As we continue to look toward our nation’s semiquincentennial, I am focusing on the Revolutionary War effort of attaining independence and the related contributions and connections of families of the Fork, the Knox County lands between the French Broad and Holston rivers.
Whew. Sometimes it’s tough to find stuff on these folks. When I was recently given the Sons of the American Revolution (SAR) application papers of the Rev. Homer Cate from 1978, I thought, “Easy-peasy; it’s all laid out.” But no. I couldn’t find his Patriot in any of the Revolutionary War papers I was accustomed to utilizing. Despite various combinations of keywords, he just didn’t show up. There were several records for multiple men named John Cate(s), but they didn’t match the details in the SAR application. Frustrating.
However, after many attempts to validate the SAR information, I eventually found that he DID show up. He showed up to serve and do what needed doing in 1782 and 1783 from Hillsborough in Orange County, North Carolina. Hillsborough is just west of Durham near the Eno River and was the site of the 1781 surprise attack by Loyalists known as “the most brilliant exploit of any group of Loyalists in any state throughout the Revolution.” I don’t know whether that event spurred John to enlist or what he did as a Patriot military man, but he earned three payments for his service.
Although I doubt that it’s the same man, I found this statement in Patriot spy James Fraley’s pension papers about a 1781 Cherokee attack near the Clinch River: “They also killed the wife of John Cates and four of his children and set the house on fire and burnt them up in it.” He might not have been Homer’s John Cate(s), but he was somebody’s John Cate(s). I don’t blame the Cherokee for trying to defend their lands, but the struggle was brutal on both sides. It just goes to show the kind of trials and atrocities endured during the effort toward our nation’s establishment…