The Woodlands: The Stanton Home
Joseph Blackwell Stanton and his wife, Lucy Taylor, had one daughter named Grace who was born in South Carolina during the War of 1812. Grace was 22 years old in 1834 when she and her parents moved to their home in West Tennessee. Their magnificent three-story plantation house was called Woodlands. It was here that Grace met and married Nathan Adams, a handsome young Irishman who was referred to as a cotton factor and who would in later years be one of the nine founding directors of National Bank of Commerce.
By 1840, there were fifty-five slaves living on the Woodland property along with Joseph and Lucy Stanton and Grace and Nathan Adams. Four of the slaves were males with a trade. Although there is no record of their trade or talents, it was common for slaves to be trained for a skilled occupation such as a blacksmith, carpenter, tanner, wheelwright, weaver, etc. Some of the Stanton property was acquired through land grants while other Haywood County tracts were purchased for as little as $3.50 an acre. Woodlands had rich farm soil. And crops of corn, cotton and wheat were abundant on the large, self-sufficient plantation. Tax rolls show that there were several dependencies at Woodlands. In 1853, the 3,600-acre plantation was assessed at $27,000. This, however, was only a portion of the nearly 6,000 acres that Joseph Stanton owned in Tennessee and other states.
It was after his wife’s death in 1852 that Joseph Stanton insured the financial security of his only child by giving the Memphis and Ohio Railroad a right-of-way through the heart of his plantation. There were whispers of a $15,000 gift that finalized and cinched the deal. By 1855, the steam engine was puffing its way through the countryside. It didn’t take long for people to realize the benefits of living near this remarkable transportation. Lots were drawn off near the iron rails and the town of Stanton was established. According to Mrs. Henryette Stuart, the town was referred to as Stanton Depot in 1856 and A. J. Gibson was the first mayor. The letter head stationery Phillip Bourne used in 1894 still referred to the town as Stanton Depot.
Stanton Family Cemetery
Joseph Stanton and his wife, Lucy, both died before the Civil War. They were buried in the family cemetery behind their beautiful home. Nathan Adams, their son-in-law, later went to great expense to have Italian marble shipped and carted to the grounds of the Presbyterian Church. The marble was used to erect an elaborate mausoleum. This was to be the final resting-place of the Stanton and Adams family. However, Mr. & Mrs. Stanton were never moved from the family cemetery. Some said this was at the wish of their daughter, Grace.
And for some unknown reason—maybe
indecision about interring the bodies in a different location or possibly
uncertainties during and after the Civil War—monuments were never placed on the
graves of the wealthy couple who founded the town of Stanton. Today, Mr. and
Mrs. Joseph Blackwell Stanton still rest in unmarked graves while the mausoleum
stands with two of the four crypts empty.
Stanton Presbyterian Church - 1870
Another strange situation relates to the cistern that was on the roof of the plantation home. Stories were told suggesting that the cistern was built to prevent the disaster of a fire. Some referred to it as a swimming pool. It’s more probable that like a few other advanced homes of the time, water was piped from the holding tank for daily household needs. However, the cistern was useless when the three-story house burned sometime in 1879.
And what about the fire? With the passing of the years, the story is no longer clear. Which of the two versions is closer to the truth? Were there snakes around the cistern that prevented the Negro help from using the water? Or was it because of snakes that the cistern had not been filled? Or could there be a third reason? Maybe a lack of water because of a drought?
An interesting sidebar to this subject of water comes from the 1950’s discovery of a large section of a windmill. It was buried in a field about 300 feet behind the present house. Was the windmill used to pump water to the Woodlands home? Maybe this question along with others can be answered if the Stanton or Adams family papers can ever be located.
Grace and Nathan Adams had no children. They reared his nephew, James Knox Gibson, and a relative of Grace’s named Joseph H. Ware. After Grace died, Nathan Adams moved to Memphis. Joe Ware, the Stanton cousin raised by Grace and Nathan, was living in the house at the time. Nathan Adams was miles away when the raging fire destroyed the Woodlands home where he and Grace spent their married life. Mrs. Henryette Stuart said her father, who was riding home in a wagon, saw the fiery destruction of Woodlands.
The house was rebuilt soon after the fire, but on a much smaller scale. Tall ceilings, wide porches, Victorian windows and a five-room ell were features of this one-story home where the Stanton relations continued to live. (Although there is no proof, I think it is very likely that the lumber used in building this second home was milled at the sawmill owned by the Bourne family. If so, it is ironic that my grandmother, Eliza Isabella Bourne Beaty, should live in this house during most of her married life.)
For a short period of time the Wares, who inherited some of the property along with the farmhouse, rented the country home to Ernest Wright.
Eventually, Charlie Harris (no relation to L. E. Harris according to Mrs. Henryette Stuart) purchased the c. 1879 home and lived there until 1929 when it was sold to my grandfather, Frank Hill Beaty. For various reasons, my grandmother had the ell on the house torn away before the 50’s.
One feature that survived the fire was the mirror garden. Mr. Vaux, a landscape artist from Europe, had planned the elaborate gardens surrounding Woodlands. A brick walk, which is now covered with dirt and grass, extended from the road to the house.
Originally, the road went around the side yard to the right. The buggy would stop at the front walk for people to descend. The driver would then follow the road to the carriage house. (The Haywood County Court excused Joseph Stanton from paying a hefty $5 tax on his carriage in 1835—possibly because of his help in surveying roads and building bridges)
Through the years many of the flowers and plants were changed. Most of the big English boxwoods were sold to a Mississippi plantation owner before 1929. The yard still boasted a sprinkling of boxwoods plus magnolia, cedar, beauty bush, tree of heaven, crepe myrtle, spirea, quince, mulberry, fig and a gigantic fringe bush along with circular flower beds when my grandparents moved there with their two young daughters.
My mother and aunt are now co-owners of the property. They remember tall cedars and a path that led to the Stanton cemetery. The cedars always seemed to moan when the wind blew. They never liked to be near the cedar path after dark because there were lights that would appear unexpectedly and then move through the cemetery. No assurances of “it’s just foxfire” could ever induce them to investigate. Even in the daytime when walking in that direction, they always shied away from the lonesome stand of cedars.
The cedar grove was gone by the 50’s, but I can still remember watching those lights move on a summer night. Granddaddy Beaty told me that whenever he tried to find them, the lights just disappeared. Nannie Beaty didn’t like to talk about the Stanton Cemetery or the unexplained happenings.
In recent years, the cemetery has become a tangle of vinca, poison ivy and weeds. The yard of my childhood memories is much smaller and overgrown now that my grandparents are gone. The wonderful orchard and huge pecan trees have been cut and plowed under for crops.
The cemetery, surrounded by cotton fields, can be seen from the back porch of the old farm house. Tulip poplar, cedar and oaks shade the Ware graves. The trees also stand as the only markers that Joseph Stanton and his wife, Lucy, have ever had.
Joseph Blackwell Stanton: Founder of Stanton, Tennessee in Haywood County
1. Joseph Blackwell Stanton, b. 1778 in Fauquier Co., Virginia
d. 2/ 9, 1860 in Haywood County, TN
m. Lucy Taylor, b. 1788 in Georgia
They were living in South Carolina in 1812 when their daughter Grace was born. Joseph Stanton’s father was William Stanton, Jr. son of William, Sr. & Dianne Field Stanton of Culpepper County, Virginia.
2. William Stanton, Jr. born in 1752 married Lucy Blackwell on Sept. 24, 1773 in Fauquier Co., VA.
3. William Stanton, Sr. – born/christened in 1726 in Stafford Co., VA. Married in 1751 Diana or“Dinah” Field (b. circa 1731 in Culpepper Co) in same county. She was a daughter of Henry and Esther (James) Field. The families attended St. Mary’s Parish in Culpepper, VA. William died at age 37 in 1763 in VA. Diana died before 1812.
4. Thomas Stanton – born/christened in 1689 in Stafford Co., VA. Unable to determine who his parents were or if connected to the Connecticut Stantons. One record indicates that Thomas’s father was also named “Thomas Stanton” but no other known records have been located. Thomas married Sarah Robinson (b. 1693 in VA) about 1714. They had a total of 9 children. They divorced after 1729. Sarah died in 1745 in King George Co., VA. Thomas may have died in 1741, based on a will signed by Thomas Stanton, but could also be his son, Thomas, Jr. (b. 1717) Another son, Leonard, also died in 1741.
The following information was obtained from Mrs. Stuart:
Lucy Blackwell b. 1749 was the daughter of Col. John Blackwell and Lucy Steptoe. Her grandparents were Samuel Blackwell, 1680-1732 married to Margery Downing(Widow Hudnall) of Northumberland County, Virginia & John Steptoe & Elizabeth Eustace Steptoe of Lancaster County, Virginia