The following incidents are taken from a letter addressed by Captain
Nathaniel Hart, of Woodford county, Kentucky, to Governor Morehead:
DEAR SIR.--Connected with your address delivered at the celebration of the
first settlement of Kentucky, at Boonesborough, the circumstances
attending the escape and defence of Mrs. Woods, about the year 1784-5,
near the Crab Orchard, in Lincoln county, may not be without interest. I
have a distinct recollection of them. Mr. Woods, her husband, was absent
from home, and early in the morning, being a short distance from her
cabin, she discovered several Indians advancing towards it. She reached it
before all but one, who was so far ahead of the others, that before she
could close and fasten the door, he entered. Instantly he was seized by a
lame negro man of the family, and after a short scuffle, they both
fell--the negro underneath. But he held the Indian so fast, that he was
unable to use either his scalping knife or tomahawk, when he called upon
his young mistress to take the axe from under the bed, and dispatch him by
a blow upon the head. She immediately attempted it: but the first attempt
was a failure She repeated the blow and killed him. The other Indians were
at the door endeavoring to force it open with their tomahawks. The negro
rose, and proposed to Mrs. Woods to let in another, and they would soon
dispose of the whole of them in the same way. The cabin was but a short
distance from a station, the occupants of which, having discovered the
perilous situation of the family, fired on the Indians, and killed
another, when the remainder made their escape.
[Illustration: MRS. DUREE OVER THE DEAD BODY OF HER HUSBAND.]
This incident is not more extaordinary than one that happened, in the
fall or winter of 1781-2, to some families belonging to our own fort
at the White Oak Spring. My father settled this fort in 1779. It was
situated about a mile above Boonesborough and in the same bottom of the
river. It was composed principally of families from York county,
Pennsylvania--orderly, respectable people, and the men good soldiers. But
they were unaccustomed to Indian warfare, and the consequence was,
that of some ten or twelve men, all were killed but two or three. During
this period, Peter Duree, the elder, the principal man of the connection,
determined to settle a new fort between Estill's station and the mouth of
Muddy Creek, directly on the trace between the Cherokee and Shawnese
towns. Having erected a cabin, his son-in-law, John Bullock and his
family, and his son Peter Duree, his wife and two children, removed to
it, taking a pair of hand mill stones with them. They remained for two or
three days shut up in their cabin, but their corn meal being exhausted,
they were compelled to venture out to cut a hollow tree in order to
adjust their hand mill. They were attacked by Indians--Bullock, after
running a short distance, fell. Duree reached the cabin, and threw himself
upon the bed. Mrs. Bullock ran to the door to ascertain the fate of her
husband--received a shot in the breast, and fell across the door sill.
Mrs. Duree, not knowing whether her husband had been shot or had
fainted, caught her by the feet, pulled her into the house and barred
the door. She grasped a rifle and told her husband, she would help him to
fight. He replied that he had been wounded and was dying. She then
presented the gun through several port holes in quick succession--then
calmly sat by her husband and closed his eyes in death. You would
conclude that the scene ought to end here--but after waiting several
hours, and seeing nothing more of the Indians, she sallied out in
desperation to make her way to the White Oak Spring, with her infant in
her arms, and a son, three or four years of age, following her. Afraid to
pursue the trace, she entered the woods, and after running till she
was nearly exhausted she came at length to the trace. She determined
to follow it at all hazards, and having advanced a few miles further,
she met the elder Mr. Duree, with his wife, and youngest son, with
their baggage, on their way to the new station. The melancholy tidings
induced them, of course, to return. They led their horses into an
adjoining canebrake, unloaded them, and regained the White Oak Spring
fort before daylight.
It is impossible at this day to make a just impression of the sufferings
of the pioneers about the period spoken of. The White Oak Spring fort in
1782, with perhaps one hundred souls in it, was reduced in August to three
fighting white men--and I can say with truth, that for two or three weeks,
my mother's family never unclothed themselves to sleep, nor were all of
them, within the time, at their meals together, nor was any household
business attempted. Food was prepared, and placed where those who chose
could eat. It was the period when Bryant's station was besieged and for
many days before and after that gloomy event, we were in constant
expectation of being made prisoners. We made application to Colonel Logan
for a guard, and obtained one, but not until the danger was measurably
over. It then consisted of two men only. Colonel Logan did everything in
his power, as county lieutenant, to sustain the different forts--but it
was not a very easy matter to order a married man from a fort where his
family was to defend some other--when his own was in imminent danger.
I went with my mother in January, 1783, to Logan's station, to prove my
father's will. He had fallen in the preceding July. Twenty armed men were
of the party. Twenty-three widows were in attendance upon the court, to
obtain letters of administration on the estates of their husbands, who had
been killed during the past year. My mother went to Colonel Logan's, who
received and treated her like a sister.
[Illustration: GENERAL ST. CLAIR.]