Text Box: THE SIMMONS-WEDDINGTON HOUSEby Joy Q. Gallagherwith memories by Harry K. Boswelland a detailed house description by Waring McCrady, Ph.D.SIMMONS-WEDDINGTON HOUSE ca.1960sThe Simmons-Weddington house, located between Winchester and Belvidere, Tennessee, has survived for more than 175 years and is one of only a handful of houses its age still standing in Franklin County. The lane leading to the house is on the right side of Mingo Road 2.2 miles west of its exit from David Crockett Parkway. The house sits atop a rise on the farm overlooking a wet-weather branch on the right. The more recently built barn is to the left of the house. Behind the house and farm buildings is the William Simmons family cemetery, now known as the Donaldson-Simmons Cemetery.The house has been named for two of its early owners William and Susan Mayberry Simmons and their daughter and son-in-law Clementine Simmons and John Palmer Weddington. William Simmons was born November 2, 1778 in Bedford County, Virginia, the son of George and Elizabeth Simmons. After William and Susan were married on August 14, 1804 in Bedford County, they came to Tennessee, arriving in Franklin County between 1810 and 1811. William and Susan’s daughter Clementine was born January 3, 1820 and married John Palmer Weddington on October 26, 1837 in Franklin County.John Palmer Weddington was born May 11, 1817 in Rowan County, North Carolina, the son of Eli Bradshaw Weddington and Margaret Palmer. John P. moved to Tennessee with his parents and grandparents, John Bowlby Palmer and Sarah Rich, arriving in Franklin County between 1818 and 1820.An 1898 title abstract for this 248-acre farm where the Simmons-Weddington house is located shows it was originally part of a 720-acre Tennessee land grant made in the name of Enoch Ward who died in 1785. In 1808 the Ward heirs appointed William Polk their agent to survey and obtain title to their Tennessee lands. Polk sold the 248 acre tract to W. P. Anderson, an early surveyor, in 1818 in exchange for locating and obtaining grants for 3,000 acres for the Wards. In 1824 Anderson, along with M. L. Dixon and Benjamin Decherd, sold 275 acres of the original 720 acres to George Vanzant for $1,868. In 1827 Vanzant sold 248 acres of the 275 acres to Wilson Gillespie, George Gillespie, and Richard Moore for $2,400. In 1829 the Gillespies and Moore sold the same 248-acre tract to J. H. Bradford and Jonathan Spyker for $1,600. In 1830 Bradford, Spyker, and M. L. Gillespie sold the same tract to Granville Lipscomb for $1,630.George Vanzant had moved to Franklin County between 1815 and 1817 from Botetourt County, Virginia. On September 15, 1826, Vanzant, a Methodist minister, deeded about one acre of land to Thomas Kennerly, Henry Fancy, Robert Frame, John Frame, and William Simmons, trustees of the Methodist Episcopal Church, for the erection of a place of worship near the place or tract of land where Vanzant lived. After selling 248 acres of his farm in 1827, Vanzant and his wife and children moved to Giles County and a few years later to Wayne County.Granville Lipscomb had moved to Franklin County in 1826 from Louisa County, Virginia. The 1830 Franklin County census shows Granville and William Simmons living next to each other in the area known as Mingo, which is southwest of Winchester and between Owl Hollow and Belvidere. The Eli B. Weddington family is shown living in the area of Walnut Grove, southwest of Belvidere. In 1834 William Simmons purchased from Granville Lipscomb this 248-acre farm for $2,000.The exact date of construction of the story-and-a-half brick house with basement on the property is not known. During Granville Lipscomb’s ownership, his son David, who founded the Nashville Bible School, which is now known as Lipscomb University, was born in 1831. No documentation has been found proving this house was David’s birthplace, however, some researchers claim it is. The Simmons family cemetery on the property, with no previous owners’ family members buried in it, would indicate the house was probably built no earlier than 1825.William and Susan Mayberry Simmons were the parents of one son and seven daughters. The son George (1809 - 1866) married Mary Ann Fancy and lived across and down the road in a stately brick house later known as the Will Rippel home. According to estate records, William and Susan’s daughters were: 1) Polly Ann (ca. 1805 – before 1860) wife of George Hudspeth 2) Elizabeth (1812 – 1877) wife of Edward (Ned) Morris, Sr. 3) Susan (ca. 1814 – 1855) wife of Milton McQueen 4) Lucinda (1816 – 1847) wife of George M. Hockersmith, Sr. 5) Tranquilla (1818-1883) wife of Richard W. Featherston 6) Clementine (1820 – 1889) wife of John Palmer Weddington 7) Louvina (1822 – 1888) wife of John Hawkins Duncan, Sr.In 1854 Simmons, having retired from farming, sold his 248-acre tract plus an additional 112 ½ acres to his daughter Clementine Weddington for $5,000. Simmons stipulated the deed be made solely to his daughter because his son-in-law tended to mortgage what he owned. The deed described the property as being the “Poplar Grove Tract” and included an exception for a one-fourth acre “...graveyard lying at the point of the hill in the orchard where there is now some graves....” William’s wife Susan Mayberry Simmons had died in March 1853 and was buried in the cemetery. William married Susan Stokes later that year in October and moved from the farm to a retirement home he purchased in Decherd.With the assistance of a slave foreman named Joseph Weddington given to her by her father, Clementine supervised and managed the farm operation and paid her father with the proceeds she made from the farm. John P. Weddington’s grandfather John Bowlby Palmer had willed Joseph to John P. in 1825. Joseph had lived with John P. and Clementine all of their married life until John P. ran up his debts and was being pursued by his creditors. He then traded Joseph to William Simmons to keep the creditors from taking Joseph from him.Before purchasing this property in 1854, John P. and Clementine had lived between Alto and Gum Creek in 1840 and near the present-day Moore County line in 1850. The brick house on this farm, however, had a special meaning to the family because the children had lived in it during most of their early years and it had been Clementine’s family home from the time she was fourteen. While living here, in addition to farming, John P. was an auctioneer and served Franklin County as a Justice of the Peace, Commissioner of the Poor House, and County Coroner.Clementine and John P. were the parents of thirteen children, ten of whom lived to adulthood. According to the Weddington family Bible published in 1849, the children were: 1) William Eli Weddington (1838 - 1881) 2) George Simmons Weddington (1840 - 1917) 3) Mary Eliza Weddington (1841 - 1918) wife of John Snoddy 4) John Phillips Weddington (1843 - died young) 5) Andrew Landez Weddington (1845 - died young) 6) Louis Goldsby Weddington (1847 - 1925) 7) Frances Ann Weddington (1849 - 1921) wife of Archie B. Garner 8) James Preston Weddington (1851 - 1922) 9) Thomas Wells Weddington (1853 - 1923)10) Susan Mayberry Weddington (1855 - 1916) wife of John Wesley Young11) Isaac Gray Weddington (1858 - 1927)12) John A. Weddington (1861 - died young)13) Rufus Clay Weddington (1864 - 1927)