Famous Early Americans Our Hastons Met and Knew, Part 1
John Sevier (1745-1815)
Daniel Haston and other members of the Hiestand family may have met and known John Sevier while they were living in northern Virginia. Sevier was approximately five years older than Daniel Hiestand/Haston and grew up just over the Massanutten Mountain from the Hiestands. He is credited with being the founder of New Market, VA. In pre-Tennessee western NC, he became famous as a successful Indian fighter, a President of the failed state of Franklin, the first Governor of Tennessee, an office he served in four times. Sevier’s farmstead, Marble Springs, was located south of where the Daniel Haston family lived during their ten-year sojourn in Knox County, TN. While he was Tennessee’s governor, he rode past their home every time he rode from Knoxville to his farmstead. According to his journal, he purchased vegetables from Suza Haiston and a Mrs. Haiston. Whether or not these were the same person or two members of the Daniel Haston family, I do not know. But they were certainly members of Daniel’s family.
William Cocke (1748-1828)
William Cocke was chosen, in early 1796, as a delegate to the convention that wrote the first Tennessee Constitution. When the Tennessee government was formed, Cocke was selected to be one of the first two Tennessee senators, along with William Blount. His first term was short, 1796-1797. He was later elected by the Tennessee Assembly to a Senate seat and served from 1799 to 1805. Cocke had the distinction of serving the state legislatures of four states: Virginia, North Carolina, Tennessee, and Mississippi. He was also a major leader in the organization of the would-be State of Franklin, the state’s delegate to the Congress of the Confederation. His first known contact with the Hiestand/Haston family was when, as an attorney, he defended Abraham Hiestand, Daniel’s brother, in the 1793-1794 Hamilton District Court case, Robert McCombs vs Abraham Heistant. Unfortunately for Abraham, McCombs won the case. A year later, he was the prosecuting attorney in the John Mattox vs. John Stone case, that resulted in Mattox’s security, Daniel Haston, having to pay the court costs.
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