10 Things About Brentwood We Bet You Didn’t Know

10 things you might not know about brentwood

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Brentwood is in fact one of the younger towns in Williamson County. But the area has a rich history dating back to the first settlement of the area in the late 18th century. We did some digging and found these 10 facts, stories, trivia and interesting anecdotes that we are betting most Williamson Countians have never heard before.

1. Granny White Was a Real Person, and Was Famous

Granny White ran an inn called Granny White’s Tavern on what was then called the middle road from Nashville to Franklin in the early 1800s. Before Franklin Turn Pike (Franklin Road) was built in the 1830s, it was the main north-south route

According to various local historians, it was known to travelers as the best inn “between Louisville and New Orleans.” Andrew Jackson, Matrin Van Buren and other notable persons of the day traveled the road and surely knew of her inn. Thomas Hart Benton, who worked for Jackson and later became a long-serving Senator from Missouri, was a longtime patron.

Granny White herself had come to the area after tragedy with her two orphaned grandchildren and a slave on a hard journey across the Smokey Mountains of North Carolina to begin anew. Her hardscrabble story, and the success she had with her inn, greatly impressed Benton.

He was prone to pontificate in the Senate on the value of freedom, independence and hard work as the American way. And in a speech he invoked the story of Granny White. Of course, the Washington and national media wanted to know who this woman was, and she and her story, perhaps exaggerated and idealized by Benton, became known across the country. The actual story of whatever became of her and her inn seems to be uncertain, but in the end the road came to bear her name.