The House on Summer Street

This picture was sent in by Carol McNairy Wight

In this article, written July 16, 1928, is valuable information and a most interesting portrayal of a time long past. The setting is Nashville, Tennessee, the main character is Dr. Boyd McNairy. Dr. McNairy was a younger brother of Francis McNairy, who was the great-grandfather of Mary Boyd Thompson (my great-grandmother). His home, the McNairy Mansion, no longer exists. Thanks to this article, however, it won't be forgotten.

The article was found in the Tennessee State Archives, and is prefaced by the individual who found it in her mother's treasures.

The following is a copy of an article that appeared in the Nashville American for Sunday, June 19, 1881. A copy badly faded was in the possession of my mother, Matilda Alloway Evans (Mrs. Henry W. Morgan) at the time of death, the heading of which was from "A manuscript written by my mother who was a cousin of Mrs. Dr. Boyd McNairy and at whose house she spent much time." The names of Daily and Guthrie, or Day and Guthrie were made out but what the initials were, long faded, careful examination under a glass did not reveal. Search is being made for the identity of the author through all available records in New Jersey and Pennsylvania.

On Summer Street, in the city of Nashville, there is the remnant of an old house which is fast wearing away and will soon disappear. Instead of the iron fence enclosing a well-kept privet hedge, and the expanse of rich green grass and the beds of fragrant flowers, which made that part of Summer Street so attractive forty years ago, nothing is left but the stone pillars of the gates, and the dilapidated remains of the fence and a few trees and patches of grass and weeds, here and there. The roof of the old fashioned hospitable porch is gone, leaving the doors looking bleak and unprotected. Several years ago, a fine modern store, suggestive of prosperity, ease and comfort was built on one end of the yard, including the south half of the house, and this elegant proximity made the other half seem more dingy and sad. The street is now in a transitional state. In the old ante-bellum days it was the favorite neighborhood for dwellings and was graced by the substantial and comfortable and beautiful homes of some of the leading peoples of the city and Commonwealth. New business transactions are invading these quiet premises, and where birds used to build their nests in the old trees, and twitter notes of gladness through the day, stores are now standing, with gay windows and signs hanging over the pavements. A new one has lately appropriated twenty-five feet of the north side of the garden belonging to the old mansion of which I have been speaking, thus increasing the strong contrast of the well-to-do brightness and trimness and the faded relics of worth and dignity. Very soon the grounds will be entirely occupied by business houses and the coming generation will know nothing of the fine place which was an ornament to the city., If the memories of the irrevocable past were spirits, endowed with the power to materialize, which has been claimed for certain spirits by sundry keen eyed and keener witted enthusiasts, strange sounds and sights would, in this old house, astonish the vision and startle the ear. Amid the soft radiance of candles, graceful forms moving in the dance would sometimes be seen through the old fashioned windows, and the lively notes of the Negro musician, formerly so popular, would float on the still air. Figures of illustrious men would bow, gracious women would smile upon the faces around them, animated with eager interest. Fresh young voices would sometimes thrill the air with sweetness, and reveal to the passerby the domestic happiness that reigned here long ago; and sometimes the wails of grief would fall weightily upon the ear. Snowy lilies would glean like falling plume of some bird of passage; and the roses and the weeping seringers and columbines, and the golden dandelions and violets and lilies-of-the-valley would fill the eye with a phantom flash of beauty, and the air with the delicate odor of departed bloom. But mortal senses are not thus favored with the perceptible presences of the memories of the past, and it devolves upon the humble scribe to record upon public tablets the scenes of bygone days, and to tell the tale of the actors who moved along them. And thus may they live in our memory and be crowned with the bays of esteem and reverence; and may we be benefitted by the shining example of their worth and deeds.

The old mansion was the residence of Dr. Boyd McNairy who was a leading physician in Nashville, and one of the principle members of a large family connection, whose influence was prominent in business and professional and social circles, and whose descendants are recorded among the most valued of our citizens. Dr. Boyd McNairy was born in North Carolina in 1785, and was brought to Tennessee when he was five years old. His oldest brother, John McNairy, was born in Guilford County, North Carolina, in March 1762, he arrived in Nashville, with a party of immigrants, one of whom was Mr. Andrew Jackson, whose name and fame became the glory of Tennessee. McNairy and Jackson had joined the immigrants at Jonesboro and remained there several weeks awaiting the arrival of a guard from Nashville to escort them through the wilderness. During this perilous journey the travelers were saved from the terrors of a night attack by the Indians, by the sagacious watchfulness of Jackson, who detected the savages in their imitations of the hooting of the owls, and advised the camp to continue the journey without waiting for the day. When Judge McNairy returned to Jonesboro the following spring, there was no vigilant Jackson in his company and he was surprised and chased by the Indians, and lost his horses, camp equipage and clothing. On the twentieth of February 1791, President Washington appointed John McNairy the Judge of the District Court of the United states for Tennessee. He held this office until a few years previous to his decease which occurred at his residence near Nashville, the tenth of November 1837. The following brief and expressive epitaph was written by his gifted nephew, Henry C. McNairy:

In council, of artless mind,
E'r hones he, and passing kind;
Fair peace through life her smiles did land.
None knew but loved the gentle friend.

On the fourteenth of September, 1809, Dr. Boyd McNairy was married to Miss Hodkinson, who was born in Burlington, New Jersey, on May 19, 1788, and whose happy childhood was spent on the banks of the beautiful Delaware River. The later years of her school life was spent in Philadelphia, where she made her home with an aunt, and where she lived until her marriage and removal to Tennessee. Her father, Mr. Peter Hodkinson, had been a trader with the West Indies, and went in his own vessel to Canton, China, it being one of the first to reach those distant and unknown shores. It may not be out of place to mention here that the design on Mr. Hodkinson's escutcheon was very appropriately an anchor.

Mrs. Caroline B. Goodrich of New Orleans, a daughter of Dr. Boyd McNairy, whose fine remembrance of family traditions and history has given the writer much information, has in her possession a bowl which her grandfather brought her from China. She also has a fan made to his order in the Celestial Empire, which is ornamented with a picture of British ships among which appears his little American vessel. One of his trips from China he brought a piece of white silk, intended by his kind and loving thought to be at some future day his daughter's wedding dress. The sad record follows that while she was still a child he was lost at sea.

Mrs. Goodrich says that her grandmother, Mrs. Peter Hodkinson, was among those ladies and children who fled to General Washington's tent for protection when the British marched into Philadelphia. The invading army soon went into winter quarters and the ladies busied themselves with carding and making cloth for General Washington's soldiers.

Dr. McNairy brought this fair young bride from the comforts and amenities of the staid city of brotherly love, to what was then a little border town in the West. But Nashville was never ruled by the lawless and rough adventurers. There was here from the beginning a circle of gentle birth and elevation of character, and Mrs. NmNairy found a congenial and happy home.

While the house on Summer Street, destined to become the McNairy mansion, was under the hands of the builders, Dr. McNairy bought it from its owner, Mr. Stethard, and early citizen of Nashville. It was one of the first brick dwellings o the town and the grounds extended at that time to Church Street. (Cedar to Spring St, No Union Alley until 1851). Within its well stocked garden and numerous outhouses it looked like the home of a country gentleman whose ample resources could supply every want of the happy inmate and favored guest. According to the custom of those days, the doctor's office was a small building a few steps from the dwelling house. It was a cozy little place of two rooms, both fronting on the street, and set like the house in a surrounding grassy lawn and beds of flowers and overshadowed by locusts, ailanthus, mulberry, and several majestic cottonwood trees. A large apple japonica just in front of the office made a beautiful picture when its red flowers shown against the green leaves.

Mrs. McNairy's piano was one of the first brought to Nashville, and whenever she played a crowd would gather near the home to listen to its graceful and charming tones. To obtain such an instrument for what was then a Western Wild, was not only expensive but difficult. Everything brought here had to be transported in wagons from Philadelphia or Baltimore, across the Alleghenies, through Jonesboro, Knoxville, and Kingston, and then across the Cumberland Mountains, via Sparta, Lebanon and Nashville. The route was long and tedious, and the roads were very rough the task of getting a piano here without injury was very great. These delightful instruments have been so much improved that they seem entirely different from the comparatively small ones which gave so much pleasure in those early days. One of these pianos was exhibited at the industrial exposition in Nashville eight or ten years ago and attracted much attention. It belonged to Mrs. Dr. A.G. Goodlett, who died some years since at an advanced age, and was brought to our city in early times. The transition from the harpsichord to the piano took place about one hundred fifty years ago, and it was from the harpsichord that some of the great masters of music drew those bewitching harmonies that could hold the world in an ecstasy of admiring and reverential silence. All honor and success to those noble toilers who perfected musical instruments, but the Muse of Melody dwells not in the dead instruments, but in the mind and heart of taste and feeling, and in the deft finger of loving skill.

Dr. McNairy was very generous and hospitable, and his home was often the scene of gay and happy gatherings. It witnessed, however, in September 1813, the sad spectacle of a wounded man, "Gaunt, yellow-visaged, sick, prostrate, with his arm bound up, and his shoulder bandaged, waiting impatiently for his wounds to heal." Parton. It was the immortal Jackson, who, as is well known, was badly wounded in the unworthy and unfortunate affray with the Bentons. "His left shoulder was horribly shattered, and a ball buried itself in the thick part of the left arm, near the bone. Before the bleeding could be stopped, two mattresses, as Mrs. Jackson used to say, were soaked through, and the General reduced almost to the last gasp. It was two or three weeks before he could leave his bed." Ibid. He lay in the large parlor in Dr. McNairy's house, and by the help of ropes suspended from the ceiling, he was lifted and enabled to rest by change of position. Mrs. Goodrich says that since her earliest recollection the two holes were in the ceiling where the ropes were fastened. A large entertainment was to have taken place there that night, which she says was postponed on account of General Jackson's arrival in such suffering. During his imprisonment in the chamber of pain and weakness, the courier came with the news of the shocking massacre at Ft. Mims -- in what is now the state of Alabama. On the fourth of October, a month after he was wounded, he could not mount his horse without assistance, and his left arm was still in a sling. Nevertheless, at the appointed time he started for the rendezvous at Fayetteville, more than eighty miles from Nashville, where troups were assembling to march against the Indians. Notwithstanding their friendship in those days, Dr. McNairy became alienated from General Jackson in politics in after years, and headed the opposition of thirty-seven men in Davidson County, whose numbers afterwards greatly increased.

Among the many men of distinction that were entertained at Dr. McNairy's residence, we may mention with great gratification and pride, the illustrious Gilbert Motier, Marquis de LaFayette, who was here on his well-remembered visit to the United States in 1824-18254. Responding to an invitation from Congress, he returned to the scenes of his early toils and triumphs, arriving in New York on the; fifteenth of August, 1824. President Monroe placed a national vessel at his disposal, but he preferred to come on a Harve packet. He was accompanied only by his son, George Washington, and his secretary. "His arrival", says Everett, in the stiff uniform of a parade, or the court dress of a heartless ceremony. Society in all its shades and graduations, crowded cordially around him, all penetrated with one spirit-the spirit of admiration and love. The wealth and luxury of the coast; the teeming abundance of the West' the elegance of the town; the cordiality of the country; the authorities, municipal, national and state; the loving relics of the revolution, honored in the honor paid to their companions in arms; the scientific and learned; ladies; the children of the schools; the associations of active life and charities; the exiles of Spain, France and Switzerland, famished kings; patriots of whom Europe was not worthy; and even the African and Indian- everything in the country that had life and sense- took a part in this auspicious drama of real life."

General LaFayette, with his son and secretary, arrived near Nashville on the fourth day of May, 1823, and landed on the grounds of Major W.B. Lewis, the confidential friend of General Jackson, above the present Waterworks. He was received by General Jackson and a number of citizens, and Governor Carroll made an address, giving him a cordial welcome to Tennessee. An immense procession, including miliary companies escorted the distinguished visitor into the city, where the Mayor, Robert B. Currey, addressed him and gave him a hearty welcome to Nashville. The streets were decorated with arches of evergreens and flowers inscribed with patriotic mottoes. Dr. McNairy gave up his house to the noble and honored guests, going to his brother Nathaniel McNairy's, whose house was where West Nashville now is, with his family during his stay. A Spanish servant, whose singular sobriquet was pickaninny, was left in charge of the premises and every day he let Mrs. McNairy know that everything was in order and receiving suitable attention, she and the Doctor coming daily to entertain the visitors. The doors in the main part of the house, above and below, and wide back piazza had been connected by large folding doors, so that for great receptions and entertainments, the house might be transformed quickly into commodious and beautiful halls. General LaFayette's sleeping apartment was one of the large rooms on the south side of the house. Mrs. Irene Evans, a granddaughter of Dr. McNairy, has the curtains that hung around the bed of the Marquis. They are made of linen woven in Philadelphia in 1776, and were brought to Tennessee as an heirloom by Mrs. Dr. McNairy when she was married in 1809. The following pictures are stamped upon the linen in a delicate pink color: a large oak tree full of acorns and a cedar tree are growing close beside each other and on the ground leaning against them are a gun, a spear, and two shields, a cannon and piles of balls, and nearby are lying a trumpet and a drum. Upon the bend encircling the trunk of the oak is written "Liberty tree", and above this, fastened on the trunk upside down is a paper bearing the words, "Stamp Act." In the distance appears a troop of horsemen carrying several banners. Then comes a large cart with ancient heavy wheels, drawn by two leopards, guided by George Washington, who is standing in the car; behind him sits a Goddess and before the car two feather decorated Indians are walking blowing trumpets from which pennants are streaming. Other horsemen are seen in the distance, armed, and apparently marching to attack a fort upon a high hill, over which a flag is waving. The Temple of Fame is seen next, so high that the clouds are resting upon the steps. A great angel is standing, partly on the clouds, partly on the steps, holding two trumpets and blowing one in the left hand. At the foot of the long flight of steps are two cherubs just beginning to ascend, and carrying between them the globe upon which is seen the Western Continent, with Virginia, North Carolina, South Carollina, and Georgia extending from the Atlantic to the unknown shores of the Pacific Ocean. Then appears the Goddess of Liberty in the clouds with a shield upon which are the thirteen stars. Near her, standing on the ground, is Benjamin Franklin, holding one and of a wide band bearing the words, "Where Liberty dwells, there is my country". The other end is upheld with the left hand of a nymph, who holds in her right hand the pole and cap of Liberty. The elaborate and beautifully executed design is repeated many times on the curtains, and has a fine effect.

General LaFayette visited the Masonic Fraternity, and was welcomed by William Tannehill on their behalf as a friend and a brother. The public dinner was given at the Nashville Inn, at which General Jackson acted as president. The first white man who settled in this country, Timothy de mon Breun, was at this dinner and was toasted as the "Patriarch of Tennessee". A grand ball was given in honor of LaFayette, the tickets to which were remarkable elaborate for our youthful city, and the enthusiasm which was felt for the magnanimous foreigner who had done so much to make our country "The land of the Free". The invitation occupied the space between two fine columns, one supporting a bust of Jackson on the pedestal; the other supporting the bust of LaFayette, and bearing likewise the names of his battles and figures 1771-81. At the base of the columns were lying cannon and cannon balls, drums, torches, etc. Above was the sun with "76" in the center, and around were the thirteen stars in the sky. Just below the sun was an eagle holding arrows in one claw and the branch of peace in the other, and placing with its beak a laurel wreath upon the head of Washington's bust, which was supported by a column in the midst of clouds and encircled by swords, spears, banners and the cap of Liberty. Beneath this and just above the invitation, were the words, "Welcome to LaFayette". The design was by R.E.W. Earl, who painted so many pictures of this beloved and honored patron, and whose tomb at the hermitage bears this inscription, "Artist, Friend, and Companion of General Andrew Jackson".

In company with Jackson, LaFayette reviewed the troops on the ground south of where the Custom House now stands, then called the South Field. An old soldier who had served under LaFayette in Europe, was living a hundred miles from Nashville and walked every step of the way to see once more his beloved commander. The General recognized him and falling on his neck, kissed and embraced him. Before his departure LaFayette spent several days with Jackson at the Hermitage.

Henry Clay made his home with Dr. McNairy on his visit to Nashville, as did the Hon. John J. Crittenden, who was here in 1844. Mr. Crittenden was an able and noted politician, and one of the most influential senators in Congress. Dr. McNairy's daughter, Mrs. Goodrich, says: "In 1840, we gave up the house to Mr. Clay with the exception of one room which Mother and Father occupied; Mr. Clay would come to Mother and ask her to order out the carriage for he was so tired that he wanted to slip away from the crowd. He, Mother and I would get in and go out the back street to avoid the crowd, but they would always find him out and surround the carriage." Mr. Clay was in Nashville when Lewis Reneau, of Sevier County received the Whig flag, with an appropriate address from Miss Sevier, a granddaughter of Gen. John Sevier, on the porch of the McNairy house. The ladies of the city who were attached to the Whig party offered, in 1840, a fine silk banner to the county that give the largest Whig majority according to population. It was awarded to Sevier County, the Democratic vote being forty against more than nine hundred. The flag was made by Mrs. Dr. John S. McNairy, a daughter-in-law of Dr. Boyd McNairy's and is described by one who remembers it as being very handsome and embellished with a likeness of Washington on one side and on the other the Goddess of Liberty and the rising sun, with the inscription, "A better day is dawning". Lewis Reneau, who was a senator in the Legislature from Sevier County, was appointed to come to Nashville and receive it. He afterwards delivered it to the people who were assembled in large numbers in Sevierville, the county town. A barbecue was prepared for the occasion. His father, Thomas Reneqau, was one of the first settlers of Sevier County. The Whigs of Nashville gave to Henry Clay a splendid silver service, as a token of affection, and sent it to Lexington, Kentucky, by a delegation of this friends, headed by Dr. Boyd McNairy. During the last great Whig convention that was held in Nashville, the Louisiana delegation was entertained at Dr. Boyd McNairy's. It was led by Randall Hunt, one of the great orators of the day.

The Hon. Sargent S. Prentiss, the celebrated orator, was a frequent guest at the McNairy mansion. He was distinguished, says Henry Clay, in a letter relating to his death, "by a rich, chaste and boundless imagination, the exhaustless resources of which in beautiful language, and happy illustration, he brought to the aid of a logical power which he wielded to a very great extent. His voice was fine, softened, and, I think, improved by a slight lisp, which an attentive observer could discern". Mr. Crittenden in a similar letter, says: "It was impossible to know him without feeling for him admiration and love. His genius so rich and rare; his heart so warm, generous and magnanimous; and his manner, so graceful and genial, could not fail to impress his sentiments on all who approached him. Eloquence was a part of his nature and over his private conversation as well as his public speeches, it scattered its sparkling jewels with more than royal profusion." He died at Natchez, Miss. in July 1850, in the forty-secod year of his age.

Dr. McNairy named his youngest son Henry Clay in honor of the illustrious fellow countryman whose friendship he so highly esteemed. Never was there a man more worthy to bear a great name. Nature had richly endowed him with the noble qualities which make manhood so attractive, and education had developed those qualities into activity and beauty. He was very handsome, courtly and in bearing and speech studious and fonder of the quiet pleasure of his library than the less substantial delights of society. But the trait that would distinguish him in every woman's eye was his gentle and faithful attention to his mother. After the death of his father, in the autumn of 1856, he devoted himself, with the most delicate assiduity to comfort the bereaved heart in her widowhood. Mrs. Francis B. Fogg says of him, "When a young man in his strength and vigor patiently, tenderly, and untiringly as a daughter, bows down his life to ‘rock the cradle of declining age', to cheer and sustain by the happiest efforts of taste and intellect, the weary and heart stricken pilgrim of a troublesome world -- this is a picture that the angels must delight to dwell upon." He never failed in his self-appointed duty of a little talk with his mother just before she retired to rest, every night. He would make her pillow soft with his gentle sympathy, and leave an atmosphere of calmness and content which would bring sweet slumber and pleasant dreams. L In his studious hours, his pen was often busy, and poems and songs signed, "H.C. Mc." Occasionally appeared in the papers. Many beautiful pieces never saw the light. The following stanzas copied from the manuscript in Mrs. Goodrich's possession, express a grand thought with lovely simplicity:

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