CHAPTER 1
The McKissack Family and theBeginning of Spring Hill, Tennessee
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Located just 30 miles south from Nashville, Tennessee at theedge of Maury and Williamson Counties, Spring Hill beganto develop about the time as the county seat of Columbia. The areaof today was much as it was 200 years ago until General Motorsannounced in 1985 that they would be building the Saturn plant inthat vicinity. The building was constructed around the hills andvalleys so as not to disturb the agricultural landscape. Businesseslocated around the small village rather than considering Columbiaas a better locale. All of the progress came to a halt in June 2009when GM announced that they were filing for bankruptcy and idledthe plant in Spring Hill among others. Although currently thereare employees working in the plant making engines and periodicannouncements are conveyed, the future of the establishment isquite uncertain.
The family that was to become so well known in the communityof Spring Hill changed the course of history through personal andrelated decisions about their individual lives. Incidents occurredthat families did not discuss outside the family, and when asked,they would exchange few words if any. The way of life in thisvicinity began with William McKissack, who was born in CaswellCounty, North Carolina on November 14, 1781. At the age of 33, hemarried Rebecca Sallard, but their marriage ended with her deathsix years later. They had one daughter Eleanor Washington, wholater married Orville McKissack, the son of Archibald, William'sbrother. It was said that William became so distressed over hermarriage that he never forgave her. The anguish may have beendue to a lawsuit between William and Archibald over slaves. WhenWilliam was very ill and not expected to live, Eleanor went to seeher father, but he turned his head to the wall when she came closeto him.
William may have continued to have a great deal of animositytowards Eleanor and Orville because of the court case brought bythem seeking possession of certain slaves. When Eleanor was a baby,Charles Sallard, her mother's father, gave William three slaves by thename of Murphy, Anna, and Patsy upon "the condition and with theunderstanding that said Negroes together with their increase wouldbelong to the said Eleanor W. upon her coming of age or marriage."When Eleanor married Orville in 1833, her father refused to givethem the slaves, "but now holds the same claiming as his own."They charged that William McKissack "always and up to the time ofthe marriage ... admitted that the title to said Negros was not in himbut that he had them under said agreement with said Sallard. OnSeptember 23, 1841, Sallard conveyed the slaves to the complementsin a deed of gift," so they now contend that they "have a completetitle." The plaintiff requested the slaves and compensation for theirhire while in William McKissack's possession. The result indicatedthat the decision was granted, appealed, and reversed.
However, since there was no will, Eleanor inherited the housein which her father lived that was said to be the first brick home inSpring Hill. Eleanor and Orville were very devoted to each otherand gave land for the Episcopal Church to be built in Spring Hill.The land had been a part of the garden of Eleanor's stepmother. Atone time a letter came from Scotland indicating that lands, a title,castle, and other things were available for the oldest McKissack.Orville was asked why he did not go and attend to the property, buthe responded, "I wouldn't leave Ell for the whole of Europe."
Soon after the death of his first wife, William married JeanetteSusan Cogle Buxton Thomson, daughter of Susanna Peters andDr. James Thomson, who came to this country from Edinburgh,Scotland. Susanna was now married to William's brother Dr. SpiveyMcKissick (He always used this spelling.), a graduate of William andMary but did not practice in Maury County. William and Jeanettehad eight children; the first five being born in Person County,North C arolina. Their youngest was the beautiful but defiant JessieHelen whose colorful life would have a story all her own.
The brothers also had two sisters, Susan and Rebecca, whoremained in the Giles County area south of Maury County wheretheir parents settled. The McKissack boys were, as a rule, tall andslender, honest and industrious. They were excellent musiciansespecially on the violin. It was remembered by some when six sonsand the older McKissacks all played their violins at once. Susanmarried George Simmons and Rebecca married Wilson Jones beforethe family left Person County North Carolina. Their grandsonCalvin E. Wilson was one of the six men who met in the office ofhis father Judge Thomas M. Wilson and organized the Klu KluxKlan in Pulaski in 1865.
Dr. Spivey McKissick settled in Spring Hill about 1823 afterhe purchased a large stock of goods imported from the Virginiaestate of John H. Pointer. He had married Susanna Peters OsbornThomson ten years before in North Carolina, but her parents movedto Spring Hill area that proved to be an enticement for others tofollow. Susanna's previous two husbands were very wealthy men,and when she married Spivey, she was almost twenty years olderthan he was. Her granddaughter Jessie described her as wearing silkvelvet when she traveled and Colonel Jeffries, her first husband, wasone of the wealthiest men in North Carolina.
After Spring Hill was incorporated in 1824, Spivey was the firstmayor and was joined by William to become leading merchants inthe area. He was a builder of the Franklin and Columbia Turnpike,and at the beginning of the War Between the States, Spivey wasnoted in Tennessee history for purchasing the first ConfederateGovernment bonds for $3,000 that would be equal to over $70,000by today's standards. Later in the War, the Federal Army passedthrough Spivey's property on its way to the Battle of Franklin.
Susannah died in 1840, and two years later Spivey was takento court by Thomas P. Thompson and Harriet Jeffers, Susannah'schildren by her first two husbands, concerning ownership of slaves.Several in the family and others who had done business with theMcKissicks specified that Susannah had handled transactions withthem without any interference by Spivey. John Cheairs indicated thatfor the previous seven years, Spivey had complained of dyspepticaffection. It was a condition of the stomach that causes loss ofappetite, nausea, pain in the upper abdomen, heartburn, but usuallyindigestion. Spivey could not transact business if it required muchphysical effort, but in spite of everything, he never allowed his wifeto transact any of his business.
The same year of the court action, Spivey married Eliza Smizer.Their only child to live to adulthood was Lucy Ann who movedinto her father's property known as Woodlawn and completedthe construction of the Woodlawn house. It was known for itshospitality and extravagant furnishings that were imported fromEngland. The interior had stone vestibule with colored marbleflooring to the French marble fireplaces. In some of the formalrooms were elaborate medallions with garlands and cherubs. Thestairway led all the way to the third floor. It was nothing unusualfor city visitors to spend all summer with as many as twenty-fivepeople eating the good country food, riding the good saddle horses,and enjoying the lavish generosity.
In one story, Susan McKissack Cheairs was crying to Lucy aboutthe money that she and Nathaniel owed them. When asked howmuch it was, Susan responded, "$10,000." Lucy reacted with, "If thatis all you are crying about, forget it." The debt was forgotten.
William developed a commercial brick kiln and yard, and hisbusiness interests in Maury and many surrounding counties madehim extremely successful. When he built his remarkably outstandinghouse in the early 1840s in the downtown area of Spring Hill, hemade his own bricks. By 1850 William was considered a thriftyman with a sharp business ability and regarded as the wealthiestman in the area.
William always taught a trade to the slaves that he owned. Bythe 1850 US Slave Schedule, he had 34 with an equal number ofmales and females. The two oldest were 68 and 69 year old menwith 12 under the age of 5. One was Moses who was born in 1790near Raleigh, North Carolina, and was a part of the West AfricanAshanti tribe in Ghana. In 1822, he married Mirian, a Cherokee,and they had fourteen children. He learned to be a carpenterand woodworker while his brothers were learning the trades ofbricklaying, brick making, stone masonry, and lime making. Atleast one was trained as a metal worker including the shaping of iron,copper, and brass, and the handling of sheet metal for both roofsand utensils. They would often serve as foremen, superintendents,and overseers and learned to be master builders by being faced withchallenging construction and design problems.
Moses was physically enslaved; nevertheless, he used theimplements of the building trade to become a skilled craftsman.His ninth child, Gabriel Moses, continued in the building tradethat he learned from his father. In his later years, he would tell hisand his brothers experiences working on the Maxwell House Hotelin Nashville, the Cheairs, homes in Spring Hill (Nathaniel havingmarried William's daughter Susan Peters McKissack), and otherhistoric residences and public buildings.
During the War Between the States, Gabriel and several of hisbrothers would join the Union Army. William was listed in the Co. E12th Regiment US Colored Infantry as 5'8" of dark complexion, eyes,and hair, born in Pulaski, and occupation was servant. After the war,the brothers returned to Nashville to find their parents, who werenow elderly, troubled, and with family ties broken. With a great deal ofdifficulty, they attempted to reunite their family; however, Moses diedon August 26, 1865, just four months after the war ended, and Miriamfollowed four months later after her husband. Both of them are buriedin the old City Cemetery on Fourth Avenue South in Nashville.
The War was over, the South was wrecked, buildings destroyed,and the fields were bare. The African American McKissacks had theskills that were needed to rebuild the area. Gabriel went to Pulaski,about 40 miles south of Spring Hill, where he planned to stay for ashort period of time; on the other hand, after the chance meeting ofa young lady by the name of Dolly Ann, who became his wife, hestayed for the balance of his life. When Moses II began his businessin Pulaski, builders were usually designing their own structures.
Like his father, Gabriel, Moses II taught the building skills tohis son Moses McKissack III and Calvin, who were two of sevensons. Moses III was born in Pulaski and received his education inthe segregated public schools. He started working for his father, butin 1890 just one year from graduation, he dropped out of the PulaskiColored High School. That same year, James Porter, a white Pulaskiarchitect, hired him to draw, design, and assist in his constructionbusiness. Moses' ingenuity in the trade earned him the reputation asan excellent craftsman. He was a construction superintendent whowas building houses for five years in Athens and Decatur, Alabama;Mt. Pleasant and Columbia, Tennessee. He became a constructionsupervisor at Vale Rolling and Riverburg Mills where he preparedshop drawings for B. F. McGrew and Pitman & Patterson. Hisproficiency and good judgment in construction earned Moses thereputation as an excellent artisan.
Moving to Nashville in 1905, Moses started his own architecturaland construction business in the Napier Court Building. He builta residence for Vanderbilt University's Dean of Architecture andEngineering that led to commissions to design and build otherresidences in Nashville's West End area including Governor A. H.Roberts. His first major commission was for the Carnegie Libraryat Fisk University for which Secretary of War William Howard Taftlaid the cornerstone. The structure was one of the first in Americadesigned by an African American architect.
By 1909, Moses was one of eighteen architects in Nashville;despite the fact that he advertised in the Nashville City Directory asa "colored architect." Three years later he branched to Shelbyvilleby designing the Administration Building for Turner Normal andIndustrial Institute. He also designed dormitories for Lane Collegein Jackson as well as Nashville's Roger Williams University. By 1920Moses was designing buildings for clients throughout Nashville andthe state. His brother Calvin Lunsford McKissack assisted on mostprojects. They offered a staff of contracting services with a numberof masons, carpenters, and laborers.
Calvin had been studying at Barrows School in Springfield,Massachusetts, for three years when he started attending Fisk University.Through the International Correspondence School in Scranton,Pennsylvania, he eventually received a certificate in architecture. Hehad been in Nashville the first of four years when Moses established thebusiness in Nashville. Calvin started his own practice in Dallas, Texas,designing numerous churches and schools but returned to Nashvillein 1915 to teach architectural drawing at Tennessee Agricultural andIndustrial State Normal School today known as Tennessee StateUniversity. Directing the Industrial Arts Department of Pearl HighSchool, he became the first executive secretary of the Tennessee StateAssociation of Teachers in Colored Schools that he held until 1922when he resigned to join his brother.
The state professional registration law became effective in 1921,and the McKissacks were among the first registered architectswith Certificates No. 117 and 118. A year later, Calvin Lunsfordjoined Moses as a partner making McKissack and McKissackArchitects and Engineers, Inc., the first in Tennessee to becomea professional African American architectural firm. Within threeyears, the architectural enterprise gained the attention of America'slargest denominational conventions. In 1924 the National BaptistConvention, U.S.A, Inc., gave them the contract to design andbuild the Morris Memorial Building on Charlotte Avenue. Housingthe Sunday School Publishing Board, it was the largest buildingconstructed in Nashville up to that time and by local talent. It wascapable of publishing the large volume of religious literature for thedenomination. Noted for their church edifices, they also receivedmunicipal contracts to design a number of educational facilities.
The depression affected them as it did everyone who wasstruggling financially, but the firm was able to design and buildpublic schools and received numerous Public Works Administrationcontracts. By 1941, Alabama granted the business a license followedby Georgia, South Carolina, Florida, and Mississippi. A year laterthe federal government awarded the contract to design the Ninety-ninthPursuit Squadron Air Base in Tuskegee, Alabama, a WorldWar II African American combat air unit. The contract was lookedon as the largest contract ever awarded an African American at theprice of $5,700,000
That same year, Moses and Calvin received the SpauldingMedal from President Roosevelt. The award was named for CharlesClinton Spaulding, the founder and first president of North CarolinaMutual Life Insurance Company, the largest African Americanowned insurance company in America. The award honored the"Outstanding Negro Business" in the country.
The business was involved in the design of several communityhousing developments, and because of this, President Rooseveltappointed Moses III to the White House Conference on HousingProblems. Other generations continued with the business includingthe women who were professional engineers. In 1987, the TennesseeBuilding Commission awarded McKissack and McKissack thedesign for the National Civil Rights Museum in Memphis.
The business was headquartered in Nashville until it movedto Philadelphia in 2001. It continues with the McKissackwomen carrying on the family tradition with satellite offices inTennessee, Washington, D.C., and New York. In recognitionof the contributions made by the McKissack brothers to thehistoric building heritage of the United States, the National ParkService of the U.S. Department of the Interior listed several ofthe McKissacks' Nashville buildings in the National Register ofHistoric Places. Moses McKissack Middle School and McKissackPark were named in honor of Moses III by the Nashville officialsfor his contributions.
