John Gordon (militia captain)

Partnering with a Chickasaw chieftain, Gordon helped improve the Natchez Trace, which gave access to the settlers pushing into western Tennessee and south into the Louisiana and Mississippi territories.

As a young man, John Gordon made a name for himself as an Indian fighter, riding with the militia to investigate reports of attacks on cabins and farmsteads around Nashville.

[3] After Tennessee statehood in 1796, Gordon was appointed its first postmaster, a position also later held by his son-in-law, Confederate States General Felix Kirk Zollicoffer.

In a partnership with Chickasaw Chief William "Chooshemataha" Colbert, Gordon provided ferry service and ran a trading post along the trace.

Now referred to as "Captain of the Spies" in the Tennessee state militia, Gordon led militiamen and friendly Indians against "hostiles" armed by the British in the War of 1812.

After Horseshoe Bend, Jackson instructed Gordon to secretly go to Pensacola to see if the British were using the Spanish fort as a base to provide Creek and Seminole Indians with arms.

[citation needed] During their marriage, Gordon's wife, Dolly, raised eleven children and oversaw the planting of cotton and orchards, and the construction of the house that still stands today on the banks of the Duck River.

By some accounts, Dolly served as friend and nurse to the many Indians (probably Chickasaw), who remained in the area or who made regular use of Gordon's ferry and trading post.