Thomas, a Revolutionary War Soldier under General John Sevier who fought at King's Mountain, was killed by Indians. He was married and had several sons, one of whom, named Joshua, was the first white child born in Sevier County, Tennessee. The other son may have died. A newspaper clipping can be found in the Knox Gazette dated March 6, 1797. "Just as this paper was going to press we received information that Thomas Shields was killed by Indians in Sevier County. They cut his head nearly off, took out his bowels, otherwise shockingly cut and mangled him. The youth lived with his parents Robert and Nancy Shields at Upper Middle Creek section of the country."
Trigger warning: biographies are taken verbatim from a family history book with uncensored original language.
THOMAS SHIELDS was born in 1763. In 1780 he visited his cousins at the Yadkin Settlement, intending to proceed to Daniel Boone's new town at Boonesboro, Ky., but instead he enlisted in the Revolutionary Army under John Sevier of the Watauga. This was a loosely organized but extremely effective band of pioneer mountaineers. On Oct. 7, 1780, he fought at the Battle of King's Mountain, one of the most important engagements of the War, where the British were repulsed and their power in the South was broken. After being mustered out he spent a year hunting and exploring in what is now the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, coming out through the valley of the Little Pigeon, later his home. For nearly two years more he wandered through the area of the highest mountains east of the Rockies, in Eastern Tennessee and Western North Carolina, returning to his father's home in Virginia, where he was married in 1783. His son, Joshua, was the first white child born in what is now Sevier County, Tenn., in 1785. In 1793 Thomas and his two small sons were boiling sap in the sugar-tree orchard on Birch Creek when he was shot from ambush and mortally wounded. Ordering his sons to run, he rolled behind a log within reach of his rifle. A marauding party of 12 Cherokees rushed into the clearing and he shot one of them. While they parleyed, the boys escaped.* They saw the savages tomahawk, mutilate and scalp their father. Thomas was the only one of the "Ten Brothers" killed by Indians, a most remarkable fact considering that half the male settlers of Tennessee between 1780 and 1795 were killed by savages.
In "The Shields Family," privately published December, 1917, reprinted March 1, 2017, John A. Shields states that Birch Creek is "about ten miles southeast of Sevierville, Tennessee" and that at the time their father was killed the two boys, one named Joshua, "were eight and ten years old."
* Dr. John Alwin Paul Shields, of Sevierville, contributes the following about this incident: "Thomas had brought the boys on a sled drawn by an old blind horse, which was left in a ravine near the orchard. While the Indians hesitated, after one had been killed, the children unhitched the horse, mounted it and started for Shields Fort, six miles away. They had a fair start but were near enough to see the savages scalp their father. Spying them, the Indians pursued. On they sped, down the creek, across the river, through the valley. For two miles the Indians were within sight. Then the boys crossed the river again and made a final dash over the hills and hollows for two miles to the Fort. The Indians made a desperate effort to catch them, but the old blind horse successfully made this perilous run over some of the roughest country in Tennessee. I have traversed every foot of the ground they passed over. Only the Omnipotent kept the horse from falling and saved the lives of the two boys."
From "Three Kansas Pioneer Families: Stalker-Shields-Martin" by John A. Shields, privately published in a limited edition of 200 copies, May, 1949.
Thomas, a Revolutionary War Soldier under General John Sevier who fought at King's Mountain, was killed by Indians. He was married and had several sons, one of whom, named Joshua, was the first white child born in Sevier County, Tennessee. The other son may have died. A newspaper clipping can be found in the Knox Gazette dated March 6, 1797. "Just as this paper was going to press we received information that Thomas Shields was killed by Indians in Sevier County. They cut his head nearly off, took out his bowels, otherwise shockingly cut and mangled him. The youth lived with his parents Robert and Nancy Shields at Upper Middle Creek section of the country."
Trigger warning: biographies are taken verbatim from a family history book with uncensored original language.
THOMAS SHIELDS was born in 1763. In 1780 he visited his cousins at the Yadkin Settlement, intending to proceed to Daniel Boone's new town at Boonesboro, Ky., but instead he enlisted in the Revolutionary Army under John Sevier of the Watauga. This was a loosely organized but extremely effective band of pioneer mountaineers. On Oct. 7, 1780, he fought at the Battle of King's Mountain, one of the most important engagements of the War, where the British were repulsed and their power in the South was broken. After being mustered out he spent a year hunting and exploring in what is now the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, coming out through the valley of the Little Pigeon, later his home. For nearly two years more he wandered through the area of the highest mountains east of the Rockies, in Eastern Tennessee and Western North Carolina, returning to his father's home in Virginia, where he was married in 1783. His son, Joshua, was the first white child born in what is now Sevier County, Tenn., in 1785. In 1793 Thomas and his two small sons were boiling sap in the sugar-tree orchard on Birch Creek when he was shot from ambush and mortally wounded. Ordering his sons to run, he rolled behind a log within reach of his rifle. A marauding party of 12 Cherokees rushed into the clearing and he shot one of them. While they parleyed, the boys escaped.* They saw the savages tomahawk, mutilate and scalp their father. Thomas was the only one of the "Ten Brothers" killed by Indians, a most remarkable fact considering that half the male settlers of Tennessee between 1780 and 1795 were killed by savages.
In "The Shields Family," privately published December, 1917, reprinted March 1, 2017, John A. Shields states that Birch Creek is "about ten miles southeast of Sevierville, Tennessee" and that at the time their father was killed the two boys, one named Joshua, "were eight and ten years old."
* Dr. John Alwin Paul Shields, of Sevierville, contributes the following about this incident: "Thomas had brought the boys on a sled drawn by an old blind horse, which was left in a ravine near the orchard. While the Indians hesitated, after one had been killed, the children unhitched the horse, mounted it and started for Shields Fort, six miles away. They had a fair start but were near enough to see the savages scalp their father. Spying them, the Indians pursued. On they sped, down the creek, across the river, through the valley. For two miles the Indians were within sight. Then the boys crossed the river again and made a final dash over the hills and hollows for two miles to the Fort. The Indians made a desperate effort to catch them, but the old blind horse successfully made this perilous run over some of the roughest country in Tennessee. I have traversed every foot of the ground they passed over. Only the Omnipotent kept the horse from falling and saved the lives of the two boys."
From "Three Kansas Pioneer Families: Stalker-Shields-Martin" by John A. Shields, privately published in a limited edition of 200 copies, May, 1949.
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