"I gim:Vief«M<K)ks ',_
[ fpr the. founding i)f a. CoiUgi- in. iMfJ^eleny"

BOUGHT WITH THE INCOME
OF THE
Society of tlie Cincinnati
Fund

THE CONQUEST
OF THE OLD SOUTHWEST

JUDGE RICHARD HENDERSON
From a drawing by T. Gilbert White
Detail of painting, The Great Treaty, in Kentucky State Capitol

THE CONQUEST OF
THE OLD SOUTHWEST

THE ROMANTIC STORY OF THE EARLY
PIONEERS INTO VIRGINIA, THE
CAROLlNAS, TENNESSEE, AND KENTUCKY
1740-1790

BY
ARCHIBALD HENDERSON, Ph.D., D.C.L.

Some to endure and manv to fail,
Som.e to conquer and many to quail
Toiling over the Wilderness TraiL

NEW YORK
THE CENTURY CO.
1920

Copyriglit, 1920, by
The Centdbt Oo.

TO
THE HISTORIAN OF
OLD WEST AND NEW WEST
FREDERICK JACKSON TURNER
WITH ADMIRATION AND REGARD

The country might invite a prince from his palace, merely
for the pleasure of contemplating its beauty and excellence;
but only add the rapturous idea of property, and what allure
ments can the world offer for the loss of so glorious a prospect?
— Richard Heutdehson.

The established Authority of any government in
America, and the policy of Government at home, are
both insufficient to restrain the Americans. . . .
They acquire no attachment to Place: But wander
ing about Seems engrafted in their Nature ; and it is
a weakness incident to it, that they Should for ever
immagine the Lands further off, are Still better than
those upon which they are already settled.
— ^LoED Dunmore, to the Earl of Dartmouth.

INTRODUCTION
The romantic and thrilling story pf the
southward and westward migration of succes
sive waves of transplanted European peoples
throughout the entire course of the eighteenth
century is the history of the growth and evo
lution of American democracy. Upon the
American continent was wrought out, through
almost superhuman daring, incredible hard
ship, and surpassing endurance, the formation
of a new society. The European rudely con
fronted with the pitiless conditions of the wil
derness soon discovered that his maintenance,
indeed his existence, was conditioned upon his
individual efficiency and his resourcefulness in
adapting himself to his environment. The
very history of the human race, from the age
of primitive man to the modern era of en
lightened civilization, is traversed in the Old
ix

INTRODUCTION
Southwest throughout the course of half a
century. A series of dissolving views thrown upon
the screen, picturing the successive episodes in
the history of a single family as it wended its
way southward along the eastern valleys, reso
lutely repulsed the sudden attack of the In
dians, toiled painfully up the granite slopes
of the Appalachians, and pitched down into
the transmontane wilderness upon the western
waters, would give to the spectator a vivid con
ception, in miniature, of the westward move
ment. But certain basic elements in the grand
procession, revealed to the sociologist and the
economist, would perhaps escape his scrutiny.
Back of the individual, back of the family,
even, lurk the creative and formative impulses
of colonization, expansion, and government.
In the recognition of these social and economic
tendencies the individual merges into the
group; the group into the community; the
community into a new society. In this clear
perspective of historic development the spec
tacular hero at first sight seems to diminish;

INTRODUCTION
but the mass, the movement, the social force
whieh he epitomizes and interprets, gain in im-
pressiveness and dignity.^
As the irresistible tide of migratory peoples
swept ever southward and westward, seeking
room for expansion and economic independ
ence, a series of frontiers was gradually thrust
out toward the wilderness in successive waves
of irregular indentation. The true leader in
this westward advance, to whom less than his
deserts has been accorded by the historian, is
the drab and mercenary trader with the In
dians! The story of his enterprise and of his
adventures begins with the planting of Euro
pean civilization upon American soil. In the
mind of the aborigines he created the passion
for the fruits, both good and evil, of the white
man's civilization, and he was welcomed by the
Indian because he also brought the means for
repelling the further advance of that civiliza
tion. The trader was of incalculable service
to the pioneer in first spying out the land and
charting the trackless wilderness. The trail
rudely marked by the buffalo became in time
xi

INTRODUCTION
the Indian path and the trader's "trace" ; and
the pioneers upon the westward march, follow
ing the line of least resistance, cut out their
roads along these very routes. It is not too
much to say that had it not been for the trader
— brave, hardy, and adventurous however
often crafty, unscrupulous, and immoral — the
expansionist movement upon the American
continent would have been greatly retarded.
So scattered and ramified were the enter
prises and expeditions of the traders with the
Indians that the frontier whieh they established
was at best both shifting and unstable. Fol
lowing far in the wake of these advance agents
of the civilization which they so often dis
graced, came the cattle-herder or rancher, who
took advantage of the extensive pastures and
ranges along the uplands and f oot-hiUs to raise
immense herds of cattle. Thus was formed
what might be called a rancher's frontier,
thrust out in advance of the ordinary farming
settlements and serving as the first serious bar
rier against the Indian invasion. The west
ward movement of population is in this respect
xii

INTRODUCTION
a direct advance from the coast. Years before
the influx into the Old Southwest of the tides
of settlement from the northeast, the more ad
venturous struck straight westward in the
wake of the fur-trader, and here and there
erected the cattle-ranges beyond the farming
frontier of the piedmont region. The wild
horses and cattle which roamed at wiU through
the upland barrens and pea-vine pastures were
herded in and driven for sale to the city mar
kets of the East.
The farming frontier of the piedmont pla
teau constituted the real backbone of western
settlement. The pioneering farmers, with the
adventurous instincts of the hunter and the
explorer, plunged deeper and ever deeper into
the wilderness, lured on by the prospect of
free and still richer lands in the dim interior.
Settlements quickly sprang up in the neighbor
hood of military posts or rude forts estabhshed
to serve as safeguards against hostile attack;
and trade soon flourished between these settle
ments and the eastern centers, foUowing the
trails of the trader and the more beaten paths
xiii

INTRODUCTION
of emigration. The bolder settlers who ven
tured farthest to the westward were held in
communication with the East through their
dependence upon salt and other necessities of
life; and the search for salt-springs in the
virgin wilderness was an inevitable conse
quence of the desire of the pioneer to shake
off his dependence upon the coast.
The prime determinative principle of the
progressive American civihzation of the eight
eenth century was the passion for the acquisi
tion of land. The struggle for economic in
dependence developed the germ of American
liberty and became the differentiating principle
of American character. Here was a vast un
appropriated region in the interior of the con
tinent to be had for the seeking, which served
as lure and inspiration to the man daring
enough to risk his all in its acquisition. It
was in accordance with human nature and the
principles of poUtical economy that this un
known extent of iminhabited transmontane
land, widely renowned for beauty, richness,
and fertility, should excite grandiose dreams
xiv

INTRODUCTION
in the minds of English and Colonials alike.
England was said to be "New Land mad and
everybody there has his eye fixed on this coun
try." ^ Groups of wealthy or well-to-do in
dividuals organized themselves into land com
panies for the colonization and exploitation of
the West. The pioneer promoter was a pow
erful creative force in westward expansion;
and the activities of the early land companies
were decisive factors in the colonization of the
wilderness. Whether acting under the au
thority of a crown grant or proceeding on their
own authority, the land companies tended to
give stability and permanence to settlements
otherwise hazardous and insecure.
The second determinative impulse of the
pioneer civilization was wanderlust — the pas
sionately inquisitive instinct of the hunter, the
traveler, and the explorer. This restless class
of nomadic wanderers was responsible in part
for the royal proclamation of 1763, a second
ary object of which, according to Edmund
Burke, was the limitation of the colonies on
the West, as "the charters of many of our old
XV

INTRODUCTION
colonies give them, with few exceptions, no
bounds to the westward but the South Sea."
The Long Hunters, taking their lives in their
hands, fared boldly forth to a fabled himter's
paradise in the far-away wilderness, because
they were driven by the irresistible desire of a
Ponce de Leon or a De Soto to find out the
truth about the unknown lands beyond.
But the hunter was not only thrilled with
the passion of the chase and of discovery; he
was intent also upon collecting the furs and
skins of wild animals for lucrative barter and
sale in the centers of trade. He was quick
to make "tomahawk claims" and to assert
"com rights" as he spied out the rich virgin
land for future location and cultivation. Free
land and no taxes appealed to the backwoods
man, tired of paying quit-rents to the agents
of wealthy lords across the sea. Thus the
settler speedily followed in the hunter's wake.
In his wake also went many rude and lawless
characters of the border, horse thieves and
criminals of different sorts, who sought to hide
their delinquencies in the merciful liberality
xvi

INTRODUCTION
of the wilderness. For the most part, how
ever, it was the salutary instinct of the home-
builder — ^the man with the ax, who made a
little clearing in the forest and built there a
rude cabin that he bravely defended at all risks
against continued assaults — ^which, in defiance
of eyery restraint, irresistibly thrust westward
the thin and jagged line of the frontier. The
ax and the surveyor's chain, along with the
rifle and the hunting-knife, constituted the
armorial bearings of the pioneer. With in
dividual as with corporation, with explorer as
with landlord, land-hunger was the master
impulse of the era.
The various desires which stimulated and
promoted westward expansion were, to be sure,
often found in complete conjunction. The
trader sought to exploit the Indian for his own
advantage, selling him whisky, trinkets, and
firearms in return for rich fm-s and costly pel
tries; yet he was often a hunter himself and
collected great stores of peltries as the result
of his solitary and protracted hunting-expedi
tions. The rancher and the herder sought to
xvii

INTRODUCTION
exploit the natural vegetation of marsh and
upland, the cane-brakes and pea- vines; yet
the constantly recurring need for fresh pas
turage made him a pioneer also, drove him
ever nearer to the mountains, and furnished
the economic motive for his westward advance.
The small farmer needed the virgin soil of the
new region, the alluvial river-bottoms, and the
open prairies, for the cultivation of his crops
and the grazing of his cattle ; yet in the inter
vals between the tasks of farm life he scoured
the wilderness in search of game and spied
out new lands for future settlement.
This restless and nomadic race, says the
keenly observant Francis Baily, "dehght much
to hve on the frontiers, where they can enjoy
undisturbed, and free from the control of any
laws, the blessings which nature has bestowed
upon them." * Independence of spirit, impa
tience of restraint, the inquisitive nature
and the nomadic temperament — ^these are the
strains in the American character of the
eighteenth century which ultimately blended
to create a typical democracy. The rolling
xviii

«.

INTRODUCTION
of wave after wave of settlement westward
across the American continent, with a rever
sion to primitive conditions along the line of
the farthest frontier, and a marked rise in
the scale of civilization at each successive
stage of settlement, from the western limit
to the eastern coast, exemplifies from one
aspect the history of the American people
during two centuries.* This era, constitut
ing the first stage in our national existence,
and productive of a buoyant national char
acter shaped in democracy upon a free soil,
closed only yesterday with the exhaustion
of cultivable free land, the disappearance of
the last frontier, and the recent death of
"Buffalo Bill." The splendid inauguration of
the period, in the region of the Carolinas, Vir
ginia, Tennessee, and Kentucky, during the
second half of the eighteenth century, is the
theme of this story of the pioneers of the Old
Southwest.

xix

CONTENTS

CHAPTER

PAGE
Introduction  ix
I The Migration of the Peoples . . 3
II The Cradle of Westward Expansion 19
III The Back Country and the Border S3
y^IV The Indian War  49
V In Defense of Civilization ... 64
v^VI Crushing the Cherokees .... 78
i VII The Land Companies  96
VIII The Long Hunters in the Twilight
Zone  116
IX Daniel Boone and Wilderness Ex
ploration  130
X Daniel Boone in Kentucky . . . IM
y. XI The Regulators  160
/ XII [/Watauga — Haven of Libehty . . 175
XIII Opening the Gateway — Dunmore's
War  196
xxi

CONTENTS
^ XIV Richard Henderson and the Tran
sylvania Company  216
V XV Transylvania — ^A Wilderness Com
monwealth 
XVI The Repulse op the Red Men .
XVII The Colonization of the Cumber
land  369
XVIII King's Mountain  289
XIX The State of Franklin . . . .306
XX The Lure of Spain — The Haven of
Statehood  327
List of Notes  351
Bibliographical Notes .... 863
Index  371

xxn

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
Richard Henderson . ... . . Frontispiece FACING FAQE
Col. Daniel Boone  36
Fort Dobbs  -3fr
The Transylvania Fort at Boonesborough . . 56
The Right Honorable Archibald, Earl of Eglin-
town. Lord Montgomery Kilvinning (1726*-
1796)  88
Colonel James Grant (1720-1806) .... 92
Arthur Dobbs, Governor of North Carolina . 132
General Hugh WaddeU  132
Title-Page of Herman Husband's Impartial Re
lation, etc  178
Alexander Martin, Governor of North Carolina 182
General William Lenoir  182
Jame^ Robertson  188
The Old Southwest, 1740-1790 .... 192
Daniel Boone Leading Colonists for Kentucky
—1773  202
xxiii

ILLUSTRATIONS

FACINCI FAQE

John Murray, Earl of Dunmore .... 210
Advertisement of the Transylvania Company .
First Page of Richard Henderson's Diary .
Lord Dunmore's Proclamation Against the
Transylvania Company  240
The Capture of Jemima Boone and the CaUa-
away Girls by the Indians  370
Isaac Shelby  302
Title Page of Proposed Constitution of the
State of Frankland  320
John Sevier (1745-1815)  3g8

xxiv

THE CONQUEST OF THE OLD
SOUTHWEST

THE CONQUEST OF THE OLD
SOUTHWEST CHAPTER I
THE MIGRATION OF THE PEOPLES
Inhabitants flock in here daUy, mostly from Pensilvania and
other parts of America, who are over-stocked with people and
some directly from Europe, they commonly seat themselves
towards the West, and have got near the mountains.
— Gabriel Johnstost, Governor of North Carolina,
to the Secretary of the Board of Trade,
February IS, 1751.
AT the opening of the eighteenth century
the tide of population had swept inland
to the "fall line," the westward boundary of
the established settlements. The actual fron
tier had been advanced by the more aggres
sive pioneers to within fifty miles of the Blue
Ridge. So rapid was the settlement in North
Carolina that in the interval 1717-32 the popu
lation quadrupled in numbers. A map of the

THE CONQUEST OF THE OLD SOUTHWEST
colonial settlements in 1725 reveals a narrow
strip of populated land along the Atlantic
coast, of irregular indentation, with occasional
isolated nuclei of settlements further in the in
terior. The civilization thus established con
tinued to maintain a close and unbroken com
munication with England and the Continent.
As long as the settlers, for economic reasons,
clung to the coast, they reacted but slowly to
the transforming influences of the frontier.
Within a triangle of continental altitude with
its apex in New England, bounded on the
east by the Atlantic, and on the west by the
Appalachian range, lay the settlements, di
vided into two zones — tidewater and piedmont. '
As no break occurred in the great mountain
system south of the Hudson and Mohawk val
leys, the difficulties of cutting a passage
through the towering wall of living green long
proved an effective obstacle to the crossing.
of the grim mountain barrier.
In the beginning the settlements gradually
extended westward from the coast in irregular
outline, the indentations taking form around
4

THE MIGRATION OF THE PEOPLES
such natm-al centers of attraction as areas of
fertile soil, frontier posts, mines, salt-springs,
and stretches of upland favorable for grazing.
After a time a second advance of settlement
was begun in New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and
Maryland, running in a southwesterly direc
tion along the broad terraces to the east of
the Appalachian Range, which in North Caro
lina lies as far as two hundred and fifty miles
from' the sea. The Blue Ridge in Virginia
and a belt of pine barrens in North Carohna
were hindrances to this advance, but did not
entirely check it. This second streaming of
the population thrust into the long, narrow
wedge of the piedmont zone a class of people
differing in spirit and in tendency from their
more aristocratic and complacent neighbors to
the east.
These settlers of the Valley of Virginia
and the North Carolina piedmont region
— English, Scotch-Irish, Germans, Scotch,
Irish, Welsh, and a few French — were the first
pioneers of the Old Southwest. From the
joint efforts of two strata of population, geo-
5

THE CONQUEST OF THE OLD SOUTHWEST
graphically, socially, and economically distinct
— tidewater and piedmont. Old South and New
South — originated and flowered the third and
greatest movement of westward expansion,
opening with the surmounting of the mountain
barrier and ending in the occupation and as
sumption of the vast medial valley of the con
tinent. Synchronous with the founding of James-
'town in Virginia, significantly enough, was
the first planting of Ulster with the English
and Scotch. Emigrants from the Scotch
Lowlands, sometimes as many as four thou
sand a year (1625), continued throughout the
century to pour into Ulster. "Those of the
North of Ireland . . .," as pungently de
scribed in 1679 by the Secretary of State, Leo
line Jenkins, to the Duke of Ormond, "are
most Scotch and Scotch breed and are the
Northern Presbyterians and phanatiques,
lusty, able-bodied, hardy and stout men, where
one may see three or four hundred at every
meeting-house on Sunday, and all the North
of Ireland is inhabited by these, which is the
6

THE MIGRATION OF THE PEOPLES
popular place of all Ireland by far. They are
very numerous and greedy after land." Dur
ing the quarter of a century after the English
Revolution of 1688 and the Jacobite uprising
in Ireland, which ended in 1691 with the com
plete submission of Ireland to William and
Mary; not less than fifty thousand Scotch,
according to Archbishop Synge, settled in
Ulster. Until the beginning of the eighteenth
century there was no considerable emigra
tion to America; and it was first set up as
a consequence of English interference with
trade and religion. Repressive measures
passed by the English parliament (1665-
1699), prohibiting the exportation from Ire
land to England and Scotland of cattle, beef,
pork, dairy products, etc., and to any country
whatever of manufactured wool, had aroused
deep resentment among the Scotch-Irish, who
had built up a great commerce. This discon
tent was greatly aggravated by the imposition
of religious disabihties upon the Presbyterians,
who, in addition to having to pay tithes for
the support of the established church, were
7

THE CONQUEST OF THE OLD SOUTHWEST
excluded from all civil and military office
(1704), while their ministers were made liable
to penalties for celebrating marriages.
This pressure upon a high-spirited people
resulted inevitably in an exodus to the New
World. The principal ports by which the
Ulsterites entered America were Lewes and
Newcastle (Delaware), Philadelphia and Bos
ton. The streams of immigration steadily
flowed up the Delaware Valley; and by 1720
the Scotch-Irish began to arrive in Bucks
County. So rapid was the rate of increase in
immigration that the number of arrivals soon
mounted from a few himdred to upward of
six thousand, in a single year (1729) ; and
within a few years this number was doubled.
According to the meticulous Franklin, the
proportion increased from a very small ele
ment of the population of Pennsylvania in
1700 to one fourth of the whole in 1749, and
to one third of the whole (350,000) in 1774.
Writing to the Penns in 1724, James Logan,
Secretary of the Province, caustically refers
to the Ulster settlers on the disputed Mary-
8

THE MIGRATION OF THE PEOPLES
land line as "these bold and indigent strangers,
saying as their excuse when challenged for
titles, that we had solicited for colonists and
they had come accordingly." The spirit of
these defiant squatters is succinctly expressed
in their statement to Logan that it "was
against the laws of God and nature that so
much laiid should be idle while so many Chris
tians wanted it to work on and to raise their
bread." The rising scale of prices for Pennsylvania
lands, changing from ten pounds and two shill
ings quit-rents per hundred acres in 1719 to
fifteen pounds ten shilhngs per hundred acres
with a quit-rent of a halfpenny per acre in
1732, soon turned the eyes of the thrifty
Scotch-Irish settlers southward and south-
westward. In Maryland in 1738 lands were
offered at five pounds sterling per hundred
acres. Simultaneously, in the Valley of Vir
ginia free grants of a thousand acres per fam
ily were being made. In the North Carolina
piedmont region the proprietary. Lord Gran
ville, through his agents was disposing of the
9

THE CONQUEST OF THE OLD SOUTHWEST
most desirable lands to settlers at the rate of
three shillings proclamation money for six hun
dred and forty acres, the unit of land-division;
and was also making large free grants on the
condition of seating a certain proportion of set
tlers. "Lord Carteret's land in Carolina,"
says North Carolina's first American histo
rian, "where the soil was cheap, presented a
tempting residence to people of every denom
ination. Emigrants from the north of Ire
land, by the way of Pennsylvania, flocked
to that coimtry; and a considerable part of
North Carolina ... is inhabited by those
people or their descendants." ^ From 1740
onward, attracted by the rich lure of .cheap
and even free lands in Virginia and North
Carolina, a tide of immigration swept cease
lessly into the valleys of the Shenandoah,
the Yadkin, and the Catawba. The immen
sity of this mobile, drifting mass, which some
times brought "more than 400 families with
horse waggons and cattle" into North Carolina
in a single year (1752-3), is attested by the
fact that from 1732 to 1754, mainly as the
10

THE MIGRATION OF THE PEOPLES
result of the Scotch-Irish inundation, the pop
ulation of North Carolina more than doubled.
The second important racial stream of popu
lation in the settlement of the same region was
composed of Germans, attracted to this coun
try from the Palatinate. Lured on by the
highly colored stories of the commercial agents
for promoting immigration — the "newland-
ers," who were thoroughly unscrupulous in
their methods and extravagant in their repre
sentations — a migration from Germany began
in the second decade of the eighteenth century
and quickly assumed alarming proportions.
Although certain of the emigrants were well-
to-do, a very great number were "redemp-
tioners" (indentured servants), who in order
to pay for their transportation were compelled
to pledge themselves to several years of servi
tude. This economic condition caused the
German immigrant, wherever he went, to be
come a settler of the back country, necessity
compelling him to pass by the more expensive
lands near the coast.
For well-nigh sixty years the influx of Ger-
11

THE CONQUEST OF THE OLD SOUTHWEST
man immigrants of various sects was very
great, averaging something like fifteen hun
dred a year into Pennsylvania alcne from 1727
to 1775. Indeed, Pennsylvania, one third of
whose population at the beginning of the Revo
lution was German, early became the great
distributing center for the Germans as well
as for the Scotch-Irish. Certainly by 1727
Adam Miiller and his fellow Germans had
established the first permanent white settle
ment in the Valley of Virginia.® By 1732 Jost
Heydt, accompanied by sixteen families, came
from York, Pennsylvania, and settled on the
Opeckon River, in the neighborhood of the
present Winchester.'' There is no longer any
doubt that "the portion of the Shenandoah;
Valley sloping to the north was almost en
tirely settled by Germans."
V It was about the middle of the century that
these pioneers of the Old Southwest, the
shrewd, industrious, and thrifty Pennsylvania
Germans (who came to be generally called
"Pennsylvania Dutch" from the incorrect^
translation of Penrisylvdnische Deutsche), be-
12

THE MIGRATION OF THE PEOPLES
gan to pour into the piedmont region of North
Carolina. In the autumn, after the harvest
was in, these ambitious Pennsylvania pioneers
would pack up their belongings in wagons and
on beasts of burden and head for the south
west, trekking down in the manner of the
Boers of South Africa. This movement into
the fertile valley lands of the Yadkin and the
Catawba continued unabated throughout the
entire third quarter of the century. Owing to
their imfamUiarity with the English language
and the solidarity of their instincts, the Ger
man settlers at first had httle share in govern
ment. But they devotedly played their part
in the defense of the exposed settlements and
often bore the brunt of Indian attack.®
The bravery and hardihood displayed by the
itinerant missionaries sent out by the Pennsyl
vania Synod under the direction of Count
Zinzendorf (1742-8), and by the Moravian
Church (1748-53) , are mirrored in the numer
ous diaries, written in German, happily pre
served to posterity in religious archives of
Pennsylvania and North Carolina. These
13

THE CONQUEST OF THE OLD SOUTHWEST
simple, earnest crusaders, animated by pure
and unselfish motives, would visit on a single
tour of a thousand miles the principal German
settlements in Maryland and Virginia (includ
ing the present West Virginia). Sometimes
they would make an extended circuit through
North Carolina, South Carolina, and even
Georgia, everywhere bearing witness to the
truth of the gospel and seeking to carry the
most elemental forms of the Christian religion,
preaching and prayer, to the primitive fron
tiersmen marooned along the outer fringe of
white settlements. These arduous journeys in
the cause of piety place this type of pioneer
of the Old Southwest in alleviating contrast
to the often relentless and bloodthirsty figure
of the rude borderer.
Noteworthy among these pious pilgrimages
is the Virginia journey of Brothers Leonhard
Schnell and John Brandmiiller (October 12
to December 12, 1749).^ At the last outpost'
of civilization, the scattered settlements in Bath
and Alleghany counties, these courageous mis
sionaries — feasting the while solely on bear
14

THE MIGRATION OF THE PEOPLES
meat, for ther« was no bread — encountered
conditions of almost primitive savagery, of
which they give this graphic picture: "Then
we came to a house, where we had to he on
bear skins around the fire hke the rest. . . .
The clothes of the people consist of deer skins,
their food of Johnny cakes, deer and bear
meat. A kind of white people are found here,
who live hke savages. Hunting is their chief
occupation." Into the valley of the Yadkin
in December, 1752, came Bishop Spangenberg
and a party of Moravians, accompanied by a
surveyor and two guides, for the purpose of
locating the one hundred thousand acres of
land which had been offered them on easy terms
the preceding year by Lord Granville. This
journey was remarkable as an illustration of
sacrifices willingly made and extreme hard
ships uncomplainingly endured for the sake of
the Moravian brotherhood. In the back coun
try of North Carolina near the Mulberry
Fields they found the whole woods full of
Cherokee Indians engaged in hunting. A
beautiful site for the projected settlement met
15

THE CONQUEST OF THE OLD SOUTHWEST
their delighted gaze at this place; but they soon
learned to their regret that it had already been
"taken up" by Daniel Boone's future father-
in-law, Morgan Bryan.
On October 8, 1753, a party of twelve single
men headed by the Rev. Bernhard Adam
Grube, set out from Bethlehem, Pennsylvania,.
to trek down to the new-found haven in the
Carolina hinterland — "a corner which the
Lord has reserved for the Brethren" — in An
son County.^" Following for the most part
the great highway extending from Philadel
phia to the Yadkin, over which passed the
great throng sweeping into the back country
of North Carolina — ^through the Valley of
Virginia and past. Robert Luhny's mill on the
James River — they encountered many hard
ships along the way. Because of their "long.
wagon," they had much difficulty in crossmg
one steep mountain; and of this experience
Brother Grube, with a touch of modest pride,
observes: "People had told us that this hilj
was most dangerous, and that we would
scarcely be able to cro§s it, for Morgan Bryan^
16

THE MIGRATION OF THE PEOPLES
the first to travel this way, had to take the
wheels off his wagon and carry it piecemeal
to the top, and had been three months on the
journey from the Shanidore [Shenandoah] to
the Etkin [Yadkin]."
These men were the highest type of the pio
neers of the Old Southwest, inspired with the
instinct of hcme^makers in a land where, if idle
rumor were to be credited, "the people hved
like wild men, never hearing of God or His
Word." In one hand they bore the implement
of agriculture, in the other the book of the gos
pel of Jesus Christ. True faith shines forth in
the simply eloquent words : "We thanked our
Saviour that he had so graciously led us hither,
and had helped us through aU the hard places,
for no matter how dangerous it looked, nor
how little we saw how we could win through,
everything always went better than seemed
possible." The promise of a new day — ^the
dawn of the heroic age — rings out in the pious
carol of camaraderie at their journey's end:
We hold arrival Lovefeast here.
In Carolina land, 17

THE CONQUEST OF THE OLD SOUTHWEST
A company of Brethren true,
A little Pilgrim-Band,
Called by the Lord to be of those
Who through the whole world go,
To bear Him witness everywhere.
And nought but Jesus know.

18

CHAPTER II
THE CBADLE OF VTESTWABD EXPANSION
In the.year 1746 I was up in the country that is now Anson,
Orange and Rowan Counties, there was not then above one
hundred fighting men there is now at least three thousand for
the most part Irish Protestants and Germans and dailey
increasing. — ^Matthew Rowan, President of the North Caro
lina Council, to the Board of Trade, June -.iS,
1753.
THE conquest of the West is usually at
tributed to the ready initiative, the stem
self-reliance, and the hbertarian instinct of the
expert backwoodsmen. These bold, nomadic
spirits were animated by an unquenchable de
sire to plunge into the wilderness in search of
an El Dorado at the outer verge of civilization,
free of taxation, quit-rents, and the law's re
straint. They longed to build homes for them
selves and their descendants in a limitless, free
domain; or else to fare deeper and deeper into
the trackless forests in search of adventure.
19

THE CONQUEST OF THE OLD SOUTHWEST
(Ye% one must not overlook the fact that behind
Boone and pioneers of his stamp were men of
conspicuous civil and mihtary genius, construc
tive in purpose and creative in imagination,
who devoted their best gifts to actual conquest
and colonization. These men of large intel
lectual mold — themselves surveyors, hunters,
and pioneers — were inspired with the larger
vision of the expansionist. Whether colo
nizers, soldiers, or speculators on the grand
scale, they sought to open at one great stroke
the vast trans- AUeghany regions as a peaceful
abode for mankind.
Two distinct classes of society were grad
ually drawing apart from each other in North
Carolina and later in Virginia — the__2iPj?eer
democracy of the bagkjioimtry and the upland,
and the planter aristocracy of the lowland, and
the tide-water region. From the frontier came
the pioneer explorers whose individual enter
prise and initiative were such potent factors in
the exploitation of the wilderness. From the
border counties still in contact with the East
came a number of leaders. Thus in the heart

THE CRADLE OF WESTWARD EXPANSION
of the Old Southwest the two determinative
principles already referred to, the j^^usitive
and the acquisitive instincts, found a fortunate
conjunction. The exploratory passion of the
pioneer, directed in the interest of commercial
enterprise, prepared the way for the great
westward migration. The warhke disposition
of the hardy backwoodsman, controlled by the
exercise of mihtary strategy, accomphshed the
conquest of the trans- Alleghany country.
Fleeing from the traditional bonds of caste
and aristocracy in England and Europe, from
economic boycott and civil oppression, from re
hgious persecution and favoritism, many
worthy members of society in the first quarter
of the eighteenth century sought a haven of
refuge in the "Quackerthal" of Wilham Penn,
with its trustworthy guarantees of free toler
ance in rehgious faith and the benefits of repre
sentative self-government. From East Dev
onshire m England came George Boone, the
grandfather of the great pioneer, and from
Wales came Edward Morgan, whose daughter
Sarah became the wife of Squire Boone,
21

THE CONQUEST OF THE OLD SOUTHWEST
Daniel's father. These were conspicuous rep
resentatives of the Society of Friends, drawQ
thither by the roseate representations of the
great Quaker, William Penn, and by his ad
vanced views on popular government and re
ligious toleration.^* Hither, too, from Ireland,
whither he had gone from Denmark, came
Morgan Bryan, settling in Chester County,
prior to 1719; and his children, William, Jo
seph, James, and Morgan, who more than half
a century later gave the name to Bryan's Sta
tion in Kentucky, were destined to play im
portant roles in the drama of westward migra
tion.*^ In September, 1734, Michael Finley
from County Armagh, Ireland, presumably
accompanied by his brother Archibald Finley,
settled in Bucks County, Pennsylvania. Ac
cording to the best authorities, Archibald Fin
ley was the father of John Finley, or Findlay as
he signed himself, Boone's guide and compan
ion in his exploration of Kentucky in 1769-
71.** To Pennsylvania also came Mordecai
Lincoln, great-grandson of Samuel Lincok,
who had emigrated from England to Hingham,
22

THE CRADLE OF WESTWARD EXPANSION
Massachusetts, as early as 1637. This Mor
decai Lincoln, who in 1720 settled in Chester
County, Pennsylvania, the great-great-grand
father of President Lincoln, was the father
of Sarah Lincoln, who was wedded to William
Boone, and of Abraham Lincoln, who married
Anne Boone, William's first cousin. Early
settlers in Pennsylvania were members of the
Hanks family, one of whom was the maternal
[grandfather of President Lincoln.**
I No one race or breed of men can lay claim
to exclusive credit for leadership in the hinter
land movement and the conquest of the West.
Yet one particular stock of people, the UlgteF
Scots, exhibited with most completeness and
picturesqueness a group of conspicuous quah-
ties and attitudes which we now recognize to
be typical of the American character as molded
by the conditions of frontier hfe. Cautious,
wary, and reserved, these Scots concealed be
neath a cool and calculating manner a relent-
lessness in reasoning power and an intensity
of conviction which glowed and burned with
almost fanatical ardor. Strict in rehgious ob-
23

THE CONQUEST OF THE OLD SOUTHWEST
servance and deep in spiritual fervor, they
never lost sight of the main chance, combining
a^ shrewd practicality with a wealth of devo
tion. It has been happily said of therki that
they kept the Sabbath and everything else they
..could lay their hands on. In the polity of
these men religion and education went hand
in hand; and they habitually settled together
in communities in order that they might have
teachers and preachers of their own choice and
persuasion. In little-known letters and diaries of trav
elers and itinerant ministers may be found
many quaint descriptions and faithful char
acterizations of the frontier settlers in their
habits of hfe and of the scenes amidst which
they labored. In a letter to Edmund Fan
ning, the cultured Robin Jones, agent of Lord
Granville and Attorney-General of North
Carolina, summons to view a piquant image
of the western border and borderers: "The
inhabitants are hospitable in their way, live in
plenty and dirt, are stout, of great prowess in
manly athletics; and, in private conversation.

THE CRADLE OF WESTWARD EXPANSION
bold, impertinent, and vain. In the art of
war (after the Indian manner) they are well-
skilled, are enterprising and fruitful of strate-.
gies; and, when in action, are as bold and in
trepid as the ancient Romans. The Shawnese
acknowledge them their superiors even in their
own way of fighting. . . . [The land] may
be truly called the land of the mountains, for
they are so numerous that when you have
reached the summit of one of them, you may
see thousands of every shape that the imagi
nation can suggest, seeming to vie with each
other which should raise his lofty head to touch
the clouds. ... It seems to me that nature
has been wanton in bestowing her blessings on
that country." *^
An excellent pen-picture of educational and
cultural conditions in the backwoods of North
Carolina, by one of the early settlers in the
middle of the century, exhibits in all their bar
ren cheerlessness the hardships and hmitations
of life in the wilderness.. The father of Wil
liam Few, the narrator, had trekked down from
Maryland and settled in Orange County, some
25

THE CONQUEST OF THE OLD SOUTHWEST
miles east of the httle hamlet of Hillsborough.
"In that country at that time there were no
schools, no churches or parsons, or doctors or
lawyers; no stores, groceries or taverns, nor
do I recollect during the first two years any
officer, ecclesi&,stical, civil or military, except a
justice of the peace, a constable and two or
three itinerant preachers. . . . These people
had few wants, and fewer temptations to vice
than those who lived in more refined society,
though ignorant. They were more virtuous
and more happy. ... A schoolmaster ap
peared and offered his services to teach the
children of the neighborhood for twenty shill
ings each per year. ... In that simple state
of society money was but little known; the
schoolmaster was the welcome guest of his
pupil, fed at the bountiful table and clothedfj
from the domestic loom. ... In that country
at that time there was great scarcity of
books." *«
The journals of itinerant ministers through
the Valley of Virginia and the Carohna pied
mont zone yield precious mementoes of the
26

THE CRADLE OF WESTWARD EXPANSION
people, their longing after the things of the
spirit, and their pitiful isolation from the regu
lar preaching of the gospel. These mission
aries were true pioneers in this Old Southwest,
ardent, dauntless, and heroic — carrying the
word into remote places and preaching the gos
pel beneath the trees of the forest. In his
journal (1755-6), the Rev. Hugh McAden,
born in Pennsylvania of Scotch-Irish paren
tage, a graduate of Nassau Hall (1753),
makes the unconsciously humorous observation
that wherever he found Presbyterians he found
people who "seemed highly pleased, and very
desirous to hear the word" ; whilst elsewhere he
found either dissension and defection to Bap
tist principles, or "no appearance of the life
of religion." In the Scotch-Irish Presbyte
rian settlements in what is now Mecklenburg
County, the cradle of American liberty, he
found "pretty serious, judicious people" of the
stamp of Moses, William, and James Alex
ander. While traveling in the upper country
of South Carolina, he relates with gusto the
story of "an old gentleman who said to the
27

THE CONQUEST OF THE OLD SOUTHWEST
Governor of South Carolina, when he was in
those parts, in treaty with the Cherokee In
dians that 'he had never seen a shirt, been in
a fair, heard a sermon, or seen a minister in all
his life/ Upon which the governor promised
to send him up a minister, that he might hear
one sermon before he died." The ministsr
came and preached; and this was all the
preaching that had been heard in the upper
part of South Carolina before Mr. McAden's
visit.*'' Such, then, were the rude and simple people
in the back country of the Old Southwest—
the dehberate and self -controlled English,' the
aggressive, land-mongering Scotch-Irish, the
buoyant Welsh, the thrifty Germans, the debor
nair French, the impetuous Irish, and the cal
culating Scotch. The lives they led were
marked by independence of spirit, democratic
instincts, and a forthright simplicity. In de
scribing the condition of the English settlers ui
the backwoods of Virginia, one of their num
ber, Doddridge, says: "Most of the articles,
were of domestic manufacture. There might

THE CRADLE OF WESTWARD EXPANSION
have been incidentally a few things brought
to the country for sale in a primitive way, but
there was no store for general supply. The
table furniture usually consisted of wooden
vessels, either turned or coopered. Iron forks,
tin cups, etc., were articles of rare and deh
cate luxury. The food was of the most whole
some and primitive kind. The richest meat,
the finest butter, and best meal that ever de-
hghted man's palate were here eaten with a
rehsh which health and labor only know. The
hospitality of the people was profuse and pro
verbial."
n1 The circumstances of their hves compelled
the pioneers to become self-sustaining. Every
immigrant was an adept at many trades. He
built his own house, forged his own tools, and
made his own clothes. At a very early date
'rifles were manufactured at the High Shoals
of the Yadkin; Squire Boone, Daniel's brother,
was an expert gunsmith. The difficulty of
securing food for the settlements forced every
man to become a hunter and to scour the for
est for wild game. Thus the pioneer, through
29

THE CONQUEST OF THE OLD SOUTHWEST
force of sheer necessity, became a dead shot —
which stood him in good stead in the days of In
dian incursions and bloody retahatory raids.
Primitive in their games, recreations, and
amusements, which not infrequently degener
ated into contests of savage brutality, the pio
neers always set the highest premium upon
personal bravery, physical prowess, and skill
in manly sports. At all public gatherings,
general musters, "vendues" or auctions, and
even funerals, whisky flowed with extraor
dinary freedom. It is worthy of record that
among the effects of the Rev. Alexander
Craighead, the famous teacher and organizer
of Presbyterianism in Mecklenburg and the
adjoining region prior to the Revolution, were
found a punch bowl and glasses.
The frontier life, with its purifying and
hardening influence, bred in these pioneers in
tellectual traits which constitute the basis of
the American character. The single-handed
and successful struggle with nature in the tense
solitude of the forest developed a spirit of in;
dividualism, restive under control. On the
30

THE CRADLE OF WESTWARD EXPANSION
other hand, the sense of sharing with others
the arduous tasks and dangers of conquering
the wilderness gave birth to a strong sense of
solidarity and nfjllimgn cympatby With the
lure of free lands ever before them, the pio
neers developed a restlessness and ajieryous
energy, blended with a_ buoyancy of spirit,
which are fundamentally American. Yet this"
same untrammeled freedom occasioned a dis
regard for law and a defiance of established
government which have exhibited themselves
throughout the entire course of our history.
Initiative, self-reliance, boldness in conception, /
fertility in resource, readiness in execution,
acquisitiveness, ijaventive genius, appreciation
of material advantages — these, shot through
with a certain fine idealism, genial human sym
pathy, and a high romantic strain — are the
traits of the American national type as it
emerged from the Old Southwest.

31

CHAPTER III
THE BACK COUNTRY AND THE BORDER
Far from the bustle of the world, they live in the most de
lightful climate, and richest soil imaginable; they are every
where surrounded with beautiful prospects and sylvan scenes;
lofty mountains, transparent streams, falls of water, rich
valleys, and majestic woods; the whole interspersed with an
infinite variety of flowering shrubs, constitute the landscape
surrounding them; they are subject to few diseases; are gen
erally robust; and live in perfect liberty; they are ignorant
of want and acquainted with but few vices. Their inex
perience of the elegancies of life precludes any regret that they
possess not the means of enjoying them, but they possess what
many princes would give half their dominion for, health, con
tent, and tranquillity of mind.
— Andrew Bubnadt: Travels Through North
America.
THE two streams of Ulstermen, the
greater through Philadelphia, the lesser
through Charleston, which poured into the
Carolinas toward the middle of the century,
quickly flooded the back country. The former
occupied the Yadkin Valley and the region to
the westward, the latter the Waxhaws and the
Anson County region to the northwest. The

THE BACK COUNTRY AND THE BORDER
first settlers were known as the "Pennsylvania
Irish," because they had first settled in Penn
sylvania after migrating from the north of Ire
land; while those who came by way of Charles
ton were known as the "Scotch-Irish." The
former, who had resided in Pennsylvania long
enough to be good judges of land, shrewdly
made their settlements along the rivers and
creeks. The latter, new arrivals and less ex
perienced, settled on thinner land toward the
heads of creeks and water courses.**
Shortly prior to 1735, Morgan Bryan, his
wife Martha, and eight children, together with
other families of Quakers from Pennsylvania,
settled upon a large tract of land on the north
west side of the Opeckon River near Win
chester.*® A few years later they removed up
the Virginia Valley to the Big Lick in the
present Roanoke County, intent upon pushing
westward to the very outskirts of civilization.
In the autumn of 1748, leaving behind his
brother Wilham, who had followed him to
Roanoke Coimty, Morgan Bryan removed
with his family to the Forks of the Yadkin
33

THE CONQUEST OF THE OLD SOUTHWEST
River.^** The Morgans, with the exception of
Richard, who emigrated to Virginia, remained
in Pennsylvania, spreading over Philadelphia
and Bucks counties ; while the Hanks and Lin
coln families found homes in Virginia — Mor
decai Lincoln's son, John, the great-grand
father of President Lincoln, removing from
Berks to the Shenandoah Valley in 1765. On
May 1, 1750, Squire Boone, his wife Sarah
(Morgan) , and their eleven children — a verita
ble caravan, traveling like the patriarchs of
old — started south; and tarried for a space,
according to reliable tradition, on Linville
Creek in the Virginia Valley. In 1752 they
removed to the Forks of the Yadkin, and the
foUowing year received from Lord Granville
three tracts of land, aU situated in Rowan
County.''* About the hamlet of Salisbury,
wliich in 1755 consisted of seven or eight log
houses and the court house, there now rapidly
gathered a settlement of people marked by
strong individuahty, sturdy mdependence, and
virile self-rehance. The Boones and the Bry-
ans quickly accommodated themselves to fron-
34

THE BACK COUNTRY AND THE BORDER
tier conditions and immediately began to
take an active part in the local affairs of the
county. Upon the organization of the county
court Squire Boone was chosen justice of the
peace; and Morgan Bryan was soon appear
ing as foreman of juries and director in road
improvements. The Great Trading Path, leading from Vir
ginia to the towns of the Catawbas and other
Southern Indians, crossed the Yadkin at the
Trading Ford and passed a mile southeast of
Salisbury. Above Sapona Town near the
Trading Ford was Swearing Creek, which, ac
cording to constant and picturesque tradition,
was the spot where the traders stopped to take
a solemn oath never to reveal any unlawful
proceedings that might occur during their so
journ among the Indians.^^ In his divertingly
satirical "History of the Dividing Line" Wil
liam Byrd in 1728 thus speaks of this locality:
"The Soil is exceedingly rich on both sides
the Yadkin, abounding in rank Grass and
prodigiously large Trees; and for plenty of
Fish, Fowl and Venison, is inferior to No Part
35

THE CONQUEST OF THE OLD SOUTHWEST
of the Northern Continent. There the
Traders commonly he Still for some days, to
recruit their Horses' Flesh as well as to recover
their own spirits." In this beautiful country
happily chosen for settlement by Squire Boone
— ^who erected his cabin on the east "side of the
Yadkin about a mile and a quarter from
Alleman's, now Boone's, Ford— wild game
abounded. Buffaloes were encountered in
eastern North Carolina by Byrd while running
the dividing line ; and in the upper country of
South Carolina three or four men with their
dogs could kill fourteen to twenty buffaloes in
a single day.^^ Deer and bears fell an easy
prey to the hunter; wild turkeys filled every
thicket; the watercourses teemed with beaver,
otter, and muskrat, as weU as with shad and
other delicious fish. Panthers, wildcats, and
wolves overran the country; and the veracious
Brother Joseph, while near the present
Wilkesboro, amusingly records: "The wolves
wh. are not like those in Germany, Polaill,
and Lifland (because they fear men and don't
easily come near) give us such music of six
36

COLONEL DANIEL BOONE
From lithograph after Chester Harding in Jefferson Memorial
Courtesy Missouri Historical Society

THE BACK COUNTRY AND THE BORDER
different cornets the hke of wh. I have never
heard in my life." ^* So plentiful was the
game that the wild deer mingled with the cattle
grazing over the wide stretches of luxuriant
grass. In the midst of this sylvan paradise grew
up Squire Boone's son, Daniel Boone, a Penn
sylvania youth of Enghsh stock, Quaker
persuasion, and Baptist proclivities.^^ Seen
through a glorifying halo after the lapse of
a century and three quarters, he rises before
us a romantic figure, poised and resolute, sim
ple, benign — as naive and shy as some wild
thing of the primeval forest — ^five feet eight
inches in height, with broad chest and shoul
ders, dark locks, genial blue eyes arched with
fair eyebrows, thin hps and wide mouth, nose
of shghtly Roman cast, and fair, ruddy coun
tenance. Farming was irksome to this rest
less, nomadic spirit, who on the shghtest excuse
would exchange the plow and the grubbing-
hoe for the long rifle and keen-edged hunting-
knife. In a single day during the autumn
season he would kiU four or five deer; or as
37

THE CONQUEST OF 'THE OLD SOUTHWEST
many bears as would make from two to three
thousand pounds weight of bear-bacon. Fas
cinated with the forest, he soon found profit
as well -as pleasure in the pursuit of game;
and at excellent fixed prices he sold his peltries,
most often at Sahsbury, some thirteen miles
away, sometimes at the store of the old "Dutch
man," George Hartman, on the Yadkin, and
occasionally at Bethabara, the Moravian town
sixty-odd miles distant. Skins were in such
demand that they soon came to replace hard
money, which was incredibly scarce in the back
country, as a medium of exchange. Upon
one occasion a caravan from Bethabara hauled
three thousand pounds, upon another four
thousand pounds, of dressed deerskins to
Charleston.^* So immense was this trade that
the year after Boone's arrival at the Forks of
Yadkin thirty thousand deerskins were ex
ported from the province of North Carohna.
We like to think that the young Daniel Boone
was one of that band of whom Brother Joseph,
while in camp on the Catawba River (Novem
ber 12, 1752) wrote: "There are many
38

THE BACK COUNTRY AND THE BORDER
himters about here, who live hke Indians, they
kin many deer selling their hides, and thus live
without much work." ^'^
In this very class of professional hunters,
hving hke Indians, was thus bred the spirit
of individual initiative and strenuous leader
ship ia the great westward expansionist move
ment of the coming decade. An English
traveler gives the following minute picture of
the dress and accoutrement of the Carohna
backwoodsman :
Their whole dress is very singular, and not
very materiaUy different from that of the In
dians; being a hunting shirt, somewhat resem
bhng a waggoner's frock, ornamented with a
great many fringes, tied round the middle with
a broad belt, much decorated also, in which
is fastened a tomahawk, an instrument that
serves every purpose of defence and conven
ience ; being a hammer at one side and a sharp
hatchet at the other; the shot bag and powder-
horn, carved with a variety of whimsical fig
ures and devices, hang from their necks over
one shoulder; and on their heads a flapped
hat, of a reddish hue, proceeding from the in
tensely hot beams of the sun.
39

THE CONQUEST OF THE OLD SOUTHWEST
Sometimes they wear leather breeches, made
of Indian dressed elk, or deer skins, but more
frequently thin trowsers.
On their legs they have Indian boots, or
leggings, made of coarse woollen cloth, that
either are wrapped round loosely and tied with
garters, or laced upon the outside, and always
come better than half-way up the thigh.
On their feet they sometimes wear pumps of
their own manufacture, but generally Indian
moccossons, of their own construction also,
which are made of strong elk's, or buck's skin,
dressed soft as for gloves or breeches, drawn
together in regular plaits over the toe, and
lacing from thence round to the fore part of
the middle of the ancle, without a seam in them,
yet fitting close to the feet, and are indeed
perfectly easy and phant.
Their hunting, or rifle shirts, they have also
died in a va,riety of colours, some yellow, others
red, some brown, and many wear them quite
white. ^*
No less unique and bizarre, though less pic-*
turesque, was the dress of the women of the
region — in particular of Surry County, North
Carohna, as described by General Wilham
Lenoir: 40

THE BACK COUNTRY AND THE BORDER
The women wore Jinsey [flax] petticoats
and 'bed-gowns' [like a dressing-sack], and
often went without shoes in the summer. '
Some had bonnets and bed-gowns made of
cahco, but generaUy of linsey; and some of
them wore men's hats. Their hair was com
monly clubbed. Once, at a large meeting, I
noticed there but two women that had on long
gowns. One of these was laced genteeUy, and
the body of the other was open, and' the tail
thereof drawn up and tucked in her apron or
coat-string.^® While Daniel Boone was quietly engaged
in the pleasant pursuits of the chase, a vast
world-struggle of which he httle dreamed was
rapidly approaching a crisis. For three quar
ters of a century this titanic contest between
France and England for the interior of the
continent had been waged with slowly accumu
lating force. The irrepressible conflict had
'been formaUy inaugurated at Sault Ste. Marie
in 1671, when Daumont de Saint Lusson,
swinging aloft his sword, proclaimed the sover
eignty of France over "aU countries, rivers,
lakes, and streams . . . both those which have
41

THE CONQUEST OF THE OLD SOUTHWEST
been discovered and those which may be dis
covered hereafter, in all their length and
breadth, bounded on the one side by the seas
of the North and of the West, and on the other
by the South Sea." Just three months later,
three hardy pioneers of Virginia, despatchejd
upon their arduous mission by Colonel Abra
ham Wood in behalf of the English crown,
had crossed the Appalachian divide ; and upon
the banks of a stream whose waters shpped
into the Ohio to join the Mississippi and the
Gulf of Mexico, had carved the royal insignia
upon the blazed trunk of a giant of the forest,
the while crying: "Long hve Charles the
Second, by the grace of God, King of Eng
land, Scotland, France, Ireland and Virginia
and of the territories thereunto belonging."
La Salle's dream of a New France in the
heart of America was blotted out in his tragic
death upon the banks of the River Trinity
(1687). Yet his mantle was to faU in turn
upon the square shoulders of Le Moyne d'lber-
ville and of his brother — the good, the constant
Bienville, who after countless and arduous
42

THE BACK COUNTRY AND THE BORDER
struggles laid firm the foundations of New
Orleans. In the precious treasury of Margry
we learn that on reaching Rochelle after his
first voyage in 1699 Iberville in these prophetic
words voices his faith: "If France does not
immediately seize this part of America which
is the most beautiful, and estabhsh a colony
which is strong enough to resist any which
England may have, the English colonies (al
ready considerable in Carolina) Avill so thrive
that in less than a hundred years they wiU be
strong enough to seize all America." *" But
the world-weary Louis Quatorze, nearing his
end, quickly tired of that remote and unpro
ductive colony upon the shores of the gulf, so
industriously described in Paris as a "terres
trial paradise"; and the "paternal providence
of VersaiUes" willingly yielded place to the
monumental speculation of the great financier
Antoine Crozat. In this Paris of prohfic pro
motion and amazed creduhty, ripe for the
colossal scheme of Law, soon to blow to burst
ing-point the bubble of the Mississippi, the
very songs in the street echoed flamboyant,
43

THE CONQUEST OF THE OLD SOUTHWEST
half-satiric panegyrics upon the new Utopia,
this Mississippi Land of Cockayne:
It 's to-day no contribution
To discuss the Constitution
And the Spanish war 's forgot
For a new Utopian spot;
And the very latest phase
Is the Mississippi craze.**
Interest in the new colony led to a great
development of southwesterly trade from New
France. Already the French coureurs cie bois
were following the water route from the Illi
nois to South Carohna. Jean Couture, a de
serter from the service in New France, jour
neyed over the Ohio and Tennessee rivers to
that colony, and was known as "the greatest
Trader and TraveUer amongst the Indians for
more than Twenty years." In 1714 young
Charles Charleville accompanied an old trader
from Crozat's colony on the gulf to the great
salt-spruigs on the Cumberland, where a post
for trading with the Shawanoes had already
been established by the French.** But the
British were preparing to capture this trade
44

THE BACK COUNTRY AND THE BORDER
as early as 1694, when Tonti warned ViUer-
mont that Carolinians were already estabhshed
on a branch of the Ohio. Four years later,
Nicholson, Governor of Maryland, was urging
trade with the Indians of the interior in the
effort to displace the French. At an early
date the coast colonies began to trade with the
Indian tribes of the back country: the Ca
tawbas of the Yadkin Valley; the Cherokees,
whose towns were scattered through Tennes
see ; the Chickasaws, to the westward in north
ern Mississippi; and the Choctaws farther to
the southward. Even before the beginning of
the eighteenth century, when the South Caro
lina settlements extended scarcely twenty miles
from the coast, English traders had established
posts among the Indian tribes four hundred
miles to the west of Charleston. Following
the sporadic trading of individuals from Vir
ginia with the inland Indians, the heavily laden
caravans of William Byrd were soon regularly
passing along the Great Trading Path from
Virginia to the towns of the Catawbas and
other interior tribes of the Carolinas, delight-
45

THE CONQUEST OF THE OLD SOUTHWEST
ing the easily captivated fancy and provoking
the cupidity of the red men with "Guns,
Powder, Shot, Hatchets (which the Indians
call Tomahawks), Kettles, red and blue
Planes, Duffields, Stroudwater blankets, and
some Cutlary Wares, Brass Rings and other
Trinkets." ^* In Pennsylvania, George Crog
han, the guileful diplomat, who was emissary
from the Council to the Ohio Indians (1748),
had induced "all-most all the Ingans in the
Woods" to declare against the French; and
was described by Christopher Gist as a "meer
idol among his countrymen, the Irish traders."
Against these advances of British trade and
civilization, the French for four decades had
artfully struggled, projecting tours of explor
ation into the vast medial valley of the conti
nent and constructing a chain of forts and
trading-posts designed to establish their claims
to the country and to hold in check the threat
ened English thrust from the east. Soon the
wilderness ambassador of empire, Celoron de
Bienville, was despatched by the far-visioned
46

THE BACK COUNTRY AND THE BORDER
Gahssoniere at Quebec to sow broadcast with
ceremonial pomp in the heart of America the
seeds of empire, grandiosely graven plates of
lasting lead, in defiant yet futile symbol of
the asserted sovereignty of France. Thus
threatened in the vindication of the rights of
their colonial sea-to-sea charters, the English
threw off the lethargy with which they had
failed to protect their traders, and in grants
to the Ohio and Loyal land companies began
resolutely to form plans looking to the occu
pation of the interior. But the French seized
the English trading-house at Venango which
they converted into a fort ; and Virginia's pro
test, conveyed by a calm and judicious young
man, a surveyor, George Washington, availed
not to prevent the French from seizing Cap
tain Trent's hastily erected military post at
the forks of the Ohio and constructing there
a formidable work, named Fort Duquesne.
Washington, with his expeditionary force sent
to garrison Captain Trent's fort, defeated
Jumonville and his small force near Great
47

THE CONQUEST OF THE OLD SOUTHWEST
Meadows (May, 1754) ; but soon after he was
forced to surrender Fort Necessity to Coulon
de Villiers.
The titanic struggle, fittingly precipitated
in the backwoods of the Old Southwest, was
now on — a struggle in which the resolute pio
neers of these backwoods first seriously meas
ured their strength with the French and their
copper-hued aUies, and learned to surpass the
latter in their own mode of warfare. The por
tentous conflict, destined to assure the eastern
half of the continent to Great Britain, is a
grim, prophetic harbinger of the mighty move
ment of the next quarter of a century into the
twilight zone of the trans-AUeghany territory

48

CHAPTER IV
THE INDIAN WAR
All met in companies with their wives and children, and
set about building little fortifications, to defend themselves
from such barbarian and inhuman enemies, whom they con
cluded would be let loose upon them at pleasure.
— The Reverend Hugh McAden: Diary, July,
1755.
LONG before the actual outbreak of hos
tilities powerful forces were gradually
converging to produce a clash between the ag
gressive colonials and the crafty Indians. As ^
the settlers pressed farther westward into the
domain of the red men, arrogantly grazing
their stock over the cherished hunting-grounds
of the Cherokees, the savages, who were already
well disposed toward the French, began to
manifest a deep indignation against the British
colonists because of this callous encroachment
upon their territory. During the sporadic
forays by scattered bands of Northern Indians
49

THE CONQUEST OF THE OLD SOUTHWEST
upon the Catawbas and other tribes friendly
to the pioneers the isolated settlements at the
back part of the Carolinas suffered rude and
sanguinary onslaughts. In the summer of
1753 a party of northern Indians warring in
the French interest made their appearance in
Rowan County, which had just been organized,
and committed various depredations upon the
scattered settlements. To repel these attacks
a band of the Catawbas sallied forth, encoun
tered a detached party of the enemy, and slew
five of their nilmber. Among the spoils, sig
nificantly enough, were silver crucifixes, beads,
looking-glasses, tomahawks and other imple
ments of war, all of French manufacture.^*
Intense rivalry for the good will of the
near-by southern tribes existed between Vir
ginia and South Carohna. In strong remon
strance against the alleged attempt of Gover
nor Dinwiddle of Virginia to alienate the
Cherokees, Catawbas, Muscogees, and Chicka
saws from South Carolina and to attach them
to Virginia, Governor Glen of South Carolina
made pungent observations to Dinwiddle:
50

THE INDIAN WAR
"South Carolina is a weak frontier colony, and
in case of invasion by the French would be
their first object of attack. We have not
much to fear, however, while we- retain the
affection of the Indians around us ; but should
we forfeit that by any mismanagement on our
part, or by the superior address of the French,
we are in a miserable situation. The Chero
kees alone have several thousand gunmen well
acquainted with every inch of the province
. . . their country is the key to Carohna."
By a treaty concluded at Saluda (November
24, 1753), Glen promised to build the Chero
kees a fort near the lower towns, for the pro
tection of themselves and their allies; and the
Cherokees on their part agreed to become the
subjects of the King of Great Britain and hold
their lands under him.** This fort, erected
this same year on the headwaters of the Sa
vannah, within gunshot distance of the impor
tant Indian town of Keowee, was named Fort
Prince George. "It is a square," says the
founder of the fort (Governor Glen to the
Board of Trade, August 26, 1754), "with
51

THE CONQUEST OF THE OLD SOUTHWEST
regular Bastions and four Ravehns it is near
Two hundred foot from Salient Angle to Sali
ent Angle and is made of Earth taken out
of the Ditch, secured with fachines and well
rammed with a banquet on the Inside for the
men to stand upon when they fire over, the
Ravelins are made of Posts of Lightwood
which is very durable, they are ten foot in
length sharp pointed three foot and a half in
the ground." *" The dire need for such a fort
in the back country was tragically illustrated
by the sudden onslaught upon the "House
of John Gutry & James Anshers" in York
County by a party of sixty French Indians
(December 16, 1754), who brutaUy murdered
sixteen of the twenty-one persons present, and
carried off as captives the remaining five.*^
At the outbreak of the French and Indian
War in 1754 North Carolina voted twelve
thousand pounds for the raising of troops and
several thousand pounds additional for the
construction of forts — a sum considerably
larger than that voted by Virginia. A regi-;
ment of two hundred and fifty men was placed
52

THE INDIAN WAR
under the command of Colonel James Innes of
the Cape Fear section; and the ablest officer
under him was the young Irishman from the
same section. Lieutenant Hugh Waddell. On
June 3, 1754, Dinwiddle appointed Innes, his
close friend, commander-in-chief of all the
forces against the French; and immediately
after the disaster at Great Meadows (July,
1754), Innes took command. Within two
months the supplies for the North Carolina
troops were exhausted; and as Virginia then
failed to furnish additional supplies. Colonel
Innes had no recourse but to disband his troops
and permit them to return home. Appointed
governor of Fort Cumberland by General
Braddock, he was in command there while
Braddock advanced on his disastrous march.
The lesson of Braddock's defeat (July 9,
1755) was memorable in the history of the Old
Southwest. WeU might Braddock exclaim
with his last breath: "Who would have
thought it? . . . We shall know better how to
deal with them another time." Led on by the
reckless and fiery Beaujeu, wearing an Indian
53

THE CONQUEST OF THE OLD SOUTHWEST
gorget about his neck, the savages from the
protection of trees and rough defenses, a pre
pared ambuscade, poured a galling fire into
the compact divisions of the English, whose
scarlet coats furnished ideal targets. The ob
stinacy of the British commanders in refusing
to peiTnit their troops to fight Indian fashion
was suicidal; for as Herman Alrichs wrote
Governor Morris of Pennsylvania (July 22,
1755) : "... the French and Indians had
cast an Intrenchment across the road before
our Army which they Discovered not Untill
the [y] came Close up to it, from thence and
both sides of the road the enemy kept a con
stant fireing on them, our Army being so con
fused, they could not fight, and they would
not be admitted by the Gen* or Sir John St.
Clair, to break thro' their Ranks and Take
behind trees." ** Daniel Boone, who went
from North Carolina as a wagoner in the com
pany commanded by Edward Brice Dobbs,
was on the battle-field; but Dobbs's company
at the time was scouting in the woods. When
the fierce attack fell upon the baggage train,

THE INDIAN WAR
Boone succeeded in effecting his escape only
by cutting the traces of his team and fleeing
on one of the horses. To his dying day Boone
continued to censure Braddock's conduct, and
reprehended especially his fatal neglect to em
ploy Strong flank-guards and a sufficient num
ber of Provincial scouts thoroughly acquainted
with the wilderness and all the wiles and strate
gies of savage warfare.
For a number of months foUowing Brad
dock's defeat there was a great rush of the
frightened people southward. In a letter to
Dinwiddle, Washington expresses the appre
hension that Augusta, Frederick, and Hamp
shire County wUl soon be depopulated, as the
whole back country is in motion toward the
southern colonies. During this same summer
Governor Arthur Dobbs of North Carolina
made a tour of exploration through the west
ern part of the colony, seeking a site for a
fort to guard the frontier.*® The frontier com
pany of fifty men which was to garrison the
projected fort was placed under the command
of Hugh Waddell, now promoted to the rank
65

THE CONQUEST OF THE OLD SOUTHWEST
of captain, though only twenty-one years old.
In addition to Waddell's company, armed
patrols were required for the protection of the
Rowan County frontier; and during the sum
mer Indian alarms were frequent at the Mora
vian viUage of Bethabara, whose inhabitants
had heard with distress on March 31st of the
slaughter of eleven Moravians on the Mahoni
and of the ruin of Gnadenhiitten. Many of
the settlers in the outlying districts of Rowan
fled for safety to the refuge of the little viUage;
and frequently every available house, every
place of temporary abode was filled with panic-
stricken refugees. So persistent were the dep
redations of the Indians and so alarmed were
the scattered Rowan settlers by the news of
the murders and the destruction of Vaiix's
Fort in Virginia (June 25, 1756) that at a
conference on July 5th the Moravians "de
cided to protect our houses with palisades, and
make them safe before the enemy should in
vade our tract or attack us, for if the people
were all going to retreat we would be the last
left on the frontier and the first point of ^^t-
56

•Fort Dobbs-

I'Jte'^fe'i'*"*""

FORT DOBBS
Sketch made from official description of fort

THE TRANSYLVANIA FORT
AT BOONESBOROUGH
Built by Daniel Boone and the pioneers frgm plans by Richard
Henderson

THE INDIAN WAR
tack." By July 23d, they had constructed a
strong defense for their settlement, afterward
called the "Dutch Fort" by the Indians. The
principal structure was a stockade, triangular
in plan, some three hundred feet on a side,
enclosing the principal buildings of the settle
ment; and the gateway was guarded by an
observation tower. The other defense was a
stockade embracing eight houses at the mill
some distance away, around which a small
settlement had sprung up.***
During the same year the fort planned by
Dobbs was erected upon the site he had chosen
— between Third and Fourth creeks; and the
commissioners Richard Caswell and Francis
Brown, sent out to inspect the fort, made the
following picturesque report to the Assembly
(December 21, 1756) :
That they had likewise viewed the State of
Fort Dobbs, and found it to be a good and Sub
stantial Building of the Dimentions following
(that is to say) The Oblong Square fifty three
feet by forty, the opposite Angles Twenty
four feet and Twenty-Two In Height
Twenty four and a half feet as by the Plan
57

THE CONQUEST OF THE OLD SOUTHWEST
annexed Appears, The Thickness of the Walls
which are made of Oak Logs regularly Dimin
ished from sixteen Inches to Six, it contains
three floors and there may be discharged from
each floor at one and the same time about one
hundred Musketts the same is beautifully scit-
uated in the fork of Fourth Creek a Branch
of the Yadkin River. And that they also found
under Command of Cap' Hugh Waddel Forty
six Effective men Officers and Soldiers . . .
the said Officers and Soldiers Appearing well
and in good Spirits.**
As to the erection of a fort on the Tennessee,
promised the Cherokees by South Carohna,
difficulties between the governor of that prov
ince and of Virginia in regard to matters of
policy and the proportionate share of expenses
made effective cooperation between the two
colonies well-nigh impossible. Glen, as we
have seen, had resented Dinwiddle's efforts to
win the South Carolina Indians over to Vir
ginia's interest. And Dinwiddle had been
very indignant when the force promised him
by the Indians to aid General Braddock did
not arrive, attributing this defection in part
68

THE INDIAN WAR
to Glen's negotiations for a meeting with the
chieftains and in part to the influence of the
South Carohna traders, who kept the Indians
away by hiring them to go on long hunts for
furs and skins. But there was no such con
tention between Virginia and North Caro
lina. Dinwiddle and Dobbs arranged (No
vember 6, 1755) to send a commission from
these colonies to treat with the Cherokees and
the Catawbas. Virginia sent two commis
sioners. Colonel William Byrd, third of that
name, and Colonel Peter Randolph; while
North Carolina sent one. Captain Hugh Wad
dell. Salisbury, North Carolina, was the
place of rendezvous. The treaty with the Ca
tawbas was made at the Catawba Town, pre
sumably the village opposite the mouth of
Sugaw Creek, in York County, South Caro
lina, on February 20-21, 1756; that with the
Cherokees on Broad River, North Carolina,
March 13-17. As a result of the negotiations
and after the receipt of a present of goods,
the Catawbas agreed to send forty warriors
to aid Virginia within forty days; and the
59

THE CONQUEST OF THE OLD SOUTHWEST
Cherokees, in return for presents and Vir
ginia's promise to contribute her proportion
toward the erection of a strong fort, undertook
to send four hundred warriors within forty
days, "as soon as the said fort shall be built."
Virginia and North Carolina thus wisely
cooperated to "straighten the path" and
"brighten the chain" between the white and
the red men, in important treaties which have
largely escaped the attention of historians.*'*
On May 25, 1756, a conference was held
at Salisbury between King Heygler and war
riors of the Catawba nation on the one side
and Chief Justice Henley, doubtless attended
by Captain Waddell and his frontier company,
on the other. King Heygler, following the
lead set by the Cherokees, petitioned the Gov
ernor of North Carohna to send the Catawbas
some ammunition and to "build us a fort for
securing our old men, women and children
when we turn out to fight the Enemy on their
coming." The chief justice assured the King
that the Catawbas would receive a necessary
supply of ammunition (one hundred pounds of
60

THE INDIAN WAR
gunpower and four hundred pounds of lead
were later sent them) and promised to urge
with the governor their request to have a fort
built as soon as possible, tathos not unmixed
with dry humor tinges the eloquent appeal of
good old King Heygler, ever the loyal friend
of the whites, at this conference:
I desire a stop may be put to the selling of
strong Liquors by the White people to my
people especially near the Indian nation. //
ihe White people make strong drink, let them
sell it to one another, or drink it in their own
families. This will avoid a great deal of mis
chief which otherwise will happen from my
people getting drunk and quarrelling with the
White people. I have no strong prisons hke
you to confine them for it. Our only way is
to put them under ground and all these (point
ing proudly to his Warriors) will be ready to
do that to those who shall deserve it.**
In response to this request, the sum of four
thousand pounds was appropriated by the
North Carolina Assembly for the erection of "a
Fort on our western frontier to protect and se
cure the Catawbas" and for the support of two
61

THE CONQUEST OF THE OLD SOUTHWEST
companies of fifty men each to garrison this
and another fort building on the sea coast.
The commissioners appointed for the purpose
recommended (December 21, 1756) a site for
the fort "near the_Catawba nation"; and on
January 20, 1757, Governor Dobbs reported:
"We are now building a Fort in the midst of
their towns at their own Request." The fort
thereupon begun must have stood near the
mouth of the South Fork of the Catawba
River, as Dobbs says it was in the "midst"
of their towns, which are situated a "few miles
north and south of 38°" and might properly
be included within a circle of thirty miles
radius.** During the succeeding months many dep
redations were committed by the Indians upon
the exposed and scattered settlements. Had
it not been for the protection afforded by all
these forts, by the militia companies under
Alexander Osborne of Rowan and Nathaniel
Alexander of Anson, and by a special company
of patroUers under Green and Moore, the back
62

THE INDIAN WAR
settlers who had been so outrageously "pil
fered" by the Indians would have "retired
from the Frontier into the inner settle
ments." *'

63

CHAPTER V
IN DEFENSE OF CIVILIZATION
We give thanlcs and praise for the safety and peace vouch
safed us by our Heavenly Father in these times of war.
Many of our neighbors, driven hither and yon like deer
before wild beasts, came to us for shelter, yet the accustomed
order of our congregation life was not disturbed, no, not
even by the more than 150 Indians who at sundry times passed
by, stopping for a day at a time and being fed by us.
— fVachovia Community Diary, 1757.
WITH commendable energy and expedi
tion Dinwiddle and Dobbs, acting in
concert, initiated steps for keeping the engage
ments conjointly made by the two colonies
with the Cherokees and the Catawbas in the
spring and summer of 1756. Enhsting sixty
men, "most of them Artificers, with Tools and
Provisions," Major Andrew Lewis proceeded
in the late spring to Echota in the Cherokee
country. Here during the hot summer
months they erected the Virginia Fort on the v
path from Virginia, upon the northern bank
64

IN DEFENSE OF CIVILIZATION
of the Little Tennessee, nearly opposite the
Indian town of Echota and about twenty-five
miles southwest of Knoxville.*® While the
fort was in process of construction, the Chero
kees were incessantly tampered with by emis
saries from the Nuntewees and the Savannahs
in the French interest, and from the French
themselves at the Alibamu Fort. So effective
were these machinations, supported by extrav
agant promises and doubtless rich bribes, that
the Cherokees soon were outspokenly express
ing their desire for a French fort at Great
TeUico. Dinwiddle welcomed the departure from
America of Governor Glen of South Caro
lina, who in his opinion had always acted con
trary to the king's interest. From the new
governor, William Henry Lyttelton, who ar
rived in Charleston on June 1, 1756, he hoped
to secure effective cooperation in dealing with
the Cherokees and the Catawbas. This hope
was based upon Lyttelton's recognition, as
stated in Dinwiddle's words, of the "Necessity
of strict Union between the whole Colonies,
65

THE CONQUEST OF THE OLD SOUTHWEST
with't any of them considering their particular
Interest separate from the general Good of
the whole." After constructing the fort
"with't the least assistance from South Caro
hna," Major Lewis happened by accident
upon a grand council being held in Echota in
September. At that time he discovered to his
great alarm that the machinations of the
French had already produced the greatest
imaginable change in the sentiment of the
Cherokees. Captain Raymond Demere of the
Provincials, with two hundred English troops,
had arrived to garrison the fort ; but the head
men of all the Upper Towns were secretly in
fluenced to agree to write a letter to Captain
Demere, ordering him to return immediately
to Charleston with all the troops under his
command. At the grand council, Atta-kuUa-
kuUa, the great Cherokee chieftain, passion
ately declared to the head men, who listened
approvingly, that "as to the few soldiers of
Captain Demere that was there, he would take
their Guns, and give them to his young men
to hunt with and as to their clothes they would
66

IN DEFENSE OF CIVILIZATION
soon be worn out and their skins would be
tanned, and be of the same colour as theirs,
and that they should live among them as
slaves." With impressive dignity Major
Lewis rose and earnestly pleaded for the ob
servance of the terms of the treaty solemnly
negotiated the preceding March. In re
sponse, the crafty and treacherous chieftains
desired Lewis to tell the Governor of Virginia
that, "they had taken up the Hatchet against
all Nations that were Enemies to the English" ;
but Lewis, an astute student of Indian psy
chology, rightly surmised that all their glib
professions of friendship and assistance were
"only to put a gloss on their knavery." *^ So
it proved; for instead of the four hundred
warriors promised under the treaty for service
in Virginia, the Cherokees sent only seven war
riors, accompanied by three women. Al
though the Cherokees petitioned Virguiia for
a number of men to garrison the Virginia fort,
Dinwiddle postponed sending the fifty men
provided for by the Virginia Assembly until
he could reassure himself in regard to the
67

THE CONQUEST OF THE OLD SOUTHWEST
"Behaviour and Intention" of the treacherous
Indian allies. This proved to be a prudent
decision; for not long after its erection the
V Virginia fort was destroyed by the Indians.
Whether on account of the dissatisfaction
expressed by the Cherokees over the erection
of the Virginia fort or because of a recognition
of the mistaken policy of garrisoning a work
erected by Virginia with troops sent from
Charleston, South Carolina immediately pro
ceeded to build another stronghold on the
southern bank of the Tennessee at the mouth
of TeUico River, some seven miles from the
site of the Virginia fort ; and here were posted
twelve great guns, brought thither at immense
labor through the wilderness.** To this fort,
named Fort Loudoun in honor of Lord Lou
doun, then commander-in-chief of all the Eng
hsh forces in America, the Indians allured arti
sans by donations of land; and during the next
three or four years a little settlement sprang
up there.
The frontiers of Virginia suffered most from
the incursions of hostile Indians during the
68

IN DEFENSE OF CIVILIZATION
fourteen months foUowing May 1, 1755. In
July, the Rev. Hugh McAden records that he
preached in Virginia on a day set apart for
fasting and prayer "on account of the wars
and many murders, committed by the savage
Indians on the back inhabitants." On July
30th a large party of Shawano Indians fell
upon the New River settlement and wiped it
out of existence. William Ingles was absent
at the time of the raid; and Mrs. Ingles, who
was captured, afterward effected her escape.*'
The following summer (June 25, 1756), Fort
Vaux on the headwaters of the Roanoke, under
the command of Captain John Smith, was cap
tured by about one hundred French and In
dians, who burnt the fort, killed John Smith
junior, John Robinson, John Tracey and John
Ingles, wounded four men, and captured twen
ty-two men, women, and children. Among
the captured was the famous Mrs. Mary
Ingles, whose husband, John Ingles, was
killed; but after being "carried away into
Captivity, amongst whom she was barbarously
treated," according to her own statement, she
69

THE CONQUEST OF THE OLD SOUTHWEST
finally escaped and returned to Virginia.^"
The frontier continued to be infested by
marauding bands of French and Indians; and
Dinwiddle gloomily confessed to Dobbs (July
22d) : "I apprehend that we shall always be
harrass'd with fly'g Parties of these Banditti
unless we form an Expedit'n ag'st them, to
attack 'em in y'r Towns." ^* Such an expedi
tion, known as the Sandy River Expeditioii,
had been sent out in February to avenge the
massacre of the New River settlers; but the
enterprise engaged in by about four hundred
Virginians and Cherokees under Major An
drew Lewis and Captain Richard Pearis,
proved a disastrous failure. Not a single In
dian was seen; and the party suffered extraor
dinary hardships and narrowly escaped star
vation.®^ In conformity with his treaty obligations
with the Catawbas, Governor Dobbs commis
sioned Captain Hugh WaddeU to erect the
fort promised the Catawbas at the spot chosen
by the commissioners near the mouth of the
South Fork of the Catawba River. This fort,
70

IN DEFENSE OF CIVILIZATION
for which four thousand pounds had been ap
propriated, was for the most part completed
by midsummer, 1757. But owing, it appears,
both to the machinations of the French and to
the intermeddling of the South Carolina
traders, who desired to retain the trade of the
Catawbas for that province, Oroloswa, the Ca
tawba King Heygler, sent a "talk" to Gov
ernor Lyttelton, requesting that North Caro
lina desist from the work of construction and
that no fort be built except by South Carolina.
Accordingly, Governor Dobbs ordered Cap
tain Waddell to discharge the workmen (Au
gust II, 1757) ®^ ; and every effort was made for
many months thereafter to conciliate the Ca
tawbas, erstwhile friends of North Carohna.
The Catawba fort erected by North Carolina
was never fully completed; and several years
later South Carolina, having succeeded in
alienating the Catawbas from North Carolina,
which colony had given them the best possible
treatment, built for them a fort ®* at the mouth
of Line Creek on the east bank of the Catawba
River. 71

THE CONQUEST OF THE OLD SOUTHWEST
"M In the spring and summer of 1757 the long-
expected Indian allies arrived in Virginia, as
many as four hundred by May — Cherokees,
Catawbas, Tuscaroras, and Nottaways. But
Dinwiddle was wholly unable to use them ef
fectively; and in order to provide amusement
for them, he directed that they should go "a
scalping" with the whites — "a barbarous
method of war," frankly acknowledged the
governor, "introduced by the French, which we
are oblidged to follow in our own defense."
Most of the Indian alhes discontentedly re
turned home before the end of the year, but
the remainder waited until the next year, to
take part in the campaign against Fort Du- *"
quesne. Three North Carolina companies,
composed of trained soldiers and hardy fron
tiersmen, went through this campaign under
the command of Major Hugh WaddeU, the
"Washington of North Carohna." Long of
limb and broad of chest, powerful, lithe, and
active, Waddell was an ideal leader for this
arduous service, being fertile in expedient and
skilful in the employment of Indian tactics.
72

IN DEFENSE OF CIVILIZATION
With true provincial pride Governor Dobbs
records that Waddell "had great honor done
him, being employed in all reconnoitring par
ties, and dressed and acted as an Indian; and
his sergeant, Rogers, took the only Indian pris
oner, who gave Mr. Forbes certain intelligence
of the forces in Fort Duquesne, upon which
they resolved to proceed." This apparently
trivial incident is remarkable, in that it proved
to be the decisive factor in a campaign that
was about to be abandoned. The information
in regard to the state of the garrison at Fort
Duquesne, secured from the Indian, for the
capture of whom two leading officers had of
fered a reward of two hundred and fifty
pounds, emboldened Forbes to advance rather
than to retire. Upon reaching the fort (No
vember 25th), he found it abandoned by the
enemy. Sergeant Rogers never received the
reward promised by General Forbes and the
other Enghsh oflSicer; but some time afterward
he was compensated by a modest sum from
the colony of North Carolina.^^
A series of unfortunate occurrences, chiefly
73

THE CONQUEST OF THE OLD SOUTHWEST
the fault of the whites, soon resulted in the
precipitation of a terrible Indian outbreak. A
party of Cherokees, returning home in May,'
1758, seized some stray horses on the frontier
of Virginia — never dreaming of any wrong,
says an old historian, as they saw it frequently
done by the whites. The owners of the horses,
hastily forming a party, went in pursuit of
the Indians and killed twelve or fourteen of
the number. The relatives of the slain In
dians, greatly incensed, vowed vengeance upon
the whites.®^ Nor was the tactless conduct of.
Forbes calculated to quiet this resentment ; for
when Atta-kuUa-kuUa and nine other chieftains
deserted in disgust at the treatment accorded
them, they were pursued by Forbes's orders,
apprehended and disarmed.®^ This rude treat
ment, coupled with the brutal and wanton mur
der of some Cherokee hunters a little earlier,
by an irresponsible band of Virginians under
Captain Robert Wade, still further aggra
vated the Indians.®*
Incited by the French, who had fled to the
southward after the fall of Fort Duquesne,
74

IN DEFENSE OF CIVILIZATION
parties of bloodthirsty young Indians rushed
down upon the settlements and left in their
path death and desolation along the frontiers
of the Carolinas.®' On the upper branch of
the Yadkin and below the South Yadkin near
Fort Dobbs twenty-two whites feU m swift
succession before the secret onslaughts of the
savages from the lower Cherokee towns.*"*
Many of the settlers along the Yadkin fled to
the Carolina Fort at Bethabara and the stock
ade at the mill; and the sheriff of Rowan
County suffered siege by the Cherokees, in his
home, until rescued by a detachment under
Brother Loesch from Bethabara. While
many famihes took refuge in Fort Dobbs,
frontiersmen under Captain Morgan Bryan
ranged through the mountains to the west of
Salisbury and guarded the settlements from
the hostile incursions of the savages. So
gravely alarmed were the Rowan settlers, com
pelled by the Indians to desert their planting
and crops, that Colonel Harris was despatched
post-haste for aid to Cape Fear, arriving
there on July 1st. With strenuous energy
75

THE CONQUEST OF THE OLD SOUTHWEST
Captain Waddell, then stationed in the east,
rushed two companies of thirty men each to
the rescue, sending by water-carriage six
swivel guns and ammunition on before him;
and these reinforcements brought rehef at last
to the harassed Rowan frontiers.®* During
the remainder of the year, the borders were
kept clear by bold and tireless rangers — under
the leadership of expert Indian fighters of the
stamp of Griffith Rutherford and Morgan
Bryan. When the Cherokee warriors who had
wrought havoc along the North Carohna bor
der in April arrived at their town of Settiquo,
they proudly displayed the twenty-two scalps
of the slain Rowan settlers. Upon the de
mand for these scalps by Captain Demere at
Fort Loudon and under direction of Atta-
kuUa-kuUa, the Settiquo warriors surrendered
eleven of the scalps to Captain Demere who,
according to custom in time of peace, buried
them. New murders on Pacolet and along
the Virginia Path, which occurred shortly
afterward, caused gloomy forebodings ; and it
76

IN DEFENSE OF CIVILIZATION
was plain, says a contemporary gazette, that
"the lower Cherokees were not satisfied with
the murder of the Rowan settlers, but intended
further mischief." ®^ On October 1st and
again on October 31st, Governor Dobbs re
ceived urgent requests from Governor Lyttel
ton, asking that the North Carohna provin
cials and militia cooperate to bring him assist
ance. Although there was no law requiring
the troops to march out of the province and
the exposed frontiers of North Carolina sorely
needed protection, Waddell, now commis
sioned colonel, assembled a force of five small
companies and marched to the aid of Governor
Lyttelton. But early in January, 1760, while
on the march, Waddell received a letter from
Lyttelton, informing him that the assistance
was not needed and that a treaty of peace had '
been negotiated with the Cherokees.®*

77

CHAPTER VI
CRUSHING THE CHEROKEES
Thus ended the Cherokee war, which was among the last
humbling strokes given to the expiring power of France in
North America. — Hewatt: An Historical Account of the Rise and
Progress of the Colonies of South Carolina
and Georgia. 1779.
GOVERNOR LYTTELTON'S treaty
of "peace," negotiated with the Chero
kees at the close of 1759, was worse than a
crime: it was a crass and hideous blunder.
His domineering attitude and tyrannical treat
ment of these Indians had aroused the bitterest
animosity. Yet he did not realize that it was
no longer safe to trust their word. No sooner
did the governor withdraw his army from tlfip
borders than the cunning Cherokees, whose pas
sions had been inflamed by what may fairly be
called the treacherous conduct of Lyttelton,
yushed down with merciless ferocity "upon the
7§

CRUSHING THE CHEROKEES
innocent and defenseless families on the fron
tier. On February 1, 1760, while a large party
(including the family of Patrick Calhoun),
numbering in all about one hundred and fifty
persons, were removing from the Long Cane
settlement to Augusta, they were suddenly
attacked by a hundred mounted Cherokees,
who slaughtered about fifty of them. After
the massacre, many of the children were found
helplessly wandering in the woods. One man
alone carried to Augusta no less than nine of
the pitiful innocents, some horribly mutilated
with the tomahawk, others scalped, and aU yet
alive. Atrocities defying description continued to
be committed, and many people were slain.
The Cherokees, under the leadership of Si-
lou-ee, or the Young WaiTior of Estatoe, the
Round O, Tiftoe, and others, were baffled in
their persistent efforts to capture Fort Prince
George. On February 16th the crafty Oconos-
tota appeared before the fort and under the
pretext of desiring some w'hite man to accom
pany him on a visit to the governor on urgent
79

THE CONQUEST OF THE OLD SOUTHWEST
business, lured the commander. Lieutenant
Coytomore, and two attendants to a confer
ence outside the gates. At a preconceived sig
nal a voUey of shots rang out ; the two attend
ants were wounded, and Lieutenant Coyto
more, riddled with bullets, fell dead. En
raged by this act of treachery, the garrison put
to death the Indian hostages within. During
the abortive attack upon the fort, Oconostota,
unaware of the murder of the hostages,
was heard shouting above the din of
battle: "Fight strong, and you shall be re
lieved." ®*
Now began the dark days along the Rowan
border, which were so sorely to test human en
durance. Many refugees fortified themselves
in the different stockades; and Colonel Hugh
Waddell with his redoubtable frontier com
pany of Indian-fighters awaited the onslaught
of the savages, who were reported to have
passed through the mountain defiles and to be
approaching along the foot-hills. The story of
the investment of Fort Dobbs and the splen
didly daring sortie of Waddell and Bailey is
80

CRUSHING THE CHEROKEES
best told in Waddell's report to Governor
Dobbs (February 29, 1760) :
For several Days I observed a small party
of Indians were constantly about the fort, I
sent out several parties after them to no pur
pose, the Evening before last between 8 & 9
o'clock I found by the Dogs making an un
common Noise there must be a party nigh a
Spring which we sometimes use. As my Gar
rison is but small, and I was apprehensive it
might be a scheme to draw out the Garrison,
I took our Capt. Bailie who with myself and
party made up ten: We had not marched
300 yds. from the fort when we were attacked
by at least 60 or 70 Indians. I had given
my party Orders not to fire until I gave the
word, which they punctually observed: We
reed the Indians' fire : When I perceived they
had almost all fired, I ordered my party to
fire which We did not further than 12 steps
each loaded with a Bullet and 7 Buck Shot,
they had nothing to cover them as they were
advancing either to tomahawk us or make us
Prisoners : They found the fire very hot from
so small a Number which a good deal confused
them: I then ordered my party to retreat, as
I found the Instant pur skirmish began an
other party had attacked the fort, upon our
reinforcing the garrison the Indians were soon
81

THE CONQUEST OF THE OLD SOUTHWEST
repulsed with I am sure a considerable Loss,
from what I myself saw as well as those I can
confide in they cou'd not have less than 10 or
12 kiUed and wounded; The next Morning we
found a great deal of Blood and one dead
whom I suppose they cou'd not find in the
night. On my side I had 2 Men wounded one
of whom I am afraid will die as he is scalped,
the other is in way of Recovery, and one boy
killed near the fort whom they durst not ad
vance to scalp. I expected they would have
paid me another visit last night, as they attack
all Fortifications by Night, but find they did
not like their Reception.®®
Alarmed by Waddell's "offensive-defen
sive," the Indians abandoned the siege. Rob
ert CampbeU, WaddeU's ranger, who was
scalped in this engagement, subsequently re
covered from his wounds and was recompensed
by the colony with the sum of twenty pounds.'^
In addition to the frontier mihtia, four in
dependent companies were now placed under
Waddell's command. Companies of volun
teers scoured the woods in search of the lurking
Indian foe. These rangers, who were clad in
hunting-shirts and buckskin leggings, and who
82

CRUSHING THE CHEROKEES
employed Indian tactics in fighting, were cap
tained by such hardy leaders as the veteran
Morgan Bryan, the intrepid Griffith Ruther
ford, the German partisan, Martin Phifer
(Pfeiffer), and Anthony Hampton, the father
of General Wade Hampton. They visited
periodically a chain of "forest castles" erected
by the settlers — extending all the way from
Fort Dobbs and the Moravian fortifications in
the Wachau to Samuel Stalnaker's stockade
on the Middle Fork of the Holston in Vir
ginia. About the middle of March, thirty
volunteer Rowan County rangers encountered
a band of forty Cherokees, who fortified them
selves in a deserted house near the Catawba
River. The famous scout and hunter, John
Perkins, assisted by one of his bolder com
panions, crept up to the house and flung
hghted torches upon the roof. One of the In
dians, as the smoke became suffocating and
the flames burned hotter, exclaimed: "Better
for one to die bravely than for all to perish
miserably in the flames," and darting forth,
dashed rapidly hither and thither, in order to
83

THE CONQUEST OF THE OLD SOUTHWEST
draw as many shots as possible. This act of
superb self-sacrifice was successful; and while
the rifles of the whites, who riddled the brave
Indian with baUs, were empty, the other sav
ages made a wild dash for liberty. Seven feU
thus under the deadly rain of bullets ; but many
escaped. Ten of the Indians, all told, lost
their scalps, for which the volunteer rangers
were subsequently paid one hundred pounds
by the colony of North Carolina.®^
Beaten back from Fort Dobbs, sorely de
feated along the Catawba, hotly pursued by
the rangers, the Cherokees continued to lurk
in the shadows of the dense forests, and at
every opportunity to fall suddenly upon way
faring settlers and isolated cabins remote from
any stronghold. On March Sth William Fish,
his son, and Thompson, a companion, were
riding along the "trace," in search of provi
sions for a group of famihes fortified on the
Yadkin, when a flight of arrows hurtled from
the cane-brake, and Fish and his son fell dead.
Although pierced with two arrows, one in the
hip and one clean through his body, Thomp-
84i

CRUSHING THE CHEROKEES
son escaped upon his fleet horse; and after a
night of ghastly suffering finally reached the
Carolina Fort at Bethabara. The good Dr.
Bonn, by skilfully extracting the barbed
shafts from his body, saved Thompson's life.
The pious Moravians rejoiced over the recov
ery of the brave messenger, whose sensational
arrival gave them timely warning of the close
proximity of the Indians. While feeding
their cattle, settlers were shot from ambush
by the lurking foe; and on March 11th, a fam
ily barricaded within a burning house, which
they were defending with desperate courage,
were rescued in the nick of time by the militia.
No episode from Fenimore Cooper's Leather-
stocking Tales surpasses in melancholy inter
est Harry Hicks's heroic defense of his little
fort on Bean Island Creek. Surrounded by
the Indians, Hicks and his family took refuge
within the small outer pahsade around his
humble home. Fighting desperately against
terrific odds, he was finally driven from his
yard into his log cabin, which he continued
to defend with dauntless courage. With
85

THE CONQUEST OF THE OLD SOUTHWEST
every shot he tried to send a redskin to the
happy hunting-grounds; and it was only after
his powder was exhausted that he fell, fighting
to the last, beneath the deadly tomahawk. So
impressed were the Indians by his bravery that
they spared the life of his wife and his little
son; and these were afterward rescued by
Waddell when he marched to the Cherokee
towns in 1761.®*
The kindly Moravians had always enter
tained with generous hospitality the roving
bands of Cherokees, who accordingly held
them in much esteem and spoke of Bethabara
as "the Dutch Fort, where there are good peo
ple and much bread." But now, in these
dread days, the truth of their daily text was
brought forcibly home to the Moravians:
"Neither Nehemiah nor his brethren put oif
their clothes, but prayed as they watched."
With Bible in one hand and rifle in the other,
the inhabitant of Wachovia sternly marched
to religious worship. No Puritan of bleak
New England ever showed more resolute cour
age or greater will to defend the hard-won
86

CRUSHING THE CHEROKEES
outpost of civilization than did the pious Mo
ravian of the Wachau. At the new settlement
of Bethania on Easter Day, more than four
hundred souls, including sixty rangers, hstened
devoutly to the eloquent sermon of Bishop
Spangenberg concerning the way of salvation
— the while their arms, stacked without the
Gemein Haus, were guarded by the watchful
sentinel. On March 14th the watchmen at
Bethania with well-aimed shots repealled the
Indians, whose hideous yells of baffied rage
sounded down the wind like "the howling of
a hundred wolves." Religion was no protec
tion against the savages; for three ministers
journeying to the present site of Salem were
set upon by the red men — one escaping, an
other suffering capture, and the third, a Bap
tist, losing his life. A little later word came
to Fort Dobbs that John Long and Robert
Gillespie of Salisbury had been shot from am
bush and scalped — Long having been pierced
with eight buUets and Gillespie with seven.®'
There is one beautiful incident recorded by
the Moravians, which has a truly symbolic sig-
87

THE CONQUEST OF THE OLD SOUTHWEST
nifieance. While the war was at its height,
a strong party of Cherokees, who had lost their
chief, planned in retaliation to attack Bethab
ara. "When they went home," sets forth
the Moravian Diary, "they said they had been
to a great town, where there were a great many
people, where the bells rang often, and during
the night, time after time, a horn was blown,
so that they feared to attack the town and
had taken no prisoners." The trumpet of the
watchman, announcing the passing of the hour,
had convinced the Indians that their plans for
attack were discovered; and the regular eve
ning bell, summoning the pious to prayer, rang
in the stricken ears of the red men like the
clamant call to arms.
Following the retirement from oflice of Gov
ernor Lyttelton, Lieutenant-Governor Bull
proceeded to prosecute the war with vigor.
On April 1, 1760, twelve hundred men under
Colonel Archibald Montgomerie arrived at
Charleston, with instructions to strike an im
mediate blow and to relieve Fort Loudon, then
invested by the Cherokees. With his own
88

THE OLD SOUTHWEST
1740-1790
Scg/e of M//f.s

Sett/emsnts ^nd Projectecf State
¦¦"¦¦•'-» Proc/amat/on /.trte of /76J
— — ^i— f'-j'On's t/ne. /767
— '-t-iilfa of r/-i!aty,c.f Hard La6ar. Oc&/4,/7e8
<«««< Line of Treaty of L ochaber. Oct. /e, /770
xxxxx«x Done/son's L/ne. /77/
n  """l"l Transy/i/ania. Afarch /4-/7, /77S IpS^^l'lfk"'
 }^3t3ug3 and Browrj-'s Furc/7ases. /77e,/77s^ ^i^
.—*....-—' Fran/r//h. /7S3 f/^ ^^ Srygn's'^^

COLONEL ARCHIBALD MONTGOMERIE (1726-1796)
Mezzotint by S. W. Reynolds after the original painting by
C. F. V. Breda

CRUSHING THE CHEROKEES
force, two hundred and ninety-five South
Carolina Rangers, forty picked men of the
new "levies," and "a good number of guides,"
Montgomerie moved from Fort Ninety-Six on
May 28th. On the first of June, crossing
Twelve-Mile River, Montgomerie began the''
campaign in earnest, devastating and burning
every Indian village in the Valley of Keowee,
killing and capturing more than a hundred of
the Cherokees, and destroying immense stores
of corn. Receiving no reply to his summons
to the Cherokees of the Middle and Upper
Towns to make peace or suffer like treatment,
Montgomerie took up his march from Fort
Prince George on June 24th, resolved to carry
out his threat. On the morning of the 27th,
he was drawn into an ambuscade within six
miles of Et-chow-ee, eight miles south of the
present Franklin, North Carolina, a mile and
a half below Smith's Bridge, and was vigor
ously attacked from dense cover by some six
hundred and thirty warriors led by Si-lou-ee.
Fighting with Indian tactics, the Provincial
Rangers under Patrick Calhoun particularly
89

THE CONQUEST OF THE OLD SOUTHWEST
distinguished themselves; and the blood-curd
ling yells of the painted savages were re
sponded to by the wild huzzas of the kilted
-Highlanders who, waving their Scotch bon
nets, impetuously charged the redskins and
drove them again and again from their lurk
ing-places. Nevertheless Montgomerie lost
from eighty to one hundred in killed and
wounded, while the loss of the Indians was
supposed to be about half the loss of the whites.
Unable to care for his wounded and lacking
the means of removing his baggage, Montgom
erie silently withdrew his forces. In so doiag,
he acknowledged defeat, since he was com
pelled to abandon his original intention of re
lieving the beleaguered garrison of Fort Lou
don. Captain Demere and his devoted little band,
who had been resolutely holding out, were now
left to their tragic fate. After the bread was
exhausted, the garrison was reduced to the
necessity of eating dogs and horses; and the
loyal aid of the Indian wives of some of the
garrison, who secretly brought them supplies
90

CRUSHING THE CHEROKEES
of food daily, enabled them to hold out still
longer. Reahzing at last the futility of pro
longing the hopeless contest, Captaui Demere
surrendered the fort on August 8, 1760. At
daylight the next morning, while on the march
to Fort Prince George, the soldiers were set
upon by the treacherous Cherokees, who at
the first onset killed Captain Demere and
twenty-nine others. A humane chieftain,
Outassitus,. says one of the gazettes of the day,
"went around the field caUing upon the In
dians to desist, and making such representa
tions to them as stopped the further progress
and effects of their barbarous and brutal rage,"
which expressed itself in scalping and hacking
off the arms and legs of the defenseless whites.
Atta-kuUa-kuUa, who was friendly to the
whites, claimed Captain Stuart, the second
oflScer, as his captive, and bore him away by
stealth. After nine days' journey through
the wilderness they encountered an advance
party under Major Andrew Lewis, sent out
by Colonel Byrd, head of a reheving army,
to rescue and succor any of the garrison who
91

THE CONQUEST OF THE OLD SOUTHWEST
might effect their escape. Thus Stuart was
restored to his friends. This abortive and
tragic campaign, in which the victory lay con
clusively with the Indians, ended when Byrd
disbanded his new levies and Montgomerie
sailed from Charleston for the north (August,
1760). During the remainder of the year, the prov
ince of North Carolina remained free of fur
ther alarms from the Indians. But the view
was generally entertained that one more joint
effort of North Carolina, South Carohna, and
Virginia would have to be made in order to
humble the Cherokees. At the sessions of the
North Carolina Assembly in November and
again in December, matters in dispute between
Governor Dobbs and the representatives of the
people made impossible the passage of a pro
posed aid bill, providing for five hundred men
to cooperate with Virginia and South Caro
lina. Nevertheless volunteers in large num
bers patriotically marched from North Caro
lina to Charleston and the Congaree (Decem
ber, 1760, to April, 1761), to enlist in the fa-
92

COLONEL JAMES GRANT (1720-1806)
From I. Kay's Original Portraits (1798)

CRUSHING THE CHEROKEES
mous regiment being organized by Colonel
Thomas Middleton.^'' On March 31, 1761,
Governor Dobbs called together the Assembly
to act upon a letter received from General
Amherst, outlining a more vigorous plan of.
campaign appropriate to the succession of a
'young and vigorous sovereign, George IIL
An aid bill was passed, providing twenty thou
sand poimds for men and supplies; and one
regiment of five companies of one hundred men
each, under the command of Colonel Hugh
Waddell, was mustered into service for seven
months' duty, beginning May 1, 1761.''^
On July 7, 1761, Colonel James Grant, de
tached from the main army in command of a
force of twenty-six hundred men, took up his
march from Fort Prince George. Attacked
on June 10th two miles south of the spot where
Montgomerie was engaged the preceding year.
Grant's army, after a vigorous engagement
lasting several hours, drove off the Indians.
The army then proceeded at leisure to lay
waste the fifteen towns of the Middle Settle
ments; and, after this work of systematic de-

THE CONQUEST OF THE OLD SOUTHWEST
vastation was over, returned to Fort Prince
George. Peace was concluded in September
as the result of this campaign; and in conse
quence the frontier was pushed seventy mUes
farther to the west.
Meantime, Colonel Waddell with his force
of five hundred North Carolinians had acted
in concert with Colonel Wilham Byrd, com
manding the Virginia detachment. The com
bined forces went into camp at Captain Sam
uel Stalnaker's old place on the Middle Fork
of Holston. Because of his deliberately dila
tory policy, Byrd was superseded in the com
mand by Colonel Adam Stephen. Marching
their forces to the Long Island of Holston, Ste
phen and Waddell ei*ected there Fort Robin
son, in comphance with the instructions of
Governor Fauquier, of Virginia. The Chero- ]
kees, heartily tired of the war, now sued for
peace, which was concluded, independent of
the treaty at Charleston, on November 19,
1761. The successful termination of this campaign
had an effect of signal importance in the de-
94

CRUSHING THE CHEROKEES
velopment of the expansionist spirit. The rich
and beautiful lands Which fell under the eye
of the North Carohna and Virguiia pioneers
under Waddell, Byrd, and Stephen, lured
them irresistibly on to wider casts for fortune
and bolder explorations into the unknown,
beckoning West.

95

CHAPTER VII
THE LAND COMPANIES
It was thought good policy to settle those lands as fast as
possible, and that the granting them to men of the first con
sequence who were likeliest and best able to procure large
bodies of people to settle on them was the most probable
means of effecting the end proposed.
— AcnifG-GovERNOR Nelson of Virginia to the
Earl of Hillsborough: 1770.
ALTHOUGH for several decades the Vir
ginia traders had been passing over the
Great Trading Path to the towns of the Chero
kees and the Catawbas, it was not until the
early years of the eighteenth century that Vir
ginians of imaginative vision directed their
eyes to the westward, intent upon crossing the
mountains and locating settlements as a firm
barrier against the imperialistic designs of
France. Acting upon his oft-expressed con
viction that once the English settlers had estab
lished themselves at the source of the James
96

THE LAND COMPANIES
River "it would not be in the power of the
French to dislodge them," Governor Alexan
der Spotswood in 1716, ammated with the
spirit of the pioneer, led an expedition of fifty
men and a train of pack-horses to the moun
tains, arduously ascended to the summit of
the Blue Ridge, and claimed the country by
right of discovery in behalf of his sovereign.
In the journal of John Fontaine this vivacious
account is given of the historic episode: "I
graved my name on a tree by the river side;
and the Governor buried a bottle with a paper
enclosed on which he writ that he took posses
sion of this place in the name and for King
George the First of England. We had a good
dinner, and after it we got the men together
and loaded all their arms and we drank the
King's health in Burgundy and fired a voUey,
and aU the rest of the Royal Family in claret
and a voUey. We drank the Governor's
health and fired another volley."
By this jovial picnic, which the governor
afterward commemorated by presenting to
each of the gentlemen who accompanied him
97

THE CONQUEST OF THE OLD SOUTHWEST
a golden horseshoe, inscribed with the legend,
Sic juvat transcendere montes, Alexander
Spotswood anticipated by a third of a century
the more ambitious expedition on behalf of
France by Celoron de Bienville (see Chapter
III), and gave a memorable object-lesson in
the true spirit of westward expansion. Dur
ing the ensuing years it began to dawn upon
the minds of men of the stamp of WilUam
Byrd and Joi^hua Gee that there was impera
tive need for the establishment of a chain of
settlements in the trans-AUeghany, a great hu
man waU to withstand the advancing wave of
French influence and occupation. By the
fifth decade of the century, as we have seen,
the Virginia settlers, with their squatter's
claims and tomahawk rights, had pushed on
to the mountains; and great pressure was
brought to bear upon the council to issue
grants for vast tracts of land in the uncharted
wilderness of the interior.
At this period the English ministry adopted
the aggressive policy already mentioned in
connection with the French and Indian war,
98

THE LAND COMPANIES
indicative of a determination to contest with
France the right to occupy the interior of the
continent. This pohcy had been inaugurated
by Virginia with the express purpose df stimu
lating the adoption of a similar pohcy by North
Carolina and Pennsylvania. Two land com
panies, organized almost simultaneously, ac
tively promoted the preliminaries necessary to
settlement, despatching parties under expert
leadership to discover the passes through the
mountains and to locate the best land in the
trans-AUeghany. In June, 1749, a great corporation, the
Loyal Land Company of Virginia, received
a grant of eight hundred thousand acres above
the North Carohna line and west of the moun
tains. Dr. Thomas Walker, an expert sur
veyor, who in company with several other gen
tlemen had made a tour of exploration through
eastern Tennessee and the Holston region in
1748, was chosen as the agent of this company.
Starting from his home in Albemarle County,
Virginia, March 6, 1750, accompanied by five
stalwart pioneers. Walker made a tour of ex-
99

THE CONQUEST OF THE OLD SOUTHWEST
ploration to the westward, bemg absent four
months and one week. On this journey, which
carried the party as far west as the Rockcastle
River (May 11th) and as far north as the
present Paintsville, Kentucky, they named
many natural objects, such as mountains and
rivers, after members of the party. Their two
principal achievements were the erection of the
first house built by white men between the
Cumberland Mountains and the Ohio River —
a feat, however, which led to no important de
velopments ; and the discovery of the wonder
ful gap in the Alleghanies to which Walker
gave the name Cumberland, in honor of the
ruthless conqueror at CuUoden, the "bloody
duke." In 1748 the Ohio Company was organized
by Colonel Thomas Lee, president of the Vir
ginia council, and twelve other gentlemen, of .
Virginia and Maryland. In their petition for
five hundred thousand acres, one of the de
clared objects of the company was "to antici
pate the French by taking possession of that
country southward of the Lakes to which the
100

THE LAND COMPANIES
French had no right. . . ." By the royal
order of May 19, 1749, the company was
awarded two hundred thousand acres, free of
quit-rent for ten years; and the promise was
made of an additional award of the remainder
petitioned for, on condition of seating a hun
dred famihes upon the original grant and the
buUding and maintaining of a fort. Christo
pher Gist, summoned from his remote home
on the Yadkin in North Carohna, was in
structed "to search out and discover the Lands
upon the river Ohio & other adjoining branches
of the Mississippi down as low as the great
FaUs thereof." In this journey, which began
at Colonel Thomas Cresap's, in Maryland, in
October, 1750, and ended at Gist's home on
May 18, 1751, Gist visited the Lower Shawnee
Town and the Lower Blue Licks, ascended
Pilot Knob almost two decades before Find
lay and Boone, from the same eminence, "saw
with pleasure the beautiful level of Kentucky,"
intersected Walker's route at two points, and
crossed Cumberland Mountain at Pound Gap
on the return journey. This was a far more
101

THE CONQUEST OF THE OLD SOUTHWEST'
extended journey than Walker's, enabhng
Gist to explore the fertUe vaUeys of the Musk
ingum, Scioto, and Miami rivers and to gain
a view of the beautiful meadows of Kentucky."
It is eminently significant of the spirit of
the age, which was inaugura&ig an era of land-
hunger unparalleled in American history, that
the first authentic records of ^the trans-Alle*
ghany were made by surveyors who visited the
country as the agents of great land companies.
The outbreak of the French and Indian War
so soon afterward delayed for a decade and
more any important colonization of the West.
Indeed, the explorations and findings of
Walker and Gist were almost unknown, even
to the companies they represented. But the
conclusion of peace in 1763, which gave aU the
region between the mountains and the Missis
sippi to the British, heralded the true begin
ning of the westward expansionist movement
in the Old Southwest, and inaugurated the
constructive leadership of North Carohna in
the occupation and colonization of the imperial
domain of Kentucky and the Ohio Valley.
102,

THE LAND COMPANIES
In the middle years of the century many
famiUes of Virginia gentry removed to the
back country of North Carolma m the fertile
region ranging from Wilhamsborough on the
east to HUlsborough on the west.'^* There
soon arose in this section of the colony a so
ciety marked by inteUeotual distinction, social
graces, and the leisured dignity of the land
lord and the large planter. So conspicuous^
for means, inteUect, culture, and refinement
were the people of this group, having "abun
dance of wealth and leisure for enjoyment,"/
that Governor Josiah Martin, in passing
through this region some years later, signifi
cantly observes: "They have great pre-emi
nence, as weU with respect to soU and cultiva
tion, as to the manners and condition of the
inhabitants, in which last respect the difference
is so great that one would be led to think
them people of another region." ^* This new
wealthy class which was now turning its gaze
toward the unoccupied lands along the frontier
was "dominated by the democratic ideals of
pioneers rather than by the aristocratic tend-
103

THE CONQUEST OF THE OLD SOUTHWEST
encies of slave-holding planters." ^^ From the
cross-fertilization of the ideas of two social
groups — ^this back-country gentry, of innate
quahtiesjof leadership, democratic instincts,
economic independence, and expansive tenden
cies, and the primitive pioneer society of the
frontier, frugal in taste, responsive to leader
ship, bold, ready, and thorough in execution
— there evolved the- mihtant American expan
sion in the Old Southwest.
A conspicuous figure in this society of Vu"-
ginia emigrants was a young man named Rich
ard Henderson, whose father had removed
with his family from Hanover County, Vir
ginia, to Bute, afterward Granville County,
North Carolina, in 1742.^" Educated at home
by a private tutor, he began his career as as
sistant of his father, Samuel Henderson, the
High Sheriff of Granville County; and after
receiving a law-license, quickly acquired an
extensive practice. "Even in the superior
courts where oratory and eloquence are as
brilliant and powerful as in Westminster-
hall," records an English acquauitance, "he
104<

THE LAND COMPANIES
soon became distinguished and eminent, and
his superior genius shone forth with great
splendour, and universal applause." This
young attorney, wedded to the daughter of
an Irish lord, often visited Salisbury on his
legal circuit; and here he became well ac
quainted with Squire Boone, one of the
"WorshipfuU Justices," and often appeared
in suits before him. By his son, the nomadic
Daniel Boone, conspicuous already for his
solitary wanderings across the dark green
mountains to the sun-lit valleys and bound
less hunting-grounds beyond, Henderson was
from time to time regaled with bizarre and
fascinating tales of western exploration;
and Boone, in his dark hour of poverty and
distress, when he was heavily involved finan
cially, turned for aid to this friend and his
partner, who composed the law-firm of Wil
liams and Henderson.'^^
Boone's vivid descriptions of the paradise
of the West stimulated Henderson's imagina
tive mind and attracted his attention to the
rich possibihties of unoccupied lands there.
105

THE CONQUEST OF THE OLD SOUTHWEST
While the Board of Trade in drafting the
royal proclamation of October 7, 1763, forbade
the granting of lands in the vast interior, which
was specifically reserved to the Indians, it was
clearly not their intention to set permanent
western limits to the colonies.''* The prevail
ing opinion among the shrewdest men of the
period was well expressed by George Wash
ington, who wrote his agent for preempting
western lands: "I can never look upon that
proclamation in any other light (but I say this
between ourselves) than as a temporary ex
pedient to quiet the minds of the Indians."
And again in 1767: "It [the proclamation
of 1763] must fall, of course, in a few years,
especially when those Indians consent to our
occupying the lands. Any person, therefore,
who neglects the present opportunity of hunt
ing out good lands, and in some measure mark
ing out and distinguishing them for his own, in
order to keep others from settling them, will
never regain it." Washington had added
greatly to his holdings of bounty lands in the
West by purchasing at trivial prices the claims
106

THE LAND COMPANIES
of many of the officers and soldiers. Three
years later we find him surveying extensive
tracts along the Ohio and the Great Kanawha,
and, with the vision of the expansionist, mak
ing large plans for the estabhshment of a
colony to be seated upon his own lands. Hen
derson, too, recognized the importance of the
great country west of the Appalachians. He
agreed with the opinion of Benjamin Frank
lin, who in 1756 called it "one of the finest in
North America for the extreme richness and
fertUity of the land, the healthy temperature
of the air and the mildness of the chmate, the
plenty of hunting, fishing and fowling, the
facUity of trade with the Indians and the vast
convenience of inland navigation or water car
riage." ^® Henderson therefore proceeded to
organize a land company for the purpose of
acquiring and colonizing a large domain in the
West. This partnership, which was entitled
Richard Henderson and Company, was com
posed of a few associates, including Richard
Henderson, his uncle and law-partner, John
Williams, and, in aU probabihty, their close
107

THE CONQUEST OF THE OLD SOUTHWEST
friends Thomas and Nathaniel Hart of
Orange County, North Carolina, immigrants
from Hanover County, Virginia.
Seiz-ing the opportunity presented just after
the conclusion of peace, the company engaged
IDaniel Boone as scout and surveyor. He was
instructed, while hunting and trapping on his
own account, to examine, with respect to their
location and fertility, the lands which he vis
ited, and to report his findings upon his re
turn. The secret expedition must have been
transacted with commendable circumspection;
for although in after years it became common
knowledge among his friends that he had acted
as the company's agent, Boone himself con
sistently refrained from betraying the confi
dence of his employers.*" Upon a similar mis
sion. Gist had carefuUy concealed from the
suspicious Indians the fact that he carried a
compass, which they wittily termed "land
stealer"; and Washington likewise imposed
secrecy upon his land agent Crawford, insist
ing that the operation be carried on under the
guise of hunting game.*^ The discreet Boone,
108

THE LAND COMPANIES
taciturn and given to keeping his own counsel,
in one instance at least deemed it advantageous
to communicate the purpose of his mission to
some hunters, well known to him, in order to
secure the results of their information in re
gard to the best lands they had encountered
in the course of their hunting expedition.
Boone came among the hunters, known as the
"Blevens connection," at one of their Tennes
see station camps on their return from a long
hunt in Kentucky, in order, as expressed in
the quaint phraseology of the period, to be
"informed of the geography and locography
of these woods, saying that he was employed
to explore them by Henderson & Company." **
The acquaintance which Boone on this occa
sion formed with a member of the party,
Henry Scaggs, the skUle^v, hunter and ex
plorer, was soon to bear fruit ; for shortly after
ward Scaggs was employed as prospector by
the same land company. In 1764 Scaggs had
passed through Cumberland Gap and hunted
for the season on the Cumberland; and ac
cordingly the foUowing year, as the agent of
109

THE CONQUEST OF THE OLD SOUTHWEST
Richard Henderson and Company, he was des
patched on an extended exploration to the
lower Cumberland, fixing his station at the salt
lick afterward known as Mansker's Lick.**
Richard Henderson thus, it appears, "en
listed the Harts and others in an enterprise
which his own genius planned," says Peck, the
personal acquaintance and biographer of
Boone, "and then encouraged several hunters
to explore the country and learn where the best
lands lay." Just why Henderson and his asso
ciates did not act sooner upon the reports
brought back by the hunters — Boone and
Scaggs and Callaway, who accompanied Boone
in 1764 in the interest of the land company **—
is not known; but in all probability the frag
mentary nature of these reports, however glow
ing and enthusiastic, was sufficient cause for the
delay of five years before the land company,
through the agency of Boone and Findlay, suc
ceeded in having a thorough exploration made
of the Kentucky region. Delay was also
caused by rival claims to the territory. In the
Virginia Gazette of December 1, 1768, Hen-
110

THE LAND COMPANIES
derson must have read with astonishment not
unmixed with dismay that "the Six Nations
and aU their tributaries have granted a vast
extent of country to his majesty, and the
Proprietaries of Pennsylvania, and settled an
advantageous boundary line between their
hunting country and this, and the other colo
nies to the Southward as far as the Cherokee
River, for which they received the most valu
able present in goods and dollars that was ever
given at any conference since the settlement
of America." The news was now bruited
about through the colony of North Carohna
that the Cherokees were hot in their resentment
because the Northern Indians, the inveterate
foes of the Cherokees and the perpetual dis
putants for the vast Middle Ground of Ken
tucky, had received at the Treaty of Fort
Stanwix, November 5, 1768, an immense com
pensation from the crown for the territory
which they, the Cherokees, claimed from time
immemorial.*^ Only three weeks before, John
Stuart, Superintendent for Indian Affairs in
the Southern Department, had negotiated with
111

THE CONQUEST OF THE OLD SOUTHWEST
the Cherokees the Treaty of Hard Labor,
South Carohna (October i4th) , by which Gov
ernor Tryon's line of 1767, from Reedy River
to Tryon Mountain, was continued direct to
Colonel Chiswell's mine, the present Wythe-
ville, Virginia, and thence in a straight line to
the mouth of the Great Kanawha.*® Thus at
the close of the year 1768 the crown through
both royal governor and superintendent of In
dian affairs acknowledged in fair and open
treaty the right of the Cherokees, whose
Tennessee viUages guarded the gateway, to the
valley lands east of the mountain barrier as
weU as to the dim mid-region of Kentucky.
In the very act of negotiating the Treaty of
Fort Stanwix, Sir William Johnson privately
acknowledged that possession of the trans-
AUeghany could be legally obtained only by
extinguishing the title of the Cherokees.*^
These conflicting claims soon led to coUi-
sions between the Indians and the company's
settlers. In the spring of 1769 occurred one
of those incidents in the westward advance
which, though slight in itself, was to have a
112

THE LAND COMPANIES
definite bearing upon the course of events in
later years. In pursuance of his pohcy, as
agent of the Loyal Land C<Mnpany, of pro
moting settlement upon the company's lands,
Dr. Thomas Walker, who had visited PoweU's
Valley the preceding year and come into pos
session of a very large tract there, simultane
ously made proposals to one party of men in
cluding the Kirtleys, Captain Rucker, and
others, and to another party led by Joseph
Martin, trader of Orange County, Virginia,
afterward a striking figure in the Old South
west. The fevered race by these bands of
eighteenth-century "sooners" for possession of
an early " Cherokee Strip" was won by the
latter band, who at once took possession and
began to clear; so that when the Kirtleys ar
rived, Martin cooUy handed them "a letter
from Dr. Walker that informed them that if
we got to the valley first, we were to have
21,000 acres of land, and they were not to
interfere with us." Martin and his compan
ions were dehghted with the beautiful vaUey
at the base of the Cumberland, quickly "eat
113

THE CONQUEST OF THE OLD SOUTHWEST
and destroyed 23 deer — 15 bears — 2 buffaloes
and a great quantity of turkeys," and enter
tained gentlemen from Virginia and Maryland
who desired to settle more than a hundred fam
ilies there. The company reckoned, however,
without their hosts, the Cherokees, who, forti
fied by the treaty of Hard Labor (1768) which
left this country within the Indian reservation,
were determined to drive Martin and his com
pany out. While hunting on the Cumberland
River, northwest of Cumberland Gap, Martin
and his company were surrounded and dis
armed by a party of Cherokees who said they
had orders from Cameron, the royal agent, to
rob aU white men hunting on their lands.
When Martin and his party arrived at their sta
tion in Powell's Valley, they found it broken
up and their goods stolen by the Indians, which
left them no recourse but to return to the
settlements in Virginia. It was not until six
years later that Martin, under the stable in
fluence of the Transylvania Company, was en
abled to return to this spot and erect there
114

THE LAND COMPANIES
the station which was to play an integral part
in the progress of westward expansion.**
Before going on to relate Boone's explora
tions of Kentu(iy under the auspices of the
land company, it wiU be convenient to turn
back for a moment and give some account of
other hunters and explorers who visited that
territory between the time of its discovery by
Walker and Gist and the advent of Boone.

115

CHAPTER VIII
THE LONG HUNTERS IN THE TWILIGHT ZONE
The long Hunters principally resided in the upper coun
tries of Virginia & North Carolina on New River & Holston!
River, and when they intended to make a long Hunt (as
they calld it) they Collected near the head of Holston near
whare Abingdon now stands. ... 1
— Gexerai. WllXIAM Hali.
BEFORE the coming of Walker and Gist
in 1750 and 1751 respectively, the region
now called Kentucky had, as far as we know,
been twice visited by the French, once in 1729
when Chaussegros de Lery and his party vis
ited the Big Bone* Lick, and again in the sum
mer of 1749 when the Baron de Longueuil
with four hundfed and fifty-two Frenchmen
and Indians, going to join Bienville in an ex
pedition against "the Cherickees and other In
dians lying at the back of Carolina and
Georgia," doubtless encamped on the Ken
tucky shore of the Ohio. Kentucky was also
116

LONG HUNTERS IN THE TWILIGHT ZONE
traversed by John Peter SaUing with his three
adventurous companions in their journey
through the Middle West in 1742. But aU
these early visits, including the memorable ex
peditions of Walker and Gist, were so little
known to the general pubhc that when John
Filson wrote the history of Kentucky in 1784
he attributed its discovery to James McBride
in 1754. More influential upon the course of
westward expansion was an adventure which
occurred in 1752, the very year in which the
Boones settled down in their Yadkin home.
In the autumn of 1752, a Pennsylvania
trader, John Findlay, with three or four com
panions, descended the Ohio River in a canoe
as far as the falls at the present .LouisviUe,
Kentucky, and accompanied a party of Shawa
noes to their town of Es-kip-pa-ki-thi-ki,
eleven mUes east of what is now Winchester.
This was the site of the "Indian Old Corn
Field," the Iroquois name for which ("the
place of many fields," or "prairie") was Ken-
ta-ke, whence came the name of the state.
Five mUes east of this spot, where still may
117

THE CONQUEST OF THE OLD SOUTHWEST
be seen a mound and an ellipse showing the
outline of the stockade, is the famous Pilot
Knob, from the summit of which the fields
surrounding the town he visible in their smooth
expanse. During Findlay's stay at the In
dian town other traders from Pennsylvania
and Virginia, who reported that they were "on
their return from trading with the Cuttawas
(Catawbas), a nation who live in the Territo
ries of Carolina," assembled in the vicinity in
January, 1753. Here, as the result of dis
putes arising from their barter, they were set
upon and captured by a large party of strag
gling Indians (Coghnawagas from Montreal)
on January 26th; but Findlay and another
trader named James Lowry were so fortunate
as to escape and return through the wilder
ness to the Pennsylvania settlements.*® The
incident is of important historic significance;
for it was from these traders, who must have
followed the Great Warriors' Path to the coun
try of the Catawbas, that Findlay learned of
the Ouasioto (Cumberland) Gap traversed by
the Indian path. His reminiscences — of this
118

LONG HUNTERS IN THE TWILIGHT ZONE
gateway to Kentucky, of the site of the old
Indian town on Lulbegrud Creek, a tributary
of the Red River, and of the Pilot Knob —
were sixteen years later to fire Boone to his
great tour of exploration in behalf of the
Transylvania Company.
During the next two decades, largely be
cause of the hostihty of the savage tribes, only
a few traders and hunters from the east ranged
through the trans-AUeghany. But in 1761, a
party of hunters led by a rough frontiersman,
Ehsha Walden, penetrated into PoweU's Val
ley, foUowed the Indian trail through Cumber
land Gap, explored the Cumberland River,
and finally reached the Laurel Mountain
where, encountering a party of Indians, they
deemed it expedient to return. With Walden
went Henry Scaggs, afterward explorer for
the Henderson Land Company, WiUiam
Blevens and Charles Cox, the famous Virginia
hunters, one Newman, and some fifteen other
stout pioneers. Their itinerary may be traced
from the names given to natural objects in
honor of members of the party — ^Walden's
119

THE CONQUEST OF THE OLD SOUTHWEST
Mountain and Walden's Creek, Scaggs' Ridge
and Newman's Ridge. FoUowuig the peace
of 1763, which made travel in this region mod
erately safe once more, the English proceeded
to occupy the territory which they had won.
In 1765 George Croghan with a small party, on
the way to prepare the inhabitants of the Illi
nois country for transfer to English sover
eignty, visited the Great Bone Licks of Ken
tucky (May 30th, 31st) ; and a year later Cap
tain Harry Gordon, chief engineer in the
Western Department in North America, vis
ited and minutely described the same licks and
the faUs. But these, and numerous other
water- jom-neys and expeditions . of which no
records were kept, though interesting enough
in themselves, had little bejiring upon the larger
phases of westward expansion and coloniza*
tion. The decade opening with the year 1765 is
the epoch of bold and ever bolder exploration
— the more adventurous frontiersmen of the
border pushing deep into the wilderness in
search of game, lured on by the excitements of
120

LONG HUNTERS IN THE TWILIGHT ZONE
the chase and the profit to be derived from the
sale of peltries. In midsummer, 1766, Cap
tain James Smith, Joshua Horton, Uriah
Stone, WUham Baker, and a young mu
latto slave passed through Cumberland Gap,
hunted through the country south of the
Cherokee and along the Cumberland and
Tennessee rivers, and as Smith reports "found
no vestige of any white man." During the
same year a party of five hunters from
South Carolina, led by Isaac Lindsey, pene
trated the Kentucky wilderness to the tribu
tary of the Cumberland, named Stone's
River by the former party, for one of their
number. Here they encountered two men,
who were among the greatest of the western
pioneers, and were destined to leave their
names in historic association with the early
settlement of Kentucky — James Harrod and
Michael Stoner, a German, both of whom had
descended the Ohio from Fort Pitt. With the
year 1769 began those longer and more ex
tended excursions into the interior which were
to result in conveying at last to the outside
121

THE CONQUEST OF THE OLD SOUTHWEST
world graphic and detailed information con
cerning "the wonderful new country of Can-
tucky." In the late spring of this year Han
cock and Richard Taylor (the latter the father
of President Zachary Taylor), Abraham
Herhpinstall, and one B'arbour, all true-blue
frontiersmen, left their homes in Orange
County, Virginia, and hunted extensively in
Kentucky and Arkansas. Two of the party
traveled through Georgia and East and West
Florida; while the other two hunted on the
Washita during the winter of 1770-1. Ex
plorations of this type became increasingly
hazardous as the animosity of the Indians in
creased; and from this time onward for a num
ber of years almost all the parties of roving
hunters suffered capture or attack by the
crafty red men. In this same year Major
John McCuUoch, living on the south branch
of the Potomac, set out accompanied by a
white man-servant and a negro, to explore the
western country. While passing down the
Ohio from Pittsburgh McCuUoch was cap
tured by the Indians near the mouth of the
122

LONG HUNTERS IN THE TWILIGHT ZONE
Wabash and carried to the present site of
Terre Haute, Indiana. Set free after four
or five months, he journeyed in company with
some French voyageurs first to Natchez and
then to New Orleans, whence he made the sea
voyage to Philadelphia. Somewhat later,
Benjamin Cleveland (afterward famous in the
Revolution) , attended by four companions, set
out from his home on the upper Yadkin to
explore the Kentucky wUderness. After pass
ing through Cumberland Gap, they encoun
tered a band of Cherokees who plundered them
of everything they had, even to their hats and
shoes, and ordered them to leave the Indian
himting-grounds. On their return journey
they almost starved, and Cleveland, who was
reluctantly forced to kiU his faithful httle
hunting-dog, was wont to declare ia after years
that it was the sweetest meat he ever ate.
Fired to adventure by the glowing accounts
brought back by Uriah Stone, a much more
formidable band than any that had hitherto
ventured westward — ^including Uriah Stone as
pilot. Gasper Mansker, John Rains, the Bled-
123

THE CONQUEST OF THE OLD SOUTHWEST
soes, and a dozen others — assembled in June,
1769, in the New River region. "Each Man
carried two horses," says an early pioneer in
describing one of (these parties, "traps, a large
supply of powder and led, and a small hand
vise and bellows, files and screw plate for the
purpose of fixing the guns if any of them
should get out of fix." Passing through Cum
berland Gap, they continued their long jour
ney until they reached Price's Meadow, in the
present Wayne County, Kentucky, where they
established their encampment. In the course
of their explorations, during which they gave
various names to prominent natural features,
they established their "station camp" on a creek
in Sumner County, Tennessee, whence origi
nated the name of Station Camp Creek.
Isaac Bledsoe and Gasper Mansker, agreeing
to travel from here in opposite directions along
a buffalo trace passing near the camp, each
succeeded in discovering the famous salt-lick
which bears his name — namely Bledsoe's Lick
and Mansker's Lick. The flat surrounding
the lick, about one hundred acres in extent,
124

LONG HUNTERS IN THE TWILIGHT ZONE
discovered by Bledsoe, according to his own
statement "was principally Covered with buf-
felows in every direction — not hundreds but
thousands." As he sat on his horse, he shot
down two deer in the hck^_but_the_buffaloes
blindly trod them in the mud. They did not
mind him and his horse except when the wind
blew the scent in their nostrils, when they
would break and run in droves. Indians often
lurked in the neighbourhood of these hunters
— plundering their camp, robbing them, and
even shooting down one of their number, Rob
ert Crockett, from ambush. After many
trials and vicissitudes, which included a jour
ney to the Spanish Natchez and the loss of a
great mass of peltries when they were plun
dered by Piomingo and a war party of Chicka
saws, they finally reached home in the late
spring of 1770."*'
The most notable expedition of this period,
projected under the auspices of two bold lead
ers extraordinarUy skiUed in woodcraft, Joseph
Drake and Henry Scaggs, was organized in
the early autumn of 1770. This imposing
125

THE CONQUEST OF THE OLD SOUTHWEST
band of stalwart hunters from the New River
and Holston country, some forty in number,
garbed in hunting shirts, leggings, and mocca
sins, with three pack-horses to each man, rifles,
ammunition, traps, dogs, blankets, and salt,
pushed boldly through Cumberland Gap into
the heart of what was later justly named the
"Dark and Bloody Ground" (see Chapter
XIV) — "not doubting," says an old border
chronicler, "that they were to be encountered
by Indians, and to subsist on game." From
the duration of their absence from home, they
received the name of the Long Hunters — ^the
romantic appellation by which they are known
in the pioneer history of the Old Southwest.
Many natural objects were named by this
party — in particular Dick's River, after the
noted Cherokee hunter. Captain Dick, who,
pleased to be recognized by Charles Scaggs,
told the Long Hunters that on his river, point
ing it out, they would find meat plenty — addr
ing with laconic significance: "KiU it and go
home." From the Knob Lick, in Lincoln
County, as reported by a member of the party,
126

LONG HUNTERS IN THE TWILIGHT ZONE
"they beheld largely over a thousand animals,
including buffaloe, elk, bear, and deer, with
many wild turkies scattered among them; aU
quite restless, some playing, and others busily
employed in hcking the earth. . . . The buffa
loe and other animals had so eaten away the
soU, that they could, in places, go entirely un
derground." Upon the return of a detach
ment to Virginia, fourteen fearless hunters
chose to remain; and one day, during the ab
sence of some of the band upon a long explor
ing trip, the camp was attacked by a straggling
party of Indians under WUl Emery, a half-
breed Cherokee. Two of the hunters were car
ried into captivity and never heard of again;
a third managed to escape. In embittered
commemoration of the plunder of the camp and
the destruction of the peltries, they inscribed
upon a poplar, which had lost its bark, this
emphatic record, foUowed by their names :
2300 Deer Skins lost Ruination by God ^^
Undismayed by this depressing stroke of
fortune, they continued their himt in the di-
127

THE CONQUEST OF THE OLD SOUTHWEST
rection of the lick which Bledsoe had discov
ered the preceding year. Shortly after this
discovery, a French "voyageur from the Ilhnois
who had hunted and traded in this region for
a decade, Timothe de Monbreun, subsequently
famous in the history of Tennessee, had visited
the lick and killed an enormous number of
buffaloes for their tallow and tongues with
which he and his companion loaded a keel boat
and descended the Cumberland. An early
pioneer, William Hall, learned from Isaac
Bledsoe that when "the long hunters Crossed
the ridge and came down on Bledsoe's Creek
in four or five miles of the Lick the Cane had
grown up so thick in the woods that they
thought they had mistaken the place until they
Came to the Lick and saw what had been done.
. . . One could walk for several hundred yards
a round the Lick and in the hck on buffeUows
Skuls, & bones and the whole flat round the
Lick was bleached with buffeUows bones, and
they found out the Cause of the Canes grow
ing up so suddenly a few miles around the
128

LONG HUNTERS IX THE TWILIGHT ZONE
Lick which was in Consequence of so many
buffeUows being kiUed."
This expedition was of genuine importance,
opening the eyes of the frontiersmen to the
charms of the country and influencing many
to settle subsequently in the West — some in
Tennessee, some in Kentucky. The elaborate
and detailed information brought back by
Henry Scaggs exerted an appreciable influ
ence, no doubt, in accelerating the plans of
Richard Henderson and Company for the
acquisition and colonization of the trans-AUe
ghany. But while the "Long Hunters" were
in Tennessee and Kentucky the same region
was being more extensively and systematicaUy
explored by Daniel Boone. To his hfe, char
acter, and attainments, as the typical "long
hunter" and the most influential pioneer we
may now turn our particular attention.

129

CHAPTER IX
DANIEL BOONE AND WILDERNESS EXPLORATION
Here, where the hand of violence shed the blood of the
innocent; where the horrid yeUs of the savages, and the groans
of the distressed, sounded in our ears, we now hear the praises
and adorations of our Creator; where wretched wigwams
stood, the miserable abodes of savages, we behold the foun
dations of cities laid, that, in all probability, will equal the
glory of the greatest upon earth. — Daniel Boone, 1784.
THE wandering life of a border Nimrod
in a surpassingly beautiful country teem
ing with game was the ideal of the frontiers
man of the eighteenth century. As early as
1728, while running the dividing line between
North Carolina and Virginia, Wilham Bjrrd
encountered along the North Carohna frontier
the typical figure of the professional hunter;
"a famous Woodsman, call'd Epaphroditus
Bainton. This Forester Spends all his time
in ranging the Woods, and is said to make
great Havock among the Deer, and other In-
130

DANIEL BOONE AND EXPLORATION
habitants of the Forest, not much wilder than
himself." By the middle of the century, as he
was threading his way through the Carolina
piedmont zone, the hunter's paradise of the
Yadkin and Catawba country. Bishop Spang
enberg found ranging there many hunters, liv
ing hke Indians, who killed thousands of deer
each year and sold the skins in the local mar
kets or to the fur-traders from Virginia
whose heavy pack-trains with their tinkling
beUs constantly traversed the course of the
Great Trading Path.
The superlative skiU of one of these hunters,
both as woodsman and marksman, was pro
verbial along the border. The name of Daniel
Boone became synonsTnous with expert hunts-
mansMp and almost uncanny wisdom in forest
lore. The bottoms of the creek near the
Boone home, three miles west of present
MooksvUle, contained a heavy growth of beech,
which dropped large quantities of its rich nuts
or mast, greatly rehshed by bears; and this
creek received its name. Bear Creek, because
Daniel and his father killed in its rich bottoms
131

THE CONQUEST OF THE OLD SOUTHWEST
ninety-nine bears in a single hunting-season.
After living for a time with his young wife,
Rebecca Bryan, in a cabin in his father's yard,
Daniel built a home of his own upon a tract
of land, purchased from his father on Octo
ber 12, 1759, and lying on Sugar Tree, a trib
utary of Dutchman's Creek. Here he dwelt
for the next five years, with the exception of
the period of his temporary removal to Vir
ginia during the terrible era of the Indiam war.
Most of his time during the autumn and win
ter, when he was not engaged in wagoning or
farming, he spent in long hunting- journeys
into the mountains to the west and northwest.
During the hunting-season of 1760 he struck
deeper than ever before into the western moun
tain region and encamped in a natural rocky
shelter amidst fine hunting-grounds, in what
is now Washington County in east Tennessee.
Of the scores of inscriptions commemorative
of his hunting-feats, which Boone with pardon
able pride was accustomed throughout his life
time to engrave with his hunting-knife upon
trees and rocks, the earliest known is found
132

ARTHUR DOBBS
Governor of North Caralina
I'^inm nn oUl iirint tiftt-r the oridtinal portrait
by McArdcll

HUGH WADDELL
From an etching by Albert Rosenthal after the
oriKinal miniature in the poageasion of
D. C. Waddell, Esq.

D. Boon

A. BAR

On

Tree

The

yEAR

1760
DANIEL BOONE AND EXPLORATION
upon a leaning beech tree, only recently fallen,
near his camp and the creek which since that
day has borne his name. This is a character
istic and enduring record in the history of
American exploration:
CUIED
m
Late in the summer of the following year
Boone marched under the command of the
noted Indian-fighter of the border. Colonel
Hugh WaddeU, in his campaign against the
Cherokees. From the hps of WaddeU, who
was outspoken in his condemnation of Byrd's
futile .delays in road-cutting and fort-building,
Boone learned the true secret of success in
Indian warfare, which was lost upon Brad
dock, Forbes, and later St. Clair: that the art
of defeating red men was to deal them a sud
den and unexpected blow, before they had time
either to learn the strength of 'the .force em-
133
THE CONQUEST OF THE OLD SOUTHWEST
ployed against them or to lay with subtle craft
their artful ambuscade.
In the late autumn of 1761, Daniel Boone
and Nathaniel Gist, the son of Washington's
famous guide, who were both serving under
Waddell, temporarily detached themselves
from his command and led a small party on a
"long hunt" in the Valley of the Holston.
While encamping near the site of Black's Fort,
subsequently built, they were violently assailed
by a pack of fierce wolves which they had con
siderable difficulty in beating off; and from this
incident the locality became known as Wolf
Hills (now Abingdon, Virginia) .®^
From this time forward Boone's roving in
stincts had full sway. For many months each
year he threaded his way through that mar-
velously beautiful country of western North
Carolina felicitously described as the Switzer
land of America. Boone's love of solitude
and the murmuring forest was surely inspired
by the phenomenal beauties of the country
through which he roamed at will. Blowing
Rock on one arm of a great horseshoe of moun-
134

DANIEL BOONE AND EXPLORATION
tains and Tryon Mountain upon the other
arm, overlooked an enormous, primeval bowl,
studded by a thousand emerald-clad eminences.
There was the Pilot Mountain, the towering
and isolated pUe which from time immemorial
had served the aborigines as a guide in their
forest wanderings; there was the dizzy height
of the Roan on the border; there was Mt.
MitcheU, portentous in its grandeur, the taUest
peak on the continent east of the Rockies; and
there was the Grandfather, the oldest moun
tain on earth according to geologists, of which
it has been written:
Oldest of all terrestrial things — stiU holding
Thy wrinkled forehead high ;
Whose every seam, earth's history enfolding,
Grim science doth defy!
Thou caught'st the far faint ray from Sirius rising.
When through space first was hurled
The primal gloom of ancient voids surprising,
This atom, called the World!
What more gratifying to the eye of the wan
derer than the luxuriant vegetation and lavish
135

THE CONQUEST OF THE OLD SOUTHWEST
profusion of the gorgeous flowers upon the
mountain slopes, radiant rhododendron, rose-
bay, and laurel, and the azalea rising hke
flame; or the rare beauties of the water — the
cataract of Linville, taking its shimmering leap
into the gorge, and that romantic river poeti
cally celebrated in the lines:
Swannanoa, nymph of beauty,
I would woo thee in my rhyme,
Wildest, brightest, loveliest river
Of our sunny Southern clime.
*• » «
Gone forever from the borders
But immortal in thy name,
Are the Red Men of the forest
Be thou keeper of their fame !
Paler races dwell beside thee,
Celt and Saxon till thy lands
Wedding use unto thy beauty —
Linking over thee their hands.
The long rambling excursions which Boone
made through western North Carolina and
eastern Tennessee enabled him to explore
every nook and corner of the rugged and beau
tiful mountain region. Among the compan-
136

DANIEL BOONE AND EXPLORATION
ions and contemporaries with whom he hunted
and explored the country were his little son
James and his brother Jesse ; the LinvUle who
gave the name to the beautiful faUs; Julius
Caesar Dugger, whose rock house stood near
the head of Elk Creek; and Nathaniel Gist,
who described for him the lofty gateway to
Kentucky, through which Christopher Gist
had passed in 1751. Boone had already heard
of this gateway, from Findlay, and it was one
of the secret and cherished ambitions of his
hfe to scale the mountain waU of the Appala
chians and to reach that high portal of the
Cumberland which beckoned to the mysterious
new Eden beyond. Although hunting was an
endless delight to Boone he was haunted in the
midst of this pleasure, as was Kipling's Ex
plorer, by the lure of the vmdiscovered :
Till a voice as bad as conscience, rang interminable
changes
On one everlasting whisper day and night repeated

'Something hidden. Go and find it. Go and look
behind the ranges — 137

THE CONQUEST OF THE OLD SOUTHWEST
'Something lost behind the ranges. Lost and wait
ing for you. Go.'
Of Boone's preliminary explorations for the
land company known as Richard Henderson
and Company, an account has already been
given; and the delay in following them up
has been touched on and in part explained.
Meanwhile Boone transferred his efforts for
a time to another field. Toward the close
of the summer of 1765 a party consisting
of Major John Field, William HUl, one
Slaughter, and two others, all from Culpeper
County, Virginia, visited Boone and induced
him to accompany them on the "long Journey"
to Florida, whither they were attracted by the
liberal offer of Colonel James Grant, governor
of the eastern section, the Florida of to-day.
On this long and arduous expedition they suf
fered many hardships and endured many pri
vations, found httle game, and on one occa
sion narrowly escaped starvation. They ex
plored Florida from St. Augustine to Pensa-
cola ; and Boone, who rehshed fresh scenes and
a new environment, purchased a house and lot
138

DANIEL BOONE AND EXPLORATION
in Pensacola in anticipation of removal thither.
But upon his return home, finding his wife un-
willii^ to go, Boone once more turned his
eager eye toward the West, that mysterious
and aUuring region beyond the great range,
the fabled paradise of Kentucky.
The foUowing year four young men from
the Yadkin, Benjamin Cutbird, John Stewart
(Boone's brother-in-law who afterwards ac
companied liim to Kentucky) , John Baker,
and James Ward made a remarkable journey
to the westward, crossing the Appalachian
mountain chain over some unknown route, and
finaUy reaching the Mississippi. The signifi
cance of the journey, in its bearing upon west
ward expansion, inheres in the fact that whUe
for more than half a century the English trad
ers from South Carolina had been winning
their way to the Mississippi along the lower
routes and Indian trails, this was the first party
from either of the Carolinas, as far as is known,
that ever reached the Mississippi by crossing
the great mountahi barrier. When Cutbird,
a superb woodsman and veritable Leather-
139

THE CONQUEST OF THE OLD SOUTHWEST
stocking, narrated to Boone the story of his
adventures, it only confirmed Boone in his
determination to find the passage through the
mountain chain leading to the Mesopotamia of
Kentucky. Such an enterprise was attended by terrible
dangers. During 1766 and 1767 the steady
encroachments of the white settlers upon the
ancestral domain which the Indians reserved
for their imperial hunting-preserve aroused bit
ter feelings of resentment among the red men.
Bloody reprisal was often the sequel to such
encroachment. The vast region of Tennessee
and the trans-AUeghany was a twilight zone,
through which the savages roamed at will.
From time to time war parties of northern In
dians, the inveterate foes of the Cherokees,
scouted through this no-man's land and even
penetrated into the western region of North
Carolina, committing murders and depreda^-
tions upon the Cherokees and the whites indis
criminately. During the summer of 1766,
while Boone's friend and close connection.
Captain William Linville, his son John, and
140

DANIEL BOONE AND EXPLORATION
another young man, named John WiUiams,
were in camp some ten mUes below LinvUle
Falls, they were unexpectedly fired upon by
a hostUe band of Northern Indians, and
before they had time to fire a shot, a second
voUey kiUed both the LinviUes and severely
wounded WUliams, who after extraordinary
sufferings finaUy reached the settlements.®*
In May, 1767, four traders and a haK-breed
child of one of them were kiUed in the Cherokee
country. In the summer of this year Gk)ver-
nor WiUiam Tryon of North Carolina laid
out the boundary hne of the Cherokees, and
upon his return issued a proclamation forbid
ding any purchase of land from the Indians
and any issuance of grants for land within
one mUe of the boundary line. Despite this
wise precaution, seven North Carohna hunters
who during the following September had law
lessly ventured into the mountain region some
sixty mUes beyond the boundary were fired
upon, and several of them kiUed, by the resent
ful Cherokees."*
Undismayed by these signs of impending
141

THE CONQUEST OF THE OLD SOUTHWEST
danger, undeterred even by the tra^c fate of
the LinviUes, Daniel Boone, with the deter
mination of the indomitable pioneer, never
dreamed of relinquishing his long-cherished de
sign. Discouraged by the steady disappear
ance of game under the ruthless attack of in
numerable hunters, Boone continued to direct
his thoughts toward the project of exploring
the fair region of Kentucky. The adventur
ous William Hill, to whom Boone communi
cated his purpose, readily consented to go with
him; and in the autumn of 1767 Boone and
Hill, accompanied, it is behoved, by Squire
Boone, Daniel's brother, set forth upon their
almost inconceivably hazardous expedition.
They crossed the Blue Ridge and the AUe-
ghanies, the Holston and Clinch rivers near
their sources, and finally reached the head
waters of the West Fork of the Big Sandy.
Surmising from its course that this stream
must flow into the Ohio, they pushed on a
hundred miles to the westward and finally, by
following a buffalo path, reached a salt-spring
in what is now Floyd Coimty, in the extreme
142

DANIEL BOONE AND EXPLORATION
eastern section of Keniucky. Here Boone be
held great droves of buffalo that visited the
salt-spring to drink the water or hck the brack
ish soU. After spending the winter in hunting
and trapping, the Boones and HiU, discouraged
by the forbidding aspect of the hiUy countrj'
which with its dense growth of laurel was ex
ceedingly diflBcult to penetrate, abandoned aU
hope of finding Kentucky by this route and
wended their arduous way back to the Yadkin.
The account of Boone's subsequent accom
plishment of his purpose must be postponed
to the next chapter.

143

CHAPTER X
DANIEL BOONE IN KENTUCKY
He felt very much as Columbus did, gazing from his caravel
on San Salvador; as Cortes, looking down from the crest of
Ahualco, on the Valley of Mexico; or Vasco Nunez, standing
alone on the peak of Darien, and stretching his eyes oyer the
hitherto undiscovered waters of the Pacific.
— William Gilmobe Simms: Views and Reviews.
A CHANCE acquaintance formed by
Daniel Boone, during the French and
Indian War, with the Irish lover of adventure,
John Findlay,"® was the origin of Boone's cher
ished longing to reach the El Dorado of the
West. In this slight incident we may discern
the initial inspiration for the epochal move
ment of westward expansion. Findlay was a
trader and horse peddler, who had early mi
grated to Carlisle, Pennsylvania. He had
been licensed a trader with the Indians in 1747.
During the same year he was married to Ehza-
beth Harris, daughter of John Harris, the In-
144

DANIEL BOONE IN KENTUCKY
dian-trader at Harris's Ferry on the Susque
hanna River, after whom Harrisburg was
named. During the next eight years Find
lay carried on his business of trading in the
interior. Upon the opening of the French
and Indian War he was probably among
"the young men about Paxtang who enUsted
immediately," and served as a waggoner in
Braddock's expedition. Over the camp-fires,
during the ensuing campaign in 1765, young
Boone was an eager hstener to Findlay's stir
ring narrative of his adventures in the Ohio
VaUey and on the wonderfuUy beautiful
levels of Kentucky in 1752. The fancies
aroused in his brooding mind by Findlay's
moving recital and his description of an an
cient passage through the Ouasioto or Cum
berland Gap and along the course of the War
rior's Path, inspired him with an irrepressible
longing to reach that aUuring promised land
which was the perfect reahzation of the hunt
er's paradise.
Thirteen years later, whUe engaged in sell
ing pins, needles, thread, and Irish linens in
145

THE CONQUEST OF THE OLD SOUTHWEST
the Yadkin country, Findlay learned from the
Pennsylvania settlers at Salisbury or at the
Forks of the Yadkin of Boone's removal to the
waters of the upper Yadkin. At Boone's
rustic home, in the winter of 1768-9, Findlay
visited his old comrade-in-arms of Braddock's
campaign. On learning of Boone's failure
during the preceding year to reach the Ken
tucky levels by way of the inhospitable Sandy
region, Findlay again described to him the
route through the Ouasioto Gap traversed
sixteen years before by Pennsylvania trad
ers in their traffic with the Catawbas. Boone,
as we have seen, knew that Christopher Gist,
who had formerly lived near him on the
upper Yadkin, had found some passage
through the lofty mountain defiles; but he
had never been able to discover the passage.
Findlay's renewed descriptions of the immense
herds of buffaloes he had seen in Kentucky,
the great salt-licks where they congregated, the
abundance of bears, deer, and elk with which
the country teemed, the innumerable flocks of
wild turkeys, geese, and ducks, aroused in
146

. DANIEL BOONE IN KENTUCKY
Boone the hunter's passion for the chase; while
the beauty of the lands, as mirrored in the
vivid fancy of the Irishman, inspired him with
a new longing to explore the famous country
which had, as John FUson records, "greatly
engaged Mr. Findlay's attention."
In the comprehensive designs of Henderson,
now a judge, for securing a*graphic report of
the trans-AUeghany region in behalf of his
land company, Boone divined the means of
securing the financial backing for an expedition
of considerable size and ample equipment.^®
In numerous suits for debt, aggregating hun
dreds of doUars, which had been instituted
against Boone by some of the leading citizens
of Rowan, WUhams and Henderson had acted
as Boone's attorneys. In order to coUect their
legal fees, they hkewise brought suit against
Boone; but not wishing to press the action
against the kindly scout who had hitherto acted
as their agent in western exploration, they con
tinued the htigation from court to court, in
lieu of certain "conditions performed" on be
half of Boone, during his unbroken absence,
147

THE CONQUEST OF THE OLD SOUTHWEST
by his attorney in this suit, Alexander Martin.*^
Summoned to appear in 1769 at the March
term of court at Salisbury, Boone seized upon
the occasion to lay before Judge Henderson
the designs for a renewed and extended ex
ploration of Kentucky suggested by the golden
opportunity of securing the services of Find
lay as guide. Shortly after March 6th, when
Judge Henderson reached Salisbury, the con
ference, doubtless attended by John Stewart,
Boone's brother-in-law, John Findlay, and
Boone, who were all present at this term of
court, must have been held, for the purpose of
devising ways and means for the expedition.
Peck, the only reliable contemporary bio
grapher of the pioneer, who derived many facts
from Boone himself and his intimate acquaint
ances, draws the conclusion (1847) : "Daniel
Boone was engaged as the master spirit of this
exploration, because in his judgment and fidel
ity entire confidence could be reposed. . . .
He was known to Henderson and encouraged
by him to make the exploration, and to examine
particularly the whole country south of the
148

DANIEL BOONE IN KENTUCKY
Kentucky — or as then caUed the Louisa
River." ®* As confidential agent of the land
company, Boone carried with him letters and
instructions for his guidance upon this ex
tended tour of exploration.'®
On May 1, 1769, with Findlay as guide, and
accompanied by four of his neighbors, John
Stewart, a skilled woodsman, Joseph Holden,
James Mooney, and WiUiam Cooley, Boone
left his "peaceable habitation" on the upper
Yadkin and began his historic journey "in
quest of the country of Kentucky." Already
heavUy burdened with debts, Boone must have
incurred considerable further financial obhga-
tions to Judge Henderson and Colonel Wil
liams, acting for the land company, in order
to obtain the large amount of supphes requisite
for so prolonged an expedition. Each of the
adventurers rode a good horse of strength and
endurance; and behind him were securely
strapped the blanket, ammunition, salt, and
cooking-utensils so indispensable for a long so
journ in the wUderness. In PoweU's VaUey
they doubtless encountered the party led
149

THE CONQUEST OF THE OLD SOUTHWEST
thither by Joseph Martin (see Chapter
VII), and there feU into the "Hunter's
TraU" commented on in a letter written by
Martin only a fortnight before the passing of
Boone's cavalcade. Crossing the mountain at
the Ouasioto Gap, they made their first "sta
tion camp" in Kentucky on the creek, still
named after that circumstance, on the Red
Lick Fork. After a preliminary journey for
the purpose of locating the spot, Findlay
led the party to his old trading-camp at Es-
kip-pa-ki-thi-ki, where then (June 7, 1769)
remained but charred embers of the Indian
huts, with some of the stockading and the
gate-posts still standing. In Boone's own
words, he and Findlay at once "proceeded to
take a more thorough survey of the country";
and during the autumn and early winter, en
countering on every hand apparently inex
haustible stocks of wild game and noting the
ever-changing beauties of the country, the va
rious members of the party made many hunt
ing and exploring journeys from their "station
camp" as base. On December 22, 1769, while
150

DANIEL BOONE IN KENTUCKY
engaged in a hunt, Boone and Stewart were
surprised and captured by a large party of
Shawanoes, led by Captain WUl, who were
returning from the autumn hunt on Green
River to their viUages north of the Ohio.
Boone and Stewart were forced to pilot the
Indians to their main camp, where the savages,
after robbing them of all their peltries and
supphes and leaving them inferior guns and
httle ammunition, set off to the northward.
They left, on parting, this menacing admoni
tion to the white intruders: "Now, brothers,
go home and stay there. Don't come here any
more, for this is the Indians' hunting-ground,
and aU the animals, skins, and furs are ours.
If you are so foohsh as to venture here again,
you may be sure the wasps and yeUow jackets
wiU sting you severely."
Chagrined particularly by the loss of the
horses, Boone and Stewart for two days pur
sued the Indians in hot haste. FinaUy ap
proaching the Indians' camp by stealth in the
dead of night, they secured two of the horses,
upon which they fled at top speed. In turn
151

THE CONQUEST OF THE OLD SOUTHWEST
they were immediately pursued by a detach
ment of the Indians, mounted upon their fleet
est horses; and suffered the humihation of re
capture two days later. Indulging in wild
hilarity over the capture of the crestfaUen
whites, the Indians took a bell from one of
the horses and, fastening it about Boone's
neck, compelled him under the threat of bran
dished tomahawks to caper about and jingle the
bell, jeering at hhn the while with the derisive
query, uttered in broken English: "Steal
horse, eh?" With as good grace as they could
summon — ^wry smiles at best — Boone and
Stewart patiently endured these humihations,
following the Indians as captives. Some days
later (about January 4, 1770), whUe the vigi
lance of the Indians was momentarily relaxed,
the captives suddenly plunged into a dense
cane-brake and in the subsequent confusion
succeeded in effecting their escape. Finding
their camp deserted upon their return, Boone
and Stewart hastened on and finally overtook
their companions. Here Boone was both sur
prised and delighted to encounter his brother
152

DANTEL BOONE Ds KENTUCKY
Squire, loaded down with supphes. Having
heard nothing from Boone, the partners of the
land company had surmised that he and his
party must have run short of ammunition,
flour, salt, and other things sorely needed in the
wUderness ; and because of their desire that the
party should remain, in order to make an ex
haustive exploration of the country. Squire
Boone had been sent to bim with supphes.""*
Findlay, Holden, Mooney, and Cooley re
turned to the settlements; but Stewart, Squire
Boone, and Alexander Neely, who had accom
panied Squire, threw in their lot with the in
trepid Daniel, and fared forth once more to the
stirring and bracing adventures of the Ken
tucky wUderness. In Daniel Boone's own
words, he expected "from the furs and peltries
they had an opportunity of taking ... to re
cruit his shattered circumstances; discharge the
debts he had contracted by the adventure; and
shortly return under better auspices, to settle
the newly discovered country." *"*
Boone and his party now stationed them
selves near the mouth of the Red River, and
153

THE CONQUEST OF THE OLD SOUTHWEST
soon provided themselves, against the hard
ships of the long winter, with jerk, bear's oil,
buffalo tallow, dried buffalo tongues, fresh
meat, and marrow-bones as food, and buffalo
robes and bearskins as shelter from the in
clement weather. Neely had brought with
him, to while away dull hours, a copy of "Gulli
ver's Travels"; and in describing Neely's suc
cessful hunt for buffalo one day, Boone in
after years amusingly deposed: "In the year
1770 I encamped on Red River with five other
men, and we had with us for our amusement
the History of Samuel GuUiver's Travels,
wherein he gave an account of his young mas
ter, Glumdelick, careing him on market day
for a show to a town called Lulbegrud. A
young man of our company caUed Alexander
Neely came to camp and told us he had been
that day to Lulbegrud, and had killed two
Brobdignags in their capital." "^ Far from
unlettered were pioneers who indulged together
in such hterary chat and gave to the near-by
creek the name (after Dean Swift's Lorbrul-
grud) of Lulbegrud which name, first seen
154

DANIEL BOONE IN KENTUCKY
on Filson's map of Kentucky (1784), it bears
to this day. From one of his long, sohtary
hunts Stewart never returned; and it was not
untU five years later, while cutting out the
Transylvania Trail, that Boone and his com
panions discovered, near the old crossing at
Rockcastle, Stewart's remains in a standing
hoUow sycamore. The wUderness never gave
up its tragic secret.
The close of the winter and most of the
spring were passed by the Boones, after
Neely's return to the settlements, in explora
tion, hunting, and trapping beaver and otter,
in which sport Daniel particularly exceUed.
Owing to the drain upon their ammunition.
Squire was at length compeUed to return to the
settlements for supphes; and Daniel, who re
mained alone in the wUderness to complete his
explorations for the land company, must often
have shared the feelings of Balboa as, from
lofty knob or towermg ridge, he gazed over the
waste of forest which spread from the dim out-
hnes of the Alleghanies to the distant waters
of the Mississippi. He now proceeded to
155

THE CONQUEST OF THE OLD SOUTHWEST
make those remarkable solitary explorations of
Kentucky which have given him immortality
— through the valley of the Kentucky and the
Licking, and along the "Belle Riviere" (Ohio)
as low as the falls. He visited the Big Bone
Lick and examined the wonderful fossil re
mains of the mammoth found there. Along
the great buffalo roads, worn several feet be
low the surface of the ground, which led to the
Blue Licks, he saw with amazement and de
light thousands of huge shaggy buffalo gam
boling, bellowing, and making the earth rum
ble beneath the trampling of their hooves.
One day, while upon a cliff near the junction
of the Kentucky and Dick's Rivers, he sud
denly found himself hemmed in by a party of
Indians. Seizing his only chance of escape,
he leaped into the top of a maple tree growing
beneath the cliffs and, sliding to safety full
sixty feet below, made his escape, pursued by
the sound of a chorus of guttural "Ughs" from
the dumbfounded savages.
FinaUy making his way back to the old
camp, Daniel was rejoined there by Squire
156

DANIEL BOONE IN KENTUCKY
on July 27, 1770. Durmg the succeeding
months, much of their time was spent in hunt
ing and prospecting in Jessamine County,
where two caves are stiU known as Boone's
caves. EventuaUy, when ammunition and
supphes had once more run low. Squire was
compeUed a second time to return to the settle
ments. Perturbed after a time by Squire's
failure to rejoin him at the appointed time,
Daniel started toward the settlements, in search
of him; and by a stroke of good fortune en
countered him along the traU. Overjoyed at
this meeting (December, 1770) the indomita
ble Boones once more plunged into the wU
derness, determined to conclude their explora
tions by examining the regions watered by the
Green and Cumberland rivers and their tribu
taries. In after years. Gasper Mansker, the
old German scout, was accustomed to describe
with comic effect the consternation created
among the Long Hunters, while hunting one
day on Green River, by a singular noise which
they could not explain. Steathily shpping
from tree to tree, Mansker finaUy beheld with
157

THE CONQUEST OF THE OLD SOUTHWEST
mingled surprise and amusement a hunter,
bare-headed, stretched flat upon his back on
a deerskin spread on the ground, singing mer
rily at the top of his voice! It was Daniel
Boone, joyously whiling away the solitary
hours in singing one of his favorite songs of
the border. In March, 1771, after spending
some time in company with the Long Hunters,
the Boones, their horses laden with furs, set
their faces homeward. On their return jour
ney, near Cumberland Gap, they had the
misfortune to be surrounded by a party of
Indians who robbed them of their guns and all
their peltries. With this humihating conclu
sion to his memorable tour of exploration,
Daniel Boone, as he himself says, "once more
reached home after experiencing hardships
which would defy credulity in the recital." "^
Despite the hardships and the losses, Boone
had achieved the ambition of years : he had seen
Kentucky, which he "esteemed a second para
dise." The reports of his extended explora
tions, which he made to Judge Henderson,
were soon communicated to the other partners
158

DANIEL BOONE IN KENTUCKY
of the land company; and their letters of this
period, to one another, bristle with glowing and
minute descriptions of the country, as detailed
by their agent. Boone was immediately en
gaged to act in the company's behalf to sound
the Cherokees confidentially with respect to
their wiUingness to lease or sell the beautiful
hunting-grounds of the trans-AUeghany."*
The high hopes of Henderson and his asso
ciates at last gave promise of brilliant real
ization. Daniel Boone's glowing descriptions
of Kentucky excited in their minds, says a
gifted early chronicler, the "spirit of an enter
prise which in point of magnitude and peril,
as well as constancy and heroism displayed in
its execution, has never been paraUeled in the
history of America."

159

CHAPTER XI
THE REGULATOES
It is not a persons labour, nor yet his effects that will do,
but if he has but one horse to plow with, one bed to lie on,
or one cow to give a little milk for his children, they must all
go to raise money which is not to be had. And lastly if his
personal estate (sold at one tenth of its value) will not do,
then his lands (which perhaps has cost him many years of
toil and labour) must go the same way to satisfy these cursed
hungry caterpillars, that are eating and will eat out the
bowels of our Commonwealth, if they be not pulled down
from their nests in a very short time.
— George Sims: A Serious Address to the In
habitants of Granville County, containing om
Account of our deplorable Situation tee sufet
. . . and some necessary Hints with Respect
to a Reformation. June 6, 1765.
IT is highly probable that even at the time
of his earlier explorations in behalf of
Richard Henderson and Company, Daniel
Boone anticipated speedy removal to the West.
Indeed, in the very year of his first tour in
their interest, Daniel and his wife Rebeckah
sold all their property in North Carolina, con
sisting of their home and six hundred and forty
160

THE REGULATORS
acres of land, and after several removals estab
hshed themselves upon the upper Yadkin.
This removal and the later western explora
tions just outlined were due not merely to the
spirit of adventure and discovery. Three
other causes also were at work. In the first
place there was the scarcity of game. For
fifteen years the shipments of deerskins from
Bethabara to Charleston steadily increased;
and the number of skins bought by Gammem,
the Moravian storekeeper, ran so high that in
spite of the large purchases made at the store
by the hunters he would sometimes run entirely
out of money. Tireless in the chase, the far-
roaming Boone was among "the hunters, who
brought in their skins from as far away as the
Indian lands"; and the beautiful upland pas
tures and mountain forests, stiU teeming with
deer and bear, doubtless lured him to the upper
Yadkin, where for a time in the immediate
neighborhood of his home abundance of game
feU before his unerring rifle. Certainly the
deer and other game, which were being kiUed
in enormous numbers to satisfy the insatiable
161

THE CONQUEST OF THE OLD SOUTHWEST
demand of the traders at Salisbury, the Forks,
and Bethabara, became scarcer and scarcer;
and the wild game that was left gradually fled
to the westward. Terrible indeed was the
havoc wrought among the elk; and it was re
ported that the last elk was killed in western
North Carolina as early as 1781.
Another grave evU of the time with which
Boone had to cope in the back country of
North Carolina was the growth of undisguised
outlawry, similar to that found on the western
plains of a later era. This ruthless brigand
age arose as the result of the unsettled state
of the country and the exposed condition of
the settlements due to the Indian alarms.
When rude borderers, demoralized by the en
forced idleness attendant upon fort hfe during
the dark days of Indian invasion, sallied forth
upon forays against the Indians, they found
much valuable property — horses, cattle, and
stock — left by their owners when hurriedly
fleeing to the protection of the frontier stock
ades. The temptations thus afforded were too
great to resist; and the wilder spirits of the
162

THE REGULATORS
backwoods, with hazy notions of private rights,
seized the property which they found, slaugh
tered the cattle, sold the horses, and appro
priated to their own use the temporarUy aban
doned household goods and plantation tools.
The stealing of horses, which were needed for
the cultivation of the soil and useful for quickly
carrying unknown thieves beyond the reach of
the owner and the law, became a common prac
tice; and was carried on by bands of outlaws
hving remote from one another and acting in
coUusive concert.
Toward the end of July, 1755, when the
Indian outrages upon the New River settle
ments in Virginia had frightened away aU the
famihes at the Town Fork in the Yadkin coun
try, WiUiam Owen, a man of Welsh stock, who
had settled in the spring of 1752 in the upper
Yadkin near the Mulberry Fields, was sus
pected of having robbed the storekeeper on the
Meho. Not long afterward a band of outlaws
who plundered the exposed cabins in their
owners' absence, erected a rude fort in the
mountain region in the rear of the Yadkin
163

THE CONQUEST OF THE OLD SOUTHWEST
settlements, where they stored their Ul-gotten
plunder and made themselves secure from at
tack. Other members of the band dwelt in
the settlements, where they concealed their
robber friends by day and aided them by night
in their nefarious projects of theft and rapine.
The entire community was finally aroused
by the bold depredations of the outlaws; and
the most worthy settlers of the Yadkin coun
try organized under the name of Regulators
to break up the outlaw band. When it was
discovered that Owen, who was well known
at Bethabarji, had allied himself with the high
waymen, one of the justices summoned one
hundred men; and seventy, who answered the
call, set forth on December 26, 1755, to seek
out the outlaws and to destroy their fortress.
Emboldened by their success, the latter upon
one occasion had carried off a young girl of the
settlements. Daniel Boone placed himself at
the head of one of the parties, which included
the young girl's father, to go to her rescue;
and they fortunately succeeded in effecting
the release of the frightened maiden. One of
164

THE REGULATORS
the robbers was apprehended and brought to
Sahsbury, where he was thrown into prison for
his crimes. MeanwhUe a large amount of
plunder had been discjovered at the house of
one Comehus Howardji and the evidences of
his guUt so mmtiphed against him that he fi
naUy confessed his connection with the outlaw
band and agreed to point out their fort in the
mountains Daniel Boone and George Boone joined the
party of seventy men, sent out by the colonial
authorities, under the guidance of Howard, to
attack the stronghold of the bandits, Boone
afterward related that the robbers' fort was
situated in the most fitly chosen place for such
a purpose that he could imagine — beneath an
overhanging cliff of rock, with a large natural
chimney, and a considerable area in front well
stockaded. The frontiersmen surrounded the
fort, captured five women and eleven chUdren,
and then burned the fort to the ground. Owen
and his wife, Cumberland, and several others
were ultimately made prisoners; but Harman
and the remainder of the band escaped by
165

THE CONQUEST OF THE OLD SOUTHWEST
flight. Owen and his fellow captives were
then borne to Salisbury, incarcerated in the
prison there, and finally (May, 1756) con
demned to the gallows. Owen sent word to
the Moravians, petitioning them to adopt his
two boys and to apprentice one to a tailor, the
other to a carpenter. But so infuriated was
Owen's wife by Howard's treachery that she
branded him as a second Judas; and this at
once fixed upon him the sobriquet "Judas"
Howard — a sobriquet he did not live long to
bear, for about a year later he was ambushed
and shot from his horse at the crossing of a
stream. He thus paid the penalty of his be
trayal of the outlaw band. For a number of
years, the Regulators continued to wage war
against the remaining outlaws, who from time
to time committed murders as well as thefts.
As late as January, 1768, the Regulators
caught a horse thief in the Hollows of Surry
County and brought him to Bethabara, whence
Richter and Spach took him to the jail at
Salisbury. After this year, the outlaws were
166

THE REGULATORS
heard of no more; and peace reigned in the
settlements. Colonel Edmund Fanning — of whom more
anon — declared that the Regulation began in
Anson County which bordered upon South
Carohna. ^"^ Certain it is that the upper coun
try of that province was kept in an uproar
by civU disturbances during this early period.
Owing to the absence of courts in this section,
so remote from Charleston, the inhabitants
found it necessary, for the protection of prop
erty and the punishment of outlaws, to form
an association caUed, like the North Carolina
society, the Regulation. Against this associa
tion the horse thieves and other criminals made
common cause, and received tacit support from
certain more reputable persons who condemned
"the irregularity of the Regulators." The
Regulation which had been thus organized in
upper South Carolina as early as 1764 led to
tumultuous risings of the settlers; and finaUy
in the effort to suppress these disorders, the
governor. Lord Charles Montagu, appointed
167

THE CONQUEST OF THE OLD SOUTHWEST
one Scovil, an utterly unworthy representa
tive, to carry out his commands. After vari
ous disorders, which became ever more unen
durable to the law-abiding, matters came to a
crisis (1769) as the result of the high-handed
proceedings of Scovil, who promiscuously
seized and flung into prison all the Regulators
he could lay hands on. In the month of
March the back country rose in revolt against
Scovil and a strong body of the settlers was on
the point of attacking the force under his com
mand when an eleventh-hour letter arrived
from Montagu, dismissing Scovil from ofiice.
Thus was happily averted, by the narrowest
of margins, a threatened precursor of the fight
at Alamance in 1771 (see Chapter XII).
As the result of the petition of the Calhouns
and others, courts were estabhshed in 1760,
though not opened until four years later.
Many horse thieves were apprehended, tried,
and punished. Justice once more held full
sway. Another important cause for Boone's re
moval from the neighborhood of Salisbury into
168

THE REGULATORS
the mountain fastnesses was the oppressive ad
ministration of the law by corrupt sheriffs,
clerks, and tax-gatherers, and the dissatisfac
tion of the frontier squatters with the owners
of the soU, At the close of the year 1764
reports reached the town of WUmington, after
the adjournment of the assembly in Novem
ber, of serious disturbances in Orange County,
due, it was alleged, to the exorbitant exactions
of the clerks, registers, and some of the attor
neys."" As a result of this disturbing news.
Governor Dobbs issued a proclamation for
bidding any officer to take Ulegal fees. Trou
bles had been brewing in the adjacent county
of GranvUle ever since the outbreak of the
citizens against Francis Corbin, Lord Gran-
vUle's agent (January 24, 1759), and the is
suance of the petition of Reuben Searcy and
others (March 23d) protesting against the
aUeged excessive fees taken and injustices prac
tised by Robert (Robin) Jones, the famous
lawyer. These disturbances were cumulative
in their effect; and the people at last (1765)
found in George Sims, of GranviUe, a fit
169

THE CONQUEST OF THE OLD SOUTHWEST
spokesman of their cause and a doughty cham
pion of popular rights. In his "Serious Ad
dress to the Inhabitants of Granville County,
containing an Account of our deplorable Sit
uation we suffer . . . and some necessary
Hints with Respect to a Reformation," re
cently brought to light, he presents a crushing
indictment of the clerk of the county court,
Samuel Benton, the grandfather of Thomas
Hart Benton. After describing in detail the
system of semi-peonage created by the merci
less exactions of lawyers and petty court offi
cials, and the insatiable greed of "these cursed
hungry caterpillars," Sims with rude eloquence
calls upon the people to pull them down from
their nests for the salvation of the Common
wealth."^ Other abuses were also recorded. So ex
orbitant was the charge for a marriage-license,
for instance, that an early chronicler records:
"The consequence was that some of the inhabi
tants on the head-waters of the Yadkin took
a short cut. They took each other for better
or for worse; and considered themselves as
170

THE REGULATORS
married without further ceremony." The ex
traordinary scarcity of currency throughout
the colony, especiaUy in the back country, was
another great hardship and a perpetual source
of vexation. AU these conditions graduaUy
became intolerable to the uncultured but free-
spirited men of the back country. Events
were slowly converging toward a crisis in gov
ernment and society. Independent in spirit,
turbulent in action, the backwoodsmen revolted
not only against excessive taxes, dishonest
sheriffs, and extortionate fees, but also against i
the rapacious practices of the agents of Lord
GranviUe. These agents industriously picked
flaws in the titles to the lands in GranviUe's
proprietary upon which the poorer settlers were
seated; and compeUed them to pay for the land
if they had not already done so, or else to pay
the fees twice over and take out a new patent
as the only remedy of the aUeged defect in
their titles. In Mecklenburg County the
spirit of backwoods revolt flamed out in pro
test against the proprietary agents. Acting
under instructions to survey and close bargains
171

THE CONQUEST OF THE OLD SOUTHWEST
for the lands or else to eject those who held
them, Henry Eustace McCuUoh, in February,
1765, went into the county to call a reckoning.
The settlers, many of whom had located with
out deeds, indignantly retorted by offering to
buy only at their own prices, and forbade the
surveyors to lay out the holdings when this
smaller price was declined. They not only
terrorized into acquiescence those among them
who were willing to pay the amount charged
for the lands, but also openly declared that
they would resist by force any sheriff in eject
ment proceedings. On May 7th an outbreak
occurred; and a mob, led by Thomas Polk, set
upon John Frohock, Abraham Alexander, and
others, as they were about to survey a parcel
of land, and gave them a severe thrashing, even
threatening the young McCuUoh with death."'
The choleric backwoodsmen, instinctively in
agreement with Francis Bacon, considered re
venge as a sort of_gild justice. Especial ob-
jects^f-thdranimosity were the brothers Fro
hock, John and Thomas, the latter clerk of
the court at Sahsbury, and Edmund Fanning,
172

THE REGULATORS
a cultured gentleman-adventurer, associate
justice of the superior court. So rapacious
and extortionate were these vultures of the
courts who preyed upon the vitals of the
common people, that they were savagely lam
pooned by Rednap HoweU, the backwoods
poet-laureate of the Regulation. The temper
of the back country is weU caught in HoweU's
lines anent this early American "grafter," the
favorite of the royal governor:
When Fanning first to Orange came,
He looked both pale and wan ;
An old patched coat was on his back,
An old mare he rode on.
Both man and mare wan't worth five potinds.
As I 've been often told ;
But by his civil robberies.
He 's laced his coat with gold.^"®
The germs of the great westward migration
in the coming decade were thus working among
the people of the back country. If the tense
nervous energy of the American people is the
transmitted characteristic of the border set
tlers, who often slept with loaded rifle in hand
173

THE CONQUEST OF THE OLD SOUTHWEST
in grim expectation of being awakened by the
hideous yells, the deadly tomahawk, and the
lurid firebrand of the savage, the very buoy
ancy of the national character is in equal meas
ure "traceable to the free democracy founded
on a freehold inheritance of land." The de
sire for free land was the fundamental factor
in the development of the American democ
racy. No colony exhibited this tendency more
signally than did North Carolina in the turbu
lent days of the Regulation. The North
Carolina frontiersmen resented the obhgation
to pay quit-rents and firmly believed that the
first occupant of the soil had an indefeasible
right to the land which he had won with his
rifle and rendered productive by the imple
ments of toil. Preferring the dangers of the
free wilderness to the paying of tribute to ab
sentee landlords and officials of an intolerant
colonial government, the frontiersman found
title in his trusty rifle rather than in a piece of
parchment, and was prone to pay his obliga
tions to the owner of the soU in lead rather
than in gold. 174

CHAPTER XII
WATAUGA — HAVEN OF LIBERTY
The Regulators despaired of seeing better times and there
fore quitted the Province. It is said 1,500 departed since
the Battle of Alamance and to my knowledge a great many
more are only waiting to dispose of their plantations in order
to follow them. — Revebexd MoRGAir Edwards, 1773.
THE five years (1766-1771) which saw the
rise, development, and ultimate defeat of
the popular movement known as the Regula
tion, constitute a period not only of extraordi
nary significance in North Carolina but also
of fruitful consequences in the larger move
ments of westward expansion. With the reso
lute intention of having their rulers "give ac
count of their stewardship," to employ their
own words, the Sandy Creek Association of
Baptists (organized in 1758), in a series of
papers known as Regulators' Advertisements
(1766-8) proceeded to mature, through popu-
175 '

I

THE CONQUEST OF THE OLD SOUTHWEST
lar gatherings, a rough form of initiative and
referendum. At length, discouraged in its ef
forts, and particularly in the attempt to bring
county officials to book for charging illegal
fees, this association ceased actively to func
tion. It was the precursor of a movement
of much more drastic character and formidable
proportions, chiefly directed against Colonel
Edmund Fanning and his associates. This
movement doubtless took its name, "the Regu
lation," from the bands of men already de
scribed who were organized first in North
Carolina and later in South Carolina, to put
down highwaymen and to correct many abuses
in the back country, such as the tyrannies of
Scovil and his henchmen. Failing to secure
redress of their grievances through legal chan
nels, the Regulators finally made such a pow
erful demonstration in support of their refusal
to pay taxes that Governor William Tryon
of North Carolina, in 1768, called out the pro
vincial militia, and by marching with great
show of force through the disaffected regions,
succeeded temporarily in overawing the people
176

WATAUGA— HAVEN OF LIBERTY
and thus inducing them to pay theh- assess
ments."" The suits which had been brought by the
Regulators against Edmund Fanning, regis
ter, and Francis Nash, clerk, of Orange
County, resulted in both being "found guilty
of taking too high fees." "^ Fanning imme
diately resigned his commission as register;
while Nash, who in conjunction with Fanning
had fairly offered in 1766 to refund to any
one aggrieved any fee charged by bim which
the Superior Court might hold excessive, gave
bond for his appearance at the next court.
SimUar suits for extortion against the three
Frohocks in Rowan County in 1769 met with
faUure, however; and this outcome aroused the
bitter resentment of the Regulators, as re
corded by Herman Husband in his "Impartial
Relation." During this whole period the in
surrectionary spirit of the people, who felt
themselves deeply aggrieved but recognized
their inabUity to secure redress, took the form
of driving local justices from the bench and
threatening court officials with violence.
177

An Impaitial
RELATION OFTHE
Firft Rife and Caiife
OFTHE
Recent DIFFERENCES, 1 N
Publick AFFAIRS,
In the Province of N'orth-Ca"
rolina \ and of the paft Tu^
mults and Riots that lately
happened in thai? Province.
Containing moft of the true and genuine
Copies of Letters, Mefliiges and Remonltrances.
bvcu'cen the Parties contending :— — ^y which
any i.nipartral Man may eafily gather^od Tee the
tiuc Ground and Reaibns of the JiSafisfaflioa
that onivcrfally reigbs all ov« {aid Brdvioce ia
-i more or lefs Degree.

\

Printed for the CpmpileT%, 51770,
178

WATAUGA— HAVEN OF LIBERTY
At the session of the Superior Court at
Hillsborough, September 22, 1770, an elabo
rate petition prepared by the Regulators, de
manding unprejudiced juries and the pubhc
accounting for taxes by the sheriffs, was
handed to the presiding justice by James
Hunter, a leading Regulator. This justice
was our acquaintance. Judge Richard Hender
son, of Granville County, the sole high officer
in the provincial government from the entire
western section of the colony. In this petition
occur these trenchant words: "As we are
serious and in good earnest and the cause re
spects the whole body of the people it would
be loss of time to enter into arguments on par
ticular points for though there are a few men
who have the gift and art of reasoning, yet
every man has a feeling and knows when he
has justice done him as weU as the most
learned.""^ On the foUowing Monday (Sep
tember 24th), upon convening of court, some
one hundred and fifty Regulators, led by
James Hunter, Herman Husband, Rednap
HoweU, and others, armed with clubs, whips,
179

THE CONQUEST OF THE OLD SOUTHWEST
and cudgels, surged into the court-room and
through their spokesman, Jeremiah Fields,
presented a statement of their grievances. "I
found myself," says Judge Henderson, "under
a necessity of attempting to soften and turn
away the fury of these mad people, in the best
manner in my power, and as such could well
be, pacify their rage and at the same time pre
serve the little remaining dignity of the
court." "^
During an interim, in wliich the Regulators
retired for consultation, they fell without warn
ing upon Fanning and gave him such rough
treatment that he narrowly escaped with his
life. The mob, now past control, horsewhipped
a number of leading lawyers and citizens
gathered there at court, and treated others,
notably the courtly Mr. Hooper of Boston,
"with every mark of contempt and insult."
Judge Henderson was assured by Fields that
no harm should come to him provided he would
conduct the court in accordancewith the behest
of the Regulators: namely, that no lawyer,
save the King's Attorney, should be admitted
180

WATAUGA— HAVEN OF LIBERTY
to the coui't, and that the Regulators' cases
should be tried with new jurors chosen by the
Regulators. With the entire httle viUage ter
rorized by this campaign of "frightfulness,"
and the court whoUy unprotected. Judge Hen
derson reluctantly acknowledged to himself
that "the power of the judiciary was ex
hausted." Nevertheless, he says, "I made
every effort in my power consistent with my
office and the duty the pubhc is entitled to claim
to preserve peace and good order." ^^* Agree
ing under duress to resume the session the fol
lowing day, the judge ordered an adjourn
ment. But being unwilling, on mature reflec
tion, to permit a mockery of the court and a
travesty of justice to be staged under threat
and intimidation, he returned that night to his
home in GranviUe and left the court adjourned
in course. Enraged by the judge's escape,
the Regulators took possession of the court
room the foUowing morning, called over the
cases, and in f utUe protest against the condi
tions they were powerless to remedy, made
profane entries which may still be seen on the
181

THE CONQUEST OF THE OLD SOUTHWEST
record: "Damned rogues," "Fanning pays
cost but loses nothing," "Negroes not worth a
damn. Cost exceeds the whole," "Hogan pays
and be damned," and, in a case of slander,
"Nonsense, let them argue for FerreU has gone
hellward." "«
The uprising of these bold and resolute, sim
ple and hnperfectly educated people, which
had begun as a constitutional struggle to se
cure justice and to prevent their own exploita
tion by dishonest lawyers of the county courts,
now gave place to open anarchy and secret
incendiarism."* In the dead of night, Novem
ber 12th and 14th, Judge Henderson's barn,
stables, and dwelling house were fired by the
Regulators and went up in flairies. Glowing
with a sense of wrong, these misguided people,
led on by fanatical agitators, thus vented their
indiscriminate rage, not only upon their op
pressors, but also upon men wholly innocent
of injuring them — ^men of the stamp of Wil
liam Hooper, afterward signer of the Declara
tion of Independence, Alexander Martin,
afterward governor and United States Sena-
182

ALEXANDER MARTIN
Krnm the original portrait by John Sharplesa

WILLIAM LENOIR
From the original portrait by I. II. Oirte)

WATAUGA— HAVEN OF LIBERTY
tor, and Richard Henderson, popular repre
sentative of the back country and a firm cham
pion of due process of law. It is perhaps not
surprising in view of these events that Gov
ernor Tryon and the ruling class, lacking a
sympathy broad enough to ensure justice to
the oppressed people, seemed to be chiefly im
pressed with the fact that a widespread in
surrection was in progress, threatening not
only hfe and property, but also civU govern
ment itself. The governor caUed out the mih
tia of the province and led an army of weU-
nigh one thousand men and officers against
the Regulators, who had assembled at Ala
mance to the number of two thousand. Tryon
stood firm upon the demands that the people
should submit to government and disperse at
•a designated hour. The Regulators, on their
.side, hoped to secure the reforms they desired
by intimidating the governor with a great dis-
.play of force. The battle was a tragic fiasco
for the Regulators, who fought bravely, but
without adequate arms or real leadership.
With the conclusion of this desultory action, a
183

THE CONQUEST OF THE OLD SOUTHWEST'
fight lasting about two hours (May 16, 1771),
the power of the Regulators was completely
broken."^ Among these insurgents there was a remark
able element — an element whose influence
upon the course of American history has been
but imperfectly understood — ^which now looms
into prominence as the vanguard of the army
of westward expansion. There were some of
th^ Regulators who, though law-abiding and
conservative, were deeply imbued with ideas
of liberty, personal independence, and the
freedom of the soil. Through the influence of
Benjamin Franklin, with whom one of the
leaders of the group, Herman Husband, was
in constant correspondence, the patriotic ideas
then rapidly maturing into revolutionary sen
timents furnished the inspiration to action.
As early as 1766, the Sandy Creek leaders, re
ferred to earlier in this chapter, issued a call
to each neighborhood to send delegates to a
gathering for the purpose of investigating the
question "whether the free men of this country
labor under any abuses of power or not." The
184

WATAUGA— HA^ EN OF LIBERTY
close connection between the Sandy Creek men
and the Sons of Liberty is amply demonstrated
in this paper wherein the Sons of Liberty in
connection with the "stamp law" are praised
for "redeeming us from Tyranny" and for hav
ing "withstood the lords in Parliament in be
half of true hberty." ^** Upon the records of
the Dutchman's Creek Church, of "regular"
Baptists, at the Forks of the Yadkin, to which
Daniel Boone's f amUy belonged, may be found
this memorable entry, recognizing the "Amer
ican Cause" weU-nigh a year before the declar
ation of independence at Philadelphia: "At
the monthly meeting it was agreed upon con
cerning the American Cause, if any of the
brethren see cause to join it they have the hb
erty to do it without being caUed to an account
by the church. But whether they join or do
not join ihey should be used with brotherly
love." "*
The fundamental reasons underlying the
approaching westward hegira are found in the
remarkable petition of the Regulators of An
son County (October 9, 1769), who request
185

THE CONQUEST OF THE OLD SOUTHWEST
that "Benjamin Franklin or some other known
patriot" be appointed agent of the province
in London to seek redress at the source. They
exposed the basic evil in the situation by point
ing out that, in violation of the law restricting
the amount of land that might be granted to
each person to six hundred and forty acres,
much of the most fertile territory in the prov
ince had been distributed in large tracts to
wealthy landlords. In consequence "great
numbers of poor people are necessitated to toil
in the cultivation of the bad Lands whereon
they hardly can subsist." ^^° It was these poor
people, "thereby deprived of His Majesties
liberality and Bounty," who soon turned their
gaze to the westward and crossed the moun
tains in search of the rich, free lands of the
trans-AUeghany region.
This feverish popular longing for freedom,
stimulated by the economic pressure of thou
sands of pioneers who were annually entering
North Carolina, set in motion a wave of migra
tion across the mountains in 1769. Long be
fore Alamance, many of the true Americans,
186

WATAUGA— HAVEN OF LIBERTY
distraught by apparently irremediable injus
tices, plunged fearlessly into the wilderness,
seeking beyond the mountains a new birth of
liberty, lands of their own selection free of
cost or quit-rents, and a government of their
own choosing and control.^^* The glad news
of the rich vaUeys beyond the mountains early
lured such adventurous pioneers as Andrew
Greer and Julius Caesar Dugger to the Wa
tauga country. The glowing stories, told by
Boone, and disseminated in the back country
by Henderson, Williams, and the Harts,
seemed to give promise to men of this stamp
that the West afforded relief from oppressions
suffered in North Carolina. During the
winter of 1768-9 there was also a great rush
of settlers from Virginia into the vaUey of the
Holston. A party from Augusta County, led
by men who had been dehghted with the coun
try viewed seven years before when they were
serving under Colonel WUham Bjrrd against
the Cherokees, found that this region, a wil
derness on their outward passage in 1768, was
dotted with cabins on every spot where the
187

THE CONQUEST OF THE OLD SOUTHWEST
grazing was good, upon their return the fol
lowing year. Writing to Hillsborough on
October 18, 1770, concerning the "many hun
dred families" in the region from Green River
to the branches of the Holston, who refused
to comply with the royal proclamation; of
1763, Acting-Governor Nelson of Virginia
reports that "very little if any Quit Rents
have been received for His Majesty's use from
that Quarter for some time past" — ^the people
claiming that "His Majesty hath been pleased
to withdraw his protection from them since
1763." '^^
In the spring of 1770, with the express in
tention of discovering suitable locations for
homes for himself and a number of others,! who
wished to escape the accumulating evils of the
times, James Robertson of Orange Couiity,
North Carolina, made an arduous journe^ to
the pleasing valley of the Watauga. Robert
son, who was born in Brunswick County, Vir
ginia, June 28, 1742, of excellent Scotch-Irish
ancestry, was a noteworthy figure of a certain
type- — quiet, reflective, conservative, wise, a
188

JAMES ROBERTSON
From the composite portrait by Washington B.
Courtesy Tennessee Historical Society

Cooper.

WATAUGA— HA\'EN OF LIBERTY
firm behever in the basic principles of civU
hberty and the right of local self-government.
Robertson spent some time with a man named
Honeycut in the Watauga region, raised a
crop of com, and chose for himself and his
friends suitable locations for settlement. Lost
upon his return in seeking the mountain defiles
traversed by him on the outward journey, Rob
ertson probably escaped death from starva
tion only through the chance passing of two
hunters who succored him and set bim upon
the right path. On arriving in Orange he
found poUtical and social conditions there
much worse than before, many of the colonists
declining to take the obKgatory oath of aUe-
giance to the British Crown after the Battle
of AJamance, preferring to carve out for them
selves new homes along the western waters.
Some sixteen famiUes of this stamp, indignant
at the injustices and oppressions of British
rule, and stirred by Robertson's description
of the richness and beauty of the western coun
try, accompanied him to Watauga shortly
after the battle. 189

THE CONQUEST OF THE OLD SOUTHWEST
This vanguard of the army of westward ad
vance, independent Americans in spirit with
a negligible sprinkling of Loyalists, now
swept in a great tide into the northeastern sec
tion of Tennessee. The men of Sandy Creek,
actuated by independent principles but out of
sympathy with the anarchic side of the Regu
lation, left the colony almost to a man.
"After the defeat of the Regulators," says the
historian of the Sandy Creek Association,
"thousands of the oppressed, seeing no hope
of redress for their grievances, moved into
and settled east Tennessee. A lai;ge pro
portion of these were of the Baptist popula
tion. Sandy Creek Church which some time
previous to 1771, numbered 60^7 was after^
ward reduced to fourteen members!" ^^' This
movement exerted powerful influence in
stimulating westward expansion. Indeed,
it was from men of Regulating principles
—Boone, Robertson, and the Searcys — ^who
vehemently condemned the anarchy and
incendiarism of 1770, that Judge Hen
derson received powerful cooperation in
190

WATAUGA— HAVEN OF LIBERTY
the opening up of Kentucky and Ten
nessee.^^ ,
The several treaties concerning the western
boundary of white settlement, concluded in
close succession by North Carohna, Virginia,
and the Crown with the Southern and North
ern Indians, had an important bearing upon
the settlement of Watauga. The Cherokee
boundary hne, as flxed by Governor Tryon
(1767) and by John Stuart (1768), ran from
Reedy River to Tryon Mountain, thence
straight to Chiswell's Mine, and thence di
rect to the mouth of the Great Kanawha
River. By the treaty at Fort Stanwix (No
vember 5, 1768), in the negotiation of which
Virginia was represented by Dr. Thomas
Walker and Major Andrew Lewis, the Six
Nations sold to the Crown their shadowy
claim to a vast tract of western country, in
cluding in particular all the land between
the Ohio and the Tennessee Rivers. The news
of the cession resulted in a strong southwest-
ward thrust of population, from the neighbor^
hood of Abingdon, in the direction of the Hol-
191

THE CONQUEST OF THE OLD SOUTHWEST
ston VaUey.'^^ Recognizing that hundreds of
these settlers were beyond the hne negotiated
by Stuart, but on lands not yet surveyed, Gov
ernor Botetourt instructed the Virginia com
missioners to press for further negotiations,
through Stuart, with the Cherokees. Accord
ingly, on October 18, 1770, a new treaty was
made at Lochaber, South Carolina, by which
a new line back of Virginia was estabhshed,
beginning at the intersection of the North
Carolina-Cherokee line (a point some seventy-
odd miles east of Long Island), running
thence in a west course to a point six miles
east of Long Island, and thence in a direct
course to the confluence of the Great Kanawha
and Ohio Rivers. At the time of the treaty,
it was agreed that the Holston River, from its
intersection with the North Carolina- Virginia
line, and down the course of the same, should
be a temporary southern boundary of Virginia
until the line should be ascertained by actual
survey. ^^® A strong influx of population into
the immense new triangle thus released for set-
192

WATAUGA— HAVEN OF LIBERTY
tlement brought powerful pressure to bear
upon northern Tennessee, the point of least re
sistance along the western barrier. Singularly
enough, this advance was not opposed by the
Cherokees, whose towns were strung across the
extreme southeast corner of Tennessee.
When Colonel John Donelson ran the line
in the latter part of 1771, The Little Car
penter, who with other Indian chiefs accom
panied the surveying party, urged that the line
agreed upon at Lochaber should break off at
the head of the Louisa River, and should run
thence to the mouth thereof, and thence up
the Ohio to the mouth of the Great Kanawha.
For this increase in the territory of Virginia
they of course expected additional payment.
As a representative of Virginia, Donelson
agreed to the proposed alteration in the bound
ary line ; and accordingly promised to send the
Cherokees, in the following spring, a sum al
leged by them to have been fixed at five hun
dred pounds, in compensation for the addi
tional area. This informal agreement, it is
193

THE CONQUEST OF THE OLD SOUTHWEST
ston River, south and east of Long Island;
believed, was never ratified by Virginia; nor
was the promised compensation ever paid the
Cherokees.^^^ Under the belief that the land belonged to
Virginia, Jacob Brown with one or two fam
ilies from North Carolina settled in 1771 upon
a tract of land on the northern bank of the
Nonachunheh (corruption, Nolichucky) River.
During the same year, an experimental hne
run westward from Steep Rock and Beaver
Creek by Anthony Bledsoe showed that upon
the extension of the boundary line, these set
tlers would fall within the bounds of North
Carolina. Although thus informally warned
of the situation, the settlers made no move to
vacate the lands. But in the following year,
after the running of Donelson's line, Alexan
der Cameron, Stuart's deputy, required "all
persons who had made settlements beyond the
said line to relin(3[uish them." Thus officially
warned. Brown and his companions removed to
Watauga.'^* Cameron's order did not apply,
however, to the settlement north of the Hol-
194

WATAUGA— HAVEN OF LIBERTY
and the settlement in Carter's Valley, north
of the Holston and west of the Long Island,
although lying without the Virginia bound-
a^'y, strangely enough remained unmolested.
The order was directed at the Watauga set
tlers, who were seated south of the Holston
River in the Watauga Valley. ( See map for
settlements and treaty lines.)
The plight in which the Watauga settlers
now found themselves was truly desperate;
and the way in which they surmounted this
apparently insuperable difficulty is one of the
most striking and characteristic events in the
pre-Revolutionary history of| the Old South
west. It exhibits the indomitable will and fer
tile resource of the American character at the
margin of desperation. The momentous in
fiuence of the Watauga settlers, inadequately
reckoned hitherto by historians, was soon to
make itself powerfully felt in the first epochal
movement of westward expa,nsipn.

195

CHAPTER XIII
OPENING THE GATEWAY — ^DUNMORE's WAR
Virginia, we conceive, can claim this Country [Kentucky]
with the greatest justice and propriety, its within the Limits
of their Charter. They Fought and bled for it. And had
it not been for the memorable Battle, at the Great TCanaway
those vast regions had yet continued inaccessable.
— The Harrodsburg Petition. Jime 7-15, 1776.
IT was fortunate for the Watauga settlers
that the Indians and the whites were on
the most peaceful terms with each other at the
time the Watauga Valley was shown, by the
running of the boundary line, to lie within the
Indian reservation. With true American self-
reliance, the settlers met together for delibera
tion and counsel, and deputed James Robert
son and John Been, as stated by Tennessee's
first historian, "to treat with their landlords,
and agree upon articles of accomodation and
friendship. The attempt succeeded. For
though the Indians refused to give up the land
196

OPENING THE GATEWAY
gratuitously, they consented, for a stipulated
amount of merchandise, muskets, and other
articles of convenience, to lease all the coun
try on the waters of the Watauga." ^^^ In ad
dition to the land thus leased for ten years,
several other tracts were purchased from the
Indians by Jacob Brown, who reoccupied his
former location on the Nolichucky.
In taking this daring step, the Watauga
settlers moved into the spotlight of national
history. For the inevitable consequence of
leasing the territory was the organization of
a form of government for the infant settle
ment. Through his familiarity with the North
Carolina type of "association," in which the
settlers had organized for the purpose of "reg
ulating" abuses, and his acquaintance with the
contents of the "Impartial Relation," in which
Huslband fully expounded the principles and
practices of this association, Robertson was
peculiarly fitted for leadership in organizing
this new government. The convention at
which Articles of Association, unfortunately
lost, were drawn up, is noteworthy as the first
197

THE CONQUEST OF THE OLD SOUTHWEST
governmental ai^semblage of free-born Ameri
can citizens ever held west of the Alleghanies.
The government then established was the first
free and independent government, democratic
in spirit, representative in form, ever organ
ized upon the American continent. In de
scribing this mimic republic, the royal Gover
nor of Virginia says : "They appointed mag
istrates, and framed laws for their present oc
casion, and to all intents and purposes, erected
themselves into, though an inconsiderable, yet
a separate State." ^^° The most daring spirit
in this little state was the young John Sevier, of
French Huguenot family (originally spelled
Xavier), born in Augusta County, Virguiia,
on September 23, 1745. It was from Millers
town in Shenandoah County where he was liv
ing the uneventful life of a small farmer, that
he emigrated (December, 1773) to the Wa
tauga region. With his arrival there begins
one of the most fascinating and romantic ca
reers recorded in the varied and stirring annals
of the Old Southwest. In this daring and
impetuous young fellow, fair-haired, blue-
198

OPENING THE GATEWAY
eyed, magnetic, debonair — of powerful build,
splendid proportions, and athletic skill — we
behold the gallant exemplar of the truly heroic
life of the border. The story of his life, thrill
ing in the extreme, is rich in all the multi
colored elements which impart romance to the
arduous struggle of American civilization in
the opening years of the republic.
The creative impulses in the Watauga com
monwealth are hinted at by Dunmore, who
observes, in the letter above quoted, that Wa
tauga "sets a dangerous example to the people
of America, of forming governments distinct
from and independent of his Majesty's au
thority.^' It is true that the experiment was
somewhat limited. The organisation of the
Watauga association, which constituted a tem
porary expedient to meet a crisis in the affairs
of a frontier community cut off by forest wil
derness and mountain barriers from the reach
of the arm of royal or provincial government,
is not to be compared with the revolutionary
assemblage at Boonesborough, May 23, 1775,
or with the extraordinary demands for inde-
199

THE CONQUEST OF THE OLD SOUTHWEST
pendence in Mecklenburg County, North Car
olina, during the same month. Nevertheless
the Watauga settlers defied both North Caro
lina and the Crown, by adopting the laws of
Virginia and by ignoring Governor Josiah
Martin's proclamation (March 26, 1774) "re
quiring the said settlers immediately to retire
from the Indian Territories." ^^^ Moreover,
Watauga really was the parent of a series of
mimic republics in the Old Southwest, grad
ually tending toward higher forms of organi
zation, with a larger measure of individual lib
erty. Watauga, Transylvania, Cumberland,
Franklin represent the evolving pohtical gen
ius of a free people under the creative leader
ship of three constructive minds — James Rob
ertson, John Sevier, and Richard Henderson.
Indeed, Watauga furnished to Judge Hender
son precisely the "dangerous example" of
which Dunmore propheticaUy speaks.^^^
Immediately upon his return in 1771 from
the extended exploration of Kentucky, Daniel
Boone as already noted was engaged as secret
200

OPENING THE GATEWAY
agent, to treat with the Cherokees for the lease
or purchase of the trans-AUeghany region, on
behalf of Judge Henderson and his associates.
EmbroUed in the exciting issues of the Regu
lation and absorbed by his confining duties as
colonial judge, Henderson was unable to put
his bold design into execution untU after the
expiration of the court itself wliich ceased to
exist in 1773. Disregarding the royal procla
mation of 1763 and Locke's Fundamental
Constitutions for the Carolinas, which forbade
private parties to purchase lands from the In
dians, Judge Henderson apphed to the high
est judicial authorities in England to know if
there was any law in existence forbidding pur
chase of lands from the Indian tribes. Lord
Mansfield gave Judge Henderson the "sanc
tion of his great authority in favor of the pur
chase." ^^ Lord ChanceUor Camden and Mr.
Yorke had officiaUy advised the King in 1757,
in regard to the petition of the East Indian
Company, "that in respect to such territories
as have been, or shaU be acquired by treaty or
201

THE CONQUEST OF THE OLD SOUTHWEST
grant from the Great Mogul, or any of the
Indian princes or governments, your Maj
esty's letters patent are not necessary; the
property of the soil vesting in the company by
the Indian grant subject only to your Maj
esties right of sovereignty over the settlements,
as English settlements, and over the inhabit
ants, as English subjects, who carry with them
your Majesties laws wherever they form colo
nies, and receive your Majesties protection by
virtue of your royal charters." ^^* This opin
ion, with virtually no change, was rendered in
regard to the Indian tribes of North America
by the same two authorities, certainly as early
as 1769 ; '^^ and a true copy, made in London,
April 1, 1772, was transmitted to Judge Hen
derson.^*^ Armed with the legal opinions re
ceived from England, Judge Henderson was
fuUy persuaded that there was no legal bar
whatsoever to his seeking to acquire by pur
chase from the Cherokees the vast domain of
the trans-AUeghany.^*'' A golden dream of
(empire, with its promise of an independent re
public in the form of a proprietary colony,
S02

DANIEL BOONE LEADING COLONISTS FOR KENTUCKY — 1773
Finm a Hthoffrnph in the North Carolina Uall uf lUstory

OPENING THE GATEWAY
casts him under the speU of its aUuring glam
our. In the meantime, the restless Boone, impa
tient over the delay in the consummation of
Judge Henderson's plans, resolved to estabhsh
himself in Kentucky upon his own responsi
bUity. Heedless of the question of title and
the certain hazards incident to invading the
territory of hostile savages, Boone designated
a rendezvous in PoweU's VaUey where he and
his party of five famUies were to be met by
a band under the leadership of his connections,
ttie Bryans, and another company led by Cap
tain Wilham Russell, a daring pioneer of the
Clinch Valley. A smaU detachment of
Boone's party was fiercely attacked by Shawa
noes in PoweU's VaUey on October 10, 1773,
and ahnost aU were kiUed, including sons of
Boone and RusseU, and young John and Rich
ard Mendenhall of Guilford County, North
Carohna. As the result of this bloody repulse,
Boone's attempt to settle in Kentucky at this
time was definitely abandoned. His failure to
effect a settlement in Kentucky was due to that
203

THE CONQUEST OF THE OLD SOUTHWEST
characteristic disregard of the territorial rights
of the Indians which was all too common
among the borderers of that period.
This failure was portentous of the com
ing storm. The reign of the Long Hunters
was over. Dawning upon the horizon was the
day of stern adventurers, fixed in the desperate
and lawless resolve to invade the trans-Alle-
ghany country and to battle savagely with the
red man for its possession. More successful
than Boone was the McAfee party, five in
number, from Botetourt County, Virginia,
who between May 10th and September 1, 1773,
safely accomplished a journey through Ken
tucky and carefully marked weU-chosen sites
for future location.'** An ominous incident of
the time was the veiled warning which Corn
stalk, the great Shawanoe chieftain, gave to
Captain Thomas Bulhtt, head of a party of
royal surveyors, sent out by Lord Dunmore,
Governor of Virginia. Cornstalk at Chilli
cothe, June 7, 1773, warned Bullitt concern
ing the encroachments of the whites, "designed
to deprive us," he said, "of the hunting of the

OPENING THE GATEWAY
country, as usual . . . the hunting we stand in
need of to buy our clothing." During the
preceding summer, George Rogers Clark, an
aggressive young Virginian, with a smaU party,
had descended the Ohio as low as Fish Creek,
where he buUt a cabin; and in this region for
many months various parties of surveyors were
busUy engaged in locating and surveying lands
covered by mihtary grants. Most significant
of the ruthless determination of the pioneers
to occupy by force the Kentucky area was
the action of the large party from Monon
gahela, some forty in number, led by Captain
James Harrod, who penetrated to the present
JVIiUer County, where in June, 1774, they made
improvements and actuaUy laid out a town.
A significant, secretly conducted movement,
of which historians have taken but Uttle ac
count, was now in progress under the manipu
lation of Virginia's royal governor. As early
as 1770 Dr. John ConnoUy proposed the estab
hshment of an extensive colony south of the
Ohio ; and the design of securing such territory
from the Indians found lodgment in the mind
205

THE CONQUEST OF THE OLD SOUTHWEST
of Lord Dunmore. But this design was for
the moment thwarted when on October 28,
1773, an order was issued from the Privy
Council chamber in Whitehall granting an im
mense territory, including all of the present
West Virginia and the land alienated to Vir
ginia by Donelson's agreement with the Chero
kees (1772), to a company including Thomas
Walpole, Samuel Wharton, Benjamin Frank
lin, and others. This new colony, to be named
"Vandalia," seemed assured. A clash between
Dunmore and the royal authorities was immi
nent; for Virginia under her sea-to-sea charter
claimed the vast middle region of the continent,
extending without known limit to west and
northwest. Moreover, Dunmore was inter
ested in great land speculations on his own ac
count ; and while overtly vindicating Virginia's
claim to the trans-AUeghany by despatching
parties of surveyors to the western wilder
ness to locate and survey lands covered by
military grants, he with the collusion of cer
tain members of the "Honourable Board,"
his council, as charged by Washington, was
206

OPENING THE GATEWAY
more than "lukewarm," secretly restricting
as rigorously as he dared the extent and
number of the soldiers' aUotments. Accord
ing to the famous Virginia Remonstrance, he
was in league with '*Btten^ of great influence
in some of the neighboring states" to secure,
under cover of piwchases from the Indians,
large tracts of country between the Ohio and
the Mississippi.'** In shaping his plans Dun
more had the shrewd legal counsel of Patrick
Henry, who was equaUy intent upon making
for himself a private purchase from the Chero
kees. It was Henry's legal opinion that the
Indiana purchase from the Six Nations by the
Pennsylvania traders at Fort Stanwix (No
vember 5, 1768) was vahd; and that purchase
by private individuals from the Indians gave
fuU and ample title."** In consequence of
these facts, WiUiam Murray, in behalf of him
self and his associates of the Illinois Land
Company, and on the strength of the Camden-
Yorke decision, purchased two large tracts, on
the Illinois and Ohio respectively, from the
lUinois Indians (July 5, 1773) ; and m order
207

THE CONQUEST OF THE OLD SOUTHWEST
to win the support of Dunmore, who was am
bitious to make a fortune in land speculation,
organized a second company, the Wabash
(Ouabache) Land Company, with the gover
nor as the chief share-holder. In response to
Murray's petition on behalf of the Illinois
Land Company, Dunmore (May, 1774) rec
ommended it to Lord Dartmouth, Secretary
of State for the Colonies, and urged that it be
granted; and in a later letter he disingenuously
disclaimed any personal interest in the Ilhnois
speculation. The party of surveyors sent out under the
direction of Colonel William Preston, on the
request of Washington and other leading east
ern men, in 1774 located lands covered by
military grants on the Ohio and in the Ken
tucky area for prominent Virginians, includ
ing Washington, Patrick Henry, Wilham
Byrd, WiUiam Preston, Arthur CampbeU,
William Fleming, and Andrew Lewis, among
others, and also a large tract for Dr. Con
noUy. Certain of these grants fell within
the Vandalia area; and in his reply (Sep-
208

OPENING THE GATEWAY
tember 10, 1774) to Dunmore's letter. Lord
Dartmouth sternly censured Dunmore for
allowing these grants, and accused the white
settlers of having brought on, by such un
warrantable aggressions, the war then rag
ing with the Indians. This charge lay at the
door of Dunmore himself; and there is strong
evidence that Dunmore personally fomented
the war, ostensibly in support of Virginia's
charter rights, but actuaUy in order to further
his own speculative designs.'*' Dunmore's
agent. Dr. Connolly, heading a party posing
as Virginia militia, fired without provocation
upon a delegation of Shawanoe chiefs assem
bled at Fort Pitt (January, 1774). Taking
advantage of the alarming situation created
by the conflict of the claims of Virginia and
Pennsylvania, Connolly, inspired by Dunmore
without doubt, then issued an incendiary circu
lar (AprU 21, 1774), declaring a state of war
to exist. Just two weeks before the Battle
of the Great Kanawha, Patrick Henry cate
gorically stated, in conversation with Thomas
Wharton : 209

THE CONQUEST OlF THE OLD SOUTHWEST
that he was at Williamsburg with Ld. D. when
Dr. Conolly first came there, that Conolly is
a chatty, sensible man, and informed Ld. Dun
more of the extreme richness of the lands which
lay on both sides of the Ohio; that the prohi
bitory orders which had been sent him relative
to the land on the hither side (or Vandali^)
had caused him to turn his thoughts to the
opposite shore, and that as his Lordship was
determined to settle his family in America he
was really pursueing this war, in order to ob
tain by purchase or treaty from the native^ a
tract of territory on that side ; he then told me
that he was convinced from every authority
that the law knew, that a purchase from the
natives was as full and ample a title as could
be obtained, that they had Lord Camden and
Mr. York's opinion on that head, which opin
ion with some others that Ld. Dunmore had
consulted, and with the knowledge Conolly had
given him of the quality of the country^ and
his determined resolution to settle his family
on this continent, were the real motives, or
springs of the present expedition.'*^
At this very time, Patrick Henry, in conjunc
tion with William Byrd 3d and others, was
negotiating for a private purchase of lands
from the Cherokees ; and when Wharton, after
210

LORD DUNMORE
From the portrait copied by W. L. Sheppard from an original in
England, in the Virginia State Library

OPENING THE GATEWAY
answering Henry's inquiry as to where he
might buy Indian goods , remarked: "It's
not possible you mean to enter the Indian trade
at this period," Henry laughingly repUed:
"The wish-world is my hobby horse." "From
whence I conclude," adds Wharton, "he has
some prospect of making a purchase of the
natives, but where I know not."
The war, thus promulgated, we beheve, at
Dunmore's secret instigation and heralded by
a series of ghastly atrocities, came on apace.
After the inhuman murder of the f amUy of Lo
gan, the Indian chieftain, by one Greathouse
and his drunken companions (April 30th),
Logan, who contrary to romantic views was a
black-hearted and vengeful savage, harried the
Tennessee and Virginia borders, burning and
slaughtering. Unable to arouse the Chero
kees, owing to the opposition of Atta-kuUa-
kuUa, Logan as late as July 21st said in a letter
to the whites: "The Indians are not angry,
only myself," and not until then did Dunmore
begin to give fuU execution to his warlike
plans. The best woodsmen of the border,
211

THE CONQUEST OF THE OLD SOUTHWEST
Daniel Boone and the German scout Michael
Stoner, having been despatched on July 27th
by Colonel Wilham Preston to warn the sur
veyors of the trans-AUeghany, made a remark
able journey on foot of eight hundred miles
in sixty-one days. Harrod's company at
Harrodsburg, a company of surveyors at Fon-
tainebleau, Floyd's party on the Kentucky,
and the surveyors at Mann's Lick, thus
warned, hurried in to the settlements and were
saved. Meanwhile, Dunmore, in command of
the Virginia forces, invaded territory guaran
teed to the Indians by the royal proclamation of
1763 and recently (1774) added to the prov
ince of Quebec, a fact of which he was .not
aware, conducted a vigorous campaign, and
fortified Camp Charlotte, near Old Chillicothe.
Andrew Lewis, however, in charge of the other
division of Dunmore's army, was the one des
tined to bear the real brunt and burden of the
campaign. His division, recruited from the
very flower of the pioneers of the Old South
west, was the most representative body of bor
derers of this region that up to this time had as-
212

OPENING THE GATEWAY
sembled to measure strength with the red men.
It was an army of the true stalwarts of the
frontier, with fringed leggings and hunting-
capes, rifles and powder-horns, hunting-knives
and tomahawks.
The .Battle of the Great Kanawha, at Point
Pleasant, was fought on October 10, 1774, be
tween Lewis's force, eleven hundred strong,
and the Indians, under Cornstalk, somewhat
inferior in numbers. It was a desultory ac
tion, over a greatly extended front and in very
brushy country between Crooked Creek and
the Ohio. Throughout the long day, the In
dians fought with, rare craft and stubborn brav
ery — ^loudly cursing the white men, cleverly
picking off their leaders, and derisively inquir
ing, in regard to the absence of the fifes:
"Where are your whistles now?" Slowly re
treating, they sought to draw the whites into
an ambuscade and at a favorable moment to
"drive the Long Knives hke buUocks into the
river." No marked success was achieved on
either side until near sunset, when a flank
movement directed by young Isaac Shelby
213

THE CONQUEST OF THE OLD SOUTHWEST
alarmed the Indians, who mistook this party
for the expected reinforcement under Chris
tian, and retired across the Ohio. In the
morning the whites were amazed to discover
that the Indians, who the preceding day so
splendidly heeded the echoing call of Corn
stalk, "Be strong! Be strong!", had quit the
battle-field and left the victory with the
whites.'** The peace negotiated by Dunmore was dur
able. The governor had accomphshed his pur
pose, defied the authority of the crown, and
vindicated the claim of Virginia, to the en
thusiastic satisfaction of the backwoodsmen.
While tendering their thanks to him and avow
ing their allegiance to George III, at the close
of the campaign, the borderers proclaimed
their resolution to exert aU their powers "for
the defense of American liberty, and for the
support of her just rights and privileges, not
in any precipitous, riotous or tumultuous man
ner, but when regularly called forth by the
unanimous voice of our countrymen." Dun
more's War is epochal, in that it procured for
214

OPENING THE GATEWAY
the nonce a state of peace with the Indians,
which made possible the advance of Judge
Henderson over the Transylvania Trail in
1775, and, through his estabhshment of the
Transylvania Fort at Boonesborough, the ulti
mate acquisition by the American Confedera
tion of the imperial domain of the trans-AUe
ghany.'"

215

CHAPTER XIV
EICHARD HENDERSON AND THE
TRANSYLVANIA COMPANY
I happened to fall in company, and have a. great deal
of conversation with one of the most singular. and extraordi
nary persons and excentric geniuses in America, and perhaps
in the world. His name is Richard Henderson.
— J. F. D. Smyth: A Tour in the United States
of America. '
EARLY in 1774, chastened by his own dis
astrous failure the preceding autumn,
Boone advised Judge Henderson that the time
was auspicious for opening negotiations with
the Cherokees for purchasing the trans-AUe
ghany region.'*^ In organizing a company for
this purpose, Henderson chose men of action
and resource, leaders in the colony, ready for
any hazard of life and fortune in this gigantic
scheme of colonization and promotion. The
new men included, in addition to the partners
in the organization known as Richard Hender-
216

RICHARD HENDERSON
son and Company, were Colonel John Lut-
treU, destined to win laurels in the Revolution,
and Wilham Johnston, a native of Scotland,
the leading merchant of Hillsborough.'***
Meeting in HiUsborough on August 27,
1774, these men organized the new company
under the name of the Louisa Company. In
the articles then drawn up they agreed to "rent
or purchase" a tract of land from the Indian
owners of the soil for the express purpose of
"settling the country." Each partner obh-
gated himself to "furnish his Quota of Ex
penses necessary towards procuring the grant."
In full anticipation of the grave dangers to
be encountered, they solemnly bound them
selves, as "equal sharers in the property," to
"support each other with our lives and for
tunes." '*^ Negotiations with the Indians were
begun at once. Accompanied by Colonel Na
thaniel Hart and guided by the experienced
Indian-trader, Thomas Price, Judge Hender
son visited the Cherokee chieftains at the Otari
towns. After ehtborate consultations, the lat
ter deputed the old chieftain, Atta-kuUa-kuUa,
217

THE CONQUEST OF THE OLD SOUTHWEST
a young buck, and a squaw, "to attend the
said Henderson and Hart to North Carolina,
and there examine the Goods and Merchandize
which had been by them offered as the Con
sideration of the purchase." The goods pur
chased at Cross Creek (now Fayetteville,
North Carolina), in which the Louisa Com
pany "had embarked a large amount," met the
entire approval of the Indians — ^the squaw in
particular shrewdly examining the goods in
the interest of the women of the tribe.'**
On January 6, 1775, the company was again
enlarged, and given the name of the Transyl
vania Company — ^the three new partners being
David Hart, brother to Thomas and Nathan
iel, iLeonard Henley Bullock, a prominent
citizen of GranviUe, and James Hogg, of
Hillsborough, a native Scotchman and one of
the most influential men in the colony. In the
elaborate agreement drawn up reference is ex
plicitly made to the contingency of "settling
and voting as a proprietor and giving Rules
and Regulations for the Inhabitants etc." '**
Hillsborough was the actual starting'-point for
218

RICHARD HENDERSON
the westward movement, the first emigrants
travehng thence to the Sycamore Shoals of the
Watauga. In speaking of the departure of
the settlers, the first movement of extended and
permanent westward migration, an eye-witness
quaintly says : "At this place [HiUsborough]
I saw the first party of emigrant families that
moved to Kentucky under the auspices of
Judge Henderson. They marched out of the
town with considerable solemnity, and to many
their destination seemed as remote as if it had
been to the South Sea Islands." '^^
Meanwhile, the "Proposals for the encour
agement of settling the lands etc.," issued on
Christmas Day, 1774, were quickly spread
broadcast through the colony and along the
border.'^' It was the greatest sensation North
Carolina had known since Alamance; and
Archibald Neilson, deputy-auditor and naval
officer of the colony, inquired with quizzical
anxiety: "Pray, is Dick Henderson out of
his head?" The most liberal terms, proffered
by one quite in possession of his head, were
embodied in these proposals. Land at twenty
219

THE CONQUEST OF THE OLD SOUTHWEST
s(hillings per hundred acres was offered to
each emigrant setthng within the territory
and raising a crop of com before September
1, 1775, the emigrant being permitted to take
up as much as five hundred acres for him
self and two hundred and fifty acres for each
tithable person under hun. In these "Pro
posals" there was no indication that the low
terms at which the lands were offered would
be maintained after September 1, 1775.'®^ In
a letter to Governor Dunmore (January,
1775), Colonel WiUiam Preston, county sur
veyor of Fincastle County, Virginia, says:
"The low price he [Henderson] proposes to
sell at, together with some further encourage
ment he offers, will I am apprehensive induce
a great many families to remove from this
County (Fincastle) & Carohna and settle
there." '^* Joseph Martin, states his son, "was
appointed entry-Taker and agent for the Pow
ell Valley portion" of the Transylvania Pur
chase on January 20; 1775; and "he (Joseph
Martin) and others went on in the early part
of the year 1775 and made their stand at the
220

TV: R. Henry E hck en, oi Albemarle County, ^?
-'-*-*- h-; a Bora <.f min:, wirh MLXJa-x-it^/fr/^fr/yc^, Jiin. S.e-i. ¦" ^
c'jrily, ioi hxtyl .11! lis pays!. li llie i6iri.Day ot ^firBayKj;;^,'
bcariiip; Int.ifit I'.. .1, ;!-,l iCili I;ny of r,ln-vl-ry laft : This is to
fciewarn :-'.: Ptrfons i!.ii„lt !.-!-,in<r an Atri;;njiiei',t of foid Bond, j i
a^ I Jo not n|.ii,ii.;ii<i ihat 1 .-,-.-¦ iixii.l«cd xo the laid Shdun a fingle ' ,'
Shininp-, lull that he isa Ttii'lc in i;iy Dtbt. , , .^ ^^
_"_ 1 - iMAl 1 liEW _ANDI;RS0N, Junior,-' - -^^
/A COMPANY ofGemhmen'cf Nortb^Wt
*- -*- Carolina haying, for a large ?nd valuable Q(jrSAf:r\\v^'?. '^'
purcliafcdfiom tUcChiefscf thct.^(T^/r<:-/ri2'r^».r, by.indwiih ; ,.
Conftnt of tlie whole Natron, a conl'idtiaM-. Traft of tl.tn J_.::r,'-:.
now called 'Tranf-ih-cna^ Ij'^S on i he K i vei s Ohio., Ciimherlciid, i v.d
Lcur/h; and rniltiit:iii(iing that mzi\y People are defiroiis cf bc-
cc niir.^ Adventurers in tliaf P.'ii t of I'ne WuiSd, and wifli to ki-jw--
the Tciiiiy on which L>m's in that Country may t>e had, tbe^iiiir^-
f(ire hf-v hv II f'TTTi the 1''^)'^, tJiat any Perfon who will fettle on
tiul inhabit thcf me iitfoie i-he firft Day of Jma^ 1776, fliall huvc
the Pi!- i!e;^cc{ rr,k!ii2 up and furve) ing for himfeif ^00 Acrts, and
for tacii tithnhk- P;;ilbd he may cany with him aad feitk there 25a
Acres, on t]ie Payment of 50s. Sterling /i^r Hundred, ttibjcct to-, > .
an y;3.r'\' Qn^itrent of is. like r<r'--ney, to'rommence ifiu tlfc Vear \ J. , ¦
17S0, S-uch Perfons Hs^r^wiiiii^ to become Pnrchatersni'A? cor- J.'; .
ici,j'ujnl 311(1 treat vith Mr. lililiai:: 'jobnjhn in lUUJhorQUgb,, aiic( * ^
Q.'A.'jC'hr.li'iilicfTis'r.iGranfiliCi Ncytk Cai:o!ina, ot Col. RiciarJ ij
H''.-u^rrfDn -M Bccnjlcr-.u^h, in Tr^'i'd-z-uuia.  This^Countiy'Iies /¦' *^-
en the I'ciith Side ct ilitr Iv!vtrs O/.v ^nd LouifOy in a temperateand 1
I.caldiv Climite. It is Jn getiui-iL wtll watered with Springs and ^
Rivulets, and liris kveral Rivtis, tip which Veflels of confiderabla' j
V>'.v. trizn imv come wjtii Eafe. In -iitTerent Places of it are a Num*.. \
ber of Salt .'Springs' where the m I: ing of Salt has been tried wi^ ¦ ^
ficat Snccc:^j and v.-hert, with C;.tilnty, any Quantity iieeded ;
nny be c..!'.lv rr.d coi.vcnitntly rririi'tr. Large Xrafts of t^e !^nd S
lie ^\\ Lin.L-ilune, and. in i"i;vtr:il Places there is Abunt^aiiiie of , "^-i
Iicn Ore. The Fcriiliiy of the Soil, -and Goodnefs ofthe Kang^i
altnoft m;pi!sBeiie-f; and it is atprefentwell ftored with^^ffaTbi" ' *''
Elk, D^cr, Ec3i, b aver, fe^c. and the Rivers abound w^ Fiih ' ' -fe.
ofvaiious Kinds. Vaft Crowds ^i people are daily fiopcing to \.
it, and ni?r,v Gentlemen of the fiift Rank and Chara^Cripivebiu-^ .,
gained foi Lan«U in it; fo that there is a great Apf^arancetfai^ajki^'
Sttilcraenr, and that it wi!i loon become a confiderabji Coldin^ii^' ^k
and one of the moft agreeable Comrtries in America. / (6) '^?^ri' '
¦". ' ¦ "',"" ¦ ¦ A* ¦ '-^ ¦ '¦-'
HUNTINGTOUP, Sfpt.'X^ 1775' .'
TKE Lands I have for feme Time paft
advertife'd forSak are not as yeffold. I will fell diem at
a very low Price, and alluw a reafonable 'Time of Payjnent for
Part of the Money. The Re^cn why I have not fold them wa»,
that I would give no CietUt.
4 ANTHONY WINSTON.

ADVERTISEMENT OF THE TRANSYLVANIA COMPANY
From The Virginia Gazette, September 30, 1775

RICHARD HENDERSON
very spot where he had made com several years
before." ^^ In speaking of the starthng de
sign, unmasked by Henderson, of establishing
an independent government. Colonel Preston
writes to GJeorge Washington of the contem
plated "large Purchase by one Col.'' Hender
son of Xorth Carolina from the Cherokees.
... I hear that Henderson talks with great
Freedom & Indecency of the Governor of Vir
ginia, sets the Giovemment at Defiance & says
if he once had five hundred good Fellows set
tled in that Coimtry he would not Value Vir
ginia." 1'*
Early in 1775 runners were sent off to the
Cherokee towns to summon the Indians to the
treaty ground at the Sycamore Shoals of the
Watauga ; and Boone, after his return from a
hunt in Kentucky in January, was summoned
by Judge Henderson to aid in the negotia
tions preliminary to the actual treaty. The
dominating figure in the remarkable assem
blage at the treaty ground, consisting of
twelve hundred Indians and several hundred
whites, was Richard HendersMi, "comely in
221

THE CONQUEST OF THE OLD SOUTHWEST
person, of a benign and social disposition,"
with countenance betokening the man of strenu
ous action — "noble forehead, prominent nose,
projecting chin, firm-set jaw, with kindness
and openness of expression." Gathered about
him, picturesque in garb and striking in ap
pearance, were many of the buckskin-clad lead
ers of the border — ^James Roibertson, John
Sevier, Isaac Shelby, William Bailey Smith,
and their compeers — as well as his Carolina
friends John Williams, Thomas and Nathaniel
Hart, Nathaniel Henderson, Jesse Benton,^^^
and Valentine Searcy.
Little was accomplished on the first day of
the treaty (March 14th) ; but on the next day,
the Cherokees offered to sell the section bar
gained for by Donelson acting as agent
for Virginia in 1771. Although the Indians
pointed out that Virginia had never paid the
promised compensation of five hundred pounds
and had therefore forfeited her rights, Hen
derson flatly refused to entertain the idea of
purchasing territory to which Virginia had the
prior claim. Angered by Henderson's refusal,

RICHARD HENDERSON
The Dragging Canoe, leaping into the circle of
the seated savages, made an impassioned speech
touched with the romantic imagination peculiar
to the American Indian. With pathetic elo
quence he dwelt upon the insatiable land-greed
of the white men, and predicted the extinction
of his race if they committed the insensate
foUy of selhng their beloved hunting-grounds.
Roused to a high pitch of oratorical fervor,
the savage with uplifted arm fiercely exhorted
his people to resist further encroachments at
aU hazards — and left the treaty ground. This
incident brought the conference to a starthng
and abrupt conclusion. On the following day,
however, the savages proved more tractable,
agreeing to sell the land as far south as the
Cumberland River. In order to secure the
additional territory watered hy the tributaries
of the Cumberland, Henderson agreed to pay
an additional sum of two thousand pounds.
Upon this day there originated the ommous
phrase descriptive of Kentucky when The
Dragging Canoe, dramatically pohitmg to
ward the west, declared that a Dark Cloud
223

THE CONQUEST OF THE OLD SOUTHWEST
hung over that land, which was known as the
Bloody Grownd.
On the last day, March 17th, the negotia
tions were opened with the signing of the
"Great Grant." The area purchased, some
twenty millions of acres, included almost all the
present state of Kentucky, and an immense
tract in Tennessee, comprising all the territory
watered by the Cumberland River and all its
tributaries. For "two thousand weight of
leather in goods" Henderson purchased "the
lands lying down Holston and between the
Watauga lease. Colonel Donelson's line and
PoweU's Mountain" as a pathway to Kentucky
— the deed for which was known as the "Path
Deed." By special arrangement. Carter's
Valley in this tract went to Carter and Lucas ;
two days later, for two thousand pounds,
Charles Robertson on behalf of the Watauga
Association purchased a large tract in the val
leys of the Holston, Watauga, and New Riv
ers; and eight days later Jacob Brown pur
chased two large areas, including the Noli
chucky Valley. (Compare map.) This his-
224<

RICHARD HENDERSON
toric treaty, which heralds the opening of the
West, was conducted with absolute justice and
fairness by Judge Henderson and his associ
ates. No Uquor was permitted at the treaty
ground; and Thomas Price, the ablest of the
Cherokee traders, deposed that "he at that time
understood the Cherokee language, so as to
comprehend everything which was said and to
know that what was observed on either side was
fairly and truly translated ; that the Cherokees
perfectly understood, what Lands were the
subject of the Treaty. . . ." The amount
paid by the Transylvania Company for the im
perial domain was ten thousand pounds ster-
hng, in money and in goods.^^''
Although Daniel Boone doubtless assisted
in the proceedings prior to the negotiation of
the treaty, his name nowhere appears in the
voluminous records of the conference. In
deed, he was not then present; for a fortnight
before the conclusion of the treaty he was com
missioned by Judge Henderson to form a
party of competent woodmen to blaze a pas
sage through the wilderness. On March 10th
225

THE CONQUEST OF THE OLD SOUTHWEST
this party of thirty ax -men, under the leader
ship of Boone, started from the rendezvous,
the Long Island of Holston, to engage in the
arduous labor of cutting out the Transylvania
Trail."' Henderson, the empire-builder, now faced
with courage and resolution the hazardous task
of occupying the purchased territory and estab
lishing an independent government. No mere
financial promoter of a vast speculative enter
prise, he was one of the heroic figures of the
Old Southwest; and it was his dauntless cour
age, his unwavering resolve to go forward in
the face of all dangers, which carried through
the armed "trek" to a successful conclusion.
At Martin's Station, where Henderson and
his party tarried to build a house in which to
store their wagons, as the road could be cleared
no further, they were joined by another party,
of five adventurers from Prince Wilham
County, Virginia.^'" In Henderson's party
were some forty men and boys, with forty pack-
horses and a small amount of powder, lead,
226

'¦/tr:'X

-^-^ /'¦ -¦ ¦ ,yi> y

-^^'.'^^ r ';h^J'^y^ /? .^ ^ ^ ^, .^ .^:^rj-''^' >

/ /rn y

•^'•^^, ^^,^.4;^ ;?

FIRST PAGE OF RICHARD HENDERSON'S DIARY
From the ori^nal owned by the Wisconsin State Historical Society
RICHARD HENDERSON
salt, and garden-seeds. The warnhig freely
given by Joseph Martin of the perils of the
path was soon confirmed, as appears from the
following entry in Henderson's diary:
Friday the 7th. [AprU] About Brake of
Day began to snow. About 11 oClock re
ceived a letter from Mr. Luttrells camp that
were five persons kilP. on the road to the Can-
tuckie by Indians. Cap'. [Nathaniel] Hart,
uppon the receipt of this News Retreated back
with his Company, & determined to Settle in
the Valley to make Corn for the Cantucky
people. The same Day Received a Letter
from Da°. Boone, that his Company was fired
uppon by Indians, KiU'd Two of his men — ^tho
he kept the ground & saved the Baggage &°.^®°
The following historic letter, which reveals
alike the dogged resolution of Boone and his
rehance upon Henderson and his company in
this black hour of disaster, addressed "Colonel
Richard Henderson — ^these with care," is elo
quent in its simphcity:
Dear Colonel: After my compliments to
you, I shall acquaint you of our misfortunes.
227

THE CONQUEST OF THE OLD SOUTHWEST
On March the 25 a party of Indians fired on
my Company about half an hour before day,
and killed Mr. Twitty and his negro, and
wounded Mr. Walker very deeply, but I hope
he will recover.
On March the 28 as we were hunting- for
provisions, we found Samuel Tate's son, who
gave us an account that the Indians fired on
their camp on the 27th day. My brother and
I went down and found two men killed and
sculped, Thomas McDowell and Jeremiah Mc-
Feters. I have sent a man down to aU the
lower companies in order to gather them all
at the mouth of Otter Creek.
My advice to you, Sir, is to come or send as
soon as possible. Your company is desired
greatly, 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 Indians'] intentions, and keep the coun
try, whilst we are in it. If we give way to
them now, it will ever be the case. This day
we start from the battle ground, for the mouth
of Otter Creek, where we shall immediately
erect a Fort, which will be done before you
can come or send, then we can send ten men
to meet you, if you send for them.
I am. Sir, your most obedient
Omble Sarvent Daniel Boone.
228

RICHARD HENDERSON
N.B. We stood on the ground and guarded
our baggage till day, and lost nothing. We
have about fifteen miles to Cantuck [Kentucky
River] at Otter Creek.'"
This dread inteUigence caused the hearts of
strong men to quaU and induced some to turn
back, but Henderson, the jurist-pioneer, was
made of sterner stuff. At once (AprU Sth) he
despatched an urgent letter in hot haste to the
proprietors of Transylvania, enclosing Boone's
letter, informing them of Boone's phght and
urging them to send him immediately a large
quantity of powder and lead, as he had been
compeUed to abandon his supply of saltpeter
at Martin's Station. "We are aU in high spir
its," he assures the proprietors, "and on thorns
to fiy to Boone's assistance, and join him in
defense of so fine and valuable a country."
Laconically eloquent is this simple entry in
his diary: "Saturday the Sth. Started ab*. 10
"Clock Crossed Cumberland Gap about 4
miles met about 40 persons Returning from
the Cantucky, on Ace*, of the Late Murders
by the Indians could prevaU on one only to
229

THE CONQUEST OF THE OLD SOUTHWEST
return, Mem" Several Virginians who were
with us return'd."
There is no more crucial moment in early
Western history than this, in which we see the
towering form of Henderson, clad in the pic
turesque garb of the pioneer, with outstretched
arm resolutely pointing forward to the "dark
and bloody ground," and in impassioned but
futile eloquence pleading with the pale and
panic-stricken fugitives to turn about, to join
his company, and to face once more the mortal
dangers of pioneer conquest. Significant in
deed are the lines :
Some to endure, and many to fail.
Some to conquer, and many to quail.
Toiling over the Wilderness Trail.
The spirit of the pioneer knight-errant inspires
Henderson's words : "In this situation, some
few, of genuine courage and undaunted reso
lution, served to inspire the rest; by the help
of whose example, assisted by a little pride and
some ostentation, we made a shift to march
on with aU the appearance of gallantry, and,
230

RICHARD HENDERSON
cavaher hke, treated everj' insinuation of dan
ger with the utmost contempt."
Fearing that Boone, who did not even know
that Henderson's cavalcade was on the road,
would be unable to hold out, Henderson real
ized the imperative necessity for sending him
a message of encouragement. The bold
young Virginian, WiUiam Cocke, volunteered
to brave alone the dangers of the murder-
haunted traU — to undertake a ride more truly
memorable and hazardous than that of Revere.
"This offer, extraordinary as it was, we could
hy no means refuse," remarks Henderson, who
shed tears of gratitude as he proffered his sin
cere thanks and wrung the brave messenger's
hand. Equipped with "a good Queen Anne's
musket, plenty of ammunition, a tomahawk,
a large cuttoe knife [French, couteaul, a
Dutch blanket, and no small quantity of jerked
beef," Cocke on April 10th rode off "to the
Cantuckey to Inform Cap* Boone that we were
on the road." The fearful apprehensions felt
for Cocke's safety were later reheved, when
along the road were discovered his letters in-

THE CONQUEST OF THE OLD SOUTHWEST
forming Henderson of his arrival and of his
having been joined on the way by Page Port-
wood of Rowan. On his arrival at Otter
Creek, Cocke found Boonie and his men, and
on relating his adventures, "came in for his
share of applause." Boone at once despatched
the master woodman, Michael Stoner, with
pack-horses to assist Henderson's party, which
he met on April ISth at their encampment "in
the Eye of the Rich Land." Along with "Ex
ceUent Beef in plenty," Stoner brought the
story of Boone's determined stand and an ac
count of the erection of a rude little fortifica
tion which they had hurriedly thrown up to
resist attack. With laconic significance Hen
derson pays the following tribute to Boone
which deserves to be perpetuated in national
annals : "It was owing to Boone's confidence
in us, and the people's in him, that a stand
was ever attempted in order to wait for our
coming." In the course of their journey over the
mountains and through the wUderness, the
pioneers forgot the trials of the trail in the

RICHARD HENDERSON
face of the surpassing beauties of the country.
The Cumberlands were covered with rich un
dergrowth of the red and white rhododendron,
the dehcate laurel, the mountain ivy, the flame-
azalea, the spicewood, and the cane; while the
white stars of the dogwood and the carmine
blossoms of the red-bud, strewn across the
verdant background of the forest, gleamed in
the eager air of spring. "To enter uppon a
detaU of the Beuty & Goodness of our Coun
try," writes Nathaniel Henderson, "would be
a task too arduous. . . . Let it suffice to teU
you it far exceeds any country I ever saw or
herd off. I am conscious its out of the power
of any man to make you clearly sensible of
the great Beuty and Richness of Kentucky."
Young Felix Walker, endowed with more
vivid powers of description, says with a touch
of native eloquence :
Perhaps no Adventureor Since the days of
donquicksotte or before ever felt So Cheerful &
Hated in prospect, every heart abounded with
Joy & excitement ... & exclusive of the
Novelties of the Journey the advantages &
233

THE CONQUEST OF THE OLD SOUTHWEST
accumalations arising on the Settlement of a
new Country was a dazzhng object with many
of our Company. . . . As the Cain ceased, we
began to discover the pleasing & Rapturous
appearance of the plains of Kentucky, a New
Sky & Strange Earth to be presented to our
view, ... So Rich a Soil we had never Saw
before, Covered with Clover in full Bloom, the
Woods alive abounding in wild Game, turkeys
so numerous that it might be said there ap
peared but one flock Universally Scattered in
the woods ... it appeared that Nature in the
profusion of her Bounties, had Spread a feast
for all that lives, both for the Animal & Ra
tional World, a Sight so dehghtful to our View
and grateful to our feehngs almost Induced us,
in Immitation of Columbus in Transport to
Kiss the Soil of Kentucky, as he haild &
Saluted the sand on his first setting his foot
on the Shores of America.'®^
On the journey Henderson was joined in
Powell's Valley by Benjamin Logan, after
ward so famous in Kentucky annals, and a
companion, William Galaspy. At the Crab
Orchard they left Henderson's party; and
turning their course westward finally pitched
camp in the present Lincoln County, where

RICHARD HENDERSON
Logan subsequently buUt a fort. On Sunday,
April 16th, on Scaggs's Creek, Henderson
records: "About 12 oClock Met James Mc
Afee with 18 other persons Returning from
Cantucky." They advised Henderson of the
"troublesomeness and danger" of the Indians,
says Robert McAfee junior: "but Henderson
assured them that he had purchased the whole
country from the Indians, that it belonged to
him, and he had named it Transylvania. . . .
Robt, Samuel, and WiUiam McAfee and 3
others were inclined to return, but James op
posed it, alleging that Henderson had no right
to the land, and that Virginia had previously
bought it. The former (6) returned with
Henderson to Boonesborough." Among those
who had joined Henderson's party was Abra
ham Hanks from Virginia, the maternal grand
father of Abraham Lincoln; but alarmed by
the stories brought by Stewart and his party
of fugitives. Hanks and Drake, as recorded
by Wilham Calk on that day (AprU 13th),
turned back."^
At last the founder of Kentucky with his
235

THE CONQUEST OF THE OLD SOUTHWEST
little band reached the destined goal of their
arduous journeyings, Henderson's record on
his birthday runs: "Thursday the 20th
[April] Arrived at Fort Boone on the
Mouth of Oter Creek Cantuckey River where
we were Saluted by a running fire of about
25 Guns; aU that was then at Fort, . , . The
men appeared in high spirits & much rejoiced
in our arrival." It is a coincidence of his
toric interest that just one day after the em
battled farmers at Lexington and Concord
"fired the shots heard round the world," the
echoing shots of Boone and his sturdy back
woodsmen rang out to announce the arrival of
the proprietor of Transylvania and the birth
of the American West.

236

CHAPTER XV
TRANSYLVANIA — A WILDERNESS
COMMONWEALTH
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 each and every individual are inseparably
connected. . . . Our peculiar circumstances in this remote coun
try, surrounded on all sides with difBcuIties, and equally sub
ject to one common danger, which threatens our common
overthrow, must, I think, in their effects, secure to us an
union of interests, and, consequently, that harmony in opinion,
so essential to the forming good, wise and wholesome laws.
— ^JuDGE RicHABB Hendeesox: Addrcss to the
Legislature of Transylvania, May 23, 1775.
THE independent spirit displayed by the
Transylvania Company, and Hender
son's procedure in open defiance of the royal
governors of both North Carohna and Vir
ginia, naturaUy aroused grave alarm through
out these colonies and South Carolina. "This
in my Opinion," says Preston in a letter to
George Washington (January 31, 1775),
"wiU soon become a serious Affair, & highly
237

THE CONQUEST OF THE OLD SOUTHWEST
deserves the Attention of the Government.
For it is certain that a vast Number of People
are preparing to go out and settle on this Pur
chase ; and if once they get fixed there, it will
be next to impossible to remove them or reduce
them to Obedience; as they are so far from the
Seat of Government, Indeed it may be the
Cherokees will support them," ^®* Governor
Martin of North Carolina, already deeply dis
turbed in anticipation of the coming revolu
tionary cataclysm, thundered in what was gen
eraUy regarded as a forcible-feeble proclama
tion (February 19, 1775) against "Richard
Henderson and his Confederates" in their
"daring, unjust and unwarrantable proceed
ings," ^*' In a letter to Dartmouth he de
nounces "Henderson the famous invader" and
dubs the Transylvania Company "an infamous
Company of land Pyrates."
Officials who were themselves eager for land
naturally opposed Henderson's plans. Lord
Dunmore, who in 1774, as we have seen, was
heavily interested in the Wabash Land Com
pany engineered by William Murray, took the
238

TRANSYLVANL^
ground that the Wabash purchase was valid
under the Camden- Yorke decision. This is so
stated in the records of the lUinois Company,
hkewise under Murray's control. But al
though the "Ouabache Company," of which
Dunmore was a leading member, was initiated
as early as May 16, 1774, the purchase of the
territory was not formally effected until Oc
tober 18, 1775 — too late to benefit Dunmore,
then deeply embroUed in the preliminaries to
the Revolution. Under the cover of his
agent's name, it is beheved, Dunmore, with his
"passion for land and fees," illegaUy entered
tracts aggregating thousands of acres of land
surveyed by the royal surveyors in the summer
of 1774 for Dr. John ConnoUy.'*^ Early in
this same year, Patrick Henry, who, as already
pohited out, had entered large tracts in Ken
tucky in violation of Virginia's treaty obliga
tions with the Cherokees, united with William
Byrd 3d, John Page, Ralph Wormley, Samuel
Overton, and William Christian, in the effort
to purdhase from the Cherokees a tract of land
west of Donelson's line, being firmly persuaded
239

THE CONQUEST OF THE OLD SOUTHWEST
of the validity of the Camden-Yorke opinion. *
Their agent, William Kenedy, considerably
later in the year, went on a mission to the
Cherokee towns, and upon his return reported
that the Indians might be induced to sell.
When it became known that Judge Henderson
had organized the Transylvania Company and
anticipated Patrick Henry and his associates.
Colonel Arthur Campbell, as he himself states,
apphed to several of the partners of the
Transylvania Company on behalf of Patrick
Henry, requesting that Henry be taken in as
a partner.^®^ It was afterward stated, as com
monly understood among the Transylvania
proprietors, that both Patrick Henry and
Thomas Jefferson desired to become members
of the company; but that Colonel Richard
Henderson was instrumental in preventing
their admission "lest they should supplant the
Colonel [Henderson] as the guiding spirit of
the company." ^®*
Fully informed by Preston's elaborate com
munication on the gravity of the situation,
Dunmore acted energetically, though tardily,
240

By his ExccBency the Right Honourable JOHN Earl of DUNMORE. his Maieftr's
LiniKnant and Goremor General of the Colony and Dominion of Viiginia. and Vice
Admiial of the lani& .

A PROCLAMATION.

Virginia, to wit

W"

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DUNMORE.
GOD fave the KIN G.

tbe t^3££aa fo e^bOIt cbcui^i lad

C IT LS ^IfT mj g»f. J:

LORD DUNMORE'S PROCLAMATION AGAINST THE
TRANSYLVANIA COMPANY
From an unique original in the Public Record Office, London

TRANSYLVANIA
to prevent the execution of Henderson's de
signs. On March 21st Dunmore sent flying
through the back country a proclamation, de
manding the immediate relinquishment of the
territory by "one Richard Henderson and
other disorderly persons, his associates," and
"in case of refusal, and of violently detaining
such possession, that he or they be immediately
fined and imprisoned." ^®® This proclamation,
says a peppery old chronicler, may well rank
with the one excepting those arch traitors
and rebels, Samuel Adams and John Han
cock, from the mercy of the British mon
arch. In view of Dunmore's confidence in the
validity of the Camden-Yorke decision, it is
noteworthy that no mention of the royal proc
lamation of 1763 occurs in his broadside; and
that he bases his objection to the Transyl
vania purchase upon the king's instructions
that all vacant lands "within this colony"
be laid off in tracts, from one hundred to one
thousand acres in extent, and sold at public
auction. This proclamation which was en
closed, oddly enough, in a letter of official in-
241

THE CONQUEST OF THE OLD SOUTHWEST
structions to Preston warning him not to sur
vey any lands "beyond the hne run by Colonel
Donaldson," proved utterly ineffective. At
the same time, Dunmore despatched a pointed
letter to Oconostota, Atta-kulla-kulla, Judge's
Friend, and other Cherokee chieftains, noti
fying them that the sale of the great tract of
land below the Kentucky was illegal and
threatening them with the king's displeasure
if they did not repudiate the sale.""
News of the plans which Henderson had
already matured for establishing an independ
ent colony in the trans- Alleghany wilderness,
now ran like wUd-fire through Virginia. In
a letter to George Washington (April 9,
1775), Preston ruefully says: "Henderson I
hear has made the Purchase & got a Convey
ance 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. How this may be I
cant say, but I am affraid the steps taken by
242

TRANSYLVANLA^
the Gkjvemment have been too late. Before
the Purchase was made had the Governor m-
terfered it is beheved the Indians would not
have sold." "^
Meanwhile Judge Henderson, with strenu
ous energy, had begun to erect a large stock
aded fort according to plans of his own. Cap
tain James Harrod with forty-two men was
stationed at the settlement he had made the
preceding year, having.arrived there before the
McAfees started back to Virginia; and there
were small groups of settlers, at Boiling
Spring, six miles southeast of Harrod's settle
ment, and at St. Asaph's, a mile west of the
present Stanford. A representative govern
ment for Transylvania was then planned.
When the frank and gallant Floyd arrived at
the Transylvania Fort on May 3d, he "ex
pressed great satisfaction," says Judge Hen
derson, "on being informed of the plan we pro
posed for Legislation & sayd he must most
heartily concur in that & every other measure
we should adopt for the well Govern^ or good of
the Community in Gen\" In reference to a

THE CONQUEST OF THE OLD SOUTHWEST
conversation with Captain James Harrod and
Colonel Thomas Slaughter of Virginia, Hen
derson notes in his diary (May Sth) : "Our
plan of Legislation, the evils pointed out — ^the
remedies to be applyed &c &c &c were Ac-
ceeded to without Hesitation. The plann was
plain & Simple — 'twas nothing novel in its es
sence a thousand years ago it was in use, and
found by every year's experience since to be un
exceptionable. We were in four distinct set-
tlem*^. Members or delegates from every
place by free choice of Individuals they first
having entered into writings solemnly bind
ing themselves to obey and carry into Execu
tion Such Laws as representatives should from
time to time make. Concurred with, by A Ma
jority of the Proprietors present in the Coun-
try." In reply to inquiries of the settlers. Judge
Henderson gave as his reason for this assem-
bhng of a Transylvania Legislature that "all
power was derived from the people." Six
days before the prophetic arrival of the news
of the Battle of Lexington and eight days be-
244

TRANSYLVANLA^
fore the revolutionary committee of Mecklen
burg County, North Carohna, promulgated
their memorable Resolves estabhshing laws for
an independent government, the pioneers as
sembled on the green beneath the mighty plane-
tree at the Transylvania Fort. In his wise
and statesmanhke address to this picturesque
convention of free Americans (May 23, 1775) ,
an address which Fehx Walker described as
being "considered equal to any of like kind
ever delivered to any dehberate body in that
day and time," Judge Henderson used these
memorable words:
You, perhaps, are fixing the palladium, or
placing the first corner stone of an edifice, the
height and magnificence of whose superstruc
ture . . . can only become great in propor
tion 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 potoer is originally in the people; make
it their interest, therefore, by impartial and
beneficent laws, and you may be sure of their
inclination to see them enforced.
245

THE CONQUEST OF THE OLD SOUTHWEST
An early writer, in speaking of the full-
blooded democracy of these "advanced" senti
ments, quaintly comments : "If Jeremy Ben-
tham had been in existence of manhood, he
would have sent his compliments to the Presi
dent of Transylvania." This, the first repre
sentative body of American freemen which ever
convened west of the Alleghanies, is surely
the most unique colonial government ever set
up on this continent. The proceedings of this
backwoods legislature — the democratic leader
ship of the principal proprietor; the prudence
exhibited in the laws for protecting game,
breeding horses, etc.; the tolerance shown in
the granting of full rehgious hberty — all dis
play the acumen and practical wisdom of these
pioneer law-givers. As the result of Hender
son's tactfulness, the proprietary form of gov
ernment, thoroughly democratized in tone,
was complacently accepted by the backwoods
men. From one who, though still under royal
rule, vehemently asserted that the source of all
political power was the people, and that "laws

TRANSYLVANIA
derive force and efficiency from our mutual
consent," Western dCTiocracy thus born in the
wilderness was "taking its first political lesson."
In their answer to Henderson's assertion of
freedom from ahen authority the pioneers un
hesitatingly declared: "That we have an ab
solute right, as a political body, without giving
umbrage to Great Britain, or any of the colo
nies, to form rules for the government of our
httle society, cannot be doubted by any sensi
ble 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 contempla
tion. . . ." In the estabhshment of a consti
tution for the new colony, Henderson with
paternalistic wisdom induced the people to
adopt a legal code based on the laws of Eng
land. Out of a sense of self -protection he re
served for the proprietors only one preroga
tive not granted them by the people, the right
of veto. He clearly realized that if this power
were given up, the delegates to any convention
247

THE CONQUEST OF THE OLD SOUTHWEST
ihat might be held after the first would be able
lo assume the claims and rights of the propria*
tors. A land-office was formally opened, deeds
were issued, and a store was established which
supplied the colonists with powder, lead, salt,
osnaburgs, blankets, and other chief necessities
of pioneer existence. Writing to his brother
Jonathan from Leestown, the bold young
George Rogers Clark, soon to plot the down
fall of Transylvania, enthusiastically says
(July 6, 1775) : "A richer and more Beauti*
full Cuntry than this I beheve has never been
seen in America yet. Co\ Henderson is hear
and Claims all y° Country below Kentucke.
If his Claim Should be good, land may be got
Reasonable Enough and as good as any in f
World." "^ Those who settled on the south
side of Kentucky River acknowledged the
vahdity of the Transylvania purchase; and
Clark in his Memoir says : "the Proprietors at
first took great pains to Ingratiate themselves
in the fav'. of the people."
In regard to the designs of Lord Dunmore,
248

TRANSYLVANLA.
who, as noted above, had illegally entered the
Connolly grant on the Ohio and sought to out
law Henderson, and of Colonel Wilham Byrd
3d, who, after being balked in Patrick Henry's
plan to anticipate the Transylvania Company
in effecting a purchase from the Cherokees,
was supposed to have tried to persuade the
Cherokees to repudiate the "Great Treaty,"
Henderson defiantly says: "Whether Lord
Dunmore and Colonel Byrd have interfered
with the Indians or not, Richard Henderson is
equally ignorant and indifferent. The utmost
result of their efforts can only serve to convince
them of the futility of their schemes and possi
bly frighten some few faint-hearted persons,
naturally prone to reverence great names and
fancy everything must shrink at the magic of
a splendid title." "^
Prompted by Henderson's desire to petition
the Continental Congress then in session for
recognition as the fourteenth colony, the
Transylvania legislature met again on the first
Thursday in September and elected Richard
Henderson and John WiUiams, among others,
249

THE CONQUEST OF THE OLD SOUTHWEST
as delegates to the gathering at Philadelphia."*
Shortly afterward the Proprietors of Transyl
vania held a meeting at Oxford, North Caro
lina ( September 25, 1775) , elected Williams as
tbe agent of the colony, and directed him to
proceed to Boonesborough there to reside until
April, 1776. James Hogg, of Hillsborough,
chosen as Delegate to represent the Colony in
the Continental Congress, was despatched to
Philadelphia, bearing with him an elaborate
memorial prepared by the President, Judge
Henderson, petitioning the Congress "to take
the infant Colony of Transylvania into their
protection." "®
Almost immediately upon his arrival in
Philadelphia, James Hogg was presented to
"the famous Samuel and John Adams." The
latter warned Hogg, in view of the efforts then
making toward reconcihation between the colo
nies and the king, that "the taking under our
protection a body of people who have acted in
defiance of the King's proclamation, will be
looked on as a confirmation of that independent
spirit with which we are daily reproached."
250

TRANSYLVANIA
Jefferson said that if his advice were followed,
all the use the Virginians should make of their
charter would be "to prevent any arbitrary
or oppressive government to be established
within the boundaries of it" ; and that it was his
wish "to see a free government estabhshed at
the back of theirs [Virginia's] properly united
with them." He would not consent, however,
that Congress should acknowledge the colony
of Transylvania, until it had the approbation
of the Virginia Convention. The quit-rents
imposed by the company were denounced in
Congress as a mark of vassalage; and many
advised a. law against the employment of ne
groes in the colony. "They even threatened
us with their opposition," says Hogg, with
precise veracity, "if we do not act upon hberal
principles when we have it so much in our
power to render ourselves immortal." "^

251

CHAPTER XVI
THE REPULSE OF THE RED MEN
To this short war may be properly attributed all the kind
feelings and fidelity to treaty stipulations manifested by the
Cherokees ever afterwards. General Rutherford instilled into
the Indians so great a fear of the whites, that never afterwards
were they disposed to engage in any cruelty, or destroy any
of the property of our frontier men.
— David L. Swaist: The Indian War of 1776.
DURING the summer of 1775 the pro
prietors of Transylvania were con
fronted with two stupendous tasks — :that of
winning the favor and support of the frontiers
men and that of rallying the rapidly dwindling
forces in Kentucky in defense of the settle
ments. Recognizing the difficulty of includ
ing Martin's Station, because of its remote
ness, with the govermnent provided for Tran
sylvania, Judge Henderson prepared a plan
of government for the group of settlers located
in Powell's Valley. In a letter to Martin
(July 30th) , in regard to the recent energetic
252

THE REPULSE OF THE RED MEN
defense of the settlers at that point against
the Indians, Henderson says: "Your spirited
conduct gives me much pleasure. . . . Keep
your men in heart if possible, notv is our time,
the Indians must not drive us." The gloom
which had been occasioned by the almost com
plete desertion of the stations at Harrodsburg,
the Boihng Spring, and the Transylvania
Fort or Boonesborough was dispelled with the
return of Boone, accompanied by some thirty
persons, on September Sth, and of Richard
Callaway with a considerable party on Sep
tember 26th. The crisis was now passed; and
the colony began for the first time really to
flourish. The people on the south side of the
Kentucky River universally accepted proprie
tary rule for the time being. But the seeds
of dissension were soon to be sown among
those who settled north of the river, as well
as among men of the stamp of James Harrod,
who, having preceded Henderson in the estab
hshment of a settlement in Kentucky, natu
rally resented holding lands under the Tran
sylvania Company. 253

THE CONQUEST OF THE OLD SOUTHWEST
The great liberality of this organization to
ward incoming settlers had resulted in immense
quantities of land being taken up through their
land-office."^ The ranging, hunting, and
road-building were paid for by the company;
and the entire settlement was furnished with
powder, lead, and supplies, wholly on credit,
for this and the succeeding year. "Five hun
dred and sixty thousand acres of land are now
entered," reports Floyd on December 1st, "and
most of the people waiting to have it run
out." "* After Dunmore, having lost his hold
upon the situation, escaped to the protection of
a British vessel, the Fotioey, Colonel Preston
continued to prevent surveys for officers'
grants within the Transylvania territory; and
his original hostility to Judge Henderson gave
place to friendship and support.
On December 1st, Colonel John WiUiams,
resident agent of the Transylvania Company,
announced at Boonesborough the long-contem
plated and widely advertised advance in price
of the lands, from twenty to fifty shillings per
hundred acres, with surveying fees of four dol-
254

THE REPULSE OF THE RED MEN
lars for tracts not exceeding six himdred and
forty acres."' At a meeting of the Transyl
vania legislature, convened on December 21st,
John Floyd was chosen surveyor general of
the colony, Nathaniel Henderson was placed
in charge of the Entering Office, and Rich
ard Harrison given the post of secretary. At
this meeting of the legislature, the first open
expression of discontent was voiced in the
"Harrodsburg Remonstrance," questioning
the vahdity of the proprietors' title, and pro
testing against any increase in the price of
lands, as well as the taking up by the proprie
tors and a few other gentlemen of the best
lands at the Falls of the Ohio. Every effort
was made to accommodate the remonstrants,
who were led by Abraham Hite. Office fees
were abohshed, and the payment of quit-rents
was deferred until January 1, 1780. Despite
these efforts at accommodation, grave doubts
were implanted by this Harrodsburg Remon
strance in the minds of the people; and much
discussion and discontent ensued.
By midsummer, 1775, George Rogers Clark,
255

THE CONQUEST OF THE OLD SOUTHWEST
a remarkably enterprising, and independent
young pioneer, was "engrossing all the land
he could" in Kentucky. Upon his return to
Virginia, as he relates, he "found there was
various oppinions Respecting Hendei'son
claim, many thought it go[o]d, others douted
whether or not Virginia coud with propriety
have any pretentions to the cuntrey." "°
Jefferson displayed a liberal attitude toward
the claims of the Transylvania proprietors ; and
Patrick Henry openly stated that, in his opin
ion, "their claim would stand good.'! But
many others, of the stamp of George Mason
and George Washington, vigorously asserted
Virginia's charter rights over the Western ter
ritory.^^ ^ This sharp difference of opinion ex
cited in Clark's mind the bold conception of
seizing the leadership of the country and mak
ing terms with Virginia under threat of seces
sion. With the design of effecting some final dis
position in regard to the title of the Transyl
vania proprietors. Judge Henderson and
Colonel Williams set off from Boonesborough
256

THE REPULSE OF THE RED MEN
about May 1st, intending first to appeal to
the Virginia Convention and ultimately to lay
their claims before the Continental Congress.
"Since they have gone," reports Floyd to Pres
ton, "I am told most of the men about Har
rodsburg have re-assumed their former reso
lution of not complying with any of the office
rules whatever. Jack Jones, it is said, is at
the head of the party & flourishes away prodi
giously." ^^^ John Gabriel Jones was the mere
figurehead in the revolt. The real leader, the
brains of the conspiracy, was the unscrupu
lous George Rogers Clark. At Clark's in
stance, an eight-day election was held at Har
rodsburg (June 7-15), at which time a peti
tion to the Virginia Convention was drawn
up ; ^®^ and Clark and Jones were elected dele
gates. Clark's plan, the scheme of a bold
revolutionist, was to treat with Virguiia for
terms; and if they were not satisfactory, to
revolt and, as he says, "Estabhsh an Inde
pendent Government" . . . "givmg away
great part of the Lands and disposing of the
Remainder." In a second petition, prepared
257

THE CONQUEST OF THE OLD SOUTHWEST
by the self-styled "Committee of West Fin
castle" (June 20th), it was alleged that "if
these pretended Proprietors have leave to con
tinue to act in their arbitrary manner out the
controul of this colony [Virginia] the end must
be evident to every weU wisher to American
Liberty." *«*
The contest which now ensued between
Richard Henderson and George Rogers Clark,
waged upon theHoor of the convention and
' behind the scenes, resulted in a conclusion that
was inevitable at a moment in American his
tory marked by the signing of the Declaration
of Independence. Virginia, under the leader
ship of her new governor, Patrick Henry, put
an end to the proprietary rule of the Tran
sylvania Company. On December 7th such
part of Transylvania as lay within the char
tered limits of Virginia was erected by the
legislature of that colony into the County of
Kentucky. The proprietary form of govern
ment with its "marks of vassalage," although
liberahzed with the spirit of democracy, was
unendurable to the independent and lawless
258

THE REPULSE OF THE RED MEN
pi<meers, already intoxicated with the spkit
of freedom swept in on the first fresh breezes
of the Revolution. Yet it is not to be doubted
that the Transylvania Company, through the
courage and moral influence of its leaders,
made a permanent contribution to the colo
nization of the West, which, in providential
timehness and effective execution, is without
paraUel in our early annals.^^^
While events were thus shaping themselves
in Kentucky — events which made possible
Clark's spectacular and meteoric campaign in
the Northwest and ultimately resulted in the
estabhshment of the Mississippi instead of the
Alleghanies as the western boundary of the
Confederation — ^the pioneers of Watauga were
sagaciously laying strong the foundations of
permanent occupation. In September, 1775,
North Carolina, through her Provincial Con
gress, provided for the appointment in each
district of a Ccanmittee of Safety, to consist
of a president and twelve other members.
FoUowing the lead thus set, the Watauga set
tlers assumed for their country the name of
259

THE CONQUEST OF THE OLD SOUTHWEST
"Washington District" ; and proceeded by un
animous vote of the people to choose a com
mittee of thirteen, which included James Rob
ertson and John Sevier. This district was or
ganized "shortly after October, 1775," accords
ing to Felix Walker; and the first step taken
after the election of the committee was the
organization of a court, consisting of five mem
bers. Felix Walker was elected clerk of the
court thus organized, and held the position for
about four years. James Robertson and John
Sevier, it is believed, were also members of this
court. To James Robertson who, with the
assistance of his colleagues, devised this primi
tive type of frontier rule — a true commission
form of government, on the "Watauga Plan"
— is justly due distinctive recognition for this
notable inauguration of the independent de
mocracy of the Old Southwest. The Wa
tauga settlement was animated by a spirit
of deepest loyalty to the American cause. In
a memorable petition these hardy settlers, re
quested the Provincial Council of North Caro
lina not to regard them as a "lawless mob,"
260

THE REPULSE OF THE RED MEN
but to "annex" them to North Carohna with
out delay. "This committee (wilhng to be
come a party in the present unhappy contest) ",
states the petition, which must have been
drafted about July 15, 1776, "resolved (which
is now on our records) , to adhere strictly to the
rules and orders of the Continental Congress,
and in open committee acknowledged them
selves indebted to the united colonies their f uU
proportion of the Continental expense." ^®®
WhUe these disputes as to the government
of the new communities were in progress an
additional danger threatened the pioneers.
For a whole year the British had been plying
the various Indian tribes from the lakes to
the gulf with presents, supphes, and ammuni
tion. In the Northwest bounties had actuaUy
been offered for American scalps. During
the spring of 1776 plans were concerted, chiefly
through Stuart and Cameron, British agents
among the Southern Indians, for uniting the
Loyahsts and the Indians in a crushing attack
upon the Tennessee settlements and the back
country of North Carolina. Already the
261

THE CONQUEST OF THE OLD SOUTHWEST
frontier of South Carohna had passed through
the horrors of Indian uprising; and warning
of the approaching invasion had been merci
fully sent the Holston settlers by Atta-kuUa-
kuUa's niece, Nancy Ward, the "Pocahontas of
the West" — doubtless through the influence of
her daughter, who loved Joseph Martin. The
settlers, flocking for refuge into their small
stockaded forts, waited in readiness for the
dreaded Indian attacks, which were made by
two forces totaling some seven hundred war
riors. On July 20th, warned in advance of the ap
proach of the Indians, the borderers, one hun
dred and seventy in all, marched in two col
umns from the rude breastwork, hastily thrown
up at Eaton's Station, to meet the Indians,
double their own number, led by The Drag
ging Canoe. The scouts surprised one party
of Indians, hastily poured in a deadly fire,
and rushed upon them with such impetuous
'fury that they fled precipitately. Withdraw
ing now toward their breastwork, in anticipa
tion of encountering there a larger force, the
262

THE REPULSE OF THE RED MEN
backwoodsmen suddenly found themselves at
tacked in their rear and in grave danger of
being surrounded. Extending their own line
under the direction of Captain James Shelby,
the frontiersmen steadily met the bold attack
of the Indians, who, mistaking the rapid ex
tension of the line for a movement to retreat,
incautiously made a headlong onslaught upon
the whites, giving the war-whoop and shout
ing: "The Unakas are running!" In the en
suing hot conflict at close quarters, in some
places hand to hand, the Indians were utterly
routed — The Dragging Canoe being shot
down, many warriors wounded, and thirteen
left dead upon the field.
On the day after Thompson, Cocke, Shelby,
CampbeU, Madison, and their men were thus
winning the battle of the Long Island "flats,"
Robertson, Sevier, and their little band of
forty-two men were engaged in repelhng an
attack, begun at sunrise, upon the Watauga
fort near the Sycamore Shoals. This attack,
which was led by Old Abraham, proved abor
tive; but as the result of the loose investment
263

THE CONQUEST OF THE OLD SOUTHWEST
of the log fortress, maintained by the Indians
for several weeks, a few rash venturers from
the fort were killed or captured, notably a
young boy who was carried to one of the Indian
towns and burned at the stake, and the wife
of the pioneer settler, William Been, who
was rescued from a like fate by the interces
sion of the humane and noble Nancy Ward.
It was during this siege, according to con
stant tradition, that a frontier lass, active and
graceful as a young doe, was pursued to the
very stockade by the fleet-footed savages.
Seeing her plight, an athletic young officer
mounted the stockade at a single leap, shot
down the foremost of the pursuers, and lean
ing over, seized the maiden by the hands and
hfted her over the stockade. The maiden who
sank breathless into the arms of the young
officer, John Sevier, was "Bonnie Kate Sher-
rUl" — ^who, after the fashion of true romance,
afterward became the wife of her gallant res
cuer. While the Tennessee settlements were un
dergoing the trials of siege and attack, the
264

THE REPULSE OF THE Hi^u MEN
settlers on the frontiers of Rowan were fall
ing beneath the tomahawk of the merciless
savage. In the first and second weeks of July
large forces of Indians penetrated to the out
lying settlements ; and in two days thirty-seven
persons were kiUed along the Catawba River.
On July 13th, the bluff old soldier of Rowan,
General Griffith Rutherford, reported to the
council of North Carolina that "three of our
Captains are killed and one wounded"; and
that he was setting out that day with what
men he could muster to reheve Colonel Mc
Dowell, ten men, and one hundred and twenty
women and children, who were "besieged in
some kind of a fort." Aroused to extraordi
nary exertions by these daring and deadly
blows, the governments of North Carolina,
South Carohna, Virginia, and Georgia insti
tuted a joint campaign against the Cherokees.
It was believed that, by delivering a series of
crushing blows to the Indians and so conclu
sively demonstrating the overwhelming supe
riority of the whites, the state governments
in the Old Southwest would convince the sav-
265

THE CONQUEST OF THE OLD SOUTHWEST
ages of the futility of any attempt ever again
to oppose them seriously.
Within less than a week after sending his
despatches to the council Rutherford set forth
at the head of twenty-five hundred men to
protect the frontiers of North Carolina and to
overwhelm the foe. Leading the South Caro
lina army of more than eighteen hundred men,
Colonel Andrew Williamson directed his at
tack against the lower Cherokee towns; while
Colonel Samuel Jack led two hundred Georg
ians against the Indian towns at the heads of
the Chattahoochee and Tugaloo Rivers. As
sembling a force of some sixteen hundred Vir
ginians, Colonel William Christian rendez
voused in August at the Long Island of
Holston, where his force was strengthened by
between three and four hundred North Caro
linians under Colonels Joseph Wilhams and
Love, and Major Winston. The various ex
peditions met with httle effective opposition
on the whole, succeeding everywhere in their
design of utterly laying waste the towns of
the Cherokees. One serious engagement oc-
266

THE REPULSE OF THE RED MEN
curred when the Indians resolutely chaUenged
Rutherford's advance at the gap of the Nan-
tahala Mountains. Indian women — ^heroic
Amazons disguised in war-paint and armed
with the weapons of warriors and the cour
age of despair — fought side by side with the
Indian braves in the effort to arrest Ruther
ford's progress and compass his defeat. More
than forty frontiersmen fell beneath the deadly
shots of this truly Spartan band before the
final repulse of the savages.
The most picturesque figures in this over
whelmingly successful campaign were the bluff
old Indian-fighter, Griffith Rutherford, wear
ing "a tow hunting shirt, dyed black, and
trimmed with white fringe" as a uniform ; Cap
tain Benjamin Cleveland, a rude paladin of
gigantic size, strength, and courage; Lieuten
ant WUliam Lenoir (Le Noir), the gallant
and recklessly brave French Huguenot, later
to win a general's rank in the Revolution;
and that militant man of God, the Reverend
James Hall, graduate of Nassau Hall, stal
wart and manly, who carried a rifle on his

THE CONQUEST OF THE OLD SOUTHWEST
shoulder and, in the intervals between the
slaughter of the savages, preached the gospel
to the vindictive and bloodthirsty backwoods
men. Such preaching was sorely needed on
that campaign — when the whites, maddened
beyond the bounds of self-control by the re
cent ghastly murders, gladly availed them
selves of the South Carohna bounty offered
for fresh Indian scalps. At times they ex
ultantly displayed the reeking patches of hair
above the gates of their stockades; at others,
with many a bloody oath, they compelled their
commanders either to sell the Indian captives
into slavery or else see them scalped on the
spot. Twenty years afterward Benjamin
Hawkins relates that among Indian refugees
in extreme western Georgia the children had
been so terrorized by their parents', recitals of
the atrocities of the enraged borderers in the
campaign of 1776, that they ran screaming
from the face of a white man.

268

CHAPTER XVII
THE COLONIZATION OF THE CUMBERLAND
March 31, 1780. Set out this day, and after running some
distance, met with Col. Richard Henderson, who was running
the line between Virginia and North Carolina. At this meet
ing we were much rejoiced. He gave us every Information
we wished, and further informed us that he had purchased
a quantity of com in Kentucky, to be shipped at the Falls
of Ohio, for the use of the Cumberland setUement. We are
now without bread, and are compelled to himt the buffalo
to preserve life. — John Donelson; Jownal of a 'Voyage, in-
tended by Ood's permission, tn the good boat
Adventure, from Fort Patrick Henry, on Hol
ston River, to the French Salt Springs on
Cwmberland River.
TO the settlements in Tennessee and Ken
tucky, which they had seized and occu
pied, the pioneers held on with a tenacious
grip which never relaxed. From these strong
holds, won through sullen and desperate
strokes, they pushed deeper into the wUder
ness, once again to meet with undimmed cour
age the bitter onslaughts of their resentful foes,
269

THE CONQUEST OF THE OLD SOUTHWEST
The crushing of the Cherokees in 1776 reheved
the. pressure upon the Tennessee settlers, en
abling them to strengthen their hold and pre
pare effectively for future eventuaMpS; the
possession of the gateway to Kentucl^y kept
free the passage for Western settlement;
Watauga and its defenders continued to offer
a formidable barrier to British invasion of the
East from Kentucky and the Northwest dur
ing the Revolution; while these Tennessee
frontiersmen were destined soon to set forth
again to invade a new wilderness and at fright
ful cost to colonize the Cumberland.
The little chain of stockades along the far-
flung frontier of Kentucky was tenaciously
held by the bravest of the race, grimly re
solved that this chain must not break. The
Revolution precipitated against this chain
wave after wave of formidable Indian foes
from the Northwest under British leadership.
At the very time when Griffith Rutherford set
out for the relief of McDowell's Fort, a
marauding Indian band captured by stealth
near the Transylvania Fort, known as Boone's
270

THE CAPTURE OF JEMIMA BOONE AND THE CALLAWAY GIRLS BY THE INDIANS
From a painting by J. F. Mjllet

THE COLONIZATION OF CUMBERLAND
Fort (Boonesborough), EUzabeth and Fran
ces Callaway, and Jemima Boone, the daugh
ters of Richard Callaway and Daniel Boone,
and rapidly marched them away toward the
Shawanoe towns on the Ohio. A relief party,
in two divisions, headed respectively by the
young girls' fathers, and composed among
others of the lovers of the three girls, Sam
uel Henderson, John Holder, and Flanders
Callaway, pursued them with ahnost incredi
ble swiftness. Guided by broken twigs and
bits of cloth surreptitiously dropped by Eliza
beth Callaway, they finally overtook the un
suspecting savages, killed two of them, and
rescued the three maidens unharmed. This
romantic episode — which gave Fenimore
Cooper the theme for the most memorable
scene in one of his Leatherstocking Tales —
had an even more romantic sequel in the sub
sequent marriage of the three pairs of lovers.
This bold foray, so shrewdly executed and
even more sagaciously foiled, was a true pre
cursor of the dread happenings of the coming
years. Soon the red men were lurking in the
271

THE CONQUEST OF THE OLD SOUTHWEST
neighborhood of the stations; and relief was
felt when the Transylvama Fort, the great
stockade planned by Judge Henderson, was
completed by the pioneers (July, 1776).
Glad tidings arrived only a few days later
when the Declaration of Independence, read
aloud from the Virginia Gazette, was greeted
with wild huzzas by the patriotic backwoods
men. During the ensuing months occasional
invasions were made by savage bands; but it
was not until April 24, 1777, that Hender
son's "big fort" received its first attack, being
invested by a company of some seventy-five
savages. The twenty-two riflemen in the fort
drove off the painted warriors, but not before
Michael Stoner, Daniel Boone, and several
others were severely wounded. As he lay
helpless upon the ground, his ankle shattered
by a bullet, Boone was lifted by Simon Ken
ton and home away upon his shoulders to the
haven of the stockade amid a veritable shower
of balls. The stoical and taciturn Boone
clasped Kenton's hand and gave him the ac
colade of the wilderness in the brief but heart-
272

THE COLONIZATION OF CUMBERLAND
felt utterance; "You are a fine feUow." On
July 4th of this same year the fort was again
subjected to siege, when two hundred gaudily
painted savages surrounded it for two days.
But owing to the vigUance and superb mark-
manship of the defenders, as weU as to the lack
of cannon by the besieging force, the Indians
reluctantly abandoned the siege, after leaving
a number dead upon the field. Soon after
ward the arrival of two strong bodies of prime
riflemen, who had been hastUy summoned from
the frontiers of North Carolina and Virginia,
once again made firm the bulwark of white
supremacy in the West.
Kentucky's terrible year, 1778, opened with
a severe disaster to the white settlers — when
Boone with thirty men, whUe engaged in mak
ing salt at the "Lower Salt Spring," was cap
tured in February by more than a hundred
Indians, sent by Governor Hamilton of De
troit to drive the white settlers from "Ken
tucke," Boone remained in captivity until
early summer, when, learning that his Indian
captors were planning an attack in force upon
273

THE CONQUEST OF THE OLD SOUTHWEST
the Transylvania Fort, he succeeded in effect
ing his escape. After a break-neck journey
of one hundred and sixty miles, during which
he ate but one meal, Boone finally arrived at
the big fort on June 20th. The settlers were
thus given ample time for preparation, as the
long siege did not begin until September 7th.
The fort was invested by a powerful force
flying the English flag — four hundred and
forty-four savages gaudy in the vermilion and
ochre of their war-paint, and eleven French
men, the whole being commanded by the
French-Canadian, Captain Dagniaux de Quin-
dre, and the great Indian Chief, Black-fish,
who had adopted Boone as a son.^*^ In the
effort to gain his end de Quindre resorted to
a dishonorable stratagem, by which he hoped
to outwit the settlers and capture the fort with
but slight loss. "They formed a scheme^ to
deceive us," says Boone, "declaring it was their
orders, from Governor Hamilton, to take us
captives, and not to destroy us ; but if nine
of us would come out and treat with them, they
would immediately withdraw their forces from
274

THE COLONIZATION OF CUMBERLAND
our waUs, and return home peacably." Trans
parent as the stratagem was, Boone incau
tiously agreed to a conference with the enemy ;
Callaway alone took the precaution to guard
against Indian duphcity. After a long talk,
the Indians proposed to Boone, CaUaway, and
the seven or eight pioneers who accompanied
them that they shake hands in token of peace
and friendship. As picturesquely described
by Daniel Trabue :
The Indians sayed two Indians must shake
hands with one white man to make a Double
or sure peace at this time the Indians had
hold of the white men's hands and held them.
Col. Calloway objected to this but the other
Indians laid hold or tryed to lay hold of the
other hand but Colonel Calloway was the first
that jerked away from them but the Indians
seized the men two Indians holt of one man or
it was mostly the case and did their best to
hold them but while the man and Indians was
a scuffling the men from the Fort agreeable
to Col. Calloway's order fired on them they
had a dreadful skuffel but our men all got in
the fort safe and the fire continued on both
sides.^^® 275

THE CONQUEST OF THE OLD SOUTHWEST
During the siege Callaway, the leader of the
pioneers, made a wooden cannon wrapped with
wagon tires, which on being fired at a group
of Indians "made them scamper perdidiously."
The secret effort of the Indians to tunnel a
way underground into the fort, being discov
ered by the defenders, was frustrated by a
countermine. Unable to outwit, outfight, or
outmaneuver the resourceful CaUaway, de
Quindre finally withdrew on September 16th,
closing the longest and severest attack that any
of the fortified stations of Kentucky had ever
been called upon to withstand.
The successful defense of the Transylvania
Fort, made by these indomitable backwoods
men who were lost sight of by the Continental
Congress and left to fig'ht alone their battles
in the forests, was of national significance in
its results. Had the Transylvania Fort f aUen,
the northern Indians in overwhelming num
bers, directed by Hamilton and led by British
officers, might well have swept Kentucky free
of defenders and fallen with devastating force
upon the exposed settlements along the west-
276

THE COLONIZATION OF CUMBERLAND
em frontiers of North Carolina, Virginia, and
Pennsylvania. This defense of Boonesbor
ough, therefore, is deserving of commemora
tion in the annals of the Revolution, along with
Lexmgton and Bunker's Hill. Coupled with
Clark's meteoric campaign in the Northwest
and the sulbsequent struggles in the defense
of Kentucky, it may be regarded as an
event basically responsible for the retention of
the trans-AUeghany region by the United
States. The bitter struggles, desperate sieges,
and bloody reprisals of these dark years came
to a close with the expeditions of Clark and
Logan in November, 1782, which appro
priately concluded the Revolution in the West
by putting a definite end to all prospect of
formidable invasion of Kentucky.
In November, 1777, "Washington District,"
the delegates of which had been received in the
preceding year by the Provincial Congress of
North Carolina, was formed by the North
Carolina General Assembly into Washington
County; and to it were assigned the boundaries
of the whole of the present state of Tennessee.
277

THE CONQUEST OF THE OLD SOUTHWEST
While this immense territory was thus being
definitely included within the bounds of North,^
Carolina, Judge Henderson on behalf of the
Transylvania Company was making a vigorous
effort to secure the reestablishment of its rights
from the Virginia Assembly. By order of the
Virginia legislature, an exhaustive investiga
tion of the claims of the Transylvania Com
pany was therefore made, hearings being held
at various points in the back country. On
July 18, 1777, Judge Henderson presented
to the peace commissioners for North Carolina
and Virginia at the Long Island treaty ground
an elaborate memorial in behalf of the Tran
sylvania Company, which the commissioners
unanimously refused to consider, as not com
ing under their jurisdiction.^** Finally, after
a full and impartial discussion before the Vir
ginia House of Delegates, that body declared
the Transylvania purchase void.^®° But in
consideration of "the very great expense [in
curred by the company] in making the said
purchase, and in settling the said lands, by
which the commonwealth is likely to receive
278

THE COLONIZATION OF CUMBERLAND
great advantage, by increasing its inhabitants,
and establishing a barrier against the Indians,"
the House of Delegates granted Richard Hen
derson and Company two hundred thousand
acres of-Jand- situatedJbetween the, Ohio ^nd
Green jisers^-whereLJuhfi-lowB-of- Henderson,
Kentucky, now stands. ^®^ With this bursting
of the Transylvania bubble and the vanishing
of the golden dreams of Henderson and his as
sociates for establishing the fourteenth Ameri
can colony in the heart of the trans-AUeghany,
a first romantic chapter in the history of West
ward expansion comes to a close.
But another and more feasible project im
mediately succeeded. Undiscouraged by Vir
ginia's confiscation of Transylvania, and dis
regarding North Carolina's action in extend
ing her boundaries over the trans-AUeghany
region lying within her chartered limits, Hen
derson, in whom the genius of the colonizer
and the ambition of the speculative capitalist
were found in striking conjunction, was now
inspired to repeat, along broader and more
solidly practical lines, the revolutionary ex-
279

THE CONQUEST OF THE OLD SOUTHWEST
periment of Transylvania. It was not his
purpose, however, to found an independent
colony; for he believed that millions of acres
in the Transylvania purchase lay within the
bounds of North Carolina, and he wished to
open for colonization, settlement, and the sale
of lands, the vast wilderness of the valley of
the Cumberland supposed to lie within those
confines. But so universal was the prevailing
uncertainty in regard to boundaries that it was
necessary to prolong the North Carolina- Vir
ginia line in order to determine whether or not
the Great French Lick, the ideal location for
settlement, lay within the chartered limits of
North Carolina.'*^
Judge Henderson's comprehensive plans
for the promotion of an extensive colonization
of the Cumberland region soon began to take
form in vigorous action. Just as in his Tran
sylvania project Henderson had chosen Dan
iel Boone, the ablest of the North Carolina
pioneers, to spy out the land and select sites
for future location, so now he chose as leader
of the new colonizing party the ablest of the
280

THE COLONIZATION OF CUMBEkLAND
Tennessee pioneers, James Robertson. Al
though he was the acknowledged leader of the
Watauga settlement and held the responsible
position of Indian agent for North Carolina,
Robertson was induced by Henderson's liberal
offers to leave his comparatively peaceful home
and to venture his life in this desperate hazard
of new fortunes. The advance party of eight
white men and one negro, under Robertson's
leadership, set forth from the Holston settle
ment on February 6, 1779, to make a prelim
inary exploration and to plant corn "that
bread might be prepared for the main body
of emigrants in the fall." After erecting a
few cabins for dwelhngs and posts of defense,
Robertson plunged alone into the wUderness
and made the long journey to Post St. Vin
cent in the Illinois, in order to consult with
George Rogers Clark, who had entered for
himself in the Virginia Land Office several
thousand acres of land at the French Lick.
After perfecting arrangements with Clark for
securing "cabin rights" should the land prove
to he in Virginia, Robertson returned to Wa-
281

THE CONQUEST OF THE OLD SOUTHWEST
tauga to take command of the migration.
Toward the end of the year two parties set
out, one by land, the other by water, for the
wonderful new country on the Cumberland
of which Boone and Scaggs and Mansker had
brought back such glowing descriptions. Dur
ing the autumn Judge Henderson and other
commissioners from North Carolina, in con
junction with commissioners from Virginia,
had been running out the boundary line be
tween the two states. On the very day-
Christmas, 1779 — that Judge Henderson
reached the site of the Transylvania Fort, now
called Boonesborough, the swarm of colonists
from the parent hive at Watauga, under Rob
ertson's leadership, reached the French Lick;
and on New Year's Day, 1780, crossed the
river on the ice to the present site of Nashville.
The journal of the other party, which, as
has been aptly said, reads like a chapter from
one of Captain Mayne Reid's fascinating
novels of adventure, was written by Colonel
John Donelson, the father-in-law of Andrew
Jackson. Setting out from Fort Patrick
282

THE COLONIZATION OF CUMBERLAND
Henry on Holston River, December 22, 1779,
with a flotilla consisting of about thirty flat-
boats, dugouts, and canoes, they encountered
few difficulties until they began to run the
gauntlet of the Chickamauga towns on the
Tennessee. Here they were furiously at
tacked by the Indians, terrible in their red and
black war-paint; and a weU-fiUed boat lagging
in the rear, with smaUpox on board, was driven
to shore by the Indians. The occupants were
massacred; but the Indians at once contracted
the disease and died by the hundreds. This
luckless sacrifice of "poor Stuart, his famUy
and friends," whUe a ghastly price to pay, un
doubtedly procured for the Cumberland settle
ments comparative immunity from Indian
forays untU the new-comers had firmly estab
lished themselves in their wilderness strong
hold. Eloquent of the granite endurance and
courageous spirit of the typical American pio
neer in its thankfulness for sanctuary, for re
union of famihes and friends, and for the hum
ble shelter of a log cabin, is the last entry in
Donelson's diary (April 24, 1780) :
283

THE CONQUEST OF THE OLD SOUTHWEST
This day we arrived at our journey's end
at the Big Salt Lick, where we have the pleas
ure of finding Capt. Robertson and his com
pany. It is a source of satisfaction to us to
be enabled to restore to him and others their
families and friends, who were intrusted to
our care, and who, some time since, perhaps,
despaired of ever meeting again. Though
our prospects at present are dreary, we have
found a few log cabins which have been built
on a cedar bluff above the Lick by Capt. Rob
ertson and his company.^^*
In the midst of the famine during this terri
ble period of the "hard winter," Judge Hen
derson was sorely concerned for the fate of the
new colony which he had projected, and imme
diately proceeded to purchase at huge cost a
large stock of corn. On March 5, 1780, this
corn, which had been raised by Captain Na
thaniel Hart, was "sent from Boonesborough
in perogues [pettiaugers or flatboats} under
the command of William Bailey Smith. . . .
This corn was taken down the Kentucky River,
and over the Falls of Ohio, to the mouth of
the Cumberland, and thence up that river to
284

THE COLONIZATION OF CUMBERLAND
the fort at the French Lick. It is beheved
to have been the only bread which the settlers
had until it was raised there in 1781." ^®*
There is genuine impressiveness in this heroic
triumphing over the obstacles of obdurate na
ture and this paternahstic provision for the
exposed Cumberland settlement — the pur
chase by Judge Henderson, the shipment by
Captain Hart, and the transportation by
Colonel Smith, in an awful winter of bitter
cold and obstructed navigation, of this indis
pensable quantity of corn purchased for sixty
thousand dollars in depreciated currency.
Upon his arrival at the French Lick, shortly
after the middle of April, Judge Henderson
at once proceeded to organize a government
for the httle community. On May 1st arti
cles of association were drawn up; and im
portant additions thereto were made on May
13th, when the settlers signed the complete
series. The original document, still preserved,
was drafted by Judge Henderson, being writ
ten throughout in his own handwriting; and
his name heads the list of two hundred and
285

THE CONQUEST OF THE OLD SUU xliwiiST
fifty and more signatures."^ The "Cumber
land Compact," as this paper is called, is fun
damentally a mutual contract between the co
partners of the Transylvania Company and
the settlers upon the lands claimed by the com
pany. It represents the collective will of the
community ; and on account of the careful pro
visions safeguarding the rights of each party
to the contract it may be called a bill of rights.
The organization of this pure democracy was
sound and admirable — another notable early
example of the commission form of govern
ment. The most remarkable feature of this
backwoods constitution marks Judge Hender
son as a pioneer in the use of the pohtical de
vice so prominent to-day, one hundred and
forty years later — the "recall of judges." In
the following striking clause this innovation
in government was recognized thus early in
American history as the most effective means
of securing and safeguarding justice in a
democracy :
As often as the people in general are dis
satisfied with the doings of the Judges or
286

THE COLONIZATION OF CUMBERLAND
Triers so to be chosen, they may call a new
election in any of the said stations, and elect
others in their stead, having due respect to
the number now agreed to be elected at each
station, which persons so to be chosen shaU
have the same power with those in whose room
or place they shaU or may be chosen to act.
A land-office was now opened, the entry-
taker being appointed by Judge Henderson,
in accordance with the compact; and the lands,
for costs of entry, etc., were registered for the
nominal fee of ten doUars per thousand acres.
But as the Transylvania Company was never
able to secure a "satisfactory and indisputable
title," the clause resulted in perpetual non
payment. In 1783, foUowing the lead of Vir
ginia in the case of Transylvania, North Caro
lina declared the Transylvania Company's
purchase void, but granted the company in
compensation a tract of one hundred and
ninety thousand acres in Powell's VaUey.*"®
As compensation, the grants of North Caro
lina and Virginia were quite inadequate, con
sidering the value of the service in behalf of
287

THE CONQUEST OF THE OLD SOUTHWEST
permanent western colonization rendered by
the Transylvania company."^
James Robertson was chosen as presiding
officer of the court of twelve commissioners,
and was also elected commander-in-chief of
the military forces of the eight little associated
settlements on the Cumberland. Here for the
next two years the self-reliant settlers under
Robertson's wise and able leadership success
fully repelled the Indians in their guerrilla
warfare, firmly entrenched themselves in their
forest-girt stronghold, and vindicated their
claim to the territory by right of occupation
and conquest. Here sprang up in later times
a great and populous city — ^named, strangely
enough, neither for Henderson, the founder,
nor for Robertson and Donelson, the leaders
of the two colonizing parties, but for one hav
ing no association with its history or origins,
the gallant North Carolinian, General Francis
Nash, who was killed at the Battle of German-
town.

CHAPTER XVIII
king's MOUNTAIN
With the utmost satisfaction I can acquaint you with the
sudden and favorable turn of our public affairs. A few days
ago destruction hung over our heads. Cornwallis with at
least 1500 British and Tories waited at Charlotte for the
reinforcement of 1000 from Broad River, which reinforcement
has been entirely cut off, 130 Icilled and the remainder cap
tured. Cornwallis immediately retreated, and is now on his
way toward Charleston, with part of our army in his rear. . . .
— Elizabeth Maxwell Steel: Salisbury, October
25, 1780.
SO thoroughly had the Cherokees been sub
dued by the devastations of the campaign
of 1776 that for several years thereafter they
were unable to organize for a new campaign
against the backwoodsmen along the frontiers
of North Carolina and Tennessee. During
these years the Holston settlers principally
busied themselves in making their position se
cure, as well as in setting their house in order
by severely punishing the lawless Tory element
among them. In 1779 the Chickamaugas,
289

THE CONQUEST OF THE OLD SOUTHWEST
with whom The Dragging Canoe and his ir
reconcilable followers among the Cherokees
had joined hands after the campaign of 1776,
grew so bold in their bloody forays upon small
exposed settlements that North Carolina and
Virginia in conjunction despatched a strong
expedition against them. Embarking on
April 10th at the mouth of Big Creek near
the present Rogersville, Tennessee, three hun
dred and fifty men led by Colonel Evan Shelby
descended the Tennessee to the fastnesses of
the Chickamaugas. Meeting with no resist
ance from the astonished Indians, who fled to
the shelter of the densely wooded hills, they
laid waste the Indian towns and destroyed the
immense stores of goods collected by the Brit
ish agents for distribution among the red men.
The Chickamaugas were completely quelled;
and during the period of great stress through
which the Tennessee frontiersmen were soon
to pass, the Cherokees were restrained through
the wise diplomacy of Joseph Martin, Super
intendent of Indian affairs for Virginia.
The great British offensive against the
290

KING'S MOUNTAIN
Southern colonies, which were regarded as the
vulnerable point in the American Confederacy,
was fully launched upon the fall of Charleston
in May, 1780. Cornwallis established his
headquarters at Camden; and one of his lieu
tenants, the persuasive and brilliant Fergu
son, soon rallied thousands of Loyalists in
South Carolina to the British standard.
When Cornwallis inaugurated his campaign
for cutting Washington wholly off from the
Southern colonies by invading North Carolina,
the men upon the western waters realized that
the time had come to rise, in defense of their
state and in protection of their homes. Two
hundred Tennessee riflemen from Sullivan
County, under Colonel Isaac Shelby, were en
gaged in minor operations in South Carolina
conducted by Colonel Charles McDowell ; and
conspicuous among these Engagements was the
affair at Musgrove's MUl on August 18th
when three hundred horsemen led by Colonel
James Williams, a native of Granville County,
North Carolina, Colonel Isaac Shelby, and
Lieutenant-Colonel Clark of Georgia repulsed
291

THE CONQUEST OF THE OLD SOUTHWEST
with heavy loss a British force of between
four and five hundred.
These minor successes availed nothing in
face of the disastrous defeat of Gates by Corn
wallis at Camden on August 16th and the
humiliating blow to Sumter at Rocky Mount
on the following day. Ferguson hotly pur
sued the frontiersmen, who then retreated over
the mountains; and from his camp at Gilbert
Town he despatched a threatening message to
the Western leaders, declaring that if they did
not desist from their opposition to the British
arms and take protection under his standard,
he would march his army over the mountains
and lay their country waste with fire and
sword. Stung to action, Shelby hastily rode
off to consult with Sevier at his log castle near
Jonesboro; and together they matured a plan
to arouse the mountain men and attack, Fergu
son by surprise. In the event of failure, these
wilderness free-lances planned to leave the
country and find a home with the Spaniards
in Louisiana.^®®
At the original place of rendezvous, the
292

KING'S MOUNTAIN
Sycamore Shoals of the Watauga, the over-
mountain men gathered on September 25th.
There an eloquent sermon was preached to
them by that fiery man of God, the Reverend
Samuel Doak, who concluded his discourse
with a stirring invocation to the sword of the
Lord and of Gideon — a sentiment greeted with
the loud applause of the militant frontiers
men. Here and at various places along the
march they were joined by detachments of bor
der fighters summoned to join the expedition
— Colonel William Campbell, who with some
reluctance had abandoned his own plans in re
sponse to Shelby's urgent and repeated mes
sage, in command of four hundred hardy fron
tiersmen from Washington County, Virginia;
Colonel Benjamin Cleveland, with the wUd
fighters of Wilkes known as "Cleveland's
BuUdogs"; Colonel Andrew Hampton, with
the stalwart riflemen of Rutherford; Major
Joseph Winston, the cousin of Patrick Henry,
with the flower of the citizenry of Surry; the
McDowells, Charles and Joseph, with the bold
borderers of Burke; Colonels Lacy and Hill,
293

THE CONQUEST OF THE OLD SOUTHWEST
with well-trained soldiers of South Carolma;
and Brigadier-General James Williams, lead
ing the intrepid Rowan volunteers.
Before breaking camp at Quaker Meadows,
the leading officers in conference chose Colonel
WiUiam Campbell as temporary officer of the
day, until they could secure a general officer
from headquarters as commander-in-chief.
The object of the mountaineers and big-game
hunters was, in their own terms, to pursue Fer
guson, to run him down, and to capture him.
In pursuance of this plan, the leaders on ar
riving at the ford of Green River chose out
a force of six hundred men, with the best
mounts and equipment; and at daybreak on
October 6th this force of picked mounted rifle
men, followed by some fifty "foot-cavalry"
eager to join in the pursuit, pushed rapidly on
to the Cowpens. Here a second selection took
place ; and Colonel Campbell was again elected
commander of the detachment, now number
ing some nine hundred and ten horsemen and
eighty odd footmen, which dashed rapidly on
in pursuit of Ferguson. 294

KING'S MOUNTAIN
The British commander had been apprised
of the coming of the over-mountain men.
Scorning to make a forced march and attempt
to effect a junction with Cornwallis at Char
lotte, Ferguson chose to make a stand and dis
pose once for all of the barbarian horde whom
he denounced as mongrels and the dregs of
mankind. After despatching to Cornwallis a
message asking for aid, Ferguson took up his
camp on King's Mountain, just south of the
North Carohna border line, in the present
York County, South Carolina. Here, after
his pickets had been captured in silence, he
was surprised by his opponents. At three
o'clock in the afternoon of October 7th the
mountain hunters treed their game upon the
heights. The battle which ensued presents an extraor
dinary contrast in the character of the combat
ants and the nature of the strategy and
tactics.^®^ Each party ran true to form — Fer
guson repeating Braddock's suicidal policy of
opposing bayonet charges to the deadly fusil
lade of riflemen, who in Indian fashion were
' 295

THE CONQUEST OF THE OLD SOUTHWEST
carefully posted behind trees and every shelter
afforded by the natural inequalities of the
ground. In the, army of the Carolina and
Virginia frontiersmen, composed of independ
ent detachments recruited from many sources
and solicitous for their own individual credit,
each command was directed in the battle by
its own leader. Campbell — like Cleveland,
Winston, Williams, Lacey, Shelby, McDow
ell, Sevier, and Hambright — personally led
his own division; but the nature of the fight
ing and the peculiarity of the terrain made it
impossible for him, though the chosen com
mander of the expedition, actually to play that
role in the battle. The plan agreed upon in
advance by the frontier leaders was simple
enough — to surround and capture Ferguson's
camp on the high plateau. The more experi
enced Indian fighters, Sevier and Shelby, un
questionably suggested the general scheme
which in any case would doubtless have been
employed by the frontiersmen; it was to give
the British "Indian play" — ^namely to take
cover everywhere and to fire from natural shel-
296

KING'S MOUNTAIN
ter. Cleveland, a Hercules in strength and
courage who had fought the Indians and recog
nized the wisdom of Indian tactics, ordered
his men, as did some of the other leaders, to
give way before a bayonet charge, but to re
turn to the attack after the charge had spent
its force.
"My brave fellows," said Cleveland, "every
man must consider himself an officer, and act
from his own judgment. Fire as quick as you
can, and stand your ground as long as you can.
When you can do no better, get behind trees,
or retreat; but I beg you not to run quite off.
If we are repulsed, let us make a point of re
turning and renewing the fight; perhaps we
may have better luck in the second attempt
than in the first."
The plateau upon which Ferguson was en
camped was the top of an eminence some six
hundred yards long and about two hundred
and fifty yards from one base across to the
other; and its shape was that of an Indian
paddle, varying from one hundred and twenty
yards at the blade to sixty yards at the handle
in width. Outcropping boulders upon the
297

THE CONQUEST OF THE OLD SOUTHWEST
outer edge of the plateau afforded some slight
shelter for Ferguson's force ; but, unsuspicious
of attack, Ferguson had made no abatis to
protect his camp from the assault to which it
was so vulnerable because of the protection
of the timber surrounding it on all sides. As
to the disposition of the attacking force, the
center to the northeast was occupied by Cleve
land with his "Bulldogs," Hambright with his
South Fork Boys from the Catawba (now
Lincoln County, North Carolina), and Win
ston with his Surry riflemen ; to the south were
the divisions of Joseph McDoweU, Sevier, and
Campbell; while Lg,cey's South Carolinians,
the Rowan levies under WiUiams, and the
Watauga borderers under Shelby were sta
tioned upon the north side. Ferguson's forfces
consisted of Provincial Rangers, one hundred
and flfty strong, and other well-drilled Loyal
ists, between eight and nine hundred in num
ber; but his strength was seriously weakened
by the absence of a foraging party of between
one and two hundred who had gone off on the
morning the battle occurred. Shelby's men,
298

KING'S MOUNTAIN
before getting into position, received a hot fire,
the opening shots of the engagement. This
inspired Campbell, who now threw off his coat,
to shout encouraging orders to his men posted
on the side of the mountain opposite to Shel
by's force. When Campbell's Virginians ut
tered a series of piercing shouts, the British
officer, De Peyster, second in command, re
marked to his chief: "These things are omi
nous — these are the damned yelling boys."
The battle, which lasted some minutes short
of an hour, was waged with terrific ferocity.
The Loyalist militia, whenever possible, fired
from the shelter of the rocks; while the Pro
vincial Corps, with fixed bayonets, steadily
charged the frontiersmen, who fired at close
range and then rapidly withdrew to the very
base of the mountain. After each bayonet
charge the Provincials coolly withdrew to the
summit, under the accumulating fire of the re
turning mountaineers, who quickly gathered in
their rear. Owing to their elevated location,
the British, although using the rapid-fire
breech-loading rifle invented by Ferguson
299

THE CONQUEST OF THE OLD SOUTHWEST
himself, found their vision deflected, and con
tinually fired high, thus suffering from na
ture's handicap, refraction.^"" The militia, us
ing sharpened butcher-knives which Ferguson
had taught them to utilize as bayonets, charged
against the mountaineers ; but their fire, in an
swer to the deadly fusillade of the expert
squirrel-shooters, was belated, owing to the
fact that they could not fire whUe the crudely
improvised bayonets remained inserted in their
pieces. The Americans, continually firing up
ward, found ready marks for their aim in the
clearly delineated outlines of their adversaries,
and felt the fierce exultation which animates
the hunter who has tracked to its lair and sur
rounded wild game at bay.
The leaders of the various divisions of the
mountaineers bore themselves with impetuous
bravery, recklessly rushing between the lines
of fire and with native eloquence, interspersfed
with profanity, rallying their individual com
mands again and again to the attack. The
valiant Campbell sealed the rugged heights,
loudly encouraging his men to the ascent,
300

KING'S MOUNTAIN
Cleveland, resolutely facing the foe, urged on
his Bulldogs with the inspiriting words:
"Come, boys ; let 's try 'em again. We 'U have
better luck next time." No sooner did Shel
by's men reach the bottom of the hUl, in re
treating before a charge, than their com
mander, fiery and strenuous, ardently shouted :
"Now boys, quickly reload your rifles, and
let 's advance upon them, and give them an
other hell of a fire." The most deadly charge,
led by De Peyster himself, fell upon Ham-
bright's South Fork boys; and one of their
gallant officers. Major Chronicle, waving his
military hat, was mortally wounded, the com
mand, "Face to the hill!", dying on his lips.
These veteran soldiers, imlike the mountain
eers, firmly met the shock of the charge, and a
number of their men were shot down or trans
fixed; but the remainder, reserving their fire
until the charging column was only a few feet
away, poured in a deadly volley before retir
ing. The gallant William Lenoir, whose
reckless bravery made him a conspicuous tar
get for the enemy, received several wounds
301

THE CONQUEST OF THE OLD SOUTHWEST
and emerged from the battle with his hair and
clothes torn by balls. The ranking American
officer, Brigadier-General James WUliams,
was mortally woimded while "on the very top
of the mountain, in the thickest of the fight";
and as he momentarily revived, his first words
were ': "For God's sake, boys, don't give up
the hill." ^"^ Hambright, sorely wounded, his
boot overflowing with blood and his hat riddled
with three bullet holes, declined to dismouiit,
but pressed gallantly forward, exclaiming in^
his "Pennsylvania Dutch" : "Huzza, my
prave poys, fight on a few minutes more, and
the pattle will be over!" On the British side,
Ferguson was supremely valorous, rapidly
dashing from one point to another, rallying his
men, oblivious to all danger. Wherever the
shrill note of his silver whistle sounded, there
the fighting was hottest and the British resist
ance the most stubborn. His officers fought
with the characteristic steadiness of the British
soldier; and again and agaui his men charged
headlong against the wavering and fiery circle
of the frontiersmen.^"^ 302

ISAAC SHELBY
From a painting by Matthew Harris Jouett in the possession of William
R. Shelby, Esq., Grand Rapids, Mich.

KING'S MOUNTAIN
Ferguson's boast that "he was on King's
Mountain, that he was king of the Mountain,
and God Almighty could not drive him from
it" was doubtless prompted, less by a belief
in the impregnability of his position, than by
a desperate desire to inspire confidence in his
men. His location was admirably chosen for
defense against attack by troops eniploying
regulation tactics; but, never dreaming of the
possibility of sudden investment, Ferguson
had erected no fortifications for his encamp
ment. His frenzied efforts on the battle-field
seem like a mad rush against fate ; for the place
was indefensible against the peculiar tactics
of the frontiersmen. While the mountain
flamed like a volcano and resounded with the
thunder of the guns, a steady stricture was in
progress. The lines were drawn tighter and
tighter around the trapped and frantically
struggling army; and at last the faU of their
commander, riddled with bullets, proved the.
tragic futility of further resistance. The
game was caught and bagged to a man.
When Winston, with his fox-hunters of Surry,
303

KING'S MOUNTAIN
dashed recklessly through the woods, says a
chronicler of the battle, and the last to come
into position,
Flow'd in, and settling, circled all the lists,
then From all the circle of the hills
death sleeted in upon the doomed.
The battle was decisive in its effect — shatter
ing the plans of Cornwallis, which till then
appeared certain of success. The victory put
a full stop to the invasion of North Carolina,
which was then well under way. Cornwallis
abandoned his carefully prepared campaign
and immediately left the state. After ruth
lessly hanging nine prisoners, an action which
had an effectively deterrent effect upon fu
ture Tory murders and depredations, the pa
triot force quietly disbanded. The briUiant
initiative of the buckskin-clad borderers, the
strenuous energy of their pursuit, the perfec
tion of their surprise — all reinforced by the
employment of ideal tactics for meeting the
given situation — were the controlling factors
304

KING'S MOUNTAIN
in this overwhelming victory of the Revolu
tion. The pioneers of the Old Southwest —
the independent and aggressive yeomanry of
North Carolina, Virginia, and South Carolina
— had risen in their might. Without the aid
or authority of blundering state governments,
they had created an army of frontiersmen, In
dian-fighters, and big-game hunters which had
found no parallel or equal on the continent
shice the Battle of the Great Kanawha.

305

CHAPTER XIX
THE STATE OF EEANKLIN
Designs of a more dangerous nature and deeper die seem to
glare in the western revolt. ... I have thought proper to
issue this manifesto, hereby warning all persons concerned
in the said revolt . . . that the honour of this State has been
particularly wounded, by seizing that by violence which, in
time, no doubt, would have been obtained by consent, when
the terms of separation would have been explained or stipu
lated, to the mutual satisfaction of the mother and new
State. . . . Let your proposals be consistent with the honour
of the State to accede to, which, by your allegiance as good
citizens, you cannot violate and I malce no doubt but her
generosity, in time, will meet your wishes.
— GovEHNOR Alexandee Martix: Manifesto against
the State of Franlslin, April 25, 1785.
TO the shrewd diplomacy of Joseph Mar
tin, who held the Cherokees in check dur
ing the period of the King's Mountain cam
paign, the settlers in the valleys of the Wa
tauga and the Holston owed their temporary
immunity from Indian attack. But no sooner
did Sevier and his over-mountain men return
from the battle-field of King's Mountain than
they were called upon to join in an expedition
306

THE STATE OF FRANKLIN
against the Cherokees, who had again gone
on the war-path at the instigation of the Brit
ish. After Sevier with his command had de
feated a smaU party of Indians at Boyd's
Creek in December, the entire force of seven
hundred riflemen, under the command of
Colonel Arthur Campbell, with Major Joseph
Martin as subordinate, penetrated to the heart
of the Indian country, burned Echota, Chil-
howee, Settiquo, Hiawassee, and seven other
principal villages, and destroyed an immense
amount of property and supplies. In March,
suspecting that the arch-conspirators against
the white settlers were the Cherokees at the
head waters of the Little Tennessee, Sevier
led one hundired and fifty horsemen through
the devious mountain defiles and struck the In
dians a swift and unexpected blow at Tuck-
asegee, near the present Webster, North Caro
lina. In this extraordinarily daring raid, one
of his most brilliant feats of arms, Sevier lost
only one man killed and one wounded; while
upon the enemy he inflicted the loss of thirty
killed, took many more prisoners, burned six
307

THE CONQUEST OF THE OLD SOUTHWEST
Indian towns, and captured many horses and
supplies. Once his deadly work was done,
Sevier with his bold cavaliers silently plunged
again into the forest whence he had so suddenly
emerged, and returned in triumph to the set
tlements. Disheartened though the Indians were to see
the smoke of their burning towns, they sullenly
remained averse to peace; and they did not
keep the treaty made at Long Island in July,
1781. The Indians suffered from very real
grievances at the hands of the lawless white
settlers who persisted in encroaching upon the
Indian lands. When the Indian ravages were
resumed, Sevier and Anderson, the latter from
Sullivan County, led a punitive expedition of
two hundred riflemen against the Creeks and
the Chickamaugas; and employing the cus
tomary tactics of laying waste the Indian
towns, administered stern and salutary chas
tisement to the copper-colored marauders.
During this same period the settlers on the
Cumberland were displaying a grim fortitude
and stoical endurance in the face of Indian

THE STATE OF FRANKLIN
attack forever memorable in the history of the
Old Southwest. On the night of January 15,
1781, the settlers at Freeland's Station, after
a desperate resistance, succeeded in beating
off the savages who attacked in force. At
Nashborough on April 2d, twenty of the set
tlers were lured from the stockade by the art
ful wiles of the savages ; and it was only after
serious loss that they finally won their way
back to the protection of the fort. Indeed,
their return was due to the fierce dogs of the
settlers, which were released at the most critical
moment, and attacked the astounded Indians
with such ferocity that the diversion thus
created enabled the settlers to escape from the
deadly trap. During the next two years the
history of the Cumberland settlements is but
the gruesoine recital of murder after murder
of the whites, a few at a time, by the lurking
Indian foe. Robertson's dominant influence
alone prevented the abandonment of the sorely
harassed little stations. The arrival of the
North Carolina commissioners for the purpose
of laying off bounty lands and settlers' pre-
309

THE CONQUEST OF THE OLD SOUTHWEST
emptions, and the treaty of peace concluded
at the French Lick on November 5 and 6,
1783, gave permanence and stability to the
Cumberland settlements. The lasting friend*
ship of the Chickasaws was won; but the
Creeks for some time continued to harass the
Tennessee pioneers. The frontiersmen's most
formidable foe, the Cherokees, stoically, hero
ically fighting the whites in the field, and
smallpox, syphilis, and drunkenness at home,
at last abandoned the unequal battle. The
treaty at Hopewell on November 28, 1785,
marks the end of an era — the Spartan yet
hopeless resistance of the intrepid red men to
the relentless and frequently unwarranted ex
propriation by the whites of the ancient and
jimmemorial domain of the savage.
The skill in self-government of the isolated
people beyond the mountains, and the abihty
they had already demonstrated in the organi
zation of "associations," received a strong
stimulus on June 2, 1784, when the legislature
of North Carolina ceded to the Congress of
the United States the title which that state
310

THE STATE OF FRANKLIN
possessed to the land west of the Alleghanies.
Among the terms of the Cession Act were
these conditions: that the ceded territory
should be formed into a separate state or
states ; and that if Congress should not accept
the lands thus ceded and give due notice within
two years, the act should be of no force and
the lands should revert to North Carolina.^"'
No sooner did this news reach the Western
settlers than they began to mature plans for
the organization of a government during the
intervening twelve months. Their exposed
condition on the frontiers, still harassed by
the Indians, and North Carolina's delay in
sending goods promised the Indians by a for
mer treaty, both promoted Indian hostility;
and these facts, combined with their remote
location beyond the mountains, rendering them
almost inaccessible to communication with
North Carolina — aU rendered the decision of
the settlers almost inevitable. Moreover, the
allurements of high ofiice and the dazzling
dreams of ambition were additional motives
sufficiently human in themselves to give driv-
311

THE CONQUEST OF THE OLD SOUTHWEST
ing power to the movement toward independ
ence. At a convention assembled at Jonesborough
on August 23, 1784, delegates from the coun
ties of Washington, Sullivan, and Greene
characteristically decided to organize an "As
sociation." They solemnly declared by reso
lution : "We have a just and undeniable right
to petition to Congress to accept the session
made by North Carolina, and for that body to
countenance us for forming ourselves into a
separate government, and to frame either a
permanent or temporary constitution, agree
ably to a resolve of Congress. . . ." Mean
while, Governor Martin, largely as the result
of the prudent advice of North Carolina's
representative in Congress, Dr. Hugh AVil-
liamson, was brought to the conclusion that
North Carolina, in the passage of the cession
act, had acted precipitately. This important
step had been taken without the full considera
tion of the people of the state. Among the
various arguments advanced by Williamson
was the impressive contention that, in accord-
312

THE STATE OF FRANKLIN
ance with the procedure in the case of other
states, the whole expense of the huge Indian
expeditions in 1776 and the heavy militia aids
to South Carolina and Georgia should be cred
ited to North Carolina as partial fulfilment
of her continental obligations before the ces
sion should be irrevocably made to the Federal
government. Williamson's arguments proved
convincing; and it was thus primarily for
economic reasons of far-reaching national im
portance that the assembly of North Caro
lina (October 22 to November 25, 1784) re
pealed the cession act made the preceding
spring.^"* Before the news of the repeal of the cession
act could reach the western waters, a second
convention met at Jonesborough on December
17th. Sentiment at this time was much di
vided, for a number of the people, expecting
the repeal of the cession act, genuinely de
sired a continued allegiance to North Caro
hna. Of these may well have been John
Sevier, who afterward declared to Joseph Mar
tin that he had been "Draged into the Frank-
313

THE CONQUEST OF THE OLD SOUTHWEST
Iin measures by a large number of the people
of this country." ^"^ The principal act of this^
convention was the adoption of a temporary
constitution for six months and the provision
for a convention to be held within one year, at
the expiration of which time this constitution
should be altered, or adopted as the permanent
constitution of the new state.^"® The scholars
on the western waters, desiring to commemo
rate their aspirations for freedom, chose as
the name of the projected new state: "Frank-
land" — ^the Land of the Free. The name
finally chosen, however, perhaps for reasons of
policy, was "Franklin," in honor of Benjamin
Franklin. Meanwhile, in order to meet the
pressing needs for a stable government along
the Tennessee frontier, the North Carolina
assembly, which repealed the cession act, cre
ated out of the four western counties the
District of Washington, with John Hay
wood as presiding judge and David Camp
bell as associate, and conferred upon John
Sevier the rank of brigadier-general of the
new district. The first week in December
314

THE STATE OF FRANKLIN
Governor Martin sent to Sevier his military
commission; and replying to Joseph Martin's
query (December 31, 1784, prompted by Gov
ernor Martin) as to whether, in view of the
repeal of the cession act, he intended to persist
in revolt or await developments, Sevier gave
it out broadcast that "we shall pursue no fur-
their measures as to a new State."
Owing to the remoteness of the Tennessee
settlements and the difficulty of appreciating
through correspondence the atmosphere of
sentiment in Franklin, Governor Martin real
ized the necessity of sending a personal repre
sentative to discover the true state of affairs
in the disaffected region beyond the moun
tains. For the post of ambassador to the new
government. Governor Martin selected a man
distinguished for mentality and diplomatic
skill, a pioneer of Tennessee and Kentucky,
Judge Richard Henderson's brother, Colonel
Samuel Henderson. Despite Sevier's dis
avowal of any further intention to establish
a new state, the governor gave Colonel Hen
derson elaborate written instructions, the pur-
316

THE CONQUEST OF THE OLD SOUTHWEST
port of which was to learn all that he could
about the political complexion of the Tennes
see frontiersmen, the sense of the people, and
the agitation for a separate commonwealth.
Moreover, in the hope of placating the leading
chieftains of the Cherokees, who had bitterly
protested against the continued aggressions
and encroachments upon their lands by the
lawless borderers, he instructed Colonel Hen
derson also to learn the temper and disposi
tions of the Indians, and to investigate the
case of Colonel James Hubbardt who was
charged with the murder of Untoola of Set
tiquo, a chief of the Cherokees.
When Colonel Henderson arrived at Jones
borough, he found the third Franklin legis
lature in session, and to this body he presented
Governor Martin's letter of February 27,
1785. In response to the governor's request
for an "account of the late proceedings of the
people in the western country," an extended
reply was drafted by the new legislature; and
this letter, conveyed to Governor Martin by
Colonel Henderson, in setting forth in detail
316

THE STATE OF FRANKLIN
the reasons for the secession, made the follow
ing significant statement: "We humbly
thank North Carolina for every sentiment of
regard she has for us, but are sorry to observe,
that as it is founded upon principles of in
terest, as is aparent from the tenor of your
letter, we are doubtful, when the cause ceases
which is the basis of that affection, we shall
lose your esteem." At the same time (March
22d), Sevier, who had just been chosen Gov
ernor of the State of Franklin, transmitted
to Governor Martin by Colonel Henderson a
long letter, not hitherto published in any his
tory of the period, in which he outspokenly
says: It gives me great pain to think there should
arise any Disputes between us and North
Carolina, & I flatter myself when North Caro
lina states the matter in a fair light she will
be fuUy convinced that necessity and self-
preservation have Compelled Us to the meas
ures we Have taken, and could the people have
discovered that No. Carolina would Have pro
tected and Govern'd them. They would have
remained where they were; but they perceived
317

THE CONQUEST OF THE OLD SOUTHWEST
a neglect and Coolness, and the Language of
Many of your most leading members Con
vinced them they were Altogether Disre
garded.^" Following the issuance of vigorous manifestos
by Martin (AprU 25th) and Sevier (May
15th), ^"^ the burden of the problem fell upon
Richard Caswell, who in June succeeded Mar
tin as Governor of North Carolina.
Meantime the legislature of the' over-moun
tain men had given the name of Franklin to
the new state, although for some time it con
tinued to be called by many Frankland, and
its adherents Franks. The legislature had
also established an academy named after Gov
ernor Martin, and had appointed (March
12th) William Cocke as a delegate to the Con
tinental Congress, urging its acceptance of the
cession. In the Memorial from the Franklin
legislature to the Continental Congress, deal
ing in some detail with North Carolina's fail
ure to send the Cherokees some goods prom
ised them for lands acquired by treaty, it is
alleged: 318

THE STATE OF FRANKLIN
She [North Carohna] immediately stoped
the goods she had promised to give the Indians
for the said land which so exasperated them
that they begun to commit hostalities on our
frontiers in this situation we were induced to
a declaration of Independence not doubting
we should be excused by Congress ... as
North Carolina seemed quite regardless of our
interest and the Indians daily murdering our
friends and relations without distinction of age
or sex.^"^
Sympathizing with the precarious situation
of the settlers, as well as desiring the cession.
Congress urged North Carolina to amend the
repealing act and execute a conveyance of the
western territory to the Union.
Among the noteworthy features of the
Franklin movement was the constitution pre
pared by a committee, headed by the Rever
end Samuel Houston of Washington County,
and presented at the meeting of the Franklin
legislature, Greeneville, November 14, 1785.
This eccentric constitution was based in con
siderable part upon the North Carolina model;
but it was "rejected in the lump" and the
319

DECLARATION of RIGHTS

A t S D, T n B

CONSTITUTIOM

FORM OF GOVERNMENT

Agreed to, and refolved ap6n. by the Represe*i
TATitrtt of tho Freemen of the
STATE op frankland,
Ekfted ztA cliofen for tll&c pa:daR]!3¥ f.irpofe, in
'' Convention aflembl*^^, Cai Greene v« tic th*
(4th xif^tvemits i'}9$-

Printed by Francis Bailey, at JWrfV H(«i.
M.DCC.CXXXTIc 320

THE STATE OF FRANKLIN
constitution of North Carolina, almost un
changed, was adopted. Under this Hous
ton constitution, the name "Frankland" was
chosen for the new state. The legislature
was to consist of but a single house. In a
section excluding from the legislature "min
isters of the gospel, attorneys at law, and
doctors of physics," those were declared in
eligible for office who were of immoral char
acter or guilty of "such flagrant enormities
as drunkenness, gaming, profane swearing,
lewdness, Sabbath-breaking and such hke,"
or who should deny the existence of God,
of heaven, and of hell, the inspiration of
the Scriptures, or the existence of the Trin
ity. Full religious hberty and the rights of
conscience were assured — ^but strict orthodoxy
was a condition for eligibihty to office. No
one should be chosen to office who was "not
a scholar to do the business." This remark
able document, which provided for many
other curious innovations in government, was
the work of pioneer doctrinaires — Houston,
Campbell, Cocke, and Tipton — and deserves
321

THE CONQUEST OF THE OLD SOUTHWEST
study as a bizarre reflection of the spirit and
genius of the western frontiersmen.^^"
The hberal policy of Martin, foUowed by
the no less conciliatory attitude of his successor,
Caswell, for the time proved whoUy abortive.
However, Martin's appointment of Evan
Shelby in Sevier's place as brigadier, and of
Jonathan Tipton as colonel of his county, pro
duced disaffection among the Franks ; and the
influence of Joseph Martin against the new
government was a powerful obstacle to its
success. At first the two sets of military, civil,
and judicial ofiScers were able to work amica
bly together ; and a working-basis drawn up by
Shelby and Sevier, although afterward repu
diated by the Franklin legislature, smoothed
over some of the rapidly accumulating difii-
culties. The persistent and quiet assertion of
authority by North Carolina, without any
overt act of violence against the officers of
Franklin state, revealed great diplomatic skill
in Governors Martin and Caswell. It was
doub;tles9 the considerate policy of the latter,
coupled with the defection from S^evier's cause

THE STATE OF FRANKLIN
of men of the stamp of Houston and Tipton,
after the blundering and cavalier rejection of
their singular constitution, which undermined
the foundations of Franklin. Sevier himself
later wrote with considerable bitterness: "I
have been f aithf uU, and my own breast acquits
myself that I have acted no part but what has
been Consistent with honor and justice, tem
pered with Clemency and mercy. How far
our pretended patriots have supported me as
their pretended chiefe magistrate, I leave the
world at large to Judge." Arthur Camp
bell's plans for the formation of a greater
Franklin, through the union of the people on
the western waters of Virginia with those of
North Carolina, came to nought when Vir
ginia in the autumn of 1785 with stern deci
siveness passed an act making it high treason
to erect an independent government within her
limits unless authorized by the assembly.
Sevier, however, became more fixed in his de
termination to estabhsh a free state, writing
to Governor Caswell: "We shaU continue to
act independent and would rather suffer death.

THE CONQUEST OF THE OLD SOUTHWEST
in all its various and frightful shapes, than
conform to anything that is disgraceful."
North Carolina, now proceeding with vigor
(November, 1786), fully reassumed its sover
eignty and jurisdiction over the mountain
counties, but passed an act of pardon and ob
livion, and in many ways adopted moderate
and concihatory measures.
Driven to extremities, Cocke and Sevier in
turn appealed for aid and advice to Benjamin
Franklin, in whose honor the new state had
been named. In response to Cocke, Frank
lin wrote (August 12, 1786) : "I think you
are perfectly right in resolving to submit them
[the Points in Dispute] to the Decision of
Congrtess and to abide by their Determina
tion." ^^^ Franklin's views change in the in
terim; for when, almost a year later, Sevier
asks him for counsel, Franklin has come to
the conclusion that the wisest move for Sevier
was not to appeal to Congress, but to endeavor
to effect some satisfactory compromise with
North Carolina (June 30, 1787) :

THE STATE OF FRANKLIN
There are only two Things that Humanity
induces me to wish you may succeed in : The
Accomodating your Misunderstanding with
the Government of North Carolina, by amica
ble Means; and the Avoiding an Indian war,
by preventing Encroaching on their Lands.
. . . The Inconvenience to your People at
tending so remote a Seat of Government, and
the difficulty to that Government in ruling well
so remote a People, would I think be powerful
Inducements with it, to accede to any fair &
reasonable Proposition it may receive from you
towards an Accomodation.^^^
Despite Sevier's frenzied efforts to achieve
independence — ^his treaty with the Indians, his
sensational plan to incorporate the Cherokees
into the new state, his constancy to an ideal of
revolt against others in face of the reahty of
revolt against himself, his struggle, equivocal
and half-hearted, with the North Carolma au
thorities under Tipton — despite aU these heroic
efforts, the star of Franklin swiftly declined.
The vigorous measures pursued by General
Joseph Martin, and his effective influence fo-
cussed upon a movement already honey-
325

THE CONQUEST OF THE OLD SOUTHWEST
combed with disaffection, finally turned the
scale. To the Franklin leaders he sent the
urgent message: "Nothing will do but a sub
mission to the laws of North Carolina."
Early in April, 1788, Martin wrote to Gov
ernor Randolph of Virginia: "I returned last
evening from Green Co. Washington destrict,
North Carolina, after a tower through that
Co'ntry, and am happy to inform your Ex
cellency that the late unhappy dispute between
the State of North Carolina, and the pretended
State of Frankhn is subsided." Ever brave,
constant, and loyal to the interest of the pio
neers, Sevier had originally been drawn into
the movement against his best judgment-
Caught in the unique trap, created by the pas
sage of the cession act and the sudden "volte-
face of its repeal, he struggled desperately to
extricate hunself. Alone of all the leaders,
the governor of ill-starred Frankhn remained
recalcitrant.

326

CHAPTER XX

THE LUEE OF SPAIN ^^^  THE HAVEN OF
STATEHOOD

The people of this region have come to realize truly upon
what part of the world and upon which nation their future
happiness and security depend, and they immediately infer
that their interest and prosperity depend entirely upon the
protecOon and liberality of your government.
— John Sevier to Don Diego de Gardoqui, Sep
tember 13, 1788.
From the early settlements in the eastern parts of this
Continent to the late & more recent settlements on the Ken
tucky in the West the same difficulties have constantiy oc
curred which now oppress you, but by a series of patient
sufferings, manly and spirited exerUons and unconquerable
perseverance, they have been altogether or in great measure
subdued. — GrovEHNOR Samuel JoHifSTON to James Robert
son and Anthony Bledsoe, January 29, 1788.
A STRANGE sham-battle, staged like
some scene from opera boufe, in the
bleak snow-storm of February, 1788, is really
the prelude to a remarkable drama of revolt
in which Sevier, Robertson, Bledsoe, and the
327

THE CONQUEST OF THE OLD SOUTHWEST
Cumberland stalwarts play the leading roles.
On February 27th, incensed beyond measure
by the action of Colonel John Tipton in har
boring some of his slaves seized by the sheriff
under an execution issued by one of the North
Carolina courts, Sevier with one hundred and
fifty adherents besieged Tipton with a few of
his friends in his home on Sinking Creek. The
siege was raised at daybreak on February 29th
by the arrival of reinforcements under Colonel
Maxwell from Sullivan County; and Sevier,
who was unwilling to precipitate a conflict,
withdrew his forces after some desultory fir
ing, in which two men were killed and several
wounded. Soon afterward Sevier sent word
to Tipton that on condition his life be spared
he would submit to North Carohna. On this
note of tragi-comedy the State of Franklin
appeared quietly to expire. The usually
sanguine Sevier, now thoroughly chastened,
sought shelter in the distant settlements —
deeply despondent over the humiliating fail
ure of his plans and the even more depressing
defection of his erstwhile friends and sup-
328

JOHN SEVIER (1745-1815)
From a miniature attributed to C. W. Peale, in the possession of
Mr. Daniel V. Sevier

THE LURE OF SPAIN
porters. The revolutionary designs and sepa
ratist tendencies which he still harbored were
soon to involve him in a secret conspiracy to
give over the State of Franklin into the pro
tection of a foreign power.
The fame of Sevier's martial exploits and
of his bold stroke for independence had long
since gone abroad, astounding even so famous
an advocate of liberty as Patrick Henry and
winning the sympathy of the Continental Con
gress. One of the most interested observers
of the progress of affairs in the State of Frank
lin was Don Diego de Gardoqui, who had come
to America in the spring of 1785, bearing a com
mission to the American Congress as Spanish
charge d'affaires (Encargados de Negocios)
to the United States. In the course of his
negotiations with Jay concerning the right of
navigation of the Mississippi River, which
Spain denied to the Americans, Gardoqui was
not long in discovering the violent resentment
of the Western frontiersmen, provoked by
Jay's crass blunder in proposing that the
American republic, in return for reciprocal
829

THE CONQUEST OF THE OLD SOUTHWEST
foreign advantages offered by Spain, should
waive for twenty-five years her right to navi
gate the Mississippi. The Cumberland trad
ers had already felt the heavy hand of Spain
in the confiscation of their goods at Natchez;
but thus far the leaders of the Tennessee fron
tiersmen had prudently restrained the more
turbulent agitators against the Spanish policy,
fearing lest the spirit of retaliation, once
aroused, might know no bounds. Throughout
the entire region of the trans-AUeghany, a
feeling of discontent and unrest prevailed —
quite as much the result of dissatisfaction with
the central government which permitted the
wholesale restraint of trade, as of resentment
against the domination of Spain.
No sooner had the shrewd and watchful
Gardoqui, who was eager to utihze the sepa
ratist sentiment of the western settlements in
the interest of his country, learned of Sevier's
armed insurrection against the authority of
North Carolina than he despatched an emis
sary to sound the leading men of Franklin and
the Cumberland settlements in regard to an
330

THE LURE OF SPAIN
alliance. This secret emissary was Dr. James
White, who had been appointed by the United
States Government as Superintendent of In
dian Affairs for the Southern Department on
November 29, 1786. Reporting as instructed
to Don Estevan Miro, governor of Louisiana,
White, the corrupt tool of Spain, stated con
cerning his confidential mission that the lead
ers of "Frankland" and "Cumberland district"
had "eagerly accepted the conditions" laid
down by Gardoqui: to take the oath of alle
giance to Spain, and to renounce all submis
sion or allegiance whatever to any other sover
eign or power. Satisfied by the secret advices
received, the Spanish minister reported to the
home authorities his confident belief that the
Tennessee backwoodsmen, if diplomatically
handled, would readily throw in their lot with
Spain.^*". After the fiasco of his siege of Tipton's
home, Sevier had seized upon the renewal of
hostihties by the Cherokees as a means of re
gaining his popularity. This he counted upon
doing by rallying his old comrades-in-arms
331

THE CONQUEST OF THE OLD SOUTHWEST
under his standard and making one of his me
teoric, whirlwind onslaughts upon their ancient
Indian foe. The victory of this erstwhile pop
ular hero, the beloved "Nolichucky Jack of
the Border," over the Indians at a town on the
Hiwassee "so raised him in the esteem of the
people on the frontier," reports Colonel Max
well, "that the people began [once more] to
flock to his standard." Inspirited by this good
turn in his fortunes, Sevier readily responded
to Dr. White's overtures.
Alarmed early in the year over the unpro
voked depredations and murders by the In
dians in several Tennessee counties and on the
Kentucky road, Sevier, Robertson, and An
thony Bledsoe had persuaded Governor Sam
uel Johnston of North Carolina to address
Gardoqui and request him to exert his influ
ence to prevent further acts of savage bar
barity. In letters to Governor Johnston, to
Robertson, and to Sevier, all of date April
18th, Gardoqui expressed himself in general
as being "extremely surprised to know that
there is a suspicion that the good government

THE LURE OF SPAIN
of Spain is encouraging these acts of bar
barity." The letters to Robertson and Sevier,
read between the lines as suggestive reinforce
ments of Spain's secret proposals, possess real
significance. The letter to Sevier contains
this dexterously expressed sentiment: "His
Majesty is very favorably inclined to give the
inhabitants of that region all the protection
that they ask for and, on my part, I shall take
very great pleasure in contributing to it on
this occasion and other occasions."
This letter, coupled with the confidential
proposals of Dr. White, furnished a conven
ient opening for correspondence with the
Spaniards; and in July Sevier wrote to Gardo
qui indicating his readiness to accede to their
proposals. After secret conferences with men
who had supported him throughout the vicis
situdes of his ill-starred state, Sevier carefully
matured his plans. The rerharkable letter of
great length which he wrote to Gardoqui on
September 12', 1788, reveals the conspiracy in
all its details and presents in vivid colors the
strong separatist sentiment of the day. Sevier

THE CONQUEST OF THE OLD SOUTHWEST
urgently petitions Gardoqui for the loan of a
few thousand pounds, to enable him to "make
the most expedient and necessary preparations
for defense"; and offers to repay the loan
within a short time "by sending the products
of this region to the lower ports." Upon the
vital matter of "delivering" the State of
Franklin to Spain, he forthrightly says:
Since my last of the 18th of July, upon con
sulting with the principal men of this coun
try, I have been particularly happy to find
that they are equally disposed and ready as I
am to accept your propositions and guaran
tees. You may be sure that the pleasing hopes
and ideas which the people of this country hold
with regard to the probabability of an alliance
with, and commercial concessions from, you
are very ardent, and that we are unanimously
determined on that score. The people of this
region have come to realize truly upon what
part of the world and upon which nation their
future happiness and security depend, and
they immediately infer that their interest and
prosperity depend entirely upon the protec
tion and liberality of your government. . . .
Being the first from this side of the Appala
chian Mountains to resort in this way to your
334

THE LURE OF SPAIN
protection and liberality, we feel encouraged
to entertain the greatest hope that we shall
be granted all reasonable aid by him who is
so amply able to do it, and fo give the pro
tection and help that is asked of him in this
petition. You know our delicate situation and
the diificulties in which we are in respect to
our mother State which is making use of every
strategem to impede the development and
prosperity of this country. . . . Before I con
clude, it may be necessary to remind you that
there will be no more favorable occasion than
the present one to put this plan into execution.
North Carolina has rejected the Constitution
and moreover it seems to me that a consider
able time will elapse before she becomes a
member of the Union, if that event ever hap
pens. Through Miro, Gardoqui was simultane
ously conducting a simUar correspondence with
General James Wilkinson. The object of the
Spanish conspiracy, matured as the result of
this correspondence, was to seduce Kentucky
from her allegiance to the United States. De
spite the superficial similarity between the sit
uation of Franklin and Kentucky, it would
be doing Sevier and his adherents a capital
335

THE CONQUEST OF THE OLD SOUTHWEST
injustice to place them in the category of the
corrupt Wilkinson and the malodorous Se
bastian. Moreover, the secessionists of Frank
lin, as indicated in the above letter, had
the excuse of being left virtually without
a country. On the preceding August 1st,
North Carolina had rejected the Constitu
tion of the United States; and the leaders
of Franklin, who were sorely aggrieved by
what they regarded as her indifference and
neglect, now felt themselves more than ever
out of the Union and wholly repudiated by
the mother state. Again, Sevier had the em
bittered feeling resultant from outlawry. Be
cause of his course in opposing the laws and
government of North Carolina and in the kill
ing of several good citizens, including the
sheriff of Washington County, by his forces at
Sinking Creek, Sevier, through the action of
Governor Johnston of North Carolina, had
been attainted of high treason. Under the
heavy burden of this grave charge, he felt his
hold upon Franklin relax. Further, an atrocity
committed in the recent campaign under
336

THE LURE OF SPAIN
Sevier's leadership — Kirk's brutal murder of
Corn Tassel, a noble old Indian, and other
chieftains, while under the protection of a flag
of truce — had placed a bar sinister across the
fair fame of this stalwart of the border. TJ;^
^sp^ration thus prompted Sevier's acceptance
^f Gardaqui's offer of the protection of Spain.
John Sevier's son, James, bore the letter
of September 12th to Gardoqui. By a
strangely ironic coincidence, on the very day
(October 10, 1788) that Gardoqui wrote to
Miro, recommending to the attention of Spain
Dr. White and James Sevier, the emissaries
of Franklin, with their plans and proposals,
John Sevier was arrested by Colonel Tipton
at the Widow Brown's in Washington County,
on the charge of high treason. He was hand
cuffed and borne off, first to Jonesborough
and later to Morganton. But his old friends
and former comrades-in-arms, Charles and
Joseph McDowell, gave bond for his appear
ance at court; and Morrison, the sheriff, who
also had fought at King's Mountain, knocked
the irons from his wrists and released him on
337

THE CONQUEST OF THE OLD SOUTHWEST
parole. Soon afterward a number of Sevier's
devoted friends, indignant over his arrest, rode
across the mountains to Morganton and si
lently bore him away, never to be arrested
again. In November an act of pardon and
oblivion with respect to Franklin was passed
by the North Carolina Assembly. Although
Sevier was forbidden to hold oflB^ce under the
state, the passage of this act automatically op
erated to clear him of the alleged offense of
high treason. With affairs in Franklin tak
ing this turn, it is little wonder that Gardoqui
and Miro paid no further heed to Sevier's pro
posal to accept the protection of Spain.
Sevier's continued agitation in behalf of the
independence of Franklin inspired Governor
Johnston with the fear that he would have to
be "proceeded against to the last extremity."
But Sevier's opposition finaUy subsiding, he
was pardoned, given a seat in the North Caro
lina assembly, and with extraordinary consid
eration honored with his former rank of briga
dier-general. When Dr. White reported to Miro that the
338

THE LURE OF SPAIN
leaders of "Frankland" had eagerly accepted
Gardoqui's conditions for an aUiance with
Spain, he categoricaUy added : "With regard
to Cumberland district, what I have said of
Frankland apphes to it with equal force and
truth." James Robertson and Anthony Bled
soe had but recently availed themselves of the
good oflSces of Governor Johnston of North
Carolina in the effort to influence Gardoqui to
quiet the Creek Indians. The sagacious and
unscrupulous half breed Alexander McGiUi-
vray had placed the Creeks under the protec-
tibn of Spain in 1784; and shortly afterward
they began to be regularly supplied with am
munition by the Spanish authorities. At flrst
Spain pursued the pohcy of secretly encour
aging these Indians to resist the encroach
ments of the Americans, while she remained
on outwardly friendly terms with the United
States. During the period of the Spanish
conspiracy, however, there is reason to beheve
that Miro endeavored to keep the Indians at
peace with the borderers, as a friendly service,
intended to pave the way for the estabhshment

THE CONQUEST OF THE OLD SOUTHWEST
of intimate relations between Spain and the
dwellers in the trans-AUeghany. Yet his ef
forts cannot have been very effective; for the
Cumberland settlements continued to suffer
from the ravages and depredations of the
Creeks, who remained "totally averse to peace,
notwithstanding they have had no cause of
offence" ; and Robertson and Bledsoe reported
to Governor CasweU (June 12, 1787) : "It
is certain, the Chickasaws inform us, that
Spanish traders offer a reward for scalps of
the Americans." The Indian atrocities be
came so frequent that Robertson later in the
summer headed a party on the famous Cold-
water Expedition, in which he severely chas
tised the marauding Indians. Aroused by the
loss of a number of chiefs and warriors at the
hands of Robertson's men, and instigated, as
was generally believed, by the Spaniards, the
Creeks then prosecuted their attacks with re
newed violence against the Cumberland settle
ments. Unprotected either by the mother state or
by the national government, unable to secure
340

THE LURE OF SPAIN
free passage to the Gulf for their products,
and sorely pressed to defend their homes, now
seriously endangered by the incessant attacks
of the Creeks, the Cumberland leaders decided
to make secret overtures to McGillivray, as
well as to communicate to Miro, through Dr.
White, their favorable inclination toward the
proposals of the one country which promised
them protection. In a letter which McGilli
vray wrote to Miro (transmitted to Madrid,
June 15, 1788) in regard to the visit of Messrs.
Hackett and Ewing, two trusty messengers
sent by Robertson and Bledsoe, he reports that
the two delegates from the district of Cum
berland had not only submitted to him pro
posals of peace but "had added that they would
throw themselves into the arms of His Maj
esty as subjects, and that Kentucky and Cum
berland are determined to free themselves from
their dependence on Congress, because that
body can not protect either their property, or
favor their commerce, and they therefore be
lieve that they no longer owe obedience to a
power which is incapable of protecting them."
341

THE CONQUEST OF THE OLD SOUTHWEST
Commenting upon McGillivray's communicar.;
tion, Miro said in his report to Madrid (June
15, 1788) : "I consider as extremely interest
ing the intelligence conveyed to McGillivray
by the deputies on the fermentation existing
in Kentucky, with regard to a separation from
the Union. Concerning the proposition made
to McGillivray by the inhabitants of Cumber
land to become the vassals of His Majesty, I
have refrained from returning any precise an
swer." In his long letter of reply to Robertson and
Bledsoe, McGillivray agreed to make peace
between his nation, the Creeks, and the Cum
berland settlers. This letter was most favor
ably received and given wide circulation
throughout the West. In a most ingratiating
reply, offering McGillivray a fine gun and a
lot in Nashville, Robertson throws out the fol
lowing broad suggestion, which he obviously
wishes McGillivray to convey to Miro: "In
all probability we cannot long remain in our
present state, and if the British or any com
mercial nation who may be in possession of the
342

THE LURE OF SPAIN
mouth of the Mississippi would furnish us with
trade, and receive our produce there cannot
be a doubt but the people on the west side of
the Appalachian mountains will open their
eyes to their real interest." Robertson actu
aUy had the district erected out of the coun
ties of Davidson, Sumner, and Tennessee
given the name of "Miro" by the Assembly
of North Carohna in November, 1788 — a sig
nificant symbol of the desires of the Cumber
land leaders. In a letter (AprU 23, 1789),
Miro, who had just received letters from Rx)b-
ertson (January 29th) and Daniel Smith
(March 4th) postmarked "District of Miro,"
observes: "The bearer. Fagot, a confidential
agent of Gen. Smith, informed me that the
inhabitants of Cumberland, or Miro, would ask
North Carolina for an act of separation the
following fall, and that as soon as this should
be obtained other delegates would be sent from
Cumberland to New Orleans, with the object
of placing that territory under the domina
tion of His Majesty. I replied to both in
general terms." ^^*

THE CONQUEST OF THE OLD SOUTHWEST
Robertson, Bledsoe, and Smith were succesl-
ful in keeping secret their correspondence with
McGiUivray and Miro; and few were in the
secret of Sevier's effort to deliver the State
of Franklin to Spain. Joseph Martin was
less successful in his negotiations; and a great
sensation was created throughout the Southern
colonies when a private letter from Joseph
Martin to McGillivray (November 8, 1788)
was intercepted. In this letter Martin said:
"I must beg that you write me by the first
opportunity in answer to what I am now go
ing to say to you. ... I hope to do honor to
any part of the world I settle in, and am de
termined to leave the United States, for rea
sons that I can assign to you when we meet,
but durst not tnist it to paper." The general
assembly of Georgia referred the question of
the intercepted letter to the governor of North
Carolina (January 24, 1789) ; and the result
was a legislative investigation into Martin's
conduct. Eleven months later, the North
Carolina assembly exonerated him. From the
correspondence of Joseph Martin and Patrick
344

THE LURE OF SPAIN
Henry, it would appear that Martin, on
Henry's advice, had acted as a spy upon the
Spaniards, in order to discover the views of
McGillivray, to protect the exposed white
settlements from the Indians, and to fathom
the designs of the Spaniards against the United
States."^' The sensational disclosures of Martin's in
tercepted letter had no deterrent effect upon
James Robertson in the attempted execution
of his plan for detaching the Cumberland
settlements from North Carolina. History
has taken no account of the fact that Robert
son and the inhabitants now deliberately en
deavored to secure an act of separation from
North Carolina. In the event of success, the
next move planned by the Cumberland leaders,
as we have already seen, was to send delegates
to New Orleans for the purpose of placing the
Cumberland region under the domination of
Spain. A hitherto unknown letter, from Robert
son to (Miro), dated Nashville, September 2,
1789, proves that a convention of the people
345

THE CONQUEST OF THE OLD SOUTHWEST
was actually held — the first overt step looking
to an alliance with Spain. In this letter Rob
ertson says:
I must beg your Excellency's permission
to take this early opportunity of thanking you
for the honor you did me in writing by Mr.
White. I still hope that your Government, and these
Settlements, are destined to be mutually
friendly and useful!, the people here are im
pressed with the necessity of it.
We have just held a Convention; which has
agreed that our members shall insist on being
Seperated from North Carolina.
Unprotected, we are to be obedient to the
new Congress of the United States; but we
cannot but wish for a more interesting Con
nection. The United States afford us no protection,
The district of Miro is daily plundered and
the inhabitants murdered by the Creeks, and
Cherokees, unprovoked.
For my own part, I conceive highly of the
advantages of your Government.''"
A serious obstacle to the execution of the
plans of Robertson and the other leaders of
the Cumberland settlements was the prompt
346

THE LURE OF SPAIN
action of North Carolina. In actual conform
ity with the wishes of the Western people, as
set forth in the petition of Robertson and
Hayes, their representatives, made two years
earlier,''^® the legislature of North Carolina in
December passed the second act of cession, by
which the Western territory of North Carolina
was ceded to the United States. Instead of
securing an act of separation from North
Carolina as the preparatory step to forming
what Robertson calls "a more interesting con
nection" with Spain, Robertson and his asso
ciates now found themselves and the transmon
tane region which they represented flung
bodily into the arms of the United States.
Despite the unequivocal offer of the calculat
ing and desperate Sevier to "deliver" Frank
lin to Spain, and the ingenious efforts of Rob
ertson and his associates to place the Cumber
land region under the domination of Spain,
the Spanish court by its temporizing policy of
evasion and indecision definitely relinquished
the ready opportunities thereby afforded, of
utilizing the powerful separatist tendencies of
347

THE CONQUEST OF THE OLD SOUTHWEST
Tennessee for the purpose of adding the em
pire upon the Western waters to the Spanish
domain in America.
The year 1790 marks the end of an era —
the heroic age of the pioneers of the Old South
west. Following the acceptance of North
Carolina's deed of cession of her Western lands
to the Union (April 2, 1790) the Southwest
Territory was erected on May 26th; and Wil
liam Blount, a North Carolina gentleman of
eminence and distinction, was appointed on
June Sth to the post of governor of the terri
tory. Two years later (June 1, 1792) Ken
tucky was admitted into the Union.
It is a remarkable and inspiring circum
stance, in testimony of the martial instincts
and unwavering loyalty of the transmontane
people, that the two men to whom the Western
country in great measure owed its preservation,
the inciting and flaming spirits of the King's
Mountain campaign, were the unopposed first
choice of the people as leaders in the trying ex
periment of Statehood — John Sevier of Ten
nessee and Isaac Shelby of Kentucky. Had
348

THE LURE OF SPAIN
Franklin possessed the patient will of Ken
tucky, she might well have preceded that region
into the Union. It was not, however, until
June 1, 1796, that Tennessee, after a romantic
and arduous struggle, finally passed through
the wide-flung portals into the domain of
national statehood.

340

LIST OF NOTES
1 Roosevelt's The fVinning of the 'West, a stirring recital
with chief stress thrown upon the militant characteristics of
the frontiersmen, is open to grave criticism because of failure
to give adequate account of social and economic tendencies,
the development of democracy, and the evolution of govern
ment under the pressure of frontier conditions.
2 Johnson MSS., xii. No. 127.
^Journal of a Tov/r in Unsettled Parts of North America
in 1796 and 1797, 217.
* Turner: "Significance of the Frontier in American His
tory," American Historical Association Report, 1893.
5 Hugh Williamson: History of North Carolina (1813), ii,
71-3. ^Virginia Historical Magazine, xiii, 133; William and Mary
Quarterly, ix, 132.
7 Virginia Historical Magazine, op. cit. Cf. also West Vir
ginia Historical Magazine, April, 1903.
sBernheim: The German Element and the Lutheran Church
in the Carolinas.
9 For this and other Moravian diaries, see Virginia Historical
Magazine, vols, xi and xii. I
10 Original diary in German in Archives of the Moravian
Church, Winston-Salem, N. C. Cf. Mereness, Travels in the
American Colonies 1690-17SS, 327-356.
11 Cf . original minutes of Abington and Gwynedd Monthly
Meetings, Pa.
12 MS. History of Bryan family, compiled by Col. W. L.
Bryan, Boone, N. C.
13 Ely: The Finley s of Bucks (Publications, Bucks County
Historical Society) ; also "Historic Associations of Neshaminy
Yalley," Daily Intelligencer (Reading, Pa.), July 29, 1913.
See also Wisconsin State Historical Society, Draper MSS.,
2 B 161.
351

LIST OF NOTES
i*"The Creative Forces in Westward Expansion," American
Historical Review, xx, 1.
15 North CaroUna Colonial Records, vii, 100-101.
16 McCgazUie of American History, November, 1881.
17 Foote: Sketches of North Carolina, xiii.
18 Howe: History of the Presbyterian Church in South
Carolina. 19 Virginia Historical Magazine, xiii, 127-8-9.
20 Draper: MS. Life of Boone; Draper Collection, Wisconsin
State Historical Society.
21 Rowan County Records, Salisbury, N. C.
22 Rumple: History of Rowan County.
23 Logan: History of Upper South Carolina.
2* "Diary of Bishop Spangenberg" (1752), North Carolina
Colonial Records, v.
25 Sheets: History of Liberty Baptist Association.
26 Moravian Community Diary, preserved at Winston-Salem,
N. C.
27 North CaroUna Colonial Records, v, 6.
28 J. F. D. Smyth: A Tour in the United States of America
(London: 1784), vol. 1. Chapter xxiii.
29 Unpublished MS.: "In the Olden Time."
30 Margry: Navigation of the Mississippi, iv, 322.
3iRauni6; Chansonnier historique du xviii' siicle, iii, 133-3.
This translation is by Barbara Henderson.
32 J. Haywood: Natural and Aboriginal History of Tennes
see (1823), 223.
33 Byrd : History of the Dividing Line.
^¦1' North Carolina Colonial Records, v, 25.
3BD. D. WMlace: The Life of Henry Laurens, Appen
dix iv.
36 See also Hewit in Carroll's Collections, i, 435. Fort Prince
George was located in the fork of the Six Mile Creek and
Keowee River, in the southwestern part of Pickens County,
and was completed probably by the end of 1753 (^South
Carolina Gazette, December 17, 1753).
37 North Carolina Colonial Records, v, 140.
38 Cited in Channing, History of the United States, ii, Sr-73 n.
39 North Carolina Colonial Records, v, 333, 357.
352

LIST OF NOTES
*o Moravian Community Diary.
« North Carolina Colomal Records, v, 849.
*2 Virginia Historical Magazine, xiii, 225-264. North Caro
lina Colonial Repords, v, 560, 617.
i^yorth CaratirM Colonial Records, v, 579.
« North Carolina Colonial Records, v, 641, 742, 849. Cf. also
Hunter: Sketches of Western North Carolina, 325.
<5 North CaroUna Colonial Record*, v, 604, 639.
« Virginia Historical Magazine, xiii, 263; North Carolina
Colonial Records, v, 606, 609, 613.
« North Carolina Colonial Records, v, 585, 612^, 635, 637.
*» North Carolina Colonial Records, v, 610; Cf. Timberlake's
"A Draught of the Cherokee Country" in Avery's History of
the United States, iv, facing p. 347; Ramsey, History of Ten
nessee, 57.
49 Summers: Southwest Virgima, 57-60.
50 Virginia Historical Magazine, xv, 254-7; Waddell, Augusta
County (second edition), 115-6, 150-1.
51 North CaroUna Colonial Records, v, 606-8.
52 Summers: Southwest Virginia, 60-1.
53 Williamson : History of North Carolina, ii, 37, footnote.
^ North Carolina Colonial Records, viii, 563; xi, map facing
p. 80, and p. 227.
5S North Carolina Colonial Records, v. Introduction, pp. xxx-
xxxL 56CarroU's Collections, i, 433; ii, 519-20; Draper's MS. Life
of Boone, iii, 65-6. ~
5" Sparks: Washington, ii, 322.
58 Journal: "Concerning a March that Capt. Robt. Wade
took to the New River," in Summers, Southwest Virginia.
62-«6. 59 Carroll's Collections, i, 443-4.
«o South Carolina Gazette, May 13, 1759.
e^ South Carolina Gazette, July 14, 1759.
62 South CaroUna Gazette, Aug. 4, Sept. 22, 1759.
63 North Carolina Colonial Records, vi, 221.
«* Draper: MS. Life of Boone, iii, 75.
65 North Carolina Colonial Records, vi, 229-230.
66 For a full account of the part which Fort Dobbs played
353

LIST OF NOTES
in this Indian warfare see the monograph. Fort Dobbs, by
Mrs. M. H. Eliason.
<i'' Maryland Gazette, May 8, 1760; Haywood: Natural ani^
Aboriginal History of Tennessee, 239-40; North Carolina Co
lonial Records, xxii, 822.
68 "Notes on the Indians and the Early Settlers of Western
North Carolina," Collections of the North Carolina Historical
Commission. Printed in Papers of A. D. Murphy, ii, 380
et seq.
69 Maryland Gazette, May 8, 1760.
¦"> South CaroUna Gazette, Dec. 23, 1760; Feb. 28, April 11,
1761. 71 North CaroUna Colonial Records, vi, 622.
72 J. S. Johnston: The First Explorations of Kentucky.
Filson Club Publications, No. 13.
73 William and Mary College Quarterly, xii, 129-134; Young:
Genealogical Narrative of the Hart Family (1882); Nash:
"History of Orange County," North Carolina Booklet; Hender-
soii : "A Federalist of the Old School," North Carolina Booklet.
74 North CaroUna Colonial Records, ix, 349.
75 Turner: "The Old West," Wisconsin Historical Society
Proceedings, 1908.
76 Cf. "Memoir of Pleasant Henderson," Draper MSS. 3CC21-
23; W. H. Battle: "A Memoir of Leonard Henderson," North
Carolina University Magazine, Nov., 1859; T. B. Kingsbury:
"Chief Justice Leonard Henderson," Wake Forest Student,
November, 1898.
77 "The Life and Times of Richard Henderson," in the
Charlotte Observer, March 9 to June 1, 1913; Draper's MS.
Life of Boone; Morebead's Address at Boonesborough, 105 n.
78 C. W. Alvord: "The Genesis of the Proclamation of
1763," Michigan Pioneer and Historical Collections, xxxvi.
79 Sparks: Works of Franklin (1844), iii, 69-77.
80 J. M. Peck to L. C. Draper, May 15, 1854.
81 Washington to Crawford, September 21, 1767, in Sparks:
Life and Writings of Washington, ii, 346-50.
82 Haywood : Civil and PoUtical History of Tennessee
(1823), 35.
83 Ramsey: Annals of Tennessee (1853), 69-70.
354

LIST OF NOTES
84 Ramsey: Annals of Tennessee, 69.
85 Cf. C. W. Alvord: "The British Ministry and the Treaty
of Fort Stanwix," Wisconsin Historical Society Proceedings,
1908. SB North Carolina Colonial Records, vii, 85I-«55. For Try-
on's line, ibid., 245, 460, 470, 508.
87 Johnson to Gage, December 16, 1768.
88 Jefferson MSS. Department of state. Cf. also Weeks:
Oeneral Joseph Martin.
89 Hanna: The Wilderness Trail, ii, 216, 230, 255; Darling
ton: Journals of Gist, 131.
90 "Narrative of General William Hall," Draper MSS., Wis
consin State Historical Society.
91 Draper: MS. Life of Boone, viii, 238.
92 Summers: Southwest Virginia, 76r
Bi Papers of A. D. Murphy, ii, 386.
94 Pen-nsybmnia Journal, October 29, 1769.
95 Compare "John Finley; and Kentacky before Boone,"
being chapter seven in volume two of C. A. Hanna's The Wil
derness Trail (1911).
96 J. W. Monette: History of the Discovery and Settle
ment of the Valley of the Mississippi (1846), ii, 53.
97 Court Records of Rowan County.
98 Cf. "The Pioneers of the West" in Missouri Republican
(1847). Cf. also Putnam: Middle Tennessee, 20.
99 J. M. Peck to L. C. Draper, May IS, 1854.
100 Missouri Republican (1847).
101 .<j Memorial to the Legislature of Kentucky (1812).
102 Deposition Book No. 1, p. 156, Clark County Court, Ken
tucky. 103 Cf. "Daniel Boone and the Wilderness Trail," Bristol
(Tennessee-Virginia) Herald Courier, Boone Trail Edition,
April, 1917.
104 Hall: The Romance of Western History (1857), I50-I,
is&-a. 105 North CaroUna Colonial Records, vii, 713.
io« Martin: History of North Carolina, ii, 191.
101 "The Origin of the Regulation in North Carolina," Amer
ican Historical Review, xxi. No. 2.
108 North CaroUna Colonial Records, vii, I4r-31, 32-4, 37.
355

LIST OF NOTES
100 Raleigh (N. 0.) Register, June 2, 1825.
110 Cf. Tryon's Journal, North Carolina Colonial Records, vii,
819-838. Ill Tryon to Hillsborough, December 24, 1768.
112 North Carolina Colonial Records, viii, 231-4.
113 North CaroUna Colonial Records, viii, 241-244.
114 North Carolina Colonial Records, viii, 341-244.
115 North Carolina Colonial Records, viii, 236-240.
116 Cf. J. S. Bassett: "The Regulators of North Carolina
(1765-1771)", American Historical Association Report for
1894. 11'' North Carolina Colonial Records, x, 1019-1032; Caruth
ers: Life of Caldwell, li5-lSS.
118 North Carolina Colonial Records, vi, 350.
119 Alderman: "The Baptists at the Forks of the Yadkin,"
in Baptist Historical Papers.
120 jforth Carolina Colonial Records, viii, 70-80.
121 The discovery of an immense quantity of contemporary
documents, since Roosevelt's The Winning of the West was
written, betrays the numerous inaccuracies of that fascinating
work, as well as the imperfect perspective in the picture of
the westward expansionist movement. Mr. Roosevelt's virile
apotheosis of the strenuous pioneer seems today almost as
old-fashioned in its method and outlook as is Draper's work
on King's Mountain.
122 Bancroft Transcripts, Library of Congress.
i23Purefoy: History of Sandy Creek Baptist Association
(1859). 124 Cf. "Pioneer Contributions of North Carolina to Ken
tucky," Charlotte (N. C.) Observer, November 10, 1913.
125 Summers: Southwest Virginia, 616-8.
i^s North Carolina Colonial Records, xiv, 314. Cf. Farrand:
"The Indian Boundary Line," American Historical Review, x.
127 Dunmore to Hillsborough, March, 1773. Cf. also Draper,
MS. Life of Boone, Draper MSS., 3 B 87, 88.
128 North CaroUna Colonial Records, x, 885-6.
129 Moses Fisk: "A Summary Notice of the First Settle
ments made by White People within the Limits which Bound the
356

LIST OF NOTES
State of Tennessee," in Massachusetts Historical Collections,
1st series (1816).
130 Dunmore to Dartmouth, May 16, 1774.
131 North Carolina Colonial Records, ix, 825-6, 982. MS.
Copy in Minutes of Council, Public Record Office, Colonial Of
fice, 5:355.
132 Haywood: Civil and Political History of Tennessee
(1823), 40.
133 Butler: History of Kentucky (1836), p. Ixvii, note. Also
Draper MSS., 2 CC 34.
134 Wharton: Plain Facts (1781), 9.
135 Alvord: The Illinois-Wabash Land Company Marvuscript.
136 A copy of the opinion, bearing this date, is in the Hen
derson papers. Draper collection, Wisconsin Historical Society.
137 Extended investigation establishes beyond question that
Judge Henderson was proceeding in strict accordance with
law in seeking to acquire title by purchase from the Cherokees
instead of applying to the royal government for a grant.
When Virginia's sea-to-sea charter was abrogated in 1624,
Virginia became a royal province and the settlement of bound
aries a. royal prerogative. Of the three presumed Indian
claimants to the trans-Alleghany region, viz., the Iroquois,
Shawanoes, and Cherokees, the Iroquois by defeating the
Shawanoes and their confederates in the Ohio Valley at the
battle of Sandy Island in 1673 acquired tdtle, as understood
by the Indians, to this region. By the treaties of Lancaster
(1744), Loggstown (1752), and Fort Stanwix (1768), the
claims of the Shawanoes and the Iroquois to the trans-
Alleghany territory were ceded to the crown. While the
Shawanoes and the Cherokees acquiesced in the Treaty of
Fort Stanwix, the crown fully acknowledged the claim of
the Cherokees to the trans- Allegany region; and by the
treaties of Hard Labor (1768) and Lochaber (1770) con
firmed them in possession of this region to the west of the
boundary line (See Chapter XII). The .sovereignty of Eng
land extended over this territory, the right of eminent domain
being vested in the crown. Henderson was legally justified
in disregarding the royal proclamation of 1763 which was
357

LIST OF NOTES
largely in the nature of a temporary expedient, and in pur
chasing the title to the trans-Alleghany region from the
Cherokees in 1775. The right of eminent domain over the
trans-Alleghany region still vested in the crf»wn after the treaty
of Sycamore Shoals.
138 MS. Journals of James and Robert McAfee. Durrett
Collection, University of Chicago. These journals are printed
in Woods-McAfee Memorial.
139 Hening: Virginia Statutes at Large, x, 558.
140 Wharton: Plain Facts, 96 et seq. See also text ff.
141 Alvord: The Mississippi Valley in British Politics, ii,
ch. 7; Cotterill: History of Pioneer Kentucky, 65-66.
142 T. Wharton to Walpole, September 33, 1774, in "Letter
Book of Thomas Wharton," Pennsylvania Magazine of History
and Biography, xxxiii (October, 1909).
143 For ample materials, cf. Thwaites and KeUogg: Doeiir
mentary History of Dunmore's War — 1774-
144 Cf. "The Inauguration of Westward Expansion," News
and Observer (Raleigh, N. C.) July 5, 1914.
145 Letter of Major Pleasant Henderson, in The Harbinger
(Chapel Hill, N. C), 1834.
146 Cf. "The Beginnings of Westward Expansion," North
Carolina Review, September and October, 1910.
147 Draper MSS. I CC 2-9, Wisconsin State Historical So
ciety. 148 Jefferson MSS. 5th Series, v. 8. In MSS. Division, Li
brary of Congress.
149 Draper MSS. 1 CC 3-9.
150 Diary of Morgan Brown in Tennessee Historical Maga
zine. 151 Enclosure 6 in Dunmore to Dartmouth, No. 25, March
14, 1775, Public Record Office, Colonial Office, 5:1353.
152 Worth CaroUna Colonial Records, ix, 1117, 1139-1131.
153 Draper MSS. 4 QQ I.
154 Virginia Historical Magazine, viii, 355. Cf. also Draper
MSS. 2 CC 5.
156 Letters to Washington, MSS. Division, Library of Con
gress. 156 I am indebted to Miss Lucretia Hart Clay for the privi-
358

LIST OF NOTES
lege of examining the extensive collection of Hart and Benton
MSS. in her possession.
157 The voluminous records of the treaty are found in the
Jefferson MSS., voL 5. MSS. Division, Library of Congress.
158 "Narrative of Felix Walker," Original MS. owned by
C. L. Walker.
159 Hulbert: Bo<m^s Road.
180 Original of Henderson's Journal is in Draper MSS., I
CC 31-130 AJD.
161 Hall: Sketches of the West, i, 254^.
162 This quotation is taken from the original manuscript.
The version in De Bow's Review, 1854, is imperfect. For
better printed versions of Walker's two accounts, see Memoirs
of Felix Walker, New Orleans (1877), and Journal of Ameri
can History, i. No. 1 (1907).
163 Original journal of WiUiam Calk, owned by Mrs. Price
Calk. 16* Letters to Washington, MSS. Division, Library of Con
gress. lOi North CaroUna Gazette.
166 Draper MSS., 1 CC 160-194, deposition of Arthur Camp
bell. 187 Draper MSS., I CC 160-194, deposition of Arthur Camp
beU. 168 Draper CoUection, Kentucky MSS., ii. For a contrary
view, cf. P. Henry's deposition, Kentucky MSS., i.
i69PubUshed in Virginia Gazette, March 33, 1775. Cf.
"Forerunners of the RepubUc", Neale's Monthly, January-
June, 1913.
170 Draper MSS., 4 QQ 17.
171 Letters to George Washington, MSS. Division, Library
of Congress.
172 Draper MSS., 1 L 20.
173 Henderson and LuttreU to the Proprietors, July 18, 1775;
printed in Louisville News-Letter, May 9, 1840.
174 Nathaniel Henderson to John Williams, October 5, 1775.
Copy suppUed by heirs of B. J. Lossing.
175 "The Struggle for the Fourteenth American Colony,"
News and Observer (Raleigh, N. C), May 19, I9I8.
359

LIST OF NOTES
176 In connection with Transylvania, consult G. W. Ranck:
Boonesborough: Filson Club Publications, No. 16; F. J. Turner:
"State Making in the Revolutionary Era", American His
torical Review, i; G. H. Alden: "New Governments West
of the Alleghanies before 1780."
177 In a "Proposal for the Sale of its Lands" {Virginia
Gazette, Sept. 30, 1775), the Transylvania Company offered
to any settlers before June 1, 1776, land, limited in amount,
at the rate of flfty shillings sterUng per hundred acres, subject
to an annual quit-rent of two shiUings. Cf. facsimile.
178 Draper MSS., 2 CC 25.
179 These increased rates were voted at a meeting of the
Proprietors of Transylvania at Oxford, N. C, September 25,
1775. American Archives, iv.
ISO Draper MSS., 47 J 1. This memoir has often been
printed. 181 Cf . for example. Mason to Washingtion, March 9, 1776,
in Letters to Washington, MSS. Division, Library of Congress.
182 Letter of date May 19, 1776. Draper MSS., 33 S 292-295.
183 Original in Virginia State Archives.
184 Original in Virginia State Archives. This and the afore
mentioned petition are printed in the Virginia Historical
Magazine, xvi, 157-163. See also J. R. Robertson: Petitions
of the Early Inhabitants of Kentucky, Filson Club PubU-
oations. No. 27.
185 Cf. "Richard Henderson and the Occupation of Ken
tucky, 1775," Mississippi Valley Historical Review, December,
1914. Also A. B. Hulbert; Pilots .of the Republic.
180 Original in North Carolina State Archives. Printed in
Ramsey: Annals of Tennessee (1853), 134-138.
i87Haldimand MSS.
188 Original in Draper MSS. Collections. It has recently been
printed in Colonial Men and Times (1915), by LUlie Du P.
Van C. Harper.
189 Haywood: Civil and Political History of Tennessee,
(1823), Appendix, 500-503.
1^0 Journal Virginia House of Delegates, Nov. 4-17, 1778.
191 Hening; Statutes at Large, ix, 571. Cf. also Starling:
History of Henderson County, Kentucky.
360

LIST OF NOTES
192 Cf. Sioussat: "He Journal of Daniel Smith," Tennessee
Historical Magazine, March, 1915.
193 The original journal is in the archives of the Tennessee
State Historical Society.
194 X. Hart, Jr, to Wilkins TannehiU, April 37, 1839, in
LmutmUe News-Letter, May 23, 1840.
193 The original document is preserved in the archives of
tbe Tennessee Historical Society. It is printed, with a number
of minor maccnracies, in Putnam: Middle Tennessee, 94-102.
196 Acts of Xorth Carolina, 1783, ch. xxxviii. North Carolina
State Records, xxiv, 530-531.
197 For a more extended treatment of the subjects dealt with
in the present chapter, see "Richard Henderson, the Author
ship of the Cumberland C<nnpact, and tbe Founding of
XashvUle," Tennessee Historical Magazme, September, 1916.
198 "Isaac Shelby, Revolutionary Patriot and Border Hero,"
in North Carolina Booklet, xvi. No. 3, 109-144.
i»»Wliile Draper's King's Mountain and its Heroes is most
valuable as a source book, it is very faulty in style and arrange
ment. The account of the battle, in partlcnlar, is deficient in
perspective; and in general no clear line is drawn between tra
ditionary and authentic testimony.
200 F.B. McDoweU: The Battle of King's Mountain (Ral-
ei^i, 1907). Tins account was prepared chiefly from unpub
lished letters from Isaac Shelby to Franklin Brevard.
2»i^ Sketch of the Life and Career of Colonel James D.
WitUams, by Rev. J. D. Bailey (Cowpens, S. C, 1898).
202 A valuable source is the Kind's Mountain Expedition, by
David Vance and Robert Henry, edited by D. L. Schenck
(Greensboro, 1891).
203 Cf. Acts of North CaroUna, 17&4, April Session, Chapters
XI and XIL
204 Sioussat: "The North Carolina Cession of 1784 in its
Federal Aspects," Mississippi VaUey Historical Association
Proceedings, il.
205 Quoted in Alden: "The State of Franklin," American
Historical Review, viii
20« See Charlotte (-V. C.) Observer, September 25, 1904. Also
consult North Carolina State Records, xxii, 664 ff.
361

LIST OF NOTES
207 State Archives of North Carolina.
2oa Pennsylvania Packet, August 9, 1785.
209 State Department MSS., Library of Congress.
210 A single complete draft, in pamphlet form, printed in
1786, is preserved in the archives of the Tennessee Historical
Society. Cf. "The Provisional Constitution of Frankland,"
American Historical Magazine, i.
211 Franklin Papers, vii, folio 1651. MSS. Division, Library
of Congress.
212 FrankUn Papers, viii, foUo 1803. MSS. Division, Library
of Congress.
213 For a more extended treatment of matters dealt with in
this chapter, compare "The Spanish Conspiracy in Tennessee,"
Tennessee Historical Magazine, December, 1917.
214 Gardoqui to Floridablanca, AprU 18, 1788.
215 On April 30th Mir6 wrote to Valdez, in Spain, informing
him of the proposals received through McGiUivray and stat
ing that he had returned conciliatory replies but had refrained
from committing the Spanish Government until the pleasure
of the king should be known.
216 W. W. Henry: Life, Correspondence and Speeches of
Patrick Henry, iii, 409, 412-5.
217 Archives of the Indies, SevUle, Spain.
218 Ramsey: Anmals of Tennessee (1853), 502^.

362

BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTE
For the entire period (1740-1790) covered by
this volume, an exceptionally rich store of mate
rials is to be found in the Colomal Records of North
CaroUna, 1662-1775 (published 1886-1890), and
its continuation, the State Records of North Caro
lina, 1776-1790 (pubhshed 1895-1905), thirty
volumes in all, including the four volumes of index.
The introductions and supplementary matter in
these volumes constitute a survey of the period.
Theodore Roosevelt's The Winning of the West
(1889—1896; various editions), a vigorous and
stirring narrative, over-accentuates the strenuous
life, largely underemphasises economic and govern
mental phases, and is by no means free from error.
For the Scotch-Irish migrations one should read
C. A. Hanna, The Scotch-Irish (2 vols., 1902), a
large collection of original materials, imperfectly
coordinated; and the excellent historical sketch by
H. J. Ford, The Scotch-Irish in America (1905).
For the German migrations, adequate and readable
accounts are A. B. Faust, The German Element in
the United States (2 vols., 1909) ; J. H. Clewell,
History of Wachovia in North Carolina (1902);
J. W. Wayland, The German Element of the

BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTE
Shenandoah Valley of Virginia (1907) ; and G. D.
Bernheim, History of the German Settlements and
of the Lutheran Church in North and South
Carolina (1872).
The best original sources for the life of the people
in this period are: the State Archives of North
Carolina at Raleigh, scientifically ordered and
accessible to collectors; the Lyman C. Draper Col
lection at Madison, Wisconsin; the Reuben T.
Durrett Collection at the University of Chicago;
the State Archives of South Carolina, especially
rich in collections of contemporary newspapers; the
collections of the North Carolina Historical Society
at Chapel Hill; and the Archives of the Moravian
Church, in Pennsylvania and at Winston-Salem,
North Carolina. The State Archives of Virginia,
an unexplored mine of great riches, are as yet in
accessible, properly speaking, to investigators. The
state of Tennessee has not yet made any provision
for the conservation of historical materials; but
the Tennessee Historical Society has preserved
much valuable documentary material.
Books shedding light, from various quarters, upon
the life of the people in this period are: W. H.
Foote, Sketches of North Carolina, Historical and
Biographical (1846; reprinted 1913), dealing almost
exclusively with the Presbyterian Church and the
Scotch-Irish ; J. F. D. Smyth, A Tour in the United
States of America (2 vols., 1784), untrustworthy
as to historical events and partisan as to polities,
364

BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTE
but graphic in description of the people and the
country; WiUiam Bartram, Travels through North
and South Carolina, Georgia, East and West Florida
(1791), delightful in its simplicity and genial tone;
William Byrd, History of the Dividing Lime and
other writings (J. S. Bassett's edition, 1901), of
sprightly style and instinct with literary charm,
pungently satirical, untrustworthy as to North
Carolina; Joseph Doddridge, Notes on the Settle
ment and Indian Wars 4-c. (1824; reprinted 1912),
photographic in its realistic delineation of back
woods conditions ; J. H. Logan, History, of Upper
South Carolina (1859); J. Rumple, Rowan County
(1881 ; reprinted 1916) ; Biographical History of
North Carolina (8 volumes printed, 1905-) ; S.
Dunbar, A History of Travel in America (4 vols.,
1915), first volume; Travels in the American Colo-
vies, 1690-1783 (Edited by N. D. Mereness, 1916) ;
and 0. Taylor, Historic Sullivan (1909).
Many valuable articles, of both local and national
interest, are found in the exceUent periodical pub
lications: tfames Sprunt Historical Monographs
and Publications (16 vols., 1900-), published by
the University of North Carolina; North Carolina
Booklet (18 vols., 1901-), pubUshed by the N. C.
Society, D. A. R. ; Virginia Magazine of History
and Biography (27 vols., 1893-) ; American His
torical Magazine (8 vols., 1896-1903) ; Tennessee
Historical Magazine (4 vols., 1915-) ; Register of
the Kentucky State Historical Society (17 vols.,
365

BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTE
1902-) ; Mississippi Valley Historical Review (6
vols., 1914-). A notable study is F. J. Turner,
The Old West (Wisconsin Historical Society Pro
ceedings, 1908).
There is no adequate account in print of the
French and Indian War, in the Old Southwest.
Useful sources are E. McCrady, South Carolina
under the Royal Government, 1719-1776 (1899);
S. A. Ashe, History of North Carolina, 1584-1783
(1 vol., 1908) ; L. P. Summers, History of South-
West Virginia, 174.6.-1786 (1903); J. P. Hale,
Trans-Alleghany Pioneers (1886) ; J. A. Waddell,
Annals of Augusta County, Virginia (1886); S.
Kercheval, A History of the Valley of Virginia
(third edition, 1902) ; A. S. Withers, Chronicles
of Border Warfare (R. G. Thwaites' edition, 1908) ;
B. R. Carroll, Historical Collections of South
Carolina (2 vols., 1886); E. M. Avery, History of
the United States (7 vols., 1908), fourth volume;
J. G. M. Ramsey, Annals of Tennessee (1853);
Calendar Virginia State Papers (11 vols., 1875-
1893). An interesting biography is A. M. Waddell,
A Colonial Officer and his Times (1890).
The early explorations of the West, and the career
of Boone, are treated with reasonable fullness in
the admirable publications of the Filson Club of
Kentucky (27 vols., 1884- ) ; C. A. Hanna, The
Wilderness Trail (2 vols., 1911); John Haywood,
Civil and Political History of Tennessee (1823;
reprinted 1891), written in delightfully quaint style;
366

BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTE
L. and R. H. CoUins, History of Kentucky (2 vols.,
1882), a mine of conglomerate material; N. M.
Woods, The Woods-McAfee Memorial (1905) ; A. B.
Hulbert, Pilots of the Republic (1905) and Boone's
WUderness Road (1903), attractively written; R. G.
Thwaites, Daniel Boone (1911), a lifeless condensa
tion of Draper's sprawling projected (MS.) biog
raphy; and John Filson, Kentucke (1784).
Of the voluminous mass of literature dealing with
the Regulation in North Carolina, one should read:
J. S. Bassett, The Regulators of North Carolina,
1765—1771 (American Historical Association Re
port, 1894) ; M. DeL. Haywood, Governor Tryon of
North Carolina (1903) ; H. Husband, An Impartial
Relation of the First Rise and Cause of the Present
Differences in Publick Affairs, in the Province of
North Carolina (1770) ; and Archibald Henderson,
The Origin of the Regulation in North Carolina
(American Historical Review, 1916).
In addition to titles already mentioned, the foUow
ing books and monographs give the best accounts
of the Watauga and Cumberland settlements and
of the State of Franklin : A. W. Putnam, History
of Middle Tennessee (1859), a remarkably inter
esting book by a real "character"; J. W. CaldweU,
Constitutional History of Tennessee (second edi
tion, 1907) ; F. ]M. Turner, Life of General John
Sevier (1910), in pedestrian style, reasonably ac
curate for the romantic period only; G. H. Alden,
The State of Franklin (American Historical Review,
367

BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTE
1903) ; S. B. Weeks, Joseph Martin (American His
torical Association Report, 1894) ; Archibald Hen
derson, Isaac Shelby (North Carolina Booklet,
1917—1918). The source book for the Indian war
of 1774 is Documentary History of Dunmore's War
(Edited by R. G. Thwaites and L. P. KeUogg,
1905). For exhaustive data concerning the King's
Mountain campaign and its preliminaries, read L. C.
Draper, King's Mountain and its Heroes (1881),
though the book is lacking in discrimination and
deficient in perspective. For a briefer treatment,
read D. L. Schenck, North Carolina, 1780-1781
(1889). Other books and monographs dealing with the
period, the westward movement, the settlement of
the trans-AUeghany, and the little governments, to
be consulted are : James HaU, Sketches of the West
(2 vols., 1835) and The Romance of Western His
tory (1857) ; Journals of the House of Burgesses
of Virginia for 1766-1769 and 1770-1772 (pub
lished 1906) ; G. H. Alden, New Governments
West of the Alleghanies before 1780 (published
1897); C. W. Alvord, The Mississippi Valley
in British Politics (2 vols., 1917), a notable
work, ably written and embodying an immense
amount of information ; J. T. Morehead, Address at
Boonesborough, May 25, 1840 (published 1840) ;
F. J. Turner, The Significance of the Frontier in
American History (Wisconsin Historical Society
Proceedings, 1894) and Western State-Making in
368

BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTE
the Revolutionary Era (American Historical Re
view, 1895-1896), papers characterised by both
brilliance and depth ; and Archibald Henderson, The
Creative Forces in Westward Expansion (American
Historical Review, 1914), The Occupation of Ken
tucky in 1775 (Mississippi Valley Historical Review,
1914), The Founding of Nashville (Tennessee His
torical Magazine, 1916), and The Spanish Con
spiracy in Tennessee (Tennessee Historical Maga
zine, 1917).
On the subject of Indian tribes and Indian
treaties, the Annual Reports of the Bureau of
Ethnology, in especial numbers 5, 18, and 19, al
though compiled from secondary historical sources
and occasionally erroneous in important matters,
are useful — as is also Bulletin 22 : J. Mooney, Siouan
Tribes of the East (1895). Rare and interesting
works dealing with the Eastern Indian tribes are
H. Timberlake, Memoirs (1765); J. Haywood,
Natural and Aboriginal History of Tennessee
(1823) ; and J. Adair, American Indians (1775).
For both wider and more intensive reading in
the history of this period, consult: F. J. Turner,
List of References on the History of the West
(Edition of 1915) ; A Critical Bibliography of
Kentucky History, in R. M. McElroy, Kentucky in
the Nation's History (1909); S. B. Weeks, A
Bibliography of the Historical Literature of North
Carolina (1895) ; E. G. Swem, A Bibliography of
Virginia (Part I, 1916) ; and the bibliographies in
369

BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTE
J. Phelan, History of Tennessee (1888); E. Mc
Crady, South Carolina under the Royal Government^
1719-1776 (published 1899) and South Carolina
in the Revolution, 1775-1780 (pubUshed 1901) ; and
E. M. Avery, A History of the United States
(1908), volumes 4, 5, and 6.
Note. For the use of a complete set of tran
scripts of the Richard Henderson Papers in the
Draper Collection, I am indebted to the North
Carolina Historical Commission through the cour
tesy of the Secretary, Mr. R. D. W. Connor.

370

INDEX

Abingdon: 134, 191
Adams, John: 350
Adams, Samuel: 341, 250
Ahualco: 144
Alamance: see Battles
Alexander, Abraham: 172
Alexander, James: 37
Alexander, Moses: 27
Alexander, Capt. Nathaniel:
63
Alexander, WiUiam: 27
Alibamu Fort: 65
AUeghany Mountains: 100,
142, 155, 346, 259, 311
AUeman's Ford: 36
Alrichs, Herman: describes
ambuscade of Braddock's
army, 54
Amazons: 367
America: 111, 134, 159, 234,
248, 329; continent of, 198;
history of, 286; emigrati(m
to, 7; people of, 173, 186,
198, 199; democracy in,
XIV-XV, 174; colonies
of, necessity for union, 6S-
66
American: cause, 185; con
gress, 329, 341; confedera
tion, 215, 359, 281; repub-
Uc, 329

American Revolution: 12, 123,
339, 259, 267, 270, 277, 305
American Union: 319, 335,
336, 342, 348, 349; see Union
Americans: 190, 300, 329, 339,
340; pioneers, 283; civiliza
tion of, X, 199; character
of, X, 30-31, 195
Amherst, Gen. Jeffrey: 93
Anderson, Colonel: 308
Anshers, James: 52
Appalachian Mountains: 4, 5,
42, 107, 137, 139, 334, 343
Arkansas: 122
AUantic Ocean: 4
Atta-kuUa-kuUa, Cherokee
chief: 66, 74, 76, 217, 342,
262
Augusta: 79 B
Bacon, Francis: 173
BaUey, Capt. Andrew: leads
sortie from Fort Dobbs, 80-
82
BaUy, Francis: on frontiers
men, XIV
Baker, John: 139
Baker, WUUam: 121
Bainton, Epaphroditus: 130
Balboa: 155
Baptists: 175, 185, 190

371

ESfDEX

Barbour, explorer; 122
Battles; Alamance, 168, 175,
182-183, 186, 189, 219; Great
Kanawha, of the, 203-204,
209, 305; King's Moimtain,
at, ch. XVIII, 289, 337;
Lexington, 244, 277; Long
Island Flats, of, 262-263;
Musgrove's Mill, at, 291
Beaujeu, Captain: 53
Been, John: 196
Been, Mrs. WiUiam: 264
"Belle Riviere": 156; see Ohio
River
Bentham, Jeremy: 246
Benton, Jesse; 222
Benton, Samuel; 170
Benton, Thomas Hart: 170
Bethabara: 38, 56, 75, 85, 161,
162, 166; invested by In
dians, 88
Bethania: 87
BienviUe (Blainville) Celoron
de; 46-47, 98, 116
BieviUe, Jean Baptiste le
Moyne, Sieur de: 43
Big Bone Lick; 116, 156; see
Great Bone Lick
Big Lick; 33
Big Salt Lick; 384; see
French Lick, French Salt
Springs, Great French Lick,
Great Salt Springs
Black Fish, Schawano chief:
adopts Daniel Boone, 374
Bledsoe, Anthony: 194, 337,
333, 339, 340, 341, 343, 344
Bledsoe family; 133
Bledsoe, Isaac: 136; discovers
Uck, 124

Bledsoe's Lick; discovery of,
described, 124-125
Blevens: hunters named,
. 109
Blevens, WUUam: 119
Blount, WilUam; 348
Blowing Rock: 134
Blue Licks: 156
Blue Ridge: 3, 5, 97, 142
Board of Trade: Johnston to,
3; Glen to, 51; draft royal
proclamation, 106
Boiling Sprmg: 243, 253
Bonn, Dr. Jacob: 85
Boone, Anne; 23
Boone, Daniel: 16, 30, 22, 39,
38, 41, 101, 108, 110, 115,
119, 129, 130, Ch. IX, 131,
132, 133, 134, 142, 144, 148,
153, 155, 156, 158, 159, 160,
164, 165, 166, 185, 190, 200,
312, 221, 225, 226, 227, 231,
333, 335, 236, 280, 283; per
sonal appearance, 37; at
Braddock's Defeat, 54-44;
meets Richard Henderson,
105; explores Tennessee for
Henderson & Company, 109;
serves imder WaddeU, 133;
explores Kentucky for
Richard Henderson, ch. X;
clears Transylvania TraU,
226; asks aid of Judge
Henderson, 237-228; returns
to Boonesborough, 253; res
cues daughter, 271; rescued
by Kenton, 372; captured,
373; adopted by Black Fish,
374; deceived by Indians,
274

372

INDEX

Boone family: settles in North
Carolina, 34, 36, 117
Boone, George: 21, 165
Boone, James: 137
Boone, Jemima: captured by
Indians, 371
Boone, Jesse: 137
Boone, Squire: 21, 34, 35, 36,
37, 105
Boone, Squire, Jr.: 29, 142,
156-157; sent by Transyl
vania Company to aid Dan
iel Boone, 153
Boone, WiUiam: 33
Boonesborough: 199, 315, 354,
377; Henderson arrives at,
335; Transylvania conven
tion at, 344-248; Boone re
turns to, 253; capture of
girls at, 270-271; besieged
by Indians, 272, 273, 374-
276; Henderson returns to,
282; corn sent from to
French Lick, 384, 385
Boone's Caves: 157
Boone's Ford: 36
Boston: 8, 180
Botetourt; Governor, of Vir
ginia: 193
Boyd's Creek: 307
Braddock, Gen. Edward: 53,
58, 135, 295; defeat of, de
scribed, 53-65
BrandmiiUer, John: pUgrim-
age of, 14-15
British; 49, 102, 189, 261, 270,
276, 389, 390, 393, 294, 296,
399, 303, 343; Crown, 191,
300
Brobdignags: 154

Brown, Francis: S7
Brovim, Jacob: 194, 324
Brown, the widow; 337
Bryan family: 203
Bryan, James: 22
Bryan, Joseph: 22
Bryan, Martha: 33
Bryan, Morgan; 22, settled in
Pennsylvania, 22, in Vir
ginia, 23; in North Carolina,
16, 34, leads frontier rang
ers, 75-76, 83; in Rowan,
35
Bryan, Morgan, Jr.: 22
Bryan, Rebeckah: 132, 160
Bryan, WiUiam; 33, 33
Bryan's Station; 22
"Buffalo BUI" (W. F. Cody) ;
XV
BuU, Lieut. Gov. WUUam; 88
BuUitt, Capt. Thomas; 304
BuUock, Leonard Henley:
Member Transylvama Com
pany, 318
Bunker's HUl: battie of, 377
Burke, Edmund: on charters,
XI
Burnaby, Andrew; describes
Ufe in backwoods, 33
Byrd, CoL WiUiam, 3rd.; 59,
91, 93, 94, 133, 187, 208,
210, 249
Byrd, WUUam: 36, 45, 98,
130; describes Yadldn re
gion, 35

Calhoun, Patrick: famUy at
tacked, 79; commands Pro-

INDEX

vincial Rangers, 89; rela
tives of, 168
Calk, WilUam: 235; with ex
ploring party from Vir
ginia, 226
CaUaway, Elizabeth: captured
by Indians, 271; rescued,
271
CaUaway, Flanders: 271
Callaway, Frances: capture
by Indians, 371; rescued,
271
CaUaway, CoL Richard; 253;
commands in defence of
Transylvania Fort, 275-276
CaUaway, Samuel; 110
Camden: 292
Camden, Lord Chancellor: 201
Camden-Yorke opinion: 207,
239, 240, 241
Cameron, Alexander: 194, 261
Camp Charlotte: 212
CampbeU, Col. Arthur: inter
ested in Kentucky lands,
208; seeks partnership in
Transylvania Company for
Patrick Henry, 240; leads
force against Cherokees,
307; plans Greater Frank
Un, 323
CampbeU, Colonel WilUam:
leads Virginians, 293;
elected commander King's
Mountain expedition, 294 ;
at King's Mountain, 296,
299, 300
CampbeU, David: 314, 321
CampbeU, John; 263
Campbell, Robert: scalped.

Cape Fear; 63, 75
Captain WiU: 151
Carlisle: 144
Carolina: 116, 118
CaroUnas, the two: 75, 139,
201
Carter, John: 224
Carter's VaUey; 195, 224
Carteret, Lord: lands of, 9
CasweU, Gov. Richard: 57,
318, 322, 340
Catawba Town; 59
Catawba VaUey: 10, 13
Catawbas: 36, 45, 69-62, 61,
65, 70, 71, 72, 96, 118, 146;
towns of, 96; country, 131
Cession Act: 310-311, 326
Charles the Second: 42
Charleston: 32, 33, 38, 66, 68,
88, 94, 161, 167, 289
CharleviUe; Charles: at
French Lick, 44
Charlotte: 289, 294
Cherokees: 15, 28, 49, 59-60,
66, 67, 68, 70, 72, 73, 77, 78,
86, 88, 89, 91, 96, 111, 112,
114, 116, 123, 127, 133, 140,
141, 159, 187, 192, 193, 302,
206, 216, 221, 222, 225, 239,
242, 349, 353, 365, 266, 370,
390, 307, 310, 316, 331, 346;
fort promised to, by South
Carolina, 68; treaty with,
69; himters, 74; attack on
Long Cane settlement, 79;
warriors, 76; defeated, 83,
365; boundary Une, 191;
chiefs, 317, 242, 316; coun
try of, 64
Chickamaugas: 308; towns of.

374

INDEX

283; bloody forage of, 289-
290;queUed,290
Chickasaws: 125, 310, 340
ChUhowee: 307
ChiUicothe: 204
ChisweU's Mine: 112, 191
Choctaws: 46
Christian, CoL WiUiam: mem
ber of company to purchase
Cherokee lands, 239; leads
Virginia forces against
Cherokees, 266
Chronicle, Major WUUam:
kiUed at King's Mountain,
301
Clark, George Rogers: 255,
359, 277; prospecting in
Kentudsy, 306; opinion of
Transylvania title, 248;
Memoir of, cited as to Hen
derson Claim, 255-256;
threatens Virginia with re
volt in Kentucky, 257; vis
ited by James Robertson,
281
Clark, Jonathan: 248
Cleveland, CoL Benjamin:
296; explores West, "123;
leads pioneers against In
dians, 267; leads WUkes
volunteers at King's Moim
tain, 393; addresses troops
at King's Mountain, 297,
301
"Cleveland's BuUdogs": 293,
301
CUnch VaUey: 203
Cocke, WUUam: 231, 263, 321;
delegate from Franklin to
Continental Congress, 318;

appeals to Benjamin Frank
Un, 324
Coldwater Expedition: 340
Columbus, Christopher: 144,
234
Committee of Safety; 269
Concord; 236
Conewagoes; 118
Connolly, Dr. John: 206, 208,
209, 310, 239
Constitution: rejected by
North Carolina, 336, 336
Continent, European: 4
Continental Congress: 249,
250, 257, 261, 276, 318, 319,
324, 329
Cooley, WiUiam : explores
Kentucky, 149, 153
Cooper, James Fenimore: 86,
271
Corbin, Francis: 169
Cornstalk, Shawanoe chief:
304; leads Indians at the
Great Kanawha, 213-214
Corn Tassel, Indian Chief:
337
CornwaUis, Lord Charles: 289,
291, 293, 294, 296, 304
Cortez, Hernando: 144
Counties: Albemarle, 99; An
son, 16, 19, 32, 162, 167, 185;
Armagh, 22; Augusta, 65,
198; Berks, 34; Botetourt,
204; Brunswick, 188; Bucks,
8, 32, 34; Burke, 293; Ches
ter, 22-23; Culpeper, 138;
Davidson, 343; Fincastle,
220; Floyd, 142; Frederick,
65; GranviUe, 160, 169, 170,
179, 181, 218, 291; Greene.

375

IN^EX

313, 326; Guilford, 203;
Hampshire, 65 ; Hanover,
108; Jessamine, 157; Ken
tucky, 258; Lincoln, 126,
234, 298; Mecklenburg, 27,
30, 171, 300, 345; Miller,
205; Orange, North Caro
Una, 19, 35-26, 169, 177, 189;
Orange, Virginia, 113, 132;
Philadelphia, 34; Prince
WiUiam, 226; Roanoke, 33;
Rowan, 19, 34^ 56, 147, 177,
232, 294, 298; Rutherford,
393; Shenandoah, 198; SulU-
van, 291, 308, 312, 328;
Sumner, 124, 343; Surry, 40,
166, 293, 298, 303; Tennes
see, 343; Washmgton, 132,
277, 393, 313, 319, 336, 337;
Wayne, 134; WiUies, 393;
York, Pennsylvania, 62,
59; York, South Carolina,
295
Couture, Jean: 44
Cowpens: 294
Cox, Charles: 119
Coytomore, Lieut.: murdered
by Indians, 80
Craighead, Rev. Alexander:
30
Crawford, WUliam: Washing
ton to, on Western lands,
106, 108
Creeks: 308, 310, 339, 340, 341,
342, 346
Cbeeks: Bean Island, 85;
Bear, 131; Beaver, 194;
Bledsoe's, 128; Crooked,
213; Cross, 318; Dutch
man's, 133; EUr, 137; Fish,

376

205; Fourth, 57, 58; Line,
71; LinviUe, 34; Lulbegrud,
119, 154; Otter, 228, 229,
236; Sinking, 328, 336;
Sugar Tree, 132; Sugaw,
69; Swearing, 135; Station
Camp, 124, 160; Third, 57;
Walden's, 120
Cresap, Col. Thomas; 101
Crockett, Robert; 125
Croghan, George: 46, 120
Cross Creek (FayetteviUe) :
218
Crozat, Antoine: 43, 44
CuUodan: 100
Cumberland; Colony, 200, 341,
342, 343; leaders, 341; de
sire aUiance with Spain, 343,
346; traders, 330; settle
ments, 283, 288, 309, 310,
330, 340, 345, 346; settiers,
328, 342; desire separation
from North Carolina, 343;
vaUey, 280; region, ch.
XVII, 280, 345, 347
Cumberland: outlaw, 165
"Cumberland Compact":
drafted by Richard Hen
derson, 285-286
Cumberland District: 331, 339,
341
Cumberland, Duke of: 100
Cumberland Gap: names, 100,
115; traversed by traders,
118, 119, 121, 123, 124, 126,
145, 158, 229; see Onasioto
Ga'p
Cumberland Mountains: 100,
113, 138, 333
Cutbird, Benjamin: 139

INDEX

Darien: 144
Dark and Bloody Ground:
126; origin of name, 223-
224
Dartmouth, Earl of: 208, 309,
338
Dean Swift: 154
Declaration of Independence:
258; read at Boonesborough,
272
Delaware: 8; vaUey, 8
Demere, Capt Raymond; 76;
takes command of Virginia
Fort, 66; surrenders Fort
Laudown, 90-91
De Peyster: 298, 299, 301
De Soto, Fernando: XII
Detroit: 373
Devonshire, East: 21
Dick, Captain: Cherokee
hunter, 136
Dinwiddle, Gov. Robert: 50,
S3, 65, 58, 65, 67, 70, 73
Dividing Line: running of the
North Carolina-Virginia,
269; WiUiam Byrd's His-
tory of the, 35
Doak, Rev. Samuel: 293
Dobbs, Gov. Arthur: 55, 73,
77, 92, 93, 169; sends com
missioner to treat with In
dians, 69; begins erection of
Catawba Fort, 62, 70; or
ders building discontinued,
71
Dobbs, Edwards Brice: 54
Doddridge, Joseph; on condi
tions of pioneer Ufe, 126 377

Donelson, CoL John: 194, 206,
222, 288; runs boundary
line, 193; meets Richard
Henderson, 269 ; leads party
by water route to French
Lick, 282; diary of, quoted,
269, 283-384
Donelson's line; 194, 22i, 239,
343
Dragging Canoe, the Cherokee
chief; 323, 290; leads In
dians in battie, 262-263
Drake, Enoch: 235
Drake, Joseph: 135
Dunmore, John Murray, Earl
of: 196, 198, 199, 200, 204,
306, 210, 311, 330, 338, 339,
340, 341, 342, 348, 349,
354
Dunmore's War: ch. XIII,
196, 214
Dugger, JuUus Caesar: Ten
nessee pioneer, 137, 187
Dutch, Pennsylvania; 12, 303
Dutchman's Creek Church:
185 E
East India Company: 301
Eaton's Station; defence of,
363
Echota: 64, 66, 307
Edwards, Rev. Morgan; on
exodus of Regulators for
North Carolina, 175
Emery, WiU: 127
England: land-mad, XI; 4, 21,
43, 201, 247
English: 67, 120, 274; settlers.

INDEX

6, 96; Revolution, 6; parlia
ment, 7; colonies, 13; troops,
66; settlements, 46
Es-Kippa-Ki-Thi-Ki: 117, 150
Etchowee; 89

Fagot: 343
FaUs of the Ohio River
(LouisviUe) ; 355, 284
Fanning, Col. Edmund: 22,
172, 173, 176, 177, 180, 182
Fauquier, Gov. Francis: 94
FayetteviUe: 218
Ferguson, CoL Patrick: 291,
292,- 296, 296, 297, 298, 299,
300; conduct at King's
Mountain, 302; kiUed, 303
Few, WilUam: describes life
in backwoods, 25
Fields, Jeremiah: 180, 181
FUson, John; 117, 147
Fincastle, Committee of West:
drafts protest against Tran
sylvania Company, 257, 358
Findlay, Findley, Finley;
Archibald, 33; Michael, 33
Findlay, John: visits Ken
tucky, 117-118; meets
Boone, 144; visits Boone on
the Yadkin, 23, 101, 138,
148, 149, 150, 153
Fish, WiUiam: murdered by
Indians, 84
Fleming, CoL WiUiam: 308
Florida: 138; East, 133, 138;
West, 122
Floyd, John: 312, 243, 364;
appointed Surveyor General
of Transylvania, 355

378

Fontaine, John; journal of, 97
Fontainebleau: 313
Forbes, Gen. John: 73, 74, 133
Forks of Ohio River; 47
FoETS: Bethabara, at, 75;
Boone's, 336, 370; chain of,
83; CaroUna, 76, 84^85; Ca
tawba, 63, 70, 71; Cumber
land, S3; Dobbs, 55, 57-58,
75, 80-82, 84, 87; Duquesne,
47, 72-73, 74; Dutch, 57, 83,
86; — at mouth of Line
Creek, 71; Loudoun, 68, 76,
88-90; McDoweU's, 365, 370;
Necessity, 48; Ninety-Six,
89; Patrick Henry, 269,
382-283; Pitt, 121, 209;
Prince George, 51-52, 79-80,
91, 93, 94; Robinson, 94;
Stalnaker's, 83, 94; Stanwix,
treaty of. 111, 112, 191,
207;— on TeUico River, 68;
Transylvania, 216, 243, 244,
245, 253, 270, 272, 274, 276,
282; Vaux's, 66, 69; Vir
ginia, 64, 67, 68, 69; Wa
tauga, 263
Fowey: 254
France: 43, 78, 96, 99
Frankland; 318, 331, 339; ori
gin of name, 314, 321
Franklin: 89
FrankUn, Benjamin: 8, 107,
184, 185; new state named
for, 314, 324; to Cocke, 324;
to Sevier, 324-325
Franklin, State of: 200, ch.
XIX, 315, 317, 318, 323, 325,
326, 328, 329, 334, 335, 336,
337, 338, 344, 347, 348;—

INDEX

leaders of, 326, 330;— legis
lature of, 312, 313-314, 316,
318; — Greater, 323; origin
of name, 314, 334
Freeland's Station; 309
French; 45, 47, 48, 49, 66, 66,
70, 97, 116, 274; coureurs
de bois, 44; Huguenot, 198;
voyageurs, 123, 128; — Cana
dian, 374; immigration of,
6; settlers, 38; traders, 44;
explorations, 46
French Lick: 281; treaty of
peace at, 369. See French
Salt Springs, Great French
Lick, Great Salt Springs
French and Indian War: 52,
102, 144, 145
Frohock, John; 172, 177
Frohock, Thomas; 172, 177
Frontier; VII

G
Galaspy, WiUiam; 234
GaUssoni^re, Roland Michel
Barrin, Marquis de la: 47
Gammern: storekeeper on
Yadkin, 161
Gardoqui, Diego de: 327, 329,
330, 331, 333, 333, 334, 335,
338, 339
Gee, Joshua: 98
George I: 97
George III: 93, 214
Georgia: 116, 133, 366, 368,
391, 313; — ^Assembly of,
344; tours into, 14
German: pioneers, 11-18,

— Palatinate, 11; immigra
tion, 6, 11-12, 19
Gilbert Town: 292
GiUespie, Robert: slain from
ambush by Indians, 87
Gist, Christopher: 46, 108, 114,
116, 117, 137, 146; makes
exploration for Ohio Com
pany, 101-102
Gist, Nathaniel: 134, 137
Glen, Governor James: 68-69,
66; describes South Caro-
Una's condition, 50-51 ;
promises Cherokees a fort,
51; concludes treaty at Sa
luda, 61
GlumdeUck: 154
Gnadenhutten: 56
Gordon, Capt. Harry: 130
Grandfather Mountain: 135
Grant, CoL James: 138; leads
expedition against Indians,
93
GranviUe, Edward, Earl of
Clarendon, Lord: 15; lands
of, 9-10, 34, 171
Great Bone Licks: 120
Great Britain: 48, 247
Great French Lick: 280. See
Great Salt Springs, French
Lick, French Salt Springs
Great Grant: 224
Greathouse, Darmel: 211
Great Meadows: 48, 63
Great Mogul: 201
Great TeUico: 66
Great Trading Path: 35, 45,
96, 131
Great Treaty: 249
Great Salt Springs: 44, 269.

379

INDEX

See French Lick, French
BaU Springs, Great French
Lick
Great Warrior's Path: 118,
119
Green: 62
Greeneville: 319
Greer, Andrew: 187
Grube, Rev. Bernhard Adam:
heads settlers into North
CaroUna, 16
Gulf of Mexico: 42, 44, 341
"GuUiver's Travels": 154
Gutry, John: 62H
Hackett: 341
Hall, Gen. WiUiam: 116, 128
HaU, Rev. James: 267
Hambright, Lt. CoL Freder
ick; at King's Mountain,
296, 302
Hamilton, Gov. Henry: 273,
274, 276 -
Hampton, Anthony: leads
Rowan rangers, 83
Hampton, CoL Andrew; leads
Rutherford riflemen, 293
Hampton, Gen. Wade; 83
Hancock, John: 241
Hanks: family, 23, 34; — Abra
ham, 23, 235
Hard Labor: treaty at, 112,
114
Harman, outlaw; 165
Harris, CoL: 76
Harris: Elizabeth, 144; John,
145
Harris's Ferry: 145

380

Harrisburg: 145
Harrison, Richard; 255
Harrod, James: 121, 205, 212,
243, 244, 253
Harrodsburg: 253; election
held at, 257
Harrodsburg Remonstrance:
266
Hart; David, 187, 218;_Na-
thanicL 108, 187, 217, 218,
332, 327, 284;— Thomas, 108,
187, 218, 222
Hartman, George: 38
Hawkins, Benjamin: 268
Hayes: 347
Haywood, John: 314
HempinstaU, Abraham: 123
Henderson, Kentucky: 279
Henderson, CoL Samuel:
chosen special envoy to
Franklin, 316-316; negoti
ates with John Sevier, 316-
318
Henderson, Nathaniel: 232,
233, 255
Henderson, Richard; born in
Virginia, 104; removes to
North Carolina, 104; ac
quainted with Boones, 105;
promotes Western explora
tion, 110; in law suits in
volving Boone, 147; pro
motes Western exploration
under Boone's leadership,
148-149; sends suppUes to
Boone, 153; court broken
up by Regulators, 179-181;
burned out by Regulators,
182; secures from English
authorities sanction for pur-

INDEX

chase of Indian lands, 201-
202; reorganizes Richard
Henderson & Co. into
Louisa Company, 217; visits
Otari towns, 217-218; or
ganizes Transylvania Com
pany, 318-319; negotiates
Great Treaty with Chero
kees, 331-335; despatches
Boone to clean Transylva
nia TraiL 325-226; receives
urgent appeal from Boone,
237-339; hastens to Boone's
rescue, 339-332; reaches
Fort Boone, 236; draws up
plan of government for
TrMisylvania, 343-344; ad
dresses Legislature of Tran
sylvania, 337, 345; elected
delegate from Transylvania
to Continental Congress,
249; prepares plan of gov
ernment for PoweU's VaUey
settiement, 353 ; attends
Virginia Convention, 356-
257; purchases com for
Cumberland settiement, 269
runs North Carolina- Vir
ginia dividing line, 269, 282
presents memorial on Tran
sylvania purchase, 278
plans colonization of Cum
berland region, 279-280
despatches Robertson on
prospecting tour, 280-281
sends corn to French Lick,
284--285; organizes govern
ment on Cumberland, 285
author of "Cumberland
Compact," 286-287; intro

duces recaU of judges, 286-
287; founder of NashviUe;
personal appearance, 221-
222; diary of, quoted, 227,
229; mentioned, 158, 159,
183, 187, 190, 200, 203, 215,
ch. XIV passim., 216, 220,
234, 235, 238, 240, 241, 242,
246, 247, 248, 253, 258, 373,
383, 315
Henderson, Richard & Com
pany: organized, 107; des
patch Boone on Western
exploration, 109, 160, 316-
317; granted 200,000 acres
by Virginia; see La-nd
Companies
Henderson, Samuel: 104
Henderson & Company; 109;
see Richard Henderson ^
Company
Henley, Chief Justice Peter:
60
Henry, Patrick: 209, 311, 349,
293, 329; pronounces Cam
den-Yorke decision vaUd,
210; endeavors to purchase
lands from Cherokees, 239-
340 ; desires to become part
ner in Transylvania Com
pany, 240; considers Tran
sylvania title good, 266;
confiscates Transylvania,
258 ; correspondence of,
with Joseph Martin, SH-
346
Hewatt, Rev. Alexander: 78
Heydt, Jost: settles in Vir
ginia, 13
Heygler, King, Catawba chief:

381

INDEX

petitions for fort, 60; pre
vents completion of fort,
71; see Oroloswa
Hiawassee: 307
Hicks, Harry: heroic defence
of home against Indian at
tack, 86-86
High Shoals: '29
Highlanders: 90
HiU, WiUiam; 138, 142, 143
Hillsborough: 26, 103, 179,
188, 217, 218, 219
HiUsborough, Earl of: 96
Hingham: 33
Hogg, James; 251; partner
in Transylvania Company,
218; appointed delegate
from Transylvania to Con
tinental Congress, 250
Holder, John: rescues sweet
heart, 271
Holden, Joseph: 149, 163
HoUows, the: 166
Holston: region, 99, 126; set
tlement, 381 ;— settlers, 362;
vaUey of, 134, 187, 191-193,
306
Honeycut; 189
Hooper, WiUiam: 180, 182
Hopewell: 310
Horton, Joshua: 121
Houston, Rev. Samuel: 321,
323; drafts constitution for
Frankland, 319; features of
constitution drafted by,
321-322
Howard, Cornelius: 165, 166
HoweU, Rednup: poet-laure
ate of the Regulation, 173,
179

Hubbardt, CoL James: 316
Hudson VaUey: 4
Hunter, James; 179
Hunter's TraU: ISO
Husband, Herman: author of
"Impartial Relation," 177,
178, 197; leader in insur
rection at HUlsborough,
179; in correspondence with
Benjamin FrankUn, 184

I

Iberville, Le Moyne d'; 42-43
IlUnois Company: see Land
Companies
Illinois country: 120, 128, 281
"Impartial Relation": 177, 197
Indian: agent, 281; — AUies,
72; chiefs, 211, 217, 274,
337;— depredations, 66, 163,
308, 340;— expeditions, 313;
governments, 201 ; Grant,
202; hostages, 80; — lands,
161, 308;— outbreak, 74,
262; — princes, 201; — terri
tories, 200;— towns, 76, 89,
93, 117, 290, 307, 308;—
trade, 44-46, 145; — traders,
144, 145, 217, 225;— trails,
119, 139;— tribes, 45, 201,
261 ; — war, 335 ; — warfare,
133, 395-296, 297;— affairs,
superintendent of, 111
Indians: 44, 46, 49, 57, 58-63,
68, 69, 74, 75, 86, 86, 87, 88,
112, 119, 122, 135, 127, 140,
151, 152, 156, 162, 196, 197,
200, 204, 205, 207, 209, 211,
213, 214, 215, 217, 218, 221,

382

INDEX

222, 223, 227, 228, 239, 340,
343, 249, 252, 263, 261, 262,
263, 266, 267, 268, 370, 373,
375, 376, 283, 288, 290, 297,
306, 307, 308, 311, 332, 339,
340, 345;— Northern, 49,
111, 141, 191;— Southern,
35, 191, 261
Indiana: 123
Ingles: John, 69; — Mrs. Mary,
69; — WiUiam, 69; — Mrs.
WUUam, 69
Innes, Col. James: S3
Ireland, 7, 22, 33; character
of inhabitants of North of,
6-7
Irish: immigration of, 5; —
Pennsylvania, 33; settlers,
28
Iroquois: 117

Jack, Col. Samuel: 265
Jackson, Andrew; 282
Jacobite uprising: 7
Jamestown; 6
Jay, John; 329-330
Jefferson, Thomas; desires to
join Transylvania Company,
240 ; favors free government
back of Virginia, 250-251;
attitude of, toward Transyl
vania claim, 256
Jenkins, Leoline: on charac
ter of Scotch-Irish, 6
Johnson, Sir WiUiam: 112
Johnston, Gov. Gabriel: on im
migration into North Caro
Una, 3

Johnston, Gov. Samuel: 333,
336, 338, 339; to Robertson
and Bledsoe, 327
Johnston, William; 317
Jones, John Gabriel: 257
Jones, Robert {Robin): 169;
characterization of Scotch-
Irish by, 24-25
Jonesborough: 292, 312, 313,
316, 337
Joseph, MiUer; describes con
ditions of North Carolina
backwoods, 36, 38
Judge's Friend, Cherokee
chief: 242

K
Kenedy, WilUam; agent for
Virginia gentlemen to pur
chase Cherokee lands, 240
Kenton, Simon: rescues Dan
iel Boone, 273
Kentucky (Cantucky, Can
tuckey, Cantuckie, Can
tuck); XV, 22, 100, 101,
102, 107, 111, 112, 116, 119,
120, 131, 122, 123, 124, 129,
137, 139, 140, 143, 143, 145,
146, 148, 149, 150, 153, 155,
156, 191, 196, 200, 203, 204,
205, 221, 223, 234, 237, 229,
231, 233, 234, 235, 266, 259,
269, 270, 273, 276, 277, 279,
315, 327, 335, 341, 342, 348,
349; origin of name, 117; —
road, 333
Keowee; 51; — valley of, 89
King's Mountain; 295, 303

383

INDEX

King's Mountain campaign;
306, 348
Kipling, Rudy ard: 137
Kirk; 337
Kirtleys, the; pioneers, 113
Knob Lick: 126

Lacey, CoL WilUam: 293, 296
Land; policy of seUing large
tracts of, 113
Land Companies : lUinois,
207-208, 339; Louisa, 317,
318; LoyaL 47, 99-100, 113;
Ohio, 47; organized, 100;
sends out exploring expe
dition, 101-102; Richard
Henderson & Company, or
ganized, 107 ; Transylvania
Company, 114, 218; Wabash
(Ouabache), 209, 238-239
Land of Cockayne: 44
La SaUe, Robert CaveUer de:
42
Laurel Mountain: 119
"Leatherstocking Tales": 85,
271
Leestown: 248
Lewes: 8
Lenoir (Le Noir), Gen. Wil
liam: describes costume of
pioneer women, 40-41 ;
marches against Indians; at
King's Mountain, 301-302
L^ry, Chaussegros de: 116
Lewis, Major Andrew: 66-67,
81, 191, 208; erects Virginia
Fort, 64-65; leads Sandy
River expedition, 70; com

mands at Battle of Great
Kanawha, 212, 214-215
Lexington: 236
Lincoln: family, 34; — Abra
ham, 23, 34, 235; John, 34;
—Mordecai, 22-23, 34; Sam
ueL 22;— Sarah, 23
Lindsay, Isaac, 121
LinvlUe: John, 140, 142; Capt.
WiUiam, 137, 140, 142
LinviUe Falls; 136, 141
Lockaber: 192, 193
Locke, John: "Fundamental
Constitutions" of, 202
Loesch, Brother: 76
Logan, Cayuga Mingo chief;
211
Logan, CoL Benjamin; 234,
277
Logan, James: on character
of squatters, 8-9
London: 202
Loudoun, Lord: 68
Long Cane Settlement: 79
Long Hunters: XII, ch. VIII,
126, 128, 129, 157, 168, 204
Long Island ^ of Holston
River: 94, 194, 195, 226, 266,
278, 308
Long, John: slain by Indians,
87
Long Knives: 213
Longueuil, Charles de Moyne,
Baron de: 116
Lorbulgrud: 154
Louis Quatorze: 43
Louisa Company: see Land
Companies
Louisiana: 292, 331
Love, CoL; 266

384

INDEX

Lower Blue Licks: 101
Lower Salt Spring: 273
Lower Shavraee Town; 101
Lowry, James: 118
Loyal Company: see Land
Companies
LoyaUsts: 190, 361, 291, 298,
299
Lucas, Robert; 224
Luhny, Robert, mill of, on
James River, 16
LuttreU, Col. John: 227; joins
Transylvania Company, 217
Lyttelton, Gov. WiUiam
Henry: 66-66, 71, 77, 78, 88

M
Madison, Thomas; 263
Madrid; 341, 342
Mansfield, Low: 201
Mansker, Gasper, pioneer:
123, 282 ; discovers Uck, 134 ;
encounters Boone, 157-158
Mansker's Lick: 110, 134
Margry, Pierre: 43
Martin, Gov. Alexander: 183,
312, 315, 316, 323; attorney
for Daniel Boone, 148; ap
points Samuel Henderson
ambassador to FrankUn,
315 ; issues manifesto
against State of Franklin,
306, 318; Sevier to, on
FrankUn, 317-318; academy
named for, 318
Martin, CoL Joseph: 160, 337,
262, 290, 306, 307, 313, 323,
335; settles in PoweU's Val

ley, 113; driven out, 114:
appointed agent for Tran
sylvania Company, 202 ;
Richard Henderson to, 252-
253; letter of, to Governor
Randolph, 326 ; exonerated
of treason by North Caro
Una Assembly, 344; acts as
spy on Spaniards, 344-345
Martin, Gov. Josiah: 103, 200;
issues proclamation against
Transylvania Company, 238
Martin's Station: 236, 229;
foimded, 220-221; Hender
son draws up plan of gov
ernment for, 262; brave de
fence of, against Indians,
353
Maryland: 5, 14, 34, 101, 114;
price of lands in, 9
Mason, George: opposed tp
Transylvania claim, 356
MaxweU, Col. George: 328, 332
McAden, Rev. Hugh; diary
of, 27-28, 49, 69
McAfees: 243; exploring
party, 204; return home,
235; — James, 236; — Robert,
236; Robert, Jr., 236; Sam
ueL 235; William, 235
McBride, James: 117
McCuUoch, Major John: 122
McCuUoh, Henry Eustace;
172
McDoweU, CoL; 265
McDoweU, Col. Charles; 291,
293, 337
McDoweU, CoL Joseph: 293,
296, 298, 337
McDoweU, Thomas: 328

385

INDEX

McFeters, Jeremiah: 228
McGilUvray, Alexander: 339,
342, 344, 346; receives over
tures from Cumberland
leaders, 341
Mendenhall: John, 303;—
Richard, 203
Middle Ground: 111
Middle Settlements: 93
Middleton, Col. Thomas: 93
Middle Towns: 89
Middle West: 117
MiUerstpwn: 198
Miro, District of: 343, 346
Mir6, Gov. Estevan: 331, 335,
338, 339, 341, 342, 343, 344,
346; reports on separatist
movement in West, 342
Mississippi Bubble: 43
Mohawk VaUey: 4
Monbrenn, Timothy de: hunts
on Cumberland, 128
Monongahela: 205
Montagu, Lord Charles: 168-
169
Montgomerie, Col. Archibald:
abortive campaign of,
against Indians, 88-89 ;
sails, 92
Montreal; 118
Mooney, James: explores
Kentucky, 149, 153
Moore: 62
Moravian: church, 1, 3, 88-
89, 166; — community diary,
88;— brotherhood, 15-16; —
town„ 56; Gemein Haus,
1 87; — store-keeper, 161
Moravians; 166; eleven killed,
66; warned against Indians, 386

86; hospitable to Indians,
86
Morgan family: 34; — Edward,
21; Sarah, 21, 34;— Richard,
34
Morganton; 337, 338
Morris, Gov. Samuel: 54
Morrison: 337
Mount MitcheU: 135
Mulberry Fields: 16, 163
MUUer, Adam: settles in Vir
ginia, 12
Murray, WiUiam: 207, 208,
238, 239 N
Nantahala Mountains: 367
Nash, Gen. Francis: 177, 288
Nashborough: 309
NashviUe: 282, 342, 345
Nassau HaU: 27, 267
Natchez: 123, 125, 330
Neely, Alexander: 153, 154
Neilson, Archibald: 219
Nelson, Acting Governor Wil
liam: 96, 188
Newcastle: 8
New England: 4, 86
New Jersey: 5
"Newlanders": 11
Newman, hunter: 119
Newman's Ridge; 119
New Orleans: 133, 343, 345
New River: region, 133, 126;
— settlemenl^ 69; — settlers,
70
"NoUchucky Jack of the Bor
der": 333
NoUchucky: VaUey, 334

INDEX

North America; 120, 202
North Carolina; XV, 5, 10,
13, 14, 15, 43, 52, 66, 69, 71,
73, 84, 99, 101, 107, 116, 130,
134, 136, 140, 160, 162, 163,
167, 174, 175, 176, 186, 187,
188, 191, 192, 193, 194, 197,
200, 203, 218, 219, 220, 331,
222, 237, 238, 245, 259, 260,
361, 266, 369, 377, 378, 379,
380, 281, 282, 288, 289, 290,
291, 296, 304, 305, 307, 310,
311, 312, 313, 317, 319, 322,
333, 334, 336, 336, 328, 330,
333, 335, 339, 343, 344, 345,
346, 347; frontier conditions
In, 25-28;— border, 76;—
back country, S56I; grants
lands in Tennessee to Tran
sylvania Company, 387; im
migration into, 10, 13; in
crease in population of, 3,
II; — piedmont, 9, 36; —
hunters, 141; pioneers, 96;
governor of, 60; commis
sioners of, 310; troops, 53,
73, 77, 89, 93, 94, 366, 373;
cedes Western territory to
United States, 347; legisla
ture .of, passes second ces
sion act, 347; — lands ac
cepted by Congress, 348
North CaroUna Assembly; 67-
58, 61, 93, 93, 377, 313, 314,
338, 343
North CaroUna: Provincial
Congress of, 269, 277; Pro
vincial Council of, 260, 266,
266
Northwest; 269, 261, 370, 377

Nottaway Indians: 72
Nuntewees: 65 O
Oconostota, Cherokee chief;
242; treacherously murders
Lieut. Coytomore, 79-80
Ohio Company; see La-nd
Companies
Ohio Indians: 46
Ohio VaUey; 102, 145
Old Abraham: 263
Old ChiUicothe: 313
Old Southwest: 104, 136, 195,
198, 313, 336, 260, 265, 305,
309, 348; pioneers of, XV,
6, 12, 14, 17, 28-31; pioneer
democracy of, 20-21, 103-
104 ; — planter aristocracy
of, 20; — Mimic republics of,
200;— colonizers of, 20
Ormond, Duke of: to Leoline
Jenkins, 6
Oroloswa, Catawba Chief: 71,
see King Heygler
Osborne, Captain Alexander:
leads Rowan militia, 62
Otari towns: 217
Ouasioto Gap; 118, 145, 146,
150; see Cumberland Gap
Outassltus, Cherokee chief; 91
Overton, Samuel: 239
Owen, WilUam: 163, 164, 165
Oxford: 249

Pacific Ocean; 144
Page, John: 339

387

INDEX

Paintsville; 100
Paris; 43
Path Deed: 224
Paxtong: 145
Pearis, Capt. Richard: 70
Peck, John M.: 148
Penn, WiUiam: 8, 21, 22
Pennsylvania: 5, 10, 13, 27,
33, 45, 54, 99, 118, 144, 209,
277; population of, 8; lands,
9; immigrants into, 13; —
Synod, 13;— settlers, 146;—
Proprietaries of. 111; —
traders, 146, 207
Pensacola; 138, 139
Perkins, John: defeats In
dians by strategy, 83-84
Phifer, Martin; leads frontier
rangers, 83
Philadelphia: 8, 32, 123, 185,
249, 260
Pilot Knob: 102, 118, 119
Pilot Mountain: 135
Piomingo, Chickasaw chief;
125
Pioneer: farmer, IX; pro
moter, XI
Pittsburgh: 122
"Pocahontas of the West":
262; see Nancy Ward
Point Pleasant: 213
Polk, Thomas: 172
Ponce de Leon: XII
Portwood, age: 232
Post St. Vincent: 281
Pound Gap: 103
Powell's Mountain: 334
PoweU's VaUey: 113, 114, 149,
303, 324, 252; lands in,
granted to Transylvania

Company, 287-288
Presbyterians: in Ireland, 7;
—Scotch-Irish, 27
Preston, CoL WiUiam: 308,
312, 240; to Lord Dunmore
on Henderson's offers of
land, 220; to George Wash
ington on Transylvania,
237-238, 243-343;— supports
Judge Henderson, 364
Price, Thomas, Indian trader;
guides Henderson at Hart
to Otari towns, 317; testi
fies regarding Great Treaty,
326
Price's Meadow; 124
Privy CouncU: 206
"Proposals for the encourage
ment of settling the lands,
etc.": issued by Transylva
nia Company, 219, 330
Puritan: 86 Q
Quaker Meadows: 394
Quakers: 20-21
Quebec: 212
Quindre, Dagniaux de; com
mands at siege of Transyl
vania Fort, 374r-276R
Rains, John: 123
Randolph, CoL Peter; treaty
commissioner, 69
Recall of Judges; early ex
ample, 286-287
Red Lick Fork: 150

388

INDEX

Regulation; 167, 173, 174, 175,
176, 182, 193
Regulators: ch. XI, 166, 167,
168, 175, 176, 177, 179, 180,
181, 183, 185, 190
Reid, Capt. Mayne: 383
Revere, Paul: 331
Richard Henderson & Com
pany; 119, 139, 138; organ
ized, 107; despatch Boone
on exploring expedition,
109; granted land by Vir
ginia, 379. See Land Com
panies
Richter; 166
RiVEBs: Big Sandy, west fork
of, 143; Broad, 59, 389; Ca
tawba, 63, 70, 83, 84;—
South fork of, 398; Chatta
hoochee, 366; Cherokee, 111,
131; Clinch, 142; Cumber
land, 44, 109, 114, 119, 121,
128, 157, 223, 224, 269, 284,
288, 308; Dick's, 126, 156;
Great Kanawha, 107, 112,
191, 193, 193; Guen, 151, 157,
188, 379, 394; Hiwassee, 333;
Holston, 143, 192, 194, 196,
234, 383; lUinois, 307;
James, 16, 96-97; Kentucky,
156, 159, 312, 236, 242, 248,
253, 284; Licking, 156; Lit
tle Tennessee, 65, 307;
Louisa, 149, 193; Meho, 163;
Miami, 102; Mississippi, 42,
102, 139, 155, 259, 329, 330,
343; Muskingum, 102; New,
324; Nonachunbreh, NoU-
chuetry, 194, 197; Ohio, 42,
44, 45, 100, 107, 116, 117,

121, 122, 142, 151, 156, 191,
193, 193, 307, 313, 379;—
faUs of the, 255, 284;— forks
of the, 47; Opeckon, 12
Pacolet, 76; Potomac, 122
Red, 119, 153, 164; Reedy,
113, 191; Roanoke, 69
Rockcastle, 100, 155; Scioto,
102; Shenandoah, 17
Stone's, 121 ; Swannanoa,
136; TeUico, 68; Tennessee,
44, 58, 121, 191, 283, 290
Trinity, 42; Tugaloo, 266
Twelve MUe, 89; Wabash,
123; Washita, 122; Wa
tauga, 197, 219, 231, 224, 393
Robertson, Charles: 334
Robertson, James: 188, 189,
190, 196, 197, 300, 322, 260,
263, 287, 309, 327, 332, 339,
340, 341, 342, 344, 347; leads
scouting party for Transyl
vania Company, 280-281 ;
guides party to French
Lick, 282; joined by Donel
son and party, 284; names
Mird District, 343; desires
union with Spain, 343; seeks
separation of Cumberland
from North Carolina, 345;
to Mir6 on separatist move
ment, 346
Robinson, John: 69
Rochelle: 43
Rocky Mountains: 135
Rogers, Sergt.; 73
Rogersville: 290
Roan Mountain: 135
Round-O, Cherokee chief; 79
Rowan, Matthew: 19, 76

389

INDEX

Rowan i*angers: 83; described,
82-83 1
Rowan; settlers murdered, 77,
265
Rucker, Capt.; 113
Rutherford, Gen. GrifSth:
leads Rowan rangers, 76,
83; leads rescuing force,
265, 270 ; leads army against
Cherokees, 267
RusseU, Capt. WiUiam: 303

Saint Augustine; 138
Saint Lusson, Daumont de:
41-43
Salem: 87
SaUsbury: 34, 38, 69, 146, 148,
163, 165, 166, 168, 172, 289
SaUing, John Peter: 117
San Salvador: 144
Sandy Creek Association: 175,
184, 185, 190
Sandy River expedition: 70
Sapona Town: 35
Sault Ste. Marie; 41
Savannah: 51
Savannah Indians: 65
Scaggs, Charles: 126
Scaggs, Henry: 282; meets
Daniel Boone, 109; agent
for Richard Henderson &
Co., 109-110; explores Cum
berland region, 119; leads
Long Hunters into Ken
tucky, 126-126
Scaggs' Ridge: 120
Schnell, Leonard; pilgrimage
of, 14-15

Scotch Lowlands; 6
Scotch-Irish: 7, 11, 27, 33, 188;
in Pennsylvania, 8; — immi
gration of, 6, 19 ; settlers, 28
Scotchman: 218
Scotland: 217
Scovil: 168
Searcy: connection, 190; Reu
ben, 169; Valentine, 233
Settiquo: 76, 307, 316
Sevier, James: emissary of
FrankUn to Mir6, 337-338
Sevier, John: 300, 322, 260,
298, 313-314, 322, 326, 326,
327, 330, 337, 344, 347; early
Ufe, 198; defends Watauga
Fort, 263; rescues Bonny
Kate SherriU, 264; with
Shelly plans King's Moun
tain campaign, 292, 296 ; de
feats Indians, 307-308; dis
avows revolutionary intent,
315; elected Governor of
Franklin, 317; writes de-.
fiant letter to Caswell, 323-
324; appeals to Benjamin
Franklin, 324; besieges Tip
ton, 330; attacks Indians,
331-332; writes Gardoqui,
offering to "deUver" Frank
Un to Spain, 333-335; ar
rested for high treason, im
prisoned, 337; rescued, 338;
restored to oflSce by North
Carolina, 338; elected flrst
governor of Tennessee, 348
Shawanoes, Shawnese: 25, 44,
69, 117, 161, 203, 305, 209,
271;— chief of, 204
Shelby, CoL Evan: leads force

390

INDEX

against Chickamaugas, 290; South Fork of Catawba River,

appointed brigadier-gen
eral, 322
Shelby, Isaac: 222, 291, 298;
at Battle of Great Ka
nawha, 213-214; initiates
King's Mountain campaign,
293; at King's Mountain,
301; elected first governor
of Kentucky, 348
Shelby, Capt. James: 363
Shenandoah Valley: 10, 34
Sherrill, Katherine; rescued
by John Sevier, 264
Silonee, Cherokee chief: 79;
, checks Montgomerie, 89 ; see
'young Warrior of Estatoe
Sims, George: writes A Seri
ous Address, etc., 160, 169,
170
Simms, WiUiam Gilmore: 144
Six Nations; 111, 191
Slaughter: 138
Slaughter, CoL Thomas: 244
Smith, Capt. John: 69
Smith, Gen. Daniel: 343, 344
Smith, James: 121
Smith, John, Jr.: 69
Smith, WilUam Bailey: 233;
carries corn to French Lick,
284
Smith's Bridge: 89
Smyth, J. F. D.: describes
North CaroUna backwoods
men, 39-40
South Carolina: XV, 14, 37-
28, 43, 45, 58, 66, 68, 71, 112,
121, 139, 167, 193, 337, 262,
365, 268, 291, 294, 295, 306,
313; rangers, 89; traders, 71

62, 70;— Boys, 298, 301
South Sea: XI, 42
South Sea Islands: 219
Southwest: see Old Southwest
Southwest Territory: 348
Southern Department: 111,
331
Spach: 166
Spain: ch. XX, 330, 331, 332,
337, 338, 339, 340, 344, 345,
347
Spangenberg, Bishop Augus
tus Gottlieb: makes explor
ing tour, 13, 14, 131;
preaches at Bathama, 87
Spaniards: 292, 332, 340, 345
Spanish : authorities, 339 ;
charged affairs, 339 ; — con
spiracy in Kentucky, 336,
339; — Conspiracy in Tennes
see, ch. XX, 339;— court,
347 ; — domain, 348 ; — govern
ment, 346 ; — minister, 331 ; —
traders, 340
Spotswood, Gov. Alexander;
97, 98
St. Asaph's: 243
St. Clair, Sir John: 54
St. Clair, Gen. Arthur: 133
Stalnaker, Samuel; 83, 94
Stanford: 243
Steep Rock: 194
Stephen, Col. Adam: 94, 95
Stewart, John: 139, 148, 149,
150, 151, 152, 153
Stone, Uriah: 121, 123
Stoner, Michael; 121, 313, 333,
373
Stuart, Capt. John; 91-93

391

INDEX

Stuart, John; 111, 191, 192,
194, 361
Stuart, pioneer; 283
Superintendent of Indian Af
fairs; 112, 331
Swan, David L.: 262
Switzerland: 134
Sycamore Shoals of Watauga
River: 219, 221, 263, 293
Synge, Archbishop: 7

Tascarora Indians: 73
Tate, Samuel: 228
Taylor: Hancock, 123;— Rich
ard, 122; Zachary, 133
Tennessee: XV, 9, 112, 134,
138, 129, 132, 140, 190, 191,
192, 196, 211, 224, 269, 289,
290, 316, 348, 349; countries,
332;— riflemen, 291;— settie
ments, 261, 264, 314, 315; —
settlers, 270, 381, 330, 331
Terre Haute: 123
Thompson: 84
Thompson, James: 263
Tiftoe, Cherokee Chief: 79
Tipton, CoL John: 321, 322,
338, 331
Tipton, Jonathan; 322
Tonti, Henry de; 45
Tories: 289, 306
Town Fork; 163
Trabum, Damie: diary of, 275
Tracey, John: 69
Trade: British, 46
Traders: with Indians, VII- 392

IX, 44, 46, 59, 113, 117, 118,
136
Tradmg Ford: 36
Trading House: British, 47
Trans-AUeghany: 21, 48, 99,
102, 119, 129, 140, 147, 159,
185, 201, 202, 204, 206, 212,
215, 316, 343, 277, 279, 330,
340
Transylvania; 200, 23S', ch.
XV, 243, 248, 262, 258, 279,
280, 287; colony of, 25;
president of, 246; proprie
tors of, 229, 236, 244, 248,
256
Transylvania Company; 114, ~
119, ch. XII, 237, 238, 240,
249, 263, 254, 258, 278, 287,
288; compact of, with Cum
berland settlers, 285-286;
organized, 318; permanent
contribution of, to coloniza
tion of West, 369
Transylvania Legislature; 244,
249, 355
Transylvania Purchase: 320,
248, 278
Transylvania TraU; 215, 226
Treaty: wl.th Indians, 69; at
Charleston, 94; at Fort
Stanwix, 111; at Hard La
bor, 112, 114; at Lochaber,
192; at Sycamore Shoals,
231-336
Trent, Capt. WiUiam: 47
Tryon, Gov. WUUam: 113, 141,
176, 183, 191
Tryon Mountain: 113, 135, 191
Tryon's Line: 113
Tuckasegee: 307

INDEX

U
Ulster: 6-7
Ulster Scots: characterization
of, 23, 32
Unakas: 263
Union: 319, 335, 336, 342, 348,
349; see American Union
United States; 277, 335, 339,
344, 345, 346, 347
United States Congress: 310,
311, 312, 346
Untoola: 316
Upper Towns: 66, 89
Utopia: 44

Valley of Mexico: 144
VandaUa; 206, 208
Vasco Nunez: 144
Venango: 47
Versailles; 43
ViUiers, Coulon de: 48
Virginia: pioneers of, 95, 296;
— traders, 96; — troops, 212,
260, 273;— frontier, 74; Ga
zette, 110, 272; — backwoods,
28-29;— Valley of, 9, 16, 26,
33, 34 ; — Convention, 261,
257;— Land Office, 281;—
Assembly, 67, 278 ;— Militia,
209; — House of Delegates,
278, 279;— Governor of, 67,
198;— Path, 64, 76;— Re
monstrance, 207, XV, 10, 14,
42, 45, 47, 62, 53, 58, 59, 64,
68, 69, 70, 72, 83, 96, 99,
112, 113, 114, 116, 118, 127,
130, 131, 132, 134, 138, 163,

187, 188, 191, 192, 193, 195,
198, 300, 204, 206, 206, 309,
211, 214, 220, 221, 322, 226,
236, 237, 239, 243, 343, 244,
251, 356, 368, 265, 269, 277,
278, 279, 281, 282, 287, 290,
305, 323, 326
Virginians: 96, 205, 208, 230,
231, 251, 399 W
Wabash (Ouabache) Land
Company: see Land Compu-
begins erection of Catawba
nies
Wachan: 83, 87
Wachonia: 86; — community
diary, 64
Wade, Capt. Robert; 74
WaddeU, Gen. Hugh; 53, 55-
56, 95, 133, 134; appointed
Indian commissioner, 59 ;
Fort, 70; discontinues work
on fort, 71; in Fort Du
quesne campaign, 73; has
tens to Rowan's defence, 76;
marches to aid South Caro
lina, 77; report of, on de
feat of Indians at Fort
Dobbs, 81-82; rescues cap
tives, 86; leads North Caro
Una troops, 93, 94
Walden, EUsha: 119
Walden's Mountain: 119-120
Walker, Dr. Thomas; 99, 102,
115, 116, 117, 191; makes ex
ploration for Loyal Land
Company, 99-100; seUs land
to Joseph Martin, 113

393

INDEX

Walker, Felix: 228, 246, 260;
describes Kentucky, 233-234
Walpole, Thomas, 206
Ward, James: 139
Ward, Nancy: 262, 264
Washington District: 260, 277,
314, 326
Washington, George; 47, 55,
72, 134, 256, 291; opinion of
royal proclamation, 106 ;
purchases Western lands,
106-107; makes charges
against Dunmore, 306-207;
• secures military grants for
Western lands, 308 ; Preston
to, on Henderson purchase
and Transylvania Company,
221, 237-238, 242-243
Watauga: ch. XII, 191, 194,
200, 270, 281-282;— com
monwealth, 199; vaUey of,
188, 195, 196, 306;— coun
try, 187, 189; settlers, 195,
196, 197, 200, 269;— Articles
of Association, 197; — Asso
ciation, 224; settlement, 260,
381
"Watauga Plan": commission
form of government, 360
Waxhaws: 33
Webster: 307
Welsh: immigration of, 6; —
settlers, 28;  stock, 163
West: 160, 187, 259, 273, 277,
327, 342, 348
West Virginia: 14, 206
Western; leaders, 392; — peo
ple, 347;— settlers, 311, 329;
territory, 347, 348;— waters,
314, 348

Wharton: Samuel, 206; —
Thomas, 209-211
White, Dr. James: 331, 332,
338, 346; emissary of
FrankUn, 337
WhitehaU: 206
Wilderness Trail: 230
Wilkinson, General James:
336, 336
WiUiams, Brigadier-General
James; 291, 294; kiUed at
King's Mountain, 302
WiUiams, CoL John: 105, 107,
149, 187, 222, 264; elected
delegate from Transylvania
to Continental Congress, 249
Williams, John: 141
WiUiams and Henderson, law
flrm: 105, 147
WiUiamsborough: 103
WiUiamsburg: 210
Williamson, Col. Andrew: 266
WiUiamson, Dr. Hugh; 10,
312-313
Wilmington: 169
Winchester, Kentucky: 117
Winchester, Virginia: 13
Winston, Major Joseph: leads
North Carolina troops
against Cherokees, 366}
leads Surry riflemen at
King's Mountain, 393, 298,
303-304
Wolf Hills (Abingdon) : 134
Wood, Col. Abraham; 42
Wormley, Ralph: 239
WytheviUe: 112

Yadkin: country, 117, 131,

394

INDEX
139, 143, 145, 163, 164;— Young Warrior of Estaloe,
Forks of the, 33, 34, 162, Cherokee chief: 79; see
185;— vaUey, 10, 13, IS, 32 Silonee.
York, Pennsylvania: 12 Z
Yorke, Charles: renders legal
opinion, 201 Zinzendorf, Count: 13

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