Gone Are the Days:
Profile of a Rural Community

The economic system of the old South was not dependent upon massive, sprawling industrial centers, but was spread among the smaller communities that supported the rural population. Urban settlements such as Nashville and Atlanta did exist, but there was less of a disparity in size compared to that of modern times. Featured here is the history of one small Southern town that, in its day, played a prominent part in the commerce of the area.

    The West Tennessee town of Grand Junction lies just north of the Mississippi State line in Hardeman County. The first settlers came to the area in the very early 1800's and soon small farms and grand plantations were created in the surrounding rich land giving birth to a strong economy based on the raising of cotton. Then came the railroads to better transport the cotton to the Mississippi River and small population centers sprang up every few miles along the tracks leading east from Memphis. In 1854 Grand Junction officially came into being with the creation of the junction of the Memphis and Charleston and the Mississippi Central railroads (hence the name).

    The town enjoyed a peak of prosperity during the following years. The population grew to about five hundred fifty by 1860 and the trains made regular stops for meals (there were no dining cars) and for passengers to change lines. The community supported a newspaper, two saloons, three hotels, a livery stable, and several retail stores.
The War Between the States came in 1861 and Grand Junction, being a major railroad town, was occupied by the yankee army in November 1862. They destroyed most of the town, and the postwar population dropped to approximately one hundred fifty. Half of these people were lost to the yellow fever epidemic of 1878.


 

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Gone Are the Days
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 The town was still of importance to the cotton farmer as a place sell his crops, and to obtain the goods needed for daily living. The population grew again to over five hundred persons and the trains continued to stop to pick up the great bales of cotton lined up on the railroad platform during harvest time. 

Over the years, however, things began to change. Young people began to leave the area for the big cities rather than enter the business of the family farm. With the advent of more modern methods of travel and the shipping of freight, the trains no longer stopped and the depot was closed. Small factories set up shop and became the place to make a living. In 1971 the high school was closed in favor of consolidating with the school system of the neighboring town of Middleton. A modern style supermarket and a new bank opened out on the highway and the general store burned down. The plaza like area of the old business district on the railroad once filled with people on Saturdays as everyone came in from the farms to market. Today it is quiet and still as people now go to the new stores. The old buildings are empty and boarded up. As of 1990, the population of Grand Junction, Tennessee was three hundred sixty-five. ·