June 7, 1869 was a day of celebration in Chattanooga. Businessmen in Cincinnati, Ohio, concerned that Louisville was overtaking the Queen City as a distribution point of northern merchandise to the South, had announced that a rail line would be constructed south from Cincinnati to Chattanooga. But the work was slowed by the financial panic of 1873, and the 338-mile road required 27 tunnels and 105 bridges and viaducts. In the end, it would be more than 10 years from that initial announcement before trains were running on the new Cincinnati Southern rail line between the Ohio River and the Tennessee.
The new line was especially important to the area of Hamilton County north of the Tennessee River. For years, the two alternatives to travel to Chattanooga were rough country roads or down the Tennessee River by boat. The new railroad not only improved travel and commerce for the longest-settled areas of the county, but it also had the effect, whether desired or not, of renaming established communities.
The railroad crossed into the north end of Hamilton County and established a station known as Coulterville, in honor of T.J. Coulter, a venerable citizen appointed by Tennessee Gov. Isham Harris to lead the county militia in 1861. The next station on the line was near the village of Sale Creek, which at the time was reinvigorated by an infusion of Welshmen who came to work in the coal mines there. The name of the nearby railroad station, however, was not Sale Creek, but Rock Creek, as if the railroad deliberately chose the lesser known of the two streams in the community.
From Rock Creek/Sale Creek, the line proceeded south to a new station given a Latin name by a railroad lawyer - Retro. Later, the name was changed to Bakewell. The rail line then extended southward down Back Valley to Soddy, the home area of two of the county's earliest settlers, Col. William Clift and Maj. Robert C. McRee. But the station was not named for either, or for that matter, for Soddy. Doubtless to the consternation of longtime residents, it was instead named for an Ohio carpetbagger, William Rathburn, who was part of a group that chartered the First National Bank in Chattanooga in September 1865 and served as its president until 1884. He also served two terms as mayor of Chattanooga, and in that capacity was an enthusiastic supporter of the railroad.
From Rathburn/Soddy, the line went to the area that grew up around the historic Poe's Tavern, whose name was changed to Daisy in 1881. A man named Mel Adams donated some land on which to build a station, which was named Melville in his honor. There was a small depot near today's Falling Water known as Cave Springs, and then the railroad entered the valley of North Chickamauga Creek. The line ran to the community of Lakeside (not Lakesite), and the railroaders wanted to name it Lookout, as it was the first location on the line where one could see Lookout Mountain. However, since that name was somewhat ubiquitous in this area, the station was named Hixson in recognition of the area having been settled by Ephraim F. Hixson and his clan.
From Hixson, the line crossed the Tennessee River on the first permanent bridge built here since Civil War days. Rebuilt in 1917-20, that bridge is known locally for the curious "houses" on top of its two piers. From the crossing at Kings Point, the line met the Western and Atlantic at Boyce Station in East Chattanooga. According to local railroad historian John Wilson, the city of Cincinnati still owns the line today.
The railroad's attempts to rename the various communities of north Hamilton County was a mixed success. The communities of Hixson and Coulterville today bear the names given them by the Ohio railroad men. While Daisy reclaimed its name, the Melville Baptist Church, located near the railroad on Daisy Dallas Road, recalls the name of that station, as does Bakewell's Retro-Hughes Road. On the other hand, the citizens of Sale Creek stuck with the name of the stream by which they wanted their community to be known, and Mayor Rathburn's name is today only a bit of local trivia in Soddy.
Sam D. Elliott is a local attorney with Gearhiser, Peters, Elliott and Cannon, a member and former chairman of the Tennessee Historical Commission and the author or editor of several books and essays on the Civil War. For more information, visit Chattahistoricalassoc.org.