Battle of Athens, Tennessee (1946) - The Fat Electrician

#1
LucidZ

LucidZ

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The YouTube channel, The Fat Electrician, recently covered the story of the Battle of Athens. Perhaps some of you watch him, maybe not, but he is a great storyteller. I've seen quite a bit of his videos and all of them have been entertaining. So, I was surprised to see him cover something that happened here in our state, so close to home. I gotta be honest though, I had never heard about this before. Maybe because I've never really been to Athens and frankly there is a lot of history to cover all over the place. Has anyone else heard about this before?

Either way, just thought I'd share, maybe someone else would enjoy this. To me just another event that further adds to the renown of our state being the Volunteer state, of people willing to do what is right when things need to be done. Makes me proud.
 
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#2
#2
LucidZ said:


The YouTube channel, The Fat Electrician, recently covered the story of the Battle of Athens. Perhaps some of you watch him, maybe not, but he is a great storyteller. I've seen quite a bit of his videos and all of them have been entertaining. So, I was surprised to see him cover something that happened here in our state, so close to home. I gotta be honest though, I had never heard about this before. Maybe because I've never really been to Athens and frankly there is a lot of history to cover all over the place. Has anyone else heard about this before?

Either way, just thought I'd share, maybe someone else would enjoy this. To me just another event that further adds to the renown of our state being the Volunteer state, of people willing to do what is right when things need to be done. Makes me proud.
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Wife is from Athens. Her Uncle was on County Commission. Father on school Board and principal of McMinn County High School. Both were great guys and honest.
Many folks from Englewood and maybe Etowah might not agree with what you posted. Politics!
McMinn County is the most political place I've ever seen. Maybe this has something to do with it.
 
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#3
#3
Go aeiou said:
Wife is from Athens. Her Uncle was on County Commission. Father on school Board and principal of McMinn County High School. Both were great guys and honest.
Many folks from Englewood and maybe Etowah might not agree with what you posted. Politics!
McMinn County is the most political place I've ever seen. Maybe this has something to do with it.
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I've really never been over that way, I don't think. I'm from Anderson. Never heard about this happening and ask my parents about it, neither did they. My grandfather on my mom's side was a paratrooper in WW2, but he ended up moving here in like '64...so luckily for them after all the corruption had been snuffed out by his fellow vets.

I don't know much about the politics of that area, what's the deal with Englewood and Etowah? Why wouldn't they like it? A lot of them participated in it.
 
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#4
Anderson? Clinton?

The county is R as a whole, but at least 30-50 years ago a lot of people didn't agree with what happened.
Often seemed that Englewood and Etowah didn't agree with Athens. Athens seemed to get more from Gov't. Jealousy?
 
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#5
#5
Go aeiou said:
Anderson? Clinton?

The county is R as a whole, but at least 30-50 years ago a lot of people didn't agree with what happened.
Often seemed that Englewood and Etowah didn't agree with Athens. Athens seemed to get more from Gov't. Jealousy?
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Yeah, I grew up here. I live in Clinton, but technically I always went to schools like Norris/Andersonville/ACHS. My mom went to Clinton and her father, after the war and moving here, ended up helping to build Clinton HS. I think his family is from Ohio originally, but my mammaw's family is mostly from Grainger I think. When they got married they lived in Sarasota, Florida for about 11 years and then moved back here. My mammaw used to work at Hoskins in Clinton for like 40 years.

I can't really speak on it as I don't know much about that area, but if it's like you said, I can imagine some jealousy. When you say they didn't agree with what happened, do you mean that they didn't condone it or that they couldn't agree on what all happened? If it's the former, it's hard to imagine anyone who wasn't corrupt, not condoning it because it sounded awful. Couldn't imagine being a local business, paying to vote, or a police force that got their pay from arresting and fining people. Must have been hard on people, especially given how little money people probably had. (Like Fat Electrician talked about, some guy was just on break drinking some milk and an officer approached him, examined his cup, and believed it was alcohol and made him pay $12...which was like the guy's entire pay for a week at work.)
 
#6
#6
LucidZ said:
Yeah, I grew up here. I live in Clinton, but technically I always went to schools like Norris/Andersonville/ACHS. My mom went to Clinton and her father, after the war and moving here, ended up helping to build Clinton HS. I think his family is from Ohio originally, but my mammaw's family is mostly from Grainger I think. When they got married they lived in Sarasota, Florida for about 11 years and then moved back here. My mammaw used to work at Hoskins in Clinton for like 40 years.

I can't really speak on it as I don't know much about that area, but if it's like you said, I can imagine some jealousy. When you say they didn't agree with what happened, do you mean that they didn't condone it or that they couldn't agree on what all happened? If it's the former, it's hard to imagine anyone who wasn't corrupt, not condoning it because it sounded awful. Couldn't imagine being a local business, paying to vote, or a police force that got their pay from arresting and fining people. Must have been hard on people, especially given how little money people probably had. (Like Fat Electrician talked about, some guy was just on break drinking some milk and an officer approached him, examined his cup, and believed it was alcohol and made him pay $12...which was like the guy's entire pay for a week at work.)
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Rebuild Clinton HS after the bombing? A very sad history.
Those students came to Oak Ridge where I'm from.

The problems in McMinn Co were about 80 years ago after ww2. So the Participants are pretty much gone. It's mostly forgotten although sometimes mentioned.
Wife and daughter still have tracts of land there. There has been very little growth in McMann County for several years. About 1% per annum.
Wife's father left McMinn High School principals job in 60s when they made a political appointment of a vice principal without the needed education qualifications. Many Ds and Rs both supported my FIL.
 
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#7
#7
Go aeiou said:
Rebuild Clinton HS after the bombing? A very sad history.
Those students came to Oak Ridge where I'm from.

The problems in McMinn Co were about 80 years ago after ww2. So the Participants are pretty much gone. It's mostly forgotten although sometimes mentioned.
Wife and daughter still have tracts of land there. There has been very little growth in McMann County for several years. About 1% per annum.
Wife's father left McMinn High School principals job in 60s when they made a political appointment of a vice principal without the needed education qualifications. Many Ds and Rs both supported my FIL.
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Well, I think a lot of the schools in Clinton changed around. Her parents came here in '67 or '68. So, he helped build the current CHS. The school that was bombed was the HS at the time, but became the middle school. But yeah, it was sad, I didn't know they went to Oak Ridge. I was born in Oak Ridge, so it's nice to meet someone on here from the area. A somewhat similar thing happened in Lake City, not the bombing, but it used to have a high school which is now the middle school, my dad went there. Now all those kids go to AC for HS.
 
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#8
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LucidZ said:
Well, I think a lot of the schools in Clinton changed around. Her parents came here in '67 or '68. So, he helped build the current CHS. The school that was bombed was the HS at the time, but became the middle school. But yeah, it was sad, I didn't know they went to Oak Ridge. I was born in Oak Ridge, so it's nice to meet someone on here from the area. A somewhat similar thing happened in Lake City, not the bombing, but it used to have a high school which is now the middle school, my dad went there. Now all those kids go to AC for HS.
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I taught at Clinton Middle School 1975-78. Remember that we had a couple of "bomb threats" called in, too. It seemed to be expected after the turmoil in the 1960s. :cool:
 
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#9
#9
feathersax said:
I taught at Clinton Middle School 1975-78. Remember that we had a couple of "bomb threats" called in, too. It seemed to be expected after the turmoil in the 1960s. :cool:
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My wife taught in Bradley County(Cleveland) from about 76 thru 84. That's when my business took off, and I moved her to Johnson City. At that time you had to get on a waiting list to get a job as a teacher. She taught as a substitute, but we moved again after a couple of years.
 
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#10
#10
feathersax said:
I taught at Clinton Middle School 1975-78. Remember that we had a couple of "bomb threats" called in, too. It seemed to be expected after the turmoil in the 1960s. :cool:
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Wow, yeah, that was around the time my dad was getting out of HS, I think '74. I'm certainly not surprised with the bomb threats happening. It still happens today. When I went to AC, I was friends with a couple of guys who got arrested for a bomb threat. It was stupid and they didn't think they would get caught. I remember them being in handcuffs and the news was there, they were going to interview me, but I declined.
 
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