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Adgent Family Papers

Dates

1893-2005 (Bulk:1940-1983)

Creator

Adgent Family

Summary/Abstract

The Adgent Family Papers include booklets, newspaper clippings, papers and other ephemera related to life in rural Marshall County. Specifically, the papers document businesses, clubs and activities in which Sadie Harber and Sam Joe Adgent participated as county residents. These activities include clubs like 4-H, Future Homemakers of America and Home Demonstration; farming; horse breeding; local elections; religious institutions; local schools and regional tourism.

Quantity/Physical Description

Approximately three linear feet

Language(s)

English

Repository

Albert Gore Research Center, Middle Tennessee State University, Murfreesboro, TN 37132, (615) 898-2632

Restrictions on Access

None

Copyright

It is presumed that corporate and individual copyrights in manuscripts, photographs, and other materials have been retained by the copyright owners. Copyright restrictions apply. Users of materials should seek necessary permissions from the copyright hol

Preferred Citation

(Box Number, Folder Number), Collection Name, Albert Gore Research Center, Middle Tennessee State University, Murfreesboro, Tennessee

Acquisition

Donated or on loan from Nancy Adgent

Processed By

Original Processor undetermined. Additional processing and arrangement by Aja Bain and Kayla Utendorf, graduate assistants, 2012.

Arrangement

In order to maintain the donor’s original order, the collection is organized topically and arranged alphabetically in the following series: Books & Publications, Business, Clubs & Organizations, Farming, Horses, Maps, Marshall County, Miscellaneous, Pol

Biographical Note

Sam Joe Adgent was born September 12, 1909, in Marshall County, Tennessee. He was the eighth of Ira Lee and Ella Wilson Adgent’s ten children. His parents and grandparents were farmers in Maury and Marshall Counties. Their houses were typically small log or clapboard buildings with no indoor plumbing. He walked to local “one room” country schools, attending through the seventh grade when he had to leave to help support the family. Like other children in the community, he carried his lunch, usually a cold, baked sweet potato and corn bread. As a boy, he went with his family to hear preachers from any denomination who held services nearby, usually in “brush arbors” because few church buildings existed within walking distance. His social life consisted of religious “singings,” school programs, dances, and ice cream suppers. Until he reached adulthood, a horse and wagon were the family’s primary means of transportation, other than walking.

Before joining the Army in 1942, Sam Joe was a farmer and carpenter. Some of his jobs involved World War II military installations: October 1941—February 1942 at the Barrage Balloon Training Center, Camp Tyson, Paris, TN; May–August 1942 on the “Camp Campbell project,” Clarksville, TN; and September 1942 at Memphis Army Hospital until a material shortage halted construction. Later in 1942, he completed basic training at Camp Forrest, receiving his first active duty assignment to Fort Oglethorpe, Georgia with the 4th S.C. Military Police Detachment. He was based in the U.S. for the duration of his service at Telogia, Florida; Opelika, Alabama; Fort McDowell, Angel Island, California; Fort Lewis, Washington; and Fort Ord, Ogden, Utah, where he was honorably discharged 24 October 1945. As an MP, his tasks included escorting unruly soldiers on leave in Chattanooga back to base at Fort Oglethorpe; escorting military prisoners to and from various locales; and conducting Japanese-Americans from the Pacific Northwest to internment camps near Chicago.

After he returned to civilian life, he again worked as a carpenter in Tennessee, Indiana, Kentucky, Ohio, Georgia, and at the Dale Hollow Dam in Celina, TN. From about mid-1946 to mid-1947, he and his brother-in-law, Jim Harber, owned the Sinclair Service Station in Chapel Hill. In October 1947 he rented a farm near Caney Springs, and attended agriculture classes under the Veterans’ Administration GI Bill. He married Sadie Laurene Harber on 15 April 1949. The couple had one child, Nancy. In the early 1950s, he and neighbor, Lloyd Kincaid, co-owned the Sinclair Service Station in Chapel Hill. In 1951, he purchased 118 acres in the Wilson School /Lunn’s Store community of Marshall County, Tennessee, where he operated a dairy and tobacco farm until the early 1970s. He continued to work away from the farm as a carpenter through the 1960s. For many years, he attended Smyrna Baptist Church. In his retirement years, he drove a van for the Senior Citizens in Lewisburg, Tennessee, and sold vacuum cleaners, until health concerns caused him to curtail his driving in 1986. He died at home from a heart attack and stroke December 23, 1991, and is buried in Smyrna Church Cemetery, Chapel Hill, Tennessee.

Sadie Harber Adgent was born April 22, 1920 in Marshall County, Tennessee. She was the sixth of Jacob Edward and Leila Hopper Harber’s nine children. She was raised in the Rich Creek, Anes Station, and Caney Spring communities of the county. Her parents were farmers, as were at least three generations of her Harber, Hopper, Dwiggins, and Green ancestors, all in Marshall and the adjoining Bedford counties. She attended elementary school in Caney Spring and high school in Chapel Hill, graduating in 1943 after missing months in different years due to illness and family needs.

Between her graduation and first teaching position, Sadie worked at a sheet metal shop in Columbia, Tennessee, one of many “Rosie the Riveter” women who performed jobs previously done by men who left to serve in World War II. She taught grades 1-8 at Wilson School near Chapel Hill for the 1943-44 school term, boarding with the Gene Hardison family who lived adjacent to the school. The Hardisons lived on the same farm Sadie and her husband bought in 1951. The following summer she worked in Lewisburg at Basham’s Grocery, returning to teaching in September 1944, this time at Anes Station School near Lewisburg. With only 9 pupils enrolled, the school closed shortly and Sadie returned to work at Basham’s Grocery and moved to Lewisburg. From July 1945 through February 1947, she worked at Lewisburg’s J.C. Penney’s store as bookkeeper and sales clerk. After leaving Penney’s, she worked at Florence Stove Company in Lewisburg until she left in April 1949 to get married.

On April 15, 1949, Sadie married Sam Joe Adgent in Bell Buckle, Tennessee. Rev. C.N. Barclay officiated. In 1951, they purchased 118 acres in the Wilson School / Lunn’s Store community of Marshall County where they operated a dairy farm and raised tobacco, corn, sorghum, horses, hogs, chickens, apples, pears, peaches, and vegetables.

Sadie taught grades 1 through 6 at Wilson School for the 1956 – 57 and 1957 – 58 terms. She was an active member of the Wilson Home Demonstration Club during the 1950s through 1970s. Her skill as a seamstress supplemented their farm income. For many years she worked at the Wilson School voting site on election days, verifying voter registration and manually tallying votes.

The family belonged to Smyrna Baptist Church near Chapel Hill, Tennessee, which was located in a white frame building (no longer standing) across from what is now Henry Horton State Park golf course. Sadie taught various Sunday School and Vacation Bible School classes. She was frequently called upon to plan entertainment for church parties, including Halloween and New Year’s Eve, and she made many costumes for Christmas pageants. In 1997, she compiled the church’s history for its 125th anniversary.

Scope and Content

The Adgent Family Papers contain correspondence, newspaper clippings, scrapbooks, ephemera, maps, pamphlets, publications, photographs, and objects collected by the Adgent Family from both national and Marshall County sources. Physical arrangement has been interrupted because of physical size issues, with various articles being stored in flat boxes and oversize flat boxes where necessary. In the process of reevaluating arrangement, flat boxes were renumbered and/or eliminated and some items may be classified differently (e.g. series) than they had been previous to fall 2012. Photographs, objects, and books are stored separately from the Adgent Family Papers.

Associated Materials

None

Related Collections

Sam Joe Adgent's collection relating to his World War II U.S. Army service is located at the U.S. Army Heritage and Education Center, Carlisle, Pennsylvania. Sadie Adgent's Smyrna Baptist Church collection is deposited in the Southern Baptist Archives, Na

Subject Terms

Persons/Families

Adgent, Sam Joe, Adgent, Sadie

Organizations/Corporate Names

Places

Marshall County, Tennessee Lewisburg, Tennessee Knoxville, Tennessee Key West, Florida Nashville, Tennessee Chicago, Illinois

Subjects (General)

World War I World War II Farming Horses Maps Tourism Political Campaigns 1982 World’s Fairs - Knoxville Religion Publications Schools Clubs & organizations Marshall County community life