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| Oaklands, Rutherford County’s most notable home |
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By: MIKE WEST, Managing Editor
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Posted: Sunday, June 21, 2009 7:34 am
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Oaklands, hidden away downtown, remains Murfreesboro’s most historic home with construction begining in 1815.
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Try to visualize the 1860s, when the busy little town of Murfreesborough had less than 4,000 residents.
A total of 1,671 of them were white and 1,190 were black and for the most part ... slaves.
Little Murfreesborough, remained important chiefly by location. After all, it occupied the exact center of long, but thin Tennessee and had served as state capital from 1818 until 1826.
During that period, the Maney family played an important role in the community with life focused on a huge farm on property originally owned by Murfreesboro’s namesake Hardy Murfree.
Oaklands began as a two-room brick house built between 1815 and 1820 by Dr. James Maney (1790-1872) and his wife, Sally Hardy Murfree Maney (1793-1857). Dr. Maney was one of the first physicians to settle in the Murfreesboro area.
The Maneys added to the house, twice, once in the 1820s and again in the 1830s.
Following Sally’s death, Dr. Maney turned operations of the home over to his eldest son, Lewis M. Maney, and his wife, Rachel Adeline Cannon, who was the daughter of former Tennessee Gov. Newton Cannon.
Newton Cannon was a leader of Tennessee’s powerful Whig Party and that legacy was continued through his daughter and son-in-law.
Lewis and Adeline added the front façade in the Italianate style by 1860, making Oaklands one of the most elegant homes in Middle Tennessee.
The addition, designed by prominent local architect Richard Sanders, included a library and a front parlor separated by a hallway on the first floor. At the rear of the front hall, the Maneys installed a spiral staircase that led to two upstairs guest bedrooms, one above the front parlor and one above the library.
But setting Oaklands apart was the verandah featuring arches and columns. This elaborate “porch” was to give the house a distinctive landmark.
But it was the Civil War that earned Oaklands its lasting fame. The home was the scene of a battle and a visit by the president of the Confederacy.
On July 13, 1862, Confederate cavalrymen under Nathan Bedford Forrest surprised and defeated Federal forces camped on the front grounds of Oaklands as part of a raid on Union-occupied Murfreesboro.
The Maney family, in particular the children, watched the fighting from the window of the second floor hallway. Union Col. William W. Duffield of the 9th Michigan Infantry Regiment was seriously wounded in the engagement, and taken into the house for treatment.
Duffield had only arrived in Murfreesboro the previous day. In command of the 9th Michigan, Duffield was twice wounded during the attack and captured. He was exchanged on Aug. 27, 1862 and was to remain a close friend of the Maneys.
A few months later (December 1862), Confederate President Jefferson Davis visited the Maneys’ home where he dined in the parlor with Gen. Braxton Bragg and most of his general staff. Later that same month, Murfreesboro was abandoned by the Confederate Army of Tennessee, which retreated to the Tullahoma area.
During the house’s heyday, the Maney family hosted many notable visitors. In addition to Jefferson Davis, who stayed at Oaklands during his Dec. 12-14, 1862 visit to Murfreesboro, other visitors included John Bell (who ran against Abraham Lincoln and Stephen Douglas in the 1860 Presidential election), Sarah Childress Polk (the wife of President James K. Polk), naval officer and oceanographer Matthew Fontaine Maury (cousin of Rachel Adeline), Confederate Gen. Braxton Bragg, Major Gen. Leonidas Polk, Brig. Gen. George Maney, commander of the 1st Tennessee Infantry Regiment, C.S.A. and cousin of the Oaklands Maneys.
The Civil War ultimately resulted in the downfall of the neutral Maney family. Lewis and Rachel Adeline lost two of their eight children to illness in 1863. Abolition of slavery on the Maney’s plantations (one in Tennessee and two in Mississippi) killed their principal source of income.
In 1872, Maney filed a claim against the federal government in the amount of $27,012 for property damage and losses incurred at Oaklands during the war. The claim was ultimately rejected by the federal government.
Ten years later, Lewis died, leaving his wife to contend with the family’s debt. She sold off chunks of property one of which became Maney Avenue. Another was the land that became Evergreen Cemetery.
The house and 200 hundred acres were eventually sold in 1884 to cover the Maney’s debts and was purchased by Elizabeth Swoope of Memphis. It was later inherited by her brother, Leonidas Hayley, and then, following his death, by Mrs. Swoope’s daughter, Tempe Swoope Darrow. Mrs. Darrow and her husband, George, modernized the home adding electricity and plumbing.
When the Darrows moved to their new home on East Main Street, R.B. and Jennie Roberts purchased the house in 1912. Oaklands remained in the Roberts family until 1936 when they sold it to the Jetton family. The Jettons owned the home until 1957. A few years before then, Rebecca Jetton found the house too large to maintain alone and moved to a local hotel.
When the city’s plans to demolish Oaklands as part of an urban renewal project became known, a group of concerned local women mobilized to save the mansion and formed the Oaklands Association in 1959. The city agreed to give the house and small surrounding area to the association for the purpose of establishing a museum. The house was opened to the public in 1962.
The National Register of Historic Places listed the property on February 26, 1970.
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