CHAPTER 1

The McKissack Family and theBeginning of Spring Hill, Tennessee

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Located just 30 miles south from Nashville, Tennessee at theedge of Maury and Williamson Counties, Spring Hill beganto develop about the time as the county seat of Columbia. The areaof today was much as it was 200 years ago until General Motorsannounced in 1985 that they would be building the Saturn plant inthat vicinity. The building was constructed around the hills andvalleys so as not to disturb the agricultural landscape. Businesseslocated around the small village rather than considering Columbiaas a better locale. All of the progress came to a halt in June 2009when GM announced that they were filing for bankruptcy and idledthe plant in Spring Hill among others. Although currently thereare employees working in the plant making engines and periodicannouncements are conveyed, the future of the establishment isquite uncertain.

The family that was to become so well known in the communityof Spring Hill changed the course of history through personal andrelated decisions about their individual lives. Incidents occurredthat families did not discuss outside the family, and when asked,they would exchange few words if any. The way of life in thisvicinity began with William McKissack, who was born in CaswellCounty, North Carolina on November 14, 1781. At the age of 33, hemarried Rebecca Sallard, but their marriage ended with her deathsix years later. They had one daughter Eleanor Washington, wholater married Orville McKissack, the son of Archibald, William'sbrother. It was said that William became so distressed over hermarriage that he never forgave her. The anguish may have beendue to a lawsuit between William and Archibald over slaves. WhenWilliam was very ill and not expected to live, Eleanor went to seeher father, but he turned his head to the wall when she came closeto him.

William may have continued to have a great deal of animositytowards Eleanor and Orville because of the court case brought bythem seeking possession of certain slaves. When Eleanor was a baby,Charles Sallard, her mother's father, gave William three slaves by thename of Murphy, Anna, and Patsy upon "the condition and with theunderstanding that said Negroes together with their increase wouldbelong to the said Eleanor W. upon her coming of age or marriage."When Eleanor married Orville in 1833, her father refused to givethem the slaves, "but now holds the same claiming as his own."They charged that William McKissack "always and up to the time ofthe marriage ... admitted that the title to said Negros was not in himbut that he had them under said agreement with said Sallard. OnSeptember 23, 1841, Sallard conveyed the slaves to the complementsin a deed of gift," so they now contend that they "have a completetitle." The plaintiff requested the slaves and compensation for theirhire while in William McKissack's possession. The result indicatedthat the decision was granted, appealed, and reversed.

However, since there was no will, Eleanor inherited the housein which her father lived that was said to be the first brick home inSpring Hill. Eleanor and Orville were very devoted to each otherand gave land for the Episcopal Church to be built in Spring Hill.The land had been a part of the garden of Eleanor's stepmother. Atone time a letter came from Scotland indicating that lands, a title,castle, and other things were available for the oldest McKissack.Orville was asked why he did not go and attend to the property, buthe responded, "I wouldn't leave Ell for the whole of Europe."

Soon after the death of his first wife, William married JeanetteSusan Cogle Buxton Thomson, daughter of Susanna Peters andDr. James Thomson, who came to this country from Edinburgh,Scotland. Susanna was now married to William's brother Dr. SpiveyMcKissick (He always used this spelling.), a graduate of William andMary but did not practice in Maury County. William and Jeanettehad eight children; the first five being born in Person County,North C arolina. Their youngest was the beautiful but defiant JessieHelen whose colorful life would have a story all her own.

The brothers also had two sisters, Susan and Rebecca, whoremained in the Giles County area south of Maury County wheretheir parents settled. The McKissack boys were, as a rule, tall andslender, honest and industrious. They were excellent musiciansespecially on the violin. It was remembered by some when six sonsand the older McKissacks all played their violins at once. Susanmarried George Simmons and Rebecca married Wilson Jones beforethe family left Person County North Carolina. Their grandsonCalvin E. Wilson was one of the six men who met in the office ofhis father Judge Thomas M. Wilson and organized the Klu KluxKlan in Pulaski in 1865.

Dr. Spivey McKissick settled in Spring Hill about 1823 afterhe purchased a large stock of goods imported from the Virginiaestate of John H. Pointer. He had married Susanna Peters OsbornThomson ten years before in North Carolina, but her parents movedto Spring Hill area that proved to be an enticement for others tofollow. Susanna's previous two husbands were very wealthy men,and when she married Spivey, she was almost twenty years olderthan he was. Her granddaughter Jessie described her as wearing silkvelvet when she traveled and Colonel Jeffries, her first husband, wasone of the wealthiest men in North Carolina.

After Spring Hill was incorporated in 1824, Spivey was the firstmayor and was joined by William to become leading merchants inthe area. He was a builder of the Franklin and Columbia Turnpike,and at the beginning of the War Between the States, Spivey wasnoted in Tennessee history for purchasing the first ConfederateGovernment bonds for $3,000 that would be equal to over $70,000by today's standards. Later in the War, the Federal Army passedthrough Spivey's...