Existing comment:
The Jackson Family:
Rachel and Andrew Jackson never had any biological children, but the log farmhouse at The Hermitage always echoed with the sounds of children and family. Rachel's large family, the Donelsons, were frequent guests at The Hermitage. Rachel's family also provided her and Jackson with children beginning in 1804 when her brother Samuel died and his sons, John, Andrew, and Daniel, became Jackson's wards. In 1808, Rachel's brother Severn and his wife had twins and allowed the Jacksons to raise one as their adopted heir. The boy, named Andrew Jackson, Junior, spent his childhood here in the farmhouse.
Over the next decade, many other wards and orphans lived with the Jackson's, but Lyncoya, a Creek Indian orphaned by the death of his mother at the hands of Jackson's own army, and Andrew Jackson Hutchings, son of Jackson's deceased business partner, John Hutchings, became closest to Andrew and Rachel. Rachel Jackson seemed pleased with her new life at The Hermitage.
She had a comfortable house, she had children to care for, and her family and friends were nearby.
However, the War of 1812 and Jackson's subsequent military career took him away, while she remained behind to run the plantation with the help of overseers, family, and Jackson's associates. As Jackson's success brought him increasingly under public scrutiny, Rachel became more reclusive to avoid gossip about the circumstances of her marriage to Jackson. All Rachel wanted was to live out her remaining years with Jackson and their family at The Hermitage.
... Much controversy surrounds the circumstances of their marriage. Rachel and Andrew always maintained publicly that they married in 1791, and married again in 1794 when they learned her divorce from her first husband, Lewis Robards, had not been finalized in 1791. No records exist of Rachel and Andrew's 1791 marriage. |