Capt. John Gordon

Born near Fredericksburg, Virginia in 1763, John Gordon settled in Nashville about 1782 and made a name for himself on the frontier as an Indian fighter. Territorial Governor William Blount commissioned him as a militia captain in 1793, and he served with distinction during the Nickajack Expedition, winning the praise of his commanding officers. As Tennessee neared statehood, he became a Justice of the Peace for Davidson County in 1795 and the first postmaster of Nashville in 1796. By 1802, he had made an agreement with the Chickasaw Indians allowing him to operate a trading post and ferry on the Duck River, and he eventually received 640 acres near the ferry from the State of Tennessee. Between 1808 and 1812, he transitioned his family from Nashville to life on the Natchez Trace. In 1812, he left his family at their Duck River homestead and marched with Andrew Jackson against the Red Stick Indians, commanding a company of spies, or scouts. Information Gordon obtained directly was used by Andrew Jackson to capture Pensacola, Florida in 1814. He returned home in 1815, then went back into military service during the Seminole War of 1817-1818. While he was away, his wife began construction on a brick two-story home near their ferry, and in 1818 he wrote at least one letter to Dolley instructing her where to place windows. The home was completed that same year and was one of the most elegant structures on the frontier. Gordon lived in it only a few months before dying of pneumonia in June 1819. Originally buried near their home on the Natchez Trace, John and Dolley Gordon now rest under two box tombs.

Columbia, Tennessee · United States