f 
 
1 Reprinted rrom The Mimiasippi Valley Historical Review. Vol. I. December 1»U| 
 
 RICHARD HENDERSON AND THE OCCUPATION OF 
 KENTUCKY, 1775 
 
 In that epic movoniont of American expansion, which found 
 its true inauguration in pioneer advance and its true romance in 
 border struggle, the colony of North Carolina assumed a truly 
 national role. Two such men as Richard Henderson and Daniel 
 Boone — Henderson, colonizer and lawgiver, Boone, explorer 
 and Indian fighter — flowering at a single instant out of the life 
 of North Carolina endow her with a distinction of peculiar em- 
 inence as a creative force in westward expansion. Kentucky 
 would be sorely impoverished, shorn of the greater measure of 
 the incomparable romance and wonder of her origin and rude 
 beginnings, if bereft of North Carolina's epochal contribution: 
 the exploring instinct of Christopher Gist, the pioneering genius 
 of Daniel Boone, the colonizing spirit of Richard Henderson, 
 the economic and expansionist ideals of the canny Scots, James 
 Hogg and William Johnston; of that sire of the "Great Pacifi- 
 cator," Jesse Benton; of the Harts, Thomas, Nathaniel, and 
 Da\'id; the Hendersons, Samuel, Nathaniel, and Pleasant; the 
 Boones, Squire and Jesse; Isaac Shelljy, Felix Walker, John 
 Luttrell, Richard Callaway, Robert Burton, Bromfield Ridley, 
 John Williams, John Gray Blount, Leonard Henley Bullock, 
 William Bailey Smith, and others less spectacular in their 
 achievements yet little less important. They were the crest and 
 foremost fringe of that mobile wave which welled up from the 
 fountain source of American liberty, the ancient colony of North 
 Carolina, swept irresistibly throngh the "high-swung gateway" 
 of the Cumberland, and held this fair region within the circle of 
 

 342 Archibald Henderson ^^- v- h. k. 
 
 its protecting wall until Kentuckj^ bad weathered the storms of 
 border warfare and was swept ti'iumphantly into a Union of free 
 and independent states.^ 
 
 History has been strangely and tortuously written about the 
 career of the territorial expansionist, Eichard Henderson. The 
 vast project debased by his constructive imagination, planned 
 with statesmanlike foresight, and executed ^\•ith unswerving 
 valor, rolled back the tide of aboriginal predatory conquest, and 
 first established in the heart of the West a solid and enduring 
 bulwark. That twilight zone, delimitating the domain of white 
 supremacy from the ancestral hereditament of the savage, 
 through his endeavor lost its legendary character as a terra in- 
 cognita, extravagantly empurpled by the riotous imaginations 
 of far-away hunters. This lordly hunting preserve and battle- 
 field of warring savages became for the white man a habitable 
 country of green pastures and still waters. The promised land 
 became a blest fulfillment. 'Wlien Richard Henderson, at the head 
 of his little band of colonists, halted in Powell's Valley to gaze 
 upward at the granite wall of white rock towering above like a 
 lion — the last barrier reared by nature between the white man 
 and the delectable country beyond — well might he have quailed 
 before the dark future its passage presaged. But born and bred 
 of an indomitable race, he turned his course unswervingly to the 
 passage through the great gap, and \vith. fixed resolve accom- 
 plished definitively that classic crossing which has been the in- 
 exhaustible theme of romantic history and historic romance.^ 
 
 Those epic ships of 1607 which beached their keels upon the 
 shores of tidewater Virginia bore in their bosom the English, 
 Scotch, Irish, and Welsh breeds who peopled the Appalachians 
 and gave to the New World a new meaning of hberty. The 
 great-grandfather of Richard Henderson, named Samuel, emi- 
 grated from Dumfries, Scotland, to Jamestown, Virginia, in the 
 early years of the seventeenth century. And for more than a 
 centurj' and a quarter, the family lived in Virginia the simple 
 and hardy life of colonial settlers. Richard Henderson's father, 
 
 1 A. Henderson, "The Pioneer Contributions of North Carolina to Kentucky," 
 in Charlotte Observer (North Carolina), November 10, 1913. 
 
 2 A. Henderson, ' ' The Beg^innings of American Expansion, ' ' in North Carolina 
 Review, 1: no. 12, p. 1 (September, 1910), 2: no. 1, p. 1.') (October, 1910). 
 
 f£& to isia 
 
Vol. 1, No. 3 xiic Occupation of Kentucky 343 
 
 also named Saiuuel, who was born March 17, 1700, became high 
 sherilf of Hanover County, ami was married there to the daugh- 
 ter of a wealthy eniigFant from Wales, John Williams. After 
 his removal to North Carolina in the year 1742, he again served 
 as high sheriff, this time of the extensive county of Granville. 
 Owing to the lack of schools in the county, his children, notably 
 Richard, were taught at home by a private tutor — an unusual 
 privilege in those days of hardy virtues, but limited edueational 
 facilities. Because of f requ(>nt absences from home in the pros- 
 ecution of the affairs of his office, Samuel Henderson entrusted 
 the education of his childi'en not solely to a tutor, but in consid- 
 erable degree to his wife, a woman of sterling virtues and fine 
 intelligence.' 
 
 In the office of his fathei', Richard Henderson served as con- 
 stable and undersheriff ; and studying law at a very early age 
 under his cousin, John Williams, he became in due course of time 
 king's attorney and, at the age of thirty-three, judge of the high- 
 est court in the colony. His active participation in the prac- 
 tical duties of his father's office gave him, in Draper's words, 
 "that enlarged knowledge of men and things for which he be- 
 came so eminently distinguished in after life." His brilliant 
 legal talents and general popularity were responsible for his 
 elevation to the judgeship. In writing to Lord Hillsborough, 
 Governor Tryon speaks of Richard Henderson as "a man of 
 probity and a firm friend of government as well from principle 
 as from the duty of his office." * He found a worthy mate for 
 his brilliant talents in the person of his wife Elizabeth, the 
 daughter of Lord Keeling, an English peer. Because Hender- 
 son, while ser\-ing as judge, refused to accede to the revolu- 
 tionary proposals of the Regulators, during the period of the 
 peasant uprising known as the Regulation, his court was broken 
 up, and his dwelling house, stables and crops were burned in the 
 dead of night. It is stated in a standard history that because 
 of his great ambition and ostentatious mode of life, Henderson 
 "soon became involved in speculations which embarrassed him 
 
 • Memoir of W. F. Henderson, in T. B. Kingsbury, "Cliief Justice Leonard Hen- 
 derson," in ICafcc Forest Student, 18: no. 2, pp. SO-O.'i; Memoir of Pleasant Hender- 
 son, in Draper MSS., 20C21; L. C. Draper, Life of Boone, in Draper MSS., 3B. 
 
 * North Carolina Colonial Secordt, 8:525. 
 
344 Archibald Henderson ^- ^- h. e. 
 
 in his pecuniary relations, and cramped bis resources. ' '^ It was 
 the incendiary fury of the Regulators, and not "his great ambi- 
 tion and ostentatious mode of life," which "embarrassed him in 
 his pecuuiaiy relations and cramped his resources." Financial 
 ruin was the penaltj' Richard Henderson paid for his devotion 
 to due process of law. It was civic duty, and not speculation, 
 which procured him a wasted home smoking in black iniins." 
 
 In his day, Richard Henderson was generally regarded by his 
 associates as a man of especial eminence in his profession. As 
 an orator, he was known as "the Patrick Henry of North Caro- 
 lina." He was destined to display his judicial and legislative 
 talents, not only in affairs of colonial judicature, but more sig- 
 nally in an entei*prise of national interest and vast scope. For 
 years his mind had dwelt upon the project of the acquisition of 
 some of the uncharted and tenantless territory which stretched 
 out endlessly to the westward. For years the greatest pioneer 
 of his age explored the ^Yi\ds of Virginia, Tennessee, and Ken- 
 tucky as his confidential agent and scout. The expiration in 
 1773 of the term of the superior court provided by the North 
 Carolina judiciary act of 1767, and the consequent dissolution of 
 the court, enabled Judge Henderson to devote himself to the 
 project towards which the investigations of years had led. From 
 this time fonvard, he sheds the glamour of merely local fame 
 and enters into national history as the most notable constructive 
 pioneer in the early history of the American people.' 
 
 The proclamation of George III that the vast "hinterland" 
 west of the Allegheny and Appalachian mountains should be 
 closed to further settlement, it has been claimed, was the prime 
 cause of awaking the resistance of the American people to sense- 
 less British tyranny.' It is true that, in their steady westward 
 propulsion of the frontier line and their progressive settlement 
 of lands from which they were debarred by roj'al proclamation, 
 the colonists silently defied the sovereign authority claimed and 
 
 B This fiction, given currency by the Tory spy, Dr. J. F. T). Smyth, has been 
 mechanically repeated by numerous historians, notably L. Collins in his History of 
 Kentucl-y (Covington, 1882), .and T. Boosevelt in his Winning of the West (New 
 York, 1889-1896). 
 
 « New York Gazette, October 5, 1770. 
 
 'A. Henderson, "Forerunners of the Republic: Richard Henderson," in Neale's 
 Monthly, 1:67-75 (January, 1913). 
 
 8 E. Reich, Foundations of Modern Europe (New York, 1908), 9. 
 
Vol. I, No. 3 xhe Occupation of Kentucky 345 
 
 exercised by Great Britain. The encroachments of determined 
 settlers upon the Indian lands created a critical situation along 
 the frontier; and the proclamation of 1763 was indubitably de- 
 signed to allay the alarm of the Indians. Nevertheless, it has 
 been conclusively shown that it was not the design of the board 
 of trade to set' permanent western limits to the colonies.* The 
 real object of the board of trade was to control, not to prevent, 
 expansion westward. This was fully realized by the contem- 
 porary students of the western situation, notably George Wash- 
 ington. And it was the realization of the true situation which 
 inspired Richard Henderson and his associates to send Daniel 
 Boone scouring through the wilderness of Tennessee and Ken- 
 tucky in search of the most desirable lands for settlement and 
 colonization. 
 
 After his long series of investigations, carried on through his 
 trusted agents, Daniel Boone and James Robertson, and extend- 
 ing over a period of ten years, in regard to the character of the 
 western lands and the possibility of securing title thereto, Rich- 
 ard Henderson with the cooperation of John Williams and 
 Thomas Hart, now proceeded to organize more definitely a land 
 company.'" In looking about him for the purpose of enlisting 
 capital in his daring enterprise, Henderson fully realized two 
 things : that a large sum of money was needed for the purpose of 
 securing the Indian title; and that the partners in the company 
 must be men willing to share with him great personal risk, of 
 life as well as of fortune, in the hazardous enterprise. It is a 
 singular fact that no historian has ever hitherto taken into ac- 
 count the personnel of the Transylvania Company, or viewed 
 that company in its own environment, as well as in its own 
 period. 
 
 9 C. W. Alvord's elaborate papers: "The Genesis of the Proclamation of 176."!," 
 in Michigan Pioneer and Historical Collections, .36:20 ct seq.; and "The British 
 Ministry and the Treaty of Fort Stanwix, " in Wisconsin Historical Society, Pro- 
 ceedings, 1908, pp. 165 et seq. 
 
 10 In " The Creative Forces in American Expansion : Henderson and Boone, ' ' 
 in the Amlerican Historical Ueview, 20: 86 (October, 1914), the writer endeavors to 
 exhibit, in just perspective, the larger aspects and creative causes of westward ex- 
 pansion. In a later paper, he intends to rewrite the story of the Transylvania Com- 
 pany (17741800) in the lipht of the preat mass of new materials which he has dis- 
 covered. No trustworthy or adequate account has yet been given of this si};nificant 
 episode in our national annals. 
 
346 Archibald Henderson m. v. h. r. 
 
 In selecting the men whom he wished to interest in the western 
 scheme of colonization and promotion, Henderson chose men of 
 resource and of action, ready for any hazard of life and fortune. 
 John Williams, Henderson 's ahle lieutenant in the affairs of the 
 company, was a large landowner in Granville County and an at- 
 torney Avith an extensive and lucrative practice." As an advo- 
 cate he held his own with the famous lawyers of the Carolina 
 circuit — Hooper, Jones, Burke, Martin, Davie; was known as a 
 man of sound judgment and excellent common sense, and was 
 described by the distinguished Iredell as "one of the most agree- 
 able men in the world." ^^ Having served as deputy attorney 
 general for the district of Hillsborough in 1768, he was of great 
 value in all the preliminary arrangements for the organization 
 of the land company. 
 
 Thomas Hart, who had been intunately associated with Hen- 
 derson and Williams in the earlier phases of the western project, 
 was generally known as a man of approved integrity and simple 
 sterling worth. In the period immediateh' preceding the Regu- 
 lation in North Carolina, when sheriffs were notoriously back- 
 ward in rendering their accounts, Hart stood out conspicuously 
 as one who settled his accounts promptly and to the last farthing. 
 As justice of the peace from 1764 to the Revolution, captain, 
 major and finally lieutenant colonel of the county militia, repre- 
 sentative in the assembly in 1773, and delegate from Orange 
 County to the first pro\'incial convention at New Bern on Aug- 
 ust 25, 1774, Hart had demonstrated his capacity both as soldier 
 and legislator. At Hillsborough his commercial interests were 
 chiefly in a store, and in his mill, known as Hart's mill, on the 
 old road to Haw River, about half a mile from the Eno." 
 
 In the maturing of the plans for the hazardous venture of 
 
 " In a single year, 1753, Williams conveyed to others 1727 acres of land. The 
 law firm of Henderson and Williams, preeminent in Granville County, ranked with the 
 leading firms in the colony. 
 
 1:2 James Iredell to Mrs. Iredell, May 23, 1783, in G. J. McBee, Life and Cor- 
 respondence of James Iredell (New York, 1858), 2:47; Frank Nash, "John Wil- 
 liams," in Biographical History of North Carolina (Greensboro, North Carolina, 
 1906), 3:427 et seq. 
 
 18 For facts in regard to Hart, I am indebted to Miss Lucretia Hart Clay and 
 Mrs. Thomas Hart Clay of Lexington, Kentucky, and to Mr. Fi-ank Nash of Hillsbor- 
 ough, North Carolina; J. H. Wlieclcr, Historical Sletches of North Carolina (Phila- 
 delphia, 1851); North Carolina Colonial Hecords. 
 
Vol. I, No. 3 y/ie Occupation of Kentucky 347 
 
 western settlement, Tlionias Hart was assisted by his brother 
 Nathaniel, a name afterwards famous in Kentucky history. 
 They were both born in Hanover County, Virj^inia, and accom- 
 panied by their mother and other members of the family settled 
 in Orange County, North Carolina, about 175G. During the 
 period of his residence in North Carolina, Nathaniel Haii; lived 
 at his famous seat, the Red House, in Caswell County. At the 
 battle of Alamance, between the governmental forces under 
 Governor Tryon and the insurgents, the Regulators, Captain 
 Nathaniel Hart commanded a company of infantry under Tryon, 
 and after the battle "was handsomely complimented by the 
 officers of the government for the gallant and spirited behaviour 
 of the detachment under his command." Nathaniel Hart was a 
 gentleman of wealth and social position ; and his personality 
 and means were effective instrumentalities in the formation of 
 the company." 
 
 Another bold adventurer, associated with the new company, 
 was John Luttrell of Chatham County, North Carolina, the hus- 
 band of Susanna, only daughter of John Hart, brother of 
 Thomas and Nathaniel. Ho had served as clerk of the crown at 
 Hillsborough in 1770; and along with John Williams and Thomas 
 Hart was the innocent victim of the vindictive rage of the Regu- 
 lators at Hillsborough, in September, 1770, when Judge Hender- 
 son's court was broken up. "Lieutenant Colonel Luttrell," 
 says a contemporary, " was a man of fiery courage, active, en- 
 terprising, and firmly attached to the cause of his country." '' 
 
 Finally, Henderson and the Harts interested in the venture 
 one who, both by business ability and extensive credit, assisted 
 in the financial floating of the company. Shortly after 1764, a 
 number of Scotch merchants had settled near Hillsborough, and 
 there established "stores that contained a good assortment of 
 European merchandise.""' The most substantial of these 
 Scotch merchants, a man of abundant means, Avas William John- 
 
 >« For information in regard to Nathaniel Hart I am indebted to Mrs. C. D. 
 Chenault of Lexinf;ton, Kentucky, and to Mrs. .T. Oscar Clore of Henderson, Ken- 
 tucky; also, Mrs. Sarah S. Young, Genealogical Narrative of the Hart Favtily (Mem- 
 phis, 1882). r 
 
 i« "Reminiscences of f'oloncl Guilford Dudley," in Southern Literary Mcssenqer, 
 11:281-287, .•?70-37.5 (May, .Tune, 184.'i). 
 
 <«" Autobiography of Col. William Few of Georgia," in Magazine of American 
 Biatory, 7:344 (November, 1881). 
 
348 Archibald Henderson m. v. h. b. 
 
 ston, only son and heir of Robert Johnston, of Hartwood, Loch- 
 maben Parish, Annandale Shire, Scotland. A near relation of 
 Governor Gabriel Johnston, he was also the nephew of Samuel 
 Johnston, the distinguished North Carolina statesman." Late 
 in 1767, he arrived in Hillsborough and soon formed a business 
 partnership with James Thackston, aftenvards a distinguished 
 soldier of the Revolution. The firm of Johnston and Thackston 
 carried on an extensive mercantile trade — not only supplying 
 the inhabitants of Orange County with foreign goods, but also 
 doing a large wholesale exchange business with the eastern 
 Scotch merchants and watb large mercantile establishments at 
 New Bern. Through his extensive business operations, of bar- 
 ter and sale, with the Scotch merchants at Cross Creek, John- 
 ston was very largely instrumental in securing the vast quantity 
 of goods needed to effect the purchase from the Cherokee. The 
 bonds for the various bills of supplies were underwritten by 
 the partners of the land company. 
 
 These men, at the call of Richard Henderson, met at Hills- 
 borough during the tense period of the provincial convention, 
 which convened at New Bern on August 25, 1774, to appoint del- 
 egates to the Continental Congress. One of the partners, 
 Thomas Hart, was absent from the meeting of incorporation, 
 being a delegate to that convention from Orange County. The 
 land company, formally organized on August 27, was given the 
 title of the Louisa Compan}', the name given by Dr. Thomas 
 Walker, the Virginia explorer, in 1750 to the river now known as 
 the Kentucky River." In their articles of incorporation, the 
 partners state that they desire either to "rent or purchase" a 
 tract of western land from the Indian owners of the soil — and 
 this for the avowed purpose of "settling the country." In an- 
 ticipation of the extreme hazards involved in the enterprise, 
 they solemnly bound themselves together, not only to be "equal 
 sharers of the property," but also "to support each other with 
 our lives and fortunes." " 
 
 17 P. Nash, Hillsboro. Colonial and Sevolutionary (Raleigh, North Carolina, 1903); 
 G. J. McBee, Life and Correspondence of James Iredell. 
 
 18 J. S. Johnston, First Explorations of Kentucky (Filson Club Publications, no. 
 13 — Louisville, 1898); J. P. Hale, Trans-Alleghany Pioneers (Cincinnati, 1886). 
 The western country was generally knomi as the Louisa Country. In the McAfee 
 MSS., the name is spelled ' ' Levisa, ' ' supposedly from La Vis^e. 
 
 IK Draper MSS. 
 
Vol. I, No. 3 'fhe Occupation of Kentucky 349 
 
 Following his return to the settlements in 1771, Daniel Boone 
 had been sent by Kichard Henderson as an emissary to sound 
 the Cherokee in regard to a purchase. The conclusion to which 
 Boone came, based upon the findings of James Robertson, was 
 that the Indians would dispose of their title for a sufficiently 
 valuable consideration. Owing to the confining nature of his 
 labors as colonial judge, Henderson was unable to devote his 
 time and consideration to the project of westward expansion 
 until after the expiration of the court itself, which ceased to 
 exist in 1773. 
 
 In the meantime, Boone had grown impatient over the delay 
 in the consummation of the plans for western settlement. About 
 this same time, Josiah Martin, the royal governor of North 
 Carolina, in a letter to the Earl of Dartmouth, expressed grave 
 alarm over the steady progress of unauthorized settlement in 
 the back countr)'. Nevertheless, Boone, with incredible fool- 
 hardiness ignoring both the question of title and the omnipres- 
 ent dangers of encroaching upon the territory of hostile savages, 
 proceeded solely upon his own responsibility to recruit a body of 
 settlers; and on the twenty-fifth day of September, 1773, they 
 started from North Carolina to Kentucky. Their advance was 
 vigorously resisted by a party of Indians at Wallen's Ridge. 
 Boone and his party drove oflf the Indians who seem to have 
 been aware of this attempt to settle beyond the mountains and 
 were determined to resist this unwarranted encroachment upon 
 their territory. The whites, though successful in driving back 
 the Indians, became disheartened for fear a larger body of In- 
 dians were gathering in their front to oppose their advance, and 
 fell back to Snoddy's Fort. After a few days, the expedition 
 was definitely abandoned. 
 
 This entire episode possesses a distinct significance as indi- 
 cating that Boone Avas deficient in executive ability and the 
 power to carry through plans made on a considerable scale. A 
 remarkable scout, a great hunter, a man of balance and sagacity 
 of judgment in coping A^th the dangers and difficulties of the 
 wilderness, Boone lacked constructive and civic talents. It was 
 not until the legal mind and executive genius of Henderson was 
 applied to the vast and complex project of western colonization 
 that it was carried through to a successful termination. As the 
 
350 Archibald Henderson ^- v. H. r. 
 
 sequel shows, even this hazard of new fortune bade fair to prove 
 a failure until Henderson, with unwavering I'esolution in the 
 face of nameless dangers, answered the imploring message of 
 Boone and hurried to his rescue.'" 
 
 Following the incoi-poration of the Louisa Company, on Aug- 
 ust 27, 1774, three new partners were added. These were men 
 of means and high standing in the colony. David Hart, brother 
 of Thomas and Nathaniel, offered to take half a share, or one- 
 sixteenth part of the whole. A similar offer was made by one 
 of Henderson's neighbors on Nutbush, whose family had moved 
 from Hanover County, Virginia, to Granville County, North 
 Carolina, soon after the year 1752.-' This was ..Leonard Henley 
 Bullock, sometime high sheriff of Granville, and the broth'er of 
 Agnes, widow of George, Lord Keeling, and now wife of John 
 Williams. The third new partner, who has been described by 
 the historian Battle as "one of the most influential men of his 
 day," was the Scotchman, James Hogg, of the same family as 
 the Ettrick Shepherd, and whose wife, McDowal Alves, was sec- 
 ond cousin to Sir Walter Scott. A native of East Lothian, 
 James Hogg was a resident of the parish of Reay, near Thurso, 
 at the time of his emigration to North Carolina. A cultured 
 man, possessed of considerable wealth, he engaged in business 
 with his cousins, Robert and John Hogg, who carried on mer- 
 cantile enterprises at Fayetteville and Wilmington. Shortly 
 after his arrival in Hillsborough late in 1774, he acquired an ex- 
 tensive tract of land extending for a mile and more along the 
 south bank of the Eno River, opposite the town. One whole 
 share was taken by him in the new company." 
 
 On January 6, 1775, the three new copartners, David Hart, 
 Leonard Henley Bullock, and James Hogg having been admitted, 
 a new agreement was drawn up, and the reorganized company 
 was entitled the Transylvania Company. In the agreement 
 drawn up," reference is explicitly made to the contingency of 
 
 20 A. Henderson, "Forerunners of the Republic: Daniel Boone," in Neale's 
 Monthly, 1:211-219 (February, 1913). 
 
 21 William and Mary Quarterly, 11:236. 
 
 22 K. P. Battle, "James Hogg,'' in James Sprutit Historical Monograph, 3:1316; 
 H. M. Wagstaff, "Letters of William Barry Grove," in James Sprunt Historical Pub- 
 licatioius, 9: no. 2, pp. 47-88. Transcripts of the Hogg MSS. vrere placed at my 
 disposal by the Right Rev. Joseph Blount Cheshire, bishop of North Carolina. 
 
 23 One of the original drafts of the agreement is now in the wi-iter 's possession. 
 
Vol. I, No. 3 '£he Occupation of Kentucky 351 
 
 "settliug and voting as a proprietor and giving Rules and Regu- 
 lations for the Inhabitants &c." A proprietary form of govern- 
 ment is clearly outlined. At this stage in the development of 
 his plans, Henderson seems to have believed that tlie proprie- 
 tary model, similar to that of Penn or Calvert, in prospect of the 
 actual ownership of the settled land by a small group of cap- 
 italists, was best adapted for at least the preliminary stages of 
 wilderness colonization. He trusted to the actual realization of 
 permanent colonization for the logical evolution of a democratic 
 fonn of goverimient for a trans-Allegheny commonwealth. 
 
 The preliminary negotiations with the Cherokee had been ef- 
 fected through the personal efforts of Judge Henderson and 
 Colonel Nathaniel Hart. On Christmas day, 1774, there was 
 published broadcast throughout the colony the broadside en- 
 titled "Proposals for the encouragement of settling the Lands 
 purchased by Messrs. Richard Henderson & Co. on the branches 
 of the Mississippi River from the Cherokee tribe of Indians." " 
 This announcement created a genuine sensation throughout the 
 colony ; and Archibald Neilson, auditor of the colony, in a letter 
 to Andrew Miller, inquired with anxiety and apparent reason: 
 "Pray, is Dick Henderson out of his head?" " "Dick" Hender- 
 son was never more coolly in possession of his head than now; 
 nor had he ever put it to uses of such momentous promise ; for 
 soon public sentiment was enlisted on the side of the Transyl- 
 vania Company; and even Martin, tlie royal governor, acknowl- 
 edged that the opinion prevailed in tlie colony that thei'e was no 
 law against leasing the lands from the Indians for an indefinite 
 period." Nevertheless, Martin, now gravely alarmed in an- 
 ticipation of a coming revolutionary cataclysm, thundered in a 
 forcible-feeble proclamation against "Richard Henderson and 
 his Confederates," in their "daring, unjust and unwarrantable 
 proceeding."" In writing to the Earl of Dartmouth, Martin 
 speaks scathingly of "Henderson the famous invader," and 
 again of "the infamous Henderson and his associates," whom 
 he dubs "an infamous Company of land Pyrates." He de- 
 
 '* Governor Martin to the Earl of Dartmouth, May 4, 1775, P.R.O., CO., 5.318. 
 25 Archibald Neilson to Andrew Miller, .lannary 28, 1775, manuscript in the office 
 of the secretary of state, Raleigh, North Carolina. 
 ^0 North Carolina Colonial Records, 9:1175. 
 "North Carolina Gazette, February 24, 1775. 
 
352 Archibald Henderson m. v. h. b. 
 
 nounced their project as a "lawless undertaking," "an infrac- 
 tion of the royal prerogative;" and threatened the Transylvania 
 Company, if it persisted in its course, "\\'ith the pain of His 
 Majesty's displeasure and the most rigorous penalties of the 
 law." 
 
 Henderson, the "famous invader" and his "infamous com- 
 pany of land Pyrates" remained unperturbed by the violence of 
 Governor Martin's denunciations. By the various treaties of 
 Hard Labor, Fort Stanwix, and Lochaber, the Cherokee were 
 left as sole valid Indian claimants of the soil in question; and 
 even Virginia had acknowledged the Donelson line ran in 1772. 
 The Cherokee themselves successfully maintained their claim 
 that they were, in the language of the "Great Treaty," "the ab- 
 origines and sole owners by occupancy from the beginning of 
 time" of the Kentucky area. Henderson and his associates 
 now proceeded unhesitatingly to the negotiations; and in fair 
 and open treaty — a treaty which "was conducted mth an hon- 
 esty unparalleled at that day in such matters " "^ — held at the 
 Sycamore Shoals and lasting from the fourteenth to the seven- 
 teenth of March, 1775 — the Transylvania Company, for a con- 
 sideration of ten thousand pounds sterling in money and goods, 
 purchased from the Cherokee Indians some twenty million acres 
 of land, comprising portions of the present states of Virginia 
 and Tennessee, and the greater portion of the present state of 
 Kentucky. History subsequentlj^ proved the validity of this 
 title of the Transylvania Company as against the Indians.^* It 
 cannot be doubted that Henderson clearly foresaw the Revolu- 
 tion now impending, and hoped to forestall Great Britain in her 
 plan to cut up the territory beyond the Alleghenies "into great 
 proprietary domains, but mth governments not unlike those of 
 the existing royal provinces." ^'' The colonj' of North CaroUna 
 was much more forw^ard than any of the other colonies in her 
 revolutionary attitude toward Great Britain ; and in a letter to 
 James Iredell as early as April 26, 1774, the famous AVilliam 
 
 28 A. B. Hulbert, Boone's Wilderness Bead (Historic Highways — Cleveland, 
 1903). 
 
 29 Letter of Henry Clay to Isaac Shelby, February IS, 1818, in Draper MS8., 
 DDll. Also Hart MSS. supplied me by Hart descendants in Kentucky. 
 
 30 G. E. Howard, FreliminaHcs of the lievolution, 176S1775 (American Nation, 
 8 — New York, 1905). 
 
Vol. I, No. 3 xhe Occupation of Kentucky 353 
 
 Hooper wrote with especial reference to conditions in North 
 Carolina: "With you I anticipate the important share which 
 the colonies must soon have in regulating the political balance. 
 They are striding fast to independence, and ere long ivill build 
 an empire upon the ruin of Great Britain.^' 
 
 In the "standard" histories of the United States, one gener- 
 ally finds the statement that Boone, after conducting the treaty 
 of Sycamore Shoals, cut out the Wilderness Trail and founded 
 Kentucky. Sometimes the names of both Boone and Robertson 
 are mentioned — the one as the "leather of Kentucky," the 
 other as the "Father of Tennessee." Sometimes neither is 
 mentioned at all. In no case is found any mention of the Tran- 
 sylvania Company or its president, Richard Henderson. This is 
 one of the singular, almost inexplicable omissions of history 
 which enlarged knowledge and wider perspective will inevitably 
 remedy.'" Un the days when the "Great Treaty" at Sj'camore 
 Shoals was concluded between "Carolina Dick," as Judge Hen- 
 derson was called by the Cherokee, and Ocounostota, the 
 "Groundhog," the great chieftain of the Cherokee, Daniel 
 Boone was absent. For on March 10, Daniel Boone in the em- 
 ploy of the Transylvania Company, at the head of a party of 
 some thirty axemen, was sent fonvard to cut out a path for Hen- 
 derson and his party. 
 
 To Richard Henderson and the Transylvania Company, who 
 engaged Boone and his party to cut out the Wilderness Trail, 
 not less than to Boone who with his axemen executed that com- 
 mission, is due the lasting gratitude of future generations. This 
 is the historic pathway to the vast "hinterland" poetically 
 phrased by a Cherokee chieftain at the treaty of Sycamore 
 Shoals as the "dark and bloody ground." The hardships and 
 dangers of Boone and his comrades are matters of histoiy. 
 Again and again, the fate of the expedition Jiung in the balance. 
 The courage and enorgj' of Henderson, ever the man of action, 
 and his unwavering resolve to go forward in the face of all 
 named and unnamed dangers, carried through the armed "trek" 
 to a successful conclusion. 
 
 After Boone with his thirty axemen had l)een attacked by the 
 
 »> In this connection compare A. Henderson, "Richard Henderson: liis Life and 
 Times," in Charlotte Observer (thirteen instalments), March 9 — June 1, 1913. 
 
354 Archibald Henderson M. v. h. r. 
 
 Indians and two of his men killed, Boone dispatched to Hender- 
 son by special courier the famous letter of April 1, 1775. "Your 
 company is greatly desired," says Boone in that letter, "for the 
 people are very uneasy, but are willing to stay and venture their 
 lives with you, and now is the time to flusterate their [the In- 
 dians'] intentions and keep the country whilst we are in it. If 
 we give way to them now, it will ever be the case." 
 
 Without hesitation, Henderson commanded a steady forward 
 march ; and though day after day meeting parties which in ag- 
 gregate totaled twice the number in his little band, no thought of 
 retracing his steps ever so much as entered his head. His little 
 diary, yellow with age, so jealously preserved in the Wisconsin 
 Historical Society Library, is laconically eloquent: 
 
 "The same day [Friday, April 7] received a letter from Dan. 
 Boone, that his company was fired upon by the Indians, [who] 
 killed two of his men, though he kept the ground and saved the 
 baggage, etc. 
 
 "Saturday, 8th. Started about ten o'clock. Crossed Cum- 
 berland Gap about four miles. Met about forty person return- 
 ing from the Cantucky on account of the late murdefS by the In- 
 dians. Could prevail on only one to return." 
 
 This is one of the most memorable pictures in all w^estern his- 
 tory — Eichard Henderson, "a man a little above average 
 height, broad of shoulders, but not fleshy, clad in the rough garb 
 of the pioneer," standing firmly planted in the Wilderness 
 Trail on a ragged spur of the grey-grained Cumberlands, point- 
 ing significantly forward to the dark and bloody ground, and 
 pleading ineffectually with the pale and disheartened fugitives 
 to turn about, to join his company, and to face once more the 
 dangers and vicissitudes of pioneer conquest. For this indeed 
 was the destined mission of his career — -to stand like a rock 
 and to give bold heart to that precious, crucial movement in be- 
 half of permanent western colonization. It must be the verdict 
 of history that in that hour, when this first bold movement was 
 on the point of being swept off its feet and hurled rudely back- 
 ward, Richard Henderson and his companions, ignoring all ob- 
 stacles, fared boldly forward to one of the real achievements of 
 the age. It is a coincidence of historic significance that just 
 one day after the embattled fanners at Lexington and Concord 
 
Vol. I, No. 3 xhe Occupation of Kentucky 355 
 
 "fired the shots heard round the world," Richard Henderson 
 with his faithful adherents reached the site of the future Booues- 
 borough. The twentieth of April, 1775, which fittingly enough 
 was the birthday of Richard Henderson, was also the birthday 
 of the addition of the imperial area of Kentucky and the Ohio 
 Valley to the domain of the American republic. 
 
 The initial steps taken by the pioneers to secure the rights and 
 privileges of representative self-government are peculiarly in- 
 teresting as characteristic of the type of democracy developed 
 in the pioneer phase of civilization. No government could fail 
 to be interesting whose first primitive legislature was held in the 
 open air beneath the shade of a mighty elm. In his diary, Hen- 
 derson modestly says : * ' Our plan of legislation, the evils point- 
 ed out, the remedies to be applied, etc., etc., were acceded to 
 without hesitation. The plan was plain and simple ; 'twas noth- 
 ing more in its essence; a thousand years ago it was in use, and 
 found by every year's experience to be unexceptionable." When 
 Plenderson was approached by some of the settlers with refer- 
 ence to the necessity for laws for the regulation of the comr 
 munity, liis answer was that "all power was dei'ived from the 
 people"; and he at once recommended to the inhabitants of the 
 various settlements to elect delegates to a general convention. 
 In his able and comprehensive address to that convention, which 
 Felix Walker described as being "considered equal to any of 
 like kind ever delivered to any deliberative body in that day and 
 time," " Henderson used these really memorable words : "You 
 are called and assembled at this time for a noble and honorable 
 purpose. — You are about a work of the utmost importance to 
 the well-being of this country in general, in which the interest 
 and security of every and each individual is inseparably con- 
 nected. 
 
 "You, perhaps, are fixing the palladium, or placing tlie first 
 corner-stone of an edifice, the height and magnificence of whose 
 superstructure is now in the womb of futurity, and can only be- 
 come great in proportion to the excellence of its foundation. — 
 If any doubt remain amongst you with respect to the force or 
 efficiency of whatever laws you now, or hereafter make, be 
 pleased to consider that all power is originally in the people: 
 
 " Manuscript diary of Felix Walker loaned me by one of his descendants. 
 
356 Archibald Henderson m. v. h. b. 
 
 make it their interest, therefore, by impartial and beneficent 
 laws, and you may be sure of their inclination to see them en- 
 forced." 
 
 Under a monarchy, such sentiments were pohtically "ad- 
 vanced" in their full-blooded democracy. "If Jeremy Bentham 
 had been in existence of manhood," is the quaint comment of 
 Bogart, "he would have sent his compliments to the President 
 of Transylvania."^^ From one who, under royal rule, asserts 
 that the source of all political power is the people, and that 
 "laws derive force and efficiency from our mutual consent," 
 western democracy thus born. in the wilderness was "taking its 
 first political lesson. " ^* It is noteworthy that Henderson and 
 the proprietors never claimed or exercised any power other than 
 that delegated to them by the people, with but one exception. 
 Through a sense of sheer self -protection, they reserved to them- 
 selves the power of veto. For they clearly realized that if they 
 resigned that power, the delegates to any convention, that might 
 be held after the first, would have it in their power to annul the 
 claims and rights of the proprietors. 
 
 The letters of the period cast a ray of forest charm, not un- 
 tinged with the loneliness of the wilderness, athwart the scene of 
 Henderson's hopes and endeavors. Dangers beset the lonely, 
 isolated colony at all times; and the tiny settlement in Powell's 
 Valley, commanded by that remarkable character, Captain Jo- 
 seph Martin, bore its share in withstanding the attacks of the 
 Indians. A letter of July 18, 1775, from Henderson and Lut- 
 trell to the other proprietors in North Carolina, contains the 
 startling news that on June 23, 1775, an attack by the Indians, 
 in which two men were wounded, greatly alarmed the people in 
 Powell's Valley, causing them to build a fort at Captain Mar- 
 tin's Station and to work in companies. To Martin on July 20, 
 Henderson writes: "Am extremely sorry for the affair ^rith 
 the Indians on the 23rd. of last month. I wish it may not have 
 a bad effect. . . your spirited conduct gives me great pleas- 
 ure." And in evidence of the high fortitude he always dis- 
 played, Henderson adds: "Keep your men in heart if possible, 
 
 »sW. H. Bogart, Daniel Boone and the Hunters of Kentucky (New York, 1856). 
 8* C. H. Van Tyne, The American Sevolution, 1776-1783 (American Nation, 9 — 
 New York, 1905). 
 
Vol. I, No. 3 The Occupation of Kentucky 357 
 
 uuw is our time, the Indians must not drive «s." Well might 
 Henderson have been disheartened at this time ; for we find him 
 writing to the proprietors two days earlier: "Our enterprise 
 has now come to a crisis, and a few weeks will determine in the 
 mattei". Harrodsbnrg and the Boiling Springs Settlements, 
 which sometime ago could have anned and tui-ned out seventy 
 or eighty men at a short warning, are almost abandoned. On 
 the most emergent occasion they could not rally twenty men; 
 and the better half of them are in the woods on the north side of 
 Kentucky', and perhaps could not be summoned to our assistance 
 in less than a fortnight. Boonesborough to-morrow night will 
 not be able to muster more than ten or twelve men." Four days 
 after the treaty of Sycamore Shoals, Governor Dunmore of Vir- 
 ginia had fulminated against "Richard Henderson and other 
 disorderly persons, his associates, who, under a pretense of a 
 purchase of the Indians, contrary to the aforesaid orders and 
 regulations of his Majesty, do set up a claim to the lands of the 
 Crown ^"ithin the limit of the colony," in a proclamation which, 
 as Butler says, may well rank with the one excepting those arch 
 traitors and rebels, Samuel Adams and John Hancock, from 
 the mercy of the British monai'ch. Far from civilization, Hen- 
 derson might naturally have felt some dread of the effect upon 
 the popular mind of such pronouncements; and there is a mst- 
 ful note in his letter to Martin of June 12, 1775: "I long much 
 to hear from you, pray write me at Large, how the matter goes 
 with you in the Valley, as well as what passes in Virginia." Yet 
 his courage is ever high, his head unbowed ; on July 18, 1775, he 
 writes to the pi'oprietors : "Whether Lord Dunmore and Colonel 
 Byrd have interfered with the Indians or not, Richard Hender- 
 son is equally ignorant and indifferent. The utmost result of 
 their efforts can only serve to convince them of the futility of 
 their schemes and possibly frighten some few faint-hearted per- 
 sons, naturally prone to reverence great names and fancy every- 
 thing must shrink at the magic of a splendid title." Hender- 
 son's solicitude for the welfare of the settlements and his desire 
 to set up a stable form of government are clearly exhibited in 
 his letter to Martin of July 20,1775 : "We did not forget you at 
 the time of making laws, your part of the country is too remote 
 from ours to attend our convention. You must have laws made 
 
358 Archibald Henderson M. v. h. e. 
 
 by an assembly of your own. I have prepared a plan which I 
 hope you'll approve, but more of that when we meet which I 
 hope wall be soon." The plan which Henderson so solicitously 
 prepared has never come to light; nor are we able to discover 
 whether the form of local government he outlined was ever put 
 into operation by Martin.'^ 
 
 A noteworthy yet little noted event in American histoiy is 
 the Transylvania declaration of independence. The legislature 
 of the colony of Transylvania was "begun on Tuesday the 23rd. 
 of May, in the Year of Our Lord Christ 1775 and the Fifteenth 
 Year of the Reign of His Majesty, King of Great Britain." But 
 this bold little band of pioneers, presided over bj^ Judge Hender- 
 son, speedily asserted the right of local self-government and in- 
 dependence of alien authority. In addressing this remarkable 
 and picturesque assemblage, the first legislative body on the 
 American continent which ever convened west of the AUe- 
 ghenies, Henderson boldly declared : "We have a right to make 
 necessarj^ laws for the regulation of our conduct without giving 
 offense to Great Britain, or any of the American colonies, with- 
 out disturbing the repose of any society or community under 
 heaven." 
 
 This bold declaration of independence, preceding by eight 
 days the Mecklenburg resolves, and antedating the national 
 declaration by nearly fourteen months, was at once unanimously 
 endorsed by the legislature. In their reply to the "Proprietors' 
 Speech" as Henderson's address was termed, they unhesitating- 
 ly declared: "That we have an absolute right, as a political 
 body, without giving umbrage to Great Britain, or any of the 
 colonies, to frame rules for the government of our little society, 
 can not be doubted by any sensible mind — and being without 
 the jurisdiction of, and not answerable to any of his Majesty's 
 courts, the constituting tribunals of justice shall be a matter of 
 our first contemplation. . ." 
 
 It was the design of Henderson and his associates, beyond 
 doubt, to establish in the heart of Kentucky a separate and in- 
 dependent govenmient. Writing to George Washington on 
 April 9, 1775, Colonel William Preston, surveyor general for 
 
 S5 S. B. Weeks, "General Joseph J[aitm ond the War of the Bevolution in the 
 West," in American Historical Association, Annual Seport, 189.S, pp. 403-477. 
 
Vol. I, No. 3 The Occupation of KenUichy 359 
 
 Fincastle County under Governor Dunmorc, says : "Henderson 
 I hear has made the Purchase & got a Conveyance of the great 
 and Valluable Country below the Kentucky from the Cherokees. 
 He and about 300 adventurers are gone out to take possession, 
 who it is said intends to set up an independent Government & 
 form a Code of Laws for themselves." Fully anticipating the 
 approach of the Revolution and defiantly ignoring that "in- 
 famous and scurrilous libel," the royal governor's proclama- 
 tion, Henderson went steadily forward upon his course. For he 
 was whole-heartedly committed to the plan of making the colony 
 of Transylvania the fourteenth American colony. The govern- 
 ment which he established at Boonesborough is assuredly the 
 most unique colonial government ever set up on this continent. 
 The proceedings of the Transylvania legislature — the advanced 
 speech of Henderson with its thorough-going democracy, the 
 prudence and foresight of Boone and the pioneer legislators 
 which were displayed in the laws for protecting game, breeding 
 horses, etc., the tolerance by no means common at that period 
 shown in the granting of full religious liberty — all display the 
 acumen and foresight of Henderson as well as the practical good 
 sense and rough \\'isdom of the rude pioneers. These libertarian 
 pioneers were for the most part lawless men — ignorant, un- 
 polished, and utterly insubordinate, as described by a contem- 
 porary visitor at Boonesborough. In his diary, Henderson, who 
 had led the most of them thither and profoundly admired their 
 hardihood and self-reliance, humorously speaks of them as a set 
 of scoundrels who scarcely believed in God or feared the devil ! 
 These primitive pioneer spirits, restless and uncontrollable, 
 caused Henderson the gravest alarm. The very qualities for 
 which they were most distinctive were qualities which harbored 
 the seeds of danger. The proprietary form of government, al- 
 though thoroughly democratized in tone, bade fair to evoke the 
 dissatisfaction of the lawless pioneers, already intoxicated with 
 the breath of freedom swept in on the first breezes of the Rev- 
 olution. In their secret hearts these pioneers, indoctrinated 
 with the insurrectionarj' ideas of the Regulation in North Caro- 
 lina, regarded the vast wilderness which Henderson and his as- 
 sociates had bought but which they themselves now held and 
 maintained, as a free public domain. In the light of modern 
 
360 Archibald Henderson ^- v. h. r. 
 
 sociology, it is beginning to be realized that free land has con- 
 stituted the basis of American democracy. The very buoyancy 
 of the national character, as Frederic C. Howe maintains, is 
 ' ' traceable to the free democracy founded on a freehold inheri- 
 tance of land." 
 
 Even more serious dangers from without, however, now 
 threatened the integrity of the colony of Transylvania. At the 
 very time that the Transylvania legislature was in session. Gov- 
 ernor Martin of North Carolina had ingloriously fled from his 
 "palace"; and on the very day that his secret agent arrived in 
 Boonesborough, Lord Dunmore escaped to the protection of a 
 British vessel, the Fowey. The rapid spread of revolutionary 
 sentiments throughout the colonies bade fair to render any form 
 or suggestion of proprietary government, however modified by 
 democratic features, distasteful to the colonists. At Oxford, in 
 Granville County, North Carolina, on September 25, 1775, the 
 proprietors of Transylvania held a meeting and elected James 
 Hogg as a delegate, armed with an ably prepared memorial, to 
 the Continental Congress then in session at Philadelphia, peti- 
 tioning for the recognition of Transylvania as the fourteenth 
 member of the united colonies. "Having their heai'ts warmed 
 with the same noble spirit that animates the United Colonies," 
 the memorial sets forth, "and moved with indignation at the late 
 ministerial and Parliamentary usurpation, it is the earnest wish 
 of the Proprietors of Transylvania to be considered by the Par- 
 liaments as brethren, engaged in the same great cause of liberty 
 and mankind. — The memorialists please themselves that the 
 United Colonies will take the Infant colony of Transylvania into 
 their protection; and they, in return, mil do every thing in their 
 power, and give such assistance in the general cause of America 
 as the Congress shall judge to be suitable to their abilities." 
 While displaying genuine interest in the affairs of the wilder- 
 ness colony, the Adamses, Samuel and John, voiced certain 
 strong objections to some of its features. Jefferson advised the 
 Virginia delegates to use their charter, not to destroy the claims 
 of the Transylvania Company, but "to prevent any arbitrary or 
 oppressive government to be established within the boiindaries 
 of it." To Hogg, Jefferson stated that "it was his wish to see 
 a free government established at the back of theirs [Virg'mia's'\ 
 
Vol. 1, No. 3 2'he Occupation of Kentucky 361 
 
 properly united with tbem." He would not consent, however, 
 for Congress to acknowledge the colony of Transylvania, until 
 it had been acknowledged by Virginia. Opposition was ex- 
 pressed to the proprietary form of government, quitrents were 
 regarded as a form of vassalage, and the hope was generally ex- 
 pressed that the proprietors would establish a "free govern- 
 ment" and, as Hogg narrates, "render ourselves immortal." 
 
 The failure of Hogg's embassy to Philadelphia marks the be- 
 ginning of the end of the colony of Transylvania. Although 
 Henderson, assisted by Willie Jones and Thomas Burke, repre- 
 sentatives of the highest legal talent in North Carolina, exerted 
 all the power of his persuasive eloquence and personal influence 
 before the Virginia convention at Williamsl)urg, he was defeat- 
 ed chiefly through the opposition of two remarkable men. These 
 were Patrick Henry, who sought to extend in all directions the 
 power and bounds of the "Ancient Dominion" of Virginia; and 
 George Rogers Clark, who represented Harrodsburg, the rival 
 settlement to Boonesborough in Kentucky, and as a Virginian 
 wished to see Transylvania legislated into a dependency of Vir- 
 ginia. The mantle of leadership in the West, worn by Hender- 
 son as colonizer and lawgiver, now fell upon the shoulders of 
 Clark, who forced his appointment as virtual military dictator 
 of the ti'ans-AUegheny region. Under the pressure of Hender- 
 son's vigorous representations, Virginia finally acknowledged 
 the validity of Henderson's claims as against the Indians, but 
 frankly confiscated the purchase and made of Transylvania a 
 county of Virginia. In consideration of the very great expense 
 incurred by Richard Henderson and Company in purchasing 
 and in settling the said lands, "by which the Commonwealth is 
 likely to receive great advantage, by increasing its inhabitants 
 and establishing a barrier against the Indians," Virginia granted 
 to Richard Henderson and Company two hundred thousand acres 
 of land situated between the Ohio and Green rivers, opposite the 
 present site of Evansville, Indiana. North Carolina later grant- 
 ed to the company a like amount on Powell and Clinch rivers in 
 Tennessee. As just compensation, these grants were quite in- 
 adequate to measure the value of the service in behalf of per- 
 manent western colonization rendered by the Transylvania Com- 
 pany. 
 
362 Archibald Henderson m. v. h. h. 
 
 The daring project of western colonization in which Hender- 
 son and his associates ventured their lives and fortunes seemed 
 at the time little short of a chimerical dream. These men were 
 engaged in no shoddy speculative scheme from which they hoped 
 to reap golden profits while leaving others to bear the brunt of 
 danger, hardship, and disaster. Henderson in especial furnishes 
 a commanding example of a man willing to take supreme per- 
 sonal as well as financial risk in vindication of his faith in a dar- 
 ing hazard of colonization and promotion. "From any stand- 
 point," says Hulbert, "Richard Henderson's brave advance into 
 Kentucky in April, 1775, must be considered as one of the most 
 heroic displays of that typical American spirit of comprehensive 
 aggrandizement of which so much is heard to-day." The pur- 
 chase at Sycamore Shoals, the unresting march of Henderson 
 and his little band over the blood-haunted Wilderness Trail, cut 
 out by Boone and his axemen in the employ of the Transylvania 
 Company, and the settlement of Kentucky may well be classed by 
 historians as dramatic phases of a movement of incalculable 
 moment and providential timeliness in our early histoiy. 
 
 If George Rogers Clark was the "Hannibal of America," if 
 Daniel Boone was her Marco Polo, Richard Henderson was her 
 Cecil Rhodes. Just when Matabeleland seemed destined to pass 
 irrevocably outside the sphere of British control, Cecil Rhodes 
 organized a company, entered the country at the head of an 
 armed band, purchased the mining concessions and the position 
 of "most favored nation" from Lobengula, the native chief, and 
 so saved the vast "hinterland" of what was afterwards to be 
 known as Rhodesia for the British empire. Endowed with a 
 like empire-building imagination, Richard Henderson incor- 
 porated a company just when the West, on the outbreak of the 
 Revolution, seemed destined to pass beyond American control; 
 purchased from Oconnostota and his fellow-chieftains of the 
 Cherokee tribe, the last Indian claimants, their title to this vast 
 theater of savage warfare; marched at the head of an armed 
 band to the objective focus of conflict; and by his unfaltering 
 courage and the moral influence of his company, saved the vast 
 "hinterland," not only of Kentucky, but ultimately of Ohio, In- 
 diana, and Illinois, to the American nation. 
 
 The Transylvania Company, after plajdng its momentous role 
 
Vol. I, No. 3 xhe Occupation of Kentucky 363 
 
 ill Americaii history, vanished from the scene. But the work of 
 Henderson, Boone, Williams, Hart, Luttrell, and their compeers 
 still endures. It is fortunate that the imperial tract of territory 
 which Henderson and his associates gave up to the American 
 people as the consummation of their daring adventure still bears 
 the name of the sweet meadows of Keu-ta-kee. It is perhaps not 
 wholly unfitting that the great trail and the historic fort, its des- 
 tination, should both have been named for Boone, the pilot, 
 rather than for Henderson, the captain, of the movement which 
 brought them into being. Yet Henderson is not wholly forgot- 
 ten. A truer perspective for the movement of westward ex- 
 pansion in American history is now in process of creation. A 
 nation and an age which do honor to great hazards of life and 
 fortune, to supreme ventures of personal safety, capital, and en- 
 terprise — to a Cecil Khodes, a Robert E. Peary, or a James J. 
 Hill — may well find in Richard Henderson, with his empire- 
 building imagination, a forerunner of the great colonizers and 
 captains of industry of today. 
 
 Akchibald Henderson 
 University of North Carolina 
 Chapel Hill 
 
LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 
 
 014 570 776 64