Stewart County, TN is definitely part of the Revolutionary bounty land
district that North Carolina set aside. In fact, a Private in the NC
Continental line who served for at least two years in the Revolution was
eligible to receive 640 acres of bounty land (higher ranks received more)!
That doesn't necessarily mean that Phillip Cato was a Revolutionary soldier.
He might have been, but he might have also bought his warrant from some
other soldier, or he could have been an heir to it. It's tough to draw any
conclusions without more detailed records, but it is helpful to understand
the geography of this region...
There are two kinds of Revolutionary bounty land:
1) The kind given out by the Federal Government, which could either be sold
by the soldier or exchanged for a land patent in the military district in
Ohio.
2) The kind given out by the individual states, which could also be sold or
exchanged for a land patent in the military district that the state had set
aside (normally in the western regions of the various states, which were
more sparsely settled at the time). Not all states gave out bounty land.
To "turn the clock back", we need to redefine the state boundaries:
1) All of what is now Virginia, West Virginia, AND Kentucky was part of the
state of Virginia. Kentucky was a county belonging to Virginia. The
southern border of Kentucky, where you see the current counties of Trigg,
Christian, Todd (and others), was part of the bounty land district that
Virginia set aside for it's Revolutionary soldiers. The counties of Trigg
and Todd were not in existence in 1811, they were a part of Christian
County. Christian County took up considerably more land at that time than
it does now.
2) All of what is now North Carolina AND Tennessee belonged to the state of
North Carolina. North Carolina set aside a bounty land district in it's
northwestern regions (Tennessee) in the counties that are presently Stewart,
Montgomery, Robertson, Sumner (and others). NC Revolutionary soldiers could
get warrants for land in this region--or they could sell their warrants for
cash.
What we have here are two Revolutionary bounty land districts for two
different states which are butted right up against each other at the TN/KY
border. This is where a lot of families in these two adjoining military
districts got together and intermarried with each other before many of them
moved on to Missouri a little later.
To complicate things even more, there was a boundary dispute that went on
for some time. Ever wonder why the line between Kentucky and Tennessee
takes that little jog, and isn't straight?...
I am going to quote from from the third edition of The Redbook. The piece
in it about Tennessee was written by Wendy Bebout Elliott, PhD, FUGA:
"The disputed northern boundary between Tennessee and Kentucky was not
settled until 1820 when Kentucky accepted the faulty Walker Line, drawn too
far north of 36 degrees, 30', between the Cumberland Gap and the western
Tennessee River. Several sections of the line remained in question until
another survery was conducted in 1859. Families who lived in the disputed
area did not know in which state they resided; consequently, records are
frequently located in both states. Due to changing county boundaries and
divisions, Tennessee counties affected include (west to east) Stewart,
Montgomery, Robertson, Sumner, Smith, Macon, Clay, Pickett, Jackson,
Overton, Fentress, Scott, Morgan, Campbell, and Claiborne".
Thus, finding someone close to that TN/KY line in 1811 and finding them in a
different county or even in the other state later on, doesn't necessarily
mean they moved. What it does do is make it very difficult to know which
county has the deed or other record that you are looking for. It depends on
when the land was bought and/or sold.
The Redbook and the Handybook for Genealogists are two good reference books
that show how the counties changed over time, and what kind of records are
available in each. I would recommend either.
Peggy Reeves
Burtonsville, MD