Copyright, 1949
MARY FRENCH CALDWELL

Author: General Jackson’s Lady—A Story of the Life and Times of Rachel Donelson Jackson, Beloved Wife of General Andrew Jackson, Seventh President of the United States. 1936. (Illustrated 555 pp.)

PRINTED AND BOUND IN THE U. S. A. BY
KINGSPORT PRESS, INC., KINGSPORT, TENN.

This Small Volume Is Dedicated to the Patriotic Women Whose Untiring Labors Made Possible the Preservation, in Its Entirety, of
ANDREW JACKSON’S HERMITAGE
and to Those, Who Down through the Years, Continue to Guard It as One of the Most Priceless Treasures of Tennessee and the Nation

FOREWORD: (1933)

By the late John H. DeWitt, distinguished jurist and historian, who was President of the Tennessee Historical Society and Judge of the Court of Civil Appeals.

The history of the Hermitage, Andrew and Rachel Jackson, their domestic life, their relations with their friends and her kin, is of charming interest. Mrs. Mary French Caldwell has recorded in this booklet much of this history that has not hitherto been published. She has made patient research into old records and other documents, bringing to light Jackson’s transactions in certain lands, his acquisitions of home sites, and building and rebuilding of homes. She has restated who were his immediate kin by affinity and his closest local friends. She has revived the color and atmosphere of life at the Hermitage in the years when its master was its beloved and dominating personality in the flesh.

The Ladies’ Hermitage Association has done a fine service in publishing this manuscript for the benefit of all lovers of this history. It should be eagerly obtained and carefully studied by tourists as well as by all other Americans. They will profit by it in culture and in patriotism.

BOARD OF DIRECTORS OF THE
LADIES’ HERMITAGE ASSOCIATION

Directors: Mrs. George F. Blackie, Mrs. Charles E. Buntin, Mrs. Lyon Childress, Mrs. Paul DeWitt, Mrs. Edgar M. Foster, Mrs. E. W. Graham, Mrs. Douglas Henry, Mrs. Gilbert Merritt, Mrs. Jesse M. Overton, Mrs. William Weymss.

Board of Trustees: Mr. E. A. Lindsey, Nashville, Chairman; Mr. William E. Beard, Nashville; Mr. Henry Barker, Bristol; Mr. Lewis R. Donelson, Memphis; Mr. Lawrence Winn, Nashville; Mr. Herbert Gannaway, Memphis; Mr. Stanley F. Horn, Nashville; Dr. Marvin McTyiere Cullom, Nashville.

Regents of the Association have been: Mrs. Mary L. Baxter, Mrs. J. Berrien Lindsley, Mrs. Mary C. Dorris, Miss Louise Grundy Lindsley, Mrs. B. F. Wilson, Mrs. Bettie M. Donelson, Mrs. Harry Evans, Mrs. R. R. Henry, Mrs. Walter Stokes, Mrs. James S. Frazer, Mrs. Edward A. Lindsey, Mrs. Reau E. Folk.

Mrs. Jesse M. Overton, Mrs. E. W. Graham, Mrs. George F. Blackie, and the present regent, Mrs. Robert F. Jackson.

Publications Committee: Mrs. George F. Blackie, Miss Martha Lindsey and Miss Fermine Pride.

INTRODUCTION

It was not difficult to choose a name for this little volume. Andrew Jackson’s Hermitage is neither new nor original, but it has had common usage for such a long period of years that it seems by far the most natural title for any work dealing with that historic old mansion which offered a haven of peace and contentment to “Old Hickory,” during both the storms and the calms of his eventful career. In every respect it is Andrew Jackson’s Hermitage. Its fertile fields sustained him, its trees sheltered him, and the friendly walls of the dwellings which he placed in the midst of its broad acres were not only his refuge in times of dissatisfaction with the outside world, but they formed the castle to which he welcomed his friends. It mattered little that the first Hermitage was an humble abode of logs. He was its master, and his guest, whether he happened to be the polished and elegant Aaron Burr or some uncouth backwoodsman, was given a royal welcome.

The mistress of the Hermitage—Rachel, the beloved and adored—was the raison d’être of the whole establishment. She was, to Andrew Jackson, the center of the universe—the one fixed thing around which all of the affairs of his life revolved. Her happiness was his greatest concern and, in building a home, her comfort and pleasure were his first consideration. She was not the kind of a woman, however, to accept such adoration without repaying it in thought and in deed. She was an excellent housekeeper, a gracious hostess, and an efficient manager of the whole plantation. Like many women of the South, she was often left for months at a time in charge of the entire estate, for travel was difficult and tedious, and men who participated in public affairs were forced to endure long absences from home. During the early years of their marriage General Jackson, either as an attorney or as judge, traveled hundreds and hundreds of miles over wilderness trails. His mercantile business, as well as his legal and political activities, took him frequently to Philadelphia, Natchez, or other distant points. Later, the Creek campaigns and activities leading up to the Battle of New Orleans kept him away from the Hermitage for months at a time. After the victory in 1815 Mrs. Jackson accompanied him on trips to Washington, to Florida, New Orleans, and other places where his fame drew great crowds around them. There never was a time, however, when fame had any attraction for Rachel. All that she asked was that the lord and master of the Hermitage be freed to return to their peaceful fireside.

Of General Jackson’s devotion to his wife there are hundreds of evidences. From the time he killed Charles Dickinson in the duel provoked by a rash reference to the unfortunate circumstances of their marriage, until his dying day, he was known for his almost fanatical devotion to her, and his desire to punish anyone who might cast a slur upon her fair name. Only Rachel’s suffering after Dickinson’s death and her gentle restraint kept his fiery temper under control.

The Hermitage stands upon the spot which Rachel Jackson selected. The walls of its central portion sheltered her, and to-day they house many objects made sacred by her touch. In the long years which intervened between her death and that of her distinguished husband, her memory was kept green by his devotion. The young lovers who, during his last years, laughed and danced through the pleasant rooms and hallways of the old mansion and wandered in the moonlight to the magnolia-shaded tomb in the garden caught something of his immortal love story.

Both he and Rachel loved young people. They had no children, but in 1809 they adopted a baby—a nephew of Mrs. Jackson’s—and down through the years the Hermitage was enlivened by the happy laughter of children and of young people: sons and daughters of neighbors, of Mrs. Jackson’s kin, and of the General’s friends and associates. There have been many brides and many happy wedding parties at the old mansion, and the General himself was not averse to lending a helping hand in cases where Dan Cupid did not make progress rapidly enough to suit him.

Nothing reveals the gentle, human side of Andrew Jackson more completely than a study of the contacts made through various avenues of his home life. Nor can anything else as thoroughly prove his wisdom and good common sense. He had the greatest deference for women and a great tenderness for children. He was a compassionate master of slaves, a great lover of horses and fine cattle, and an excellent farmer. He was a shrewd trader and a meticulous observer of his own debts to others—and theirs to him. His only bad business deals, and they were not many, were those where his affection for a kinsman or a friend got the better of his cold reasoning power.

The picture which it is hoped that this little volume will create in the minds of the readers is that of Andrew Jackson, the husband and father, the host to friends and neighbors, and to such of the nation’s great as came to his doors; the farmer who delighted in the productivity of his broad acres; the merchant who rode each day to his store at Hunter’s Hill or Clover Bottom; the warrior who returned with the laurels of New Orleans to a log house; the statesman, weary with fame and the long, lonely years, who came back to his Hermitage to sit out the remainder of his days near the tomb of his beloved Rachel.

It is this conception of Jackson that the Hermitage perpetuates. The little museum which was once the nursery of his grandchildren houses relics of his military career and a rare collection of his state papers. Of this side of his life the nation is already well informed. The house itself speaks eloquently of the life which once vibrated its now quiet rooms. His office is filled with books which knew the frequent touch of his hands; his dressing gown lies across a chair in his bedchamber, and the miniature of Rachel is in its accustomed place on the table at his bedside. In the parlors the portraits of his “military family” look down upon silent rooms which, when they knew them, were full of music and laughter. The dining room, once the center of a lavish hospitality, is quiet, and the kitchen is no longer filled with negroes, bustling about and singing before a great open fire. It requires no great powers of imagination to people these rooms again. The inanimate objects are there. They have been carefully preserved by a patriotic group of women who realized their value in time to keep them in their original setting. Down through the years they will be guarded jealously by women who follow in the footsteps of the founders of the Ladies’ Hermitage Association, and so will be preserved the home of one of the greatest of all Americans and the setting of one of the most beautiful love stories of all times.

(From “The Hermitage,” Will Allen Dromgoole, Nashville Banner, Jan. 6, 1935.)

ANDREW JACKSON’S HERMITAGE

“Beginning at a Hickory tree....” There is something prophetic in the description of the tract of land which Andrew Jackson bought from Nathaniel Hays on August 23, 1804. Nothing had yet happened in the career of General Jackson which even hinted that his wiry strength of body and of will would some day win for him the enduring title, “Old Hickory.” The long, weary, homeward march from Natchez with his loyal Tennesseans was a decade ahead of him. The battles of the Horseshoe and New Orleans and the fame which followed them were undreamed-of events of a shadowy, uncertain future. No one foretold that the hickory tree would become symbolic of the man, nor that the tract of land he was buying would some day be one of the nation’s most important shrines. Certainly no one saw in the purchaser the future idol of the nation and the ruler of its destinies during a period which called not only for superior statesmanship, but for unconquerable will and determination.

It is even more interesting to trace the history of the Hermitage tract back to the original grant made by the State of North Carolina to Nathaniel Hays, on April 17, 1786, and to see that the hickory tree still holds the initial place in defining the boundary line. This old grant reads:

“State of North Carolina. Know ye that we have granted unto Nathaniel Hays six hundred and forty acres of land in Davidson county including a spring which lies in the entrance into Jones’ bent on the South Side of Cumberland River, beginning at a hickory and a hackberry in Colo John Donelson’s line thirty-one poles South of his North East Corner, running thence along Samuel Hays line, East four hundred and eight poles to a white oak and mulberry, North two hundred and fifty one poles to a white oak corner to Hugh Hays line west four hundred and eight poles to a black walnut, South two hundred and fifty one poles to the Beginning. To Hold to the said Nathaniel Hays his heirs and assigns forever, dated the seventeenth day of April 1786.

“Rd. Caswell

“Daniel Smith Surveyor.

“J. Glasgow, Sec.

“James Buchanan Richd Jones.”

The Jackson deed to this tract, dated August 23, 1804, showing a lapse of eighteen years from the original grant, describes the boundaries as follows: “Beginning at a Hickory tree and Hackberry on Colo John Donelsons line, now Savern Donelsons line, thirty-one poles South of his North East Corner Runing thence along Samuel Hays line, now his heirs, East two hundred and fifty four poles Crossing Spring Branch three poles to a Gum Taylors Corner Thence north with Taylors line Ten poles to a Small Hickory thence North nine Degrees East along Taylors line to a Black Oak Standing on the South Boundary line on Hugh Hays premption now belonging to the heirs of Samuel Donelson Des^d thence along Hugh Hays line West to a Black Walnut the South West Corner of Said Hugh Hays premption thence South two hundred and fifty one poles to the beginning it being a part of a Premption granted to the said Nathaniel Hays from the State of North Carolina by a patent bearing Date the Seventeenth day of April One Thousand Seven Hundred and Eighty six, and N^o twenty four to have and to hold the said Tract or Parcel of Land with its Appurtenances to the only use and behoof of the said Andrew Jackson his heirs and assigns forever and the said Nathaniel Hays doth by these presents Oblige himself his heirs Executors and Administrators to warrant and forever Defend the Right Title and Interest of the Said Tract or Parcel of Land with the Appurtenances thereunto Belonging to the said Andrew Jackson his heirs and assigns forever against the Claim or Claims of all and Every Person legally claiming the Same in Testimony whereof the said Nathaniel Hays has hereunto set his hand and affixed his seal the day and date first above and for than purpose mentioned.

“Nath^l Hays.

“Witness John Coffee

“Vance Greer & Alex^r Donelson.”

When this tract was finally deeded to the State of Tennessee in 1856, the description of boundaries had become more technical. The surveyor began his measurements at a stake in Kerr’s line, and there is little in his description to remind the reader of the original boundary lines. The deed held by the State of Tennessee contains, however, a reference to the spring and the spring branch, but instead of being measured, in the picturesque fashion of the old-timers, from tree to tree, the distances are reckoned from stake to stake, and the symbolic hickory tree is dropped from the legal record of the boundaries.

This last recorded deed of the property, which appears on Page 149, Book 24, at the Davidson County Court House, reads in part: “... the following parcel of land situate in said county and State and being part of the late residence of Andrew Jackson deceased, containing by survey of Jesse B. Clements, Esquire, five hundred acres of land counted as follows, viz., Beginning at a stake on the northwest corner of A. H. Kerr’s formerly Col. William Ward’s land running thence East with his North boundary line, crossing the Lebanon Turnpike Road at one hundred and twenty-nine (129) poles in all two hundred and ten (210) poles to a stake in the West boundary line of A. J. Donelson’s land thence North six and a half (6½) degrees East with his line one hundred and fifty six (156) poles to the Road aforesaid Thence North four (4) degrees East with said line thirty (30) poles thence North one (1) degree still in the Donelson’s line East thirty three (33) poles to a Stake thence South eighty-eight (88) degrees West passing three poles North of the Spring and Stone spring house at one hundred and forty two (142) poles in all two hundred and thirty six (236) poles to a stake in William Donelson’s East boundary line thence South one and a half (1½) degrees East with his line ninety four 94 poles to a Stake one of his corners thence West with another line of said William Donelson one hundred and eighteen poles to a Stake on the East Side of a Small branch thence North fifty nine (59) degrees West crossing said branch sixty one (61) poles to a Stake thence South with another line of said William Donelson two hundred and twelve poles (212) to a Stake thence East one hundred and seventy five and a half (175½) poles to a Stake in said Kerr’s West boundary line, thence North (1½) one and a half degrees West with said line sixty five and a half (65½) poles to the beginning corner and including the late mansion, Tomb, Spring and Spring House, Barn and Stables of Genl. Andrew Jackson, deceased, as will more fully appear by reference to the plat at the head of this deed which is made part thereof....”

Before Andrew Jackson moved to the Hermitage, he lived on a near-by estate known as “Hunter’s Hill.” It is well, however, before going into the history of his home on this property, to trace briefly his residences from the time of his arrival in Davidson County in the fall of 1788.

We are legally informed of his presence and the beginning of his professional duties by the statement in Minute Book A, Davidson County Court, under the date of January 5, 1789, to the effect that “Andrew Jackson Esquire produced a licence to practice as an attorney at law in the Severall County courts in this State: and now in this court has taken the Oath of an Attorney.”

Young Attorney Jackson, then in his twenty-first year, had come West to make his fortune. With him was John McNairy, who had but recently been appointed judge of the Superior Court of North Carolina’s western district. John Overton, another young lawyer, had come West from Virginia by way of Kentucky, and it soon happened that he and young Jackson found common quarters at the home of the Widow Donelson. The young men were fortunate, for fare in such a home as Mrs. Donelson’s was far better than that in the few stations or military posts which offered the only other shelter for young unattached men. Many of the families still lived in the stations and, in the most severe periods of Indian hostilities, every home which was not a well-manned fortress was abandoned. Mrs. Donelson had come to the Cumberland settlement in 1780 with her husband, Col. John Donelson, commander of the pioneer flotilla which brought the families of the first settlers to the site of Nashville. They arrived April 24, 1780, with their large family and slaves, and settled on the now famous “Clover Bottom” tract on Stone’s River. Summer and autumn of that year, however, brought serious difficulties. Indians had attacked the settlement, food was scarce, crops had been lost in an overflow, and Col. Donelson was faced with the necessity of returning to the east on business for himself and other settlers. His large family was a serious responsibility and, rather than leave them without his protection he took them, in the fall of 1780, to the Kentucky settlement, where food was more plentiful, and where they would not be such a burden to the other settlers. The residence of the Donelson family until 1785 was in the neighborhood of Harrodsburg, but Col. Donelson, his older sons, and his sons-in-law, were engaged in various activities which kept them in motion up and down the western frontier from Natchez to the Cumberland and Harrodsburg. They were preparing, however, to take up a permanent residence in the Cumberland in 1785 when Col. Donelson, on his way from Kentucky to the Cumberland settlement, met a mysterious death, either at the hands of the Indians or two young white men who were, for a part of his journey, his companions.

Mrs. Donelson and her sons, however, had established themselves on lands in the Cumberland settlement. The home of Mrs. Donelson was on the opposite side of the river from Jones’ Bend, in which Jackson was later to own lands and at the entrance of which his Hermitage was to be located. About the time of Jackson’s arrival on the Cumberland, Mrs. Donelson was forced to send to Kentucky to bring her daughter, Rachel, who, in 1785, had been married to Lewis Robards, of Mercer County, to the protection of the parental roof. Young Mrs. Robards had been made desperately unhappy by the ill nature and unjust suspicions of her husband and he, in a fit of temper, ordered her to leave his home. No sooner had she been carried to Tennessee by her brother than the husband became repentant and John Overton, who had boarded at the Robards’ home in Kentucky and was familiar with both families, assumed the rôle of peacemaker. Consequently a reconciliation was brought about and Robards came to live at Mrs. Donelson’s, with the avowed intention of not repeating his unfair treatment of his young wife and the apparent determination to make his home in the Cumberland. At any rate, in July, 1788, he acquired two important tracts of land in the neighborhood. The first was a tract of something over a thousand acres, purchased from William Mabane. It was, according to the deed, “A certain tract or parcel of land situate lying and being in Green County and State aforesaid on the West fork of Big Harpeth River....” The consideration was “the sum of two hundred pounds current money.” (Davidson County was taken off of a portion of Greene County.)

The other tract, which by a peculiar turn of fate was to become the property of Andrew Jackson, was later known as “Hunter’s Hill.” This tract was granted to Lewis Robards by the State of North Carolina on the tenth day of July, 1788. It was sold by him for two hundred pounds to John Shannon on March 19, 1794—a significant fact, for on January 17, 1794, Andrew Jackson’s second marriage to Rachel, Robards’ divorced wife, took place. It is evident that Lewis Robards had no further interest in lands in Tennessee.

In the time which intervened between Robards’ arrival at Mrs. Donelson’s in 1788 and his final departure for Kentucky in May or June, 1790, the old story of the jealous husband was repeated. This time Andrew Jackson was the target of his anger and unjust suspicions, just as another young man—one Peyton Short—had been back in Kentucky. The incidents of this period are well known. As the breach between Robards and his wife widened, Jackson and Overton removed to Mansker’s Station and, finally, Robards set out for Kentucky alone, threatening, however, to return and to force Rachel to go back to Kentucky with him. To escape him she fled to friends in Natchez either late in the year of 1790 or early in 1791, and Andrew Jackson went along to help protect the party against the Indians. Later news came to the Cumberland that a divorce had been granted Robards by the Virginia legislature in an act passed December 20, 1790, and Jackson hastened to Natchez to woo the unhappy Rachel. They were married in Natchez in August, 1791, and returned to Nashville in September. It was not until December, 1793, that Robards revealed the fact that the Virginia legislature had granted him only the right to sue for divorce in the courts of Kentucky. He exercised that right in the Mercer County court, term of September, 1793, and in the following December John Overton brought to the astounded Jackson the news that the Natchez marriage had not been legal. The second marriage took place openly, and though the circumstances which necessitated it were deplored by friends of the Jacksons, the situation was fully understood and no blame was attached to either of them.

About the time of the second marriage the Jacksons were probably living on a tract of land in “Jones’ Bent” known as Poplar Grove. There is little known of this period, but a letter of Jackson’s, dated May 16, 1794, is headed “Poplar Grove, Tenn.” This tract, bought from John Donelson for the sum of one hundred pounds, April 30, 1793, was, according to the deed recorded at the Davidson County Court House, located on “the lower end of a survey of 630 acres granted the said John Donelson by patent.” It is described as being “on the south side of Cumberland River in Jones Bent and bounded as follows—Beginning at sugar tree red oak and elm on the bank of the river, the lower end of the tract running thence north sixty degrees....”

The next important purchase from the standpoint of Jackson’s homestead was that of the Hunter’s Hill tract from John Shannon on March 7, 1796, “for and in consideration of the sum of seven hundred dollars to him in hand paid by the said Andrew Jackson.” It is impossible to trace definitely the residence of Rachel and Andrew during the years intervening between their marriage in the late summer of 1791 and the acquisition of the Hunter’s Hill tract in 1796. They must, for a period at least, have lived with Mrs. Donelson, or in the household of some member of the family. Rachel had frequently lived at the home of her sister Jane, Mrs. Robert Hays, of Haysborough—once the rival of Nashville. A study of Indian hostilities of the period indicates that permanent residence outside the strongholds of the community was not practical. In 1792 Buchanan’s station was attacked by a party of several hundred Indians, and as late as September, 1794, five men were fired upon by the Indians “near Mr. Andrew Jackson’s, on the south side of Cumberland River.” One was killed and two wounded.

Several things happened in 1794 which indicate that the Jacksons were established in a home of their own—the reference in a communication to the War Department to the Indian depredations “near Mr. Andrew Jackson’s”; the previously mentioned letter, which Jackson himself headed “Poplar Grove, Tenn. May 16, 1794;” and freedom from Indian attacks on outlying settlements. The important Nickajack expedition, which brought an end to all organized Indian hostilities in the section, took place in that year.

The death of Mrs. Jackson’s mother, Rachel Stockley Donelson, which, according to a marker erected a few years ago by members of the Donelson family, occurred in 1794, was offered in the first edition of the present work as another reason that Andrew and Rachel Jackson had gone into a home of their own. This seems to be in error. As far as the writer knows at present, the date of her death has not been established. However, it was after October 2, 1800. (See pp. 491-92, General Jackson’s Lady, by Mary French Caldwell.)

The Nickajack expedition was noteworthy, not only for the success of its immediate objects, but also for its effectiveness in bringing a lasting peace to the frontiers, and for the fact that it was conducted in defiance of the Federal government. The territorial governor, William Blount, in a letter to General Knox, Secretary of War, written in Knoxville, October 2, 1794, recites the sufferings of the inhabitants in the “district of Mero” and tells of depredations which took place while the frontiersmen were on their way to the Cherokee Lower Towns—Nickajack, Running Water, and others of lesser importance.

“While Major Ore was out against the Lower Town,” he wrote, “the Indians continued their depredations against the district of Mero. On the night of the fourteenth September, the Indians pulled up a part of the stockading of Morgan’s station, and took out a valuable gelding tied to his dwelling house. The sixteenth of the same month, a woman on Red river near Major Sharp’s was killed by the Indians. The same day a party of Indians fired upon five men near Mr. Andrew Jackson’s, on the south side of Cumberland river, killed one man, and wounded two; among the latter is Mr. John Bosley. The same party burned the houses of John Donnelson and the widow Hayes. From the nearness of the time, and the distance of the situation, within which the above injuries were committed, there must have been three parties of Indians.” (Indian Affairs, Vol. I, page 663.)

The Nickajack expedition began on September 8, 1794, so at the time that these depredations took place the settlement was in an unprotected condition. Since before the Civil War Andrew Jackson’s participation in this campaign has been a matter of dispute. The historian Ramsey, in his Annals of Tennessee, said that he served as a private; but Putnam, in his work on Middle Tennessee, basing his statement on the word of men who participated in the expedition, declares that he did not go. Putnam is followed by Parton and, since both of them have so vehemently denied that he had a part in it, this position has been almost generally accepted.

Ramsey based his statement on papers of Willie Blount, half brother of the territorial governor, who, at the time was secretary of the territory, and was later himself governor of Tennessee. Both Putnam and Parton have failed to take into consideration the importance of Blount’s testimony—or, perhaps, did not have access to his papers. A letter which should settle the controversy permanently has been recently acquired by the state historian and librarian, Mrs. John Trotwood Moore. This letter, written to General Jackson on January 4, 1830, by Willie Blount, states:

“I have by me the rough draft of sundry letters, from me to you, none of which have yet been either copied or mailed: they relate to things gone bye, & so, no matter whether they are ever sent or not: they speak only of the pleasurable feelings I experience in the knowledge I possess of the motives and conduct in the various promotions of my friend yourself and the result of your efforts since the battle of Nickajack, commanded by Orr: where, as Sampson Williams says, our friend, the Mountain Leader, the friend of man, was at that never to be forgotten good days work, in which you lent an active useful hand, that gave peace to our frontier, never to be forgotten by me.”

It is fitting that this letter should be published for the first time in a volume on the Hermitage, for it is an interesting contribution to the incomplete records of Andrew Jackson’s early career in Tennessee. It is not strange, of course, that these records should be scant. Jackson was too young, too busy, and too completely unaware of the greatness which awaited him to have an interest in preserving personal records of this early period. Certainly his acquaintances could not have seen in the tall, slender, red-haired young attorney a future president and a great general.

Many disconnected court records may be found. A few of his account books survive and some of his letters have escaped oblivion; but, for the most part, the records of his early military activities, his mercantile business, and his land deals are incomplete. It is impossible to quote in detail from the court records of his land deals—that would require a separate volume. It is possible to show from them, however, that when he owned both the Hunter’s Hill and Hermitage tracts, his holdings in the Hermitage neighborhood totaled something like 1,200 acres. The extent of his land fluctuated from time to time with his changing fortunes. For instance he sold the Hunter’s Hill tract in 1804, bought it back at a later period of prosperity, and sold it again under financial pressure. At his death he held a plantation in Mississippi, as well as his Hermitage estate and adjoining lands bought from the heirs of Savern Donelson.

The Hermitage estate, as described by Andrew Jackson himself on September 30, 1841 (Bassett, Correspondence of Andrew Jackson, Vol. VI, p. 125) was as follows:

“The following is the boundery of my Hermitage track and its appendages, viz, Beginning at a stake, Andrew Jacksons South East corner, on Major A. J. Donelsons west boundery line and Mrs. Wards North East corner, running line thence North Eight east with A. J. Donelson to a post oak near A. J. Donelsons gate, then West to the turn pike road, then with the turn pike road to the old road leading to James Saunders ferry, thence North with A. J. Donelsons line to an ash and Locust, then East with his line to a black oak, thence North with his line to the North boundery line of Hugh Hays premption, thence West with the old preemption line to a stone, the North West corner of Hugh Hays preemption thence south with this preemption line, passing a walnutt corner, (the South West and North West corner of said Hugh Hays, and Nathaniel Hays preemption) continued South with said N. Hays line to the mouth of the lane leading to Wm. Donelsons to a cedar stake, the North east corner of Savern Donelsons 640 acres that he died seized of and the South east corner of William Donelsons land, thence West along the old line to a cedar stake, corner to A. Jackson and William Donelson, thence down the meanders of a branch to a stone corner, thence south with Wm. Donelsons line, passing his corner, and with T. Dodsons line to a white ash at Dodsons fence, then East with Dodsons line, and Mrs. Wards line to an Elm, then North with Mrs. Wards line to a dogwood, Andrew Jacksons corner, thence East to the beginning, containing in all nine hundred and sixty acres. I send you the exterior boundery of my whole tract....”

His holdings in other parts of the territory which is now Tennessee were almost as limitless as the wilderness itself. Like the other leaders of the period—although on a somewhat smaller scale than his brother-in-law, Stockley Donelson, William Blount, and John Sevier—he dealt in great bodies of wild lands. One interesting thing that Jackson’s records show is that he was remarkably successful in many of his deals, particularly in the smaller ones which had to do with the exchange of lands in the neighborhood of Nashville. It is extremely interesting to observe that on March 19, 1794, Lewis Robards sold the future Hunter’s Hill tract to John Shannon for the sum of two hundred pounds; that on March 7, 1796, Andrew Jackson bought it of Shannon for seven hundred dollars; and that on July 6, 1804, Jackson sold it to Edward Ward for $10,000. A rough estimate of sixteen land deals recorded in Davidson County in Books C and D shows that between May 3, 1793, and February 18, 1797, he had bought something like twenty-seven thousand acres of land at an expenditure of about $20,000. These records show his major transactions of this period for two very obvious reasons—the land to the east was already largely taken up and the land in the major portion of what is now Middle Tennessee, as well as that in the future West Tennessee, was recorded in Davidson County. These deals are catalogued briefly as follows:

Book C

Page 134—Approximately 630 acres of John Donelson, in Jones’ Bent, for 100 pounds, August 30, 1793.

Page 140—320 acres of James Robertson and Hugh Leeper, on north side of Duck River, on Leeper’s Creek, for 100 pounds currency, May 3, 1793.

Page 242—640 acres of Edward Cox of Sullivan county, in Davidson County on east branches of Mill Creek, for 500 pounds, February 11, 1794.

Page 316—Buys as highest bidder, for eleven pounds, 640 acres on Big Harpeth joining Governor Martin’s survey, August 2, 1794. (Land recovered at July court, 1793, by Henry Bradford against Lardner Clark.)

Page 492—5,000 acres for $400, bought of Joseph B. Neville, Sheriff of Tennessee County, a tract of land on Reelfoot River, the property of the heirs of Henry Boyer, which had been advertised for forty days and sold at Clarksville to Sheriff Neville, who represented Andrew Jackson and was the highest bidder. April 18, 1796.

Page 493—250 acres for $60 sold to Andrew Jackson by Thomas Hickman. Located “on the south side of Tennessee River, some small distance from where a hurricane hath crossed said river....” Recorded April 18, 1796.

Page 495—640 acres for the “sum of six pence an acre” from Reese Porter, “in the Middle District lying on the South side of Duck River on the waters of Lytle’s Creek.” April 19, 1796.

Page 495—640 acres for $700, of John Shannon, Logan County, Kentucky, “a certain tract or parcel of land containing 640 acres ... situate and lying in the said county of Davidson on Cumberland river on the south side ... it being a premption grant to Lewis Robards by grant from the State of North Carolina, bearing date of July tenth 1788.” March 7, 1796. (This is the Hunter’s Hill tract.)

Page 496—1,000 acres for $250, in the Western District of Tennessee, on the waters of the north fork of Deer River, bought of William Terrell Lewis. March 11, 1796.

Page 497—525 acres for $5.25, part of 1,280-acre tract belonging to “one George Augustus Sugg.” Sold at Sheriff’s sale, December 8, 1795.

Book D

Page 42—5,000 acres for $2,500, “in the Middle District on the Middle fork of Elk River,” bought of Elijah Robertson, May 14, 1796.

Page 43—5,160 acres for $6,000, composed of twelve tracts of land, much of which had been granted to Elijah Robertson by the State of North Carolina, May 14, 1796.

Page 48—“One undivided half or moiety of a tract of land on Chickasaw Bluff, beginning about one mile below the mouth of Wolf River, which s^d tract was granted to John Rice by patent bearing date the 25th day of April 1789,” bought of John Overton for $100, February 28, 1796.

Page 108—640 acres for $540, in Sumner County on South Side of the Cumberland and on “Spencer’s Creek, including the Lick,” bought of Joseph Hendricks, February 18, 1797.

Page 454—2,560 acres for $2,000, four tracts of 640 acres each in Sumner County, bought of Martin Armstrong and Stockley Donelson, May 9, 1796.

Page 455—3200 acres from $3,000, five tracts in Sumner County, bought of Martin Armstrong and Stockley Donelson, May 9, 1796.

Page 455—1,000 acres for $1,000, “in the middle district on the North side of Duck River, Opposite the mouth of Lick Creek, known by some by the name of Sugar Creek ...” bought of Stockley Donelson, May 9, 1796.

Book F

Page 70—10,000 acres for $182. On April 19, 1802, “at the Court House in the Town of Nashville 85,000 acres of land contained in grants for 5,000 acres each ... lying and being on Duck River in the Middle District and within the District of West (now Middle) Tennessee aforesaid which sixteen tracts were granted to John Gray Blount and Thomas Blount by them conveyed to David Allison deceased and by said David Allison in his lifetime mortgaged to Norton Pryor and ordered and decreed by said court to be sold to pay the mortgage money and Interest with Costs, and whereas Andrew Jackson Esquire at said sale became purchaser of two of said tracts for five thousand acres each ... for the sum of $182 ... he being the highest and last bidder ... and whereas the said Andrew Jackson has sold and transferred all his right in and to one of said tracts of 5,000 acres ... to John Overton and Jenkin Whiteside for the Consideration of $1,666.66 to him paid and secured ... upon the condition that the said Andrew is not to be answerable in any way or manner for Damages or the Consideration Money in case the Land should be Lost or Taken away by any Claim or Title whatever....” April 25, 1802.

Page 188—Sold to Edward Ward 640 acres for $10,000, July 6, 1804. (This was the Hunter’s Hill tract bought from John Shannon on March 7, 1796, for $700.)

Page 241—425 acres for $3,400, bought of Nathaniel Hays (ancestor of the late John Hays Hammond), August 23, 1804. (The Hermitage tract, which sold to the State of Tennessee in 1856 for the sum of $48,000.)

Book E records the purchase of 1,000 acres for $500, and this with the deals mentioned in Book F adds 11,425 acres to the total of 27,825 acres mentioned in deeds between 1793 and 1797, making a grand total of 39,250 acres. These eighteen transactions show that for most of the land Jackson paid a reasonably good price for the period, and that sometimes he made a fabulous profit. This study by no means gives a complete picture of his land deals, but it gives an idea of his major deals at the period of his greatest activity in this field. There never was a time in his life when records of his personal business would not show some activity in the purchase or sale of land.

His mercantile business, which is quite as interesting, was confined to the earlier period of his life in Tennessee. It began about 1795 and ended, tradition says, in 1809, when as a wedding gift to General John Coffee, his former partner, he tore up the notes which he held on the Clover Bottom store.

As early as 1795 we find Andrew Jackson in partnership with David Allison in a shipment of goods from Philadelphia to Nashville. Five years earlier Allison, Jackson, Overton, and others were licensed to practice law in the new territory by Governor William Blount, and various records show Allison’s activities in Davidson County, as well as in Philadelphia, where he was a well-known merchant. From this connection and subsequent associations in both land and mercantile deals developed a relationship which was finally to force Jackson to sell his handsome Hunter’s Hill tract in order to meet his obligations. It is a long and complicated story, and its chief importance in the present connection is that responsibility for Jackson’s loss of Hunter’s Hill and his removal to more humble quarters on the Hermitage estate is usually attributed to the Allison deal. It is a significant fact, however, that Allison’s failure, which occurred about 1795, did not result in the sale of Hunter’s Hill until July 6, 1804. It is reasonable, then, to suppose that it by no means crippled Jackson, as most writers contend; although it undoubtedly marked the beginning of a long struggle through a period of financial unrest and depression which resulted finally in a plan of retrenchment and reorganization.