Mary Donelson Caffery and Her Pioneer Family

By Mike Slate

Ten of the eleven children of John and Rachel Donelson were aboard the fateful 1780 flotilla to the Cumberland region. Daughter Rachel, then twelve years old, was destined to fame as the wife of Andrew Jackson, but we should also reserve a special place in our annals for daughter Mary and her family.

Mary had married John Caffery in Amherst, Virginia, in 1775 and was a mother in her mid-to-late twenties when the flotilla arrived at the “Big Salt Lick” on April 24, 1780. Historian John Haywood relates that in the summer of that year, near the fort on the bluff, Caffrey (variant spelling) was wounded in the thigh when fired on by Indians.

Not long after this attack the family apparently ventured from the safety of Ft. Nashborough and established their own station six or so miles to the east. A.W. Putnam is the only early historian to mention this Caffrey's Station, which he places "at the base of 'Todd's Knob,' near the mouth of Stone's River." A point of reference today might be Donelson Plaza Shopping Center, which is situated at the southern foot of Todd’s Knob.

An Internet source relates that after about two years in the Cumberland area, John and Mary Caffery returned to Virginia where, in 1782, Caffery was appointed Captain of the Bedford Militia. Reportedly, the family returned to Tennessee in 1787. Deeds records, however, show that in 1783 Caffery obtained a land pre-emption of 640 acres along Stoner’s Creek on the east side of Stone’s River--in the same area that Mary’s father, John Donelson, acquired land. This land is about two and a half miles east of Todd’s Knob, and a point of reference today might be the small bridge over Stoner’s Creek on Central Pike.

From Haywood we learn that in about March of 1792 Mary and one son were at the house of “Mr. Thompson, within seven miles of Nashville” where an Indian raid resulted in the deaths of Mr. and Mrs. Thompson and two of their children and in the abduction of Mary, her son, and “Miss Thompson.” The Cafferys remained captives for about two years, during which time “Mrs. Caffrey was treated as a slave, and was frequently scratched and torn with gar teeth by way of punishment; and was made to hoe corn, beat meal, and to perform other duties of slavery.”

At some point after their reunification the Caffery family moved to Natchez, Mississippi, where John was an “agent” for his in-law, Andrew Jackson. In that territory Captain John Caffery died in 1811 and Mary Donelson Caffery passed away in 1823. Notwithstanding their mobility and the ever-present dangers of frontier America, they managed to bear and rear twelve children. Among John and Mary's famous grandchildren was Donelson Caffery, a U.S. Senator from Louisiana.

Note: Some sources indicate that it was the wife of "Peter Caffrey" who was captured by the Indians. The relationship, if any, of Peter to John Caffery has not yet been established, and the author continues to research this matter.