Sarah York Jackson, who spoke often of the Hermitage garden in letters to her sons, wrote Andrew Jackson, III, in the spring of 1852:
“... all our early flowers are destroyed, also all the first plants of vegetables. You would be grieved to see our garden. We are making some few improvements in it this season, bricking around the beds, and have had a supply of fine roses. We have now about fifty varieties of roses, some very fine....”
To this gracious, devoted woman was given the privilege of guarding Andrew Jackson’s Hermitage and its cherished garden through long, weary years of war, sorrow, poverty and neglect, until the hands of other women reached out to carry the responsibilities which Death alone caused her to relinquish.
FOOTNOTES
[1]The origin of the name of Jackson’s Hermitage estate is obscure. Thomas Hart Benton, in his Thirty Years’ View, Vol. I, page 736, says: “He ... lived on a superb estate of some thousand acres, twelve miles from Nashville, then hardly known by its subsequent famous name of the Hermitage—name chosen for its perfect accord with his feelings; for he had then actually withdrawn from the stage of public life....”
Mr. W. E. Beard, of Nashville, a well-known writer and historian, suggests that Jackson may have been influenced by the name of Aaron Burr’s home. “Before Jackson’s Hermitage there were at least two other homes, associated with noteworthy figures in American history, bearing the name. One was the Hermitage of Gen. Arthur St. Clair ... located near Youngstown, Pa. The other Hermitage was in New Jersey and has more romantic associations. It was the home during the Revolution of the beautiful Widow Prevost, the beloved of Col. Aaron Burr, later his wife and the mother of the gifted Theodosia.... One of Jackson’s earliest visitors of note at his Hermitage was Col. Burr.... A reasonable supposition would be that the charming adventurer, remembering the days of his dashing courtship in Jersey, suggested the name for the new home of his host.”
Mr. Beard remarks that Burr visited Jackson’s Hermitage after its name was in use. In support of his theory it may be stated, however, that Jackson had known Burr since 1797. There is, as far as is known at present, nothing to prove definitely the origin of the name of Andrew Jackson’s Hermitage.
[2]An old log building, said to have been Andrew Jackson’s carriage house at Hunter’s Hill, has been removed to the Hermitage.
[3]In 1817 Truxton, then seventeen years old, was presented by General Jackson to Col. Robert Butler, adjutant-general of the New Orleans campaign, who resided in the Mississippi Territory. “I drop you a hasty line to inform you of the safe arrival of Truxton,” wrote Col. Butler to General Jackson, on April 20, 1817. “I met him at Ft. Adams landing yesterday.... My dear Genl I feel under great obligations to you for this Horse of Horses. I certainly never beheld a more noble animal.... I shall cherish and pet him as a great favorite as long as he lives.”