John Carr and his brother William were soldiers with General John Sevier in the Sevier and Tipton riot in behalf of the Territory of Franklin. John emigrated to Claiborne Co. in 1804.

Soon after the Rev. War was over people from the mountains of NC and Western Virginia began moving west through the mountain passes and down the rivers into the heavily forested land of the valley of the Clinch and the Powell rivers. Foreseeing such a westward movement Richard Henderson obtained a large grant of that "over mountain" land from the governor of NC, had it mapped and surveyed and divided into Lots of a thousand or more acres and sold these lots to prospective settlers who were bold enough to face the frontier and the Indians to settle this new land and endure the dangers and toil involved in such frontier settlements. Among these old settlers was John Carr, who obtained a lot in the Powell Valley, which streetched from the river to the top of Cumberland Mountain, and the gap in the mountain about the middle of the Grantline, north of that lot came to be called the Carr Gap. Just west of the Carr Gap, along the crest of the mountain was the Hopper Gap and just east of the Carr Gap was the Watson Gap. The gaps in the mountain still bear the names, usually family names of the earliest settlers, such as the Wilson Gap, the Childress Gap, and the Baptist Gap.

When John Carr came into the Powell Valley to claim his Henderson lot and to establish his homestead near the foot of the mountain just south of the Carr Gap, he brought with him his wife from a somewhat earlier settlement, called Springdale because it was near a big spring, about six miles south of Tazewell, maybe about that distance north of the Clinch river. Her name was Dorcas McCubbins. She was the daughter of Zachariah McCubbins and Sarah "Sallie" Lane.
I have more information on the Carr, McCubbins and Lane lines.
If interested contact: Joe Payne

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