154 CHEROKEE NATION OF INDIANS. 
locality had in the meantime materially advanced, it became necessary, 
in order to exclude the bulk of the settlers from the Indian country, to 
take advantage of this technicality. The line was consequently so run 
(from a point on said dividing ridge 40 miles above Nashville) that it 
struek the Cumberland River about 1 mile above the mouth of Rock 
Castle River, a distance of perhaps 175 to 200 miles above Nashville. 
This line was surveyed by General James Winchester, who, under date 
of November 9, 1797, in a letter to General Robertson, describes a por- 
tion of it as running as follows: 
From Walton’s read 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; Ach- 
mugh 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. 
He also adds that the total length of the line (from the dividing ridge 
to Cumberland River above Rock Castle) is 138}; miles. 
The Fort Blount here mentioned was on the south side of Cumber- 
land River, about 6 miles in a direct line, southwest of Gainesboro’, and 
the road led from tinere to Walton’s road, which it joined at or near the 
present site of Cooksville.! Walton’s or Caney Fork road ied from 
Carthage in an easterly direction, and before the organization of Put- 
nam County formed the boundary line between Overton and White 
counties, from whence it continued easterly through Anderson’s Cross 
Roads and Montgomery to Wilson’s, in Knox County. The “Two 
Springs,” are about 2 or 3 miles northwest of Cooksville.! 
There is much difficulty in determining the absolute course of the 
‘* Winchester line,” from the meager description contained in his letter 
above quoted. Arrowsmith and Lewis, in their Atlas, published in 
1804, lay down the line as pursuing a perfectly straight course from its 
point of departure on the dividing ridge to its termination on the Cumn- 
berland above the mouth of Rock Castle River. ‘{Cheir authority for 
such a definition of the boundary is not given. If such was the true 
course of the line, the description given in General Winchester’s letter 
would need some explanation. He must have considered Obey’s River 
as emptying into Wolf River in order to bring his crossing of the 
former stream reasonably near the distance from its mouth specified by 
him. He must also have been mistaken in his estimate of the dis- 
tance at which the line crossed above the mouth of the South Fork of 
the Cumberland. The line of Arrowsmith and Lewis would cross that 
stream at least 12 miles in a direct line above its mouth, instead of five 
or six. It is ascertained from correspondence with the officers of the 
Historical Society of Tennessee, that the line, after crossing the Fort 
Blount road at the “Two Springs,” continued in a northeasterly direc- 
tion, crossing Roaring Fork near the mouth of a small creek, and, pur- 
suing the same course, passed to the east of the town of Livingston. 
' Letter of Hon. Jno. M. Lea, of Nashville, Tenn., to the author. 

