Davies Plantation Homeowners Association

Davies Manor

Davies Manor the oldest log house in Shelby County

Available documentation indicates that Thomas Henderson of Madison County, Tennessee was granted Military Warrant #767 for 640 acres by the University of North Carolina in 1821. These records continue to appear through 1825. In 1830, he sold 320 acres to Emmanuel Young of Memphis, and he in turn, sold the land to Joel W. Royster of Virginia. He sold the land to his brother Stephen of Goochland County, Virginia in 1837.

Joel Royster purchased nearly 4,000 acres in this area between 1838 and 1854. Although Henderson probably built the one room cabin, Royster added the bedroom above it, an open "dog trot" abd the two-story east wing after he bought the tract in 1831. He lived here for a time with his family. thus began the evolution from "cabin" to "dog trot dwelling" to "pioneer home."

This area was unsettled wilderness and the house sat far back in the woods away from the main thoroughfare which was Stage Coach Road. Still thriving today as Stage Road or Highway 64, it was then a plank road from Raleigh, Tennessee to Nashville. Raleigh was the county seat, the stagecoaches the communications link, and folks would wait by the road for the stage to roll through, stopping to give them news.

Mr. Royster wanted to be where the action was, so he sold the property to the Davies brothers who have been in the area since 1838. The year was 1851 when Logan Early and James Baxter Davies purchased the log house and land. They were born in Maury County, Tennessee, the sons of William Early Davies and grandsons of Zachariah Davies, a Virginia Militiaman in the American Revolution.

Three generations of Davies farmed the land for over 100 years. When Logan's granddaughter Ellen inherited the property it was placed on the National Register of Historic Places, received Century Farm designation and she established a historic, non-profit organization to manage the property. At its zenith the plantation comprised over 2000 acres and produced cotton, corn, soybeans, fine cattle and hogs.

Today as restoration continues, the pioneer home is open from April through December, welcoming visitors. Friendly docents, including members of the National Society of Daughters of the American Revolution Chapter she founded honoring her ancestor Zachariah Davies, tour guests through the house, helping them envision how life must have been in the wilderness that was West Tennessee long ago.