[From _An Address in Commemoration of the First Settlement of
Kentucky_ (Frankfort, Kentucky, 1840)]
The first successful attempt to explore the Kentucky country was made by
John Finley, a backwoodsman of North Carolina, in 1767. He was attended
by a few companions, as adventurous as himself, whose names have escaped
the notice of history. They were evidently a party of hunters, and were
prompted to the bold and hazardous undertaking, for the purpose of
indulging in their favorite pursuits. Of Finley and his comrades, and of
the course and extent of their journey, little is now known. That they
were of the pure blood, and endowed with the genuine qualities, of the
pioneers, is manifestly undeniable. That they passed over the
Cumberland, and through the intermediate country to the Kentucky river,
and penetrated the beautiful valley of the Elkhorn, there are no
sufficient reasons to doubt. It is enough, however, to embalm their
memory in our hearts, and to connect their names with the imperishable
memorials of our early history, that they were the first adventurers
that plunged into the dark and enchanted wilderness of Kentucky--that of
all their contemporaries they saw her first--and saw her in the pride of
her virgin beauty--at the dawn of summer--in the fullness of her
vegetation--her soil, instinct with fertility, covered with the most
luxuriant verdure--the air perfumed with the fragrance of flowers, and
her tall forests looming in all their primeval magnificence.
How long Finley lived, or where he died, the silence of history does not
enable us to know. That his remains are now mingled with the soil that
he discovered, there is some reason to hope, for he conducted Boone to
Kentucky in 1769--and there the curtain drops upon him forever. It is
fit it should be raised. It is fit that justice, late and tardy that it
be, should be done to the memory of the first of the pioneers. And what
can be more appropriate, than that the first movement should be made for
the performance of such a duty, on the day of the commemoration of the
discovery and settlement of the Commonwealth?