If Only These Walls Could Talk… You are walking in the footsteps of these famous men who all visited “The Pillars” here in Bolivar, TN in the 1800’s!
“The Pillars” (ca1826) was home to the politically and socially prominent Bills family. The Pillars served as a military headquarters and a hospital during the Civil War, while trying to stay neutral in a war- torn battlefront. Bolivar’s oldest brick home was once a small Federal style brick house built around 1826-28 by Robert Murray, who sold it to Catherine Lea, wife of Saturday Evening Post publisher John Lea of Philadelphia in 1828. A cousin of Lea, John Houston Bills, now a successful settler, purchased the house 1837. Over the next thirty years, Bills oversaw the expansion of the house in its present form and furnished it through buying trips to New York, Boston, and Philadelphia.
Famous Visitors to “The Pillars” include … Jefferson Davis was most known for his role as the first and only President of the Confederacy (C.S.A.) from 1861 – 1865. For many years, he was a resident of Memphis, TN – both before and after the war. Before joining the South during the Civil War, Jefferson Davis served in the U.S. House of Representatives in 1845-1846, was U.S. Secretary of War from 1853-1857 and serves as U.S. Senator from Mississippi from 1847-1851 and again from 1857-1861. Jefferson Davis (1808 - 1889)
Sam Houston was the 6th Governor of the state of Tennessee from 1827-1829. He was the key figure in Texas becoming part of the United States. He served as the 1st and 3rd President of the Republic of Texas (1836 - 1838) and (1841 – 1844). He became the 7th Governor of Texas in 1859 to 1861. In April 1836, he led the forces that overthrew Santa Anna, the Mexican leader who killed all the people at the Alamo. During the fighting, many of the Texan soldiers repeatedly cried "Remember the Alamo!" Houston, TX, the largest city in Texas is named after him.
Sam Houston (1793 - 1863)
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Davy Crockett was an American folk hero, frontiersman, soldier, and politician. He is commonly referred to in popular culture by the epithet "King of the Wild Frontier". He represented Tennessee in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1827 – 1831 and again from 1833 – 1835. Crockett served in the Texas Revolution and was killed at the Battle of the Alamo on March 6, 1836 at the age of 49.
Davy Crockett (1786 - 1836)
Nathan Bedford Forrest enlisted as a private in the Confederate Army and ultimately rose to the rank of Lt. General. He was an expert Calvary leader who was nicknamed “The Wizard of the Saddle”. During the Civil War, Forrest had 30 horses shot from under him and personally killed 31 men in hand-to-hand combat. “I was a horse ahead at the end,” he said. After the war, Forrest was a prominent figure in the foundation of the Ku Klux Klan, a group composed of mostly Confederate veterans committed to violent intimidation of blacks, northerners and republicans. He was “Grand Wizard” until he ordered the dissolution of the organization in 1869. He would later become a convert to Christianity and lived in Memphis, TN.
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Nathan Bedford Forrest (1821 - 1877)
Andrew Jackson was an American soldier and statesman from Tennessee who served as the 7th president of the United States from 1829 to 1837. Before being elected to the presidency, Jackson gained fame as a general in the United States Army and served in both houses of Congress – House of Representatives from 1796-1797 and the Senate from 1797-1798 and again from 1823-1825. As President in 1835, he paid off the entire national debt (the only President to ever do so). His picture is on our $20 bill! Andrew Jackson (1767 - 1845)
James K. Polk served as the 11th U.S. president from 1845 to 1849. Polk served in the U.S. Congress from 1825 to 1839 and was the 13th Speaker of the House of Representatives (the only one to later become President). During his tenure, America’s territory grew by more than one-third and extended across the continent for the first time. Before his presidency, Polk served in the Tennessee legislature and was the 9th governor of Tennessee from 1839 – 1841. Note: John H. Bills, owner of “The Pillars” was financial advisor to James K. Polk (who incidentally was his wife’s cousin).
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James K. Polk (1795 - 1849)
John C. Breckinridge became the 14th and youngest-ever Vice President of the United States, serving from 1857 to 1861. He served from Kentucky in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1851 – 1855 and then as a U.S. Senator in 1861 before joining the Confederacy. His military career included being a Major in the U.S. Army and later a Major General in the Confederate States Army from 1861 – 1865.
John C. Breckinridge
He served as the Secretary of War for the Confederate States of America in 1865. After the war, he fled with his family out of the country for three years before ultimately returning to Kentucky.
(1821 - 1875)
Leonidas Polk was a planter in Maury County, Tennessee, USA, and a second cousin of President James K. Polk. He was a bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Louisiana. He resigned his ecclesiastical position to become a major general in the Confederate army. He was known as the “Fighting Bishop”. Prior to his service in the Civil War, he helped establish the University of the South in Sewanee, TN. He was killed on June 14, 1864 during the Atlanta Campaign of the Civil War.
Leonidas Polk (1806 - 1864)
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James B. McPherson was a career United States Army officer (1853 – 1864) who served as a general in the Union Army during the Civil War. Magnolia Manor in Bolivar was used as a Headquarters for the Union Army by Generals’ Logan, McPherson, Sherman and Grant during the Civil war and it is believed where these four Generals planned the battle of Vicksburg. McPherson was killed in the Battle of Atlanta on July 22, 1864. He would become the 2nd highest ranking Union officer killed during the Civil War. Ulysses Grant said this in his “Personal Memoirs”, “In the death of McPherson, the army lost one of its ablest, purist and best generals”.
James B. McPherson (1828 - 1864)
Isham G. Harris was an American politician who served as the 16th Governor of Tennessee from 1857 to 1862, and as a U.S. Senator from 1877 until his death. He was the state's first governor from West Tennessee. As Governor of Tennessee, he was instrumental in Tennessee succeeding from the Union. Though he was fiercely loyal to the Confederacy during its brief existence in 1861 - 1865, he served in the U.S. Congress both before (1849 – 1853) and after (1877 – 1897) the Civil War.
Isham G. Harris (1818 - 1897)
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About John Houston Bills Born in Iredell County, North Carolina, John H. Bills was one of the founders of Bolivar, in Hardeman County, and a leader of the Tennessee Democratic Party in the nineteenth century. He came to the West Tennessee area in 1818 with members of the family of James K. Polk. In 1823 Bills married Prudence Polk McNeal, a cousin of the future president. Bills also began a cotton factoring company with her brother, Ezekiel McNeal, which they called Bills and McNeal, and acquired two plantations, one near Bolivar and the other in Mississippi. Bills was one of the first commissioners for (1800 - 1871) the new town of Bolivar in 1824, and with his brother-in-law, one of the leading industrialists and planters in West Tennessee. He purchased his home, known as “The Pillars,” in 1837, from a Philadelphia newspaperman, John Lea, and traveled throughout the eastern United States to furnish it in appropriate style. After his wife died in 1840, Bills continued making trips throughout the eastern U.S. and Europe. In 1849 Bills married a widow from Virginia, Lucy Anne Duke. Union troops burned the town of Bolivar on May 4,1864, destroying the business district, including Bills’ cotton plant. Bills, however, proclaimed himself neither Unionist nor secessionist, and thus protected his home and much of his wealth from military reprisals. He continued traveling, entertaining, and aiding in the rebuilding of his business and of Bolivar until his death at home in November 1871.
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Few Homes Can Claim This Much History “The Pillars” home still has most of the original family furniture and artwork which includes many firsts for West Tennessee and Hardeman County: • • • • • •
County’s first brick home County’s first home with a skylight County's first indoor bathroom County's first lending library Home with two kitchens Home with a chimney with a doorway built through it!
Few places in Tennessee you will ever visit offer this much history in one location. Bolivar, Tennessee has over 200 buildings and homes on the U.S. National Register of Historic Places. Visit our website here to learn more about our unique history: www.historicbolivartn.com The mansion is now a historic house museum administered by the local chapter of the Association for the Preservation of Tennessee Antiquities.
Hours: By appointment Location: 322 South Washington St., Bolivar, TN 38008 Phone: (731) 518-7148 Email: hardemancountyapta@gmail.com Website: https://sites.google.com/site/hardemancountytnapta/the -pillars
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