Our History
Treelawn was the name given by Jeanie and Reagor Motlow to their white Colonial home nestled among the maple trees on their Mulberry Creek farm. The farm, known as “The Taylor Place,” was owned by John H. (Uncle Jack) Taylor. He built the house around 1800, making it one of the oldest homesteads in Moore County. According to deed, “it is situated on the Fayetteville and Lynchburg turnpike about two miles south of Lynchburg, Tennessee, in the First Civil District of Moore County….”
Mr. and Mrs. Motlow
Lem Motlow and his wife, he former Clara Reagor, bought the farm and moved into the nine room house. Mrs. Motlow died in 1901 when her son, Reagor, was about three years old. Mr. Motlow later married Ophelia Evans, the mother of his other children.
Just shortly before Reagor’s nineteenth birthday, Lem Motlow deeded the farm to Reagor “for the reason that his mother invested her money in the homeplace where I now live and helped me to pay for my homeplace…”
Reagor received an honorable discharge from the U.S. Army (Infantry) in 1918. He earned a B.S. degree from Vanderbilt University, Nashville, and began a career that took him to Obion County, Tennessee, where he met Jeanie Garth. They married on New Year’s Day, 1928.
Some Moore Countians remember the newlyweds driving into Lynchburg in a white-topped Ford coupe a few months after their marriage.
Reagor took over running flour mills at Cumberland Springs and “in the hollow” better known as the home of the Jack Daniel Distillery. He later became an official of the Distillery.
Jeanie and Reagor made more and more friends in their varied business, social, civic, political and church activities and many people were privileged to enjoy their hospitality at Treelawn. As a member of the Elks Club, Rotary Club and The American Legion, as well as the Commodore Club and the Cumberland Club of Nashville, they were socially active statewide. Also, he represented the 16th Senatorial District (Democrat) composed of Bedford, Lincoln, Cannon, Moore and Rutherford Counties. His last year as a member of the State Senate was 1970 when he was 72 years old.
When the farm was sold at auction in May 1990, Jeff Gamble of Belvidere, Tennessee., bought Treelawn and approximately 90 acres of land. Admiring the house’s structural beauty and peaceful setting, he saw it’s potential as a funeral home for the region. He started the transformation immediately, being careful to leave the house as intact as possible.
By late November 1990, the addition to the original building for a chapel was Complete and the old brick slave quarters building (kitchen and one room) was attached; but the changes were so subtle it seems the same to passersby who notice the added spacious parking area and necessary landscaping.
The nine downstairs rooms include a formal chapel for about 225 persons and two smaller parlors for approximately 80 persons.
The former slave building houses the embalming room, Moore County’s only full service funeral home with all of our embalming done in our facility and casket selection room.
An exhibit room contains a horse-drawn hearse owned and used by A.M. Hoover in Bell Buckle, Tennessee, 1905-65. All parts of the hearse are original and an item of interest is metal fringe on the draperies. An even older item on display is an all-bronze adult-size casket that is over 100 years old. Other items will be added as they become available.