This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1903 edition. Excerpt: ...was taken, which vote resulted in the report of the committee being rejected and Francis Preston was thereupon declared duly seated. Colonel Preston was returned a member of Congress from this district by successive elections till the year 1797. Thus our district early in its history witnessed a contest before the Congress of the United States. At the election held for a presidential elector, on the first Monday in November, 1792, for the district composed of the counties of Wythe, Washington, Russell and Montgomery, Claiborne Watkins was selected an elector from this district to vote for President ami Vice-President of the United States. In the month of December, 1792, Captain Tate and forty men were passing through the wilderness on their way to Kentucky, when they were attacked by a company of Creek and Cherokee Indians, and, about the same time, several lesser encounters occurred, but I cannot ascertain the casualties on either side. In the fall of 1792, the citizens of North Carolina provoked a war with the Indians, and, in the month of October, John Watts, at the head of a thousand hostile Indians, threatened an invasion of the Holston settlements and the settlements in Powell's Valley. Watts, with his forces, began his march for the settlements, and reached Buchanan's fort within five miles of Knoxville, where he was repulsed with a loss of fifteen men killed, Watts himself receiving a bad wound. After this repulse, Watts's army dispersed in small parties, declaring their purpose to invade the settlements and to attack the settlers out of their forts. It was the declared purpose of Watts and his followers, to drive off and destroy the whole of the inhabitants in Powell's Valley. The situation was truly alarming for the Virginia...