Pleasant Hill is a town in

Cumberland County Cumberland County may refer to: Australia * Cumberland County, New South Wales * the former name of Cumberland Land District, Tasmania, Australia Canada *Cumberland County, Nova Scotia United Kingdom * Cumberland, historic county *Cumberl ...

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 ...

, United States. The population was 563 at the 2010 census.

History

Pleasant Hill was first settled by European Americans before 1819. In 1884 a teacher from the

American Missionary Association The American Missionary Association (AMA) was a Protestant-based abolitionist group founded on in Albany, New York. The main purpose of the organization was abolition of slavery, education of African Americans, promotion of racial equality, and ...

(AMA) established the Pleasant Hill Academy to provide broad liberal arts education for rural youth, while also giving vocational training in agriculture and local skills. Supported by the

Congregational Church Congregationalism (also Congregational Churches or Congregationalist Churches) is a Reformed Christian (Calvinist) tradition of Protestant Christianity in which churches practice congregational government. Each congregation independently a ...

, the school operated until 1947. Its main building, Pioneer Hall, is still standing. Pioneer-hall-museum-tn1

May Cravath Wharton, an early woman physician from

Minnesota Minnesota ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Upper Midwestern region of the United States. It is bordered by the Canadian provinces of Manitoba and Ontario to the north and east and by the U.S. states of Wisconsin to the east, Iowa to the so ...

, established a medical clinic at the academy, where her husband was the director.Franklin & Betty J. Parker, "Wharton, May Cravath (1873-1959)"
''Tennessee Encyclopedia of History & Culture'', Ed. by Carroll Van West, et al. Nashville: Tennessee Historical Society, 1998, pp. 1050-1051, accessed February 4, 2011 Wharton also cared for people in the community. They invited her to stay after the death of her husband Edwin. Wharton created a small hospital and, with successful fundraising in New England through the AMA, she was able to add a sanatorium annex for the care of people with

tuberculosis Tuberculosis (TB), also known colloquially as the "white death", or historically as consumption, is a contagious disease usually caused by ''Mycobacterium tuberculosis'' (MTB) bacteria. Tuberculosis generally affects the lungs, but it can al ...

. As no antibiotic was known at the time, rest and good nutrition were the only treatment. The Uplands Sanatorium was adapted as a retirement home when the hospital was relocated to Crossville, the county seat. The hospital is now known as the Cumberland Medical Center. Camp Crossville, a site just east of Pleasant Hill, was used as a

prisoner of war camp A prisoner-of-war camp (often abbreviated as POW camp) is a site for the containment of enemy fighters captured as prisoners of war by a belligerent power in time of war. There are significant differences among POW camps, internment camps, ...

during

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

, housing German and Italian officers from November 1942 until the end of the war.

Geography

Pleasant Hill is located at (35.976915, -85.200229). The town is situated in a hilly area along the western

Cumberland Plateau The Cumberland Plateau is the southern part of the Appalachian Plateau in the Appalachian Mountains of the United States. It includes much of eastern Kentucky and Tennessee, and portions of northern Alabama and northwest Georgia. The terms " Al ...

. In the northwestern part of the town, Frey Branch is impounded by two dams, Lake Laura Dam and Lake Alice Dam, to create two small lakes, Upland Lake and Lake Alice, respectively.

U.S. Route 70 U.S. Route 70 or U.S. Highway 70 (US 70) is an east–west United States highway that runs for from eastern North Carolina to east-central Arizona. It is a major east–west highway of the Southeastern, Southern and Southwestern United States ...

passes through the southern portion of Pleasant Hill, connecting the town with Crossville to the east and

Sparta Sparta was a prominent city-state in Laconia in ancient Greece. In antiquity, the city-state was known as Lacedaemon (), while the name Sparta referred to its main settlement in the Evrotas Valley, valley of Evrotas (river), Evrotas rive ...

to the west. According to the

United States Census Bureau The United States Census Bureau, officially the Bureau of the Census, is a principal agency of the Federal statistical system, U.S. federal statistical system, responsible for producing data about the American people and American economy, econ ...

, the town has a total area of , of which is land and 0.64% is water.

Demographics

As of the

census A census (from Latin ''censere'', 'to assess') is the procedure of systematically acquiring, recording, and calculating population information about the members of a given Statistical population, population, usually displayed in the form of stati ...

of 2000, there were 544 people, 273 households, and 143 families residing in the town. The population density was . There were 314 housing units at an average density of . The racial makeup of the town was 98.53%

White White is the lightest color and is achromatic (having no chroma). It is the color of objects such as snow, chalk, and milk, and is the opposite of black. White objects fully (or almost fully) reflect and scatter all the visible wa ...

, 0.37%

African American African Americans, also known as Black Americans and formerly also called Afro-Americans, are an Race and ethnicity in the United States, American racial and ethnic group that consists of Americans who have total or partial ancestry from an ...

, 0.55% Native American, 0.18% Asian, and 0.37% from two or more races.

Hispanic The term Hispanic () are people, Spanish culture, cultures, or countries related to Spain, the Spanish language, or broadly. In some contexts, Hispanic and Latino Americans, especially within the United States, "Hispanic" is used as an Ethnici ...

or Latino of any race were 0.18% of the population. There were 273 households, out of which 11.0% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 46.2% were

married couples Marriage, also called matrimony or wedlock, is a culturally and often legally recognised union between people called spouses. It establishes rights and obligations between them, as well as between them and their children (if any), and b ...

living together, 5.5% had a female householder with no husband present, and 47.3% were non-families. 45.8% of all households were made up of individuals, and 40.7% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 1.77 and the average family size was 2.40. In the town, the population was spread out, with 11.2% under the age of 18, 2.4% from 18 to 24, 11.2% from 25 to 44, 11.4% from 45 to 64, and 63.8% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 72 years. For every 100 females, there were 64.8 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 58.9 males. The

median income The median income is the income amount that divides a population into two groups, half having an income above that amount, and half having an income below that amount. It may differ from the mean (or average) income. Both of these are ways of unde ...

for a household in the town is $29,554, and the median income for a family was $37,375. Males had a median income of $23,750 versus $20,250 for females. The

per capita income Per capita income (PCI) or average income measures the average income earned per person in a given area (city, region, country, etc.) in a specified year. In many countries, per capita income is determined using regular population surveys, such ...

for the town was $21,384. About 7.0% of families and 10.9% of the population were below the

poverty line The poverty threshold, poverty limit, poverty line, or breadline is the minimum level of income deemed adequate in a particular country. The poverty line is usually calculated by estimating the total cost of one year's worth of necessities for ...

, including 30.0% of those under age 18 and 5.5% of those age 65 or over.

Notable people

* Dora Read Goodale (1866–1952), a poet and teacher from Massachusetts, director of the Uplands Sanatorium in the late 1930s through 1941. Her book of poetry, ''Mountain Dooryards'' (1941), incorporated the traditional Appalachian dialect of the area.Paula Bennett, ''Nineteenth-century American Women Poets: An Anthology''
Wiley-Blackwell, 1998, pp. 351-352, accessed February 3, 2011 * Helen S. Mitchell (1895–1984), died at Uplands Sanatorium. *

Earl Webb William Earl Webb (September 17, 1897 – May 23, 1965) was an American professional baseball right fielder in Major League Baseball, playing from 1925 to 1933. He played for five teams, including the Boston Red Sox for three years. He batted lef ...

, baseball player.Earl Webb stranded in Tennessee home
/ref> * May Cravath Wharton (1873–1959), an early woman physician from

, who created the first hospital and sanatorium in the area at Pleasant Hill, and later established Cumberland Medical Center in Crossville.

References

External links

Pioneer Hall MuseumUplands (Cumberland County, Tenn.) Records, 1847-2005
Tennessee State Library and Archives {{authority control Towns in Cumberland County, Tennessee Towns in Tennessee