Southside

The small community of Southside, once known as Collinsville, is in the southeast corner of the county on Chapel Hill Road.

It started in the 1870s, when "Ont." Collins moved into a small log house, having one door and a window, and established a post office in the area across from where the Southside General Store is located, according to the "History of Collinsville/Southside" recorded by Addie Neblett and Ruby Waller.

Mrs. R.M. Workman recorded a brief from the Aug. 27, 1873, Tobacco Leaf, noting Collinsville was a growing village 12 miles from Clarksville on the south side of the Cumberland River with about 25 inhabitants, a grocery store, blacksmithing and wagonmaking, a doctor's office and a brick yard.

In 1880, the members of Southside worked to change the postal address from Collinsville to Southside because of confusion between Collinsville and Colliersville, Tenn.

In 1890, according to Mrs. Workman, a log building was built for a small elementary school, which grew into the Southside Preparatory School, established about 1891. The school operated many years until Southside residents began attending Montgomery Central schools.