  “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
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 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, 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 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, 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 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....” Mrs. Rachel Jackson Mrs. Jackson’s likeness is from the miniature which General Jackson wore every day until his death. General Andrew Jackson His is from the well-known military portrait by Earl. 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 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.
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:
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, 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 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. Book CPage 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 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 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 DPage 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 sd 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 FPage 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 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 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. The Log Hermitage—1805 The building in the foreground was once a two-story block-house. The Brick Hermitage—1819 Wings were added in 1831, and the small building was removed. From Harper’s Magazine of January, 1855 On the twenty-third of August, 1804, Jackson paid Nathaniel Hays $3,400 for the 425-acre tract, “with its appurtenances,” which was to be known later as the Hermitage. There must have been, however, considerable remodeling of the buildings, even though no new house was erected. Account books of the Hunter’s Hill store, which form a valuable part of the collection of historic documents at the Hermitage, show that in November, 1804, “17 window lights” are charged to Jackson’s personal account. It is possible that as time goes by a letter or other record may come to light which will tell something more definite on the building or remodeling of the log Hermitage. These account books are especially important in placing the removal from Hunter’s Hill to the Hermitage. The last entry at the Hunter’s Hill store was made on April 5, 1805, and the first at the Clover Bottom store on April 9. It is interesting to observe in this connection that the first letter in Bassett’s Correspondence of Andrew Jackson, headed at the Hermitage, was dated April 7, 1805. There is a lapse of several months in the letters, however, since the last one Bassett quotes from Hunter’s Hill is dated August 25, 1804. It is probable, although not a definitely established fact, that the removal of the store and residence took place simultaneously. It is known, of course, that Hunter’s Hill was a commodious, two-story frame building—a marked contrast with the usual log houses of the period. In later years it was burned, and there remains to-day on the More is known of the log Hermitage, although its history is far from complete. Most of the letters of people who were guests of the Jacksons during this period are tantalizing for their lack of detail. The best and more than likely the most authentic description of the interior of the log Hermitage is that given in Buell’s History of Andrew Jackson. The author, in a series of interviews with Mrs. James K. Polk, wife of President Polk, has preserved much important material relating to the Jackson household. In his preface to Mrs. Polk’s narrative he says:
Mrs. Polk was excellently educated for her time. As a very young girl she was sent to the Moravian Female Academy at Salem, North Carolina, and later she was Another child destined for future greatness visited the Hermitage when the log buildings were the family dwellings. He was Jefferson Davis, future president of the Confederate States of America. What would “Old Hickory” have said, when little “Jeff” Davis raced ponies and played with Andrew Jackson, Jr., and other little boys at the Hermitage, had he been able to foretell the future of his small guest? Fortunately for the children, no shadow crossed their pathway, and even “Old Hickory” had not been forced to declare in thunderous tones: “Our Federal Union—it must be preserved.” [Let it always be remembered, however, that Andrew Jackson’s passionate loyalty to the Union was based upon an equally passionate devotion to the Rights of the States. He said in a rough draft of his second inaugural address, dated March 1, 1833 (Bassett, Correspondence of Andrew Jackson, Vol. V, p. 26): “In proportion, therefore, as the general government encroaches The story of Jefferson Davis’ journey from Mississippi to the Hermitage is told briefly in his Memoirs.
These intimate glimpses of the Jackson household during the period of residence in the log Hermitage throw an interesting light upon the customs and surroundings of the family at this time. These years—from 1805 to 1819—were tremendously important in Jackson’s career. They were not entirely happy years, for they included such unfortunate events as the Dickinson duel in 1806, the shooting affray with the Bentons in 1814, the delightful, but misunderstood visits of Aaron Burr, and the public expressions of disapproval which these affairs produced. Through it all ran the unhappy references to the Robards’ divorce and the unfortunate circumstances attending the first marriage of the Jacksons. It was a period of Herculean struggle against material odds, as well as against public opinion, but it was not without a brighter side in which gayety, color, and genuine happiness stand out. Relatives, neighbors and, often, distinguished guests from a distance, composed a brilliant and congenial company—in spite of the fact that their rank varied from the simplest backwoodsman to a former vice president of the United States, and their common background was a log house in the far west. Most charming
The nieces were, of course, nieces of Mrs. Jackson—part of that bevy of charming Donelson girls which throughout the history of the Hermitage household lent grace and gayety to its social affairs. Many of them married young men who were closely associated with the General in his military and political activities, and in this way strengthened by ties of kinship the relationship which common public interest had created. Burr’s final visit to Nashville in December, 1806, was the one around which the storm of public disapproval centered. His reception at this time was courteous, but somewhat cool, for rumors of his proposed invasion of the West had already begun to filter in. The Impartial Review and Cumberland Repository of December 20 carried the announcement that “Colo. Burr arrived on Wednesday last and intends proceeding to Natchez in a few days.” His departure was recorded almost as briefly in the same paper, issue of Saturday, December 27: “Colo. Burr embarked from this place for New Orleans on Monday last, with two large flat boats, which did not appear to be loaded.” The papers of these and subsequent dates carried, however, many communications which show the national alarm at Burr’s presence in the Western country and indicate that while Nashville was slow to condemn him, it was ready to rise to a man to march against him should reports that he was planning an invasion of the Western country prove true. For the most part, however, he was given the benefit of the doubt, and while he was in Nashville he was received as an interesting and charming acquisition to its social circle. There are many interesting stories of Burr’s visits to Nashville, of his elegant manners, his wit, and his
Above: The Hermitage After the Remodelling in 1831 From Ayres’ Map of Nashville Courtesy of the late Dr. W. A. Provine Below: The Hermitage After the Final Remodelling Which Followed the Fire of 1834 From drawing dated 1856 Original in Hermitage museum Burr, on his last visit to Nashville, resided at least a part of the time at the Clover Bottom tavern, which, with a store, a race track, and a boat yard, formed the establishment developed by Andrew Jackson, John Hutchings, a nephew of Mrs. Jackson, and John Coffee, who in 1809 married one of Mrs. Jackson’s nieces, Mary Donelson. It was here that Burr obtained the boats which brought down such a storm of criticism upon the head of Jackson. A careful examination of the orders for boats and related dealings between Jackson and Burr do not justify the accusation of conspiracy—particularly in view of General Jackson’s activities in complying with orders from the Secretary of War regarding a military force to protect the West against Burr’s anticipated invasion. After Burr’s departure with his two visibly empty flat-boats, feeling in certain circles began to mount higher and higher. He was publicly denounced as a traitor and on January 2, 1807, was burned in effigy by a group of Nashville’s citizens. This event is described in the Impartial Review of Saturday, January 3, 1807, as follows:
Subsequent events proved that the Burr alarm was very much of a tempest in a teapot, but the incident was used, long afterwards, against General Jackson by his political opponents. Similar use was made of the Robards’ divorce and of the tragic story of his duel with Charles Dickinson. The log house was the home of the Jacksons at the time of the Dickinson duel, May 29, 1806; but the scene of events which led to it was Clover Bottom, the site of Jackson’s race track, store, and tavern, about two miles from the Hermitage. The direct cause of the duel was the race between Jackson’s celebrated Truxton and Capt. Joseph Erwin’s Ploughboy—a race which was arranged in the fall of 1805, but was not run. Ploughboy’s lameness caused his owner to withdraw him from the race and pay the $800 forfeit. There are a number of stories about events which followed the withdrawal of Ploughboy. Judge Guild, in his Old Times in Tennessee, probably gives the most accurate account of the matter as it concerns Mrs. Jackson.
This was followed by some gentlemen’s gossip about the value of notes put up by Capt. Erwin for the forfeit, and one incrimination led to another until a situation which had but one remedy was created. Jackson, by the repeated insults heaped upon him by the Erwin faction, was forced to challenge Charles Dickinson to a duel. Since the laws of Tennessee prohibited dueling, the meeting was carried across the line into Kentucky, where, on the morning of May 29, 1806, the duel was fought. The results are well known. Dickinson, crack pistol shot of the West, who had left behind him along the road to the meeting place evidences of his expert marksmanship, fired—and the shot entered his adversary’s breast. His opponent fired, but the pistol stopped at half-cock. With superhuman effort he drew himself to full height, folded his coat closer across his breast to hide the wound which he believed fatal, and with cool (The first edition of the present work referred to the Dickinson child as an “unborn babe”—a statement which had long been accepted by Jackson historians. Charles Dickinson’s will in Wills and Inventories of Davidson County, (1807) pp. 141-142, states, however, that “... half of my Estate I give devise & bequeath to my son Henry who is now about Ten weeks old ...”) As time passed the wound healed. Jackson retired to his Hermitage and devoted himself to his business, his farm, and his blooded stock. Truxton, the innocent cause of this tragedy, blossomed under the friendly skies of Tennessee, but neither he nor his master were destined to remain long in retirement. Life stretched out temptingly before them, and it was not long until Truxton was the acknowledged king of the turf, and upon his master’s brow were the laurels won in his defense of New Orleans. No history of the Hermitage could be complete without a rather detailed account of Truxton. He was The best authority on this race and upon Truxton himself is Andrew Jackson. His statement was written for the American Farmer and was reprinted in the American Turf Register of December, 1833. This account reads:
Truxton was, undoubtedly, Jackson’s pride, but the Hermitage was noted for many famous horses. There To tell the story of Jackson’s horses would be to write the history of racing and breeding of thoroughbreds from the early days of the settlements in Middle Tennessee until after the Civil War. There was a close association between General Jackson and the owners of thoroughbreds in Sumner County, where, for a long period of years such men as Bailie Peyton, Barry, Carter, the Rev. Hardy Cryer and others produced magnificent horses. There is a tradition that Andrew Jackson arrived in Nashville riding one fine horse and leading another—which was loaded in the customary manner with his personal belongings. Early in the spring after his arrival he purchased another, for we find at the Davidson County Court House a record showing that on April ninth, 1789, he bought of Thomas Smith “one Sorrell horse About fourteen hands high known by the name The punctuation of this record is somewhat scant, but from the general context one gathers that Andrew Jackson paid one hundred pounds for the Horse, rather than that Thomas Smith paid this sum to Samuel Martin. At any rate “Samuel Martin’s Sorrel” was valued at one hundred pounds—a rather goodly sum for young Attorney Jackson to be paying. Throughout his long life he continued to buy the best horses he could afford—they were a passion with him—and, unlike many devotees of the turf, he made money, rather than lost it, in his deals. One of General Jackson’s choice saddle horses was Duke, who is said to have been his favorite during the New Orleans campaign. If we credit the story of Uncle Alfred, the slave who for many years was his faithful bodyservant, he was mounted upon Duke on the day of victory. Mrs. Mary C. Dorris, in her Preservation of the Hermitage, quotes Uncle Alfred as saying:
General Jackson, in a letter written to Mrs. Jackson during the Florida campaign of 1818, shows his affection for Duke.
Uncle Alfred referred to the portrait in the Hermitage parlor, a work of the artist Earl, which shows General Jackson mounted on the white charger presented to him by the citizens of Philadelphia. He was a graceful and daring horseman and, like Washington and other great generals, had a passion for horses. He had also a country gentleman’s interest in the breeding of blooded stock, and a sportsman’s interest in their speed and bottom. There came a time, however, when he was forced to give up the turf—although never, for a moment, did he relinquish his interest in the breeding of fine horses at his Hermitage estate. The severe criticism of his horse-racing proclivities by his political enemies caused him, after his elevation to the Presidency, to discontinue training his colts for the track at the Hermitage. * * * * * * * * But the log cabin days were ending. Fame came The log cabin years, in spite of the struggles and tragedies sprinkled through them, were, on the whole, happy and eventful ones. The financial structure of the Hermitage household was strengthened, the public affairs of its master prospered, and his personal contacts with those who disagreed with him became less violent. Children had always been a part of the household. Rachel’s brothers and sisters lived near by and their children, from babyhood to maturity, were her delight as well as General Jackson’s. Added to these were the Butler children who, in the years of 1804 and 1805, became General Jackson’s wards. In 1809, when twin boys were born to Severn Donelson’s wife, the mother was quite frail, so Rachel carried one of her tiny Among the others who married Rachel’s nieces were Abraham Green, of Natchez, who married Patsey Caffrey in January, 1801; General John Coffee, who married Mary Donelson in 1809; William Eastin, who married Mrs. Coffee’s sister, Rachel Jackson Donelson, in the same year; and John C. McLemore, of Nashville. General Coffee’s daughter, Mary, who as a young lady was a member of the Jackson household at the White House, married Andrew Jackson Hutchings, ward and grand-nephew of General Jackson. Through all the years the Jackson household knew the happy confusion which is common to large families—love, laughter, tears, and all of the things which go to make life full and interesting. No one reveled in these relationships more than the master, whose own near kin had been snatched from him by a series of tragic incidents of the Revolutionary War. Mrs. Jackson had not been confined entirely, however, to her own family circles and the log Hermitage. After the victory at New Orleans she went south to join her husband. In the same year she accompanied him on a visit to Washington and to Virginia, and at all places she shared with him the honors showered upon him by an adoring populace. She accompanied him, too, when he went to Pensacola to assume the office of Governor of the Floridas, and from these trips returned laden with gifts and purchases which were somewhat out of place in the humble quarters to which they were brought. The time had come, obviously, for the building of a home more in keeping with the station of its master. Fortunately his financial status justified it. Otherwise the family would have undoubtedly remained in the log dwelling, for Andrew Jackson’s good sense and determination to live within his means far outweighed any personal vanity. He was solicitous, however, of Mrs. Jackson’s welfare, and was for her sake particularly interested in building a more suitable home. The new Hermitage was built for Rachel, upon the spot which she selected. Major Lewis, Parton says, suggested it be built upon another more elevated site, but that General Jackson said to him:
General Jackson’s health at this period was even worse than usual—and he was seldom well. The one thought uppermost in his mind when the new house was built was the comfort of the one person whom he loved above all other things in the world. As houses go, the Hermitage of this period was by no means pretentious. It was a square-looking, home-like building, made of red bricks manufactured on the place by the slaves—spacious, comfortable, and liveable, but by no means elaborate. Many of the visitors who were thronging from all parts of the country to visit the “Hero of New Orleans” thought it a surprisingly simple abode for a man of such prominence. It was not, however, out of keeping with its local setting. Davidson County, according to the census of 1820, had a population of only 20,154 people. The section now known as Middle Tennessee was sparsely settled and still called “West Tennessee.” The period of transition from the log cabin to the ante-bellum mansion had begun, but most of the men who had fought their way to a financial security which justified the mansions still remembered their early days in pioneer cabins. Society was young and unexacting, and in the West they took Jeffersonian democracy literally. Andrew Jackson was himself the democrat of all democrats, but he had a poise and assurance which made him at home in all companies, and made all classes of people at ease in his presence. Neither his manner nor Mrs. Jackson’s changed, however, with their Thomas Hart Benton, in writing of Mrs. Jackson, declared:
It was Benton who gave to the world the picture of Andrew Jackson sitting before his fireside in the twilight with a child and its pet lamb on his knees. The Stately Avenue of Cedars As It Appears Today When President Theodore Roosevelt visited the Hermitage in 1907 he alighted from his carriage at the entrance of the avenue and walked with bared head to the historic old mansion. It was for gay groups such as those that Benton mentioned that the new Hermitage was built. In spite of the storm and stress the years were passing pleasantly with its mistress. Fame turned its spotlight upon the household, but the simple hospitality of the log cabin period was not abandoned. The spacious rooms of the new Hermitage rang with the laughter of a great bevy of nieces, of nephews, and neighbors’ children. General Jackson’s “military family,” friends, and associates came from here, there, and everywhere, bringing with them members of their families and staying for weeks at a time. But the Hermitage acres were broad and fertile, the slaves were numerous and contented—and the mistress an excellent manager. Years afterwards General Jackson wrote to young Andrew Jackson Hutchings (letter of April 18, 1833, Bassett, Correspondence of Andrew Jackson, Vol. V): “Recollect the industry of your dear aunt, and with what economy she watched over what I made, and how we waded thro’ the vast expence of the mass of company we had. Nothing but her care and industry, with good economy could have saved me from ruin. If she had been extravagant the property would have vanished and poverty and want would have been our doom. Think of this before you attempt to select a wife.” The years in which this building was occupied were colorful and eventful ones in the Jackson saga. Unfortunately little is known of the actual details which attended its erection, the beginning of the garden, and other little intimate things concerning it. Even such a tireless student as the late John Spencer Bassett was not able to place exactly the time of its completion and A letter from Sir John Jackson, mentioned by Bassett, but secured in full from the manuscripts of the New York Public Library, by the Tennessee State Library, shows that in 1819 the Jacksons had secured the services of an English gardener. This letter reads:
In the same connection Bassett quotes a letter to William B. Lewis, which, though not dated, is placed sometime in 1819. It reads, in part:
The Nashville Whig and Tennessee Advertiser, of May 15, 1819, carried the announcement that the Hon. John Rhea was a candidate for Congress from the First District—it may have been that he was in Nashville at the time. The connection between his announcement and Jackson’s letter is somewhat vague, but it may prove a small link in the chain which will eventually establish the date of the completion of this building. Bassett mentions also a receipted bill for china and silver plate to the amount of $200, dated June 12, 1818, which, in 1922, was in the possession of Albert M. and Andrew Jackson, of Los Angeles. This, Jackson’s letter about the paint, and Sir John’s letter about the English gardener, indicate that the Hermitage household was to be conducted upon a more elaborate scale. There is a strongly prevalent local tradition that the artist, R. E. W. Earl, laid out the Hermitage garden. It is quite possible that he worked with the English gardener in laying it out. He was established in Nashville as early as the latter part of the year 1817, for in the announcement of the Eighth of January Ball, 1818, some of his portraits were used in the decorations. The Nashville Whig of January 10, in describing the event, states:
An important visitor at the Hermitage that year was Isaac Shelby, “late governor of Kentucky,” who stopped with the Jacksons while he and the General were preparing to go into the Chickasaw country to hold a treaty. Both men were popular, and their proposed mission was important enough to offer a sufficient incentive for an elaborate public dinner at the Nashville Inn. At this dinner Col. Edward Ward, president, proposed the toast: “Isaac Shelby, late governor of Kentucky. The only governor in our Union who, during our late war, showed himself qualified for both the cabinet and the field.” John H. Eaton, Esq., vice president, proposed: “General Jackson, His military greatness commands our admiration—his private virtues our esteem.” Soon the generals and their suite were off for the Chickasaw country. They encountered some difficulty, for the Nashville Whig of October 10 reported that
A month later, according to a paragraph in the Whig, the signing of the treaty was celebrated in Nashville:
Governor Shelby was not present, but he had found time to sit for the young artist at the Hermitage. General Jackson wrote him on November 24:
Earl married Jane Caffrey, niece of Mrs. Jackson, on May 19, 1818. The ceremony was performed by the Rev. William Hume. In less than a year the Reverend Mr. Hume was called upon to perform the sad duty of preaching her funeral sermon. The Nashville Whig, of March 13, 1819, carried the announcement:
Mrs. Jackson mothered and comforted the young man, and from that time, until his death in 1838, the Hermitage was his home. During the passing of the years he painted innumerable portraits of General and Mrs. Jackson, of the various kin, and of prominent visitors both at the Hermitage and the White House, where he was also a member of the household—so much a member, in fact, that he was dubbed “The King’s Painter.” An intriguing, but forgotten, chapter in Earl’s history was discovered by the writer a few years ago in the April 10th, 1822, issue of the Nashville Whig. A short article, headed quite casually, “Napoleon Buonaparte and Marshal Ney,” announced: “Original portraits of these great men, taken by Mr. Earl, shortly after the return of Napoleon from the Island of Elba, were a few days since received and deposited by him in the Nashville Museum. Judging by his strikingly correct portraits of Gen. Jackson, of the President of the United States, of Shelby, of Haywood, and of a number of others, which likewise grace and ornament the Museum, we have no hesitation in believing them to be very exact likenesses....” Where are these portraits of Napoleon and Marshal Ney, taken from life during the brief, but dramatic “one hundred days”? One of the prominent visitors who sat for the young artist in his early days at the Hermitage was President Monroe, who visited Nashville and the Hermitage in June, 1819. The Nashville Whig, of Saturday, July 12, 1819, states:
The reception by this colorful procession which thronged the highway to the Hermitage to greet General Jackson and his distinguished guest was but the beginning of the festivities. A dinner followed at the Nashville Inn. President Monroe was entertained at the Nashville Female Academy on Thursday, June 10, and on the evening of that day the crowning event of his visit, a ball at the old Nashville Inn, took place. “A numerous assemblage of elegance and beauty attended,” said the editor of the Nashville Whig. “We have never seen more taste and beauty than was displayed in arranging the room, or a more numerous and brilliant assemblage of ladies. The arrangements were largely creditable to the managers. At the head of the room was a large transparency exhibiting an Eagle displayed and encircled in a ray of glory, bearing in his beak a transparent painting of our Chief Magistrate. Fronting at the lower end of the room, was suspended the portrait of Gov. Shelby of Kentucky. On the right side of the hall was a full length portrait of Maj. Gen. Jackson, with a distant view of the British encampment before New Orleans; fronting him were Genls. Coffee and Carroll. These inimitable paintings (with A ray of glory—how the unknown artist of the transparency depicted it is a matter of conjecture, but the yellowed pages of the Nashville Whig bear testimony to its reality. It takes but small imagination to reconstruct the picture—men in handsome military uniforms, ladies in their gay-colored silks, dancing and conversing in the stately manner of the period, and paying due homage to the President of the United States and the Hero of New Orleans. At the Hermitage they found time, no doubt, to wander about in the moonlit, magnolia-scented grounds and to stroll along the paths of the new garden. Rachel, as she played the rÔle of gracious, warm-hearted hostess, could not know that a long, lonely path, illuminated only by the cold rays of fame stretched before her adored husband, and that she, before a decade had passed, would rest under the friendly sod of her garden. Nor could President Monroe foretell the future of the distinguished soldier at his side. A great drama, of which the new Hermitage was to be the chief setting, was beginning. It was not long until General Jackson was appointed governor of the Floridas, and he and Rachel moved their household temporarily to Pensacola. “The Church Where Jackson Worships” A quaint old print of the church which General Jackson had built near the Hermitage in 1823-24 for the convenience of his pious wife and her neighbors. “Gen. Jackson and family left town Saturday evening last in the Steam Boat Cumberland, on his way to Pensacola,” says the Nashville Whig of April 18, 1821. A little later it stated: “Gen. Jackson and family arrived at Natchez on April 21, on board the Steam Boat Rapide, having left Cumberland on account of some accident having happened to her machinery.” The journey was completed in seven days, despite the accident! From Natchez, New Orleans, Blakely, Montpelier, and Mobile came echoes of a triumphant and leisurely progress. But even at that it was several weeks before the General and his suite were finally established in Pensacola—the Spanish governor was inclined to be a bit difficult about relinquishing his sway. Rachel, however, did not like Pensacola. To her friend, Mrs. Eliza Kingsley, she wrote: “Believe me, this country has been greatly overrated.... One acre of our fine Tennessee land is worth a thousand.... The General, I believe, wants to get home again as much as I do....” The General was not overly pleased with the situation and, as soon as he was able to settle certain little difficulties, he was determined to return to his beloved Hermitage. Marquis James, in his Andrew Jackson, the Border Captain, writes of this period:
There was dancing in the hallways in these days—dancing to the sound of a flute which “Old Hickory” himself may have played. Horace Holley, writing from Nashville on August 14, 1823, to his father, Luther Holley, Esq., in Salisbury, Connecticut (copy given to the author by the late Judge John H. De Witt), related:
Andrew Jackson was content, Mr. James says, and “the measure of his contentment was in proportion to the sincerity of his resolution to exchange a brilliant career for a quiet one.” His peace was to be short-lived. On December 5, 1823, he took his seat in the Senate of the United States, to which he had been appointed by the Tennessee legislature. For six weary months he remained in Washington and Rachel, with her usual efficiency, kept
The church was completed and the General returned home—this time with the avowed intention of carrying Rachel with him when he returned to Washington the following autumn. In the meantime the presidential campaign of 1824 was in full swing, and the Marquis de Lafayette arrived with his son and suite to be the “nation’s guest.” On October 18 the distinguished Frenchman wrote to Jackson:
Late autumn and winter took the Jacksons to Washington, where they put up at Gadsby’s, which was also the quarters of the distinguished Lafayette. Here, on December 23, Mrs. Jackson wrote to her friend describing the meeting between the famous Frenchman and General Jackson.
Rachel, too, for that matter was “a little inclined to corpulency.” She did not attempt to attend all the parties, They stayed in Washington long enough to see General Jackson miss, by a hairbreadth, becoming President of the United States and to witness the pomp and ceremony of Mr. Adams’ inauguration. They were home by the latter part of April, ready to take charge of their household again and to play host and hostess to Lafayette when he arrived in Nashville on the fourth of May. Never was there such a celebration! Twenty-five thousand Tennesseans crowded into Nashville to welcome him. The military organizations of the state were out in full force, the ladies wore their finest dresses, and the streets were decorated with great triumphal arches of flowers. There were dinners and public programs of various types, but most important of all was the ball which was given for him in the Masonic Hall. Guild, in his Old Times in Tennessee, says:
Mrs. Thomas Martin, whose narrative is quoted by Guild, in describing the ball said:
Stories of the ball are still recounted with delight in Nashville, and in many of the old families are fans, combs, dresses, and the gay little slippers of belles who “danced with Lafayette.” But most interesting of all is the description of Lafayette’s reception at the Hermitage, from the pen of his secretary, M. Levasseur:
In this setting Rachel was at her best. She was now fifty-eight years old. Stout, kindly, motherly, and frankly growing old; but always the gracious hostess and always deeply interested in the gay doings of the young people who were drawn into the charmed circle of her hospitable household. Her garden had taken deeper root. Her house was more elegantly furnished and her acquaintance with the outside world had been greatly extended; but aside from the fact that she took her religion a little more solemnly and that she had been saddened by the malicious attacks made upon her, her nature had changed but little with the passing years. She never lost her love of people, her keen interest in things about her, nor her gentle sympathy. The famous Frenchman and his entourage had hardly left when the Hermitage became the gathering place for a great corps of notables, who entered heart and soul into the campaign which placed its master in the President’s chair and which completely vindicated its However the storms raged on the outside, they did not change the happy atmosphere of the Hermitage. If the mistress suffered—as of course she did—she kept up a brave front for the General and the other members of her household. Henry A. Wise, later governor of Virginia, who was a guest at the Hermitage of this period, gives in his Seven Decades of the Union, an interesting picture of the house itself, as well as the social life which centered about it. This description is especially important, for it supplies the only known description of the interior of the brick house which was erected in 1819. Wise had just been married to Anne Jennings, daughter of the Rev. Obadiah Jennings, Jackson’s Presbyterian minister in Nashville, and the bride and groom, with their bridal party, had been invited to spend the honeymoon at the Hermitage.
Andrew Jackson, the Country Gentleman at the Hermitage (Original presented to the Ladies’ Hermitage Association in 1944 by Mrs. C. W. Frear, of Troy, N. Y., in memory of her husband.)
When there is added to Wise’s description of the interior of the Hermitage of this period the view of the building and grounds included in Earl’s 1831 portrait of General Jackson, the picture of the house as it was from 1819 to 1831 is complete. The Nashville Republican and Tennessee Gazette, on Thursday, August 25, 1831, repeated a criticism of this portrait which had appeared in the Washington Globe. It reads, in part: “The artists of Boston announce it a ‘first rate work,’ and the intimate friends of the President consider it the most perfect likeness ever taken of him. It is not only recommended by this circumstance, but it is rendered doubly interesting as a sort of historical picture, in which the taste and talent of the designer is, in high degree manifested. The President stands alone in the solitude of the Hermitage. The scene is most accurately delineated. The house and surrounding grounds, although thrown somewhat in the distance, are identified to all acquainted with the spot, by its most striking features....” To the west is seen a small square building which may have been used by General Jackson as an office. There is a tradition that it was Earl’s studio and, since the artist was a member of the household in 1818 and 1819, it is more than likely true. There is a remote possibility that it was the kitchen, for the dining room, according to Wise’s description, was “the northwest room,” but it is more probable that the old kitchen was located near This portrait, which from an historical standpoint is probably the most important of the Jackson portraits, was presented to the Ladies’ Hermitage Association in 1944 by Mrs. Charles W. Frear, of Troy, New York, in memory of her husband. For many years the Association did not know the location of the original, although it had long used a reproduction in its catalogue which, it appears, had been given to the organization about 1901 by McClure’s Magazine. It is interesting that the acquisition of this famous portrait by the Ladies’ Hermitage Association was perhaps due, in part, to the interest of a member of the artist Earl’s family. Mr. Ralph Earl Prime, Jr., of Yonkers and New York City, New York, writing to the author on October 8th, 1936, said:
Happily, through Mrs. Frear’s generosity, this treasure has been restored to The Hermitage, where it will remain through the years as a memorial to her husband. This was Rachel Jackson’s Hermitage—the Hermitage in which she entertained Monroe, Lafayette, and all that gay and distinguished company which, as stars in the great Jackson constellation, were destined, for a time, to dazzle the nation. And how many of them had known the kindly hospitality of the mistress of the Hermitage ... the quiet, studious, James K. Polk, who as “young Hickory” was to carry the Jackson banner As the year of 1828 drew to a close General Jackson’s victory was assured. There was no personal elation in it for Rachel, however, just as there was no bitterness toward her persecutors during their most severe attacks upon her. Her reply when news of victory was brought to the Hermitage was: “For Mr. Jackson’s sake, I am glad; for my own part, I never wished it. I had rather be a doorkeeper in the House of my Lord than to live in that palace in Washington.” She had always preferred the quiet of her own home and had resented the demands which fame made upon her husband. Her friends, though, were greatly elated for her sake, as well as for the General’s. John H. Eaton, writing her from Washington, December 7, 1828, said:
Nashville ladies were already busy doing their part to honor her—they were preparing a handsome wardrobe for her to carry to Washington with her, and the entire town was arranging a magnificent celebration for December 23, the anniversary of the night battle at New Orleans. Jackson leaders in Washington, Philadelphia, and other important places were preparing elaborate programs honoring the president-elect ... but on December 22 the rejoicing was turned into mourning. Rachel Jackson quietly slipped beyond the reach of cruel tongues. Her illness came suddenly and unexpectedly a few days before the anticipated celebration. There are many versions of its origin. Some say that while in Nashville she was resting at the Nashville Inn and accidentally overheard some unpleasant remarks about her part in the past campaign. Others carry the story still farther and say that she wept and that, in returning Wise further explains that “a pipe was prescribed by her physician for her phthisis, and she often rose in the night to smoke for relief.” Whatever the explanation of the pipe may be, its only importance was its use in the caricatures used by her husband’s opponents in the presidential campaign. She had long been subject to the bronchial trouble which was, undoubtedly, the chief cause of her death. No words can describe the tragedy which stalked at the Hermitage during her illness. The General would not leave her side. The servants stood about in stricken silence, with the exception of old Hannah, who nursed her, and the few who were allowed to perform little duties to assist her. Friends and relatives gathered—and Early on the morning of the twenty-third the citizens of Nashville were informed of her death. It was ordered that on the following day, from one until two o’clock, the hour set for her funeral, that the church bells be tolled. The scene was rapidly changed from one of festivity to deep mourning, and on the next day the road was crowded with people on their way to the Hermitage to pay their last respects to a sainted woman. The Reverend William Hume preached her funeral sermon. A gentleman from Philadelphia who was present wrote to a relative:
The funeral service was, in fact, delayed because she had thrown herself upon her mistress’ grave and refused to move. General Jackson would not allow her to be torn away by force, but waited patiently until her associates could persuade her to allow them to remove her. So ended all thoughts of victory for Andrew Jackson. All that had made victory sweet, all that had made life worth while, had passed away. The only thing to which the broken old man looked forward was his return to their beloved Hermitage. His body, his mind, and his indomitable will he carried to Washington—but his heart he left buried with Rachel in their garden. Although for a time after her death Rachel Jackson’s Hermitage—the building as it appeared from 1819 to A new phase in the history of the Hermitage began in 1831. Andrew Jackson, Jr., married the beautiful and cultured Miss Sarah York, of Philadelphia, on November 24, 1831. Some interest in the future began to live in the heart of Andrew Jackson. Since his wife’s death he had contemplated his son’s marriage with more than ordinary concern. “It is,” he wrote to a friend in May, 1829, “the only hope by which I look to a continuation of my name....” It proved to be more than that for it was the beginning of a beautiful relationship destined to last from the time he welcomed Sarah York Jackson, as a The wedding took place at the home of Mrs. Samuel Wetherill, Sarah York’s sister, who lived on Chestnut Street, in Philadelphia. Mrs. Jackson, Mrs. Wetherill, and another sister, Mrs. Adams, were left orphans in early childhood, and, at the request of their dying father, were cared for and educated at Mrs. Malland’s boarding school. They were well-bred, charming, and well connected. Andrew Jackson himself—and he was a noted matchmaker—could not have made a better choice for the future mistress of the Hermitage. Before Andrew Jackson, Jr., brought his bride to the red brick mansion in Tennessee, extensive remodeling was done. This period in the history of the Hermitage had been completely overlooked until a letter in the Hermitage collection was recently brought to light. This letter (Published for the first time in the 1933 edition of the present work) which is quoted in full, gives complete data on the remodeling of the Hermitage
Notes in Andrew Jackson’s own hand on the back of the letter read: “Mr. Morrison rec’d & answered. A bill for $300 inclosed to Mr. Morrison or Josiah Nichol. A. J. To be preserved. A. J.” The picture which Mr. Morrison mentioned has been preserved. It appears on Ayres’ Map of Nashville, which was published in 1832. An announcement of the plans for this map appeared in the Nashville Republican and State Gazette, of December 6, 1831—strangely
A comparison of the engraving on Ayres’ map with Mr. Morrison’s letter proves the authenticity of the picture. There are ten columns instead of the six stately ones of the present, and the exterior of the Andrew Jackson Baker, present caretaker of the Hermitage, who has made a careful study of the building, points out a number of irregularities in the doors of the east wing which are due, undoubtedly, to the remodeling. The brick walls themselves show where the east wing was added and where there was once a little roof or porch extending over the entrance to the cellar. The kitchen and smoke-house, as Morrison’s letter states, are on line with each other. The handsome remodeled Hermitage which was Mr. Morrison’s and Nashville’s pride was destined, however, to a career of short duration. In October, 1834, it caught fire and was, with the exception of the dining-room wing and its sturdy brick walls, destroyed. The catastrophe is described in the Nashville Republican of October 14, 1834, as follows:
Letters from Bassett’s Correspondence of Andrew Jackson, give further details of the fire. On October 14, 1834, Col. Robert Armstrong, Nashville’s postmaster, wrote:
Stockley Donelson, General Jackson’s nephew, wrote on the same day, giving details of the fire.
Parlors at the Hermitage Below: The Front Hall Showing the stairway and the historic Telemachus wall paper.
Col. Armstrong, after his promised visit, wrote: “The dineing room Wing is but Little injured and I view it this way that you have now the Stone and Brick-work of your House done, and one Wing Compleate, and that 2500$ will Compleate the main house and the other office Wing. The Kitchen and out Houses are all safe.” Like most estimates, Col. Armstrong’s proved to be far lower than the final cost. The first estimate made by Joseph Rieff and William C. Hume amounted to $3,950. Added to this was $239 “for Extra work done upon change of Plan;” $186, “for work done on West wing and New Kitchen finding everything;” and $750 “for the full length two story Porch added finding every thing;” making a grand total of $5,125. Among the interesting items included in the first A new house called, of course, for new furnishings. Sarah York with the adored little Rachel, born November 1, 1832, and her infant brother, Andrew, went on to visit the General at the White House. On this visit Sarah went on to Philadelphia to visit her own kin and while there made selections for the paper and the furnishings of the Hermitage. One of the hitherto unpublished letters of the Hermitage collection, written at Washington April 14, 1835, by General Jackson, shows his interest in the furnishings, as well as his tender solicitude for Sarah York and the children:
Sarah busied herself with shopping and soon she had purchased a splendid new outfit for the Hermitage. The bill, dated January 2, 1836 (Correspondence of Andrew Jackson, Vol. V.) included:
There was trouble about the wall paper, and again
There has long been a tradition in Nashville that the old Campbell house, not far from town, on the Lebanon Pike, had paper like that in the Hermitage hall, but it was, evidently, destroyed when the walls were scraped and re-papered. Further details concerning the determined woman who kept the paper have not, at the present writing, come to light. A bill dated May 30, 1836, shows that Jackson’s merchant and personal friend, Henry Toland, of Philadelphia, arranged for another shipment of paper. This bill includes the items: “3 Views of Telemachus at $29, $87; 7 ps Pannell Paper, at $2.50, $17.50; 7 ps. Nancy McClelland, in her monumental work, Historic Wall-Papers, (Lippincott Company, Philadelphia, 1924) states that “the complete set consisted of 25 strips in colours, and the scenes are constructed on the account of the adventures of Telamachus.” It was manufactured in Paris by Dufour about 1825 and, though rare, was not an exclusive pattern. It is still found on the walls of certain historic homes and in a few private and public collections. According to the late Mrs. Rachel Jackson Lawrence, daughter of Sarah York and Andrew Jackson, Jr., the Telemachus paper now on the walls of The Hermitage hallway is the third set of its kind purchased by General Jackson. The first, she declared, was put on the walls at the time of the remodelling in 1831 and was burned in the fire of 1834. The second was the one acquired by Mrs. Campbell and the third, which, like the others, is the work of Dufour, was placed on the walls some time after it was ordered in the late spring of 1836. Sarah York selected papers for the Hermitage, but, as his letter of April 14, 1835, (Hermitage MSS. Collection) shows, President Jackson took a personal interest in the Telemachus paper.
Eighteen packages of furniture for the Hermitage were lost when the steamer John Randolph was burned at Nashville, May 16, 1836, but it is evident that they were replaced as quickly as possible. There was always, however, the delay of waiting for sufficiently high water, in addition to the long, tedious journey around the coast to New Orleans and up the Mississippi, Ohio and Cumberland to Nashville. Another large bill of furnishings for the Hermitage was purchased of Barry and Krickbaum, of Philadelphia, in February, 1837. It included 1 Large Wardrobe, $75; 2 dressing Bureaus to match, $110; 2 Wardrobes, french pattern, $120; 1 Eliptic front Bureau, $5; 1 Secy and Bookcase complete, $50; 2 pier tables, marble tops, $120; 1 Work table Elegantly fitted up, $50; 1 Work Stand, marble tray top, $5; 2 Work Stands, marble tray top, $50; 1 Marble Slab, $10. Total $665. About the same time a long list of smaller furnishings amounting to $481.93 was bought of Lewis Veron The new furnishings, with such as were left from the fire, were assembled in a harmonious whole toward the end of General Jackson’s second term as President. Sarah York, after her arrival at the Hermitage in 1832 had bought carpets, linens, and various necessities. General Jackson had written his son at this time:
Again he wrote: “View those East India matts or After all the delays and the characteristic confusion of moving the furnishings—old and new—were at last arranged. A weary old man—ill and hemorrhaging heavily from the lungs—turned his face eagerly to the spot which, in all the world, he loved best. To Nicholas P. Trist he wrote on March 2, 1837, “Your letter ... found me confined to my room, indeed, I might say to my bed, and I have been only four times down stairs since the 15th of Novb. last, altho I have been obliged to labour incessantly.... Tomorrow ends my official carier forever, on the 4th I hope to be able to go to the capitol to witness the glorious scene of Mr. Van Buren, once rejected by the Senate, sworn into office....” Late in December, 1936, he had written Andrew Jackson Donelson, a letter of condolence—the spirited Emily, whom he loved deeply, but whom he, in high dudgeon, had sent home because she refused to receive the much-discussed Peggy O’Neal Timberlake Eaton, had succumbed to a lung trouble similar to that from which he was suffering.
The Garden and the Tomb Upon the tomb is carved General Jackson’s immortal tribute to his wife: “Her face was fair, her person pleasing, her temper amiable, her heart kind; she delighted in relieving the wants of her fellow creatures, and cultivated that divine pleasure by the most liberal and unpretending methods; to the poor she was a benefactor; to the rich an example; to the wretched a comforter; to the prosperous an ornament; her piety went hand in hand with her benevolence, and she thanked her creator for being permitted to do good. A being so gentle and so virtuous slander might wound, but could not dishonor. Even Death, when he bore her from the arms of her husband, could but transport her to the bosom of her God.” The rest, sunlight, and pleasant atmosphere of the Hermitage were destined, however, to work a great improvement. His wiry, long-suffering body was to recover sufficiently for him to spend eight years in his new home before he was laid to rest in the garden beside the beloved Rachel. During these years his young men, under his wise guidance, had a tremendous influence in the nation—and in 1845, James K. Polk, who had openly conducted his campaign as “Young Hickory,” the legitimate political heir of the “sage of the Hermitage,” was inaugurated. Andrew Jackson and his family, after Van Buren’s inauguration, made a triumphant progress southward and, on March 25, 1837, reached the Hermitage. To Martin Van Buren he wrote on March 30: “I reached home ... with a very bad cough, increased by a cold taken on board the Steam Boat.... I hope rest in due time may restore my health so as be enabled to amuse myself in riding over my farm and visiting my neighbors....” But however interested he was in his farm and his neighbors he took time to write his successor and protÉgÉ several pages of very sound advice on state affairs:
From that time onward the Hermitage was prominent in the eyes of the nation. The younger statesmen paid visits to “the sage of the Hermitage” as the ancients consulted oracles—and the masses continued to worship the “Hero of New Orleans.” His domestic life flowed easily and pleasantly under the skilled and tactful direction of his daughter, Sarah. The adored little Rachel dogged his footsteps, rode with him, and, with her bright prattle, enlivened his days. Mrs. Marion Adams, Sarah’s older sister, now widowed, made her home at the Hermitage, and Rachel’s relatives came from their neighboring estates to pay respects to their beloved kinsman. Never was a lonely old man surrounded with greater affection or more kindly care. But what of the outward appearance of the Hermitage of this period? There is every indication that the cedars along the driveway were set out at this time. A drawing of the Hermitage dated 1856 indicates that the cedars were still quite young at that time, and a statement of Parton, based on his visit to Nashville prior to the publication of his Life of Andrew Jackson in 1859, further corroborates it and gives, as well, an interesting picture of the appearance which the Hermitage finally assumed after its series of changes. He wrote:
A familiar and cherished picture to Tennesseans, and to many thousands of Americans who have journeyed the same road to pay tribute to the memory of Andrew Jackson. Parton, like the Frenchmen with Lafayette, was struck by the simplicity of the Hermitage, but he was much impressed with the fertility of the land and the natural beauty of the estate. Like the Frenchmen, he, too, was much concerned with the “sad spectacle” of slavery, but he was convinced that the Jackson slaves had an unusually happy lot. The best-known authority on the laying out of the cedar drive is the narrative of Mrs. Rachel Jackson Lawrence (“little Rachel”) which appears in the second volume of the late S. G. Heiskell’s Andrew Jackson and Early Tennessee History. Mr. Heiskell was not only
Earl’s death was mentioned in General Jackson’s letters of September, 1838. “His death,” he wrote, “is a great bereavement to me ... he was my friend and constant companion....” Mrs. Lawrence’s statement does not definitely place the laying out of the flower beds in the center of the garden. It is possible that, in those lonely days after his young wife’s death in 1819, he worked with Rachel Jackson in the garden of her new home. Frost, the English gardener may have worked with them. At any rate, the garden grew as the estate developed and, through the twenty years of his residence at the Hermitage, it must have delighted the beauty-loving soul of the artist. But what suggested the guitar as a model for the drive? There is a tradition that General Jackson selected it because Rachel played the guitar—certainly, even at Hunter’s Hill, she played a harpsichord, and often accompanied the General when he played upon his flute. There is definite proof that Sarah York had a guitar, for General Jackson, in a letter written in Washington, April 12, 1832, said: “Your cousin Saml. J. Hays has agreed to take the Dog—will rest at Rockville with you tonight. He takes on Sarah’s Gator (guitar)—you must direct him where to leave it....” Somewhere the connection between music and the cedars was seen by a mind poetic enough to look forward to a day when they would grow into a massive instrument upon which the pleasant winds might play. Perhaps “Old Hickory” himself conceived the idea—at any rate he approved it, or the drive would not have been planted. It is enough to know that in planting the trees he connected them with the music of at least one—perhaps two—mistresses of the Hermitage. General Jackson was interested, too, in the willows which he had planted by Mrs. Jackson’s tomb and in the flowers she had loved. In a letter written to Andrew Jackson, Jr., on August 20, 1829, he expresses deep concern for the care of her grave in the garden:
“As long as life lasts....” Each evening at sunset a failing old man turned his footsteps toward the garden. The chattering little girl who held his hand paused at the gate and watched in silence while he made his way slowly down the garden paths to the white stone temple in the lower end of the garden.
It was not long to wait. Louis Philippe sent the artist Healy to paint his portrait, and Sam Houston was hastening from Texas that his fast-failing friend might lay his hands on his young son’s head in blessing. The portrait was finished three days before the old General’s death, but Sam Houston reached the Hermitage just a few hours too late. The end came quietly and peacefully on June 8, 1845, and two days later Andrew Jackson was laid to rest |
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