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,

Tennessee Tennessee ( , ), officially the State of Tennessee, is a landlocked state in the Southeastern region of the United States. Tennessee is the 36th-largest by area and the 15th-most populous of the 50 states. It is bordered by Kentucky to th ...

, United States. The community is in the

Cumberland Mountains The Cumberland Mountains are a mountain range in the southeastern section of the Appalachian Mountains. They are located in western Virginia, southwestern West Virginia, the eastern edges of Kentucky, and eastern middle Tennessee, including the ...

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 John Thomas Wilder (January 31, 1830 – October 20, 1917) was an officer in the Union Army during the American Civil War, noted principally for capturing the critical mountain pass of Hoover's Gap during the Tullahoma Campaign in Central Tenne ...

. It was well established by 1903, including the first school in the area. The town church, Boyer's Chapel, was built in 1922. In 1923, the school began adding high school classes, and the first high school graduates were the class of 1932.

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 Unit ...

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 go ...

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 (jurisprudence), justification or valid excuse (legal), excuse, especially the unlawful killing of another human with malice aforethought. ("The killing of another person wit ...

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 Hedwig Grace "Hedy" West (April 6, 1938 – July 3, 2005) was an American folksinger and songwriter. She belonged to the same generation of folk revivalists as Joan Baez and Judy Collins. Her most famous song " 500 Miles" is one of America's ...

'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, and an estimated population of 249 in 2013.

Notable people

Bettye Fahrenkamp Bettye Fahrenkamp (September 6, 1923 – August 12, 1991) was an American educator and politician. Born in Wilder, Fentress County, Tennessee, Fahrenkamp served in the Women's Army Corps during World War II. She received her bachelor's degr ...

(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