Show GEN JOHN SEVIER A Forgotten Hero of Many hard Fought Battles Special Correspondence CHAMPAIGN ms June Gen Sevier Who ever heard of Gen 8 Svierl vier Why Gen John Sevier was a great man in his time and besides being a valiant held soldier in the w of the Revolution various important civil offices among which exactly 100 years ag W the position of of the state of Franklin governor exclaims the surprised reader Worse yet Vor et exca sri reaer of Franklin for who ever heard of the state Fl Well then the state Franklin corresponded ten the commonwealth to and preceded by some years I monwealth of Tennessee Up to the period of the Revolution Ton nee was a part of North Carolina and in named the District of Washington 1777 was naed Distct Wahgn North Carolina not being averse to parting i with i proposed ceding it to the national government gov-ernment on condition that she North Carolina should b exempted from paying her share of J the general debt incurred by the war To ornV with or rrwt < 0 w iffon the I J I government was given two years tune Meantime the few whit inhabitants of the district to avoid what seemed little better than anarchy took matters in their own hands organized a state government elected a full set of officers named their commonwealth common-wealth Franklin and made John Sevier its governor After the lapse of two or three years North Carolina repealed her act of cession Meanwhile Mean-while the course of government in the new country ran anything but smoothly for here was one set of officers acting by the authority of the state of Franklin and another seeking seek-ing to rule the same legionthe district of Washington under the auspices of North Carolina In this emergency Governor Cas well of North Carolina issued a conciliatory address that appeased and forgave all the representatives of the state of Franklin save its late governor John Sevier He was promptly arrested and conveyed to Morgantown Morgan-town in North Carolina wjiero ho was put upon trial for his political l misdemeanors Want of space forbids n detailed account of his romantic delivery by bravo and devotee friends from the clutches of the law to the freedom of his own home at Knoxville The very next year he was chosen to the North Carolina legislature and upon his appearance appear-ance before that body an act of oblivion was promptly passed John Sevier was born in Virginia in 1745 but early in life removed to North Carolina and then toward the end of the revolutionary revolution-ary struggle we find him raising a detachment detach-ment of men in Sullivan district mlnt county of Washington for the defense of the old North j I state But to raise and equip men money 1 needed ali this was a scarce article in that new region something more than hundred Sears since Sexier at last applied to one John Adair tax collector for the county of Sullivan Adair had no legal authority to loan money in this way but being an ardent patriot he let Sevier have something over 12000 and took for it the latters personal note Well the money was well used and a fine regiment of men raised and equipped who under Sevier did most valiant fightiiif for their at Kings mountain N theil country Kngs mountin C October 8 17SO Here the British were disastrously dis-astrously defeated ono of their best leaders Ferguson killed and the enemy compelled to evacuate western and finally the whole of North Carolina For this great victory much praise was given Col Sevier In this battle Seviers men made use of the Indian war whoop to tho dismay of the enemy Some prisoners captured said We could stand your fighting but your cursed hallooing confused con-fused us we thought the inourtains held pimciits instead of companies In 1790 North Carolina ceded the district of Washington to the United States and in 1790 it became a state and has since hen l known as the commonwealth of Tennessee John Sevier became the first governor of the new state and was reelected every two years for three terms when he for a time retired to private life a the constitution forbade the I same person sen ins more than three consecutive con-secutive terms in tho executive chair But Sevier had such a hold upon the people of Tennesssee that u soon as he was a second time eligible three more consecutive terms of the gubernatorial office were conferred upon him after which he was sent to congress In person John Sevier was tall and slender his hair was light and allowed to grow long his forehead high and fair his eyebrows arched and his nose large but his eyes were the most cHaracteristic learure auout mm They were n light blue and often twinkled with mirth yet when their owner so willed they filled with fire and seemed to express only stern command He was a cultured gentleman a genial companion and was called the handsomest man in Tennessee at the time of his first election a governor At this period he was 5 years of age and 1 pictured in the ordinary hunting shirt of the pioneer but upon his shoulder were a pairof heavy epaulets for let it not b forgotten that in less than a year after his arrest by the North Carolina authorities President Washington Wash-ington had made him n general and given him command of a military district embracing embrac-ing the eastern part of what was later the state of Tennessee Already l G he was the hero of thirtyfive battles in all of which he was victorious and strange to say in none wounded His prowess on the frontier won I for him the sobriquet of Nolichucky Jack II At the close of the revolutionary war the Creek Cherokee Choctaw and Chickasaw Indians in the district of Washington numbered num-bered 20000 These were the most daring bloodthirsty savages in America and the handful of whites who made their way across the mountains and settled upon the Holston at Knoxville could never have escaped extermination had it not been for the ecape I bold vigilant irrepressible leader John S vier Sevier was for many years a resident of Knoxville and about 1789 there settled at Nashville then on the extreme frontier another an-other man no less handsome and commanding I command-ing in person equally brave and destined soon to be as popular with the people The name of the newcomer was Andrew Jackson But between these two noted leaders there grew up in the course of time a deadly feud upon grounds we have not space to mention This ill feeling resulted in several personal encounters for fighting and dueling were daily occurrences in that day and country In 1790 Jackson challenged Governor Sevier to mortal combat and notwithstanding the fact that the custom of the period made it incumbent upon a gentleman to accept the challenge of another gentleman to fight a duel Sevier had the nerve to decline He did this on the ground that he had a large family was getting old and as t personal courage he had already given proof of this in the best possible manner fighting for his country But Seviers reply incensed Jackson Jack-son more than ever and shortly afterward he attacked Sevier upon the streets of Jones boro Tenn when a number of shots were exchanged between the contestants that harmed neither of them but put in jeopardy the lives of several bystanders Gen John Sevier died in 1815 beloved and respected by the citizens of his adopted state Sevierville and Sevier county Tenn perpetuate per-petuate the name of the brave pioneer skill ful leader intrepid Indian fighter and first governor of the commonwealth C B JOHNSON |