General William Lenoir
William Lenoir (1751-1839) was
an American Revolutionary War officer and prominent statesman in
late 18th-century and early 19th-century North Carolina. Both the
City of Lenoir, North Carolina, and Lenoir County, North Carolina, are
named for him. Additionally, Lenoir City, Tennessee, is jointly named
for him and for his son, William Ballard Lenoir.
Family and Early Years
Lenoir was born the youngest of ten in a French Huguenot family
in Brunswick County, Virginia, but the family moved to eastern
North Carolina when he was nine years old. Lenoir had no formal
education, but could read and write Latin, Greek, and French. His
first occupation was that of teacher and schoolmaster, before he
became a surveyor. While surveying in western North Carolina, Lenoir
decided to permanently settle there. He brought with him his wife,
Ann Ballard, and a baby daughter, when he arrived in March 1775. The Lenoirs
had nine children in all.
Revolutionary War
Historian Samuel Ashe called Lenoir an "active and zealous and
efficient supporter of the cause of independence." He served with
distinction in the American Revolutionary War, in particular
taking part in the Battle of Kings Mountain as a Captain in the
militia. He received minor wounds at
that battle. Otherwise, his military service consisted mostly of
skirmishes with Loyalists and Cherokee Indians. He last
saw action at Pyle's massacre, at which his horse was said to be the
only American Patriot casualty.
After the war, William and his wife, Ann, built their home, called
Fort Defiance (plantation). Only years after the
war did Lenoir achieve the rank of Major General from service in the
state militia. Shortly after achieving that rank, he desired to
fight in the War of 1812, but was deemed too old to do so. The
disappointment of that led Lenoir to resign from the militia.
Fort
Defiance continues today, restored as a tourist and historical
attraction in modern-day Caldwell County, North Carolina.
Politics and Public
Service
Lenoir, an anti-federalist, served for many years as a justice
of the peace and Clerk of Court for Wilkes County, North Carolina.
He was a founding member (and, briefly, the first president) of the
Board of Trustees of the University of North Carolina at Chapel
Hill, where Lenoir Hall is also named for him.
From 1781 to 1795, Lenoir was also a member of the North Carolina
General Assembly representing Wilkes County and
served as Speaker of the North Carolina Senate from 1790 to
1795. He was a member of both the state convention of 1788, which
rejected the United States Constitution, and the convention of 1789,
which ratified it. Lenoir was suspicious of the new constitution and
argued that it needed an amendment guaranteeing religious freedom
(which, of course, it later got).
General Lenoir died on May 6, 1839, two days shy of his
eighty-eighth birthday. His epitaph, written by Governor David
Swain, read in part, "A genuine Whig whose highest eulogy is the
record of his deeds."