Charm of the Carolines

100th Anniversary of the Deciding Vote

After years of arguments for and against suffrage, the 19th Amendment was passed by Congress in July 1919. However, 36 states were needed for ratification, and my beloved home state of Tennessee was the last and deciding vote.

On August 18, 1920 Tennessee became the 36th state to ratify the amendment — making it law that the right to vote could not be based on sex.

Harry Burn cast the tie-breaking vote by acting on advice from his dear mother, Phoebe. He originally wore the red rose of the anti-suffragists on his lapel as he cast his vote. His one vote made the difference, the vote was 49-47.

With his mother's letter in his pocket and on his mind when he cast the decisive vote, Harry was only 22. We all owe a debt of gratitude to Harry Burn and even more to his Mom. 

Maury County Historic Site Tour by Automobile - Downtown Columbia

Yesterday a request came across my desk for a historic home tour by car for those of us self-isolating due to the Coronavirus. What a fun project! I'll create several!!!

According to my dear friend Kathie Fuston, former resident of Maury County, our home county, Maury County, Tennessee, is the home to more than 1500 antebellum structures, more than any other county in the south except Natchez, Mississippi. 

I'll post photos here with a short history and address. Most of the photos I've taken and those that I didn't will be replaced with new photos as soon as it's warm and sunny and decent photos can be snapped. Other photos have been saved from a Google search, and I'll credit them best I can.

The brief history noted below may have been excerpted from Historic Maury County: Places and People published by the Maury County Historical Society and edited by Alice Algood. This book is illustrated by lovely watercolor paintings by Mildred Hartsfield. The paintings represented in this post are mine. If you are interested in purchasing a copy of this book, follow the link to Amazon. If you are local, simply email me at [email protected], and I can arrange for the sale and local pick-up. The book is priced at $35, plus shipping. 

If you would like to become a member of the Maury County Historical Society, you will receive discounts when purchasing our publications. You will also receive our quarterly magazine Historic Maury, and every other month our membership meetings are held at beautiful and interesting historic homes, museums, farms, and other sites. Annual Membership is $25 for an individual, $35 for a couple, and I can send you a form to join. 

When you take this tour by car, please know most of these homes are private residences. Be respectful. The homes that are open to the public normally are closed during the pandemic. Make notes and plan to return this summer to tour the public historic homes when they reopen. 

Maury County Historic Site Tour by Automobile - Downtown Columbia

The Historic District of West 6th Street is one of my favorite places in the county.

The Doctor's House - 701 N. High Street

The Doctor's House my be the oldest residence still standing in Columbia. It was built before 1821, confirmed by Nathan Vaught in his memoirs, Youth and Old Age. Dr. Dorrell N. Sansom (1791-1854) built the original log structure. He came to Columbia in 1810 and wed Jeannette White in 1815, which might explain the new house built on the site. They later moved to Mt. Pleasant and built a beautiful home there in 1830, the Sansom-Acuff house. Sansom is buried at Zion Presbyterian Church Cemetery. 

Halcyon Hall  - 212 W. 6th Street

Halcyon Hall was built in 1845 by Joseph Walker. He married Adaline Nelson. 

Mayes-Frierson House - 305 W 6th Street

The Mayes-Frierson House was built in 1833 by Patrick Maguire as a wedding gift for his daughter Eleanore (Ellen) and her husband Roger Bradley Mayer. The bricks are the original slave-made bricks. Because they were so soft, the bricks had to be painted sometime early last century. 

 

In 1880, Ellen Mayer deeded the home to her granddaughter who deeded it to her granddaughter thus it was owned by the Mayes-Frierson women until it was sold in the 1970s.

Mayes Place - 306 W 6th Street

Mayes Place was built in 1854 by Samuel Mayes. Tradition says that during prohibition an underground passage way lead to the Duck River, where illegal alcohol was transported.  

Several years ago I enjoyed assisting my friend Kathie paint a special painting for her neighbors, The Hills, who had just purchased Mayes Place. 

Mayes Court -  Cul de Sac next to Mayes Place

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This short street next to Mayes Place is full of adorable houses. One of these houses was the home of Gram Parsons grandparents, where he would visit and perform impromptu concerts on the front porch. 

Moore-Hendley-Church House -  307 W 6th Street

The Moore-Hendley-Church House was built in 1920-21.

Looney-Fleming-Jackson House - 207 W 6th Street

The Looney-Fleming-Jackson House was built in 1835.  The is a two-story brick originally a Federal style townhouse with a gable roof, featuring Flemish bond brickwork. The ornate porches were added when the house was enlarged in 1839 by Nathan Vaught. (a more thorough history is available in Historic Maury People and Places)

 

The West 7th Corridor

Carmack-Dunnigton House, aka Oakes and Nichols Funeral Home - 320 W 7th Street

The Carmack-Dunnigton House was built in 1856. The original home burned and was replaced with this lovely building. It is named after its best known resident, Senator Edward Ward Carmack, who lived in it during the time he was an attorney in Columbia (late 1870's to early 1880's).

Bethel House Hotel & Grand Opera House (later the Princess Theater) - No longer here, the Hotel was located on the corner of W.7th and Garden Streets

The Bethel House Hotel and Opera House was built in 1882 by brothers W.D. and P.C. Bethel. It burned to the ground November 27-28, 1949. 

 

Columbia First Methodist Church  -  222 W 7th Street

The First United Methodist Church's history goes back to the beginning of Maury County. The first minister came in 1818 and served Franklin and Columbia. The Church was then located on Main Street near Ninth. In 1836 they moved to the current location. This "new" building burned in 1874. It was replaced with the current one in 1876.

First Presbyterian Church - 801 S. High Street

First Presbyterian Church is the oldest Christian Church in Columbia. It was organized in 1811.

Barrow-Sweeney House  - 312 W 7th Street

Built in 1872, it was recently completely renovated. 

St. Peter's Episcopal Church  - 311 West 7th Street

St Peter's Episcopal Church in Columbia was the second Episcopal Church in Tennessee. It was organized in 1828. The current sanctuary was completed in 1871. During the Civil War, it served as Union headquarters during the siege of Columbia.

Mercer Hall - 902 Mercer Court off Trotwood

The center portion of this building was raised prior to 1820. In 1829 it was owned by future President of the USA, James K. Polk. He owned it of 7 years when he transferred ownership to his sister Ophelia Polk Hayes.

In 1848, Rev. James Harvey Otey, the First Episcopal Bishop of Tennessee made it his home. Soon, he turned it into a boy's school and named it Mercer Hall after it benefactor Dr. William Mercer.

During the Civil War, Mercer Hall served as headquarters for Union General Jacob Cox where he stabled horses in the basement.  (excerpt from Jim Hawkins Blog, and a more thorough history is available in Historic Maury People and Places)

Mercer Hall is an example of Greek Revival Architecture.

The James K. Polk Home - 301 W. 7th Street

James K. Polk was the 11th President of the United States of America. His father built the house when James was away in college. After graduation, he lived with his parents for a about 6 years until he married. The property included in the current museum also includes a second house know as Sister's House because his sisters occasionally lived there.

Polk Presidential Hall - 810 S. High Street

Constructed in 1882 as the first location of W. 7th Church of Christ, the building later housed a phosphate company office, a business college, and a printing company. The Polk Home acquired the building in 2006 and began a three-year restoration project to preserve the historic exterior and renovate the interior as a state-of-the-art museum gallery.

 

The Columbia Arsenal - Columbia Military Academy, Now Columbia Christian Academy - 1101 W. 7th Street

 

The nine buildings of the Columbia Arsenal were built from 1890 to 1891 by the United States federal government and closed after the Spanish-American War.  Columbia Military Academy opened for classes on August 28, 1905. 

 

West 8th Street 

The Athenaeum Rectory - 808 Athenaeum Street

The Athenaeum served as the rectory for two popular girl schools from the 1830s until the Great Depression. Construction of the Athenaeum began in 1832 by Samuel Polk Walker, a nephew of President James K. Polk.

Walker, however, never lived in the home. The first residents were the family of Reverend Franklin Gillette Smith. Rev. Smith came to Columbia to oversee the Columbia Female Institute. Smith would continue to work at the Institute until 1851. Then, he started his own girl's school, the Athenaeum.

Historic look at the Columbia, TN, Athenaeum. I’m not sure when this photo was taken.

Illustration of the Athenaeum Campus

 

And the Columbia Female Institute is no longer standing, but it was on the west side of the Athenaeum where the US Post Office is now. 

Rally Hill - 319 W 8th Street

Rally Hill was built by James and Maria Polk Walter in 1848. They called it Rally Hill since troops had mustered here before they marched to Louisiana during the War of 1812. 

The Old Union Station Depot - S. High Street at South Main Street

The station was build in 1905 and was part of the Louisville & Nashville and Duck River Valley Narrow Gauge Railroad (L&N). The station was abandoned in 1945. 

West 9th Street 

The Galloway House - Corner of W. 9th and School Streets

Originally known as the house where Nathan Bedford Forrest recuperated after the "Forrest-Gould Affair," in recent years it was the home of Phil Everly of The Everly Brothers fame. This home is now administration offices of the King's Daughters school located across the street. 

Center of Town

The Columbia Courthouse - Public Square

Maury County, Tennessee was formed in 1807 and named for Major Abram P. Maury, who served with General Andrew Jackson and was the uncle of Matthew Fontaine Maury. The settlement of Columbia became the seat of the county government and the first court was convened in Columbia on December 21, 1807 in the home of Colonel James Brown. The first permanent courthouse was built in 1809 and served until 1847 when a second courthouse was completed. This building was used for 56-years before being replaced by the current courthouse which was constructed between 1904 and 1906. 

Nelson House Hotel - N. Main Street

The Nelson House, also known as the Columbia House Hotel was built in 1828 with Pleasant Nelson as the proprietor. For many years, it was the area's premier hotel including stays by President Andrew Jackson and future President Andrew Johnson.

During the Civil War, Confederate Lt. Andrew Wills Gould died here after a clash with Nathan Bedford Forrest. After an ambush and defeat, Forrest held Gould responsible for the defeat. When they met at the Masonic Hall down the road, Gould shot Forrest, who stabbed Gould. Forrest quickly recovered but Gould died at the hotel after a massive infection.

Bike Shop - Duck River Books, - Mike Wolfe's AirBB

 

In May 1861, 21 year old Sam Watkins of Maury County, Tennessee, rushed to join the army when his state left the Union. He became part of Company Aytch, 1st Tennessee Infantry regiment, and was one of only seven men who remained in the company when it was in April 1865. Company Aytch mustered upstairs in this corner building, now an Air B&B owned by American Picker Mike Wolfe.

Frogmore Plantation

Today the historic preservation community and I are brokenhearted for Lynette Tanner and the Natchez, Mississippi, community after hearing about a fire destroying her 204-year-old Ferriday, Louisiana home, Frogmore Plantation.

I've only visited this site once, but was blown away by the example of a complete plantation community it was with home, cotton gin, church house, slave quarters, cotton fields and such. As painful as our southern history has been, it's also real. Frogmore Plantation stood to educate current and future generations about the lives of past generations, because the way I see it, we only have 2 choices.... learn from the past and create a better future or rewrite it and learn nothing.

 

Lynette researched and published a book Chained to the Land,  recounting Louisiana slave narratives that I found fascinating and recommend everyone should read; personal accounts of former enslaved people regarding their experiences while enslaved. It will truly open your eyes to seeing a sample of the diversified and wide-ranging personal experiences told from people who were there and lived it and how different their accounts are from whatever stereotype you may embrace.

Sending hugs and healing thoughts to all my friends and acquaintances in the Natchez community, especially the Tanner family, for their loss.

 

Photo Credit: Sabrina Robertson/The Natchez Democrat via AP

D-Day 75th Anniversary

On June 6, 1944, more than 150,000 troops from the US, Canada, and Britain, stormed 50 miles of the channel beaches of northern France in a heroic and epic mission to save the world from Nazi control. Try to imagine 6,939 ships and landing vessels, 2,395 aircraft, and 867 gliders converging on a relatively small swath of French seaside in order to invade Nazi-occupied western Europe. 

 

A mission of this scale was necessary because Germany had entrenched a 2,400 mile line of bunkers along France's coast, including four million land mines along Normandy's beaches. Additionally, the infantrymen landing at the beaches were met with persistent machine gun fire. Losses were staggering with nearly 4500 men killed during the invasion and more than 225,000 killed or wounded during the Battle for Normandy which lasted until August. 

But they were successful. In less than a year, Germany surrenders unconditionally. 

Each year I visit my friend Christy who lives in Carrabelle, Florida, near St. George Island. At this location in the early 1940s, was the US Amphibious training site named Camp Gordon Johnston. I couldn't help but be emotionally moved when first visiting the WWII museum there a couple of years ago and even more to be given authentic dog tags found on the beach from a young soldier stationed at the camp. They belonged to Henry Buck, 20909406, T43-4, A, P.  

This type of dog tag was issued between July 1943 and March 1944. It was found on Carrabelle Beach where D-Day invasion training took place. His name is Henry Buck. His army serial number came next, then his tetanus immunization , tetanus toxoid, blood type.  The P stands for Protestant. 

But I didn't stop there. After a little digging discovered his name was Henry W. Buck from Napa, California, Solano County, and he was born in 1920 in Missouri. Henry enlisted March 3, 1941, in the National Guard Infantry as a Private.  Even with the amazing width and depth of knowledge available on the world wide web, I found little else. 

On the 75th Anniversary of "Operation Overlord" (as the mission was named), I would like to observe a quiet moment of prayer, gratitude and appreciation for Henry Buck and all the men and women who fought for the Allies in World War II, and those that served in the War Effort at home and abroad, and the families who kept the country operating and the home fires burning here on the homefront.

Thank you for your service, your sacrifice, and your heroism. May we never, never, never forget. 

 

Memorial Day 2019

Before we head out for our Memorial Day Weekend, before the picnics, before the day spent on the lake, before hitting the sales at the mall or making homemade ice cream with the family, let's take a moment to reflect, remember and honor those who made the ultimate sacrifice to put the Free in Freedom while serving in the US Armed Forces. 

I've heard it said that Memorial Day used to be called Decoration Day, and that might be true. Except many families in the south observe Decoration Day each year but it's not on Memorial Day. Decoration Day may have started as a time to honor the dead, but where I live it is more like a family reunion where people visit the family cemetery and clean it up and then enjoy a potluck dinner on the grounds. My family observes Decoration Day on the first Saturday in August. My sister-in-law's family from Mississippi observes it on the Saturday before Mother's Day. 

In 1882 Henry Wadsworth Longfellow wrote this poem...

Decoration Day

Sleep, comrades, sleep and rest
On this Field of the Grounded Arms,
Where foes no more molest,
Nor sentry’s shot alarms!

Ye have slept on the ground before,
And started to your feet
At the cannon’s sudden roar,
Or the drum’s redoubling beat.

But in this camp of Death
No sound your slumber breaks;
Here is no fevered breath,
No wound that bleeds and aches.

All is repose and peace,
Untrampled lies the sod;
The shouts of battle cease,
It is the Truce of God!

Rest, comrades, rest and sleep!
The thoughts of men shall be
As sentinels to keep
Your rest from danger free.

Your silent tents of green
We deck with fragrant flowers
Yours has the suffering been,
The memory shall be ours.

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

The Poppy became a popular symbol of Memorial Day after the poem In Flanders Field was published on May 3, 1915, by Canadian Lieutenant Colonel John McCrae describing the poppies that grew over the soldiers graves in WWI. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

In Flanders Field

In Flanders fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.

We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved and were loved, and now we lie,
In Flanders fields.

Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.