Robert Hatton Hodsden (November 23, 1806 – June 18, 1864) was an American medical doctor, planter, and politician who served three terms in the Tennessee House of Representatives (1841–1845, 1861–1862). He worked as a government medical doctor on the Cherokee removal ("Trail of Tears") in 1838, and served as president of the East Tennessee Medical Society in the mid-1850s. A Southern Unionist during the Civil War, Hodsden represented Sevier County at the East Tennessee Convention in 1861, and was later arrested by Confederate authorities.
Hodsden's 1840s-era house, Rose Glen, still stands near Sevierville, and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
Early life
Hodsden was born in Smithfield, Virginia, the son of Joseph and Mary (Pasteur) Hodsden. He attended common schools and an academy at Smithfield, and afterward began working as a tailor. In the late 1820s, he left Virginia due to what was described as "misfortune in a business transaction." He lived in Washington, D.C., Cincinnati, and Nashville, before settling in Rhea County, Tennessee, in 1830. That year, he began studying medicine with Rhea County physician John Hoyl. He afterward attended Jefferson Medical College in Philadelphia.Ben B. Cates, "The Medical Profession of East Tennessee," East Tennessee: Historical and Biographical (Brookhaven Press, 1893), pp. 150-151.
In the Fall of 1833, Hodsden moved to Maryville, Tennessee, where he began practicing medicine in partnership with Dr. James Gillespie. In 1838, Hodsden worked as a government physician on the Trail of Tears, the operation in which the Cherokee were removed from their homelands in the southeastern United States to Oklahoma. Hodsden made two trips during the operation, the first from Ross Landing (Chattanooga) to Arkansas, and the second from Charleston, Tennessee, to Arkansas.
A Whig and supporter of Henry Clay, Hodsden was elected to Blount County's seat in the Tennessee House of Representatives in 1841, and was reelected in 1843.Tennessee Blue Book (1890), pp. 214-215, 227. He was appointed to the Committee on Public Lands, the Committee on Agriculture and Manufactures, and the Committee on Banks.Journal of the House of Representatives of the State of Tennessee at the Twenty-fourth General Assembly (Eastman, Williams, Roseborough, and Cameron, 1841), pp. 37-38, 49. Bills he introduced included support for improvements along Little River in Blount County,Journal of the Tennessee House of Representatives, pp. 305, 409. and amendments to tax collection laws.Journal of the Tennessee House of Representatives, p. 118.
In 1843, Hodsden married Mary Reese Brabson Shields, the widow of David Shields. He moved to the Harrisburg community in Sevier County and established a plantation, Rose Glen, on land his wife had inherited.Sally Ripatti, Beulah Linn (ed.), "Sevier County Physicians," Sevier County Public Library website, February 1982. In 1850, he organized a masons lodge in nearby Sevierville, the Mountain Star Lodge, and was elected its first Worshipful Master.Carroll McMahan, "Upland Chronicle: Mason Temple in Sevierville Has Long, Rich History," The Mountain Press, 12 June 2012. Over the next few years, Hodsden was appointed to the state agricultural bureau, and served as president of the East Tennessee Fair. In 1857, he was elected president of the East Tennessee Medical Society, and delivered an address, "On the Advancement of the Profession of Medicine," at the group's convention the following year."Annual Session of the East Tennessee Medical Society, Held in Knoxville, October 19, 1858," The Nashville Monthly Record of Medical and Physical Science, Vol. 1, No. 3 (November 1858), p. 170. By 1860, Hodsden was one of the wealthiest men in Sevier County, with over $50,000 (~$ in ) in assets.
Civil War
Though a slave owner, Hodsden, like many of East Tennessee's pre-war Whigs, remained loyal to the Union during the Civil War. His family was divided over the issue, however, with his inlaws, the Brabsons, being among Sevier County's staunchest Confederates.Robbie Jones, The Historic Architecture of Sevier County, Tennessee (Smoky Mountain Historical Society, 1997), pp. 30-41. In June 1861, Hodsden attended the Greeneville session of the East Tennessee Convention as a member of the Sevier County delegation. This convention attempted, unsuccessfully, to form a Union-aligned state in East Tennessee.Proceedings of the East Tennessee Convention (H. Barry Book Company, 1861). Accessed at the Calvin M. McClung Digital Collection, 14 December 2014.Thomas William Humes, Loyal Mountaineers of Tennessee (Ogden Brothers and Company, 1888), p. 354.
In August 1861, Hodsden was again elected to the Tennessee House of Representatives, this time representing a floterial district consisting of Sevier and Knox counties. He was forced to take the Confederate oath of allegiance in order to remain in the legislature, though he continued working for Unionist causes."The Representative from Sevier," Nashville Union and American, 12 November 1861, p. 2. In October 1861, he sent a letter to Unionist attorney Oliver Perry Temple, warning him that Temple and their friends William "Parson" Brownlow, Connally Trigg, and John Williams were about to be indicted.Robert H. Hodsden, Letter to O.P. Temple in Knoxville, Tenn., 1861 October 23, University of Tennessee Special Collections Online. Accessed: 17 January 2015. In November 1861, Hodsden delivered a speech in Sevierville in which he noted he had only taken the oath to the provisional Confederate government, and proclaimed that he was a "stronger Union man today than ever." He stated he was using his position in the legislature to prevent Confederate "mischief" and lobby for the release of jailed Unionists. He also suggested the Confederate Army was on the run, and that the Confederacy would soon fall.
Amid the Confederate crackdown during the weeks following the East Tennessee bridge burnings, Hodsden was arrested and charged with treason in December 1861. John M. Fleming, a fellow Unionist state legislator, was charged with harboring him. He agreed to pay a $10,000 bond and court costs in January 1862, and the district attorney in return agreed not to prosecute the case."Dr. Hodsden's Case," The Athens (TN) Post, 24 January 1862, p. 2. Confederate judge West Hughes Humphreys subsequently found no wrongdoing on the part of Hodsden or Fleming."The Case of Hon. Jno. M. Fleming," The Athens (TN) Post, 14 February 1862, p. 2.William G. Brownlow, Sketches of the Rise, Progress, and Decline of Secession (Applewood Books, 2008; originally published in 1862), p. 352.
Hodsden died at his home, Rose Glen, on June 18, 1864, presumably of heart disease. He is buried with his wife and children at the Brabson Cemetery near Sevierville.
Family and legacy
Hodsden and his wife, Mary, had six children: Priscilla Katurah, Virginia, David Shields, Penelope Brabson, John Brabson, and Mary Pasteur. His brother-in-law, Reese Bowen Brabson, served one term in Congress (1859–1861), representing the 3rd district.Oliver Perry Temple, "Reese B. Brabson," Notable Men of Tennessee (Cosmopolitan Press, 1912), pp. 75-76.
Hodsden's home, Rose Glen, still stands near Sevierville, and is still owned and maintained by his descendants. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1975. Along with the 1840s-era Greek Revival house, the site includes several outbuildings, including Hodsden's office.Jeff Farrell, "Family: Property Not Abandoned, Endangered," The Mountain Press, 14 March 2011. Brabson's Ferry Plantation, the home of Hodsden's inlaws, is also still standing, and has been designated a Tennessee Century Farm."Sevier County," Tennessee Century Farms website. Retrieved: 17 January 2015.
See also
Alfred Cate Charles Inman
References