Founding of Nashville memorial statue

The Donelson party led by John Donelson departed their Watauga settlements in what is now upper East Tennessee and set out for the Cumberland River basin to meet up with James Robertson and the men who had arrived earlier and built Fort Nashborough in December 1779. Within two weeks of Donelson’s arrival, Judge Richard Henderson (mentioned earlier) also arrived. Henderson drew up the Cumberland Compact, a legal agreement among the settlers and Henderson. It listed eight stations, which were stockades or forts, so that the settlers could mount a defense when attacked by Native Americans. The document also served as a governing document and laid out a process for local laws and written records of land sales and other legal claims. Look at the plaque on the ground below the statue’s base, and you will see the names of the men who signed the Cumberland Compact. Some call it Tennessee’s first constitution.

In 1952, Mayor Ben West proposed this statue as part of the Capitol Hill Redevelopment project. The project included the construction of the James Robertson Parkway, a six-lane semi-circular road that bypassed the central business district, north of the capitol, and then crossed the Victory Memorial Bridge, the city’s World War II memorial, over the Cumberland River. This statue was designed by Puryear Mims, a well-known sculptor and member of the Vanderbilt art faculty, and it was cast in 1962. The plaque in front of the monument lists the names of the signers of the Cumberland Compact.

Continue walking up First Avenue, and turn RIGHT onto Gay Street. Before you walk under the overpass, you will see a statue of Timothy Demonbreun on your right. This is your next stop.