History Corner

LYSANDER MCGAVOCK’S HOME: MIDWAY

BY RIDLEY WILLS II

Midway was the name of Lysander McGavock’s home, which he built at Good Springs in Williamson County in 1829.

Earlier, Lysander, whose wife was the former Elizabeth Crockett, of Wythe County, Va., had lived near Freeland’s Station where his father David McGavock built his brick home.

The McGavock home in Williamson County was named “Midway” because it was halfway between Nashville and Franklin. Good Springs later changed its name to Brentwood. There are several theories about how Brentwood got its name.

One guess is that it was named for Brentwood, Md. In the 1850s, the head engineer who supervised the railroad cut at Brentwood, came from Brentwood, Md. It is said he named the Tennessee village for his hometown. Another idea is that Brentwood took its name from the ancestral homes of Horatio McNish in Virginia. Their names were Woodstock and Brenton. McNish lived in the Brentwood area from 1827 until the 1850s.

Lysander’s Good Springs home was heavily damaged by a fire in the mid 1840s and was replaced in 1846 by the brick home that is now the clubhouse of the Brentwood Country Club. Nashville mayor John Cooper and his brother Jim Cooper, our long time congressman, are McGavock descendants, as I am.