. Tennessee the Volunteer State 1769—1923: Volume 1 HENDERSON AND COMPANY In 1774, Boone, not dismayed by his unfortunate encounters with the Indians, to which reference has already been made, advised Judge Henderson that the time was propitious for opening negotiations with the Cherokees for the purchase of the trans-Alleghany region. Henderson, thereupon, to facilitate this desideratum organized a company composed of men of force and action, leaders in the colony, ready to hazard fortune and life itself in efforts for the promotion of this gigantic and alluring enterprise. Those who first composed the company were Richard Henderson, his uncle and law partner, John Williams, and, according to Dr. Archibald Henderson, “in all probability, their close friends Thomas and Nathaniel Hart.” To these were now added Colonel John Luttrell and William Johnston.2 Tennessee the Volunteer State 1769—1923: Volume 1 HENDERSON AND COMPANY The men interested met at Hillsborough, N. C., August 27, 1774, and organized a new company called the Louisa Company. In their articles of agreement they stated that their object in acquiring lands from the Indians was for the purpose of “settling the country.” Each partner agreed to “furnish his quota of expenses necessary towards procuring the grant.” They also agreed to become “equal sharers in the property,” and to “support each other with our lives and fortunes.” Tennessee the Volunteer State 1769—1923: Volume 1 HENDERSON AND COMPANY page 87 Judge Henderson then visited the Cherokee chiefs at their towns, being accompanied by Col. Nathaniel Hart and with Thomas Price, an experienced Indian trader, as his guide. The Indian chiefs received them kindly and entered seriously upon the negotiations, the result of their first deliberations being that Atta-Kulla-Kulla, the old chief and a young buck and a squaw “attend the said Henderson and Hart to North Carolina and there examine the goods and merchandise which had been by them offered as the consideration of [p.87] the purchase.” The goods which the Louisa Company had bought at Cross Creek (now Fayetteville, N. C.) met the entire approval of the Indians. Footnote Letters to Washington, MS. Division, Library of Congress. Tennessee the Volunteer State 1769—1923: Volume 1 HENDERSON AND COMPANY On January 6, 1775, three new partners were added to the company, viz: David Hart, Leonard H. Bullock and James Hogg, and the name of the company was again changed to Transylvania Company. Hillsborough, N. C., was the starting point of the western migration and the pioneers left this place for Sycamore Shoals, on the Watauga, en route for Kentucky. Most liberal terms were offered them and a tremendous sensation was created in North Carolina and Virginia. It seems strange, but such seems to have been the fact that the daring company, headed by Henderson entered into these agreements with their proposed settlers before they had actually acquired the lands from the Indians. Col. Wm. Preston wrote to George Washington concerning the contemplated “large purchase by one Colonel Henderson of North Carolina from the Cherokees * * *. I hear that Henderson talks with great Freedom and Indecency of the Governor of Virginia, sets the Government at Def****ance & says if he once had five hundred good Fellows settled in that Country he would not Value Virginia.”3 Tennessee the Volunteer State 1769—1923: Volume 1 HENDERSON AND COMPANY The following account of the treaty and purchase made by the Transylvania Company is from Dr. Archibald Henderson's “Conquest of the Old Southwest,” pages 221-226: Tennessee the Volunteer State 1769—1923: Volume 1 HENDERSON AND COMPANY “Early in 1775 runners were sent off to the Cherokee towns to summon the Indians to the treaty grounds 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 negotiations preliminary to the actual treaty. The dominating figure in the remarkable assemblage at the treaty ground, consisting of twelve hundred Indians and several hundred whites, was Richard Henderson, ‘comely in person, of a benign and social disposition,’ with countenance betokening the man of strenuous 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 appearance, were many of the buckskin-clad leaders of the border—James Robertson, 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. Footnote Ramsey says, p. 117, that it was said to be Oconostota who delivered the animated and pathetic speech. Footnote There is a widespread but erroneous idea that Kentucky means “Dark and Bloody Ground.” The derivation is from the Indian word Kantakee, which means a level tract, a prairie. See “The Conquest of the Old Southwest,” by Henderson, p. 117. Tennessee the Volunteer State 1769—1923: Volume 1 HENDERSON AND COMPANY page 88 “Little was accomplished on the first day of the treaty (March 14th); but on the next day, the Cherokees offered to sell the section bargained 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, Henderson flatly refused to entertain the idea of purchasing territory to which Virginia had the prior claim. Angered by Henderson's refusal, The Dragging Canoe,4 leaping into the circle of the seated savages, made an impassioned speech touched with the romantic imagination peculiar to the American Indian. With pathetic eloquence he dwelt upon the insatiable land-greed of the white men, and predicted the extinction of his race if they committed the insensate folly of selling their beloved hunting-grounds. Roused to a high pitch of oratorical fervor, the savage with uplifted arms fiercely exhorted his people to resist further encroachments at all hazards—and left the treaty ground. This incident brought the conference to a startling 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 by the tributaries of the Cumberland, Henderson agreed to pay an additional sum of two thousand pounds. Upon this day there originated the ominous phrase descriptive of [p.88] Kentucky when Dragging Canoe, dramatically pointing toward the west, declared that a Dark Cloud hung over that land, which was known as the Bloody Ground.5 Tennessee the Volunteer State 1769—1923: Volume 1 HENDERSON AND COMPANY “On the last day, March 17th, the negotiations were opened with the signing of the ‘Great Grant.’ The area purchased, some twenty millions of acres, included almost all of the present State of Kentucky, and an immense tract in Tennessee, comprising all of the territory watered by the Cumberland River and all of 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 Powell's Mountain’ as a pathway to Kentucky—the deed for which was known as the ‘Path Deed.’ By especial arrangement, Carter's Valley in this track 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 valley of the Holston, Watauga and New rivers; and eight days later Jacob Brown purchased two large areas, including the Nollichucky Valley. This historic treaty, which heralds the opening of the West, was conducted with absolute justness and fairness by Judge Henderson and his associates. No liquor was permitted on 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 imperial domain was ten thousand pounds sterling, in money and in goods. Tennessee the Volunteer State 1769—1923: Volume 1 HENDERSON AND COMPANY “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. Indeed, he was not present then; for a fortnight before the conclusion of the treaty he was commissioned by Judge Henderson to form a party of competent woodmen to blaze a passage through the wilderness. On March 10th this party of thirty-six ax-men, under the leadership of Boone, started from the rendezvous, the Long Island of Holston, to engage in the arduous labor of cutting out the Transylvania Trail.” Tennessee the Volunteer State 1769—1923: Volume 1 EVENTS LEADING TO THE BATTLE OF KING'S MOUNTAIN But Henderson was not successful in founding his “state” in Kentucky. Virginia refused to recognize the validity of his purchase, yet rewarded his enterprise by giving him 200,000 acres of his own selection in Kentucky. North Carolina also granted him and his associates 190,000 acres located in Powell's Valley, where some settlers had already made their homes. Tennessee the Volunteer State 1769—1923: Volume 1 EVENTS LEADING TO THE BATTLE OF KING'S MOUNTAIN Within a short time after their purchase from the Cherokees had been consummated, and following the action of North Carolina which had appointed a Committee of Safety in each district, the settlers on the Watauga assumed for their country the name of “Washington District.” Although no formal act was passed by the Legislature of North Carolina recognizing the Watauga Association or Washington District, the recognition was virtually made in November, 1776, when Charles Robertson (he spelled it Roberson), John Carter, John Hall, and John Sevier were admitted as delegates to its General Assembly from Washington District. It was not until November, 1777, that North Carolina established Washington County which included all her possessions west of the Alleghany Mountains. Their local affairs were being conducted very harmoniously and their relations with the Indians were amicable, when the war of the Revolution brought about a radical change. Tennessee the Volunteer State 1769—1923: Volume 1 EVENTS LEADING TO THE BATTLE OF KING'S MOUNTAIN page 89 [p.89] During the spring of 1776 plans were concerted, chiefly through John Stuart, the Indian superintendent of the Southern District for the British Government, and Alexander Cameron his agent residing among the Cherokees, for uniting the Loyalists and the Indians in a crushing attack upon the Tennessee settlements and the back country of North Carolina. Warning of the approaching invasion had been sent to the Watauga settlers by Atta-Kulla-Kulla's niece, Nancy Ward, the “Pocahontas of the West.” The settlers flocked for refuge into their stations or forts and awaited with steadiness, although with dread for the threatened attacks which were made by two forces aggregating about seven hundred warriors. Tennessee the Volunteer State 1769—1923: Volume 1 EVENTS LEADING TO THE BATTLE OF KING'S MOUNTAIN On July 20, 1776, the pioneers marched from Heaton's Station, to the number of one hundred and seventy to meet the Indians, double their number led by The Dragging Canoe. Although they were attacked by another force in the rear, while thus engaged, they signally defeated the Indians. This conflict was called the battle of the Long Island Flats. On the next day the Indians under Old Abraham were repulsed by the small garrison under Robertson and Sevier at Watauga fort, although the siege was maintained by the Indians for several weeks. It was during this siege, according to persistent tradition, that Kate Sherrill, called “Bonnie Kate” was pursued to the stockade by Indians. An athletic young officer, seeing her plight, leaped to the top of the stockade, shot down the foremost savage and leaning over, drew her up and to safety. That officer was John Sevier who, according to true romance, became the husband of the beautiful maiden. Tennessee the Volunteer State 1769—1923: Volume 1 EVENTS LEADING TO THE BATTLE OF KING'S MOUNTAIN The details of this and the other Indian wars, in which the Tennessee settlers engaged, are given in the chapter devoted to “Indian Wars and Indian Chiefs,” and, hence, only the main facts are here given to sustain the continuity of historical narration. ________________________________________________________________________ Get Your Private, Free E-mail from MSN Hotmail at http://www.hotmail.com