This young man was destined to become one of the most unique characters in American history.  I know of no other of whom it can be said that he was loved by both his friends and his enemies.  Indian mothers were wont to hush their children to sleep with the terror of his name, but Indian chieftains were known to plead when in distress, “Send us John Sevier.  He is a good man, and he will do us right.”  In the times that “tried men’s souls” to the uttermost he was to stand firm when most men faltered.  He was to be “the rear-guard of the Revolution,” and in its darkest days was to throw his sword into the trembling scale and turn it to final victory at King’s Mountain.

At this time he was about twenty-six years of age, nearly six feet in height, and of a slender but wiry and athletic figure.  His carriage was erect, his movements quick and energetic, and his bearing commanding.  He had light hair, a fair skin, and a ruddy complexion, and his large dark-blue eyes were singularly expressive of vivacity, good feeling, and fearlessness.  He had handsome features, a lofty forehead, a prominent nose, and a mouth and chin of absolute perfection.  His manners were exceedingly winning, and he had about him a sort of magnetic force that would convert into a friend the most stubborn of enemies.  However, it is doubtful if, with but one exception, he ever had an enemy.  His individuality was so marked that, if told John Sevier was present, any stranger could have pointed him out in the most crowded assemblage.  His career will read more like romance than history, but it was entirely in keeping with the man, who was altogether great, unselfish, heroic, one of those choice spirits who are now and then sent into the world to show us of what our human nature is capable.  Next to the landing of the Pilgrims at Plymouth, the coming together of those two bodies of emigrants on the Watauga was the most important event which up to that time had occurred in American history; but it was no more important than the meeting there of John Sevier and James Robertson, for, humanly speaking, had those two men not met, and acted thereafter in harmony together, the civilization there planted could never have survived the struggle it was destined to encounter with savage foes and fratricidal enemies.

There were now between thirty and forty men in the settlement, and, the location of the new-comers being decided on, they all set about the erection of their dwellings.  Trees were felled, cut into logs, hewn into joists, split into flooring, and rived into shingles, and in an incredibly short time the various families were domiciled in their new abodes.  These were generally one and a half stories high, about twenty feet square, and built of rough logs, chamfered at the ends, so as to fit closely together.  They had a solid plank door, hung on wooden hinges, and two or three small windows, formed by sawing through one or two of the outer logs.  The windows were