Thomas B. Craighead and Andrew Jackson

My visits to my imaginary Genealogy Village are sometimes uncomfortable. I don’t have “descendants’ guilt,” but it is unsettling to learn about my ancestors’ historical actions that are in such conflict with my personal beliefs. But if the facts are there, I need to acknowledge them. I don’t know for sure that my 5^th great granduncle had influence on the tragic course of native American history. (I keep in mind that I have over 128 potential uncles in that generation!)  I explore the possibility in the summary below. I do know that Andrew Jackson's actions in the "Indian Wars" directly contributed to his being elected U. S. President. Jackson and thus to the "Indian Removal" policy of the U. S. Government, a very dark time in our history.

Thomas Benton Craighead was born in 1750, sixth child and oldest son of Alexander H. and Jane Brown Craighead. One of his older sisters, Agnes “Nancy” Craighead, my fifth great-grandmother, was about ten years old when he was born. He had five older sisters. A brother (1751) and a sister (1752) were born shortly after his arrival.

His parents had recently moved to Augusta County, Virginia from Pennsylvania where his firebrand minister father had antagonized political and church leaders with inflammatory sermons.  Alexander had been invited to preach at Mossy Creek Presbyterian Church. He later established the nearby Windy Cove church, and he continued to disturb officials. In June 1752, Alexander was arrested for preaching doctrines that Governor Dinwiddie believed were treasonous. However, by August, he had taken a public oath of allegiance and was allowed to preach again.  This was probably not a calm household for Thomas’s early years.

In 1755, the family moved from their Cow Pasture River home, this time to North Carolina. General Braddock had been defeated, and the British pulled all their troops back east.  With no protection on this western border, the settlers were fearful of attacks from the Indians who had sided with the French. Several families moved to North Carolina along with the Craigheads.  Alexander also was frustrated that as a Presbyterian minister he could not officially preside over marriages or conduct public worship services. The official church in Virginia was Episcopal, the Church of England, and required settlers to pay taxes in its support.  North Carolina laws were more liberal.

Thomas grew up in Sugaw Creek, Mecklenburg County, NC. He was probably schooled at home for his early years and then sent to local academies. Presbyterians valued education for males and females, but only males were sent to schools outside the home. Thomas had university educated parents and grandparents. In Alexander’s will, he bequeathed his books to his sons and provided that his Virginia land should be sold to pay for their education. Girls were generally taught at home to read and write, mostly to be able to read their bible.

Thomas went to the College of New Jersey (later Princeton University) where he was educated in the tradition of the “New Light” Presbytery, its founders. He was graduated with honors in 1775 and was ordained by the Orange County Presbytery in 1780. He returned for a short while to North Carolina where he preached in his father’s church at Waxhaw.

In August 1781, at Rockbridge, Virginia, he married Elizabeth Brown. They became parents to six sons and one daughter.

By 1785, Thomas was in Nashville, Tennessee. He was appointed to the first board of Trustees of Davidson Academy and then became its president. From The History of Nashville, we learn he became Nashville's first minister when James Robertson and other pioneering settlers invited him to the Cumberland region to establish a Presbyterian church and school. The residents promised to purchase 640 acres of land for his use and pay him 50 pounds, about $125, annually for three years.

 Like most frontier areas, the Cumberland region was characterized by profanity, drunkenness, and crime and offered very little in the way of religion. Thomas began his Nashville career shortly after his arrival by mounting a stump and preaching to all who would listen. Although Craighead arrived in 1785, the Presbyterians did not formally organize a church there until 1814. In addition to preaching, Craighead also established Davidson Academy, chartered by the legislature of North Carolina in 1786. Like other schools of the period, Davidson emphasized classical education, with heavy emphasis on Greek and Latin.  From contemporary newspaper articles we know that the enrollment remained small.

One biographer, John Lawrence Connelly, described him as calm, sober, even eloquent in his preaching, yet Craighead conducted a ministry often controversial with Presbyterians as well as other denominations. Other ministers chastised him, and leaders of his own church admonished him for his “liberal beliefs.”

In 1786, he became the first President of Davidson Academy, newly chartered by the Tennessee legislature.  Later it became Cumberland College, and then Nashville University. He also taught at Spring Hill Academy. He served there for over 20 years. In 1805, he was called by the congregation of Shiloh Church, Sumner County, to be its pastor.

It was an era of religious revivals, often drawing on emotion rather than logic. Craighead wanted his listeners to think for themselves. He believed and taught that people were responsible for their own destiny. He believed in “freedom of the will” and argued that original sin was not imposed by birth.  

Between 1810 and 1824, Craighead conflicted with the Presbytery of Transylvania due to the response to a sermon he gave in 1806. There are many reports and reprints of his sermons, so I won't repeat them here. By 1811, his own synod suspended his ministry due to his controversial teachings. Craighead was called before the Synod to defend his beliefs. He was warned and returned to his church.

Andrew Jackson, a long-time friend, and a fellow settler in Nashville, appeared before the Presbytery in his defense. Their mothers had been friends back in Waxhaw where they attended the same church led by Alexander Craighead. Thomas's sister, Nancy, accompanied Elizabeth Hutchinson to Charleston to plea for release of the latter's son and other neighbors who were held prisoner by the British on disease-ridden ships in the harbor. Nancy buried Jackson’s mother when she died on the return journey.

Despite the Synod’s actions, Craighead continued to teach and preach, and it wasn’t until 1824, shortly before his death, that the Assembly of the Presbyterian Church fully restored him to the ministry and cleared his name.

In summer 1813, while the country was embroiled in the War of 1812 with the British, there was conflict with the Creeks in the area. The Red Stick group of Creeks had received arms and supplies from the Spanish governor in Pensacola and were returning to their settlements north of Mobile when they were attacked and massacred by American militia. In August 1813, the Creeks retaliated by raiding Fort Mims and killing most of the inhabitants.  This news was reported to Nashville and the citizens were fearful of future attacks.  At an assembly of town leaders was called and Reverend Thomas Craighead invited to be Chairman of the gathering and deliver an address.

A gifted orator, Craighead’s introductory speech contained brutal imagery and dire predictions, designed to inflame his frontier listeners. He exhorted them to be courageous against the local aggressors because the federal government was otherwise engaged in the defense of the rest of the country in the war against Great Britain.

The assembly resolved to publish the speech, and within a week, Craighead’s address was printed in the Nashville newspapers and is currently available from Newspapers.com with their historical reprints.

After his provocative speech, the assembled "gentlemen" agreed they should prevail upon the Governor and the legislature to name Major General Andrew Jackson as leader of the consolidated militias, and he should be armed and supplied for a suppression of the Creeks. Jackson was a lifelong friend of Rev. Craighead and had aided in his defense before the Presbytery. Their homes, on opposite sides of the Cumberland, were only a few miles apart. During the infamous trial surrounding Andrew Jackson and his wife Rachel, Craighead had likewise spoken for them and sat in court to support them. Rev. Craighead also had a close relationship with the Governor.  So, it appears that there may have been a direct relationship between Rev. Craighead’s fiery oratory and the future, tragic treatment of the Indians. It was at least an early step.

Jackson attacked the Creeks at what came to be known as the Battle of Horseshoe Creek with a force of several thousand. Jackson ordered General Coffee to attack from the rear and thus the Creek were encircled.  They were poorly armed, many with just staffs, and were easily defeated by the Americans. The 350 women, children, and elderly, that the Creek thought had been secured in an area south of their camp, were captured and turned over to the Cherokee as slaves. Later, the Creeks were forced into a treaty that required them to cede vast tracts of land in Alabama and Georgia. There were a few survivors who recounted the details of the account.

In 1815, Jackson led the American troops in their defeat of the British in the Battle of New Orleans.  On the record of his fighting prowess, including his success in the First Seminole War, Jackson was made the seventh President in 1828. It was a contentious election that went to the House of Representatives for resolution. Jackson was chosen over John Quincy Adams,

Thomas Craighead died September 11, at his residence Spring Hill, near Haysborough, TN. He was impoverished, nearly blind and had been in bad health for some years. His wife died in 1829.