| John Hunt Becomes Sheriff | |
By Tom Carney, Editor "Old Huntsville"
As the young community grew in size, the North
Carolina
government began to realize the need for some type of civic jurisdiction.
John Hunt had established himself as a leader of the community and in
1786 was appointed the first sheriff of Hawkins County.
It was required at that time for a sheriff to post a bond as a
prerequisite to taking office. The
bond, signed by John Hunt and four sureties, can still be seen at the North
Carolina Archives, located in Raleigh.
In 1789, when North Carolina voted to ratify the
Constitution,
John Hunt was a delegate at the convention.
One year later, in 1790, when North Carolina ceded the lands
west of the Allegheny Mountains, William Blount, the newly appointed governor of
the territory, made John Hunt a captain of the militia.
The duties of a captain in the militia and a sheriff had many
similarities--they were both charged with keeping the peace, and as Hunt's term
of sheriff had just expired, he was a logical choice.
As he was also the first and only sheriff at the time, he was probably
the only choice.
Everyone living in the territory had heard stories about the
new, rich land lying across the Clinch River.
This was Indian land and supposedly protected from settlement by the
treaties with the federal government. Many
families, ignoring the treaties, began to move into the new lands.
John Hunt, along with the Acklins and Larkins moved across
the river in the mid 1790s into an area known as the Powell River Valley.
Years later this community would become known as Tazewell, Tennessee,
and John Hunt would be recognized as the founder.
Many stories have been written about the romantic frontiersmen
who were bitten with wanderlust. Legends
have us believe that the early pioneers kept moving to escape the confines of
civilization, constantly moving to see what lay over the next mountain range.
Nothing could be further from the truth.
In reality, greed was the motivating factor.
In Tennessee, Alabama, Georgia, and many other states, vast
areas had been set aside as Indian territories.
Although federal law supposedly protected these areas, it did not prevent
"squatters" from settling. These
squatters knew that it would only be a matter of time before the government
recognized their rights and then they could gain possession of large tracts by
simply paying a registration fee. If
they settled on the right land, with a little luck, they could become wealthy.
Basically it was a get-rich-quick scheme that worked for many people.
The other alternative was to wait until the lands had been
"opened" for settlement and bid for them at auction.
Few pioneers could afford to acquire prime land in this manner.
John Hunt had carved a respectable homestead out of the
wilderness when he learned, to his dismay, in 1797, that President John Adams
had sent 800 federal troops to evict the settlers.
In an attempt to stall his eviction, and probably using his title of
Captain in the Tennessee State Militia to help his cause, he wrote the newly
elected governor, John Sevier, asking for help.
On November 25, 1797, Governor Sevier wrote Hunt:
"Yours of yesterday I am honored with and am sincerely
sorry for your embarrassed situation, and would 1, to God, I had it in my power
to render you relief. You may assure yourself that everything will be done for
you that is possible for me, but it is in the president's own power to do
whatever he may think best on this very important and alarming occasion.
I hope in three or four weeks to hear from Congress and whether or not
anything is likely to be done in your favor.
In the meantime, I earnestly beg the people, for their own interest, to
conduct themselves in a peaceable, orderly, and prudent manner."
John
Hunt Seeks Big Spring
