Willie Blount (1768 - 1835)

Born 18 Apr 1768 in Bertie, North Carolina

Ancestors

Descendants

Died 10 Sep 1835 at age 67 in Clarksville, Montgomery, Tennessee, United States

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Preceded by 1st Governor John Sevier

Willie Blount 3rd Governor of Tennessee 1809—1815

Succeeded by 4th Governor Joseph McMinn

Biography

3rd Governor of Tennessee.

Willie [pronounced "Wylie"] Blount was born on 18 Apr 1768 in Bertie County, North Carolina. He was the son of Col. Jacob Reading Blount and Hannah Salter.

Blount married Lucinda Baker in 1802. They had two daughters, Elizabeth Ann Blount (later Dabney) and Lucinda Blount (later Dortch).

Willie Blount is Notable.

Willie Blount was a North Carolina colonist.

Blount County, Alabama is named in honor of Willie (pronounced "Wiley") Blount. Blount County, Tennessee is named after his half-brother, William.

He is the 2nd great-grandfather of another Tennessee governor: H. H. McAlister.

Sources

1. ↑ Burial: Find a Grave, database and images (https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/6009357/willie-blount: accessed 15 December 2022), memorial page for Willie Blount (18 Apr 1768–10 Sep 1835), Find a Grave Memorial ID 6009357, citing Greenwood Cemetery, Clarksville, Montgomery County, Tennessee, USA; Maintained by Find a Grave.

• Mary B. Clark, "Willie Blount," Governors of Tennessee, Vol. 3 (Memphis State University Press, 1979), pp. 79–95.
• Biographies of Notable Americans, 1904

BLOUNT, Willie, governor of Tennessee, was born in Bertie county, N.C., in 1767, son of Col. Jacob and Hannah (Baker) Blount. He was liberally educated, being trained for the law, and settled in Clarksville, Tenn. He represented Montgomery county in the provincial assemblies of 1794-'95; private secretary to William Blount, governor of the territory, 1790-'96 and was governor of Tennessee, 1809-'15. He was a judge of the superior court of the state, and a delegate to the state constitutional convention of 1834. He died in Clarksville, Tenn., Sept. 10, 1835.;

• Governor Willie Blount papers. Anne-Leslie Owens, Middle Tennessee State University

Governor Willie Blount was born in Bertie County, North Carolina, to Jacob Blount and his second wife, Hannah (Salter) Baker Blount. He was half-brother to Tennessee's territorial governor William Blount. Willie (pronounced Wiley) Blount studied law at Princeton and Columbia before returning home to read law with a North Carolina judge. When William Blount began his term as governor of the Southwest Territory in 1790, Willie accompanied him, serving as one of his brother's three private secretaries.

In 1794 Blount secured a license to practice law, and in 1796 the new state legislature elected him as a judge on the Superior Court of Law and Equity, a position he declined. Settling in Montgomery County about 1802 with his wife and their two daughters, he represented the county in the state legislature from 1807 to 1809.

Blount was first elected governor in 1809 and then reelected in 1811 and 1813. Throughout his tenure as governor, Blount sought to open up new areas of Tennessee for white settlement. During the Creek War he provided his friend Andrew Jackson with funds and volunteer soldiers, enabling Jackson and his troops to effectively destroy the military power of the Creek Indians. During the War of 1812 Blount led the initiative to raise over thirty-seven thousand dollars in funds and two thousand volunteer soldiers, a response which earned Tennessee the nickname the "Volunteer State."

At the end of his third term, Blount returned to Montgomery County. In 1827 he ran again for governor but was defeated by Sam Houston. Blount served as a member of the state's Constitutional Convention of 1834. He died September 10, 1835, in Nashville and is buried at the Greenwood Cemetery in Clarksville.

See Also:

• Elizabeth H. Peeler, "The Policies of Willie Blount as Governor of Tennessee, 1809-1815," Tennessee Historical Quarterly 1 (1942): 309-27.
• Willie Blount on Wikipedia
• Wikidata: Item Q357952
• https://archive.org/stream/notablesouthern00frengoog#page/n45/mode/1up Notable Southern Families] by Armstrong, Zella - Pub 1918 - page 37