16, 1786, etc., etc., etc.] Often well-to-do men visited the new country by themselves first, chose good sites for their farms and plantations, surveyed and purchased them, and then returned to their old homes, whence they sent out their field hands to break the soil and put up buildings before bringing out their families.
Lines Followed in the Western Movement.
The westward movement of settlers took place along several different lines.

The dwellers in what is now eastern Tennessee were in close touch with the old settled country; their Western farms and little towns formed part of the chain of forest clearings which stretched unbroken from the border of Virginia down the valleys of the Watauga and the Holston.

Though they were sundered by mountain ranges from the peopled regions in the State to which they belonged, North Carolina, yet these ranges were pierced by many trails, and were no longer haunted by Indians.

There were no great obstacles to be overcome in moving in to this valley of the upper Tennessee.

On the other hand, by this time it held no very great prizes in the shape of vast tracts of rich and unclaimed land.