Newly relocated plaque honoring Valentine Sevier to be unveiled Tuesday

CLARKSVILLE, TN – A plaque honoring one of Montgomery County’s first settlers, Revolutionary War veteran, Col. Valentine Sevier II, will be unveiled in its new location on First Street in front of City Hall at 10 a.m., Tuesday, June 23.

Originally erected in 1917 by the Capt. William Edmiston Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution and placed on the Montgomery County Courthouse grounds, the plaque was moved to South Second Street beside the Customs House Museum at some point and is now being placed beside the statue of another Revolutionary War veteran, John Montgomery, who is credited with founding the City of Clarksville.

The Clarksville Arts and Heritage Council, Montgomery County Historical Society and the City of Clarksville under the leadership of Mayor Joe Pitts assisted the Daughters of the American Revolution in making this move to a more prominent location in time for the July 4 celebration of America’s Semiquincentennial Birthday.

Sevier founded a small frontier outpost on a 640-acre Revolutionary War land grant in about 1792. Sevier, brother of Tennessee’s first governor, John Sevier, and his family established Sevier Station above the confluence of the Cumberland and Red rivers.

Sevier represented the ferocious determination of pioneers of the age who settled in Indian territory, refusing to respect treaties put in place between the Americans and the Native Americans.

On Nov. 11, 1794, a band of about 40 Native Americans attacked Sevier Station. Several family members were wounded or killed, including Sevier’s 12-year-old daughter, Rebecca, who was scalped but survived. His three sons had been killed two years previously by a raiding party under the Chickamauga Cherokee leader, Doublehead, whose band was based at the head of Muscle Shoals, a shallow zone in the Tennessee River where mussels were gathered.

Sevier (1747-1800) was the first recorded person to be buried in Riverview Cemetery when it was established in February 1800. The cemetery sits on property Sevier donated to the city from his original land grant.