Place:Watauga Settlement, Washington, Tennessee, United States

About Watauga Settlement

Starting as early as 1768, several families came into the northeast corner of Tennessee from the uplands of North Carolina. They banded together as teh Wauauga Association in 1771 and spread over the eastern part of the section. In 1776, North Carolina accepted the district as Washington County which eventually embraced all of present Tennessee. To secure federal protection for that territory, North Carolina handed it to the federal government as a present. Apparently no one in Washington became enthusiastic about the gift, refusing even to acknowledge it. After it had been ignored for four or five years some of the settlers retaliated by organizing the territory into a new state, Franklin. But even that action received cold treatment from Washington, and eventually the are was settled into the State of Tennessee in 1796. Source: The Handy Book for Genealogists, Seventh Edition.