Part of the research paper on Mercer Tennessee

dn english

As the story goes one day TB Mercer was following the Indian trail from Denmark along the Big Black Creek to Estanaula. ( TB Mercer was a wealthy merchant in Toone Tn). TB noticed that the railroad had started laying tracks .T B Mercer saw an opportunity. Along with F M McGlatherly they purchased the land that became Mercer.Mr McGlatherly who was the railroad station  master in Toone married TB Mercer daughter Mattie .

Mr.T E Mercer( TB Mercer’s son) built a store near the cabin of the Eaton Bond  homestead in 1888 .  ( Eaton Bond was said to be an early settler or “squatter” ) Timbers of the Bond cabin were later used to build the McGlatherly house.*

T E Mercer  joined the McGlatherly’s at the new store in the village. In 1894, a railroad station was built. A name had to be given the Station even though Mr. McGlatherly was the Station master, the superintendent asked permission to name it Mercer. The reason Mercer was easier to put on the timetable than McGlatherly.
Dan Lackey was the first town Marshall, JJ Pennington was the first postmaster, teacher and owned the Pennington hotel.

Mr Billy King went to the cemetery to gather the following information.

T. B Mercer is buried at Maple Springs, his full name is Thomas Bonard Mercer, he was born 12-1-1818 and died 1-8-1900 . He has several children buried at Maple, T.E. Mercer, Joseph Mercer, Martha Elizabeth Mercer McGlathery 5-14-1850, died 10-2-1896, she married Franklin McGlathery and Mary McGee 5-19-1869, he had another son Earnest who lived and died in Memphis. T. B. and Franklin, his son in law laid out the town of Mercer and registered it in Madison County, but never in-corporated it. T. E. and his brother in law opened a store, Mercer/McGlathery.When Mattie, Franklin’s wife died, he sold his interest in the store to T. E.

*Franklin had bought the Eaton Bond Estate and took down the log house and used the timbers to build a new home in 1888. After Mattie’s death he sold the house to Dr. Ragland, Miss Annie Sue Mulherin’s grandfather. The house has been restored and is the Baptist Parsonage.

Franklin moved to Kentucky. T.E. and Franklin had each gotten one fifth of T.B.’s Estate. T. E. was one of the founders of Mercer Baptist Church, they had been former members of Maple Springs, Mercer is a mission of Maple Springs.

As I do more research I will expand this page. I am also writing a story about Mattie and F M McGlatherly and what I imagine their lives were like in the 1880’s.