Joseph Erwin, Jr.

by Donald D. Erwin

Tennessee became the sixteenth state on June 1, 1796, but continued to be troubled by conflicting land claims by Native Americans and settlers. In 1818 Andrew Jackson and former Kentucky governor Isaac Shelby were appointed to oversee negotiations for an agreement with the Chickasaws. Previously, in 1783, the tribe had established a boundary at the watershed between the Tennessee and Cumberland Rivers, but in the intervening years they had dropped claims to territory in Middle Tennessee that conflicted with Cherokee cessions. Their claim to land west of the Tennessee River was unopposed, however, and the state government had a flood of North Carolina land warrants to honor.

On October 19, 1818, under heavy pressure from Andrew Jackson, the Chickasaw Indians accepted three hundred thousand dollars for all of their Kentucky and Tennessee lands. The states of Kentucky and Tennessee, neither of which had previously extended beyond the Tennessee River, were enlarged by approximately two thousand and six thousand square miles respectively. The Kentucky addition became known as the Jackson Purchase, the larger Tennessee portion as West Tennessee.

This opened up a vast, fertile area for settlement, and settlers poured in. The Tennessee General Assembly created the County of Henry on November 7, 1821, and was named in honor of Revolutionary War patriot and statesman, Patrick Henry. The town of Paris was named for the French capital in honor of Lafayette, and was established as the county seat on September 23, 1823. Henry County quickly became the gateway for the settlement of West Tennessee and beyond. In rapid order many more Tennessee counties were established, fourteen having been constituted by the end of 1824. The population of the state rose to 423,000 by 1820, and to 682,000 by 1830, and more continued to come.

By 1835, the only Indian lands remaining in Tennessee were those of the Cherokee in the southeastern corner of the state, the majority of which was between the Tennessee and Mississippi Rivers. Jackson, president of the United States by then, wanted all Indians moved west of the Mississippi River. A minority of the sixteen thousand Cherokee in southeastern Tennessee and the adjacent North Carolina and Georgia areas agreed to sell their land for five million dollars, plus seven million acres of land in Oklahoma. The Cherokee majority protested, but after three years they were forced to move to Oklahoma. The formal cession of land occurred on May 23, 1836.

The above described actions set the stage for the next move of the Erwin family. At some point between the time of the 1820 census and the 1830 census, probably about 1827 after large tracts of the former Chickasaw Hunting Grounds were opened up to settlement, Joseph Erwin, Sr. moved his family again, this time to Henry County, Tennessee. The Joseph Erwin, Sr. family, as well as the Joseph Erwin, Jr. family, are listed on the 1830 Henry County, Tennessee census. It is believed that both families initially settled on farms a few miles southeast of Paris.

Joseph Erwin, Jr. was born February 3, 1794, in Rowan County, North Carolina. He was my great-great-grandfather. It is likely that he arrived in Giles County early in 1812, with his parents and siblings in the south-central frontier of the new state of Tennessee. He died December 1, 1879 in Carrollton, Carroll County, Arkansas at age of 85.

On June 18, 1812, the United States declared war on Great Britain over seizures of American ships, impressments of American sailors, the arming of frontier Indian tribes, and the agitation of said Indians. The hostilities that followed came to be known as the War of 1812.

On December 10, 1812, in Rutherford County, Tennessee, Joseph Erwin, Jr., at the age of eighteen, enlisted for a term of two years in Captain Josiah Renshaw’s Company, a unit of the Second Regiment of Tennessee Militia Volunteers commanded by Colonel Thomas H. Benton. He was on active duty from December 10, 1812 to April 12, 1813, when he was released in Columbia, Maury County, Tennessee to inactive status.

Joseph was called back to active duty on September 26, 1813, and served until December 24, 1813. He was honorably discharged in Fayetteville, Lincoln County, Tennessee, with the rank of Orderly Sergeant.

Joseph married Nancy Rebecca Davis January 22, 1818, in Giles County, Tennessee. They had eleven children:

  1. Franklin Bainbridge Porter Erwin, b. October 30, 1818, in Giles Co., TN
  2. Elizabeth Catherine Erwin, b. November 1820, in Giles Co., TN
  3. Thomas Johnston Erwin, November 15, 1822, in Giles Co., TN
  4. Joseph Lafayette Erwin, b. November 18, 1825, in Tennessee
  5. Harriett Adalade Erwin, b. April 22, 1828, in Henry Co., TN
  6. Rebecca Anastasia Erwin, b. August 6, 1830, in Henry Co., TN
  7. John D. Erwin, b. February 1, 1833, in Henry Co., TN
  8. Nancy Abigail Erwin, b. April 10, 1835, in Henry Co., TN
  9. Mary Helen Paralee Erwin, b. December 2, 1837, in Henry Co., TN
  10. Michael Pike Erwin, b. December 2, 1837, in Henry Co., TN
  11. Henrietta TennesseeErwin, b. December 15, 1842, in Henry Co., TN

The 1820 Giles County census shows Joseph Erwin, Sr., living in Giles County, Tennessee with his wife and ten children. Joseph Erwin, Jr. is shown living next door with his wife and two small children. Since the census, at that time, listed the names of head-of-households only I can’t identify which of the family members were still in the household, but presumably the four eldest had left the nest.

No record has been found, at this point, of what ultimately became of Franklin Bainbridge Porter Erwin. It is possible, of course, that he died as an infant or as a young child before the family left Giles County sometime between 1820 and 1830. No listing has been found on any of the cemetery lists in Giles or Henry Counties, but this is not conclusive, as many pioneer cemeteries, and their records, have been lost to the ravages of time and neglect. It was 1850 before the Federal Census Bureau started listing the names of all family members. By then Franklin would have been thirty-two years old, and if still alive almost surely out of his parents home.

Caroline Nancy Cowan Erwin died July 6, 1839 in Henry County. She is buried in the Palestine Church Cemetery just outside of Paris in Henry County. After Catherine died Joseph must have left the area almost immediately, for although sons Joseph Erwin, Jr. and John Johnston Erwin are listed on the 1840 Henry County census, he is not. It seems likely that Joseph Erwin, Sr., with Abel and Michael, his two youngest children, moved to West Point, Troup County, Georgia. Old letters indicate that Joseph Erwin, Sr. was living with or near sons James Polk Erwin and Squire Cowan Erwin in the vicinity of Starkville, Oktibbeha County, Mississippi in the middle 1840s. Family tradition has it that Joseph Erwin died about 1848 in Mayhew, Lowndes County, Mississippi, the county just to the east which adjoined Oktibbeha County. Over the years relatives have tried, but have not been able to locate his gravesite.