From the book, The Overmountain Men, by Pat Alderman, 1970:
"JAMES ROBERTSON PLANS CUMBERLAND SETTLEMENT"
"The Cumberland Settlement really began in 1777 during the Long Island
Treaty. This occasion brought together James Robertson, John Donelson and
Richard Henderson where plans were discussed and made for the adventure. At
the close of the Treaty, Donelson returned to his home in Virginia and
began preparation for the moving to Big Salt Lick. James Robertson, George
Freeland, Zachariah Wells, James Healey, William Neely, Edward Swanson,
William Overall, Mark Robertson and a negro slave made the trip to the
present site of Nashville in 1778-1779 to look the situation over. They
planted seed corn brought along and put up a fence to protect it from the
animals. Robertson, with some of the pioneers, went by canoe into the
Illinois country to purchase supplies and horses. On this trip, he obtained
from George Rogers Clark a 3000 acre grant Clark owned in the Cumberland.
Leaving men to watch corn, stock and cabins, Robertson returned to his home
on the Holston to make final arrangements for moving.
James Robertson and the men took the stock and went the Kentucky route,
while Donelson with the women traveled by boat. With the horses, cows, hogs
and sheep forming a caravan, they followed a route indicated in Williams'
Early Travels in Tennessee Country. "The route made a great bend through
the Kentucky country. The main stations it passed through after leaving
Cumberland Gap were: Whitley's Station on to Dick's River, Carpenter's
Station on Green River; thence along the north side of Green River to
Robertson's Fork, down same to Pittman's Station; then crossing same at Elk
Lick; passing Blue Spring and Dripping Spring to Big Barren River; thence
up Drake's Creek to a bituminous spring; thence to Red River; thence into
Carolina (Tennessee), passing Mansker's Lick; then to French Lick." The
extreme cold winter made the trip difficult. The caravan of men and animals
reached the Cumberland River, across from Big French Lick, Christmas week
of 1779. Finding the river frozen solid, they drove the stock across the
ice on Christmas day. Thus the Cumberland Settlement, which was to become a
center of western expansion, had its beginning. James Roberston and the men
began erecting cabins and clearing sections, preparatory to the arrival of
their families journeying with Donelson by boat..."