Historical Marker

Benjamin Hooker / John Rice

Gladeville, Wilson County · Tennessee

The church and school came first, and the village followed. Gladeville was laid out in 1852 on land that belonged to Benjamin Hooker Jr., and its post office opened in 1855 with John M. Bland as the first postmaster. The Civil War slowed the little town's growth. The Grand Ole Opry fiddler Sid Harkreader was born in the community in 1898. The community is home to the Nashville Superspeedway and was a regional softball tournament hub in the 1980s and 1990s.

What the plaque says

Benjamin Hooker 1764-1834 / John Rice 1780-1853 On November 8, 1833, Benjamin Hooker sold six acres of land for one dollar to Wilson County Trustees to build a school and a church affiliated with the Methodist Episcopal Church, South. The establishment of a school and church helped to solidify this area in Wilson County as the Gladeville Community. The church and school have been in continuous operation since 1833. John Rice, a Methodist circuit rider was the first preacher of the church built on this land. Methodists have been meeting in this same area since 1810.

Where it stands

36.11278, -86.42011 · Directions

Worth the stop nearby

Andrew Jackson's Hermitage — 13 mi
Andrew Jackson's cotton plantation east of Nashville, where visitors can walk to the quarters, Alfred's Cabin and the Enslaved Cemetery as well as the mansion.
Stones River National Battlefield — 16 mi
The Murfreesboro battlefield of December 1862, with a national cemetery built by Black soldiers, a Trail of Tears route and the story of the freedmen's settlement called Cemetery.
Fort Negley — 20 mi
The largest inland stone fort of the Civil War, built in 1862 on St. Cloud Hill by more than 2,700 conscripted Black laborers, hundreds of whom died.
Ryman Auditorium — 20 mi
The 1892 brick tabernacle in downtown Nashville that was the Grand Ole Opry's home from 1943 to 1974, now a National Historic Landmark and working concert hall.

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