State of Franklin Genealogy

United States   Tennessee    State of Franklin

History
In August 1784 delegates of three western North Carolina counties, Washington, Sullivan, and Greene (all now in Tennessee), declared their Independence from North Carolina because of perceived neglect, and misuse by North Carolina’s legislature. By May 1785 they had petitioned to be admitted to the United States as the new State of Franklin. The Franklin statehood request was denied.

In March 1786 the Franklin legislature created four new counties: Wayne (old), Spencer, Caswell, and Sevier (all in present-day Tennessee). In a later session Blount County was also created by Franklin before its statehood effort collapsed in 1789. Until 1792 the lands of Alleghany, Ashe,and Watauga counties, now in North Carolina, were part of Washington County, and were also considered part of the abortive, short-lived State of Franklin.

However, in 1789 North Carolina ratified the Constitution, was admitted the union, and ceded her westernmost counties to the United States. The United States used them to create the Southwest Territory. The five new counties erected by the Franklin government were not recognized by North Carolina, the Southwest Territory, or by Tennessee. Three of the five counties were renamed at the time they were reconstituted. No mention was made of their Franklin predecessor county governments. In 1786 North Carolina created Hawkins County as a parallel to Franklin's Spencer County, so Spencer is now known as Hawkins County. In 1792 North Carolina annexed the land of Alleghany, Ashe, and Watauga counties back from the Southwest Territory, and the Southwest Territory created Jefferson County out of land that was once part of Franklin's Caswell County. The Southwest Territory reconstituted Sevier County in 1794, and Blount County in 1795, but Blount's borders were significantly redrawn. And in 1796 the new State of Tennessee erected the new Carter County out of land once part of Wayne (old) County.

In 1796 the land of all these counties (except Alleghany/Ashe/Watauga) became part of the new State of Tennessee.

Since then, in 1797 Cocke County was created from the southeast part of Jefferson (former Greene/Caswell) County. Johnson County was formed out of northeast Carter (former Wayne (old)) County land in 1836. In 1870 the southern part of Hamblen County was formed from Jefferson (former Caswell) land and the rest from parts of Hawkins (former Spencer), and Grainger County. Unicoi County was created from the southwest part of Washington County in 1875.


 * Foster, Dave. Franklin: The Stillborn State and the Sevier/Tipton Political Feud. Johnson City, Tenn.: Overmountain Press, 2003. FHL US/CAN Book 976.8 H2fd.
 * Williams, Samuel Cole. History of the Lost State of Franklin. 1924. Reprint. New York, New York: Press of the Pioneers, 1933. FHL US/CAN Book 976.8 H2w. Indexed.

Migration
In his well researched article "The Tennessee Constitution of 1796: A Product of the Old West" (1943), John D. Barnhart concluded that because of better road access, the largest percentage of East Tennessee pioneers had come to the area from Virginia. This, he believes changed over time. To reach this conclusion, he did a statistical analysis of the origins of Tennessee Constitution delegates and places of enlistment for Revolutionary War pensioners.

Origins of Tennessee Constitution Delegates (1796)

Revolutionary War Tennessee Pensioners (1818)

Revolutionary War Tennessee Pensioners (1832)

Barnhart concludes that these numbers reveal that the earliest settlers (there by 1818) had come principally from Virginia, while between 1818 and 1832, a larger influx of North Carolina migrants settled in Tennessee, once road access improved.

Records
Records of the State of Franklin are now found at various repositories in Virginia, North Carolina, and Tennessee.

Gordon Aronhime (1911-1983) collected information on hundreds of Southwest Virginia and East Tennessee pioneers. His note cards, which reference more than 4,000 early settlers of the Holston-Clinch River area and East Tennessee (1770s-1790s), are held at the Library of Virginia. The cards have been digitized and made available online.

Some records of settlers in this area may be found in:


 * North Carolina State Records, Vol. 22
 * Territorial Papers of the United States, Vol. 4
 * Cook, Michael L. and Bettie A. Cook. Fincastle &amp; Kentucky County, Va.-Ky.: Records and History. Evansville, Ind.: Cook Pub., 1987. FHL US/CAN Book 976.9 H2cc.

Reconstructed censuses of the area help identify early settlers:


 * Jackson, Ronald Vern. Ohio, 1790, Volume Two. North Salt Lake, Utah: Accelerated Indexing Systems, 1986. FHL US/CAN Book 977.1 X2o 1790. [Includes "Territory Southwest of the River Ohio," i.e. East Tennessee. ]
 * McGhee, Lucy Kate. Partial Census of 1787 to 1791 of Tennessee as Taken from the North Carolina Land Grants. 3 Parts. Microfilmed in 1990. FHL US/CAN Films 1728882 Item 4 and 1683130 Item 3.

Professional genealogist Arlene Eakle's Tennessee Genealogy Blog discusses many sources and strategies for tracing early frontiersmen in what is now Tennessee:


 * 17 Mar 1775: Treaty of Sycamore Shoals-a Pivotal Event in Our Genealogy Past
 * Close Personal Ties ...up close and personal [select bibliography of Tennessee frontier histories]
 * Diaries and Journals and Letters... [and what they tell us about pioneer Tennessee settlers]
 * Ma'am, You Need a Goat... [discusses Eakle's personal Master List of Tennessee Record Sources, 1750-1815]
 * Military Men on the Tennessee Frontier
 * Reconstructing the 1790 Census of Tennessee
 * Tennessee Had Two Military Districts [1780s]
 * Territory Southwest of the River Ohio [excellent bibliography of pre-1790 Tennessee sources]
 * We stand on the shoulders of those who've gone before: A Census Substitute, 1787-1791

For early settlers, Fischer's book is a great place to start searches. She created a comprehensive index to pre-1800 Washington County court, land, marriage, probate, and tax records, see:


 * Fischer, Marjorie Hood. Tennesseans before 1800: Washington County. Galveston, Texas: Frontier Press, 1996. FHL US/CAN Book 976.897 N22f.

Guides

 * Price, Prentiss. "Research in Early Tennessee Records," Ansearchin' News, Vol. 14, No. 1 (Jan.-Mar. 1967):5-11. Digital version at Ansearchin' News Archives; another digital version at Sevier County, Tennessee, Genealogy &amp; History website.

Maps

 * Reeves, Charles A. The Counties of the State of Franklin. Published 2000. Purchase at ReevesMaps.com; website includes a scaled-down version of the map.
 * Reeves, Charles A. The Road to Statehood, County Formation in East Tennessee, 1779-1796. Published 2000. Purchase at ReevesMaps.com; website includes a scaled-down version of the map.