Street art on Lower Broad in Nashville
NASHVILLE
It's a city with many personalities. Nashville has been known as the Athens of the South and as Rock City. But today people know it best as Music City, USA. We could write a lot about the history of Nashville, but we're going to tell you three of the more interesting tidbits: How the city was founded, how it became the state capital, and how it became the home of country music. 
A sign commemorating the founding of Nashville
The Donelson Party
Nashville's founding was not peaceful. In 1775, a man named Richard Henderson invited Cherokee tribal leaders to a meeting on the Watauga River in East Tennessee. He offered to purchase from them an enormous piece of land (much of what is now Middle Tennessee and southern Most of the Cherokee leaders agreed. After all, it wasn’t land on which they lived; only land on which they hunted, and they didn’t have any idea how big this settlement might grow. 
Dragging Canoe Tennessee State Library & Archives However, one of the Cherokee men – who went by the name Dragging Canoe – didn’t like the idea. He made a big speech against the land sale. “The land is bloody ground and it would be dark and difficult to settle it,” he said. He then stormed away from the meeting along with many of his followers.
After the land purchase, 
ARTWORK: Northern Illinois University
The women, children, and the rest of the men came by boat, led by James Donelson. (If you look at the map, you can see what a long boat ride this was, down the Watauga and
The State Capitol building
State Capital
Along the way, one of the biggest things to ever happen in Nashville was when it became the state capital. Here is what happened: For the first few decades of Tennessee's existence, the legislature couldn't agree on a permanent capital. Knoxville was the first seat of government in 1796, followed by Nashville in 1812, Knoxville again four years later, Murfreesboro in 1819, and Nashville seven years later. It went on and on. Over the course of the week, just about every organized community in After several days, it came down to But lawmakers advocating On Country Music
So how did Nashville become the home of country music? It has to do with life insurance. 
An early poster for the WSM Barn Dance, later called the Grand Ole Opry.
Do you know what life insurance is? Simply put, it is something that people, especially parents, pay for that makes certain that the people that they leave behind are taken care of in case they die. In the early 1900s there was an insurance company in Nashville called the National Life & Accident Insurance Co. -- a fairly respectable, and kind of boring company. Well, National Life, as it was known, needed to invest some money. And in the early days of radio the idea of starting a radio station seemed like a good way to invest money and to promote its products. In 1924 National Life started a station at 650 AM, calling it WSM for "We Shield Millions."
About a year later National Life brought in a new disc jockey named George Hay. George Hay loved hillbilly music, and without really getting anyone's permission he started a radio show on Saturday night. He first called it the "Barn Dance," but he later came up for a funny name for it: the Grand Ole Opry. 
The Grand Ole Opry show in the 1930s. George Hay is sitting in the back row wearing a suit. PHOTO: Country Music Foundation George Hay had a knack for talent when he heard it, and before long the Grand Ole Opry was one of the biggest radio shows in America, with stars like Minnie Pearl and Roy Acuff. Soon people were coming from all over the country to watch the show being performed live. And after World War II executives from national record companies started flying down to Nashville. In those days, country music records were often recorded in hotel rooms, with one band playing a song for a microphone while another band waited outside. It was the beginning of what they now call in Nashville the "record business," and today it means big bucks for Nashville.
Cornelia Fort PHOTO: Hill Aerospace Museum More on Nashville
There is more about Nashville history scattered throughout the Tennessee History for Kids site. Among the more important people from Nashville, for instance: Andrew Jackson is probably the most famous Tennessean ever. William Walker affected the boundaries of the United States. James Napier was one of the most important African Americans in the United States during the years following the Civil War. Anne Dudley was a leader in the suffrage movement. Cornelia Fort was an aviator for whom an airport is now named. Jack C. Massey is a national business legend. Perry Wallace was the first black basketball player in the Southeastern Conference. And Reese Witherspoon is... well, you probably already know. 
The Nashville skyline in the 1940s PHOTO: Courtesy Bill Carey The Nashville Quiz
1. (TRUE OR FALSE) Dragging Canoe was friendly to the people who founded Nashville 2. (TRUE OR FALSE) Nashville has been the Tennessee state capital ever since Tennessee became a state. 3. (TRUE OR FALSE) When the legislature picked Nashville to be the state capital, the vote was unanimous. 4. The company that started WSM radio in Nashville was called the ________ _____ ___ ________ ________ ______. 5. Andrew Jackson's home is called ____ _________. 6. Name the Nashville native who was signing all American money in the year 1912. 7. Name one of the three companies that Jack Massey took to the New York Stock Exchange.  The Davidson County Courthouse is not too far from the Capitol building. |
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©2005-2006 Tennessee History for Kids, Inc. All rights reserved.
All photographs taken by Bill Carey for THKF unless otherwise stated.
All photographs taken by Bill Carey for THKF unless otherwise stated.