Type ‘230 Franklin Road’ into the GPS, Waze, or your favorite mapping app and you’ll eventually find your way to The Factory at Franklin, greeted, as always, by our brick red water tower. For the last ninety-five years, this monument to Franklin’s industrial legacy has welcomed visitors and locals alike to our small town, but how did we come to call this stretch of Franklin Road home? Well, that’s all thanks to a sprawling family tree and the ingenuity of one Virginia Brown McEwen Cannon, known fondly to her friends and family as Jennie.
Prior to Allen Manufacturing Company’s arrival in 1929, the land The Factory sits on, like most in our area, consisted of fertile farmland. This particular tract was the subject of an 1882 court case between James and Sarah Hodge that ended with 258 acres of land being deeded to Jennie B. Cannon. The deed came with one minor stipulation: should Jennie survive her husband, Newton Cannon, she could only convey the land to their children.
For the next forty-odd years, this condition meant little in the day-to-day lives of the Cannons. A well-connected family, Jennie, the great granddaughter of David McEwen (who was among the first to put down roots here in 1798), and Newt, the grandson of Newton Cannon (Tennessee’s 8th Governor), welcomed a total of eight children to the world between 1874 and 1891. Their grandson, Henry, would go on to marry Sarah Cannon nèe Colley, perhaps better known by her stage name, Minnie Pearl.
Opry connections aside, back in the 1920s, the matter of that plot of land just north of the city finally came back around. Newt had passed in January of 1925, and by 1927, none of their four surviving children (Cynthia, Newt Jr., Sam, and Perkins), expressed interest in taking over the 258 acres that their family had owned for four decades. Jennie, faced with the challenge of managing this expansive acreage in her seventies while hampered by the conditions of the deed, eventually came up with a solution.
On February 25th, 1927, Jennie and her son, Newt Jr., made their way down Jackson Highway (which had recently been incorporated into the US Highway system and would later come to be known as Franklin Road) with one goal in mind. For “One Dollar and the love and affection I have and bear for my son Newton Cannon Jr.,” Jennie sold the plot to her son. Immediately after, and directly below this entry in the deed book, Newton and his wife Jane deeded the land back to Jennie for the same amount, this time free and clear of any restriction.
Two years later, Jennie’s clever legal footwork paid off. Nashville-based Allen Manufacturing Company had recently scouted the area looking for somewhere to build a new plant to produce their world-famous furnaces and ranges. They were eyeing about twenty acres that sat in prime position between Route 31 and the Louisville & Nashville Railroad just north of the city – twenty acres nestled comfortably inside the original plot of land Jennie had acquired in 1882. Thanks to that single dollar and all her love and affection, in the fall of 1929 Jennie was able to sell the land to Allen Manufacturing Company for $9,100, kickstarting a 62-year industrial legacy that shaped Franklin as we know it.
95 years, 4 manufacturers, and 7 owners later, we remember the woman who gave us a place to call home, and we look forward to following in the footsteps of her ingenuity. Thanks, Jennie!
