We took a trip over the Thanksgiving Holiday to Pulaski, Tennessee. Pulaski has a rich history and ties to the US Civil War. Pulaski is the county seat of Giles County. It’s city square features a courthouse that was built in 1859.
Pulaski is the site where Union soldiers hung Sam Davis. Sam Davis was a Confederate scout who saw action at Cheat Mountain, Shenendoah, Shiloh, and Perryville. He was captured by Union forces near Minor Hill, Tennessee on November 20th, 1863 and was hung on November 27th 1863, his 21st birthday. There is a statue of Sam Davis on the south side of the courthouse square in Pulaski.
Pulaski was also the original birthplace of the Ku Klux Klan, founded in 1865 by group of former Confederate soldiers. One of our geocaching adventures took us here.
We’ve been to Pulaski several times over the years and the old section of town hasn’t changed much, but the city has expanded to the southwest a bit and now is home to a Home Depot and a Super Wal-mart store. US-64, the main east-west highway through Pulaski, was recently 4-laned and goes past the site of the Bodenham School. Bodenham was a K-12 school that operated here from 1928 to 1978. The school was closed and schools in the county were centralized with 2 High Schools remaining in Giles County.
The only parts of the school that remain are parts of the foundation for the main building and second building that is now a day care.
So, how would I know so much about the area? I lived in Giles County off and on in the late 1970s and early 1980s. My dad bought land here and built a log cabin and is buried not far up the road from where he lived. I attended Bodenham for part of the 7th grade, moved away and attended Giles County High for 2 years. Since my Dad died, my mom has moved to the area. Two of my brothers are graduates of Giles County High School. I visit as often as I can and enjoy Geocaching in the area, I like driving the windy country roads, which were all dirt when I lived there as a teenager but have all since been paved. I like the friendliness of the people and still have friends that live in the area. I’ve never lived anywhere else where people, total strangers to me, wave a friendly hello as we drive past each other on the back-roads; I wave back!
So why am I posting this to our long neglected site for our family and friends to view??? I took all the photographs that I’m posting here at the request of a co-worker of Nan’s, Miss Pat. Miss Pat almost bought a house in Giles County years ago and was surprised to hear that we visit often. She asked that we take some pictures so here are the best of the rest of the photos I took in Pulaski for Miss Pat.
