Scott County’s Revolutionary War veterans
If Scott County has a heritage in its founding, it may be a Revolutionary War heritage more than anything else.
Of the 230,000 men who boldly stood for freedom by taking up arms against the British army and their loyalists in the American colonies, none of them were native to Scott County, of course. Scott County didn’t send any men to fight in the Revolutionary War because it was not yet formed — and wouldn’t be for more than 70 years. In fact, Tennessee was not yet a state when the American Revolution was fought, and no white men lived in this area permanently at the time.
However, when the Cherokee Indians ceded land west of the Appalachians to the U.S. Government — including the lands of the Cumberland Plateau in the Third Treaty of Tellico in 1805 — land grants were given in the new frontier to war veterans as a reward for their service. As a result, many of the earliest settlers in what would become Scott County were Revolutionary War veterans and their families. (At the time, this area was a part of Campbell, Morgan and Anderson counties.)
Most of Scott County’s established families descended from veterans of the war who settled the fertile families between the Big South Fork River and the Cumberland Mountains after the war ended. Surnames like Goad, Chitwood, Trammel, Blevins, Chambers and Lawson are all descended from Revolutionary War veterans. And when Scott County was formed in 1849, many of the first government officials here were directly descended from Revolutionary War veterans.
Today, a plaque outside the old Scott County Courthouse in downtown Huntsville recognizes the county’s Revolutionary War veterans. During next week’s Independence Day festivities at the Firemen’s Fourth Festival, the annual parade will march right by the plaque. There are 12 names listed on it: Daniel Blevins, William Chambers, James Chitwood, Joseph Griffith, Joseph Hatfield, David Lawson, John Lawson, James McDonald, Joseph McPeters, John Reed, Timothy Sexton and Dennis Trammell. There are at least three others who were not recognized by the Bicentennial Committee in 1976 and placed on the plaque, though they should have been: Abel Peak, Randolph Lawson and Abraham Goad. A fourth, Robert Lawson (brother to Randolph Lawson) may have also been omitted. There may be others. For instance, it is widely reported that Richard Harve Slaven — believed to have been the first white settler in what is today the Big South Fork National River & Recreation Area — was a Revolutionary War veteran.
These are the stories of the men who took up arms to win freedom and liberty for Americans, and then made their home in what would become Scott County, Tennessee.
Revolutionary War veterans
- Joseph Griffith, 1755-1833
- Dennis Trammell, 1759-1849
- Abel Peak, 1757-1852
- James McDonald, 1758-1848
- Joseph McPeters, 1761-1846
- James Chitwood, 1751-1839
- William Chambers, 1750-1840
- Joseph Hatfield, N/A-1832
- David Lawson, 1758-1852
- John Lawson, 1755-1838
- Randolph Lawson, 1752-1848
- Robert Lawson, 1760-1837
- David Blevins Jr., 1753-1839
- John Reed, 1762-1838
- Timothy Sexton, 1750-1832
- Abraham Goad, 1740-1816
- Richard Slaven, 1775-1840
Facts About the Veterans
There are a few interesting facts about Scott County’s 15 known Revolutionary War veterans. One is how many of them served at the Battle of Cowpens, which was one of the most important battles of the war. Dennis Trammell, James McDonald, Joseph McPeters and David Lawson all served at Cowpens. That’s quite a coincidence, considering that there were only around 1,000 Americans — some of them Continental Army regular and the rest of them militiamen — at opens.
Another thing that’s interesting is how many of Scott County’s Revolutionary War veterans had children who married children of other Revolutionary War veterans. That’s probably not surprising, given that there were very few people living in this area in the 1810s and 1820s, and many of the new arrivals were Revolutionary War veterans who received land grants here.
To recap, Pvt. Joseph Griffith had a daughter (Rhoda Griffith) who married the son of Timothy Sexton (William Sexton). And he had a granddaughter (Matilda Griffith) who married the son of Pvt. Abel Peak (Luke Peak). William Chambers had a son (Thomas Chambers) who married the daughter of Randolph Lawson (Katie Lawson). Randolph Lawson had another daughter (Millie Lawson) who married the son of Tobias Phillips (Joseph Phillips). Joseph Hatfield had a daughter (Phariba Rachel Hatfield) who married the son of John Reed (Isaac Reed). So seven of Scott County’s 14 Revolutionary War families intermarried. Chances are, if you’re descended from one Scott County Revolutionary War veteran, you’re descended from two.
Finally, it’s interesting how long-lived most of Scott County’s Revolutionary War veterans were. Almost all of them lived into their 80s, and several lived into their 90s. The only ones who weren’t in their 80s or older when they died were Abraham Goad, who died at age 76, and John Reed and Joseph Griffith, who both died at age 78.
Incredibly, the average age of Scott County’s 16 known Revolutionary War veterans was around 93 years old. Even if you account for some mistakes that have been made in genealogical records along the way, the average age of these patriots would still be in the 80s. The average lifespan of an American in the early 1800s was 37 to 40 years old!