Editing Sherwood Forest Plantation (section)

== History ==

It is a misconception that Sherwood Forest is the only private residence in the United States to have been owned by two unrelated [[President of the United States|U.S. presidents]]. [[William Henry Harrison]] owned a plot of land called "Brown's Quarter" in the same county, and another (different) Brown's Quarter existed within the acreage that came to make up the land that Tyler later purchased. Harrison's vice president and successor [[John Tyler]] purchased the plantation in 1842 from his cousin Collier Minge and lived there after leaving the [[White House]].<ref>{{cite web |title=John Tyler's Sherwood Forest |url=https://www.nps.gov/nr/travel/presidents/john_tyler_sherwood_forest.html |website=nps.gov |publisher=National Park Service |accessdate=11 March 2020}}</ref><ref name="Sherwood Forest Plantation">{{cite web|title=Evolution of the Longest Frame House in America|url=http://www.sherwoodforest.org/evolve_new.html}}</ref><ref>https://www.scribd.com/embeds/434872326/content?start_page=1&view_mode+book&access_key=%20key-sqyZ41izXw3Nhf3jS95g|</ref>

John Tyler renamed the plantation [[Sherwood Forest]] in 1842. He said it signified that he had been "[[outlawed]]" by the [[United States Whig Party|Whig]] party. He was attracted to the plantation because it was near his birthplace at [[Greenway Plantation]]. He retired there when he left the White House in 1845 and spent the rest of his life there with his second wife [[Julia Gardiner Tyler]] and some of his children. He had eight with his first wife and seven with his second wife.

Pearl, the youngest, was born in 1860, when Tyler was 70 years old; she died in 1947.

As regional hostilities in the United States escalated to become the [[American Civil War]] in 1861, Tyler backed Virginia's secession, although he died in January 1862. Later that spring, the house was occupied by [[Union Army|Union]] soldiers during McClellan's [[Peninsula Campaign]] of 1862 and again during Grant's [[Overland Campaign]] in 1864. During the latter, the [[Battle of Wilson's Wharf]] was fought nearby. When an Ohio regiment vacated the house in 1864, they attempted to raze it with fire as a punishment for Tyler's support of the [[Confederate States of America|Confederacy]]. The fire was quickly extinguished by a loyal slave and did little damage to the house.<ref name="Sherwood Website"/>

Owners of the house who started restoring it in the mid-1970s started removing some home-made storm windows and then discovered from old records that Tyler had built them himself, so they kept them. One of the house's claims to fame is its length; 301 feet (91 m). It is noted for its long, skinny [[ballroom]], a "hyphen" Tyler had added to the house to accommodate the style of dancing popular then - what is today called "[[Line dance|line dancing]]" but was then the "[[Virginia reel (dance)|Virginia reel]]."<ref name="Sherwood Website">{{cite web|title=Sherwood Forest Plantation - Home of President John Tyler|url=http://www.sherwoodforest.org/|website=www.sherwoodforest.org|accessdate=20 June 2017}}</ref>

The house has been in the Tyler family since it was purchased in 1842. The house currently is owned by [[Harrison Ruffin Tyler]], President Tyler's grandson and the son of [[Lyon Gardiner Tyler]];<ref>{{cite web |last1=Kobell |first1=Rona |title=Discover the Sherwood Forest plantation of President John Tyler |url=http://www.bayjourneys.com/article/discover_the_sherwood_forest_plantation_of_president_john_tyler |website=bayjourneys.com |publisher=Bay Journeys |accessdate=7 February 2020}}</ref> he and his wife, Frances Payne Bouknight Tyler, restored the home and grounds based on information gathered from over 47,000 letters describing the decor, furnishings, and landscape.{{citation needed|date=September 2019}} It is open to the public for tours by appointment.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.sherwoodforest.org/Tours.html|title=Group Tours available at Sherwood Forest Plantation - Home of President John Tyler|website=www.sherwoodforest.org|access-date=2016-10-25}}</ref> The grounds are open daily for self-guided tours from 9am-5pm excepting Thanksgiving and Christmas days.