Forbus is an

unincorporated community An unincorporated area is a parcel of land that is not governed by a local general-purpose municipal corporation. (At p. 178.) They may be governed or serviced by an encompassing unit (such as a county) or another branch of the state (such as th ...

located on

U.S. Route 127 U.S. Route 127 (US 127) is a north–south U.S. Highway in the eastern half of the United States. The southern terminus of the route is at U.S. Route 27, US 27 in Chattanooga, Tennessee. The northern terminus is at Interstate 75 ...

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. It borders Kentucky to the north, Virginia to the northeast, North Carolina t ...

. Considered a

crossroads community In Colonial American history, a crossroads village is a settlement that was situated where two or more roads would intersect. The owners of farmland along a frequently traveled trail, path, or road, often paralleling a water route, would plan a ...

, it is listed on the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government's official United States National Register of Historic Places listings, list of sites, buildings, structures, Hist ...

as an

historic district A historic district or heritage district is a section of a city which contains historic building, older buildings considered valuable for historical or architectural reasons. In some countries or jurisdictions, historic districts receive legal p ...

called the Forbus Historic District. In 1991 it consisted of a

general store A general merchant store (also known as general merchandise store, general dealer, village shop, or country store) is a rural or small-town store that carries a general line of merchandise. It carries a broad selection of merchandise, someti ...

, one house, and some outbuildings. Early names for the community were Blue Rock and Gatewood., National Register of Historic Places nomination form, 1991 In the mid-19th century, the community was briefly home to a school known as the Van Buren Institute.Daily Crouch and Pearl Johnson, "The W. M. Johnson General Store at Forbus." ''History of Fentress County, Tennessee'' (Dallas, Tex.: Curtis Media Corporation, 1987), pp. 313-314. Coal was mined in the area as early as the 19th century.Jason Duke (2004
Tennessee Coal Mining, Railroading & Logging in Cumberland, Fentress, Overton, and Putnam Counties
Turner Publishing Company. , . Page 24. In the early decades of the 20th century, the local economy was based on

lumbering Logging is the process of cutting, processing, and moving trees to a location for transport. It may include skidding, on-site processing, and loading of trees or logs onto trucks

barite Baryte, barite or barytes ( or ) is a mineral consisting of barium sulfate (Ba S O4). Baryte is generally white or colorless, and is the main source of the element barium. The ''baryte group'' consists of baryte, celestine (strontium sulfate), ...

mining, and farming. In the 1930s, the community supported a grade school with 84 pupils and 3 teachers, a high school, a weekly newspaper, and two churches. The Forbus General Store was built by W. M. Johnson in 1892, and was operated by Johnson until his death in 1941. At one time, the store included a

gas Gas is a state of matter that has neither a fixed volume nor a fixed shape and is a compressible fluid. A ''pure gas'' is made up of individual atoms (e.g. a noble gas like neon) or molecules of either a single type of atom ( elements such as ...

-powered gristmill, a blacksmith shop, and several granaries, but only the store stands today. The store purchased produce and furs from local residents, and at one point had a contract to supply locally grown apples to a Pennsylvania

brandy Brandy is a liquor produced by distilling wine. Brandy generally contains 35–60% alcohol by volume (70–120 US proof) and is typically consumed as an after-dinner digestif. Some brandies are aged in wooden casks. Others are coloured ...

maker. The store in turn sold hardware, clothing, fertilizer and

feed Feed or The Feed may refer to: Animal foodstuffs * Animal feed, food given to domestic animals in the course of animal husbandry ** Fodder, foodstuffs manufactured for animal consumption ** Forage, foodstuffs that animals gather themselves, su ...

, school textbooks, guns, furniture, and caskets. The store's top floor was once used as a meeting place for an

Independent Order of Odd Fellows The Independent Order of Odd Fellows (IOOF) is a non-political, non-sectarian international fraternal order of Odd Fellowship. It was founded in 1819 by Thomas Wildey in Baltimore, Maryland, United States. Evolving from the Odd Fellows, Order ...

lodge. The Forbus post office operated out of the store until 1965, and consolidated with the Pall Mall post office in 1972.

References

External links

Forbus General Store
online video {{authority control Historic districts on the National Register of Historic Places in Tennessee Unincorporated communities in Fentress County, Tennessee Unincorporated communities in Tennessee National Register of Historic Places in Fentress County, Tennessee