A Tale of Two Times: Bristol
as a Wild and Wooly Railroad
Town and as a Town of Ease
by Ashley Bushong.
ENGL
3040-001 Dr. O’Donnell
3 Dec. 2003
[Ashley Bushong is an undergraduate
English major at East Tennessee State
University. She plans to get a masters degree in education and teach high school
English. She grew up in Bristol, TN, but currently resides in Johnson
City with her
fiancee and black and white cat, Oz.]
On
the Virginia-Tennessee Border, in the Appalachian Mountains,
resides the small town of Bristol.
It is acknowledged as the birthplace of country music, and known nation-wide
for the world’s fastest half mile, the Bristol Motor Speedway. There are many
other sides of Bristol that
visitors of the town do not see. It is a town enriched with history, ghost
stories, and old folk tales. The people in this small, simple town are family
oriented moral folks, full of love and consideration. They greet one another
with warm welcomes and affectionate smiles, and at times seem to have hearts of
gold. Author Bud Phillips, a well known citizen who is accepted as an authority
on local history, writes in his book Pioneers in Paradise, “the city
slogan, ‘Bristol is a good place to live’, is true, because of the goodness of
her people” (189). The people in Bristol respect tradition and do not like
change, even though the town itself has changed significantly over the years. Bristol
at one time bustled with commerce and industry, but that growth has mainly died
off. The residents of the late 1800s and early 1900s were also observed as
welcoming, good hearted souls, but they were also uncontrollable and immoral.
“Morals, why, they didn’t have any!” exclaimed one old timer when queried about
the matter in Phillips’s book Pioneers in Paradise (221). Bristol
can now be seen as more of a retirement town, with an atmosphere that feels
slow and tired. The sidewalks are lonely, and the town goes to sleep after 10:00pm.
This conflicts with the way it was in the late 1800s and early 1900s, when the
town was a “wild and wooly railroad town” (Phillips Bristol
227).
Bristol was founded in 1852 by
Joseph Rhea Anderson. There were not any structures standing on the land when
he purchased it on July 10, 1852
from the Reverend James King. His home was the first building in the town, and
it had room for a store. Anderson
became the first town merchant and postmaster. He had high expectations for his
little piece of paradise, Bristol.
He wanted it to be a center for commerce, and a place for superb industry. At
the contract signing to purchase the land, Anderson
knew the railroad had plans to come to that area, and he hoped it would provide
an opening for all of his dreams to come (Phillips Bristol
25-53).
On October
1, 1856, when the sun began to rise over the mountains, the first
passenger trains arrived in Bristol
(History). Eager new faces came to view the town, and many took roots there.
They were astonished by its beauty, and could see why Anderson
almost named it Paradise (Phillips Bristol
25-53). They were amazed by its citizens, “always there to help, often going
far beyond the call of duty” (Phillips Pioneers 189). Bristol was on the
rise, a rise which led to an unbelievable, unruly nature.
The town became a wild and wooly railroad town after the
passenger trains arrived in1856. It had grown from having one structure, the house
of Joseph Anderson, to having numerous shops and banks. There was a saw mill,
shingle mill, woodworking plant, pottery works, wagon and carriage factory,
brick manufacturing, and a tannery (Phillips Bristol
228-9), but it became well known for its saloons, brothels, and the overall
unruliness. Bristol was often seen
as not having any morals. Bud Phillips claimed in Pioneers in Paradise,
“moral conditions here were about as black as they can get” (221). It has been
said that any moral transgression that one can name has occurred at some point
and time in Bristol. “Blatant incestuous practices, rapes of every description
(even the rape of a cow!), unlawful cohabitation, love triangles, polygamy,
bigamy, wide-open brothels, street prostitutes—all of these conditions and more
were part of daily life in the then wild and wooly railroad town on the border
of Tennessee and Virginia” (Phillips Pioneers 221-222).
An indication of what life was like in the late 1800s and
early 1900s can be seen in a complaint filed by Stephen Davis, a devout member
of the State Street
United Methodist Church
and a clerk in his father’s store, to the constable of Bristol
on Sept. 5, 1879. Davis
claimed, “I cannot walk from my job to my home after dark without being hailed
from every side by women of ill repute, some of them even taking hold of me and
opening their clothes and trying to open mine and they attempt to draw me down
in the street with them. Time and again I have had to shake them off and flee”
(Phillips Pioneers 222).
Another
example of the immoral character that resided in the border town can be seen in
the rape of a cow committed by William (Billy) Crockett, a teenage citizen of Bristol
in 1887. Old indictment records found at the Bristol Courthouse show that
William Crockett on Aug. 19, 1887
did
feloniously commit the detestable and abominable crime against nature by then
and there, that is to stay in a stable of a barn belonging to Esther Looper, to
wit on the day and year aforesaid, did feloniously have carnal intercourse with
a beast, that is the milk cow belonging to the said Esther Looper, she then
being away attending church; and the crime is against the peace and dignity of
the Commonwealth of Virginia.
(Phillips Pioneers 281)
William Crockett pled not
guilty to this transgression, hoping his three friends, the ones who
accompanied him to watch the deed, would lie in his favor. To his surprise, his
friends were witnesses for the prosecution, and Crockett was sentenced to two
years in prison.
These
conditions of ill repute actually brought more tourists to the area for the
mere purpose of “tasting the unique pleasures” (Phillips Pioneers 222).
This era of social wildness and immorality, from 1856 to sometime in the early
1900s, eventually passed. It may have ended due to several depressions that
occurred in the early 1900s, but there has not been a documented account of why
this era died. It seems this era has been forgotten or buried due to the bad
reputation it gave the town. If someone were to ask a Bristol
citizen today if they were aware their town was once a town of immorality and
ill repute, they would respond by laughing with disbelief.
Bristol has
drastically changed from the wild and wooly railroad town it was in the late
1800s and early 1900s to a town of simplicity and stillness. It can be seen as
a retirement town, slow and possibly a little worn out. The downtown area,
which used to be a place of wildness and scandal, has changed to something more
depressing and dilapidated. The beautiful, elaborate buildings with grand
architecture have chipped and peeled. They now are merely skeletons of what
used to be. This sets a very stagnant, depressing atmosphere. It causes the
younger generation to hunger for the life of a thriving city. They want to experience
nightlife, which does not exist in their small town. They crave education to
overcome the closed mindedness of their past generations. They desire success
and an available future, which will never be available in Bristol
if the young people continue to leave. Children are often viewed as the future.
They will move up and take the place of the generation that is in control now.
Maxim Gorky, a Russian author in the late 1800s, claimed “Only mothers can
think of the future, because they give birth to it in their children.” If the
young people continue to leave to seek entertainment and successful jobs
elsewhere, Bristol may lose any
chance it has at a flourishing, progressing future.
The
population of Bristol, from the
2000 census, is 42,188, combining both Tennessee
and Virginia sides (County/City
Profile). The median age is 39.9 years old, which is above both Tennessee
and Virginia’s state average age (Bristol
Tennessee). The largest age groups in
Bristol range from 35-59 years old which make up approximately 34% of the
population while people from 18-25 only make up 12.6% (Bristol City). Most
population growth comes from retirees seeking a serene pleasant environment,
and middle aged people returning, after the journey to find a better life, to
raise their family. These people return remembering how safe the community was
when they were growing up, and want the same safety for their children. They do
not want their children’s lives threatened by the numerous criminal acts that
occur in crowded, enormous cities. Bristol’s
crime rate is extremely low compared to the national average, as seen in the
2001 FBI uniform crime reports, but that could pertain to its small population.
Residents in Bristol know each
other, and it is easy to spot a new face. If someone were to commit a crime, in
such a small population, they would be easy to find.
The citizen’s generosity and “golden heart” have not
changed throughout the years, but the open minded attitudes that existed in the
1800s and early 1900s are gone. The city has changed to a city of morality. I
grew up in the small, closed minded town of Bristol,
near a private Christian college, King
College. I felt the aches of this
small town. I felt the closed-mindedness all around me. The youth of the city
were not allowed to have original ideas or thoughts. We were expected to be
like the generations that came before us and the generations before them. In
high school, if someone was spotted wearing all black, he was a devil
worshipper, and was going to kill us all. I have seen parents not allow their
children to socialize with other children because they are different than
others. This occurs in other towns also, but in a town as small as this one,
the child is exiled. News spreads like wildfire. Everyone is in everyone else’s
business, and there is nothing anyone can hide.
The
citizens there are very family oriented, and it seems everyone is religiously
minded. In Bristol, parents feel
safe allowing their children to walk to friends’ houses and to different
stores. It is a worry free environment, a community that is based on trust and
familiarity. This community does not allow ideas of the outside world to invade
their safety nets. An example can be seen when Bristol
residents protested the White Zombie concert at Viking Hall in February 1996.
They did not want the band’s presence to influence their children’s lives, or
White Zombie’s ideas to enter their society. Religious leaders in the community
thought the group’s music relayed satanic messages, so they planted themselves
outside Viking Hall refusing to allow anyone to enter. The concert still took
place, but not without dispute. This protest is an example of how Bristol
residents take action into their own hands to protect their society from new
ideas and change.
Bristol has
changed drastically in the last two hundred years. It started as a structure
designed for the founder Joseph Anderson, and grew into an average size town.
It had its moment in the spotlight, and now that spotlight has withered to a
candle flame ready to be blown out. Bristol
has wonderful people who are caring and compassionate, but their unwillingness
to change will forever deprive them from successful growth. The town became a
“wild and wooly town” on the border of two states due to the open-mindedness of
its society. The closed-mindedness that now exists is causing the young people
to leave, destroying any chance Bristol
has to succeed in any aspect.
Works Citied
Bristol City, Tennessee
Statistics and Demographics: US Census 2000.
Home page. Area connect. 15
Nov. 2003 <http://bristoltn.areaconnect.com/statistics.htm>
Bristol,
Tennessee. Home Page. City-data.com. 15
Nov. 2003
<http://www.city-data.com/city/Bristol-Tennessee.html>
County/City Profile: Bristol,
Virginia. Home page. Southwest Virginia Graduate Medical Education Consortium. 15
Nov. 2003 <http://www.wise.virginia.edu/gmec/Counties-Cities/Bristol.html>
History of the Bristol
Trainstation: One Hundred Years Watching Bristol
Grow
Home
Page. Bristol Trainstation Foundation.
2 Dec. 2003.
< http://www.sullivan-county.com/news/ts/history.htm>
Phillips, V.N. Bud. Bristol
Tennessee/Virginia:
A History – 1852-1900.
Johnson City, TN:
The Overmountain Press, 1992.
Phillips, V.N. Bud. Pioneers
in Paradise. Johnson City,
TN:
The
Overmountain Press, 2002.