A History of the Daniel Boone National Forest 1770 - 1970

Judge Henderson believed it essential that the Transylvania Company occupy and organize its newly acquired territory without delay. His expedition to fulfill that requirement left Watauga on March 20, 1775, just three days after the close of the Grand Council.

The party of travelers that left Watauga that morning, for its destination on the Kentucky River some 250 miles distant, was equipped for the permanent occupation of a frontier settlement. In addition to Judge Richard Henderson and 40 mounted riflemen armed and equipped for frontier travel, the party included 40 pack horses, a herd of cattle, several Negro slaves and a train of heavily loaded wagons. Packed securely on these wagons were the many items essential for frontier living, such as powder, bar lead, flints, tools, materials for making gunpowder, garden seed, seed corn, food items and personal effects.

In addition to Judge Henderson other members of the Transylvania Company traveling with the party were Colonel Thomas Hart, Captain Nathaniel Hart and Captain John Luttrell. In addition, the group included Samuel Henderson, brother of Richard Henderson, and Captain William Cocke of Amelia County, Virginia. Another Virginian, William Baily Smith, who had served as a major in the Virginia Militia before moving to North Carolina, had joined the party for travel to Kentucky where he hoped to work as a surveyor. All of these individuals were destined to play important parts in the establishment of the Kentucky settlements.

The expedition, encumbered with heavily loaded wagons, cattle and servants, proceeded slowly following the trail route marked by Daniel Boone and his party that had left from Long Island some 10 days earlier. The Henderson party had to clear portions of the road to make it passable for the wagons, improve stream crossings, repair equipment and make the many adjustments necessary to travel under such circumstances.

The first 10 days of travel following Boone's marked route brought the expedition to the end of the road at Martin's Station in Powells Valley, the last occupied settlement of the frontier. Here it was necessary to reorganize and repack the entire load. The trail ahead was rough, rocky, steep and hardly fit for foot and horse travel. Shelters were constructed for the wagons. The heavy and bulky items such as salt, sulphur, bar lead and other items not immediately required at the new settlement were stored away for transport at a later date. From March 30 through April 4, they were busy at this task.

While this reorganization was taking place, the expedition was joined by a party of five Virginians en route to the Kentucky country in search of good land. The leader of this group was William Calk and in his party were Robert Whitledge, Philip Drake, Enoch Smith and Abraham Hanks. This latter individual was the uncle of Nancy Hanks, the mother of Abraham Lincoln. The journal maintained by William Calk on this journey (which has been preserved by descendants of his family living in the vicinity of Mount Sterling, Kentucky) has provided students of history with a vivid picture of conditions and occurrences on this famous journey. It was still available as of 1973.

On the afternoon of April 5, 1775, the expedition left Powells Valley and continued its way along the trail to Kentucky. On the morning of April 7, snow started falling about daybreak increasing the difficulty of travel and the discomfort of the travelers. About 11 o'clock it was learned that Indians had murdered five people on the trail to Kentucky. When this news arrived, Captain Nathaniel Hart and his immediate party turned back for Powells Valley with the intention of settling there and began making corn for the people in Kentucky. He must have changed his mind, however, as he and his party rejoined the expedition three days later and continued on to Fort Boone with them. Later the same day Boone's letter requesting reinforcements and telling of the Indian attack at Twetty's Fort reached Judge Henderson. This information, coupled with the previous information of Indian attacks on travelers to Kentucky, caused much concern and many again considered turning back to the settlements.

The next morning, April 8, 1775, travel was resumed about 10 o'clock, and continued through Cumberland Gap. About four miles beyond the Gap, they met a group of 40 people returning from Kentucky because of the news of the Indian murders of travelers. Knowing the effect of these returning travelers on the members of his party, Judge Henderson endeavored to persuade these people to join his party and return to Kentucky. Only one man agreed, but several Virginians of the Henderson party joined the returning travelers so the result for Judge Henderson was a net loss, much to his concern. The expedition continued to the Cumberland River where, on April 9, they met two more returning travelers, Robert Willis and his son, on their way back to the settlements until the Indian troubles were settled.

The rumors brought back by returning travelers, coupled with the information in Boone's letter, was occasion for great concern for Judge Henderson. He had invested his entire fortune in this venture. He had learned that the Governor of Virginia had issued a proclamation against him and his land purchase on the day following his departure from Watauga, which had directed all Virginia officers to apprehend Henderson and prevent his colonization effort. He dare not return to Virginia at this time. It was essential that he establish his new settlement in Kentucky. To accomplish this, it was most necessary that Daniel Boone and his party hold their ground at the mouth of the Otter. If they failed to do this and returned along the trace, he knew that his expedition would also turn back and the entire effort would have failed. He realized that it was imperative that he let Boone know as soon as possible that he was on the way with reinforcements and supplies. He attempted to find one of his party that would ride ahead and carry a letter to Boone with this information but, in view of the many Indian rumors and general apprehension that developed, no such individual could be found. A trip of 130 miles alone through an unknown wilderness infested with hostile Indians appeared to be the height of folly. As an inducement, Judge Henderson offered a generous gift of land as payment for the service. At this point Captain Cocke, the gallant Virginian, volunteered to carry the message. Both he and Judge Henderson attempted to obtain another volunteer to accompany him for the same payment, but without success.

The following morning, April 10, 1775, Captain Cocke, equipped with ". . . A good Queen Ann musket, ammunition, a Dutch blanket, a tomahawk, a large knife and a quantity of jerked beef," and mounted on a good horse, all provided by Judge Henderson, set out to carry the message to Daniel Boone at the mouth of the Otter on the Kentucky River some 130 miles distant. As they watched this brave messenger disappear into the forest along the marked trace, most of the members of the party expected that they would never see him alive again. Judge Henderson wrote later that Captain Cocke ". . . Carried with him, besides his own enormous load of fearful apprehensions, a considerable burden of my own uneasiness."

At this point it is interesting to note that in 1796, some of the private arrangements between Captain Cocke and Judge Henderson came to light as the result of a lawsuit filed by Cocke, who had become a United States Senator from Tennessee, against the original proprietors of the Transylvania Company to secure 15,000 acres of land, or its equivalent value, as payment promised for his services as messenger on this trip. In the testimony of the suit, Senator Cocke stated that Judge Henderson had come to him on the night of April 9, 1775, with tears in his eyes and offered ten thousand acres of land as a reward for making the trip and saying that he and the Transylvania Company would be ruined if this initial settlement on the Kentucky was not established. Senator Cocke further stated that when Judge Henderson arrived at Fort Boone, he confirmed this offer and that ". . . Entries were made in the Book kept by said Henderson & Company, called the Book of Entries, to that effect."

Ranck, in his Filson Club publication No. 16, Boonesborough, calls this ride ". . . One of the most romantic deeds in the annals of the wilderness . . ." regardless of the offer of reward. Captain Cocke completed the trip in good time and without difficulty, catching up with another traveler, Page Portwood, the two completing the trip together. Ranck tells us further ". . . When Captain Cocke arrived at Fort Boone, the savages were almost forgotten and he, greatly to his surprise, found that his plucky adventure and the letters he had brought excited as much interest as the news of reinforcements which he had risked his life to bring."

With the departure of Captain Cocke on the morning of April 10, 1775, Judge Henderson turned his attention to the immediate situation with which he, as the leader of the expedition, was faced. During the previous four days they had met over 100 settlers and land lookers returning from the territory which was the party's destination, each group bearing new rumors of Indian attacks. Among these groups were some individuals who had been members of Boone's party. They reported that, in their opinion, the men assembled with Daniel Boone at the mouth of the Otter would leave him before the Henderson party could arrive, even if no additional Indian attacks occurred. It was this information, in addition to the urgent request in Boone's letter, which had motivated him to make the effort that resulted in Captain Cocke's trip. In writing to other members of the Transylvania Company in North Carolina of this situation, Judge Henderson wrote, ". . . And with me it was beyond a doubt, that our right, in effect, depended on Boone's maintaining his ground — at least until we could get to him."

He goes on to describe the apprehensions of his company on the trail, "Every group of travelers we saw, or strange bells which we heard in front, was a fresh alarm; afraid to look, to inquire, lest Captain Boone or his company was among them, or some disastrous account of their defeat." Judge Henderson continued, "The general panic that had seized the men we were continuously meeting was contagious, it ran like wildfire; and, notwithstanding every effort against its progress, it was presently discovered in our own camp . . . In this situation of affairs some few, of genuine courage and undaunted resolution, served to inspire the rest; by 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."

By the morning of April 12, the expedition made camp just north of the present City of Barbourville where they had been held up by high water in Richland Creek. That evening another party of 11 returning travelers from Kentucky, led by a Mr. Stewart, camped nearby. Their rumors of Indians so impressed some of the Virginians that Abraham Hanks and Phillip Drake, of the Calk party, turned back with them. By the night of April 15, the party camped on the north shore of the Rockcastle River.

Before arriving there Judge Henderson had lost additional people from his venture. While camped at Powells Valley, Benjamin Logan and William Gillespie, accompanied by a number of slaves, had joined the caravan with the intention of accompanying it to Kentucky. When they arrived at the Hazel Patch, where the trail taken by Boone and Stoner the previous year left the marked trace and proceeded west to the Falls of the Ohio, Logan and Gillespie left the Henderson party. They traveled west to the vicinity of the present town of Stanford where they established Logan's Fort, later known as St. Asaph's Station. Here they raised a crop of corn in the summer of 1775. In later years this trail from the Hazel Patch to the Falls of the Ohio, which passed through Crab Orchard, became known as Skaggs' Trace.

About noon on April 16, Judge Henderson's party met the party of James McAfee which consisted of 18 people, three of whom were James McAfee's brothers. They told Judge Henderson that they had been to Kentucky and had established McAfee's Station, but were abandoning it and returning to the settlements due to the Indian trouble. Judge Henderson made every effort to convince them to return with him, offering them lands and permitting them to make entries. His motive was twofold. First he was anxious to establish settlements on the Transylvania lands, and he feared that more of his party would leave and return to Virginia with the McAfee party. However, he encountered resistance on the part of James McAfee who not only rejected his proposition, but told the members of his party that Judge Henderson's claim to title could not be valid as he had purchased the land from the Cherokees without the approval of the Colonial government and could not protect the title to such land if granted to them. This advice was sound and correct. However, so convincing was Judge Henderson as to the benefits to be derived from his plan for establishing the colony that James McAfee's three brothers, William, George and Robert, joined Judge Henderson's party for travel to Fort Boone.

The Henderson party continued its travel across the head of Dick's River. About noon on April 18, they were met by Michael Stoner and three other men from Boone's party with pack horses to assist the Henderson party and to guide them to Fort Boone. That night the party camped in the edge of the Bluegrass which Judge Henderson called ". . . The eye of the rich land." Hunters from the party killed two buffalo that evening and all feasted on bison beef with great relish. The following morning the hunters killed three more buffalo as the party made an early start knowing that they were nearing the end of their journey. About eleven o'clock the party passed Twetty's Fort, the scene of the Indian attack on Boone's party, much to the interest of all members. William Calk's journal tells us, ". . . About 11 o'clock we came to where the Indians fired on Boone's company & killed 2 men and a dog & wounded one man in the thigh. We camped this night on Otter Creek . . ."

On April 20, which was Judge Henderson's 40th birthday, William Calk's journal describes the arrival of the Henderson party at Fort Boone. He wrote, "Thursday 20th this morning is Clear and cool We start Early & git Down to caintuck to Boones foart about 12 oclock wheare we stop and they come out to meet us & welcom us in with a voley of guns."

Judge Henderson's entry in his journal for this day reads, "Thursday 20th Arrived at Fort Boone on the mouth of Otter Creek, Cantukey 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 and much rejoiced on our arrival."

In writing to members of the Transylvania Company back in North Carolina of his arrival at Fort Boone, of finding Captain Cocke had arrived safely and of finding Daniel Boone and his company still in place, Judge Henderson wrote, ". . . Here it was that the whole load, as it were, dropped off my shoulders at once, and I questioned if a happier creature was to be found under the sun. . . To get clear of all of this at once, was as much as we could well bear; and though we had nothing here to refresh ourselves with, but cold water and lean buffalo beef, without bread, it certainly was the most joyous banquet I ever saw."

There is no doubt that it was a great day for Judge Henderson. He had arrived safely at his destination — the mouth of the Otter on the Kentucky River. His initial settlement was underway with 65 riflemen to guarantee protection, and all men eager to locate their land and start clearing their fields for a crop. This was the colony as he had long dreamed of it. He had achieved his initial objective. As the leader of this venture, he was impatient to distribute the land and organize the government of the new Transylvania Colony.