“She had a faculty—a rare one—of retaining names and titles in a throng of visitors, addressing each one appropriately, and dispensing hospitality to all with a cordiality which enhanced its value. No bashful youth, or plain old man, whose modesty sat them down at the lower end of the table, could escape her cordial attentions any more than the titled gentleman on her right and left. Young persons were her delight, and she always had her house filled with them—clever young women and clever young men—all calling her affectionately ‘Aunt Rachel.’ I was young then, and was one of that number. I owe it to early recollections and to cherished convictions—in this last notice of the Hermitage—to bear this faithful testimony to the memory of its long mistress—the loved and honored wife of a great man.” (From Benton’s Thirty Years’ View.)
It was Benton who gave to the world the picture of Andrew Jackson sitting before his fireside in the twilight with a child and its pet lamb on his knees.
The Stately Avenue of Cedars As It Appears Today
When President Theodore Roosevelt visited the Hermitage in 1907 he alighted from his carriage at the entrance of the avenue and walked with bared head to the historic old mansion.
It was for gay groups such as those that Benton mentioned that the new Hermitage was built. In spite of the storm and stress the years were passing pleasantly with its mistress. Fame turned its spotlight upon the household, but the simple hospitality of the log cabin period was not abandoned. The spacious rooms of the new Hermitage rang with the laughter of a great bevy of nieces, of nephews, and neighbors’ children. General Jackson’s “military family,” friends, and associates came from here, there, and everywhere, bringing with them members of their families and staying for weeks at a time. But the Hermitage acres were broad and fertile, the slaves were numerous and contented—and the mistress an excellent manager.
Years afterwards General Jackson wrote to young Andrew Jackson Hutchings (letter of April 18, 1833, Bassett, Correspondence of Andrew Jackson, Vol. V): “Recollect the industry of your dear aunt, and with what economy she watched over what I made, and how we waded thro’ the vast expence of the mass of company we had. Nothing but her care and industry, with good economy could have saved me from ruin. If she had been extravagant the property would have vanished and poverty and want would have been our doom. Think of this before you attempt to select a wife.”
The years in which this building was occupied were colorful and eventful ones in the Jackson saga. Unfortunately little is known of the actual details which attended its erection, the beginning of the garden, and other little intimate things concerning it. Even such a tireless student as the late John Spencer Bassett was not able to place exactly the time of its completion and occupation. Everything seems to indicate that it was started in 1818, about the close of General Jackson’s Florida campaign, and that it was ready for occupancy, most likely, prior to June, 1819, the date of President Monroe’s visit to Nashville and the Hermitage. The story is being pieced together, bit by bit, and it is gradually becoming complete.
A letter from Sir John Jackson, mentioned by Bassett, but secured in full from the manuscripts of the New York Public Library, by the Tennessee State Library, shows that in 1819 the Jacksons had secured the services of an English gardener. This letter reads:
“Philadelphia, April 30th, 1819.
“Major Genl A Jackson
“Dear General
“On the 26th Inst I wrote a few lines to you by William Frost a regular bred english Gardener who has been well recommended and from what I can judge from conversation with him am in hopes he will be found capable of whatever he undertakes—I engaged him for you as Gardener without any stipulation as to terms merely holding out that on his own capacity and industry his success and welfare depended—like others of his situation of life required an advance to bear his expense and had to give him 30 dollars on your account.
“I have seen a Nashville paper announcing your arrival and the congratulations of your Friends and fellow citizens testified by a Public dinner, it seems by the english Papers the english people are mad with the Citizens of N. York, this City and Baltimore for the respect shown you—with best respects to your Lady I remain with sincere respect and esteem, “Yours, “John Jackson.”