Ezekiel Polk (December 7, 1747 – August 31, 1824) was American soldier, pioneer and the paternal grandfather of President James Knox Polk.
Early life
Ezekiel Polk was the next youngest of five boys and three girls born to William Polk and Margaret Taylor Polk of Cumberland County, Pennsylvania, near present-day Carlisle. About 1753 the family moved southwestward to the southern boundary of North Carolina in what would become Mecklenburg County. His parents appear to have died shortly afterward, and Ezekiel probably was brought up by his older brother Thomas, the senior member of the family, a leader of the local militia and a member of the first and subsequent North Carolina provincial assemblies.
At age 20 Ezekiel, recently married, was named clerk of court in the new county of Tryon across the Catawba River, where he and his bride established themselves on a farm just south of Kings Mountain. In 1772, however, the provincial boundary was surveyed, and Polk's property was discovered to lie in South Carolina.
Career
Military service record: New Acquisition District Regiment of the South Carolina militia (1775, 1780–1782): First a Lt. Colonel under Col. Thomas Neel in early 1775. Then he chose to have an independent company of Rangers prior to 3rd South Carolina Regiment of Rangers being formed on June 6, 1775 Resigned from South Carolina 3rd Regiment on July 29, 1775. Authorized to reform his independent Ranger Company again in the New Acquisition District, but he was to remain under command of Col. William Thomson. His unit was disbanded at the fall of Charleston. Later, he was a Lt. Colonel again in the New Acquisition District Regiment.
Polk adapted with increasing difficulty to the shifting boundary and consequent loss of his position as clerk of court. At first he was chosen lieutenant colonel of the district militia. In 1775 he was elected a delegate to the South Carolina Provincial Congress held in June and was commissioned a captain in the Third South Carolina Regiment of Horse Rangers, assigned to the interior, where Whigs and Loyalists were competing for control of the province. But when the regiment was ordered to the coast, Polk balked, marching his men home rather than sacrifice their health, as he put it, for the protection of Lowcountry aristocrats and rice plantation nabobs. He subsequently relented, apologized for his insubordination and was restored to command. He led his company against Loyalist forces in the battle at Reedy River in December 1775 and the following summer commanded 300 militia in a successful expedition against pro-Loyalist Cherokees.
On July 24, 1776, Polk's regiment was adopted into the Continental Army and assigned to the Southern Department. "Captain Ezekiel Polk's Independent Company," according to the U.S. Army's regimental history, was "concurrently redesignated as the 10th Company, 3rd South Carolina Regiment."
Polk may never have been entirely comfortable in South Carolina, and waning popularity and political enmities appear have left him increasingly disgruntled. After being passed over initially as delegate to a provincial congress held in November 1775, he had with great difficulty forced a second election and kept his seat. Probably this aborted rejection continued to rankle. In late 1776 Polk surrendered his commission in the 3rd Regiment and returned to North Carolina, settling down on a farm about below Charlotte, the Mecklenburg County seat. Two years later he opened a tavern in town and the following year was named justice of the peace. This period of tranquility was not to last. With the fall of Charleston in 1780 and the subsequent defeat of Horatio Gates at Camden, Lord Charles Cornwallis's triumphant Redcoats marched into North Carolina, the main body encamping a few miles from Polk's farm. The following day, September 26, Cornwallis commandeered the Charlotte home of Ezekiel's brother Thomas and established his headquarters there. Fearing the loss of crops, slaves and his tavern, Ezekiel rode to town and "took protection" from Cornwallis in exchange for peaceful cooperation with the British.