Hi, everyone.

I'm Ginger Rowsey with Mad.. and host of Channel 11 Checkup.

Channel 11 doesn't run commercials.

As a community nonprofit TV station, they rely on donations from the public.

It's super easy to donate.

Go to their website, westtnpbs.org, and click on the Donate tab.

Your donation stays local and helps WLJT be a community TV station for all of West Tennessee.

Channel 11 is all about home.

This Tennessee author was born in the Doodle Soup Capital of the World and has gone on to become a teacher, a mayor, county commissioner, and author of seven books on local history.

Plus, he's organizing his 60th class reunion.

Straight ahead on Tennessee Writes, we're meeting Tennessee author Ernest Pounds.

We'll find out about his fascination with history, how he finds his stories, and how he's celebrating his 60th high school reunion.

Brew some fresh coffee and find a comfy chair.

Tennessee Writes starts right now.

Books about Tennessee.

Books that come from Tennessee authors.

Books and stories with a Tennessee twist.

West Tennessee PBS presents Tennessee Writes.

[music] Welcome to Tennessee Writes, the show that gets up close and personal with Tennessee authors.

My name is Peter Noll.

This is the show that goes beyond the book to learn about its author, from their childhood to where their stories come from, and they'll even offer advice if you want to write a book yourself.

Plus, we put the authors on a stopwatch and try and see how many questions they can answer in the Lightning Round.

Tennessee Writes welcomes author Ernest Pounds.

He's been honored by the Tennessee state legislature for his books about Tennessee history.

He's worked as a teacher and politician, and has always called the Doodle Soup Capital, Bradford, Tennessee, his home.

Tennessee Writes welcomes Ernest Pounds.

Mr.

Pounds, welcome to Tennessee Writes.

Thank you.

Thank you for coming in and .. Six history books and one religious book.

Wow.

When did they all start?

Started in 1973, actually.

I was attending a meeting over at the University of Tennessee at Martin.

Happened to go to the library and happened to find a magazine, Tennessee Valley Historical Review.

Had some pictures and stories about various communities.

I thought, "Well, I can write that about Skullbone," because that's where I grew up.

From there, after that article, I started a book then on the history of North Gibson County.

That was in 1980.

Then in '84, I did one on historical pictures, history of Bradford, and then I did one on the city of Bradford.

Then I did one on Tennessee's last kingdom, another history of Skullbone, and then I did a Gibson County book.

Then lately, year before last, I did this one, Along The South Fork of the Obion River in West Tennessee.

You are a retired teacher and you taught in Bradford?

I taught in Bradford almost 22 years.

In Gibson County, I worked with adult education for 17.

What subject areas did you teach?

History.

Just history?

Well, I had history, political science, economi.. geography; all of the social studies.

You went to college at Martin at UTM.

You studied history there?

Right.

Okay.

Then how did the teacher go into politics?

When I was researching you, I found a 2006 story, a new story, at a Memphis TV station about tornadoes that went through the area of Bradford.

You were the mayor.

That's right.

How long were you mayor?

Two terms.

Two terms.

Almost two terms.

One full term, and then I was appointed mayor about halfway through another term.

Okay.

You were also a county commissioner for Gibson County.

For about eight to nine years, something like that.

Wow.

You were a teacher.

Were you teaching and serving in those roles?

I was teaching and serving as a commissioner while I was in the high school.

Then when I was working with adult education, I was a mayor at Bradford.

How did you find time to teach, do those positions, and also write books?

Had to make time.

[chuckles] It's so unusual these days to find someone who was born, raised, and has lived their entire life in the same town.

I was actually born outside of town between Cades and Idlewild at my grandmother's house.

I lived then at Skullbone up until 1987 and moved into Bradford.

For our viewers out there who don't know the history of Skullbone, give a little synopsis of that.

Skullbone is a community in northwest Gibson County.

It has a lot of history behind it.

It has appeared twice in Ripley's Believe It or Not!

It has been a history of the town or the community based upon boxing.

All blows had to be delivered to the head.

If anything was delivered below the head, it was considered to be a foul, and the person lost the match.

These little communities around Skullbone, if they wanted to join into the Kingdom of Skullbonia, they had to beat one of the Skullbone boxers.

You had various people who tried to get their community into this Kingdom of Skullbonia.

Somebody says, "Why is that important?"

It's important enough that two governors have issued proclamations calling Skullbone a kingdom.

The first one was in 1953, Governor Gordon Browning, and the last one was Governor McWherter.

He also proclaimed it to be a kingdom.

That's the reason the book here was the last kingdom of Tennessee.

What happened to Skullbone?

Skullbone, like all other little communities, faded away.

Railroads came down to Bradford and through there.

That cut a lot of the community apart and made them lose out.

We had at one time in Skullbone 10 different businesses.

Now we have one that just closed a couple of years ago, the Skullbone Store.

At one time, we had all the way from a cradle factory to a blacksmith shop.

The tannery was there.

We had various types of physical buildings that sold things.

We even had a whiskey still.

Was it a legit one or was it sort of a-- It was not a legit one, but everybody knew about it.

All these stories about Gibson County and our history, why are they important for people to still remember?

I think it's important because everyone came from somewhere, and to go back and to find something about your hometown or your home community.

For instance, there are stories in these books that people won't ever think about being important to anyone except those people who live there.

You find a lot of strange things when you start digging into the histories of various communities.

For instance, there's a story that I came across that Frank James, who was the brother of Jesse James, taught school in the Holly Leaf community, which is barely in Gibson County.

I told that story one time at a historical meeting in McKenzie.

When you tell stories like Frank James or Jesse James, people kind of snigger, "It couldn't have happened here."

I told the story about how Frank James had taught under the name of Fred Johns.

He lived in Weakley County with this man and woman.

He would come across the river into Gibson County and teach school at Walker School at Holly Leaf, and then he would go back home.

One day, he came in, and there was a little boy sitting there reading one of these penny novels.

On the back of the novel was a drawing of the James gang.

This little boy told him, says, "I know who you are.

You're Frank James."

He said, "If you tell anybody, I'll kill you."

Well, he never came back.

The teacher never came back to school.

I told that story, like I said, at this historical meeting.

People sniggered about it.

After it was over with, there was an old lady, probably 90 years of age, in a wheelchair.

She asked the person that was taking care of her to roll her up where I was.

She shook her finger at me, and she says, "I want you to know that story is true."

She said, "He boarded with Mom and Daddy and boarded the buckboard every morning to come across to go to school.

There was another story he told also.

This one was in a 1988 newspaper article in the Milan Mirror Exchange.

He'd said that this individual that he boarded with says, "I've never lost a dime.

Nobody has ever cheated me out of anything."

He did cheat him out of this.

He cheated him out of carrying his buckboard away.

A few weeks later, he got a message back from Frank James.

It says, "You said nobody had ever cheated you out of anything, but I did."

The note was signed Frank James, not Fred Johns.

Wow.

Interesting story.

I thought that was very interesting.

Also, in that book you're talking about, the last letter that Davy Crockett ever wrote, a copy of it.

I thought that was interesting that here's an individual that has left Gibson County-- That's another story.

They've left Gibson County and gone to Texas.

Here's a letter that he wrote back to his daughter.

He wrote it a few days before the Alamo when he was killed.

Wow.

[music] Let's delve into-- Is this your latest book?

No, this one is your latest book.

This one.

This is the one .. What I found fascinating was all the little incorporated towns that I didn't even know existed.

It says on the cover they're 60.

I didn't go and count them.

I was just too fascinated reading the stories.

There are probably that many more.

How did you find all these stories about these unincorporated towns that may not even exist anymore?

Believe it or not, I talked to older people.

There was a lady, for instance, in Dogwood Pointe at Milan when my mother was up there.

She was a very interesting individual to talk to.

I found out where she was from, what community, and I asked her about it.

She gave me a lot of history.

I included that.

I talked to a banker in Bradford.

He was one that was raised in another little community outside of Trenton.

I got information from him.

Went to the library and pulled off what I could find on some of the old newspapers on microfilm.

I just talked to various individuals about it.

There are many communities that I couldn't find anything about.

I know they existed because I saw where they were named, but nobody knew anything about them.

They'd been gone so long.

If there's any students watching the show, he never mentioned the internet.

He never mentioned Google or the internet.

He talked to people and he used the library as research.

Is that what you recommend people do if they want to research history?

A lot of these things, the local history is not going to be on the i.. You're going to have to talk to someone.

I ran into some problems, too, with that because a lot of people had all kinds of pictures.

When I was doing the Bradford book, for instance, there was a lady called me.

She said, "I've got a whole box of pictures."

She said, "You might want to go through those pictures and use some in your book."

I went to her house, and she brought out the box of books.

Turned them over.

I said, "Who is this?"

"I don't know."

I said, "Who is this?"

"I don't know who that is."

"What's this a picture of?"

"I'm not sure."

Nothing was labeled.

Not a single picture in that whole box was labeled.

That's where we get into some problems finding pictures of older events or older people.

They don't label their pictures.

You don't know where it's from or who is in it.

I have no idea.

Of all the stories in the early history of Gibson .. what one or two stories stood out in your mind the most?

The fact that we advertised that Gibson County was the home of Davy Crockett.

I'm going to disagree with some history teachers on this.

Fred Culp and I used to go round and round about it.

Davy Crockett never lived a day in Gibson County.

Davy Crockett lived in Weakley County.

If you notice in the book, there was a map that showed Gibson County and Weakley County.

Weakley County had some of the land on this side of the Obion River, South Fork of the Obion River.

Gibson County had some of their land on the other side.

It was very difficult to get from one side to the other because of the South Fork of the Obion River.

That river did not have a bridge until 1839.

Before then, it was very difficult.

They had to go all the way around or maybe follow the river at the low spots, wherever they could get across to do their business.

Davy Crockett lived on this side of the river, but it was in Weakley County.

In 1837, I believe it was, we found that Gibson County and Weakley County made a deal.

We would have their land on our side.

They would have our land on their side, but we're going to swap it.

Just a pure swap.

That was one year after Crockett had died at the Alamo.

Technically, he never lived in Gibson County.

Technically not.

That's just one of many fascinating stories incorporated into this book.

Of all the books you've written, is this your favorite?

Probably, because it covered more area.

Have you gotten a good reaction from people about the book?

I sold more books the last couple of years when this one came out, that book, than I did actually back when that first came out.

I never did advertise it much.

I didn't put it on television or radio or anything like that, just word of mouth, but I'm proud of it.

It's great stories.

It's one of those books you put on your coffee table, and people will pick up, and there'll be a conversation starter.

There's a story in there, a Civil War story you probably remember reading.

An individual from Kenton fighting in the Civil War, he left his home place and went into Kentucky.

Up around Columbus, Kentucky, there was a battle, and he was killed in that battle.

His wife didn't know anything about what had happened to him.

She got in her two-horse wagon, left Kenton, went into Kentucky to see if she could find him.

Went through a battlefield, and there were graves everywhere.

All of a sudden, she saw a foot sticking out of that grave.

She noticed the sock that was on it was a sock that she had knitted for her husband.

She dug him up, put him in the wagon, and brought him back to Kenton.

He's buried outside of Kenton.

His name was Pinkney.

[music] We have come to the segment of Tennessee Writes we call our Lightning Round, where we ask our authors a series of quick questions about books and literature and see how many they can answer in two minutes.

We've got two minutes on the clock.

It will start counting down after my first question.

Do you want to play?

[nods] The key is to see how many.. Let's begin.

Whose autobiography book is your all-time favorite?

I don't know.

There are so many.

What's the most expensive book you own?

Gibson County, Past and Present.

How much did you pay for it?

I didn't pay anything.

Someone gave it to me.

How much is it worth?

$75.

Who did you give a copy of your first book to?

Landon Hampton, who owns Skullbone Store.

What celebrity would you most like to co-author a book with?

One still living, I guess.

I don't have any preference.

Name the book you think everyone should read at least once.

The Bible.

If you were stranded on an island with only one book, what would it be?

The Bible.

What is the first book that made you cry?

I don't remember.

What is the name of the font used your latest book?

Helvetica [?].

If you could pick a celebrity to narrate your book, who would it be?

[?]

What's one book that you're reading right now?

One that I'm reading right now?

I'm re-reading one of my own.

[?]

What food item do you like to eat as you write?

[?]

If you could have a book signing event in any city in the world, where would it be?

Jackson.

Name the last book you finished reading.

The last book I finished-- [beep] [music] Ernest, we always love to hear the author in their own words, reading stories that they've actually written.

Would you mind reading from one of your books for us?

That's fine.

Okay.

Which book is .. I'd like to read from Along The South Fork of the Obion River in West Tennessee.

You said some of the stories in the early history- Some of them.

-are in both?

Yes.

Now, this one today I like is the fact that there's a story in Ripley's Believe It or Not!

In fact, there are two that cover the area.

This one deals with a man that had built a huge wheel to run his factory.

The factory was operated by a mule that got into the wheel and round and round and round.

"The wonder of our village, he wrote, was Grief Buckner's shop where he made furniture of all kinds, but this was not the wonder.

The wonder was the motor power to run his lathe and turning posts for beds, chairs, and bureaus.

Mr.

Buckner must have been the genius of the town.

He had erected a large wheel.

To me it seemed to be 100 feet high, but really, I suppose it was no more than 30 to 40 feet.

It was so constructed that a little mule was led on the inside, and he would walk all day long and never change his position or seemingly move out of his tracks.

The great wheel would turn as he walked, and Mr.

Buckner would send his lathe on the inside of the shop with chisel in hand, with which he made the curling, twirling, shavings fall around his feet.

The great wheel stood as a monument to Mr.

Buckner's genius long after he was gone.

In fact, it was still standing during the American Civil War."

There's a little picture of how it looked in Ripley's Believe It or Not!

Great story.

There's another story I'd like to tell you abo.. A man who lived in the same house for over 100 years.

This was in Ripley's Believe It or Not!

also.

It was a man by the name of Green Smith.

He came into the area when he was five years old with his father.

They lived right at the very point where Carroll County and Gibson County meet today, right over just in Gibson County.

He lived in that same house until he was 115 years of age, when he passed away.

Now, Robert Ripley got a hold of that somewhere, and he made a story about that told about this man who had lived in the same house for over 100 years.

Is that house still there?

No.

The school's not still there where Frank James taught school, but they were right together, just a very few feet apart.

[music] Ernest, there are people out there watching right now who are thinking, "You know, I should write a book."

What advice do you give them?

Do it.

Do it.

Don't put it on some big national business.

For instance, this book here that you're looking at was printed by Josten company out of Clarksville, Tennessee.

Privately done.

I sold more books.

This book here was also done by Josten out of Clarksv.. I sold another book before that.

We had two printings.

I did 2,000 copies of that, 1,000 at a time.

Sold out.

That book sold for $5.25 when I did it in 1980.

There are people today that have them on eBay, $75 to $125.

I've noticed some of your books online were going for $65, $80.

Yes.

I don't know why.

[chuckles] They're good stories.

They're good stories.

This Skullbone book, it reached 26 different states.

I think it was six different Canadian provinces.

When people say, "Hey, how can I get your books?"

where do you want them to go?

To me.

Okay.

I'm on Facebook.

I'd be glad to send you a book.

I'd be more than glad to.

Just look you up on Facebook?

Right.

Okay.

That w.. That's the best way.

Okay.

Ernest, unfortunately, we have run out of time for this episode of Tennessee Writes, but we thank you for coming on and sharing more about your life and your books and the history of our communities, which is so important to remember.

As a thank you for coming on, we have this Tennessee Writes writing kit, which has a briefcase, a latte mug, pen, and notebook to help you with taking notes for future books and your future writings.

Before you leave, would you mind signing a book for the station?

I'd be glad to.

[music] Thank you so much.

To PBS, thank you for having me.

I signed my name.

Thank you so much.

For comments about today's show or to suggest a Tennessee author for a future program, email us at tennesseewrites@westtnpbs.org.

Tennessee Writes, on air and streaming now.

[music] The program you've been watching was made possible through the generous financial support of West Tennessee PBS viewers like you.

Please visit westtnpbs.org and make a donation today so that we can continue to make local programs like this possible.

Thank you.

[music]