Description:Bust-length portrait of William Hicks Jackson as a mature man with droopy mustache and goatee, and facing toward the right. Wearing a dark coat, dark tie, and white shirt, mottled brown background.
History:Frame is a beaded giltwood and gesso molding with brass plaque inscribed, “General William Hicks Jackson/of Belle Meade/1835 – 1903.” Verso “With Wildenstern G.....” in green script at top and “Saratoga” in white chalk script on right side. No information on artist
Notes:General William Hicks Jackson was born October 1st 1835 to Dr. Alexander Jackson and Mary Hurt Jackson and was raised in Jackson, Tennessee. General Jackson matriculated at West Point in 1852, and served out west fighting against Native Americans. He resigned from the Federal Army to serve for the Confederacy in the Civil War and accepted a position as Captain of the Artillery Corps of Tennessee; After being wounded in battle in Missouri, he accepted full command of the West Tennessee Cavalry. He was promoted to Brigadier General on December 29th 1862. He would go on to fight in major battles such as the Battle of Franklin and the Battle of Nashville. In 1866, General Jackson met Selene Harding Jackson, they were married two years later, December 15th 1868. He was responsible for founding the National Agricultural Congress and also became president of the Tennessee Bureau of Agriculture, also the President of the Tennessee Farmers’ Association, and Master of the Tennessee Grange #64 in Nashville, a union for those involved in agrarian activities. Along with his Brother, and brother-in-law, John Harding II, Jackson received a third of the Belle Meade Plantation estate through his association of marriage to Selene Harding Jackson, right before the death of Selene’s father William Giles Harding in 1883. Jackson kept hospitality alive at Belle Meade Plantation, entertaining the likes of Newspaper Editors from across the nation, President and Lady Cleveland, the Harding Light Artillery, Theodore Roosevelt, and the Board of Directors of the Tennessee Centennial Exposition. In the late 1890s General Jackson’s health was in decline and he turned over his financial matters and property to his three children and their spouses. William Hicks Jackson passed away in 1903 at the age of 67. Location: Dining Room
