Wiki:
The State of Franklin, known also as the Free Republic of Franklin or the State of Frankland (the latter being the name submitted to the Continental Congress when it considered the territory's application for statehood), was an autonomous United States territory created in 1784 from part of the territory west of the Appalachian Mountains that had been offered, by North Carolina, as a cession to the federal government (to help pay off debts related to the American Revolutionary War). Its first capital was Jonesboro. Later, the area legally became, once again, part of North Carolina. Franklin encompassed what ultimately comprised a large share of the Tennessee Eastern Division of the Southwest Territory. Franklin was never admitted into the United States — falling two votes short for admission. The extra-legal state existed for only about four and a half years, ostensibly as a republic, before largely being abandoned.