City of Bartlett history

As early as 1829, settlers were moving in to the area, the first settlement was called Jessamine and future Bartlett became the geographical center of Shelby County.

The earliest known burial was Sarah C. Bond in 1837.

Luther and his physician brother Lyman bought 320 acres of farmland in Wayne Township in 1844 and another 345 acres the following year.

The Tollgate Cemetery was established in 1846, deriving its name from the tollgate on the Memphis-to-Somerville plank road.

The former site of Warren's Methodist Chapel (the first frame style meeting house of the Methodists outside of Memphis) and cemetery was sold in 1851 by Joseph and Matilda Warren Locke for $20 to the Methodist Episcopal Church South.

Black First Baptist Church, formerly known as Bethlehem Baptist Church was formed in 1865.

A Presbyterian church was built in 1866.

Located at 2969 Court Street, it is the original home of Nicholas Gotten built in 1871, and is open for free tours on the first and third Sundays from 2:00 – 4:00 p.m.

In 1873, when many a town lived or died according to its proximity to a railroad line, Colonel Roselle M. Hough, president of The Chicago and Pacific, began building a route west to Elgin, Illinois, to challenge the Chicago and Northwestern Railroad.

Fullview Baptist Church was established in 1877.

He received a United States patent in 1881 for an improvement to the cotton gin feeder.

When the courts closed in 1885, Bartlett citizens also voted to dissolve the city charter to reduce the saloons and alcohol consumption, as an unincorporated city was forbidden from selling alcohol.

An ordinance to adopt the first speed limits in the Village was passed in 1915.

Bartlett High School was built in 1917 on land donated by Nicholas’ daughter, Willie Blackwell Miller, in memory of her father, Doctor Nicholas Blackwell.

In 1919 each citizen spent eight days per year at manual labor to build and repair the roads.

The business district of Bartlett suffered three disastrous fires, the last in 1924.

The population grew slowly during the first half of the 20th century, reaching 508 by 1960 and doubling in the next decade to 1,150.

In 1972 Marion Hill Royer, a Bond descendant, succeeded him.

In 1975 Pisgah Cemetery was incorporated and the name was changed to Bartlett-Ellendale Cemetery.

Elva Talbot Bledsoe, longtime “unofficial” Bartlett Historian , was the founder of the Bartlett Historical Society in 1982 and negotiated with the City of Bartlett to preserve the Gotten House, now the site of the Bartlett Museum.

The Bartlett Corporate Park was formed in 1983 where over 200 industries are now operating and thriving.

By the end of 1986 all the land in the Park had been purchased, bringing eight new industries into Bartlett.

Industrial growth in the 1990's has continued to bring new companies to the corporate parks, including the USDA Cotton Classing Division.

A public golf course and clubhouse opened in 1994.

On October 26, 1999, Bartlett adopted a historic preservation ordinance (PDF) (Ord.

99-12). On January 22, 2002, Bartlett's historic district was adopted.