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lircc Wet ft LI WtUNtSUAT, UUT. Z, iy31like: the imell Id be , but “No. ye:, it in mac-THE STATE OF FRANKLIN J• An Early Historical Section of •#the Union Which Has Been ?Lost.vmgout-; the The ictedrses.ttioning,heretheEH.rivedistil e I at this idle iter uld anyt ofell-:on-mtr tent 'dls. the L to: illartentailord?cesietrarythemeoonolsinlius f a She hat ith pu-softbed•ul-riy-zestea,\ndiioron-ap-5*irlt iaonsrer-firlap-sheChezesys:entlit-:ol,rialinbe-»ndomnt-myofthei tohernd-oonlie,theher•ledorktheopsin-hertoionriidfewtnicL.are five the* He the ; he rain ight willThe state of Franklin! What does that mean? A member of the membership committee of the Southern society was somewhat puzzled. The Southern society as an organization is exacting, which is another way of saying that it is exclusive. When a name is proposed for membership, the candidate must accompany it with a lucid account of himself and a veracious pen-portrait of his family tree. One of the questions asked is substantially this:“How long and in what states of the south have your ancestors lived?” A recent candidate, the story goes, filled out the blank space as follows: “Five generations in the states of Virginia Franklin and Tennessee.” It was Franklin that stumped a member of the committee—the state of Franklin. Where was it? When was it? What became of it?Those who have never heard of the lost state of Franklin, which flourished for three years with its legislative, judicial and executive branches of government—with ' its citizen army and its masterful pioneer spirit which subdued the hostile Cheroke.es of the southwest, need not blush for their ignorance. There are too many of them.And yet Bancroft devotes many pages to the state of Franklin, which was, in 1784, carved out of what were then parts of North .Carolina and Tennessee, by far the largest slice being taken from the Old North state. All of what was the state of Franklin is now embodied in the state of Tennessee.The genesis of .the state of Franklin make some of the most interesting and romantic chapters in American history. It fascinated Theodore Roosevelt, who devotes considerable space to the “lost commonwealth” in his work, “The Winning of the West.” The most accurate as well as the most vivid account of the community’s rise and fall, however, is found in a book ty James It. Gilmore (Edmund Kirke) called “John* ►.Sevier, the Commonwealth Builder.” Gilmore sets John Sevier on a pedestal, and extravagantly says that he was the ablest creative: • l i * . *statesman of the post-revolutionary epoch between 1783 and the second war with Great. Britain. ;.JT ...It is a matter of 'historic record thatNorth Carolina did not take this favorable measure of Sevier. After the dians and for two years governedIsaac Shelby they organized to a man and went to meet the foe, armed with their Deckard rilies. The oldest male person left in the Watauga settlement was Sevier’s youngest son John, jr. His two older boys accompanied hiru.The over-mountain men met Ferguson at King’s Mountain end signally defeated him. Ferguson was killed, Colonel de Peyster, a New York tory, his second in command, was taken prisoner, and the tide of war was turned in that section. Gilmore says that King’s Mountain put Tarleton on the run and made York-town possible.At the close of the revolutionary war the Watauga settlement had widely extended its borders and contained a large and active population. It belonged to North Carolina and [ the vast territory, comprising what is now the state of Tennessee, 29,-000,000 acres, brought with its possession the obligation to bear a correspondingly large part of the federal debt. North Carolina didn’t fancy this, and in June, 1784, ceded the land to the federal government. When the news of this act reached the settlers they realized that they were practically without protection, as the country had not been organized into a territory and the sovereignty of North Carolina had ceased to exist. They therefore determined to form a state government of their own and then apply for admission to the union. TJiey were bitter against the North Carolina government, which they thought had negl.ected them.Accordingly, in August, 1784, they called a convention, adopted a constitution, organized a state government and elected Sevier governor. The state was named in honor of Benjamin Franklin, and while it lasted, and for many years afterward, those who lived within its borders were called “Franks.”In the meantime, before the cession of the territory had been ratified by the federal government, the legislature of North Carolina met and hastened to undo what had been done at the former session. They even made friendly overtures to the settlers, guaranteeing them a superior court and promising to organize a militia and make Sevier brigadier general. Public opinion was, however, strongly against a return to North Carolina.Within sixty days after taking the oath of office as governor Sevier created a superior court, organized ■the militia for protection against Indians and founded Washington college, the first institution of classical learning, west of the Alleghenies, which still exists. He' also entered into a treaty of peace with the In-Tlp0c38HE LfMRS. IValue 1$25CCantcKihleyghtr or theiOlo-civ-aoreness-St.are n close d itong.Peet,collapse of the state government,which had been formed without fed-• •era! -authority, he was indicted for high treason by the North. Carolina authorities, and taken to Morgantown for trial. While the hearing was in progress his friends from “over the mountain” stormed the court house and he was rescued. The indictment was wisely dropped, and Sevier was restored to the . favor of Washington, who made him a major general of militia in the territory west of the Alleghenies. He was afterward elected ithc first governor of Tennessee—Franklin under a new name—and served twelve years. He died in 1815 while a member of the federal congress..The birth of the state of Franklin came about in this wise:In the year 1772, a large number, of Virginians. crossed the. Appalachian range and settled, on the banks of the Watauga river, a small stream in what is now eastern Tennessee. They were hardy pioneers of the better class. Their master spirit was John Sevier, already referred to. He had been a captain in the Virginia line under King George, and the military instinct was very strong within him. He and his compatriots had adouble task; they must perforce subdue the forest and the Indian foe at the same time. How well they succeeded is a part of history. The Cherokees wore driven back and made to understand that the whites were there to stay. Forms were opened, mills erected, and within a comparatively short space of time a prosperous, happy and contented people, most of them of the Presbyterian faith, had built up a community that reflected no discredit upon the Old Dominion, whence they came. There was a fly in the ointment, however, for it was soon discovered that most of the settlers were upon North Carolina territory, and in those days the “Tar Heels” and the Cavaliers were at odds.Meantime Lexington had become a page of history, Bunker Hill had been fought, and the Declaration of Independence adopted.It took the news of all this some time to reach the ‘Watauga settlement, but finally the pioneers acrossthe mountains learned that the continentals were at war with the mother country. “Ramsay’s Annals of Tennessee” declares that the Watauga settlement developed just one tory—a ne’er-do-well who was ordered out of the country.In 1780 these backwoodsmen learned that Ferguson, the British general, with his regulars and a goodly tory following, was not very far awaywith unbroken prosperity. 'At the end of that time Governor Caswell, of North Carolina, issued a proclamation declaring the new government to be a revolt and ordering that it be at once abandoned. Violence followed the attempt to subdue it, but the settlers finally submitted to superior force. Sevier was arrested, but, as has been stated, was rescued. •When the territory was finally ceded to the United States government Washington made him its military commander.The territory was admitted to the union as the state of Tennessee in 1796, and for twelve years it had practically the same rulers that the state of Franklin had enjoyed, from governor down.Besides his leadership in the state of Franklin John Sevier had a unique career. He lived at Jonesboro, the capital of the Washington district. He was governor of two states— Franklin and Tennessee; he was a member of three state conventions for framing a constitution—North Caroline, Franklin and Tennessee; he was a member of the state senate of North Carolina; he was the first member of congress elected west of the Alleghenies, and in all his office-holding careers he never changed his residence once. He died while on a mission to the Creek Indians and was buried by them in a lonely spot near what is now Decatur, -Ala. In 1889 the legislature of Tennessee made an appropriation for the purpose and his ashes were transferred with much pomp and ceremony to the court house yard in Knoxville, where they now rest under a monument.—New York Times.heard 1will. :to sit a husban herself his dea time tb this ne row.Mrs.couragecomposities.The r day si§ dressed that si pointmt the iwil all aff* Willian state, aFolloi the late the ext 1897: CHE“I pi latest tvokingENGLA tfD’S BIG TRADE ABROAD.It would be an instructive object lesson in maritime commerce if some official would compile from the national records a statement of the“To i Kinley, tate, w come o which * during, followii propert pay my a year be paid ley. I insuffic: comfort provide my pro; sum su poses, at the c brotheralike.wife fr she rec pleasur be pro she req* fortabb ES!It is the Mb 000 to i ance o; $67,00( sists of ous t( Washir ing at! probate probati pected, Day wi istratoiIWiilinumber, size and character of all the I Walda.hlch across the mountains in the Carolinas.vessels under the British flag which are engaged in trading all the year round between foreign ports alone. Perhaps the most striking instance one could indicate for American readers is the case of the Anchor line of Glasgow, which has a service of large and costly steamers regularly employed in carrying cargo and peasant laborers from Italy to the United States and back again. These Italian laborers leave the Mediterranean in the spring nd earn enough money to pay their passage back again in the fall—to sunshine and idleness at home in the winter. .It is a large trade and the steamers engaged in it do not touch at a British port at allUnder the leadership of Sevier and and never return to the united king-Feteimer.OliveSchearJck~ParkerClyd-kinsonFranCharBride.Step]pentcr,■WillGeorMesch;JohnThe
Newspaper Details
Fort Wayne Sentinel
Fort Wayne, Indiana, US
Wed, Oct 02, 1901
Page 26
Full Page
Clipped by
Bradley O.
USA 21 May 2018
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