Historic Haunts of Sumner County, Tennessee

INTRODUCTION

Sumner County, Tennessee, exemplifies the spirit of the young, postcolonial America on many diverse and colorful levels.

The early 1700s saw long hunters brave the unknown wilds of the Cumberland Plateau to trap and hunt animals whose skins and furs made the hats and garments worn by the fashionable in burgeoning eastern American cities.

Later, men who had fought the British in the American Revolution came to this area of Tennessee (then part of North Carolina) on land grants, seeking success and adventure in what was then the Wild West.

Individuals who would become American icons, notably Andrew Jackson, a young circuit riding district attorney who once had an office on the Gallatin Public Square and owned a general store here; Sam Houston, who entered into a mysterious marriage with a local woman, the dissolution of which two weeks after the nuptials remains a mystery to this day; and Civil War cavalry legend John Hunt Morgan, all put their stamp on the personality of the region and the world.

These illustrious men and their families—and others like them, whose names are not legend but who established the foundation for a prosperous future—found a lush landscape, plenty of water and land whose mineral content gave their livestock particularly strong bones, just as the leisure pastime of the new nation, Thoroughbred breeding and horse racing, was in its infancy.

And thus began the fifty-plus years of the Tennessee gentleman horse farmer and horses that would make racing history. The lavish lifestyle of the racing world and the elegant architecture of Sumner County’s opulent horse farms would put the area on the map as the center of the American racing world and the epitome of the style and grace that became the southern way—until the Civil War ended it all.

There were no major battles in Sumner County—unless you count the private war civilians waged daily under the brutal occupation of a Union general who decided to make Sumner County an example for any other Rebels who would dare step out of line.

One young woman, Alice Williamson, wrote a diary of the times.

The first entry begins, It was a good day today in Gallatin; nobody was hanged.

Sumner County’s dramatic and fascinating history has given us some of the most interesting (and terrifying) hauntings one is likely to find anywhere: from the demonic to the merely mysterious, our captivating spirits have a story to tell for those who are brave enough to listen.

1

CRAGFONT

PORTAL TO THE PARANORMAL

The old baronial Cragfont…like a medieval castle on the Rhine or Mose… overlooking Bledsoe’s Creek, that famous stream that came pouring its crystal waters from the spurs of the Cumberland Mountains.

—John Hallum

"STAY OUT OF THERE"

The priest came at the request of an old friend and ex-parishioner. Traveling from Ohio to middle Tennessee to bless a house was a little outside of the duties of even the most dedicated priest, but his friend had been named to the board of directors of a home of distinct historical significance known as Cragfont that was being extensively renovated and would eventually be open to the public.

According to the priest’s friend, the house had always been a bit of a problem when vacant, as it had been a hangout spot for kids wanting to drink and party, vagrants and those who wanted to find out if it was—as had been reported for almost one hundred years—haunted. And, she revealed, the committee tasked with organizing the renovations had had a little trouble of their own: a psychic they had employed to investigate the house had reported, This place is loaded [with spirits], and they are unhappy you’re here.

It was 1981, and Lowell Fayna, present for both the psychic’s visit and the priest’s, had just been hired, along with his wife, Kim, to be the onsite caretaker of the property, living in the little house behind the main structure that would soon see its own share of paranormal activity. We had already had some trouble at the main house, said Fayna. Lights had been going off and on, impressions had been left on a just-made-up bed while no one was in the room. A broadax had been flung at me across a room, thrown by unseen hands. And a sulfur smell often permeated the three-story structure, said Fayna.

Enter the priest from Ohio, who, after coming into the home, immediately asked for a glass of water. Fayna, a Southern Baptist, thought he was thirsty and offered him a Coke instead. Not to drink, smiled the priest. To bless. Fayna complied.

The priest walked slowly and deliberately through the house, sprinkling each room with water, made recently holy by his own blessing. He took a few steps up the stairs that led to the ballroom and nursery but stopped, breathing hard. He completely lost his breath, recalled Fayna. We had to get one person on either side of him and help him outside.…He kept saying ‘I’m okay, I’m okay,’ but he was weak and pale.…When he had regained his breath, he told us, ‘Those things are demonic; you need to stay out of there as much as possible.’

Stay out? Stay out of a home recently acquired by the State of Tennessee in anticipation of it becoming a jewel in the crown of historic homes not just in the area but in the state and even the South? Stay out of a significant architectural structure with a rich and storied past that had absolutely nothing to do with anything paranormal or evil?

We had no choice but to carry on and deal with whatever we faced on our own, said Fayna. Maybe whatever it was would go away.

A MANSE ON THE WILD FRONTIER

When we think of the Wild West, we think of cowboys and Indians, California gold prospectors, tumbleweeds and gunfights.

But for a young America, the Revolutionary War brought freedom from the English. And never content with the status quo, Americans, who, at their core, are risk takers and prospectors for what they cannot see beyond the next horizon, wanted more. Having just taken on the most powerful army in the world—that of Great Britain—what was left but to strike out for parts unknown, and win them, too?

The Wild West in the late 1700s was the land west of the Allegheny Mountains, and the untamed expanse of Tennessee (part of North Carolina until 1796) was virgin territory just waiting to be explored and conquered.

Into this unexplored (at least by White men) unknown came men who would become legend: Andrew Jackson, Sam Houston, John Sevier, James Robertson and Cragfont’s own James Winchester. Many of these men had moved west on land grants given to them for their service to the colonies in their bid for autonomy.

Architect J. Frazer Smith, who visited Cragfont in the late 1930s and included it in his book White Pillars, A Survey of Southern Dwellings of the First Half of the 1800s, called the structure a typical glorified pioneer dwelling executed in native stone.…A visit to Cragfont is equivalent to reading a page from cultural and architectural history, for this fine old pioneer home illustrates the evolution of a natural plan of building on the frontier.

Architect J. Frazer Smith described the majestic hilltop Cragfont as typical of the period, as sturdily indigenous as the virgin timber and native stone that went into [its] construction… [portraying] frontier society at its height. Author’s collection.

Here, a man came from the old world of custom and refinement [and] adjusted himself to keep step with a backwoods settlement.…[This homestead was] typical of the period, as sturdily indigenous as the virgin timber and native stone that went into [its] construction…[portraying] frontier society at its height, wrote Smith.

A neighbor of the Winchesters, John Hallum, described the house in his memoirs Diary of An Old Lawyer, published in 1895 by Southwestern Publishing House, as the old baronial Cragfont…[towering] like a medieval castle on the Rhine or Mose…overlooking Bledsoe’s Creek, that famous stream that came pouring its crystal waters from the spurs of the Cumberland mountains.

Indeed, Cragfont’s builder and first occupant, James Winchester, was a Baltimore native of impeccable lineage. Born into an aristocratic family of English origins in Carroll County, Maryland, in 1752, Winchester distinguished himself in the Revolutionary War under Generals Washington and Greene and enthusiastically took advantage of the offer of a land grant in new territory, available to war veterans who had seen meritorious service and were willing to brave the perils of the wilderness to establish settlements beyond the Allegheny Mountains. To the victors belonged the spoils of an uncharted new world, and these intrepid individuals and their families left comfortable homes and established communities back east on an unparalleled adventure that is uniquely American in its scope and quest.

Such a journey involved entire families and all their worldly goods sailing on flatboats down the Tennessee River in East Tennessee and then up the Cumberland River. It was an arduous journey, involving battles with Natives who were hostile to westward expansion by White settlers, disease, harsh weather and treacherous waters. Some two hundred families preceding the Winchesters had followed just that route to establish Nashville some five years prior. The danger of the Native populations was not exaggerated: in 1785, most of the middle Tennessee White populations lived in forts, which were constantly under siege.

But not James Winchester.

By 1785, he had staked out his claim to a fine site on a creek a mile from Bledsoe’s Station, amid a native forest full of game and crossed by Indian trails. Within three years, he built a large mill, married a charming young lady of the county, and established a home, wrote Smith. The long drive up a dangerous and rocky lane from the highway to Cragfont is a fitting introduction to what is to come at the end of the drive. Situated at the very top of the craggy hill above Bledsoe’s Creek, the house looks down on the approaching visitor with all of the hauteur and dignity befitting the position of eminence occupied by its builder, Smith added.

Susan Black Winchester.

General James Winchester. Courtesy of the Tennessee State Library and Archives.

Smith described an enormous ballroom, probably the first in a private home in the state. There is a remarkable resemblance in the plan location of this ballroom to that of the Governor’s Palace in Williamsburg. Members of the old families in the Nashville section still recount stories of ladies and gentlemen dancing out through the doors of the ballroom on to the porches to seek romance in the soft light of a summer moon, while the strains of violins floated over the fragrant gardens. It is on these porches that, even today, guests at weddings and parties held on Cragfont grounds will see a petite, dark-haired woman in a long, blue gown, strolling up and down the galleried walkway, observing the crowd—a woman who disappears in a white mist if one gazes at her too long.

Winchester’s military acumen was invaluable to the early settlers [of Middle Tennessee], directing the scouts and spies and frequently pursuing the Indians in person, showing himself at all times a true and prudent officer, said Edward Albright in his Early History of Middle Tennessee.

Winchester would, again, distinguish himself as an officer in the War of 1812, where his friendship with Andrew Jackson solidified. In fact, militia troops from Middle Tennessee trained on the grounds of Cragfont.

During that war, Winchester received a general’s commission and was ordered to take command of one wing of the army of the northwest. At the unfortunate Battle of the River Raisin [in what is now Michigan], he was taken prisoner by the British and carried to Quebec, where he remained in captivity during the following winter, said Albright.

Illustrious visitors to an early Cragfont included future American legends such as Lafayette, Aaron Burr and Sam Houston, who would marry a local girl, Eliza Allen, only to be divorced two weeks later—one of the most notorious scandals of the times. This unfortunate and short liaison would result in Houston being burned in effigy on the county courthouse square in nearby Gallatin. He then resigned as the governor of Tennessee and fled to live with the Natives for several years prior to riding into Texas—and history.

Winchester founded the city of Memphis and was prominent in many phases of frontier life through a mercantile business and steamboat interests.

He died at his beloved home in 1826, but his wife