Alcove 3
Becoming a Town

The Cumberland settlement reached a peace agreement with Chickasaw leader Piomingo in 1783. That same year, Davidson County, officially a part of the North Carolina territory, was established. Panel 1 depicts an elderly male Indian and a young female dressed in ceremonial attire. Panel 2 is dedicated to the beginning businesses and industries around the Public Square of the young town. A gristmill, a Methodist church, and a whiskey distillery were soon established. Nashville's first hotel, the Nashville Inn, opened in the early 1780s. Robert Renfro (in oval), a free black, had a tavern and rooming house on the public square by 1794. Panel 3 depicts the rise of religion and the early evangelical "camp meetings" where many were baptized by traveling preachers. In Panels 4 and 5 we see portraits of Andrew Jackson, a frontier lawyer and politician who married the daughter of Colonel John Donelson and became one of the area's largest landholders. Jackson also invested in Nashville's growing horse racing industry. By 1812, he was a national military leader in the war against Great Britain, He was later hailed as the hero of the Battle of New Orleans. His fame was so widespread that Nashville's first steamboat, which arrived in 1819, was named the General Jackson.

Alcove 4: Andrew Jackson: Local Hero