Transylvania Company

The parent organization formed in 1763 was known as Richard Henderson and Company, employed Daniel Boone, Richard Galloway and Henry Skaggs to make a reconnaissances of the western lands of North Carolina (later Tennessee) and the valley of the Cumberland River.

"The Louisa Company was formed in August of 1774 by essentially the same people: Judge Richardson Henderson, Nathaniel Hart, Thomas Hart, John Williams and John Luttrell. The purpose was to acquire title from the Indian claimants to vast tracts of western lands. This company was re-organized, January 6, 1775, under the name of the Transylvania Company. There were a total of nine shareholders, adding David Hart, Leonard Henley Bullock, and two others." (Henderson)

The company journeyed to Cross Creek ( Fayetteville, NC) with the Cherokee chief Atta-Kulla-Kulla to display goods to be offered, in part payment, for lands in Tennessee and Kentucky claimed by the Cherokee tribe. At the Treaty of Sycamore Shoals, nearly twelve hundred Indians gathered in response to the invitation by the Transylvania Company. On March 19, chiefs of both sides set their signatures. By its terms the Indians, in return for trading goods valued at 10,000 pounds sterling, ceded to the Transylvania Company the territory between the Kentucky River and the highlands south of the Cumberland and a strip of land between the Holston River and the Cumberland Mountains (20 million acres). At the same time, the Watauga settlers, who had earlier leased their lands from the Cherokees, converted their lease into a purchase.  At the conclusion of the agreements, Henderson brought out casks of rum for a celebration seldom equaled on the frontiers.(Rice)

The twenty million acres negotiated for with the Cherokee Indians includes "nearly all the states of Kentucky and Tennessee". (Lofaro)

"A week before the conclusion of the treaty, a party of thirty axmen, lead by Boone, set off along the Transylvania Trail and reached the settlement in Powell's Valley. Shortly thereafter, news came that five persons had been killed on the road to Kentucky by Indians. They pushed through Cumberland Gap and by May 18, were near Twitty's Fort, where Captain Twitty had lost his life when Boone's party was attacked. When Henderson's party finally arrived at Otter Creek, they were warmly greeted with a salute of twenty-five guns. Boone and his axmen had thrown up a small fortification, which William Calk in his diary refers to as "Boon's Foart"; but as this was badly placed for defense, Henderson immediately drew up plans for a large stockaded fort, to be located in a commanding situation some 300 yards distant from Boone's fortification."(Henderson)

"During the absence from the Transylvania Fort of most of its defenders, a party of fourteen Cherokees threatened the fort; but unable to accomplish anything against it, burned the cabin of Nathaniel and David Hart, located on a hill about half a mile from the fort, and destroyed some five hundred apple scions which had been brought out from the settlement." (Henderson)

"Although the danger from Indians generally increased during the summer of 1776, occupation of Kentucky continued without serious disruption. William Whitley located on Cedar Creek, about two miles west of Crab Orchard, and his brother-in-law, George Clark, took up lands not far away. Joseph, George, Morgan, William, Samuel and James Bryan settled on the North Fork of the Elkhorn. Others who had established habitations included Jesse Benton on Silver Creek, John Todd on the West Branch of Hickman's Creek, John Strode near the headwaters of the South Fork of the Licking, and James Strode on Howard's Creek." (Rice)

"There were deep-seated antipathy to Transylvanias claims to ownership of Kentucky, which defense needs helped to sharpen. Frontiersmen generally rejected the two basic concepts in the Transylvania scheme - the establishment of a proprietary colony and a feudal land system."(Henderson)

In November, 1778, the Virginia House of Delegates declared the Transylvania Company's purchase of the Cherokee claim to Kentucky void; but granted the company 200,000 acres of land situated between the Ohio and Green rivers. This would be 1% of the 20 million acres purchased from the Cherokees.

"By an act of the Virginia Legislature in 1780, Kentucky was divided into the three counties of Lincoln, Jefferson and Fayette. Madison County thus became a part of Lincoln County. Benjamin Logan was the Lieutenant of Lincoln County; and he was assisted by the following officers: Major George Adams, Captains John Holder and James Estill and by Captain Nathaniel Hart in the Madison end of Lincoln."(Henderson)

"Of all the Proprietors of the Transylvania Company, Nathaniel Hart stands out as a resolute, determined settler of the wilderness, who each year left his secure home in Caswell County, NC to develop his Kentucky lands, to raise a crop of corn, and to take part in the defense of the wonderful new country."(Henderson)