The history of John Sevier and his family is Interlocked with the history of thousands upon thousands of citizens of Tennessee and every other Southern State. A speaker said not long ago that no where else in the United States than in the mountains of Tennessee can a man address a crowd of two or three thousand people with not a foreign born hearer, or a hearer whose parents are foreign born. No where else are traditions so deeply ingrained of the pioneers. who won the land. The ancestors of every man and woman in the section participated with Sevier in the Winning of the West and were on more or less intimate terms with the Great Commander. Many of the things that are here set down will therefore be twice told tales, as around every fireside in, the mountains stories are still told of the prowess and courage of the Good Governor, Nollichucky Jack, of the beauty of Bonny Kate or the sweetness and bravery of Sarah Hawkins, who was the first Madame Sevier; of the charm of the Sevier girls and the bravery of the sons; of the heroic fortitude of Valentine Sevier III, and his sorrow of six sons and daughters killed by Indians; of the almost king-like reign of John Sevier in Tennessee and of the fact that, had he so desired, perhaps he might have truly reigned, a king, for the Spanish proposals were many and various. Yet, lest the knowledge of these things should pass as the generations go and lest the dates and names should become confused, these facts are gathered from many sources. Among those to whom credit must be given fur valuable assistance are: Charles Lyman Sevier, Robert A. J. Armstrong, Mrs. Eugene Coiled, Miss Kellogg, of the Wisconsin Historical Society, Custodian of the Draper papers, Mrs. Sessler Hoss, Elston Luttrell, Miss Augusta Bradford, of the Chattanooga Library, A. N. Turner, A. V. Goodpasture, William Drane, Miss Lucy M. Ball, Mrs. Sophia Hoss French, Charles Sevier, Mrs. Florence Underwood Eastman, John Trotwood Moore, Tennessee State Librarian, A. P. Foster, Assistant Tennessee State Librarian, Miss Cora Sevier, Mrs. Theodore Francis Sevier, Mrs. Louise Sevier Giddings, Mrs. Gray Gentry (Evelyn Sevier), the late Charles Bascom Sevier, Mrs. John Trotwood Moore, Daniel Vertner Sevier, Jr., Benjamin F. Wyley, W. H. Waddell, Mrs. Ruth Catherine Hoyt, Mrs. N. B. Pearman, Samuel Sevier Kirkpatrick, Fain Anderson, Miss Kate White, J. J. Brown, Mrs. G. L. Wing, Mrs. Ida Barclay Tucker, Mrs. William P. Bowdry, Mrs. M. W. Barney, Seldon Nelson, Mrs. Sabine, Miss Lucy M. Ball, and many other members of the family whose information and interest contributed so largely to the value of the record. This volume, Volume IV, consists of six parts and includes the following: The Sevier Family Antecedents and Emigration; William Sevier, the Emigrant and His Descendants; Valentine Sevier the Emigrant and His Descendants; Joanna Goode Sevier who Married Younger Landrum, Jr. and Her Descendants; Governor John Sevier His First Wife, Sarah Hawkins Sevier, and His Second Wife, Catherine Sherrill Sevier; and The Descendants of Governor John Sevier.
