This excellent article has been contributed by Joy (Quandt) Gallagher, wife of Jimmy Donald Gallagher(16) descendant of Hannah Martha (Bowlby) Palmer(8).

Direct lineage: Jimmy Donald Gallagher(16), son of Elma Beatrice (Weddington) Gallagher(15), Wiley Morgan Weddington(14), John Morgan Weddington(13), Louis Goldsby Weddington(12), John Palmer Weddington(11), Margaret (Palmer) Weddington(10), John Bowlby Palmer(9), Hannah Martha (Bowlby) Palmer(8), John M. Bowlby(7), Thomas (6), Bryan (5), Richard (4), John (3), John (2), Richard(1)

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The Simmons-Weddington house, located between Winchester and Belvidere, Tennessee in Franklin County, has survived for more than 170 years. The lane leading to the house is on the right hand side of Mingo Road two and one-half miles north of its exit from David Crockett Highway. The house sits atop a rise on the farm overlooking a creek on the right. The more recently built barn is to the left of the house. Behind the barn is the William Simmons family cemetery now known as the Donaldson-Simmons Cemetery.

In 1834 William Simmons purchased from Granville Lipscomb 248 acres of the original Enoch Ward 750-acre land grant, west of Winchester and between Owl Hollow and Belvidere, for $2,000. The brick house on the property is believed to have been built between 1820 and 1830. His son George married Mary Ann Fancy and lived across and down the road in a stately brick house later known as the Will Rippel home. William Simmons’ daughters married into the Hudspeth, Hockersmith, Morris, McQueen, Featherston, Weddington, Duncan, and Garner families. In 1854 Simmons, having retired from farming, sold his 248-acre tract of land plus an additional 112 ½ acres to his daughter Clementine, wife of John Palmer 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 home 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. Most likely Palmer had brought Joseph to Franklin County from Rowan County, North Carolina. 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.

Clementine’s father died in 1860. In his will, he stated, “ ...It is also my will I be buried by the side of my first wife at my family burying ground and tombstone erected over our graves and one-fourth of an acre of ground enclosed for a family burying ground at the expense of my estate...” It is interesting that William Simmons’ tombstone is one of the few that has remained intact and upright in the Donaldson-Simmons Cemetery to the present.

Then the War Between the States commenced in 1861. During 1863, General Rosecrans’ army came through the farm in the summer and General Sherman’s army came through in the fall. The Federal soldiers, according to Clementine, took two mules, one mare, 100 hogs, 17 beef cattle, 15 sheep, 500 bushels of corn and 600 pounds of side bacon. Clementine stated she had to send her foreman twenty miles to Lincoln County to get more corn.

After the war, John P. and Clementine, like many Franklin Countians, were in financial trouble. After receiving all of her credits due from her father’s estate, Clementine was still $803.06, including interest, short of paying off the purchase price of her farm.

Clementine attempted to get the money by trying to prove she was a Union sympathizer in order to receive reimbursement from the government for the damages and losses she received during the war. Her petition was not convincing enough to prove her loyalty to the Union, so her claim was rejected. After all, two of her sons William Eli and George Simmons Weddington had served in the Confederate Army.

Clementine and John P. were the parents of thirteen children, ten of whom lived to adulthood. The children had lived most of their early years in the brick house on the farm so it had a special meaning to the family. It meant even more to Clementine, however, because it had been her family home from the time she was fourteen. John P. and Clementine lived in the house from 1854 until 1875.

The farm and house and the adjoining 112 ½-acre tract were placed in the hands of the Clerk and Master of Chancery Court and decreed to be sold to settle William Simmons’ estate. In 1871 the Poplar Grove Tract was sold at the courthouse door for the highest bid of $812.75 to lawyer and Confederate veteran Thomas Dean Gregory, administrator of William Simmons’ estate. Gregory was married to Clementine’s niece Mary Alice, daughter of George and Mary Fancy Simmons. In 1875 Clementine’s childhood friend and neighbor Isaac Gray, a well-to-do bachelor who had inherited the Graywood Plantation, paid off the remainder of the decree and raised the bid thus receiving title to the property and house.

Isaac had given a deposition in the early 1870s in an attempt to help Clementine receive reimbursement from the Southern Claims Commission for her losses during the war. In his deposition he stated he had know Clementine and her family forty years and had been on intimate terms with them for a great many years. One wonders if Clementine had an understanding with Isaac that if she could get the money, he would sell the place back to her.

Apparently she was unable to do this, for Gray sold the farm to his niece Avarilla Phillips, wife of Confederate veteran John Morris Donaldson, in 1876. The adjoining 112 ½-acre tract was sold by Clementine, with approval of the court, in 1874 for $500. Avarilla Donaldson owned the farm until she died in 1897. She was survived by a daughter Louise, wife of E.L. Gardiner, who, along with Avarilla’s husband, kept the farm until 1905.

Clementine’s foreman Joseph Weddington was freed after the war and bought an 87-acre farm, worked it for himself, and had it and his house paid for by 1872 . He and his wife Martha were still living in Franklin County in the 1900 census, his age given as 82 and hers as 70. Martha was living with their son Louis in 1920. She was a widow and her age was 90. According to the Franklin County, Tennessee Death Record Book in the County Court Clerk’s office, Martha Weddington died January 10, 1927 at age 115. Apparently her family was unsure of her birth date. Neither she nor Joseph have tombstones in Franklin County.

Owners since Avarilla Phillips Donaldson and husband John Morris Donaldson:

1) George W. Sanders–Franklin Co., TN Deed Book 28, pages 240-241, J.M. Donaldson and E.L. Gardiner and wife Louise Donaldson Gardiner to G.W. Sanders 253 acres in Civil District 2, executed July 31, 1905
2) Gordon W. Sanders and wife Alma–Franklin Co., TN Deed Book 92, pages 503-505, G.W. Sanders per will to Gordon Sanders and wife Alma 253 acres in Civil District 5, executed September 17, 1956
3) Lawrence Hopkins and wife Georgia Mae–Franklin Co., TN Deed Book 120, pages 394-396, Gordon Sanders and wife Alma to Lawrence Hopkins and wife Georgia Mae 253 acres in Civil District 2, executed August 29, 1967
4) Roy Hopkins–Franklin Co., TN Deed Book 180, page 45, Lawrence Hopkins and wife Georgia Mae to Roy Hopkins 253 acres in Civil District 2, executed February 9, 1970. Roy and his wife Christine are the current owners.

Simmons-Weddington Family History

William Simmons and his wife Susan Mayberry were married in 1804 in Bedford County, Virginia. They came to Franklin County, Tennessee between 1808 and 1810. Their daughter Clementine was born January 3, 1820 in Franklin County 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 Franklin County, Tennessee with his parents and grandparents John Bowlby Palmer and wife Sarah Rich between 1818 and 1820. In addition to farming, John P. was an auctioneer and served Franklin County as a Justice of the Peace, a commissioner of the Poor House, and county coroner. According to the family Bible published in 1849, John P. and Clementine were the parents of the following children:

 
1) William Eli Weddington
2) George Simmons Weddington
3) Mary Eliza Weddington wife of John Snoddy
4) John Phillips Weddington (died young)
5) Andrew Landez Weddington (died young)
6) Louis Goldsby Weddington
7) Frances Ann Weddington wife of Archie B. Garner
8) James Preston Weddington
9) Thomas Wells Weddington
10) Susan Mayberry Weddington wife of John Wesley Young
11) Isaac Gray Weddington
12) John A. Weddington (died young)
13) Rufus Clay Weddington

Clementine died January 1, 1889 in Franklin County. John Palmer Weddington died April 10, 1891 in Franklin County. They were buried in the William Simmons family cemetery on the farm where they had lived. In 2000, descendants restored the cemetery and tombstones.