Portal:Tennessee/Selected biography
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Sequoyah (about 1767 - about 1843), also known as George Guess, Guest or Gist, was a Cherokee who invented the Cherokee syllabary, thus earning him a place on the list of inventors of writing systems.
The exact place and date of Sequoyah's birth are unknown, since no written record exists. However, James Mooney, a prominent anthropologist and historian of the Cherokee people, quoted a cousin in saying that Sequoyah spent his early years with his mother in the Overhill Cherokee village of Tuskegee, Tennessee. His mother, Wut-teh, is known to have been a Cherokee. Mooney states that she was the niece of a tribal chief. Sequoyah's father was either white or part-white and part Native American.
Some time before 1809, Sequoyah moved to the Willstown settlement in Alabama and established his trade as a silversmith. As a silversmith, he dealt regularly with white settlers in the area. Native Americans were often impressed by the writing used by white settlers, referring to their correspondence as "talking leaves."
Around 1809, Sequoyah began to create a system of writing for the Cherokee language. After attempting to create a character for each word, Sequoyah decided to divide each word into syllables and create one character for each syllable. Utilizing the Roman alphabet and possibly the Cyrillic alphabet, he created 86 characters to represent the various syllables. This work took Sequoyah 12 years to complete.
At first, his fellow Cherokee doubted the value of his syllabary. In order to prove his creation, Sequoyah taught his daughter Ah-yo-ka how to read and write in Cherokee. After amazing locals with his new writing, Sequoyah attempted to display his feat to tribal medicine men who rebuffed him for being possessed by evil spirits. Sequoyah finally proved his feat to a gathering of Chickamaugan warriors. Quickly news of the syllabary spread and the Cherokee were filling schools in order to learn the new written language. By 1823 the syllabary was in full use by the Cherokee Nation. The writing system was made official by the Cherokee Nation in 1825. From 1828 to 1834 the language was used in the Cherokee Phoenix which represented the Cherokee Nation. It is still used today by many Cherokee speakers. (Read more...)
Alvin York, born to an impoverished farming family in Fentress County, Tennessee on December 13, 1887, became the most decorated American soldier in World War I. For leading an attack against a German machine gun nest during fighting in France, killing 25 German soldiers and capturing 132 others, he was awarded the U.S. Medal of Honor, the French Croix de Guerre and Legion of Honor, Italy's Croce di Guerra, and a War Medal from Montenegro.
When he was first drafted into the United States Army in 1917, York was a conscientious objector who opposed war on religious grounds. However, eventually he became convinced that warfare could be justified.
His heroic actions occurred during a mission to secure a German railroad line on October 8, 1918. York was one of 17 men who infiltrated behind enemy lines and overran the headquarters of a German unit, capturing a large group of German prisoners. The American unit then came under heavy machine gun fire, killing six of the Americans and wounding three others, including the sergeant in command. York, a corporal, took command of the other seven remaining men and succeeded in silencing the machine guns while continuing to guard the prisoners. By the end of the engagement, York and his seven men marched 132 German prisoners back to the American lines. York was promoted to sergeant and was awarded several medals for his heroism. (Read more...)Pat Head Summitt (born Patricia Sue Head on June 14, 1952 in Clarksville, Tennessee) is the coach of the Tennessee Lady Vols basketball team. She has been coach at the University of Tennessee since 1974.
As a player, and a member of Chi Omega sorority at the University of Tennessee-Martin, Summitt was an All American and co-captain of the 1976 Olympic basketball team.
As coach, Pat Summitt has won eight national championships, which is the most among all women's basketball coaches, and second most among all college basketball coaches (only former UCLA men's coach John Wooden won more). She also has 14 Southeastern Conference regular season titles with the Lady Vols, as well as 13 SEC tournament titles.
She has written two books (with the help of Sally Jenkins), Reach for the Summitt (part motivational book, part autobiography) and Raise the Roof (about the Lady Vols' undefeated season in which they won the 1998 NCAA championship). Read more...
John Sevier (23 September 1745 – 25 September 1815) was the only governor of the State of Franklin (1785–1789), the first Governor of the State of Tennessee (1796–1801 and 1803–1809), and a U.S. Congressman from Tennessee from 1811 until his death in 1815. In the American Revolutionary War he was the commander of the Washington County, Tennessee, contingent of the Overmountain Men in the Battle of Kings Mountain.
Sevier was born in New Market, Virginia. Along with his first wife, Sarah Hawkins, and their children, he settled in the Holston River valley in what is now East Tennessee. That area was then claimed by Virginia. Sevier served briefly in Lord Dunmore's War in 1774. In this war John Sevier began to win the reputation as an Indian fighter that would make him a hero in his own day, though making some modern historians uncomfortable with his legacy.
Soon after settling in Northeast Tennessee, Sevier became involved in local politics, helping to organize a petition to North Carolina to become part of that state, and commanding Washington County militia in the Cherokee siege of Fort Caswell (or Fort Watauga) near Sycamore Shoals (present-day Elizabethton, Tennessee). After this battle he was promoted from Lieutenant Colonel to Colonel, and in this capacity led 240 of over 1,000 militiamen over the Appalachian Mountains to fight against Major Patrick Ferguson and a similar number of British Regulars and Carolina Loyalists at the Battle of Kings Mountain. The tremendous victory for the Overmountain Men increased Sevier's fame and popularity on the frontier, and when the time came for the people of the area to govern themselves, Sevier was more than once their first choice.
In 1784, North Carolina, bowing to the pressure from the Continental Congress and eager to be rid of an expensive and unprofitable district, ceded all her lands west of the Appalachian Mountains to the United States Government. However, the Congress did not immediately accept the lands, creating a vacuum of power in what is now East Tennessee. Sevier was one of several prominent men who stepped into that vacuum, accepting the role of governor of the new State of Franklin. When North Carolina rescinded her cession, Sevier initially wanted to return to the Old North State, in part because he was offered a promotion to brigadier general, but William Cocke, another prominent Franklinite (and later U.S. Senator from Tennessee), convinced him to stay the course. (Read more...)
James Knox Polk (November 2, 1795 – June 15, 1849) was the eleventh President of the United States, serving from March 4, 1845 to March 4, 1849. Polk was born in Mecklenburg County, North Carolina, but mostly lived in and represented the state of Tennessee. A Democrat, Polk served as Speaker of the House (1835–1839) and Governor of Tennessee (1839–1841) prior to becoming president.
A firm supporter of Andrew Jackson, Polk was the last "strong" pre-Civil War president. He is noted for his foreign policy successes, particularly the successful Mexican–American War. Also, he threatened war with Britain, then backed away and split the ownership of the Pacific Northwest with Britain. He lowered the tariff and established a treasury system that lasted until 1913. A "dark horse" candidate in 1844, he was the first president to retire after one term without seeking re-election. He died three months after his term ended.
As a Democrat committed to geographic expansion (or "Manifest Destiny"), Polk was responsible for the largest expansion of the nation's territory, exceeding the Louisiana Purchase in total area. He secured the Oregon Territory (including Washington, Oregon and Idaho), then purchased 1.2 million square miles (3.1 million km²) through the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo that ended the Mexican–American War. In the end, Polk completed the acquisition of most of the current contiguous 48 states.
The expansion re-opened a furious debate over allowing slavery in the new territories. The controversy was inadequately arbitrated by the Compromise of 1850, and only found its ultimate resolution in the Civil War. (Read more...)Portal:Tennessee/Selected biography/6
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