A King Slept Here? DiD You Know
If the walls of this house could talk…
How many times have you driven down Highway 25 towards Nashville and wondered who lives in the last house on the right before the Trousdale County line? You know, the one with red brick and logs? I always found myself staring at the home every time I passed it on my way to Hartsville, Gallatin or Rivergate. But I soon forgot about it. Well, if for no other reason than to satisfy my own curiosity, I have finally taken time to get the answers to these questions. While getting the answers, I have gotten to meet the person who lives in the last house on the right before the Trousdale County line. Her name is Faith Young. Faith moved into the home after marrying Billy “Boo” Young, whose family had owned the house for many years. Faith was born and raised in Coral Gables, Florida. But, she has also lived in New York, Atlanta and even spent time in France. When she lived in New York, she worked at Benton & Bowles Advertising and at Doubleday Publishing. While there she helped collate pages of one of the prize winning novels of the day. She also worked at CBS as Walter Cronkite’s personal assistant. She was smack dab in the middle of some of the major news stories of the day including the first space flights. And, she also got to help Cronkite with his fan letters and the many invitations he received to various events.
Later, she moved to Nashville and began working at Vanderbilt University. While working there, she met one of Billy’s cousins who suggested the two meet. “She told me he was single and living in this house alone. I’ll never forget the day we drove out here. When we pulled into the driveway, Billy was standing on the front porch in front of the wall covered with animal hides. I thought, how interesting. Then he took us on a tour of the farm in a 1954 military jeep. I also recall the 50 lovely Hereford cattle stopped their grazing to stare at us! I was enchanted with it all,”
Faith said.
“One of the first things Billy told me was that he was never going to leave the country. I told him that living in the country was just fine with me. I thought country life was great, as I’d spent many summers at my grandfather’s farm in northeast Georgia.”
The couple hit it off from the very start. They were married in April 1969 at the home of Judge Webb Allen, one of Billy’s many cousins. When the couple knocked on the door, Allen answered it and commented on the pinstriped jacket he was wearing saying, “I would have liked to have had time to change out of my gardening jacket!”
Let me back up a little bit and tell you the history of the house and property, from the very beginning. Have you ever wondered how Dixon Springs got its name? Is there really a spring there? If you knew the house was called Dixona, did you ever wonder why? Well, here are the answers.
Tilman Dixon (born in 1750) built the home. The construction began in 1788 and lasted for two years. Dixon was a major in the Revolutionary War and, for his service, the government granted him 3,840 acres. The home consisted of six rooms — the ones that are in the middle as you look at the house from the highway. So there you go! Everything comes from this man’s last name! And, yes, there really is a spring in Dixon Springs. That’s one of the many reasons the community was so popular. Folks came here to gather water from the spring.
The Dixon family owned Dixona until Tilman’s death. That’s when Colonel James Vaughn purchased it. He served in the Mexican War. Vaughn added the brick wings in 1858.
Dixona is reported to be the oldest house in Middle Tennessee. In the early days, it served as a courthouse and a tavern. And, this is an awesome fact, when it was first built it was located in the state of North Carolina. Since it was on a main road connecting Nashville to Knoxville, some famous people spent the
night here… including the man who later became the King of France, Louis Philippe, and Tennessee governors William Blount and John Sevier. The rope bed in one of the upstairs bedrooms is very much like the one the young Louis would have slept when he stayed here.
A graveyard is located behind the house. Dixon and his wife are buried there, along with Col. Vaughn, members of his family and their helpers.
In 1919, Billy’s paternal grandfather, Judge Sam Young, purchased Dixona. He did not buy it for himself, but for his son, William Martin, who would eventually pass it along to Billy. Judge Young felt strongly about the preservation of the house and the acreage. Until the mid 1940s, neighbors and families who tended the farm lived in the home.
Billy’s father, Willima Martin, died of pneumonia when Billy was just four years old. So he and his mother, Agnes Garrett Young, Billy’s paternal grandparents. Their home is now the Historic Inn of Dixon Springs.
Billy graduated from Smith County High School and spent two years at UT-Knoxville before obtaining a law degree from Cumberland University and serving a term in the state legislature. He was a bomber pilot and a fighter pilot during WWII and was a prisoner of war in Germany after parachuting from his burning plane.
After returning from the war, Billy moved into the home and, in the early 1950s, he began restoring it. “Lots of people had lived in the home over those years. Several of the rooms had just been storage areas. Canned goods had burst. Plaster was falling from the walls and ceilings. It needed a lot of work. Billy added the bathrooms, both upstairs and downstairs, and a two story log building in the rear to accommodate the kitchen, ” Faith said.
Not long after Faith moved in, she asked a friend of hers from Gallatin to help her coordinate the antiques she and Billy had inherited from their families. “We went shopping in New York at some of the places I use to frequent when I lived there. Just looking for things to add to what we already had in the house. Then, later, my friend vanished. He just wandered off on his own for about four hours. But he came back with one very nice rug!” Faith commented.
The house is like a museum — there is so much to see. It consists of 14 rooms and the top floor mirrors the bottom. It covers about 5,000 square feet and, let me tell you, every inch is decorated. There are three sets of stairs, two inside and one outside. Why the need for the one outside? There is a good reason… you have to go outside to enter the two bedrooms that make up the left wing of the house. Wonder why Col. Vaughn did that. Oh well!
Billy loved to show off the house, so he always jumped at the chance to have folks over. He started inviting people over for his famous deer steak suppers. In addition to the meat, Billy and the men would cook chili and hominy over the fireplace. Faith told me sometimes the women would want to pitch in and Billy always graciously allowed them to do some of the work.
Those deer steak dinners were a huge success for many years. Any time a school, church, historic preservation group or tourists wanted to visit Dixona, Billy welcomed them like family.
Billy “Boo” passed away in 2005 and Dixona remains as he envisioned — a working farm with cattle, horses, dogs, donkeys, chickens and a cat. Faith can’t imagine living anywhere else and she is continuing what Billy started so many years ago — opening the doors to those who want to see the oldest home in Middle Tennessee. “Just like Billy, I welcome anybody who wants to visit and learn about the home’s history. I love sharing my wonderful home! It is truly a treasure for us all to enjoy!”
But please, call first, it is a working farm you know!
V isions of Smith County
Tressa Bush writer
This bed is like the one the future King of France, Louis Philippe, slept in at Dixona.
Faith Young
