This essay is a brief history of Rattle and Snap Plantation in Mt. Pleasant, TN. Describes owners (past and present) and other information on the house.

Essay by shattered_dreams04High School, 12th gradeA+, October 2003

download word file, 6 pages 3.0

The history of Rattle and Snap dates back to just after the Revolutionary War. Back then, the U.S. Government did not have the money to pay its soldiers, so they issued land grants. One of those soldiers was Lt. Colonel William Polk. William was very good friends with the Governor of North Carolina, the governor was his brother-in-law.

One day, William and the governor got involved in a gambling game. The governor was losing very badly, and in order to clear his debts, he threw one of those land grants into the pot. The game they were playing was called beans, similar to dice or craps of today. They would take large numbered beans, rattle them in their hands, and throw them to the ground with a snap of their fingers. With that one snap, William Polk won 5,648 acres of prime Maury County.

Now William had no use for the land.

He had already built his home up in Spring Hill. That home was called Will's Grove. It later became Hayne's Haven and today we know it as the Saturn Corporation.

William decided to split the land among his four sons. The first son to move here was Lucius, and he built Hamilton Place. The second son to move here was Leonidas, and he built Ashwood Hall. The third son was Rufus and he built across the road a home called Westbrook. The fourth and final son to move here was the youngest son, George Washington Polk.

George decided he wanted to build a finer, grander home than anything his brothers had built so far. George married Sallie Hilliard from Nashville and they built a little 10-room, what they called the cottage, on the back of the property. That's where they lived while construction was underway.

Their home was...