The Wilson County Convention & Visitors Bureau is pleased to announce that the pioneer spirit of Wilson County will be recaptured by visitors at Founder's Day on Saturday, June 26, through bluegrass music, whole-hog roasts, tall tales, quilting, blacksmithing, weaving, a stump rally, Victorian dress, tin-type photography and greased watermelon races at Fiddler's Grove Historic Village.

Founder's Day will also be the grand re-opening of the Stringtown General Store, where everything from corn cob jelly to scuppernog cider can be tasted at Fiddler's Grove inside the 1872 mercantile. Besides pork barbecue plates, there will also be hot dogs, cookies and lemonade for sale. Admission will be free from 10 a.m. until 4 p.m. to Fiddler's Grove, which is now in its 19th year of operation at the James E. Ward Agricultural Center which includes the Wilson County Fairgrounds. Cakes will also be auctioned to raise money for its preservation.

"My grandfather and my daddy came in the early 1900s from Granville in a horse and wagon to Lebanon with all the belongings they had," said resident Jimmy Crawford, who will discuss hand-weaving at Founder's Day on an antique loom. "Many of my relatives were employed at the Lebanon Woolen Mills, including my two grandmothers, my father for about 38 years, my mother for a short while, my son for around three months and me for 40 years."

Ladies and gentlemen can enter the "Best-Dressed Victorians" competition for prizes at Founder's Day, along with young boys and girls. Tin-type-looking portraits will be made in the village, which will also have croquet matches, horseshoe pitching, sack races and other games. The Fiddler's Grove Blacksmith Association will be making "courting candleholders," which fathers would light in the Victorian Era so that male suitors romancing their eligible daughters would know to go home after the wax burned down in the front parlors.

An "Old-Time Political Stump Rally" will be waged at Founder's Day, just months before Tennessee's new governor is elected. From atop fallen logs and tree stumps, Wilson County native James C. "Lean Jimmy" Jones debated incumbent Gov. James K. Polk around Lebanon. For the state's highest office, Jones upset Polk in 1841 and 1843 to become a two-time governor of Tennessee.

Visitors can also see two historic landmarks of prominent Americans - Sam Houston's Law Office and W.E. Du Bois' one-room Wheeler School - which were relocated to Fiddler's Grove. Houston was the only man to ever serve as governor of two U.S. states - Tennessee and Texas - but he started as an attorney in 1818 in Lebanon where he rented this original log cabin for $1 per month for a year and a half on the city's Public Square. The founder of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), W.E. Du Bois was the first teacher in the 1860s at Wheeler School to educate African-Americans near Alexandria after the Civil War. During Founder's Day, chalkboard lessons can be heard inside the Wheeler School.

The title of Fiddler's Grove came from one of Wilson County's first settlers, Edward (Neddy) Jacobs, who often played the instrument at his cabin in Lebanon at the Town Spring. Since its dedication on April 17, 1991 with seven buildings, Fiddler's Grove has expanded to more than 50 structures in Lebanon, where the Wilson County Fair will also be held this August 13 through 21 at the James E. Ward Agricultural Center.

PHOTO BY BluegrassAnnie

Tennessee was the last to secede in 1861 and the first to rejoin the Union in 1865 during the War Between the States. Nearing that 150th anniversary next year, Wilson County is inviting visitors to get to know its legacies and landmarks from a nation divided on the Tennessee Civil War Trail.

"I got so involved in the history of the Civil War because my family was over the years. My grandmother told me many stories about it when I was just a boy," said Jack Cato, one of 78 members who belong to the Sons of Confederate Veterans General Robert H. Hatton Camp 723, which meets monthly at his offices in Wilson County. "My great-grandfather, Sergeant William Cato, fought with Confederate General Hatton in the 7th Tennessee Infantry Regiment on the Square in Lebanon, and my great-uncle Joe Cato ran away at the age of 16 to join the 4th Tennessee Calvary in Nashville."

Wilson County officially enlisted in the Civil War on May 20, 1861, when 600 volunteers in six Rebel companies began marching with the 7th Tennessee Infantry Regiment under Confederate General Robert E. Lee of Virginia. A number of men from Wilson County also pledged their allegiance to the Union, where they fell in step with the Yankee troops.

Within the year, the Battle of Lebanon was fiercely waged on May 5, 1862 on the Square. Union General Ebenezer Dumont made a surprise attack with his unit on Confederate Colonel John Hunt Morgan, who fled while many of his men were killed and interred at Cedar Grove Cemetery. Seven months later, Morgan led 2,000 of the Union troops he captured on Dec. 7, 1862 in Hartsville through the Square in Lebanon as they headed for Murfreesboro.

The Sesquicentennial of the Civil War will begin in 2011 in the U.S. Four permanent markers now stand on the Tennessee Civil War Trail which leads through Wilson County:

• The Square, where Confederate General Robert H. Hatton's statue is also located
• Seawell Hill (at the site of the former Castle Heights Military Academy), where Confederate General Joseph Wheeler camped with his soldiers during their raid in Middle Tennessee
• West Main Street, at General Hatton's former residence
• Cedar Grove Cemetery, where General Hatton, Robert Caruthers, the only elected Confederate governor of Tennessee, and James Barry, the last surviving Confederate War veteran in Tennessee, are buried along with 150 other Confederates

Martin Frost of Lebanon has been interpreting the life of Confederate General Robert H. Hatton for about 12 years. He makes appearances on the Candlelight Walking Tour of Historic Cedar Grove Cemetery which will be held this November around Veterans Day, and occasionally at Fiddlers Grove during special events at the Wilson County Fairgrounds.

"When I was asked to portray General Hatton, I grew a beard and got fitted for the uniform so I could take on the role," explained Frost, whose great-great grandfathers were both in the Confederate Army. "I usually tell how General Hatton originally came to Lebanon to attend Cumberland University as a junior and graduated two years later. He stayed in Wilson County, where he practiced law and was elected as a U.S. Representative."

Wilson County also recalls the sacrifices of its forefathers through the United Daughters of the Confederacy (UDC) Robert H. Hatton 329, which has 18 members. Like the Sons of the Confederate Veterans, the UDC gathers monthly with its hostess Ruth Cato - who is Jack's wife - around their library of Civil War books. Preservation projects are undertaken by both organizations in the community during the year.

The Civil War Trails of Tennessee, Virginia, North Carolina, Maryland and West Virginia have been identified by the National Trust for Historic Preservation as among the most successful and sustainable heritage tourism programs in America. For more information, visit www.civilwartrails.org.

A world-renowned institution for nearly 85 years, Lebanon's Castle Heights Military Academy (CHMA) closed its doors due to a lack of enrollment in 1986. In the years that followed, many of the school's once grand buildings began to fall into disrepair.

By the early 1990s, the former CHMA campus had become almost unrecognizable - several buildings stood vacant, untouched for nearly a decade, and others had been razed completely due to severe damage.

Thankfully, however, interest in the historic campus slowly began to swell around 1992 when it was divvied up and sold for development - a move that would see its restoration rather than its demise.

Lebanon-based THW Insurance Services was among the first to purchase and restore a former CHMA facility, an architectural rarity that had once housed the Rutherford Parks Library.

"It's the only building like it in the country," THW Partner Brownie Hall said of the old library, which is built in the shape of a Greek cross. " ... One reason we bought it was because we all liked it, of course, and we just hated to see it torn down."

There was much work to be done when it came to restoring the old library, and the project ultimately took about six months from start to finish. The facility had no running water, no electricity, and it was still heated by an old boiler-pipe system that was used during CHMA's heyday.

"Castle Heights closed in 1986, so it sat here for a pretty good while," THW Partner Rick Thorne noted. "There were lots of old pictures here, and we saved as many as we could and made a collage that still hangs in the office."

Not only did the building lack modern amenities, it was also not easily accessible. At the time, only a narrow, one-lane road leading to the former administration building (now home to the City of Lebanon's municipal offices) existed on the property.

"We were in here for months before there was even a road," Hall recalled. "For a while there, we didn't have an address - that made it difficult to even get a phone number. But eventually, as others began to locate nearby, the road was improved. Our address became 702 Cadet Court."

Following and even before the renovation to THW's new offices was completed, the business was frequently visited by CHMA alumni. It's a tradition that continues to this day. A scan of THW's visitor log includes guests from as far away as Utah, Hawaii and even Mexico.

"We have people who stop in, people who were just out on the interstate traveling. It's especially busy during the summer," THW Office Manager Robin Moore noted.

Immediately upon entering THW's offices, former CHMA cadets are no doubt transported back to their time at the school. The building's foyer is decorated with Castle Heights uniforms, varsity jackets, pennants and other memorabilia.

The insurance company's efforts to preserve many of the former library's architectural elements are also greeted fondly by CHMA alums. Most notable among those elements is a large, multi-colored, stained-glass ceiling.

"When people come in to visit, their first reaction is 'Wow!'" Moore smiled.

For THW's efforts in renovating the building, the Lebanon/Wilson County Chamber of Commerce Beautification Committee awarded the Cedar Tree Award to THW Insurance in 1993. At around the same time, the team at THW worked closely with Middle Tennessee State University to see that the building was added to the National Register of Historic Places.

And, Thorne noted, the Castle Heights location has helped provide THW Insurance - which also maintains offices in Wilson Bank & Trust on West Main Street - with a reputation that expands far beyond Lebanon's borders.

"This is one of the best locations in town, business-wise," Thorne said. " ... Early on, Brownie (Hall) and I traveled quite a bit. We could go literally anywhere in the South and, if you were in a group of 50 people, and you said our offices were at Castle Heights then at least one person - maybe more - would know exactly where you were talking about."

THW Insurance Services offers business, health, life, home, auto and long-term-care insurance, as well as protection against identity theft and more. For more information about THW, visit their website at www.thwins.com or call 615-443-3849.

By BRIAN HARVILLE ( This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it )

Virtual Mayor, HobNobWilson.com