So far, his life had been as uneventful as that of any other spirited young borderer; his business had been that of a frontier Indian trader; he had taken part in one or two unimportant Indian skirmishes.[23] Later he was commissioned by Lord Dunmore as a captain in the Virginia line.
Such were Sevier and Robertson, the leaders in the little frontier outpost of civilization that was struggling to maintain itself on the Watauga; and these two men afterwards proved themselves to be, with the exception of George Rogers Clark, the greatest of the first generation of Trans-Alleghany pioneers.
Their followers were worthy of them.

All alike were keenly alive to the disadvantages of living in a community where there was neither law nor officer to enforce it.

Accordingly, with their characteristic capacity for combination, so striking as existing together with the equally characteristic capacity for individual self-help, the settlers determined to organize a government of their own.

They promptly put their resolution into effect early in the spring of 1772, Robertson being apparently the leader in the movement.
They decided to adopt written articles of agreement, by which their conduct should be governed; and these were known as the Articles of the Watauga Association.

They formed a written constitution, the first ever adopted west of the mountains, or by a community composed of American-born freemen.