Henry Lawrence Norvell

Info added per DAR's "Lineage Book of the Charter Members" by Mary S Lockwood and published 1895

As a wedding present, Laura's grandfather, John Sevier, gave her 2000 acres along Franklin Pike. She and her husband built a four room cottage on the land, finished in 1845. During construction of the home, they had temporary housing, a one room house, which still stands on the property of Longview Mansion. They also built a potato cellar, spring house, an orchard, a vineyard and a rose garden. They lived there until the Civil War came to their front door in December 1864. By the end of the war, the trees had been cut down and deep trenches had been dug into the land. They sold the land to James and May Caldwell in 1878. The Caldwells, also buried in Mt. Olivet, built Longview Mansion and members of their family lived in it until 1949. The Mansion and land is now owned by Lipscomb University.

Henry, a successful banker like his father, lived in a suburb of Nashville. He also maintained a large farm on the Franklin pike where he raised grain, cattle, and hogs. With the start of the Civil War, Henry and his family took different sides. Henry supported the Union, while his wife and daughters proclaimed their loyalty to the South. While Henry was proclaiming his loyalty, the Nichol's Select School expelled his daughter Cornelia Norvell for displaying a Confederate flag while a troop of Union soldiers passed. Later, during the war when General Hood's starving troops approached the city, Henry opened his storehouse to the starving rebel army. Unfortunately, his home "Leafy Lot" became breastworks, but after the occupation of Nashville by Federal Forces in 1862, he obtained a government position. In this he was lucky, for with the passing of the war, nothing remained of his property.

His obituary was reported in the Nashville Union and American, September 12, 1874: Norvell, Henry L., old and respected citizen, 57, died on the 11th, lived on the Franklin Pike, son of Moses Norvell, and was born 28 February 1818 in Nashville.

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