Display Patriot - P-148621

Samuel DOAK

SAR Patriot #: P-148621

The following information was assembled from numerous sources and cannot be used directly as proof of Qualifying Service or Lineage.
It is considered a research aid and is intended to assist in locating sources that can be used as proof.

State of Service: VA Qualifying Service: Patriotic Service

DAR #: A032617

Birth: 11 Aug 1749 / Augusta / VA
Death: 12 Dec 1830 / Washington / TN

Qualifying Service Description:

TOOK OATH OF ALLEGIANCE TO MAKE LAND ENTRY, WASHINGTON CO, 7 OCT 1779

Additional References:

PRUITT, TN LAND ENTRIES: WASHINGTON CO, 1778-1796, pg 219

Spouse: (1) Esther Houston Montgomery; (2) Margaret Houston McEwen
Children: Julia; John; Samuel; Jane; Nancy;

Members Who Share This Ancestor

Date Approved	Society	ACN	SAR Member Info	Lineage via Child
1966-01-20	TN	Unassigned	Samuel Kitzmiller Doak (93635)	Samuel
1995-07-27	LA	205657	Neill Smith Matthews (144957)	John
1997-03-31	TN	201934	Alfred Ewin Anderson III (148123)	John
1997-06-13	TX	201653	Lowry Ashe Laughlin (148467)	Julia
2002-04-05	TX	330	Grant Hunter Laughlin (148466)	Julia
2020-08-28	TX	93617	Stephen William Bridgeman (216790)	John

Burial:

Salem (aka Old Salem Church, Washington College) Cemetery _(C-0016645)

Location:

Limestone / Washington / TN / USA

Find A Grave Cemetery #:

18124

Grave Plot #:

Grave GPS Coordinates:

36.220830 / -82.572750

Find A Grave Memorial #:

10321845

Marker Type:

SAR Granite Marker

SAR Grave Dedication Date:

14 Sep 2018

Comments:

Patriot Grave Marking on 14 Sep 2018; photo added by permission from C. David Carr FPS

Directions to Cemetery / Gravesite:

Photo: 1 of 1

Author: Carl David Carr

Minister and pioneer Samuel Doak founded the earliest schools and many of the Presbyterian churches of East Tennessee. The son of Irish immigrants, Doak was born August 1, 1749, in Augusta County, Virginia. He grew up on a frontier farm and began his education with Robert Alexander, who later founded the Academy of Liberty Hall (now Washington and Lee University). After attending an academy in Maryland, he entered the College of New Jersey (now Princeton), from which he graduated two years later in 1775. Doak married Esther Houston Montgomery of Augusta County in October 1775

In 1778 Doak settled in Tennessee in Sullivan County and was ordained a Presbyterian minister. Moving to the Holston valley in Tennessee, Doak assumed the Presbytery's charge to serve the congregation of the Fork Church, now known as New Bethel Presbyterian Church.

In 1780, Doak relocated from Sullivan County and to the western section Washington County near present-day Limestone, Tennessee, where he formed where he founded Salem Presbyterian Church, built a home, and constructed a school.

Doak, during this same time in 1780, regularly preached to settlers at the Big Spring at Greeneville, Tennessee in present-day Greene County. Later in 1783, Mt. Bethel Presbyterian Church (now First Presbyterian Church) was formed with Hezekiah Balch being the first settled minister.

The school that Doak had constructed at his Salem Presbyterian Church during 1780 was later chartered as St. Martin's Academy in 1783. St. Martin's Academy expanded in 1795 as Washington College.

Doak is attributed with delivering the lengthy sermon and prayer at Sycamore Shoals, September 26, 1780 to the mustering of the Patriot Overmountain Men prior to the Battle of Kings Mountain. The assembled Overmountain Men then departed Sycamore Shoals (located in present-day Elizabethton, Tennessee and headed southeast over Roan Mountain and afterwards meeting up other Patriot frontiersmen to battle against Loyalist troops commanded by British Maj. Patrick Ferguson at the Battle of Kings Mountain in South Carolina.

In 1778 Doak settled in what is now Tennessee in Sullivan County and was ordained a minister. In 1780 he moved to Washington County, where he formed Salem Church and a school, which was chartered as St. Martin's Academy in 1783, the first chartered school in the region. In 1795 it became Washington College. Doak's best-known sermon was probably the one delivered at Sycamore Shoals in 1780 as the “Overmountain Men” assembled on their way to defeat British Colonel Patrick Ferguson and his troops at the battle of Kings Mountain. In 1784 he was a delegate to the convention that formed the short-lived State of Franklin.

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