Lloyd Tilghman House

The Lloyd Tilghman House is an historic home located in downtown Paducah, Kentucky. It is also known as the Tilghman-Woolfolk House and the Lloyd Tilghman House and Civil War Museum.Early yearsThe Greek Revival house was built in 1852 by Robert Woolfolk on the behalf of Lloyd Tilghman, who had just moved with his family to Paducah that year. Tilghman was a West Point graduate, having finished 46th out of 49 in his class, but spent less than a year as a Second Lieutenant. He moved to Paducah, then a community of 3,000 people, due to being assigned there by his employer, the New Orleans and Ohio Railroad, as a railroad civil engineer for the first railroad to connect Paducah to major cities to the south. Tilghman did not purchase the house; Woolfolk remained the owner of the property. Tilghman and his wife, seven children, and five slaves called the residence home until 1861, although Tilghman spent much of his time working on a railroad in the Isthmus of Panama. At the time of his departure from the home, he was one of two colonels of the Kentucky State Guard whose stated purpose was to defend the state's neutrality. He officially left Paducah in June 1861, delaying his departure to prevent more pro-Union officers from leading the state militia in Paducah.Woolfolk's family then moved into the home. When Federal troops finally arrived in Paducah, their headquarters were directly across from the Woolfolk home. Woolfolk was pro-Southern and flew a Confederate flag in response, sparking a riot in December 1861 that included Union soldiers, particularly those of the 11th Indiana Regiment. The incident would begin Brigadier General Charles Ferguson Smith's decline as he saw his subordinate, Ulysses S. Grant, raised above him almost immediately.