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: