Cooleemee Plantation

E Davie County overlooking the Yadkin River. Land purchased by the Hairston family in 1817; plantation house, with four wings in the form of a cross from a central hall, begun in 1850, completed in 1854. Still owned by the Hairston family. Origin of the name unknown, but legend says that Revolutionary War major Peter Hairston had fought the Creek Indians in Florida; he returned home with a young Indian captive who could remember only one word of his native tongue, the word Cooleemee, believed to mean "place where the white oak grows."