Did a hillbilly prophet foretell the development of the atomic bomb?
John Hendrix lived twenty miles from Knoxville, Tennessee, and the nearest established communities were Scarboro and Robertsville, both of which were small. He did not become a prophet until he was nearly fifty years old, at the turn of the twentieth century, when he spent his time on “communion in the deep woods” and then returned to report on what he had learned.
As the story is usually told, Hendrix first told his wife that a railroad would expand from Knoxville through Central Anderson County. And indeed, “the Louisville and Nashville Railroad within a few years began construction of a new line along the approximate route spelled out by Hendrix” (Robinson 1950, 18). His next major vision came as he lay on the ground, looking at the sky. A voice instructed Hendrix to sleep on the ground for forty nights.