Griffith Rutherford 1721-1790's

The following is from a website http://www.overmountainvictory.org. It one of the better write-ups on Griffith. There was another that was also very good I will try to find again. I had captured several, but lost them when my computer went down. His father was Scotch and his mothert Welch and they met and were married in Ireland before sailing for America. This is from Rutherford County, North Carolina. There is a town in New Jersy named Rutherford not named for Griffith. There is a county and a town in Tennessee also named for Griffith. Also there is a town in the California wine country called Rutherford, I don't think there is any connection.

I will try to complete the connection between Griffith Rutherford and my Grandfather, James Griffith Rutherford. I have lost the books that had the details. Richard Rutherford

General Griffith Rutherford

Rutherford County was named for General Griffith Rutherford, who did not live in the county, but who did command county troops.

Rutherford was born in Ireland in 1721. His father was Scotch and his mother Welsh. Soon after his birth, his parents sailed for America, but both died at sea. He was taken in by relatives in New Jersey, where he grew up and learned surveying. At maturity, Rutherford stood 5 feet, 8 inches tall and weighed 180 pounds.

Rutherford moved to Halifax County, North Carolina, where he was appointed King's Surveyor. In 1753, he bought land in Rowan County, near Salisbury, North Carolina. He became a wealthy farmer, married Elizabeth Graham in 1754, and they had 10 children.
In 1771, Rutherford was elected to represent Rowan in the North Carolina Assembly. He supported efforts aimed at restricting the Anglican Church, introducing a bill allowing any minister to perform marriages. (At the time, only marriages performed by Anglican clergy were legal. Since few Anglican ministers served in the counties west of the tidewater, the result was that many couples were not legally married and their children technically illegitemate. This was a source of both anguish and potential legal troubles.)

On April 22, 1776, Rutherford was among the members of the Assembly who voted to approve independence for North Carolina.

In May, 1776, the Assembly reorganized the Royal Militia into the North Carolina Militia. Rutherford was chosen Brigadier General for the Salisbury District that included Rowan and Tryon (socalled Old Tryon) Counties. His first duty was to raise 300 men to defend North Carolina. That summer, the British and North Carolina Loyalists were active along the coast. In addition, the Cherokee rose in support of the Crown, attacking settlements in the Crooked Creek and Toe River areas in Western Tryon and Rowan.

When reports arrived that Colonel Charles McDowell was besieged at Quaker Meadows on the upper Catawba River, Rutherford raised 2500 men and marched west to the frontier. From Fort McGauhey, near Gilbert Town, Rutherford marched for the Nolichucky (the Toe in today's Tennessee). By September 1, 1776, Rutherford's army enetered Cherokee country, marching down (west) the French Broad River, burning Cherokee towns and crops. Rutherford proceeded down the Pigeon, the Tuckasegee, the Little Tennessee, and the Hiwassee, burning 36 or 40 Cherokee villages, before returning east in a month. His route became known as the "Rutherford Trace."

In 1777, Rutherford again called out the militia against British supporters, suppressing Tories around Hillsborough, North Carolina, where the independent state government relocated. In 1780, he twice led troops to support Patriot efforts to defend Charleston, South Carolina, from a British invasion. Fortunately, he was in North Carolina when Charleston fell in May.

As Cornwallis marched toward North Carolina in the summer, Rutherford called out his men, assembling against a Loyalist army at Ramsour's Mill near Charlotte. By the time Rutherford arrived, General Davidson had dispursed the Tories. Rutherford joined up with the Southern Army under General Horatio Gates and took command of the North Carolina Militia just before the disastrous defeat at Camden, South Carolina, August 16, 1780. While his troops did not fight well, Rutherford, himself, did, refusing to yield and being seriously wounded. Taken prisoner, he was held in the Camden jail, later a prison ship at Charleston, and, finally, the fortress at Saint Augustine, Florida.

Ironically, while Rutherford was held captive, King's Mountain occurred, and Cornwallis resumed his campaign in North Carolina, marching almost to Virginia, before turning back. Early in 1781, Rutherford's home near Salisbury was sacked and burned by Cornwallis. After the questionable British victory at Guilford Courthouse in March, 1781, Cornwallis withdrew to Wilmingon, North Carolina, to recuperate. Then he marched north again to Yorktown, Virginia, where his was besieged and surrendered in October.

Rutherford was taken north to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, in the summer of 1781 and exchanged by the British. He returned to North Carolina in August, 1781. He immediately took command of troops engaged against North Carolina Loyalists in the Wilmington area, who were left to carry on the king's fight when Cornwallis left. In the summer of 1782, Rutherford and Charles McDowell led another expedition against the Cherokee.

When a new county was formed from Tryon February 8, 1779, it was named for a hero of the early days of the American Revolution, Benedict Arnold. For some reason, the North Carolina Assembly changed its mind, and April 14, 1779, the new county was renamed for that local hero, General Griffith Rutherford. On April 12, 2003, a marker was unveiled on the lawn in front of the courthouse in Rutherfordton, North Carolina, commemorating the General and the route of his 1776 march against the Cherokee, the Rutherford Trace. Comparing the times of Rutherford with the days following September 11, 2001, and the invasion of Iraq, a speaker offered a poem for the dedication:

Above the Broad, where the Thermal Belt

meets the mountains and the streams run cold,

with the Chimney Rock looking down,

roll the hills of Rutherford

under a Carolina sky.

We've put our names

upon the ridges,

laid our homes

among the trees

shading the sweetly

singing streams.

Rutherford, old general

from the times of hope and fear,

let your shadow fall upon us,

in our times of hope and fear.

Let our children put their names

upon the ridges, lay their homes

upon the hills,

upon the hills of Rutherford.

The Hills of Rutherford, Copyright © 2003 Bob Sweeny. All rights Reserved.

In the 1790's, Rutherford moved to Sumner County, Tennessee, where he died. His grave, apparently, is unmarked.