TIMOTHY DEMONBREUN

 

 Jacques Timothe Boucher sieur de Montbreun, or as he is better known in Nashville, Timothy Demonbreun, was born in Boucherville New France on March 23, 1747. Boucherville is now part of the province of Quebec Canada. Timothy was born into French nobility. His great grandfather Pierre Boucher was the founder of Quebec and Boucherville was named after him. Timothy was the 2nd child of Etienne Boucher sieur de Montbreun and Delle Marie Racicot. Etienne was a militia leader who fought under Montcalm against the British General Wolfe on the Plains Of Abraham in the French and Indian War in 1759. He is believed to have been wounded in that battle. Because of Montcalm's defeat the British were forced to relinquish control of New France to the British and we now know it as the country of Canada. He was married to a French Canadian woman named Therese Archange Gibault and she would eventually have 5 children by Timothy. At one point she was captured by the Indians and ten years would pass before they saw each other again. In the 1760's, when Demonbreun was in his 30's he began exploring exploring Middle Tennessee and he is believed to be the first white man to enter the region. Timothy was described as tall, athletic and having dark skin. He wore a hat similar to a coonskin hat but it was made from fox fur. While exploring an area that is today known as north Nashville in 1766 he spotted a large group of buffalo and deer feeding at a salt lick. There was a sulfurated spring there and it became known as Sulphur Dell. As a result Nashville became known as the French Lick. Demonbreun lived in a cave nearby where he sometimes hid from the Indians and also hid his furs there. He established a fur trading business and would later build a cabin in Nashville. Because so much game was drawn to the salt lick the Indians considered Nashville a sacred hunting ground. White hunters were tolerated by Indian tribes as long as they showed no inclination to settle there. Demonbreun was hunting and dividing his time between Nashville and living up north. Nashville was so sacred to the Indians even they refused to live there. 

Timothy Demonbreun's Cave 

His cave from a different angle

When the American Revolution began in 1775 Demonbreun sided with the American patriots. He fought under the command of George Rogers Clark. Demonbreun was appointed Lieutenant Governor of the Illinois territory and he settled in Kaskaskia Illinois. When the first settlers under James Robertson arrived in Nashville in 1779 they were excited to know that Demonbreun, a white man, had been able to thrive in there. In 1786 Demonbreun moved to Nashville and took up permanent residence there. He acquired a mistress in Nashville by the name of Elizabeth and they had 4 children together. Demonbreun also ran a prosperous mercantile and fur trading business on the square in Nashville. He advertised items such as buffalo tongues, deer hides, window glass and paper. In May 1825, at a dinner hosted by Andrew Jackson at the Nashville Inn on the square he was able to meet the Marquis de Lafayette and they were able to converse in French. When he died in a house near the corner of 3rd Avenue North and Broadway he was 79 years old. It is believed that he was originally buried in Nashville's City cemetery but Elizabeth may have had him moved to the Marrowbone region of Cheatham county where he has a grave marker. Some believe that he is not actually there. As a Nashville native I have driven down Demonbreun street many times over the years but except for the last 20 years or so I did not know much about him. Hopefully, I have shed a little more light on the life and career of Timothy Demonbreun.