Oaklawn Plantation

This brick home was built in 1835 by Absalom Thompson, who named it Oaklawn.  In November 1864, Confederate General John Bell Hood established his command post at this home.  Hood slept here the night he "let the whole Yankee Army slip by him."  This action is still argued with some heat in Civil War Roundtables.  The next morning General Hood's pursuit of Union General John M. Schofield resulted in the bloody Battle of Franklin.  Oaklawn remained in the Thompson family until 1911.  In the early 1970's, country music legends Tammy Wynette and George Jones lived here.  The current owner is Ron Shuff.  Recently the movie "Daltry Calhoun" used Oaklawn as its film set.

The War Between the States also known as the Civil War placed this house as well as many around it in the history books.  It was here that General John Bell Hood on the night of November 29, 1864, slept while General John Schofield moved his Union Army up the Columbia Pike past the Confederates, two corps of the Army of Tennessee, encamped just to the east.  Hood had thought that he had the Union forces cut off from their supply train, but they quietly marched up the pike to the west.  Thus history was changed.  Late the next day just south of Franklin more men died and were wounded in a shorter time than in any other battle of that uncivil war.  That battle took place at Franklin and not at Spring Hill because Hood slept at Oaklawn.

John Bell Hood, the general from Texas, had his left arm shattered at Gettysburg and had lost his left leg at Chickamauga.  He had to be strapped to his horse in order to ride.  Critics should be charitable of Hood's failure at Spring Hill.  In those days, laudanum was the only relief the general had for his constant pain, and whether it was laudanum or alcohol, Hood was not able to act.  Nathan Bedford Forest was furious when he could not move his superior to learn what was happening.  That old song, "The Yellow Rose of Texas," had a new version sung afterward by the soldiers of the south:  "You may talk about your Beauregard, And sing of General Lee, But the gallant Hood of Texas, Played hell in Tennessee."

Colonel Absalom Thompson built his brick mansion in 18356 on a gentle rise which gives the house a setting of unparalleled beauty.  The ceilings are 16-feet high downstairs and 14-feet upstairs, the floors are of ash and poplar.  The house remained in the Thompson family until 1911, and many years of neglect followed.

In 1950, after many years of neglect and use as a hay barn, Allen and Susan Giddens Sloan of Columbia bought and restored the house and installed modern conveniences, bathrooms and electricity, for the first time.  After their children were grown, the Sloan's sold the property.  It became the home of country music legends, George Jones and Tammy Wynette.

After their tenure, the house was owned by Dr. John and Martha Smith, who reared their daughters there.  During this period, a frequent visitor was Dorothy Ritter, the widow of cowboy star, Tex Ritter, well known for his rendition of "Do Not Forsake Me Oh My Darling," the theme song of the movie "High Noon," which starred Gary Cooper and Grace Kelley.  Tex and Dorothy Ritter, who had moved to Nashville some years before, were the parents of the late John Ritter, who starred in the TV sitcom, "Three's Company."  Following in the celebrity associations, the house was recently used as a film set of a movie, "Daltry Calhoun."  It is now owned by Ron Shuff.