Intelligence, strength of purpose, fortitude, and moral power are there; they impress us at the first glance.

At twenty-eight he must have been a serious young man, little given to laughter; indeed, spontaneity is perhaps the only good trait we miss in studying his face.

He was a thinker who had not yet found his purpose--a thinker in leash, for at this time James Robertson could neither read nor write.
At Watauga, Robertson lived for a while in the cabin of a man named Honeycut.

He chose land for himself and, in accordance with the custom of the time, sealed his right to it by planting corn.

He remained to harvest his first crop and then set off to gather his family and some of his friends together and escort them to the new country.