Davies Manor

Davies Manor. Survivor of War. , Davies Manor provides a stunning example of wartime survival. Located just north of the stage route between Memphis and Nashville, the house and surrounding plantation were visited by soldiers from both sides during the Civil War., When the war began, brothers Logan E. Davies and James B. Davies jointly operated the plantation. Their slaves grew cotton, corn, and wheat and raised livestock. James Davies joined the 38th Tennessee Infantry in 1862. He fought at Perryville, Lookout Mountain, and Atlanta, among other engagements. Younger brother Henry Newton Davies also joined the Confederate army and died at the Battle of Nashville., Logan Davies, his wife, Frances Anna Vaughn Davies, and their slaves maintained the plantation throughout the war. According to family tradition, Frances Davies confronted a Union officer who tried to take her horse and other livestock during a foraging expedition in 1863. When the officer refused to give her horse back, she is said to have cut the horse free and told the officer, "I have my horse. You go." Frances Davies gave birth to two children during the war and died in 1865., After the war, James Davies rejoined his brother in running the plantation, which included 1,237 acres by 1894. The trauma that James Davies associated with his battlefront experiences influenced his two sons to become physicians.,

Joel W. Royster constructed Davies Manor after he acquired the land in 1831. He sold the property to the Davies brothers in 1851. The house, which may be the earliest dwelling in Shelby County, was listed in the National Register of Historic Places in 1975. Ellen Davies Rodgers deeded it to the Davies Manor Association the next year.

, Captions: , (left) Foragers returning to camp after a successful expedition. , Frank Leslie's Illustrated Newspaper, Nov. 23, 1862 , (right) Davies Manor, 1974 photo , Courtesy Library of Congress