Story of the Tennessee Agricultural Museum

I love history and learning the story behind the story! Thanks to friend and tractor collector Buddy Woodson for the invite to the Spring-Crank Up 2024, antique tractor show. During our visit to the show, and Tennessee Agricultural Museum, Buddy gave me a tour of the grounds of the Tennessee Department of Agriculture. Since then, I have been diving deep, and learning about the history of this beautiful museum and grounds!

The beginning!

Along with the Tennessee Agricultural Museum which is located in a former horse barn, there is also an heirloom garden, three historic cabins and a one-room schoolhouse. Keith and I took a gander and walked around some of the cabins. On the door of one of the cabins, I learned the area’s early history. The first farmers in the area were the indigenous populations that grew corn, beans and squash. They were followed by the Shawnee, Chickasaw and Cherokee. “Trade with the French and English centered in the Nashville area then known as Big Salt Springs, or French Lick.”

The area was settled in the late 1700’s and early on was part of the state of North Carolina. After the American Revolution, veterans received land grants. In 1788, William Ewing received a land grant on the area that would later become the Ellington Agricultural Center.

Buddy drove me past the William and Margaret Love Ewing Cemetery as part of my tour. The cemetery dates back to Confederate soldiers, and early years. I was fascinated by this stone with its poetic wording. Portions of the 640-acre grant owned by William Ewing stayed in his family for more than 120 years. 

The Caldwells

After the land was awarded to the Ewings, eventually it became the estate of Roger Caldwell, “Of the Caldwell Banker family,” Buddy shared.

He was a major financier of the South through Caldwell & Co. and the Bank of Tennessee during the 1920s and 30s. Starting in 1917 at his father’s bank he opened his own business and became a wealthy man known as the “J.P. Morgan of the South.”

Roger Clark Caldwell and his wife Margaret Trousdale Caldwell began construction on the mansion that now is the administrative building for the Tennessee Department of Agriculture.  They built a 23-room Greek Revival style home modeled after Andrew Jackson’s home, the Hermitage. The estate was called Brentwood House. The Caldwell’s also built horse barns for racing and breeding. Today, the horse barn is the location of the Tennessee Agricultural Museum. The Caldwell’s also grew tobacco, raised cattle, and used tenants for labor.

The stock market crash hit the Caldwell family hard “The Caldwell’s couldn’t recover from the stock market crash,” Buddy said. Using banking money to build the home, when the banks crashed, the state held holdings for Caldwell’s property. Eventually the state gained the estate grounds and in 1957, with Buford Ellington the Agricultural Commissioner, and later Governor it became the home of the Tennessee Department of Agriculture.

The Tennessee Agricultural Museum!

The Ellington farmhouse is part of the museum grounds and provides insight into the Ellington’s farming history. The former horse barn is the home of the museum. Artifacts in the museum are credited in part to Oscar L. Farris who accumulated farm equipment from across the state and preserved them.  About the museum and the show, Dr. Elaura Guttormson, Museum Director said, “This is our 2^nd annual spring crank up. We welcomed antique tractors and engines from across the state.”

What a lovely place with amazing history that generations can now enjoy. We love Nashville, the music and the history. What have you seen in the area that we may have missed?