A Deep Past, Rich Land

A Deep Past, Rich Land. Thompson's Station, Tennessee. Nestled in the Harpeth River Valley, the rolling pastures and forested hillsides of Preservation Park capture the centuries old stories of Thompson's Station, where Native Americans resisted early settlers, the coming of the railroad created a town, and a Civil War battle tore apart the countryside until a progressive agricultural revival returned prosperity., The Cherokees and Chickasaws were among the tribes who used this land for their hunting grounds. The first settler, Edward Swanson, chose land a few miles north of the park. In 1780 Swanson, then a mere twenty years old, came south of the new settlements at Nashville to claim 6-40 acres in what is now Williamson County, Swanson soon left due to fears of Native American attack, but he returned to stay in 1800. By 1815, his plantation totaled more than 1,000 acres., The doors to settlement had opened wide after an 1805 treaty between the Chickasaw Nation and the United States ceded land south of the Duck River and east of the Tennessee River to the United States. This treaty encouraged land speculators, Revolutionary War veterans, and eager settlers with North Carolina land grants to acquire much of the fertile land along the West Harpeth River and its tributaries. Encountering dense forests, settlers and their increasing number of enslaved people girdled large trees and cleared underbrush, transforming Native American hunting grounds into farms and plantations for livestock, cotton, and tobacco., Map Legend: , Tennessee and Portions of Bordering States , (showing Cherokee and Chickasaw treaty cessions), Gray ceded by Cherokee in 1785 , Blue ceded by Cherokee in 1791 , Yellow ceded by Cherokee in 1805 , Red ceded by Cherokee in 1806 , Orange ceded by Chickasaw in 1818