As I mentioned in last week’s DYK, after the Revolutionary War, North Carolina (NC) claimed the land to its west. But this action came with complications, namely frontier settlers. The settlers complained about the lack of protection and the way their problems were ignored by the state government.

Rather than addressing these complaints, NC gave their western land to the federal government (located in New York at that time). This not only rid them of the problem settlers, but it was the perfect way to pay off the state’s Revolutionary War debt. Two birds, one stone.

However, when the deal was announced, those frontier settlers took unexpected action. They created a state of their own, the first one on the western side of the mountains, in what is now portions of East TN. Hoping to get support from Benjamin Franklin, they named their state, Franklin.

State of Franklin Map (Tennessee State Museum Collection)

They set up their own government. It had a constitution, a governor, and a legislature. The only thing the state didn’t have? The support of the federal government.

Unfortunately for this fledgling, wanna-be state, the Feds hadn’t yet figured out how to form a new state under the Articles of Confederation—the laws that governed our new country prior to the Constitution. Because of this, and the fact NC had decided it wanted its land back, the U.S. passed the buck and returned the land to NC.

Although it never became an official U.S. state, Franklin operated for four years from 1785-1788.

Three Other Interesting Facts About Franklin

• Several years after the western land, including the unsuccessful state of Franklin, was returned to NC, NC turned around and gave it back to the federal government. This time, though, the Feds kept it. They created a territory, which, in 1796, became the state of Tennessee.
• John Sevier, the first governor of Franklin, also became Tennessee’s first governor.
• And the most famous person born in Franklin? None other than legendary David “Davy” Crockett, born in Greene County, Franklin, on August 17, 1786.