Williamson-Davidson

Hugh Williamson, for whom the neighbouring county is named, trained as a physician and took his medical degree in the Netherlands in 1764. In London he gave testimony on colonial affairs and worked with Benjamin Franklin, then served as North Carolina's physician and surgeon general during the Revolution, treating wounded soldiers and helping prevent a smallpox epidemic. He signed the Constitution for North Carolina and wrote the Letters of Sylvius urging ratification. The county line marker stands where the two counties meet.

What the plaque says

Williamson-Davidson Davidson County: Established 1783; named in honor of Brig. Gen. William Lee Davidson of North Carolina. Distinguished officer in the Revolutionary War. Served with the Army at Valley Forge. Fought at the Battle of King's Mountain. Killed in action at Cowan's Ford, N. C., 1781. Williamson County: Established 1799; named in honor of Dr. Hugh Williamson Colonel and Surgeon-General of the North Carolina Militia, a member of the Assembly from Edenton, 1782; later elected to the Continental Congress where he served three terms; he was a signer of the Constitution from North Carolina. The county seat is named for his intimate friend, Benjamin Franklin.

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Tennessee State Capitol — 4.4 mi
  William Strickland's Greek Revival capitol on Nashville's Capitol Hill, finished in 1859 and built from the bottom up with the labor of enslaved men.
• Ryman Auditorium — 4.5 mi
  The 1892 brick tabernacle in downtown Nashville that was the Grand Ole Opry's home from 1943 to 1974, now a National Historic Landmark and working concert hall.
• National Museum of African American Music — 4.5 mi
  A downtown Nashville museum, opened in 2021, tracing gospel, blues, jazz, rhythm and blues and hip-hop through Black history from 1619 to 2016.
• Civil Rights Room at the Nashville Public Library — 4.5 mi
  A room in the downtown library with a circular lunch counter, a timeline and oral histories of the 1960 Nashville sit-ins, a few blocks from the stores where they began.

More markers nearby

• Hill McAlister — 0.8 mi
• Haynes High School — 3.4 mi
• Griggs Hall — 3.5 mi
• Confederate Circle at Mount Olivet — 4.0 mi