Joseph Hardin

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 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.

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) 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.

After the cessation of the ground war with Britain (1783), Hardin, then living in the newly established Greene County, was promoted to colonel and appointed Commandant of the North Carolina Militia for "The Western Counties" (old Washington District)