OUR HISTORY
For many years the idea of a historical association had been discussed but nothing had been done beyond this. In the late fall of 2015 a group of local residents decided we must get beyond just talk. We must form a historical association to begin the collecting of local history to include photographs, old maps, documents of local importance and of course the collecting of locally significant relics. On September 28, 2015 we were recognized by the State of Tennessee as a Corporation having our own Charter and By-Laws.
We received our IRS 501.c.3 on June 14, 2017.
Bi-Monthly meetings are on the 4th Tuesday of the months of February, April, June, August, October and ending with December at 6:30 pm. at Stuart Heights Baptist Church (the old Soddy-Daisy Walmart.) Everyone is invited!
Our Goal
Our goal is to gather as much local history as quickly as we can. Our goal also is to gather information of other areas local to Soddy, Daisy & Montlake. We want to include the communities of Mowbray and Flat Top Mountain in our collecting of memorabilia. Each of these areas have their own unique histories but the histories of each of these communities will be our mission to preserve in whatever manner possible.
Our Mission
The Soddy, Daisy & Montlake Historical Association strives to preserve the history of the above mentioned areas. As stated before we received our 501.c.3 on June 14, 2017.
Future
We opened a museum located in the old Soddy Bank building on July 1st, 2017 for members only and on July 4th to the general public. We now have a building to display our history. We have a future vision of a permanent museum. But presently we want to show the community we mean business and are willing to start small in a temporary structure. By the way, on July 4th we had 465 visitors come to the museum and we ended the year on December 23 and we had, for the six months we were open, 1623 visitors. For the year of 2018 we opened every Friday and Saturday beginning the last of March and we were open until December 15th. We had over 1120 visitors to the museum for 2018. We will be closed until April 3rd, 2020.
Projects
During the monthly meeting of October 2015 the idea of a local history fair sponsored by the historical association was discussed. No one had ever gotten together the many people which had family genealogies, large collections of coal mining artifacts from local coal mines as well as pottery relics from the many industrial potteries which used to call Daisy, Tennessee home. Also Civil War relics, and American Indian artifacts from this area were sought for display. This became our mission to gather all of these people owning all of these collections in one location. On January 16, 2016 the Soddy, Daisy & Montlake Historical Association hosted their first history fair in the Soddy-Daisy High School commons. There were 68 tables of history spread out throughout the commons. The displays were of superb quality and with advertising of the event on both local television, radio and newspapers we were able to gather a crowd of between 500 to 600 people to view the local history of these collectors.
The response was overwhelming from the community in regard to holding another history fair. So we held a second History Fair June 11th, 2016 once again in the Soddy-Daisy High School commons area.
The Historical Association has now hosted five annual History Fairs at the Soddy-Daisy High School with the next event scheduled for January 16, 2021.
The Historical Association partnered with the City of Soddy-Daisy and we hosted "Pioneer Day" at the Poe's Tavern Historical Park in November, 2019. Our date of Pioneer Day was November 7th 2020 again at the Poe's Tavern Historical Park.
There were many historical displays along with food, period music, and games for the kids. This year we were visited by Robert E. Lee along with three or possibly four displays from the 'Tennesseans for Living History' based in Knoxville to be included with what we had last year the yard around Poe's Tavern is beginning to get crowded! Thanks to the 39th Georgia for their encampment to give the public a glimpse into the life of a soldier during the Civil War. Also to the many others with displays to provide living history for all to see how things were done in the "Old Days." Thanks to the many who visited us at Pioneer Day.
