GIBSON COUNTY, TN - SKULLBONIA - Preface to Skullbonia Interviews (1940's)
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                                  Preface (author unknown)

Harve Drewry,  Allen Sharp,  Peter Moseley and Roy Whicker, Weakley county;
Sarah Goodman and the Ed Joneses, Gann; Calvin J. Cooper of Christmasville;
Walter Akins and John Cloyd, of Holly Leaf; Brownings and Robinsons, Whiteway;
Will Flippin and John Parker, Skullbone; Postmaster Nathan D. Guy, Bradford;
Carlos Thetford, Idlewild and Milan; T.J. Waldrop, Idlewild; Mrs. Rebecca Jones,
Gann; Mrs. Claud E. Jones, Gann; James Arnold, Old Harmony Community; Mrs.
Martha Browning; Esquire A. Kirk Perry; John H. Dowland; Wilburn E. Dowland;
Esquire Jess Grant Dowland; Brodie Taylor; James Paschal ("Pack") Taylor; Wesley
Steward; William Marion Reid; Al Stout; Edd Sellers; James Taylor; Sam Cates;
Herman Cantrell; Rev. Kletus Moore; Pankie Parker, Jim Paige and Governor Gordon
Browning; and everybody else in and around Skullbone, who were old enough to
remember historical facts or had access thereto, including his own aged
grandparents, and his father, Emerson E. Dowland, who was Postmaster at
Skullbone in 1898.

These few names are cited merely to indicate the class of citizenry interviewed.
They are highly respectable, old "land-grant" families who shouldn't have any
purpose, other than truthful co-operation.

Carlos Thetford, of Milan; Attorney Homer Waldrop, "Mayor" of Idlewild; Harry
Williamson, "Mayor" of Gann; Kit Parker, Supt. of Madison county schools;
Attorney Robert Gallimore; and Richard E. Davis, editor and publisher of the
Trenton Herald-Register, and many others, all made valuable historical
contributions.  Many of these persons are now dead.  Some of these interviews
were made long ago, but many signed written statements on most all important
subjects, from elderly people, have been kept on file. 

Bibliography:  "West Tennessee History:, by Circulating Library, Louisville; The
"Two Whys", by Rev. Thomas F. Moore; Goodspeed's History of Tennessee; "With the
Colors", by Mrs. Gordon Brame Hargrove;  Greene "History of Gibson County" and
West TN History Quarterly.

Reid Dowland, the author, is a rare, if not unique citizen of Skullbone.  In a
peninsula of Republicans and Baptists, he is an absolute "Mugwump", in both
politics and religion, therefore, he is as unprejudiced and impartial as
psychology will allow a person to be.  Some people call him "Mayor Mugwump".  In
history, he not only tells the truth, but the whole truth without blackwash
smears or whitewash omissions.  The purpose of this history is to present a
factual records of Skullbonia from antebellum times, not be a scandal sheet,
therefore, common crimes of individuals and trivial misdemeanors are omitted.

The author reserves all publication rights and vigorously contends that anyone
who "plays up" or prints the sensational part of Skullbone's history during, and
caused by, the Civil War without stating this fact, or, without giving a "fair
shake" as to Her fine, religious people, Her churches, schools and culture, of
the vast majority, instead of a small criminal minority during a comparatively
short period of the war and its aftermath, does so without permission.