Richard 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 extraordinary 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 disastrous failure the preceding
autumn, Boone advised Judge Henderson that the time was auspicious for
opening negotiations with the Cherokees for purchasing the
trans-Alleghany region. [145] 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 Henderson and Company,
were Colonel John Luttrell, destined to win laurels in the Revolution,
and William Johnston, a native of Scotland, the leading merchant of
Hillsborough. [146]
Meeting in Hillsborough 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 obligated himself to "furnish his Quota of Expenses
necessary towards procuring the grant." In full anticipation of the
grave dangers to be encountered, they solemnly bound themselves, as
"equal sharers in the property," to "support each other with our lives
and fortunes." [147] Negotiations with the Indians were begun at once.
Accompanied by Colonel Nathaniel Hart and guided by the experienced
Indian-trader, Thomas Price, Judge Henderson visited the Cherokee
chieftains at the Otari towns. After elaborate consultations, the latter
deputed the old chieftain, Atta-kulla-kulla, 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
Consideration of the purchase." The goods purchased at Cross Creek (now
Fayetteville, North Carolina), in which the Louisa Company "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. [148]
On January 6, 1775, the company was again enlarged, and given the name
of the Transylvania Company--the three new partners being David Hart,
brother to Thomas and Nathaniel, Leonard Henley Bullock, a prominent
citizen of Granville, 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 explicitly made to the
contingency of "settling and voting as a proprietor and giving Rules and
Regulations for the Inhabitants etc." [149] Hillsborough was the actual
starting-point for the westward movement, the first emigrants traveling
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
[Hillsborough] 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." [150]
Meanwhile, the "Proposals for the encouragement of settling the lands
etc.," issued on Christmas Day, 1774, were quickly spread broadcast
through the colony and along the border. [151] 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 shillings per hundred acres
was offered to each emigrant settling within the territory and raising a
crop of corn before September 1, 1775, the emigrant being permitted to
take up as much as five hundred acres for himself and two hundred and
fifty acres for each tithable person under him. In these "Proposals"
there was no indication that the low terms at which the lands were
offered would be maintained after September 1, 1775. [152] In a letter
to Governor Dunmore (January, 1775), Colonel William Preston, county
surveyor of Fincastle County, Virginia, says: "The low price he
[Henderson] proposes to sell at, together with some further
encouragement he offers, will I am apprehensive induce a great many
families to remove from this County (Fincastle) & Carolina and settle
there." [153] Joseph Martin, states his son, "was appointed entry-Taker
and agent for the Powell Valley portion" of the Transylvania Purchase 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 very spot where
he had made corn several years before." [154] In speaking of the
startling design, unmasked by Henderson, of establishing an independent
government, Colonel Preston writes to George Washington of the
contemplated "large Purchase by one Col.o Henderson of North Carolina
from the Cherokees.... I hear that Henderson talks with great Freedom &
Indecency of the Governor of Virginia, sets the Government at Defiance &
says if he once had five hundred good Fellows settled in that Country he
would not Value Virginia." [155]
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 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, [156] 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 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, 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 arm 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 Kentucky
when The Dragging Canoe, dramatically pointing toward the west, declared
that a Dark Cloud hung over that land, which was known as the Bloody
Ground.
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 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 Powell'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 valleys of the Holston, Watauga, and New Rivers; and eight days
later Jacob Brown purchased two large areas, including the Nolichucky
Valley. This historic treaty, which heralds the opening of the West, was
conducted with absolute justice and fairness by Judge Henderson and his
associates. No liquor 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 imperial domain was ten thousand pounds
sterling, in money and in goods. [157]
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 then present; 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 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. [158]
Henderson, the empire-builder, now faced with courage and resolution the
hazardous task of occupying the purchased territory and establishing an
independent government. No mere financial promoter of a vast speculative
enterprise, he was one of the heroic figures of the Old Southwest; and
it was his dauntless courage, 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 William County, Virginia. [159] In
Henderson's party were some forty men and boys, with forty pack-horses
and a small amount of powder, lead, salt, and garden-seeds. The warning
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. [April] About Brake of Day began to snow. About 11
oClock received a letter from Mr. Luttrells camp that were five persons
killd. on the road to the Cantuckie by Indians. Capt. [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 Dan. Boone, that his Company was
fired uppon by Indians, Kill'd Two of his men--tho he kept the ground &
saved the Baggage &c. [160]
The following historic letter, which reveals alike the dogged resolution
of Boone and his reliance upon Henderson and his company in this black
hour of disaster, addressed "Colonel Richard Henderson--these with
care," is eloquent in its simplicity:
Dear Colonel: After my compliments to you, I shall acquaint you of our
misfortunes. 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 McFeters. I have sent a man down
to all 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 country, 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.
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. [161]
This dread intelligence caused the hearts of strong men to quail and
induced some to turn back, but Henderson, the jurist-pioneer, was made
of sterner stuff. At once (April 8th) he despatched an urgent letter in
hot haste to the proprietors of Transylvania, enclosing Boone's letter,
informing them of Boone's plight and urging them to send him immediately
a large quantity of powder and lead, as he had been compelled to abandon
his supply of saltpeter at Martin's Station. "We are all in high
spirits," he assures the proprietors, "and on thorns to fly 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
8th. Started abt. 10 oClock Crossed Cumberland Gap about 4 miles met
about 40 persons Returning from the Cantucky, on Acct. of the Late
Murders by the Indians could prevail on one only to return. Memo 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 picturesque
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 indeed 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 resolution,
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 all
the appearance of gallantry, and, cavalier like, treated every
insinuation of danger 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 realized the
imperative necessity for sending him a message of encouragement. The
bold young Virginian, William Cocke, volunteered to brave alone the
dangers of the murder-haunted trail--to undertake a ride more truly
memorable and hazardous than that of Revere. "This offer, extraordinary
as it was, we could by no means refuse," remarks Henderson, who shed
tears of gratitude as he proffered his sincere 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,
couteau], a Dutch blanket, and no small quantity of jerked beef," Cocke
on April 10th rode off "to the Cantuckey to Inform Capt Boone that we
were on the road." The fearful apprehensions felt for Cocke's safety
were later relieved, when along the road were discovered his letters
informing Henderson of his arrival and of his having been joined on the
way by Page Portwood of Rowan. On his arrival at Otter Creek, Cocke
found Boone 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 18th at their encampment "in the Eye of the Rich Land."
Along with "Excellent Beef in plenty," Stoner brought the story of
Boone's determined stand and an account of the erection of a rude little
fortification which they had hurriedly thrown up to resist attack. With
laconic significance Henderson 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
wilderness, the pioneers forgot the trials of the trail in the face of
the surpassing beauties of the country. The Cumberlands were covered
with rich undergrowth of the red and white rhododendron, the delicate
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 detail of the Beuty &
Goodness of our Country," writes Nathaniel Henderson, "would be a task
too arduous.... Let it suffice to tell 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 & Ilated in prospect, every heart abounded with Joy &
excitement ... & exclusive of the Novelties of the Journey the
advantages & accumalations arising on the Settlement of a new Country
was a dazzling 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 appeared 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 & Rational
World, a Sight so delightful to our View and grateful to our feelings
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. [162]
On the journey Henderson was joined in Powell's Valley by Benjamin
Logan, afterward 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 Logan subsequently built a fort. On Sunday, April 16th, on
Scaggs's Creek, Henderson records: "About 12 oClock Met James McAfee
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 William McAfee and 3 others were
inclined to return, but James opposed 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 Abraham Hanks from Virginia, the
maternal grandfather of Abraham Lincoln; but alarmed by the stories
brought by Stewart and his party of fugitives, Hanks and Drake, as
recorded by William Calk on that day (April 13th), turned back. [163]
At last the founder of Kentucky with his 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; all that was then at Fort.... The men appeared in
high spirits & much rejoiced in our arrival." It is a coincidence of
historic interest that just one day after the embattled farmers at
Lexington and Concord "fired the shots heard round the world," the
echoing shots of Boone and his sturdy backwoodsmen rang out to announce
the arrival of the proprietor of Transylvania and the birth of the
American West.