Jonesville Courthouse
Mump’s Fort stood at the top of the hill where the court house now is. It was built by William Mumps in 1775 in a community then known as ‘Glade Spring’, or as ‘Sinking Springs’. George Rogers Clark, who later conquered the Old Northwest Territory during the Revolutionary War, spent the night here on his return from Kentucky in June 1776.
Once back in Williamsburg, Va., he advocated the expedition which he later led and which drove the British out of the territory between the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers.
This was one of the forts abandoned at the outbreak of the Cherokee War in late June 1776, the garrison being repositioned at Fort Blackmore in Clinch Valley.
In his 1777 passage in captivity eastward along this Trail, “Hair Buyer” Hamilton made note in his journal of the abandoned fort.