Tennessee and the People We Met
Remember the People
By Sandra Scott
 Travel is more than going from place to place. It is about
meeting people with a passion for the places that we visit. Every trip is made
more memorable because of these special people and that was especially true on a
recent trip to Middle Tennessee.
“How did a Lincoln Museum end up in a Confederate state?” I
asked Carol Campbell, Program Director for the Lincoln Museum. She explained
that, “Lincoln never stepped foot in Tennessee but in a talk with Civil War
General Oliver Otis Howard, Lincoln pointed to the Cumberland Gap on a military
map and asked Howard, “Can’t you go through here to seize Knoxville?” Lincoln
knew the mountain people in that area were loyal to the Union and went on to
say, “General, if you come out of this horror and misery alive, I want you to do
something for those mountain people... I know them. If I live, I will do all
that I can to aid, and between us, perhaps we can do them justice they deserve.”
 Howard fulfilled his promise to President Lincoln and, in
1897, was instrumental in founding Lincoln Memorial University,
www.lmunet.edu, as a “living memorial” to Abraham Lincoln. He considered it
a reunion effort, a time to “put aside animosity and embrace America.” Through
the years the University collected Lincoln memorabilia that grew to become the
present museum with an amazing collection of Lincoln memorabilia and
photographs.
 What luck! During my visit to the Lincoln Museum they were
re-enacting a skirmish for control of the Cumberland Gap that featured “Meet the
Generals.” Learning about the people associated with a place puts a human face
on travel and permanently fixes the experience in one’s memory. General Robert
E. Lee, Stonewall Jackson, and General John C. Breckenridge – albeit through
re-enactors – were just a few of the generals who participated.
“Stonewall” Jackson, Robert E. Lee’s most trusted
lieutenant, explained, “I never liked the name “Stonewall” because it is not
what I am really like.” His heartrending story of the deaths of his mother,
sister, and daughter shattered his “Stonewall” image. Robert E. Lee
 discussed
his agonizing decision to lead the Confederate Army instead of the Northern
Army, “God knows I didn’t want this war – but I came from a long military
family. And, I am a Virginian.” Breckenridge’s tale was the “rest of the
story.” The former vice president sided with the Confederacy. When the war was
over, he was considered a traitor and fled the United States. After being
granted amnesty he returned to Lexington, Kentucky, and resumed his law
practice. “The country was mending. I was accepted back into the community with
no animosity.”
 After “Meet the Generals” and the skirmish, we toured the
museum where it was easy to catch the Tom Mackie’s passion for Lincoln as he led
us through the museum. Displays include those dealing with Lincoln’s election
and the fateful night at Ford’s Theater plus a reproduction of his boyhood home
and a wistful painting of Mary Todd as a young lady.
The person that impressed me the most during my visit to
Tennessee was JoAnn Weakley who, with her husband of 55 years, created the
historic settlement of Collinsville,
www.historiccollinsville.com, near Clarksville, Tennessee.
 The Weakley’s
love of preserving the past that began with collecting antiques grew to the
reconstruction of the entire village of Collinsville on the edge of their farm.
Historic Collinsville includes her husband’s ancestral log cabin, a one-room
schoolhouse, a church, and several other buildings all furnished as if the
occupants had just left. The settlement takes visitors from the earliest "first
home" to the expansive big house on the hill with separate kitchen, living and
sleeping areas. Each home and outbuilding has been painstakingly restored to its
original condition and furnished authentically.
 JoAnn Weakley, a former school teacher, explained, “We
wanted to establish a place where people of all ages could come and see how our
ancestors lived in the 1800s. There are many lessons and values we can learn
from them.” She believes in a hands-on approach allowing people to handle what
are in many cases priceless one-of-a-kind artifacts that includes an original
bear oil lamp and a 1700s baby tender rescued from the house of Sarah Hale who
wrote, “Mary Had a Little Lamb.”
Historic Collinsville newest exhibit, The Irby-Bumpus
Wildlife and Native American Center, features a collection of prehistoric Native
American artifacts and a sampling of the wonderful variety of animals that have
roamed the ancient forests in the Cumberland River Valley.
 Weakley worries, “What will happen when my husband and I
can no longer care for Collinsville?” Hopefully Collinsville will end up in the
hands of an entity that will preserve what the Weakleys have created for others
to enjoy.
In Leiper’s Fork, near Franklin, TN, we met unforgettable
Uncle Lester clad in his faded jean overalls, plaid shirt, and his silver
sequined shoes as he danced the evening away. Lucky was the lady who got to
dance the two-step with him! Leiper’s Fork is a picturesque village on the
National Register of Historic Places offering the quaintness of the past and the
convenience of the present where shopping includes antiques, fine art and
handmade long rifles.
Truly, it is the people more than the places that make
travel memorable. For more information on things to do, places to see, and
people to meet in Tennessee visit
www.tnvacation.com.
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