Peter Avery had a fair complexion, grey eyes, fair hair. Initially, he was a farmer and cordwainer.
21 June 1761 enlisted in New York State militia under Captain Isaac Terbush.

5 Aug 1778 supplied provisions to men of Cantine’s Regiment, New York Militia 150

17 Jan 1798: deeded land in Blount Co., TN to daughter Tabitha 151
His scouting services during the Revolutionary War were said to be invaluable to John Sevier and other commanders in their expeditions against the Indians.
1805: appears in Tennessee census in Roane Co based on a tax list.
1814-1817: listed in Roane Co., TN tax records as owning 346 acres in 1814, 60 acres inb 1817.
Peter Avery appears in Roane County, TN records in 1803 and on a voting list in 1815. He and his family were believed to have lived at the foot of Walden's Ridge, in or near present day Oliver Springs.
between 1817 and 1820 Peter moved to Alabama where he died in 1823. There is a story of how his coffin was being transported to his burial site, but the horse bolted, the wagon overturned, the coffin was broken and the body exposed. He had to be buried at that spot alongside the road. There was a marker, now missing, that said “Here lies Peter Avery, died 1823”. 152 146

AVERY TRACE On November 29, 1787, Anthony Bledsoe, (Sumner county's first elected Representative to the North Carolina Legislature) introduced legislation to clear a road through the wilderness (called Indian Country and later became Tennessee) from the lower, south end of Clinch Mountain near Knoxville to Bean's Lick, near Nashville and the Cumberland Settlements of Middle Tennessee.
Peter Avery, known then as “Old Compass Head” because of his unerring sense of direction, was chosen to blaze the trail for this road. This road, called the “Avery Trace”, was cleared to 10 feet wide and was completed in 1788. The Avery Trace followed an old Indian trail named Tallonteeskee from Rockwood, through Monterey, and on to Nashville. It ran from what is now the Anderson-Roane County line westward slantwise to the top of Black Oak Ridge (Hartland Estates area), descended down the north side of the ridge, and crossed Main Poplar Creek near present day Blair Road (near the K-25 plant). From there, it passed by the Dyllis Cemetery (Dyllis Community) and on through Clack's Gap to the Little Emory River. After crossing the river it passed along the general route of the old Oliver Springs-Harriman Highway and through the Big Emory Gap in Walden Ridge, then west along Clifty Creek to Crab Orchard, by-passing the formidable heights of Walden Ridge above Rockwood. The Avery Trace has also been known as Walden's Road, Emory Road, the Old North Carolina Road, and (possibly) the Great Road.
25 families followed the trail in 1787. One of the first parties to traverse the new trace was the recently appointed Judge of the Metro District, John McNairy. He was accompanied by an ambitious young lawyer chosen to be his prosecutor, Andrew Jackson. Andrew's alertness saved the group from walking into an ambush; a party only a few hours behind them were not so fortunate and all were killed.
It is interesting that the modern-day Tennessee Central Railroad follows almost exactly the same path.