Colonel John Tipton

Colonel Tipton’s legacy can be found in the lives of his sons.  They all lived in East Tennessee:

Samuel (1752-1833)

served in the Revolutionary War and moved to the Watauga Settlements about 1783.  His church letter dated September 6th, 1783 was accepted in the Sinking Creek Baptist Church where he was a prominent member.  He sold the land which became the town of Elizabethton and is buried in the Tipton Family Cemetery in Elizabethton.  (The cemetery is now known as the Green Hill Cemetery).  Samuel was a representative in the Tennessee House of Representatives along with his brother, John.

 

Benjamin (1755-1807)

 born in Shenandoah County, Virginia, Benjamin was a soldier in the Revolutionary War serving as early as 1775 under Captain John Wilson.  23 Feb 1778, he was sworn in as an ensign (officer) in the Shenandoah County Militia and was promoted to Lieutenant on 29 Apr 1779.  About the time his father moved to Washington County, North Carolina (now East Tennessee), Benjamin moved also.  It is not known if he lived in Washington County for any length of time before moving on to Blount County where he lived for many years.  It is believed Benjamin was married three times and fathered at least eleven children.  He died in 1807; his grave is in the Ellejoy Baptist Church Cemetery southeast of Maryville, Blount County, Tennessee.

Abraham (1758-1781)

was killed in March, 1781 on Beargrass Creek at the Falls of the Ohio by Indians.  At the time, he was serving as a Captain in the brigade of Colonel Joseph Crockett with the forces of George Rogers Clark.  This army was fighting the British and Indians in the Northwest Territory, territory claimed by the State of Virginia.

William (1761-1849)

was often known as “Fighting Billy”.  He was badly wounded at Savannah while serving in the Revolutionary War in the Virginia Line.  William states he fought with his father at the Battle of the Lost State of Franklin and with Andrew Jackson in the Creek Wars and at New Orleans.  He was a friend of Jackson and is reputed to have visited him in Washington while Jackson was president.  He married his step-sister, Phoebe Moore; they were early settlers in the Cades Cove area of Tennessee where he died. 

I have located William’s gravesite on the Knox County/Blount County line but it is on private property.  Getting a picture awaits further arrangements.

Isaac (1763-1827)

was a soldier in the Revolutionary War being present at Yorktown for the surrender of Cornwallis.  He owned extensive, productive farmland around Elizabethton and is buried in the Tipton Family Cemetery (now, Green Hill).

Jacob (1765-1791)

was killed at St. Clair’s Defeat in the Northwest Territory near modern day Fort Wayne, Indiana.  When Jacob was leaving for the Northwest, he told his wife to rename their son Jacob for him, if he didn’t return.  According to an article in the Knoxville Gazette for December 17th, 1791; Jacob, a regular US Army officer, was impatient to get to the fighting and joined some Kentucky militia first engaged.  When he received his mortal wound, he is quoted as saying “My brave fellows, I am a dead man; do you fight on, and bravely do all you can for your country”.  His heroism was recognized far and wide in the young United States.

Below is a photo of the monument erected by the US Congress to commemorate the fallen soldiers who died at St. Clair’s Defeat 6 Nov 1791.  This obelisk stands over the mass grave of those heroes.  Captain Jacob Tipton is buried in the mass grave and his name is inscribed on the base of this monument.  The monument is located in Fort Recovery, Ohio, site of the battle.  The monument was dedicated on July 1, 1913.

John (Jr.) (1769-1831)

served in the Tennessee Militia and as a private in the US Army under his older brother Jacob at St. Clair’s Defeat.  He married Elizabeth Snapp whose father, Lawrence, was a close friend of his father’s in the Shenandoah Valley.  John had a long career as a Tennessee legislator dying in Nashville on October 8th while serving in the 19th Tennessee General Assembly.  The State honored him with a funeral procession and a monument at his gravesite in the Nashville City Cemetery.  His funeral procession and the monument resolution were reported in the National Banner & Nashville Whig newspaper for October 12th and November 30th, 1831.  That article lists the order of the procession as follows: The Body, Relatives and attending Physician, Clergy, Speakers and Officers of both Houses, Members of both Houses, Governor, Secretary of State, Treasurer, Mayor and Aldermen of Nashville, President and Trustees of the University, Judiciary and Citizens.  In the 1890’s, the 49th Tennessee General Assembly replaced John’s original monument with a much grander one.  The monument inscription describes a life of service and a man “bold in conception and fearless in execution”.  Following his father’s death, John lived on the plantation at Buffalo Mountain.  He also inherited his father’s love for race horses as he advertised Don Quixote at stud in the Knoxville Gazette of February 24th, 1808.

A monument to honor John Tipton (Jr.) was erected in the Nashville City Cemetery by Order of the 19th General Assembly of Tennessee.  By the 1890’s, the monument had deteriorated; The 49th General Assembly ordered the original replaced with a more grand monument to the services made by John Tipton (Jr.) to his State and Nation.  The Honorable John Tipton (Jr.) was given a state funeral by the Tennessee General Assembly as noted in the Nashville Banner & Nashville Whig, 12 Oct 1831.  He served in both the Tennessee House of Representatives, where he was Speaker, and the State Senate.  He died 8 Oct 1831.

 Thomas (1771-1840/50)

was a Captain in the Carter County Militia.  He died in Walker County, Georgia after living in Carter and several other Tennessee Counties, the Cherokee Nation and Alabama.

Jonathan (1776-1858)

was a Colonel of the Carter County Militia who married Lavinia Adams Williams, a niece of President John Adams.  He served as a Sergeant in his brother Jacob’s company and was elected a Colonel of a Light Horse Regiment in the Tennessee Militia in 1822.  Jonathan spent some eighteen years as a Tennessee Legislator; he represented Carter, Washington, Blount and Monroe Counties.

Abraham (1781-1820).

Only child of the marriage of John Tipton and Martha Denton Moore Tipton.