Court and 

 College 



JOHN SEVIEE AND HIS BRAVE WIFE 359 



couuty aud under the title of " clerk of the county " he 

 held in reality entire control of the administration of the 

 district. 



In 1784 North Carolina ceded the territory to the Fed- l^^^^^f^^ "^ 

 eral government in order to lighten the debts of the state. 

 Wlien the settlers heard of this they determined to found 

 a government of their own aud apply to the Union for 

 admission. Sevier was elected governor of this new ■ 

 state, known as the State of Frankliu, and for two years 

 — as long as the commonwealth lasted, — retained hisdififi- 

 cult position. Within sixty days after taking office, 

 Sevier organized a court, a militia, aud founded Wash- 

 ington College, the first school of a liberal nature which 

 was established west of the Alleghauies. At last, how- 

 ever, a proclamation from Governor Caswell, of North 

 Carolina, pronounced the new government a revolt and 

 ordered it to be abandoned. ' In the face of superior forces 

 the infant state was compelled to submit, and Sevier was 

 captured and thrown into prison. He was rescued shortly sevier 

 afterwards, however, by his incensed followers, took the rJC^i ^ 

 oath of allegiance to the United States, and was made 

 brigadier-general of the territory. As a delegate to Con- 

 gress he was the first representative to that body from the 

 valley of the Mississippi. When Teuuessee was made a ^"^^""jfj,^^^ 

 state Sevier was elected its first governor, serving for 

 three terms, and Jj^ after a short period, serving three 

 more. In ISll'ylBlerved in Congress, and in 1815 he 

 was again electefl^^ut died before he could take his seat, unique Ruler 

 His biographer says of him : "A rule like his was never 

 before nor since known in this country." 



II 



Captain Sevier's wife was a remarkable woman, a her- 

 oine of the pioneer days, whose story is a romance. ACoioniai 



' Heroine 



Catherine Sherrill was the daughter of a North Carolinian 

 who pushed his way into Tennessee in the Eevolutionary 

 days. Samuel Sherrill and his family were in that com- 



