Andrew Jackson Donelson
Andrew Jackson Donelson was an American diplomat. He served in various positions as a Democrat and was the Know Nothing nominee for Vice President of the United States in 1856. After the death of his father, Donelson was adopted by his aunt, Rachel Jackson, her husband, Andrew Jackson. Donelson served under his uncle in Florida, he studied law, beginning his own practice in Nashville. He assisted Jackson's presidential campaigns and served as his private secretary after Jackson won the 1828 presidential election, he returned to Tennessee after the end of Jackson's presidency in 1837 and remained active in local politics. After helping James K. Polk triumph at the 1844 Democratic National Convention, Donelson was appointed by President John Tyler to represent the United States in the Republic of Texas, where Donelson played an important role in the annexation of Texas. In 1846, President Polk appointed Donelson appointed as Minister to Prussia, he left that position in 1849 and became the editor of a Democratic newspaper, but alienated various factions in the party.
In 1856, the Know Nothings chose him as their vice presidential nominee, he campaigned on a ticket with former Whig President Millard Fillmore. The ticket finished in third place in both the electoral and popular vote behind the Democratic and Republican tickets. Donelson participated in the 1860 Constitutional Union Convention. One of the three sons of Samuel and Mary Donelson, Andrew Jackson Donelson was born in Nashville, Tennessee, his younger brother, Daniel Smith Donelson, was the Confederate brigadier general after whom Fort Donelson was named. Donelson's father died; when his mother remarried, Donelson moved to The Hermitage, the home of his aunt, Rachel Donelson Jackson, her husband, Donelson's namesake, future President of the United States Andrew Jackson. Rachel and Andrew Jackson adopted all three Donelson sons, including Andrew. Donelson attended Cumberland College in Nashville and joined the United States Military Academy at West Point, New York, graduating second in his class in 1820.
His two years as an officer in the United States Army were spent as aide-de-camp to Andrew Jackson, by a major general, as Jackson campaigned against the Seminoles in Florida. With the campaign over, Donelson resigned his commission and studied law at Transylvania University in Lexington, Kentucky. A year he started practicing law in Nashville and, less than a year after that, had married his first cousin, Emily Tennessee Donelson. Donelson assisted his uncle during the 1824 and 1828 presidential campaigns and, in 1829, he became Jackson's private secretary when his uncle was inaugurated as President of the United States, his wife Emily served as White House hostess and unofficial First Lady of the United States due to Rachel Jackson's death in December, 1828. Donelson remained Jackson's private secretary throughout his administration. During his stay in Washington, Donelson had his new home, Poplar Grove, constructed on the land he had inherited from his father, adjacent to the Hermitage. In 1836, Tulip Grove was completed.
Shortly afterward Emily died of tuberculosis. Donelson moved back to Nashville after Jackson's retirement the following year, where he helped Jackson sustain the Democratic party in a variety of ways for the next seven years; these services included writing newspaper editorials defending Democratic principles and helping Democratic candidates campaign for state and national offices. In 1841, Donelson married another cousin, Elizabeth Randolph, with whom he would have eight more children. Elizabeth Martin Randolph was a widow of Meriwether Lewis Randolph, a son of Martha Jefferson Randolph, a grandson of Thomas Jefferson). In 1844, Donelson was instrumental in helping James K. Polk win the Democratic presidential nomination over Martin Van Buren and other more notable candidates. President John Tyler appointed Donelson Chargé d'Affaires of the United States mission to the Republic of Texas hoping that Jackson's nephew would help persuade former Tennessee politician Sam Houston to endorse the United States' annexation of Texas.
Donelson was successful in this endeavor, Texas joined the United States on December 29, 1845. He was made Minister to Prussia in 1846, a position he would hold until President Polk's Democratic administration was replaced by the Whig administration of Zachary Taylor in 1849. Between September 1848 and November 1849, during the time of the Frankfurt Parliament, he was the U. S. envoy to the short-lived revolutionary government of Germany in Frankfurt. In 1851, Donelson became the editor of a Democratic newspaper. However, as sectionalism became the dominant issue of American politics, Donelson became unpopular with several factions within the Democratic party, who forced him out in 1852. In 1856, Donelson was nominated as the running mate of former President Millard Fillmore on the American Party ticket. Fillmore and Donelson managed to garner over 20 per cent of the popular vote but only the eight electoral votes of Maryland. In 1858, Donelson moved to Memphis, Tennessee, he participated in local politics there, although he was a delegate to the Constitutional Union party's national nominating convention, which nominated his old Tennessee nemesis, John Bell, as its presidential candidate.
During the Civil War, Donelson was harassed by both sides of the conflict. He lost two of his sons in the war
Franklin County, Virginia
Franklin County is a county located in the Blue Ridge foothills of the U. S. state of Virginia. As of the 2010 census, the population was 56,159, its county seat is Rocky Mount. Franklin County is part of the Roanoke, VA Metropolitan Statistical Area and is located in the Roanoke Region of Virginia; the Roanoke River forms its northeast boundary with Bedford County. The Blue Ridge Foothills had long been inhabited by indigenous peoples. At the time of European encounter Siouan-speaking tribes lived in this area. A few colonists moved into the area before the American Revolutionary War, but most settlement happened afterward, as people moved west seeking new lands. Cultivation of tobacco had exhausted soils in the eastern part of the state; the county was formed in 1785 from parts of Henry counties. It was named for Benjamin Franklin; the Piedmont and backcountry areas were settled by Scots-Irish, who were the last major immigrant group from the British Isles to enter the colonies before the Revolutionary War.
There were migrants from coastal areas, including free people of color, who moved to the frontier to escape racial strictures associated with the slave society of Virginia. In the 20th century during Prohibition, local wits named Franklin County the "Moonshine Capital of the World", as moonshine production and bootlegging drove the economy; as of 2000, the local chamber of commerce had adopted the title as a heritage identification for the area. Moonshine is still being made in the area. Historians estimate that in the 1920s, 99 of every 100 Franklin County residents were in some way involved in the illegal liquor trade; the bootleggers became involved with gangsters from Chicago and other major cities, some local law enforcement officials were part of the criminal activities and killing of competitors. "Between 1930 and 1935 local still operators and their business partners sold a volume of whiskey that would have generated $5,500,000 in excise taxes at the old 1920 tax rate."A lengthy federal investigation resulted in indictments and trials for 34 suspects in 1935 for what was called the "Great Moonshine Conspiracy," which attracted national attention.
The writer Sherwood Anderson was among the many outsiders. At what was the longest trial in state history, 31 people were convicted, but their jail sentences were light. Thirteen conspirators were sentenced only to probation; this period has received new attention by writers. T. Keister Greer's history The Great Moonshine Conspiracy Trial of 1935 covered the trial and its background in the county; the writer Matt Bondurant had ancestors in the area, whose exploits during this period inspired his historical novel, The Wettest County in the World. The book was adapted as a film, Lawless, in 2012. In 2014 an historical novel with lots of history about the county and town came out: "Moonshine Corner, Keys to Rocky Mount," ISBN 9781500980115, by the widow of T. Keister Greer, Ibby Greer. Since the 1980s, much residential development has occurred around Smith Mountain Lake. People live there who commute to work in the urbanized areas of Roanoke, Lynchburg and Danville. Retirees have moved in, both groups have increased the county's population.
According to the U. S. Census Bureau, the county has a total area of 712 square miles, of which 690 square miles is land and 21 square miles is water, it is upriver of the fall line of the Roanoke River, located at North Carolina. The county is divided into supervisor districts; the population density was 68 people per square mile. There were 22,717 housing units at an average density of 33 per square mile; the racial makeup of the county was 88.95% White, 9.35% Black or African American, 0.19% Native American, 0.36% Asian, 0.02% Pacific Islander, 0.42% from other races, 0.71% from two or more races. 1.21% of the population were Hispanic or Latino of any race. There were 18,963 households out of which 29.10% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 60.10% were married couples living together, 9.40% had a female householder with no husband present, 26.60% were non-families. 22.60% of all households were made up of individuals and 8.90% had someone living alone, 65 years of age or older.
The average household size was 2.44 and the average family size was 2.84. In the county, the population was spread out with 22.20% under the age of 18, 8.10% from 18 to 24, 28.20% from 25 to 44, 27.20% from 45 to 64, 14.30% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 40 years. For every 100 females there were 97.20 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 96.30 males. The median income for a household in the county was $38,056, the median income for a family was $45,163. Males had a median income of $29,807 versus $22,215 for females; the per capita income for the county was $19,605. About 7.30% of families and 9.70% of the population were below the poverty line, including 12.70% of those under age 18 and 9.80% of those age 65 or over. Blackwater District: E. Cline Brubaker Blue Ridge District: Timothy Tatum
Watauga Association
The Watauga Association was a semi-autonomous government created in 1772 by frontier settlers living along the Watauga River in what is now Elizabethton, Tennessee. Although it lasted only a few years, the Watauga Association provided a basis for what developed into the state of Tennessee and influenced other western frontier governments in the trans-Appalachian region. North Carolina annexed the Watauga settlement area, by known as the Washington District, in November 1776. Within a year, the area was placed under a county government, becoming Washington County, North Carolina, in November 1777. While there is no evidence that the Watauga Association claimed to be outside the sovereign territory of the British Crown, historians have cited the Association as the earliest attempt by American-born colonists to form an independent democratic government. In 1774, Virginia governor Lord Dunmore called the Watauga Association a "dangerous example" of Americans forming a government "distinct from and independent of his majesty's authority."
President Theodore Roosevelt wrote that the Watauga settlers were the "first men of American birth to establish a free and independent community on the continent." While no copy of the settlers' compact, known as the Articles of the Watauga Association, has been found, related documents tend to imply that the Watauga settlers still considered themselves British subjects after the initial hostilities of the American Revolution had commenced. European settlers began arriving in the Watauga and Holston river valleys in the late 1760s and early 1770s, most migrating from Virginia via the Great Valley, although a few were believed to have been Regulators fleeing North Carolina after their defeat at the Battle of Alamance; these settlers mistakenly believed the Watauga and Nolichucky valleys were part of lands ceded to Virginia by the Cherokee in the 1770 Treaty of Lochaber, but a subsequent survey by Colonel John Donelson confirmed that these lands were still part of the Cherokee domain. As settlement on lands west of colonial boundaries violated the Royal Proclamation of 1763, the Watauga and Nolichucky settlers were ordered to leave.
In May 1772, the Watauga and Nolichucky settlers negotiated a 10-year lease directly with the Cherokee, being outside the claims of any colony, established the Watauga Association to provide basic government functions. The lease and the subsequent purchase of these lands in 1775 were considered illegal by the British Crown, were vehemently opposed by a growing faction of the Cherokee led by the young chief Dragging Canoe. With the outbreak of the American Revolutionary War, the settlers organized themselves into the "Washington District," loyal to the "united colonies," and formed a Committee of Safety to govern it, marking the end of the so-called "Watauga Republic". In Spring of 1776, the Washington District Committee of Safety drafted a petition asking the colony of Virginia to annex the district. After Virginia refused, the Committee drafted a similar petition asking the North Carolina Assembly to annex the district. In November of that year, North Carolina formally annexed the area; the Washington District was admitted to North Carolina as Washington County in November 1777.
The Cherokee, who were aligned with the British, launched an all-out invasion against the settlements in July 1776, but were soundly defeated. In 1777, the Cherokee signed the Treaty of Long Island, ceding control of the Watauga and Nolichucky valleys to the American colonies. Since no copy of the Articles of the Watauga Association has been found, most of what is known about it comes from other sources the 1776 Petition of the Inhabitants of the Washington District called the "Watauga Petition," in which the Wataugans requested annexation by North Carolina. According to the Petition, the Articles were fashioned after the laws of Virginia and were enacted by unanimous consent of the settlers; the primary reason given for the establishment of the Watauga Association was to prevent the Watauga and Nolichucky regions from becoming a haven for debtors and felons, for conducting "public business" such as the recording of deeds and wills. Other sources, such as the writings of Washington District Committee of Safety clerk pro tem William Tatham and documents collected by historian J. G. M. Ramsey in the mid-19th century, reveal that the Articles established a five-member court, that the Wataugans erected a courthouse and jail at Sycamore Shoals.
Historians disagree over the first five magistrates of the court, although most agree that it included John Carter, James Robertson, Charles Robertson, Zachariah Isbell. The fifth member was Jacob Brown. Court members included Andrew Greer, John Roddye, John Sevier. James Smith was the court's first clerk, replaced by Sevier in 1775; when Sevier was elected to the court, Felix Walker took over as clerk, with Tatham serving in his absence. Wataugan militiamen were present at multiple engagements on the frontier and throughout the American Revolution. A company of 20 Wataugans took part in the Battle of Point Pleasant in 1774 during Lord Dunmore's War, another contingent aided in the defense of Boonesborough and Harrodsburg in the decade; the Washington District Committee of Safety, created in 1775, consisted of John Carter, Zachariah Isbell, Jacob Brown, John Sevier, James Smith and Charles Robertson, William Bean, John
House of Burgesses
The House of Burgesses was the elected representative element of the Virginia General Assembly, the legislative body of the Colony of Virginia. With the creation of the House of Burgesses in 1642, the General Assembly, established in 1619, became a bicameral institution. From 1642 to 1776, the House of Burgesses was an instrument of government alongside the royally-appointed colonial governor and the upper-house Council of State in the General Assembly; when the Virginia colony declared its independence from the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland at the Fifth Virginia Convention in 1776 and became the independent Commonwealth of Virginia, the House of Burgesses became the House of Delegates, which continues to serve as the lower house of the General Assembly. A synonym of burgher or bourgeois, the word "burgess" came to mean a borough representative in local or parliamentary government; the Colony of Virginia was founded by an English stock company, the Virginia Company, as a private venture, though under a royal charter.
Early governors provided the stern leadership and harsh judgments required for the colony to survive its early difficulties. As early crises with famine, Native American attempts to retake land, the need to establish cash crops, insufficient skilled or committed labor, the colony needed to attract enough new and responsible settlers if it were to grow and prosper. To encourage settlers to come to Virginia, in November, 1618 the Virginia Company's leaders gave instructions to the new Governor Sir George Yeardley, which became known as "the great charter." Emigrants who paid their own way to Virginia would receive fifty acres of land and not be mere tenants. Civil authority would control the military. In 1619, based on the instructions, Governor Yeardley initiated the election 22 burgesses by the settlements and Jamestown, together with the royally-appointed Governor and six-member Council of State, would form the first General Assembly as a unicameral body; the governor could veto its actions and the Company still maintained overall control of the venture, but the settlers would have a limited say in the management of their own affairs, including their finances.
A House of Assembly was created at the same time in Bermuda and held its first session in 1620. A handful of Polish craftsmen, brought to the colony to supply skill in the manufacture of pitch, tar and soap ash, were denied the political rights of English settlers, they downed tools in protest, but returned to work after being declared free and enfranchised by agreement with the Virginia Company. On July 30, 1619, Governor Yeardley convened the General Assembly as the first representative legislature in the Americas for a six-day meeting at the new brick church on Jamestown Island, Virginia; the unicameral Assembly was composed of the Governor, a Council of State appointed by the Virginia Company and the 22 locally elected representatives. The Assembly's first session of July 30, 1619, accomplished little, being cut short by an outbreak of malaria; the assembly had 22 members from the following constituencies: James City, Charles City, the City of Henricus, Martin-Brandon, Smythe's Hundred, Martin's Hundred, Argall's Gift Plantation, Flowerdew Hundred Plantation, Captain Lawne's Plantation, Captain Ward's Plantation.
After the massacre of 400 colonists on March 22, 1621/22 by Native Americans, epidemics in the winters before and after the massacre, the governor and council ruled arbitrarily, showing great contempt for the assembly and allowed no dissent. By 1624, the royal government in London had heard enough about the problems of the colony and revoked the charter of the Virginia Company. Virginia became the governor and council would be appointed by the king. Nonetheless, the Assembly maintained management of local affairs with some informal royal assent, although it was not royally confirmed until 1639. In 1634, the General Assembly divided the colony into eight shires for purposes of government and the judicial system. By 1643, the expanding colony had 15 counties. All of the county offices, including a board of commissioners, sheriff and clerks, were appointed positions. Only the burgesses were elected by a vote of the people. Women had no right to vote. Only free and white men were given the right to vote, by 1670 only property owners were allowed to vote.
In 1642, Governor William Berkeley urged creation of a bicameral legislature, which the Assembly promptly implemented. In 1652, the parliamentary forces of Oliver Cromwell forced the colony to submit to being taken over by the English government. Again, the colonists were able to retain the General Assembly as their governing body. Only taxes agreed to by the assembly were to be levied. Still, most Virginia colonists were loyal to Prince Charles, were pleased at his restoration as King Charles II in 1660, he went on directly or indirectly to restrict some of the liberties of the colonists, such as requiring tobacco t
Nashville, Tennessee
Nashville is the capital and most populous city of the U. S. state of Tennessee. The city is located on the Cumberland River; the city's population ranks 24th in the U. S. According to 2017 estimates from the U. S. Census Bureau, the total consolidated city-county population stood at 691,243; the "balance" population, which excludes semi-independent municipalities within Davidson County, was 667,560 in 2017. Located in northern Middle Tennessee, Nashville is the main core of the largest metropolitan area in Tennessee; the 2017 population of the entire 14-county Nashville metropolitan area was 1,903,045. The 2017 population of the Nashville—Davidson–Murfreesboro–Columbia combined statistical area, a larger trade area, was 2,027,489. Named for Francis Nash, a general of the Continental Army during the American Revolutionary War, the city was founded in 1779; the city grew due to its strategic location as a port and railroad center. Nashville seceded with Tennessee during the American Civil War and in 1862 became the first state capital to fall to Union troops.
After the war the city developed a manufacturing base. Since 1963, Nashville has had a consolidated city-county government, which includes six smaller municipalities in a two-tier system; the city is governed by a mayor, a vice-mayor, a 40-member metropolitan council. Reflecting the city's position in state government, Nashville is home to the Tennessee Supreme Court's courthouse for Middle Tennessee. Nashville is a center for the music, publishing, private prison and transportation industries, is home to numerous colleges and universities such as Tennessee State University, Vanderbilt University, Belmont University, Fisk University, Lipscomb University. Entities with headquarters in the city include Asurion, Bridgestone Americas, Captain D's, CoreCivic, Dollar General, Hospital Corporation of America, LifeWay Christian Resources, Logan's Roadhouse, Ryman Hospitality Properties; the town of Nashville was founded by James Robertson, John Donelson, a party of Overmountain Men in 1779, near the original Cumberland settlement of Fort Nashborough.
It was named for the American Revolutionary War hero. Nashville grew because of its strategic location, accessibility as a port on the Cumberland River, a tributary of the Ohio River. By 1800, the city had 345 residents, including 136 enslaved African Americans and 14 free African-American residents. In 1806, Nashville was incorporated as a city and became the county seat of Davidson County, Tennessee. In 1843, the city was named as the permanent capital of the state of Tennessee; the city government of Nashville owned 24 slaves by 1831, 60 prior to the war. They were "put to work to build the first successful water system and maintain the streets." The cholera outbreak that struck Nashville in 1849–1850 took the life of former U. S. President James K. Polk. There were 311 deaths from cholera in 1849 and an estimated 316 to about 500 in 1850. By 1860, when the first rumblings of secession began to be heard across the South, antebellum Nashville was a prosperous city; the city's significance as a shipping port made it a desirable prize as a means of controlling important river and railroad transportation routes.
In February 1862, Nashville became the first state capital to fall to Union troops. The state was occupied by Union troops for the duration of the war; the Battle of Nashville was a significant Union victory and the most decisive tactical victory gained by either side in the war. Afterward, the Confederates conducted a war of attrition, making guerrilla raids and engaging in small skirmishes, with the Confederate forces in the Deep South constantly in retreat. In 1868, a few years after the Civil War, the Nashville chapter of the Ku Klux Klan was founded by Confederate veteran John W. Morton. Chapters of this secret insurgent group formed throughout the South. In 1873 Nashville suffered another cholera epidemic, as did towns throughout Sumner County along railroad routes and the Cumberland River. Meanwhile, the city had reclaimed its important shipping and trading position and developed a solid manufacturing base; the post–Civil War years of the late 19th century brought new prosperity to Nashville and Davidson County.
These healthy economic times left the city with a legacy of grand classical-style buildings, including the Parthenon in Centennial Park, near downtown. On April 30, 1892, Ephraim Grizzard, an African-American man, was lynched in a spectacle murder in front of a white mob of 10,000 in Nashville, his lynching was described by journalist Ida B. Wells as: "A naked, bloody example of the blood-thirstiness of the nineteenth century civilization of the Athens of the South." From 1877 to 1950, a total of six lynchings of blacks were conducted in Davidson County, most in the county seat of Nashville near the turn of the century. By the turn of the century, Nashville had become the cradle of the Lost Cause of the Confederacy, as the first chapter of the United Daughters of the Confederacy was founded here and the Confederate Veteran magazine was published here. Most "guardians of the Lost Cause" lived near Centennial Park. At the same time, Jefferson Street became the historic center of the African-American community.
It remained so until the federal government s
Rachel Jackson
Rachel Jackson was the wife of Andrew Jackson, the 7th President of the United States. She lived with him at their home at The Hermitage, where she died just days after his election and before his inauguration in 1829—therefore she never served as First Lady, a role assumed by her niece, Emily Donelson. Rachel Jackson was married at first to Lewis Robards in Nashville. In about 1791, she eloped with Andrew Jackson, believing that Robards had secured the couple a divorce, it was revealed that he had not, meaning that her marriage to Jackson was technically bigamous. They were forced to remarry in 1794, she had a close relationship with her husband, was anxious while he was away tending to military or political affairs. A Presbyterian, Rachel was noted for her deep religious piety. During the personal prelude to the 1828 election, she was the subject of negative attacks from the supporters of Andrew Jackson's opponent, John Quincy Adams. Jackson believed that these attacks had hastened her death, thus blamed his political enemies.
Rachel Donelson was born near the Banister River, about ten miles from Chatham, Virginia, in Pittsylvania County on June 15, 1767. Her father was Colonel John Donelson, co-founder of Nashville and her mother was Rachel Stockley Donelson, her great-grandfather, Patrick Donelson, was born in Scotland about 1670. She had three sisters: Alexander Donelson Mary Donelson Caffery. Wife of Captain John Caffery. Parents of Jane Caffrey wife of painter Ralph Eleaser Whiteside Earl and of Donelson Caffrey, father of Senator Donelson Caffery. Catherine Donelson Hutchings Stockley Donelson Jane Donelson Hays John Donelson, father of Emily Donelson 1st wife of Andrew Jackson Donelson. With her family, she moved to Tennessee at the age of 12, her father led about 600 people from Fort Patrick Henry to Fort Nashborough, down the Cumberland River. The Donelson family were among the first white settlers in Tennessee. Rachel attracted much attention from suitors because she was beautiful as a young woman, described by a contemporary as having "lustrous black eyes, dark glossy hair, full red lips, brunette complexion, though of brilliant coloring, a sweet oval face rippling with smiles and dimples."
In life, her country manners and full figure were in contrast with Jackson's tall, spindly form and developed genteel manners. However, her love for her husband was unmistakable: she languished when he was away for politics, fretted when he was away at war, doted on him when he was at home. Unlike Jackson, Rachel never liked being in the spotlight of events, she would warn her husband to not let his political accomplishments rule him. She was a Presbyterian, she was an avid reader of the Bible and religious works as well as poetry. Her first marriage to Captain Lewis Robards of Harrodsburg, Kentucky, a landowner and speculator, was not happy, the two separated in 1790. According to Marcia Mullins of The Hermitage in Nashville, Tennessee there were rumors that Lewis Robards was cruel and jealous. Believing that her husband would file a petition for divorce, she returned to the Donelson family home; when Andrew Jackson migrated to Nashville, Tennessee in 1788, he boarded with Rachel Stockley Donelson, the mother of Rachel Donelson Robards.
The two became close, shortly after, they married in Natchez, Mississippi. Rachel believed that her husband had obtained a divorce, but as it had never been completed, her marriage to Jackson was technically bigamous and therefore invalid. Rachel's marital status was complicated by the distances involved and the changing governmental authorities. During the process of Rachel and Robard's divorce, Kentucky became a state instead of a territory of Virginia, North Carolina turned over management of the territory including Tennessee to the Federal Government; these complicating factors were understood by locals and the unusual circumstances of the Jackson marriage were not discussed in Nashville society. In 1793, Andrew and Rachel Jackson learned that although Lewis Robards had filed for divorce, the divorce had never been granted; this made Rachel an adulterer. On the grounds of Rachel's abandonment and adultery, Lewis Robards was granted a divorce in 1794. At about the same time, the legitimacy of the Jackson marriage was questioned because they were married in then-Spanish-controlled Natchez, Mississippi.
The Jacksons were Protestants, only Catholic marriages were recognized as legal unions in that territory. After the divorce was legalized in 1794, Andrew and Rachel wed again in a quiet ceremony at the Donelson home. Although the Jacksons never had biological children, they adopted her nephew in 1809 and named him Andrew Jackson, Jr; when his father became President, Andrew Jr. assumed management of the Hermitage farm. He married Sarah Yorke of Philadelphia on November 24, 1831. In 1813, the Jacksons adopted a Creek orphan boy, found on the battlefield of Tallushatchee with his dead mother, they named him Lyncoya. Lyncoy
John Coffee
John R. Coffee was an American planter and state militia general in Tennessee, he commanded troops under General Andrew Jackson during the Creek Wars and during the Battle of New Orleans in the War of 1812. During his presidency, Jackson appointed Coffee as his representative, along with Secretary of War John Eaton, to negotiate treaties with Southeast American Indian tribes to accomplish removal, a policy authorized by Congressional passage of the Indian Removal Act of 1830. Coffee negotiated the Treaty of Dancing Rabbit Creek of 1830 with the Choctaw by which they ceded their lands, started negotiations with the Chickasaw, but they did not conclude a treaty until after his death. Born in Prince Edward County, Coffee was the son of Lieutenant Joshua Coffee and Elizabeth Graves, his grandfather, Peter Coffee, Sr. was Irish and was born around 1705. In 1730 he was released from the Old Bailey and "transported" to Virginia where he labored as an indentured servant in the tobacco fields for 14 years, gaining his freedom in 1744.
John Coffee married Mary Donelson, the daughter of Captain John Donelson III and Mary Purnell, on October 3, 1809. A paternal aunt of Mrs. Coffee was Rachel Donelson Robards. Coffee and Jackson were in business together. Before John Coffee's marriage, Jackson sold his partnership in their joint merchandising business to Coffee, taking promissory notes for the sale. After the wedding, Jackson gave Coffee the notes as his wedding present to the couple. Coffee was a land speculator, he was considered to be the least selfish of Jackson's lifelong friends. Described as a big awkward man, careless of dress, slow of speech, Coffee was said to be kindly and wise. In early 1806, Coffee challenged Nathaniel A. McNairy to a duel for publishing derogatory statements about Jackson; the duel took place on March 1806, over the Tennessee line in Kentucky. McNairy unintentionally fired before the "word". In return, McNairy offered to give Coffee an extra shot; the weapons used in this duel were used in the Jackson-Dickinson duel on May 30, 1806.
At the beginning of the War of 1812, Coffee raised the 2nd Regiment of Volunteer Mounted Riflemen, composed of Tennessee militiamen. In December 1812, Governor Willie Blount had called out the Tennessee militia in response to a request from General James Wilkinson and the U. S. Secretary of War. Under Jackson's command, Coffee led 600 men in January 1813 to Natchez, Mississippi Territory, via the Natchez Trace, in advance of the rest of the rest of the troops, who traveled via flatboats on the major rivers. After the two groups reunited in Natchez and the U. S. government disbanded Jackson's troops. All marched back to Nashville to disband, on this march Jackson earned the nickname Old Hickory from his troops, they arrived in Nashville on May 18, 1813. On September 4, 1813, Coffee was involved in the Andrew Jackson–Benton brothers duel in Nashville, knocking Thomas Benton down a flight of stairs after Benton's failed assassination attempt on Jackson. In October 1813, the 2nd Regiment was combined with Colonel Cannon's Mounted Regiment and the 1st Regiment of Volunteer Mounted Gunmen to form a militia brigade of mounted infantry.
Coffee was placed in command. Coffee led his brigade, which included free blacks and Native American warriors from allied Southeast tribes, at the 1814-15 Battle of New Orleans, they played a key role in holding the woods to the east of the British column. Coffee's brigade was the first to engage the British, by firing from behind brush. Jackson chose General Coffee as his advance commander in the Creek War, during which he commanded state militia and allied Native Americans. Under Jackson, Coffee led his brigade at the Battle of Tallushatchee, the Battle of Talladega, the Battles of Emuckfaw and Enotachopo Creek, where he was wounded. At the latter, the allied forces conclusively defeated the Red Sticks, traditionalists of the Creek Nation who were allied with the British. After the war and some failed investments, Coffee began work as a surveyor. In 1816 he surveyed the boundary line between Mississippi Territory, he moved to a place near Florence, Alabama. His friend and former business partner Jackson was elected President.
Jackson worked toward removal of Southeast Native American tribes to lands west of the Mississippi River. He appointed Coffee as his representative, along with Secretary of War John Eaton, to negotiate treaties which would accomplish removal, a policy authorized by Congressional passage of the Indian Removal Act of 1830. Coffee negotiated the Treaty of Dancing Rabbit Creek of 1830 with the Choctaw by which they ceded their Southeastern lands. Coffee started negotiations with the Chickasaw, but the U. S. did not conclude a treaty with these people until after his death. Coffee died in Florence on July 7, 1833, at age 61. Coffee County, Coffee County and the towns of Coffeeville, Coffee Springs, Coffeeville and Fort Coffee, are named in his honor. Researchers confuse General John Coffee with his first cousin John E. Coffee, a general in the Georgia militia and elected as a U. S. Congressman there. General Coffee is sometimes referred to as John R. Coffee; some researchers have attempted to document the use of this middle initial in original sources.
To dat
