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TO MY CHILDREN
EWART, LA VERNE, AND LOIS
WHO HAVE EVER BEEN MY
INSPIRING AUDIENCE
[Illustration: KENTUCKY
FROM ITS SETTLEMENT TO THE CIVIL WAR]
STORIES OF
OLD KENTUCKY
BY
MARTHA GRASSHAM PURCELL
AUTHOR OF "SETTLEMENTS AND CESSIONS OF LOUISIANA"
MEMBER OF THE BOARD OF EDUCATION
PADUCAH, KENTUCKY
[Illustration]
AMERICAN BOOK COMPANY
NEW YORK CINCINNATI CHICAGO
COPYRIGHT, 1915, BY
MARTHA GRASSHAM PURCELL.
COPYRIGHT, 1915, IN GREAT BRITAIN.
STORIES OF OLD KENTUCKY.
E.P.
PREFACE
To be easily assimilated, our mental food, like our physical food,
should be carefully chosen and attractively served.
The history of the "Dark and Bloody Ground" teems with adventure and
patriotism. Its pages are filled with the great achievements, the heroic
deeds, and the inspiring examples of the explorers, the settlers, and
the founders of our state. In the belief that a knowledge of their
struggles and conquests is food that is both instructive and inspiring,
and with a knowledge that a text on history does not always attract, the
author sets before the youth of Kentucky these stories of some of her
great men.
This book is intended as both a supplementary reader and a text, for,
though in story form, the chapters are arranged chronologically, and
every fact recorded has been verified.
Thanks are due to the many friends who have granted access to papers of
historical value, to many others who have assisted in making this book a
reality, and especially to my husband, Dr. Clyde Edison Purcell, for his
valuable suggestions, careful criticisms, and untiring cooeperation.
MARTHA GRASSHAM PURCELL.
CONTENTS
PAGE
WHEN THE OCEAN COVERED KENTUCKY 9
THE ABORIGINES OF KENTUCKY 10
SOME PREHISTORIC REMAINS 16
THE DISCOVERY OF KENTUCKY 18
INDIAN CLAIMS IN KENTUCKY 22
SCOUWA 23
THE GRAVEYARD OF THE MAMMOTHS 27
THE DRUID OF KENTUCKY 28
A PIONEER NOBLEMAN 33
EARLY KENTUCKY CUSTOMS 37
BOONE'S ILLUSTRIOUS PEER 41
BOONE'S TRACE 49
BOONE IN CAPTIVITY 52
BOONESBOROUGH'S BRAVE DEFENSE 56
THE LOST BABY 61
THE FIRST ROMANCE IN KENTUCKY 64
A WEDDING IN THE WILDERNESS 67
PIONEER CHILDREN 70
HOW THE PIONEERS MADE CHANGE 72
A WOMAN'S WILL 73
WHEN THE WOMEN BROUGHT THE WATER 76
THE RESULT OF ONE RASH ACT 83
TWO KENTUCKY HEROES 86
THE BATTLE OF THE BOARDS 89
THE FAITHFUL SLAVE AND HIS REWARD 91
THE DOUBLE SHOT 94
A MAN OF STRATEGY AND SAGACITY 96
THE KIND-HEARTED INDIAN 100
SAVED BY THE HUG OF A BEAR 101
A KENTUCKIAN DEFEATED THE BRITISH 105
A FAMOUS MARCH 110
THE FIRST CHRISTMAS PARTY 113
FORT JEFFERSON 115
"THE HARD WINTER" 118
WILDCAT MCKINNEY 119
HOW KENTUCKY WAS FORMED 122
KENTUCKY IN THE REVOLUTION 123
KENTUCKY'S PIONEER HISTORIAN 125
SPANISH CONSPIRACY 128
A KENTUCKY INVENTOR 135
OTHER KENTUCKY INVENTIONS 138
THE MAN WHO KNEW ABOUT BIRDS 140
A HERO OF HONOR 143
THE "PRIDE OF THE PENNYRILE" 150
LUCY JEFFERSON LEWIS 153
NATURAL CURIOSITIES IN KENTUCKY 155
THE WORLD'S GREATEST NATURAL WONDER 159
HOW REELFOOT LAKE WAS FORMED 161
KENTUCKY VALOR IN 1812-1815 163
A TRIUMVIRATE OF ELOQUENCE 166
KENTUCKIANS IN TEXAS AND MEXICO 167
CLAY, THE GREAT COMMONER 169
KENTUCKY IN THE WAR BETWEEN THE STATES 171
WHY SOME CITIES WERE SO NAMED 175
KENTUCKY IN THE FIELD OF SCIENCE 179
"BESSEMER STEEL" IN KENTUCKY 182
KENTUCKY ARTISTS 184
KENTUCKY IN THE FIELD OF LETTERS 187
KENTUCKIANS IN HISTORY 190
A LIST OF BOOKS ABOUT KENTUCKY
AUDUBON, LUCY: "Life and Journals of John James Audubon." Putnam.
COLLINS, R.H.: "History of Kentucky." Collins & Co.
EGGLESTON, E.: "Stories of American Life and Adventure." "Stories of
Great Americans for Little Americans." American Book Co.
HULBERT, A.B.: "Boone's Wilderness Road." Arthur H. Clark Co.
JOHNSON, E.P.: "History of Kentucky and Kentuckians." Lewis Publishing
Co.
KINKEAD, E.S.: "History of Kentucky." American Book Co.
MARSHALL, H.: "History of Kentucky." Frankfort.
OTIS, JAMES: "Hannah of Kentucky." American Book Co.
PRICE, S.W.: "Old Masters of the Blue Grass." Morton & Co.
SHALER, N.S.: "Kentucky." Houghton Mifflin Co.
SMITH, H.I.: "Prehistoric Ethnology of a Kentucky Site." Amer. Museum of
Nat. Hist.
SMITH, Z.F.: "History of Kentucky." Courier-Journal Co.
STOCKTON, F.R.: "Stories of New Jersey." American Book Co.
THOMPSON, E.P.: "A Young People's History of Kentucky." A.R. Fleming
Publishing Co.
TOWNSEND, J.W.: "Kentuckians in History and Literature." Neale
Publishing Co. "Kentucky in American Letters." Torch Press.
YOUNG, B.H.: "Prehistoric Men of Kentucky." Filson Club.
STORIES OF OLD KENTUCKY
WHEN THE OCEAN COVERED KENTUCKY
Facts are stranger than fiction; and when we read the great volume of
Nature, we find it more intensely interesting, instructive, and exciting
than any "tale" told by our master minds.
It is difficult enough for the youth of to-day to realize there was ever
a time when Kentucky did not have a place on the map and in the march of
events. Still more difficult is it for them to realize that there was a
time when the ocean covered our state. Geological annals show that the
surface of Kentucky was once the bed of the sea. This primitive ocean is
supposed to have covered a large part of North America to the depth of
several thousand feet. As we read the record in the soil and as we study
the strata, we find evidence of a gradual retreat of the briny waters
without proofs of any very violent or sudden disruptions of the ocean.
The creation or appearance of sea animals, fishes, polyps, and the
formation of limestone, sandstone, slate, grit, and pebble, are parts of
the story here recorded.
The retreat of the briny waters continued and continued for ages, until
finally the Cumberland or Wasioto Mountains emerged, followed by the
Black, Laurel, Pine, Long, and Galico Mountains; other lower elevations
then rose until only an inland sea, surrounded by sandy hills, remained.
Then the grasses, reeds, and mosses left their impress; land animals,
insects, birds, and reptiles appeared; vegetation increased, and trees
and shrubs grew.
Still the waters receded; marshes, muddy swamps, licks, small lakes,
ponds, clay and marl deposits were left; sinks and caves were formed;
and land plants and animals increased.
As the waters still slowly but surely receded, creeks, rivers, and
valleys received their present shape, the ocean reached its actual
level, and the American continent assumed its shape. The huge
animals--the big bears, buffaloes, jaguars, elephants, and
mastodons--roamed over what is now Kentucky, and left their impress at
Big Bone Lick, Drennon's Lick, and other points where the savage, the
settler, and the man of science have successively meditated and marveled
over their prehistoric remains.
THE ABORIGINES OF KENTUCKY
When but a little girl one of my greatest delights was to sit at the
feet of my maternal grandfather and listen to the tales of the olden
times. Grandfathers and grandmothers always love to tell stories, and
boys and girls love to hear them. Our grandparents were not the only
ones that enjoyed telling stories of the great past; Indians also
related many things to their children of what had happened in the long
ago. But as the red men had no books in which to record these
happenings, some of their stories may be of real incidents and a great
deal may be purely imaginary, for we know the Indian was always very
superstitious.
[Illustration: The Indians loved to tell stories to their children.]
There is a story told by the Lenni-Lenape Indians, who lived in eastern
United States, that their ancestors in the very earliest times were
mere animals living underground. One of them accidentally found a hole
by which he came to the surface of the ground, and soon the whole tribe
followed. These Indians believed that they gradually became human
beings; so in remembrance of their ancestors, they chose such names as
"Black Bear," "Black Hawk," "Red Horse," and "Sitting Bull." Some of the
tribes believing in this tradition would not eat any underground animals
like the rabbit, ground hog, and ground squirrel, for fear they would be
eating their kinsmen.
Another very interesting tradition told by these Lenni-Lenape, or
Delawares, is that these ancestors came from west of the Mississippi and
that when they tried to cross this stream the right of passage was
disputed by a powerful force called the Alligewi, from whose name we get
the word Allegheny. Being determined to cross this mighty stream and
move eastward, the Lenni-Lenape joined with the Mengwe (Iroquois) in a
war upon the Alligewi, overcame them, and almost exterminating them,
drove the remnant of their tribe entirely from the country.
General G.R. Clark, Colonel McKee, and Colonel James Moore at different
times and places were told by Indians, among them the noted chiefs
"Cornstalk" and "Tobacco," that before the red men came to
Kentucky--named from Ken-tuck-ee, meaning in Indian language, "the river
of Blood"--a white race, superior in many arts and crafts unknown to
the red men, the builders of the many forts, and the inhabitants of the
vast burying grounds, had been besieged by the early Indians in a great
battle near the Falls of the Ohio. The remnant was driven into a small
island below these rapids, where the entire race was "cut to pieces."
In confirmation of this, there was found on Sandy Island, a vast burying
ground and "a multitude of human bones was discovered." This traditional
testimony has been in many instances confirmed by unmistakable traces of
a terrible conflict throughout the Ohio Valley. The story of these
bloody battles, handed down for generations, very probably caused the
Indians to name this place the "Dark and Bloody Ground." Believing it to
be filled with ghosts of its primitive people, it is no small wonder
that this race, full of imagination and superstition, should use it so
little as a permanent home.
But who was this primitive race? Whence did they come and what did they
accomplish? The works they built have lived after them, and from these
silent memorials the people have been called Mound Builders. Beyond the
bounds of memory, into the land of mystery we go when we strive to learn
of them. They have left their imprint in the valleys of the Licking, the
Kentucky, the Ohio, and the Cumberland. Their many mounds vary in size,
shape, structure, location, contents, and use. Some cover only a small
area, while others have a diameter of over one hundred feet and one
covers fifteen acres. They display a considerable knowledge of geometry,
engineering, and military skill.
Because some have supposed these ancient people to have been sun
worshipers, the "high places" for ceremonial worship are called temple
mounds. The fact that these are more numerous in Kentucky than
elsewhere, may have given rise to the expressions "sacred soil" or
"God's country." Within or near these inclosures are mounds containing
altars of stone or burned clay, known as altar mounds; the burial
places, called mounds of sepulture, are isolated and contain human
remains which shed more light on the character and achievements of this
prehistoric race than any others. The military mounds, or works of
defense, are usually near a waterway, often on a precipitous height, in
a commanding position, and with an extension ditch or moat; the skill,
the foresight, and the complete system shown by these would prove that
there were fierce foes to be resisted and a vast population to be
defended.
It is possible that all agricultural work was done with "digging
sticks." Fishing and hunting were accomplished by arrows, knives, and
spears, chipped from stone or rubbed out of antlers, by fishhooks of
bone, and by nets. There were also "animal calls" made from small mammal
bones, and the hollow bones of the birds. The knives were probably
chipped stone points, clamshells, or bear teeth; there were also awls
of bones, strainers of pottery, hammerstones, whetstones, chisels of
bone, and needles from bones of small animals. Modeling, impressing,
twisting, knitting, painting, and sculpture were carried on; personal
ornaments, rattles, whistles, and pipes were made. Moccasins, beads of
pottery, bone, shell, teeth, and copper, and pottery of various sizes,
shapes, and decoration were and sometimes are still found all along the
streams of the state.
[Illustration: Relics of the Mound Builders.]
We know that they were an agricultural class because in some mounds were
found remains of Indian corn and beans, also hickory nuts, butternuts,
walnuts, chestnuts, hazelnuts, and pawpaw seeds.
While in some instances the graves were more or less surrounded by
limestone slabs, in other places the dead were laid on skins or on the
bare ground, and covered with skins and soil heaped above. As this soil
had to be carried in baskets or skins, these immense mounds stand as
mute memorials of their love for one another.
SOME PREHISTORIC REMAINS
There are many curious natural formations in Kentucky; yet the many
artificial mounds also have added interest to the topography, and it is
sometimes difficult to distinguish where nature ends and art begins.
The noted scientist, C.S. Rafinesque, claimed to have discovered one
hundred and forty-eight ancient sites and over five hundred monuments in
this state.
The greater number of the mounds were small cone-like structures from
five to ten or sometimes forty feet in height; in several counties those
of pyramid shape were found, and other counties contained unusual
structures.
In Bourbon were found several sites, forty-six monuments, a circus of
fourteen hundred and fifty feet, and a town whose stretch of walls
measured four thousand six hundred and seventy-five feet.
Hickman County had a teocalli, or temple, ten feet high, thirty feet
wide, and four hundred and fifty feet long.
Livingston with several sites and monuments had also an octagon whose
walls measured twenty-eight hundred and fifty-two feet in length.
In McCracken was found a teocalli fourteen feet high and twelve hundred
feet long.
Rockcastle had a stone grave three feet high, five feet wide, and two
hundred feet long.
Warren claimed a ditched town, octagonal in shape, measuring in
perimeter one thousand three hundred and eighty-five feet.
In Trigg was found a walled town with a circumference of seven thousand
five hundred feet.
A mound more than twenty feet high with a diameter of over one hundred
feet was located in Montgomery.
In Estill was located one fifteen feet high, one hundred and ninety-two
feet in diameter, and surrounded by a moat ten feet deep and thirty-five
feet wide.
A horseshoe-shaped fort of about ten acres in area was found in
Caldwell. Its curve was bordered by a perpendicular bluff of sixty feet,
and the two points of the shoe were connected by a stone wall ten feet
high and six hundred feet long, with a gateway eight feet wide.
In Hickman, O'Bryan's fort; in Madison, a stone fort containing four or
five hundred acres; and in Greenup, an effigy mound representing a bear,
"leaning forward, measuring fifty-three feet from the top of the back to
the end of the fore leg and one hundred five and one half feet from the
tip of the nose to the rear of the hind foot," with those already
mentioned, give a faint idea of the variety of mounds in shape, size,
and structure. Yet these are only a few of the many ancient remains in
Kentucky of the Mound Builders who have left their imprint throughout
our great central valley and whose wide range has left in the same mound
"the mica of the Alleghenies, the obsidian of Mexico, the copper of the
Great Lakes, and shells from the Gulf of the Southland."
Since the location of these remains the plowshare has leveled many
mounds, but several can yet be traced.
THE DISCOVERY OF KENTUCKY
Do you ever feel, when reading of the deeds of the early European
navigators, who braved the perils of the trackless deep only to find on
this shore a tangled "forest primeval," that our own beloved Kentucky is
in every way far removed historically from them?
Since it is so interesting and edifying to find ourselves related to
some noted personage, let us see if we can connect the "Dark and Bloody
Ground" with the discoveries that opened up a new world.
We must go back many, many years, yes, even to the Middle Ages, if we
would see how and why we are at least a small link in the great chain of
events that gradually gave to the western world one of its proudest
commonwealths. Some one has said, "Westward the course of empire takes
its way," but for centuries the people of Europe concerned themselves
not with what lay to the west of them but with the people and problems
of the East. This is easy to understand when we learn that the copper,
lead, tin, and manufactures of Europe were carried by traders, partly by
sea and partly by land, to Constantinople or to Egypt, where they were
exchanged for the luxuries that Asia had sent by vessels or camels.
India and the Spice Islands sent cloves, cinnamon, ginger, pepper, mace,
nutmeg, camphor, musk, aloes, and sandalwood, also diamonds and pearls.
Cathay (China) sent silks, while Cipango, the island of mystery, in the
great ocean east of Cathay that no one had seen, was believed to be the
richest of all.
[Illustration: A caravan crossing the desert.]
In 1453, while this exchange was at its height, the Turks conquered
Constantinople, seized the caravan routes, and ruined the trade. Gold
and pearls, ivory and diamonds, spices and silks, could no longer be
secured unless a waterway could be found to the East.
Prince Henry the Navigator, a Portuguese, though many of his captains
thought that in the torrid zone the ocean was boiling and that flames
filled the air, succeeded in reaching almost to the equator before his
death in 1460. In 1487, Diaz continued the work to the Cape of Good
Hope. Christopher Columbus, believing the earth a sphere, thought that
by sailing due westward only two thousand five hundred miles he would
reach China and India. So in August, 1492, after seeking aid in vain
from Portugal, England, and his own country, he braved the "Sea of
Darkness" in a Spanish ship. Though some Portuguese sailors had said,
"You might as well expect to find land in the sky as in that waste of
waters," in October of the same year he made the discovery that gave to
the world a new continent.
Then the spirit of adventure and aggrandizement dominated the Spanish
race. Ponce de Leon, Fernando Cortez, Pizarro, and Fernando de Soto
continued the work until June, 1543. Luis de Moscoso, the successor of
de Soto, with a remnant of his once proud force, now reduced to about
three hundred men, in boats descended the Mississippi River to its
mouth; from the boats they were the first white men to behold the land
that is now Kentucky.
England, so far, had been very quiet and conservative about discovering,
exploring, or settling. Finally, English fishermen came to Newfoundland.
Sir John Hawkins traded negroes for hides and pearls, and Sir Francis
Drake ravaged the Caribbean coast and in 1577-1580 sailed around the
world. Soon Sir Humphrey Gilbert attempted colonization, which was
taken up by his half brother, Sir Walter Raleigh, who sent two ships
under Philip Amadas and Arthur Barlowe, who discovered the coast of
North Carolina. Upon their return, Queen Elizabeth named it Virginia.
Kentucky was included in the charter of this first colony, which was
settled at Jamestown, 1607.
The first Englishman to view what is now Kentucky was Colonel Wood, who
in 1654, for commerce and not conquest, explored the northern boundary
of Kentucky as far as the Mississippi River, then called the Meschacebe.
Captain Bolt (or Batt) of Virginia in 1670 came from that state into
what is now Kentucky. In 1673 Jacques Marquette, a Jesuit missionary, in
company with Luis Joliet and five other Frenchmen in two canoes passed
down the Mississippi along the western border of Kentucky and spent
several days at the mouth of the Ohio, where Cairo, then called
Ouabouskigou, now stands. Again in February, 1682, Robert de la Salle
and his lieutenant, Henri de Tonti, in company with several other
Frenchmen, descended the Illinois River, and passed down the
Mississippi, or Colbert, to its mouth, claiming the country on both
sides for the French king, Louis the Great, in whose honor they called
this vast tract Louisiana.
It was as a prisoner among the Indians in 1730 that the first white
native American, John Sailing of Virginia, was taken to Kentucky. In
1750 a party of Virginians, among them Dr. Thomas Walker, came by way
of Powell's Valley through a gap in Laurel Mountain, into central
Kentucky. He named both the mountain and the river (formerly the
Shawnee) for England's "Bloody Duke" of Cumberland who defeated the
Scottish forces at Culloden. Some say that near where they entered what
is now the state of Kentucky these men built a rude cabin.
But it was left for John Finley and party, 1767, to learn and love this
wonderland of fertile soil, towering forests, luxuriant vegetation, and
boundless supply of game. When he returned to North Carolina with such
glowing accounts of this wilderness beyond the mountains, many were
ready to leave the comforts of civilization for the dangers and
privations of this land of promise.
INDIAN CLAIMS IN KENTUCKY
Though the Indians at the time of the coming of the white men used
Kentucky mainly as a hunting ground instead of a home, various tribes
laid claim to it by prior possession.
In 1768, at Fort Stanwix--now Rome, New York--the English government
purchased the title to all the lands lying between the Ohio and
Tennessee rivers from the tribes of Indians called the Six Nations. This
tract included the present state of Kentucky.
Shortly after the battle of Point Pleasant, 1774, the Shawnees entered
into a treaty with Governor Dunmore of Virginia whereby they gave up all
title to the lands south of the Ohio River.
At the Sycamore Shoals, of the Watauga River, 1775, Colonel Richard
Henderson, acting for the Transylvania Company, purchased the title of
the Cherokees to this "hunting ground" for ten thousand pounds sterling.
This purchase was afterwards declared null and void by the states of
Virginia and North Carolina.
Through the commissioners Isaac Shelby and Andrew Jackson, the general
government in 1818 purchased from the Chickasaws, for an annuity of
twenty thousand dollars to be paid for fifteen years, all their land
lying in Tennessee and Kentucky between the Mississippi and Tennessee
rivers. The part in Kentucky has since been called "Jackson's Purchase."
Thus we see that Indian claims to Kentucky were relinquished only upon
payment of money or blood.
SCOUWA
There lived in Pennsylvania in the early part of the eighteenth century
a young man by the name of James Smith. A short while before General
Braddock was defeated by the French and Indians, Smith was taken
prisoner by a band of Indians, and carried to the French fort where the
city of Pittsburgh now stands. Here he was made to run the gantlet; and
so well did the Indians, ranged on either side, use their clubs and
sticks and stones, that Smith was badly beaten and made ill for a long
time.
[Illustration: Scouwa was adorned by the Indians.]
The Indians then carried him to their home in Ohio, where an old chief
pulled out the prisoner's hairs one by one; only a scalp lock was left
which was ornamented with feathers and silver brooches. His ears and
nose were pierced and hung with silver rings, his face, head, and body
were painted, and he was adorned with a breechcloth, chains of beads, a
belt of wampum, and silver armlets.
An old chief then made a speech to the other Indians, while he held
Smith by the hand. The prisoner was then accompanied to the river by
three young squaws who attempted to "duck" him. Fearful of being
drowned, Smith resisted until one of the women in broken English cried,
"No hurt you, no hurt you."
After "scrubbing all the white blood out of him," they dressed him in a
ruffled shirt, leggins, and moccasins, presented him with a pipe,
tobacco, pouch, flint, steel, and tomahawk and told him he had been
adopted in place of a brave young chief who had fallen.
The Indians called Smith "Scouwa." They finally gave him a gun to use
and trusted him fully, but because he once lost his way in the woods,
his gun was taken from him and for a long while he was permitted to use
only a bow and arrow.
Smith had some exciting experiences while living the life of an Indian.
At one time, during a snowstorm, he took refuge all night in a hollow
tree, and when he tried to move the block by which he had closed up the
opening in the side of the tree, he found the snow was piled so deep
against it he could not move it. He was badly frightened, but by pushing
with all his strength he finally succeeded in getting out.
At another time Smith, an old chief, and a little boy were alone in
their hut in midwinter and all came near starving, but Smith walked
many, many miles, hunting game, and thus saved the lives of all three.
In 1759 the Indians that had adopted Smith journeyed to Canada; and as
Canada then belonged to the French, and as the French and Indians were
fighting the English, who then owned Pennsylvania, Smith slipped away.
Joining the prisoners that were to be sent back to Pennsylvania in
exchange for some French the English held, he soon rejoined his family.
He was a leader of the "Black Boys," served as lieutenant in General
Henry Bouquet's expedition, and witnessed the Indian cruelties to the
unfortunate British captives.
In July, 1766, he learned that the king's agent, Sir William Johnson,
had purchased from the Indians all the land west of the Appalachian
Mountains, and between the Ohio and Cherokee (Tennessee) rivers. Having
heard the red men tell of this rich land, Colonel James Smith,
accompanied by Joshua Horton, Uriah Stone, William Baker, and a mulatto
slave of Horton's named Jamie, passed through Cumberland Gap, explored
the country south of the Kentucky River, and, striking the Cumberland,
passed down its entire length to its junction with the Ohio. They were
the first white men to explore southern and southwestern Kentucky,
although not the first to visit it, for in 1730 John Salling of Virginia
was brought a prisoner by the Cherokee Indians to the Tennessee. After
reaching the mouth of the Cumberland, the others separated from Colonel
Smith and the mulatto boy. These two were for a long time alone in the
wilderness. When they again reached civilization they wore nothing that
had been woven; and when they told of their experiences, people could
hardly believe that any one could make that journey and live to return.
A short distance below the mouth of the Cumberland the town of "Old
Smithland" was named in honor of this first white man to explore that
region, and later the town was built just at the junction of the
Cumberland and Ohio and is now the capital of Livingston County.
Smith spent the latter part of his life in Bourbon County, where he was
as useful in state councils as he had been in Indian conflicts.
THE GRAVEYARD OF THE MAMMOTHS
There are many places within the present bounds of Kentucky where
animals used to go to lick the ground, in order to secure the salt
therein, and these places were therefore called "licks." The most noted
of these is in Boone County, and is called Big Bone Lick from the many
gigantic bones that have been found there.
In 1773, while leading a surveying party, a man by the name of James
Douglas, of Virginia, camped for several days at this point. There he
found a surface of ten acres entirely without trees or vegetable life of
any kind, while scattered around were many bones both of the mastodon
and the arctic elephant. The size of these gigantic, prehistoric animals
may be conjectured from the descriptions given of the remains.
Tusks were found from seven to eleven feet long, the latter being at the
larger end six or seven inches in diameter. Thigh bones, five feet in
length; teeth weighing ten pounds with crowns seven by five inches;
skulls, thought to be of young animals, measuring two feet between the
eyes; ribs from three to four inches broad and so long that James
Douglas and his party used them for tent poles, are some of the wonders
that have given the name to this historic place. Scientists have decided
from these remains that these ponderous animals belonged to the elephant
family. Though possessing remarkable strength, they were so unwieldy
that prehistoric man encountered little danger in combating them. It is
the supposition that the early inhabitants who occupied this continent
when these marvelous animals roamed the woods, must have planned to
exterminate them on their periodic visits to the lick. By what means
this was accomplished we can only conjecture, but that there was a
wholesale slaughter is evident, for at no other place have so many
mammoth remains been found.
THE DRUID OF KENTUCKY
Daniel Boone was born in the almost unbroken forests of Pennsylvania, on
February 11, 1735. Without his energy, caution, and daring, Kentucky
would not have been settled so soon. In both his native state and in
North Carolina, he received in his boyhood the training that was to fit
him for the great work that was to be his.
Truly "coming events cast their shadows before," for when barely large
enough to shoulder the old family flintlock he found unbounded delight
in roaming the woods and returning laden with his spoils, which at one
time was the skin of an immense panther that he shot just as it was
about to spring upon him.
[Illustration: "They found Boone in camp."]
While yet in his early teens he gave his family great alarm by being
absent for two days and nights. A rescuing party was sent out, and they
soon saw smoke rising in the distance; proceeding, they found Boone in
camp, his floor carpeted with the skins of animals he had slain, while
the delicious odor of roasted meat filled the air.
Boone was in every way a typical backwoodsman. His education was limited
to an imperfect knowledge of the "three R's," gained in the rude school
cabin of round logs, puncheon seats, and dirt floor. Ever the solitude
of the sylvan forests was far more enjoyable to him than the refinements
of civilization.
In 1755 he was married to Rebecca Bryan, who with him shared much of the
danger and hardships of frontier life.
In 1769, yielding to the siren song sung by John Finley of the far-famed
cane land with its fertile soil, towering mountains, limpid streams, and
rich meadowlands where the spoils of the chase were venison, bear, and
buffalo, Boone left his family and friends on the Yadkin in North
Carolina and came with Finley and four others to explore this marvelous
land of "Kentuckee."
Reaching the Red River, five miles from its junction with the Kentucky,
these pioneers pitched their camp and from June until December reveled
in the delights of hunting and exploring in this Eden of the wilderness;
but one day, near Christmas, Boone and a companion named Stewart, while
out hunting, were captured by the Indians and for six days and nights
were marched and guarded. At length, believing their captives were
contented, the savages relaxed their watchfulness, yielded to sleep, and
Boone and Stewart escaped. Upon their return to camp they found it
plundered and their companions gone. What became of them Boone never
knew.
Soon after, Boone and Stewart were surprised by meeting Squire Boone, a
brother of Daniel, and another man from North Carolina. A few days later
Stewart was shot and scalped; the man who came with Squire Boone tired
of the perils and returned home. The two brothers were left alone in the
vast wilderness, hundreds of miles from any settlement and with no
weapon but the trusty rifle and tomahawk to protect them from the
cunning savage, the ravenous wolf, and the crafty panther. When their
ammunition began to run low, Squire Boone retraced his steps to Carolina
for a fresh supply, while Daniel remained alone until July, when his
brother returned. Together they roamed at will, tracing the streams,
hunting game, and enjoying this romantic woodland.
Having been absent from his family for three years, simply for the joys
of the frontier, and having lived upon the meat of wild animals, the
fruits and roots of the forest without either bread or salt, Boone
returned in 1771 to the Yadkin and so thrilled all with his glowing
description of this land of promise that, when two years later he
started with his family to this forest, five other families and forty
men accompanied them. The women riding, the children driving the cattle
and hogs, with bedding and baggage strapped on pack horses, the men with
trusty rifles forming both advance and rear guards, this little
cavalcade started forth to conquer the wilderness. All went well for a
while, but, when near the Cumberland Mountains, they were attacked by
Indians, and six men were killed, among them Boone's oldest son.
Yielding to the others, Boone returned with the party to the Clinch
River in southwestern Virginia, where they remained until 1774.
[Illustration: "Boone's little cavalcade started forth to conquer the
wilderness."]
For twenty years Boone was a notable figure in this untried forest,
prudent, calm, honest, courageous, cunning; a stranger to fear, a
devotee to duty, an honored leader, he has so left his impress upon our
state that the record of this period of his life is Kentucky history.
A PIONEER NOBLEMAN
During the eighteenth century, many men, singly or in companies, enjoyed
the beauties of the forest scenes of Kentucky. Always they carried back
to the centers of civilization the most glowing accounts of hill and
dale and stream, of the abundance of game and fish, of the fertility of
the soil, and of the glorious monarchs of the forest. These hardy
woodsmen had the inherent love of Nature in her wildest, most gorgeous
aspects. They were pioneers, hunters, and trappers. To some these terms
convey only the thought of rough, unsophisticated men with none of the
benevolent qualities of head or heart, with no magnanimity of spirit
for a friend and nothing but the most intense hatred for a foe. But the
lives of some of these frontiersmen furnish incidents from which we
might well take lesson.
One of these, James Harrod, though unable to write his name, has so
indelibly impressed it upon the annals of the early times that as long
as history is read he will be famous. In May, 1774, Captain Harrod with
about thirty men descended the Monongahela and the Ohio in canoes to the
mouth of the Kentucky River. Penetrating the forest, they built the
first log cabin ever erected in Kentucky, at the place where Harrodsburg
now stands. Here a town was laid off and called Harrodstown. After four
or five cabins had been built depredations of the Indians caused them to
be deserted until the following spring, when Harrod with many of his
former comrades and several others returned. This place was subsequently
called Oldtown and later Harrodsburg, fittingly commemorating the grand
pioneer who built not only the first cabin but the first town in our
commonwealth.
James Harrod was by nature endowed with all the qualities of a great
leader; he is described as tall and commanding, energetic and fearless,
honest and generous, ignorant yet intelligent. Inured to difficulties
and dangers, familiar with the forest, skillful with his rifle, he was a
success as a hunter, but a terror to his foes. He was a real leader of
the pioneers. In the words of Marshall, "He always had a party, not
because he wanted a party, but because the party wanted him."
Unremitting in the care of his companions, unrelenting in his attacks on
the "red rascals," untiring in services to his neighbors and friends, he
was truly a nobleman, with a lofty yet gentle spirit. "If news came of
an Indian massacre, he snatched his gun and ran at the head of the
party; if he knew of a family left destitute, he shouldered his rifle
and ranged the forest till he found the game to supply their needs; if
he heard of a horse being lost he stopped not till he drove him to his
owner's gate." Thus he was known by his contemporaries. Yet he seemed
not to be ambitious. Only as a delegate from Harrodstown and as a
colonel of the militia is he found in civil affairs. But the magnanimity
of his spirit shone forth at all times.
There is one incident related of him that proves him as chivalrous as
any knight of old. He was at one time so closely pursued by some Indians
that he plunged into a swollen stream and, holding his rifle above the
water with one hand and swimming with the other, reached the farther
shore in safety. Two of the redskins, bolder than the others, followed.
When the foremost was about midstream a shot from Harrod's rifle caused
him to disappear with a cry of pain beneath the rushing torrent; the
other gave up the chase.
[Illustration: "With arms extended, Harrod stepped in view."]
Several hours afterward, when Harrod had reached a point a few miles
below where he had crossed the stream, he was astonished to see a
warrior slowly and painfully draw himself upon a pile of driftwood and
attempt to apply a rude bandage to his shoulder down which the blood was
flowing. Harrod at once knew that this was the same Indian who had hotly
pursued him and that the wound was from his own rifle shot. Most men at
such a time would have relentlessly shot their adversary. Such a thought
never entered the mind of James Harrod. He at once resolved to assist
his disabled foe. Cautiously he stole to one of the trees on the bank a
few yards from where the Indian sat, and, laying aside rifle, tomahawk,
and knife, he stepped suddenly in view, with arms extended to show he
was unarmed and meant no harm. The startled Indian was about to plunge
again into the water, when a second glance assured him no immediate harm
was meant, for not only was the white man unarmed but his kindly
countenance convinced the Indian no wrong was intended. Yet so strange
was such a proceeding to the savage, that while he permitted his former
enemy to approach, yet he watched him as would a wounded wild animal,
ready at any moment to seek refuge in the rushing waters.
Harrod, finding the Indian weak from loss of blood, gently assisted him
to the shore, tore off a bandage from his own clothing, dressed the
wound, and taking him upon his back, carried him several miles to a
cave, where he nursed him until he was able to rejoin his tribe.
EARLY KENTUCKY CUSTOMS
When the bands of hardy pioneers pushed into the wilderness and prepared
a way into Kentucky they brought with them only the trusty rifle, the
ax, the tomahawk, and the "long knife" for protecting themselves from
the wily savages and securing food from the game that roamed the woods.
When their families came, a few more articles were brought along; but
their outfits were necessarily meager. When they stopped to prepare
their food, a flat stone was used for cooking the "journey cake," while
bark served for dishes.
As soon as the destination was reached, a log cabin of rough unhewn
timbers was built, containing a long pen of split logs placed in a row,
which, filled with fresh boughs, was a welcome resting place for those
who were wearied from traveling. Later the feathers of wild pigeons,
ducks, and geese were made into feather beds.
Usually several people settled at the same place and built a fort of
cabins, stockades, and blockhouses, arranged in a hollow square. The
blockhouses were two stories high, the upper story projecting over the
lower one for eighteen or more inches. The places of entrance to the
fort were closed by large folding gates of thick slabs, and the entire
outer wall made bullet proof, all without a single nail or piece of
iron. Some of the cabins had puncheon floors while others had only the
bare earth.
There were very few metal utensils; tin cups, iron forks, and spoons
were very rare. Nearly all their tools were fashioned of wood, by their
own hands.
There were no mills, but each family had a hominy block or wooden bowl
with pestle, in which the Indian corn was pounded, or a rough homemade
grater on which it was grated. Their brooms were made of hickory
saplings split at one end into fine splinters for several inches; these
were bound together at the top with a green withe, while the other end
of the pole served as a handle.
[Illustration: Making brooms.]
Their lye was all made at home by pouring water several times through a
hopper of ashes until it became a reddish-brown; bear's grease was added
to this and the mixture boiled until it became a soft mass called soap.
We of to-day would dislike very much to use it in bathing.
Their salt was precious, for eight hundred gallons of salt water boiled
down made only one bushel; if that amount was bought, it cost twenty
dollars.
In the spring they bored holes in the maple trees, from which flowed a
sap or sweet water that when boiled down made maple sirup and maple
sugar.
In those days of danger the men built the cabins, garrisoned the forts,
hunted the game, felled the trees, mauled the rails, grubbed the roots
and bushes, and tilled the soil.
[Illustration: Pioneers building a log palisade.]
The women did the household duties, brought the water, gathered the wild
nettles, and from the silky fibers in the leaves spun and wove the flax
from which they made their clothing. They tanned the deerskins by means
of hardwood ashes and from them made moccasins and shoepacks, for there
was no place to buy shoes; they made for the men the historical hunting
shirt of deerskin, linsey-woolsey, or coarse, home-woven linen. This
garment served various purposes; the bosom was so designed as to form a
wallet in which to carry bread, jerk, parched corn, or tow for cleaning
guns. This shirt was held together by a belt which was tied behind; in
the front of this belt they carried their bullet bags and mittens, while
on one side hung the scalping knife in its leather sheath, and on the
other, the tomahawk. Breeches, leggins, and moccasins of deerskin and
hats or caps of fur, often adorned with the animal's tail, completed the
costume of the men. The women wore dresses of linsey-woolsey and coarse
flax.
So the rude pioneer home, with its lack of conveniences and space and
its few rude, imperfect tools, was the factory where were prepared not
only the clothing and food, but also the furniture and the medicine.
BOONE'S ILLUSTRIOUS PEER
Among the hardy backwoodsmen, fearless hunters, and brave fighters,
there looms no nobler figure than that of Simon Kenton, born of humble,
Scotch-Irish parents in Virginia, April 13, 1755. At sixteen he was a
stalwart youth with scarcely any education, with a kind heart but
unrestrained emotions. Having fallen very much in love with a beautiful
girl of his neighborhood, and having lost her to a successful rival, he
went as an uninvited guest to the wedding festivities, where he made
himself so disagreeable that the infuriated groom and his brothers gave
him a severe beating.
Shortly after this, meeting his former rival, William Veach, Kenton
provoked a fight and was so much the physical superior that soon his
adversary fell bruised, bleeding, and unconscious; kind-hearted Kenton,
feeling that he had been cruel in his treatment, lifted up the head of
his insensible victim, spoke to him, but receiving no reply, thought him
dead. Much alarmed, he left the seemingly lifeless body and fled to the
woods. Feeling himself a murderer and a fugitive from justice, he warily
made his way to Cheat River, where he changed his name to Simon Butler,
and worked long enough to secure a gun and ammunition.
In order to lose himself and forget his trouble in the western
wilderness, he joined a party to Fort Pitt, where he hunted for the
garrison and forts, and met Simon Girty, who afterwards saved his life.
Two others, George Yeager and John Strader, came with him that autumn on
his first visit to Kentucky, lured on by the glowing accounts of the
"cane land" that Yeager had heard of from the Indians. They came down
the Ohio to the mouth of the Kentucky, but soon returned to the Big
Kanawha, where they camped, hunted, and trapped until March, 1773.
Yeager was killed by the Indians, and Kenton and Strader fled to the
woods barefooted and almost naked, with no food and no weapons. For six
days they wandered weary, footsore, and hungry, until finally in despair
they lay down to die. Gathering hope anew, they pressed on and near the
Ohio met some hunters who gladly gave them food and clothing.
Going with them, Kenton worked for another rifle and in the summer of
the same year went down the Ohio with a party in search of Captain
Bullitt. They failed to find him and the party returned through the
wilds of Kentucky to Virginia with Kenton as guide.
During the winter of 1773-1774, Kenton hunted on the Big Sandy, but
volunteered and soon saw active service as a scout and spy in the armies
of Lord Dunmore and General Lewis in the Miami Indian War. He received
an honorable discharge in the autumn, and the next spring, yielding to
the longing for the "cane land," he came down the Ohio and one night
reached Cabin Creek a few miles above Maysville. The next day, when he
beheld the far-famed land, he was entranced, and soon encamped near the
present site of Washington, in Mason County, where he and his companion
cleared an acre of ground and planted it with corn which they had bought
from a French trader.
They found this place a veritable "hunter's paradise" where the hills
were covered with herds of deer, elk, and buffalo.
One day meeting two men, Hendricks and Fitzpatrick, who were without
food or guns, Kenton invited them to join his station. Hendricks
accepted, but his companion, desiring to return to Virginia, was
accompanied by Kenton and Williams to the Ohio. They left Hendricks
alone at the camp. On returning they found the camp in disorder and
Hendricks gone; the next day his charred remains told the story of his
sufferings at the hands of the savages.
Though Kenton left this place the following autumn, he returned nine
years later and, building a blockhouse here, established Kenton's
Station.
Simon Kenton was ever alert, ever ready to respond to the call for help,
ever ready to encounter danger, and ever ready to give his services to
the settlers whether at Harrodstown or Hinkson's, whether in aid of
Boone or Clark.
At one time Kenton was one of six spies who, two at a time, each week
ranged up and down the Ohio and around the deserted stations, watching
for Indian signs; for the red savage had become infuriated because the
"long knife"[1] had taken possession of his beloved "Kaintuckee," and
the Indian invasions were frequent and bloody.
[Illustration: "Boone was borne on Kenton's shoulders into the fort."]
One morning as Kenton with two companions was standing in the gate at
Boonesborough ready for a hunt, the Indians fired on some men in the
field, who fled to the fort. One man, however, was overtaken,
tomahawked, and scalped within seventy yards of the gate. Kenton shot
the savage dead and in the battle which ensued killed two other Indians,
one of whom was about to tomahawk Colonel Boone, who had been crippled.
The unerring rifle of Kenton stayed his savage hand, and Boone was borne
on Kenton's shoulders into the fort. When the gate was barred and all
was secure, the usually reserved Boone said, "Well, Simon, you have
behaved yourself like a man to-day; indeed you are a fine fellow."
Kenton accompanied General George Rogers Clark in his expedition against
Kaskaskia in 1778, then proceeded to Vincennes, where, by a three days'
secret observation, he secured an accurate description of the place
which he sent to General Clark.