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THOMAS AMIS was born in Halifax, Northampton Co., North Carolina on January 1, 1744;
son of John and Mary (Dillard) Amis.
Married (1st) in Northampton County, North Carolina, on January 26, 1763, to Alice Gale, daughter of Thomas and Mary (Griffith) Gale.
Eleven children--Tabitha (Mrs. John Cox), Frances (Mrs. Richard Grantham), Mary (Mrs. Joseph Rogers), Elizabeth, John, Rachel (Mrs. James Hagan), Willis, Lincoln, Alice Gale (Mrs. John Gordon), Thomas Gale and Penelope Amis.
He was married (2nd) on March 26, 1787, to Lucy Haynes, daughter of Francis and Ann (Smith) Haynes; four children--Haynes, William, James, and Nancy Amis (Mrs. Jesse Howell).
Amis went to what is now Hawkins County,TN. 1781, erected a stone house three miles above Rogersville,
around which he built a fort for protection against the Indians; shortly thereafter added a store, blacksmith ship, distillery,
grist and saw mills, a tavern, school, forge, and post office. When his employee Joseph Rogers married Mary Amis,
her father gave them a tract of land nearby. Upon this Rogersville was established in 1786. It was made the seat
Hawkins County, North Carolina, and from this came its alternate post office name of Hawkins Court House. Thomas Amis served in the North Carolina Senate, 1788-1789; representing Hawkins County (then North Carolina, now Tennessee).
Amis had previously been a member of the Provincial Congress, 1776; a justice of the peace; served as superintendent of commissary, with the rank of captain in the 3rd Regiment of Continental troops.
Member of the Society of the Cincinnati.
He died at his home on Big Creek in Hawkins County on November 18, 1797; buried at that place.
Thomas Amis House | 677 Burem Rd. | Rogersville, TN 37857