One of the most noted of the caves which have been carefully
explored for relics of early man, coeval with extinct animals.
It is in Devonshire, England, near Torquay.
_W. B. Dawkins,
Cave Hunting._
----------KENTUCKY: Start----------
KENTUCKY: A. D. 1748.
First English exploration from Virginia.
See OHIO (VALLEY): A. D. 1748-1754.
KENTUCKY: A. D. 1765-1778.
Absence of Indian inhabitants.
Early exploration and settlement by the whites.
The colony of Transylvania.
In the wars that were waged between the Indian tribes of the
South, before the advent of white settlers, Kentucky became "a
sort of border-land such as separated the Scots and English in
their days of combat. … The Chickasaws alone held their
ground, being the most northern of the sedentary Southern
Indians. Their strongholds on the bluffs of the Mississippi
and the inaccessibility of this country on account of its
deep, sluggish, mud-bordered streams, seem to have given them
a sufficient measure of protection against their enemies, but
elsewhere in the State the Indians were rooted out by their
wars. The last tenants of the State, east of the Tennessee
River, were the Shawnees,—that combative folk who ravaged
this country with their ceaseless wars from the head-waters of
the Tennessee to the Mississippi, and from the Lakes to
Alabama. It was no small advantage to the early settlers of
Kentucky that they found this region without a resident Indian
population, for, bitter as was the struggle with the claimants
of the soil, it never had the danger that would have come from
a contest with the natives in closer proximity to their homes.
… As Kentucky was unoccupied by the Indians, it was
neglected by the French. … Thus the first settlers found
themselves, in the main, free from these dangers due to the
savages and their Gallic allies. The land lay more open to
their occupancy than any other part of this country ever did
to its first European comers. … In 1765 Colonel George
Croghan, who had previously visited the Ohio with Gist, made a
surveying journey down that stream from Pittsburg to the
Mississippi. … In 1766 a party of five persons, including a
mulatto slave, under the command of Captain James Smith,
explored a large part of what is now Tennessee, and probably
extended their journey through Southern Kentucky. Journeys to
Kentucky now became frequent. Every year sent one or more
parties of pioneers to one part or another of the country. In
1769 Daniel Boone and five companions, all from the Yadkin
settlements in North Carolina, came to Eastern Kentucky. One
of the party was killed, but Boone remained, while his
companions returned to their homes. Thus it will be seen that
Boone's first visit was relatively late in the history of
Kentucky explorations. Almost every part of its surface had
been traversed by other explorers before this man, who passes
in history as the typical pioneer, set foot upon its ground.
In the time between 1770 and 1772 George Washington, then a
land-surveyor, made two surveys in the region which is now the
northeast corner of Kentucky. … The first distinct effort to
found a colony was made by James Harrod and about forty
companions, who found their way down the Ohio near to where
Louisville now stands, and thence by land to what is now
Mercer County, in Central Kentucky, where they established, on
June 16, 1774, a village which they called, in honor of their
leader, Harrodsburg. Earlier attempts at settlement were made
at Louisville, but the fear of Indians caused the speedy
abandonment of this post. … In 1775 other and stronger
footholds were gained. Boone built a fort in what is now
Madison County, and Logan another at St. Asaphs, in Lincoln
County. The settlement of Kentucky was greatly favored by the
decisive victory gained by Lord Dunmore's troops over the
Indians from the north of the Ohio, at the mouth of the
Kanawha.
See OHIO VALLEY: A. D. 1774.
… That the process of possessing the land was going on with
speed may be seen from the fact that Henderson and Company,
land-agents at Boonesborough, issued from their office in the
new-built fort entry certificates of surveys for 560,000 acres
of land. The process of survey was of the rudest kind, but it
served the purpose of momentary definition of the areas, made
it possible to deal with the land as a commodity, and left the
tribulations concerning boundaries to the next generation.
These land deeds were given as of the 'colony of
Transylvania,' which was in fact the first appellation of
Kentucky, a name by which it was known for several years
before it received its present appellation. At this time, the
last year that the work of settling Kentucky was done under
the authority of his majesty King George III., there were
probably about 150 men who had placed themselves in
settlements that were intended to be permanent within the
bounds of what is now the Commonwealth of Kentucky. There may
have been as many more doing the endless exploring work which
preceded the choice of a site for their future homes. The men
at Boone's Station claimed, and seem to have been awarded, a
sort of hegemony among the settlements.
{1940}
On the 23d of May, at the call of Colonel Henderson, the
land-agent of the proprietors, delegates from these
settlements met at Boonesborough, and drew up a brief code of
nine laws for the government of the young Commonwealth. …
The Boonesborough parliament adjourned to meet in September,
but it never reassembled. The venture which led to its
institution fell altogether to ruin, and the name of
Transylvania has been almost entirely forgotten. … The
colony of Transylvania rested on a purchase of about
17,000,000 acres, or about one half the present area of
Kentucky, which was made by some people of North Carolina from
the Overhill Cherokee Indians, a part of the great tribe that
dwelt on the Holston River. For this land the unfortunate
adventurers paid the sum of £10,000 of English money. …
Immediately after the Boonesborough parliament the position of
the Transylvania company became very insecure; its own people
began to doubt the validity of the titles they had obtained
from the company, because, after a time, they learned from
various sources that the lands of this region of Kentucky had
been previously ceded to the English government by the Six
Nations, and were included in the Virginia charter. In the
latter part of 1775, eighty men of the Transylvania settlement
signed a memorial asking to be taken under the protection of
Virginia; or, if that colony thought it best, that their
petition might be referred to the General Congress. … The
proprietors of the colony made their answer to this rebellion
by sending a delegate to the Federal Congress at Philadelphia,
who was to request that the colony of Transylvania be added to
the number of the American colonies. … Nothing came of this
protest. Congress refused to seat their delegate, Patrick
Henry and Jefferson, then representing Virginia, opposing the
efforts of the proprietors. The Governor of North Carolina
issued a proclamation declaring their purchase illegal. The
colony gradually fell to pieces, though the State of Virginia
took no decided action with reference to it until, in 1778,
that Commonwealth declared the acts of the company void, but,
in a generous spirit, offered compensation to Colonel
Henderson and the other adventurers. The Transylvania company
received 200,000 acres of valuable lands, and their sales to
actual settlers were confirmed by an act of the Virginia
Assembly. Thus the strongest, though not the first, colony of
Kentucky, was a misadventure and quickly fell to pieces."
_N. S. Shaler,
Kentucky,
chapters 5-7._
ALSO IN;
_T. Roosevelt,
The Winning of the West,
volume 1, chapters 6 and 8-12._
KENTUCKY: A. D. 1768.
The Treaty with the Six Nations at Fort Stanwix.
Pretended cession of the country south of the Ohio.
See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1765-1768.
KENTUCKY: A. D. 1774.
The western Territorial claims of Virginia.
Lord Dunmore's war with the Indians.
See OHIO (VALLEY): A. D. 1774.
KENTUCKY: A. D. 1775-1784.
A county of Virginia.
Indian warfare of the Revolution.
Aspirations towards State independence.
"In the winter of 1775 Kentucky was formed into a county of
Virginia. … About this time Harrodsburg, Boonesborough and
Logan's Fort were successively assailed by the Indians. They
withstood the furious attacks made upon them; not, however,
without great loss. During the succeeding summer they were
considerably reinforced by a number of men from North
Carolina, and about 100 under Colonel Bowman from Virginia. In
1778 Kentucky was invaded by an army of Indians and Canadians
under the command of Captain Duquesne; and the expedition of
Colonel George Rodgers Clark against the English post of
Vincennes and Kaskaskia took place this year. In February of
this year Boone, with about 30 men, was engaged in making salt
at the Lower Blue Licks, when he was surprised by about 200
Indians. The whole party surrendered upon terms of
capitulation. The Indians carried them to Detroit, and
delivered them all up to the commandant, except Boone, whom
they carried to Chilicothe. Boone soon effected his escape.
… After … some weeks … Captain Duquesne, with about 500
Indians and Canadians, made his appearance before
Boonesborough, and besieged the fort for the space of nine
days, but finally decamped with the loss of 30 men killed, and
a much greater number wounded. … About the first of April,
1779, Robert Patterson erected a block house, with some
adjacent defenses, where the city of Lexington now stands.
This year, the celebrated land law of Kentucky was passed by
the Legislature of Virginia, usually called the Occupying
Claimant Law. The great defect of this law was, that Virginia,
by this act, did not provide for the survey of the country at
the expense of the State. … Each one holding a warrant could
locate it where he pleased, and survey it at his own cost. …
The consequence of this law was … a flood of emigration
during the years 1780 and 1781. During this period the
emigrants were greatly annoyed by the frequent incursions of
the Indians, and their entire destruction sometimes seemed
almost inevitable. This law was a great feast for the lawyers
of that day. … In November, 1780, Kentucky was divided into
three counties, bearing the names of Fayette, Lincoln, and
Jefferson. … In 1782, Indian hostility was earlier, more
active and shocking than it had ever been in the country
before; a great battle was fought upon Hinkston's Fork of the
Licking, near where Mount Sterling now stands, in which the
Indians were victorious. In this battle, Estill, who commanded
the whites, and nearly all of his officers, were killed. Near
the Blue Licks another battle was soon afterwards fought with
Captain Holder, in which the whites were again defeated; in
both these last mentioned battles the contending foe were
Wyandottes. … Peace was made with Great Britain in 1783, and
hostilities ceased; hostilities with the Indians also for a
time seemed suspended, but were soon renewed with greater
violence than ever. During the cessation of hostilities with
the Indians, settlements in Kentucky advanced rapidly. … As
early as 1784 the people of Kentucky became strongly impressed
with the necessity of the organization of a regular
government, and gaining admission into the Union as a separate
and independent State; but their efforts were continually
perplexed and baffled for the space of eight years before
their desire was fully accomplished. And though they were
often tempted by Spain with the richest gifts of fortune if
she would declare herself an independent State, and although
the Congress of the Confederated States continually turned a
deaf ear to her reiterated complaints and grievances, and
repulsed her in every effort to obtain constitutional
independence, she maintained to the last the highest respect
for law and order, and the most unswerving affection for the
Government. … With the view to admission into the Union as
an independent State, there were elected and held nine
Conventions in Kentucky within the space of eight years."
_W. B. Allen,
History of Kentucky,
chapters 2-3._
ALSO IN:
_J. M. Brown,
Political Beginnings of Kentucky._
{1941}
KENTUCKY: A. D. 1778-1779.
Conquest of the Northwest by the Virginian General Clark, and
its annexation to the Kentucky District.
See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA:
A. D. 1778-1779 CLARK'S CONQUEST.
KENTUCKY: A. D. 1781-1784.
Conflicting territorial claims of Virginia and New York and
their cession to the United States.
See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1781-1786.
KENTUCKY: A. D. 1785-1800.
The question of the free navigation of the Mississippi.
Discontent of the settlers.
Intrigues of Wilkinson.
See LOUISIANA: A. D. 1785-1800.
KENTUCKY: A. D. 1789-1792.
Separation from Virginia and admission to the Union as a
State.
"In the last days of the Continental Congress, Virginia, after
some struggles, having reluctantly consented to her
organization on that condition as an independent state,
Kentucky had applied to that body for admission into the
confederacy. That application had been referred to the new
federal government about to be organized, a delay which had
made it necessary to recommence proceedings anew; for the
Virginia Assembly had fixed a limitation of time, which, being
over-past, drove back the separatists to the original
starting-point. On a new application to the Virginia
Legislature, a new act had authorized a new Convention, being
the third held on that subject: to take the question of
separating into consideration. But this act had imposed some
new terms not at all agreeable to the Kentuckians, of which
the principal was the assumption by the new state of a portion
of the Virginia debt, on the ground of expenses incurred by
recent expeditions against the Indians. The Convention which
met under this act proceeded no further than to vote a
memorial to the Virginia Legislature requesting the same terms
formerly offered. That request was granted, and a fourth
Convention was authorized again to consider the question of
separation, and, should that measure be still persisted in, to
fix the day when it should take place. Having met during the
last summer [1790], this Convention had voted unanimously in
favor of separation; had fixed the first day of June, 1792, as
the time; and had authorized the meeting of a fifth Convention
to frame a state Constitution. In anticipation of these
results, an act of Congress was, now passed [February 4, 1791]
admitting Kentucky into the Union from and after the day above
mentioned, not only without any inspection of the state
Constitution, but before any such Constitution had been
actually formed." In the Constitution subsequently framed for
the new state of Kentucky, by the Convention appointed as
above, an article on the subject of slavery "provided that the
Legislature should have no power to pass laws for the
emancipation of slaves without the consent of their owners,
nor without paying therefor, previous to such emancipation, a
full equivalent in money; nor laws to prevent immigrants from
bringing with them persons deemed slaves by the laws of anyone
of the United States, so long as any persons of like age and
description should be continued in slavery by the laws of
Kentucky. But laws might be passed prohibiting the
introduction of slaves for the purpose of sale, and also laws
to oblige the owners of slaves to treat them with humanity."
_R. Hildreth,
History of the United States,
volume 4, chapters 3-4._
ALSO IN:
_J. M. Brown,
The Political Beginnings of Kentucky._
KENTUCKY: A. D. 1790-1795.
War with the Indian tribes of the Northwest.
Disastrous expeditions of Harmar and St. Clair, and Wayne's
decisive victory.
See NORTHWEST TERRITORY: A. D. 1790-1795.
KENTUCKY: A. D. 1798.
The Nullifying resolutions.
See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1798.
KENTUCKY: A. D. 1861 (January-September).
The struggle with Secession and its defeat.
"Neutrality" ended.
"In the days when personal leadership was more than it can
ever be again, while South Carolina was listening to the
teachings of John C. Calhoun, which led her to try the
experiment of secession, Kentucky was following Henry Clay,
who, though a slave-holder, was a strong Unionist. The
practical effect was seen when the crisis came, after he had
been in his grave nine years. Governor Beriah Magoffin
convened the Legislature in January, 1861, and asked it to
organize the militia, buy muskets, and put the State in a
condition of armed neutrality; all of which it refused to do.
After the fall of Fort Sumter he called the Legislature
together again, evidently hoping that the popular excitement
would bring them over to his scheme. But the utmost that could
be accomplished was the passage of a resolution by the lower
house (May 16) declaring that Kentucky should occupy 'a
position of strict neutrality,' and approving his refusal to
furnish troops for the National army. Thereupon he issued a
proclamation (May 20) in which he 'notified and warned all
other States, separate or united, especially the United and
Confederate States, that I solemnly forbid any movement upon
Kentucky soil.' But two days later the Legislature repudiated
this interpretation of neutrality, and passed a series of acts
intended to prevent any scheme of secession that might be
formed. It appropriated $1,000,000 for arms and ammunition,
but placed the disbursement of the money and control of the
arms in the hands of Commissioners that were all Union men. It
amended the militia law so as to require the State Guards to
take an oath to support the Constitution of the United States,
and finally the Senate passed a resolution declaring that
'Kentucky will not sever connection with the National
Government, nor take up arms with either belligerent party.'
Lovell H. Rousseau (afterward a gallant General in the
National service), speaking in his place in the Senate, said:
'The politicians are having their day; the people will yet
have theirs. I have an abiding confidence in the right, and I
know that this secession movement is all wrong. There is not a
single substantial reason for it; our Government had never
oppressed us with a feather's weight.' The Rev. Robert J.
Breckinridge and other prominent citizens took a similar
stand, and a new Legislature, chosen in August, presented a
Union majority of three to one.
{1942}
As a last resort, Governor Magoffin addressed a letter to
President Lincoln, requesting that Kentucky's neutrality be
respected and the National forces removed from the State. Mr.
Lincoln, in refusing his request, courteously reminded him
that the force consisted exclusively of Kentuckians, and told
him that he had not met any Kentuckian except himself and the
messengers that brought his letter who wanted it removed. To
strengthen the first argument, Robert Anderson, of Fort Sumter
fame, who was a citizen of Kentucky, was made a General and
given the command in the State in September. Two months later,
a secession convention met at Russellville, in the southern
part of the State, organized a provisional government, and
sent a full delegation to the Confederate Congress at
Richmond, who found no difficulty in being admitted to seats
in that body. Being now firmly supported by the new
Legislature, the National Government began to arrest prominent
Kentuckians who still advocated secession, whereupon others,
including ex-Vice-President John C. Breckinridge, fled
southward and entered the service of the Confederacy. Kentucky
as a State was saved to the Union, but the line of separation
was drawn between her citizens, and she contributed to the
ranks of both the great contending armies."
_R. Johnson,
Short History of the War of Secession,
chapter 5._
ALSO IN:
_N. S. Shaler,
Kentucky,
chapter 15._
_E. P. Thompson,
History of First Kentucky Brigade,
chapter 2._
KENTUCKY: A. D. 1861 (April).
Governor Magoffin's reply to President Lincoln's call for
troops.
See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1861 (APRIL).
KENTUCKY: A. D. 1862 (January-February).
Expulsion of Confederate armies along the whole line.
See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1862
(JANUARY-FEBRUARY: KENTUCKY—TENNESSEE).
KENTUCKY: A. D. 1862 (August-October).
Bragg's invasion.
Buell's pursuit.
Battle of Perryville.
See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA:
A. D. 1862 (JUNE-OCTOBER: TENNESSEE-KENTUCKY).
KENTUCKY: A. D. 1863 (July).
John Morgan's Raid.
See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA:
A. D. 1863 (JULY: KENTUCKY).
----------KENTUCKY: End----------
KENTUCKY RESOLUTIONS, The.
See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1798.
KENYER-MESÖ, Battle of (1479).
See HUNGARY: A. D. 1471-1487.
KERAÏT, The.
See PRESTER JOHN, THE KINGDOM OF.
KERAMEIKOS, The.
See CERAMICUS OF ATHENS.
KERBELA, The Moslem tragedy at.
See MAHOMETAN CONQUEST: A. D. 680.
KERESAN FAMILY, The.
See AMERICAN ABORIGINES: KERESAN FAMILY.
KERESTES, OR CERESTES, Battle of (1596).
See HUNGARY: A. D. 1595-1606.
KERMENT, Battle of (1664).
See HUNGARY: A. D. 1660-1664.