| Show wy V J ck f anaf on n y a r 1 f W o Ia t 4 3 P 1 a i A z r I 1 4 CG Ok UP J K 9 3 By ELMO SCOTT WATSON EAR the courthouse at Knoxville Tenn stands a tall white obelisk As A. you fOU walk along one of the shady paths In tn the courthouse yard and approach the towering stone atone these words meet your eye The First Governor of Tennessee Tennessee John John Sevier Se Se- vl vier r Z Jack Jock September 23 1744 September 24 1815 Pla Pio Pio- Pio Soldier Statesman and One of the Founders Republic I In n n never heard of Nolichucky Jack missed knowing one of the really characters of at the American frontier and andt t the tie most picturesque figures In tn all our Walk around the monument and read Inscription Governor I of the state of lID Its Six terms governor go of Tennessee times elected to congress A projector and t Kluj's Mountain 35 ba battles battles 35 35 victories a din war cry was ll Here ere they are I l Coma Cohn yb come on I 1 filing Ing ts II Is I. the story which those words It Is 15 not complete until you read road an inon In In- lon on OD on OD still another side ol of the monument It tt la Is Katherine Sherrill Sevier Bonny Donny 1 tame fame when a girl with her parents to SM from North Carolina Married John August 14 1780 1750 when she was twenty fame I e the mother of eight children and October 7 T 1830 1836 aged eighty Moved Ala Altu and here July let set In 10 the brick walls of ot the courthouse Bus f is II I a It still III more Interesting memento of treat total frontiersman and his pioneer wife jou IOU will see Ice the original tombstone of ui Lad his hig Bonny Kate which were were erected graves raves In Alabama and an moved mo-C mo J to their M t location nearly years later One bears We mple Inscription J Sevier Died September 5 I. I The other reads Catharine SevIer Kt the difference in spelling Wife of ot Gov Coy Mn Join Seller SeMer of Tennessee Died October W Aged two eighty years These had been over their graves gra In ta Alabama una where Ipe pest t their last years fears For or history you d lot got yet jet given g their people the proper Ye ve of ef time e through whIch to view their In ID k n building the nation and it was not until a century later that the rethem rewn re re- them liS as their own wn and P paid ld to them In ta taT f stone the honors due Oue their greatness this John Jehu T Seer SeYler Is 8 characterIzed b by one thus thuI The o organizer 1 of the first free dependent nt government on the continent er of a great commonwealth an Indian r Did uld few tew 6 have ha re ever eer e equalled lia edS a soldier meet the finest nest troops on the continent eld and aad with tam Interior inferior numbers numbe win lvin sue suc- adverse M circumstances an inis- inis uder could conduct the affairs of his hu fellow fellow- j I L I statesman circumstances L of ot the Greatest dUn colossal who takes rank n not t far W behind men who watched l the he travail pains d h the delivery ry of the new Dew nation Dation hi him too most at another historian has has written written daring spIrit was s the young er of French fler family fumy originally born r from rom l In tn A Augusta county Va Va- It Millerstown e D ln In Shenandoah be county Iral iH that h livIng 8 g the uneven uneventful l We Ufe of a small that he ha emigrated ed In December December- 1773 uga ga re region on In ln his hh i eastern castern Tennessee tin l sad aad there C begins one of the most J stirring romantic careers recorded In the theIS IS L Ia annals of ot the old Southwest daring g and hI Impetuous y young ung fellow fair fair- nil magnetic Debonair of debonair of power power- beb 0 d proportions and athletic skill the II ef gallant nt exemplar of ot the truly the the th border bordet The story of his life Ue 10 bred d P extreme Is rich In ln all a the I elements which Impart romance to years of American civilization in Via ot of the Republic uga bl James aDles settlement had been made In Inh who bo h and B a Party of o North hail had heir ebing climbed l the mountains and i The In a fertile valley on the other ODD v Virginian In who was a man of nl days dau Soon became a leader lender In Inne and rt ne for the next 43 outa years he was wasi e r cc i fI figure re In ln that part of ot the thee rl that h e or It as was not long lonS of after atler er his ud aft ohad 0 of IP d an aD opportunity Opportunity to demonstrate t which eldership started ln In th the troubles with t 1774 nd started daring the Dunmore II n continued n Dued after atter the outbreak of ot once n e During 8 the Sevier th br broke Jle a lm up the e plans of ot the British d 7 a act e 8 ses uP upon n tb the borde borders rs and andere ere rev fatal r stroke ke lun st the coI of r the fir r rat a ofa he the mother country ry of ot the B British attempts was wu v otC k M a t t iii wa t Wk s d. d st S 'S J n a rude rule pal In 1773 lii when a war party Inclosure built on I the he banks bunks of ot the Watauga near Sycamore Shoals The Tile fort tort was WIlS closely besieged for some 40 days daJ's an and during luring this time there occurred the Ule romantic episode which has made famous the story of ot Jack Jack- and his bis Bonny Donny I Kate ate Despite warning some of the people In the fort tort grow rowing growing ing tired of ot the confinement had hod gone cone outside the walls alls A and tried to party of savages suddenly appeared cut them off ort At the first alarm Sevier sent his bis of the terror terror- flight men to the walls to cover coer the stricken fugitives es by a sharp rifle rile fire which would hold off ort the Indians until all had reached safety One young girl Katherine Sherrill in of ot the palisade and her terror leaped to the top of the com com- arms anns walls alls Into the feU fell over the mander She seemed to have leaped Into his WI after arter married soon heart DurIng also this for lei siege liege they were of the fort tort Sever Sevier and his Inflicted such heavy losses upon the IndIans Indiana men war chief ot of the Cherokees Chero- Chero great grent the that genius ot of his warriors but the kees wIthdrew defensive ia Tot shown so eo much In not Sevier r was tactics as 01 It was In the tactics cf of attack Time mitt on led the borderers he be and again surprise an Indian village and drive them to Then atter the rout headlong Into sous he withdrew to the Watauga village and aDd time the crops before there was a In tart fact long settlement Jack adopted Na 1 Napoleon moLlie mobile concentrated small Idea ot a superior but scat upon Up a body hurled burled and torce mt this policy ot Cherokees Cherokee and fp speed 3 d loon broke the spirit ot of the s i. i far sti A. o f ti 1 Jl J Y l 1 a H YI F. F t. t I a rIG T E J R their allies and prevented their being used by tl the British In a rear attack on the colonies who were wera engaged in their desperate struggle straggle on the Atlantic Atlantic At At- lantic seaboard It was these same tactics which Sevier used in winning one of ot the most brilliant victories of the Revolution the Revolution the dash to trap Colonel Ferguson son Bon and his force of ot British at Kings King's Mountain and overwhelm them before they could receive aid from Cornwallis Not far tar from Johnson I City Tenn Term stands a monument where Sevier Campbell Shelby and anti other leaders rallied the mountain men for the march over the Great Orest Sm to take part in that battle which was wu afterwards fo to 10 be known as turning point of the Revolution For or the loss suffered by the British on Kings King's Mountain was one of ot the steps which led to the surrender of Cornwallis at Yorktown Yorktown York York- town and the end of the Revolution At the close dose of ot the Revolution the North Carolina Carolina Caro Caro- Carolina lina legislature without consulting the settlers settlers' wishes ceded the Watauga region to the federal government gO with tho the provision that It must bo be accepted within two years During the two years congress debated the matter an nail ami finally rejected tile the gift Willie WitHe the discussion was going on In to congress North Carolina withdrew her courts courtl and militia and the settlers awoke to the fact tact that they were under the protection of neither th the state stute nor the federal government And from neither could they gain any help hell In repelling the attacks of ot the Indians who were lere again becoming troublesome Although they hey were subject to federal n d d- d ds S g they were receiving nothing In jt yr Finally angered by being thus desert by the state and nation which they had llad served ser so 80 well during daring the trying times Umes of ot the time Revolution It the frontiersmen decided to establish establish establish es es- a state of their own And in 1784 there came Into existence the Independent state ot l Franklin a commonwealth unique ia In American history The leader to whom they turned was Z Jack Sevier and during the stormy history of that commonwealth be as before was the outstanding lender leader of the east Tennessee frontiersmen For or North Carolina after atter withdrawing withdrawing with with- drawing the act of cession attempted to assert eased her lier authority over oter that region again As AI a governor governor gov gov- of the commonwealth and a man whose forceful personality naturally made enemies for tor him film Sevier evler was WIlS singled out for punishment He lIe was treacherously betrayed captured and afterwards after attel wards tried at Morgantown N. N O. O for tor high trea tree son Immediately 1500 of the trans Allegheny borderers assembled for tor tile the rescue of their beloved beloved be be- loved lo O Jack For awhile a civil chi 1 war seemed Imminent Then aided by some of his hll old in comrades-in-arms SevIer made a spectacular escape escape es es- cape whereupon the people of ot the Watauga country promptly elected him to the North Carolina Carolina Caro Care lina line legislature There was some lome protest about his taking his seat but eventually he was Wil allowed allowed allowed al al- lowed to hold the office When North Carolina ratified the Federal Constitution and became becam one of ot the sisterhood of states one congressman was to represent the North Carolina district beyond the mountains It goes without saying that Sevier Seder was unanimously elected When ben Tennessee became a territory he be was made general of the militia and when hen she became a state he was chosen governor without tion He lie was elected to that position for tor three successive e terms and then under the being ineligible for tor a period of two years fears be wets thereafter elected for three more successive terms after which he be was sent back to congress and three times re Jack died as be had lived Ih-ed In the harness and In the field The end came In 1815 In a tent on a surveying surveying sur sur- expedition for tor the government surrounded by his soldiers Ills wife lived lI on for more than thana a score of years and was burled buried fret first in Alabama where she died But ut In 1922 1022 her body was brou brought ht back to Tennessee and there In ID the very verv heart of t th the country where this pioneer saw history In Inbe the be making and helped make It Jack and his bis Bonny Kat Bate ut ark together |
