Clarence Darrow Stayed Here During The 1925 Scopes Trial This home was located on the south side of 2nd Ave just west of Walnut Street. Today in 2021, there is a children’s play park (Stella’s Place) on this site that belongs to the First Baptist Church of Dayton. During the Scopes Trial in July of…
Scopes Trial Related
Where It All Started
Robinson’s Drug Store Table Where the 1925 Scopes Trial Started This little round table is where it all started in 1925. George Rappleyea sat down at this table with an idea to put Dayton on the map. His idea was for one of Rhea County’s High School teachers to accept the ACLU’s offer looking for…
Scopes Trial Jury 1925
1925 Scopes Trial Jury Dayton Tennessee Standing at the extreme left is Rhea County Sheriff R.B. Harris and to the extreme right is Judge John Tate Raulston. Front Row (L-R) W.G. Taylor Farmer J.H. Bowman Farmer and Cabinet Maker- Methodist J.R. Thompson Farmer and Ex Marshall-Methodist W.G. Day Farmer-Baptist R.L. Gentry Farmer and…
F.E. Robinson’s Children Witness History
In this photograph taken during the 1925 Scopes Trial, F.E. Robinson appears with his two small children, W. C. “Sony” and Frances. Sitting around the table where it all began were the Robinson’s along with the famous monkey “Mindy” and its guardian. Everyone in the photograph has since passed away. Frances Gabbert, who was only…
Sue K. Hicks Scopes Trial Attorney Dies
Judge Sue K. Hicks, the attorney who assisted William Jennings Bryan in the 1925 Scopes “monkey trial” and whose given name was celebrated in a song, died on June 17, 1980, in a convalescent home. He was a young assistant Rhea County attorney during the landmark trial of substitute biology teacher John Thomas Scopes who…
John R. Neal Scopes Defense Attorney Dies
John R Neal, who was the chief defense counsel during the celebrated “Monkey Trial” in Dayton, Tennessee in 1925, died November 23, 1959 in a Rockwood hospital at the age of 83. Neal had served in both houses of the State Legislature and ran many times in the elections for Governor and U.S. Senator. His…
Darwin Visits Famous Rhea Courthouse
Francis darwin Great Grandson of Charles Darwin visits Rhea Courthouse September 27,1972 Francis Darwin, who is the great-grandson of Charles Darwin fields questions at the Rhea County Courthouse after the premiere of the motion picture “The Darwin Adventure“. The film is based on a five-year ocean voyage Charles Darwin Took in the 1830’s that lead…
Hatching The 1925 Scopes Trial Case
Grouped about the little table in Robinson’s Drug Store, Dayton, Tennessee, is where the argument on the new Tennessee “Butler Act” law that resulted in the prosecution of John Thomas Scopes for teaching evolution in the high school where he was professor of biology. Shown seated left to right are Herbert E. Hicks, attorney; John…
Miss Dayton Welcomes John Thomas Scopes To Town
Miss Dayton Nancy Shipley Welcomes John Thomas Scopes To Town On 35th Anniversary Of Famous Trial. Nancy Shipley had not yet been born when John Thomas Scopes was convicted in 1925 of violating Tennessee’s newly passed Butler Act. A trial in which the world has come to know as “The Monkey Trial”. In 1960, the…