Sevier by his devotees had a dual application. He
was well called Nolichucky Jack.

When Virginia annulled Richard Henderson's immense purchase but allowed
him a large tract on the Cumberland, she by no means discouraged that
intrepid pioneer. Henderson's tenure of Kentucky had been brief, but not
unprofitable in experience. He had learned that colonies must be
treated with less commercial pressure and with more regard to individual
liberty, if they were to be held loyal either to a King beyond the water
or to an uncrowned leader nearer at hand. He had been making his plans
for colonization of that portion of the Transylvania purchase which lay
within the bounds of North Carolina along the Cumberland and choosing
his men to lay the foundations of his projected settlement in what was
then a wholly uninhabited country; and he had decided on generous
terms, such as ten dollars a thousand acres for land, the certificate of
purchase to entitle the holder to further proceedings in the land office
without extra fees. To head an enterprise of such danger and hardship
Henderson required a man of more than mere courage; a man of resource,
of stability, of proven powers, one whom other men would follow and obey
with confidence. So it was that James Robertson was chosen to lead the
first white settlers into middle Tennessee. He set out in February,
1779, accompanied by his brother, Mark Robertson, several other white
men, and a negro, to select a site for settlement and to plant corn.
Meanwhile another small party led by Gaspar Mansker had arrived. As the
boundary line between Virginia and North Carolina had not been run to
this point, Robertson believed that the site he had chosen lay within
Virginia and was in the disposal of General Clark. To protect the
settlers, therefore, he journeyed into the Illinois country to purchase
cabin rights from Clark, but there he was evidently convinced that the
site on the Cumberland would be found to lie within North Carolina. He
returned to Watauga to lead a party of settlers into the new territory,
towards which they set out in October. After crossing the mountain chain
through Cumberland Gap, the party followed Boone's road--the Warriors'
Path--for some distance and then made their own trail southwestward
through the wilderness to the bluffs on the Cumberland, where they built
cabins to house them against one of the coldest winters ever experienced
in that county. So were laid the first fo