Nashville History Corner

Middle Tennessee's Oldest home Rock Castle Survives

BY RIDLEY WILLS II

Rock Castle is Middle Tennessee’s oldest home. The house’s construction began in 1784 by Daniel Smith, who surveyed and drew the first map of Tennessee.

Smith came from Virginia two or three times before he brought his family here in 1783. On one of those occasions, his party was attacked by Native Americans and scattered. Shot in his chest, Smith managed without help to crawl several miles to Mansker’s Fort where he nearly died but was nursed back to health. He then immediately went back to his home in Virginia, not to give up on plans to move to the frontier, but to gather his wife and two children and move to the remote location in today’s Sumner County where he had almost been killed, which is in present-day Hendersonville. The house was a two-story Federal-style limestone structure.

It stood at the confluence of Drake’s Creek and the Cumberland River on a 3,140-acre land grant given Smith for his services in the Revolutionary War and for his surveying work. Sarah supervised the house’s construction over a number of years as Smith was gone for long periods of time.

General Smith held many positions during his life. They included Commissioner of the Mero District of North Carolina, Secretary of the Southwest Territory, chairman of the committee that drafted Tennessee’s Constitution, U.S. Senator, and U.S. Commissioner for Indian Affairs.

Smith died at his home in 1818, survived by his wife, Sarah, his daughter, Mary Ann, whom everyone called Polly and his son, George, who inherited the house. Earlier, George had fought with the Tennessee Mounted Gunmen in the War of 1812. Polly married Rachael Donelson Jackson’s youngest brother, Samuel Donelson, and had three boys. After his premature death, Sarah married James Sanders and had nine more children.

The State of Tennessee purchased Rock Castle and eighteen surrounding acres, including the family cemetery in 1971. Ten years later, Historic Rock Castle opened to the public on May 1, 1981. Its executive director today is Sam Gilbert. His wife, Jess, is director of education and events.