Included with this photo is a note that reads, “old dueling grounds, state line.” Perhaps this location is somewhere along State Line Road? Does this landscape look familiar to you? Do you know any historic Memphis dueling lore that could help us place this?
SOLVED!!
This mystery was solved through an anonymous tip on our website that suggested the road in the photo was near Dueling Oaks, an oak grove on the property of William Joyner, outside his mansion. Our anonymous tipper explained that duels were illegal in Tennessee so “participants traveled just across the state line to have a legal duel.” Another response from our website backed them up: “I expect the road is current day Highway 51. The dueling grounds were just across the Mississippi line from what is today Whitehaven.”
We confirmed that this is the location with a 1974 article from the Commercial Appeal. The article retells the story of the last duel fought at Dueling Oaks between accountant Edward Freeman and lawyer Edward Hamlin, the final Memphis dueling victim. The article pulls from an 1870 account of the duel which describes an old field on Joyner’s land which is now where Highway 51 crosses the Mississippi line—proving our tippers right!