Joseph Hardin Sr. (April 18, 1734 – July 4, 1801) was an Assemblyman (in the Provincial Congress) for the Province of North Carolina, and was a signatory of the Tryon Resolves. Early in the War for Independence, as a member of the militia from Tryon County, Hardin fought the Cherokee allies of Britain along the western frontier. Later in the war, having taken his family over the Appalachian Mountains to the Washington District for safety against the advance of the Red Coats out of South Carolina, Hardin joined the Overmountain Men. He saw action at the Battle of Ramsour's Mill and the decisive Battle of Kings Mountain. Following the peace with Britain, Hardin was a co-founder and second Speaker of the House for the State of Franklin; and an Assemblyman in the Southwest Territory before its statehood as Tennessee.
Early and family life
Joseph Hardin was born the spring of 1734 in Henrico Co., Virginia Colony in an area several years later to be encompassed by the fledgling town of Richmond at the Falls (now Richmond), Virginia Colony.
Hardin was the second son, and fourth child, of Benjamin Hardin II and Margaret Hooper. He was older brother to Captain John Hardin (1736–1802) (noted as the hero who turned the tide of battle for the patriots at the Battle of Ramsour's Mill during the "Southern Campaign" of the Revolutionary War) and Sarah Hardin, wife to Lt. Col. Frederick Hambright.
Hardin married Jane Gibson (1742–1817) on July 8, 1762, in Virginia. They moved to the 'Salisbury District' of the Province of North Carolina, settling in the newly formed Tryon County, where he became Justice of the Peace in 1772.
Hardin's children were: Rebecca; twins Joseph Jr. and John; Jane Ann; James W.; Benjamin I; Robert I; Elender; Mary Easter; Margaret; Amos; Benjamin II; Gibson; and Robert II. "Ben-two" and "Robert-two", as they were called, were both named after older brothers who had been lost in battle with Native Americans.
Hardin was a great-grandfather of Texas outlaw, John Wesley Hardin.
Civil service
Hardin served several stints as a local Justice of the Peace: first in Tryon County, NC (April 1772 – 1778); then Washington Co., NC (Tennessee East District) (1783); and finally Greene Co. (1796). He served for Tryon County as a delegate to the North Carolina Provincial Congress in 1776 and representative to the North Carolina House of Commons in 1778. He also served for Washington County (Washington District, North Carolina) (1782) and, Greene Co., Tennessee East District, NC (1788). Hardin was a signer of the Tryon Resolves in September 1775.
During the period of 1784-1785, Hardin, John Sevier, and several others were instrumental in organizing the extra-legal State of Franklin. He was elected its second Speaker of the House in June 1785. A few years after the failure of Franklin, he served as a representative for the First Territorial Assembly of the Southwest Territory (also known as the Territory South of the Ohio River) held at Knoxville, Tennessee, in the summer of 1794. Later that same year, Hardin became a trustee of the newly chartered Greeneville (later Tusculum) College. He was elevated to Speaker of the House in the territorial assembly in 1795.
Military service
American Revolution service record: Major in the Salisbury District Minutemen, part of the North Carolina State Troops (1775-1776) Captain in the Tryon County Regiment (North Carolina) of the North Carolina militia (1776-1779) Captain in the 2nd Battalion of Volunteers (1776-1777) Major in the Wilkes County Regiment of the North Carolina militia (1779-1783), initially under the Salisbury District Brigade but moved to the newly created Morgan District Brigade in 1782 Colonel over the Greene County Regiment of the North Carolina militia under the Morgan District Brigade (1783)
Hardin's first documented military service shows his appointment as the first major of the 2nd North Carolina Minutemen Brigade (from the Salisbury District) in 1775. That same year, he appears in the rolls as a captain in the Griffith Rutherford's Light Horse Rangers. Hardin took part in Rutherford's Cherokee Expedition into the Washington District late the following year, under Captain William Moore. Beginning in 1777, Hardin carried a captain's commission in Locke's 2nd Battalion of Volunteers (part of General Allen Jones' Halifax District Brigade) seeing action against Britain and its Native American allies.