Pine Bluff daily graphic., 1896-05-27
ONE HUNDRED YEARS
TENNESSEE ABOUT TO CELEBRATE
 HER CENTENNIAL.


 mission-First Called the State of Frank
 lin-wss Formerly Part of North Care
 lima.
 Tennessee, the third state to join the original thirteen and the last admitted to the Union in the eighteenth century, will celebrate on June 1 the hundredth anniversary of her admission "A map of the Tennessee government, formerly a part of North Carolina, is the title of a map made iii Tennessee $ territorial days. The map shows rivers, mountain ranges and a few settlements. Light soil, long grasses, the timber and bro ken ground on the heads of these riy- CTS, is the comment printed across the eastern end of what is HOW called vest ern Tennessee. ITO Pensacola, the way nearly level, :" Is the direction on that part of the map little west ef the headwaters of the Tennessee river. That early map lays down the boundaries ef Tennessee much as they are HOW. though then much was unexplored.
 The first white child born i'll Tennes- see was Russell, the son of William Bean, whose cabin WAS built i'll 1769, at the junction of Watauga and Boone creeks Daniel Boone was sometimes guest at Bean $ cabin. The settlements of Watauga creek, Carter's valley and Nollichucky creek were the three from which the state of Tennessee began. So rapidly was the new region settled that 50 Tennesseeans were able to take part i'll the battle of kanawha i'll 1714. Gov ernor Tryon's attempt to suppress the patriots of North Carolina drove many of the latter into Tennessee. and just before the outbreak of the Revolutionary war the population of Tennessee rapid ly increased.
 It was probably in 1772 that the Wa tauga association was formed to make sort Of government for the settlement A committee of 13 was chosen, and this committee selected from its own mem bers an executive committee of ,, which i'll turn elected | president of the general committee. The Nollichucky settlement was not included in this first attempt at civilized government, hut was forced in IT'S to swear allegiance to the common cause when the people of Nollichucky were suspected Of Tory ism. The Watauga association i'll 1776 prayed to be annexed to North Carolina, and North Carolina responded favora- F bly,. The region then practically took to itself the name of the District of Wash l ington, and North Carolina loosely fix ed it's western boundary at the Missis- 1 {f, have had tt this time about roo inhab- ] itants. The Teanesseeans promptly de- elared themselves indebted to the unit l ed colonies for Yennessee' s proper share of general expenses, and it was the troops from the District of Washington | tbat decided the battle of Kings Noun 1 tain in favor of the colonists and thus perhaps brought the Revolutionary war to its turning point The Tennesseeans were also busy at home in fighting the Indians and suppressing the Tories. while vigilance committees had to be appointed to deal with lawless men refugees from justice in Virginia and North Carolina. By the laws of the wig ilantes forgers were branded, murderers whipped and horse thieves hanged.
 John Sevier is the hero of early Ten nessee, and the episode of his attempt to found the state of Franklin is one of the most picturesque and significant of what John Fiske calls the critical peri cd of American history. North Carolina ceded Tennessee to the confederation i'll 17S4 and greatly angered the Tennes- seeans, but before North Carolina could repeal the act of cession the ceded terri tory had constituted itself the state of Franklin and made John Seyier its gov ernor. Then North Carolina woke to the fact that her sovereignty had been of fended and made ready to coerce the new state. Sevier at first wished to re- turn to his allegiance, but finally con- sented to lead the people in the defense of the state of Franklin, and there were three years of turmoil, until his term of governor expired i'll 1798, when he was seized and carried into North Carolina for trial on a charge of treason. His es- cape and recapture on his way thither and his flight from the courthouse i'll the midst of his trial form the most stir ring bit of personal history in the early days. He was never rearrested after his flight between two friends on his own swift horse, and he lived to be the first governor of the state.
 North Carolina finally ceded Tennes see to the Federal government in l700, and for about five years the region was governed as the territory of the United States south of the Ohio river. By the year 1795 the territory had population of 60, 900, and there was a strong state hood movement developed. The consti- tutional convention met at Knoxville in January, 1796, and it was General Jackson who suggested for the new state the name of Tennessee. The region had for some time been called the Ten nessee country.
 The event that Tennessee is about to commemorate would have occurred some weeks before June, 1796, but for delays in congress. The first legislature of the