Joseph Martin, Jr. (1740–1808) was a brigadier general in the Virginia militia during the American Revolutionary War, in which Martin's frontier diplomacy with the Cherokee people is credited with not only averting Indian attacks on the Scotch-Irish American and English American settlers who helped win the battles of Kings Mountain and Cowpens, but with also helping to keep the Cherokee's position neutral and from siding with the British troops during those crucial battles. Historians agree that the settlers' success at these two battles signaled the turning of the tide of the Revolutionary War—in favor of the Americans.
Martin was born in Caroline County, Virginia, and later lived at Albemarle County and then at Henry County, Virginia, at his plantation, Belmont, on Leatherwood Creek in Martinsville, not far from the plantation of his friend Governor Patrick Henry, Leatherwood Plantation.
Martin held many positions during his public life. As a very young man he first tried his hand at farming, next he worked for three years as an overseer on the huge plantation of his local Virginia kin, next he was a longhunter, and an explorer on the frontier for friend Patrick Henry, then an early pioneer and builder of Martin's Station in the "wild west," a surveyor of the Kentucky/North Carolina and Tennessee/Virginia borders, an agent and fighter dealing with Native Americans for Patrick Henry, a member at peace treaties with the Native Americans, and along with Thomas Walker, Joseph Martin named the Cumberland region and the Cumberland River, he served as a member of the legislatures of Virginia, Georgia, and North Carolina, he was lifelong friends with Thomas Sumter, he was also friends and brothers-in-law with Benjamin Cleveland (both married Graves sisters), he was unsuccessfully nominated by Patrick Henry to the position of the first governor of the Southwest Territory, was the holder of some 80,000 acres across the Southeastern U.S. at one point. The city of Martinsville, Virginia, was named in his honor during his lifetime.
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Early life
The son of planter Capt. Joseph Martin Sr. and his wife Susannah Chiles, great-granddaughter of Colonel John Page, Joseph Martin Jr. was raised in a Virginia gentry family in Caroline and Albemarle Counties. His father, Joseph Martin Sr., was the son of wealthy British merchant William Martin in Bristol, England, who sent his son to Virginia as supercargo aboard his ship the Brice. Martin Sr. wrote to his English father that he planned to marry the daughter of a common Virginia colonist. Even though she was from the Chiles family and was a descendant of Virginia's Col. John Page, to Martin's wealthy father back in England all American colonists were inferior to the English. William Martin of Bristol was himself Lord Mayor of Bristol and owner of a ship building company, a glass manufacturing plant, importer and exporter with the new world; including tobacco. The father wrote back disinheriting young Joseph Martin Sr., who never returned to England.
Joseph Martin Sr. was "a perfect Englishman", recalled his grandson later, "large and athletic; bold, daring, self-willed and supercilious. And in him was depicted, as my father has told me, the most complete form of the aristocracy of the British government." Capt. Martin arrived in Albemarle County in 1745, one of the original patentees. Joseph Martin Sr. left some 300 acres of his landholdings to son Joseph Jr. at his death in 1762. Nearby neighbors Dr. Thomas Walker, Peter Jefferson, James Madison, and the Lewis and Clark clans and kin including Lewis, Carr, Waller, Dabney, Hammock, Hughes, etc.
But Joseph Martin Jr., the grandson of the English immigrant, was not cut out for a Virginia gentry planter's life. "Gambling was a favorite pastime." Martin's son, Revolutionary War officer Col. William Martin, in his accounts of his father's life in the, "Lyman Draper Manuscript Collection," writes that although his father gambled, he was not much of a drinker and let his son in on his secret; Martin sometimes pretended to over-drink so he might appear to be drunk in order that fellow gamblers would let down their guard. As a youth, Joseph Martin ran off from an apprenticeship during the French and Indian War of 1756, and joined the army at Fort Pitt, where he served alongside another Virginia youth, Thomas Sumter. Following his early army service, Martin lit out for the rigors of the frontier, where he dressed in buckskin and was an early real estate speculator, trapper and fur trader and Indian fighter.
But this time on the frontier was after Martin had bought a large plot of land in Henry County with his earnings working for three years as an overseer for an uncle. Martin also gained 20,000 acres of land from Patrick Henry in a surveying contest at Powell Valley. Martin's youthful adventures on the frontier were grist for later stories... some of which were written by Martin's political foes and were slanted to paint a picture of him in an unkind light. One writer, a fan of Martin's political enemy, called him lazy and refused to describe him by his military ranking. General Joseph Martin may have been many things in his lifetime, but a quick study of his history and his accomplishments show that he was far from lazy. Eventually the soldiering, trapping and Indian fighting transformed the young Martin into a fearsome explorer.
Martin's Station
Martin's Station stood along the Wilderness Trail near Rose Hill, Virginia. Martin arrived in Powell Valley in 1769, having been offered a grant by Dr. Thomas Walker of 21,000 acres. Martin constructed "improvements" upon the land, that being a few cabins and a corn planting, but Martin's party was attacked by the local Native Americans. He returned a few years later in 1775 and built a new "Martin's station". Again he was attacked by the Indians and had to leave. Moving closer to the Cumberland Gap, he built another new "Martin's Station", his third, in 1783. The small fort provided protection plus supplies for hunters and immigrant families moving into Kentucky. He was able to finally sell his fort and lands in Powell County, Kentucky in 1788, and moved back to the town in Henry County, Virginia, that would soon be renamed in his honor: Martinsville.
A "fourth" Martin's Station was recently constructed at the Wilderness Road State Park. "Builders of the hand-hewn log replica, constructed in 2002, used only the kinds of tools that Martin would have used in the wild frontier in the later 1700s. Workers carted logs into the construction site with oxen and then used ropes and horses to set those logs in place. At times, reenactors came on the scene and made the construction yet more authentic by staging spontaneous Indian attacks."
Life along the frontier
"Martin was a robust figure in the history of the early frontier," according to the WPA guide to the Old Dominion. "He was born in Albemarle County in 1740, ran away to fight Indians at 17, became an Indian agent, land agent, and officer of militia, fighting Indians all up and down the frontier. In 1774 he came to Henry County, established himself at Belle Monte on Leatherwood Creek, for nine years sat for his district in the general assembly, and in 1793 was made a brigadier general of state militia. He was a brawny, picturesque man, more than six feet tall and the father of 18 children; wore buckled knee breeches and a great beard, braided and thrust inside his shirt."
Martin first married Sarah Lucas in Orange County, Virginia. After her death in Henry County, Martin married Susannah
Graves, a descendant of Captain Thomas Graves. Susannah Graves, of Spotsylvania County, Virginia, the wife of Joseph Martin, and her second cousin Mary Graves, who was married to Benjamin Cleveland, Susannah Graves was the daughter of William Graves and Mary unk, Mary was the daughter of Joseph Graves and Sarah Bunyard. Both are direct descendants of Thomas Graves and Anna Davenport, common ancestor, is Capt. Thomas Graves. [Ref; Wills of Joseph Graves and Thomas Graves].
While married to Sarah Lucas and then to Susannah Graves, Martin was simultaneously married to his half-Cherokee wife, Elizabeth Ward, the daughter of Nancy Ward, a power within the Cherokee tribes, and her husband, English trapper Bryan Ward. The polygamous relationship, justified by Martin as common practice among frontiersmen operating among the tribes, caused considerable consternation to General Martin's son, Col. William Martin. Joseph Martin and Betsy Ward had two children. (Joseph Martin's son by his Cherokee wife was educated in Virginia schools, but afterwards elected to return to the Cherokee.)
On November 3, 1777, Martin was commissioned by Governor Patrick Henry as Agent and Superintendent for Indian Affairs for the State of Virginia. (Martin served in the same capacity with the state of North Carolina from 1783 to 1789.) Gov. Henry instructed Martin that he was "to reside at some place in that Nation in order to negotiate and direct all things relating to the Commonwealth and which concern the interest thereof, using your best endeavors from time to time to preserve peace with that Nation and to cultivate their present good Disposition." It was an appointment Martin would continue to hold until 1789.
Career as an Indian agent
Ultimately, General Martin lost his appointment as chief Indian agent. Martin's "manner of treating with the Indians necessarily prevented his appointment," Senator Richard Henry Lee informed Patrick Henry in September 1789. "At present no such office as a standing Indian agent is appointed. The Government of the Western Territory is charged with such affairs."
In some quarters Martin was seen as too lenient with the Indians, especially after an incident in 1786 when several young Cherokee warriors were said to have murdered two white settlers near Clinch Mountain. The killings set off calls for retribution within the secessionist State of Franklin, and Martin found himself trying to mediate the dispute, and calm the settlers, while trying to prevent the angry Cherokees from joining with the Creeks. Martin did little to disguise his contempt for the authorities of the State of Franklin, who, Martin wrote Henry, "immediately marched into the above mentioned Town, where they killed one Young [Indian] woman, and Shot Several others."
But Martin himself had not hesitated to wield military power against the Cherokees, especially when they killed several colonists at the instigation of Loyalist and English agents during the Revolution. In 1781, following a running battle between Indian forces and those of the colonists, Colonel Arthur Campbell, Lieutenant Colonel John Sevier and Martin addressed a letter to the Indian chiefs, warning them about their actions. "You know you began the war," the bulletin began, "by listening to the bad councils of the King of England and the falsehoods told you by his agents." Further hostilities, the three colonial leaders warned, would result in a military campaign against the Indian villages. Seven years later, in 1788, Martin again fought the Overmountain Cherokee, as well as the Chickamauga Cherokee, in a battle at Lookout Mountain, during the Cherokee–American wars.
But having eventually struck a hard-won peace with the tribes, Martin bridled at the actions of the State of Franklin. Henry empathized with Martin, writing the General in May 1785 that "the disorderly behavior of the Franklin people, as they call themselves, gives me concern. If they will not be subservient to the Rules and Regulations respecting Indian affairs, which prevail in all the States, they must expect none of the advantages of the Union."
Legislative service
In his peripatetic life on the frontier, Martin was called upon to serve in the legislatures of several states. He served as a member of the North Carolina Convention called to approve the United States Constitution, and served several times in the North Carolina General Assembly. Martin was subsequently elected to the Virginia House of Delegates, until he finally chose to retire because of advanced age. (In 1787 the North Carolina assembly chose Martin as Brigadier General of the Washington District.) During his time in the Virginia legislature, Martin was one of the primary supporters of James Madison's Kentucky and Virginia Resolutions. During his military service in Georgia, Martin was elected to the Georgia legislature in 1783.
Martin was also initially a member of the Watauga Association, which supported the founding of the State of Franklin. Martin subsequently resigned his membership when he saw that it might compromise his role as Indian agent.
In 1799, Martin and his old friend Major John Redd of Henry County served as the two county representatives on the Virginia commission relating to the Alien and Sedition Acts.
Family life, legacy, and descendants
Gen. Joseph Martin, Jr.'s first wife was Sarah Lucas. They were both born in Virginia and together had seven children, including Revolutionary War officer, Col. William L. Martin, who eventually moved to Smith County, in Middle Tennessee.
After Sarah Lucas Martin's death, Joseph Martin, Jr. married Susannah Graves in Henry County, Virginia. They had 11 children, all of whom were born in Virginia, including: Col. Joseph Martin of Henry County, Va. He was one of five of Gen. Martin's sons who served in the War of 1812.
Another Martin son, and veteran of the War of 1812, was Patrick Henry Martin. He was a young, trained lawyer, and died a bachelor on his trip home after the war. He was named in honor of Gen. Martin's friend and neighbor, Governor Patrick Henry. Gen. Martin's son, Capt. Lewis Graves Martin, also a veteran of the War of 1812, moved from Henry County, Virginia to Rutherford/Cannon County in Middle Tennessee, in 1816, where he married Belinda Rucker (daughter of Gideon Rucker, Sr. & Joyce Reade; both of whom were born in Va. and moved to Middle Tennessee). They had a large family before Belinda's death in the late 1830s. Capt. Lewis G. Martin remarried and removed to Missouri in 1840. Another Martin son, and veteran of the War of 1812, was Thomas Martin. He also moved to Middle Tennessee where he married Georgia Carr (daughter of Dabney Carr). Alexander Martin, another son and veteran of the War of 1812, also moved to Middle Tennessee. He married Elizabeth Carr (daughter of John Fyndall Carr, also a Tennessean from Virginia), and after some years, moved to Missouri. Another son of Gen. Martin and Susannah Graves was Esq. Judge John C. Martin, who also moved to Middle Tennessee in the days following the War of 1812, where he became a judge and chairman of the Cannon County courts, and served five terms as county executive. He was also responsible for the construction of the original Cannon County court house, erected in 1830. He married Sophia Rucker, sister to his brother Lewis' wife, Belinda.
Other children of Gen. Martin include: George Martin (1763 - 1799), Martha Martin Cleveland, Elizabeth Martin Waller (1768 - 1805), Brice Martin (1770 - 1856), Jesse Martin (1786 - 1836), and Susan Martin King (1799 - 1867).
Gen. Martin also had two children with his half-Cherokee, common law wife ("frontier wife"), Elizabeth Ward, daughter of frontiersman Bryant Ward and his wife Nancy, "the beloved woman of the Cherokee." One of their children may have been Nancy Martin Hildebrand (1778 - 1837).
Toby's freedom
General Joseph Martin, Jr. owned a slave named 'Toby' from the time Toby was about 25 years old, and in his letters to historian Lyman Draper, Martin's son Col. William Martin told Draper that Toby, "a bright mulatto, a little under middle stature, of great physical powers, as well as mental" had served his father for many years and had distinguished himself in several battles. It was General Martin's intention, noted his son, that Toby be freed at Joseph Martin's death, but the General died intestate. Taking note of the General's affection for his longtime servant, as well as the Martin's family members' sentiments toward Martin's constant companion, the family elected "by mutual consent" to leave Toby out of the inventory of General Martin's estate, and Toby "has ever since been free, and has made himself a good estate." In his letter to Draper, Col. William Martin calls the freed slave "my fine old brother Toby."
Recent monument
On June 27–29, 2008, 200 descendants of General Joseph Martin gathered in the city named for him to unveil a monument in his honor, at the Gen. Joseph Martin, Jr. Bicentennial Celebration.