Wandering America

October 2008

Gray Line Tours It was a nice warm sun shinny day with bright blue skies and fluffy clouds slowly floating by overhead on Friday, October 3rd when we boarded the Gray Line bus for our tour of the Belle Meade Plantation and the Hermitage; we couldn't have asked for better weather for an outting.     These are two antebellum mansions located in the Nashville area with The Hermitage being the home of President Andrew Jackson while the Belle Meade Plantation is renown for its breeding of championship race horses.  The tour picked us up right at the front doors of Nashville KOA at 11:00 in the morning and from there we made our way to the Hermitage which is about 12 miles away from the campground. Hermitage The tour of the Hermitage began at the museum where we were greeted by our hosts, Rachel and Andrew Jackson, who were standing next to one of their "rides" - nice wheels, huh?   Andrew Jackson bought a six hundred and forty acre farm from Nathaniel Hays in July of 1804 which he called  "Rural Retreat" and soon renamed to The Hermitage (which means rural retreat).  Jackson had the existing two story farmhouse redone before moving his wife and family into it.  He, also, had a log outbuilding erected next to the house which held the kitchen as well as living quarters for his slave cook, Betty, and her family.   The mansion itself was built in three different phases as you can see in the photos below.  Rachel only lived in the "1821" Federal Style Hermitage as she died in 1828 two months before Andrew Jackson was sworn in as President.  While in Washington Jackson initiated a major renovation which greatly enlarged the Hermitage as can be seen in the "1831" Palladian Style below.   A chimney fire seriously damage the mansion in 1834; so while rebuilding it, Jackson had the exterior appearance changed to the Greek Revival Style which remains today.    As you can see from the picture below it is quite difficult to get a good frontal shot of the mansion due to the number and size of the trees.  Tours inside of the house begin every 15 minutes starting with an overview from the front porch which is presented by a costumed guide.  The back of the home is more open giving you can get a better idea of the size of the Hermitage.  Unfortunately pictures were not allowed inside the house.     After touring the home itself we were free to "roam" around the rest of the property and view some of the out buildings at our leisure.  There were some wagon rides giving tours around the property but we never found out where they originated from or if they were reserved for groups but it sure would have been a fun way to see the estat that way. To the right of the mansion are the English styled gardens Jackson had built for his wife Rachel.  Rachel loved her gardens so much that she spent many hours each week working in them.  After she passed away Jackson had her laid to rest in the southwest corner of the gardens where he, too, was later buried next to her.  A small family cemetery has been located in the gardens right next to their graves. The Hermitage was a self-sufficient farm that began with 9 slaves and swelled to around 150 slaves by 1845.  The main "cash" crop was cotton but there were other gardens and plenty of livestock on the farm to provide for the daily needs.  One of Jackson's passions was race horses so a section of the farm was dedicated for raising thoroughbred horses. This building is typical of the housing for the slave community at the Hermitage.  The building is arranged as a duplex providing about a 20 x 20 foot space (with a loft upstairs for sleeping) for each family.  The average slave family on the Hermitage had five children with some having as many as ten; that certainly ensured cramped living conditions in these "homes". The Hermitage reflects the person of Andrew Jackson so much that you can't just visit it without becoming acquainted with the man himself.   Jackson was born in South Carolina to immigrant Irish farmers.  His father died when he was young leaving him and his brothers to be raised by their widowed mother.  At the age of thirteen he "enlisted" in the Continental Army to fight in the Revolutionary war.  The war effort took the lives of his two brothers and his mother leaving him an orphan.  He lived with his mother's family after that. He taught school for awhile and when he was seventeen he decided to study law and by the age of 21 he was a prosecuting attorney.  His legal profession ended up taking him to Nashville where he met and married Rachel Donelson.  They bought a farm known as Hunter Hill (which was next door to the Hermitage property) and engaged in several business endeavors.  In order to avoid bankruptcy from one of the failed business ventures the Jacksons sold Hunter Hill which eventually led to the purchase of the Hermitage property. Today Andrew Jackson is best remembered as the seventh President of the United States, but in years before the White House he was known as the Hero of New Orleans from his leadership during the war of 1812.  General was the title that he liked best and "General Jackson" was what he was called during his eight years in Washington. Talk about controversial polarizing people, Andrew Jackson was certainly one of them.  We may think that today's politics are nasty and dirty when it comes to campaigning tactics but history reveals to us that things haven't really changed all that much since the early 1800's.  John Quincy Adams' campaign attempted to smear Andrew Jackson by attacking him personally.  It seems that there was some discrepancies in his wife Rachel Donelson's divorce and that she was not legally divorced when they got married.  So John Quincy Adams, who was running for re-election, exploited that during the campaign of 1828.    Further, Andrew Jackson's break away from the Republican Party was instrumental in the forming of a new political party which is known today as the Democratic Party.  Andrew Jackson was a very opinionated and stubborn man who was determined to have his own way.  If you remember from your history he was the President who establish the Kitchen Cabinet that made up of friends and close contacts who carry forward his ideas.  Here's a piece of trivia for you - One of Jackson's adversarys referred to him as stubborn as a jackass, a term that Jackson embraced so much that he made the donkey the symbol for his new party (and now you know the "rest of the story"). These are only a few highlights of Andrew Jackson's life which leaves a lot of details to be filled in, but I'll leave that to you history buffs to do on your own.  A good place to start is the website, The Hermitage - Home of President Andrew Jackson, which provides plenty of history on both Andrew Jackson's life as well as the farm itself so be sure to check it out. Today The Hermitage remains in tact thanks to the efforts of the Ladies' Hermitage Association who acquired the property in 1889.  The lands are still being farmed and livestock are still being raised on the original 1050 acre site that Andrew Jackson owned.    Belle Meade From the Hermitage we boarded our bus and headed out for Belle Meade.  Once we arrived they divided us into two tour groups.  Our group had to "hang" around the gift shop and wait for our tour guide for about fifteen minutes.  Our guide, who was a young history major, was rather enamored with himself and took waaaay too long with his "presentation" leaving us no time for walking about the rest of the property before we needed to reboard the bus.  We were disappointed to say the least but for a "free" tour it was still well worthwhile. In 1807 John Harding purchased a 250 acre tract of land where he and his wife Susannah moved into a small log home.  John was a very industrious young man and went to work developing the property into a very successful farm.  He continued to increase his land holdings over the next few years thereby increasing the size of his farm.  Horse racing was a popular pastime in the Nashville area and his land was so fertile that by 1816 he was boarding thoroughbred horses on the property.  In 1820  John had a Federal style brick house built for his family which he named Belle Meade a French term meaning "beautiful meadow". John and Susannah Harding's son William, who took over the farm in the late 1830's, had such an interest in thoroughbred horses that he began breeding them.  The farm flourished and grew to over 3500 acres with 136 slaves working it by 1860.  During the Civil War the farm fell on hard times mainly due to General William Hardings involvement in the Confederacy, however, the farm remained intact.  Harding returned home in 1862 and, once again, racing became a popular pastime so Belle Meade recuperated with a staff of 74 "hired hands".  Due to a stroke in 1879, William Harding turned the operation of Belle Meade over to his son-in-law, General William Hicks Jackson (no relation to Andrew Jackson, Jesse Jackson, or Michael Jackson) who expanded the Plantation to covered over 5400 acres at its peak. In the 1880's Belle Meade gained national recognition in racing circles when Jackson purchased a race horse named Iroquois, the first American-bred horse to win the English Derby, for breeding purposes.  Since that time many well known race horses including Secretariat, Funny Cide, and Barbaro can trace their bloodlines back to Belle Meade.    While touring the inside of the house we were allowed to actually enter each room and look "up close and personal" at the artifacts (but just don't touch).  Over 90% of the furnishings in the house are the original items belonging to the Harding - Jackson families.  As with the Hermitage (and most other mansion tours) pictures were not allowed inside the house therefore there won't be any.     Here are a couple of photographs of other buildings on the estate.  Again, due to the "long-windedness" of our tour guide, we didn't have time to visit the buildings so I snapped a couple of pictures as we walked past.  You can find more information about Belle Meade on their website:  Belle Meade Plantation.     Arrington Winery About forty minutes southeast of Nashville, Tennessee is the quaint little town of Arrington with a population of just under 1.400 people.  Arrington, Tennessee is a farming community with its rolling meadows and white fence lined pastures.  As with most of the small country towns surrounding Nashville you will find the influence of stars from the Country Music industry - Arrington is no exception.  Sitting on a hill overlooking a valley below with pasture lands rising out to the west is the Arrington Winery whose founder is Kix Brooks of the Brooks and Dunn fame. We joined our daughter Mary and her boyfriend Joel at the winery to spend a beautiful Saturday afternoon and the weather couldn't have been anymore perfect.  Arrington Winery has tables out on the patio as well as picnic tables strewn about the property so you can enjoy a meal along with your wine.  The winery sells no food but is more than happy to open your wine for you to enjoy with whatever food you brought with you.  Some people brought linen table clothes and fancy place settings for a full course meal; it looked as if they were having an absolutely wonderful time.   We had planned a pot-luck lunch so Judy and I brought coleslaw, chips, and brownies while Mary and Joel brought the main course which was sub sandwiches from Lenny's.  After our wine tasting we selected two bottles of wine (let's see, does red or white wine go with sub sandwiches?) and made our way to a table out on the patio where we ate our meal, sipped our wine, and took in the beautiful scenery across the vineyards. Here is a picture of our daughter Mary and her beau, Joel. We had a wonderful time together enjoying each other's company.  Oh yes, we bought both a white wine and a red wine; just couldn't decide which went best with sub sandwiches. Nashville Nite Life Dinner Theater We had visited the Nashville Nite Life Dinner Theater back in December of 2006 with fellow workampers Shelby and Ruth.  We enjoyed the show so much that we decided to visit it again; only this time with fellow workampers Ray and Diane.  The meal is a buffet with nice home cooking; southern fried chicken, BBQ ribs, baked 'taters, and plenty of vegies along with several desert selections.  The music is good and the comedy is excellent; you can't help laughing until your side splits and the tears run.  Most comedy that you see today may give you a chuckle or two, but very little actually makes you laugh out loud (LOL).  For that reason alone we highly recommend the Nashville Nite Life Dinner Theater for an enjoyable night out.  They are located right next to Camping World on Music Valley Drive. Until next month, Be Safe, Have Fun, and God Bless. Previous Travelogue or Next Travelogue Return to Travelogues