The Great Trading Path began in Pennsylvania and crossed the Blue Ridge and Allegheny Mountains as far west as the Ohio River.
At first, a great trading path was used by Virginia traders to get through the towns of the Cherokees and the Catawbas. Still, it was in the 18th century that Virginians pushed further westward, crossing the mountains and locating settlements as a barrier against the imperialistic designs of France.
The French had settlements in the Louisiana territories, and it was not within their power to dislodge the English along the James River, but the English King could cross the mountains.
The Colonies belonged to the King of England, whose primary concern was to profit by manufacturing goods in the colonies and transporting them throughout the world.
Before Daniel Boone and Davy Crockett, land companies were organized to lead families across the Blue Ridge and Allegheny mountains.
In 1716, Governor Alexander Spotswood led an expedition of fifty men and a train of pack horses to the mountains, arduously ascended the summit of the Blue Ridge, and claimed the country by right of discovery on behalf of the English King.
John Fontaine wrote in his diary the account of this episode: “I graved my name on a tree by the riverside, and the Governor buried a bottle with a paper enclosed on which he wrote that he took possession of this place in the name of King George the First of England. We had a good dinner, and after it, we got the men together and loaded all their arms, and we drank to the King’s health and fired a volley, then to all the rest of the Royal Family in claret and a volley. After that, we drank to the Governor’s health and fired another volley.”
At this pleasant picnic, the Governor presented each gentleman who accompanied him with a golden horseshoe.
In June 1749, an excellent corporation, the Loyal Land Company of Virginia, received a grant of 8,000 acres above the North Carolina line and west of the mountains. Dr. Thomas Walker, an expert surveyor, had made a tour of exploration through eastern Tennessee and the Holston region in 1748 and was chosen as the agent of this company.
Dr. Walker started from his home in Albemarle County, Virginia, on March 6, 1750, accompanied by five stalwart pioneers. He was gone on this expedition for four months. He went as far west as the Rockcastle River (May 11) and north as Paintsville, Kentucky.
In 1748 the Ohio Company was organized by Colonel Thomas Lee, president of the Virginia council, and twelve other gentlemen of Virginia and Maryland. They petitioned for 5000 acres of land, stating that one of the declared objects of the company was to “anticipate the French by taking possession of that country southward of the lakes to which the French had no right.”
Christopher Gist was summoned from his remote home on the Yadkin River in North Carolina. He was instructed: “to search out and discover the lands upon the river Ohio and other adjoining branches of the Mississippi River down as low as the Great Falls.” This journey began at the home of Colonel Thomas Cresap in Maryland in October of 1750 and ended at Gist’s home on May 18, 1751. Gist visited the Lower Shawnee Town and the Lower Blue Licks, ascended Pilot Knob almost two decades before Findlay and Boone, and saw the beautiful level of Kentucky. On the return journey, it intersected Walker’s route at two points and crossed Cumberland Mountain at Pound Gap.
Acquiring all the names of those gentlemen participating in the expeditions may be impossible. However, tracking the routes with maps is an excellent guideline for zeroing in on present-day counties. And this is where to search.
Source: The Conquest of the Old Southwest: The Romantic Story of the Early Pioneers into Virginia, the Carolinas, Tennessee, and Kentucky 1740–1790 by Archibald Henderson, Ph.D., D. C. L.
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