Blog no. 54

Samuel Brown Lee was born on November 15, 1798, in Salisbury, Litchfield County, Connecticut, to Capt. Samuel Lee Esq. and Elizabeth Brown. He had 8 siblings, and their names were William Henry Lee, Hannah Moore (Lee) Sterling, Elizabeth Ann “Eliza” (Lee) Ticknor, Charles Alfred Lee, Daniel Lee, Moses Allen Lee, Mary (Lee) Ticknor, and Judah Alden Lee. 

At the age of seventeen, in 1816, Samuel settled in Williamson County, TN, on what is now the Duplex Community in Spring Hill, TN, and built a log cabin at the junction of Rutherford and Mud Creeks. He served as a clerk in Spring Hill, TN for some time and eventually moved to Memphis, TN, where he found the love of manufacturing iron. By the time the year 1830 had arrived, Samuel was back in Williamson County, TN and had started the process of building his forever home on the same property as before, which he called Maplewood Farm. Maplewood Farm, which was salvaged by Samuel’s son, John after the Civil War, still stands at 3085 Duplex Road in Spring Hill, Williamson County, Tennessee.

On November 2, 1837, in Charlotte, Dickson County, TN, Samuel married Susan Amanda Napier. They had 6 children. Their names were Mary Lee, Elizabeth Lee, Samuel Brown Lee Jr., John Wills Napier Lee, Charles Alfred Lee, and Florence Amanda (Lee) Farrell. While being a leading farmer in Williamson County, TN, and owning a larger plantation with productive acres and valuable livestock, Samuel was about to lose the love of his life. His wife, Susan, died two years after their last child’s birth. Samuel raised his children thereafter with the help of a woman, whom they called Mammy Ann. His son, John, would later become the owner of a then famous racehorse named Duplex, the namesake of the Duplex Community and Road that runs through Spring Hill, Williamson and Maury Counties, Tennessee. 

When the civil war started, instead of siding with his northern birth state, he sided with the confederacy. It is said that his belief was to fight for where he lived, the southern state of Tennessee. Two of his sons, Samuel Jr. and John both enlisted into the war, but after the war ended, came home to a ruined plantation. The livestock had been driven off, the fences burned, the house had been used as a hospital and badly abused, the slaves were gone, and worst of all, their father died almost immediately after their return.

Sadly, on June 8, 1865, in Spring Hill, Williamson County, Tennessee, Samuel died. He was buried in the Lee Family Cemetery, which is located near where their home once stood in the Duplex Community of Spring Hill, Williamson County, TN. After his death, Samuel Jr. and John were left the task of settling down and trying to forget the horrors the war brought to his family. 

Most all this information was taken from the book, Historic Williamson County, Old Homes and Sites.