John Hendrix Story

By David Ray Smith

The John Hendrix Story tells the legend of the Prophet of Oak Ridge who, it is said, foretold the coming of the Manhattan Project some 40 years before the world-changing event took place.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Lulu.com
• Release date: Mar 31, 2011
• ISBN: 9781257309627

Book preview

2009

Introduction

The John Hendrix story has intrigued me from the first time I heard it mentioned. I now use it routinely to introduce visitors to Oak Ridge. It gets their attention and breaks the ice. Many who come to our city are at the least uncomfortable with the scientific nature of our history. They place where the uranium 235 was separated for the first atomic bomb used in warfare is already a mysterious place to many.

Often visitors are hesitant to ask questions as they do not want to appear to lack knowledge of Oak Ridge, yet they rarely know very much except the name and that there is some attachment to the atomic bomb. To get them to listen, this story seems to bring the conversation to something they can ask questions about or can more easily discuss than the technical aspects of what it takes to make an atomic bomb.

A second story that I use is the Senator McKellar story that tells an alternate version of the standard history of how Oak Ridge was selected for the Manhattan Project. This story has the Senator telling President Roosevelt that he can help him keep the amount of money to be spent on the Manhattan Project from being publicized. All the good senator asked of the president was, Just where in Tennessee are you going to put that thang?

I follow that story up with a known true one where Lester Fox, a sophomore in Oliver Springs High School in 1942, was skipping school when he was told to go get the principal because he had an important telephone call. When the principal returned to the school after taking the call, he called the students into an assembly and told them, I have just gotten a telephone call from Senator McKellar and he wants me to tell you to go home and tell your parents that they are going to have to find another place to live because the government is going to take your land for the war effort.

This causes the visitors to see the significance placed on the Manhattan Project and the fact that some 3,000 people had to pick up and move almost immediately. With these preliminary stories, the visitors are prepared and ready to hear the rest of the story about the Manhattan Project, the atomic bomb, the medical isotope program and the winning of the Cold War.

Stories seem to help quickly convey an early and lasting impression. The John Hendrix and Senator McKellar stories stick with the visitor long after they leave Oak Ridge. These stories provide easy memory hooks to help the visitors recall the place where great scientific discoveries took place.

The earliest written information I have found documenting the John Hendrix story was in a November 2, 1944 story published by Richard B. Gehman (writing under the pseudonym Joe Oakes). Gehman was associate editor for The Oak Ridge Journal and was known by Ed Westcott the photographer for the above story and the famous Manhattan Project photographer, without whose artistic black and white images we would have far less documentation of the history of Oak Ridge.

This small book contains the information I have published in The Oak Ridger’s Historically Speaking column on the John Hendrix story as well as the contents of Back of Oak Ridge and some material from my web site, www.draysmith.com. It is my hope that what has been created in this book about the history of John Hendrix helps you to appreciate the value of a story and that you realize that the John Hendrix legend is an integral part of Oak Ridge history.

D. Ray smith

November 22, 2009

Contact information: [e-mail]

865.482.4224

Section one – Newspaper Articles

These articles included here were written for the Historically Speaking column published in The Oak Ridger newspaper during 2006. Ed Westcott, local legend himself as THE Manhattan Project photographer here in Oak Ridge, was a huge help to me with the research on the history of the John Hendrix story. His photograph of the original tombstone was a great find. His newspaper article published in 1944 is the earliest known written material on the story.

John Hendrix - Oak Ridge Prophet, Part 1

By: D. Ray Smith | Historically Speaking | The Oak Ridger | March 15, 2006 John Hendrix was born in Bear Creek Valley Nov. 9, 1865, very near where Building 9201-4 stands today - in the heart of the western Protected Area of Y-12. He died June 2, 1915, and is buried in Hendrix Creek Subdivision in Oak Ridge in a single grave plot in Bobby Ledford's yard.

The beautiful spot in Bobby Ledford's lawn that is on the highest point in Hendrix Creek Subdivision would be a great location for a small city park with a bench, a plaque telling the John Hendrix story and an historic marker to attract the Heritage Tourism visitor. Bobby would welcome this. I have already taken Mayor David Bradshaw to see the location and he was much impressed with the setting and the very large boxwood tree planted by John Hendrix's son, Curtis Hendrix, many years ago that is now some 20 feet tall.

The grave marker is not the original; that