Colonel Benjamin Cleveland (North Carolina militia)

• Daughters of American Revolution Ancestor #: A023058
• Service: NORTH CAROLINA Rank(s): CIVIL SERVICE, PATRIOTIC SERVICE, COLONEL
• Birth: 5-26-1738 ORANGE CO VIRGINIA
• Death: 10-15-1806 PENDLETON DIST SOUTH CAROLINA
• Service Source: DRAPER, KING'S MOUNTAIN & ITS HEROES, PP 432-451
• Service Description: 1) ALSO CAPT, MILITIA, BATTLE OF KING'S MOUNTAIN; JUSTICE OF COUNTY COURT, COMMISSIONER, 2) FOR SEIZING CONFISCATED ESTATES; MEM HOUSE OF COMMONS, STATE SENATE
• Notes: WILL BENJ CLEVELAND NOT NAME DAU JEMIMA. SEE WILLS PENDLETON DIST, SC, P35. Created: 2002-03-27 23:23:50.97, Updated: , By Conversion REF TO PROVE JEMIMA, DAUBEN CLEVELAND IS CLEVELAND GEN.SEE CRITIC NGSQ, Created: 2002-03-27 23:23:50.97, Updated: , By: Conversion V46,#3,P152.JOHN M.MARY MCCAU, SON JOHN CLEVELAND-CLEVELAND GEN V3, P2056. Created: 2002-03-27 23:23:50.97, Updated: , By: Conversion DATACF.

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

Benjamin Cleveland (May 28, 1738–1806) was an American pioneer and soldier in North Carolina. He is best remembered for his service as a colonel in the North Carolina militia during the Revolutionary War, and in particular for his role in the American victory at the Battle of Kings Mountain in 1780.

Early life

Benjamin Cleveland was born in Orange County, Virginia, the fourth child of John and Elizabeth Coffee Cleveland. He moved to what became Wilkes County, North Carolina in 1769. He built his famous estate, "Roundabout," near what is today Ronda, North Carolina in eastern Wilkes County. Cleveland was very active in the early history of Wilkes County; he worked as a hunter, trapper, farmer, carpenter, and surveyor. By the time of the American Revolution, Cleveland was the wealthiest and most prominent citizen in Wilkes. A large, heavyset man - around six feet tall and weighing over 300lbs in his prime, he was called "Old Roundabout."

Cleveland married Mary Graves, a sister of Susannah Graves, the wife of Revolutionary War patriot and frontiersman, General Joseph Martin, for whom Martinsville, Virginia, is named.

Revolutionary War

At the beginning of the American Revolution, Cleveland has commissioned a colonel in the North Carolina militia. He was elected to the North Carolina House of Commons in 1778 and to the North Carolina Senate in 1779. Until Lord Cornwallis invaded in 1780, the fighting in North Carolina consisted of guerilla warfare between patriots and Tories. Cleveland became known as the "Terror of the Tories" for his treatment of Loyalists. In 1779, two Tories looted the home of George Wilfong, a patriot, and friend of Cleveland. The Tories used Wilfong's clothesline to chase away his horses. The marauders were captured by Cleveland's men, who had them hanged using the clothesline they had stolen. In revenge, a group of Tories led by Captain William Riddle kidnapped Cleveland. Cleveland's men rescued him and he captured Riddle and two others. All three were hanged from the same tree, which became known as the "Tory Oak" and was a historic landmark behind the old Wilkes County courthouse (now the Wilkes Historical Museum).

In 1780, General Lord Cornwallis led a British army into the Carolinas and won several victories over the Patriots. Major Patrick Ferguson, one of Cornwallis's most daring commanders, led an army of Tories into the North Carolina mountains to crush the rebels there. A large force of mountain men attacked Ferguson at King's Pinnacle, an isolated ridge on the North Carolina-South Carolina border. Cleveland played a key role in the ensuing Battle of Kings Mountain'. According to legend, Cleveland climbed up Rendezvous Mountain and blew his horn to summon some 200 Wilkes County militiamen. He led them in the battle. Cleveland's horse was shot from under him, and Major Ferguson was himself killed in the battle. Cleveland's brother, Captain Robert Cleveland, is said to have rallied the militiamen during the heat of the battle of King's Mountain, contributing to the Patriot victory. Cleveland claimed Ferguson's white stallion as a "war prize", and rode it home to his estate of Roundabout.

Later years

After the war, Cleveland moved to the South Carolina frontier and was a commissioner in the Pendleton District.

He died at his home in Oconee County, South Carolina in 1806 of heart dropsy. An obelisk monument to him stands on private property just north of U.S. Route 123 about 160 yds (145 m) east of the Madison Baptist Church in the Madison Community of Oconee County. He has buried about 1 mi (1.6 km) away in a private cemetery.

Gravesite[https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/31176869]

Cleveland County, North Carolina, Cleveland, Tennessee, and Cleveland, Georgia are named in his honor.

https://www.ncpedia.org/biography/cleveland-benjamin

Benjamin Cleveland, a frontiersman, was born in Virginia on the now-famous Bull Run. He was the son of John Cleveland and the grandson of Alexander Cleveland, who came from England and settled in Virginia.

Benjamin Cleveland grew to be a very big man, often good-natured, but reckless, hot-tempered, and determined. He loved hunting and spent much of his time from early youth roaming the wilderness securing furs and skins. As a young man, he acquired the frontier lifestyle, which included gambling, horse-racing, carousing, drinking, and fighting. An early marriage to Mary Graves of Orange County helped to reform his wildlife, and he made a reluctant attempt at farming.

At age thirty-one, Cleveland emigrated with his extended family to the North Carolina backcountry, settling near Mulberry Fields, Wilkes County. From his neighbor, Daniel Boone, Cleveland learned of the Kentucky country. In the summer of 1772, accompanied by four "long hunters," he set out to hunt and to explore the Kentucky wilderness. The party was seized and robbed by a band of Cherokees. The Indians took everything, leaving the tattered band to find its way back through miles of wilderness. Cleveland was a fighter and a man of action. Delaying only long enough to regain his strength and to select a party of riflemen, he boldly returned to the Cherokee country, retrieved his horses, and returned in triumph to the Upper Yadkin, his reputation as an Indian fighter solidly established.

When the American Revolution came, Cleveland lived in Surry County, within the Salisbury Military District, one of the six military districts of North Carolina. In September 1775 the provincial congress appointed him to ensign in the Second Regiment of the North Carolina Continental forces. He did not accept the appointment, however, preferring to serve in the Surry militia, where he judged his "presence and efforts would be more useful." In the summer of 1776, when the Cherokee uprising began, Cleveland served a tour of duty as a ranger on the headwaters of the Yadkin; in August he joined as captain a contingent of Surry militia in the expedition against the Cherokees. During the course of the campaign, the North Carolina and South Carolina forces completely destroyed thirty-six Cherokee towns. Prior to the negotiations at Long Island, Cleveland was stationed at Carter's Fort, from which his company of light horse patrolled the frontier. During the treaty negotiations, his company was ordered to Long Island to protect the negotiating committee.

The exact date on which Cleveland was appointed to the Surry County court is not known, but he sat as a justice for the November term in 1774; in December of the same year, he was appointed by the justices to serve as a juror at the superior court in Salisbury; and at the February term in 1775, he was chairman of the court. On 17 May 1775 news of the Battle of Lexington reached the Surry court. The transition from county court to safety committee was swift and decisive, and Cleveland was elected chairman. The safety committee virtually took over the local military establishment by the process of selecting representatives from each militia company to serve on the committee.

On the Upper Yadkin, the American Revolution was not primarily a conflict of colonists against Redcoats, but one of Americans against their neighbors. Cleveland's suppression of Tories was legitimized in two ways: by punitive legislation and by his authority as chairman of the safety committee, county court justice, and officer of militia. When the new county of Wilkes was formed from Surry in 1778, Cleveland was placed at the head of the commission of justices and was named colonel of the militia.

In 1776 the royal governor of North Carolina initiated a plan to conquer the state, and backcountry Tories were formed into militia companies. Cleveland took his company of riflemen to join the Surry militia, which summarily dispersed the Tory rising in Surry County. They then proceeded south to march against the Tories on the Cape Fear. "Tory risings" and "Patriot retaliations" were the most significant feature of the civil war on the Upper Yadkin. When Tory prisoners were taken, Cleveland administered punishment with his own sense of rigid justice. Reconstructed Tories were allowed to take an oath of loyalty to the state and were set free; unregenerate Tories were hanged. Cleveland's vigorous methods did not always find support. In the fall of 1779 two Tories were hanged by Cleveland scouts, and for this act he was indicted for murder in the superior court of Salisbury; he was ultimately pardoned by the governor. Cleveland himself was once captured by the frontier Tories, but the quick action of his brother, Robert, brought about his rescue.

In 1780, Lord Cornwallis began an invasion of North Carolina, basing his strategy on the assumption of large-scale Tory aid. Major Patrick Ferguson was instructed to serve as the British left-wing on its northward thrust. His task was to arouse and enlist Loyalists in the upland on the western flank nearest the frontier. The over-mountain men accepted the challenge, assembled volunteers, and sent an express to Cleveland requesting him to join them.

On 6 Oct. Ferguson had reached a point near Kings Mountain, an outlying spur of the Blue Ridge near the North Carolina-South Carolina border. The Whigs reached the mountain about noon on 7 Oct., surrounded it, and began acting on all sides. Three times Ferguson's men drove them back with bayonet charges, but the mountain men united and pushed him to one end of the ridge. Cleveland's column pressed forward, and as Ferguson attempted to cut through his lines, he was knocked from his horse by rifle fire. When Ferguson fell, the resistance of the Tories crumbled and they surrendered. This battle at Kings Mountain was the climax of the frontier civil war and the turning point of the war in the South.

When the Revolution finally closed, Cleveland was forced to surrender his land. He then migrated into the backcountry of South Carolina. In 1784 he became one of the early squatters in the Tugaloo River Valley. In South Carolina, Cleveland joined on the bench the old partisan leader General Andrew Pickens, serving as an associate judge of the court of Pendleton County for many years. Before his death, he became so unwieldy in size that he could not mount his horse, gradually attaining the enormous weight of 450 pounds. He died quietly while sitting at his breakfast table, survived by two sons and a daughter. A nephew, Jesse Franklin, became governor of North Carolina.

May have been born on his father’s plantation on Blue Run, Orange Co, VA for the Orange County Records show a deed for 600 acres of land from Prince Curtis to John Cleveland 1734, about the commencement of the records. This was in all probability the plantation, and John may have removed to Orange Co even earlier.

See notes about burial under brother Larkin Cleveland.

Cleveland County (formed in 1841) North Carolina was named in his honor. He is one of the most prominent members of the Cleveland family. Mentioned in "History of the United States". Was the hero of the Battle of Kings Mountain (Revolutionary War) in North Carolina.

Ben moved to Georgia and ran for the Legislature. Cleveland, Georgia is named for Ben. Died in October 1896 at his plantation at the junction of the Tugaloo River and Chauga creek in Pendelton District Oconee, Co, SC, and is buried there (sometimes called Fort Madison, 1899) on his farm. Married in Orange Co, VA before 1764 Miss Mary Graves of an excellent family of Culpeper Co, VA. She died probably on their farm too.

He commanded a regiment of North and South Carolina Troops at the Battle of Kings Mountain on October 7, 1780. There's a monument erected where Col. Cleveland is buried by members of the Cleveland family in Georgia, South Carolina, and Tennessee. The monument was unveiled on July 25, 1887.

By trade were a house carpenter and builder. After the Revolution he was the surveyor of Wilkes County. He became corpulent. An impediment in his speech prevented him from entering political life (

(Lots of information on him in Geneology of Cleveland & Cleaveland Family, left off on page 2067.)

FIND-A-GRAVE memorial 31176869 (Photo)[https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/31176869]

Colonel in the Revolutionary Army and a commander at King's Mountain. Moved from VA to Rowan Co., NC about 1763 with wife Mary and lived there until after the Revolution, then moved to SC, where he was a judge in Pickens Co. Was known as "the famous Colonel of Indian Wars in NC and of the Revolution at the Battle of King's Mountain, and terror of Tories whom he hanged without ceremony." Cleveland Co. NC and the town of Cleveland TN are supposedly named after him.

References

• [https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/31176869]
• https://www.ncpedia.org/biography/cleveland-benjamin

  ---

https://www.ncpedia.org/biography/cleveland-benjamin

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benjamin_Cleveland