Franklin, Tenn., Fundraisers Talk About ‘Miracles’

By Gregory L. Wade
October 2005

FRANKLIN, Tenn. — Excitement is building for what some are terming a miracle — the raising of $5 million to purchase 112 acres of Franklin battle land now occupied by a golf course and country club.

Julian Bibb, co-chair of Franklin's Charge, a coalition of preservation and historical groups, says, "The fact we were able to get groups who have generally been in competition with each other so united is a miracle," said Bibb. "The second miracle is what the citizens and members of the various groups have been able to do since we launched the effort about a year ago.”

The group originally needed to raise $5 million to purchase the land from current Country Club of Franklin owner Roderick Heller. Heller, a descendent of the McGavocks who once owned the plantation, which now includes the golf course, purchased the land to protect it from new home construction. He offered the land to preservationists for $5 million if it could be raised by July 1 of this year.

Robert Hicks, Bibb and other leaders helped create Franklin's Charge and the city, under Mayor Tom Miller's leadership, voted to kick in $2.5 million if Franklin's Charge could match that amount. The aldermen unanimously voted the final authorization of funds in July.

"But we still have to continue to raise funds," Bibb says. While the money has been pledged, some of it is to be collected over a period of time. This means the group must borrow about $1.5 million to be paid back with the pledges. To cover the loan, at least six banks have stepped forward and are asking for no collateral other than the pledges. An additional $350,000 in anticipated interest payments must be raised.

Recently helping with the fundraising were singers Vince Gill and Amy Grant who performed at Franklin's Carnton Mansion. Their "concert" came almost exactly one year after they helped kick off the Franklin's Charge fundraising.

Coalition co-chair Hicks acknowledges that Franklin has been anything but a center of Civil War preservation, until now. Efforts to build national parks received virtually no local support in 1891 and again in 1925. "It is the great Southern defeat. And the community did not want to be synonymous with the death of the South," he says.

The Nov. 30, 1864, loss at Franklin effectively ended major opportunities for the Confederacy in the Western Theater. The Army of Tennessee never recovered from its losses there. And horror for Franklin's citizens didn't end with the November battle. Just a couple of weeks later fighting again took place around the town as the battered Army of Tennessee fled pursuing Union troops from the Battle of Nashville.

For decades the small town tried to put the war behind it. Only a few locations of battle significance survived the growth and development that spilled over from nearby Nashville. And the recent boom years have only made it worse.

The 2003 city election introduced a new mayor with a view that historical preservation is not only worthwhile but a catalyst to a major new industry, heritage tourism. Recently testifying before the U.S. Senate subcommittee on national parks, Mayor Miller said, "The community has been given a historic opportunity to take a step toward righting this wrong [site destruction] and reclaiming a significant piece of the battlefield."

Bibb says, "We are picking up new donations daily. We are about $140,000 short of the $2.5 million we need to raise [at presstime]." The efforts in Franklin are receiving national attention. The Civil War Preservation Trust gave $250,000 and featured the Franklin appeal in its Hallowed Ground magazine, asking its membership for additional contributions. The American Battlefield Protection Program is making a substantial commitment to the project and plans to conduct an archaeological survey and give other technical assistance.

Smaller but equally appreciated donations have come in from all over, "not just Franklin," says Hicks.

"We will close on the purchase Nov. 30. What a remarkable day that will be," says Bibb. Soon after that the land reclamation will begin and the current clubhouse will be converted into a battlefield museum.

Donations may be sent to Save the Franklin Battlefield, P.O. Box 851, Franklin, TN 37065-0851.