GILES COUNTY CHAMBER OF COMMERCE
Pulaski
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Pulaski downtown print furnished by and © 1995, John White - Pulaski, TN |
Pulaski, population 9,181, was chartered in 1809. Pulaski was named for the Polish exile, Count Casimir Pulaski. Count Pulaski, the victim of tyranny in his native Poland, joined the colonies in their fight for independence. He was wounded in an attack on Savannah, Georgia, which resulted in his death on October 11, 1779, and was buried at sea.
The first businesses addressed everyday needs, and the early years saw the establishment of mills, stores, blacksmith shops, tan yards, livery stables, and taverns. Nathaniel Moody, one of the commissioners, moved to Pulaski and in 1811 built the first mill. It was on Richland Creek at the mouth of Mill Lane and has continued to be a mill to this day.
By 1820, men who were prominent businessmen for the next 40 years had arrived. Among them were Thomas Martin, Andrew Ballentine, and Ben F. Carter.
Thomas Martin, founder of Martin College, became a merchant with a store on the southwest corner of the square (now the Peddler). Martin was interested in nearly every enterprise in the county. He was first president of the C & S Railroad, had promoted use of Richland Creek for transportation, and gave liberally to the building fund for the Methodist Church. He also owned a plantation, raised and dealt in cotton, and became one of the richest men in town.
Andrew Ballentine, a penniless Irishman when he came to America, moved his store from Robertson's Fork to Pulaski and also became very wealthy. Ben Carter, a physician turned merchant, came to Pulaski from Elkton.
The period from 1840 to 1860 was the prosperous era in Giles County and many of the elegant houses in Pulaski were built during that period.
On Fort Hill, west of the city, still intact, are some of the original fortifications which the Union Army placed there when it occupied Pulaski early in the Civil War.
Sam Davis, the "Boy Hero" of the Civil War, was hung as a spy in Pulaski on November 27, 1863. A Civil War museum on East Hill at the place of execution, a statue on the south side of the public square, a city park and an avenue all bearing his name are memorials to this young hero. A small park area, twelve miles south of Pulaski on Highway 11 in Minor Hill, where the capture occurred has a marble marker recounting the event.
Old First Street Cemetery was the City Cemetery from 1817 to 1888. The City of Pulaski, with a Federal grant from HUD, has converted this cemetery into a historic park, now called "Old Graveyard Memorial Park". Completed in 1968, it serves as a demonstration on a national level of what can be done with abandoned cemeteries to reclaim the more than half million acres of land now in cemeteries in the U.S.
John Crowe Ransom, philosopher, educator, journalist, and unofficial poet laureate of the twentieth century South, was born in Pulaski in 1887. Donald Davidson, noted educator and poet, was born in Campbellsville, near Pulaski, in 1893. Ransom and Davidson were members of "The Fugitives," many of whom became among the best known and most important men in twentieth-century letters.
Joe W. Henry (1916-1980) practiced law in Pulaski from 1941-1974. He was Adjutant General of the State of Tennessee from 1953-1959 and retired with the rank of Major General. Mr. Henry was a member of the Supreme Court of the State of Tennessee from 1974-1980 and served as Chief Justice for the period 1977-1979.
A native of Pulaski, Julia F. Smith Gibbons was appointed as the first female trial judge in Tennessee, and her appointment as a federal judge made her the second youngest federal judge in the United States.
Situated on U.S. Highway 64 (east-west), 31 and 31-A (north-south), on Tennessee 11 and on the main line of the L & N Railroad, it is within 10 miles of interchanges onto I-65. Pulaski is 70 miles south of Nashville, 130 miles west of Chattanooga, 190 miles east of Memphis, and 40 miles north of the Marshall Space Flight complex at Huntsville, Alabama.
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