John Donelson#Descendants
{{about||the Confederate cavalry officer|John Lawrence Donelson}}
{{Short description|American explorer and adventurer}}
{{Infobox person
| name = John Donelson
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| death_date = 17 November 1785 (aged 67)
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| nationality = American
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| occupation = frontiersman, ironmaster, politician, city planner, explorer
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| spouse = Rachel Stockley Donelson
| children = 11, Jane Donelson Hays, Mary Donelson Caffery, Rachel Jackson, plus another sister and seven brothers
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| relatives = Andrew Jackson (son-in-law)
Daniel Smith Donelson
John Donelson Martin
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John Donelson (1718–1785) was an American frontiersman, ironmaster, politician, city planner, and explorer. After founding and operating what became Washington Iron Furnace in Franklin County, Virginia for several years, he moved with his family to Middle Tennessee which was on the developing frontier. There, together with James Robertson, Donelson co-founded the frontier settlement of Fort Nashborough. This later developed as the city of Nashville, Tennessee.
Donelson and his wife Rachel had eleven children, four of them girls. Their tenth was daughter Rachel, whose second husband Andrew Jackson was elected the seventh president of the United States in 1828.
Career
Donelson served in the Virginia House of Burgesses. From about 1770 to 1779, he operated the Washington Iron Furnace at Rocky Mount, Franklin County, Virginia.{{cite web|url=http://www.dhr.virginia.gov/registers/Counties/Franklin/157-0029_Washington_Iron_Furnace_1973_Final_Nomination.pdf|title=National Register of Historic Places Inventory/Nomination: Washington Iron Furnace|author=Anne Carter Lee|date=September 1972|publisher=Virginia Department of Historic Resources|access-date=2013-07-06|archive-date=2010-06-23|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100623105245/http://www.dhr.virginia.gov/registers/Counties/Franklin/157-0029_Washington_Iron_Furnace_1973_Final_Nomination.pdf|url-status=live}}
He next moved to the Watauga settlements on the Holston and Watauga rivers in Washington District, North Carolina. They came into conflict with the Overhill Cherokee on the far side of the Appalachians. Because of armed conflict and flooding in his settlement, Donelson temporarily moved his family to safer areas in Kentucky.
Along with James Robertson who traveled the overland route, Donelson and a large number of pioneers traveled down the Tennessee and other rivers in excess of 1,000 miles to Middle Tennessee, where they co-founded Fort Nashborough, in 1780. This eventually developed as the city of Nashville, Tennessee. A collection of his diaries are kept in Cleveland Hall, in Nashville.[http://clevelandhallhoa.com/pdf/History-of-Cleveland-Hall.pdf History of Cleveland Hall.] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131019220311/http://clevelandhallhoa.com/pdf/History-of-Cleveland-Hall.pdf |date=2013-10-19 }} Retrieved July 17, 2021.
Immediately prior to his death, Donelson was serving as a U.S. Indian commissioner "traveling to the Southeastern nations, including the towns of the Chickamauga Cherokees, endeavoring to negotiate a peace that would deliver the Cumberland settlements from the ongoing siege."{{Sfnp|Inman|2017|p=87}}
Personal life
Donelson married Rachel (née Stockley) (1730–1801) in 1744. They had eleven children, including four daughters who married well and had descendants who became prominent military men and politicians.
Youngest daughter Rachel first married Lewis Robards in 1787; she later married Andrew Jackson of Tennessee. He was elected president of the United States in 1828. She died in December of that year, shortly before he was inaugurated in January 1829.
Daughter Mary Donelson married Captain John Caffery, and two of their descendants served in national political office.
=Family political legacy=
Several of John and Rachel's descendants were elected to political office. Their great-grandson, Donelson Caffery II (1835–1906), served one term as a Louisiana State Senator and two terms as a U.S. Senator from Louisiana. He was elected to that office by the state legislature, as was customary at the time. In 1896 he was the first nominee for president of the "Democratic National Party" but declined the nomination.Anonymous (1912). The World Almanac and Book of Facts. Press Publishing Company, p. 218. In 1900, he was nominated to head the presidential ticket of the "National Party" but declined that nomination as well.Havel T., James (1996). The elections, 1789–1992. The elections, 1789–1992, p. 77.
The Donelsons' great-great-great grandson, attorney Patrick Thomson Caffery (1932–2013), served one term as a Louisiana State Representative (1964–1968), and two terms as a United States Representative from Louisiana's 3rd congressional district (1969–1973). He retired from Congress to resume the practice of law.[https://www.pellerinfuneralhome.com/obituaries/Patrick-Caffery-Sr?obId=3302094#/obituaryInfo "Patrick Caffery Sr." Pellerin.] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210717165504/https://www.pellerinfuneralhome.com/obituaries/Patrick-Caffery-Sr?obId=3302094#/obituaryInfo |date=2021-07-17 }} Retrieved June 17, 2021.[https://bioguide.congress.gov/search/bio/C000017 "CAFFERY, Patrick Thomson." Biographical Dictionary of the United States Congress.] Retrieved June 17, 2021.
Death and legacy
Donelson was shot and killed in 1785 by an unknown person on the banks of the Barren River. He was en route to Mansker's Station after a business trip.{{Cite web|url=https://tennesseeencyclopedia.net/entries/john-donelson/|title=Donelson, John|first=Randal|last=Rust|access-date=2025-01-28|archive-date=2024-11-10|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20241110085648/https://tennesseeencyclopedia.net/entries/john-donelson/|url-status=live}} One Jackson scholar says he was killed "by the Indians"{{Cite journal |last=Owsley |first=Harriet Chappell |date=1977 |title=The Marriages of Rachel Donelson |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/42625784 |journal=Tennessee Historical Quarterly |volume=36 |issue=4 |pages=479–492 |jstor=42625784 |issn=0040-3261 |archive-date=2024-08-26 |access-date=2024-08-25 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240826002058/https://www.jstor.org/stable/42625784 |url-status=live }}{{Rp|pages=480}} and Notable Southern Families states "he was shot from ambush, by an Indian, and killed."{{Cite web |title=Notable Southern families v.2. |url=https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=hvd.32044098881485&seq=93 |access-date=2024-08-25 |website=HathiTrust |page=89 |language=en |archive-date=2024-08-26 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240826031128/https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=hvd.32044098881485&seq=93 |url-status=live }}
Donelson, Tennessee was named in his honor.
Descendants
{{main|Donelson family}}
The Donelson family of Tennessee left by John Donelson had an outsize impact on the history of the U.S. South thanks in part to daughter Rachel's marriage to Andrew Jackson.
See also
References
{{Reflist}}
Sources
- {{Cite book |last=Caffery |first=Charles S. |date=n.d. |title=The Caffery Family, 1737–1900 |oclc=15049793 |publisher=n.pub.
|url=http://wildtrip.com/genealogy/The%20Caffery%20Family%20by%20Col%20Charles%20S%20Caffery.pdf }}
- {{cite book | author = Crabb, Alfred Leland | year = 1957 | title = Journey to Nashville: A Story of the Founding | url = https://archive.org/details/journeytonashvil00crab | url-access = registration | author-link = Alfred Leland Crabb | location= New York | publisher=Bobbs-Merrill }}
- {{Cite book |last=Cheathem |date=2007 |first=Mark R. |title=Old Hickory's Nephew: The Political and Private Struggles of Andrew Jackson Donelson |publisher=Louisiana State University Press |isbn=978-0-8071-3238-8 |series=Southern Biography Series |location=Baton Rouge |oclc=ocm70866891 |lccn=2006024951 |id={{Project MUSE|16672|type=book}} }}
- {{cite web |last=Donelson |year=1779 |first=John |url=https://tsla.tnsosfiles.com/digital/teva/transcripts/33635.pdf |title=Journal of a voyage, intended by God's Permission, in the good Boat Adventure, from Fort Patrick Henry on Holston river to the French Salt Springs on Cumberland River, kept by John Donaldson. |publisher=Tennessee State Library and Archives }}
- {{Cite thesis |last=Gismondi |first=Melissa |title=Rachel Jackson and the Search for Zion, 1760s–1830s |date=2017-06-12 |degree=PhD, History |publisher=University of Virginia |url=https://libraetd.lib.virginia.edu/public_view/v979v320v |place=Charlottesville, Virginia |doi=10.18130/v3q364|url-access=subscription }}
- {{Cite book |last=Inman |first=Natalie R. |title=Brothers and Friends: Kinship in Early America |date=2017 |publisher=University of Georgia Press |isbn=978-0-8203-5110-0 |oclc=985105661 |lccn=2016055415 |series=Early American Spaces |doi=10.1353/book51901 |language=en-us |chapter=4. The Donelsons: Social, Political, and Economic Expansion on the Frontier}}
- {{Cite journal |last=Whitaker |first=A. P. |date=December 1926 |title=The Muscle Shoals Speculation, 1783–1789 |url=https://academic.oup.com/jah/article-lookup/doi/10.2307/1893112 |journal=The Mississippi Valley Historical Review |volume=13 |issue=3 |pages=365 |doi=10.2307/1893112|url-access=subscription }}
External links
- [https://web.archive.org/web/20010212085616/http://www.library.nashville.org/Links/Nashville/historylinks/who.html#donelsonj City of Nashville biography]
- [http://teva.contentdm.oclc.org/cdm/compoundobject/collection/tfd/id/600/rec/1 John Donelson Journal] – Transcription and scan of journal about 1779 river journey.
- [http://www.roanetnhistory.org/ramseysannals.php?loc=RamseysAnnals&pgid=206 John Donelson's "Journal of the Adventure"] – in J.G.M. Ramsey's Annals of Tennessee to the End of the Eighteenth Century (1853).
- {{Cite news |date=1900-08-06 |title=Romantic Period of the Old Hermitage |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-tennessean-romantic-period-of-the-ol/162526115/ |access-date=2025-01-27 |work=The Tennessean |pages=7}}
- {{Find a Grave|6639237}}
- {{Cite news |date=1930-06-22 |title=Donelson Homes of Jackson Period Still Standing Near Nashville |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/nashville-banner-donelson-homes-of-jacks/166688436/ |access-date=2025-02-25 |work=Nashville Banner |pages=77}}
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Category:American city founders
Category:People from colonial Virginia
Category:People of Tennessee in the American Revolution
Category:People from Nashville, Tennessee
Category:House of Burgesses members
Category:People from pre-statehood Tennessee
Category:Family of Andrew Jackson
Category:18th-century American politicians
Category:American slave owners
Category:North Carolina militiamen in the American Revolution