Hon. Col. Joseph A. Hardin

A Patriot of the American Revolution for NORTH CAROLINA with the rank of Major. DAR Ancestor # A050251

Joseph Hardin

April 18, 1734 – July 04, 1801

Nickname The Colonel

Place of birth Henrico County, Virginia

Place of death Hardin Valley, Knox County, Tennessee

Allegiance French-Indian War

United Kingdom

War of Independence

United States

Service/branch Light Cavalry, Militia, Minutemen

Commands held Against Native Americans:

c 1765-1774 North Carolina Light Horse Rangers, Cavalry Captain

Against Britain: 1775-1776 NC Minutemen, Major 1776-1784 NC Militia, Lieutenant Colonel 1784-1788 NC Militia for the ‘Western Counties' (now Tennessee), Colonel

Battles/wars Wars:

French-Indian (Seven Years) War

American War of Independence

Important Battles: Battle of Ramsour's Mill, June 1780 Battle of Kings Mountain, October 1780

Awards Land Grants totaling 8,400 acres (34 km2).

Relations Spouse Jane Gibson

possible liaison with Jean McAfee

Family

Lost three sons battling Native American allies of Britain

Other work Political:

Assemblyman and Provincial Congressman, North Carolina Colony Co-founder and Speaker of the House, State of Franklin

Assemblyman, Southwest Territory

Philanthropy: Trustee of Greeneville (Tusculum) College;

Civic: Justice of the Peace; several terms/locales Hardin County, TN named posthumously for him.

Colonel Joseph Hardin, Sr. (April 18, 1734 – July 4, 1801)[1] was an American farmer, soldier and statesman. As a member of the North Carolina Colonial Militia, he fought in several campaigns against hostile Native American populations both before the outbreak of hostilities with Britain and afterward.

As a minuteman during the Revolutionary War, Hardin fought against the British Colonial Army, distinguishing himself in battle, especially those at Ramsour’s Mill and at Kings Mountain, rising to the rank of Colonel. As was the custom of the time, he was awarded land grants totaling 8,400 acres (34 km2) for service to his country.[2][3] In 1786, several thousand acres of this land was set aside for Col. Hardin in what later became Hardin County, Tennessee.[4]

Hardin was a pioneer of the North Carolina territories west of the Appalachian Mountains,[5] a patriot in the Revolutionary War, and the Patriarch of a large family, being the progenitor of many westward pioneering families of the late-18th and 19th centuries. He is the great-grandfather of legendary Texas outlaw and gunslinger, John Wesley Hardin.[6]

Contents [hide]

1 Early and family life

2 Civil service

3 Military service

4 Later life and legacy

4.1 The Hardin Expedition

5 References

6 External links

[edit] Early and family life

Joseph Hardin was born the spring of 1734 in Henrico Co., Virginia Colony in an area several years later to be encompassed by the fledgling town of Richmond at the Falls (now Richmond), Virginia Colony.[7][8][9]

Joseph Hardin was the second son, and fourth child, of Benjamin Hardin II and Margaret Hooper.[10] He was older brother to Captain John Hardin (1736–1802) noted as the hero who turned the tide of the Battle of Ramsour's Mill[11] during the ”Southern Campaign” of the Revolutionary War[12][13] and Sarah Hardin, wife to Lt. Col. Frederick Hambright.

Joseph married Jane Gibson (1742–1817) on July 8, 1762 in Virginia and they soon moved to the ‘Salisbury District’ of North Carolina Colony, settling in the newly formed Tryon Co., NC Colony (about 1765) where he became Justice of the Peace in 1772.[14]

Joseph's children were: Rebecca; twins Joseph Jr. and John; Jane Ann; James W.; Benjamin I; Robert I; Elender; Mary Easter; Margaret; Amos; Benjamin II; Gibson; and Robert II. “Ben-two” and “Robert-two”, as they were called, were both named after older brothers whom had been lost in battle with Native Americans.[15]

[edit] Civil service

Joseph Hardin served several stints as a local Justice of the Peace: first in Tryon County, NC (April 1772–1778); then Washington Co., NC (Tennessee East District) (1783); and finally Greene Co. (1796). He was also quite active in colonial and state politics. Hardin served as an Assemblyman (Representative) for Tryon Co., NC (1774–1779); for Washington Co., Washington District, NC (1782) and, Greene Co., Tennessee East District, NC (1788). Joseph Hardin was a signatory to the Tryon Resolves in September 1775.

During the period of 1784-1785, Hardin helped organize the extra-legal State of Frankland, becoming Speaker of the House in June 1785. A few years after the demise of this short-lived state, which had been renamed Franklin (after the very popular Benjamin Franklin) in an unsuccessful attempt to garner official recognition by a divided Federal Congress, Col. Hardin once again entered regional politics, serving as an Assemblyman for the First Territorial Assembly of the Southwest Territory (also known as the Territory South of the Ohio River) held at Knoxville, Knox Co., TN in the summer of 1794. Later that same year, Hardin, who had made Knoxville his home, became a trustee of the newly chartered Greeneville (later Tusculum) College.[16]

[edit] Military service

Although almost certainly involved in action during the French & Indian War (or Seven Years’ War), Hardin’s first documented military service shows he was appointed as Major to the 2nd North Carolina Minute Men (Salisbury District, North Carolina Colony) in 1775. That same year, he appears in the rolls as a Captain in the North Carolina Colonial Light Horse Rangers, taking part in the Cherokee Expedition into the Washington District (Tennessee) the next year. Beginning in 1777, Hardin carried a Captain’s commission in Locke's Battalion (part of General Allen Jones' Brigade) seeing much action against Britain and its allies.[17]

Joseph Hardin fought in the Battle of Ramsour's Mill, NC, between the Tories (Loyalists to the Crown) and the Whigs (American Patriots) on June 20, 1780 and later that year at the Battle of Kings Mountain, SC, on Oct 7.[18]

After the cessation of the ground war with Britain (1783), Hardin was appointed Colonel of the North Carolina Militia for "The Western Counties" (Re.: Tennessee) due to the continuing hostilities with Native Americans, most of whom had been allied with the British.

[edit] Later life and legacy

Although he himself never set foot in that region, on March 11, 1786 the land along the far western reaches of the Tennessee River was surveyed by Isaac Taylor and warrants were drawn on behalf of Hardin for 3,000 acres (12 km2) in what was to become Hardin Co.[19] However, due to legal trouble with squatters and the wildness of this part of Tennessee, it would be another thirty years before the family could settle there.[20]

Hardin died July 4, 1801 at his home-site near Knoxville, TN. He is interred, along with his wife, at the Hickory Creek Cemetery, Hardin Valley, Knox Co., TN.[21]

His tombstone reads:

HARDIN, Joseph

16 Apr 1734

4 Jul 1801

b. in Virginia;

d. in Hardin Valley

Served Rev. War

There is also a large monument dedicated to Hardin at the site. The inscription reads:

JOSEPH HARDIN

FARMER-SOLDIER-STATESMAN

Born April 18, 1734 in Virginia of English Ancestry.

Died July 4, 1801, in Hardin Valley, Tennessee.

A strict Presbyterian, stern and fearless in discharge of duty.

Loved and trusted by his friends, feared by his enemies.

PIONEER-PATRIOT-PATRIARCH

Major 2nd N.C. Minute Men, Salisbury District, 1775.

Captain Tryon Co., N.C. Light Horse, Cherokee Expedition, 1776.

In battle of Ramsour's Mill and at Kings Mountain, 1780.

Colonel for Western Counties (Tenn.), 1788.

Lost three sons in Tennessee Indian Wars.

Member Committee of Safety, Tryon Co., N.C., 1775.

Member Provincial Congress at Hillsborough 1775 and at Halifax 1776.

Member General Assembly of N.C., 1778-79 and (from Tenn.) 1782-88.

Organizer State of Franklin, Jonesboro, 1784-1785.

Member General Assembly, Territory South of the Ohio, Knoxville, 1794.

For his military services during Revolutionary War and Indian Wars he received in 1785 from North Carolina,

3000 acres of land in the middle district, now Hardin County, Tenn. named for him.

Served in the war

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Hardin

Colonel Joseph Hardin, Sr. (April 18, 1734 – July 4, 1801) was an American farmer, soldier and statesman. As a member of the North Carolina Colonial Militia, he fought in several campaigns against hostile Native American populations both before the outbreak of hostilities with Britain and afterward.

As a minuteman during the Revolutionary War, Hardin fought against the British Colonial Army, distinguishing himself in battle, especially those at Ramsour’s Mill and at Kings Mountain, rising to the rank of Colonel. As was the custom of the time, he was awarded land grants totaling 8,400 acres (34 km2) for service to his country. In 1786, several thousand acres of this land was set aside for Col. Hardin in what later became Hardin County, Tennessee.

Hardin was a pioneer of the North Carolina territories west of the Appalachian Mountains, a patriot in the Revolutionary War, and the Patriarch of a large family, being the progenitor of many westward pioneering families of the late-18th and 19th centuries. He is the great-grandfather of legendary Texas outlaw and gunslinger, John Wesley Hardin.

Early and family life

Joseph Hardin was born the spring of 1734 in Henrico Co., Virginia Colony in an area several years later to be encompassed by the fledgling town of Richmond at the Falls (now Richmond), Virginia Colony.

Joseph Hardin was the second son, and fourth child, of Benjamin Hardin II and Margaret Hooper. He was older brother to Captain John Hardin (1736–1802) noted as the hero who turned the tide of the Battle of Ramsour's Mill during the ”Southern Campaign” of the Revolutionary War and Sarah Hardin, wife to Lt. Col. Frederick Hambright.

Joseph married Jane Gibson (1742–1817) on July 8, 1762 in Virginia and they soon moved to the ‘Salisbury District’ of North Carolina Colony, settling in the newly formed Tryon Co., NC Colony (about 1765) where he became Justice of the Peace in 1772.

Joseph's children were: Rebecca; twins Joseph Jr. and John; Jane Ann; James W.; Benjamin I; Robert I; Elender; Mary Easter; Margaret; Amos; Benjamin II; Gibson; and Robert II. “Ben-two” and “Robert-two”, as they were called, were both named after older brothers whom had been lost in battle with Native Americans.

Civil service

Joseph Hardin served several stints as a local Justice of the Peace: first in Tryon County, NC (April 1772–1778); then Washington Co., NC (Tennessee East District) (1783); and finally Greene Co. (1796). He was also quite active in colonial and state politics. Hardin served as an Assemblyman (Representative) for Tryon Co., NC (1774–1779); for Washington Co., Washington District, NC (1782) and, Greene Co., Tennessee East District, NC (1788). Joseph Hardin was a signatory to the Tryon Resolves in September 1775.

During the period of 1784-1785, Hardin helped organize the extra-legal State of Frankland, becoming Speaker of the House in June 1785. A few years after the demise of this short-lived state, which had been renamed Franklin (after the very popular Benjamin Franklin) in an unsuccessful attempt to garner official recognition by a divided Federal Congress, Col. Hardin once again entered regional politics, serving as an Assemblyman for the First Territorial Assembly of the Southwest Territory (also known as the Territory South of the Ohio River) held at Knoxville, Knox Co., TN in the summer of 1794. Later that same year, Hardin, who had made Knoxville his home, became a trustee of the newly chartered Greeneville (later Tusculum) College.

Military service

Although almost certainly involved in action during the French & Indian War (or Seven Years’ War), Hardin’s first documented military service shows he was appointed as Major to the 2nd North Carolina Minute Men (Salisbury District, North Carolina Colony) in 1775. That same year, he appears in the rolls as a Captain in the North Carolina Colonial Light Horse Rangers, taking part in the Cherokee Expedition into the Washington District (Tennessee) the next year. Beginning in 1777, Hardin carried a Captain’s commission in Locke's Battalion (part of General Allen Jones' Brigade) seeing much action against Britain and its allies.

Joseph Hardin fought in the Battle of Ramsour's Mill, NC, between the Tories (Loyalists to the Crown) and the Whigs (American Patriots) on June 20, 1780 and later that year at the Battle of Kings Mountain, SC, on Oct 7.

After the cessation of the ground war with Britain (1783), Hardin was appointed Colonel of the North Carolina Militia for "The Western Counties" (Re.: Tennessee) due to the continuing hostilities with Native Americans, most of whom had been allied with the British.

Later life and legacy

Although he himself never set foot in that region, on March 11, 1786 the land along the far western reaches of the Tennessee River was surveyed by Isaac Taylor and warrants were drawn on behalf of Hardin for 3,000 acres (12 km2) in what was to become Hardin Co. However, due to legal trouble with squatters and the wildness of this part of Tennessee, it would be another thirty years before the family could settle there.

Hardin died July 4, 1801 at his home-site near Knoxville, TN. He is interred, along with his wife, at the Hickory Creek Cemetery, Hardin Valley, Knox Co., TN.

His tombstone reads:

HARDIN, Joseph

16 Apr 1734

4 Jul 1801

b. in Virginia;

d. in Hardin Valley

Served Rev. War

There is also a large monument dedicated to Hardin at the site. The inscription reads:

JOSEPH HARDIN

FARMER-SOLDIER-STATESMAN

Born April 18, 1734 in Virginia of English Ancestry.

Died July 4, 1801, in Hardin Valley, Tennessee.

A strict Presbyterian, stern and fearless in discharge of duty.

Loved and trusted by his friends, feared by his enemies.

PIONEER-PATRIOT-PATRIARCH

Major 2nd N.C. Minute Men, Salisbury District, 1775.

Captain Tryon Co., N.C. Light Horse, Cherokee Expedition, 1776.

In battle of Ramsour's Mill and at Kings Mountain, 1780.

Colonel for Western Counties (Tenn.), 1788.

Lost three sons in Tennessee Indian Wars.

Member Committee of Safety, Tryon Co., N.C., 1775.

Member Provincial Congress at Hillsborough 1775 and at Halifax 1776.

Member General Assembly of N.C., 1778-79 and (from Tenn.) 1782-88.

Organizer State of Franklin, Jonesboro, 1784-1785.

Member General Assembly, Territory South of the Ohio, Knoxville, 1794.

For his military services during Revolutionary War and Indian Wars he received in 1785 from North Carolina,

3000 acres of land in the middle district, now Hardin County, Tenn. named for him.

The Hardin Expedition

Two parties of settlers (totaling 26) struck out of Knoxville, Tennessee in late spring of 1816 bound for the general area which would eventually become Savannah, Tennessee. The first party came by boat by way of the Tennessee River, landing in May at "the easteward curve of the Tennessee" at Cerro Gordo. The second, and larger, party had traversed overland and suffered from many delays. Upon the arrival of the second group, the parties finally rejoined at Johnson Creek, near present day Savannah, Tennessee. It was now July, and the pioneers set about the laying down of the first permanent settlement by non-Native Americans in the area.

This second party was led by Joseph Hardin, Jr., son of Col. Joseph Hardin who had, before his death, accumulated several land grants to the area as rewards for his Revolutionary War service. Joseph, Jr. was accompanied on the trip by his brother, James Hardin (known as the founder of the settlement of Hardinsville, TN; a failed endeavor that would be created in 1817 on nearby Hardin’s Creek). Both men executed land grants in the area. They had fought alongside their father in the war and had been likewise rewarded with their own land patents, and had also inherited some of their father's remaining unclaimed grants. About this same time, other settlers from the initial expedition established another community further down river at Saltillo.

Other relatives of Col. Joseph’s were to eventually settle in the area, including sons: Gibson, Ben II and Robert II, and daughter, Margaret (wife of Ninian Steele), all having arrived there by 1818.

The county was named posthumously for Joseph Hardin, Sr. in November 1819, at the first meeting of the county assembly which took place at the home of his son, James Hardin. Today, the courthouse in the county seat of Savannah, TN is dedicated to him.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Hardin,_Sr.

Colonel Joseph Hardin, Sr. (April 18, 1734 – July 4, 1801)[1] was an American farmer, soldier and statesman. As a member of the North Carolina Colonial Militia, he fought in several campaigns against hostile Native American populations both before the outbreak of hostilities with Britain and afterward.

As a minuteman during the Revolutionary War, Hardin fought against the British Colonial Army, distinguishing himself in battle, especially those at Ramsour’s Mill and at Kings Mountain, rising to the rank of Colonel. As was the custom of the time, he was awarded land grants totaling 8,400 acres (34 km2) for service to his country.[2][3] In 1786, several thousand acres of this land was set aside for Col. Hardin in what later became Hardin County, Tennessee.[4]

Hardin was a pioneer of the North Carolina territories west of the Appalachian Mountains,[5] a patriot in the Revolutionary War, and the Patriarch of a large family, being the progenitor of many westward pioneering families of the late-18th and 19th centuries. He is the great-grandfather of legendary Texas outlaw and gunslinger, John Wesley Hardin.[6]

Early and family life

Joseph Hardin was born the spring of 1734 in Henrico Co., Virginia Colony in an area several years later to be encompassed by the fledgling town of Richmond at the Falls (now Richmond), Virginia Colony.[7][8][9]

Joseph Hardin was the second son, and fourth child, of Benjamin Hardin II and Margaret Hooper.[10] He was older brother to Captain John Hardin (1736–1802) noted as the hero who turned the tide of the Battle of Ramsour's Mill[11] during the ”Southern Campaign” of the Revolutionary War[12][13] and Sarah Hardin, wife to Lt. Col. Frederick Hambright.

Joseph married Jane Gibson (1742–1817) on July 8, 1762 in Virginia and they soon moved to the ‘Salisbury District’ of North Carolina Colony, settling in the newly formed Tryon Co., NC Colony (about 1765) where he became Justice of the Peace in 1772.[14]

Joseph's children were: Rebecca; twins Joseph Jr. and John; Jane Ann; James W.; Benjamin I; Robert I; Elender; Mary Easter; Margaret; Amos; Benjamin II; Gibson; and Robert II. “Ben-two” and “Robert-two”, as they were called, were both named after older brothers whom had been lost in battle with Native Americans.[15]

Civil service

Joseph Hardin served several stints as a local Justice of the Peace: first in Tryon County, NC (April 1772–1778); then Washington Co., NC (Tennessee East District) (1783); and finally Greene Co. (1796). He was also quite active in colonial and state politics. Hardin served as an Assemblyman (Representative) for Tryon Co., NC (1774–1779); for Washington Co., Washington District, NC (1782) and, Greene Co., Tennessee East District, NC (1788). Joseph Hardin was a signatory to the Tryon Resolves in September 1775.

During the period of 1784-1785, Hardin helped organize the extra-legal State of Frankland, becoming Speaker of the House in June 1785. A few years after the demise of this short-lived state, which had been renamed Franklin (after the very popular Benjamin Franklin) in an unsuccessful attempt to garner official recognition by a divided Federal Congress, Col. Hardin once again entered regional politics, serving as an Assemblyman for the First Territorial Assembly of the Southwest Territory (also known as the Territory South of the Ohio River) held at Knoxville, Knox Co., TN in the summer of 1794. Later that same year, Hardin, who had made Knoxville his home, became a trustee of the newly chartered Greeneville (later Tusculum) College.[16]

Military service

Although almost certainly involved in action during the French & Indian War (or Seven Years’ War), Hardin’s first documented military service shows he was appointed as Major to the 2nd North Carolina Minute Men (Salisbury District, North Carolina Colony) in 1775. That same year, he appears in the rolls as a Captain in the North Carolina Colonial Light Horse Rangers, taking part in the Cherokee Expedition into the Washington District (Tennessee) the next year. Beginning in 1777, Hardin carried a Captain’s commission in Locke's Battalion (part of General Allen Jones' Brigade) seeing much action against Britain and its allies.[17]

Joseph Hardin fought in the Battle of Ramsour's Mill, NC, between the Tories (Loyalists to the Crown) and the Whigs (American Patriots) on June 20, 1780 and later that year at the Battle of Kings Mountain, SC, on Oct 7.[18]

After the cessation of the ground war with Britain (1783), Hardin was appointed Colonel of the North Carolina Militia for "The Western Counties" (Re.: Tennessee) due to the continuing hostilities with Native Americans, most of whom had been allied with the British.

Later life and legacy

Although he himself never set foot in that region, on March 11, 1786 the land along the far western reaches of the Tennessee River was surveyed by Isaac Taylor and warrants were drawn on behalf of Hardin for 3,000 acres (12 km2) in what was to become Hardin Co.[19] However, due to legal trouble with squatters and the wildness of this part of Tennessee, it would be another thirty years before the family could settle there.[20]

Hardin died July 4, 1801 at his home-site near Knoxville, TN. He is interred, along with his wife, at the Hickory Creek Cemetery, Hardin Valley, Knox Co., TN.[21]

His tombstone reads:

HARDIN, Joseph

16 Apr 1734

4 Jul 1801

b. in Virginia;

d. in Hardin Valley

Served Rev. War

There is also a large monument dedicated to Hardin at the site. The inscription reads:

JOSEPH HARDIN

FARMER-SOLDIER-STATESMAN

Born April 18, 1734 in Virginia of English Ancestry.

Died July 4, 1801, in Hardin Valley, Tennessee.

A strict Presbyterian, stern and fearless in discharge of duty.

Loved and trusted by his friends, feared by his enemies.

PIONEER-PATRIOT-PATRIARCH

Major 2nd N.C. Minute Men, Salisbury District, 1775.

Captain Tryon Co., N.C. Light Horse, Cherokee Expedition, 1776.

In battle of Ramsour's Mill and at Kings Mountain, 1780.

Colonel for Western Counties (Tenn.), 1788.

Lost three sons in Tennessee Indian Wars.

Member Committee of Safety, Tryon Co., N.C., 1775.

Member Provincial Congress at Hillsborough 1775 and at Halifax 1776.

Member General Assembly of N.C., 1778-79 and (from Tenn.) 1782-88.

Organizer State of Franklin, Jonesboro, 1784-1785.

Member General Assembly, Territory South of the Ohio, Knoxville, 1794.

For his military services during Revolutionary War and Indian Wars he received in 1785 from North Carolina,

3000 acres of land in the middle district, now Hardin County, Tenn. named for him.

The Hardin Expedition

Two parties of settlers (totaling 26) struck out of Knoxville, Tennessee in late spring of 1816 bound for the general area which would eventually become Savannah, Tennessee. The first party came by boat by way of the Tennessee River, landing in May at "the easteward curve of the Tennessee" at Cerro Gordo. The second, and larger, party had traversed overland and suffered from many delays. Upon the arrival of the second group, the parties finally rejoined at Johnson Creek, near present day Savannah, Tennessee. It was now July, and the pioneers set about the laying down of the first permanent settlement by non-Native Americans in the area.

This second party was led by Joseph Hardin, Jr., son of Col. Joseph Hardin who had, before his death, accumulated several land grants to the area as rewards for his Revolutionary War service. Joseph, Jr. was accompanied on the trip by his brother, James Hardin (known as the founder of the settlement of Hardinsville, TN; a failed endeavor that would be created in 1817 on nearby Hardin’s Creek). Both men executed land grants[22] in the area. They had fought alongside their father in the war and had been likewise rewarded with their own land patents, and had also inherited some of their father's remaining unclaimed grants.[23][24] About this same time, other settlers from the initial expedition established another community further down river at Saltillo.

Other relatives of Col. Joseph’s were to eventually settle in the area, including sons: Gibson, Ben II and Robert II, and daughter, Margaret (wife of Ninian Steele), all having arrived there by 1818.[25]

The county was named posthumously for Joseph Hardin, Sr.[26] in November 1819, at the first meeting of the county assembly which took place at the home of his son, James Hardin. Today, the courthouse in the county seat of Savannah, TN is dedicated to him.

Information from Wikipedia -- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Hardin,_Sr.

Col. Joseph Hardin- Member of the Overmountain Milita, American War of Independence.

Speaker of the House- State of Franklin.

• Reference: Find A Grave Memorial - SmartCopy: Mar 1 2018, 19:19:44 UTC

A Patriot of the American Revolution for NORTH CAROLINA with the rank of MAJOR

• Reference: DAR Ancestor # A050251