Lewis County Herald - Serving Hohenwald, Lewis County Tennessee Since 1898

Ralph D. Stewart III, a native of Lewis County with roots in Humphreys County and an undergraduate student at the University of Mississippi will release Murder on Tumbling Creek: With Excerpts from State Vs. Crowell on April 6, 2022. The work is the culmination of 3 years of intermittent research, 3 years of subsequent writing, and 1 year of extensive editing. The endeavor to publish a more permanent record of the incident in question began in 2016 when documents emerged suggesting a murder conspiracy along with other evidence that indicated corruption at the highest office in the land.

Murder on Tumbling Creek is a biographical work depicting the circumstances surrounding the murder of a Tumbling Creek farmer, John T. Peeler, in the August of 1918. The crime occurred in the formal Crowell Community which has afterward been more commonly referred to as "Poplar Grove" in consequence of the Crowell family's involvement with the Peeler-Crowell case. It was an "assassination" and "one of the most brutal murders in Tennessee" according to the Peeler family in a letter to the press dated November 1918. Elvis Crowell was accused of committing the crime, but popular belief suggests that it was his uncle, Lee Crowell. At the time, in 1918, Peeler had actively campaigned with John Mark Gray against Lee Crowell as candidates to become a Justice of the Peace (also called county magistrate).

The May 2, 1919 issue of the Dickson County Herald remarked of the occasion of State Vs. Crowell as the climatic response to the "most heinous cold-blooded murder to ever be committed in Humphreys County." Murder on Tumbling Creek will feature the key excerpts from the trial proceedings accompanied by commentary. Additionally, a host of supplemental resources have been included among which are documents relating to Mormon missionaries in Tennessee, the Civil War in Humphreys County, and never before seen photographs/maps.

Murder on Tumbling Creek seeks to better document the rich history of that part of the world called Poplar Grove which is beloved by many today through examining the events leading up to and after the murder. "This is not just a story about a murder but of a people and a community that was forever impacted," writes Stewart, "If we are to extrapolate meaning from any of it, the story must be written and the history passed down, both the good and the bad."

Murder on Tumbling Creek will be available for purchase on April 6, 2022. Order requests may be made through Lulu publishing at http://www.lulu.com at that time.