Sue, Thank you for posting the information about the Wautauga Settlement. I have enjoyed reading it, and it has been most informative. De De ----- Original Message ----- From: Sue <[email protected]> To: <[email protected]> Sent: Friday, September 24, 1999 10:13 PM Subject: Wautauga Settlement > For those of your that have expressed interest in the bit about the Wautauga Settlement. > By 1770 there were a few settlers that had become so disenchanted with the taxes and government inequities that they started moving westward over the > Appalachian Mountains and settled in the are of what was the valleys of the Wautauga, Holstein and Nolichucky valleys. > There were a few gaps in the mountains that they used to cross, mainly narrow buffalo and game trials. But, they found places and got through. One of > those was James Robertson, who left in 1770 from Wake Co. He went into the valley of the Wautauga River. He settled on the Indian "old fields" where > the town of Elizabethton, is now. > He wrote back home telling of the rich land and lack of problems with the Indians (the Cherokees had their hands full at this time, warring with the > Chickasaws and the Cherokees, lost) By the time they had recovered from the defeat, the settlers were well entrenched. > Some of the first settlers, were (Capt) William Bean, the believed, first settler. He was from Virginia and caused many of his family and friends to > come to the area. Others were the Browns, Bones, Carters, Crocketts. > James Robertson is said to have had 16 people in his party to settle. His three brothers, Charles, Mark and Jonathan. His brother in law William > Reeves, and their families. > Others that were there: > Jesse Benton, William Blevins, John Cox, James Denton, Joseph Duncan, George Gray, Andrew Greer, Joshua Houghton, David Hughes, Michael Hyder, Isham > Irby, Henry Lyle, Edward Lucas, John Jones, Henry Massengill, John and Baptist McNabb, George Reeves, Henry Rice, Isaac Ruddle/Riddle, Archibald > Taylor, Mathew Talbot, Joseph Tipton, Richard White, John Williams, and others just given as the Rhea's, Law's, Longs, Kincaid. Some of these are Wake > Co., names but, I do not know for a fact that they were, of Wake Co. > > The first leader of the settlements were Wautauga, James Robertson, John Carter, of Carter's Valley, Evan Shelby, Sr. of the Holton, and Jacob Brown, > of the Nolichucky. > Valentine Sevier was another of the first leaders. He was father of John Sevier. > William Clawson/Closin and William Clark were two pioneers of the Nolichucky settlement. > All these settlers formed the "Wautauga Association" They had their own leaders and government because, they were too inaccessible to the rest of NC. > This has been called the first free government in America. It was formed and administered by the Overmountain Men. > There was one big problem. They thought they had built their settlement in the VA boundaries, but discovered that all but one (the Holston settlement, > above Bristol Tn.) were in Lord Granville's land. > The Regulators in NC were a group of frontiersment, who joined to protest the government taxes and corruption. They wanted the officials to met with > them to change things. The officials refused and the regulators took things into their own hands, causing damage to the courts, records, attorneys and > judges. Gov. Tryon called out the militia and so, became the Battle of Alamance. (May 16, 1771) It lasted two hours. Nine men were killed on each side > and many wounded. The regulators fled. Many of them over the mountains. Thus, increasing the population of the settlements. > Some of the first list of Taxables of Washington Co., in 1778-1801, that are Wake Co., surnames were: Abbott, Atkins, Brown and Carter, Stuart, > Robertson, Drake, Reeves, Womack, Ward, Walton, Wilson. Some Orange/Chatham surnames are Hightower, Dunkin, Wilson, Webb, Russell, Lucas, Thompson, > If you're still interested, more later. > Sue Ashby > Wonderful sources and history of the area are: > "The Overmountain Men" - Pat Alderman > "Seedtime on the Cumberland"- Harriet Simpson Arnow > "Flowering of the Cumberland"- Harriet Simpson Arnow > "Kings Mountain and it's Heroes"- Lyman C. Draper > > > ==== NCWAKE Mailing List ==== > ==== NCWAKE Mailing List ==== > Your donations to RootsWeb makes NCWAKE-L possible. > RootsWeb Gen. Data Coop. Box 6798 Frazier Park, CA 93222 > http://www.rootsweb.com/rootsweb/how-to-subscribe.html > >