Joseph Martin (general)

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 KY/NC and TN/VA borders, an Indian agent/Indian fighter for Patrick Henry, a member at peace treaties with the Indians, and along with Dr. 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 Gen. Thomas Sumter, he was also friends and brothers-in-law with Col. 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.

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.

[6] Joseph Martin Sr. was "a perfect Englishman", recalled his grandson later, "large and athletic; bold, daring, self-willed and supercilious.

[note 3] 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.

On the return of the chiefs home, Dr.[Thomas] Walker, a gentleman of distinction, and my father, [General] Joseph Martin, accompanied them.

[13] Martin and his party – which included his brother Brice and Mordecai Horde[note 4] – had hoped to secure the 21,000 acres (85 km2) granted to Dr. Walker and themselves.

[note 6] It was one of several such roles that the explorer, accustomed to trapping, longhunting and traveling in the Appalachian wilderness inhabited by the Cherokee, would hold over the years.

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.

[32] During his time on the frontier, Martin became acquainted at an early age with two other Revolutionary War patriots and frontiersmen: Benjamin Cleveland, who was his brother-in-law, [They were not related, just lifetime friends.

Grace S. Green] Cleveland having married the sister of Susannah Graves; and Thomas Sumter, who had been a companion of Martin's during his early adventures on the frontier.

[33][34] During the Revolutionary War it was the efforts of Joseph Martin (then a Major) that helped prevent the Overhill Cherokee from launching widespread attacks on American colonists, which Loyalist agents had attempted to incite.

[36] Martin's diplomacy with the Cherokees in 1780–81, wrote the American Historical Association, enabled the Continental Army to achieve victory over the English at the Battle of Kings Mountain, thus hastening the end of the conflict.

On the eve of the Battle of Guilford Court House, in February 1781, General Nathanael Greene wrote Martin and seven other officers – including John Sevier, Arthur Campbell, and William Christian – appointing them agents to treat with the Cherokees and Chicasaws "to afford the Said Tribes of Indians every mark of our good disposition towards them."

Foremost in Greene's thinking, apparently, was keeping the Indians on the sidelines as the Continental Army and its militia forces fought the British in the last days of the war.

[37] Greene was probably mindful of previous British attempts at sending large quantities of ammunition, weapons, horses, cash and goods to their Indian allies through their Florida redoubts.

[40] And in 1784, Thomas Jefferson directed Martin to use his connections with the Cherokees to negotiate for more land between the Carolinas and the Mississippi to establish American sovereignty over the region.

[41][42] Later, in a twist overlooked by most historians, Martin corresponded with Alexander McGillivray, the leader of the Creek Indians, who had Loyalist sentiments.

But he was later exonerated when it turned out that he was acting as a spy on Patrick Henry's instructions to ferret out the nature of McGillivray's ties to the Spanish, who were then active in Florida.

"After all the Hazards you have run," Henry wrote, "that you have not acquired so much property as many others would have done in your situation, I was desirous to throw something in your way by which some fine lands would have been offered to you in our purchase.

"[45]: 404 In some quarters Martin was seen as too lenient with the Indians, especially after an incident in 1786[note 9] 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.

"[45]: 373 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.

"[note 12] "Partisans of the State in N[orth] Carolina afterwards found him obnoxious to their views," former Governor Henry wrote Virginia Senator William Grayson in urging Martin's reappointment in 1789, "and as I believe often endangered his Life For his duty called him to discourage their Disorderly conduct [and] thwart their favorite Schemes."

[55] A year later, in 1790, when the governorship of the Southwest Territory opened up, Patrick Henry suggested Gen. Martin, along with George Mason, for the job, but both were passed over in favor of William Blount.

Writing in 1894, Theodore Roosevelt called Martin "a firm friend of the red race, [who] had earnestly striven to secure justice for them.

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.

[63]Initially known as Henry Courthouse, the town of Martinsville, Virginia, was later renamed in honor of this early soldier, planter, pioneer, and real estate speculator.

[64] For many years afterwards, General Martin remained an obscure figure, until Lyman Draper began collecting reminiscences about him, including those of Major John Redd, a prominent Henry County planter who served under Martin, and who also wrote about his early recollections of General Nathanael Greene, George Rogers Clark, Daniel Boone, Col. Benjamin Cleveland, Dr. John Walker, and other early prominent Virginia figures.

;[74] Judge John Dillard of the North Carolina Supreme Court; American theologian and Biblical Greek scholar Archibald Thomas Robertson.

Also descended from Martin was Henry Smith Pritchett, an educator born in Missouri who served as president of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.