The Shackleford-Adams-Folds-Marshall House

The Shackleford-Adams-Folds-Marshall House. . James Shackleford (1779 VA - 1839 AL) and his wife Martha "Patsy" Brodnax Shackleford (1784 VA - 1825 AL), original Putnam Co. landowners in 1807, built this National Register house in, 1818 on 23 acres then outside the city limits, purchased from Dr. Henry Branham on July 16, 1818. The Plain Style home with refined Federal interiors was advertised for sale in Milledgeville's Georgia Journal on Nov. 1, 1819 "with 4 acres, only 200 steps from Eatonton Academy and well calculated as a private seat." Shackleford gave the land for Old Union Church (built 1819, razed 1897) located directly in front of this house facing south. He gave the land for Church Street "to the public forever," and sold to Henley Varner on Dec. 9, 1819, who a month earlier married Martha Caroline Napier. The Shacklefords and 10 children moved to Perry and Greene (now Hale) Cos., AL. Varner lost it at sheriff's sale to Thomas Cooper, father of Georgia's "Iron Man," Mark Anthony Cooper, and Emily Cooper who married Joel Branham who owned it by 1823. The Branhams sold on Dec. 2, 1830 to Dr. John J. Boswell, moved to Columbus and back by 1857. Col. William Ellis Adams (1785 NC - 1873 Eatonton) owned it from 1856 and his estate sold on Mar. 31, 1883, after the death of his second wife, Martha Russell Adams, to his dau.-in-law Martha D. Flournoy Adams. Col. Adams and John Trippe were known as the Fathers of Eatonton Methodist Church. Col. Adams and Trippe are ancestors of hundreds of Putnam's families. Mrs. Adams sole in 1889 to Elizabeth Shy who sold to Sam A. Rice in 1890, who sold to Sarah Ellen Hammond Adams (Mrs. Irby Hudson Adams) in 1894. Mrs. Ada Boone bought from their son John L. Adams in 1919 and her estate sold to Mr. and Mrs. W.D. Folds on Oct. 25, 1927. Their daughter, Dorothy E. Williams sold to James P. Marshall, Jr., on Oct. 19, 1978, who completed the restoration in Dec. 1986.