19 Facts About Willie Blount

Willie Blount was an American politician who served as the third Governor of Tennessee from 1809 to 1815.

Willie Blount studied at the College of New Jersey and King's College.

Willie Blount read law with Judge John Sitgreaves in New Bern, North Carolina, in the 1780s, and was admitted to the North Carolina bar.

Willie Blount represented Montgomery County in the Tennessee House of Representatives from 1807 to 1809.

In 1809, Willie Blount ran for governor against former US senator and frontiersman, William Cocke.

Population shifts had begun to favor Middle and West Tennessee over Cocke's home of East Tennessee, and Willie Blount won the election, 13,686 votes to 8,435.

Willie Blount was reelected without opposition in 1811 and 1813.

Willie Blount persistently sought to acquire land from the Cherokee and Chickasaw, and attempted to suppress the activities of hostile Choctaws and Creeks.

Willie Blount blamed northern tribes for encouraging the Creeks to harass white settlers, and at one point requested Eustis send troops to sever communications between northern and southern tribes.

Willie Blount signed anti-counterfeiting measures, and enacted legislation to settle conflicting land claims from Tennessee's pre-statehood period.

Willie Blount sought navigational improvements, overseeing the completion of the Cumberland Turnpike, and calling for a navigable waterway from Tennessee to Mobile, Alabama.

Willie Blount managed to raise over $300,000 for the expedition, an astonishing sum of money for the time.

In 1827, Willie Blount ran for governor against Congressman Sam Houston and ex-Congressman Newton Cannon, but placed a distant third, winning just 1,784 votes to 44,243 for Houston and 32,929 for Cannon.

In 1834, Willie Blount represented Montgomery County at the state constitutional convention, which drafted a new document to replace the one in effect since the state had been admitted in 1796, and which has many similarities to the 1870 constitution which is still in effect.

Willie Blount died in Nashville on September 10,1835, and is interred at Greenwood Cemetery in Clarksville.

Willie Blount was the younger half-brother of William Willie Blount, a signer of the United States Constitution and governor of the Southwest Territory.

Willie Blount was the great-great grandfather of Harry Hill McAlister, who served as Governor of Tennessee in the 1930s.

In 1803, Willie Blount published a school textbook, A Catechetical Exposition of the Constitution of the State of Tennessee, which was printed by early Knoxville newspaper editor George Roulstone.

Willie Blount later made plans to write a comprehensive history of the state, but this work was never completed.