Old Elam House/ East Lothian: One of Two "Lothians"
- Jay Brothers
- Dec 13, 2024
- 2 min read
Was located Tchulahoma Rd. and Christine Rd. Memphis, TN
Circa 1845. Large, white frame 2 story Greek Revival home.
John Wooldridge Elam (1812-1886) and Mary Elizabeth Thweatt Elam (1816-1888) erected East Lothian. They were first cousins and wed in 1835. They first migrated from Virginia to Alabama with two of her brothers; then they continued on to the Memphis area by 1844. The home was named for their home county in Firth of Forth, Scotland. The property was likely north of the branch of Old Tchulahom Rd. where the Memphis airport expanded and reached south to the Mississippi state line. They settled on 325 acres which was later expanded. Because of border disputes, parts of the family land were in Mississippi until the MS/TN border was confirmed about 1850. The other brothers founded West Lothian and South Lothian.
Their oldest son Thomas E. S. Elam died in 1851.Another son, Emmett Eugene Elam (1842-1908) married Sarah “Sally” Hilderbrand Elam (1841-1881) in 1866, and because of the marriage, he inherited East Lothian. When the Civil War erupted, he was attending the University of the South, Sewanee; he returned home. He had another plantation in Crittendon Co., AR. His second wife was a neighbor, Frances Maria Davis Elam, who he married in 1882, and she lived for a decade more.
John's brother was Edward S. Elam whose home is/was on Fox St. (North Lothian - originally about 445 acres) - just north of John's land. John's children farmed their shares of the family plantation.
Expansion of the Memphis Airport and residential neighborhoods took much of the former Elam property. Oakhaven and Kensington Garden developments showed the extent of the former family lands. Family members kept parts of the property until about 1967. The dilapidated house burned down about 1970. Mt. Olive Church - God in Christ was built basically on the former home's site. See Elam Homestead (North Lothian)
Sources:
Comments