Boone Prairie

Boone Prairie, also known as Hayes, is just south of Farm Road 979 and eight miles north of Franklin in extreme northeast Robertson County. The community was settled in 1872. By 1880 it had a post office with A. A. Hayes, who owned a general store, as postmaster. By 1885 the settlement had a population of thirty, three churches, a district school, and a combined gristmill and cotton gin. By 1891 it had a population of fifty, two physicians, and another gin and gristmill. The next year it had three general stores and three physicians. By 1900 the area had become known as Boone Prairie and was divided into East Boone Prairie and West Boone Prairie, though maps continued to label the area Hayes up to the 1940s. In 1904 the East Boone Prairie school had an enrollment of ninety-seven pupils and two teachers, and the West Boone Prairie school had an enrollment of thirty-six and one teacher. The post office closed in 1906. The town is shown with one store, three churches, two cemeteries, and a population of twenty-five on a 1942 map that refers to it as Hayes. On 1969 and 1983 revised maps the community was shown divided into East and West Boone Prairie. A few scattered dwellings, two cemeteries, and the Hayes Church were at the site.