Belle Meade Gun Club

In 1897, General Jackson was a man of wealth and influence in Nashville who had developed the Belle Meade Stud farm, achieving a national reputation for breeding thoroughbred horses. His avocation was the sport of live bird wing shooting, and this club offered him means to pursue it. The land for the club was part of the Belle Meade Plantation, which he controlled; he donated a small parcel of it in 1897 for shooting. For a lodge, he found a structure that had been used in Nashville's Tennessee Centennial Exposition, one of nearly 100 buildings built for the six-month Expo that were never intended to be permanent. When the Expo concluded in October,1897, Jackson purchased one of these buildings and had it moved to the gun club site. The house was finished in hardwood and furnished in wicker. Other prominent members were C.B.Cullom, W.H. Jackson Jr., Alex Hunter, W.T. Peyton, Dr. William White, Edgar Foster, and Joe Warner. Louise McClure, and Mildred Williams. Live birds were used at the Belle Meade Gun Club for certain matches. Live pigeons were expensive, and members sought artificial targets for trap competitions when possible. Alternate targets included glass balls containing feathers, and clay targets. For decades, animal rights activists attempted to ban live pigeon shoots. As of 2017, pigeon shooting in this manner was unlawful in 14 U.S. states. ==Competitions==

Beginning on February 17, 1897, the gun club members started meeting on Saturday afternoons to shoot targets of both clay pigeons and live birds. With Jackson's influence, the club gained popularity rapidly, to the extent of hosting the Tennessee Wing-shot Championship on May 11, 1899, won by J.D.B. DeBow from Memphis who hit 24 of 25 pigeons in flight. The shooters were handicapped by yardages from which they shot, typically 30 yards, but the less skilled (higher handicappers) shot one or two yards closer to the target. In October, 1898, the club hosted a four-day shooting tournament featuring elite U.S.marksmen. The Nashville American reported the following facts: • "All of the most famous trap shooters in the country will be here to participate." • "A watchman and 3 bulldogs will be at the club-house at night, and guns, etc., can be left there in perfect safety." • "The Southern Turf Company offers a handsome silver loving cup to the winner of this event." • "Every day during the shoot lunch and barbecue will be served on the grounds free of charge." • "On the final day the National Championship will be decided." The final day, a match with 100 live birds for each side produced the "Wing Shot Champion of the United States", with a cast-iron medal attesting the winner, Charles W. Budd, of Des Moines, Iowa. From 1899, annual trapshooting championships have been hosted in various locations around the United States and led to the formation of the American Trapshooting Association(ATA) in 1900. Its name was changed in 1923 to the Amateur Trapshooting Association . Celebrity exhibition marksman, Annie Oakley, age 39, visited the Belle Meade Gun Club on October 26, 1899, as a special guest in a shooting competition. She competed in the "Court-House Handicap". Oakley was familiar with Nashville, having performed there as part of Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show. ==Demise==

The Harding estate (Belle Meade Plantation), despite its national recognition, It received another blow in the financial "Panic of 1893" in which hundreds of banks closed, numerous U.S. farms ceased operation. These and other factors eventually resulted in bankruptcy of the farm leading to a dispersal sale of its assets between 1903 and 1906. A land-developing syndicate purchased a large portion of the estate to create a residential community called "Belle Meade." The Nashville Golf and Country club was attracted to move out to Belle Meade, four miles west of its existing downtown location. Land developers created incentives for the move because a golf course would enhance the desirability for the lots. The country club later built a clubhouse on the former site of the gun club. In 1938, most of the estate's former acreage was incorporated into the independent city of Belle Meade, Tennessee. Today, there is no physical trace of the Belle Meade Gun Club. ==References==