Meeting to spotlight history of aviation in northwest Tennessee

Jackson Purchase Historical Society Meeting on November 2 to focus on Aviation in Northwest Tennessee

The November meeting of the Jackson Purchase Historical Society will be hosted at the Everett-Stewart Airport in Union City, Tennessee on Saturday, November 2 beginning at 10:30 am in one of the airport’s historic 1942 hangars. The airport is located between Martin and Union City, off Highway 22 at 1489 Airport Circle Road, Union City for those using GPS. The meeting will focus on the history of aviation in northwest Tennessee. The event is co-sponsored by the Everett-Stewart Airport Authority and Full Stop Aviation.

The program will feature Dr. Erik Nordberg, an industrial historian and dean of the Paul Meek Library at the University of Tennessee at Martin. Nordberg has been investigating the development of aeronautics in west Tennessee, considering the different forces that determined airport locations, passenger service routes, and current systems for civil and commercial aviation. The state of Tennessee has many important footnotes in early aviation history, with visits by Glenn Curtis spurring air shows, barnstormers, and wing walkers.  The region’s fair weather also drew the attention of the military, with significant installations during both world wars. “We often think systems like these develop by luck and happenstance,” Nordberg reports, “but the reality is that powerful economic, military, and governmental forces shaped this critical transportation network.” 

In 1958, a group of historians met in Murray, Kentucky led by faculty from Murray State University and University of Tennessee-Martin and formed the Jackson Purchase Historical Society to promote interest, study, and preservation of the regional history of the territory encompassed in the Treaty of Tuscaloosa, known as the Jackson Purchase. The society now holds eleven meetings each year with a speaker on Jackson Purchase history and publishes an award-winning journal on local history. Members include a wide range of people who simply share a love of history and a love of the Jackson Purchase area. 

The society recently refurbished its website and an array of information about the society and Jackson Purchase history is available at: jacksonpurchasehistoricalsociety.org.

Free electronic access to back issues of the Journal through 2023 is available through the Murray State University Libraries at https://digitalcommons.murraystate.edu/jphs/.

Articles are welcome for future issues of the JPHS Journal and can be sent to the editor, Bill Mulligan at billmulligan@murray-ky.net. We also welcome inquiries about topics, books for review, or offers to review a book. Copies of the Journal are available from the Jackson Purchase Historical Society, PO Box 531, Murray, KY 42071. The cost is $15.90 including postage and sales tax. Anyone interested in Jackson Purchase history is welcome to join the JPHS.

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