Donelson Mansion
Welcome to Donelson Mansion!
Olivia Wann, Attorney at Law, and founder of Modern Practice Solutions, LLC welcomes you to turn back the pages of time.
The small town of Dover receives many visitors and history enthusiasts who tour Fort Donelson, a national battlefield during the Civil War.
The Confederates built the fort to protect the Cumberland River against federal penetration of the Union forces. The Battle of Fort Donelson took place February 11 through 16, 1862.
http://www.civilwar.org/battlefields/fort-donelson.html
The historical home which now serves as our principal office for Modern Practice Solutions and for Olivia’s law practice was originally constructed by Albert Rougement who immigrated to Tennessee from France through Switzerland in 1845. Mr. Rougement purchased approximately 600 acres and built the plantation style home around 1846. The style home at that time was known as a “dog trot” which allowed a nice breezeway for the hot Summer nights in the South.
Mr. Rougement married the daughter of Jarrot Crisp, Rebecca Wells on November 1, 1847 and achieved his citizenship in 1855.
According to author, Tom C. McKenney, who wrote Jack Hinson’s One-Man War, A Civil War Sniper, “As the battle lines were drawn in the hills and hollows around Dover, farm homes were commandeered by Union forces for use as headquarters and hospitals. The dispossessed families in those homes crowded either into their own cellars, lofts, attics or barns, or they moved in with neighbors and relatives. Chief among these was the large plantation home of Albert Rougement, a Swiss immigrant; his wife, Rebecca; and their children. They were Jack Hinson’s nearest neighbors to the north. Their large home, a mansion by local standards and very similar to the Hinson home, was seized for use as a hospital. The Rougement home was situated in the meadow of Hinson Creek, a half-mile north of Bubbling Springs, on Dover Road. An abundant supply of clean, cold water was supplied by the same bubbling, underground stream that gave the Hinson home its name. In front of the house, there was a large pool of this clear, cold water and a large springhouse for homespun refrigeration. By the standards of the day, the place was ideal for a battlefield hospital, and it would see heavy use in the coming days that would leave its wooden floors deeply stained with blood-stains still visible today.”
According to George Wallace’s interview as published by Tom McKenney, neighbors reported that during the battle, wagon loads of amputated limbs were hauled away from the house at night so as not to demoralize the soldiers.
According to local historians, Jack Hinson murdered Mr. Rougement. The Rougement cemetery is located behind the property.
The tax records date back to 1909 at approximately the time when attorney S.C. Lewis purchased the property. The house changed hands several times until the Wallace family purchased the home in 1941. The house had no electricity or running water. The house stayed in the Wallace family for four generations until June 2012 when Kevin and Olivia Wann purchased the home from Mark Wallace to serve as an office building. The house is decorated in the Civil War era theme. Visitors may also enjoy the serenity garden in the back of the house.
We gathered this history about our building from local historians and authors. We welcome you to visit and enjoy this history.
