Above, Henry Sims in the restored bedroom of the Wilkinson-Martin-Sims home. Henry was born in the bed in the foreground. Below, the South Room of the house.
The grand house was encircled by acres of golden undulating hills and lazily grazing animals framed by towering forests blazing in autumn colors. The shining metal roof could be seen from the courthouse cupola. Its owner, F.H. Wilkinson, was later to assist in building the fourth Giles County Courthouse. When Francis H. Wilkinson built his home with slave labor, in the early 1830’s, Andrew Jackson was president of the United States. For the next 179 years this white house on the hill witnessed the election of 43 presidents, and 24 states added to the Union. It withstood numerous traumatic events during the Civil War, having been strategically located on a main north-south highway from southern Alabama to northern Michigan. Through remarkable changes in the South and in America, the white house on the hill has sat sturdily on the west side of U.S. Route 31, which traverses 1280 miles from the Gulf of Mexico to Lake Michigan. It greeted southerners migrating north to Nashville, Louisville, Indianapolis into Ben Harbor, Michigan, and northerners relocating, vacationing or going back home to Birmingham, Montgomery and Mobile, Alabama. Francis and Angeline Wilkinson were the parents of six children, three boys and three girls, of which two daughters, Josephine McNairy and Mary Martin survived into adulthood. Upon his death on July 17, 1875, Francis willed the house and 140 acres of land, valued at $2,975, to Mary. Mary was married to David S. Martin, a mayor of Pulaski, who died March 3, 1887. Mary lived to celebrate the incoming 20th Century, and remained in the house until her death on June 3, 1908. She willed the property to Willie McNairy Martin, and upon Willie’s death, to her children. One of Willie’s children, David E. Martin, was deeded the home and surrounding land on December 29, 1922. David married Martha Abernathy late in life and they had no children. They lived in the house until David’s death, March 6, 1966. Martha remained alone in the house until she sold the property to their next door neighbors, Henry and Martha Sims. The house had belonged to the Wilkinson-Martin family for more than 135 years. The story takes a colorful turn After graduating from Tennessee A.&I. State College in 1945, Henry H. Sims came to Pulaski from Humboldt to teach Industrial Arts and coach at segregated Bridgeforth High School. He roomed and boarded with Mrs. Addie Boyd who lived next to the school and across the highway from David Martin’s home. Henry admired the beautiful antebellum house and particularly the hill it rested upon, as the land in west Tennessee was flat and he had grown up in a small house on a truck farm. Upon inquiring about who owned the stately home and expansive rolling land, he was told by Mrs. Boyd, “That’s white folk’s property. Don’t you ever dare think about it!” David Martin’s brother, Dr. W.W. Martin, a dentist, built a small house 100 yards north of David’s house for his son, Edward, who didn’t return to Pulaski after graduating from dental school. Dr. Martin sold the house to Owen Daniel, who sold the property to Henry and Martha Sims in 1957. David, who had been a member of the Ku Klux Klan in 1919 (we possess his original manifesto), was not happy when these “colored’ people became his next door neighbors. He built a chain link fence between the properties, “To keep the cows off of your yard,” he told Henry, who inquired why a fence had suddenly become necessary after he moved next door. At first, David was non-communicative, though he was never openly hostile. Late one night David became ill and fell out of bed. His wife was unable to get him up, so she called her nearest neighbors, the Sims, to help them. Henry and Martha jumped out of bed, quickly dressed and drove down the highway and up the hill to the Martin’s house and entered the back door. Henry picked David off the floor and put him back into bed, while Mrs. Martin called Dr. Speer to come to the house to treat David.