Captain William Alexander

When Alexander arrived in 1796, Hartsville was still taking shape. Families had begun building homes east of Little Goose Creek in 1795, in a settlement called Damascus. The Donoho family put up a grist mill two years later, and the Hart family built a ferry across the Cumberland in 1798 and promoted settlement west of the creek, which overshadowed Damascus. A post office in 1807 prompted residents to rename the community Hartsville. Settlers came down the Cumberland River and over the Fort Blount Trail.

What the plaque says

Captain William Alexander Born in Cecil County, Maryland, William Alexander entered the Revolutionary War from Rowan County, North Carolina in 1775. Wounded in 1776, he later joined a South Carolina unit and fought at Cowpens, Fort Motte, Granby, Biggers Church, and Ninety-Six, South Carolina in 1781. In 1796 he settled here and built a brick house within sight of the Hartsville racecourses, where he was involved in thoroughbred horse racing in completion with General Andrew Jackson. In 1799 he served in the first Smith County court. Alexander died in 1830 and was buried with his wife, Mary Brandon Alexander, near his house which no longer exists.

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Wynnewood State Historic Site — 8.9 mi
  A National Historic Landmark log inn at the Bledsoe's Lick springs, beside a Mississippian mound center and tied to the domestic slave trade.
• Red Boiling Springs — 20 mi
  A Macon County spa town built around red sulphur springs, with five kinds of mineral water, red-painted pumps and the surviving hotels of a resort that once held more than a dozen.
• Andrew Jackson's Hermitage — 28 mi
  Andrew Jackson's cotton plantation east of Nashville, where visitors can walk to the quarters, Alfred's Cabin and the Enslaved Cemetery as well as the mansion.

More markers nearby

• "The Hartsville Races" — 0.9 mi
• Battle of Hartsville December 7, 1862 — 1.2 mi
• The James DeBow Home — 2.0 mi
• Tilman Dixon — 5.8 mi