Colonel Benjamin Cleaveland, a Hero of King's Mountain
Colonel Benjamin Cleaveland lived and died in Wilkes County at a good old age. A speech impediment prevented him from entering public life, yet he is remembered at the "hero of a hundred fights with the Tories." He entered service during 1775 as an Ensign in the second regiment of troops and was conspicuously brave during the battles of Kings Mountain and Guilford courthouse. "Riddle Knob, in Watauga County, derives its name from a circumstance of the capture of Colonel Benjamin Cleaveland, during the Revolution, by a party of Tories headed by men of this name, and adds the charm of heroic association to the loveliness of it unrivaled scenery. Cleaveland had been a terror to the Tories. Two notorious characters of their band, (Jones and Coil) had been apprehended by him and hung. Cleaveland had gone alone, on some private business, to New river, and was taken prisoners by the Tories, at the 'Old Fields, on that stream. They demanded that he should furnish passes for them. "Being an indifferent penman he was some time in preparing these papers, and he was in no hurry as he believed that they would kill him when they had obtained them. While thus engaged Captain Robert Cleaveland, his brother, with a party followed him, knowing the dangerous proximity of the Tories. They came up with the Tories and fired on them. Colonel Cleaveland slid off the log to prevent being shot, while the Tories fled, and he thus escaped certain destruction. "Some time after this circumstance the same Riddle and his son, and another were taken and brought before Cleaveland, and he hung all three of them near the Mulberry meeting-house, now Wilkesboro. The depredations of the Tories were so frequent, and their conduct so savage, that summary punishment was demanded by the exigencies of the times. This Cleaveland inflicted without ceremony."
Images of Wilkes County Wills and Estates 1778 to 1799
Names of Testators:
Alexander, Dolley
Alexander, Jesse
Bagby, John
Baldwin, Elisha
Baldwin, John
Barnes, John
Brown, Gabriel
Brown, George
Brown, James
Brown, John
Clayton, Henry
Cleveland, Benjamin
Coffee, Joel
Cornelius, Mary
Downey, James
Dodson, John
Dyer, Elisha
Edmonton, James
Fletcher, James
Foster, John
Freeman, James
Garrison, Isaac
Green, Ann
Glover, Benjamin
Gordon, Charles
Gray, John
Green, Joshua
Grier, John
Hardgrave, Francis
Henderson, Joseph
Herndon, Benjamin
Hesling, Carlton
Isbell, Francis
James, Charles
Jennings, John
Johnson, Jeffrey
Jones, Edmund
King, Charles
Lewis, Benjamin
Lindsey, John
Malone, George
Martin, Benjamin
Mayes, James
McDaniels, Daniel
McKenzie, Kenneth
McNeil, George
Parker, John
Parks, John
Pate, Anthony
Redman, Benjamin
Rhodes, John
Roberts, Elizabeth
Robinson, Jesse
Rose, Emmanuel
Rowe, James
Sails, Elijah
Scott, Hugh
Shepherd, James
Smith, Hugh
Stalling, Leonard
Stampers, Jonathan
Standley, Elizabeth
Sutton, John
Teague, Magnus
Witherspoon, David
Witherspoon, John