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TENNESSEE AND TENNESSEANS 1345

Saunders, came, in 1798 from Culpeper county, Virginia, to Sumner
county, Tennessee, where he built the first Methodist EiJiseopal church
in the county — Saunders' chapel. He married a niece of Patrick Henry
— Miss Russell, who had seven brothers in the Revolutionary war, one
of whom was Robert Russell, a general of note under General Washing-
ton. The maternal grandfather of R. E. Saunders, Jacob Bondurant,
settled early in Davidson county and engaged in farming, becoming
the owner of a large estate and a large slave holder. Rev. Hubbard
Saunders was a great lover of fine horses and imported some very val-
uable ones from Virginia. He raised Tenn, Oscar, Nell Saunders, and
imported from Europe, Wonder, one of the greatest stallions in the
South. Rev. Herbert Saunders and wife and also the father and mother
of Robert E. Saunders, are buried in the Saunders cemetery on the old
Saunders homestead.
After his common school education was completed, R. E. Saunders
attended high school, being instructed by Capt. C. S. Douglas, who con-
ducted a high school in Hendersonville. Farm life has appealed to Mr.
