Traveller's Rest, Nashville, Tennessee

I lived in Nashville for nearly six years, two years in the late 1990s and nearly four in the mid-2000s. As an avid historian of the antebellum South, I have visited several of Middle Tennessee's antebellum homes such as the Hermitage, Belle Meade Plantation, the Belmont Mansion, Rattle & Snap Plantation, Rippavilla, and Carnton Plantation. Somehow, in all of these weekend excursions, I had missed Travellers Rest, probably one of the most important homes in early Tennessee history. Recently, I decided finally to pay a visit.

The house is one of the oldest surviving structures in the state of Tennessee. Built in 1799 by Judge John Overton, an attorney and a native of Virginia of Scotch-Irish extraction who had settled in Middle Tennessee around 1779. Judge Overton has a important place in Tennessee history. He was one of the state's first supreme judges, close friend and advisor to Andrew Jackson and co-founder of the city of Memphis.

The original house was designed in Federal style and contained a room where young men would read law with Judge Overton. It was expanded for the first time in 1808 and again in 1828. The style of the rooms is somewhat spare, although there are several interesting items of furniture. Some items are original to the house while others are original to the time period.

Judge Overton played an instrumental role in assisting Andrew Jackson and Rachel Donelson with navigating the legal issues surrounding their marriage. Rachel had been married to Captain Lewis Robards, a Kentucky land speculator. The marriage had not been happy and they separated in 1790. Believing she had obtained a divorce, she married Andrew Jackson in Natchez, Mississippi. However, after finding out the divorce had not been complete, she remarried Andrew in 1794. While the couple believed the issue had been laid to rest, opponents of Jackson brought up the affair in an attempt to smear him and his wife during the election of 1828, which Jackson lost.

Judge Overton remained a bachelor until he was 54 when he married Mary McConnell White, daughter of General James White of Knoxville. Mary had three children by Judge Overton and five from a previous marriage. Remarkably for the times, all of her children survived to adulthood. Tradition holds that Mary was skilled at herbal medicine. This could have been from her interactions with Native Americans.

Unlike other Civil War battlefields that have been preserved and made into national parks, the Battle of Nashville can only be seen through some scattered historic markers and earthworks. One portion of this battle was fought near Traveller's Rest in the peach orchard. However, one cannot determine where this took place on site. While I thought the tour guide I had at Travellers Rest was very knowledgable, I would have liked to have learned more about what happened on the site during the course of the war and during the battle.

The site of Traveller's Rest also in an important prehistoric site as well. When Judge Overton built the house, he discovered several skulls while digging out his cellar. He initially called the place Golgotha, the site identified in the Bible as the place of Jesus's crucifixion and translated as "the place of the skull." Archeologists believe that the site was a Mississippian village and the house contains some artifacts discovered on the property.

Overall, the tour of the grounds was informative and full of stories about prominent individuals with whom Judge Overton had contact. The guide possessed a detailed knowledge about the several items of furniture and artifacts in the house. Travellers Rest is highly recommended for history lovers.