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In the latter part of the 19^th century, the area around Tullahoma was known as “The Barrens” as it wasn’t well-suited for growing crops, at least cash crops. Remember this was in the days before commercial fertilizer and chemical “soil enhancement.” What the Tullahoma area did have was abundant hardwood forests and a railroad that led to large cities like Chattanooga and Nashville, and to even larger ones beyond.

In 1865, at the end of the Civil War, Michael Ross (M.R.) Campbell came to Tullahoma from Pennsylvania. Recall that Tennessee was under Federal occupation at the time, martial law having been declared. Campbell came here under authority of the U.S. Treasury Department on a permit issued to a discharged soldier named W.M. Dunn. They operated a mercantile store on Lincoln Street, between Jackson and Atlantic. Shortly thereafter, Dunn’s portion of the business was bought out by J.A. Guethner and the company was known as Campbell and Guethner, General Merchants from 1866 to 1875.

M.R. Campbell visualized the possibilities that Tullahoma had as an industrial town. In 1875, Campbell took interest in a woolen mill on Atlantic Street that was failing. By 1882, he had helped revive it to the point that it was ready to expand and then located it on the west side of Rock Creek on Grundy Street. Following Campbell’s business acumen, the woolen mill grew to be very successful, to the point that by the 1880s, it was doing $1,000,000 in business (in 1880s dollars!).

In 1876, Campbell had decided to withdraw from the woolen mill and took some of the older, worn-out machinery from the mill and moved it across Rock Creek and started a hub and spoke factory. The hubs and spokes were used on wagons and carriages and sold all over the USA to wagon makers and for repairs, and the factory also made some other wooden products for wagons and carriages like neck yokes for animal teams that pulled wagons.

With the introduction and popularization of the automobile, the wooden hub and spoke business’ days were numbered. However, the uptake on automobiles was slow at first, so the wagon business survived for a while. Additionally, early automobiles used wood spoke wheels, albeit with metal hubs and rims. M.R. Campbell adapted, though, and as hub and spoke trade tapered off, his company began making baseball and softball bats as well as wooden golf club shafts.

M.R. Campbell believed in Tullahoma and its people and was an enthusiastic ambassador for bringing new industry to the city. He also served as an alderman and twice as mayor, in 1873 and 1899. He built a beautiful, large brick home on West Lincoln Street, not far from his hub and spoke factory. It was on the corner of the alley behind what is now the Henry Center. Campbell died in 1916, and his twin sons assumed management of the business. Early adopters of the telephone, in 1924 the factory’s office phone number was “5.”

Resources: Coffee County: From Arrowheads to Rockets, Coffee County Conservation Board, 1969; Historic Tullahoma, Paul Pyle, 1952.

Do you have sharp pictures and interesting stories from Tullahoma’s or Coffee County’s past? If so, reach out to me at alanmayes@lighttube.net.