One of the oldest homes in the state of Tennessee, Wheatlands Plantation, located along Boyd’s Creek Highway, also has a history that lingers in the air. The current antebellum mansion has a checkered history that includes legends of mass indigenous graves from the 1780 Battle of Boyd’s Creek in the backyard, Civil War skirmishes, and blood-curdling tales of enslaved people. An estimated seventy African Americans, twenty-eight Native American Cherokee, and multiple generations of Chandler family members lie buried on the plantation grounds.
In 1791, a Revolutionary War soldier named Timothy Chandler bought the first of the 3,700 acres of land with a veteran’s grant from the new American government. The family later turned the estate into one of Sevier County’s largest and most profitable wheat plantations. In 1825, the original house burned to the ground when a lantern caught fire when the Chandler girls were upstairs teaching an enslaved girl how to read. Eight people lost their lives that night. Later that year, Timothy’s son John rebuilt a house with a nearby summer kitchen, barns, a distillery, a weaving barn, smokehouse, and storage sheds on the same spot as the earlier destroyed home.
When the Civil War brought blood, fear, and conflict, John Chandler, a crafty, pro-Confederate planter, quickly married a Unionist wife named Anne Wayland Erwin. John’s decision to leave his pro-Union wife in charge of the plantation ensured that the property survived although Union soldiers camped on the grounds and stayed in the mansion. When two Confederate soldiers attempted to murder the master with a Union-sympathizing wife, someone shot them down right inside the front door.
Today, the federal-style house, with its inner “coffin” door, charming brick structure, white shutters, wide front veranda, and neatly white-washed sign stands empty. The museum and ghost tours are closed now, although plans for expensive renovations changed multiple times. Legends continue to float over the plantation’s bloodstained ground. If you enter the property, stories say that you can still see faded bloodstains from a father who fell murdered by his son. If you spend time among the old trees that grow thickly around the antebellum house, you might hear shouts and thuds. Shadows, sounds, and objects moving add to the supernatural atmosphere. Visitors have also reported the spirits of enslaved children ducking in and out of the shadows, playing hide-and-seek with anyone who wants to play.
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