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CLARA INFORMATION


I adopted Clara from Shayla Rena 23/1/10

Clara is a very sweet natured and active girl. I acquired Clara from a man that was hired to do some clean up work on an abandoned hospital/sanitorium (please read below to learn more about historic Faulkner Springs Hospital Sanatorium and to see pictures of it). I ran across this now elderly man at a local flea market. I picked up one of the dolls that he was selling and immedaiatly felt the energy that it encased. We began talking and he explained that in 1983 he had been hired to do some clean up at the abandoned hospital He was to take off some clutter and trash that was found in and around the dwelling. Among the rubbish he found a few boxes of old dolls. He asked if he could keep them and the were given to him. He thought that his wife would enjoy them. She collected and some seemed to be very old as if left in the dwelling years ago while others a bit newer as if had been stored there. He had taken the dolls home but his wife never got around to cleaning them up or enjoying them before her death. He now had no use for them. He described strange occurences in his home over the years. I made arrangements with him to see the entire collection and upon feeling the energy that most encased , I purchased the entire lot from him. I have treasured these little spirits for many years now but do feel led to share a few of them with others at this time. They are very special to me and so I am not certain how many I can persuade myself to part with.

Clara was among the spirit dolls that I purchased that day. She is very sweet and very active. She communicates mostly via dreams and telepathically. Through dreams she has shared a portion of her past. She has expressed that she is 6yrs old. She came to be at the sanitorium when her parents were killed in a house fire. Clara was fortunate enough to get out but her folks were not so lucky. She was placed at the hospital sanitorium until a foster placement could be found for her.

I am not certain how she passed. What I do know is that Clara is a an extremely sweet child spirit. She adores attention. We sometimes feel her follow us around the house. Often when I am doing household chores I hear the pitter patter of little feet behind me. Clara's doll vessel sits on a shelf above a table in one of our spare rooms. On the table is a lamp. We often find the lamp unplugged when we know it was plugged in., as well several times we have watched the light blink on and off inside the lamp when the cord in not even plugged in. She shows activity in many ways and has just been a joy to know! It is very important to me that she go to a good home that is filled with love.


About Faulkner Springs Hospital/Sanatorium:

In the early 1800's the middle Tennesse area now known as Faulkner springs was nothing more than unsettled wilderness. Three men set out to create the perfect hidden utopia in the Backwoods Tennessee wilderness. There was a doctor, a teacher, and a manufacturer. When the nearby town of Mcminnville was began the teacher moved there. The doctor, dedicated to healing followed followed Andrew Jackson when he went to war. This left only Henry Briddleman. Briddleman began a cotton factory on what is know as "Charley Creek".

Now the factory came to do quite well and made MR. Briddleman a nice living. In 1846 he sold the Cotton Mill to a man named Asa Faulkner who had worked for him. Asa was quite the business man and he made the mill flourish. Enough so that he actually opened up two more mills along the barren fork and Collins River in Warren County.

Asa was the father of 19 children but of all his children only one truly took great interest in the Mill and carrying on the family tradition and that was his son Clay. Clay took interest in all three Mills that he and a couple of his brother would eventually come to run but his greatest love was Falls City Cotton Mill, also known as the Great Falls Cotton Mill. This mill had be his fathers dream which he had started in in 1883 at the age of 81 years old. It was located on land between the Collins River and the Caney Fork at the Great Falls of Rock Island, Tennessee.

Clay much like his father was quite the businessman and with his skills he made the mill into a money maker plus. As any profitable business man knows, Clay knew that in order to keep the Business booming he had to be hands on with it. He had to be there every day and over see the running. The issue here is that it was a two and half mile buggy ride each way every day for Clay to get to the mill. This ride grew tiresome and clay wanted to move closer to his work.

Clay's wife Mary was a very refined and cultured lady. She enjoyed living in the city and wanted no part of country life. Clay promised her that if she would move closer to the mill he would build her the finest house in the county, with all of the comforts, and so he did. In 1896 Clay Faulkner purchased farmland which adjoined his mill and there he began building the fine mansion that would come to be known as "Falcon Rest".

Clay being a man of his word closely supervised each step in the building of the home. He made certain that it had only the best material and was done just right so that his wife and children would live in the finest home around. The foundation was dug down to a solid sheet of bedrock which it now rest on still to this day. All walls both interior and exterior where solid brick (Eventually the home was basically abandoned abandoned for 15 years from the late 1960s to early 1980s, the walls seem to be as sound today as they were over 100 years ago.)

Only the most high quality materials were put into the home. The home would prove to be quite beautiful, perhaps not only the finest of the county but one of the finest in the entire state. It had a beautiful gingerbread porch,gorgeous curved windows, and detailed brickwork. Inside the home one would as well only the best. Beautiful brass door hardware, the marble surrounds on the fireplaces, gracious staircase, intricately carved woodwork, and striking spindle frieze in the parlor were the best that money could buy.

Falcon rest was indeed inviting to the eye but it was as well very modern and efficient. The house is situated so that, even on the hottest days, there blows a cool breeze over its inviting north-and east-facing porches. The elaborate waterworks system piped in from the spring provided refrigeration for perishables, fresh water for cooking and bathing, and cooled the house. Summer comfort was enhanced with 12-foot ceilings and cross ventilation in virtually every room. It was warmed by a central steam heating system during winter months.

The comfort of electricity did not enter rural Tennessee until the 1930's but none the less in 1896 when Clays family moved in Falcon Rest was lit with electric lights. Also it was rare during that time period for a home to Even have an indoor lavatory but clay knew that with five children one would just not be enough and so he placed one in each bedroom.

In 1916 Clay passed away and his wife sold the home a local contractor named George Beech and moved to Nashville. In 1929, the Clay Faulkner house was purchased by Dr. Herman Reynolds. He began its long association with the medical community. Dr. Reynolds, who practiced both medicine and dentistry, had a clinic in his home there until his death in 1941.

W.V. Jones, who was the mayor of McMinnville, purchased the house in 1943 and used it has his private residence for two years. After only a two year stay Mr. Jones sold the home to Cumberland Conference of Seventh Day Adventists, and Faulkner Springs Sanitarium and Hospital (Dr. J.P. Dietrich). The home served as a hospital and sanitorium from 1945 to 1968 and was an important part of the community.

In 1968 a new hospital was built in nearby Mciminnville and Faulkner Springs Hospital was closed. The only thing Dr. Dietrich removed from the hospital were the beds everything else was left just as it was, undisturbed. The doors were locked and it was left an abandoned hospital. If one peered through the windows in looked like a hospital with no patients or staff inside, only cobwebs and dust.

Now during the during the 15 years that the old hospital sat vacant it became the talk of the town. Several claimed to see a ghostly figure in the upstairs window. Some claimed to see a man, while others claimed to see a woman holding a candle.

It was left vacant from 1968 until 1983 when the property was purchased by Joe Grissom. Joe and his wife began clearing out the hospital clutter and trying to once again make it into a home. They had restored three rooms when they sold the home to present owners George and Charlien McGlothin, in 1989. The McGlothin's did a marvelous job restoring the home and turned it into a beautiful bed and breakfast. It served as a bed and breakfast until 2000. The home no longer has over night accommodations but tours are still given. It now hosts several visitor each year. Many come just to experiences the spirits and ghosts that the dwelling still encases.

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