Economic History
Wayne County, Tennessee

Contributed by Gerald K. Moore

A little background helps to understand the lives of our ancestors. The first recorded
settlements in Wayne County were 1815-20, and there may have been no unclaimed land after 1823. The lure of almost-free land was irresistible to the pioneers. Most cabins were built in valleys where there were mill sites, springs, and more fertile soils. Trails to nearby farms followed the streams; the wagon roads to the county seat followed the ridge tops. 

Rural prosperity peaked about 1860, but economic conditions changed slowly until about 1890. In 1850-70, farm work paid $15-20/mo. plus board, and wheat sold for $1.25/Bu. Under these conditions, family income was determined by the amount of work that could be hired or done, and a large family meant more income. Also, because things from other areas, like salt ($5.00/Bu) and gunpowder ($2.00/lb), were expensive, families were as self sufficient as possible. They made their own soap and feather mattress, for example, instead of buying these things. In a good year, a farm family could clear $300-500 (multiply by 100 for an equivalent income today). The average profit was less, but a cotton farmer could make more, and many families spent only about $50/yr. on supplies. Some small farmers became relatively wealthy before the Civil War. The farmers in Sweetwater Valley (a forested valley with little cropland in eastern Wayne County) admitted owning land worth a median $1,700 and having cash or possessions worth a median $750 in the 1860 census.

Farm work in the 1800's was done only by men and boys, and housework and child care were done only by women and girls. Marriage bonds were strengthened by this labor division because adult men and women needed each other. However, few families were stable after the death of a parent. Many children with only one parent were sent to live with relatives. Almost all large families in the 1850 census of Wayne County included two parents, but about 20% of the families included children with a different family name. 

After the Civil War, railroads and the settlement of fertile lands on the Great Plains
began to inundate eastern cities with cheap grain, and the prices of cotton and tobacco decreased because of overproduction. In 1999, wheat sold for $2.50/Bu., only twice as much as in 1850.  The gradual mechanization of farm and factory meant that more work was done by fewer, more highly paid people and that farm income was limited by acreage. Also, the higher pay for assembly-line work caused a movement of people and industry from hamlets to cities. The economic impact of these trends was delayed in isolated areas, but the income from small farms began a long decline.

The exports from Wayne county (most shipped by steamboat from Clifton) in 1870
consisted of cotton, iron (from Wayne Furnace), wood products, leather, wool, tobacco, dried fruit, ginseng, furs, and feathers. Salted meat and droves of live animals were also sold to plantations in nearby counties. These were the products that brought cash into the county.  Things for the cities were usually sold to a factor, who arranged transportation from farm to warehouse. Nearly all grain was used locally; the cost of shipping corn by wagon for 150 miles was equal to its value. For the same reason, more maple sugar was shipped than syrup, and most fruit was dried before shipping. Farmers near cities had other options. Nearly all plant-and-tree nurseries, fresh-fruit farms, and fresh-milk dairies in central Tennessee were near Nashville, where one farmer made a profit of $600 in 1873 from 5 ac of watermelons.

The farm products for local sale or trade included corn, wheat, oats (fed to horses but not threshed), flour and corn meal (ground by a water wheel), meat, lard, butter, eggs, poultry, honey, sorghum, wool, tobacco, garden vegetables, apples, peaches, blackberries, and muscadine grapes.  Many families traded butter, eggs, and poultry for salt, sugar, and coffee; good butter was almost like cash. In remote areas, farm products were bartered with traveling peddlers. Other farm products in 1870 were beeswax, medicinal herbs, field peas (fed to cattle and hogs), barley (for beer), flax (homespun), millet (hay), broom corn, pumpkins (fed to hogs), hog bristle (for brushes), and horse hair (cushions). Walnuts, hickory nuts, and chestnuts (until the blight) were gathered, generally by children, for family use or local sale. The local markets were grocery stores, town dwellers, and the industries that provided room and board to their employees.

Some people raised sheep; they sold wool in the spring and lambs in the fall. Hogs and
cattle were usually raised on only pasture and mast or browse. Typical sale prices were $10 for a hog, $35 for a 2-yr. old steer, $50 for a milk cow, $75 for a work ox, $135 for a mule, and $150-300 for a horse. Most Tennessee farmers worked mares because they reasoned that the sale of colts or mules would pay for the keep of the mares. Others worked mules because they ate less than horses and were thought to be healthier. Only a few people worked oxen, but oxen were best for stump pulling. Some people used goats to control brush and weeds along split-rail fences. In 1870, about 60% of the houses and farm buildings in Wayne County were made from logs, and about half of the clothes were homespun. Most outer clothes were dyed maroon with
iron ore (dye stone) or dark brown with black walnut bark. 

The hamlet industries usually included a grist mill, sawmill, blacksmith shop, and leather
tannery; some hamlets had a cotton gin. Distilleries were built where they were morally acceptable; some were legal, but many were not. Larger hamlets or towns might have a dry goods store, boot and shoemaker, drugstore, carriage or wagon shop, chair factory, saddle maker, woolen mill, and cotton mill. The price for good cultivated farmland in the 1870's was $20-50/ac, but steeper wooded land sold for 50 cents to $2/ac. Cotton crops could pay for the cultivated land, and the forest industries, if enough labor was available, could pay for the rest. The usual terms were a third down and the rest in 2 years.  

Animal hides were shipped into Wayne County and finished leather was shipped to the cities. Many farmers made a little money selling tanbark; a cord, which sold for $4-10 in the 1850's, would tan about 190 lb. of leather. Oak trees (the bark of chestnut or red oak trees contains the most tannin) were felled in early spring, when the sap was rising and the bark could be easily removed. The bark was hauled to a tannery, and the logs were left to season. Later in the summer, the best oak logs were split for boards and shingles; the rest were cut for firewood.  A few farm families also gathered sumac leaves, which sold for $3.50 per hundred pounds at the tanneries.

The wood products included hewed oak timbers, railroad ties, clapboards, fence rails,
wood shingles, wagon wheel spokes, tool handles, barrel staves, and charcoal. Cedar was mainly used for wooden dippers, water buckets, butter churns, and pencils. Black walnut has always been valuable for gun stocks and fine furniture. The cutting fee at a water-powered or steam-powered sawmill was 50% of the boards. Through the 1800's, charcoal was used for iron smelting or was carried by wagon to a boat landing and then barged to cities. The incomplete burning of wood for charcoal reduces volume about 40%, reduces weight about 75%, and increases the fuel value of soft woods like pine; transportation costs were much lower. As late as 1950, portable sawmills were common in areas with good timber. At the same time, oak trees were cut, sized and squared with a broad ax, and sold for $3 each as railroad ties; the landowner got $1, the man who did the work got $1, and the man who hauled the ties to market got $1. 

The economic environment in Wayne County changed after about 1890. More cash was needed by rural families because things from other areas were cheaper than in the past; buying things like woven cloth instead of making them saved a lot of time and work. Also, large land holdings represented wealth, and rental income was a no-work alternative to mechanization for these owners; there were few small farms for sale. There was 30% tenant farming by 1890, 40% by 1900, and 46% by 1935. Many valleys filled up with tenant farmers who raised cotton, corn, and hogs. Land rents were about $3-5/ac, but it was usual for the landowner to receive part of the crop instead (sharecropping): one third if the landowner furnished housing and firewood but
the tenant fed his family and furnished seed; half if the landowner furnished everything. A new generation of houses was cheaply made from rough-cut sawmill lumber; some were tar paper shacks. To cope with hard times after 1920, some related people (an extended family) lived near each other to ensure that everyone had the essentials. Other families frequently moved from one tenant farm to another, which promised more or better land. One man who grew up during the Great Depression said that the children in his family didn't know what ham tasted like because the hams were always sold in town. 

Migrations from the valleys of Wayne County to northern cities began during the 1930's and accelerated in the 1940's to 1950's. A 1920 map shows 16 houses in one small valley. A 1951 map shows only seven houses in the same valley, and only one house was occupied in 1963. Elsewhere, some families stayed because they owned land or because they had a town job or outside income. Wage labor eventually became necessary for nearly everyone in rural areas, but families supplemented this income with the sale of farm products, especially soybeans, hay, cattle, and hogs. Nevertheless, labor and equipment costs increased 300% from 1910-70, and this trend continues.  The annual profit from a cow decreased from $120 in 1946 to $106 in 1982 while the cost of a small tractor increased from $800 to $18,000. Electricity reached most of Wayne County in the 1950's, telephone lines in the 1970's.

The operation of most small stock farms in Wayne County finally became uneconomical in the 1990's. During the last 25 years of the century, however, the valleys of Wayne County began filling again with families who had town jobs or other outside income.