[2] The Cheairs family were part of a 1810 land grant awarded by President James Madison.

Around 1840, the Cheairs family owned 46 enslaved black people and up to 75 by 1860 (Rippa Villa, Battle of Franklin Trust).

[2] Nathaniel Frances Cheairs IV served in the Confederate Army, however the Rippavilla Plantation sustained minimal damage during the American Civil War.

[2] His son, William McKissack Cheairs took ownership of the home until he sold it in 1920 to John G. Whitfield, a coal tycoon from Alabama.

This article about a property in Maury County, Tennessee on the National Register of Historic Places is a stub.