A. L. Carnahan and Joseph David Hall

A. L. Carnahan was reared near Bradyville in Cannon County. He attended community schools and later graduated from Winchester Normal.

In 1897 he bought the David Batey farm and moved into the Kittrell Community. He soon became one of the active leaders in church, school, and civic affairs.

He was a member of the School Board for some time and was influential in getting a high school located at Kittrell. He was a member of Science Hill Church of Christ. He was elected magistrate for the 19th Civil District and held that office for several years. In 1918 he was elected County Judge, and presided over the Rutherford County Court for some time.

Dr. Joseph David Hall

Dr. J. D. Hall, son of Franklin D. Hall and Elizabeth McCrackin Hall, spent all of his life on the farm, "Piedmont," at the foot of Pilot Knob where his grandfather, David Hall, settled in 1818. His great-grandfather, Jonathan Hall, came to Rutherford County from Virginia in 1806 and settled a few miles away on Stones River and later on Cripple Creek.

Dr. Hall was born in 1854 and grew up during the difficult years of the Civil War. As a child he walked three miles each day to and from "Pap" Huddleston's school at Readyville. When Science Hill Academy started on his father's farm, he went to school there. The curriculum was extremely broad for those days.

The principal was a highly educated man, a graduate of Princeton University. He also had some well-educated assistants. They offered Greek, Latin, science, trigonometry, calculus, in addition to the usual subjects of English, history, and geography. He took all these subjects. He worked on his father's farm and saved his money.

When he finished school at the Academy, he apprenticed himself to Dr. A. P. McCullough at Milton for two years. In those days they called it, "Reading medicine under an old Doctor."

When he was not helping Dr. McCullough with his patients, he worked in a drug store and learned about medicine. In 188 he entered Vanderbilt Medical School and graduated in 1883. One of his classmates begged him to go into a partnership with him in Nashville, but he chose rather to come home and become a country doctor.

In December, 1883, he married Miss Ella Lowe. They continued to live with his mother and father.

In the early days of his practice, he road horseback with saddlebags across his saddle. He always kept good horses. "Old Joe," a sixteen hands, strawberry roan which he rode for thirty years, was considered one of the best walking horses ever in Rutherford County. In the 1890's he began using a buggy some, and about 1914 he got a car.

His practice had a wide range from the Bradyville to the Hall's Hill Pikes, and from 1920 when the last doctor left Readyville, he was the only doctor between Murfreesboro and Woodbury. The nights were never too dark, nor the weather too bad for him to go when he was called.

He was a member of the Church of Christ, a Mason, and was active in all civic and community affairs.

He was an avid reader and was well posted on many subjects, especially on things pertaining to the medical profession. He belonged to the A. M. A., State and County Medical Associations, and served as President of Rutherford County Medical Society at one time. He was always interested in politics, and served on the County Democratic Committee.

After practicing medicine for over fifty-five years he died of pneumonia at the age of eighty-four, and is buried in the garden of his home, "Piedmont."

Kittrell | Rutherford County | Tennessee

Source: Rutherford County Historical Society, Publication No. 2, winter, 1973.