East Tennessee is part of Appalachia. At the end of the French and Indian War, colonists began drifting into the area. In 1769, they first settled along the Watauga River. During the Revolution, the Overmountain Men defeated British loyalists at the Battle of Kings Mountain. The State of Franklin was formed in the 1780s, but never admitted to the Union.
His family moved from New Jersey to Cecil County, Maryland some time between 1757-62. By 1771 they moved to Loudon County, Virginia.
He married Margaret Lucas on March 5, 1778 in Cecil County, Virginia
Daniel Bayless, Jr. (1777, married Mary Ireland),
George Bayless (1796, married Hannah Goulder),
Ann Bayless,
Mary Bayless (1777, married Thomas Wood),
John Bayless (1780, married Elizabeth Hunt),
Hannah Bayless,
Margaret (Peggy) Bayless (1795, married James White),
Zethia (Luthy) Bayless (1797)
Elizabeth Bayless (1789, married Isaac Hendley)
Reuben Bayless, Jr. (1784, married Sarah Young)
Rebecca Bayless (1793)
About 1780 they moved to Washington County, Tennessee with their extended family.
In 1793 he was granted 200 acres on the drain of Brown's branch of the Nolichucky River. He had a ferry on the Nolichucky.
In 1816 Reuben and Daniel signed
. . . The petition of William P. Chester to your worships respectfully sheweth that he is now about to build iron works in Bumpus Cove [just south of Jonesborough]. . .prays your worship to grant him a Jury of view to lay off . . . [3,000 acres].
Reuben died in 1826 and Margaret in 1828, and both are buried in Cherokee Baptist Church cemetery.
The Nolichucky River flows through Western North Carolina and East Tennessee. It is a tributary of the French Broad River. During the 1770s, European Americans established the "Nolichucky settlements" in what is now Greene County, Tennessee.
The Village Messenger
Fayetteville, Tennessee
06 Oct 1824, Wed • Page 2
