The Carter Farm

The Carter Farm. The Columbia Pike. The Columbia Pike began as a path that bison and other animals created en route to the salt lick at present-day Nashville. Native Americans used this and other trails for hunting as well as for travel. In the 19th century, the trails formed the basis for white settlers’ developing road structures. This road was given various names depending on the location and the owner of the property that it crossed: Gidden’s Road, Brown’s Trace, Rodgers Ford Road, etc. As communities grew, tributary roads radiated from the main road to create a larger transportation system., The Franklin and Columbia Turnpike Company, chartered in 1831, improved existing roads and erected tollbooths to collect fares for maintenance. Commonly called pikes, turnpikes were the highways of their day, some were hard surfaced, and many succumbed to the wartime beating they took from soldiers, wagons, horses, cattle, and artillery., The Columbia Pike served as a major transportation route to Nashville, the region’s commercial center, for more than 150 years. Farmers transported their crops to Nashville’s markets on this road. The turnpike was extended south all the way to the Gulf coast., On November 30, 1864, the Columbia Pike, with its direct route to Nashville, brought two armies to Franklin. Union Gen. John Schofield, marching his forces toward the safety of Nashville, intended to cross the nearby Harpeth River. Finding the bridges impassible, however, he was forced to erect defenses here against the pursuing Confederate army.