Andrew Nelson Eshman

Andrew Nelson Eshman, minister, educator, author, and leader of the segment of the Cumberland Presbyterian Church that rejected the 1906 merger with the Presbyterians, USA, was born on June 1, 1865, in Mt. Pleasant and raised on a farm in Marshall County. In 1890 Eshman graduated from Winchester Normal College in Winchester. That same year, he was ordained as a minister of the Cumberland Presbyterian Church and also was elected school superintendent at Huntsville, Alabama.

In 1892 Eshman became the president of Union Female College at Oxford, Mississippi, a school controlled by the Cumberland Presbyterian Church. In 1894 the school relocated to West Point, Mississippi, and its name changed to Southern Female College. In 1905 Eshman left Mississippi and built Radnor College in Nashville. Eshman served both as president and proprietor of Radnor College until it closed in 1914. For several years, the college received national attention as a result of the tours of the United States conducted by Eshman and his students.

Throughout his lifetime, Eshman pastored several churches, conducted some forty educational tours, and wrote extensively. His writings include Standard Home Civics (1924), Beauty Spots of America and the Life-Saving Brigade (1935), and Collingsworth's Lectures Condensed (1939). Eshman was also appointed as a promotional agent of the United States Sesquicentennial. As a result of his appointment, Winchester became a sub-office for the Sesquicentennial, along with such cities as Chicago, Pittsburgh, New York, and Washington, D.C.

In 1914 Eshman's first wife, Annie L. Bone, died. He married Annie Boardman Mack in 1919; four years later, their son Andrew Jr. was born. Eshman died on January 23, 1951, and is buried at McCains. A historical marker commemorating Radnor College is at the intersection of Nolensville Road and McClellan Avenue in Nashville.