The Oaks: The Home of Whitmill Phillips Allen (6 November 1811

"Do you stand there, Scarlett O'Hara, and tell me that Tara — that land — doesn't amount to anything?"

Scarlett nodded obstinately. Her heart was too sore to care whether or not she put her father in a temper.

"Land is the only thing in the world that amounts to anything," he shouted, his thick, short arms making wide gestures of indignation,"for 'tis the only thing in this world that lasts, and don't you be forgetting it! 'Tis the only thing worth working for, worth fighting for — worth dying for."

— Gone With the Wind, Part I, Chapter II

According to A History of Clayton County, Georgia: 1821-1983 (1983) [edited by Alice Copeland Kilgore, Edith Hanes Smith, and Frances Partridge Tuck] Whitmill Phillips Allen built "The Oaks" inter annos 1839 and 1840, approximately four miles north of Jonesboro on the old Atlanta Public Road. Terry Bakken's Historic Clayton County: Home of Gone With the Wind describes "The Oaks," now "Stately Oaks," as "a pure example of Greek Revival architecture so common in the South in the last century" and said that it appears to have been designed and built by a competent but professionally untrained carpenter. The house, originally situated on a plantation of 404 acres, is considered to be an excellent example of the residence of a well-to-do small planter. At present, "The Oaks" is surrounded by outbuildings, including its original log kitchen. [See Antecedents and Descendants of Whitmill Phillips Allen (6 November 1811 - January 1868).]

About 1858, when Whitmill Phillips Allen departed Georgia for Smith County, Texas, "The Oaks" was acquired by Robert McCord (9 April 1823, Georgia - September 1902, <Monroe County>, Georgia).

Robert McCord was the son of Elisha McCord (1789 - 1853) and Sarah Zellner (1792 - 1854), who were married 1 July 1813 in Lincoln County, Georgia. Robert McCord was married to Rebecca M. Tolan (21 October 1825 - February 1906, <Monroe County>, Georgia) on 24 June 1847, in Monroe County, Georgia. Elisha McCord was the son of John McCord (1763 - 16 May 1805) and Alice ("Else") Hyatt of Lincoln County, Georgia. Sarah Zellner was the daughter of George Peter Zellner (ABT 1760, Electorate of Hannover, Holy Roman Empire [Heiliges Römisches Reich] - BY 6 January 1823, Lincoln County, Georgia) and Mary Capehart (27 June 1761 - 1 November 1847, Monroe County, Georgia: interment at Zellner Cemetery, Montpelier Cemetery, Monroe County, Georgia) who were married 17 March 1789 in Bertie County, North Carolina.

In the aftermath of the Battle of Jonesboro (31 August 1864 - 1 September 1864) , while Robert McCord was away from home, still defending the Confederacy, Union troops camped in the field below the house and drew water from its well. The house served as a landmark for both the Union and Confederate armies and thus survived Sherman's fury.

"The Oaks" was renamed "Stately Oaks" by Mr. and Mrs. Calvin Orr, who acquired the plantation in 1889. The home has since been moved to Historical Jonesboro (south of Jonesboro on the east side of the railroad tracks on Jodeco Road), approximately four miles from its original location, where it has been renovated to serve as a house-museum of the antebellum era.

Near to "The Oaks" was the Fitzgerald Plantation, home to the maternal grandparents of Margaret Mitchell. As a child, the future epic novelist spent much of her time at the Fitzgerald Plantation where her grandmother, Anne Elizabeth Stephens (née Fitzgerald) (1844 - 1934), entertained her with stories about the War Between the States and about the genteel tradition which all but disappeared in the smoke of war. Although it was from the Lovejoy Plantation (now the Crawford-Talmadge House) that Mitchell, in Gone With the Wind, drew her images for "Twelve Oaks," the opulent home of the family Wilkes, it was "The Oaks" which furnished her with the model for "Tara."

For "Tara," "Ashley Oaks Mansion," an exceedingly elegant home also in the vicinity of Jonesboro, could also have offered some inspiration to Mitchell. She was, however, very scrupulous about chronology; and, since "Ashley Oaks Mansion" is definitely of postbellum construction, having been built in 1879-80, it can be no rival to "The Oaks" as the image of "Tara." Mitchell, to be sure, did not envision "Tara" in a manner quite so extravangant as it was later to be depicted in Hollyood by the fabulous David O. Selznick.

Margaret Mitchell, incidentally, obtained the title of her epic romance from the poem which Ernest Christopher Dowson (1867 - 1900) published in 1896:

Non Sum Qualis eram Bonae Sub Regno Cynarae

Last night, ah, yesternight, betwixt her lips and mine
There fell thy shadow, Cynara! thy breath was shed
Upon my soul between the kisses and the wine;
And I was desolate and sick of an old passion,
Yea, I was desolate and bowed my head:
I have been faithful to thee, Cynara! in my fashion.

All night upon mine heart I felt her warm heart beat,
Night-long within mine arms in love and sleep she lay;
Surely the kisses of her bought red mouth were sweet;
But I was desolate and sick of an old passion,
When I awoke and found the dawn was gray:
I have been faithful to thee, Cynara! in my fashion.

I have forgot much, Cynara! gone with the wind,
Flung roses, roses riotously with the throng,
Dancing, to put thy pale, lost lilies out of mind;
But I was desolate and sick of an old passion,
Yea, all the time, because the dance was long:
I have been faithful to thee, Cynara! in my fashion.

I cried for madder music and for stronger wine,
But when the feast is finished and the lamps expire,
Then falls thy shadow, Cynara! the night is thine;
And I am desolate and sick of an old passion,
Yea, hungry for the lips of my desire:
I have been faithful to thee, Cynara! in my fashion.

Valuable contributions have been made to this web page by Mr. Joseph Edward Lake (born 1941), formerly the United States ambassador to Mongolia (1990) and to Albania (1994 - 1996).

At the age of twenty, Joseph Edward Lake became one of the youngest persons to be employed as a Foreign Service Officer of the United States government. During his 35-year career in the State Department, Lake served as ambassador to Albania and Mongolia, deputy assistant secretary of state for information management, director of the State Department’s crisis management center and adviser to the U.S. delegation to the United Nations. Lake spent ten years in East Asia, six years in West Africa and five years in the Balkans.

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