Timeline |
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| Spring 1795 | In Philadelphia in the spring of 1795,
Andrew Baird
approaches Tench Coxe, who had served as an assistant to Alexander Hamilton, the former Secretary of the
Treasury (resigned Jan. 31, 1795) in the Washington administration, regarding
holdings of some half million acres of land in western North Carolina.
Baird represented the interests of the
Rutherford Land Company that consisted
of 18 members or Trustees, including
William W. Erwin ,
James
Greenlee,
Lewis Beard, and others. The land of the
Rutherford Land Company had apparently been
acquired through Greenlee who owned extensive tracts in
Burke
County, North Carolina. Burke County, formed from Rowan, was
in its earliest form (1777-1792) a large land holding encompassing parts of
present-day Avery, Caldwell, Alexander, Catawba,
Mitchell, Madison, Buncombe, Haywood, and McDowell Counties.
By 1795 Burke County was diminished in size and encompassed parts
of present-day Mitchell, Avery, Caldwell, Burke, and McDowell
Counties.
Andrew Baird was a former New Jersey iron master
and knew members of the Coxe family, which may account for his interest in
Tench Coxe
and the resulting offer to Coxe to
purchase some or all of the holdings east of the Blue Ridge Mountains
for 9 cents an acre. The entire tract included land not only in old
Burke County, but also in present day Rutherford
County, Polk County, Henderson County, Cleveland County, and Buncombe County.
The total acreage was approximately 540,000 acres (William W. Ervin and
Andrew Baird to Coxe, Sept. 17, 1795, Coxe Papers.) |
| June 27, 1795 | Tench Coxe enters into a contract to purchase 100,000
acres from the Rutherford Land Company trustees and negotiates payment
in one year in specie of $9,000. (As a public official, Coxe's annual
salary was $1,200. He received a partial subsidy from his father William
to complete the purchase.) |
| July 1795 | Tench Coxe makes a down-payment of $6,000 and an Article of
Agreement is drawn up in Rutherford County, for the management
and sale of the lands. |
| November 1795 |
Lewis Beard,
then sole representative of the Rutherford
associates, offers an additional 80,000 acres to
Tench Coxe again at 9
cents an acre. Coxe verbally agrees to purchase the additional land. |
| November 7, 1795 | Believing that he could rapidly sell his new purchase and
realize a profit, Coxe writes to a prospective agent,
Nathaniel
Gorham,
"I am willing to sell, at twenty cents, one hundred thousand acres
of land in North Carolina ...[land] ...in a county ... in which is now a
courthouse, iron works, four or five great roads ..." In a blatant
abuse of public office,
Tench Coxe makes
Gorham, a subordinate in the revenue office in Massachusetts, his
principal land agent. (Coxe
to Nathaniel Gorham, Nov. 7, 1795, Coxe Papers) |
| December 6, 1795 & January 16, 1796 |
Tench Coxe hires
Ephraim Kirby and
Samuel A.
Law, already brokers for his Pennsylvania land, to broker his
interests in the North Carolina land. His offer to bring the two into
partnership with him was
declined in lieu of a 5% commission on the sale of the land. |
| January 1, 1796 |
Tench Coxe signs a formal contract to purchase the entire
180,000 acres offered by the Rutherford Land Company in western North
Carolina. The acreage was approximately one-third of the total land
holdings of the Company. |
| January 1796 |
Tench Coxe enters into a partnership with
William Constable to
purchase the remaining acreage of the Rutherford Land Company. The two
send agent Joseph Burr to North Carolina to negotiate the purchase.
In a secret deal, Coxe makes Burr his sole agent and Constable ceases to a
partner. |
| February 6, 1796 | Joseph Burr informs the trustees of the Rutherford Land
Company that he is authorized to make an offer on behalf of
Tench Coxe for
"the whole of the remainder, vixt 360,000 acres on a credit of two
years from this time without interest at ten Cents per acre or I would
give nine cents and interest from the purchase." (Coxe
to Erwin, Greenlee, and Beard, Feb.6, 1796, Coxe Papers) |
| February 9, 1796 |
Tench Coxe reconsiders and purchases a smaller tract of
90,000 acres but requests a "description of the several large
tracts... and draughts of the whole 540,000 acres." Coxe's logic
was that the smaller purchase would give his agents time to sell his
other holdings for inflated amounts and thus provide the capital for the
new purchases. ( Coxe to Erwin, Greenlee and Beard,
Feb. 9, 1796, Coxe Papers) |
| May 1796 |
Tench Coxe receives a letter from
William Polk, Treasury
Department supervisor for North Carolina and large land holder.
Polk proposes the sale of lands in Mecklenberg County, NC. Coxe makes a
tentative agreement with Polk for some 40,000 acres with payment due in
October 1798. (William Polk to Coxe, May 26, 1796, Coxe
Papers) |
| July 21, 1796 |
Tench Coxe writes to Governor
Robert Morris
regarding his speculation and suggests a joint venture. (Coxe
to Morris, July 21, 1796, Coxe Papers) |
| August 1796 |
Tench Coxe reopens negotiations with the
Rutherford
Land Company for the purchase of an additional 122,240 acres, bringing his holding
in the state of North Carolina to nearly a half million acres. He
imagines Rutherford as a model county, a land of milk and honey, to which
investors would flock. He proposes to offer through a land company four
hundred shares of stock, of which he would hold two hundred shares. He
imagines building a town with a church, a school, a library, and various
local industries. During the spring and summer of 1796 Coxe's agents
circulate his "Plan of a valuable and profitable Settlement in the
County of Rutherford, in North Carolina", an Advertisement in the form of a broadside throughout
the country. (Examples found in Coxe to Dexter, May 5,
1796 and to Davis, July 3, 1796, Coxe Papers) |
| Late August 1796 |
Tench Coxe experiences reservations after a series of
setbacks and poor choices in investors, namely Dr. John Ruston, a
partner in the Pennsylvania land purchases of Coxe. Ruston, a voracious
land speculator, faced
bankruptcy and also charges of fraud connected with speculation. He
eventually went to prison for debts in excess of $100,000. One of
Tench Coxe's
agents writes to him that the "land bubble had been pricked
..." |
| December 1796 |
Tench Coxe is faced with paying his debts or spending time
in jail alongside his friend Dr. Ruston. With monetary support
from family members and the security of 20,000 acres of land, Coxes
escapes certain criminal proceedings, but how he did so is unclear. His troubles regarding his debts were,
however, not over. Years of litigation related to his land speculation followed him the remainder of his life. |
| May 20, 1797 |
Tench Coxe receives a letter from
Robert Morris
turning down his joint speculation venture. Morris writes: "The
Dearth of Money and the consequent Embarrassments public and private
force Men to limit their Views and Operations to a narrow Compass
...from the various tricks which have been plaid they are led to doubt
the Utility of Land Speculations in America." Morris was soon to
know the full fury of unwise speculation. (Morris to Coxe,
May 20, 1797, Coxe Papers) |
| May 7, 1798 |
Tench Coxe draws up his "Proposals for a Land
Company." His utopian proposal was a failure. Coxe turns to his father
for help. |
| September 6, 1798 | Deeply exasperated by his son's inability to manage his
affairs, William Coxe responds, "My grey hairs are Compleatly
brought with sorrow to the grave by your mean Teasing Letters for 3
Months past to Sacrifice my Childrens fortunes to enrich yours, Contest
my Will, and Derange my affairs. Hence forward ... you shall not
interfere or meddle with my Estate in any manner whatever [nor] direct
me or Tirannise over me to the Last minute of my Life." The father then
places Tench's inheritance in a managed trust. (William Coxe, Sr. to
Coxe, Sept. 6, 1798, Coxe Papers) |
| June 1799 | Suits related to contested land, recovery of money, and
non-payment of debt now follow Coxe. He is party to legal proceedings
instituted by William Polk related to the North Carolina lands,
particularly the Rutherford tract. Overwhelmed by lawsuits, Coxe
seeks to put his lands into a trust. He assigns the land to
William
Tilghman, a trusted cousin and family lawyer,
Abraham Kintzing, a
friend, and Richard Coxe, his wife's brother.
It is believed that Pierre-Estienne DuPonceau
(Peter Stephen
DuPonceau), a family friend and
lawyer, is also appointed a trustee at this time. This trusteeship is
prudent and keeps Coxe from bankruptcy. |
| 1799-1819 | Amazingly,
Tench Coxe is able to retain his North Carolina land holdings
for nearly twenty years. The annual taxes and the enormous interest on
his debts do not dissuade him from his single purpose to possess land.
His records indicate that at one time he owned some 350,000 acres in Pennsylvania (200,000 of which
was contested) and 400,000 or 500,000 acres in North Carolina (the exact
number of acres is still debated.) It is little wonder that most of his
life was consumed by litigation, negotiation, and financial juggling. |
| 1819 | Augustus Sacket, Sr., New York mercantilist, acquires 399,040 acres from the Trustees
of
Tench
Coxe but defaults on the first installment of the mortgage.
Additionally, he
provides prospective land purchasers with invalid deeds and/or titles and also,
apparently, warrants with no legal
documentation to support the acreage. In short, Sacket's purchase is invalid and
the trustees search for another buyer. |
| December 1819 |
Augustus Sacket, Jr. arrives in Rutherford County and makes an appearance at the
January Court of 1820, according to the memorandum book kept by James Stevens, a
later agent of the "Speculation Land Company". Sacket circulates a
broadside stating "FOR SALE: 400,000 ACRES OF LAND, In the Counties of Rutherford, Mecklenburgh , & Buncombe, In the Southwestern Parts of the State of North
Carolina -- not inferior in any respect to the Alabama or any other district or
country in the United States." Sacket refers to the Speculation Lands as
the "Speculation Land Company." |
| May 1820 |
Augustus Sacket, Sr., "Old Sackett," arrives in Rutherford County in the company of another son
Edward Sacket. He leaves in December but is back in North Carolina the following year.
Augustus, Jr. and Edward remain in Rutherfordton. |
| 1821 |
Augustus Sacket,
Sr. comes to North Carolina to appear before the North Carolina
Superior Court. He remains in Rutherford County until the fall and then returns to
New York. Retention of the North Carolina Speculation Lands and his mortgage
are in difficulty. |
| April 1825 |
Jacob Hyatt, acting on behalf of the Coxe trustees,
arrives in North Carolina. He
writes to
Arthur Bronson: "I have heared [sic] not anything particular respecting
the Speculation Lands (as they are termed here) except that they have been sold
and the old story that they are generally thin. I believe no one suspects the
object of my business. It appears that Money is very scarce in this country, many
of the people involved in debt to such a degree that their property will have to
be sold, which makes many anxious to sell and very few if any purchasers." |
| July 12, 1825 |
Pierre-Estienne DuPonceau, once aide-de-camp for von Steuben at Valley Forge,
as an appointed trustee for the estate of Tench Coxe,
assigns the Sacket mortgage to a group of investors. Included among the
investors are
Isaac Bronson, a wealthy banker and land speculator from New York,
Gould Hoyt
[also written as Goold Hoyt], another banker, James Thompson, and
James B.
Murray. |
| 1825 |
Isaac Bronson,
Gould Hoyt and associates send
Jacob Hyatt to North Carolina to oversee
the land holdings. |
| 1829 |
Joshua Forman is appointed as agent for the "Rutherfordton Speculation
Lands" for Isaac Bronson and Gould Hoyt. Forman arrives in North Carolina
to execute his responsibilities. |
| March 8, 1830 | A
Deed of Trust and Power of Attorney is issued declaring that the management of
the "Speculation Lands" will always be under the control of the families
of
Isaac Bronson,
Gould Hoyt and
Archibald McIntire. The position of Superintending Agent
is created for family members, and a Resident Agent position is created to oversee the lands
in western North Carolina. |
| 1838-1844 | Tiemmon [?] is Resident Agent |
| 1842 | A large map (0001) is created for the heirs of Isaac Bronson, who had died and left his lands contested. Bronson's will is probated in Rutherford County in September 1858. |
| 1845-1852 | M. W. Davis is appointed and serves as Resident Agent. He is believed to be
the first member of the Justice
family to be associated with the Speculation Lands. |
| 1853-1872 |
Thomas B. Justice
is appointed and serves as Resident Agent |
| September1858 | Isaac Bronson's will is probated in the Rutherford County Court in September 1858. |
| 1873-1911 |
C. Bayliss Justice
is appointed and serves as Resident Agent |
| June 1906 | C Baylis Justice prepares a report of the "three bodies of land valued
respectively at $5.25, $4.25, & $3.25 per acre." He indicates that the
tracts are "Known as the Speculation Lands." They total some 50,000
acres. The report appears to have been prepared on June 1906, though the date
has been crossed out. The audience and the purpose of the report are
unknown. |
| December 12, 1906 |
George E. Ladshaw
files a report on the feasibility of developing hydroelectric power
plants on the Green River in Rutherford County. |
| 1911 |
Samuel J.
Justice is appointed Resident Agent |
| 1912 | A lawsuit is filed against the heirs of
Isaac Bronson, the Trustees of the
"Speculation Land Company", and others. The Court is requested to devise a way to equitably
dispose of the Speculation Land Company holdings. |
| August 1, 1917 - |
George W. Justice is appointed as a Commissioner to oversee the dissolution
of the "Speculation Land Company". |
| March 15, 1920 | Final Report of
George W. Justice regarding the Company
is filed on this date. |
| March 18, 1920 |
George W. Justice and
Fred McBrayer buy the remaining 9,376 acres, and with this
action the "Speculation Land Company" ceases
to be. |
| 2002 | The
George W. Justice home is purchased by
Gene and Sharon
Robbins of Hendersonville. The iron safe in the basement is opened
and the documents of the Speculation Lands are discovered. |
| January 30, 2003 | The papers of the Speculation Lands come to the University
of North Carolina at Asheville through a generous local donation from the
Joseph Kimmel family. Processing
begins.
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Next page: NC Declaration of Rights |
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