USA > Tennessee > The Annals of Tennessee to the End of the Eighteenth Century: Comprising Its Settlement, as the. > Part 11
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In the fall of this year the country on the Lower Cumber- 1771 § land was further explored by Mansco, in company with John Montgomery, Isaac Bledsoe, Joseph Drake, Hen- ry Suggs, James Knox, William and David Linch, Christo- pher Stoph, William Allen, and others. Among them was an old hunter named Russell, who was so dim-sighted that he was obliged to tie a piece of white paper at the muzzle of his gun to direct his sight at the game-and yet he killed a number of deer. The winter being inclement, the party built a skin house. Their ammunition being exhausted, five men were left to take care of the camp, while the rest returned home. During their absence in the settlements the camp was attacked, as was supposed, by Northern Indians, and Stoph and Allen were taken prisoners. Hughes escaped, and met the company returning to the camp. It was found
106
WATAUGA FORMS ARTICLES OF
as it had been left-the Indians had not plundered it. The party thence extended their hunting and exploring excur- sions-formed a station camp upon a creek, which is still known as Station Camp Creek-each hunter made a discov- ery, and time has signalized it with the discoverer's name. Thus, Drake's Pond, Drake's Lick, Bledsoe's Lick, Mansco's Lick, etc. In the absence of. the hunters, twenty-five Cherokees came to their camp, and plundered it of ammuni- tion, skins, and every thing it contained. As they left no trail, it was supposed that they had retreated by wading along the channel of the creek-no pursuit of them could be made. The hunters soon exhausted the remaining ammuni- tion and returned to the settlements.
The Holston and Watauga settlements were in the mean- 1772 time receiving a steady stream of emigrants. They em- braced within their limits men of very different and in- deed opposite traits of character. Most of them were honest, industrious, enterprising men, who had come there to improve their condition, by subduing and cultivating the new lands in the West. But others had arrived among them, who had fled from justice in their own country, and hoped to escape the demand of the law, and the punishment of crime, by a re- treat to these remote and inaccessible frontiers. There, from the existing condition of affairs, they found safety from prose- cution, and certainly from conviction through the regular channels of law. North of Holston, in what is now Sullivan and Hawkins counties, was then believed to be in Virginia, and the inhabitants agreed among themselves to adhere to the government of that province, and to be governed by its laws. The line separating the two provinces had not then been extended west of the Steep Rock. South of Holston was admitted to be within the boundaries of North-Carolina. There the settlers lived without law or protection, except by- regulations of their own adoption. Being thus without any regular government, the people of Watauga, in 1772, exer-,1 cised the " divine right" of governing themselves. They formed a written association and articles for the manage- ment of general affairs. Five Commissioners were appointed, by the decision of a majority of whom all matters in contro-
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50-00
107
ASSOCIATION AND A COURT.
versy were settled; and the same tribunal had entire control in all matters affecting the common good. The government was paternal and patriarchal-simple and moderate, but summary and firm. It was satisfactory and sufficient for a number of years. The Articles by which the Association was governed have not been preserved. They formed, it is believed, the first written compact for civil government any where west of the Alleghanies, and would make a valuable and exceedingly interesting contribution to the historical lite- rature of the Great West, and a most desirable addition es- pecially to these annals. But after the most diligent inquiry and patient search, this writer has been unable to discover them.
The Watauga settlers, in convention assembled, elected as Commissioners, thirteen citizens. They were, John Carter, Charles Robertson, James Robertson, Zach. Isbell, John Se- vier, James Smith, Jacob Brown, William Bean, John Jones, George Russell, Jacob Womack, Robert Lucas, William Ta- tham. Of these, John Carter, Charles Robertson, James Rob- ertson, Zach. Isbell, and John Sevier, it is believed, were se- lected as the court-of which W Tatham was the clerk. It is to be regretted that the account of thelives of all these pio- neers is 'so meagre and unsatisfactory. The biography of each of them would be now valuable and interesting. Many of them will be hereafter frequently mentioned.
Col. John Carter was one of the pioneers of Tennessee, 1771 - ga settlement. He emigrated from Virginia, in 1771 and a principal and prominent member of the Watau- or 1772. Intelligent and patriotic, he was soon a leader in the Watauga Association, and became the chairman of its committee and of the court-which, for several years, com- bined the legislative, judicial and executive functions of the infant government west of the Alleghany. His administra- tion was wise and popular.
Charles Robertson emigrated from South-Carolina-was the Trustee of the Watauga Association ; and to him was the conveyance afterwards made by the Cherokee Indians, for the lands purchased or leased from them. He was distinguished for his great good sense and wisdom, not less than for his virtue.
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108
CHARACTER OF JOHN SEVIER.
Of James Robertson we have already spoken. He soon be- came distinguished in the new settlement, for sobriety and love of order, as well as for a firmness of character, qualifying him to face danger and defend the feeble colony.
Zachariah Isbell was a fearless soldier, and was, for years after, engaged in the military operations of the country.
John Sevier was one of the Watauga Committee. His char- acter and services throughout a long life, will be frequently a theme of remark to the close of these annals. This may, therefore, be the proper place to introduce his family to the reader's attention.
The ancestors of Mr. Sevier were French Huguenots. The family name in France, is Xavier. About the beginning of the last century they emigrated to England. Valentine Se-' vier, the father of John, was born in London, and previous to 1740, emigrated to the county of Shanandoah, in the colony of Virginia. Here John Sevier was born, in the year 1744. The opportunity of literary improvement was small, but he used it diligently. The Earl of Dunmore, then Governor of Virginia, conferred upon young Sevier the appointment of captain in the military service of the colony. Not long after, the family emigrated to the West, and settled on Holston, in what is now Sullivan county. The father, Valentine Sevier, moved from there to Watauga, where he settled permanently, occupying a farm on that river, between the Sycamore Shoals and the present Elizabethton. The remains of part of the old family mansion could be traced in 1844.
Captain Sevier inherited some of the vivacity, ease and sprightliness of his French ancestry. He was fluent, collo- quial and gallant-frolicsome, generous and convivial-well informed, rather than well read. Of books, he knew little. Men, he had studied well and accurately. Oral communica- tions had been the source of his mental culture and his know- ledge. He was impulsive, but his impulses were high and . honourable. The Chevalier and the Huguenot were combined in his character. He exhibited, in good proportions, the suav- iter in modo and the fortiter in re. He was without pride -if that feeling is not one of the ingredients that constitute a laudable ambition-for he was ambitious-not of anything
109
WATAUGA-LEASE FROM INDIANS.
low or ignoble : he was ambitious of fame, character, distinc- tion and achievement.
With such traits of character, it is not strange that Captain Sevier at once became a favourite in the wilds of Watauga, where a theatre presented itself for the exercise of the talents and principles which characterized "that portly young stran- ger from Williamsburg."
1.
Early in this year the authorities of Virginia made a treaty with the Cherokees; by which a boundary was 1772 fixed between them, to run west from the White Top Mountain, in latitude thirty-six degrees thirty minutes. Soon after this, Alexander Cameron, a deputy agent for the government of Great Britain, and resident among the Chero- kees, ordered the Watauga settlers to move off. Some of the Cherokees expressed a wish that they might be permitted to stay, if they would agree to make no further encroach- ments; this avoided the necessity of their removal. The inhabitants, however, became uneasy at the precarious te- nare by which they occupied their land, and desired to obtain & more permanent title. For this purpose they deputed James Robertson and John Boon to negotiate with the Indians for a lease. The negotiation succeeded, and for an amount of merchandize, estimated to be worth five or six thousand dollars, some muskets, and other articles of convenience, the . Cherokees made a lease for eight years of all the country on the waters of the Watauga .*
Hitherto the settlements had been confined to the Upper Holston and to the Watauga. About this time another stream south of them was found to present strong allure- ments, and to hold out great inducements to emigrants to settle upon it. The Nollichucky finds its source in the midst of the highest mountains in the United States. The scenery near it is romantic and Alpine. Its numerous tributaries, descending the northern slope of these stupendous heights, bear upon their currents the soil that forms and enlarges its rich alluvial. The bottoms were covered with the most luxuriant cane-brakes ; the vallies near it abounded in game, and presented the most inviting prospect of present success
* Haywood.
110
BROWN SETTLES ON NOLLICHUCKY.
to the hunter and grazier, and of a rich requital in future for the toils of the husbandman. The temptation to occupy it could not be resisted by the emigrants, and Jacob Brown, with one or two families from North-Carolina, pitched their tents, in 1772, upon its northern bank. Brown was a small merchant, and for the goods that were carried to his new settlement, upon a single pack-horse, bought a lease of a large tract of this fertile country from the Cherokees. Like that on the Watauga, the property advanced for its purchase, was reimbursed by selling out the lands in small parcels to individuals for the time the lease was to last.
The boundaries of these two leases are not distinctly known. There were no offices in the country at that time, in which such instruments of writing could be recorded, and . the original papers have probably been lost. Brown's lease is believed to have embraced lands upon both sides of the Nollichucky. The writer has a deed of conveyance now before him, from Jacob Brown to Richard Trivillian, for two hundred and thirty-two acres of land, lying on the south side of the river. The consideration is one hundred pounds, and the title is not a fee simple, but only a relinquishment on the part of the grantor. In these early times, and among these primitive people, little regard seems to have been given to forms, even where real estate was concerned. A transfer of land was made in the most simple mode. Upon the back of the same deed from Brown, is endorsed-
" For value received of eighty-five pounds, I do hereby assign all my right, claim and interest of the within deed, unto George Gillespie, as witness my hand and seal.
RICHARD TRIVILLIAN. (Seal.)
Witness present test, AMOS BIRD."
And again immediately below-
" For value received, of Jeremiah Jack, I do hereby assign all my . right, claim and interest of the within deed, as witness my hand and seal. GEORGE GILLESPIE. (Seal.)
Witness present, THOS. GILLESPIE."
The present name of the river is a corruption of the abo-
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WISDOM AND INTREPIDITY OF ROBERTSON.
riginal Nonachunheh. It is so given in Brown's deed of con- veyance, and also in the plat upon the same paper. In his traffic with the Indians, and in his negotiation for the lease from them, Brown had, doubtless, learned the true pronunci- ation. Its signification is rapid or precipitous, and is exactly descriptive of the upper portion of the stream.
About the time Robertson was forming his settlement on Watauga, and a little previous to the first emigration to Nollichucky, several families settled in Carter's Valley, fif- teen or eighteen miles above the present flourishing town of Rogersville. This country being north of Holston, was then believed to be in Virginia. The first emigrants to it were principally from that province. Two of them, Car- ter (whose name the valley still retains) and Parker, after- wards opened a store, which was robbed by the Indians ; the depredators were supposed to be Cherokees, but of this no certain proof was obtained. The relations between them and the whites had recently been of the most friendly char- acter, and mutual confidence was not destroyed on account of this robbery. But at the time when the Watauga lease was executed, an occurrence took place, which had well nigh involved the then feeble settlements of Robertson, Carter and Brown, in hostilities with their savage neighbours. At the close of that treaty, a great race was appointed to be run at Watauga. The occasion had brought together a large concourse of people from all the adjacent settlements. Many of the Indians were still there participating in the athletic amusements of the frontier people. Mischievous white men, from the neighbourhood of the Wolf Hills, in Virginia, as was believed, among others were present, and lurking about the place where the race was run, watched an opportunity at the close of the day and killed one of the Indians. This act, alike atrocious, inhuman and impolitic, gave great offence and produced much alarm. The inhabitants felt that it was not only wrong, but that it would expose them to the retaliatory vengeance of the outraged Cherokees. At this crisis the wis- dom and intrepidity of Robertson saved the infant? settle- ments from extermination. He undertook a journey to the Indian nation, one hundred and fifty miles distant, in order to
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112
BOON ATTACKED IN A DEFILE.
pacify them, and allay the irritation produced by this bar- barous and imprudent act. The attempt was hazardous in the extreme ; but the safety of the whites demanded the mis- sion, and he proceeded at once to the chief town of the Che- rokees, met their head men, and declared to them that his · people " viewed the horrid deed which had been perpetrated, with the deepest concern for their own character, and with the keenest indignation against the offender, whom they in- tended to punish as he deserved whenever he could be dis- covered." The Indians were appeased by this instance of condescension in the white people, and of the discountenance which they gave to the miscreant. The settlers were saved from their fury, and Robertson began to be looked upon as an intrepid soldier, a lover of his countrymen, and as a man of uncommon address, in devising means of extrication from difficulties.
In the fall of 1778, Daniel Boon made the attempt to take 173 his family to Kentucky. Before this time no white female, no family, had crossed the Cumberland range. Boon prevailed on four or five other families to join him, and with them advanced towards Cumberland Gap. The little colony was joined in Powell's Valley by forty hunters, well armed. The whole formed a caravan of eighty persons. While passing a narrow defile in their march, on the fifth of October, they were startled by the terrific yell of Indians, in ambuscade, by whom they were furiously assailed. Some of the men flew to the protection of the helpless women and children, while others of them rushed to encounter the enemy in their coverts. A scene of consternation and confusion for a moment ensued ; but the Indians, surprised at the fierce and resolute resistance of the men, soon fled in every direc- tion.
The first fire of the Indians killed six men and wounded the seventh. Among the killed was a son of Boon, aged about twenty. The party fell back to the nearest settlement, where the emigrant families remained till after the close of Lord Dunmore's war.t
After the extension of the British dominion over West * Haywood. t Monette.
113
GREAT NAUTICAL ADVENTURE.
Florida, encouragement was given by the English authori- ties to emigration thereto, from the Atlantic Provinces. No country surpassed in soil and climate that portion of Florida lying upon the Mississippi River, and emigrants began to seek a route to it through the interior, and down the Ten- nessee and Ohio. Many of these stopped one season and made a crop on Holston, sold the crop, built a boat, and per- formed the difficult and dangerous voyoge from the Boat- yard to Natches. A higher degree of nautical adventure has been no where exhibited. The passage, by men unac- customed to navigation, through the Boiling Pot, the Skillet, the Suck, the Muscle Shoals, more than two thousand miles down an unexplored river, both banks of which were, at these places, in the occupancy of Indians, was more than an adven- ture, it was an enterprise, in which every movement was ac- companied with danger and probable disaster. Through this channel Louisiana and Mississippi received some of the oldest American families. Some of these came from the Roanoke, in North-Carolina, and it was probably the first An- glo-American settlement upon the banks of the Mississippi .*
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A large number of surveyors and woodsmen had been 1774 ( sent under the authorities of Virginia to the wilder- ness of Kentucky, for the purpose of locating and selecting lands under royal grants and military warrants. This was viewed by the Indians as an encroachment upon their rights, as they still claimed these lands. Hostilities had, indeed, already been commenced by the Shawnees, who at- tacked the party of Boon the October previous. The murder of the whole family of the generous, but unfortunate Logan, who had been the friend of the whites, and an advocate for peace among his red brethren, aroused the vengeance of that bold warrior and influential chieftain. The Shawnees, in alliance with the warriors of other northern and western tribes, began the work of destruction and massacre, in de- tached parties, on the whole Virginia frontier. The emer- gency was met by Lord Dunmore with great vigour, and measures were immediately adopted to repress the hostilities, and punish the audacity of the enemy. General Andrew * Martin's Louisiana.
114
CAPTAIN SHELBY'S VOLUNTEERS.
Lewis* was ordered to raise four regiments of militia and volunteers, from the south-western counties, to rendezvous at Camp Union, and to march down the Great Kenhawat to the Ohio. Captain Evan Shelby raised a company of more than fifty men, in the section of country now included in the . counties of Sullivan and Carter. With these he marched on the 17th of August, and joined the regiment of Colonel Christian, on New River. From this place the regiment pro- ceeded to the great levels of Green Brier, where they joined the army of General Lewis. On the 11th of September, the army set out for the designated point. The route lay through a trackless wilderness, down the rugged banks of the Ken- hawa-through deep defiles and mountain gorges, where a pathway had never been opened. Twenty-five days were consumed in slow and toilsome marches. On the 6th of Oc- · tober, the army reached the Ohio and encamped upon its banks. The camp was upon the site of the present town of Point Pleasant. The troops being upon short allowance, select parties of hunters were kept constantly on duty to supply them with food. On the morning of the 10th, about daylight, two of the men belonging to Captain Shelby's vol- unteer company, James Robertson and Valentine Sevier, who had been out before day hunting, very unexpectedly met a large body of hostile Indians advancing towards the camp upon the provincials. They were on the extreme left of the enemy, and fired on them at the distance of ten steps. As it was yet too dark to see the assailants, or to know their number, the firing caused a general halt of the enemy, while Robertson and Sevier ran into camp and gave the alarm. Two detachments, under Colonel Charles Lewis and Colonel William Fleming, were immediately ordered forward to meet the Indians, and break the force of their assault upon the camp. These detachments had scarcely proceeded beyond the sentinels, when they encountered the enemy advancing upon them. A most violent and hard fought engagement
* This is the same person who was sent by the Earl of Loudon, in 1756, to erect a fort on the Tennessee River.
t Anglise. The river of the woods-now known as New River.
115
BATTLE OF THE KENHAWA.
ensued. Fleming and Lewis were wounded in the first as- sault-the latter mortally-but refused to leave the field until the main line came to their relief. The contest lasted the whole day, with varied success-each line receding or advancing alternately, as the fate of war seemed to balance between the two armies. In the evening, General Lewis ordered the companies commanded by Captains Shelby, Matthews and Stewart, to advance up the Kenhawa River, under the shelter of the bank and the undergrowth, so as to gain the rear of the Indians, and pour in a destructive fire upon them. In the execution of this order, the men were ex- posed to a galling fire from some Indians, who had taken position behind a rude breast-work of old logs and bushes, and were from that point giving a deadly fire. One of Shel- by's men, the late John Sawyers, of Knox county, wishing to shorten the conflict, obtained permission to take a few others and dislodge the Indians from the shelter which pro- tected them. His bold conception was gallantly executed. A desperate charge was made-the dislodgement of the In- dians was effected, and the three companies having gained the enemy's rear, poured in upon the savages a destructive fire. The Indians fled with great precipitation across the Ohio, and retreated to their towns on the Scioto.
The battle of the Kenhawa is, by general consent, admitted to have been one of the most sanguinary and well contested battles which have marked the annals of Indian warfare in the West. On the part of the provincials, twelve commis- sioned officers were killed or wounded, seventy-five non-com- missioned officers and privates were killed, and one hundred and forty-one were wounded .*
Of the company of volunteers from what is now East Tennessee, Evan Shelby was captain; and his son, Isaac Shelby, lieutenant. After the fall of his colonel, Captain Shelby took command of the regiment. This was early in the action, and through the rest of the day Isaac Shelby commanded his father's company. "Two privates, Robertson and Sevier, had the good fortune on this occasion to make
* Monette.
116
HEROIC CHARGE OF SAWYERS.
an unexpected discovery of the enemy, and by that means to prevent surprise and defeat, and possibly the destruction of the whole army. It was the design of the enemy to attack them at the dawn of day, and to force all whom they could not kill into the junction of the river." The heroic charge of the little detachment under Sawyers is admitted to have had a decided influence in shortening the obstinate conflict. Many of the officers and soldiers in the battle of Kenhawa, distinguished themselves at a later period in the public ser- vice. Thus early did the "Volunteer State" commence its novitiate in arms.
As the battle of Point Pleasant furnished the first occa- sion for the display, by the pioneers of Tennessee, of the ad- venture and prowess which have since so signally charac- terized her volunteer soldiery in all periods of her history, it is thought proper to present, at this place, a list of Captain Evan Shelby's company, in the remarkable and patriotic campaign on the Kenhawa.
James Shelby, John Sawyers, John Findley, Henry Span, Daniel Mungle, Frederick Mungle, John Williams, John Ca- mack, Andrew Torrence, George Brooks, Isaac Newland, Abram Newland, George Ruddle, Emanuel Shoatt, Abram Bogard, Peter Forney, William Tucker, John Fain, Samuel Vance, Samuel Fain, Samuel Handley, Samuel Samples, Ar- thur Blackburn, Robert Handley, George Armstrong, William Casey, Mack Williams, John Stewart, Conrad Nave, Richard Burk, John Riley, Elijah Robertson, Rees Price, Richard Hol- liway, Jarret Williams, Julius Robison, Charles Fielder, Ben- jamin Graham, Andrew Goff, Hugh O'Gullion, Patk. St. Lawrence, James Hughey, John Bradley, Basileel Maywell, and Barnett O'Gullion. Of the non-commissioned officers, it is only known that John Sawyers, James Robertson, and Valentine Sevier, were three of the orderly sergeants.
After the battle at Point Pleasant, and a further invasion of their country, the Indians made a treaty with Lord 1775 Dunmore, in which they relinquished all their claim to lands south of the Ohio. To a large extent of this terri- tory, the Cherokees, with other southern tribes, pretended
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