November 27, 2024
By: Dwayne Page
Since the death of Tommy Webb five years ago the county has been without an official historian.
During Monday night’s regular monthly meeting (December 2), the county commission will consider appointing Freddy Curtis as county historian, which is a volunteer position.
Curtis, a DeKalb County native, was educated here but spent 37 years as a teacher and Director of Schools in Cannon County before his retirement. His first wife Trena, who passed away nine years ago, taught school locally for 24 years.
Curtis addressed the county commission during its monthly committee of the whole meeting this past Monday night (November 25). If named county historian, Curtis said he would like Bobby White to be his assistant and for a committee to be formed to make recommendations on converting the now vacant history room in the county complex into a local history museum.
“After my wife passed away I went back to school at MTSU to work on my second master’s degree in history, but I had to step away from it when I became Director of Schools in Cannon County. After retirement, I picked it back up and one of my classes this semester was in museum management. As part of that we have to do a project. Dr. Carroll Van West, state Historian is my mentor and my professor for this class, and he asked me what was happening in DeKalb County,” said Curtis.
“I knew about the history room at Liberty and had heard about a history room in the county complex, so I came up and looked in the history room and found there was no history in the history room. Originally that was meant to have a small museum of DeKalb County, but nothing has ever been done,” Curtis continued.
“I think most of us can agree that the history of DeKalb County is not only very interesting, but we need to be teaching it and talking about it. The only exhibits we have in DeKalb County outside of the Liberty History room is what they have at the DeKalb County Fairgrounds and at Justin Potter Library and some displays at the courthouse”.
“What I would like to do if appointed county historian is to name Bobby White as my assistant and then create a committee to look at doing some history in the history room. Bobby has worked many years and he recently retired from the Tennessee State Museum where he was a curator. After the committee is formed we would make recommendations as to what we need including security, panels, cabinets, display cases, etc. which would cost some money, but Bobby may be able to find some things at state surplus from the state museum that we could use. We would then ask the community for artifacts they would like to loan or donate to the museum,” said Curtis.
To serve as county historian, Curtis added would be an honor following in the footsteps of the late Tommy Webb, who was also a mentor to him and his former high school teacher.
“I am honored to be considered for county historian, but nobody can replace Tommy Webb”, said Curtis.