The University of Tennessee at Martin

The university began with a failed fundraiser. Hall-Moody Institute, founded by local Baptists in 1900 and named for ministers J. N. Hall and J. B. Moody, struggled with money, and after a drive for $75,000 fell short in 1926-27 it merged into Union University and closed on June 1, 1927. Local citizens petitioned the state, the legislature passed Senate Bill 301 that February, and the City of Martin and Weakley County each voted $100,000 in bonds to buy the campus. The junior college opened that September with 120 students, sixteen faculty and staff, and a $75,000 budget.

What the plaque says

The University of Tennessee at Martin Founded in 1900 by local Baptists as Hall-Moody Institute, later Hall-Moody Junior College. Following acquisition by Martin and Weakley County, State Legislature placed the College under The University of Tennessee in 1927; made it degree-granting and named it The University of Tennessee Martin Branch in 1951; and designated its present name in 1967.

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Big Cypress Tree State Park — 9.9 mi
  A small floodplain park on the Middle Fork of the Obion River, named for a bald cypress that stood 175 feet tall before lightning destroyed it in 1976.
• Mt. Zion CME Church — 12 mi
  Union City's 1896 brick church built by its Black congregation, the oldest surviving example of African American craftsmanship in town, listed on the National Register.
• Discovery Park of America — 13 mi
  A large museum and 50-acre heritage park in Union City, built on the old Obion County Museum, with Native American, earthquake and regional history galleries.
• Davy Crockett Cabin — 16 mi
  A restored cabin and museum in Rutherford for the last Tennessee home of David Crockett, who broke with Andrew Jackson over Indian removal.

More markers nearby

• Weakley County — 9.2 mi
• Banks P. Turner — 22 mi
• Otho French Strahl — 23 mi
• Bethel College — 24 mi