Early interest in understanding Franklin’s first settlements and, later, preserving Civil War memory, began long before a formal and professionalized preservation movement emerged in the second half of the 20th century. Viewed in the context of their times, these initiatives can be seen as part of a continuum of uncovering, preserving, and sharing the stories of the past. ARCHAEOLOGICAL EXCAVATIONS: 1860S–1910S Throughout the nineteenth century and early twentieth century, amateur archaeologists excavated prehistoric Native American burial sites throughout Middle Tennessee. One of the earliest recorded excavations occurred in 1823. In the late 1860s, a Nashville physician explored burial sites as part of medical research. In the 1870s, excavations were undertaken in search of artifacts for study and exhibition at the Smithsonian Institution in the nation’s capital and at Harvard University in Boston. Several of the sites were in Williamson County, including current-day Brentwood and Franklin. These were among the first systematic archaeological excavations in the State of Tennessee. GLASS MOUNDS ARCHAEOLOGICAL SITE From 1867–1868, Dr. Joseph Jones (1833–1896), a surgeon and college professor, explored numerous Native American burial sites due to his interest in the history of diseases in prehistoric populations. A former Confederate surgeon who served as a teacher at the University of Nashville’s medical school and Nashville’s first city health officer, Dr. Jones is widely Phase 1: Foundations and Memory: 1850s-1950s acknowledged as the first systematic investigator of the Native American burial mounds in Middle Tennessee. In Williamson County, Dr. Jones excavated burials at several sites, including a prehistoric village site known as Old Town and burial mounds on a farm owned by Samuel F. Glass at a bend of the Harpeth River along the Old Charlotte Pike. The Smithsonian published the results of his archaeological excavations in 1876.6 In early 1875, the Smithsonian Institution contacted several Tennessee residents seeking prehistoric artifacts for an exhibition at the National Museum of Natural History during the upcoming 1876 U.S. centennial celebration, which was held in conjunction with the first official World’s Fair in the U.S., in Philadelphia. Dr. William Martin Clark (1826–1895), a physician in Franklin and editor of the Nashville Banner, volunteered to collect artifacts from burial mounds near Franklin for the Smithsonian Institution. Dr. Clark initially conducted excavations on a farm owned by Dr. William Reid in May before turning his attention to the farm owned by Samuel Fielding Glass Jr. (1820–1896), a wealthy planter and banker. Dr. Clark ultimately collected 220 archaeological objects in Williamson County, which he shipped to the Smithsonian Institution.7 Four years later, in March 1879, Edwin Curtiss (1830– 1880) conducted additional excavations at the mounds on Glass’s farm on behalf of Harvard University in Boston. A former railroad worker and Union army veteran, Curtiss had worked in 1877 under the direction of Harvard anthropologist Frederick Ward Putnam (1839– 1915) as an amateur archaeological technician at sites near Nashville. 6 Crutchfield and Holladay 1999:14–15; Jones 1876:36; Jones 2018; Moore and Smith 2009. 7 Smith and Deter-Wolf, 2020:87–90 60 FRANKLIN, TN | PRESERVATION PLAN
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