One of the most interesting and significant figures in Columbus history was William Cocke. He was born in Virginia in 1747 and died in Columbus in 1828. Cocke actually lived the founding of the United States, and then became one of the founders of Columbus.
In 2011, I wrote a short column telling his story. Since then, a lot of information has become more readily available at the National Archives, the Library of Congress and other institutions. There was too much in the life of William Cocke to compress his story into a single column, so I am breaking the story into two parts. Today tells of him and the founding of America. Next week will focus on the founding of Columbus.
Few experienced the beginnings of this country as did Cocke, whose ancestors arrived in Virginia from England around 1632. He studied law in Virginia but did not actively practice law but dove into frontier politics. He was said to have participated in the tarring and feathering of an English recruiting officer in 1774. However, he was also said to have been offered a military commission by Lord Dunmore, the royal governor. Cocke was said to have responded to the governor that the king did not have enough money to buy him.
Cocke traveled with Daniel Boone on at least one hunting and exploring expedition into what is now Kentucky and Tennessee. After returning to Virginia he became an officer in the militia. He participated in one of the first battles of the Revolution and then served with Thomas Jefferson in the Virginia House of Burgesses in 1777 and 1778. At least 11 letters between Cocke and Jefferson have survived.
From early in the Revolution, he was in active service as a captain in the Fincastle, Virginia, militia. There are questions, though, as to which battles he fought in. In 1776 he commanded a company of Virginia militia in the Battle of Long Island Flats (near present day Kingsport, Tennessee) against hostile Cherokee Indians who had been incited by the British. He was probably serving as a captain at the Battle of Thicketty Fort and some sources say he was a captain and one of the “Overmountain Men” under Col. John Sevier in the 1780 American victory over British Col. Ferguson at the Battle of King’s Mountain. However, a list of captains serving under Sevier at the battle did not include Cocke.
Cocke and Sevier were associated during the Revolution and afterward were political allies. Another of Columbus’ founders, Silas McBee, though a teenager, was present at the Battle of King’s Mountain serving beside his father, who was a captain.
Cocke’s bitter relationship with the Cherokee continued after the Revolution ended. In November 1792, he wrote a very long letter to the Nashville newspaper that was uncomplimentary of the Cherokee Indians. In response Cherokee Chief Hanging Maw wrote a very short letter to the newspaper. That letter mentioned Cocke’s “long letter” and in effect said that “he who must talk long must not be talking the truth.”
After the Revolution Cocke continued with a political relationship he had formed with John Sevier and became one of the foremost proponents of the State of Franklin. That was an attempt in the mid-1780s for a group of counties broken off from North Carolina to form a new state. The attempt was unsuccessful, and the area became known as the Territory Southwest of the River Ohio. It later evolved into the state of Tennessee, and Cocke was a member of the committee that drafted the state constitution.
Upon Tennessee’s entry as a state, Cocke and William Blount became the new state’s first two U.S. senators. He served as a senator from 1796-1797 and 1799-1805. In 1804, while traveling between Nashville and Natchez, he stopped at the Chickasaw Indian Agency which at that time was in the present-day Houlka area. It was the Fourth of July, and he wrote Thomas Jefferson describing the celebration there.
“The Toast was appropriate to the day, and a dinner in plain and Jenteel Stile was provided the General Joy and harmony Shown on this Occasion and the atteachment exprest for Our Government and its administration would do honor to any portion of the Union after dinner they had a ball, in American Stile as they Calld this the American day, at this exebition I could Scarsely credit my own eyes, many of the natives danced with a most gracefull air and kept good time they danced Reales Curtilions & Jigs in the Old Virginia mode…”
Cocke had become a political ally of Andrew Jackson, but a disagreement led to Jackson challenging Cocke to a duel. Their mutual friends intervened to prevent the possibly deadly confrontation. Division remained between Jackson and Cocke until the War of 1812 and its Creek Indian War phase.
In 1809, Cocke became judge of the First Circuit in 1809, but in 1811 he was impeached for misconduct. What he was convicted of and removed from office for in 1812 was helping a friend or business associate during a case he presided over. One of the counties in which he served as a judge is Cocke County, Tennessee, which is named for him. His removal from office did not affect him politically, as in 1813 he was elected to the Tennessee Legislature.
The Creek Indian war, which was a combination of a Creek civil war and the Southern phase of the War of 1812, erupted in the summer of 1813. Fear struck the state of Tennessee and the Mississippi territory when on Aug. 30, 1813, Creek Indians attacked and overran Fort Mims on the Alabama River. More than 250 American settlers and friendly Indians were killed in the massacre. Andrew Jackson responded by leading “his brigade of mounted men” south to “save the Tombigbee settlements” in what is now south Alabama.
Although he was 65, Cocke volunteered and enlisted as a private to serve under Andrew Jackson leading to their reconciliation. In his Jan. 29, 1814, official report of actions against the Creeks, Jackson favorably mentioned Cocke. Later in 1814, Cocke was appointed U.S. agent to the Chickasaw Nation. He served in that role until late 1817.
William Cocke had experienced the founding and building of America and was about to start on a journey ending with the founding of Columbus.
Rufus Ward is a Columbus native a local historian. E-mail your questions about local history to Rufus at [email protected].
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Quality, in-depth journalism is essential to a healthy community. The Dispatch brings you the most complete reporting and insightful commentary in the Golden Triangle, but we need your help to continue our efforts. In the past week, our reporters have posted 46 articles to cdispatch.com. Please consider subscribing to our website for only $2.30 per week to help support local journalism and our community.
