The country was full of Indians, the forests deep, wild and unexplored, and the perils very great. In order to escape the toil and danger of travelling through the wilderness, Colonel Donelson accomplished the journey by water. It was a distance of more than two thousand miles, and never before had any man been bold enough to project such a voyage. They sailed down the Holston river to the Tennessee, down the Tennessee to its junction with the Ohio, up the Ohio till they reached the Cumberland, and up this stream to the French Salt Springs, on the spot where now stands the city of Nashville. Colonel Donelson kept an account of this remarkable and perilous voyage, entitled, “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 Donelson,” and the thrilling incidents and remarkable personal adventures are deeply interesting.
They were four months on the journey, the sufferings and privations of which can scarcely be appreciated by the more fortunate who now travel the same way amid quiet woods, green fields, and peaceful country homes. To those adventurers, the dangerous points of the rivers were unknown, and many were the accidents that befell them. They started in the depths of winter, and were obliged to encounter excessive cold and frosts. But worse than all, the Indians were ever on the watch to entrap them. The journal says, “we still perceived them, marching down the river in considerable bodies, keeping pace with us.” The wildest, most romantic, and lonely spot on this continent is the “Whirl,” in the Tennessee river, where the river is compressed within less than half its usual width by the Cumberland mountain which juts in on both sides. Its beauty is only equalled by its danger. In passing through this place, a large canoe, containing all the property of one of the emigrants, was overturned and the little cargo was lost. The family had gone into a larger boat for safety. “The company,” says Colonel Donelson, “pitying their distress, concluded to halt and assist in recovering the property. We had landed on the northern shore, at a level spot, and were going up to the place, when the Indians, to our astonishment, appeared immediately over us on the opposite cliffs, and commenced firing down upon us, which occasioned a precipitate retreat to the boats. We immediately moved off.”
One of this intrepid little band of emigrants, sharing in its hardships and dangers, was Rachel Donelson, the daughter of Col. John Donelson. She was then a bright-eyed, black-haired, sprightly, pretty child of about twelve years. On the 24th of April, 1780, they reached the little settlement of log-cabins that Captain Robertson and his band had made ready for them. But perils and privations were not past. The Indians were wily and untiring in laying their crafty ambushes, and many were the victims that fell within their deadly grasp, and were despatched by their murderous weapons. With all these troubles, however, the settlement grew in numbers and in strength; such was the intrepidity and the persevering energy which inspired these heroic men and women. As Colonel Donelson was one of the most influential, he became one of the wealthiest of the settlers. He had owned extensive iron works in Pittsylvania County, Virginia, which he had sold when he started to the West. Prior and subsequent to the revolution, he was a member of the House of Burgesses, and had repeatedly represented the counties of Campbell and Pittsylvania. Thomas Jefferson and Patrick Henry were his personal friends; he held commissions under each of them to execute important trusts, such as the survey of State lines, the negotiating of treaties with Indians, or establishing the authority of the State over distant territory. His confidence in General Washington was implicit, and the earnestness with which he spoke his sentiments had a most happy and conservative influence over the people of the West. The little colony soon began to suffer from the insufficient supply of corn and of powder and lead, and as the family of Colonel Donelson numbered many children and servants, he concluded to remove with them to Kentucky. He had in that State, moreover, land claims which he could more easily attend to and secure by being there. During his residence there, his daughter Rachel was married to Lewis Robards, a man of good family. She had grown up amid the trials and dangers of a frontier life, but the examples that she daily saw of noble fortitude, of calm bravery, and of heroic labor were worth many a tamer and weaker lesson of more civilized life. She grew up accomplished in the higher art of making home attractive and relatives happy. She was at the same time lively and gentle, gifted with patience and prudence, and winning in her simple and unaffected manners.
Soon after his daughter’s marriage, Colonel Donelson returned to Tennessee with his family. In the fall of 1785, while surveying in the woods far from home, this brave and gallant gentleman was pierced by bullets from an unseen foe, and died the same night. Judge John Overton, then a young lawyer, in the fall of 1787, went to Mercer County, Kentucky, and became a boarder in the family of Mrs. Robards, where Lewis Robards and his wife were living. Judge Overton was not long in discovering that they lived very unhappily, because Captain Robards was jealous of a gentleman named Short. His disposition was extremely unfortunate, and kept the whole family in uneasiness and distress. This unpleasant state of affairs continued to increase until Captain Robards wrote to his mother-in-law, the widowed Mrs. Donelson, requesting that she would take her daughter home, as he did not intend to live with her any longer. Some time in the latter part of 1788, Samuel Donelson came and started away with his sister. Judge Overton says, “my clear and distinct recollection is, that it was said to be a final separation, at the instance of Captain Robards; for I well recollect the distress of old Mrs. Robards on account of her daughter-in-law Rachel going away, and on account of the separation that was about to take place, together with the circumstance of the old lady’s embracing her affectionately. The old lady always blamed her son Lewis, and took the part of her daughter-in-law.”
Judge Overton further remarks that he never heard any of the family censure young Mrs. Robards on account of the unhappy difference between her husband and herself; but that he frequently heard them express the most favorable sentiments regarding her.
As stated in his narrative, published in 1827, Judge Overton, deciding to fix his residence in Tennessee, left old Mrs. Robards, with the promise that he would use his best endeavors to effect a reconciliation between her son Lewis and his wife, particularly as her son seemed unhappy, and regretful of what had occurred. The Judge took occasion to speak with him upon the subject, and he said he was convinced that his suspicions were unfounded, and that he wished to live with his wife. Upon arriving at his destination in Tennessee, by a remarkable and romantic coincidence, the Judge again became a boarder in the same house with Mrs. Lewis Robards. Mrs. Donelson, her mother, was not only willing to accommodate him, but was glad to add to the number of her protectors against the Indians. Another lawyer, Andrew Jackson, became a boarder with Mrs. Donelson at the same time, being introduced by Judge Overton. “Soon after my arrival,” continues the Judge in his narrative, “I had frequent conversations with Mrs. Lewis Robards, on the subject of living happily with her husband. She, with much sensibility, assured me that no effort to do so should be wanting on her part; and I communicated the result to Captain Robards and his mother, from both of whom I received congratulations and thanks.
“Captain Robards had previously purchased a preemption in this country on the south side of the Cumberland river, in Davidson county, about five miles from where Mrs. Donelson then lived. In the arrangement for a reunion between Captain Robards and his wife, I understood it was agreed that Captain Robards was to live in this country instead of Kentucky; and that until it was safe to go to his own land, he and his wife were to live at Mrs. Donelson’s.” They became reunited in the year 1789.
“Not many months elapsed before Robards became jealous of Jackson, which, I felt confident, was without the least ground. Some of his irritating conversations on this subject with his wife, I heard amidst the tears of herself and her mother, who were greatly distressed. I urged to Robards the unmanliness of his conduct, after the pains I had taken to produce harmony as a mutual friend of both families, and my honest conviction that his suspicions were groundless. These remonstrances seemed not to have the desired effect. As much commotion and unhappiness prevailed in the family as in that of Mrs. Robards, in Kentucky. At length I communicated to Jackson the unpleasant situation of living in a family where there was so much disturbance, and concluded by telling him that we would endeavor to get some other place. To this he readily assented.
“Being conscious of his innocence, Jackson said he would talk to Robards. What passed between them I do not know. Mrs. Donelson related that Robards became violently angry and abusive, and said that he was determined not to live with Mrs. Robards. Jackson retired from the family and went to live at Mansker’s Station. Captain Robards remained several months with his wife, and then went to Kentucky. Soon after this affair, Mrs. Robards went to live at Colonel Hays’, who married her sister.
“Some time in the fall of 1790, there was a report afloat that Captain Robards intended to come down and take his wife to Kentucky. This created great uneasiness both with Mrs. Donelson and her daughter, the latter of whom was much distressed, being convinced after two fair trials, as she said, that it would be impossible to live with Captain Robards; and of this opinion was I, with all those I conversed with, who were acquainted with the circumstances. During the winter of 1791, Mrs. Donelson told me of her daughter’s intention to go down the river to Natchez, to some of their friends, in order to keep out of the way of Captain Robards, as she said he had threatened to haunt her. Knowing, as I did, Captain Robards’ unhappy disposition, and his temper growing out of it, I thought she was right to keep out of the way, though I do not believe that I so expressed myself to the old lady or to any other person.