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Also known as "Bonnie Kate," Katherine
Sherrill Sevier was the wife of John Sevier
(1745-1815), Revolutionary War hero,
Indian fighter, governor of the State of
Franklin, and first governor of
Tennessee. Legend has it that their
courtship began after she was surprised
by an Indian attack while milking a cow
outside the walls of Fort Watauga in
northeast Tennessee. The defenders of
the fort quickly closed the gates,
locking her out. She ran to the
palisades and, helped by Sevier, climbed
to safety. She and Sevier married in
1780, when she was twenty-six, after the
death of his first wife, Sarah Hawkins.
At their home in Washington County,
Bonnie Kate made soldiers' uniforms,
cast lead balls for ammunition, and
prepared food for her husband's
victorious campaign against the British
at the battle of Kings Mountain in South
Carolina. On the eve of the battle, she
thwarted a Tory attempt to murder her
husband. Bonnie Kate held the title
"First Lady" three times, first from
1785 to 1788, when her husband was
governor of the State of Franklin, and
during his terms as the first and third
governor of Tennessee, 1796 to 1801 and
1803 to 1809. She was originally buried
in Russellville, Alabama, but was reinterred in 1922 next to her husband
on the lawn of the old Knox County
Courthouse in Knoxville. The inscription
on her tombstone describes her as the
"brightest star among pioneer women of
this state." |
