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= //**__ Joseph Martin __**// = Husband to two or more wives. As a boy Joseph Martin ran from apprenticeship to join the army at fort Pitt, he joined with another young man like himself, Thomas Sumter. "Martin was a robust figure in the history of the early frontier. He was born in Albemarle County in 1740, ran away to fight Indians at 17, became an Indian agent, land agent, and officer of militia, fighting Indians all up and down the frontier. In 1774 he came to Henry County, established himself at Belle Monte on Leatherwood Creek, for nine years sat for his district in the general assembly, and in 1793 was made a brigadier general of state militia. He was a brawny, picturesque man, more than six feet tall and the father of 18 children; wore buckled knee breeches and a great beard, braided and thrust inside his shirt." Martin first married Sarah Lucas in [|Orange County, Virginia]. After her death in Henry County, Martin married Susannah Graves, a descendant of [|Captain Thomas Graves][|[28]] of [|Jamestown, Virginia]. Martin was simultaneously married to his half-[|Cherokee] wife, Elizabeth "Betsy" Ward, the daughter of [|Nancy Ward], a power within the Cherokee tribes, and her husband, English trapper Bryant Ward. The polygamous relationship, justified by martin as a common practice among frontiersmen operating among the tribes caused considerable consternation to general martin’s son, Col. William Martin. He died at his leatherwood plantation in 1808 after retiring there in 1796. Joseph Martin was a patriot for the continental army.