The land belonged to Colonel William Polk.[1] The mansion was built for one of his sons, Bishop Leonidas Polk, from 1833 to 1837.[1][2] Opposite the mansion, Leonidas Polk built St. John's Episcopal Church from 1839 to 1842.[1][3]
In 1847, Leonidas Polk sold the mansion to Rebecca Van Leer. Rebecca was a heiress to an iron fortune and a member of the Van Leer family. She had married one of his brothers, Andrew Jackson Polk, in 1846.The mansion was sold for US$35,000.[1] Andrew and his wife spent another US$35,000 on expansions and refurbishments.[1] Their children, Van Leer Polk and Antoinette Van Leer Polk, grew up at the mansion.[1]
On July 5, 1861, at the outset of the American Civil War, Andrew Jackson Polk, who was elected Captain,[4] organized the Maury County Braves in a grove on the grounds of Ashwood Hall.[1]
In 1862, Antoinette Polk saved Confederate personnel stationed at Ashwood Hall by warning them that Northern forces were coming their way.[5] As a result, she became known as a "Southern heroine."[5]
It burned down in 1874.[2]
