperson's father, Thomas, opened a small hotel at Tennga when the railroad was completed. This family was also among the first to have elctric lights, to own a radio, and to buy a new Model-T. In the early 1900's John Epperson, son of T.W. Epperson. built a jail in the southern part of modern Tennga near the west side of the railroad. John Ledford and John B. Hawkins were deputies.
The railroad depot was built on the Tennessee side of the stale line and operated as a freight office until the early 1960's. Among the early businesses in Tennga were barber shops operated by Charles Ledford and Ralph Craves, Sallie Graves' Hotel, Jasper Hayes' Livery Stable. C.L, Cox's Garage, restaurants owned by Ernest Ratcliff and Mrs. Cecil Cox. the Wjggins grist mill, John Led-ford's store, Fate Felker's blacksmith shop. Jimmy Wiggins' store, and Tom Keith's store (still in operation in 1985). Mr. Hayes also sold caskets made by the Hughes Manufacturing Co., located just inside Tennessee. A sketch of old Tennga would look something like this:
(Note: The drawing from the book does not appear here.)
Other businesses have operated in Tennga over the years including a telegraph office, the Ross Rug Company (which suffered a major fire in the early 1970's), the Tennga Laundry & Dye Company (in the 1950's), and the Rosstex Airport. Floyd Morris and Frank McCardy also had a textile business for a time. In more recent years the Gordon Wilson greenhouse has been a successful operation in Tennga. Elections were formerly held in Buck Keith's filling station, but they are now held in the Wiggins Garage build ing. Tennga also had a lodge.
A very active group in the Tennga District is the Tennga Home Demonstration Club, organized in 1951. Home demonstration agent Coleen Poole helped organize the club which began with six members: Edna File (the first president), Mildred McCamy, Ethel Almond, Agnes Philips, Mary Mayfield, and Kathryn King. As the years passed, the club held regular meetings even when the county had no home economist. The Tennga group has been very active in community affairs, planting trees at some of the churches, furnishing eggs at Easter and fruit at Christmas for orphan homes, distributing baskets of food at Christmas to shut-ins and resthome patients, collecting clothes for a children's home, and making pajamas for hospital patients. Club members have participated in both Murray and Whit field County fairs, winning several first-place ribbons. In addition to their home demonstrations the members have traveled to state and national meetings in Atlanta and Washington, D.C., as well as to a Chattanooga television station where members were interviewed. In 1980 the club had 18 active members: Mildred Petty, Barbara Davis. Joyce Reed, Wave Hill, Mildred McCamy, Dorothy Davis, Dorothy Sampson, Juanita Stafford, Maudie Petty, Edith Dunn, Mary Plemons, Betty Smitherman, Susan Smitherman. Gladys Foster. Victoria Kibler, Sharon Klippert, Beverly Petty, and Ann Smitherman. (Information submitted by Wave Hill, 1980).
Tennga's schools and churches played an important part in the community. Though for a time there were no schools close by and inhabitants sometimes attended classes at Cisco or Conasauga (in Tennessee), by the 1890's the Coffey School was a thriving institution. The first building was located on a hill back of the Shields home. The second building which housed the Coffey School is still standing though classes were last held there probably in the 1920's or 30's when the first schools were consolidated. Located on the road connecting Highways 411 and 225, the timber building has never been painted or underpinned. The structure was later used as a residence.
While the records are sketchy, the Coffey School apparently closed during the Great Depression but was restored by the County Board of Education in 1937 when classes were held in the old Mt. Pleasant Church building. When there was no school in the Coffey ward, students attended Colvards or Tennga. Evidently the school closed again and was reopened in the 1940's but closed for good about 1950 as another consolidation movement spread over the county. Among those who taught at Coffey's during its uneven history were Leach Henry, Giles Dunn, Ella Headrick Johnson, Valley Randolph, Mattie Harris, Nora Woods, Rossie O'Neil Dunn, Irene Greeson. Miss Gregory, Maude Morris 1928-29, Ollie Higdon 1930, William Colvard 1933-34. Virginia Colvard 1937, Mildred Baxter 1942, Grace Caylor 1944. Trustees for the Coffey School District included: Edgar Shields 1929, Luther Dunn 1930-32, J.W. Shields 1930-33, William Hagler 1931-34, Felix Bingham 1930-32, Tinker Headrick 1932-34 and 1947, Clyde Barksdale 1932-33, Isaac Walker 1947-50, Fate Dunn 1947, Henry Caylor 1947, J.L. Langford 1947.
Evidently the first school in Tennga was just for the residents of the town, but in 1917 the Tennga school ward was enlarged to include most of the Tennga District. The first school might have been in a church since the minutes of the county board of education state that in April 1919 "a new school was allowed for Tennga near the burnt church." In 1931 the Board asked Tennessee for compensation for their students who attended the school at Tennga and in September 1932 local patrons asked the Board to build an annex at the school. The Board, fighting the Depression, promised $150 "when available." On February 5, 1935 C.L. Cox, T.L. Keith, and C.L. Wilson appeared before the county board to request a new school for Tennga. Residents approved a bond issue to construct the building at a cost of $ 15,000 with work done by WPA labor (one of the New Deal programs). A brick structure with four classrooms and an auditorium was erected on the same site as an earlier school. Trustees of the school at the time were Chairman Frank Talley, Secretary-Treasurer Will Ross. G.R. Keith, G.B. Hawkins, and J.T. Elrod. When the 1950's school consolidation program began the county board wanted to combine Tennga with Cisco as early as 1952. Finally both of these schools were combined with Eton in 1956. The brick building still standing was sold in 1958 and is now owned by the Ross family.
Trustees for the Tennga school also included Jonas Dunn 1919, J.T. Hawkins 1919, F.C. Willis 1919. Henry Epperson 1920, Charlie Headrick 1920, Charlie Graves 1920, Taylor Bush, C.L. Wilson, Walter Hargis, James Wjggins 1930, T.H. Keith 1930, James Pritchett 1932, Eddie Epperson, C.L. Milliard 1948-51, Howard Ross 1951, Harold Wilson 1952.
Many people taught at the Tennga school in its years of operation. The educators there included: Maggie Woods and Nora McCamy 1917-18, G.C. Richards and Mary Brown 1916-17. Lula Gordon 1919, Beatrice Hernphill 1920, Mattie Lou Groves and Mrs. Ruby Hall 1928-29. Maude Morris and Omagene Leonard 1929-30, H.E. Luther and Mamie Lou Hannah 1930. George Colvard 1932-34, Willie Frances Robinson 1932-33, Frankin Groves 1933-34, Winfrey Leonard and Heartsill Bond 1935-36, Dorothy Jackson 1935-38, Neptha Rogers 1935-39, Lucy Cox 1936-37, Opal Jenkins 1938-39, Rossie O'Neil and Kathrine Earnest 1942, Walter Richards and Stella Baxter 1944, Mildred McCamy 1949-52. B.W. File 1949-50, Edna Earl File 1951-56, James McKowen 1955-56, Annie Laurie Howard. Grover Luther, Agnes Shields, Bertie Parks, Margaret Brice, and Sue Tanksley.
Several churches have been located within the Tennga District. One old church has been known as Friendship. Coffey'sChapel, and Mt. Pleasant. Though founded in the 1850's, a deed from Elisha Coffey to Giles Dunn, Elisha Coffey, James Poteet, E.F. Coffey, and H.H. Hill, Elders of Friendship Baptist Church, was recorded December 1. 1860. Apparently it was generally called Coffey's, but in 1870 Mt. Pleasant Baptist Church reported 32 members to the North Georgia Baptist Convention and Giles Dunn was pastor. A later deed (1921) lists James Shields and George M. Cloer as officers of Mt. Pleasant. A note in Rev. i.C. Williamson's History of the North Georgia Baptist Association says that Coffey's Chapel was over 100 years old in 1956. Coffey's Chapel is now called Mt, Pleasant and is on the opposite side, north of the original church on the road between Tennga and Gregory's Mill. A Coffey family cemetery is north of the old school and church property.
Tennga has two other churches, Liberty Baptist, one of the oldest churches in Munay County with one of the oldest cemeteries, and Tennga Baptist. Liberty is located about 100 yards south of the Georgia-Tennessee line. The first church, a log structure, was built on approximately five acres of land donated by William Wjggins. The generally accepted date for the organization of this church is 1832 though some say it could have been four years earlier. Another structure was built in 1915 but burned in 1948. The present edifice was constructed then. Records of the church before 1904 have been lost. Pastors since then have included S.L. Gann. T.M. Davis, Samuel Melton, J,D. Chastain, R.A. Thomas, Walter Harper, Bert Kincaid, Solomon Williams, (firby Parks, Sam Kendrick, Ralph Romanger, Howard Ross, Clifford Chastain. J.T. Moore, Reggie Mantooth, Hoyt Day, Junior Johns, Randall Headrick, Arnold Manis, and Lee Ingram. In 1978 the deacon board consisted of J.B. Hawkins, Marvin Led-ford, James Sherill, Emmitt Phillips, Russell Flatters, Roger Silvers, and Nobel Mantooth, while Hawkins, Flatters, Sherill and C.C. Young were trustees. Carry Headrick was church clerk. (Information provided by Marvin Ledford,Will Ross, and Billy Wiggins.)
The minutes of the Tennga Baptist Church record the church's founding as follows: Ministers and deacons met at Tennga School, June 15, 1947 for the purpose of organizing a Missionary Baptist Church, Preachers; Murray F. Jackson, M.W. Little, Leonard A. Ogle, B.P. Kincaid, T.A, Wallace and J.C. Holli-field, Deacons: Roy G. Jones, Raymond Gordon, Ben Hysinger, C.H. Almond, George Snyder, Will Ross, James A. Moore, Victor Hollifield, J.B. Long, and A.F, Curbow. A Presbytery was organized from the above group with J.C. Hollifield, Moderator, and A.F. Curbow, Cierk. Charter membership was extended for 60 days and the following were received as charter members: Edna Earl Fite, Mary Frances Mayfield, Katherine King, Nellie Wilson, Minnie McCamy. Jimmie Longley, Ethel Almond, Sammy Fite, Earl King. Claude Mayfield, J.W. Ledford. J.T. Headrick, Charlie Wilson, C.H. Almond, and L.C. Longley. The latter two were deacons.
Following acceptance of the Rules of Decorum of the Baptist Church and the Church Covenant, members of the Presbytery extended the right hand of fellowship to the members. Rev. T.A. Wallace delivered the sermon.
Tennga has sent out one minister, Earl King. The following have served as pastors of the church: J.C. Hollifield 1947, Edgar Hawkins 1948-49, J.D. Abies 1950-51, M.D. Berry 1952, Carl Gaddis 1953, J.C. Williarnson 1954, M.L. Rice 1955, Floyd Wood 1956, Walter Billingsby 1958. ___ Welch 1960, M.R. Mantooth 1961-62, Amos Young 1964 and 1974-75, Clifford Chastain 1966-68, Chester Ross 1969, Waymond Cooper 1969-71. Dudley Nichols 1972-73, Tommy Caylor 1978-79, Doyle Wilson 1980-82, and Jackie Epperson 1983-84.
Murray County Heritage