Over 100 photos will be on display in the Thelma Battle Photographic Exhibit which opens on February 1 in the Special Collections Department. This year’s exhibit focuses on the Hatcher Family and is titled, The Hatcher Family – Roots from Owen Hill Road.
The Hatcher family of Williamson County, Tennessee, has roots deeply embedded within the College Grove and Arno communities. The Hatcher family lived in the 21st District between Allisona and Arno on Owen Hill Road. This remarkable family is traced to slaves Ned/Ed Hatcher born in 1810 and his spouse, Mariah. These two slaves were owned by a white slave owner named John R. Hatcher (1818-1857), son of William and Lucy Rucker Hatcher, of Bedford County, Virginia.
Ex-slaves Ned and Mariah Hatcher remained in the 21st District after slavery. Ned and Mariah were the parents of nine children: Martha Jane, Almeda, Sam, Winnie, Meredith, Isham, Alice, Jacob, and Susan.
The most widely known of Ned and Mariah’s descendants are the children of their son Meredith Hatcher (1854/1862-1944) and his wife Rosa Moss Hatcher. Their children were: Charlie, Andrew, John (“Johnny”), James (“Jim”), Marvin Sr., Clarence, Simon, Susan, Jane, and Sam. Meredith Hatcher’s second wife was Vinie Starnes Reams Hatcher. His two stepchildren were Manervie Reams and her brother Jessie Reams.
Meredith Hatcher’s grandson, Elder Jasper G. Hatcher, Sr., related these memories of his grandfather: “He was a good hearted man. Hard working man and he was … if he had a dollar he would save half of that dollar. He was very tight but he was a man, though, that you could love, and could work with. And he always had good advice to give you. He always talked about being productive and saving and putting up things for the rainy day, as he would call it.”
To grasp the true history of Meredith Hatcher and his clan, Elder Jasper Hatcher Sr. shared the following details: “I was born May 6, 1929. My parents were Marvin Sr. and Era Emma Odell (“Sadie”) Kinnard Hatcher. My parents owned the farm where I was born. My parents had thirteen children: 1. James, 2. Laeunia, 3. Winnie, 4. Jessie May, 5. Willie Ewing, 6. Erlene, 7. Jasper, Jr. 8. Maudene, 9. Ester Lee, 10. Lawrence Buford, 11. Elliot, 12. Lorenzo, and 13. Marvin Jr.
“I was born on a one-hundred-and-eighty-three-acre farm… a family farm that three brothers … Marvin Sr. (my father), Charles and Jimmy Hatcher owned.
At the time my grandfather, Meredith Hatcher, bought the farm it was unusual for blacks to own their own farms. A lot of blacks had bought farms, but at the time this farm was bought it was very rare. Because at the time this farm was bought, there was one hundred and eighty-three acres in the farm. And back in the 1920’s the price of it was twenty-five thousand ($25,000) dollars. So it was very unusual for a Black to be able to purchase that much land and borrow that much money to purchase a farm.”
Later, Meredith Hatcher bought more land, including some of his relatives’ land, and brought his total land holdings to 203 acres.
To learn more about the Hatcher Family, visit the exhibit at Williamson County Public Library in Franklin before it ends on February 28. The exhibit is a collaborative project between the African-American Historical Society, Historian Thelma Battle, and the Williamson County Public Library Special Collection’s Department.
The Williamson County Public Library System’s Main Library is located in downtown Franklin at 1314 Columbia Avenue. Branches are located in Fairview, Bethesda, College Grove, Nolensville, and Leiper’s Fork. For more information about library programs or services, call (615) 595-1243 or visit http://wcpltn.org. Sign up to receive library events and announcements via email by visiting https://bit.ly/WCPLSenews. The library can also be found on Facebook, Pinterest, Instagram, WordPress, and Twitter via @wcpltn.