Transylvania Company also known as Richard Henderson & Company in 1775 purchased from the Cherokees a large swath of wilderness between the Kentucky River and Cumberland River. Richard Henderson was a former Colonel in the American Revolutionary War. Henderson also purchased 17,000,000 acres from the Cherokee Inidans in part of which now the land of Henderson County. With the county having a total area of 466 square miles, Henderson County is home to almost 46,000 residents.