Colonel John Tipton

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I made a trip to West Tennessee to research the life of General Jacob Tipton (1790-1839), son of Captain Jacob Tipton (1765-1791), the namesake of the County.  General Jacob was the grandson of Colonel John Tipton.  He organized Shelby County in 1819 and Tipton County in 1823, was the Surveyor General of the 11th District of Western Tennessee and Brigadier-General of the 14th Brigade of the State Militia.  In 1818, he married Lorina Taylor, daughter of General Nathaniel Taylor, prominent early settler in Carter County, Tennessee.  See links at bottom right for more information

Last month, I visited with Carroll Van West, PhD., Director of the Tennessee Center for Historic Preservation in Murfreesboro. Dr. West encourages new research and writing about Tennessee history and particularly believes the early settlers and legislators’ lives and times deserve to be more fully researched and the findings published. He encouraged me to continue my research on Colonel John Tipton and to publish the results as soon as possible.

Jonathan Tipton (1639-1727), grandfather of Colonel John Tipton, immigrated to Maryland about 1670.  He settled in Anne Arundel County.  Records indicate he owned a plantation called “Paschal’s Chance” in Herring Creek Hundred.  Exciting archaeological research is taking place in the vacinity of Jonathan’s land by the Anne Arundel County Lost Towns Project.  For more information on the research go to www.losttowns.com and see some of the results of their research at  http://anthropology.si.edu/writteninbone/leavy_neck.html

Recently, I added new links and an Appendix Section which has a variety of stories and entrys of note.  For more interesting information, be sure and visit the comments of the site visitors.

I am informed by Jean Martin, Archivist at the Shenandoah County Library in Edinburg, Virginia that the correct year for the change of Shenandoah County’s name from Dunmore County is 1778.  I erroneously stated it as 1777 in paragraph four on page 3 of Colonel John’s bio.  Thanks, Jean!

For all the visits and comments you have made to this site.  I have received excellent new information about Col John and his sons.  Please visit the Contact Section for info about this site’s purpose and other pertinent info.

There are no known portraits or likenesses of Colonel John Tipton.  The drawing in the Col John section was done by artist Jenny Kilgore as a representation of Colonel Tipton using extant physical descriptions and the historiography of his times.