| Home | Puncheon has been an active community throughout the years. It has had 2 separate church buildings, 3 school buildings and a store and
two Cemeteries. During the Civil War it was a short cut between the Florence road and Lambs Ferry Road. The final Confederate stand
in Tennessee was made just across Sugar Creek in the Appleton bottom from Puncheon. While it is fast becoming obscure it was once a
major player in the early history of southwestern Giles, Co. Puncheon was originally called Puncheon Camp It was named for the Baptist church that stood approximately where the school house stood in the 1930’s-1940’s (see the 1880 map of District 4). It is assumed the church had a rough split log floor, hence the name Puncheon. We know of Puncheon Camp Baptist Church existence from the church records found in the attic of the Lytle house in the1980’s. The church minutes state that the church was organized in April of 1844. It serviced Giles and Lawrence County’s. In TN. Giles County, Tennessee Land Entry Abstracts provided the survey information on the church grounds: 298 - For Baptist Church on Puncheon Camp Branch of Sugar Creek, Entry 252, 10 A in Rng. 3, Sec. 1, C.D. 4, adj. Archibald BLACK. Surv. 13 Jane 1846. William F. COLE & --- JACKSON, C.C. Behind the church was a cemetery. When Puncheon School was built near the site of the church, the cemetery became known as an Indian Cemetery. Maynard Newton told me (very quickly) when I was a child that it was not an Indian Cemetery but a Baptist Cemetery. By the 1880’s, a second church had been established. Noblit’s Church was started as a non-denomination congregation. Later it became the Church of Christ and it is still active today. Puncheon also played a role in the education of the young children in the community. The 1850 census shows a teacher (Bobe Roades) was boarding with Thomas H. Noblit. The first school house was located on Sugar Creek Road around the end of the drive at the Newton Place. The 1880 map of Giles County confirms this by the S H (Schoolhouse) located at the approximate location. By the late 1800’s, the schoolhouse had been moved to its present site. There seems to have been some legal posturing about the church site and school site. I am sure this was the reason the school was moved. The second school burned in the late 1920’s and a new school was built on the site. The school operated until the late 1940’s and then the students were consolidated into Minor Hill School. Some of the teachers throughout the years were John C Noblit (he taught at the first school) Dave Coffman, Bob Townsend, Margaret Cox, Logan Newton, George and Jim Cox (Jim taught when he was 16). Annie Lou Newton taught in the Church of Christ after the school burned. Thomas Hughes Noblit Sr. ran a store across the creek from the Church of Christ. A merchants license costing $13.20 was paid by T.H. Noblit to sell goods and merchandise for one year ending July 16, 1887.It is not know when the store ceased operation. In 1919 Oak and Annie Lou Newton started housekeeping in the store building. It is known that the house that stood at the Puncheon Bottom on the Newton Place was repaired with wood and material from the store when Logan and Maggie Newton started housekeeping. When Logan Newton and Maggie Bass were married, Elmer Hester made a table with one of the shelves from the store. The shelf is almost 18 inches wide solid poplar and 2 inch thick (not the typical piece of wood found in a home improvement store). Lillian Newton Bass remembers the foundation stones that marked its location in the 1920’s. She also told of a story told by her Grandmother Orleana Noblit Newton and Aunt Molly (Mary) Noblit Lytle in which Thomas Hughes Noblit Sr would take oxen and a wagon to Memphis to purchase supplies for his store. If the Tennessee River wasn’t flooding then he could make the trip in six weeks. |
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