50 Facts About John Sevier

John Sevier was an American soldier, frontiersman, and politician, and one of the founding fathers of the State of Tennessee.

John Sevier served as a colonel of the Washington District Regiment in the Battle of Kings Mountain in 1780, and he commanded the frontier militia in dozens of battles against the Cherokee in the 1780s and 1790s.

John Sevier was brigadier general of the Southwest Territory militia during the early 1790s.

John Sevier served six two-year terms as Tennessee's governor: from 1796 until 1801, and from 1803 to 1809.

John Sevier was the oldest of seven children of Valentine Sevier and Joanna Goad.

One of his brothers, Valentine John Sevier, became a frontiersman, Revolutionary War officer, and the builder of the John Sevier Station frontier outpost.

Sevier's father worked variously as a tavern keeper, fur trader, and land speculator; young John pursued similar work.

In 1761 at age 16, John Sevier married Sarah Hawkins and initially settled into a life of farming.

Some sources suggest John Sevier served as a captain in the Virginia colonial militia, under George Washington, in Lord Dunmore's War in 1773 and 1774.

In late 1773, John Sevier moved his family to the Carter Valley settlements along the Holston River.

John Sevier was appointed clerk of the Association's five-man court in 1775 and was elected to the court in 1776.

The committee, which included John Sevier, submitted the "Watauga Petition" to Virginia in the spring of 1776, formally asking to be annexed, but Virginia refused.

John Sevier had begun building Fort Lee to guard settlements in the Nolichucky Valley.

John Sevier was appointed lieutenant-colonel of the new county's Washington County Regiment of militia.

John Sevier's men comprised part of the south flank, along with the forces of Campbell and McDowell.

John Sevier defeated a small force near Lookout Mountain, and destroyed several Cherokee villages along the Coosa River.

John Sevier initially supported this, in part because he was offered a promotion to brigadier general, but he was persuaded by William Cocke to remain with the Franklinites.

John Sevier had taken out claims on several thousand acres of land.

John Sevier considered an alliance with Spain, whose Governor Esteban Rodriguez Miro tried to sway Sevier, but the American eventually abandoned that idea.

John Sevier was sent to Morganton, North Carolina, to stand trial for treason.

John Sevier was released by Burke County Sheriff William Morrison, before the trial began.

John Sevier was pardoned by North Carolina Governor Alexander Martin and elected to the North Carolina State Senate.

John Sevier was elected to represent it in the first Congress.

John Sevier was permitted to serve out his term although he no longer represented an existing North Carolina district.

John Sevier defeated a Cherokee force at the Battle of Hightower and destroyed several villages.

John Sevier missed the state's constitutional convention while serving on the territorial council in Washington, but he was elected the new state's first governor.

John Sevier consistently urged Congress and the Secretary of War to negotiate new treaties to that end, to extinguish Indian land claims and promote European-American settlement.

In 1796, Jackson campaigned for the position of major-general of the state militia but John Sevier threw his support behind George Conway.

Jackson learned that John Sevier had referred to him as a "poor pitiful petty fogging lawyer" in private correspondence.

Jackson concluded that John Sevier was somehow involved in the scandal.

John Sevier was a Freemason, and, while in office as governor, he helped establish the first Masonic lodge in East Tennessee.

When John Sevier announced his candidacy for governor in 1803, Roane and Jackson publicized documents acquired from the Nashville land office scandal and accused John Sevier of bribery.

The duel was to take place at Southwest Point, but John Sevier's wagon stalled at Campbell's Station en route to the duel.

Jackson pointed his pistol at John Sevier, who hid behind a tree.

John Sevier's son pointed his pistol at Jackson, and Jackson's second pointed his pistol at John Sevier's son.

Jackson supported Roane in the state's gubernatorial election in 1805, but John Sevier won with nearly two-thirds of the vote.

In 1811, John Sevier was elected to the US Congress for the state's.

President James Madison offered him a command in the army, but John Sevier turned it down.

Ramsey, John Sevier attended the Lebanon In The Fork Presbyterian Church east of Knoxville with members of his family, but he was not a formal member of the church.

In 1815, John Sevier died in the Alabama Territory while conducting a survey of lands which Jackson had recently acquired from the Creek tribe through the Treaty of Fort Jackson.

John Sevier was buried along the Tallapoosa River near Fort Decatur.

In 1889, at the request of Governor Robert Love Taylor, John Sevier's remains were re-interred in the Knox County Courthouse lawn in Knoxville.

John Sevier completed only the foundation before relocating to Marble Springs, a plantation he owned in South Knoxville.

Marble Springs has been designated as a state historic site associated with John Sevier and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

In 1931, a statue of John Sevier, created by Leopold and Belle Kinney Scholz, was dedicated at the National Statuary Hall Collection of the US Capitol.

The name "John Sevier" is an anglicized form of "Xavier" and suggests the family originated in the village of Javier, Spain.

John Sevier changed his name to the anglicized John Sevier.

John Sevier's father, Valentine "The Immigrant" John Sevier, was born in London and immigrated to the colonies in 1740.

Henry Conway was a friend of John Sevier, and served as Treasurer of the State of Franklin.

John Sevier served as the parish tax assessor from 1891 to 1916.