Gathering to highlight aviation history in Northwest Tennessee

Jackson Purchase Historical Society Meeting Nov. 2 to focus on aviation in Northwest Tennessee

The November meeting of the Jackson Purchase Historical Society will be held at the Everett-Stewart Airport in Union City, Tennessee on Saturday, November 2nd starting at 10:30 am in one of the airport’s historic hangars of 1942. The airport is located between Martin and Union City, off Hwy 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 have Dr. Erik Nordberg, industrial historian and dean of the Paul Meek Library at the University of Tennessee at Martin. Nordberg has been researching the development of aeronautics in West Tennessee, considering the various forces that determined airport locations, passenger service routes, and the current systems for civil and commercial aviation. The state of Tennessee has many important footnotes in early aviation history, with visits from Glenn Curtis spurring air shows, barnstormers and wing walkers. The region’s good weather also attracted the attention of the military, with important installations during both world wars. “We often think of systems like these as developing by luck and chance,” reports Nordberg, “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 professors from Murray State University and the University of Tennessee-Martin and formed the Jackson Purchase Historical Society to promote interest, the study and the preservation of the regional history of the territory included in the Treaty of Tuscaloosa, known as the Jackson Purchase. The society now holds eleven meetings each year with a speaker on the history of the Jackson Purchase and publishes an award-winning magazine on local history. Membership includes a wide range of people who simply share a love of history and a love of the Jackson shopping area.

The society has recently revamped its website and a wealth of information about the society and Jackson’s 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 [email protected]. We also welcome inquiries about topics, books to review, or offers to review a book. Copies of the newspaper can be obtained from the Jackson Purchase Historical Society, PO Box 531, Murray, KY 42071. The cost is $15.90, including sales tax and shipping. Anyone interested in Jackson’s shopping history can join JPHS.

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