William Cage (1745 –March 1811) was an American politician in North Carolina and Tennessee and an early settler in Tennessee. He was a member of the North Carolina House of Representatives (then called the House of Commons) in 1783 and 1784. He briefly held the position of State Treasurer and Speaker of the State House of Representatives in the 18th century,from August 1784 to June 1785,representing the proposed State of Franklin.
William Cage was born in Virginia in 1745. Before the American Revolutionary War,he moved to Chatham County,North Carolina. During the war,he served as a major in the United States Army and was active in suppressing the Tories commanded by David Fanning. After the war,he moved to Sullivan County,North Carolina where he was elected to the North Carolina House of Representatives (then called the House of Commons) in sessions in 1783 and 1784. The other legislators from Sullivan County at that time were Colonel Abraham Bledsoe and David Looney. In 1774,there was a movement to form the state of Franklin from a group of western North Carolina counties. Cage took a central role in the movement,and was appointed treasurer and elected speaker of the lower house of the first assembly of the provisional state,serving from August 1784 to June 1785. [1]
In 1785 he moved further west to what is now Sumner County,Tennessee,with the Bledsoe family. The Southwest Territory was organized in 1790 to govern the area,and Cage was appointed by Governor William Blount sheriff of Sumner county,a position he held until 1796 when he was succeeded by his son James Cage. [1] Cage was a member of the first session of the Court of Pleas and Quarter Sessions after Tennessee statehood in 1796. [2]
William Cage died at his home in Sumner County,Tennessee in March 1811. He had at least two sons,the aforementioned James and another,Harry,who moved to Mississippi where he was a legislator and judge. Two of his grandsons were also notable,Harry T. Hays and John Coffee Hays. [1] He also had four daughters. [3]
The area along the Cumberland River near his home is now known as Cage's Bend and is the location of Cage's Bend State Park. [3]
William Blount was an American politician,landowner and Founding Father who was one of the signers of the Constitution of the United States. He was a member of the North Carolina delegation at the Constitutional Convention of 1787 and led the efforts for North Carolina to ratify the Constitution in 1789 at the Fayetteville Convention. He then served as the only governor of the Southwest Territory and played a leading role in helping the territory gain admission to the union as the state of Tennessee. He was selected as one of Tennessee's initial United States Senators in 1796,serving until he was expelled for treason in 1797.
The State of Franklin was an unrecognized proposed state located in present-day East Tennessee,in the United States. Franklin was created in 1784 from part of the territory west of the Appalachian Mountains that had been offered by North Carolina as a cession to Congress to help pay off debts related to the American War for Independence. It was founded with the intent of becoming the 14th state of the new United States.
The Territory South of the River Ohio,more commonly known as the Southwest Territory,was an organized incorporated territory of the United States that existed from May 26,1790,until June 1,1796,when it was admitted to the United States as the State of Tennessee. The Southwest Territory was created by the Southwest Ordinance from lands of the Washington District that had been ceded to the U.S. federal government by North Carolina. The territory's lone governor was William Blount.
John Sevier was an American soldier,frontiersman,and politician,and one of the founding fathers of the State of Tennessee. A member of the Democratic-Republican Party,he played a leading role in Tennessee's pre-statehood period,both militarily and politically,and he was elected the state's first governor in 1796. He served as a colonel of the Washington District Regiment in the Battle of Kings Mountain in 1780,and he commanded the frontier militia in dozens of battles against the Cherokee in the 1780s and 1790s.
William Hall was an American politician who served as the seventh Governor of the state of Tennessee from April to October 1829.
Joseph McMinn was an American politician who served as the fourth Governor of Tennessee from 1815 to 1821. A veteran of the American Revolution,he had previously served in the legislature of the Southwest Territory (1794–1796),and as Speaker of the Tennessee Senate (1805–1811). He was a member of the Democratic-Republican Party.
James White was an American pioneer and soldier who founded Knoxville,Tennessee,in the early 1790s. Born in Rowan County,North Carolina,White served as a captain in the county's militia during the American Revolutionary War. In 1783,he led an expedition into the upper Tennessee Valley,where he discovered the future site of Knoxville. White served in various official capacities with the failed State of Franklin (1784–1788) before building James White's Fort in 1786. The fort was chosen as the capital of the Southwest Territory in 1790,and White donated the land for a permanent city,Knoxville,in 1791. He represented Knox County at Tennessee's constitutional convention in 1796. During the Creek War (1813),White served as a brigadier general in the Tennessee militia.
James Winchester was an American military officer,entrepreneur and statesman. He served in the Continental Army during the American Revolutionary War and was promoted to the rank of brigadier general during the War of 1812. He operated a shipping business,held various offices,and was one of the co-founders of the city of Memphis.
John Rhea was an American soldier and politician of the early 19th century who represented Tennessee in the United States House of Representatives. Rhea County,Tennessee and Rheatown,a community and former city in Greene County,Tennessee is named for him.
Jethro Exum Sumner was a senior officer of the Continental Army during the American Revolutionary War. Born in Virginia,Sumner's military service began in the French and Indian War as a member of the state's Provincial forces. After the conclusion of that conflict,he moved to Bute County,North Carolina,where he acquired a substantial area of land and operated a tavern. He served as Sheriff of Bute County,but with the coming of the American Revolution,he became a strident patriot,and was elected to North Carolina's Provincial Congress.
Joseph Hardin Sr. was an Assemblyman for the Province of North Carolina,and was a signatory of the Tryon Resolves. Early in the War for Independence,as a member of the militia from Tryon County,Hardin fought the Cherokee allies of Britain along the western frontier. Later in the war,having taken his family over the Appalachian Mountains to the Washington District for safety against the advance of the Red Coats out of South Carolina,Hardin joined the Overmountain Men. He saw action at the Battle of Ramsour's Mill and the decisive Battle of Kings Mountain. Following the peace with Britain,Hardin was a co-founder and second Speaker of the House for the State of Franklin;and an Assemblyman in the Southwest Territory before its statehood as Tennessee.
The Fendall-Dent-Worthington family is a family of politicians from the United States. Below is a list of members:
Bledsoe Creek State Park is a state park in Sumner County,Tennessee,in the southeastern United States. The park consists of 169 acres (0.68 km2) managed by the Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation. The park spans much of the west shore of the Bledsoe Creek embayment of Old Hickory Lake,an impoundment of the Cumberland River created with the completion of Old Hickory Dam by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in 1954.
The Salisbury District of North Carolina,was originally one of six colonial judicial districts established in 1766 by the Governor William Tryon of the Province of North Carolina. Immediately preceding the onset of the American War of Independence in 1775,these six regions were renamed "military districts" by the North Carolina Provincial Congress and used for organizing the North Carolina militia. The other military districts were Edenton,Halifax,Hillsborough,New Bern,and Wilmington districts. The military district designation was discontinued in 1835 during the North Carolina Constitution Convention.
John Tipton was an American frontiersman and statesman who was active in the early development of the state of Tennessee. He is best remembered for leading the opposition to the State of Franklin movement in the 1780s,as well as for his rivalry with Franklinite leader John Sevier. He served in the legislatures of Virginia,North Carolina,the Southwest Territory,and Tennessee,and was a delegate to Tennessee's 1796 constitutional convention. Tipton's homestead still stands and is managed as the Tipton-Haynes State Historic Site.
Anthony Bledsoe was an American surveyor,politician and military colonel. He served in the French and Indian War and the American Revolutionary War.
Thomas Gillespie was a large plantation owner in mid-to-late 18th-century North Carolina and served as commissary of the Rowan County Regiment in the North Carolina militia during the American Revolution. He spent his early life in Augusta County,Virginia before migrating to Anson County,North Carolina in about 1750,where he lived most of his life on Sills Creek in the area that became Rowan County,North Carolina in 1753. He and his wife and son were the first white settlers west of the Yadkin River. He owned a plantation of over 1,000 acres on Sills Creek in Rowan County,as well as 6,000 acres in the area of western North Carolina that became part of the state of Tennessee in 1796. He was an early elder in the Thyatira Presbyterian Church in Rowan County,which had been established by 1750. Thomas was the great-grandfather of U.S. President James K. Polk through the lineage of his daughter Lydia,who married Captain James Knox and gave birth to Jane Gracey Knox,mother of the President.
The North Carolina General Assembly of April to June 1784 met in New Bern from April 19 to June 3,1784. The assembly consisted of the 120 members of the North Carolina House of Commons and 50 senators of North Carolina Senate elected by the voters in April 1784. As prescribed by the 1776 Constitution of North Carolina,the General Assembly elected Alexander Martin to continue as Governor of North Carolina. In addition,the assembly elected members of the Council of State.
The North Carolina General Assembly of October 1784 met in New Bern from October 25,1784 to November 26,1784. The assembly consisted of the 116 members of the North Carolina House of Commons and 55 senators of North Carolina Senate elected by the voters on August 20,1784. As prescribed by the 1776 Constitution of North Carolina the General Assembly elected Richard Caswell as Governor of North Carolina and members of the Council of State.
The North Carolina General Assembly of 1785 met in New Bern from November 18,1785,to December 29,1785. The assembly consisted of the 114 members of the North Carolina House of Commons and 54 senators of North Carolina Senate elected by the voters on August 19,1785. During the 1785 session,the legislature created Rockingham County. As prescribed by the 1776 Constitution of North Carolina the General Assembly elected Richard Caswell to continue as Governor of North Carolina and members of the Council of State.