As we continue to move toward our nation’s semiquincentennial, I’m still focusing on elements of 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.

We’ve already talked about the Overmountain Men, those frontiersmen who ignored King George III’s Proclamation of 1763, brought their families to settle west of the Appalachian Mountains, and eventually helped win the American Revolution. Today, we’re looking specifically at the Bounds/Bownds family.

According to family genealogist Myron Bounds, ancestors of the Bounds family in the Fork took a few generations to come from Maryland and through Virginia to settle on the banks of the Holston River. Jesse A. Bounds was born about 1733 to James B. and Anne (Dykes) Bounds, who brought their family down through the Shenandoah Valley. Then, Jesse and his wife moved to East Tennessee during the State of Franklin period.

Jesse and Nancy Ann’s son, John, born about 1756 in Virginia, married Misinia (Misinniah) Wilson and served as a captain of the militia for Washington County. Multiple Bounds men fought in the Revolution and were paid for that service, as well as for additional terms while the new nation was determining boundaries with the Native Americans. In 1794, during the “Cherokee Wars,” James Bounds was a private in a company of mounted infantry under John Beaird in the Knox Regiment of the Hamilton District militia commanded by Knoxville founder James White, for the protection of the frontiers of the Southwest Territory.

Muster Roll record for James Bounds, 1794

In 1804, Jesse died in Knox County. He was the father of Francis Bird Bounds, whose son was Francis H. Bounds. So many Bounds men in multiple lines and generations were named Francis that telling one from another is difficult. Newspaper accounts show that in 1813, Francis Bounds was living about five miles above Knoxville on the Holston, where the thoroughbred horse “Democrat” was offered as sire for the price of four dollars in cash or five dollars in grain.

In 1826, a newspaper notice told that Francis Bird Bounds’ daughter Ellen married James Luttrell. William Francis Bounds (1835-1863) married Narcissa McMillan and served in Company K of the 2nd Tennessee Infantry during the Civil War and is buried in the Bounds Cemetery off of Riverside Drive. However, many Bounds individuals and their descendants are buried at Caledonia and Asbury Cemeteries, as well as others, in the Fork.

Bounds family plot at Caledonia Presbyterian Graveyard

Several members of various lines and generations of the Bounds family intermarried throughout the years with the nearby Armstrong family of the Fork. Lands along the Holston River are still occupied by their descendants, though much of their Bounds ancestors’ contributions to our nation’s establishment has been forgotten in the Fork.

Jan Loveday Dickens is an educator, historian, and author of Forgotten in the Fork, a book about the Knox County lands between the French Broad and Holston Rivers, obtainable by emailing ForgottenInTheFork@gmail.com.

Follow KnoxTNToday on Facebook and Instagram.   Get all KnoxTNToday articles in one place with our Free Newsletter.