James White

Background

James White was born in Rowan (later Iredell) County, N. C. , the son of Irish parents, Moses and Mary (McConnell) White.

Career

During the Revolution James White served as captain of militia, 1779-81. After the passage in 1783 of the act by which the State of North Carolina granted lands to Revolutionary soldiers, White, with Robert Love, Francis Ramsay, and others, began an exploration on the French Broad and Holston rivers, seeking the most advantageous region in which to locate their claims. Upon his return home, he made preparations to remove to the country which he had visited. He first moved to Fort Chiswell, where he remained for a year; in 1785 he went on to the north bank of the French Broad, and in 1786 settled at the present site of Knoxville, Tenn. White served in the convention (1785) which considered the ratification of the constitution prepared for the abortive State of Franklin and in 1789 was sent by the voters of Hawkins County to the North Carolina House of Commons and also to the convention which ratified the Constitution of the United States. In 1790 William Blount, governor of the Territory Southwest of the Ohio, appointed him justice of the peace and major of the militia. The following year White's Fort was made the seat of the territorial government, and in 1792, when Knox County was established, White was made lieutenant-colonel of the county militia. In the same year he laid out at White's Fort the town of Knoxville and sold lots for residence. He directed the defense of the town during the Indian troubles of 1793. In 1796 he served in the convention which drew up the constitution for the State of Tennessee and was elected to represent Knox County in the Senate of the new state. The next year that body elevated him to the speakership, but he resigned to permit the election of William Blount after the latter had been expelled from the United States Senate. Blount and John Sevier were his intimate friends, and he supported the policies of each of these men in the administration of the affairs of the territory and of the state. In 1798 Sevier appointed him to represent Tennessee in the first treaty of Tellico, with the Indians, and during his public life he played an important part in Indian affairs. He presided over the state Senate in 1801 and again in 1803. In the late nineties he was commissioned brigadier-general of the state militia and participated in the Creek War 1813 with that rank, serving under the command of Gen. John H. Cocke. White was a sturdy pioneer, a substantial citizen, and a powerful influence in the councils of the commonwealth, to which he gave a long life of service. He belonged to the Presbyterian Church and donated land for a house of worship in Knoxville. He was also the donor of the site for Blount College, later the University of Tennessee, and was one of the trustees named in its charter (1794). He died at Knoxville and was buried in the yard of the First Presbyterian Church.

Achievements

• He founded Knoxville, Tennessee, in the early 1790s. White had a reputation for patience and tactfulness that was often lacking in his fellow Euro-American settlers on the Appalachian frontier. As lieutenant colonel commandant of the Knox County militia, White managed to defuse a number of potentially hostile situations between the settlers and the local Native Americans. He donated the land for many of Knoxville's early public buildings, and helped establish Blount College (now the University of Tennessee). White's descendants continued to play prominent roles in the political and economic affairs of Knoxville into the twentieth century.

Connections

On April 14, 1770, he married Mary, daughter of Hugh Lawson. They became the parents of seven children, of whom the most noted was Hugh Lawson White.

Father:

Moses White

Mother:

Mary (McConnell) White

Spouse:

Mary

Son:

Hugh Lawson White