The present State has grown steadily from a single centre, which was the part first settled; and the popular name of the commonwealth has always been Kentucky.

Tennessee, on the other hand, did not assume her present name until a quarter of a century after the first exploration and settlement had begun; and the State grew from two entirely distinct centres.

The first settlements, known as the Watauga, or afterwards more generally as the Holston, settlements, grew up while keeping close touch with the Virginians, who lived round the Tennessee head-waters, and also in direct communication with North Carolina, to which State they belonged.

It was not until 1779 that a portion of these Holston people moved to the bend of the Cumberland River and started a new community, exactly as Kentucky had been started before.

At first this new community, known as the Cumberland settlement, was connected by only the loosest tie with the Holston settlements.