Avery, Waitstill
lawyer, patriot, was born May 3, 1745, in Groton, Conn.
In 1775, he was a delegate to the congress at Hillsborough which organized the military force of the state. In the summer of 1776, he joined the army of Gen. Rutherford in the Cherokee nation, and was a commissioner at the treaty of Holston, which gave peace to the western frontier.
In the fall of 1776, he was again a member of the state congress. In 1781 he moved to Burke county, which he represented many years in the state legislature. He was the first state attorney-general of North Carolina in 1777. He died March 15, 1821, in Burke county, N. C.