John Donelson

John Donelson (1718–1785) was an American frontiersman, ironmaster, politician, city planner, and explorer. After founding and operating what became Washington Iron Furnace in Franklin County, Virginia for several years, he moved with his family to Middle Tennessee which was on the developing frontier. There, together with James Robertson, Donelson co-founded the frontier settlement of Fort Nashborough. This later developed as the city of Nashville, Tennessee.

Donelson and his wife Rachel had eleven children, four of them girls. Their tenth was daughter Rachel, whose second husband Andrew Jackson was elected the seventh president of the United States in 1828.

Career Donelson served in the Virginia House of Burgesses. From about 1770 to 1779, he operated the Washington Iron Furnace at Rocky Mount, Franklin County, Virginia.

He next moved to the Watauga settlements on the Holston and Watauga rivers in Washington District, North Carolina. They came into conflict with the Overhill Cherokee on the far side of the Appalachians. Because of armed conflict and flooding in his settlement, Donelson temporarily moved his family to safer areas in Kentucky.

Along with James Robertson who traveled the overland route, Donelson and a large number of pioneers traveled down the Tennessee and other rivers in excess of 1,000 miles to Middle Tennessee, where they co-founded Fort Nashborough, in 1780. This eventually developed as the city of Nashville, Tennessee.

Immediately prior to his death, Donelson was serving as a U.S. Indian commissioner "traveling to the Southeastern nations, including the towns of the Chickamauga Cherokees, endeavoring to negotiate a peace that would deliver the Cumberland settlements from the ongoing siege."

Personal life Donelson married Rachel (née Stockley) (1730–1801) in 1744. In 1900, he was nominated to head the presidential ticket of the "National Party" but declined that nomination as well.

The Donelsons' great-great-great grandson, attorney Patrick Thomson Caffery (1932–2013), served one term as a Louisiana state representative (1964–1968), and two terms as a United States representative from Louisiana's 3rd congressional district (1969–1973). He retired from Congress to resume the practice of law.

Death and legacy Donelson was shot and killed in 1785 by an unknown person on the banks of the Barren River. He was en route to Mansker's Station after a business trip. One Jackson scholar says he was killed "by the Indians" and Notable Southern Families states "he was shot from ambush, by an Indian, and killed." Another account has a more detailed report: "While in the company of John Telly and a man named Leach, he was wounded in the abdomen and one of his knees, just after passing the Big Spring. He had Leach to push in his protruding bowels, and soon ate heartily of bread and buffalo tongue, and died within an hour after. He was buried near the spring."

Donelson, Tennessee was named in his honor.

Descendants

The Donelson family of Tennessee left by John Donelson had an outsize impact on the history of the U.S. South thanks in part to daughter Rachel's marriage to Andrew Jackson.