My friend Gary responded to an earlier posting about the naming of Salemtown. His theory makes as much sense as any I have heard or read:

The now named American Tobacco Company, makers of snuff and stuff in plant(s) in the area of North Nashville ajoining Salemtown was originally part of the original American Tobacco Company started by James Buchanan "Buck" Duke. Buck Duke was an original robber baron, but was best know in the tobacco industry for introducing ready rolled cigarettes from his factories around Durham, Winston-Salam, and other towns in North Carolina. When he started those factories, the people in the world who knew all there was to know about cigarette machines were Greek. Thousands of Greeks had immigrated to the Norheast and were lured to North Carolina by the American Tobacco Company. Even today, there is a relatively large Greek population in mid North Carolina many of which work for big tobacco.

That all being said. Working in a tobacco factory requires more skilled tradesmen than is intuitively obvious. One wonders if Mike, in his seminal post, had the tobacco right but the reason wrong. What if Buck Duke, or others, started snuff factories in Nashville and sent a relatively large group skilled workers from North Carolina who were from the Winston-Salem area who settled in the enclave in North Nashville within walking distance of the snuff factories? What if they called their new neighborhood 'Salemtown' in honor of their North Carolina roots?

I'm pretty sure no witches were burned here in S-Town, and I'm now sure that the name Salemtown pre-dates the Salem church. Tobacco has played a big role in Tennessee and Nashville history, so it really wouldn't be surprising if the name refers to cigarettes (lone wolf theory) or to a town named for a cigarette.

Posted by John H on Wednesday, September 28, 2005 at 3:25 PM | Permalink