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I just found this info doing a genealogy search on AOL. I saw your posting on genforum and thought I would send you this rather than posting it on the forum but the e-mail wouldn't go through. I am just checking into it myself and I found this interesting.
Pam Reinke
George's father is said to be James Clarkston. Our first known Clarkston ancestor (Eliza Clarkston Witt's grandfather) had the distinction of being the first man hanged for murder in Jonesboro, NC, now Tennessee. Different newspaper accounts written at the time have given his name as George Middleton Clarkstonb, who was hanged on April 13, 1787, and George Clarkston, hanged on April 13, 1786. Some accounts drop the "t", and spell it Clarkson. (One family story suggests that his name may have been Thomas. The story being that son Thomas was born when Catherine went into early labor on the way to her husband's execution, being overcome with grief and shock. She might naturally have wanted to name her newborn son after his dead father. Again, this is a story, handed down through generations. We don't really know what happened.) But every branch of the family that tells the story holds the same opinion: that this was not something to be ashamed of, this was a tragedy! this man was in the wrong place at the wrong time. His TRIAL and execution was accomplished much quicker than normal for the time. When I wrote to the Wash. Co. TN Historical Society for the information about this event, I received a reply that began: "The poor man, he was caught in the political maneuvering that was going on at that time.". between the followers of Tipton and those of Savier. It is believed that Judge Campbell used Clarkston as an example to quash further violence that threatened Col. Tipton's life.
some relatives think that the name of the man who was killed may have been George Middleton, and that he was the brother of Clarkston's wife, (Kathryn), Clarkston's brother-in-law. The story that was passed down holds that the two men were building a cabin together in the Sequatchie Valley located between Knoxville and Chattanooga, Tennessee for their families, the plan being to move everyone into the one cabin while they built another. It is believed that they got into a heated political argument over the naming the area Franklin versus North Carolina. At the time of the incident, the territory was known as the State of Franklin (being named for Benjamin Franklin) People were divided into factions known as "Tiptonites" who, like Colonel Tipton, were loyal to the state of North Carolina, and others known as "Franklinites" who favored a separate state of Franklin. (Yet another family theory is that the brother-in-law may have been arguing over the issue of slavery, which Clarkston opposed.)The argument turned violent and Clarkston was summarily charged with killing his brother-in-law, convicted and executed in haste- a fate that seems to to have been all too commonly meted out to enemies during the politically charged times. (Remember that all accounts handed down by various branches of the family regard the event as a political tragedy, not a disgrace.) Joe Sevier was then the governor of Franklin, and the story is that he epidited the demise of his enemies by hanging them on a trumped-up charges. Relatives of Clarkston believe that he fit into this category, being opposed to slavery ad given to express his views in a loud and outspoken manner. A Georgia Newspaper article relates that two of the teenage sons of Clarkston witnessed the hanging. One of the boys saw his father die, went home, got his clothes and disappeared, never to return. Years later, it was told by other family members who had gone to Texas, that he had settled in Austin, Texas where he became a wealthy man. He fathered four children in Texas, but because he had never legally married their mother, they were unable to inherit his estate when he died. One of his nephews, Francis Marion, gathered signatures of his uncle's legal heirs back in Virginia in order to inherit the estate, but the time limit expired and the state of Texas took over everything. From Carol Tucker, TX 1998: "Our first Clarkston ancestor is George Middleton Clarkston. In 1787 George was living in the new state of Franklin.
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