William had heard the Indian traders tell of a wonderful land in the Blue Ridge Mountains of Western North Carolina. He had been told that it was a wild land of mountains and timber, clear streams of sweet water abounding with fish. It was also a land of fertile valleys and the mountains and valleys were full of wild game for food; deer and bear, wild turkey, grouse and partridge and the wild pigeons in flocks so large that at times the sun was blotted out during their flight. And those same Indian traders told of the fur bearing animals, mink, beaver and the like whose pelts were better than hard money when trading for the necessities of life.
The trip from Edgefield to the Carolina upcountry was made on foot with at least seven of the eight children. We have been told that the move required a matter of months to complete, but even on foot this seems to be something of an exaggeration.
The end of their journey found them on the Underwood Plateau of Jeter Mountain on the present-day boundary between Henderson and Transylvania Counties.
This was the year 1800. The clear sparkling Crab Creek flowed by on one side of the mountain and Big Willow Creek on the other side. Settlers were few and far between in this area in 1800. “A body had elbow room in which to get about and breathe the pure, crisp mountain air. William Sentelle” William had found his Promised Land.
The pioneer family raised a log cabin on the mountaintop of Jeter Mountain. near where today a road from Little River community runs into the Jeter Mountain road. Family historian Nicholas Sentelle who grew up on the mountain has indicated a spot about a half mile due east of this fork, on the south side of the road, as the actual site of the first home place in western North Carolina.
The site is corroborated by a transfer of fifty acres, part of the tract where William was then living, to son Guilford (10 February 1816). Its location on the headwaters of Little Willow and crossing a branch of Crab Creek places the tract squarely across the top of the Jeter Mountain plateau.
