The history of Rattle and Snap dates back to just after the Revolutionary War. Back then, the U.S. Government did not have the money to pay its soldiers, so they issued land grants. One of those soldiers was Lt. Colonel William Polk. William was very good friends with the Governor of North Carolina, the governor was his brother-in-law.One day, William and the governor got involved in a gambling game. The governor was losing very badly, and in order to clear his debts, he threw one of those land grants into the pot. The game they were playing was called beans, similar to dice or craps of today. They would take large numbered beans, rattle them in their hands, and throw them to the ground w ...view middle of the document...
The four brothers also founded St. John's Episcopal Church, which was built at the point where all four plantation intersected. St. John's was unusual in its day because it was a place where servants and family all worshipped together. All the Polk's are buried there, with the exception of Leonidas, who is buried in New Orleans. St. John's still stands today as the last remaining brick plantation church.The Polk brothers raised over 4,000 acres of hemp, which is a form of marijuana. They had it cut, dried and woven into rope at a factory they owned in Mt. Pleasant. The Polks had a contract with the US Government, and supplied the Navy with between 45-80% of all the rope the Navy used during that period, so you can imagine the amount of money that was coming in. When the War Between the States broke out, being die-hard Confederates, George and Sallie refused to sell their product to the enemy, and the Confederacy did not have a built up Navy at that time, so essentially George and Sallie were out of business.In 1862, the home was saved from being burnt to the ground. Union General Don Carlos Buell was marching through on his way to the battle of Shiloh, and he was raiding and looting all of the area homes. He wasn't getting very much because the people were hiding their things. Gen. Buell ordered the home burnt to the ground to teach the people of Maury County a lesson. When his Captain entered the home to order its evacuation, he noticed a life-size portrait of George who was standing just so you could see his Mason's ring. The Captain knew that Buell was also a Mason, so he sent word back. Buell then wrote a letter that said, "Do not damage or destroy the home of my brother Mason", then he signed it. Back then, if you were a Mason, it didn't matter if you were enemies, the promise that you made preceded any kind of political ties or differences one might have had. There were several instances of the exact same thing during the war.In 1867, the US Government declared the Reconstruction Act, which placed heavy taxes on all the antebellum homes. George and Sallie were unable to meet those taxes, and they were foreclosed upon. All their furniture was placed on the front porch where a public auction was held and everything was sold to the highest bidder.George and Sallie now had no place to go. Luckily for them, the rectory for St. John's was open and available, so they moved themselves and their 11 children across the road to the rectory, where they had to spend the rest of their lives looking at the home they had built and once owned.The second owners of the home were Mr and Mrs. Granbery. They lived there for 51 years, longer than anyone has to date. During their later years, the home was starting to deteriorate. When Mrs. Granbery died in 1921, her sons decided they did not want a big white elephant of a home to take care of, so they sold the home to a group of local farmers.Now the farmers didn't care about the home, all they wanted was ...
