On Thursday, I drove from Murfreesboro to Columbia, Tennessee, to see the ancestral home of President James K. Polk. Polk, one of three Chief Executives from Tennessee (Andrew Jackson and Andrew Johnson were the others), was a Congressman and Governor before he was elected President in the 1840s. This is the home his father built, and he lived here for about 5 years when he was around 16 to 21 years old. None of the homes where he and his wife lived are still in existence, except for the White House of course. So, some of the rooms in this home are kept as his parents would have kept them, and some have been decorated with furnishings from his other homes. I read a book about Polk last year, and greatly respect him as the President who basically expanded the U.S. from the area of the Louisiana Purchase all the way to the Pacific Ocean. He worked hard for four years, and died less than a year after leaving office in his early 50s.
After leaving Tennessee, I spent part of a day in Atlanta then headed home. Here I am at the back door.
I'm going to come back to the blog tomorrow and add some final thoughts. Thanks for following my trip!!!
