HOME OF JOE WHEELER TO BE RESTORED

Funds secured for restoration of Civil War general's home
By Deangelo McDaniel • The Decatur Daily • March 24, 2010

POND SPRING -- After years of lobbying and plan­ning, the Alabama Historical Commission finally has enough money to restore Gen. Joseph Wheeler's home. And if everything goes as planned, it's possible the nearly 6,000-square-foot home will reopen to the pub­lic some time in late 2011.

"We're in the final design phase now, and we're adver­tising for construction bids," said Mark Driscoll, the com­mission's director of historic sites.

The money the state is us­ing to restore the home totals a little more than $2.1 mil­lion and is coming from four sources: $469,899 in conser­vation bonds; $400,000 in edu­cation bonds; $200,000 from the Friends of General Joe Wheeler Foundation; and $710,000 in commission mon­ey.

Driscoll said there is an al­lowance in the bid package that includes returning the more than 30,000 pieces in the Wheeler Home collection to the site. Those items have been at an undisclosed location since restoration started. Driscoll said the state will be able to pin down a more definitive date for reopening the home after bids are opened in four to six weeks.

The state was able to save a significant amount of money by using labor through Ala­bama Correctional Indus­tries. A 1976 act created ACI, and part of its mission is to "pro­vide meaningful work and vocational training pro­grams for inmates."

Driscoll said ACI is certi­fied to deal with lead paint removal. Inmates have been at the site for about a month scraping paint off the home's exterior and replacing de­teriorated boards.
"We're so excited to have enough money to finally get the home restored," Pond Spring site director Melissa Beasley said. "Right now, we're concentrating on the main house."

On April 10, Beasley is in­viting volunteers to Pond Spring to help clean the grounds.
The event is part of the Civil War Preservation Trust drive to help clean and restore the nation's battle­fields, cemeteries and shrines.

Union and Confederate troops fought on the grounds during the Civil War. In June 1864 Confederate Col. Josiah Patterson, of Morgan County, used Pond Spring as his headquarters.

Pond Spring is on Alaba­ma 20 between Courtland and Hillsboro. The state has owned the site since 1993. Because of safety con­cerns, the state closed the home about four years ago, but it allows scheduled tours of the grounds.

The home, where Wheeler raised his family, was built after the war and showed sig­nificant deterioration after the state acquired the site. The house, which is sur­rounded by boxwoods, and the grounds have a human history that dates to before Alabama gained statehood.
John P. Hickman, the plantation's first owner, came to Pond Spring in 1818 with 11 family members and 56 slaves.

Before selling the 1,760-acre plantation to Col. Ben Sherrod in 1827, Hick­man constructed a two-story log house. Sherrod turned the two-story dogtrot cabin into a Federal-style house with porches on the first and second levels. With the exception of the already restored slave quar­ters, the Sherrod House is the oldest structure on the site.

Sherrod's grandson inher­ited the estate and married Daniella Jones, who lived on the nearby Caledonia Planta­tion. The newlyweds lived at Pond Spring. After her husband's death in 1861, Daniella moved back to her parents' plantation, where she met Wheeler in October 1863.
Wheeler and Daniella mar­ried in 1866 and lived in New Orleans before the couple moved back and constructed the "Big House" at Pond Spring.

Wheeler, who was a gener­al in the Confederate Army and for the U.S. Army during the Spanish-American War, died Jan. 25, 1906. He also was a congressman for the district that included Pond Spring. Wheeler is buried in Arlington National Cemetery.

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