Talk:Joseph Hardin Sr./Archive 1

Untitled
I would like to make the following entry for the article currently titled "Joseph Hardin". This will increase knowledge of the individual, increase documentation of sources for the article, and correct some currently published errors in the article.

I propose the following changes be made:

1) Title be changed to "Joseph Hardin, Sr." as his son, Joseph, Jr also deserves a page.

2) The body of the article (untagged for clarity) be replaced with the following:

Colonel Joseph Hardin, Sr. (Apr 18, 1734 – Jul 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 afterwards. As a minute man during the Revolutionary War, Hardin fought against the British, distinguishing himself in battle, especially at Ramsour’s Mill and at King’s Mountain, and rising to the rank of Colonel. As was the custom of the time, he was awarded land grants totaling 8,400 acres for service to his country. In 1786, three thousand acres of this land was set aside for Col. Hardin in what would later become Hardin County, TN.

Joseph Hardin was born the spring of 1734 in Henrico County, Virginia Colony, in an area several years later to be encompassed by the fledgling town of Richmond, VA Colony. 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 1700s and the 1800s. He is the great-grandfather of legendary Texas outlaw and gunslinger, John Wesley Hardin.

Early Times and Family Life

Joseph Hardin was the second son, and fourth child, of Benjamin Hardin II and Margaret Hooper. He is an older brother of Capt. John Hardin (1736 – 1802) noted as the hero who turned the tide of the Battle of Ramsour’s Mill (June 20, 1780) during the “Southern Campaign” of the Revolutionary War.

Joseph married Jane Gibson (1742-1817) on July 8, 1862 in Virginia and they soon moved to the 'Salisbury District' of North Carolina Colony, settling in the newly formed Tryon County (about 1770) where he became Justice of the Peace in 1772.

Joseph and Jane had fourteen children: twins Joseph, Jr. and John; Jane Ann; James W.; Benjamin I; Robert I; Elender; Mary Easter; Margaret; Rev. Amos; Rebecca; Benjamin II; Gibson; and Robert II. “Ben-two” and “Robert-two”, as they were called, were both named after older brothers that 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 County, NC (Tennessee East District) (1783); and finally Greene County, TN (1796). He was also quite active in colonial and state politics, serving as an Assemblyman (Representative) for Tryon County, North Carolina (1774-1779); for Washington County, Washington District, NC (1782); and, Greene County, Tennessee East District, North Carolina, (1788).

During the period of 1784-1785, Hardin helped organize the extra-legal State of Frankland, becoming its first Speaker of the House of Commons in 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 a Representative for the First Territorial Assembly of the Southwest Territory (Territory South of the Ohio River) held at Knoxville, Tennessee 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 (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 Battle of Ramsour's Mill, NC between the Tories and the Whigs (Patriots) June 20, 1780 and later that year at the Battle of King's Mountain, SC, Oct 7, 1780;

After the cessation of the ground war with Britain (1784), 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 which had been allied with the British.

Later Life and Legacy

Although never himself setting 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 Col. Joseph Hardin for three thousand acres in what was to become Hardin County, TN. However, due to trouble with the indigenous peoples and the wild conditions of the area, it would be another thirty years before man could attempt to settle there.

Joseph 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 King's 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 day did finally come when two parties of settlers (totaling 26) met at Johnson Creek near present day Savannah, TN. This was in July 1816. The first party came by boat out of Knoxville, TN by way of the Tennessee River, landing in May 1816 at “the easteward curve of the Tennessee" (at Cerro Gordo, TN.). The second and larger party, had come overland and suffered from many delays.  This second party was led by Joseph Hardin, Jr, (who executed land grants of his own in the area) and James Hardin (founder of the failed settlement of Hardinsville, to be founded on Hardin’s Creek in 1817).  Travelling with them were sisters Elender and Hannah, along with and their families.  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, in November 1819, at the first meeting of the County assembly which took place at the home of James Hardin. Today, the courthouse in the county seat at Savannah, TN, is dedicated to this true American Hero, Col. Joseph Hardin, Sr.

3) additional sources, including:


 * The American Revolutionary War, http://www.myrevolutionarywar.com/battles/800620.htm
 * Virginia County Formation Ani-Maps, http://www.familyhistory101.com/maps/va_cf.html
 * My Tennessee Genealogy http://www.mytennesseegenealogy.com/tn_county/hrn.htm
 * "The McClintock Memorial"; (by Alma Louise [McClintock] Shelton, Pub. July 11, 1985; by Pioneer Publishing; Fresno, CA) Pgs. 13-14.
 * "Joseph Hardin: A Biographical & Genealogical Study", (by Prof. Tommie Cochran Patterson; Manuscript self-published (mimeographed) 1931; Library of the University of Texas at Austin, TX; call no. 976.8 H219BP (OCLC #13179015)); Pgs. 1-5.
 * "History of Tennessee: From the Earliest Time to the Present; Together with an Historical and a Biographical Sketch of Henderson, Chester, McNairy, Decatur, and Hardin Counties." (Goodspeed Pub. Co.; 1886; Nashville, TN); Pgs. 829-841.
 * "A History of Hardin County, TN" (by B.G. Brazelton; Pub. 1885; Nashville, TN. Cumberland Presbyterian Publishing House).
 * Land Warrants of North Carolina State, Entry No. 1619 of April 5, 1784.
 * "The Land Warrants of NC, North Carolina Grants" and "NC Military Grants 1788-1903". The entries: No. 317 (400 acres -"withdrawn"), 318 (600 acres), 445 (800 a), 670 (1000 a), 924 (200 a), 1619 (3000 a), 2118 (1000 a), 2119 (1000 a) and 2129 (500 a) of April 5, 1784 totaling 8,400 acres for military service; copies at the Tenn. State History Library, Nashville, TN.
 * “NC Military Grants 1788-1903; entry No. 2128; 1,000 acres; May 10, 1784.
 * North Carolina Land Grant Book No. 67, Pg. 439 (Office of the Secretary of State, Raleigh, NC).
 * “Kathleen’s Kousins”, Rootsweb Worldconnect project, http://wc.rootsweb.ancestry.com/cgi-bin/igm.cgi?op=GET&db=khboyce&id=I00057

Regards, --GenQuest (talk) 18:40, 6 November 2008 (UTC)

Peer Review
Contributions to North Carolina seem pertinent, too. Requesting peer review of North Carolina and Military History Tags. GenQuest (talk) 18:22, 23 November 2009 (UTC)