Named Plantations and Homes in Hamilton County, Tennessee

There weren’t too many big ante-bellum plantations in Hamilton County, only two, in fact, which could really be called plantations at all in acreage, value, and number of slaves.  Of these, neither left their name on the landscape.  However, there were a number of large farms (and two homes) which were also named and did leave their names to posterity.  Some of these have been written about previously on The Chattanoogan in separate articles, nearly all of these have been covered in the Chattanooga Times-Free Press and its predecessors, but to my knowledge never as a group under this theme.

These may not be all the homes and plantations with names in Hamilton County, and if any reader knows of more, please comment and/or email me.

Amnicola – Near the south bank of the Tennessee River, Chattanooga pioneer Thomas Crutchfield built the home he called Amnicola upon which to live and run his rather large farm.  From the South Chickamauga Creek in the east, the Crutchfield farm (later owned by the Montagues) ran west to Citico Creek, to face the farm of George Gardenhire across it.  The house itself stood halfway between the now homonymous highway and the Tennessee River on the line of Crutchfield Street.  Amnicola listed 28 slaves in 1860.

Altamede – This was the home of Judge Lewis Shepherd, Jr., eldest son of Col. Lewis Shepherd, Sr.  He named the mansion and 1000-acre after buying it from Dr. Joseph S. Gillespie in 1885.  The estate grew to contain over a thousand acres, two dairies, and extensive pasture and farm lands as well as poultry yards.  The mansion, originally built by Ker Boyce, Jr., stood on Shallow Ford Road inside what’s now Quintus Circle until it burned in 1898.

A new, more sumptuous mansion rose up on its foundation soon after, and Judge Shepherd and his wife, Lily, formerly Lily Pope, moved in; since the name Altamede does not appear in the papers until then, that may have been when that name was given.  Judge Shepherd died in 1917, and his wife Lily in 1925.  Their son Quintus, who had taken over management of the farm long before the judge’s death, built for he, his wife, and their children a new, much smaller, home on what’s now Jersey Pike and had the huge mansion demolished.  That home burned in 1940, with everyone escaping unscathed, and when they rebuilt, they returned to the original home site, only to see it burn down in 1955.

By this time, with none of his sons interested in taking over and himself too old to continue the farm, Quintus had sold off his holdings until only 175 acres were left, south of the Chapman Farm to Shallow Ford Road between Jersey Pike and Pope Road, which once ran north from the end of Broad Street (later Chickamauga Loop, now West Polymer Drive) in Chickamauga, Tennessee (Shepherd) to T-bone into Taylor Road, which once ran between Noah Reid Road and Jersey Pike.  The remaining land was sold to Ray Moss, owner of a large dairy on Bonny Oaks Drive near Kings Point, who the next year sold it to the county as an industrial park.  The Mars-Wrigley plant, Tranco, Wingard, Gestamp, Shallowford Business Park, and the car dealerships east of Highway 153 now occupy the space.

Belle Arbor – This was the spacious home of the chief manager of the H.L. Judd Factory, known as the Curtain Pole Factory, originally with twenty-one acres attached (later just eight) fronting on the left bank of Chickamauga River (South Chickamauga Creek) at the end of what was then Tenth Street of East Chattanooga (Middle Section) and is now Belle Arbor Avenue.

Belvoir – This area of Brainerd east of Sunnyside and west of the former Conner and Stockburger farms took its name from the 1870 home and large farm of Eli Crabtree, which still stands well to the north of Brainerd Rd. near the Hemphill neighborhood, or did until a few years ago.

Bonny Oaks – Not originally the name of a residential industrial school, the land once belonged to Col. Lewis Shepherd, Sr.  Col. Shepherd sold the land to his in-law, Col. Jarrett G. Dent, who built upon it a home modeled after Altamede.  After the Civil War, Dent sold the home and its lands to Capt. C.S. Peak, who willed it to the county for a residential industrial school in 1898.  In 1860, the Dent Farm had 22 slaves.

Canachee – This was the home and 1000-acre plantation of Dr. Joseph S. Gillespie northwest of Chickamauga Station and east of South Chickamauga Creek until 1885, when he sold it to Judge Lewis Shepherd, Jr.  The land had initially been owned by a consortium of four, but later came into the sole ownership of Chattanooga founder Ker Boyce, Sr., who gave it to his son, Ker Boyce, Jr.  The son built on it a sumptuous mansion, outhouses, slave quarters, and the most elaborate barn in the county, made of stone and built by Dan Hogan.  Ker Boyce, Jr. sold the mansion and farm to Gillespie in 1860, and it was he who named it.  Dr. Gillespie was mayor of Chattanooga 1844-1845.  The home, occupied by Judge Shepherd and his family until it burned to the ground in 1898, sat inside what is now Quintus Loop.

The Cedars – The mansion built by John Cowart, operator of Cowart's Ferry, the Swing Ferry attached to Chattanooga Island.  After his death, his wife, Cynthia Pack Cowart, daughter of Jasper, Tennessee icon Betsy Pack and grand-daughter of Cherokee leader John Lowery, continued to live there until her death.  Samuel J.A. Frazier, developer of Hill City along with Richard Colville, later lived there.  It burned in 1923.

Citico – This was the farm and estate of Chattanooga pioneer William Gardenhire, immediately east of the Reese Brabson farm and west of the Crutchfield farm Amnicola border at Citico Creek.  During the Middle (or High) Mississippian period, the most prominent town in the entire region was here, the signature 28’ high platform mound (120’ x 30’) of which stood until most of it was destroyed by the building of the Dixie Highway.  What little remains of the mound and townsite are protected by the Tennessee-American Water Co.  The land where the Citizens, Confederate, and Jewish cemeteries lie between UTC and CSAS was once part of Citico.

Cummings Cove – This wasn’t really the name of the home built by John Walter Cummings in Lookout Valley in 1862 for wife Rebecca Fryar, but, along with Cummings Bottoms, it was the moniker by which the land upon which it and the farm over which it reigned sat were and still are known.  The Cummings farm was one of the largest in Wauhatchie.  One of John and Rebecca’s six children was later County Judge Will Cummings.  The home was abandoned by the third quarter of the 20th century and was rumored to be haunted, drawing curious high school students from all over the county.  It caught fire and burned to the ground in 1979.  The home later built by Judge Will Cummings, however, fared better and still stands.

Eastside - The home and estate of Abraham M. Johnson at the foot of Lookout Mountain, before he changed its name to St. Elmo.

Elmwood – This was the home and lands of Tavner Martin (my own great-great-great-grandfather), whose manor stood in Lookout Valley less than a stone’s throw from the Georgia state line until about 2003, which were valued at $12,000 in 1860, a considerable sum for the time, and which included the presence of fourteen slaves.  He and his family also owned much of the adjoining land in Georgia.  The nearest family was the Tittles in Dade Co., and the two families were so intermarried (as much as the Stewarts and Murphys of Dade Co.) that their descendants now have a Tittle-Martin reunion every year.

Hickory Valley – Surrounded by Mary Dupree Circle once stood the stately manor constructed by Col. Lewis Shepherd, Sr. and finished in 1852.  It was modeled on the Diamond Hill home of noted Cherokee leader James Vann near Springplace, Georgia, who at the time he lived was the wealthiest man east of the Mississippi River.  At one time, the Shepherd plantation occupied nearly 6400 acres, reaching from the Tennessee River to the Chickamauga River (South Chickamauga Creek).  The family first arrived in 1832.  At the time of the Civil War, the Shepherd family had about 24 slaves.

Col. Shepherd died in 1856, and his widow, Margaret Donahoo Shepherd and sons lived there until 1869, when it was sold to Col. Shepherd’s son-in-law Jesse Roberson.  Later the house and most of the land were inherited by Mrs. B.N. Dupree, then her daughter Mrs. Mary K. Dupree.  In 1913, only 300 of the original 6400 acres remained attached to the Shepherd House, with 400 acres owned by J.N. McCutcheon, 800 by Mrs. John F. Conner, and thirty-two other owners, among which was the farm of 1600 acres by then known as Bonny Oaks.

From 1926 to the end of the 1950s, the mansion became the Frankstone Inn under the management of Frank Eichbaum, a high-class bed & breakfast and restaurant, still later a speakeasy, a house of assignation, and, reportedly, a bordello.  Its last resident, living there at the time the structure was condemned in 1977, was Arthur Dupree, a scion of the earlier Duprees.

Kalmia Cottage – This is the 19th century residence of J.H. Warner atop Lookout Mountain at the end of St. Elmo Turnpike, originally called St. Elmo, after the novel of the same name.  He sold the home in 1885 and the new owners rechristened it by this name.

Lyndhurst – Not the charitable foundation, but the early 20th century (around 1912) 30-room, 30,000 square-foot Riverview mansion built by Coca-Cola magnate John T. Lupton which was torn down in the early 1960’s.  It was named for the palacial home built in Tarrytown, New York, in 1838 for NYC mayor William Paulding and at one time occupied by railroad tycoon and robber baron Jay Gould.

Minnekahda – Another early 20th century Riverview mansion, built by John A. Patten in 1913, this home has been converted to condominiums and still stands.  Patten originally intended for the house to be the center of operations for a large working farm but died in 1916 before these ambitions could be realized.  Patten named his home after the Minikahda Country Club in Minneapolis, Minnesota.  (Information from John Shearer’s article for The Chattanoogan, “Minnekahda Condominium Was the John A. Patten Mansion”)

Narrowbridge – This was the large brick home built by George Henshall Sr. in the 1941 on the site of the former farm of pioneer Dr. Joseph Mackie, whose house had stood across the creek from where the new house was built.  Before Dr. Mackie, the large farm north of East Brainerd Road (formerly Bird’s Mill-Parker’s Gap Road) and east of Jenkins Road belonged to a Cherokee whose name was rendered as Braname.  The stickball court for the local Cherokee community of Opelika was also located on the site.  Henshall subdivided the land into plots for his children to build houses upon, his son George Jr. in 1963 building the structure he and his wife dubbed Long Ago, which now serves as the city’s Heritage Park as an art and civic center.

Oakland – Unquestionably and by far the largest plantation in ante-bellum Hamilton County, this plantation was owned by Daniel F. Cocke, who built his home which he called by the same name atop Clifton Hill, the knob the crest of which is circled by Clifton Terrace.  Oakland covered a huge swatch of Chattanooga Valley north of the state line, this plantation had 44 slaves living on it at the outbreak of the Civil War.  His more famous nephew was Col. Henry M. Ashby, C.O. of the 2nd Tennessee Cavalry, one of the most feared Confederate regular cavalry units of the War Between the States.  Almost directly across Chattanooga Creek lay the home and plantation of the George Gillespie family at what had been the home of Daniel Ross and is now Calvin Donelson School.  In 1860, Oakland listed 45 slaves.

St. Elmo – The home and estate of Abraham M. Johnson at the foot of Lookout Mountain, named after the novel which took place in the vicinity.  It was first the name of the Warner home atop the mountain until sold in 1885, upon which Johnson immediately bestowed the name upon his own home and the surrounding district, so naturally it became the name of the town that grew up and was incorporated there.

Sunnyside – This area of Brainerd east of Missionary Ridge and west of Belvoir took its name from the 19th century home and farm of Judge James B. Cooke, which occupied nearly all of the area upon which the neighborhood later stood.  The home stood in the southwest corner of the intersection of Bird’s Mill (Brainerd) and Dutchtown (Germantown) Roads.

Thankful Place – Mansion built by Abraham Johnson in St. Elmo suburb in 1887 to replace their summer cottage there and their home in Chattanooga.  It was named for his wife, Thankful Whiteside Johnson.

Toqua – In 1860, Col. John King, brother-in-law of Thomas Crutchfield, named his home and large farm for the small Cherokee village first built near the mouth of South Chickamauga Creek during the Chickamauga Wars and later rebuilt after those ended.  Of course, the earliest settlers after the Cherokee Removal were already calling it that, even hosting a post office by that name in the 1840s.  His lands extended east of the creek along the river and south to what is now Bonny Oaks Dr.  This included the land upon which Allen Bros. Real Estate Co. built what was planned to be the town of Kings Point, which still exists physically.

Vinegar Hill – Two brothers, John and Arthur Steel, moved into what is now the Brainerd Hills-Brainerd Heights-Wrinkletown area, the former Cherokee town of Chickamauga, on the heels of Cherokee Removal and established a farm there named after a famous battle site in their native Ireland during the Rising of the United Irishmen in 1798.  The name for the neighborhood lasted until John D. Gray built the Western & Atlantic Railroad through it and the name Ellis’ Crossing, originally referring to the crossing of the railway by Bird’s Mill (East Brainerd) Road, supplanted it.

West View – One of Hamilton County’s foremost pioneers, Samuel T. Igou, gave his name to many features around the county, including Igou’s Ferry, of which roads on both sides of the Tennessee River retain the name.  After the Cherokee Removal, Igou moved into the new lands of the Ocoee District, building a large home at the western mouth of the gap through Whiteoak Mountain called Igou Gap after him (just north of Parker’s Gap), overlooking his vast acreage in Rabbit Valley.  A group of Cumberland Presbyterians purchased land for a cemetery and church from him in 1854 and gave the name Westview to both in his honor.  After the Morris Hill School made its way east to a spot across the road from the church in the early 20th century, it became (and still is) Westview School.

Willwood – This home was built by Will Shepherd in 1928 on the corner of Shallow Ford and Shepherd Roads, presumably not immediately adjacent to his brother Quintus’ Altamede.  Although within Altamede Farm, the property was separate, with fifteen acres attached to it that included a lake.

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To be officially considered a “planter” in the antebellum (pre-Civil War) South, a person had to have landed property and at least 20 slaves.  Other than those noted above, antebellum planters in Hamilton County included:

Philemon Bird – In addition to two mills in Walker County, Georgia, and a large farm in McLemore Cove, Bird owned the former Brainerd Mission and had rebuilt the mill (then called Bird’s Mill) there to be much larger on his 750-acre farm.  In 1860, Bird listed 37 slaves.

James M. Dobbs – From his house along Rossville Road near the state-line, Dobbs presided over 150 acres of land and listed 27 slaves in 1860.  The area was later called Dobbs after him.

George L. Gillespie – Neighbor to Oakland and the Cocke family, Gillespie and his family occupied the former Daniel Ross two-story home at the site where Calvin Donaldson School now stands.  In 1860, he listed 21 slaves.

Elijah M. Hale – He owned a large farmstead in the neighborhood of Harrison and in 1860 listed 21 slaves.

Henry W. Massengale – Owner of two houses in the city, one inside the city limits and the other just south of it, Massengale also owned a 500-acre farm on the west side of South Chickamauga Creek in the vicinity of the ante-bellum village of Old Boyce that grew up around Boyce Station on the Western & Atlantic Railroad, where Harrison Turnpike forded the creek.  He donated land to Chickamauga Baptist Church for a new building in 1856 that stood across the turnpike from the station.  In 1860, Massengale listed 26 slaves.

Hasten Poe – Poe’s large farmstead lay in the land now called Daisy north of the river.  His tavern was the place in which the Hamilton County Court first met.  In 1860, he listed 21 slaves.