About Us:

Collinwood, located in the center of Wayne County is included in the 150 acres tract of land that was granted by the State of Tennessee to Mr. A. G. McDOUGAL by Grant No. 28 containing 2500 acres of land on Butler and Shawnattee Creek. This was on April 12, 1847. Then on September 11, 1849, the 150 acres, of which Collinwood is located, was conveyed to James TILLEY by Mr. McDOUGAL for $20.00 in hand.

A brick plant was constructed where the Lumber Company is now situated and bricks were made to build the brick buildings, one of the first being the Bank of Collinwood.

The crashing sound of falling timber, the hissing of locomotives and the rush of immigrants gave Collinwood a real boom town air and the population reached two thousand. All this was before World War I. The town was incorporated in 1915, but this lasted only a couple of years. During this time a Mr. HOLMES started publishing a newspaper called the Collinwood Pilot and it had all the splendor of a frontier newspaper. A beautiful depot was built.

When the outbreak of war in Europe came and Uncle Sam began scouting around for something to fight his war with, the still large reserves of hardwoods beckoned and in almost not time two thousand men were at work setting up a chemical plant with which to manufacture alcohol, acetate of lime, car tar, pig iron and charcoal. The furnace for the plant was shipped from Rusk, Texas. In order to keep a supply of wood for the chemical plant and logs for the sawmills, a tram line made if wood and similar to a railroad was constructed to haul the logs from the forest to the mill. These trams were first pulled by a steam engine but they didn’t prove successful. Then mules and horses were used to pull them. This brought on a demand for horses and some car loads of wild western horses were being shipped to the Collinwood area and sold at auction.

The town took on a very lively atmosphere. Three trains came in each day, two of them passengers. Each time the train whistle would sound the town would gather at the depot because each time the train came it meant more new people. They came from all sections of the country but most of them came from the North and East and the Southern people could hardly understand their language. Included with these people from the East were the personnel of the companies. They built fine homes in the area where Hassell & Hughes Lumber Company is now located. These homes had running water and baths which was unheard of until then.