334 Franklin Rd. Franklin, TN
Circa 1800-1810. 2-story Federal style
The home was built between 1800-1810 on Hwy 31 about a mile north of Franklin. It seems to have only been a named home since the early 1940s with the Wyatt family ownership.
By 1826, Daniel Youngman, a tanner, and Dr. W.Y. Dickinson owned the property. Dickinson sold his rights to Youngman in 1833; then Youngman sold Wyatt Hall to William Hardeman in 1836. Hardeman was part of the Perkins clan who built several large homes in the area.
Photo from Zillow
In 1847 Hardeman sold the place to retired Methodist Bishop Joshua Soule (1781-1867), who was an important Methodist law interpreter. Soule became a Bishop, Methodist Episcopal Church, South in 1846. Bishop The Soule family owned a home in Nashville at first, but a few years later, they desired a more rural setting. The home had about fifty acres at that time. The bishop resided there with his wife, Sarah Jane Allen Soule (1782-1857) until 1852. They wed in 1803. Bishop Soule had the honor of having two educational institutions named in his honor: Soule University in Texas in 1856 and Soule College in Murfreesboro, TN. The Soules then moved to Gallatin with some land. [Years after Bishop Soule’s death, Bishop McIntyre had his body disinterred and moved to a burial on the Vanderbilt University campus - in addition to several other very prominent Methodist Episcopal Church, South priests.]
In 1852-1856, another Methodist minister, Rev. Dr. John Wesley Hanner (1818-1898), and Melvina C. Coleman Hanner (1820-?) owned Wyatt Hall next. Hanner’s first wife was Elizabeth Rachel Park Hanner (1814-1841).
In 1946, William Hubert Early Wyatt (1901-1972) and Margaret Early Wyatt (1903-2001) bought the home in 1946, and they restored the home about 1980. They married in 1927, and Margaret’s family, the Fall and the Early (John and Willie Evans Early) families, owned Pontotoc in East Nashville. Margaret was the great-granddaughter of Bishop John Early, the founder of Randolph-Macon College. At Pontotoc, the family owned and boarded high-quality harnes horses. Margaret became a horse riding master teacher in Maine and at Ward-Belmont College. In 1933, at the Tennessee State Fair, she she a world record for fastest mile heat in a race by a female driver. She was a well-known horse show judge in the Southeast. Margaret wrote "Nothing Happens By Chance" in 1992. William was a Kentucky native and former president of Red Kap Garment Co. He had a harness training stable and track in Kentucky since 1964 and was known across the country himself.
In 2006, John and Theresa Diffendal owned Wyatt Hall. The couple won a restoration award for their work on Wyatt Hall. He is a financial/ banking executive. Four years later, in 2010, Diffendal swapped the home with Fred and Betty J. Steltemeier who had lived on Legends Ridge Dr. The home sits on nearly 8.5 acres of land. The home name reflects the Wyatt family ownership. NRHP 1980 See Pontotoc
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