Honorable Honasa (Asa) Faulkner

Born in South Carolina, USA on 1802 to Archibald Faulkner and Rebecca Burkhalter. Asa married Annis Wolfe and had 14 children. Asa married Sarah Reynolds. Asa married Martha E Martin and had 4 children. He passed away on 22 Jul 1886 in Warren, Tennessee, USA.

Asa Faulkner was born July 16, 1802 and died July 29,1886. He moved to Warren County with his father and mother in 1808. He followed in his father's footsteps in becoming involved in manufacturing. During his lifetime he built several cotton mills in Warren County. Much has been written about his influence upon the prosperity and growth of McMinnville and Warren County. He served in the Tennessee legislature and Senate. He had three wives.

ASA FAULKNER

By Charles Faulkner Bryan, Jr.

Two miles north of McMinnville; overlooking the Charles Creek Valley and the community of Faulkner Springs, lies the small, quiet, and unpretentious Pike Hill Cemetery. Unknown to many passers-by, the cemetery contains the grave of one of the most prominent citizens in Warren County's history. Standing underneath a large cedar tree and enclosed within a rusty spiked fence, are the gravestones of Asa Faulkner, his three wives, and two of his children.

The only suggestions that the man buried there was one of importance are that the grave site is enclosed, indicating that the family was able to afford such a luxury, and secondly that Asa Faulkner's gravestone is inscribed with the title "Honorable" Like most gravestones, however, these tell little more than the years of the man's life span and the names of his wives. Yet a search through the somewhat sketchy historical recordsof Warren County reveals that Faulkner played a very significant role in the county's economic development and political process during the 19th century. Indeed it would be no exaggeration to state that Asa Faulkner was the patriarch of Warren County manufacturing. .

Faulkner was not a native Warren Countian, but his association with the county began soon after its creation. He was born of German descent to Dr. Archibald and Rebecca (Burkhalter) Faulkner on July 16, 1802, in the Edgefield District of South Carolina. Six years later the FauIkners moved to Tennessee and settled on a farm beside Hickory Creek, nine miles south of McMinnville. Shortly after settling there, Dr. Faulkner constructed and began operating a small woolen mill (the first in the county) and a cotton gin. So at an early age, Asa had contacts with manufacturing because it is highly possible that he spent much of his time at his father's mill. Asa, however, did not remain at Hickory Creek for long.

In 1812, Henry Bridleman, another Warren County pioneer manufacturer, began operating a small cotton factor on Charles Creek where the ruins of the old Tennessee Woolen Mill now lie. Bridleman took on young Faulkner as a machinist's apprentice and from that day onward, Asa would in some way be actively associated with manufacturing enterprises. The apprentice successfully learned the machinist's trade from his master; and after the term of the apprenticeship ended FauIkner apparently entered business with Bridleman. But for unknown reasons possibly a disagreement over business practices unalterably opposite political views, or simply a clash of personalities Bridleman and his former apprentice had a falling out in 1830. Faulkner now twenty-eight years old, struck out on his own, returning to Hickory Creek where he constructed a small wool carding factory and a grist mill.

The young manufacturer however did not move to his new location alone. Three years earlier he had married Annis (Annie) Wolfe, whose family had moved to Tennessee from Scott County, Virginia. Within a year of their marriage, the FauIkner's first child a girl named Minerva, was born, thus beginning one of the most prolific families in the area. During the next twenty-three years, Annie Faulkner gave birth to twelve more children six girls and six boys. Amazingly enough, in a day of high infant mortality, only one child did not reach maturity. Even though most of the Faulkner clan survived the dangers of 19th century childhood, their mother, like so many women of the age was no doubt hastened to an early grave by the rigors of extensive child bearing and child raising. In March of 1851, Annie Faulkner, aged 47, was buried in the family plot on Pike Hill.

Faulkner's venture on Hickory Creek was a financial success. By 1841 he had acquired enough capital to buy farm land and the cotton mill on Charles Creek from Henry Bridlemen (apparently amicable relations had been restored). Faulkner had moved his family back to Charles Creek and immediately a new wool carding machine and cotton gin. However, he was not content to allow his milling operations to remain on such a small scale. Faulkner realized that by damming the rushing waters of Charles Creek for power he could operate a large scale cotton mill. Although he was now a man of moderate wealth in terms of land and property value, he did not possess the necessary capital to undertake such an ambitious project. With a keen sense of business acumen, he succeeded in interesting two McMinnville merchants, William and Alexander Black, as partners and thereby formed the firm "Asa Faulkner and Company". The Black brothers furnished the funds to purchase machinery for the mill, while Faulkner erected a building to house the expensive new machinery and constructed a dam and wheel to furnish power.

By 1848, the new factory, named "Central Factory", operated six hundred spindles which produced cotton yarn that Faulkner sold throughout the state. One source states that "Faulkner Jeans" soon were so prevalent that they became virtual household words.

This cotton-mill, the first of its kind and size in the region was a complete success and Faulkner prospered accordingly. Four years after its erection, he was able to buy out his partners. A further indication of the mill's prosperity is revealed in the available census records of Warren County. When Faulkner and the Black brothers built the Central Factory in 1847, the capital investment was $10,000. Thirteen years later however, with Faulkner as sole owner the capital investment had jumped to $30,000. By 1860, Faulkner was processing 90,000 pounds of cotton and producing 180,000 skeins of yarn per year. He worked five male employees for $17 a month, and in the days when the role of women was almost totally subservient, he paid eleven female workers $8 a month. As small as these wages were; they were comparable to those paid-to textile workers in New England during the mid-19th century.

Not surprisingly, the census records of 1860 show that Asa Faulkner was one of the wealthiest men in the county. In addition to the Central Factory, Faulkner owned a prosperous 445 acre farm on Charles Creek valued at $25,000, a handsome sum for the time. As a matter of fact, the 1860 census lists Faulkner's occupation simply as "farmer", giving no indication that he was an industrialist. Like most farmers of 19th century Warren County, Faulkner raised a large corn crop, produced several hundred bushels of Irish and sweet potatoes, and maintained sizable herds of cattle and hogs.

It is not certain when Faulkner first owned slaves, but the census records reveal that he held at least nine slaves, four male and five female, in bondage during the 1850's. More than likely these slaves performed most of their work in the fields and as house servants, but it is not inconceivable that Faulkner also using them for some function in his factory indeed, recent studies of industrial slavery demonstrate that it was not uncommon at all for Southern manufacturers to use slaves in various factory positions.

Dominating the Faulkner property was the large brick Federalist - style home (now the residence of Mrs. Edith Bryan) that Asa had built in the late 1840's. Legend has it that Faulkner closely supervised construction and was so particular about building materials that he rejected any boards with large knot holes. Bricks were attained from a local kiln and it is said that some of Faulkner's slaves performed much of the brick laying. The central structure of the house consists of eight spacious rooms, four on each side, separated by a large hallway. No doubt the four upstairs rooms served as bed chambers for the large Faulkner brood, while downstairs Rooms served as parlor library, and dining rooms A kitchen, smoke house, slave quarters, and a large stable made up the rest of the homestead. Location of the home was ideal for Faulkner. By merely stopping on his front porch, he could see Central Factory across Charles Creek; and access to the factory was made easy by a small footbridge spanning the stream near the house. It is said that slaves daily brought a fresh supply of water from the sulfur springs located near the bridge.

Faulkner's manufacturing activities and resulting prosperity seemed little altered by the gloomy clouds of war that descended over the troubled nation in 1861. As forces, North and South, girded for what was thought would be a brief conflict, Faulkner and wealthy McMinnville merchant S. B. Spurlock erected another cotton factory, this one on the south side of the Barren Fork River, half a mile below McMinnville. Faulkner owned majority stock in the $100,000 venture, one that dwarfed the Charles Creek factory. Named the Woodman Cotton Mill, it was strategically located within a hundred yards of the McMinnville and Manchester Railroad which had been laid in the late 1850's. The mill boasted 2,000 spindles and had a daily capacity of 2,500 yards of cotton domestics. It was one of the largest of its kind in the entire border state region.

Despite Faulkner's bold enterprise on the Barren Fork in the face of an impending civil war, this does not mean that he was little affected by the secession crisis and the subsequent four years of bitter strife. Faulkner, like so many of his fellow Tennesseans in 1861, was forced to decide between loyalty to the Union or support of Tennessee and the new Confederacy. Certain facets of Faulkner's life lead one to conclude that he would naturally choose the latter course of action. He was a slave holder and had on occasion publicly defended the peculiar institution. For example, in 1836, he served as a presidential elector; and in a statement published in the Nashville Republican, he urged the voters of the district to support the Whig candidate Hugh Lawson White because he was "identified with the south ... on the subject of abolitionism." Faulkner feared that New Yorker Martin Van Buren would "enter in with and sympathize with the feelings of the northern fanatics" on the issue of slavery. So there is no doubt that Faulkner agreed with the Southern position to defend slavery.

Yet in June of 1861, when Tennesseans officially voted on their state's position in the Union, Asa Faulkner could not go along with his fellow Warren Countians who overwhelmingly supported secession. As a long time member of the old Whig party, which had generally supported a strong national government, Faulkner reflected the views of many of his fellow Tennessee Whigs. He loved his adopted state of Tennessee, he defended slavery, yet he could not accept the doctrine of secession and the subsequent dissolution of the Union. To him, loyalty to the Union was of the utmost importance. As a result, he refused to support secession and later the Southern war effort.

Faulkner's stance no doubt was extremely difficult for him. Not only was it divergent from that of many of his friends and former associates, but even worse, his family suffered divided loyalties. In the spring of 1861, when Colonel John Savage organized the 16th Tennessee Regiment for Confederate service, two of Faulkner's sons, Thomas and W.H. H., joined up and served in much of the unit's subsequent action. W.H.H. even rose to the rank of major in the regiment. Unfortunately there is no extant Faulkner diary or body of letters which might reveal the anguish that Asa must have gone through during this period. It is known, however, that in the early years of the war Faulkner was constantly harassed and threatened for his refusal to supply Confederate forces with cotton and woolen goods. He gained temporary relief in the spring of 1862 when Federal forces moved into Middle Tennessee, but there was always the constant threat of Rebel reprisal. As a matter of fact, in July of 1862, Faulkner fled behind Federal lines in Murfreesboro in the wake of Rebel calvary that was roaming about the Warren County area. While in Murfreesboro, he penned a frantic letter to military governor Andrew Johnson pleading for the protection for the few loyal Union men in the area; and in particular he urged that Union troops be dispatched to McMinnville to defend his cotton mills. He concluded his letter with the grim hope that it would not be long before he could visit Johnson "without fear of being destroyed for it."

Faulkner's hope for protection of his mills went for naught as Southern forces regained control of much of Middle Tennessee in the summer of 1862 prior to Braxton Bragg's invasion of Kentucky. By the end of the year Confederate authorities seized the Central and Woodman factories and began distributing the products for their army's use. It is not known whether or not Faulkner fled McMinnville during this time; but apparently he had no control whatsoever over his factories. And in the spring of 1863, he suffered the fate that he had so feared, destruction of his milling property. Ironically, it came at the hands of a friend, not foe. On April 23, a Union calvary force under General Joseph J. Reynolds raided the Confederate supply depot in McMinnville. After destroying some locomotives and rolling stock, and several caches of food and supplies, the Federals set fire to the Woodman Mill with the understanding that it had been used to aid the Southern war effort. Within a matter of minutes, the structure was reduced to a smoldering heap.

Faulkner's immediate reaction to the burning is not known but the fact that Federal forces had been the agents of destruction did not shake his loyalty to the Union; and that loyalty paid off handsomely for him at war's end in Jan. of 1865 an extra-legal convention of Unionists met in Nashville for the purpose of taking steps to bring Tennessee back into the Union.

Because of the political wrangling in Nashville, Faulkner resigned his seat from the General Assembly in Feb. of 1866 and returned to his business in McMinnville. He won election to the state senate in 1869, this time as an announced Republican. He served for two years, but he did not seek re-election. Although he was a guiding force of the Republican party in Warren County during the post-war years, apparently political office had little appeal to the aging Faulkner. He much preferred full time devotion to rebuilding his industrial enterprises.

Full recovery from the destruction of the war was not long in coming to Faulkner. In 1867, he and his son, William P. completely rebuilt and enlarged the cotton mill on the Barren Fork, naming the new structure "Annis Cotton Mill" in memory of Asa first wife. Bigger in size and capacity than the 1861 factory, Annis Mill employed fifty-four hands, mostly native orphan girls. Faulkner continued operation of Central Cotton Factory at full capacity and he expanded his small wollen mill located nearby on Charles Creek until it produced 300 yards of jeans and linden a day.

Faulkner remained an active man both publicly and privately well into old age. His second wife, Sally Reynolds, whom he married before the Civil War, died in 1872, having borne no children. Within a year of SalIy's death, Faulkner was married again, this time to Martha Martin. Despite Faulkner's advanced age the couple produced four children, two boys and two girls, over the next seven years. In civic affairs Faulkner encouraged the building of several county bridges and strongly pushed for the installation of running water in the city of McMinnville,

And until his last days Faulkner worked on schemes to expand his business. Extensive preparations were made for construction of a great cotton mill at Caney Fork Falls near Rock island, but he did not live to see the plans reach fruition. On July 29, 1886, at age 84, Asa Faulkner died. He was laid to rest beside his first two wives on the hill over looking the valley in which he had lived and labored for over sixty years.

Condolences for the family poured in from all over the state and it seems that any bitterness that may have existed, toward Faulkner because of his stance during the war was now mostly removed. Probably the most appropriate memorial to the man appeared in the Southern Standard shortly after his death.

It is said of Faulkner: "He needs no elegium at our hands. He was known personally or by reputation to nearly every inhabitant of Warren and adjoining counties, and was universally recognized as a public benefactor. He was the nester of all of Warren County's manufacturing interests, and spent all of his long life in founding, nourishing and sustaining them. Indeed, the story of Warren County was significantly influenced by Asa Faulkner."