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In 1768 conditions had so changed that it was necessary to readjust the line between the ever-growing western settlements and the Cherokees, if an Indian war was to be avoided. Stuart, the superintendent of Indian affairs, convened the chiefs and warriors at Hard Labor, South Carolina, and concluded a treaty with them. The line was fixed as follows: Beginning on the North Carolina line thirty-six miles east of the Long Island in the Holston, thence to Chiswell's lead mines on the east bank of the Kanawha River. Thence the line followed the Kanawha River to the Ohio. This was the year of the treaty of Fort Stanwix, where the Cherokees had admitted the title of the Six Nations to the land south to the Tennessee River.

By the year 1770 there were hundreds of settlers west of the lines fixed in 1768. The Cherokees knew as well as did the colonies and their western inhabitants that these lines were only for the time being-very temporary. Governor Botetourt of Virginia moved for a new line. He called on his commissioners to make representations to Stuart, of South Carolina, who called a council of the chiefs and warriors of the Cherokees at Lochabar, in his colony. In the treaty concluded there the line was fixed to run from a point six miles east of the Long Island in a direct course to the mouth of the Kanawha River. This line included a very small tract in the extreme east end of Kentucky. Had it ever been run it would have entered Kentucky northeast of the "Breaks" and have passed out above the mouth of Pigeon Creek, on the Tug Fork. But the line was never laid down as provided in the treaty. It was surveyed by Col. John Donelson in the fall of 1771. Little Carpenter and other chiefs who had aided in negotiating the treaty went with Colonel Donelson to locate and mark the line. They urged that the line be run directly to the head of the Kentucky River, thence with that stream to the Ohio River, and thence up the Ohio to the mouth of the Kanawha. They said they preferred natural boundary lines; a line cutting across hills and streams was hard to keep in mind, often being violated unintentionally. The additional territory secured by Virginia by change in the line to the Kentucky River the Cherokees expected pay for, although they knew they did not own it, having been present at and assenting to its sale at Fort Stanwix only three years before. The next year (1772) Virginia had the matter under discussion with the Cherokee chiefs, and the line as surveyed by Colonel Donelson was allowed to stand as the boundary line. It is said, however, that the Cherokees were paid nothing in addition for this change, as they should not have been. By this new line all that part of Kentucky east of the Kentucky River, heading near the Pound Gap, was again acquired by Virginia from the Indians. The Indian title to this part of the state had thus been twice extinguished.

In 1775 (March 17), Col. Richard Henderson, of North Carolina, and his eight associates concluded a treaty at Sycamore Shoals, on the Watauga, with some of the Cherokee chiefs. This treaty was not authorized by any government, but was made by Henderson and his associates. in their private capacity and for their private benefit. Two tracts of land were secured from the Indians, one in Northeastern Tennessee and Southwestern Virginia, and the other in Kentucky and Tennessee. The land covered by the grant in Kentucky embraced all that territory west of the Donelson line and east of the Cumberland River—that is, between the Kentucky River and its North Fork and the Cumberland. It included almost all of Central and Western Kentucky and much of NorthCentral Tennessee. All such purchases had been forbidden by the crown. Virginia did not recognize the purchase as valid, but, as the Indians had received pay for the land, it was regarded as binding as to their interests. So the Indian title to this portion of Kentucky was extinguished for the second time. Colonel Henderson and his associates were given by Vir

ginia a tract of 200,000 acres of land in Kentucky on the Ohio, about the mouth of Green River.

The next treaty with the Cherokees affecting land in Kentucky was by the United States at Hopewell. The commissioners on the part of the Government made known to the Indians the change which had resulted by the success of the Revolution, explaining that the Government of the United States stood, so far as they were concerned, in the place of the crown. They requested the Cherokees to state what lands they owned and what they would dispose of. In the map which the chiefs submitted to the commissioners the limits of their possessions included most of Kentucky and Tennessee and large parts of Georgia, North Carolina and South Carolina. Selling land they did not own had proven profitable, and they now desired to sell Kentucky a second time. The commissioners brought to their attention their sale to Henderson, saying that as Colonel Henderson was now dead, that matter could not be considered. The chiefs then abandoned their claim to the Henderson Purchase. By the treaty concluded they ceded the lands on the south water-shed of the Cumberland River. Two tracts in this cession were in Kentucky. One was the land on all the waters flowing into the Cumberland and on its west side from its mouth south to the state-line. The other tract was bounded on the west and north by the Cumberland River, on the south by the state-line, and on the east by General Winchester's line. This line is described as follows:

"From Walton's road to the Fort Blount road, which it crosses near the two springs at the 32-mile tree; crosses Obey's River about 6 or 7 miles from the mouth; Achmugh about 2 miles above the Salt Lick; the South Fork of Cumberland, or Flute River, 5 or 6 miles from the mouth and struck Cumberland River about a mile above the mouth of Rock Castle."

This tract is mostly in Clinton, Cumberland, Wayne and McCreary counties.

On the 25th of October, 1805, a treaty was held with the Cherokees at Tellico, Tennessee. In this treaty the Cherokees ceded all their lands north of a line beginning at the mouth of Duck River and up the main stream of the same to the junction of the fork at the head of which Fort Nash stood, with the main south fork. Thence a direct course to a point on the Tennessee River bank opposite the mouth of Hiwassa River. This included all the land remaining as claimed by the Cherokees in Southeastern Kentucky. It is largely occupied by Whitley, Bell and McCreary counties. If the Cherokees made any claim to any land on the Tennessee between that river and the ridge dividing its waters from that of the Cumberland, north to the Ohio, this treaty divested them of it. In this relation, however, it may be said that the Cherokees never positively asserted any claim to the small tract on the east side of the Tennessee and up to the main ridge between it and the Cumberland. This small tract of Kentucky soil was obtained in a treaty with the Chickasaws held on the 23d of July, 1805. Much other land in Tennessee was ceded at the same time. Thus for the second time was the Indian title extinguished to the tract on the east side of the Tennessee, west of the dividing ridge separating the waters of the Tennessee from those of the Cumberland, and between the Ohio and the south line of the state.

All that remained to the Indians in the State of Kentucky after the treaty with the Chickasaws of July 23, 1805, was that portion lying west of the Tennessee River. This tract belonged to the Chickasaws. A treaty was held with them on the 19th of October, 1819, near Old Town, in their country. The commissioners on the part of the United States were Isaac Shelby and Andrew Jackson. The Chickasaws ceded to the

United States a tract of land bounded as follows: "Beginning on the Tennessee river, about thirty-five miles, by water, below Colonel George Colberts's ferry, where the thirty-fifth degree of north latitude strikes the same; thence due west, with said degree of north latitude to where it cuts the Mississippi river at or near the Chickasaw Bluffs; thence up the Mississippi river to the mouth of the Ohio; thence up the Ohio river to the mouth of Tennessee river; thence up the Tennessee river to the place of beginning."

This cession completed the extinguishment of the Indian title to the soil of Kentucky.

The land included in this last cession became known as the "Jackson Purchase," which designation it bears to this day.

Considered in the terms, values and conditions of the present time, the consideration paid the Indians for their title to the land of Kentucky was insignificant. But it must be remembered that none of these tribes occupied these lands. They were non-residents. And the Cherokees had no title. There had been a time when the Six Nations considered the possibility of settling in Kentucky. Whether they ever seriously contemplated this change of residence is not known. But among the Western tribes this possibility was recognized, and to those of the kindred blood of the Iroquois this great unoccupied tract became known as the Land of Tomorrow-the future-a designation of beauty, of romance, of progress. Kentucky has a glorious past. That inspires determination for a brilliant future. Her ideals for tomorrow may be unattainable. They should be. But their inspiration produces effort, hope, and a lively interest in what that Coming Day may hold.

7 Authorities, not specifically named in this chapter, have mainly been the various volumes of treaties with the Indians. For the Cherokees and their cessions, the Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology, 1883-84, is the best work found.

CHAPTER V

THE EXPLORATION OF. DR. THOMAS WALKER

The explorations to the westward from the Virginia settlements toward the Ohio country were, down to 1750, for the purpose of discovery. The English colonists never doubted the validity of the English title to any portion of the land embraced in the Virginia grants from sea to sea. When a tour of discovery was made, it was to find out the nature and possibilities of their own property.

About the year 1750 the lands on the waters of the Ohio began to be considered available for exploitation, with the object of settlement. Prior to 1748 Col. James Patton and his associates had secured a grant of 120,000 acres situated on and about the watershed of the Staunton. Here, on the Great Divide, on land secured from Colonel Patton, the Draper's Meadows settlement was established in 1748. Colonel Patton must have been pleased with his frontier investment, for in the year 1748 he went on a tour of inspection into Southwestern Virginia, undoubtedly with the design of finding additional land suitable for colonization. Dr. Thomas Walker, Col. John Buchanan, a Colonel Wood, and Maj. Charles Campbell-perhaps others went with him. They followed the Holston down into the Cherokee country. These men were Virginians seeking land in Virginia, but, as the line between Virginia and North Carolina had not been surveyed at that time, there was uncertainty as to the ownership of the lands examined. There has been. some disposition to attribute to Doctor Walker the exploration of the country about the Cumberland Gap on this expedition, but no evidence has been found to support this contention.1

The Loyal Land Company was organized in 1749. It secured a grant of 800,000 acres of land, to be located in that portion of Virginia which became Kentucky. The fame of Doctor Walker as a surveyor, examiner and judge of frontier lands brought him to the attention of this company. On the 12th of December, 1749, he entered into a contract with the company to explore the country west of the Cumberlands in search of a suitable location upon which to lay the warrant for this immense grant.2

1 Dr. Thomas Walker was born in King and Queen County, Virginia, January 25, 1715. He died at his home, Castle Hill, Albemarle County, Virginia, November 9, 1794. He was a man of enterprise and public spirit and in his day filled many positions of public trust in the Virginia Colony. He became a surveyor and made himself familiar with the country to the west of the Virginia settlements of his time. His knowledge of the western country was frequently utilized by the Government. He was sent as commissioner to negotiate treaties where the interests of Virginia and other English colonies required men of the broadest knowledge. One of the most important treaties ever concluded with the Indians was that of Fort Stanwix, in New York. Here the English secured the Indian title to the lands South of the Ohio, including most of what is now Kentucky. In 1750, Doctor Walker and others made an extensive exploration in Eastern and Southeastern Kentucky. Many of the eminent families of Virginia and Kentucky are descended from Dr. Thomas Walker. 2 The opening sentence of his Journal says that "Having, on the 12th of December last, been employed for a certain consideration to go to the Westward in order to discover a proper Place for a Settlement," etc. See the Journal of Dr. Thomas Walker in First Explorations of Kentucky, a Filson Club publication by J. Stoddard Johnston. Published in 1898.

Doctor Walker set out on this tour from his home at Castle Hill, near Charlottesville, on the 6th day of March, 1750. There went with him, in what capacity is not exactly shown, Ambrose Powell, William Tomlinson, Colby Chew, Henry Lawless and John Hughes. The company was mounted, and there were two pack-horses to carry the baggage. That night the party stopped with Colonel Joshua Fry. The 7th proved a rainy day and, although the party got under way at eight o'clock, not much progress was made. The night was spent with Thomas Joplin, on Rockfish River. The weather continued unfavorable and traveling was rendered difficult. On the 13th they were at the home of William Calloway, where they supplied themselves with rum, thread, and other articles necessary to wilderness travel. At night they stopped with one Adam Beard, a "brutish fellow," who thought to have them arrested or "taken up," as the term was then and as it still is in all the country of the Appalachians. The Blue Ridge was crossed on the 14th. On the 15th corn for their horses was purchased of Michael Campbell, and a country noted for wild game was seen and described. They found that the buffalo had been killed for wanton sport and that the deer and elk had been slain for their hides. On the 16th of March the party reached the home of William Ingles, who had married Mary Draper, of the Draper Settlement, and whose marriage was the first solemnized in the Mississippi Valley between English-speaking people. Ingles had a mill on the headwaters of the Staunton. Five years later the Shawnees attacked his house and carried away his wife and children.3

The New River was crossed on the 17th. On the west bank lived a colony of Dunkards, and this colony had built a mill there. The river was 400 yards wide, and the explorers were compelled to swim their horses over the stream, which was probably done in the Appalachian way the reins held by those standing in a canoe paddled by one sitting at the stern, and the horses swimming with the craft and on the lower side. William Ingles afterwards established a ferry at this point, which later, in the day of westward migration, became famous as Ingles' Ferry. His descendants still live there. The explorers found the Dunkards very hospitable and, owing to the straying of their horses, they did not get away from this point until the 20th. The camp on the 21st was on Reedy Creek, a tributary of the New River which heads a little west of Wytheville. Doctor Walker stopped at the home of James McCall, of whom he purchased a supply of bacon. The Great Divide between the waters of the New River and the Holston, one of the main branches of the Tennessee-all tributary to the Ohio-was crossed on the 22d of March. The camp was made some five miles "below Davises Bottom" on the Holston, where there was a large spring. The course on the 23d was down the Holston, but only for four or five miles. Doctor Walker and Ambrose Powell went from the camp to find one Samuel Stalnaker, who had just moved into that wilderness to settle. His camp was found, and on the 24th the party went to his place and helped him to raise his house. Stalnaker was a trader to the Cherokee Indians, then living on the Tennessee and its branches. Doctor Walker had met him going on one of his trading expeditions in 1748 and tried to engage him as guide, but Stalnaker could not go with him. No settler's cabin lay west of that of Stalnaker. At that day he was the Johnny Groat of the Western wilderness.

From Stalnaker's the explorers turned west. On the 26th, camp was made at a large spring on a branch of the North Fork of the Holston. It stormed. There was thunder and lightning, and on the morning of the 27th snow was falling, and it did not cease until noon. This day the mountain-tops to the northwest were covered with snow. On the

8 See Chapter of this work on Mrs. Mary Ingles for an account of this incident.

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