SPRINGFIELD, Tenn. (WTVF) — Sometimes we can live in a place our whole lives and not know all the amazing stories of our community. A group's set out to share some of those stories in Robertson County.
A show called Making Hands is gearing up for a weekend of performances at Innovation Academy Auditorium in Springfield.
The team includes producer and actor Danny Atchley, show director Ruthanna Fletcher, and music director Bel Stuart.
"Folklore and history is what I specialize in," Stuart said.
They are taking on more than 230 years of Robertson County.
I happened to catch a rehearsal for a complicated bit of history.
"C'mon, out!" a man in a mask shouted, pounding on a door on the stage.
A group re-enacted a scene from the early 1900s in Robertson County.
"James B. Duke had formed a monopoly by owning so many of the tobacco companies," Atchley explained.
Among tobacco farmers came a masked resistance group who didn't want other farmers to sell to Duke's American Tobacco Company.
"The Night Riders," Atchley nodded. "It would divide up families, much like the Civil War did."
"They could have been your preacher, your teacher," Stuart said of the masked group.
"Things got very violent," Fletcher added. "To even think that the Night Riders would come to visit you would be a terrifying thought."
"This was a very bloody, vigilante type of situation," Stuart continued. "Everyone involved was doing what they thought was right for their families."
There were times the Night Riders would just burn the barn with the crop.
There are a lot of stories of Robertson County history the show may be telling some people for the first time. Atchley told me one about how a frontiersman sold the land that became downtown Springfield. How much did he sell it for?
"One dollar!" Atchley smiled. "One hundred pennies!"
It's to tell stories like that that the Robertson County Players, Community Spirit, Robertson County Historical Society, and Rural Arts Cooperative are working together on this production of Making Hands.
"Not only that, we got the Bell Witch too!" Atchley said. "That's the most famous ghost story in the whole world!"
Making Hands will have performances at the Innovation Academy Auditorium in Springfield on July 17 and 18 at 7pm and at 2pm on July 19.
Do you have a positive, good news story? You can email me at forrest.sanders@newschannel.com.
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