Sowing the Seeds of the Future. Photo courtesy of the Women’s History Trail
By Lauren Stepp
Franklin is a trail town. Walk into any establishment, and you’ll see goat-legged thru-hikers gathering provisions before returning to the nearby Appalachian Trail. But another footpath attracts travelers to this picturesque hamlet: the Women’s History Trail (WHT).
Established in 2018 by the Folk Heritage Association of Macon County (FHAMC), the WHT is the first of its kind in the state. Theresa Ramsey, a member of the project’s leadership team, says the trail “seeks to share stories of the strength and determination of the women who came before us to heal and inspire our community as we grow together.”
Elizabeth and Lassie Kelly. Photo courtesy of the Women’s History Trail
The project was the brainchild of the late Barbara McRae. As a historian and the former editor of the Franklin Press, McRae “had the vision for a walking trail as a way to showcase women’s contributions in the early days of Macon County’s formation through the creation of a connected pathway in the downtown Franklin area.”
That pathway begins at the Women’s History Park and then meanders through town, featuring more than a dozen stops with historical plaques highlighting the accomplishments and lives of mountain matriarchs.
Featured women include Isabel Elias, who established The Library Club in 1892. According to her marker at 37 Phillips Street, Elias’ group “grew in numbers and strength, propelled by enterprising women who served in every library role.” In 1955, the collective inspired the construction of a $10,000 facility stocked with 14,000 titles. There’s also Agnes Zachary Higgins. A talented musician, Higgins played the piano during silent films screened at her parents’ movie theater downtown. According to her plaque at Crabtree General Store at 41 Iotla Street, she was known through the surrounding hills and hollers as the “woman behind the Wurlitzer.”
Other featured women include entrepreneurs like Maretta Munday, who opened the first salon in town and established a “college of beauty culture”; women in public service like Eloise Potts, who was elected the town’s first female mayor in 1960; and professionals like Lassie Kelly, a suffragist who served in WWI and became the first woman in NC to pass the bar exam and practice law.
The trail also features Sowing the Seeds of the Future, a 7-foot-tall sculpture showcasing three women—one Cherokee, one Black and one white—whose lives were connected by property on the Little Tennessee River.
The FHAMC’s stated intention is that the sculpture—and trail, for that matter—“acknowledge and celebrate women’s contributions” while also inspiring “future generations of girls and women to pursue their dreams and to challenge us all to learn from the past and aspire for a more equitable future.”
To learn more, visit WomensHistoryTrail.org.
