President Andrew Jackson and the Hermitage

By Michelle Shocklee

Since moving to the Nashville area last October, hubby and I have enjoyed visiting many historical sites located in this part of the world. For a history lover like myself, I must admit I feel as though I've landed in a sweet spot of the country! We've seen plantations, Civil War battlefields, old forts, old homes, and more. I look forward to visiting Belmont Mansion, Bell Meade Plantation, and other sites that pique our interest in the near future.

One historical site in particular, however, took me by surprise, and that is the Hermitage. I had no idea the home of President Andrew Jackson was located in Nashville. To be perfectly honest, I didn't know a lot about the seventh president of the United States, but boy oh boy, you can bet I do now! He led quite the interesting and sometimes tragic life, and I'd like to share a little of what I've learned with you!

In 1765 Andrew Jackson's parents and two older brothers immigrated to America from Ireland, landing in Charleston (some stories say Philadelphia), and headed 160 miles into the wilderness where they built a small log cabin near a creek somewhere between North and South Carolina. Sadly, Jackson's 29-year old father died three weeks before Andrew was born, possibly in a logging accident or from illness (both stories have been told), leaving his mother to raise the three boys. They went to live with relatives in the Waxhaws settlement, a Scots-Irish community.

Without a father to guide him, Andrew became unruly. He was known for pranks, cursing, and fighting, which no doubt broke his mother's heart since she had dreams of him becoming a minister.  When the Revolutionary war arrived in the Carolinas in 1778, thirteen-year old Andrew, along with his two older brothers, volunteered to fight the British. His oldest brother Hugh died from heat stroke the following year after the Battle of Stono Ferry, and Andrew and his remaining brother Robert were eventually captured.

During his captivity, an incident occurred that became the subject of an 1876 Currier & Ives lithograph. While imprisoned in Camden, South Carolina, Andrew was attacked by a British officer, Major Coffin, for refusing to clean his boots. Coffin swung his sword, and Andrew put his hand up to deflect the strike. He was scarred on his left hand and forehead and developed a hatred for the British. A biographer wrote: “It was cut to the bone, and a gash on his head left a white scar that Andrew Jackson carried through a long life that profited little to England or any Englishman.”

Andrew's bad luck continued. He and Robert contracted smallpox in prison and were gravely ill. Their mother arranged for their release in a prisoner exchange, but shortly after their release, Robert succumbed to the illness. After Jackson recovered, his mother traveled to Charleston to aid the war effort by nursing injured and sick soldiers. Tragically, while there she contracted cholera and died, leaving Jackson an orphan at the young age of fourteen.

With the war finally at an end, Andrew tried various occupations, including briefly as a school teacher and as a store clerk. In 1784, seventeen-year old Jackson decided to become an attorney. He moved to Salisbury, North Carolina, where he studied law by apprenticing with prominent lawyers. After three years, he received his license to practice law in several counties, but he soon had an itch to go further West and made the long trip across the Alleghany Mountains to a new settlement on the banks of the Cumberland River: Nashville.

While in Nashville, Andrew boarded with the widow of  Colonel John Donelson, one of the founding father's of Nashville. Donelson's daughter Rachel had recently returned home after a failed marriage. Andrew and Rachel fell in love and married, believing Rachel's first husband had obtained a divorce. It turns out the divorce was not final, making Rachel a bigamist and adulterer. Oops! It took some time, but the divorce was finalized and Andrew and Rachel's marriage was finally legal. Although the couple never had biological children, they did adopt three boys.

During these years, Andrew had a busy career. He was elected attorney general, was a delegate to the Tennessee constitutional convention, and after Tennessee became a state, he was elected as its only Representative. In 1797 he was elected as a US Senator, but his time in the Senate was short-lived because of his disgust with the current president's administration. Upon his return to Tennessee, he became a judge, military leader, merchant, landowner, planter, and, unfortunately, a slave owner.

In 1804, Jackson acquired a 425-acre farm--including several slaves--in Davidson County. Later he added more acres. He named it the Hermitage, the dwelling of a hermit. It wasn't until 1819 that work began on the house we see today. Up until that time he and Rachel lived in a simple log home. Rachel chose the site of the new two-story house atop a meadow, and her favorite place soon became the English-style garden filled with flowers.

Photos: Wikipedia

In 1828, Jackson was elected President of the United States following a contentious and truly ugly campaign. Tragically, his beloved Rachel became ill during this stressful time and died from a heart attack on December 22, 1828. It is said that Jackson had to be pulled from her so the undertaker could prepare the body. Rachel was buried at the Hermitage on Christmas Eve. "May God Almighty forgive her murderers," Jackson swore at her funeral, meaning his opponent and his supporters. "I never can."



The devastated Jackson entered the White House a widower and consoled himself by directing a massive renovation of the Hermitage. The mansion was expanded to 13 rooms. Two one-story wings were added, one on each side of the house. The east wing had a library and office where Jackson spent much of his retirement reading, writing letters and managing the day-to-day operations of his plantation. The west wing included another dining room and a pantry. A kitchen and smokehouse were added behind the home.


In 1834, while Jackson was still in the White House, a chimney fire ravaged the Hermitage and destroyed the eastern and central parts of the home. He hired architects Joseph Reiff and William C. Hume to redesign the mansion in a Greek Revivalists style complete with two-story, modified Corinthian columns along the front porch. The columns were coated with sand and the wood on the front facade painted tan to give the appearance of stone.

As a planter, Jackson owned at least 300 slaves over a span of 66 years. Although he was considered a benevolent owner, he did actively pursue runaways as seen in this notice and allowed his slaves to be whipped if they broke the rules. Three slave homes at the Hermitage still stand. One was the home of Alfred, a slave who tended Jackson’s horses and maintained farm equipment. Other remaining cabins include the original farmhouse where Jackson and Rachel lived before the mansion was built (which Jackson later converted into a one-story cabin) and the original Hermitage kitchen. Excavations have exposed the remnants of ten additional slave cabins and hundreds of thousands of artifacts. The artifacts reveal that Jackson’s slaves were spiritual and some may have been literate.

Andrew Jackson died on June 8, 1845 and is buried at the Hermitage next to his wife Rachel. His adopted son inherited the home and eventually sold it to the State of Tennessee. In 1889, after years of neglect, the Ladies Hermitage Association took over the upkeep. It is now a beautiful part of American history where millions of visitors come every year. 

Have you ever been to the Hermitage? What was your favorite part?

  

Michelle Shocklee is the award-winning author of The Planter's Daughter and The Widow of Rose Hill. Her historical novella set in the New Mexico Territory is included in The Mail-Order Brides Collection. Michelle and her husband of 31 years make their home in Tennessee. Connect with her at www.MichelleShocklee.com.

THE WIDOW OF ROSE HILL

Widowed during the war, Natalie Ellis finds herself solely responsible for Rose Hill plantation. When Union troops arrive with a proclamation freeing the slaves, all seems lost. How can she run the plantation without slaves? In order to save her son’s inheritance she strikes a deal with the arrogant, albeit handsome, Colonel Maish. In exchange for use of her family’s property, the army will provide workers to bring in her cotton crop. But as her admiration for the colonel grows, a shocking secret is uncovered. Can she trust him with her heart and her young, fatherless son?

https://www.amazon.com/Michelle-Shocklee/e/B01MYD4TRE/ref=sr_ntt_srch_lnk_1?qid=1486004955&sr=8-1

Ephrata Cloister

Ephrata Cloister, one of America’s earliest religious communities, was founded by Johann Conrad Beissel. He was born in Eberbach am Neckar, Germany, in March 1691 at the close of a century of religious wars that devastated Europe and was an orphan by the time he was 8. As a young man he learned the baker’s trade. During his travels he encountered and joined a movement called Pietism that aimed to reform the state-supported Protestant churches. Pietists, who met in small, unsanctioned groups to study the Bible and pray, were persecuted by the established church. Banished from Germany in 1715, Beissel immigrated to Pennsylvania in 1720, drawn by William Penn’s offer of freedom of conscience to those who settled in his colony.

Beissel spent a year in Germantown, just outside Philadelphia, before moving to the Conestoga area, where he was appointed leader of the newly formed Conestoga Brethren Church in 1724. His radical views of Saturday worship and celibacy soon caused a split in the congregation. He withdrew from the church in 1728 and in 1732 moved from the Conestoga area to Cocalico Creek in northern Lancaster County to seek the life of a hermit.

Beissel’s charismatic personality attracted like-minded men and women to his teachings, however, which led him to establish Ephrata, which means Camp of the Solitary. Originally a small hermitage, it quickly grew into a thriving community. Between 1735 and 1746 the members built eight major European-style dormitories and meetinghouses and a number of smaller dwellings, workshops, and mills. A married order of families who accepted Beissel’s spiritual leadership lived among the celibate members as well, worshiping with them on the Sabbath and working with them during the week, which enabled the Cloister to become self-sustaining. At its height in the 1740s and 1750s the Ephrata community extended over 250 acres and numbered around 80 celibate men and women, with approximately 200 more composing the married congregation.

Ephrata Hymnal

Besides religious activities, members carried out the typical tasks of a community, farmed and gardened, did carpentry work, made paper, manufactured clothing in a mill, taught children in a German school, and ran a printing press. The Cloister became well-known for its a cappella music, much of which was composed by the members; German-style calligraphy known as Frakturschriften; and a publishing center that included a paper mill, printing press, and book bindery. Ephrata owned the second German printing press in the American colonies and published hymns and books written by Beissel and others.

Beissel served not only as the community’s spiritual leader, but also as its leading composer and devised his own system of composition. The Ephrata hymnal was printed in 1747. At the request of a group of Mennonites, Ephrata also published the Martyrs Mirror, a history of the deaths of Christian martyrs from the time of Christ until 1660.

Prayer Room

Beissel’s theology mixed pietism and mysticism with an emphasis on celibacy; worship on the Saturday Sabbath; Anabaptism; and strict discipline. Celibate Sisters lived in a convent (the Sister House) and Brothers in a monastery (the Brother House). Their beds were narrow wooden benches, with wooden blocks for pillows, and they slept only from 9 p.m. to midnight. Then they took a two-hour break to watch for Christ’s coming, after which they slept again from 2 until 5 a.m. Members partook of one small meal of vegetables a day, only eating meat during communion, when lamb was served. The members of the cloister spent most of their time at work, praying privately, and attending Saturday worship led by Beissel, which often lasted several hours.

The community faced dissention at various times, with its greatest crisis coming from Israel Eckerlin, prior of the brotherhood, who challenged Beissel’s leadership. The controversy came to a head in 1745, with Eckerlin being expelled. Ephrata declined rapidly after Beissel’s death in 1768. By 1813 the last of the celibate members died, and the following year the remaining members of the married congregation formed the German Seventh Day Baptist Church. Poorer members moved into some of the original buildings on Cloister property and remodeled them to suit their needs. In many cases the original 18th-century furniture was given a coat of paint, cut down to fit a space, or repaired with disregard to original construction methods or materials.

Interior of Bissel House

In 1929 the remaining church members living at the Cloister were involved in a lawsuit over disagreements about the disposition of the site and its artifacts. As a result, the charter of the Church at Ephrata was revoked in 1934. A court appointed receiver took charge of the property and in 1941 sold the remaining 28 acres to the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. Restoration of the nine surviving original buildings was begun immediately under the direction of architect G. Edwin Brumbaugh. When he left the project in 1960, the restoration was completed by architect John Heyl. The last surviving member of Ephrata Cloister, Marie Kachel Bucher, died on July 27, 2008, at the age of 98.

Excavations on the site have revealed that, among other things, the Cloister was used as a hospital during the Revolutionary War. Also, in 1998 archaeologists unearthed the only glass trumpet of its kind in North America. The instrument, which is believed to have come from Germany, was found in excellent condition, which led archaeologists to conclude that it was intentionally buried. The only part missing was the mouthpiece, and it isn’t known whether the trumpet was ever played.

Today Ephrata Cloister is a National Historic Landmark administered by the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission and is open for tours, special programs, and research. Ephrata Cloister maintains a rich collection of original artifacts including furniture, books, manuscripts, baskets, and ceramics. With the exception of paper items, most artifacts are on exhibit in the buildings. To learn more go to Ephrata Cloister’s official website.

This is another historical site that I’d love to visit one day. Is there a historical period, event, or person that you’re especially drawn to? Or do you own an item from an earlier time that has given that period in history a special meaning for you? If so, please share with our readers!

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J. M. Hochstetler is the daughter of Mennonite farmers and a lifelong student of history. She is also an author, editor, and publisher. Her American Patriot Series is the only comprehensive historical fiction series on the American Revolution. Northkill, Book 1 of the Northkill Amish Series coauthored with Bob Hostetler, won Foreword Magazine’s 2014 INDYFAB Book of the Year Bronze Award for historical fiction. Book 2, The Return, releases April 1, 2017. One Holy Night, a contemporary retelling of the Christmas story, was the Christian Small Publishers 2009 Book of the
Year.