Adelicia Hayes Franklin Acklen Cheatham was the widow of a planter from Nashville, Tennessee and then an owner in her own right.
Background
Adelicia Hayes was born on March 15, 1817 in Nashville, Tennessee. Her father was Oliver Bliss Hayes (1783-1858), a lawyer and later Presbyterian minister from South Hadley, Massachusetts who was related to Rutherford B. Hayes (1822–1893), the 19th President of the United States from 1877 to 1881. Her mother, Sarah Clements (Hightower) Hayes (1795-1871).
Career
They lived at Rokeby. In 1839, at age 22, married Isaac Franklin (1789-1846), a slave trader and plantation owner. They had four children: Victoria Franklin (1840-1846), Adelicia Franklin (1842-1846), Julius Caesar Franklin (1844-1844) and Emma Franklin (1844-1855), none of whom survived to adulthood.
As a result, she became the wealthiest woman in Tennessee.
In 1849, remarried to Joseph Alexander Smith (1816-1863). Together, they built the Belmont Mansion in Nashville.
They had six children: Joseph H. (1850-1938) who served as United States. Representative from Louisiana from 1878 to 1881, Laura (1852-1855), Corinne (1852–1855), William Hayes Ackland (1855–1940), Claude M. (1857-unknown) and Pauline () Lockett (1859–1931). Later, married Doctor William Archer Cheatham (1820-1900), a physician and head of the State Insane Asylum whose father, Richard Cheatham (1799-1845), served as United States Representative from Tennessee from 1837 to 1839.
However, she soon grew dissatisfied with this marriage and moved to 1776 Massachusetts Avenue in Washington, District of Columbia
In 1887, she sold the Belmont Mansion, which was later used for Ward–Belmont College, followed by Belmont University. died on a shopping trip in New York City on May 4, 1887, at the age of seventy. She was buried in the Mount Olivet Cemetery in Nashville.