In 2018, Franklin became the first county in the state to have a Women’s History Trail and next year it will become the site of the “Sowing the Seeds of the Future” sculpture.
“We were very, very impressed with the work the sculptor has done,” Mayor Jack Horton said. He and others from the town recently visited sculptor Wesley Wofford’s studio in Cashiers to see the work in progress.
During the monthly Franklin Town Council meeting on Oct. 3, the board approved a Memorandum of Understanding with the Folk Heritage Association of Macon County, which will give the sculpture to the town.
Wofford created the sculpture showing three women from Macon County’s past and two children as they might have interacted in life. The three women are Timoxena Siler (white), Salley (Black) and Rebecca Na’ha Morris (Cherokee). Timoxena is featured in the sculpture as both a toddler and later in life as a young pregnant woman. The placement of the sculpture near the Nikwasi mound is of significance because Rebecca and her husband Gideon Morris owned a reserve of more than 600 acres across the river from the mound.
“The inspiration for this sculpture is the connection to the specific piece of property that was occupied by all three women,” Wofford stated in his sculpture explanation. “It represents these very specific women in Franklin’s history but also transcends their stories and becomes a symbol for each group of women and the cultures that make modern-day America possible. The Cherokee for generations used Nikwasi Mound and the surrounding land to celebrate annually at the Green Corn Festival. The women carried the corn they grew to the festival to be shared with the rest of the Cherokee. The seeds within the sculpture represent the transference of knowledge from culture to culture. The Cherokee laid the foundation, the Slaves’ labor built the framework, and the Pioneers inherited and further advanced these foundations to shape the future of Franklin.”
Wofford is in the final stages of work on the sculpture before it is sent to a Texas foundry for bronzing. That process is expected to take five to six months. Later in 2023, the sculpture will be installed in Franklin, on East Main Street, between the east- and west-bound bridges. The sculpture will serve as a trailhead for the Women’s History Trail at the gateway to downtown.
“There will be people coming to Franklin just to see this,” Horton said.
The Folk Heritage Association raised $400,000 for the creation of the sculpture and is raising another $50,000 for the installation. According to the MOU, the town and the Folk Heritage Association/WHT will cooperate on the landscaping, signage, lighting and beautification of the installation site. Following installation, the town will assume ongoing maintenance and insurance for the monument.
Town Council member Stacy Guffey said when he first saw how much money had to be raised for the project, he had his doubts, but through community support the sculpture has become a reality.
Guffey said there are so many points in history you can talk about in our area from the Cherokee to Colonial times and the early settlers. “A lot of times I think we have left out the most important group, because none of us would be here without women,” he said.
“This night in my mind is a very significant night,” said Mary Polanski, co-leader of the Women’s History Trail, which is a project of the Folk Heritage Association. “The town’s support, the community, the donors that have helped make this possible and the community are the folks that I would lift up, particularly my dear friend and colleague and visionary Barbara McRae.”
Polanski and members of the Town Council acknowledged former Vice Mayor Barbara McRae’s vision for the Women’s History Trail and the sculpture. McRae passed away in March 2021.
Polanski said she could almost hear McRae giggling and saying, “This is going to come to be.”
In making the motion to approve the MOU, Council member Mike Lewis thanked those who worked on the project saying it was a “monumental effort.”
As Mayor Horton called for the vote on the MOU, he and the six council members stood in unanimous support and applauded the Folk Heritage Association members and the Women’s History Trail leaders.