Featured Families

Howland, Father of American Legacies, signed the Mayflower Compact after surviving being thrown overboard with the roll of the ship on the journey to Plymouth. Howland became a prominent citizen in the colony politically and socially, though his marriage to another Mayflower passenger, Elizabeth Tilley, brought to the new world 10 children and nearly 90 grandchildren. Howland and Tilley's descendants include presidents Franklin D. Roosevelt, George H.W. Bush, and George W. Bush. Other descendants include Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, and Joseph Smith, founder of the Mormon Church. Howland's headstone shares that he "was the last man that was left of those that came over in the ship, called the 'Mayflower', that lived in Plymouth."

Colonel Richard Henderson

Colonel William Whitley

Henderson, Founder of Nashville, was a visionary jurist and land speculator whose grand ambitions reshaped the American frontier. As the driving force behind the Transylvania Company, he famously employed Daniel Boone to blaze the historic Wilderness Road into Kentucky—a migration route that an estimated one-sixth of all Americans can trace their ancestry to today. Henderson's pioneering reach extended deep into early Tennessee, where he authored the Cumberland Compact and established Fort Nashborough, laying the literal and legal foundations for the city of Nashville.

Coming soon to Henderson and Co. We are currently preparing the lineage and narrative for Senator John Brooks Henderson among other notable figures.

Henderson and Company

Cameron and Company

John Howland

Whitley, Guardian of the Wilderness Road and Father of Kentucky Horse Racing, was a formidable frontier pioneer whose estate became a foundational hub of early Kentucky society. Having traveled the historic Wilderness Road blazed by Richard Henderson’s Transylvania Company, Whitley settled in Lincoln County and constructed the first brick home in the region. A passionate horseman, he permanently shaped American sports culture by building Sportsman's Hill—the first circular horse racetrack west of the Alleghenies. In a spirited rejection of British turf traditions, Whitley laid his track in clay and directed his races counterclockwise, establishing a legacy that birthed Kentucky's legendary horse racing heritage.

Colonel William Crawford

Crawford, Civil Engineer and Gunsmith, traveled the Great Wagon Road, settling in Augusta County near what is now Crawford Mountain. The town Mt. Crawford, VA is named for his family which includes grandsons Lt. John Crawford, Cpt. William Crawford, Ens. Alexander Crawford, Rev. Edward Crawford, and Rev. James Crawford among other prominent citizens. James was a part of the 1792 convention that framed the first constitution of Kentucky; he founded the oldest Presbyterian Church in the state. Edward attended Liberty Hall where he would later become a trustee. Liberty Hall is now Washington and Lee University. Edward was also a founding trustee of Martin Academy, now Washington College Academy, the oldest institution of higher learning west of the Alleghenies. John, William, and Alexander took-up the family's smith business during the Revolutionary War, producing guns, sabers, and other supplies for the war efforts.