William Harding Jackson - Belle Meade Plantation

Belle Meade Plantation

Bill Jackson's great-great-grandfather, John Harding of Virginia, moved to Tennessee in 1807 and acquired the initial 250 acres (1.0 km2) along the Natchez Trace (Old Natchez Road) and Richland Creek at "McSpadden's Bend" near Nashville; then known as the "McSpadden's Bend Farm". John Harding continued to acquire surrounding land that he would later rename Belle Meade.

John Harding's son, Confederate Army General William Giles Harding was Bill Jackson's great-grandfather; he built the Belle Meade Mansion in 1853. William Giles Harding had a son he named 'John' by his first wife, Mary Selena McNairy (she died in 1837). Giles Harding remarried and had two daughters, Selene Harding (Bill Jackson's grandmother) and Mary Elizabeth Harding (Bill Jackson's aunt), by Giles Harding's second wife, Elizabeth McGavock.

The eldest daughter, Selene Harding (1846–1892), married Jackson County, TN resident General William Hicks Jackson on December 15, 1868 after the Civil War ended, and they moved to Belle Meade where Red Jackson co-managed the business affairs of the Belle Meade Estate with his new father-in-law, General William Giles Harding; the two men expanded the estate into a world class thoroughbred horse farm. The marriage resulted in one daughter named Selene Harding Jackson (1876–1913) who later married William Robert Elliston, and took the name Selene Elliston.

Red and Selene Jackson also had a son. According to the records of the Tennessee State Library and Archives, Red Jackson sent a letter to his father-in-law, General Harding, announcing the birth of a son he named 'William Harding Jackson' (I) on September 15, 1874.

It should be noted that General Red Jackson had a rather famous brother, Howell Edmunds Jackson (1832–1895), also from Jackson, Tennessee. He was a judge and former U.S. Senator (1881–86) who was eventually appointed a United States Supreme Court Justice (1893–95). After the death of Howell Jackson's first wife in 1873 (Sophia Malloy of Jackson, Tennessee), Howell Edmunds Jackson married General Harding's youngest daughter, Mary Elizabeth Harding. The two harding sisters and the two Jackson brothers would become the foundation for the Harding-Jackson family dynasty of Nashville, TN.

In 1897, Red Jackson's son, William Harding Jackson (I), married Anne (Davis) Richardson (young Bill Jackson's mother) who was the daughter of James B. Richardson, the eventual Executor of the Belle Meade estate.

When General William Giles Harding died in 1886, he left the Belle Meade estate (one-third) to General "Red" Jackson and his wife (General Harding's eldest daughter Selene Harding), (one-third) to his son and Selene Harding's half-brother, John Harding, and (one-third) to Howell Edmunds Jackson (1832–1895) and his wife (General Harding's youngest daughter, Mary Elizabeth Harding).

Subsequently, when General Red Jackson died in March, 1903, his portion of the Belle Meade estate was left to his son, William Harding Jackson (I) who, in turn, died just 4 months later in July, 1903; leaving the estate to Selene Elliston, the Catholic Church and his son, William Harding "Bill" Jackson (II), (then age 2) -- all of which was to be administered by James B. Richardson, Executor.

Upon the deaths of both father and grand-father in the same year, Bill Jackson had become an instant heir to the sprawling, world renowned Belle Meade Estate. He was only two-years old.

James B. Richardson (Bill's maternal grand-father) made the decision, along with Bill's mother, Anne (Davis) Richardson Jackson, to liquidate the huge property, reportedly near 5,400 acres (22 km2) in 1903, all the horses and livestock, outbuildings, equipment, and the Belle Meade Mansion built in 1853 by General Harding.

By 1907, and within four years of Bill Jackson's inheritance, the entire 5,400-acre (22 km2) Estate and the Belle Meade Mansion had been auctioned off and sold by Richardson.

After the sale of Belle Meade in 1907, Bill Jackson's mother sent young Jackson to Boston to the Fay School preparatory school for boys, prior to his attending the nearby co-educational St. Mark's School in Southborough, Massachusetts.

Belle Meade Mansion is still located at 5025 Harding Pike, Nashville, TN 37205. On 25 Mar 1953, it was resold to the State of Tennessee and turned over to the APTA (Association for the Preservation of Tennessee Antiquities) "...as a monument to the Old South...". It was listed on 30 Dec 1969 in the National Register of Historic Places (#69000177).