TNFlag     Dollar Hill, Carroll County, Tennessee    TNFlag

Dollar Hill is near Clarksburg and named for Jonathan and Sarah Dollar who settled at the foot of Dollar Hill.  Many have told the tale that the owner of Dollar Hill charged a dollar to pull people over this hill, not true.
Dollar, for many years had a post office, general store, cotton gin, saw mill, grist mill and a blacksmith shop.  The mill worked hickory timber into ax handles that were hauled to the railroad by wagon.  The cotton gin and grist mill was steam powered as was the saw mill.
The post office was established July 11, 1881 with Phillip T. Butler Jr. as postmaster.  Nearby is Bateman Cemetery, resting place of Josiah Bateman who was buried during the Civil War.  The boys of the community had to carry Josiah on a sledge though the snow to bury him because the men were in hiding.  Some think this cemetery is haunted because of this act.
The first school was organized about 1910 and soon became a two teacher school.  Dollar community has two churches and the school is used for "Sunday School," revivals and singings.  Natchez Trace State Park is nearby.

From notes submitted by Jere R Cox

Dollar Hill

How did Dollar Hill get its name? False tales have been told-that it was because the man who lived at the top charged a dollar for pulling cars up the hill. Impossible, it was Dollar Hill before anyone had a car.

Jonathan and Sarah Dollar came via covered wagon with the Laws family from Orange Co. N.C. in the early 1800's. Both families homesteaded their land. Jonathan and Sarah selected land at the foot of Dollar Hill.

During the Civil War, Night Riders came and burned Jonathan's fingernails and toenails off trying to make him tell where his money was hidden. Their teenage daughter, Saliner (Lina) gave them a box of brass buttons as she proclaimed "The bush-whackers are coming". In fear they grabbed the box and fled.

"Lina" marred Ezekiel (Scrap) Simpson. After Jonathan died, Sarah lived with the Simpsons. Edith Laws Pendergrass remembers Sarah (Aunt Dollar) and her little black bonnet. Sarah died at age 99 in 1919.

John and Emma Laws built a short distance from the top of Dollar Hill and moved their family, Barton, Mamie, Edith and Elaine there in January 1908. Floy and Dwayne were born there.

After cars started using the road, John Laws got up all times in the night and in all kinds of weather to hitch his team and help folks up the hill. John Laws died during the 1920 "flu epidemic".

Later all the children were gone from home except Dwayne. Edith married Lewis Pendergrass in January, 1926. In December they moved into rooms with her mother and brother for three years. Lewis also pulled cars up Dollar Hill. He was never paid over 50 cents. One time he got there to pull a car up the hill and another fellow was stuck wanting to be pulled down the hill.

This was old "Dollar Hill" on the "Big Road" before highway 22 was built in the late 1920's. New Dollar Hill is very different.

In order to miss Sellers cemetery, a slight curve was made, leaving the Laws house and others, Sellers Hill and Dollar Hill off the new highway.

Old Dollar Hill was a meeting place for young folks on Sunday afternoons; children climbed and slid down the steep banks. They also made frog houses in the side ditches. But, the Hill was dreaded by motorist, especially after a rain.

The five Laws' still living "love the old home on Dollar Hill". Submitted by Edith Laws Pendergrass, published in History of Carroll Co. Tn. Volumne 1, 1987.

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