The Caldwell Years

The Caldwell Years. Tennessee Agricultural Museum. Rogers Caldwell, "the J.P. Morgan of the South,” purchased the acreage that would later become the Ellington Agricultural Center from descendants of the Ewing family. Caldwell was a Nashville native who established Caldwell and Company in 1917, at the age of 27. This conglomerate included banks, insurance companies, newspapers, and a baseball team. He chartered the Bank of Tennessee in 1919 and initiated connections with state government., Caldwell began construction of Brentwood House in 1927. Built in the Greek Revival style, the mansion was modeled after former U.S. president Andrew Jackson's home, The Hermitage. The property became a showplace that centered on Caldwell's home and horse barns, which held high quality horses for racing and breeding., Caldwell also grew tobacco and raised cattle, with tenants supplying the labor. Three log cabins that were likely tenant homes remain on the property today. Tenant farming, like sharecropping, refers to the practice of renting out land to individuals or families who divided the profits of their harvest with the landowner. In theory, tenant farming allowed poor farmers to make enough money to buy their own properties. In practice, tenancy trapped poor farmers in a downward cycle of debt., Along with sharecroppers, Caldwell employed Black craftspeople and laborers. Albert Phillips was a Black groom who worked for Caldwell for thirty years. People who bred and raced horses in the area described Phillips as "kindly, considerate, and tactful." Phillips died in 1953 and was buried near the former horse paddocks at a cemetery at Brentwood Hall., At the height of Caldwell's success, his insurance assets totaled $230 million, and his net worth amounted to half a billion dollars, equaling to at least $7.9 billion in 2021. The stock market crash in October 1929 ruined Caldwell's financial empire and eventually brought to light unethical and sometimes illegal banking practices that the State later prosecuted in the courts., Photo captions , Top: Photograph of Rogers Caldwell from newspaper article: "Rogers Caldwell to Sell Horses and Go to Farming.” The Keonville News Sentinel November 17, 1930 , Bottom left: Picture of the construction of Brentwood House, the home of Rogers Caldwell. This structure is now the Moss Administration Building for the Tennessee Department of Agriculture, Courtesy of the Tennessee Department of Agriculture. , Bottom right: Will and Willie Wilson, two married Black employees of Caldwell, lived in this house just beyond Brentwood House. Willie Wilson served as Caldwell's laundress. Courtesy of the Tennessee Department of Agriculture.