"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...."
[Illustration: Mrs. Rachel Jackson
Mrs. Jackson's likeness is from the miniature which General Jackson
wore every day until his death.]
[Illustration: General Andrew Jackson