Greg Tucker, Daily News Journal, April 12, 2015
The antebellum home was apparently built by a future Confederate congressman for his widowed sister. Ironically, it was occupied by a Unionist during the Civil War.
The so-called “McFadden House” at 226 North Walnut Street in Murfreesboro was built in the mid-19th century for Harriet Richardson Keeble Brady, widow of William Brady, a Rutherford County attorney and politician.
Brady served four terms in the Tennessee House of Representatives (1821-31) including one term as House speaker. He died in 1835.
Daughter of the wealthy and socially prominent Keeble family of Rutherford County, Harriet Keeble Brady had no children but enjoyed the material support of her siblings and in-laws (extended family names included Murfree, Maney, Dickinson, and Bell).
Her home was likely built for her by her brother, Edwin Augustus Keeble. A substantial landowner, attorney, newspaper publisher and politician, Keeble founded the Murfreesboro Monitor newspaper in 1834 and was twice elected Murfreesboro mayor (1838 and 1855).
Edwin Keeble also represented Rutherford County in the Tennessee Legislature and served one term as speaker of the House. Following secession in June 1861, he was elected to the Confederate States Congress representing Tennessee in the Confederate House of Representatives. (In 1861-63, Tennessee had both Confederate and U.S. congressional representation.)
In December 1859, James Monroe Tompkins, a former state legislator (1855-57), Rutherford County sheriff (1848-52), and county surveyor (1837-42), sold his farm on Overall Creek and purchased the 226 N. Walnut house. In his memoirs, Tompkins explains his move to Murfreesboro: “Having raised and educated the children, being seven in number…becoming old and infirm in health, and being desirous of leading a quiet and peaceable life…not any more engaging in the busy scenes of life and at peace with all men.”
But in 1860 Tompkins became an outspoken opponent of secession.
In his post-war memoirs he lamented: “Alas, wicked and designing men — North and South — not having the fear of God before their eyes, and being instigated by evil and selfish designs, determined to break up and ruin our once happy and beloved country and government, if they could not govern it to suit their own views. They brought on and instigated an uncalled for rebellion and civil war.”
Prior to the Tennessee secession, Tompkins did “all in my power to prevent it, believing that it is our duty to seek redress for all our wrongs by law…and not to go out of the Union and resort to arms for redress.” Tompkins also insisted that “if we separate from the Union and go to war, nothing awaits us but defeat, distress and woe.”
In later years he acknowledged that his efforts against secession “gave displeasure to some, and caused ill-feelings to be engendered” towards him. He insisted, however, that “my course of conduct and acts were directed by my judgment and what I conscientiously believed to be right. I therefore acted regardless of consequences.” See Memoirs of James M. Tompkins (Dec. 18, 1868), RCHS Publication #2 (1973), pages 32-36.
In 1862 Tompkins was elected one of seven Murfreesboro city aldermen. When the city fell under Union military authority, Tompkins was appointed mayor replacing J. E. Dromgoole.
He served in this capacity “until all civil and municipal law ceased by action of the war.” During the last months of the war, Tompkins assisted in re-establishing the local courts and was for several years the clerk & master of the Rutherford County Chancery Court. (During his tenure with the court, Tompkins appointed one of his sons as his assistant. The son succeeded the father in this post.)
Tompkins died in 1870. After his wife’s death in 1872, the home on North Walnut was sold to Robert W. January, Jr.
In 1876 Samuel McFadden, a local shopkeeper, purchased the property. The home was only a short walk from the McFadden bakery and confectionary on the north side of the courthouse Square. Samuel’s daughter, Elvie McFadden, taught in the local public schools for several decades. The public school on Bridge Avenue in the old Westvue community was named in her honor.
The home at 226 N. Walnut (now renumbered as 224 N. Walnut) remained in the McFadden family for almost 75 years.
In 1950 the property was sold to Landry Inc., a corporation controlled by Jack McFarland, publisher and owner of the Daily News Journal. Since then, the structure has housed the newspaper offices notwithstanding numerous changes in corporate ownership.
Today the newspaper offices are preparing to relocate.
Ownership of the historic Brady-Tompkins-McFadden house will transfer to the county government. Current plans call for demolition of the house and construction of a county parking garage on the property.
A special thanks to Roy Eakes, Barry Lamb and John Lodl for research assistance.