James Blevins
was born in
Northumberland
County
VA in 1751. In 1774,
at the age of 23, Blevins moved to
Montgomery
County and joined the
Montgomery
County militia to fight at the
battle of
Point Pleasant.
During this
battle, the VA militia defeated the
Shawnee chief Cornstalk. The
Indians were forced to give up territory that consisted of the whole State
of
Kentucky.
In 1776,
Blevins joined an expedition in the Cherokee war to attack villages along
the
Tennessee River. The Virginians burnt 30
Indian Villages to the ground. The Treaty of long Island ended this war.
The Cherokees were forced to give up 5 million acres of land which
consisted of the whole state of
Tennessee. In 1779, Blevins
joined an expedition with Captain Enoch Osburne. They burned several more
Cherokee villages along the
Tennessee River.
In 1779 after
returning from the Osburne expedition, Blevins fought the local Tories in
Montgomery
County. Tories were
local loyalist citizens who supported the King George III of
England.
Montgomery
County was the single
most dangerous Tory district in VA. The Tories attacked the lead mines
of Fincastle County VA, Oxford Iron Works, planned a prison break of over
4000 Tories and British soldiers held at Charlottesville VA prison, but
was thwarted by the patriots.
The Tories
counterfeited the Continental dollar even though most merchants considered
it worthless to start with. They burned houses, Killed their horses and
livestock of people found helping the patriots.
In the early
1780s, Blevins found himself fighting Indians along the New, clinch, and
Holston Rivers of Southwest VA. In 1784, more settlers were killed along
the Wilderness Road going into
Kentucky from
Virginia than any year
before.
In January
1793, Blevins married Hannah Osburne. They had 6 children from this union.
In 1819, Blevins and his family moved to
Lee
County
Va. By 1843 Blevins
had moved to
Lawrence
county
KY. Blevins died
there on November18, 1843 at the age of 92.
Most of
Blevins children stayed in
Lee
County. Today most of
his descendents live in the
Lee
County
Virginia and Bell
county Kentucky region.