An American Family History

Samuel McCorkle

also spelled McCorkel, McCorcle

East Tennessee is part of Appalachia. At the end of the French and Indian War, colonists began drifting into the area. In 1769, they first settled along the Watauga River. During the Revolution, the Overmountain Men defeated British loyalists at the Battle of Kings Mountain. The State of Franklin was formed in the 1780s, but never admitted to the Union.

Samuel McCorkle was born about 1760 in Taneytown, Frederick County, Maryland. He may have been the son of James McCorkle and Elizabeth Rhea.

He married Mary Alison.

They moved from Frederick County, Maryland about 1787 to Sullivan County, Tennessee.

Their children may have included:

John McCorkle (1789, married Polly Cunningham),
Samuel McCorkle (1790, married Christina),
Susannah McCorkle (1794, married Joseph Scott),
Francis McCorkle (1795, married Isabel Sevier granddaughter of Robert Sevier),
George McCorkle (1797)
Finley McCorkle

Samuel McCorkle was in Sullivan County in 1796, 1797, and 1812.

John McCorkle was in the 1812 census of Sullivan County, Tennessee.

In 1790 the household was in Sullivan County, Tennessee.

In 1793, Samuel McCorkle bought 400 acres in Sullivan County next to Benjamin Webb and Joseph McCorkle.

In 1794 Samuel was appointed to be a Justice of the Peace for Sullivan County.

Samuel McCorkle sold the first town lots in Middletown (Bluff City) in 1798.

Tennessee was admitted to the Union on June 1, 1796. It was initially part of North Carolina.

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