One donated memory at a time

12:45 p.m. July 11, 2025

HALEY PAYNE ROBERTS
MCO Senior Staff Writer

Just as important as the people who make history are those who preserve it. Both Mike Northcutt and Ernie Sanders are in the business of preserving Moore County’s past through the nonprofit Moore County Historical and Genealogical Society.

Founded in 1990 under the presidency of Betty Robertson, the society has been working diligently for 35 years to preserve the stories and artifacts that have shaped Moore County. The Old Jail Museum houses the nonprofit, providing a resource for locals and tourists alike to learn about some of the county’s most important – and unique – history.

“We’re a 501(c)(3) tax-exempt organization,” Northcutt said. “We operate strictly on donations plus member dues. Our major fundraiser is the Jack Daniel’s Barbeque, where we have a cake and pie auction. We make good money with that.

“We can’t sell stuff, so we give you a shot glass or a shirt for a donation. We also make money from Tennessee Paranormal. They give us some advertising, and they come here to the old jail about every other weekend now.

“I’m the president,” he said. “The vice president is George Stone. Our archivist is John Parks. He does all of our digital pictures and researches a lot of the archives. We serve Moore County by having and displaying its historical items as well as preserving it, not letting it get away from us.

“I really think we do a good job. We have a quarterly meeting, and the last meeting was about Century Farms in Moore County as well as its founding fathers. We presented 10 founding families.”

As one would expect, the museum holds many county artifacts. “We have Lem Motlow’s saddle. We have a veterans room where we display everyone from Lynchburg who served. We have our sheriff’s wall, which has pictures of every sheriff Moore County has ever had,” Northcutt said.

“We also have an original land grant from 1828 from Robert C. Daniel – Jack’s uncle – and signed by Sam Houston, the governor of Tennessee at the time.

“You’ll see a lot of pictures here. Famous people that have been here. Jesse James has his name carved upstairs in the men’s cells. Johnny Cash has been here in an STP commercial.

“Bill Dance still comes here quite often and has donated some things. We have his first plug that he bought at the hardware store when he was a young boy,” Northcutt said. “We have a picture of him with the first bass he ever caught out of Mulberry Creek. Johnny Majors also gave us some things right before he died.”

The building itself also has its rich history, which Northcutt is eager to regale visitors through his tales of Moore County. As many of the children attending LES are taught on their tour of the old jail, the cells upstairs contain many stories as well as a glimpse into the past of law enforcement and even a famous American outlaw.

“If the prisoners were being good, they would lock the main door and let them run around in the cells. But if they weren’t being good and were talking ugly, they would lock them up in the cells and shut the door,” Northcutt explained. “Also, Jesse James’ alleged signature is here around the men’s cells. We can’t prove he was here, but we know that his brother Frank was here in 1886 and that they rode together.

“The sheriff’s bedroom is upstairs, as well as the children’s room. We’ve just redone them and are still adding things to them. We have a lot of tools up there on display, like some from the man who made barrels for Jack Daniel,” he said.

While it’s certainly fascinating to see this collection of historic items, the stories told by Northcutt and Sanders are the most valuable possession of the society. The following story, with a picture of an older gentleman in a wheelchair sitting inside one of the jail cells, is just one of many:

“In 1925, the man’s mother and daddy were coming here from Beech Grove to see her mother. They had a flat, and the sheriff pulled them over and said that he wanted to search the truck. Well, they didn’t want him to, but they went ahead and let him,” Sanders said.

“He searched it and found moonshine. The lady was pregnant. This is her son in this picture. He was 90 years old here, and he was born in a jail cell back in 1925. He came back and had his picture taken before dying two years later at 92 years old. His parents’ truck ended up in a truck museum in the Texas Transportation Museum in San Antonio.”

“There’s a document where Jack Daniel got arrested on the Square here in Lynchburg in 1881 for carrying a gun,” Northcutt added. “They took him to court, and he had a trial where the jury found him innocent. They made the accusers pay the court costs. That shows you how well he was thought of around here.”

There are countless stories like these, accompanied by various items preserved by the society. Northcutt and Sanders urge greater community engagement with the old jail and the society so that they may continue to document and display more historical items from across the county.

“We would like to get more local people coming in here to see the history of the county. We would like more donations of Moore County items because we have a lot of families that have been here for hundreds of years. A lot of times, they pass away, and the heirs throw a lot of stuff away,” Northcutt said.

“My kids don’t want my stuff. I wish people would bring things here and let us display it in respect to their family. We’d love to have donations like pictures, documents, furniture, and other things like that. We’ll put their name on it and display it.”

“We would love to have historical documents from Moore County. We’re always displaying them,” he said. “Everything you see here has been donated, like a rifle from the Motlow family. You don’t have to donate it to us, though. You can loan it to us, and we’ll put your family’s name on it when we display it.”

“We’re starting to get a lot of people in Lynchburg here,” Sanders added. “A lot of people from here have never been in. We’re trying to attract the locals to get in here, too.”

Drop in to visit the old jail the next time you’re on the Square. Ask for a tour or a story. You’re bound to learn something about this fine place we call home from the best storytellers we have.