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Rugby, Tennessee - A New Centre of Human Life
BY KATE CLABOUGH
The colony of Rugby officially opened on October 5, 1880. Its creation was the brainchild of British writer Thomas Hughes. A dedicated social reformer, Hughes was searching for a place to offset the longstanding British tradition of primogeniture, a practice in which the oldest son inherited the bulk of an estate. The younger sons, due to their elevated hierarchical status as offsprings of gentry, were left nearly penniless and unable to work, save for a few acceptable jobs.
A father of nine, five of whom were boys, Hughes had his own family experience from which to draw. The United States, devoid of a caste system, appeared to be the perfect place to create a utopian society where all residents could be on equal footing without the embarrassment of one living beneath their allotted station in life.
With the financial backing of the Boston-based Board of Aid to Land Ownership, the colony of Rugby started out with a bang. Buildings went up left and right, athletic and cultural clubs formed, and Rugby’s future lay bright on the horizon.
But let us think for a moment about the staggering odds that a tiny, isolated community tucked deep in the wilds of the Cumberland Plateau had to face. It was bad enough that Rugby’s first winter was record-settingly bad and that a typhoid epidemic of Biblical proportions killed seven young men, sickened more than two dozen others and drove many out of the colony to safer pastures.
And then, as throughout all of history, there’s some corruption whenever the exchange of money is involved. It was no different in “utopian” Rugby. As quoted in the July 2, 1881, issue of “The Rugbeian,” a community reporter says, “It is true that the outward growth [of Rugby] was retarded by gross and culpable mismanagement,” in reference to an early colony manager’s penchant for lining his own pockets during original land sales. Then there were the fires, one of which reduced the town’s magnificent Tabard Inn to mere ashes. Challenges, indeed.
There was also the fact that the very founder of Rugby didn’t relocate himself to his newly-created town. Hughes’ wife and daughters refused to move to Rugby, digging their heels in like cartoon cats with claws stuck to a doorway. Instead, Hughes was represented in the colony by his mother, Margaret, his brother, Hastings, and Hastings’ daughter, Emily. (At least Thomas Hughes had the presence of mind to build himself a house so he could be there in spirit, if not in body.) Add to this list the fact that the success of the colony was laid on the backs of young men who had been encouraged all their lives not to work. That surely had to be a contributing factor to the town’s eventual decline.
At its peak, Rugby hosted more than 300 people, but as the dream of a utopian society tucked into the wilds of Tennessee lost momentum, only a handful of residents remained. They continued to cling to a vision that never fully materialized, even as many of the buildings around them crumbled. Oddly, even though Rugby was never really all there, it never really disappeared either.
During the early part of the 20th century, elderly descendants of Rugby’s original residents continued to tenaciously hold to the houses built by their optimistic ancestors. Approximately 20 original structures have either been continuously occupied or tended, as in the case of the church and library. If it weren’t for those families, Rugby would be a mere footnote in Tennessee history. Rugby also exists today thanks to the efforts set in motion in the 1960’s by the late Brian Stagg, and the continuing work by Stagg’s sister, Barbara, and the members of Historic Rugby, a non-profit educational organization dedicated to preserving the “Utopia in the Wilderness” that was Thomas Hughes’ dream.
Although never really a ghost town, Rugby is shrouded in an aura of mystery as if somebody left to go to church more than 125 years ago and just never came back. The community is both a beautiful and eerie place that beckons to all who stumble across it. ‘Tis a wonder Rugby ever happened at all and still more of a wonder there is any of it left today.
“The reality is, there is no place like Rugby anywhere in America,” said Barbara Stagg, who also serves as Executive Director of Historic Rugby. “Many towns and communities have tried to pay attention to their past, but not many of them have the documents and photographs that are available to us. We are not just restoring old buildings and preserving history, we are doing it in the context of what Rugby was originally meant to be.”
In May, travelers to the area can experience the vitality of the early years in Rugby by attending the 34th Annual Festival of British and Appalachian Culture. Held on May 17 and 18 from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., visitors will be treated to two full days of music, dancing, storytelling, films (especially interesting is an award-winning documentary about the colony) and handcrafted treasures offered by more than 80 arts and crafts vendors. Various exhibitors and demonstrators will be on hand, and there will also be historic building tours (check out the Thomas Hughes Library, which still houses its original 7,000 donated books) and hands-on children’s activities. There’s even new construction at Rugby: the Schoolhouse Visitor Centre.
Daily admission to the festival is $8 for adults and $4 for K-12 students. For more information, call 1-888-214-3400 for group admission, Rugby and area lodging, camping and other information, including non-festival pricing and hours. Or email rugbylegacy@highland.net. Rugby is located on State Scenic Hwy. 52, sixteen miles southeast of Jamestown and
35 miles from I-40 or I-75 in East Tennessee. You can also visit Rugby at www.historicrugby.org.
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