Thomas Hardin Perkins House/ Meeting of the Waters located at 3200 Del Rio Pike north of Franklin was started about 1800 and completed in 1809.
It is a 2 story brick home in Federal style built for Col. Thomas Hardin Perkins (1757-1838) and Mary Magdalen O’Neal Perkins (1763-1835). Thomas received an extensive land grant of 12,000 acres for service as a colonel in the American Revolutionary War. The land stretched along the Harpeth River and the Natchez Trace. After Thomas died, their daughter, Mary Hardin O’Neal Perkins (1794-1840) and her husband and cousin, Maj. Nicholas “Bigbee” Perkins (1779-1848), moved into Meeting of the Waters from their home, Montpier. They wed in 1808. The couple managed both plantations. “Bigbee” was an attorney, planter, involved in all levels of politics, and served as Territorial Register of Lands. He also recognized Aaron Burr in the Alabama wilderness in 1807 and assisted in Burr’s arrest for treason by the U.S. government. “Bigbee” left the Meeting of the Waters to his son, Nicholas Edwin Perkins (1821-1871).
Photo by Skye Marthaler
Nicholas E. married Martha Thomas Maury Perkins (1827-1897) in 1848. Martha’s grandfather was Abram Maury, founder of Franklin and owner of Treelawn farm. They owned and worked the property through the years of the Civil War. Their son, Edwin Maury Perkins (1851-1929), inherited the property. He and his wife, Caro Sidway Perkins (1871-1962), lived there. Their children owned Meeting of the Waters in 1982: Leighla (Mrs. Lester, Jr.) Carroll, Martha (Mrs. Perkins) Trousdale, and Carol (Mrs. Sam Jr.) Woolwine.
In 1989, Irene Weaver Jackson and Ridley Wills II bought it. Ridley is a former insurance executive (National Life and Accident Insurance Co. and son of the company’s founder) and now a local historian. Ridley’s grandparents, William R and Jessie Ely Wills owned Far Hills, and Irene’s relatives had owned Dunmore
They lived there nine years before selling the home and 18 acres to Joe Cashia and wife Angela Humphreys in 2006. Cashia is a retired healthcare executive (Renal Care Group, Vivere Health) and Humphreys is an attorney (Bass, Berry & Sims). In 2015, Meeting of the Waters was listed for sale. The house was given its name because of the nearby confluence of the Big Harpeth and the West Harpeth Rivers. It is considered “the queen” of Williamson County’s historic plantation homes. NRHP 1982 See also Dunmore, Far Hills, Montpier, River Grange
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