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REYNOLDS HISTORICAL GENEALOGY COLLECTION
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Irish Pioneers in Kentucky
A series of articles published in The Gaelic American New York
By MICHAEL I. O'BRIEN
The True Discoverer of Kentucky.
Not Daniel Boone, as is Generally Supposed, but an Irish Pioneer named James McBride. Testimony of Impartial Historians.
Our Irish-American literary and historical associations could do no better work than turn the searchlight on the early records of Kentucky. Of all the original Thirteen Colonie-, none present- a wider, more prolific or more interesting field for historical research than that portion of the Colony of Virginia. originally called Fincastle County, and which, in 1.79. was formed into the State of Kentucky.
It may be said that the early history of Kentucky is contemporary with that of Virginia and the Carolinas. It was from those Colonies that the pioneers of the "Blue Grass State" set out in search of adventure and fortune in the unknown land beyond the great ranges of the Appalachians. and although historians invariably give the credit to the renowned hunter. Daniel Boone, as having been "the discoverer of Kentucky," we shall quote authorities to show that long before the valiant Boone ever saw the sky over fair Kentucky, another daring hunter from Virginia had blazed a path through that region and paved the way for the more famous explorers that succeeded him. And it is not the least bit remarkable to find that the first white man who traversed that region and made known its possibilities to a waiting world, bore an Irish name, James McBride. In all likelihood he was a native of Ireland.
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Our authorities for this statement are no less than the eminent his- torians of Kentucky. Judge Lewis Collins and John Filson.
Collins is the leading authority on early Kentucky history. He was the author of "Kentucky. Its History. Antiquities and Biography." It is a graphic story of the early settlement of the West, vivid, enthusiastic and minute; compiled with a loving and reverent industry from original rec. ords, and from the letters and papers of the pioneers themselves. These he sought out and rescued "from moths and mice in the lumber rooms of original log houses of the backwoods, or taken from the aged lips of some surviving relies of the olden time." The details are interesting. not only Eto every Kentuckian for the sake of the abundant family history, but to :fevery student of the part played by Irish immigrants in the early days of " the great Southwest.
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A FRENCH TRAVELER AND HISTORIAN.
Filson's "Histoire de Kentucke. Nouvelle Colonie a l'ouest de la Vir- ginie," preceded that of Judge Collins, and has served as a basis for all true accounts of that region that have since appeared. The author was a French traveler and hunter, who first passed through what is now called Kentucky in the year 1754. His history was published in Paris in 1785, and we have been fortunate in coming across a copy of this rare work, from which we quote.
Under the chapter entitled, "Decouverte et achat du territoire," Filson says :
"On croit que MI. James McBride est le premier homme blane qui ait · eu comoissance de Kentucke. En 1754, accompagne de quelques amis, il - descendit l'Ohio dans des canots, aborda l'embouchure de la riviere Ken- tucke, et y marqua trois arbres, avec les premières lettres de son nom, et la date du jour et de l'année; ces inscriptions subsistent encore. Nos voyageurs reconnurent le pays, et retournerent dans leurs habitations avec l'agréable nonvelle de la decouverte d'une des plus belles contrees de l'Amer- ique septentrionale. et peutetre du monde entier. Depuis cette époque ce pays fut neglige, jusque vers l'annee 1767. que M. John Finley et quelques autres personnes. commereant avec les Naturels. penetrerent heureusement dans cette fertile region. maintenant appellee Kentucke, et connue alors des Naturels sous les noms de Terre d'Obscurite, Terre de Sang, et Terre Moyenne. Ce pays frappa beaucoup MI. Finley; mais il fut bientot oblige d'en sortir, par les suites d'une querelle qui s'eleva entre les commercants et les Naturels; et il retourna chez lui dans la Carolina septentrionale ou il communiqua sa decouverte au Colonel Daniel Boone et a quelques per- sonne», qui, la regardant comme un objet tres important, resolurent en 1769 d'entreprendre un voyage, dans le dessein d'examiner ce pays. Apres une longue et fatiguante marche, a l'ouest. dans des lieux sauvages et montueux, ils arriverent enfin sur les frontieres de Kentucke; et du sommet d'une eminence, ils, decouvrirent, avec une surprise melee de joie, son superbe paysage. Ils y etablirent un logement, et tandis que quelques uns de la troupe allerent chercher des provisions, quils se procurerent facile- ment, vu l'abondance du gibier, le Colonel Boone et John Finley coururent le pays, quils trouverent fort superieur a leurs espérances, et ayant rejoint leurs compagnons, il les informerent de leurs decouvertes."
Translating this, it says:
TRANSLATION OF THE FOREGOING.
"It is believed that Monsieur James MeBride is the first white man · who had any knowledge of Kentucky. In 1754, accompanied by some friends, he descended the Ohio in canoes, landed at the mouth of the Ken- tucky River, and there marked on three trees, the first letters of his name, with the date and the year, these inscriptions being still visible. Our travelers explored the country and returned to their homes with the agree- able news of the discovery of one of the most beautiful countries of North America, and perhaps of the entire world. Since that period, this country was neglected, until about the year 1767, when Monsieur John Finley and
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several other persons, trading with the natives, fortunately passed through that fertile region, now called Kentucky, and at that time known to the natives under the names of Land of Obscurity. the Bloody Country and the Middle Country. The country much impressed Monsieur Finley. but he was soon obliged to quit it in consequence of a quarrel having arisen between the traders and the natives; and he returned home to North Carolina. where he communicated his discovery to Col. Daniel Boone and others, who regard- ing it a matter of great importance, resolved in 1769 to undertake a jour- ney for the purpose of exploring the country. After a long and fatiguing march to the West, through wild and mountainous territories, they even- tually arrived on the frontiers of Kentucky, and from the summit of a hill, they discovered with mingled joy and surprise, a superb landscape. There they erected a cabin, and while several members of the party went in search of provisions, which were readily procurable, there being an abundance of game. Colonel Boone and John Finley scoured the country, which they found to exceed all their hopes, and having rejoined their companions, they in- formed them of their discoveries."
PROBABLY AN IRISHMAN.
It is seen from this that Kentucky was fir-t explored in the middle of the eighteenth century and by one who, in all probability, was an Irishman. Of the incidents of his long journey there appears to be no record. We are oniy told that he had the hardihood to undertake a task from which all but the bravest shrunk, that he went far away into a wilderness hitherto untrodden by a white man, and that he set an example for the others who followed the same route several years after. The journey must have occu- pied many weeks, but no details seem to be obtainable from any of the his- torical works that we have examined, of the arrival of the pioneer and his companions at the Kentucky River or of their return to Virginia. We simply know that they were the first white men to penetrate a hitherto unknown country beyond the romotest frontiers of American civilization. Bands of Indians must have hovered round them and beset their every path, for the country was in sole possession of the red men, who resented the intrusion of the strangers.
At that time, and for several succeeding years, Kentucky was nothing more than a vast wilderness, where the savage Indian tribes roamed at will. From the very beginning they were hostile to the whites. The ex- ploration and settlement of the territory was fiercely disputed, and many are the stories of daring and adventure that are told of the hardy pioneers from beyond the mountains who encountered the redmen in numerous bloody conflicts.
ROUTE THE EXPLORER FOLLOWED.
The only known route from the South and East by which this remote territory could be penetrated at that time was by means of boats on the Ohio River or its tributaries. McBride is said to have come down the Ohio to its confluence with the Kentucky and stopped where the town of Car- rollton in Carroll County now stands. It was bere that he cut his initials
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on the trees, which Filson was able to read 30 years after. It is to be re- gretted that no more elaborate account of the romantic, and probably thrill- ing, adventures of this hardy pioneer of the West has been handed down to us by historical writers. But enough has been written by the premier historian of Kentucky, who himself traveled through the country in its primeval state, to warrant us in saying that the name and fame of this pioneer Irish-American should be better known to readers of American his- tory. It is, perhaps, no misrepresentation of strict truth to say that it was unfortunate for his fame that he bore such a very Irish name.
KENTUCKY'S DEBT TO M'BRIDE.
Some may be disposed to doubt the accuracy of this conclusion, or to think it overdrawn. But. if so. we should ask, how it is that the name of the first white man known to have come down the Ohio and Kentucky Rivers is not perpetuated in history? "The first known white man to ex- plore these region-," as Collins describes him, is unhonored by the State of Kentucky, whose great possibilities he first made known to the world. Not a village. town. city or county in Kentucky; not a creek, river or mountain is named after this notable pioneer, the true "discoverer of Ken- tucky." The name of De Soto, the discoverer of the Mississippi; of Mar- quette, the pioneer of the great Northwest; of Boone. one of the pioneers of Kentucky, are deservedly inseribed on "imperishable marble," while he who may be said to have been the first to plant the seed grains from which the great State of Kentucky has sprung, is unknown to thousands of Americans. Who can measure the debt that Kentucky owes to the memory of this Irish-American pioneer; why has he not been allotted a place in the early history of our country ?
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The True Discoverer of Kentucky.
The Memory of James McBride is Unhonored by the Blue Grass State. The Irish Traders.
Readers may picture to themselves what this bold adventurer may have looked like. A forceful and pushing character, and no doubt in the prime of manhood; a robust. muscular frontiersman, accustomed to the woods and finding happiness in the excitements of forest lite: not a "paleface," but tanned by constant exposure to the Southern sun; dressed in crude, un- finished leatherns and moccasins; ride slung over his shoulder, and shot- pouch, knives and tomahawk by his side, ready for any encounter, whether with the Indians on the plains or the wild beasts of the forests. Or, perhaps. he was disguised as an Indian? Indeed, that is not improbable, for instances are found in Colonial history of hunters resorting to that sub- terfuge when penetrating unknown regions where the redmen held un- disputed sway.
What, we wonder, could have induced him to leave the comparatively peaceful settlement- of Western Virginia and depart in quest of a distant and unknown country, infested with wild beasts and enemies not less sav- age? Did he have no fears that in the magnificent sweep of the waters of the Ohio he might at any moment be hurled to destruction? Or, per- haps, that in the falling night, when he had tied up his birch-bark and sat down on the bank of the great stream to cat his frugal meal, he might be ambushed by the prowling savages, and an end put then and there to his dreams of the conquest of the wilds ?
DISCOVERED A MAGNIFICENT COUNTRY.
The further he traveled, the more he must have wondered at the wild grandeur and magnitude of the new country he had discovered, and, no doubt, still wondering, he went on and on, not knowing where and with no fixed destination, until, having reached the mouth of the Kentucky, feeling perhaps he had proceeded far enough on his initial attempt, he and his companions tied up their canoes and went ashore to explore this new and strange land.
The place whence he started on his long and perilous journey, or the names of those who accompanied him, seem to be unknown to the carly historians of Kentucky. It is supposed. however, that he must have come down the Big Sandy River, which has its source in Virginia, to where it
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joins the Ohio, and then proceeded westward along the great river, and after having exhausted his search, returned homeward to relate his ex- ploit to his neighbors in the Virginia settlements.
In an effort to obtain more detailed information concerning this little known pioneer, the writer has examined all of the Kentucky, Virginia and Carolina records that are accessible to him. Inquiries have also been ad- dressed to historical societies in Kentucky, but no positive information seems to be available, other than that contained in these meagre articles.
His career, subsequent to the period when Filson and Collins mention him as exploring Kentucky, seems to be shrouded in obscurity. After showing the way to other adventurous spirits, he seems to have disappeared from history, leaving no record of the tour of "the first white man we have certain accounts of who discovered this province." The wilderness which he traversed now blooms with the arts and refinements of civil life. amid which the name of this pioneer Irishman is unknown, "unhonored and un- sung."
OTHER MI'BRIDES MENTIONED.
A James McBride appears on the records of North Carolina of the year 1734. According to the North Carolina Genealogical and Historical Register for 1900, there is on record in the office of the Secretary of State at Raleigh the will of Benjamin Coin of Pasquotank, dated January 14. 1734. In this will, the testator uamed his "son-in-law, James McBride, his daughter, Betsy and his wife Bridget," as his only heirs. Pasquotank County borders on Nansemond County, Va., and it is quite possible that McBride was located in the latter county. There is nothing to indicate, however, that he was in any way identical with the first Kentucky explorer referred to by the historian, Filson.
There are two Jamies MeBrides mentioned in early Kentucky history. One held the rank of Major and the other that of Captain of Kentucky Volunteers in the War of the Revolution. Major James McBride is men- tioned by Collins as one of the settlers at the fort of Harrodsburg. in Mercer County, in the summer of 1775. Of course. he may have been the pioneer explorer of Kentucky. but there is nothing on record to authenti- cate this. Collins seems to think that James McBride, "the first white man we have certain accounts of who discovered this province." was the same whose name appears among "the first lotholders of Lexington. on De- cember 16, 1781, when the plan of the town was adopted and the lots dis- posed of," an interesting old document which he discovered among the early records of the City of Lexington. In this list several Irish names appear, among them Stephen Collins and his two sons. William Hayden, James and Caleb Masterson, James McBride. Samuel Kelly. John. Hugh, Samuel and William Martin, Alexander. James. Francis and William Me- Conuell, Francis MeDernrid. James McGinty. Samuel MeMullins. John Mor- rison, James Morrow, and Francis, Henry. Hugh. James, John and William McDonald. The MeDonalds were descended from Bryan MacDonnell and Jane Doyle from Wieklow. a sketch of whom appeared in this paper a few months ago.
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JAMES M'BRIDE, REVOLUTIONARY OFFICER.
Twenty-five years after MeBride's expedition into Kentucky, a Major Janies McBride fought at the head of a band of Kentucky Volunteers in the War of the Revolution. At the battle of Blue Licks on August 18, 1782, between the Kentuckians and the savage allies of the British. Mc- Bride was killed while leading a company of Volunteers. The historian says "he was long remembered for his bravery."
The fighting Major of the Blue Licks, here mentioned. may possibly have been the JJames McBride spoken of by the historians as "the first white man who traversed these regions." Assuming that the explorer could hardly have been less than, say, 25 years in 1754, which would make him about 33 in 1752, his age would not necessarily have prevented him from taking part in a fight for the liberty and independence of his country, especially against a foe that may have been the traditional enemy of the land of his fathers.
Although Filson and Collins agree that James McBride was the dis- coverer of this territory. Abbott, another undoubted authority. in his "Life of Daniel Boone, the Pioneer of Kentucky," states that he was not the first white man to tread the soil of Kentucky. Some Indian traders had passed through there before his time, and it is interesting to relate that the first trader who is said to have passed through the Southern portion of the State as now constituted bore the Irish name of Doherty. "As early as the year 1690." says Abbott, " a trader from Virginia named Doherty crossed the mountains into what is now Kentucky, where he resided with the Indians. He visited the friendly Cherokee nation within the present bounds of Georgia and resided with them for several years." In 1730. an- other enterprising trader from South Carolina, named Adair, made an extensive tour through the villages of the Cherokees and also visited the tribes to the South and West of them.
MANY IRISH TRADERS.
"Influenced by these examples," says the historian, "several traders in 1740 went from Virginia to the country of the Cherokees." The names of these traders are not given by the Kentucky historians, but it is stated that a number of them hailed from the Monongahela River district of Penn- sylvania. Rupp. in his "History of Western Pennsylvania," shows that no small percentage of these itinerant merchants of the West and South were Irishmen. From the "Journal of Christian Post"-quoted by Rupp-who was sent from Philadelphia to Fort Pitt (Pittsburgh) in the year 1758 on a mission from the Governor of Pennsylvania to the Indians, to prevail on them to withdraw from their alliance with the French, we learn some interesting details concerning these Irish traders.
On September 1, 1758. during a conference with the Indian chiefs, Post told them that "there are a great many Papists in the country who have sent many runaway Irish servants among you, who have put bad notions into your head and strengthened you against your brothers. the English." He then exhorted them "not to believe these ill-designing Irishmen." and adds by way of a memorandum in his Journal: "There are a great pum-
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ber of Irish trailers now among the Indians, who have always endeavored to split up the Indian- against the English."
Rupp mentions two of these Indian traders by name, Dennis Sullivan and Thomas Ward, who, with three others, "signed a treaty with the In- dians of the Six Nations at Log-town, on the Ohio, on May 28, 1751." Sparks, in his "Life of Washington," also refers to Indian traders from Western Pennsylvania named John MeGuire and Barnaby Curran, who ac- companied Washington on his journey through Pennsylvania from Virginia, in November, 1753, to deliver a letter from the Governor of Virginia to the Commander of the French forces on the Ohio. Washington also refers to McGuire and Curran in his Journal.
These traders carried on pack horses good- much valued by the Indians, which they exchanged for furs, and which were sold in Europe at an enor- mous profit. They kept up a friendly intercourse with the Cherokee na- tion, which, in after years, resulted in great advantages to the whites. They became acquainted with the country, as well as with the roads, such as they were, that led through the hunting grounds to the occupied terri- tory of other tribes.
Irish Pioneers in Kentucky.
Irishmen Were Among the Leading and Earliest Colonizers of the Blue Grass State. The Hardships of the McAfees.
Many of the Irish pioneers of Virginia and Kentneky seem to have followed the trade of coureurs des bois. ( forest guides). river pilot- end sur- veyors. The latter profession was a very lucrative one in the early days. The Provincial Governors and land companies used to send out surveyors to ascertain the nature of the country. to map out the location and course of the streams, and to locate the forests, mountains and plain -. On return- ing to their posts. they rendered reports to their employers, and these topographical guiles usually directed the course which the migrating com- panies followed to reach the places of their intended settlement.
Thus we find that when Lord Dunmore, the English representative in Virginia in June, 1774. sent out a punitive expedition against the Indians, under the command of Colonel Angus MeDonald, one Thady Kelly was se- lected to escort the troops. He piloted them up the Ohio and Muskingum Rivers as far as the present town of Dresden, Ohio.
Another noted surveyor was Lucas Sullivan (t), who was born of Irish parents in Mecklenburg County, Va., in 1765. He was a mere youth when he passed through the wilderness of Kentucky and the Southern por- tion of Ohio, surveying lands and marking places suitable for the es- tablishment of future settlements. It was he who founded the town of Franklinton, in Franklin County, Ohio, and to where, after many adven- tures and encounters with the Indians, he returned in 1797 and settled down permanently. Among those who accompanied him to Franklinton are mentioned William Donigan. Arthur O'Harra and one MeElvain. Sul- livant's three sons became prominent citizens of Ohio, and the youth of Franklinton to the present day are taught in "The Sullivant School."
Other pilots and surveyors of Irish birth or descent, to whom we shall refer from time to time as we proceed, were John O'Banmon, James Flinn, Francis Dunlevy. John Reilly, Barney Curran. John Fitzpatrick, John Doran, Patrick and Garrett Jordan, Hugh Shannon, William Casey, and others of the "Kellys, Burkes and Sheas" who are mentioned so fre- quently in the early records of the West, but whose names and deeds are, imfortunately, but little known, or, if known to any but the historian, are new entirely forgotten.
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MI'BRIDE FOLLOWED BY FINLEY.
The second exploration of Kentucky was undertaken in 1767 by John Finley, a daring hunter from the Yadkin River District of North Carolina, and who, if we are to judge from his name, may also have been an Irish- man. Finley was the first white man to cross the Cumberland Mountains and the first to discover the famous Cumberland Gap.
"The country west of the Cumberland Mountains," says Abbott, "was considered by the inhabitants of Carolina and Virginia as involved in some- thing of the same ob-curity which lay over the American continent after its discovery by Columbus." Abbott and Collins both say that Finley or- ganized a party and crossed the Alleghanies into Kentucky, made a thor- oug'i exploration of the country. and after the lapse of several months. "returned to the settlements on the Yadkin with a glowing story of the beauty and fertility of the country which they had seen."
Daniel Boone listened eagerly to his recital. "By the camp fires the wilde-t stories were told of the vast country that lay beyond the mountains, of the unexplored realins of the Indian tribes wandering there. of the for- ests filled with game. of the rivers alive with fishes. of the fertile plains. the floral beauty, the abounding fruit and the almost celestial clime. Finley and Boone sat hour after hour at the fireside talking of the newly dis- covered country. which resulted in a plan for the organization of a party to traverse those regions."
A company comprised of six picked men was organized by Boone, among whom were John Finley. John Stewart. John Holden, James Mooney and William Cool. Here again we observe the readiness of the Irish set- tlers to take part in a daring adventure, beset with the greatest dangers and privations.
Boone's wife was Rebecca Bryan. to whom he was married in 1755. Her brother, William Bryan, married Boone's sister, Mary, in the same year. They were the children of Morgan Bryan-who is said to have been of Irish descent. Boone was born in Berks County, Pennsylvania, and was the grandson of a Colonist from England, who came from a Norman family named Bohum, which had settled in Britain some years before. Boone's father was a Catholic and was one of the early settlers of Maryland. In 1750 he removed with his family to Alleman's Ford on the Yadkin River, in the same community where Morgan Bryan lived.
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