“Hidden History”
Joe Guy
When Isaac Lane died on November 9, 1851, the long life of a remarkable man ended. At the age of 92, Lane had been a frontier scout, an Indian fighter, and a Patriot. He’d hunted down murdering Tories, fought alongside John Sevier, and helped defeat a British army and the Cherokee War Chief Dragging Canoe.
Born in Virginia in1759, he was the son of Reverend Tidence and Esther Lane, a well-known Baptist minister on the southern frontier. Isaac probably first came to the Holston and Watauga settlements in upper East Tennessee from North Carolina with is father around 1778. Here he met John Sevier, and soon became a member of the Patriot militia, involved in driving out Tories from the settlements. One Tory leader, known as Grimes, murdered a settler named Millican and almost killed two others. Isaac was part of a group that pursued Grimes far up into the mountain coves. The Tory escaped, but Isaac Lane would see him again.
In September of 1780, word came to the settlements that a large force ofTories under the British Captain Ferguson were threatening the Holston and Watauga settlements. Isaac was elected lieutenant in Sevier’s militia of “Overmountain Men”, and after assembling at Sycamore Shoals on the Watauga, was soon on the long march into South Carolina. On October 7, the combined force caught Ferguson and defeated him at King’s Mountain. Isaac was in the thickest of the fighting on the south side of the hill under Captain George Russell. One of the British prisoners caught during the battle was the Tory leader Grimes, who Isaac saw hung not long after fighting had ended.
But the victory was not long enjoyed by the Overmountain Men. Immediately upon their return to Watauga, a trader named Isaac Thomas told of a war party of Cherokee warriors already marching toward the settlements. Again, Lieutenant Isaac Lane followed Sevier as the men were called together and marched south. The Cherokee, under the leadership of the War Chief Dragging Canoe, were encountered at Boyd’s Creek in present day Sevier County. Isaac Lane and John Ward were scouting ahead of the others when Cherokees were seen hiding in the tall grass. Sevier called the men back, and an attack was launched that routed the Indians.
Still fearing an attack, Sevier led his force on southward into the Cherokee towns in present Monroe and McMinn Counties. This was Isaac Lane’s first view of the rich lands and streams in the area, and he, along with several other soldiers, made note of the attractiveness of the land.
Returning home, Isaac married Sarah Russell in 1782, who was the daughter of Captain George Russell. Isaac was granted 100 acres for his militia service in Washington County. They moved to Hawkins County, Tennessee in 1789, and after the county was divided into Grainger County Isaac was active in local affairs.
When McMinn County was established from Cherokee lands in the Hiwassee Purchase, Isaac and his extended family moved to McMinn County about 1822, returning to the rich lands he’d seen some forty years earlier. They settled a large plantation on Mouse Creek, where the Lanes were among the largest land owners in the area. The Lane farm was part of what is now the old Burn farm, north of Niota off County Road 319.
Isaac Lane literally saw the birth of both the United States and the State of Tennessee, actively participating in their settlement and expansion. At the time of his death, he’d lived long enough to see railroad tracks laid near the small town of Athens over land he’d once known as wilderness, occupied by the Cherokee. He was laid to rest on his farm, only a mile from where the town of Mouse Creek would soon spring up, later to be renamed Niota.
His grave, now overgrown and almost lost, has been marked by the daughters of the American Revolution and recently catalogued by Dennis Stewart as part of the McMinn County Cemetery project.
Joe Guy is a nationally published author, columnist, storyteller, and historian. He may be reached via email at guyjd@hotmail.com or at PO Box 489 Englewood, TN 37329