Ezekiel Polk

Ezekiel Polk (December 7, 1747 – August 31, 1824) was an American soldier and pioneer. He is known as the paternal grandfather of James K. Polk, the 11th president of the United States.

Born near Carlisle in Cumberland County, Pennsylvania, Polk was the seventh of eight children of William Polk and Margaret Taylor Polk. Around 1753, his family moved southwestward to what became Mecklenburg County, North Carolina. Following the death of his parents, he was likely raised by his older brother Thomas Polk, a militia leader and member of North Carolina’s provincial assemblies. At approximately 20 years of age, Polk, then recently married, was appointed clerk of court in Tryon County, established on a 100-acre farm south of Kings Mountain.

In 1772, a boundary survey placed Polk's property within South Carolina. During the American Revolutionary War, he served in the South Carolina militia. His early military roles included a lieutenant colonel position under Col. Thomas Neel in 1775, and he formed his own independent company of Rangers before the official formation of the 3rd South Carolina Regiment of Rangers on June 6, 1775. Polk resigned from the regiment on July 29, 1775, but was authorized to reform his independent company under Col. William Thomson. His unit was disbanded at the fall of Charleston.

Polk was elected a delegate to the South Carolina Provincial Congress in June 1775. He was commissioned as a captain in the Third South Carolina Regiment of Horse Rangers, with responsibilities shifting between interior and coastal operations. In December 1775, he led his company against Loyalist forces at Reedy River, and the following summer, commanded 300 militia in a successful expedition against Cherokee Loyalists. On July 24, 1776, his regiment was incorporated into the Continental Army’s Southern Department, designated as the 10th Company, 3rd South Carolina Regiment.

Subsequently, Polk became increasingly displeased with the political environment in South Carolina, especially after being passed over for a provincial congress delegate in late 1775. In late 1776, he relinquished his military commission and returned to North Carolina, settling on a farm near Charlotte. In 1778, he opened a tavern in Charlotte and was appointed justice of the peace in the following year.

During the British occupation of North Carolina in 1780, Cornwallis established headquarters in Ezekiel Polk’s brother Thomas Polk’s home. To secure safety, Ezekiel Polk "took protection" from the British and was later elected sheriff by Mecklenburg magistrates. After the war, he received land grants for his service and, in 1790, was appointed deputy surveyor in the Western District, prompting his move to what is now Tennessee on land near the Cumberland River.

Personal hardship included Indian raids and the death of his second wife in 1791, prompting his return to Mecklenburg County. He resided in Tennessee from 1803, establishing himself on a 2,500-acre tract on the Duck River in Maury County. Polk was known for his Jeffersonian political orientation and his Deist beliefs, which contrasted with the views of his family members.

Polk was married three times. His first wife was Mary Wilson Polk, with whom he had eight children, including Samuel Polk, father of James K. Polk. His second wife, possibly Polly Campbell, bore no surviving children. His third wife, Sofia Neely Lennard Polk, bore four children.

Ezekiel Polk died near Bolivar, Tennessee, on August 31, 1824, and was interred in the Polk Cemetery in Bolivar. He composed his own epitaph, which was inscribed on a wooden slab, detailing his life and beliefs, including a critique of church and state.

The ancestry of Ezekiel Polk remains largely unconfirmed, though some claims suggest distant kinship to Robert Bruce Polk of Clan Pollock and links to the Taylor family. However, newer research has discredited these claims.