Tear down and rebuild, even after death.-------🍷 The history of this place commenced on December 6th 1818 when the founder Nathaniel Frances Cheairs IV was born. When Nathaniel was a young adult he had met a woman named Miss Susan Peters McKissack, daughter of Master William McKissack II. He wished to marry Miss Susan but Nathaniel III had a rule. All Nathaniel's must marry A Sarah, and she was a Susan. The want for tradition was so strong that Nathaniel IV was offered $5,000 in gold to find a bride named Sarah. Nathaniel decided to marry Susan. Due to Nathaniel IV following through and marrying Susan he was offered by his father-in-law offered Nathaniel all the brick and slave labor he needed to build his home. Nathaniel III eventually conceded and let the marriage happen. On September 2nd 1841 was the date the two married, and received $5,000 in gold as a gift. For the first ten years of their marriage, Nathaniel and Susan lived in two-story log cabin located on the back of the property. It was in that cabin that Susan gave birth to three of their four children. In 1851, the Cheairs completed construction on a smokehouse and kitchen house. In 1852 the Cheairs had begun the construction on what is now the Rippavilla mansion. The family lived above the kitchen house in that time until 1855 when the mansion had finished. Soon after Susan gave birth to their 4th and last child in the mansion. The family lived happily in the house until 1861 at the start of the Civil War. -------🍷 In the Civil War the house had been used as a Hospital and a Headquarters for the Confederates and the Union soldiers. On November 29th 1864 the Union soldiers had crept through in the night and snuck through the barricaded highway in front of the Rippavilla mansion. When the Confederates were alarmed there was a battle outside the house with 850 total deaths right outside the house. -------🍷 Jeannette Cheairs, one of the five children born to Nathaniel Francis and Susan Cheairs of Rippavilla, which is reported to be haunted. It is reported that she will turn the nursery light on and off and has been spotted as an apparition going down and up the stairs, she has also been spotted walking down the main upstairs hallway. Other things that have been reported are sounds and flashes of light that can only be described as cannons.