Ashwood Hall was a Southern plantation in

Maury County, Tennessee Maury County ( ) is a County (United States), county located in the U.S. state of Tennessee, in the Middle Tennessee region. As of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, the population was 100,974. Its county seat is Columbia, Tennessee, C ...

Location

The

plantation A plantation is an agricultural estate, generally centered on a plantation house, meant for farming that specializes in cash crops, usually mainly planted with a single crop, with perhaps ancillary areas for vegetables for eating and so on. The ...

was located in Ashwood, a small town near Columbia in

History

The land belonged to Colonel William Polk. The

mansion A mansion is a large dwelling house. The word itself derives through Old French from the Latin word ''mansio'' "dwelling", an abstract noun derived from the verb ''manere'' "to dwell". The English word '' manse'' originally defined a property l ...

was built for one of his sons, Bishop

Leonidas Polk Lieutenant-General Leonidas Polk (April 10, 1806 – June 14, 1864) was a bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Louisiana and founder of the Protestant Episcopal Church in the Confederate States of America, which separated from the Episcopal Chur ...

, from 1833 to 1837.''Tennessee: A Guide to the State''
US History Publishers: Federal Writers' Project, 1949, p. 389 Opposite the mansion, Leonidas Polk built St. John's Episcopal Church from 1839 to 1842.James Patrick
''Architecture in Tennessee, 1768-1897''
Knoxville, Tennessee: University of Tennessee Press, 1990, p. 111 In 1847, Leonidas Polk sold the mansion to Rebecca Van Leer, an heiress to an iron fortune and member of the

Van Leer family The Van Leer family, originally spelled Von Lohr, is an influential German-American family that emigrated to the Province of Pennsylvania in the 17th century from the Electorate of Hesse near Isenberg, Germany. The family made their fortune in the U ...

, who had married one of his brothers, Andrew Jackson Polk, in 1846, for US$35,000. Andrew and his wife spent another US$35,000 on expansions and refurbishments. Their son Vanleer Polk and their daughter Antoinette Van Leer Polk grew up at the mansion. On July 5, 1861, at the outset of the

American Civil War The American Civil War (April 12, 1861 – May 26, 1865; also known by other names) was a civil war in the United States. It was fought between the Union ("the North") and the Confederacy ("the South"), the latter formed by states th ...

, Andrew Jackson Polk, who was elected Captain,William Bruce Turner, ''History of Maury County, Tennessee'', Nashville, Tennessee: The Parthenon Press, 1955, p. 376 organized the Maury County Braves in a grove on the grounds of Ashwood Hall. In 1862, Antoinette Polk saved

Confederate Confederacy or confederate may refer to: States or communities * Confederate state or confederation, a union of sovereign groups or communities * Confederate States of America, a confederation of secessionist American states that existed between 1 ...

personnel stationed at Ashwood Hall by warning them that Northern forces were coming their way. As a result, she became known as a "Southern heroine." It burned down in 1874.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ashwood Hall Houses in Maury County, Tennessee Plantation houses in Tennessee Houses completed in 1837 Leonidas Polk Buildings and structures demolished in 1874 Burned houses in the United States

Location

History

See also

References