In 1794 Francis A. Ramsey was named by the territorial assembly of the Territory South of the River Ohio as one of the first trustees of Blount College, an institution that the body chartered on September 10. He had been active in the failed effort to establish a State of Franklin, serving as secretary of the convention called at Jonesboro in 1785 to draw up a constitution for the proposed state. At age 20, he had taken up the trade of surveying. In 1788 the title of “major of cavalry” was conferred upon him, and in later life he bore the honorary title of “Colonel” Ramsey. In 1820, when East Tennessee College reopened, he suggested that all meetings of the board of trustees be opened and closed by prayer. He was the first president of the State Bank at Knoxville.