USA > North Carolina > Historical sketches of North Carolina : from 1584 to 1851, Vol. I > Part 74
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The Indians, according to their treaty, carried their prisoners to old Chili- cothe, the principal town of the Miami, where they arrived on the 18th of February, and, according to their terms, the Indians used them kindly.
In March, they carried Boone to Detroit, to offer him for ransom to the Governor; but on the route the Indians became so much attached to him, that they refused to part with him; and, after leaving at Detroit the other prisoners, they returned with Boone to Chilicothe. He was adopted as one
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of the tribe, and pretended to be very fond of his new father and mother, and take great interest in their sports and hunting. His plan of escape was hurried by an alarming circumstance; while meditating upon it, he was astonished to see an assemblage of four hundred warriors at Chilicothe. An attack on Boonesboro' was planned.
On 16th June he escaped, and reached Boonesboro' on the 20th, a distance of one hundred and sixty miles, during which he ate but one meal. He found the fort in bad condition, and set all hands about to repair it. The Indians, finding that he had escaped, postponed the attack.
On the 1st August, with nineteen men, Boone sets out to attack an Indian town, called Point Creek, on the Sciota. Within four miles of the fort they met forty Indians on their way to attack them. A desperate fight ensues, in which Boone conquered, without the loss of a man.
On the 8th August, the largest force that ever appeared before Boonesboro' orders it to surrender. The assailants were four hundred and forty-four Indians, and eleven Frenchmen, commanded by Captain Duquesne. Boone requests a parley of three days, during which he made every preparation for an active and vigorous defence.
On the 9th, Boone informs the French Commander, that " he would defend the fort as long as a man could raise a rifle."
The wily Frenchman, knowing the prowess of his opponent, seeks to effect by stratagem what he dares not attempt by arms. A treaty is agreed to.
Boone, with the required number, go forth to sign the documents. He is informed, after signing, that it was an Indian custom from time immemorial, for two Indians to shake the hand of one white man. This he reluctantly consented to, and the moment the savages took hold of each white man, they endeavored to hold him fast. Boone feels the sinewy grasp of two athletic Indians, and his companions are betrayed into a like perilous condition. Now arose the mighty struggle for liberty and for life.
"Now, gallant Boone ! now hold thy own, No maiden arm is round thee thrown ; That desperate grasp thy frame would feel, Through bars of brass, and triple steel."
Fortune favors at this moment of peril her gallant son; the knife of Boone finds a bloody sheath in one of his opponents, the other is thrown down, and Boone and his men escape to the fort.
His name can never die. The memory of this chivalric exploit, and the name of Boone will live as long as the Kentucky River rolls its troubled tribute to "the Great Father of Waters;" and when the marble in our National Capitol* which commemorates this deed, shall have crumbled to its original elements.
The Indians, after an unsuccessful attack, raised the siege, after a loss of several killed and wounded.
During the absence of Colonel Boone in captivity among the Shawnees, his wife, thinking her husband was killed, returned with her family to her father, on the Yadkin, in North Carolina. Boone came to North Carolina after them.
He returned with them in about two years, to Boonesboro', during which time, many battles had been lost and won.
As he and his brother were returning from the Salt Licks, they were attacked by the Indians ; his brother was killed by a shot from the Indians. Boone only escaped by rapid flight, killing the dog the Indians had sent on his trail.
Such was the life Boone led until the defeat of the Indians by Wayne (1792) introduced peace and quiet in this dark and dangerous country.
Between this time, and the time when (1792) the new territory came into the Union, Virginia had enacted so many laws, which Boone'in the simplicity of his nature had failed to comply with, or his business was done so loosely, that the very land that he had bought and paid for, in the sacrifices of him-
* In the rotunda at Washington, in sculpture, over the door as you enter the House of Representatives, is this scene, by an eminent sculptor.
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self, and the blood of his son, and his brother, was wrested from him. How sad a commentary upon human nature! How mournfully true the Latin adage :- Homo homini lupus .*
In 1798 he shoulders his rifle and goes to the wilds of Missouri. Here was a country as wild and unclaimed as his heart desired. The republic was that of the forest, the rifle, and the hunter; and Boone was commander-in- chief. He never sighed for what was lost. He said "Kentucky was too crowded, he wanted more elbow-room."
Here he lived until 1813, when he lost his wife ; the faithful companion of all his trials and troubles exchanged this for a brighter world. This was the severest blow Boone ever received. He left Missouri, and came to his son, Major Nathan Boone ; where he lived, employing his leisure with his favorite rifle, and trapping beavers, until 1818, when he calmly and resignedly breathed his last, in the eighty-fourth year of his age, surrounded by affection and love. It was stated in the papers at the time of his death, that he was found dead at a stand, watching for deer, with his rifle sprung; and raised ready to fire. In the Indian idea, the great hunter had gone to the hunting grounds of the warrior above, where his spirit would be happy, when the stars would cease to give their light.
The character of Boone is so peculiar, that it marks the age in which he lived; and his name has been celebrated in the verses of the immortal Byron :-
of all men
Who passes for in life and death most lucky, Of the great names which in our faces stare, Is Daniel Boone, backwoodsman of Kentucky.
Crime came not near him-she is not the child Of solitude. Health shrank not from him, for Her home is in the rarely trodden wild."t
And tall and strong and swift on foot were they, Beyond the dwarfing city's pale abortions, 1
Because their thoughts had never been the prey Of care or gain ; the green woods were their portions : No sinking spirits told them they grew gray, No fashion made them apes of her distortions :
Simple they were, not savage ; and their rifles, Though very true, were not yet used for trifles.
Motion was in their days, rest in their slumbers, And cheerfulness the handmaid of their toil;
Nor yet too many, nor too few their numbers ; Corruption could not make their hearts her soil : The last which stings, the splendor which encumbers, With the free foresters divide no spoil ;
Serene, not sullen, even the solitudes
Of this unsighing people of the woods."
In North Carolina was Boone reared. Here his youthful days were spent ; and here that bold spirit was trained, which so fearlessly encountered the perils through which he passed in after life. His fame is a part of her pro- perty, and she has inscribed his name on a town in the region where his youth was spent.
I am indebted to a sketch in the National Portrat Gallery, by W. A. C., for the leading facts and dates in the life of Boone.
It may not be indelicate or improper to state, that much of it is extracted from a public thesis, that as early as 1823, the author delivered as an original oratorial exercise at college, which proves at this day, the course of his stu- dies, and the tendency of his research.
Watauga County continues to vote with the counties from which
* Man is a wolf to man.
7 Don Juan, Canto VIII, LVI.
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she was taken, until 1853, when she will be entitled to a separate representative.
It has given us pleasure to meet, in a late number of the Nash- ville True Whig, the subjoined sketch of the life of JOHN SEVIER, of Tennessee. He was a cotemporary of Boone, and, as the reader will learn by his history, a man " of high emprise," and of heroic enterprise and courage, which his aspect and port strikingly in- , dicated; his character was adorned also by highly social and amiable qualities.
Monument to General John Sevier, First Governor of Tennessee.
We have been much interested within the past few days in viewing a hand- some marble monument, recently constructed at the marble works of Messrs. Shelton & Ham, in this city, in honor of the memory of General JOHN SEVIER, the distinguished pioneer, and first Governor of Tennessee. The monument consists of a beautiful marble shaft, mounted upon a plynth ; the shaft illus- trated with a very striking and appropriate design, neatly carved out of solid marble, representing two swords crossed, surmounted by a wreath, and be- neath an Indian tomahawk and quiver of arrows, emblematic of the triumph of our arms under the heroic auspices of General Sevier, and the blessings of peace and the arts of civilization succeeding the bloody and protracted Indian wars which illustrate the early history of our State, in which he acted a most arduous, responsible, and distinguished part. Underneath this beautiful and appropriate device is the following inscription :-
-
SEVIER, Noble and successful Defender of the early settlers of Ten- nessee ; The first, and For twelve years Governor; Representative in Congress ; Commissioner in many treaties with the Indians. He served his country faithfully for forty years, and in that service died. An admirer of patriotism and merit unrequited erects this cenotaph.
History has been strangely neglectful of the memory of this, one of the most distinguished pioneers of our State, whose early annals are adorned by the records of his prowess in arms and his wisdom as a civilian. His remains lie buried in a neighboring State, where he died more than thirty years ago in the service of his country, without a stone to mark the place of their repose, or an inclosure to protect them from unhallowed intrusion. But we are glad to see that some amends are about to be made for the injustice of the past. This monument to his memory is erected in the Nashville Cemetery, to the left of the new gate, inside the northern enclosure-a worthy tribute of individual munificence and patriotism to " merit unrequited." We learn also that a work is now nearly ready for the press by a member of the State Historical Society, entitled " the Life and Times of General John Sevier, or incidents in the early settlement of East Tennessee." A gentleman familiar with his his- tory has favored us with the following brief biographical sketch, which can- not fail to be read with lively interest. Should not the State of Tennessee take an early opportunity to give some enduring mark of her grateful appre- ciation of one to whose labors, services, and sacrifices, she is so much in- debted ?
General SEVIER descended from an ancient family in France, whose name was Xavier; and his own uniform, bold and unique signature is something like that orthography. The chirography is a specimen beautiful and curious. His father, Valentine Xavier, was born in London, and emigrated to America
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in the first part of the last century-settled on the Shenandoah, in Virginia, where John Sevier was born about 1740.
When but a young man he married Miss Hawkins, by whom he had six children.
She was delicate and never moved from Eastern Virginia, but died there soon after the birth of her sixth child.
With an exploring and emigrating party he came to the Holston River (in East Tennessee, then a part of North Carolina), about 1769. He directed and aided in the construction of the first fort on the Watauga River, where his father, his brother Valentine, himself, and others settled. Whilst in de- fence of the Watauga Fort, in conjunction with Captain James Robertson (so , favorably distinguished in early Middle Tennessee history), he discovered a young lady of tall and erect stature coming with the fleetness of the roe to- wards the fort, closely pursued by Indians, and her approach to the gate cut off by the enemy, who doubtless were confident of a captive or of a victim to their guns and arrows; but turning suddenly she eluded her pursuers, and leaped the palisades at another point, and fell into the arms of Captain John Sevier. This remarkably active and resolute woman was Miss Catharine Sherrill, who, in a few years after this sudden leap into the arms of the Cap- tain, became the devoted wife of the Colonel, and the bosom companion of the General, the Governor, the People's man, and the patriot, JOHN SEVIER, and the mother of ten children, who could rise up and call her blessed.
During Sevier's visit to his family in 1773, Lord Dunmore, the Governor of Virginia, then fitting out an expedition against the Shawness and other tribes north of the Ohio River, presented to Sevier the commission of Captain, to command a company raised under his own eye and care in the county of Dun- more. This expedition ended with the perilous and fearful battle of Point Pleasant, where James Robertson and Valentine Sevier entitled themselves to much honor and acknowledgments. .
The settlers on the Holston, Watauga, and Nolachucka, were beyond the influence and power of the State laws and Executive officers of North Carolina, and, therefore, as wise men, who knew the advantages of laws and officers, acknowledged as authoritative, they, in 1772, adopted a form of government, called the " Watauga Government," and they elected John Sevier as one of four delegates to a Convention at Halifax, North Carolina. He attended a session of the General Assembly, and in 1777 procured the establishment of a district and the extension of State laws, establishment of Courts, &c. The patriotic sentiments of the man were avowed in the selection of the name for this district where he had cast his lot, and where were the bold and hardy pioneers with whom he was associated. This was " Washington District," North Carolina. The people had enjoyed the advantages of their inchoate and infant government of Watauga from 1772 to this date, and had accom- plished many things worthy of note. They opened paths across the moun- tains, felled the forests, opened fields, built forts and houses, " subdued the earth," and began rapidly to "replenish it," for " they married, and were given to marriage ;" and the State of North Carolina, some years afterwards, deemed a good opportunity presented for her to gain the credit of an act of " supererogation," and passed laws to confirm marriages and other deeds and doings of these wayward " children in the woods."
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1
In June, 1776, " Old Abraham," in command of a band of Cherokees from Chilhowee Mountains, attacked the Watauga Fort, commanded by Sevier and Robertson; and, as the best feat performed, he chased the " lovely Catharine to the Captain's arms ;" and we have heard her say she used to feel ready to have another such a race and leap over the pickets to enjoy another such an introduction.
On this same day was fought the battle of the Flats. Other skirmishes occurred here and there at different times.
Captain Sevier was actively engaged in the expedition of Colonel Christian, ordered out by Virginia, and joined the Virginia troops at "Double Springs," and he neglected no opportunity to pursue the Indians or chastise them for any of their insults or outrages. He promptly united with others, without
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envy, or jealousy, or reservation, and he as readily fitted out expeditions from his own neighborhoods and with his own means, without boasting, without fear, and with never a failure. In 1777 he was made Lieutenant-Colonel.
In 1778, it is probable that his first wife died, for in 1779, we believe, he was married to Miss Sherrill, of whom it is truly and handsomely said, "she could outrun, outjump, walk more erect, and ride more gracefully and skillfully than any other female in all the mountains round about or on the continent at large."
· In 1779 Captain Sevier raised troops, entered the Indian territory, burnt their towns, made prisoners, and fought the successful battle of "Boyd's Creek."
A few days after the battle of Boyd's Creek, Colonel Sevier was joined by Colonel Arthur Campbell, with a Virginia regiment, and by Colonel Isaac Shelby, with his troops from Sullivan County, North Carolina, and these three Colonels, in harmony, scoured the Cherokee country, scattered hostile bands, destroyed the homes of the Indians, and then returned to their own, in better security and some more confidence of peace.
1780. This was the critical year of the American Revolution-certainly so as regarded the Southern States. Charleston surrendered, Gates defeated, reverses here and there ; money exhausted-provisions, clothing, and ammu- nition scarce-many hearts fainting, fearful, and desponding-taking shelter under British protection-certificates (happily not reliable)-tories multiplying, daring, and savage-the British troops over-running South Carolina, Georgia, parts of Virginia, and advancing to the mountain regions of North Carolina- the Indians upon' the borders of all our settlements bribed, instigated, and inflamed against the Americans-the sun of American Independence was obscured, hidden behind accumulating clouds.
But soon and suddenly it beamed forth and sent its cheering rays through all the land, as it rose over the summit of King's Mountain.
. Colonel Sevier is entitled to a full share of all the credit and all the glory won on the 7th day of October, 1780. The sword and vote of thanks from the Legislature of North Carolina, were earned-well earned, and were creditable to the State.
But when we review the deeds of this man's life, and ask for the evidences of due appreciation, we wonder and are sad that a people intelligent, so rich, so prosperous, so proud, so honorable-a people ready to applaud the spirit of patriotism and independence, and to glory in deeds of daring, and to give hearty expressions of praise to a devoted public servant-should build up no beautiful and durable monument or proud cenotaph to teach their children and the world that such a one deserved this, and more than this, and shall not be forgotten, but ever honored-highly honored. What is the sentiment of East Tennessee ? What of the County of Sevier, and of Hawkins, with her beautiful marble ?- Of Sevier and Hawkins-hewed out of the Indian quarry, chiseled and fashioned and adopted and organized under the State of Franklin ; one honored by and honoring the name of the Governor of that in- teresting State, the other rejoicing in the name of her who was the honored and honoring first wife of that model architect and 'statesman, hero and civilian !
Consult, combine, contribute ; construct a cenotaph worthy of him-worthy of yourselves !
In the fall of this year, Dykes, a noted and infamous Tory, laid his plan with his associates to seize Colonel Sevier, and put him to a cruel and igno- minious death, and would have accomplished his purpose, had not his wife divulged to Mrs. Sevier the plan.' She had often received favors from the family (as did all others who applied), and she came with her apron held out to ask for a quart of meal and a slice of meat, and near the smoke-house re- vealed the scheme, and thus foiled the wicked purpose of her husband.
In June of this year, Colonel Sevier had marched into South Carolina to aid Colonel McDowell and others against the Cherokees and Creeks. The battle of Musgrove's Mills was one of several fought during this tour.
In February, 1781, Lieut .- Colonel Sevier was honored by a communication
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from Gov. Caswell, of North Carolina, enclosing to him a commission as Colonel of the County of Washington (the district having been changed to a county), and within a few days thereafter, Gen. Greene's appointment of him as a commissioner to treat with the chiefs of the Cherokees, Chickasaws, and other tribes, was received, and he discharged the trust satisfactorily.
In this year, Colonel Sevier conducted several important enterprises against the Indians, in one of which a considerable number of women and children were captured, and, owing to their exposed condition, he had some thirty of them conducted to his own home, where ten of them remained for three years, living upon his individual bounty at their ease, working not at all, or not enough " to pay for their salt," at the high prices of those days. But the kind treatment these prisoners received from Colonel Sevier and his family, was one of the best victories ever gained by him, and the entire ex- pense of this was individual and his own, as were the costs of equipments and provisions of more warlike and hazardous deeds. For these, neither the State nor the Government ever made him any remuneration.
In this very year, too, North Carolina, had, by solemn 'resolution, compli- mented Sevier and Shelby for volunteer services and noble deeds, and then urged them to "fight away on their own hook," defend the frontiers, and "please make our best bow and politest acknowledgments to Colonels Camp- bell and Preston, of Virginia, for their spirited exertions in behalf of the Southern States," &c.
Compliments and petitions of this kind came not only from the State, but from individuals and the inhabitants of frontier settlements, and in some of them Colonel Sevier is addressed as "His Excellency"-already.
In September, Gen. Greene urged Sevier to advance to his aid-he did so with two hundred men, to "rouse the Whigs and whip the Tories," and so went on.
Sevier and Shelby were attached to Marion's command, with five hundred mounted men.
Cornwallis having surrendered in October, Sevier and Shelby wished the privilege to attack the Hessians at Monk's Corner, but had to go under the command of Colonel Mayhew, of South Carolina. They had a share in other movements. Shelby returned home to attend as a member of the Legisla- ture, but Sevier remained till near the end of the year 1781.
1781-82. Colonel Sevier conducted several expeditions into the Cherokee country, to the Chiccamauga towns, to Citico, Chota, &c.
1783. News of peace with England received in March; and here the Whigs "rejoiced with them that did rejoice;" but the warfare here was not ended.
1784. And now came on the scenes of the " State of Franklin ;" an anoma- lous State; stirring scenes and strangely-commingled events-personal, civil, legislative, judicial, executive, and military motion and commotion, conten- tion and strife, and continuing for several years, and much of it with, and aimed at the very man who had done, was doing, and continued to do more to defend the people and promote their peace and prosperity, than any other man in all the country. Sevier was tendered a commission as Brigadier-Gene- ral, by vote of the General Assembly of North Carolina, and, as some sus- pected, with the view of withdrawing him from any participation in the move- ment for a new State, but, as has been said, "he, like Moses, chose rather to suffer affliction with his people, than be flattered with the writing on sheep- skin;" and he did suffer. But out of it all the Lord delivered him, and the people finally shouted pæans and amen.
In the contests of that day, each party was ambitious for his friendship; each desired him as a leader, and so did the State of North Carolina. And soon he had to contend with "Old Rip Van Winkle" at arm's length, with active and vigilant political opponents hand-to-hand, with the Indians hip and thigh, and from tree to tree. But he feared not, faltered not, and he failed not. To him the "coon-skin money" of the State of Franklin was of more esteem than the parchment roll with the Great Seal of North Carolina attached. He had in a trunk at his log-cabin, on the Nolachucka, more than two hundred thousand dollars of North Carolina currency-her " continental paper"-which was "not worth a continental"-exclamation !
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In the several treaties he negotiated with the Indians while Governor of Franklin, and at other times prior and subsequent, "the pipe " was lighted with North Carolina notes-punk, the meanest kind of fungus-worthless, rotten stuff.
In 1786, the Cherokees disregarded the treaty of Hopewell, and Gov. Sevier had to pursue their marauding parties, and punish them in their towns on the Hiwassee and elsewhere .*
1787-88. The measures proposed and adopted to satisfy the people of Franklin, and the anxiety of North Carolina to yield up the territory to the General Government, and be relieved of the many urgent demands upon her treasury for these western counties, induced Gov. Sevier, and the supporters of the State of Franklin, to come into measures of adjustment. The territory was ceded to the United States-organized as the territory south of the Ohio River.
1788-96. The State of Franklin quietly died. The stage of Territorial Government was passed through; the State of Tennessee was established, admitted into the Union, and Gen. Sevier was chosen the first Governor. In all the period, from the beginning of Franklin to Tennessee, Sevier was in- cessantly engaged in the defence of the settlements exposed to depredations from the Indians, and in whatsoever public duty could be performed by un- wearied attention and invincible devotion.
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