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JOHN SEVIER
The grandfather of
JOHN SEVIER, or Xavier, was a native of
France, a Huguenot, and is said to have
been related to Saint Francis Xavier,
and to have lived in the village of
Xavier in the French Pyrenees. On the
Revocation of the Edict of Nantes the
grandfather and a brother fled to London
where the former became a prosperous
merchant. His son, Valentine, emigrated
to America, and about the year 1740
settled in the Valley of Virginia where
he acquired several tracts of land.
Valentine Sevier was enrolled as a
member of Peter Scholl's military
company in 1742. He married Joanna
Goode.
John Sevier, their son, was born
September 23, 1745, in Augusta county
(that part now in Rockingham county) in
the Long Meadows district. After a short
schooling in Fredericksburg and Staunton
young John served as a clerk in his
father's store. About this time he went
out on short excursions against the
Indians.
In 1761, at the age of sixteen, he
married Sarah Hawkins. After farming for
a short while, he, about 1765, bought a
tract of land and laid out and
established the village of New Market.
Here he kept a store and an inn, and
donated three acres of land as a church
site to the Baptists. In 1770, he
removed to Millerstown (supposedly
Woodstock).
On invitation of Evan Shelby, who as
merchant at Sapling Grove passed
occasionally on his way to the markets
up the Valley of Virginia, John Sevier
visited the Holston country in 1771 and
1772 and decided to locate there. His
brother, Valentine, Jr., was there as
early as February 2, 1773, as is shown
by a charge entry on the books of Shelby
of that date "Valentine Savayer to
Evan Shelby, Dr." The Seviers, the
father and sons, first located at
Keywood's, about six miles from
Shelby's, but soon removed to a farm on
the east bank of Watauga river, between
the present cities of Elizabethton and
Johnson City.
Before his removal from Virginia he had
been commissioned a captain of militia
by Governor Dunmore. Sevier was one of
the thirteen who composed the "committee
of safety" west of the Alleghanies in
Salisbury District of North Carolina
about the beginning of the Revolution.
The year 1776 was a full one for the
young Virginian. He commanded as captain
a company of mounted militia on the
Christian expedition of that year. He
also aided as an officer under Colonel
John Carter in the defense of Fort
Caswell (Watauga Fort) against the
Cherokees, July I, 1776; and in the
preparation of the memorial to the
legislature of North Carolina asking to
be brought under the government of that
State (July 5, 1776). He was, in the
same year, one of the first
representatives of Washington District
in the Provincial Congress of North
Carolina. By that body, he was elected
lieutenant-colonel of Washington
District. He also served in the State's
first constitutional convention in the
same year.
Sevier lived for a few years on Little
Limestone creek, about five miles below
Jonesborough, where he farmed and ran a
water- mill. Thence he removed to a
large plantation on the Nolachucky,
"Mount Pleasant," Washington County,
(1778). In 1779, he served under Colonel
Evan Shelby on a campaign against the
Chickamauga Indians; and the next spring
commanded an expedition against the
Cherokees. The signal service of Colonel
Sevier at King's Mountain in October,
1780, and his subsequent career are too
well known to be even outlined in this
sketch. He was engaged in thirty-five
skirmishes or battles with the Indian
tribes, and never suffered a defeat.
Roosevelt ranks him as first of all the
Indian fighters of the West.
Sevier was the idol of the people of his
day. In person he was tall, handsome and
graceful. A charm of manner made him
irresistible with soldiers or with
civilians. No man ever succeeded in
efforts of rivalry, and few tried. He
was most fortunate in his matrimonial
connections. After the death of his
first wife, he married Catherine
Sherrill, "Bonny Kate," the heroine of
Fort Caswell-on-Watauga who was ever
thereafter to her husband a true and
capable helpmate and counselor.
Strange as it may seem to non-residents
of Tennessee, Sevier has continued
through succeeding generations to hold
the first place in the hearts of the
people of the Commonwealth. He and
Andrew Jackson came into collision
before i800; and a few years later
Jackson defeated him, by one vote, for
the major-generalship of militia, only
to have the result rebuked by Sevier's
election for the fourth, fifth, and
sixth times as governor, despite all the
influence that Jackson could command.
No other American has served his people
in the capacity of chief executive of a
State as long as Sevier. Adding his
tenure as governor of the State of
Franklin to the terms as governor of
Tennessee, above noted, he was in such
service for approximately sixteen years.
Too, Sevier was the choice of the
Westerners for governor of the Southwest
Territory, expressed in convention at
Greeneville, May 5, 1790.
The legislature of Tennessee has chosen
the two men, Sevier and Jackson, as the
State's representatives in the group of
statues in the Hall of Fame in the
Capitol at Washington. Having regard to
the bitter enmity that marked their
careers, the sculptor may achieve a
master-stroke by causing the two marble
effigies to look in opposite directions.
General Sevier died near Fort Decatur,
Alabama, where, while a member of
Congress, he had gone as a commissioner
appointed by President Madison to fix
the Creek Indian boundary according to
treaty. His death was on September 24,
1815 — one day past his birthday — and
the burial was at Fort Decatur. In June,
1889, the remains were removed and
reinterred in the grounds of the
courthouse at Knoxville. A graceful
marble shaft was erected above the
grave, in 1892, upon which appears this
inscription:
"Pioneer, soldier, statesman, and one of
the founders of the Republic; governor
of the State of Franklin; six times
governor of Tennessee; four times
elected to Congress; the typical pioneer
who conquered the wilderness and
fashioned the State; a projector and
hero of King's Mountain; thirty-five
battles, thirty-five victories; his
Indian warcry, 'Here they are! Come on,
boys, come on!' "
ARTHUR
CAMPBELL
ARTHUR CAMPBELL, the
son of David Campbell, was born in 1742
in Augusta county, Virginia. When a boy
of about fifteen years, he volunteered
as a militiaman to aid in protecting the
frontiers from the Indians. Stationed at
a fort near where the road from Staunton
to Warm Springs crosses Cowpasture river
he with his companions wandered in
search of wild fruit. While in a plum
thicket the party was fired upon by
Indians lying in ambush and young
Campbell was slightly wounded and
captured. He was taken to the region of
the great lakes and held a prisoner for
three years. During that period Arthur
Campbell traversed much of the country
which now constitutes the States of
Michigan, Ohio, Indiana and Illinois.
He was subjected to great hardships
until he fortunately came under the
protection of an aged chief who took him
to the French fort at Detroit. The
Jesuit fathers had at the time a mission
at that fort. The bright English boy
attracted attention and so pleased the
fathers that they gave him instruction.
Young Campbell's captivity, therefore,
gave him an intimate knowledge of the
western country, and he received a
better education than the average boy of
his day on the western frontier of
Virginia. A glimpse of the boy among the
Indians is given by James Smith, of
Pennsylvania, who was in captivity at
the same time:
"Wyandott Indian warriors had divided
into different parties, and all struck
at different places in Augusta county.
They brought in with them a considerable
number of scalps, prisoners, horses and
other plunder. One of the parties
brought in with them one Arthur
Campbell, that is, Colonel Campbell who
lives on Holston river, near the Royal
Oak. As the Wyandotts at Sunyendeand and
those at Detroit were connected, Mr.
Campbell was taken to Detroit, but he
remained some time in this town
(Sunyendeand). His company was very
agreeable and I was sorry when he left
me. During his stay at Sunyendeand, he
borrowed my bible and made some very
pertinent remarks on what he had read.
One passage was where it is said, 'It is
good for a man that he bear the yoke in
his youth.' He said that we ought to be
resigned to the will of Providence, as
we were now bearing the yoke in our
youth. Mr. Campbell appeared then to be
about sixteen or seventeen years of
age."
Campbell escaped from the Indians and
made his way through a wilderness of two
hundred miles to a detachment of the
British army that was then on a march
into the country of the western Indians.
He was at once engaged as a guide, for
which service he was later rewarded with
a grant of one thousand acres of land
near the present city of Louisville, Ky.
On his return to his parents, who had
mourned him as dead, he applied himself
to study with a capacity enlarged by his
experiences, and made marked progress.
About six years before the Revolution,
he removed to the Holston country,
settling on a fine tract of land known
as Royal Oaks, his father and family
soon following. In 1776, he was chosen
to represent the county of Fincastle in
the General Assembly, in which his
attention was drawn to the region of
Kentucky and Tennessee by the petition
of Richard Henderson and associates in
behalf of the Transylvania Company. On
July 4, 1776, Campbell was named as one
of the commissioners on behalf of
Virginia to take evidence touching the
validity of the claims of the promoters
of Transylvania, and he aided in the
taking of many depositions. It was at
this session that the Assembly dissolved
the relations of Virginia to the British
crown and instructed the delegation in
Congress to bring a similar measure
before that body.
Campbell had prior to this served as a
member of the committee that drafted the
Address of the Freeholders of Fincastle,
in January, 1775. He was a member of the
first house of delegates under the
Constitution, and threw his influence in
favor of the liberal ideas in respect to
religious freedom championed by Thomas
Jefferson.
On the organization of Washington
county, Virginia, in January, 1777,
Campbell was appointed county lieutenant
and commander-in-chief of the militia.
He served for many years as the
presiding judge of the court of that
county. He was also the commanding
colonel of the 70th Regiment of militia.
He joined Sevier (1780) in an expedition
against the Cherokees following the
former's victory at Boyd's Creek, and
carried war into the Indian towns as far
south as Coosa river, Georgia.
Colonel Campbell aided in formulating
plans and raising troops for the King's
Mountain expedition. General Nathanael
Greene appointed (February 26, 1781)
Campbell, along with Evan Shelby, John
Sevier and others, commissioners on the
part of the United States to negotiate
treaties with the Cherokee and Chickasaw
Indians.
For thirty-five years Arthur Campbell
resided on the Royal Oaks estate, eight
miles east of the home of his first
cousin, General William Campbell,
Aspindale. He devoted himself to the
cultivation of his farms, and, after the
death of General Campbell, to the
management of the extensive salt-works
at Saltville, he serving as the guardian
of General Campbell's daughter and heir.
Residing on the main highway between the
Southwest and the East, Colonel Campbell
entertained on a liberal scale. From his
visitors he gathered information
respecting their home communities. He
was also an extensive reader. Thus he
became the best informed of all men
concerning affairs in the Kentucky and
Tennessee regions. He also conducted a
wide correspondence. Indeed there would
be no extravagance in the statement that
he made his home the clearing house for
information regarding Indian and civil
affairs throughout a wide area of
country. His correspondence with
officials and leading politicians has
served to preserve much of historical
interest that would otherwise have been
lost. He was fluent in conversation and
capable of entertaining the most
intelligent.
In temperament Colonel Campbell was
unfortunate. He was irascible, jealous,
litigious and over-bearing, and was
often at breach with other leaders. He
was not popular with them or with the
people. His kinsman, David Campbell,
governor of Virginia, writing in
appreciation of his good qualities, was
forced to say: "He had more bitter
enemies than any man I ever knew in my
life."
He twice offered for preferment without
success; once to be appointed southern
superintendent of Indian affairs, and,
late in life, to be elected to Congress.
Strongly imbued with the spirit of
independence, Campbell could not resist
dipping into movements that looked to
separate statehood, both in the
Tennessee and the Kentucky regions. He
was, in a true sense, a self-constituted
adviser of the frontier people, and for
the most part a capable one. A few years
before his death he removed to Kentucky,
settling on Yellow creek (the present
city of Middlesborough) where he had a
very considerable landed estate. He died
of cancer at the age of seventy-three.
Arthur Campbell married a sister of
General William Campbell. Two of his
sons lost their lives in the war of
1812. Captain James Campbell died at
Mobile, Alabama, and Colonel John B.
Campbell fell at the battle of Chippewa
where he commanded the right wing under
General Scott.
Campbell county, Tennessee, lying just
across the Kentucky-Tennessee line from
his last home, was named in his honor.
WILLIAM COCKE
WILLIAM COCKE was a
remarkable man with a career quite as
remarkable. He was born in 1748 in
Amelia county, Virginia, the youngest
son of Abraham Cocke, who was a
descendant of Richard Cocke, the
earliest of the name to settle in
Virginia, about 1630.
The Cocke family emigrated from
Devonshire, England, and from about the
time of his arrival in Virginia Richard
Cocke was lieutenant-colonel commandant
of Henrico county, and member of the
house of burgesses for the years
1632-1644. Stephen Cocke, the
grandfather, inherited Malvern Hill,
famed in the Civil War.
William Cocke married Sarah Maclin and,
about 1773, removed to the West, first
settling on Renfro's creek, in
Washington county, Virginia, and later
lower down, in North Carolina in the
present county of Sullivan as a
subsequent projection of the state line
demonstrated.
William Cocke in the spring of 1774 was
captain of a company of irregular
militia raised for the defense of the
Holston settlers. A formal commission
was issued to him (August 1774) by
Colonel William Preston, he succeeding
Captain Anthony Bledsoe resigned. The
next month Captain Cocke made a journey
into North Carolina for the purpose of
soliciting military aid for the
frontiersmen who were then hard pressed
by the several hostile Indian tribes.
His company was active in defending the
border, as was also one under Daniel
Boone.
In the spring of 1775 Cocke was employed
by Colonel Richard Henderson to
accompany the latter in his march
through the wilderness into the Kentucky
country there to found the Transylvania
government.
Cocke's first legislative experience was
in the house of delegates of the Colony
of Transylvania, May, 1775. Cocke in
later years brought a suit in equity
against Henderson and his associates to
have decreed a specific performance of a
contract for a large boundary of land,
promised as compensation for his
services.
On his return to the Holston-Watauga
settlement Cocke led his company in the
battle of Eaton's Fort (1776). A charge
that he was guilty of cowardice in the
action was denied by Cocke; and it
turned up to embarrass him several times
in his after-career. He was, by order
(December 9, 1776) of the Privy Council
of Virginia suspended until a court of
inquiry should pass on his conduct.
Cocke found almost immediate vindication
at the hands of his neighbors who
elected him, along with Anthony Bledsoe,
a delegate to the Virginia legislature
of 1777, against Arthur Campbell and
William Edmiston. The defeated
candidates filed a contest in the house
of delegates, in which they contended
that Cocke and Bledsoe were ineligible.
The report of the committee was to the
effect that Long Island of Holston was
situated in Virginia and in favor of the
contestees. Thus two North Carolinians
(later Tennesseans) furnished Washington
county, Virginia, her first
representatives in the General Assembly
of Virginia. Two years later, 1779, it
suited Cocke's purpose to shift, and he
contended that taxes could not be
legally collected in the strip where he
resided on the north side of Holston
river in Carter's Valley. Cocke resisted
the sheriff who was undertaking to
collect taxes in behalf of Virginia, "as
it was in Carolina and never was in
Virginia." Cocke had already
acknowledged allegiance to North
Carolina and entered the public service
of that State. He had, in August 1777,
been elected clerk and then made an
unsuccessful race against John Sevier
for the clerkship of the Washington
County Court in 1778. In the same year
he had been elected to represent his
district in the Assembly at Newbern.
After taking his seat he was deprived of
it on the ground that he occupied the
office of clerk.
As a captain, Cocke was on the campaign
to relieve the South Carolinians in the
earlier part of 1780. At Thicketty Fort
he was deemed the fittest officer to
send forward to demand of Colonel
Patrick Moore the surrender of the fort.
Cocke was not on the King's Mountain
expedition.
On February 26, 1782, Cocke was admitted
to the bar at Jonesborough, and in the
same month to the bar of Sullivan
county. In April of the same year he was
a member of the General Assembly.
Cocke's connection with the State of
Franklin is shown in preceding chapters.
As a member of the Council of State and
of the several conventions he was second
only to Sevier in influence.
He was in June, 1784, elected judge of
the court of oyer and terminer of
Davidson county, but, owing to his
connection with the Franklin movement,
did not qualify.
Cocke held a seat in the Carolina
Assembly of 1788, by which body he was
elected State's attorney for Washington
District.
Under the territorial form of
government, Cocke was a member of the
first legislature, 1794.; he was by that
body made attorney of Washington
District and a trustee of Blount
College, for the establishment of which
he introduced the bill.
In the constitutional convention of
1796, he was a delegate from Hawkins
county. By the first legislature he was
elected to represent Tennessee in the
United States senate, and served until
July, 1797. He was elected a second
time, serving 1799-1805.
In 1797 a new county was created and
named Cocke in his honor.
In 1807 Cocke announced his candidacy
for the governorship of Tennessee, but
soon saw that he could make no headway
against John Sevier, in whose favor he
withdrew.
In 1809 he was appointed judge of the
first circuit — a position he was not
adapted to temperamentally. He was
essentially an orator and advocate. He
was impeached in 1812, and on trial
found guilty of misconduct in office,
though his offending appears to have
been a refusal as judge to grant a writ
of certiorari, on an unsworn petition.
Cocke found a measure of vindication in
an election by the people of his county
to the legislature of 1813.
Smarting from what he conceived to be,
and what today appears to have been, an
unjust impeachment, Cocke despite
advanced age volunteered to serve as a
private in Colonel John Williams'
Regiment of Volunteers and went to
Florida on a campaign against the
Seminole Indians, and the next year
served as a private in the Creek War. A
deep gratification must have come to him
with the following note of commendation
from his commanding general, Andrew
Jackson:
"January 28th,
1814.
"Sir: The patriotism that you
brought into the field at your
ad¬vanced age which prompted you on
with me to face the enemy in the
late excursion to the Tallapoosie
river; the example of order, your
strict admonition throughout the
lines; and, lastly the bravery you
displayed in the battle of
Enotochopco by recrossing the creek,
entering the pursuit and exposing
your person and thereby saving the
life of Lieutenant Moss, and killing
the Indian, entitle you to the
thanks of your general and the
approbation of your country."
He was in 1814,
perhaps through the instrumentality of
General Jackson, appointed by President
Madison agent to the Chickasaw Indians.
He made his home at Columbus,
Mississippi. Cocke served a term in the
Mississippi legislature.
William Cocke died August 22, 1828, and
is buried under a monument erected by
the State of Mississippi, on which
appears this inscription :
"Here lie the remains
of William Cocke, who died in Columbus,
Miss., on the 22nd of August, 1828. The
deceased passed an eventful and active
life. Was Captain in command during the
war of 1776. Was distinguished for his
brave daring and intrepidity. Was one of
the pioneers who first crossed the
Alleghany mountains with Daniel Boone
into the wilderness of Kentucky. Took an
active part in the formation of the
Franklin Government, afterward the State
of Tennessee. Was the delegate from that
free limit to the Congress of the United
States. Was a member of the convention
which framed the first Constitution of
Tennessee, and was one of the first
Senators from that State to the Congress
of the United States, for a period of
twelve years, and afterwards one of the
Circuit Judges. He served in the
Legislatures of Virginia, North
Carolina, Tennessee, and Mississippi,
and at the age of 65, was a volunteer in
the war of 1812, and again distinguished
himself for personal bravery and
courage. He departed this life in the
8ist year of his age, universally
lamented."
When there is added Cocke's further
legislative service in Transylvania, the
Territory South of the Ohio, and
Franklin, it may safely be stated that
his record is unique among American
legislators.
The best estimate of Cocke's powers is
that of Caldwell in his Bench and Bar of
Tennessee: "He is remembered as the
great orator of his time, and, by
consent of his contemporaries, he had no
equal as a popular speaker. A remarkable
readiness and brilliancy of speech has
been characteristic of his family in all
succeeding generations."
His son, John Cocke, was major-general
in command of the East Tennessee troops
in the Creek War and distinguished
himself as a gallant soldier. He served
in Congress from the second district of
Tennessee four successive terms, from
1819.
William Michael Cocke, a grandson, was a
member of Congress two terms, 1845-1849;
and his son, Sterling, was chancellor of
Mississippi.
JUDGE
DAVID CAMPBELL
DAVID CAMPBELL, the
chief judicial officer of the State of
Franklin, was born in Virginia in 1750.
He was a younger brother of Colonel
Arthur Campbell. In 1776 he joined the
Continental army and rose to the rank of
major.
Campbell was elected clerk of the
Washington county court (Virginia) in
January, 1777, and, studying law the
while, served until August, 178o, when
he resigned to begin the practice of law
under a license issued to him by
Governor Thomas Jefferson. While yet a
young man he removed across the State
line into the Tennessee country,
settling in Greene county prior to 1783.
He was elected by the Carolina Assembly
of 1784 assistant judge of Washington
District, but declined to qualify as he
had joined in the State of Franklin
movement; and he was made chief judge of
the new State, and also a member of the
Council of State. He attended the
Carolina Assembly of 1787, as a
representative from Greene county, and
being elected by that body assistant
judge again, he accepted the place,
thereby giving umbrage to his former
Franklin associates.
He was appointed by the President one of
the judges of the Territory South of the
Ohio River. In 1792 he was one of the
commissioners on the part of the
national government to run and mark the
line between the whites and the Cherokee
Indians.
Judge Campbell was nominated for senator
in Congress in the first legislature of
Tennessee, but was defeated by William
Cocke. He was continued as a judge of
the Superior Court—not Supreme Court, as
has been stated by others. In 1803 an
attempt was made to impeach him for
misconduct in office, but it proved
unsuccessful. Campbell, however, was
(1809) defeated for reelection by James
Trimble. He was nominated to a federal
judgeship in the Mississippi Territory,
March 3, 1811, but falling into bad
health he did not live to serve.
Judge Campbell resided in the later
years of his life on a fine estate
opposite the junction of the Little
Tennessee and the Tennessee rivers (the
site of the present Lenoir City). He
died in 1812.
Judge Campbell was of the noted Campbell
family of Southwest Virginia.
Practically his entire adult life was
devoted to judicial service. But for
lack of decision of character he would
have been a greater favorite of the
people and a more outstanding figure in
the history of his State.
A son of Judge Campbell, Thomas J.
Campbell, was elected a member of
Congress from Tennessee (1841-1843), and
later was clerk of the National House of
Representatives in the Thirtieth and
Thirty-first Congresses, serving until
his death, April 13,1850.
LANDON CARTER
LANDON CARTER, the
son of Colonel John Carter, chairman of
the Watauga Association, was born in
Virginia, and removed with his father,
first to Carter's Valley and then to
Watauga. He was educated at Liberty
Hall, Mecklenburg county, North Carolina
(now Davidson College). He was more
adequately equipped than any of his
contemporaries for a diversified public
career to which he was later called.
He was one of the petitioners to have
the Watauga Settlement annexed to North
Carolina. In 1780 he served as a captain
under Sevier on the Boyd's Creek
campaign, and was in the same year with
Major Charles Robertson's command in
South Carolina. In the same year he
succeeded his father in the office of
entry-taker for Washington county—an
office of great responsibility, the
immense extent of that county
considered. On the death of his father
in 1781, he was appointed administrator
of the estate which was the largest then
in existence in North Carolina west of
the Alleghany mountains. This tended to
develop the business capacity of young
Carter. In 1782 he was appointed by the
North Carolina legislature auditor for
Washington District; and the following
year he was named one of the
incorporators of Martin's Academy (later
Washington College). For years he served
that institution as an active trustee.
Carter was in command of a company under
John Sevier in the South. Carolina
campaign of 1781, and he and his company
remained there with Sevier after the
expiration of their term of service, and
after a majority of the western troops
had returned home. He fought under
Marion until January, 1782. On the march
back home his company was ambushed by
the Indians at the eastern part of
Yellow Mountain.
In 1784 he represented Washington county
in the house of commons of the Carolina
General Assembly.
Landon Carter was a thorough-going
supporter of the State of Franklin. He
was secretary of the first convention at
Jonesborough; speaker of the first
senate; member of the first council of
state, and later secretary of state, and
entry-taker.
He was in the Carolina senate of 1789,
and supported the cession bill and
Sevier's reinstatement as
brigadier-general of Washington District
over Joseph Martin.
One of the first steps (1790) of Wm.
Blount as governor of the Territory
South of the Ohio was the appointment of
Carter as lieutenant-colonel commandant
of the Washington District militia. He
was also commissioned a justice of the
peace of Washington county. Carter was
later elected treasurer of Washington
and Hamilton Districts of the Territory,
and continued to serve until the
Territory became the State of Tennessee.
He served as colonel on the campaign of
1792; and was made a member of the first
board of trustees of Greeneville
College.
Colonel Carter represented Washington
county in the first constitutional
convention of the State of Tennessee.
His son, William B. Carter, was
president of the second (1834)
constitutional convention; and his
grandson, William B. Carter, Jr., was a
member of the convention of 1870. The
name of Carter is therefore connected
with the molding of the fundamental law
of the Commonwealth, from the Articles
of the Watauga Association and the
Constitution of the State of Franklin to
the latest constitutional convention.
The first legislature of Tennessee
(1796) created Carter county, and named
it in honor of Landon Carter. The name
of his wife, Elizabeth, is borne by its
county site, Elizabethton. Both he and
his father were partners of John Sevier
in land speculations.
Landon Carter died
June 5, I800.
JAMES WHITE
JAMES WHITE, the son
of Moses White, was born in Rowan (that
part which is Iredell) county, North
Carolina, about the year 1747. He joined
the Continental army and gained the rank
of captain of militia (1779-81). For his
military service he was entitled to
locate a land warrant under N. C. Act of
1783; and in August of that year he made
a tour of exploration for desirable
lands in company with Robert Love and
Francis A. Ramsey, the latter a
surveyor. On the way westward to the
frontier they crossed the French Broad
at Rutherford's War Ford, and followed
that stream to the mouth of Dumplin
creek, where they recrossed the French
Broad and traveled as far south as the
mouth of Holston (Lenoir City). It was
then that White and Ramsey first saw the
lands upon which they afterward laid
grants and upon some of which the
present city of Knoxville stands.
Captain White returned to his home in
Carolina, and made preparations to move
his family to the West. In 1784 he made
his way to Fort Chiswell in Virginia,
where he made a crop and left his family
for one year. In the following year he
was a member of the Franklin Convention.
His first residence was at a point four
miles above the junction of French Broad
and Holston rivers; but he remained
there only one year. White and an old
Carolina neighbor, James Conner, had
begun to clear for a settlement on the
present site of Knoxville, to which they
removed in 1786. White's cabin stood on
the west side of First creek, near its
junction with the Holston; and, it is
said, constituted one of the corners of
White's Fort. This fort became a
rendezvous for immigrants and rangers,
since it was easy of access by water and
by trails down the rivers. White's Fort
settlement was destined to become the
first capital of the State of Tennessee.
It occupied a strategic position between
the settlements on the upper reaches of
the Holston and those on the Cumberland.
The first hint of its future destiny was
in the North Carolina Act, 1789, chapter
I, which fixed "the house of James
White, in Hawkins county" as the place
where election returns from the
districts of Washington and Mero should
be canvassed to ascertain who was
entitled to be commissioned
representative in the Federal Congress
from the trans-Alleghany region. James
White was a representative in the
Carolina Assembly in 1789, and doubtless
aided in molding this legislation.
Shortly after the organization of the
Territory South of the Ohio Governor
Blount fixed upon White's Fort as the
site of government, giving it the name
of Knoxville, in honor of General Knox,
then secretary of war. On November 3,
1780, Blount commissioned James White
first major and a justice of the peace
of Hawkins county; and later when Knox
county was created White was given the
highest military rank —
lieutenant-colonel commandant of the
county. His was the first name among
those commissioned justices of the
peace, and he was the presiding justice
of Knox county.
White was a member of the constitutional
convention of 1796, and of the first
legislature held under the Constitution.
He was senator in the second General
Assembly of Tennessee, and speaker of
the next, which position he resigned in
order that Wm. Blount, recently expelled
from the senate of the United States,
might be elected to the vacancy. White
sympathized with Blount and opened the
way for the attempted vindication of the
latter by the people of the State. White
also served as speaker of the senate of
Tennessee in 1801 and 1803.
He, in later life, was elected
brigadier-general of the militia of
Hamilton District and as such led his
troops in the Creek War of 1813. In
1798, he was agent of the State of
Tennessee to attend on the negotiation
of a treaty with the Cherokee Indians.
In the State of Franklin he was one of
the earliest speakers of the senate, and
remained throughout a firm friend of
Sevier and the new Commonwealth.
General White, while a man of great
firmness, was philanthropic. He owned
two grist mills, and in times of
scarcity would give of their product to
those of his neighbors who were in need.
He donated the land on which the first
Presbyterian church in Knoxville was
built; and a city block to Blount
College, upon which a two-story wooden
building was erected to serve that
institution, of which he was a trustee.
Living to see the city of his founding
well started on its career, and his son,
Hugh. Lawson White, rising to eminence,
General White died in Knoxville, August
14, 1821. Of him Ramsey, the historian,
says: "to extreme old age, he retained
the esteem and affection of his
fellow-citizens, and never had a stain
on his unsullied good name."
GILBERT
CHRISTIAN
GILBERT CHRISTIAN was
a descendant of Gilbert Christian who
emigrated from the Ulster district of
Ireland in 1726, settling near
Lancaster, Pennsylvania, and removing
thence to the Valley of Virginia in
1732.
Gilbert Christian, the son of Robert
Christian, was born in Augusta county,
Virginia, about 1734. As early as 1774
he was as a lieutenant in command of
King's Mill Station in Sullivan county.
He had participated in the border wars
of 1755-63. He settled on the Holston
near the above station, and the place,
now known as Kingsport, was called
Christiansville. He commanded a company
in the Cherokee campaign of 1776, under
Colonel William Christian, his uncle;
also in the campaigns against the
Chickamauga Indians in 1779 and 1788,
and was at King's Mountain. He served as
a major on Colonel Arthur Campbell's
expedition against the Cherokees in
1780-1; and was colonel of Sullivan
county in 1782-3 A warm friend of
Sevier, he joined in the new-state
movement. He was the speaker of the
Franklin senate of 1786. Sevier turned
to him for aid and comfort in the trying
days of the Commonwealth's dissolution,
and never in vain.
Governor Blount chose him in 1790 for
the highest honor in his county of
Sullivan—lieutenant-colonel commandant
of territorial militia, and also for
justice of the peace.
In 1793, despite his age, Colonel
Christian took the active command of his
regiment on the Hightower (Etowah)
campaign. He contracted a fever and died
at Knoxville on the return journey.
Fittingly he was with Sevier until the
last battle the latter ever fought had
ended in success.
Gilbert Christian married in June, 1763,
Margaret, daughter of George Anderson,
of Middle river, Augusta county,
Virginia. One of his sisters married
William Anderson.
Christian and William Anderson in 1761
were among the troops of Colonel William
Byrd at the fort at Long Island. About
this time, these two young men, along
with John Sawyers, explored the valley
of the Holston south of Long Island as
low down as Big creek, in Hawkins county
where they met a party of Indians and
turned back.
Of the many stout-hearted men who have
passed in review before the mind of the
writer, the most consistently admirable
is Gilbert Christian. His memory
deserves to be perpetuated by a suitable
monument, erected by the county of
Sullivan and the thriving city of
Kingsport. His is a record worthy of
commemoration.
JOSEPH HARDIN
JOSEPH HARDIN was
born near Richmond, Virginia, April 18,
1734. When the Revolutionary War broke
out he was residing in Tryon county,
North Carolina. In August, 1775, he
participated in the organization of a
Committee of Safety in that county, and
signed the document known as the Tryon
Association, in which it was declared
that the signers faithfully united
themselves to resist force by force and
defend their natural freedom and
constitutional rights, and take up arms
and risk lives and fortunes in
maintaining the freedom of their
country.
He represented Tryon county in the
Provincial Congress of North Carolina,
held in 1775 and 1776. In September,
1775, he was appointed by that Congress
major of the regiment of Salisbury
District. When in the following year
troops were raised and sent to aid the
hard-pressed South Carolinians, Hardin
was a captain in the Second (Locke's)
Battalion of General Allen Jones'
Brigade. He was captain of a company of
Light Horse in service under General
Griffith Rutherford on the Cherokee
expedition. He represented Tryon county
in the Assemblies of North Carolina in
1778 and 1779. When his section was
overrun by the British and Tories, he
fled across the mountains and settled at
first on the waters of Lick creek in
Washington (now Greene) county. He was
soon afterward sent as Washington
county's delegate to the Assembly of
1782. On the organization of Greene
county he was commissioned one of the
first justices of the peace, and his
son, Joseph, Jr., was appointed
entry-taker.
In the Franklin Assembly he was honored
by election to the speakership. He was
an active and faithful new-state
adherent. He represented Greene county,
as a friend of separation, in the
Carolina Assembly in 1788, and was one
of the last to take the oath of
allegiance to North Carolina in the
Greene county court. When the second
cession act was passed, and before
acceptance by Congress, Hardin showed
his consistency. Being a magistrate, at
the next succeeding term of court an
entry of record shows that "Colonel
Joseph Hardin withdraws himself from the
bench, being convinced in his own mind
that the jurisdiction of North Carolina
has ceased in this territory ceded to
the Congress of the United States."
Hardin was chairman of a convention of
the inhabitants of the ceded territory
held at Greeneville, May 5, 1790, which
chose John Sevier as their preference as
governor of the Territory recently
erected by Congress. "No other man on
the Continent can give as general
satisfaction in that office," the
convention resolved.
Governor William Blount in organizing
the government of the Territory South of
the Ohio, appointed Hardin a justice of
Greene county; and in 1791, under the
direction of Governor Blount, he
partially ran one of the Indian boundary
lines, fixed by the treaty of Hopewell.
It was run southeasterly from Camp
creek, a distance of about fifty miles
to Rutherford's War Trace.
Hardin represented his county in the
lower house of the first Territorial
Assembly, held at Knoxville in 1794. He
was among the most influential members
of the body. He was speaker of the house
of representatives of the second
Territorial Assembly.
In 1795, he purchased two thousand acres
of land in Knox county, in what is known
as Hardin's Valley, and he shortly
removed and spent the remainder of his
days there.
He located his military claim to two
thousand acres on the lower Tennessee
river, along with grants of one thousand
acres to each of his sons. In the year
1816, his son James conducted a party of
twenty-six—four families—by boat down
the Tennessee river and settled these
lands, which lie in what is called, in
honor of Colonel Joseph Hardin, Hardin
county, Tennessee.
Joseph Hardin was a staunch
Presbyterian, and one of the first
elders in the Mount Bethel church at
Greeneville. He was one of the original
trustees of Greeneville (now Tusculum)
College; and always a leader in his
community. His son, Robert Hardin, D.D.,
attained eminence as a minister of the
Presbyterian church. His son, John, was
killed while on the Lookout Mountain
campaign of 1788. Another son was
captured and held a prisoner by the
Chickamauga Indians in campaign of 1782.
CHARLES
ROBERTSON
CHARLES ROBERTSON, of
Washington county, was one of the
leaders of the Watauga Association. He
acted as trustee for the early settlers,
taking the title to the lands purchased
of the Cherokee Indians in March, 1775;
and the records of Washington county
show that he faithfully executed the
trust by conveying tens of thousands of
acres of land to the various settlers.
By an ordinance of the constitutional
convention of North Carolina of 1776 he
was named as one of the justices of
"Washington District." Robertson was one
of the four delegates from Washington
District admitted to membership in the
Provincial Congress of 1776. By that
body he was appointed first major of the
district militia. On the establishment
of Washington county he was continued in
that office; and by an act of Assembly
the court was to be held at his house
then on Sinking creek, near the present
Johnson City, until a court house should
be built. In 1777 he marched a body of
troops to Long Island of Holston to act
as a guard while a treaty was being
there negotiated with the Cherokee
Indians.
He was in the Carolina senate of 1778
and 1779. The Assembly of 1778, in an
effort to keep the Cherokee Indians
quiet, appointed Robertson to go to the
Overhill Cherokees with a friendly talk
from the governor. By the Assembly of
1780 he was appointed lieutenant-colonel
in command of two hundred men of
Washington county to cooperate with
Colonel Evan Shelby's forces on an
expedition against the Cherokee Indians.
Washington county sent him to the house
of commons in 1784, where he voted in
favor of the first cession act.
Charles Robertson, having had previous
experience in legislative bodies was
honored with the speakership of the
senate of the State of Franklin. To him
was awarded also the colonelcy of
Washington county. He continued to serve
as a magistrate under the new State
government. His daughter had married
Robert, the brother of John Sevier, and
Colonel Robertson stood by the fortunes
of the governor of Franklin until the
last; he participated in the
Sevier-Tipton engagement of 1788.
On the organization of the county of
Washington, as a part of the Territory
south of the Ohio River, Colonel
Robertson was commissioned a justice of
the peace.
Robertson had an honorable military
record in the Revolution. He was sent in
command of a part of John Sevier's
regiment in July, 178o, to the relief of
the Carolinians. His troops aided in the
capture of Thicketty Fort where
ninety-three loyalists surrendered; and
in the battle of Musgrove's Mill.
In his later years Colonel Robertson
lived south of Jonesborough, on Cherokee
Creek. He died about 1800.
DANIEL KENNEDY
DANIEL KENNEDY was
born in Virginia about the year 1750.
Family tradition is to the effect that
he served in Lord Dunmore's War (1774)
as a private in the company of Captain
Evan Shelby. In 1776 he aided in the
defense of the Watauga Fort when it was
attacked by the Cherokee Indians.
Sometime after July, 1777, he settled at
Milburnton, then Washington but now
Greene county, and the next year he
served as a grand-juror in the
Washington county court. In 1770 he
removed to a large tract of land he had
entered, near the mouth of Camp Creek,
south of Greeneville. This homestead
remained in the family over one hundred
years, passing to others in 1898.
Kennedy marched with John Sevier to the
battle of King's Mountain (1780) as a
lieutenant, to be promoted to a
captaincy for gallantry in action. On
his return he was honored with a seat on
the bench of Washington county court, in
1781.
He represented Washington county in the
North Carolina General Assembly of 1783,
and was influential in the passage of an
act to establish Greene county. On the
organization of that county he was
elected clerk of its court, an office he
held for the remainder of his life under
the several changes in the forms of
government.
In the State of Franklin he served as a
member of the council of state and as
brigadier-general. With John Sevier and
Alexander Outlaw he served as
commissioner of that State in
negotiating the Dumplin Creek treaty
with the Cherokee Indians.
Elected by the friends of Franklin, he
at a late day of the session took a seat
in the Carolina senate of 1787. Both the
Tipton and the Sevier forces were
solicitous for the support of General
Kennedy, because of his great popularity
in Greene county. His heart was with
Sevier as his speech in the Franklin
convention of 1787 evidences. That
speech also demonstrates the ability of
Kennedy, and that he could have risen
high in the affairs of State and Nation
had he not preferred to retain in
comfort the clerkship of his county.
When the Franklin government was
virtually doomed by the action of the
Federal constitution convention, General
Kennedy acted under a colonel's
commission from North Carolina on
General Martin's campaign against the
Cherokees, on the failure of which
Kennedy joined Sevier under whom he had
often campaigned.
General Kennedy was a friend of
education. As early as 1783, he was
named as an incorporator of Martin's
Academy (Washington College) and he was
also a trustee of Greeneville College.
General Kennedy died in consequence of a
bruise on the hand from a forge hammer,
and was buried at Mount Zion church, six
miles from Greeneville. Above his grave
there was recently erected a monument—a
large native rock embedded in which is a
bronze tablet bearing this inscription:
To the Memory
of
Col. Daniel Kennedy
1750-1802
Soldier, Patriot, Statesman,
Revolutionary Soldier,
Pioneer of Tennessee
First Clerk of Court
Greene County
Served Under Four Forms of Government
1783-1802.
Supported State of Franklin
Made Peace With Indians
Trustee
Greeneville and Washington Colleges
Erected by Descendants
1920.
AUGUSTUS CHRISTIAN GEORGE ELHOLM
GEORGE ELHOLM was a
native of Duchy of Holstein, which at
the date of his birth was under the
dominion of Denmark. He came to America
early in the Revolutionary War and
received a captain's commission in Count
Pulaski's corps. In September, 1779,
General Lincoln and Count d'Estaing made
an attempt to retake the city of
Savannah by siege. Learning of the
purpose of the allied forces, the
British general hurriedly ordered in all
outposts. A portion of Colonel Cruger's
command under Captain French attempted
to comply with the order by passing in
armed vessels through the inland
channels. Intercepted in their course up
the Ogechee river, the British troops
were compelled to land and entrench.
Colonel John White, of the Fourth
Georgia Battalion, in consultation with
his officers concerted a plan for their
capture. On the night of October I,
Colonel White and Captain Elholm, with
five others of the American troops,
reconnoitered and kindled many fires to
give the impression of a large
encampment. Another bit of strategy was
resorted to—the giving of commands in a
loud tone as if directing the
disposition of a considerable body of
soldiers, the hurry and bustle of staff
officers being imitated. Colonel White,
unattended, dashed up to the British
troops and demanded a conference with
the commander. Just at this time Captain
Elholm rode up and urgently inquired of
his colonel where he should place his
artillery. Captain French, convinced
that a large force had surrounded his
camp, surrendered his detachment of one
hundred and eleven, and five vessels
with their crews, arms and munitions.
Elholm was later attached to the command
of Colonel Horry under General Francis
Marion, and behaved with great gallantry
in the operations against the British in
South Carolina, 1780-81. For a time he
was a captain in the legion of Colonel
"Lighthorse Harry" Lee. It is probable
that Sevier and Elholm first met while
campaigning under General Marion; and
the friendship then formed may have led
Elholm to go to Franklin when he learned
of Sevier's effort to found a new State.
It seems that, for a time, Elholm was
adjutant-general of Georgia, and his
going to Franklin, more than likely, was
with the consent, if not by the
procurement, of Georgia's then governor,
Telfair, the purpose being to effect
some sort of military alliance with the
new government.
Besides acting as Franklin's
commissioner to Georgia, Major Elholm
served quite effectively as adjutant and
drill-master of the Franklin militia.
His buoyant nature and his ebullience
cheered Sevier and his followers when
the trend of events was against their
cause. He stood for heroic measure in
times of crises, and had his advice been
heeded Franklin might have had a
different fate. As it was, he was an
influential factor. This is shown by the
hatred of him manifested by the
opponents of Franklin in letters written
at the time. An unknown writer, in
August, 1788, refers to Elholm's great
influence in Franklin affairs, and
declares "he is cordially despised," by
those in opposition.
The gallant Major by his imperturbable
good humor and his talent as a musician
won to himself the young people and was
given a welcome in the homes of the
border. He had a warm place in the
regard of Sevier, and in later years
when Sevier was governor of Tennessee,
Major Elholm came from his home in
Georgia to visit his old friend and
leader.
He remained in service with Sevier until
the last of Lesser Franklin, and on
returning to Georgia served as
adjutant-general under Governor George
Mathews. A disagreement between Mathews
and Elholm led to the court martialling
and cashiering of the latter.
Major Elholm then entered on the
practice of law at Augusta. He left a
journal "valuable for the amount of
information it contained, and curious on
account of the grandiloquent style in
which he was in the habit of expressing
himself." A search for this journal was
made by the author in hope that it might
be found, to shed additional light on
the affairs of Franklin. It was
according to White in his Historical
Collections of Georgia in the State
Library at Milledgeville when White
wrote. It was perhaps taken away or
destroyed by troops during the occupancy
of Milledgeville by the Federal army in
December, 1864. A large number of the
most valuable records in that library
were then lost.
The Augusta Herald, of Wednesday,
November 27, 1799, gave two lines to the
passing of this man of heroic mold, who
had in days of stress and need given
valuable service to the State and
Nation:
"Died, on Saturday night last, Augustus
Christian George Elholm, Esq., attorney
at law."
HENRY CONWAY
HENRY CONWAY was born
in Virginia, and removed to the lower
part of the Nolachucky settlement before
1783, in August of which year he was
appointed one of the tax-assessors of
Greene county, and at the November term
of court was on the grand jury.
He served as treasurer of the State of
Franklin (1787); as one of the
commissioners who signed the treaty of
Coytoy (1786) and as speaker of the
senate of 1786.
Two of the sons of Governor Sevier
married his daughters. James Sevier's
wife was Nancy Conway; Major John
Sevier's first wife was Elizabeth
Conway. A third daughter married John
Sevier, son of Colonel Valentine Sevier,
II, and became the mother of Senator
Ambrose Hundley Sevier, of Arkansas. The
wife of Henry Conway was Sarah Hundley
of Virginia.
Through his son, Thomas, Henry Conway
was progenitor of other grandsons who
rose to eminence in the State of
Arkansas. Henry W. Conway served with
distinction under General Jackson in the
War of 1812, and was member of Congress
from Arkansas, from 1823 to 1827, when
he was killed in a duel with Robert
Crittenden. James Sevier Conway was
founder of the city of Little Rock,
Arkansas, and first governor of that
State, 1836-1840. Elias Nelson Conway
was the fifth governor of Arkansas.
George Conway, a brother of Henry
Conway, was of the commission that laid
out the town of Greeneville. He served
as colonel on the Cherokee expedition of
1793, and was first major-general of the
State of Tennessee. Joseph Conway,
another brother, served the State of
Franklin.
Without doubt, the Conway family
produced more men of ability than any
other Greene county family.
Henry Conway remained throughout all
vicissitudes firmly attached to the
State of Franklin. Not until the
February term, 1789, of the Greene
county court did he take the oath of
allegiance to the State of North
Carolina.
There is more than a hint of record that
Henry Conway was a man of full habits.
He lived well, and extended a gracious
hospitality. Bishop Asbury was his guest
on one of his visits to Tennessee, and
Governor Sevier made the Conway home a
stopping-place in his frequent
journeying between Washington county and
Knoxville.
FRANCIS A.
RAMSEY
FRANCIS ALEXANDER
RAMSEY, son of Reynolds, and Naomi
(Alexander) Ramsey, was born near
Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, May 31, 1764.
An uncle, John Alexander, had located on
Big Limestone Creek near the present
village of Limestone, in Washington
county, North Carolina, where other
Pennsylvanians had formed the nucleus of
a Presbyterian congregation. At the
invitation of his uncle, Francis A.
Ramsey left his home in Pennsylvania in
his nineteenth year, and journeyed five
hundred miles to make his home in the
Tennessee country, arriving at his
destination in 1783. Young Ramsey was
fairly well educated and had mastered
surveying. He brought compass and chain
with him, and was soon employed in
surveying entries for the settlers. In
November, 1783, he "qualified as
surveyor" in the Washington county
court.
The skill of Ramsey as a penman and
scholar was availed of by the
conventions held for the adoption of a
constitution for the State of Franklin;
he served as secretary. The same
qualifications doubtless led to his
being made one of the councillors for
the new State, and clerk of the superior
court of its Washington District. In
1787, he was appointed a commissioner of
Franklin to wait on the Carolina
Assembly.
In December, 1788, he was elected by the
Carolina Assembly second major of the
Washington District. In passing from the
West to the seat of the government of
North Carolina on official duties, he
met and later married (April 7, 1789)
Peggy, the oldest daughter of John
McKnitt Alexander, of Mecklenburg
county, North Carolina. The young couple
first made their home on Little
Limestone creek, in Washington county,
at or near Jonesborough.
On the organization of the territory in
1790, Ramsey continued in the clerkship
of the court and he was raised to the
rank of first major of cavalry of
Washington District, next after him, as
second major, coming George Farragut,
the father of the famous admiral of the
navy of the United States. On the
organization of Hamilton District
Governor Blount appointed Ramsey clerk
of its superior court, and in 1792 he
removed to Knox county.
As early as August, 1783, Ramsey had
accompanied James White and Robert Young
on a tour of exploration into what is
now Knox county, and Ramsey built a home
for his family on lands he then and
later on entered for grant. Here were
born his sons, James McGready Ramsey,
the historian, and William B. A. Ramsey,
who became secretary of state of
Tennessee.
Ramsey was one of the first trustees of
Blount College, now the University of
Tennessee.
In 1819 Governor McMinn appointed him a
commissioner to examine the offices of
the surveyors and registrars of lands in
the East Tennessee districts, in order
to the prevention of frauds in the
granting of lands in West Tennessee
purchased from the Chickasaw Indians in
that year. In the following year he was
made president of the State Bank of
Knoxville, but served only for a short
time. He died November 13, 1820.
WILLIAM CAGE
WILLIAM CAGE was born
in Virginia in 1745. He removed to
Chatham county, North Carolina, and
served for a time as major in the
Revolutionary army. His chief service
was against the Tories under the noted
Colonel David Fanning. He seems to have
been a prisoner of the Tories for a
short time. He removed after the war to
Sullivan county, North Carolina. That
county sent him as one of its delegates
to the house of commons of the North
Carolina legislature of 1783, his
associate being Colonel Abraham Bledsoe.
He was returned the succeeding session,
along with David Looney. He voted
against the first cession act; but
became one of the moving spirits in
organizing the new State of Franklin. He
was elected speaker of the lower house
of the first assembly, and was the first
treasurer of the State.
In 1785, he removed to Sumner county,
probably influenced to do so by the
Bledsoes. When the territorial
government was organized, he was
appointed by Governor Blount sheriff of
Sumner county, and by successive
appointments he served until 1796, when
he was succeeded by James Cage. Another
son, Harry Cage, removed to Mississippi
where he became supreme judge and
congressman. Two of his grandsons were
noted men: Harry T. Hays, Major-General,
C.S.A., and his brother John Coffee
Hays, major of the celebrated Texas
Rangers and surveyor-general of
California. William Cage died at his
home in Cage's Bend (of Cumberland
river), March, 1811.
STOCKLEY
DONELSON
STOCKLEY DONELSON,
born in Virginia, was the son of Colonel
John Donelson, the surveyor who in 1771
ran the "Donelson line" between that
part of Virginia under civil government
and the domain of the Cherokee Indians.
The son followed his father in the
profession of surveyor, and like his
father was one of the largest and most
persistent land speculators in the
Western Country. Many of his operations
were in partnership with others. In 1783
he engaged with Governor Caswell and
James Glasgow to explore the country on
the French Broad for proper locations of
land warrants, Donelson to receive a
one-fourth interest for his services. He
was at that time surveyor of Sullivan
county; and in 1784, probably because of
the influence of Caswell and Glasgow, he
was elected by the legislature surveyor
for the western lands in the eastern
district—a new office of importance
since the passage of the act of 1783,
opening the West to the entry and grant
of lands.
He joined in the Franklin movement and
was made surveyor-general of the State.
He also was speaker of the house of
commons for one term. He represented
Hawkins county in the Carolina
Convention in 1788, and opposed the
ratification of the Federal
Constitution.
Governor Blount appointed him to the
post of lieutenant-colonel commandant of
the forces of Hawkins county at the
formation of the territorial government;
and he was a member of the first council
of state in 1794.
Donelson, it seems, did not figure in
the formation of the State of Tennessee.
Politics was evidently subordinated to
business and the acquisition of a landed
estate, estimated to amount to one-half
million acres.
JOSHUA GIST
JOSHUA GIST, who was
elected an assistant (lay) judge on the
organization of the State of Franklin,
and who was a member of one of the
conventions, was from North Carolina,
where he had been a captain in the
Revolutionary War, Brown's Battalion of
Ashe's Brigade, and served in the
General Assembly.
In 1784 he lived on French Broad and
represented Greene county in the
Carolina Assembly. He voted in favor of
the first cession bill. On the creation
of the Franklin county of Sevier he was
made a justice of the peace. He was
present at the making of the treaty of
Dumplin creek.
He was chairman of the convention of
January 12, 1789. Under the territorial
government he was appointed a justice of
the peace for Jefferson county when it
was established in 1782; and of Sevier
county on its formation in 1794.
He was a son of Benjamin Gist, one of
the first justices of Washington county,
and also a Franklinite. Joshua Gist
appears to have been colonel of Greene
county in December, 1784, and as such
was ordered to arrest the noted Major
Hubbard.
JOHN ANDERSON
JOHN ANDERSON, named
as the second assistant-judge under
Judge David Campbell, was of Sullivan
county, which he represented in one of
the conventions called to consider the
Constitution of Franklin. A son of
Colonel Gilbert Christian, in writing to
Draper, mentioned him as having been one
of the leading and consistent supporters
of the new State in his county. He was
"second colonel" of the militia in
Sullivan.
Anderson was made a justice of the peace
in Sullivan county by Governor Blount
(1790) and he was also one of the
magistrates elected by the first
legislature of the State of Tennessee.
He does not appear to have had
aspirations toward a political career.
Presumably he was of the Anderson family
of Augusta county, son of Andrew,
related by marriage to Colonel Gilbert
Christian, and referred to in a letter
from Major Arthur Campbell to Colonel
William Preston, August 10, 1774: "Capt.
Wm. Campbell desires me to recommend one
John Anderson to you for ensign to Capt.
Looney. I believe you are acquainted
with the young gent and I think he may
be a proper person." Anderson was so far
a proper person as to earn the rank of
captain of a company in the War of the
Revolution. In 1782 he led the forces of
Sullivan county, under Colonel John
Sevier, against the Chickamauga Indians.
He died October 17, 1817.
JOHN MENEFEE
JOHN MENEFEE, who was
speaker of the house of representatives
of Franklin Assembly of 1787, first
settled in Sullivan county, which he
represented in the first convention at
Jonesborough in 1784. In 1790, he was
residing in Hawkins (now Knox) county,
where he was commissioned a captain of
militia by Governor Blount; and on the
creation of Knox county, in June, 1792,
he was made a justice of the peace and
continued in his captaincy. Menefee was
Knox county's delegate in the house of
representatives of the first, and
several later General Assemblies of
Tennessee; and was appointed one of the
first justices of the peace under the
Constitution of 1796. Menefee's Station
is named for him. The name is sometimes
written "Manifee."
Thomas Amis,
son of John and Mary (Dillard) Amis, was
of Huguenot family (Amie) which left
France on the revocation of the Edict of
Nantes for the Barbadoes, in the West
Indies, going thence to Virginia. A
branch of the family settled in North
Carolina. Thomas Amis was in the
Provincial Congress of Carolina in 1776,
from Bladen county; and in the Third
Regiment of the Continental Army. He
served quite a time in the commissionary
department.
After the war he, having married Mary
Gale (or Gayle), removed west of the
Alleghanies and settled in Hawkins
county where he erected a stone house in
which he resided and operated a tavern.
He also erected a grist mill and a
distillery. It appears that in 1786 Amis
was trading in the farther West and that
his boats and goods were seized and
confiscated by the Spanish commandant at
the Natchez, complaint of which was made
to Congress.
The good Bishop Asbury, journeying
through Tennessee, noted in his journal
that at Amis' tavern "we were well
entertained for our money" and that Amis
was rebuked when he boasted of gaining
three hundred pounds per annum "by the
brewing of his poison. We talked very
plainly; and I told him that it was of
necessity, and not of choice, we were
there—that I feared the face of no man."
Amis also entertained the elder Michaux,
Andrew Jackson and John Sevier.
Amis was in the Carolina senate of 1788
and 1789, where his votes were in favor
of separation.
Mary, a daughter of Amis, married Joseph
Rogers, the founder of Rogersville.
David
Campbell, Captain, was a
supporter of separation and a member of
the Assembly of Franklin. He was born in
Augusta county, Virginia, August, 1753,
and on becoming of age removed to
Washington county of the same State. He
participated in the battle of Point
Pleasant in Lord Dunmore's War; in the
battle of Long Island Flats, in 1776;
and in the battle of King's Mountain,
with eight others of the name, brothers
and cousins. About the year 1782
Campbell having married his cousin, the
sister of Colonel Arthur and Judge David
Campbell, removed to Washington county,
North Carolina; later to Strawberry
Plain, and then to Campbell's Station.
He served for a time in the Tennessee
General Assembly, and as presidential
elector. He was the ancestor of Governor
William B. Campbell of Tennessee, and of
Rev. Dr. David Campbell Kelley, who was
known as "the fighting parson," on the
staff of General Nathan Bedford Forrest.
Captain Campbell's last home was in
Wilson county, where he died, August 18,
1832.
Ramsey says of him: "He left the savor
of a good name wherever he was known."
Samuel Doak,
the father of education in Tennessee,
was born in August, 1749. His parents
were Samuel and Jane (Mitchell) Doak,
who emigrated from northern Ireland and
first settled in Chester county,
Pennsylvania, whence they removed to
Augusta county, Virginia, where their
son, Samuel was born. Young Doak at the
age of sixteen was studying the classics
under Reverend Archibald Alexander. In
1773 he entered Princeton College from
which he was graduated in 1775, during
the presidency of Dr. Witherspoon. He
was for two years a tutor at an academy
in Virginia which later became Hampden
Sidney College, and at the same time
studied theology under Reverend John
Blair Smith, and later under Reverend
William Graham in his native county.
About this time he married Esther H.,
the daughter of Reverend John
Montgomery; and was licensed to preach
by the Presbytery of Hanover. He soon
turned southward for a location. After
preaching for a time in Sullivan county,
then thought to be a part of Washington
county, Virginia, he was for about two
years at the forks of the Holston and
Watauga rivers. He later removed to a
settlement on the Little Limestone
(below Jonesborough) at the request of
the inhabitants. According to the
tradition in riding through the forest
in that neighborhood he unexpectedly
came upon a group of settlers who were
felling trees. Learning that he was a
minister, they requested him to preach,
and this he did, using his horse as a
pulpit. He there (1780) organized Salem
church, and a school which was later
called Martin's Academy and which became
Washington College.
In 1818 Dr. Doak resigned the presidency
of Washington College to join his son in
establishing a classical school in
Greene county, Tusculum Academy—now
Tusculum College. A volume of "Lectures
on the Philosophy of Human Nature" of
which he was the author was published by
his son, Reverend John W. Doak.
Dr. Samuel Doak was of powerful frame,
medium stature, with a short thick neck.
His hair was sandy, his complexion
ruddy, and his eyes blue. His demeanor
was dignified; his countenance grave.
His was a stentorian voice, and he was
withal a striking individuality.
George
Doherty, perhaps the son of
George Doherty who was major in the
North Carolina troops in the War of the
Revolution, settled in the Western
Country at an early day. In 1779 he was
engaged in the wars against the Cherokee
Indians. He served under Sevier as a
captain on the King's Mountain
expedition. On the establishment of
Greene county he was appointed one of
the justices of the peace. Early in the
life of the State of Franklin he was
appointed lieutenant-colonel and later
colonel of Caswell county militia. He
was on the Hiwassee and Martin campaigns
in 1788, and the year following was a
member of the North Carolina convention
which ratified the Federal Constitution.
When Governor Blount was organizing the
government of the Territory in Jefferson
county Doherty was made a justice of the
peace and lieutenant-colonel commandant.
Colonel Doherty was a representative
from Jefferson county in the first
Territorial Assembly; and was of that
county's delegation in the first
constitutional convention of Tennessee.
He was in the first senate of that
State, and in subsequent years served in
sessions of its legislature.
In 1783 he, along with Colonel
McFarland, headed a volunteer expedition
of two hundred mounted men of the border
against the middle towns of the
Cherokees in North Carolina, destroying
six towns. In the fall of the same year
he was on Sevier's Hightower campaign.
Colonel Doherty served on another
expedition that has been ignored,
seemingly, by the historians of the
State. After the acquisition of the
Louisiana Territory, in 1803, for a time
it appeared to be necessary to compel,
by force of arms, the surrender by the
Spanish authorities of New Orleans, and
the dependent district. The war
department (October, 1803) made a
requisition on Governor Sevier for a
force of mounted infantry to march to
Natchez with all possible dispatch.
Doherty who was colonel of the militia
of the Washington and Hamilton districts
embodied a command, described by
Governor Sevier as "eight companies of
as brave militia as ever went into the
field," which reached Natchez in
December, 1803, in good health and fine
order, though great hardships had been
experienced in marching through the
wilderness where there was suffering for
want of provisions for the troops and
their horses. While they were on the
march the President learned that New
Orleans had been surrendered to the
agents of the national government.
Colonel Doherty returned with his
command, after reaching Natchez, assured
of the President's "great pleasure and
satisfaction at the prompt manner in
which the mounted infantry had turned
out."
In the Creek War, Doherty as
brigadier-general led an East Tennessee
command and his conduct at the battle of
the Horseshoe was marked by great
gallantry.
Colonel and General Doherty resided on
the north bank of the French Broad
river. He is described as tall,
well-formed and of dark features and as
a man of remarkable common sense. Plain
and unaffected, he was a natural leader
of the border people both in war and in
civil life.
Nathaniel
Evans was a native of Virginia.
It seems he first settled near
Jonesborough, later near Bean's Station,
and subsequently removed to the country
south of the French Broad. He had little
inclination to participate in civil
affairs. He was a soldier and was justly
pronounced by his contemporaries "a good
soldier," noted for bravery and daring
exploits. He was loyal to Sevier to the
last and one of his favorites. A
brother, Joseph, settled in Sevier
county. In the war of 1792 the two
brothers had their horses stolen by the
Indians. They disguised themselves by
dressing like Indians, stole into the
Indian camp, recovered their horses and
reached home, one of them having
received a slight wound. On the campaign
that followed the attack on Houston
Station, Evans was in command of a
company, and as a reward for his
gallantry, it was proposed that he be
raised to a colonelcy. He declined the
promotion, saying that he could do
better service as a captain.
In 1793 Governor Blount made him a
captain of the Knox county cavalry, and
as such he led a large detachment of
mounted troops to aid in the protection
of the Cumberland Settlements; and, on
his return, was on the Hightower and
Etowah campaigns. He was advanced to the
rank of first major of the cavalry of
Hamilton District, in 1795.
Evans is described as being six feet
high and weighing about two hundred
pounds.
Samuel
Handley, born in Virginia, was
as a youth a member of Captain Evan
Shelby's company at the battle of Point
Pleasant in 1774. He was a lieutenant in
the Revolutionary War, and took part in
the engagement at King's Mountain.
According to a son of John Sevier, he
was one of the captains most active
under John Sevier in the earlier
expeditions against the Indians. He was,
among many expeditions, on the Boyd's
Creek campaign. The Cherokees came to
dread and admire him and to look upon
him as a brave and fearless fighter.
Handley was of Sevier's party in the
Sevier-Tipton engagement of February,
1788. He represented Washington county
in the constitutional convention of
1796. Captain Handley later resided in
the vicinity of the Tellico blockhouse,
near the present town of Loudon.
Toward the close of the year 1792, while
leading a party of men to reinforce the
hard-pressed settlers on the Cumberland,
his command was attacked by Indians,
near the Crab Orchard, on the Cumberland
plateau. Becoming separated from his men
he was set upon by a brave who had
lifted his hatchet to strike, when
Handley seized the weapon, crying out
"Canaly" (for higinalii) "friend." The
Cherokee responded the same word and
lowered his arm. Captain Handley was
taken a captive to Willstown, in
Alabama, where he suffered many
indignities and hardships until the next
spring. The Cherokees, desirous for
peace, made use of his service in
causing him to write for them a letter
to Governor Blount, and sent him home
escorted by eight warriors without any
demand for hostage or ransom.
Captain Handley was several times sent
by his people as a delegate to the
Tennessee General Assembly; and in
March, 1798, Governor Sevier honored him
by commissioning him to visit the
headmen of the Cherokee nation in an
effort to prevail on them to sell a
portion of their domain that bordered on
the white settlements.
He died in Franklin county, aged
eighty-two, an honored member of the
Society of Cincinnati.
Samuel
Houston was born on Hay's creek,
in Rockbridge county, Virginia, January
I, 1758, the son of John and Sarah
(Todd) Houston. He attended schools in
his immediate neighborhood; and November
22, 1776, entered Liberty Academy (now
Washington and Lee University) then
presided over by the celebrated Wm.
Graham. He graduated, with the degree of
A.B., in 1780. He at once began the
study of theology under Graham, but
decided to enter the revolutionary
struggle, volunteered as a private in
1781, and as such participated in the
battle of Guilford's Court House, in
North Carolina. He kept a journal of his
experiences as a soldier. In this he
recorded the fact that, marching on
foot, he discharged his rifle fourteen
times, or once for each ten minutes the
battle lasted. Houston was in the
command of General Stevens. Returning
home, the young soldier was received as
a candidate for the ministry by the
Hanover Presbytery in November, 1781,
and licensed to preach the next year. In
1783 he accepted a call to the
Providence congregation in Washington
county, North Carolina, now Tennessee,
and was ordained in August of the same
year. Providence church is near the
Greene county line. In 1785, Houston was
one of the ministers who formed the
Presbytery of Abingdon, which he several
times represented at the meetings of the
Synod. He was a member of the first
committee to which was referred the
proposal for the formation of a General
Assembly for the Presbyterian Church.
In 1789 Houston returned to Virginia to
serve the churches at Falling Bridge and
Highbridge in his native county. He
served these churches many years, and at
the same time conducted a classical
school. He was elected a trustee of his
alma mater, then Washington College,
October 7, 1791, in place of his father,
and served until 1826. He was secretary
of the Board of Trustees from 1791 till
1807. He became totally blind before his
death, which occurred January 20, 1839.
In personal appearance Houston was tall,
erect and square-shouldered, dignified
in deportment, but peculiar in his
dress. He is described as an earnest
preacher and a model pastor. He was a
frequent contributor to Niles' Weekly
and other publications of the day.
It is believed that he began to make
contributions to the press while he was
living in Franklin State, and that a
number of the newspaper articles
referred to in the text of his volume
were from his pen.
A monument at his grave has this
inscription:
Sacred
To the memory
of the
Rev. Samuel Houston,
who in early life was a soldier of the
Revolution
And for fifty-five years a faithful
minister of the
Lord Jesus Christ.
He died on the loth day of January, 1839
Aged 81 years.
The father of Houston
removed from Virginia to make his home
in Blount county. Among the delegates in
the constitutional convention of 1796,
and in the first Tennessee Assembly from
that county was James Houston, a first
cousin of Reverend Samuel Houston, and
the father of Sam Houston, the great
Tennessean and Texan.
Moses and David Looney were from
Virginia, where Moses had been a captain
of militia as early as 1774. They
perhaps resided at that time in the
western part of what is now Sullivan
county, Tennessee. A pass through the
Clinch mountains was known as Looney's
Gap at an early date. May 3, 1774, the
court of Fincastle county ordered
Anthony Bledsoe to make the list of
tithables in Captain Looney's company.
The organization of the first court of
Sullivan county was at the house of
Moses Looney in the month of February,
1780. David Looney was one of the first
justices and major of the militia of the
new county. He was advanced to the
lieutenant-colonelcy, which office he
resigned in 1781. He was a member of the
lower house of the Carolina Assembly of
1784. Moses Looney was captured and
carried into captivity by the Indians in
1781. Both of the Looneys were in the
Franklin movement and sat in the
Assembly; and David Looney was one of
the first justices of the peace under
the new State government.
David Looney was a delegate from
Sullivan county to the convention of
1788 which was called to consider the
ratification of the National
Constitution. He was in 1790
commissioned by Governor Blount a
justice of the peace of his county,
under the territorial form of
government. In the first legislature of
the State of Tennessee he represented
Sullivan county. In 1796 a Looney was
the leading inn-keeper of Knoxville.
Descendants of the Looneys settled in
Shelby and Maury counties where they
were prominent in the affairs of the
State of Tennessee.
Moses Looney was killed while engaged in
the arrest of Thomas Faulin, who for a
time, held the posse at bay. A parley
was proposed on which Faulin came out of
his house rifle in hand. While he and
Looney were conversing, "a certain
red-mouthed Irishman, named Ingram,
slipped around and shot Faulin from
behind." Before Faulin fell, he raised
his gun and shot, the bullet hitting and
killing Looney. The two fell dead
together.
William
Murphey, born March 12, 1759,
was reared near Bedford, Va. He
volunteered for Revolutionary service
August, 1776, and did his first duty as
a guard for the lead mines near Fort
Chiswell, and later was on Col.
Christian's campaign, and did guard duty
at the Cherokee treaty of 1777 at Long
Island. In the next year he was drafted
for five months' service in Capt. Robert
Sevier's company of Washington County,
N. C., and was in the South Carolina
campaign. In March, 1779, Captain Sevier
resigned and Murphey was promoted to an
ensigncy. He was in a battle on Savannah
river and in skirmishes in Georgia. He
volunteered to serve three months if
necessary as a sergeant in Colonel John
Sevier's expedition against the
Cherokees in 1780; and again in 1781-82
was on two other Indian expeditions.
Murphey was a Baptist minister, a
favorite of the Seviers, and a supporter
of Franklin State. He served in her
Assembly. He died in St. Francis County,
Mo., November 2, 1833.
Samuel
Newell was born on the Atlantic
ocean, November 4, 1754, and his father,
first settling in Frederick county,
Virginia, soon afterward was one of the
early settlers on Beaver Creek of
Holston river.
He engaged in service against the Tories
in April, 1776, and in the summer of
that year was in the battle of Island
Flats of Holston. In the same year he
was appointed a sergeant in Captain
Colvill's company; was promoted to a
lieutenancy the following year in which
capacity he was for a year or two
actively engaged in the protection of
the frontier against the Indians. In
1780 he took part in an expedition
against the Tories on New river, and was
under Colonel Campbell in the battle of
King's Mountain, where he received a
severe wound early in the action, from
the effects of which he never fully
recovered. Procuring a horse, after
receiving the wound, he managed to
continue the combat until the close of
the action. He was, notwithstanding, in
December following in service on the
campaign of Colonel Arthur Campbell
against the Cherokees. In 1781 he was
advanced to a captaincy, and again was
active in protecting the frontier
against the depredations of the Indians.
He was one of the early settlers in the
French Broad country, and took active
part in launching the State of Franklin,
as a member of the constitutional
convention, and in the legislature. He
was one of the first assemblymen from
the Franklin county of Sevier.
Under the territorial government Newell
was appointed a magistrate of Knox
county, and when the county of Sevier
was recreated he was appointed to serve
there in the same capacity. He was the
first chairman of the Sevier county
court; and also received Governor
Blount's commission as
lieutenant-colonel of militia. He was a
delegate in the lower house of the first
Tennessee General Assembly. In 1797, he
removed to Kentucky and later to Indiana
where he died September 21, 1841 . He is
described by Draper as a man of fine
presence, six feet one inch in height,
and of superior ability.
Alexander
Outlaw was born in Duplin
county, North Carolina, in 1738. He
served for a time (1777) as a captain of
militia in the revolutionary conflict.
He married Penelope Smith, of his native
county and emigrated to the West, first
to Washington county, Virginia, where he
was on November 24, 1782., commissioned
a justice of the peace. He was enrolled
in the militia of that county. Attracted
by the fine and cheap lands on the lower
frontier, he removed to the Nolachucky
Settlements in 1783, and located lands
in Greene, (now Jefferson) county.
Outlaw was a delegate to the first
Franklin convention at Jonesborough, in
August, 1784, and served on the
committee which had under consideration
the situation produced by the cession
act of that year. It is difficult to
understand his attitude; he alone from
the western counties appeared to claim a
seat in the Carolina Assembly of 1784
after that body had been in session for
some time. He was granted a seat on a
certificate of the sheriff of Greene
county attesting his election, although
the cession act had not then been
repealed. Outlaw, strangely enough,
voted in favor of the repeal of that
act, he having previously, four days
after being sworn in, introduced a bill
to empower the inhabitants of the
Western Country, by and with the consent
of the State of North Carolina, to form
themselves into a separate State to be
known by the name of West Carolina. In
1785, he was in the service of the State
of Franklin on a commission to treat
with the Cherokee Indians, but the next
year he served as paymaster of troops
under North Carolina. He also was in the
Franklin Assembly of the same year,
again acted as a treaty commissioner of
the new State, and was a justice of the
peace and colonel of the militia in the
new county carved out by the Franklin
Assembly and named in honor of Governor
Caswell.
Outlaw served in General Martin's
campaign and in the North Carolina
legislature in 1788, and was a delegate
in the convention of 1789 which ratified
the Federal Constitution. In January,
1789, he was active in the convention
held on the border and was by it named
as alternate delegate to wait on the
Federal Congress to petition for relief.
By Governor Blount he was (1790)
commissioned a justice of the peace for
Greene county; in 1792 he was admitted
to the bar of Knox county; in 1796 he
served in the Tennessee constitutional
convention, and moved that in the event
the State of Tennessee should not be
admitted to the Union, the State should
continue in existence as an independent
State.
Outlaw was a representative from
Jefferson county in the first
legislature held under the constitution;
and in 1799 and 1801 was in the senate
and was honored both terms by elections
to the speakership.
He developed considerable ability as a
lawyer, and was a shrewd and foresighted
man of affairs. From his home in the
bend of the Nolachucky, he reached out
and became the owner of large tracts of
the most fertile lands on the
Nolachucky, French Broad and Tennessee
rivers. Judge David Campbell, Judge
Joseph Anderson and Joseph Hamilton
married daughters of Colonel Outlaw and
his descendants have been influential in
the life of the Commonwealth of
Tennessee.
Outlaw is depicted as a man of large
frame, six feet high, blue eyes, sandy
hair and red moustache. He died in 1826,
and was buried at Cahauba, Alabama,
where he was at the time of his death
looking after land purchases in that
region.
James Reese,
from Mecklenburg county, North Carolina,
settled in the western country about
1784. He was a member of the Franklin
Assembly; and served as secretary of the
Greeneville convention (May 5, 1790)
which recommended Sevier for appointment
to the governorship of the Territory
South of the River Ohio. He resided in
Jefferson county, and devoted himself to
the practice of law. He does not appear
to have aspired to military or political
honors. He was the father of Judge
William B. Reese, a justice of the
Tennessee Supreme Court and president of
East Tennessee University, now
University of Tennessee.
Charles
Robertson (sometimes spelled
"Robinson") resided in Greene county. He
is not to be confused with Colonel
Charles Robertson, of Sinking Creek, who
was a leader of the Watauga Association.
The name of each is at times, spelled
"Robinson" and it is difficult to
distinguish the two when mentioned in
records and even in histories.
Robertson appeared in
Greene county prior to 1783. His name
"Robertson" is on the tax-list of that
year in that county. He lived on Meadow
creek of Nolachucky river. He, as well
as the other Charles Robertson, was in
the first Jonesborough convention of
Franklin, but this appears to have been
his only legislative service.
In 1796-7 the State
of South Carolina projected a scheme for
the cutting of a highway from Tennessee
to Charleston, and proposed to build the
road southward provided the State of
Tennessee would open and construct the
same from Warm Springs on French Broad
through the mountains to Sherrill's
Cove. Charles Robertson was
superintendent of construction of
Tennessee's portion of this highway.
Governor Sevier in his message (October,
1797) announced that the road was open
to traffic by wagons, and spoke in
complimentary terms of Robertson.
James Roddy
first settled on Roan's creek, of the
upper Watauga valley prior to 1778;
later he removed to Greene county, and
on the organization of Jefferson, he
fell in that county. He was on the
Boyd's Creek campaign; in the first
Franklin convention; a delegate to the
North Carolina Convention of 1788; a
magistrate and register of Jefferson
county under the territorial government;
a member of the constitutional
convention of 1796 and a senator in the
Second General Assembly of Tennessee.
From early manhood he was esteemed of
sound judgment and trustworthy in all
relations of life. Sevier while governor
of Tennessee, often made his home a
stopping place.
Valentine Sevier, II, was born
in the Valley of Virginia in 1747, the
son of Valentine Sevier and the brother
of Governor John Sevier. His record as a
soldier is noteworthy. He was a sergeant
in Captain Evan Shelby's company at the
battle of Point Pleasant and as spy and
combatant was "distinguished for
vigilance, activity and bravery." In the
act creating Washington county, the
Carolina Assembly named him as one of
the justices of the peace; and he was
elected the first sheriff of the county.
As a captain, he was in command of a
company in the Revolutionary battles at
Thicketty Fort, Cedar Springs,
Musgrove's Mill and King's Mountain. He
also was active in John Sevier's Indian
campaigns. He took part in the attempt
to settle the Great Bend of the
Tennessee, and was chosen to be major of
the militia of that region (January,
1784). When the State of Franklin was
established, he served in the
legislature and as second colonel of the
militia of Washington county. In 1787
the Carolina Assembly named him as
lieutenant-colonel of cavalry commandant
for Washington District, but he declined
to be weaned away from the support of
Franklin. The Assembly of the next year
declined to reappoint him, "it not
appearing that he has availed himself of
the act of pardon of the last session."
Valentine Sevier emigrated to the
Cumberland in 1788, and erected a
station near the mouth of Red river, in
the county of Montgomery. He endured
many and severe hardships on that
frontier in the following years. He died
February 23, I 800.
Andrew
Taylor, of Rockbridge county,
Virginia, was the son of Isaac Taylor,
of Mill Creek settlement a fine valley
in Rockbridge county. He came from
county Armagh, North or Protestant
Ireland. Unlike many immigrants of that
day, they had means, which were invested
in lands and slaves. From another branch
of this family descended Bishop William
Taylor, of the Methodist Episcopal
Church, and, according to the family
tradition, President Zachary Taylor.
Andrew Taylor
married in Virginia, first Elizabeth
Wilson, and second her sister, Ann
Wilson, and with his young family
removed to the Watauga country in 1778,
settling in Happy Valley. He was the
progenitor of a long line of
distinguished men: Brigadier-General
Nathaniel Taylor; Nathaniel G. Taylor,
Congressman and Commissioner of Indian
Affairs; Alfred A. Taylor, Congressman
and Governor; Robert L. Taylor,
Congressman, Governor and United States
Senator.
Andrew Taylor was a member of the
Franklin Assembly, and a justice of the
peace of his county under the government
of the Lost State. Isaac, one of his
sons by his first wife, fought in the
Revolution under Colonel John Sevier, to
whom all of the Taylors were ardently
attached. Andrew, Jr., fought in the
Indian wars under Sevier.
Peter Turney
was an immigrant of French and German
extraction, probably from Alsace. He
settled in Virginia, and was a
private in the company of Captain Evan
Shelby at the battle of Point Pleasant,
in Lord Dunmore's War. Removing into the
Holston country, he became sheriff of
Spencer county of Franklin State and, it
seems, a captain. In 1796 he had removed
west of the Cumberland mountains and
lived on the wilderness road, in the
present county of Smith of which he was
a justice of the peace on its
organization in 1799. It appears from
Sevier's diary that he did not hesitate
to ask official favors of Sevier when
the latter was governor of Tennessee,
and that they were granted without
delay.
Peter Turney was the father of Hopkins
Lacy Turney, congressman and United
States senator from Tennessee, and
grandfather of Peter Turney, chief
justice of the Supreme Court and
governor of Tennessee.
George
Vincent was of North Carolina
lineage and probably the son of Thomas
Vincent. He was a justice of the peace
and a member of the General Assembly of
Franklin, and Thomas a captain of a
company in Colonel Robert Love's command
on General Martin's campaign against the
Chickamaugas in 1788; he was badly
wounded but brought back on a
horse-litter to recover. In the same
year he was chosen by the legislature of
North Carolina to serve on commissions
to run the boundary between Washington
and Sullivan counties and to build a
court house for the latter county. Both
Thomas and George Vincent were
petitioners in favor of a separation
from North Carolina (1787-88). They
lived in the lower end of Sullivan
county.
Samuel Wear
(sometimes written Weir) was born 1753
in Augusta county, Virginia, the son of
Robert and Rebecca Wear. In 1778 he
married Mary Thompson in Augusta county,
and in 178o they removed to the French
Broad country, where they took up land
on the west prong of Little Pigeon
river, at the mouth of Walden's creek,
five miles south from the present town
of Sevierville. He led a company as
captain under Sevier at the battle of
King's Mountain. The Franklin movement
enlisted his support; he participated in
the Jonesborough convention; was a
member of the Assembly of that State,
and was a commissioner to treat with the
Indians. He was lieutenant-colonel
commandant of Sevier county under the
territorial government, and was a
representative in the first territorial
legislature. On the formation of the
State of Tennessee he was a member of
the constitutional convention. |
