Page:The Green Bag (1889–1914), Volume 05.pdf/541

 502

THE FIRST COURT WEST OF THE ALLEGHANIES. BY SAMUEL C. WILLIAMS.

many decades the Alleghany mountain range was respected by the colonists of America as Nature's boundary between civilization and the wilderness-empire of the hostile Indian tribes. Prior to the War of the Revolution, few prospectors made expeditions beyond the mountains, not to speak of home-seekers. However, anterior to 1770, a handful of North Carolinians had broken through the confines of civilization, and effected a perma nent settlement in what is now known as Tennessee, on the Watauga River, at a point about fifteen miles west of the mountains. To this little settlement on the verge of the frontier came, shortly afterwards, a number of patriot-soldiers, "Regulators," who had been defeated in the disastrous battle of the Alamance, fought near Raleigh, in May, 1771. These daring spirits brought with them not merely a love of liberty, but a love of law and order as well; and they immediately set about the formation of a system of gov ernment for the settlement. In the " His tory of Tennessee," by John Hayvvood (for quite a while a justice of the Supreme Court of Tennessee), it is stated : — "In 1772 (May), the settlement on the Watauga, being without government, formed a written association and articles for their conduct; they appointed five commissioners, a majority of whom was to decide all matters of controversy, and to direct and govern for the common good in other respects. . . . This committee settled all private controversies, and had a clerk, Felix Walker, now, or lately, a member of Congress from North Caro lina. They had also a sheriff. The committee had regular and stated times for holding their sessions, and took the laws of Virginia for the standard of decision."

The laws of Virginia were modelled often because the settlers were of opinion that they

had located on the territory of Virginia in stead of that of North Carolina. They were, in fact, on North Carolina soil, — occupying, as they did, the extreme northeastern corner of Tennessee, portions of the counties of Washington and Carter. About four years after the establishment of this local government, the mistake of the settlers having been discovered in the mean time, a memorial to the Legislature of North Carolina was prepared by John Sevier, after wards the first governor of Tennessee, in which the action of the settlers was ex plained : — "Finding ourselves on the frontier, and being apprehensive that, for want of a proper legislature, we might become a shelter for such as endeav ored to defraud their creditors; considering also the necessity of recording deeds, wills, and doing other public business, we, by consent of the people, formed a court for the purposes above mentioned, taking, by desire of our constituents, the Virginia laws for our guide, so near as the situation of affairs would admit. This was intended for our selves, and was done by the consent of every individual."

Thus was organized the first court west of the Alleghanies. No record of the proceedings of this unique court, prior to 1778, is extant. In 1777 North Carolina formally assumed jurisdiction of the settlement, by erecting Washington County, the boundaries of which were co extensive with those of Tennessee; and in the following year the county was organized by the justices of the peace appointed by the governor of North Carolina for that purpose. The records of the " County Court " of Washington County are in existence, dating back to "February Court, 1778." The town of Jonesborough was the county-seat of Wash ington County, North Carolina, and is yet the seat of Washington County, Tennessee.