Linda Hoxit Raxter wrote: > > Hoping some of our KY folks can help out here. > > Here in Transylvania County there has been an ongoing rumor that the > county was named after a failed Transylvania Colony that Daniel Boone & > Richard Henderson tried to establish in 1775. Many families are said to > have been a part of the attempt, but somehow ended up here on the NC/SC > line. Little bit lost? > > Anyway, families rumored to be from this expedition include: > WHITMIRE, FISHER, GILLESPIE, GLAZENER, SUMMEY, MCCALL, AIKEN, GALLOWAY, > LOFTIS, OWEN, REECE > > I haven't been able to verify a single family, and many seem to have > really come from SC/GA direction, but the story had to have come from > somewhere. > > I did find a list of pioneer settlers at Boonesborough on the Madison > Co., KY GenWeb site. No Galloways, but a lot of Calloways. I did find > a Gallespie, but that's about it. The Fisher info matches the exact > migration pattern and events described by Daniel Boone, so this may be > correct, and James Fisher just left the fort before ending up in any > documents. This may be the case with some other families as well. > > Here is the migration pattern - The original settlers started from the > Yadkin River area of NC, though some may have been in VA or PA. They > settled Boonesborough in 1775 after building a 300 mile road through the > wilderness from VA to east KY, which was still part of VA back then. by > 1820, everyone had given up on the new town and moved elsewhere. One of > my James Fishers (I've got three or four in a row back there) was > scapled on a trip across the river to mine salt. Daniel Boone does tell > of such an attack taking place. Local story says that many of the > families ended up in present day Transylvania County, but doesn't give > any specifics. > > Do any of you folks with a Galloway or other listed surname have anyone > who might follow this path? And have any of the KY folks heard such an > ending to the Daniel Boone, Transylvania Colony adventure? > > Little bit of trivia - Did you know that Transylvania County, NC is the > only Transylvania County in the US? No other US county has the > distinction of being the only one of its kind. > -- The following text is from Sherry's site at http://www.geocities.com/Heartland/Prairie/6370/article2.html ***text follows*** Samuel Galloway, had four daughters, two as already stated, married Thomas Henderson. Their names were Ann, Jane, Ruth and Margaret. Ruth married Colonel Richard Henderson, a native of North Carolina and a man of great aspirations. He learned to read and write after growing to maturity. He was appointed Constable and afterwards Sheriff. He devoted his leisure to reading law, and was admitted to the bar of the Superior Court and established a high reputation, and was appointed Chief Judge of the Province of North Carolina, with an adequate salary. His great ambition and some ostentation involved him, and he used the most bold, ardent adventurous scheme to relieve himself, in our History. His parents were poor. Having formed a Company he negotiated with the Chiefs of the Cherokees for all that tract of land lying between the Cumberland Mountains and the Kentucky River south of the Ohio River, for $50,000. They took immediate possession in 1775. They employed Colonel Daniel Boone to survey and open up a wagon road to the Kentucky River where Boonesborough is. A proprietary government with laws was established and Henderson made President in 1775. Their Legislature met but once and under the shade of a tree. Pennsylvania squelched it. The tract contained 14,000 acres. ***end of text*** This gives us Galloways, Daniel Boone, and Richard Henderson in 1775, all involved with formerly Cherokee land. Right names and date for your query, but wrong place. Still, all that's missing is the "Cherokee chiefs" saying, "Well, since Pennsylvania won't let them stay on the land that they paid for, we've got this other land over here...." The NC/SC state line would certainly put it far away enough that Pennsylvania couldn't interfere. Further, it fits with the meaning of "trans-sylvania;" "trans" means "across" or "on the other side of," and "sylva" means "forest." Granted, Transylvania County is itself pretty well forested, but to settlers coming from the south or the east, it's on THIS SIDE of the biggest batch of trees in the eastern US, not "across" or "on the other side" of that forest. Only to prospective settlers coming from the west would it be trans-forest. Specifically, what I'm proposing is that, since they "took immediate possession in 1775" and only had time for their legislature to meet once before "Pennsylvania squelched it," then in mid to late 1775 they (and the Cherokee?) could have been considering a "trans-sylvanian" alternative to the 14,000 acres which Pennsylvania wouldn't let them keep. After they got there, their previous experience with Pennsylvania explains why they wouldn't announce their arrival and set up a formal legislature with a president. Instead, they would sort of "lay low," minding their own business and having little to do with established governments. Does anyone on the list have anything to help back up this idea? Sure would be good to have documentation for how/when Owens, Galloways and McCalls came to the mountains, especially since it would predate and perhaps explain the location of John Owen's post Revolutionary War land grant. I had been looking for John in Mecklenburg county prior to the war and just taking a land grant farther west where his descendants would meet and marry Galloways and McCalls. Thanks to Linda's rumor (MCCALL... GALLOWAY... OWEN...) and Sherry's historical background, it looks like maybe the families already knew each other and came from the opposite direction. I'm not sure how bad things have to be before you qualify as a "failed colony." If the families were already there - accepted by the Cherokee and having little or no contact with the outside - John may have wanted the land grant to legitimize in the eyes of the government the fact that his family and friends had already settled there. (No sense letting North Carolina do to you and yours what Pennsylvania had done a few years earlier.) Gordon Owen "Los Angeles is okay, but there's no sourwood honey." PS: Regarding your unsuccessful search for Galloways at Boonesborough, Sherry's site (a few paragraphs down from the quotation above) has the Galloways interacting with Boone but building 8 cabins some miles away at a the time when Boone's settlement had 12 cabins.