JACOB BROWN OF THE NOLICHUCKY

     In 1777 Jacob Brown, accompanies by a few families, came to the Nolichucky River area where he set up a trading post and practiced his skills as a blacksmith and gunsmith. The group apparently enjoyed good relations with the Cherokees, for soon after the lease of lands by the Wataugans, Brown was able to negotiate a lease for his lands. He was active in the affairs of the area from the beginning. He and John Carter were the two colonels under Major Jacob Wommack to insure the safety of the area. In 1776 he was one of the Committee of Thirteen, the legislative body, and, in that capacity signed the petition sent to North Carolina in 1776, which resulted in the formation of Washington District in 1777. He was a captain in the Washington District/County Militia, but was not called to active duty until 1780 when he served at the Battle of King’s Mountain, commanding his company under John Sevier.

     The earliest proven ancestor of this family was Thomas Brown, in Baltimore County, MD in 1692, whose only child, John married Elizabeth Sicklemore in 1705. They had three sons: Thomas, Augustus and Gabriel. In 1730 Gabriel married Mary Keen, who may have been the daughter of Timothy Keen. Their marriage, along with the births of their two sons, John (b. 1733) and Jacob (b. 11 Dec. 1736) were entered in the Register of St. George’s Protestant Episcopal Church of Baltimore County, MD.

     In 1752, Gabriel Brown received NC grant #10 in Anson County on the Broad River (now directly east of the town of Union, Union County, SC). In 1754 Jacob and John received Anson County, NC grants #1170 and #1164. In 1751 John Gordon and wife, Ruth,  had received a grant near Brown’s grant. The first record of John Gordon is in 1733 for a land purchase in Prince William County, VA, which he sold in 1749. John and Ruth had five sons: Thomas, John, Benjamin, William and Govin, and one daughter, Ruth.

     Jacob Brown and Ruth Gordon were probably married about 1760 in Anson County, NC (now Union County, SC); they had four known children: Jacob Jr., Thomas, Benjamin and John Gordon Brown. Although Thomas is the only one known to have been here prior to Jacob Sr.’s death in a hunting accident June 28, 1785, Ruth and the four sons settled here after his death. Both Ruth and Jacob are buried in the family cemetery on the Nolichucky. 

     The house and surrounding twenty-three acres had been in the family until April of 2018, when Don & Angie Lemmon bought the property. They immediately began to restore the farmhouse and then constructed Hilltop Barn and Creekside Barn.