Vanessa WoodI’m pleased to share the publication of my article, “Members of The Good Templars Lodge #637 at Dry Fork, Sumner County, Tennessee,” which transcribes the membership roll of a temperance organization that formed in Sumner County in the late 1870s. It appears in Middle Tennessee Journal of Genealogy & History, (winter 2025).
The lodge’s “Secretary’s Book, 1877–1879,” preserved at the Tennessee State Library and Archives, Nashville contains the lodge constitution, meeting minutes, and two versions of the membership list, recording over ninety individuals who joined the cause. This was an unusual record to view–I found a few Pryors on the list which extended my research of their activities during this period.
Figure 1: Author’s Photograph, Tennessee State Library and Archives, Manuscript Box M-121, March 2025.
Figure 2: Author’s Photograph, Tennessee State Library and Archives, Manuscript Box M-121, Folder Ac. No. 90-193, March 2025. The folder contains a reproduction of the Independent Order of Good Templars ledger book 1877-1879.
FEATURED IMAGE: “Buckets hanging outside log cabin,” illustration, CoPilot AI, 2026.
