Sarah Hawkins Sevier

by John Sevier "Jack" Gibson

A Tribute* Given At Her Memorial On The Knoxville, Tennessee Courthouse Lawn

September 9, 2000.

Sarah Hawkins was John Sevier's first wife. She was born on June 3, 1746 in the upper Shenandoah Valley of Virginia; John was born there on September 23, 1745. They were married in 1761, both in their teens. At first they lived near their family homes in the Shenandoah. Both were well educated for their time on the Western Frontier of Colonial America.

Sarah and John moved to a Shenandoah Valley area called Long Meadow where they farmed the land. After a few successful years, John purchased a nearby tract of land and laid out streets and building lots for sale. This was the founding and beginning of the now famous town of New Market, VA. They moved there, opened a store and inn, and continued some farming.

In 1771 and 1772, John went on exploratory expeditions to the area south of the Shenandoah Valley in what is now Northeast Tennessee. This was the inviting and fertile region of the Holston, Watauga, and Nolichucky Rivers. His brother Valentine moved there in 1772 and then urged the other Seviers to come and live there as well.

Late in 1773, John and Sarah and their seven children left the relative civilization of the Virginia Valley and headed for the enticing but primitive North Holston River area. They arrived, along with several of John's brothers, sisters and his father, on Christmas Day, 1773. Three years later they moved to the Watauga River settlement area, near present day Elizabethton, TN. On many occasions they had to leave their home and go to nearby Fort Watauga for safety as Indian and Revolutionary War troubles abounded in the late 1770s. John became one of the military leaders at the Fort and in the areas surrounding it.

In 1778, John obtained land on the Nolichucky River where he built the first of several homes (over the next decade) for his family. John was fast becoming not only a military leader, but a fast rising civil leader in the river settlements. His fame, and homes on the Nolichucky River, soon earned him the nickname "Chucky Jack." But that is the start of another story; let's get back to Sarah...

Sarah was small and blond according to an interview with one of her granddaughters in 1895. The following is also excerpted from that interview:

"Sarah's father, Joseph Hawkins, had established a large trading post in a stockade or fort, on the frontier of what was then Fredrick County, VA. This was believed to be near the end of the French and Indian War. Indians attacked the fort and post and were driven off, and it was then that John Sevier made his first bid to fame. He at once left his wife and home to defend the post should the attackers return. Then Sevier gathered up his neighbors to pursue the raiders. In driving off the Indians, most of the bullet supply had been used up and the few remaining were taken for the pursuit. Sarah rose to the occasion, started a big fire in the home fireplace, spent most of the day kneeling before it with her two young brothers melting lead and molding bullets so as to have enough for protection by nightfall."

"During John Sevier's frequent absences from home on military duty, trading or pioneering trips, Sarah carried on the family trading business and defended the home. She was noted for her hospitality which included receiving into her home General McDowell, his family and several others driven from their homes by the British and Tories after the start of the Revolutionary War."

"In early 1780 John was building a new mill on Limestone Creek and the north shore of the Nolichucky, about six miles from the first town in the area, Jonesborough. News came of a large party of Indians on the Warpath. John hurried home as it became urgent to get Sarah and the children into the new fort of the Nolichucky settlement. Sarah had just given birth to her tenth child and had some complications. The family reached the fort safely, but in rushing to the fort, Sarah health declined rapidly. After a few days there, she died and was buried in the woods near the fort late that night to escape notice of the Indian attackers. There in the heart of the forest in darkness, gloom and pouring rain amid flashes of lightning and thunder, John laid to rest his beloved wife Sarah. Her grave was leveled over and covered with leaves and brush, lest the Indians discover and desecrate it."

Sarah's grave has never been found. A monument to her memory, beside the grave of her husband John here on the Knoxville Courthouse Lawn, was dedicated on June 3, 1946 which was the 200th anniversary of her birth. The inscription on the monument back reads:

"Sarah Hawkins Sevier, daughter of Joseph and Sarah Marlin Hawkins, born in Shenandoah County, Virginia. 1746. Died in Washington County, Tennessee, 1780. She had an unusual education and great strength of character. Married to John Sevier at fifteen, she was for the nineteen creative, formative years of his life the greatest single factor in his spectacular early rise to fame and fortune. A wise, capable, understanding wife and mother who commanded her husband's post in his absences. Made the hazardous journey down the Shenandoah Valley in December 1773, with seven children under eleven years of age. The mother of ten, giving five fighting sons to the protection and building of Tennessee. Finally giving her life during an Indian uprising."

Sarah was an outstanding example of a loving, dedicated, and hard working young Pioneer wife and mother in the original "Wild West." She was also the family social director, teacher, store and inn keeper, home defender, and sometimes quartermaster. Since Sarah's life was cut so short, she did not live to see her husband become a leader and Hero of the Battle of King's Mountain, Governor of the proclaimed state of Franklin, General of the Southwest Territory Militia, first Governor of Tennessee, and Representative of Tennessee in the United States Congress. However, Sarah was close to John's heart during all his remaining years on earth.

I am honored to be a direct descendant of Sarah and John, through their second son James.

I would like to conclude this talk about Sarah with a poem based on the slightly modified wording of an old Southern song:

She is gone, but not forgotten,
We remember her, in her glory days.
She is gone, but not forgotten,
That's why we came, to sing her praise.

* Part of a Commemoration Ceremony for John Sevier and both of his Wives, organized by the Knoxville area DAR & SAR Chapters.

Notes:
The material in this tribute came primarily from:
"Sevier Family History", 1960, Cora Bales Sevier and Nancy Sevier Madden
"Notable Southern Families" Vol. I, 1918, Zella Armstrong
"John Sevier", 1932, Carl S. Driver

(Updated 8-3-07)