CHAPTER II

TRANSYLVANIA, THE LAST EXPERIMENT IN PROPRIETARY

GOVERNMENT

THE Victory of Point Pleasant rendered the navigation of the Ohio comparatively safe for the time being, and also greatly reduced the dangers incident to a visit to the Kentucky wilderness. The fame of the region had spread prodigiously during Lord Dunmore's war, as hunters and surveyers, fresh from the glories of this adventurers' paradise, had served in the army of Virginia during the war, and had enlivened the monotony of camp life, by tales of adventure well calculated to quicken the pulse, and fire the enthusiasm of their fellow-soldiers.1 Thus the "Western fever" which before had attacked only the most adventurous, spread like an epidemic, men encouraging themselves with the hope that, since the signing of the treaty, settlers would be able to raise their log cabins and plant their corn in peace. That this was the vainest of delusions, events presently showed, but it operated powerfully to awaken a new interest in the great, mysterious West; so powerfully, indeed, that corporate enterprise, regardless of the failures of the Loyal and the Ohio Companies of earlier days, began again to raise its head, and look toward the fair lands of the Ohio.

Whether Daniel Boone had made his first great journey

1 "When the soldiers came home they told us about Kentucky, a new discovered, wonderful country." "Autobiography and Diary of Daniel Trabue." Unpublished MS., Durrett Collection.

through Kentucky as the confidential agent of a great land corporation, later to announce itself as the Transylvania Company, no one can assert with authority; but it is certain that, not many months after the battle of Point Pleasant, he was acting as the trusted and secret agent of such a corporation.1

Colonel Richard Henderson, a native Virginian, who for some years had filled the position of Judge on the bench of the Superior Court of North Carolina, had seen in the rising West, a vision of a wider field for his really great talents. He formed a corporation, composed of himself and eight associates, with the ambitious purpose of purchasing from the Cherokees a vast domain in the Kentucky wilderness, upon which to establish a sort of proprietary colony. It was a scheme of large dimensions, and, under more favorable conditions, might have proved successful; but, in the America of that day, where long established proprietorships were tottering to their fall, it was foredoomed to failure.

After making a preliminary journey through the region, and preparing the leading chiefs for the final settlement, Henderson arranged a council of the "Big Chiefs" and warriors of the Cherokee nation, at the Sycamore Shoals on the Wataga River. Some twelve hundred Indians were present and, with great formality, a pompous and lengthy deed was drawn and signed, conveying to Richard Henderson and his associates, to be enjoyed by them in a corporate capacity as "Proprietors of the Colony of Transylvania," a district composing about "one half of the modern

1 Winsor's "Westward Movement," p. 81; Bogart's "Boone," p. 118. 2 Brown's "Political Beginnings of Kentucky," p. 26.

3 Ibid., p. 25.

state of Kentucky and the adjacent part of Tennessee, lying within the southerly bend of the Cumberland." This treaty was signed and concluded on March 17th, 1775, the payment of ten thousand pounds sterling, in goods, being made by the representatives of the Company.

But the formal possession of such a grant was quite a different thing from its actual possession; for, even had the purchase not been illegal in a number of ways, there still remained the task of providing for the settlement of this wilderness. As a first step toward this end, and while negotiations for the purchase were in progress, Henderson arranged for Boone to mark a road from the older settlements westward to the new possessions; and, as soon as the success of the purchase seemed assured, the task of opening the famous highway since known as "Boone's Wilderness Road" was begun. "Having collected," to quote the pioneer's own simple account of the achievement, "a number of enterprising men, well armed, we proceeded with all possible expedition until we came within fifteen miles of where Boonesborough now stands, and there we were fired upon by a party of Indians that killed 1 Winsor's "Westward Movement," p. 82; see also Marshall, I, p. 13; Butler, 1834 Ed., p. 27.

2 This purchase was illegal from a number of points of view.

(a) It was contrary to the charter rights of the Virginia Colony whose grant included this territory. See Macdonald's "Select Charters," for Virginia Charters of 1606-1609.

(b) It was a violation of the Royal Proclamation of 1763, which had excepted this region from territory open to colonization.

(c) In case the treaty of Fort Stanwix (1768) were ultimately accepted as binding, as it subsequently was, the purchase was a violation of rights gained under it, as the Transylvania district lay within the grant there made to the King by the Six Nations. Text of Treaty, Butler's "Appendix."

(d) It was contrary to a Virginia statute of 1705, which declared that no private citizen could acquire lands from the Indians. Cf. Durrett's "Kentucky Centenary," p. 38.

two, and wounded two of our number, yet, although surprised and taken at a disadvantage, we stood our ground. This was the twentieth of March, 1775. Three days after, we were fired upon again, and two men killed and three wounded. Afterward we proceeded on to Kentucky River without opposition, and on the fifth day of April began to erect the fort of Boonesborough at a salt-lick, about sixty yards from the river, on the South side.” 1 Thus while Henderson was closing the bargain with. the Cherokee nation, Boone, with his gallant band of thirty men, was starting upon the second stage of the undertaking, that of preparing to force a settlement of the lands, that they might quickly rise in value and provide returns upon the vested capital. In the "trace" which he was laboriously making, would soon follow the pack horses and covered wagons which even to-day mark the advance of civilization along our western frontier, for "in all history the road has been the forerunner of civilization.” 3

2

Colonel Henderson, however, had no intention of acting as a mere financial promoter of the enterprise of settling the wilderness. Boone and his company had been sent ahead to open up the way, in order that Henderson might follow, after assuring himself that every precaution had been taken to secure as clear a title as the Cherokees were able to give. His eagerness to take part in the dangers of the wilderness, and in the toils of the first planting, was

1 Boone's "Autobiography" as dictated to John Filson. Cf. Hartley's Boone," Appendix.

2 Felix Walker, one of Boone's road-making party, made an autobiographical statement in 1824, in which he declared, "Our company, when united, amounted to thirty persons."

3 Hulbert's "Boone's Wilderness Road," p. 94.

manifested by the fact that, on March 20, 1775, only three days after the signing of the treaty of Wataga, and, as it chanced, the very day of Boone's first encounter with the Indians, he left Wataga with some thirty men, and followed the Wilderness Road toward his new dominion, intending to set up a land office in the fort which Boone had been ordered to build. Henderson felt the dignity of his mission in no small degree, and his diary1 of the trip shows that he considered no incident of that historic journey to be without interest. "Having finished my Treaty with the Indians at Wataugah," it begins, "Sett out for Louisa and arrived at John Shelbeys in the eveningTuesday the 21st, went to Mr. John Seviers in Company of Col Williams and Col Hart and staid that dayWednesday the 22nd-Messrs Williams and Hart set off Home & I staid with Mr. Sevier-Thursday 23rd, Still at Mr. Seviers-N. B. Because our Horses were lost. as Messrs Hart and Luttrell made a poor Hand of Traveling.'

the

And thus the diary continues, recounting, day by day, petty annoyances of frontier camp life. It informs us that Henderson found it necessary to make a house to secure the wagons which could be dragged no farther; and that "Sam'l Henderson's and John Farrier's Horses took a Scare with their packs. Run away with Sams' Saddle & Briddle," etc., etc. The entry of Friday, the 7th of

'The "Diary" is reprinted in part in Hulbert's "Boone's Wilderness Road," pp. 101-107. There, however, it runs only up to Thursday the 20th, while the copy given in Collins, II, p. 498, condenses the part dealing with the trip and adds a much more detailed account of the period from April 20th to July 12th, a period of great interest in the history of the Transylvania Colony. 2 Hart, Luttrell and Williams were all members of the Corporation of Transylvania.