Friday, July 8, 2016

Davidson County Tenn., map, 1901

My friend Aron Mooneyhan shared the link for the map image below, on facebook, and reminded me of what a good map it is. This map, shows many communities that no longer exist or have a different name. Some of the names on this map are post offices, others are landmarks and community names.  

When I am looking at locals maps I always look at what is most familiar to me.  My eyes fall first, to East Nashville, then scan north toward present day Inglewood, Madison, and Goodlettsville to the Sumner County line.  So many communities just in that section of the map.  The communities of East Nashville, Faro, Maplewood, Ekin, Walton, Madison, Edgefield Junction (with the word Junction left off), Union Hill and Lohman, are listed.  A familiar landmark is Taylor's Knob, now the site of Skyline Hospital. The names of many creeks are shown. I continue to examine the entire county, a section at a time.


This map is from the Perry-Castañeda Library Map Collection in the Perry-Castañeda Library at the University of Texas at Austin.  The library has scanned about one third of the 250,000 maps in the collection.  

Davidson Co. TN, 1901. Perry-Castañeda Library Map Collection at the University of Texas at Austin.
Click here, Davidson County, 1901, to view the map image on the library website.  You may then download the map.  Right click the image of the map and choose save image as from the drop down menu.  Choose where you would like to save the file.  Once you have saved the map on your computer you can enlarge the map and more easily search and read the names on the map.

Another map of Davidson County on the University of Texas website is this 1929 map of Davidson County.

There is an older map of Davidson County on the Library of Congress website, which can be enlarged and viewed online and also can be downloaded at high resolution. Click the name of the map to view.  This is the 1871 Foster's Map of Davidson County.

Foster's 1871 Map of Davidson County, loc.gov

Another map from the Library of Congress website, can be enlarged and viewed online and also can be downloaded at high resolution. Click the name of the map to view.  This is a 1900 map of Davidson County




5 comments:

  1. In the top map, Davidson County 1901, what does "B.M." stand for?

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    1. Perry-Castañeda Library Map Collection - This link to the map will enable you to enlarge the map. I don't see those letters. I hope the link will help. You may have to copy and paste the url into your browser. http://www.lib.utexas.edu/maps/topo/tennessee/txu-pclmaps-topo-tn-nashville-1901.jpg

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  2. Thank you, Debie. I am looking specifically at the Whites Creek area. I was curious what the "B.M." represented on this map.

    There is another "B.M." immediately west at the community of Dry Fork. Elsewhere on the map there are "B.M."s at Watkins, Una, Lavergne, 'Belleview' and an area slightly north of Greenbrier. They all seem to be accompanied by an "x" across the nearest road (except Belleview and Whites Creek- no "x" that I can readily see).

    I absolutely love your website and the amount of history you've compiled in one spot. This 1901 map and the 1871 map of Nashville have captured my attention for hours at a time.

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  3. Jordon I don't know but I hope someone will know the answer and share.

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  4. I believe BM stands for bench mark...a surveyor's term for an established elevation....it could be a spot in the intersection of 2 roads, a brass cap that was set in a rock or a railroad spike driven into a tree or pole....there exists (somewhere) a reference publication that would give the viewer of the map a location and elevation above sea level

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