Happy Father’s Day!

In addition to the many great dads in our county, we are also home to several “fathers” of a different type.

James D. Vaughan (1864-1941) was the father of Southern Gospel music. In addition to owning a music school, publishing company, record label, and radio station, Vaughan pioneered the concept of sacred music sung by male quartets, a style which became known as Southern Gospel music.

Vaughan was a skilled marketer; his radio station WOAN was the first commercially-licensed radio station in Tennessee. He wrote more than five-hundred songs and printed and sold more than six million song books from his publishing house on the Lawrenceburg Public Square.

Thomas H. Paine (1836-1901) was the father of the modern Tennessee education system. Born in West Point, Paine served as the youngest member of the Tennessee House of Representatives in 1861. He raised a company of cavalry to serve the Confederate cause in 1862, and served throughout the war as a captain in the cavalry regiment of fellow-Lawrence Countian George H. Nixon.

In 1883, Paine was appointed as the 11th State Superintendent of Public Instruction by the governor. According to one early history book, while serving as state superintendent, he “was so thoroughly identified with the public school movement from the beginning that he was able to accomplish many things that form the foundation of today’s Tennessee public school system.”

In addition to streamlining Tennessee’s public education system, Paine challenged the public school system to broaden its curriculum from its base of technical and agricultural skills to include arts and literature.

The Father of Lawrence County was none other than legendary pioneer David Crockett (1786-1836). Crockett first came to Lawrence County in 1816 and was elected as one of our first justices of the peace. He was subsequently elected as the first colonel of the county militia regiment, appointed as one of the founding commissioners of Lawrenceburg, and represented Lawrence County in the Tennessee House of Representatives. In 1922, the county erected a statue of Crockett on the Public Square to honor his role in our founding years.