BRICEVILLE, Tenn. (WATE) — The story behind the Drummond Bridge in Anderson County stems back to the Coal Creek War in the 1890s. A time when the local miners fought against convict leasing.
Barry Thacker with the Coal Creek Watershed Foundation said the miners felt their work should be protected, rather than employers using state prisoners for free and cheap labor.
“Convict leasing had become a significant part of the state’s revenue,” Thacker said. “So when the miners tried to disrupt convict-leasing that was disrupting a significant revenue source for the state of Tennessee.”
Thacker goes on to tell the story of one of the miners fighting at that time, Richard ‘Dick’ Drummond.
“Dick Drummond was the most handsome individual around and all of the girls ignored the soldiers,” Thacker said. “They went to fawn over Dick Drummond.”
Drummond found himself in trouble one night at a local dance thanks to his suave looks and demeanor.
“Everything was fine until Dick Drummond walked in the door,” he added. “There was a fight that night over a girl and later that night a soldier found a private shot dead.”
With the soldiers immediately assuming it was Drummond who fired the deadly shot, Thacker explained there were 16 men who went to get Drummond from the boarding house where he was living. They dragged him down the road to a nearby bridge where he was found the next morning.
“The local farmer came out and he was going to go into his field out there and he saw Dick Drummond lynched, hanging from the bridge,” Thacker said.
The notches where the hanging took place can still be seen today. “My left foot is pointing toward the notch in the railroad tie,” Thacker said as he pointed out the markings.
Just like the notches from his death, Drummond is believed to still be around too. Thacker said there are two beliefs as to why Drummond is haunting the bridge he was killed on.
“One is that the ghost is looking for revenge against the soldiers,” he said. “The other belief is a ghost comes out at night looking for his girlfriends.”
While no one knows exactly what happened the night Drummond died, Thacker has a warning for anyone looking for a good Halloween scare.
“He is yet to kill anybody,” he said. “If you’re foolish enough to show up in a uniform and wearing a handlebar mustache like the soldiers did back then, just beware.”
The address for the Drummond Bridge is 531 Lower Briceville Rd in Briceville, Tenn.
