Griffith Rutherford

Griffith Rutherford was born in 1721.  He was born in Ireland to John and Elizabeth Griffith Rutherford.  During the trip to America or immediately afterwards both Griffith’s parents died and before he was one year old he was left to his relatives in Pennsylvania.  Early in his life he took up the craft of land survey and in the early 1750’s he settled in Rowan County.  In 1754 he claimed 656 acres on Grant Creek and married Elizabeth Graham, the sister of a local whose land was adjoining to Rutherford’s.

There is not much written evidence about Rutherford’s participation in the French and Indian War but he was listed in 1760 as being a captain in the Rowan militia.  In 1766 he was appointed deputy to John Frohock, surveyor for Henry McCulloh.  Rutherford and Frohock represented Rowan County in the Assembly.  In the years from 1767 to 1769 Rutherford served as county sheriff and he also worked as a justice of the peace.  While he was in the Assembly he promoted the creation of additional western counties to appease the Regulators, a political group of farmers who objected to the fact that the eastern part of the state had more control in the Assembly than the western part, and that the Assembly was making decisions that hurt the western areas.  Rutherford participated in the 1768 council that decided to pardon most the Regulators who had risen up in protest.  He was one of the officials who agreed to return any excessive money he may have made surveying.  Rutherford was also part of the militia that worked under General Waddell to subdue an army of Regulators.

In 1772 Rutherford was promoted to colonel of the Rowan County militia.  During the tense years before the Revolutionary War Rutherford did not actively push for the rebellion.  Still, by 1775 he was chosen by the Third Provincial Congress to be a member of the Safety Committee of the Salisbury District and colonel of minutemen for Rowan County.  Late in the year he and his men participated in the “Snow Campaign” against the loyalists in Scovillite, South Carolina.

In February 1776 Rutherford went to Cross Creek to help with the revolution in the Upper Cape Fear region.  Although he arrived too late for the battle of Moore’s Creek Bridge, he was named brigadier general of the militia in the Salisbury district, which included the western frontier of the province.  At this time the Cherokee were considered a threat because of their alliance with the British and Rutherford and others in South Carolina and Virginia moved against them.  In September he invaded Cherokee lands and joined up with the South Carolinians led by Andrew Williamson.  By the end of the month the armies headed home after destroying thirty-six towns, destroying crops and food stores so that the Cherokee were in a state of starvation through the winter.  Though the Cherokee were no longer considered a threat, Rutherford was ordered to build forts along the western frontier, and he had to find a way to control the itinerant bands of loyalists in the western districts.

In 1778 Rutherford and his troops were moved to help defend South Carolina and Georgia from the British.  His troops camped near the Savannah River and were in bad spirits brought on by lack of supplies.  During this time Rutherford was part of a court of inquiry against General John Ashe for his defeat near Briar Creek.  By mid-April Rutherford had gone home with his men, their time in service almost completed.  In 1780 he was once again sent south to help with the siege of Charleston, but the battle was lost and the city seized before he and his troops could arrive.  Worried that this was an indication of what would happen to Salisbury under his command he began a campaign against the Loyalists in the district.  He defeated Loyalist groups at Ramsour’s Mill on June 20^th, 1780.  In July he began to raise troops to fight against Cornwallis, but Rutherford was captured at the Camden in August after being shot in the leg and receiving a saber wound to the head.

He was exchanged for British prisoners of war in June 1781 and released in Philadelphia.  He finally made it home in August to find that British forces had emptied his farm.  Immediately going back to work he resumed command of his men and in October marched east.  He defeated a group of Loyalists at Raft Swamp and by the end of the month had reached Wilmington.  Before he could attack word of the British surrender reached them and he and his men returned to North Carolina.  Once home Rutherford continued to persecute Loyalists and during 1782 he worked with General Charles McDowell.

After this Rutherford did not participate any more in military matters.  Still, the credibility he had earned fighting during the war gave him some political power.  In 1776 he attended the Provincial Congress and served on the committee that drew up a “Bill of Rights and Form of a Constitution” for the newly formed state of North Carolina.  For the next ten years he represented Rowan County on the state senate.

In politics Rutherford was a radical.  He attempted to pass a strict confiscation act during 1777 and when in 1782 he was appointed commissioner of confiscated property for the Salisbury district he identified eighty-two parcels of land to be seized within only a few months.  Rutherford fought for stricter laws punishing Loyalists and wanted to place double taxes on Moravians and Quakers.  In 1783 he ran for Governor of North Carolina but was defeated.  When the Treaty of Paris was debated by the state senate Rutherford successfully worked against Article 5, which would have returned confiscated Loyalist property.

He attended the Hillsboro conference that considered the adoption of the federal Constitution.  Rutherford was in favor of discussion of the document but voted with the majority against it.  At the convention he tried to have Fayetteville chosen as the state capital but failed.  In 1789 he was not chosen to attend the convention which ratified the Constitution, but he continued to be chosen by the legislature to attend the Council of State.

At the end of the Revolutionary War Rutherford owned over 2,000 acres, most of it in Rowan County.  In 1783 he worked with William Blount, Richard Caswell, Joseph Martin, John Donelson, and John Sevier to try to settle the area of Muscle Shoals.  This scheme failed, but Rutherford continued to work in land speculation.  In the same year he was chosen by Governor Alexander Martin to survey the lands set aside for those who fought in the Continental Line.  For doing this he received 3,000 acres in Tennessee.  The area in Tennessee was still unsettled and Rutherford was forced to build a stockade around his home to defend against the native Americans.

On June 13^th, 1794 Rutherford was appointed by President George Washington to a place on the territorial legislative Council, and shortly afterwards became president of that council.  In 1777 North Carolina had named a county after him, and in 1803 Tennessee followed suite.  In 1805 Rutherford died in his sleep at the age of eighty-four.  He was buried, according to family stories, at a cemetery near Legardo, Tenn.  There is no known portrait of Rutherford, but he was described as having red hair, five feet eight inches tall, and weighing about 180 pounds.  He and his wife had ten children:  Jane, James, Blanche, Henry, Elizabeth, Alfred, Newton, Margaret, John, and Griffith Weakley.

"Except for some of the most distinguished Continental officers, by far the most important military man evolved during our Revolutionary struggle in North Carolina was General Griffith Rutherford of Rowan County." (1905. Ashe, Samuel. A Biographical History of North Carolina. Vol. II, p.381.)

General Rutherford was born in Ireland in 1831 and sailed with his parents to America at age 8. He was orphaned either on the voyage or shortly after arriving in America and was looked after by an elderly German couple. (1905. Ashe, Samuel. A Biographical History of North Carolina. Vol. II, p.381.)

Around 1753, Rutherford moved to Rowan County and was one of the first settlers in the area. He purchased two tracts on land in 1756 and married Elizabeth Graham soon afterwards. (1905. Ashe, Samuel. A Biographical History of North Carolina. Vol. II, p.381.)

Rutherford was not highly educated, but this did not affect his competency in public affairs. "A man of strong character, resolute and of unusual capacity and sterling worth, he early attained a position of prominence.  He was a member of the Assembly as early as 1766, and about 1769 he was sheriff of Rowan County.  He was in the Assembly of 1770 and 1771, and was then captain of his militia company in his section of Rowan." Rowan continued to be elected to represent Rowan County in the Assembly until 1774. (1905. Ashe, Samuel. A Biographical History of North Carolina. Vol. II, pp. 382-83.)

In 1775, Rutherford and the other citizens of Rowan County boldly proclaimed their support of the Revolutionary War. "On June 1, 1775, the committee...offered an association paper for the military companies to sign, agreeing to sacrifice their lives before surrendering their constitutional rights. On the same day they addressed a letter to the committee of Mecklenberg asking them to interchange communication of their respective proceedings, and besought their co-operation. They did not know then of the still greater action taken by the committee of Mecklenberg the day before declaring null and void all royal commissions, overthrowing the government of the Crown and establishing a free and independent system of government, the officers being chosen by the people themselves." (1905. Ashe, Samuel. A Biographical History of North Carolina. Vol. II, p.383.)

In Setember 1775, Rutherford was appointed colonel of Rowan County. He remained active in all of the Provincial Congresses and was present at the drafting of the state constitution. (1905. Ashe, Samuel. A Biographical History of North Carolina. Vol. II, p.383.)

"As colonel of the Rowan regiment, he led his command into South Carolina against the Scovelite Tories in the "Snow campaign" in December 1775, and his conduct was so satisfactory that when brigadier-generals were provided for in April 1776, he was appointed brigadier-general of the western district [of NC].  A few months later the invasion by the Indians planned by Gov. Martin threw Rowan County into a wild state of excitement.  In the first week in July bands of warriors crossed the mountains and fell on the settlers on Crooked Creek (near Rutherfordton), and a large force, establishing headquarters on the Nollichunky [sic], came up the Toe and, passing the Blue Ridge, carried murder and desolation into that part of Rowan County. 'Thirty seven persons were killed last Wednesday and Thursday on the Catawba River,' and 'Colonel McDowell and ten men more and one hundred and twenty women and children are besieged in some kind of a fort with the Indians around them.' 'Three of our captains were killed and one wounded.  This day I set out with what men I can raise for the relief of the district.' Such was the hurried report of General Rutherford to the Council of Safety.  By the 19th of July, Rutherford had marched with 2500 men to protect the frontier, and on the 29th, with a detachment of 500, he crossed the mountains and dislodged the Indians, who had established themselves on the Nollichunky.  A month later, the Council of State being then in session at Colonel Lane's at Wake Court House, President Samuel Ashe directed General Rutherford to proceed against the Indians in their stronghold. He crossed through Swannanoa Gap and over the mountains to the Tuckaseegee and down Valley River and the Hiwassee, entirely destroying every Indian town and driving the Indians across the Smokies.  This expedition through the unbroken wilderness was most successful, and must have largely enhanced Rutherford's reputation." (1905. Ashe, Samuel.  A Biographical History of North Carolina. Vol. II, pp. 383-84.)

After settling the trouble in Western North Carolina, General Rutherford and his men marched to Savannah to assist General Lincoln in 1779. In June of 1780, he "suppressed the Tories at Ramseur's Mills and threatened Lord Rawdon in South Carolina, and dispersed the Tories on the Yadkin." (1905. Ashe, Samuel. A Biographical History of North Carolina. Vol. II, p.384.)

On August 16, 1780, while fighting at Camden, General Rutherford was wounded and taken prisoner. He was held in St. Augustine until 1781, when he was exchanged for a British prisoner of war. (1905. Ashe, Samuel. A Biographical History of North Carolina. Vol. II, p.384.)

As soon as he reached his home again, General Rutherford set out to fight the Tories yet again. He got his troops together as quickly as he could and marched upon the British forces and Tories under Major Craig near Cape Fear. By the middle of November 1781, Rutherford had surrounded Cape Fear. Major Craig, upon hearing that General Cornwallis had surrendered at Yorktown, hurriedly evacuated Wilmington. (1905. Ashe, Samuel. A Biographical History of North Carolina. Vol. II, p.384.)

"Thus from December, 1775, until the last British soldier was expelled from the limits of the State, in November, 1781, he was one of the most important actors during the Revolution, and while not so distinguished as Howe, Sumner, or the lamented General Nash, he rendered immediately to the people of North Carolina more signal service than any other North Carolinian during the war." (1905. Ashe, Samuel. A Biographical History of North Carolina. Vol. II, p.384.)   

"After peace, he continued an influential public man and State senator until 1786, when he removed to Tennessee; and in 1794, upon the organization of the 'Territory south of the Ohio [river]', President Washington appointed him a member of the legislative Council of that Territory, and he was chosen president of that body, and conducted its affairs." (1905. Ashe, Samuel. A Biographical History of North Carolina...Vol. II, p. 385.)

General Rutherford died in 1800 in his home in Sumner County, Tennessee. He was "much lamented, and his fame and services have been perpetuated both in North Carolina and in Tennessee by naming a county in his honor." (1905. Ashe, Samuel. A Biographical History of North Carolina...Vol. II, p. 385.)

Bibliography

Ashe, Samuel, ed.  Biographical History of North Carolina.  Greensboro, NC:  Charles L.  Van Noppen, 1905.