John and Jonathon and the almost State of Franklin

The western Mitchell County community of Tipton Hill was named for Major Jonathon Tipton III. Major Jonathon became embroiled in a 1784 dispute over the new state of Franklin.  The dispute was actually between him and his older brother Colonel John Tipton and Colonel John Sevi
er, (both of whom lived in what is today Eastern Tennessee) which at that time was going to become the State of Franklin. Colonel John wanted to break away from North Carolina and form the new state of Franklin. Major John wanted to remain part of North Carolina. So in 1797 he moved back across the Unaka Mountains into the Toe River Valley where he founded the community of Tipton Hill, NORTH CAROLINA.

Pictured is John Tipton (1821-1909), the son of David Tipton and Ellen Patterson Tipton. John is the grandson of Major Jonathon Tipton III and Kesiah Robertson Tipton. He married Uranah Roberts Tipton and their children were Mary Tipton Garland, David Sulten Tipton, William Ninevah Tipton, Vicy Tipton Whitson, Elizabeth Tipton Hughes, Christopher Columbus Tipton, and Joseph A. Tipton. John was the first postmaster of Tipton Hill and served in the Mexican War from1846 to 1848. He along with many others of the Tipton Family are buried in the Tipton Hill Cemetery.