102 Union St. Clarksville, TN
Circa 1842. s-story yellow frame home with entire front porch.
The Frech-Buck House is a 2 story yellow frame home sits on Union St.
Photo from mchssociety.com
Multiple real estate listings cite 1842 as the year of construction. It boasts a picturesque front porch and is only a block or so off S. Riverside Dr. and the river.
In 1856, William Andrew Quarles (1825-1893) and Lucy Jones Poindexter Quarles (1825-1861) owned the home. He had begun his legal career in Clarksville in 1848, and 10 years later, in 1858, was appointed Circuit Judge temporarily. In 1859, he was appointed Bank Supervisor of the State by Governor Harris. About 1860, he was president of the Memphis, Clarksville and Louisville Railroad and helped bring the railway to the area. He served in the Civil War on the Confederate side and as brigadier general, led the Quarles Brigade on various missions. The second military camp in Montgomery Co. was named in his honor. Quarles was badly wounded at the Battle of Franklin and discharged. He resumed his law career and served as a Tennessee state senator (1875-77) and (1887-1889). Quarles remarried to Alice Vivian Quarles (1837-1870) and later to Louisa Barker Meriwether Quarles (1833-1895). Quarles died at the Meriville plantation of Lucy's family.
By 1887, Henry Frech (1836-1887) owned the Frech-Buck House. He was married to Amanda C. Byrne Frech (1837-1882) in 1868. He came to Clarksville in 1849 and became a successful merchant and cabinet maker manufacturer. He owned a large department store on Franklin St. and also was a partner in the Sewanee Planing Mills in 1872. In 1869, he was Mayor of Clarksville. In 1876, Frech is listed in the Tennessee State Gazetteer and Business Directory with a general store.
By 1887, Frech has died and his executors sold the house to J.T. Edwards. Edwards was a tobaccoist and his family owned McNeal & Edwards Company, one of the best department stores in the city. In 1893, Mrs L.B. Dancey became owner. In 1907, Carrie S. Boone purchased the home, and she sold it in 1918 to John R. Dickson.
After several owners, in 1943, Lynnwood A. Tarpley (1869-1961) and Mary Eleanor Shackleton Tarpley (1870-1942) owned it. They wed in 1898. Tarpley joined a funeral home business and eventually became a partner - Neal-Tarpley-Parchman Funeral Home. Because of his civic work, the City of Clarksville honored him with the Lynwood Tarpley Memorial Bridge. After Lynnwood died, the Buck family purchased it until 1978. Since then, it has been converted and used as an apartment house.