Wilder is an
unincorporated community
An unincorporated area is a region that is not governed by a local municipal corporation. Widespread unincorporated communities and areas are a distinguishing feature of the United States and Canada. Most other countries of the world either have ...
in
Fentress County
Fentress County is a county located in the U.S. state of Tennessee. As of the 2020 census, the population was 18,489. Its county seat is Jamestown.
History
Fentress County was formed on November 28, 1823, from portions of Morgan, Overton ...
,
Tennessee
Tennessee ( , ), officially the State of Tennessee, is a landlocked U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. Tennessee is the List of U.S. states and territories by area, 36th-largest by ...
, United States. The community is in the
Cumberland Mountains near
Cookeville, Tennessee
Cookeville is the county seat and largest city of Putnam County, Tennessee, United States. As of the 2020 United States census, its population was reported to be 34,842. It is recognized as one of the country's micropolitan areas, or smaller ...
.
History
Early development
Wilder was a planned company town, intended to provide housing for employees of the Fentress Coal and Coke Company. Town planning began in 1901, and the first coal mine opened in 1902. The town was named for the company owner,
John T. Wilder.
[ It was well established by 1903,][
]
Killing of union leader Barney Graham
Wilder was the site of a violent coal-miners strike from July 1932 to April 1933, after wages had been cut by twenty percent. The strike ended shortly after the killing of United Mine Workers
The United Mine Workers of America (UMW or UMWA) is a North American labor union best known for representing coal miners. Today, the Union also represents health care workers, truck drivers, manufacturing workers and public employees in the Unite ...
union leader Barney Graham in front of the company store
A company, abbreviated as co., is a legal entity representing an association of people, whether natural, legal or a mixture of both, with a specific objective. Company members share a common purpose and unite to achieve specific, declared g ...
on April 30, 1933.[ His funeral was attended by almost a thousand people. Company mine guard Jack "Shorty" Green was acquitted of a ]murder
Murder is the unlawful killing of another human without justification or valid excuse, especially the unlawful killing of another human with malice aforethought. ("The killing of another person without justification or excuse, especially the ...
charge. The mine never recovered from the destructive events of the strike, and the seam still contains tens of millions of tons of recoverable coal.
Hedy West's 1965 album ''Old Times and Hard Times'' included the song ''The Davidson-Wilder Blues'' about the coal-miners strike, and the song ''Lament For Barney Graham'' specifically about the killing of Graham.
Demographics
The community reached a population of 2,350 in 1924 as a coal-mining town with over 10,000 people living in the general area, but had declined to about 400 by 1957,
Notable people
* Bettye Fahrenkamp (1923–1991), Alaska state senator and educator, was born in Wilder.[Sen. Bettye Fahrenkamp Dead of Cancer at 67,' Sitka Daily Sentinel, Brian S. Akre, August 13, 1991, pg. 3]
Gallery
File:Company Store Wilder Tennessee 1974.jpg, Coal company store in 1974, after it had been gutted by fire
File:Abandoned cars wilder tennessee 1974.jpg, Abandoned cars in Wilder, 1974
File:Flip coop store wilder tennessee 1974.jpg, Flip Co-Op Store in Wilder next to the old company store, 1974
File:Post office wilder tennessee 1974.jpg, Wilder Post Office in 1974
References
Unincorporated communities in Fentress County, Tennessee
Unincorporated communities in Tennessee
Coal towns in Tennessee
{{FentressCountyTN-geo-stub