Transylvania Purchase

Transylvania Purchase is a Tennessee historical marker in Carter County.

Carter Co. TN 91, 1 mile west of Elizabethton city limits

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In this valley, March 17, 1775, the Transylvania Company, led by Richard Henderson, John Williams and Nathaniel Hart, bought from the Cherokee, led by Chief Oconostota, all the lands between the Kentucky and Cumberland Rivers. Over 20 million acres sold for 2000 Pounds Sterling and goods worth 8000 Pounds.

Maps this old were drawn largely by eye, so places on them can sit miles from where they really are. The pin is ours and marks the marker's location today.

TodayHistorical map

Slide toward Today to fade the historical sheet and see the modern map underneath.

David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries

Historical maps covering this location

1776 · Map Of North And South Carolina With Their Indian Frontiers. (Northern Section) (David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries)
1778 · The Western Parts of Virginia, Pennsylvania, Maryland and North Carolina. (David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries)
1796 · Kentuckey. (David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries)
1814 · Kentucky (Mathew Carey, 1814) (Barry Lawrence Ruderman Map Collection, Stanford Libraries)
1829 · Tennessee (A. Finley, 1829) (Barry Lawrence Ruderman Map Collection, Stanford Libraries)

Example

For example, one family's tree showed the Articles of Confederation marker in Pennsylvania standing under a mile from where William Gabby lived in the 1760s.

What that marker records spans 1777 to 1789, overlapping William Gabby's years there.

From one family's 77-marker roster

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Marker text and location from the Tennessee Historical Commission, as the Commission publishes them on its marker map.

Transylvania Purchase

Historical maps covering this location

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