The Friends of the Seymour Library will tour the Wheatlands during their next meeting this month. (The Herald/Submitted Photo)

A tour of Wheatlands, one of Sevier County’s finest antebellum homes, is on the agenda for the next meeting of Friends of the Seymour Library on July 17.

Richard Parker, who with John Burns bought the property in Boyds Creek about a year ago, will explain the history and human stories surrounding it. In return, Friends of the Seymour Library will make a donation toward the cost of a Wheatlands tile in a mural at the King Family Library in Sevierville. The mural depicts events in Sevier County history.

The property was established in 1791 by Revolutionary War veteran Timothy Chandler. After Timothy died in 1819, his son John inherited it. The original frame farmhouse burned in 1824 and John Chandler replaced it with the brick house that Parker calls “the most intact Federal home in the state of Tennessee.” The plantation house, smokehouse and storage shed remain on the property.

John Chandler built Wheatlands into one of the largest  farms in Sevier County, Parker said. It produced wheat and other grains; hogs, cattle, sheep, honey and butter. It was the site of East Tennessee’s first registered distillery.  In 1850, the distillery produced 6,000 gallons of whiskey.

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