JONESBOROUGH

town, seat of Washington county, northeastern Tennessee, U.S. It lies just west of the Unaka Division of the Cherokee National Forest, near Johnson City. Laid out in 1779 and named for William Jones, a North Carolina Revolutionary War leader, it is one of the oldest towns in Tennessee. There in 1784 the state of Franklin was organized by aroused settlers after North Carolina had ceded their lands to the U.S. Congress; Jonesborough was designated the capital and John Sevier, the state's first and only governor. The Franklin General Assembly convened there twice before the capital was moved to Greeneville in 1785. The state of Franklin soon disintegrated. The Emancipator, one of the first Abolitionist newspapers in the United States, was published (1820) in the town by Elihu Embree. The birthplace of Davy Crockett, frontiersman, is a few miles west near the small town of Limestone. Jonesborough is now a southwestern suburb of Johnson City, with an economy based on timber, poultry, and livestock. Pop. (1990) 3,091.