In 1826, a lottery was held in Lebanon for the benefit of Dr. Samuel Hogg. The winning ticket was held by Robert Looney Caruthers.He had moved to Lebanon after he received his license to practice law in 1824.
Caruthers acquired the services of Henry Reiff, a native of Wilson County, to design and build his home on the land he had won. Reiff had just recently built The Hermitage, the home of President Andrew Jackson. Mrs. Caruthers was a niece of Mrs. Jackson. The home, which is the main part of our funeral home, was completed in 1828.
Robert Looney Caruthers was born in Smith County, Tennessee. In 1827, he was commissioned by Governor Sam Houston as the State’s attorney for the Lebanon Circuit. He represented Wilson County in the State Legislature, and was a member of Congress from 1841 to 1843. In 1852 he was appointed as a sitting Justice of the Supreme Court of Tennessee. He was a delegate to the peace conference of 1861 and a member of the Provisional Congress of the Confederate States. Judge Caruthers was elected Governor of Tennessee in 1863, however he was never inaugurated, due to the fact that Tennessee was occupied by Union forces. The Cumberland University Law School was founded in his law office in 1847, when he and his brother, Abraham, organized it with seven students. He was the first President of the Board of Trust and was professor of law at Cumberland from the time the school was reopened following the Civil War until his death in 1882.
