Note 86 — JOURNAL OF ANDRÉ MICHAUX

Col. Waightstill Avery was of New England origin, born in Connecticut in 1743. At the age of twenty-three he was graduated at Princeton, and after studying law in Maryland removed to North Carolina in 1769. He was very influential in the upper country, a member of the Mechlenburg convention of 1775, and of the state provincial congress the following year. After a campaign against the Cherokees, he was commissioned to negotiate a treaty with this tribe in 1777. During the war Colonel Avery was in active service as a militia officer; at its close he settled four miles from Morganton, calling his plantation “Swan Ponds.” Five times Burke County sent him to the state legislature, and in 1796 to the senate. Andrew Jackson challenged Avery to a duel in 1788, but later became his firm friend. He died about 1821.—​Ed.