General Joseph Martin Reference Document Part 1

Provided By: Carol (Gehrs) Mitchell Email carolmit@usaor.net

This information is presented for the use of other researchers, not as the absolute facts but as the current information and understanding by those compiling these records. Any and all communications regarding these Data are solicited and are welcome.

Family Group

Subject* __ ___ ____ Brig Gen Joseph MARTIN Jr

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NameVar: __ ___ ____ Gulkalu; Indian name meaning tall NameVar: __ ___ ____ Longknife

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NameVar: __ ___ 1793 Brig Gen; Joseph MARTIN received the title of Brig. Gen. in 1793 while serving in the 12th Virginia militia. He was appointed by Governor `Light Horse Harry' LEE, in response to a call from the Federal goverment for troops to suppress the Whiskey Rebellion in western Pennsylvaia. Partly because of mutinies and desertions in the western counties (many of which were in sympathy with the Pennsylvanians) his birgade of Virginia troops arrived at their rendezvous point of Winchester to late to be of service & they were paid off and discharged there

Occupation* __ ___ ____ Brig Gen rank held at the same time in VA & NC.

Anecdote* __ ___ ____ On one of Col. MARTIN'S visits to his home in Henry Co, his wife Susannah (GRAVES) MARTIN complained to him of illtreatment she had received from her brother. Joseph chanced to meed GRAVES later at a gathering of friends, told him of his wife's complaint, and publicly stated that he would overlook the offense this time but would whip him if it happened again. Enraged, GRAVES sent MARTIN a note challenging him to a duel early the next morning. Joseph appeared alone at the place at the appointed time and found GRAVES together with his brother and father waiting there. He pulled the note from his pocket, showed it to GRAVES and asked if he had sent it, and knocked him down with a blow when he admitted doing so, whereupon the two GRAVES boys and their father took to their heels, leaving the field to the Colonel.

Anecdote: __ ___ ____ On one occasion a wounded enemy Indian was tracted to a cave in which he took refuge, armed with a rifle, Joseph entered the cave alone and in the darkness located the Indian, killed him, and brought the body to the surface. Another time, a British agent among the hostile Chicamauga branch of the Cherokees sent a party of 90 warriors out to assassinate Col. MARTIN, one of the group going out ahead to shoot him from ambush if possible. This Indian, after unexpectedly coming facetoface with MARTIN, prudently returned to his companions and gave this report to their leader: "If you want Col. MARTIN killed, go do it yourself. He looks just dreadful." The whole party then returned home. On one of Col. MARTIN'S expeditions against the Chicamauga his provisions ran low. He managed to get word to Nancy WARD, who sent out several beefs under Indian escort. A part of Sevier's troops came across the beefs, pretended they were theirs, and slaughtered them for their own use. Joseph learned of this, drew his sword, rode at the head of his men to the place where Sevier's party was camped, and forceably recovered his beef. When two of his men were imprisoned by a superior officer for some minor offense he took matters into his own hands, rode up with his troops and released them. Apparently no notice was taken of this insubordination but it greatly increased his reputation among his men. "General Joseph MARTIN made an invaluable and little publicized contribution to the cause of the United States during his service on the frontier. It is doubtful if the Revolution could have succeeded without his influence amoung the Cherokees. The British strategy to subdue the Colonies was to land an army in West Flordia, strike north through the Creek, Choctaw, and Cherokee country, recrutiting an army of warriors as they marched, and take Georgia, the Carolinas, and Virginia from the rear, pounding them into submission against a second army of redcoats to be landed simultaeously along the coast. had this strategy succeeded, the south would have been overwhelmed and the war lost to the United States almost as soon as it began. That it failed, and the defeat of the Tories at King's Mountain took place, is due largely to Joseph MARTIN'S ability to persuade the indians, dominant among whom were the Cherokees who were his friends and relatives, not to aid the British cause. his contribution was recognized by his associates and his superiors at the time; it is quite possible that Joseph MARTIN would today be looked onas one of the major heroes of the American Revolution had he operated in a more populous region where his deeds could have become more widely known, rather than on the remote and savage frontier, far from the civilized centers of power and communications.

Birth* 18 Sep 1740 Louisa Co., VA, USA. Witness: __ ___ 1744 Co. Hist.: Albemarle Co., VA, USA; Joseph's son William in his 1842 letter to DRAPER said that his father was "born in the year 1740 in Albemarle Co., Virginia near Charlottesville." Albemarle Co wasn't formed until 1744 & was formed from Goochland & Louisa Cos.

War: __ ___ 1756 Fort Pitt, Pittsburgh, PA, USA; Joseph was reared in a violent area, during violent times, he grew up "overgrown, rude, and ungovernable", a rowdy bullying roughneck who refused to attend school and who ran away from the carpenter to whom he had been apprenticed by his father to learn a trade. He and his friend Thomas SUMTER (of South Carolina fame) some time in 1756/57 made their way through the wilderness to Fort Pitt (Pittsburgh) and enlisted in the Army. Witness: bt 17561757 History: Fort Pitt [Pittsburgh], Allegheney Co., PA, USA; Joseph was reared in a violent area, during violent times, he grew up "overgrown, rude, and ungovernable", a rowdy bullying roughneck who refused to attend school and who ran away from the carpenter to whom he had been apprenticed by his father to learn a trade. He and his friend Thomas SUMTER (of South Carolina fame) some time in 1756/57 made their way through the wilderness to Fort Pitt (Pittsburgh) and enlisted in the Army.

Witness: bt 17601762 Will: Joseph MARTIN Sr.; Fredericksville Parish, Louisa Co., VA, USA; mentions "Goose Creek Partomack River; a partnership with Col. Francis WARIN of Essex Co., Virginia; the location of Stony Branch; negroes viz: Ben, Sue, Temp, Dinah, Perthenia and Nepton. Named were present wife Ann MARTIN; son Brice MARTIN; son William MARTIN; son Joseph MARTIN; son John MARTIN; son George MARTIN; daughter Susannah MARTIN with no heirs so far, if she dies without heirs land to Susannah Chiles HAMMACK, daughter of John HAMMACK; daughter Mary HAMMACK; daughter Sarah BURROS; daughter Martha MARTIN; daughter Ann MARTIN; and daughter Olive MARTIN. Executors were Isaac DAVIS and Thomas BURROS.

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Residence: __ ___ 1762 Orange Co., VA, USA. Anecdote: __ ___ 1762 In the early years Joseph MARTIN gambled away his father's inheritance and went into debt. His restless spirit could not be patient at the plow. His son, William, said he had "no talents for speaking or writing." His recognition was with the military where he was an excellent Indian agent. One of his friends in wild younger days was Benjamin CLEVELAND Joseph finally paid off all his debts and worked for 3 years as overseer for a "rich relation named MINOR."

Anecdote: a __ ___ 1762 He settled down as a farmer there. However, his boisterous way of life continued, and he neglected his farming to indulge a passion he had developed for gambling at cards, he lost his inheritance & fell into debt. Shortly after the French & Indian War he became acquainted with Elisha WALDEN, Will BLEVENS & John COX all `Long Hunters', this chance meeting changed his life. Their accounts of the wild and unexplored country aroused the adventurer in Joseph & their reports of profits to be made in the fur trade offered him a chance to recover from debt. He joined with WALDEN and became a `Long Hunter'. The long hunters, in small groups of three & four men would set out in the fall of the year to their favorite hunting grounds (locations concealed) 100 miles or more beyond the settlements. They took with them packhorses, traps, guns, powder, lead, bulletmolds, tools and afew repair parts for their weapons, and a small supply of flower and parched wheat or `rockahominy'." At the hunting ground they established camps, which they shifted every few weeks as the game became shy, staked out their trap lines, and remained in the wilderness until spring, when they returned to the settlements with theri pack horses loaded with deer skins and fur pelts of beaver, mink, otter, raccoon, bear, and other animals. The Shawnee were to the north and the Cherokee to the south and they did not like the invasion ot their trational neutral hunting grounds. Settlement: c __ ___ 1767 Powells Valey; He was approached by Dr. Thomas WALKER, who had discovered & named Powell's Valley & the Cumberland Mountains and had secured a large grant of land in the area. He asked Joseph to head a party to establish a `station' (fortified frontier post) in Powell's Valley. Joseph built the station (consisting of five or six strong cabins connected by a loop holed log palisade in a rectangular plan) at what became known as `Martin's Station' (named after him in present Lee Co., VA), on the KY Trace about 20 miles northeast of Cumberland Gap right off the Wilderness Trail. A crop was put in & parts of KY were explored, the post had to be abandoned because of the hostility of the Indians. Anecdote: __ ___ 1767 Joseph's share of the profits from his Long Hunts was substantial and at the same time his luck at cards (assisted by his bullying tactics at the table) seems to have improved, he succedded in paying off his debts and aquired several tracts of land. In 1767 Joseph & CLEVELAND put in a crop of wheat on Pigg River (now Franklin Co., VA) but were too improvident to fence it in, losing much of the crop to deer. At harvest time they invited in their friends and neighbors to the reaping and provided a fiddler and a plentiful supply of whiskey for their entertainment. In the riotous party all the reapers got drunk and none of the crop was harvested. Joseph continued in this way until SUMPTER & CLEAVELAND moved from the area.

Residence: __ ___ 1773 Pittsylvania Co., VA, USA.

Moved* __ ___ 1773 Pittsylvania Co., VA, USA; Joseph took his family in the fall of 1773 to Pittsylvania Co., Virginia, he bought a tract of land on Smith River and built a home which he named "Scuffle Hill", because of the difficulty with which he scratched a living from his rather rough land. His farm eventuall grew to nearly a thousand acres on the north side of the river extending from Hammack's Branch (near the end of Lanier Rd.) along the river to Rugg Creek (where Rives Rd Extension crossed the river) and north to apoint on a small branch of Mulberry Creek.

War* __ ___ 1774 The Shawnee War erupted and Lord DUNMORE on 25 Augest 1774 commissioned MARTIN a captain in the Pittsylvania militia. He was in charge of the Rangers (scouts) at Culbertson's Bottom on New River, to cover the Shawnee Pass through the mountains, and remained there until after the battle of Point Pleasan.

Marriage: c __ ___ 1775 Elizabeth WARD (17581800); Cherokee Nation East, [now W TN, USA; When Joseph MARTIN was appointed Indian agent of the Cherokees took a young half bread Cherokee to wife c1775, to Elizabeth `Betsy' WARD, 1/2 Cherokee Indian, Cherokee Nation East (now East TN). She was the daughter of Brian WARD & Nancy "Nany'hi"/"GhiGau" WARD Betsy was born c 1758, Cherokee Nation East and was still living ca 1800 on a fine estate at the town of Wakhovee on the south side of the Hiwassee River 50 miles from Tellico Blockhouse [260 miles from Augusta, GA] and was still called Mrs. MARTIN. She lived in a log house fully furnished on a well stocked farm and raised and spun cotton. She and her relatives lived for a time in Chota, a town located where the Tennessee and Holston Rivers meet. Betsy was the most distinguished clan of the whole tribe, and one of the first families of that clan (for there was then, a marked distinction between families among them as in civilized life). "With this woman he lived the greater part of his ling agency mostly at the Lond Island, but sometimes in the Nation. Once in a while he would go home to Virginia, stay a while and return. And strange as it may seem, it never produced any discord between him and my mother; such was her affection for him, and such was his address that he quited all concerned except myself, his son William. Settlement: bt 17751776 1775 he led a party into Powell's Valley to reestablish "Martin's Station" but was unsuccessful because of the Indian uprisings in 1776.

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Residence: __ ___ 1776 Henry Co., VA, USA.

Supplies* __ ___ 1776 Henry Co., VA, USA; Joseph MARTIN £2.7.3 for 18 bushels corn & 15 lbs Bacon for the use of Lieut. Col. Lee's Legion & £2.17.0 for 265 lbs beef, 2 Diets & 4 gals, corn for Hospital at Henry Courthouse.

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Witness: __ ___ 1776 History: Henry Co., VA, USA; Henry County, created in 1776, was named in honor of the great orator of the Revolution, Patrick Henry, who did so much to overthrow the royal establishment in Virginia. Before the creation of Henry County, counties were generally named in honor of some one connected with the royal family of England or the royal government of the colonies. Formed from Pittsylvania County, the area of the county is 385 square miles and the county seat is Martinsville. Martinsville was named for Joseph Martin, an early settler and Revolutionary War soldier who represented Henry County in the General Assembly in 1791, when the town was established. Martinsville was incorporated as a town in 1873 and became a city by court order in 1928. Its area is 11.2 square miles. Parishes of the Established Church 1607 1785 When the first English settlers came to Virginia in 1607, they followed the familiar patterns of the Church of England and established parishes that served as local units of ecclesiastical and community organization. The General Assembly established parishes and fixed their boundaries, often at the same time that it created or altered county lines. On January 16, 1786, the General Assembly passed Thomas Jefferson's Bill for Establishing Religious Freedom, ending stateenforced support for the formerly established church and its parishes Camden, 1776 1778 Patrick, 1778 1785.

Military: __ Aug 1776 Henry Co., VA, USA; As Capt. MARTIN was in charge of a company of fifty militiamen who were sent to the Holston River country, to help build a fort near the Long Island (where Kingsport lies), and took part in several successful campaigns against those of the Cherokee Towns which had shown hostility to the Americans. Appointed: 03 Nov 1777 Henry Co., VA, USA; was made agent to the Cherokee Indians by Gov. Patrick HENRY of Virginia. he served as agent until 1789. His main base while agent was 2 miles from Long Island on the Holston river (NC) in present Sullivan Co., TN. He traveled back & forth from Henry Co., Virginia to Tennessee during this time.

Residence* __ ___ 1778 Martinsville, Henry Co., VA, USA; Sign in front of courthouse, Martinsville, named for Joseph Martin, pioneer who settled here in 1778, in 1793 the courthouse of Henry County was moved her and the town was established. Patrick Henry for whom the county was named lived near here once..

Marriage: a __ ___ 1780 Susannah EMORY

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Military: __ ___ 1781 Washington Co., VA, USA; served as Lieutenant Colonel in the Washington Co. militia.

Settlement* __ ___ 1783 Powells Valley, KY, USA; he was successful in a third attempt to establish a permanent settlement in Powell's Valley, safeguarding the passage of travellers along the Kentucky Trace & the Wilderness Road into Kentucky.

Appointed: __ May 1783 NC, USA; him its Agent for Indian Affairs among the Cherokee Towns.

Appointed: __ ___ 1784 State of Franklin [TN], USA; August 1784, Col. MARTIN was a member of the convention called to orgaize the State of Franklin from the Tennesse lands ceded by North Carolina to the United States but not yet accepted by the Congress. He opposed this move, and is credited with playing a major part in bringing about the dissolution of the State of Franklin, thereby incurring the lasting enmity of his old friend and Governor of the new state, John SEVIER. SEVIER became very hostile toward him because of the part Joseph played in the disolution of the new state, and is believed to have been the instigator of an attempt by a party of about four frontiersmen to see him out & put him to capture or kill him. Joseph learned of this, armed himself to the teeth, and set out to meet the advanceguard of eight or nine of the main party, and on coming up with them drew his pistol and announced that he would shoot the first one of them who moved his gun. The group protested that they had not plans against him, and accompained him back to this station at the Lond Island, where Joseph set out a supply of whiskey for them. The rest of the party was then sent for, and the whold affair ended in a twoday revel.

Note: 01 Jan 1784 Among the records of the Moravians in North Carolina we find 1 Jan. 1784, people arrived in toquo, but Col. MARTIN forbade them to sell their brandy, he constantly urges the Indians not to sell their skins for brandy, but to exchange them for necessities. Many are enemies of Col. MARTIN, on his journeys he has need to be most careful, the only ground for the hatred is that he secured from the government an act of assembly, securing to the Cherokees the land on which they live, and will not allow other people to settle on their hunting grounds.

Marriage* 24 Feb 1784 Susannah GRAVES (17631837); Henry Co., VA, USA.

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Appointed: __ ___ 1785 by the Congress on the Commission to conclude treaties between the United States and the Cherokees, Choctaws, and Chickasaws, which was successfully accomplished. Marriage: a __ ___ 1785 Mary EMORY; his 4th her 2nd. Appointed: __ ___ 1787 Henry Co., VA, USA; to the North Carolina Assembly from Sullivan Co. and in Dec. commissioned by them as Brigadier General of the North Carolina militia in the Western District, which is now Tennessee. He also traveled to Georgia that year to negotiate a treaty with the Creek Nation. Grant* 21 Jun 1787 Henry Co., VA, USA; on Rugg Creek adjoining his own land, containing 435 acres.

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Appointed* __ Jun 1788 Henry Co., VA, USA; Agent to the Cherokees by the Untied States goverment.

Note: __ ___ 1789 Henry Co., VA, USA; In 1789 he returned to Henry Co. where he lived the remainder of his life. That year he also set up a trading post in Georgia (in which he lost heavily) on a tract of land he had acquired. He was so well though of by the Georgians that they elected him to their legislature. For the remaining 19 years he visited in TN and GA and also helped with a Creek Indian treaty in GA.

Deed: 03 Apr 1789 Henry Co., VA, USA; from William BROWN for £20 124 acres waters of Smith River.

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Witness: bt 17901790 Will: William GRAVES Sr.; Henry Co., VA, USA; home place, 22 negroes (appr 5 slaves) Exe. Wife, son Thomas, Joseph Anthony. Court Rec: __ ___ 1791 Henry Co., VA, USA; Mordiaia HORD'S estate in 1791 had a suit against Jos. MARTIN, Henry Co., Virginia.

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Member: bt 17911799 Henry Co., VA, USA; (possibly later years also) as the representative from Henry Co. in the General Assembly of Vriginia. Deed: 31 Oct 1791 Henry Co., VA, USA; from Stark BROWN for £50, 50 acres on north side of Smith River. On 6 Dec 1791 a power of attorney from Brice MARTIN to Joseph MARTN to sell his lands in Russell Co. Powells Valley and to ttransact all his business in Henry Co. in his absence and to pay a judgment by John Wallen of Caroline Co., VA. Deed: 28 Jan 1792 Henry Co., VA, USA; from William GRAVES for £25 all of his father, William GRAVES Sr. estate which was willed to the said William GRAVES. Should the courts of or his mother Mary GRAVES rule the will unlawfull then the estate to be equally divided between the heirs of his father.

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Military* __ ___ 1793 received title Brig. Gen while serving in 12th VA militia.

Witness: __ ___ 1794 Purchased: James PARBERRY; Henry Co., VA, USA; 2 slaves Lucy & Peter.

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Member: __ ___ 1795 VA, USA; on the Commission to define the VirginiaKentucky border.

Sold* 20 Nov 1796 Thomas GRAVES (17691844); Henry Co., VA, USA; to Joseph Martin 296a.

Note* __ ___ 1804 Henry Co., VA, USA; he withdrew from all public service to return to the new home he had built for his family on Leatherwood Creek.

Member* __ ___ 1804 of a commission to define the VirginiaTennessee border.

Deed: __ Jan 1806 Henry Co., VA, USA; to John PAUL, for £46.7., 66

Carol (Gehrs) Mitchell, 134 Schnauzer Lane, Beaver Falls, PA 15010 724-847-4473 [using The Master Genealogist 3.5, WP8, Eudora]


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