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About The Tatum Home
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Description of the Home Site
By casual inspection, the property appears to be one large 14 acre (approximately) tract of land improved with one old historic two-story frame dwelling.
The combined six and one half city blocks are roughly the shape of a rectangle about 1,300 feet long north to south, and about 400 feet wide east to west.
The dominant frontage of the land is approximately 1,100 feet on the east line of State Highway 149, which is also known as Hill Street by those living in Tatum. The site also as a 120 foot frontage on the south line of Stevens Street, which is a local neighborhood street.
The Albert Tatum Home and Its Original Family
The town of Tatum is a small, but well known, community in Northeast Rusk County, Texas. The town of Tatum received its name from the Albert Tatum Family whose many descendants still live in and around Tatum.
Sometime during 1836 Albert Tatum, who lived in Chambers County which is located in Alabama, took his wife, Mary, and four sons, William, Wesley, Paul, and James to Texas to begin a new life.
The Tatum Family, along with their slaves and several relatives, first settled at Harmony Hill near Trammel's Trace in newly organized Rusk County. Their first daughter was born there and is buried in Harmony Hill Cemetery.
Albert Tatum recognized the commercial potential of the intersection of the Grand Bluff road and Trammel's Trace and decided to settle there. He purchased the plot of land for a total of $1,600. Tatum instructed his slaves to build a comfortable house for his growing family and to build eighty modest cabins for their own use. He planted cotton and corn on the land and sold those products for a cash income. Vegetables and fruits were planted for use on the plantation. He also built a sawmill and a grist mill for some added income.
The peaceful time after the Texas Revolution against Mexico and before the Civil War allowed Albert Tatum to prosper and educate his children at the best colleges and professional schools in the United States. At one time Albert Tatum was doing so well he owned more than 4,000 acres of land.
Two of Albert Tatum's daughters were born on the Tatum plantation and they were educated and tutored in the classical manner. They both married men who became prominent in East Texas. One of his daughters, Rhonda, was an accomplished pianist and later operated a school of music in Henderson.
His sons were also given the best educations that were available at that time. Wesley became a school teacher, James was a physician, and Paul studied architecture in New York. His eldest son, William, did not become a professional man, but decided to work on the family farms and other properties that the Tatum family owned.
The plantation house, which still stands today in Tatum, was completed in 1848. It was made from lumber that was cut and planed at the Tatum sawmill, and the wood came from their own virgin pines growing nearby. Slave labor and architectural plans drawn by Albert Tatum produced a two storied mansion that was adequate for the elaborate parties and dances that would be held within.
The Tatum house was a big open structure with six tall columns in the front of the house and a smaller entrance porch in the center of the house. The kitchen was a building separated from the main house. The entrance door consists of four wide panels, and the door opened into a hall that was 20 by 38 feet, with the stair rising from the back of the hall. The doorway at the back with enormous transoms is quite as well executed as the front door. Two twenty-foot rooms with marbleized mantels were on either side of the hall, and the same floor plan was followed in the rooms above. The house contained many fireplaces both upstairs and downstairs. The hall was frequently used for dances and other festivities.
Along a painted panel between two doors was a novel guest roll. Each guest was asked to write his or her name on the painted surface. The Tatum's held "open house" so the number of names climbed into the thousands. Legend has it that Sam Houston's signature is among those later painted over.
Beautiful carved furniture from France and England was shipped up the Sabine River to complete the elegant plantation house. Books of classical writers filled library shelves. Carved marble mantles and shimmering crystal chandeliers added to its elegance. This mansion rivaled the neo-Greek plantations that Albert Tatum had left behind in Alabama.
The young members of the Tatum family entertained other young people of the community and farther away places. Relatives visited from Alabama and other southern states and stayed for weeks or months. The Tatum plantation was the center of important social affairs and for less important occasions.
Young Paul Tatum grew up during happy times with a family who helped him to achieve whatever he wanted to accomplish. During the Civil War Paul Tatum served briefly in the engineering corps of the Confederate Army. Paul Tatum's father died in 1870 and he took over the management of the family properties for his mother.
As a young man Paul Tatum was an inventive thinker, or at least he seemed to have fancied himself as an inventor of sorts. A popular story that is told even to this day is about the time Paul decided that he would jump from an attic window on the west side of the house holding two large umbrellas. Flying was a passionate, if momentary, interest. Unfortunately this experiment did not lead to the invention of the parachute, just to a very bruised young man. The umbrellas turned wrong-side out and Paul crashed to the ground.
Another experiment related by local citizens is about the time Paul tried to walk on water. His father had little faith in the project and refused to accompany him to the nearby pond. His brother, James, did go to observe, or possibly to rescue, Paul who attached large buckets to his feet and stepped out onto the water. He quickly lost his balance and turned upside down.
Not to be left out when adventure called, young Paul Tatum devised a scheme to drain Hendricks Lake to resurrect the pirate, Lafitte's, treasure from its fabled resting place. Paul, with some friends, placed a steam-engine driver pump in the lake and pumped away for several days; however, they only managed to lower the level of the spring-fed lake by a few inches.
Paul Tatum, who lived far in advance of his times, died on February 27, 1914, at the age of 67.
Tatum Family Cemetery
Southwest of the house is the family cemetery, which contains massive marble vaults and elaborate tombstones, where Albert Tatum and members of his family were buried.
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03/01/2001