After the United States won the war of independence from England, there was a dramatic increase in internal migration, with as much as 10% of the population moving each year and about half of that moving across state lines. Young white men were the most mobile of the population leading the way westward. Although there were a few permanent white settlements as early as 1771 on the western side of the mountains in North Carolina, it was not until after the war ended, and defeat of the Cherokee and Shawnee Indians that significant numbers of settlers moved into that area now known as Northeastern Tennessee. Actually, many thought the area was a part of Virginia.

 

The specific region was centered geographically around the valleys created by the Holston and Clinch Rivers in the Cumberland and Appalachian Mountains. It was rugged territory which became a refuge for the frontier type even before the war. During the late 1700s, the new settlement territory came under several forms of government and ownership. First there was the Watauga Association, a semi-autonomous government created in 1772 by frontier settlers living along the Watauga River. Then in 1777, the area was admitted to the state of North Carolina as the District of Washington which consisted of Washington and Sullivan counties, only to be turned over to the Federal government in 1784 as cession for war debts. Then the unhappy citizens formed what they thought was the 14th state called Franklin with its capital of Jonesborough. However, when Franklin was never admitted to the Union, the territory was again taken over by North Carolina in 1790. Finally in 1796 the area became part of the new state of Tennessee.

With that historical landscape, William Jackson was one of those very early settlers who migrated to the area from Virginia in the late 1780s when he was in his twenties. His actual reason for relocating from eastern Virginia is not known. Perhaps he was looking for new fertile lands as tobacco planting was known to greatly deplete land where it was grown, and he evidently migrated with other Jackson relatives. William may also have brought some slaves with him from Virginia. It was not uncommon that white slaveholding migrants were younger sons of eastern slaveholders, whose inheritance included only a portions of the family’s slaves, or small farmers who owned just one or two blacks.

 

William apparently settled first in Sullivan County and in 1790 was appointed as a Constable. He married Hannah Jobe in 1789. They had their first child, Peter, in 1790 when the population of Tennessee had reached about 36,000. They would go on to have a total of 9 children. Eventually his family settled in Washington County near Jonesborough where they became successful farmers acquiring considerable land holdings. Records show that William obtained 300 acres in land grants on the Doe River in July 1794.

 

Hannah died sometime before William who later died in August 1837. In his will he bequeathed tracks of land of 120 acres, 82 acres, 146 acres to his three youngest children. The remainder of his estate was essentially divided among all his children. One very interesting bequeath was for his 5 slaves (Cap, Marshall, Dick, Alice and Elbert) to be hired out with the proceeds shared among all children. Then the slaves were to be set free when they reached 30 years of age. He requested that they be treated Kindly and always be provided with warm and comfortable clothes. His two oldest sons, Peter and George, whom he deemed trustworthy, were named as executors of the will.