John
Sevier was born in Rockingham County, Virginia, on September
23, 1745. Searching for available land he could afford, he moved
west in 1772 and served as a militia captain under George Washington
in Lord
Dunmore's War. A lieutenant colonel in the trans-Allegheny
forces during the Revolution, he was commended for his services
at Kings Mountain
in 1780. Consequently, in March 1785 he was elected governor
of the independent State
of Franklin, a portion of North Carolina (now eastern Tennessee)
where settlers desired statehood. North Carolina declared the
State of Franklin in revolt, subdued it with force, and ceded
it to Congress. Subsequently, Sevier was elected to the North
Carolina Senate in 1789, received a full pardon, and was restored
to his status of brigadier general.
He
retired to his plantation and was appointed trustee of Washington
College and Blount College (now the University of Tennessee).
Because of his military renown, he was elected the first governor
of Tennessee (1796-1801 and 1803-1809), state senator (1809-1811),
and a member of the U.S. House of Representatives in 1811.
He died on September 25, 1815, while serving as commissioner
to survey the boundary between Georgia and the land of the
Creek Indians in Alabama. His remains were later reinterred
in Knoxville, Tennessee.
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Bronze
statue
Located
in the
National Statuary Hall,
U.S
Capitol Building,
Washington, DC.
Donated in 1931 by
the State of Tennessee.
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