USA > Kentucky > A history of Kentucky and Kentuckians; the leaders and representative men in commerce, industry and modern activities, Volume I > Part 8
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CHAPTER VII.
CLARK IN COMMAND OF MILITIA-REFUSES BRITISH MILITARY COMMISSION-OPPOSITION TO TRANSYLVANIA SCHEME-DELEGATE TO VIRGINIA ASSEMBLY-HISTORIC "FIVE HUN- DRED POUNDS OF POWDER"-A DOUBLE VICTORY-TRANSYLVANIA DIES; KENTUCKY BORN.
George Rogers Clark, the winner of the Northwest territory for the Union that was to be, came to be a Kentucky colonist at the mo- ment when the Indians, forgetting past defeats and the treaty they had signed, put on the war paint again, won by specious promises made by wily agents of the British government, and be- gan their savage warfare anew among the peo- ple on the southern bank of the Ohio river, whom they had declared in solemn treaty they would never more molest.
The Indian is not to be wholly blamed for this ; he was a savage; the land on the south- ern bank of the Ohio he claimed as his own, as his hunting ground, and the provisions of a treaty, signed by him when the burden of de- feat laid heavily upon him, meant less to him than to the white signatories.
The English agents were blamable; they were white men, capable and educated; they knew the solemnity of a treaty and the force of its provisions ; they knew that the men, women and children of Kentucky to whose murder they were inciting the savages, were of English blood, bone of their bone, flesh of their flesh ; yet they drove the Indians against them and to deeds of violence, rapine and mur- der unequalled by the savage inhabitants of India who, driven to desperation by British tyranny and intolerance, rose against their op- pressors and wrote into the history of England in India the bloodiest chapters of the career Vol. 1-3.
of the Island Kingdom, the Mistress of the Seas.
Clark first visited Kentucky in 1775, and had so impressed himself upon the colonists as a man of force and character that they placed him in command of their militia. After a short stay, he returned to Virginia, full of knowl- edge of the situation in Kentucky ; the neces- sity for the development of a system of de- fense not only against the Indians but against their unnatural allies, the English. Further- more, he opposed the Transylvania idea and believed that Virginia should reject all the claims of the Lords Proprietors. This meant the early demise of the ambitious designs of Colonel Henderson and his associates. With Patrick Henry, the sturdy statesman and ora- tor, the advocate of liberty at any price, oppos- ing their schemes and refusing craftily ten- dered bribes ; with George Rogers Clark, the born soldier and patriot, declaring in opposi- tion to all their schemes, the ambitious Pro- prietors saw their principality melt away and their dreams of vast fortune vanish into thin air.
Clark was still a young man, of but twenty- four years ; he had shown such capacity and gallantry in Lord Dunmore's war against the Indians as to win the offer of a commission in the British army, which, with a prescience of coming events, he had declined, feeling, even then, that the day was not distant when he
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would have the opportunity to draw his sword against England and in favor of the people of his own country, oppressed and distressed by the British government.
Clark, as has been stated, was on his second visit to Kentucky when news came of the be- ginning of hostilities between England and the American colonies and of the renewed activity of the Indians against the people of Kentucky.
Recognizing the immediate necessity for a close and definite connection with Virginia, if the perils of the moment were to be properly and successfully met, Clark proposed that a representative assembly of delegates from the various scattered stations of the colony should be held at Harrodsburg. Along with the ques- tion of defense went that of an utter repudia- tion of the Colony of Transylvania. Clark minced no words in declaring his views. Brave and manly soldier that he was, he recognized that safety for the few scattered stations in Kentucky lay only under the protection of Vir- ginia and he had little or no sympathy for the Transylvanians whose entire efforts since set- ting up their alleged government, had been in the direction of acquiring money at the ex- pense of its dupes who had trusted its high sounding promises.
Clark declared that delegates should be sent to Virginia to urge that colony to take under its protection the Kentucky stations and failing that, the lands of Kentucky should be pledged to secure funds for protection, to obtain set- tlers and to establish an Independent State. It will be observed that Clark nowhere mentions the Lords Proprietors nor Transylvania. With him, as a Virginian, it was Virginia first, and, failing support there, an independent state. Nowhere was there an intimation of submis- sion to King George.
When the Harrodsburg convention proposed by Clark, assembled June 6. 1776, he had not arrived, but when he finally appeared, it was to find that he and one Gabriel John Jones had
been named as delegates from Kentucky to the Virginia assembly. He agreed to proceed to Williamsburg and present the claims of the colonists, though without any expectancy that himself and his colleague, Jones, would be seated as delegates. Provided with a memo- rial to the Virginia assembly Clark and Jones set forth upon their perilous journey to Will- iamsburg during which Clark is on record as saying he "suffered more torment than I ever experienced before or since ;" which is a force- ful expression when one recalls the perils and hardships of his future experiences in the serv- ice of the colonies and his victories in the northwest. Reaching Charlottesville on his eastern journey, Clark found that the assem- bly had adjourned. Jones, who was something of a neglible quantity as a delegate, went over to the settlements on the Holston, while Clark pursued his journey and the purpose which had brought him across the mountains to Vir- ginia, and in Hanover county sought and se- cured an interview with Patrick Henry, who had become governor of Virginia.
Clark made a full statement of the condi- tions then existing in Kentucky, and it is very probable gave much pleasure to Governor Henry by expressing his frank opinion of Colonel Henderson and his fellow-proprietors of Transylvania, with whom, it will be recalled, Henry had an experience at Philadelphia. Afterward he introduced Clark to the execu- tive council, to whom the latter at once ad- dressed his request for five hundred pounds of powder to be used in defense of the people in Kentucky. This was a shrewd and diplomatic move of the young soldier. Once Virginia took steps towards the defense of the people beyond the mountains, many of them her own sons, not only would they be protected, but this practical step towards asserting a proprietary right in the land they occupied would be a blow to Transylvania and lead to the downfall of Henderson and his ambitious designs. The council did not at once agree to Clark's re-
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quest, declaring that its powers did not extend so far. Clark, however, was not to be denied ; he knew the dire need of his associates in Ken- tucky-he had journeyed through many diffi- culties and dangers to Virginia in their behalf, and was not to be put off by pleas of lack of jurisdiction. He pressed his request with such insistence that the council finally concluded that it would assume the responsibility of lend- ing him five hundred pounds of powder, hold- ing him responsible in the event that the house of burgesses did not uphold the transaction. Clark wanted that powder very badly, but not on these terms. In addition to his desire for the powder for defensive purposes, he desired that Virginia should assume, as of right and duty, the defense of the western frontier. He returned the order of the council with a brief note in which he declared his intention to re- turn at once to Kentucky, there to set up an in- dependent state, declaring for the benefit of the council that "a country which is not worth de- fending is not worth claiming." It was Clark, the diplomat, who penned that indignant state- ment accompanying his refusal to accept a loan of powder. He knew the members of the council better than they knew themselves and acted accordingly, the result being that Clark was called a second time before the council and on August 23, 1776, he was given another or- der for five hundred pounds of powder to be conveyed by Virginia officials to Pittsburg, "to be safely kept and delivered to George Rogers Clark, or his order, for the use of the said in- habitants of Kentucky."
Clark had won a double victory, in that he had secured the much needed powder and what, in his view, was more important, an ex- pression from Virginia that it was her duty to defend the western frontier and its brave pio- neer occupants. This first and important step he hoped would soon be followed by a direct assertion of Virginia's authority over the terri- tory in Kentucky. Overjoyed with the success thus far attendant upon his efforts, Clark
wrote to his friends in Kentucky requesting them to receive the powder at Pittsburg and safely convey it to Kentucky that it might be used in defense against the expected savage forays under English guidance. Clark himself, remained in Virginia awaiting the reassembling of the assembly. Joined by his colleague, Ga- briel John Jones, he proceeded to Williams- burg and presented the memorial of the Ken- tucky colonists to the assembly. Once again victory was with Clark; the personality which in the near future was to mark him so dis- tinctly as a soldier now stood him in good stead as the civil representative of his people. The Transylvania Company knew that Clark and Jones were in Virginia, claiming rights as dele- gates to the assembly from "the western por- tion of Fincastle county," and had put forth every effort of their inventive minds to destroy the effect of their pleas. Notwithstanding the efforts of Colonel Henderson and his asso- ciates, the Virginia assembly on December 7, 1776, passed an act which divided the county of Fincastle, which covered a vast and not altogether well-defined western territory, into three sections to be thereafter known as Ken- tucky county, Washington county and Mont- gomery county, Virginia.
December 7, 1776, may therefore be claimed as the anniversary of Kentucky, as it undoubt- edly was the day when Transylvania met its death blow. That was a rather wide and ex- pansive territory, which the Virginia assembly called Kentucky county, and which is practi- cally the state of Kentucky of today, but it was not wide enough nor expansive enough for the sovereignty of Virginia and of the Lords Proprietors of Transylvania to occupy together ; so the latter passed out of existence and have never nor can they ever have a suc- cessor in our country.
To George Rogers Clark be all the honor, for to him it is largely due that the Kentucky of today exists. Yet how few of the inhabi- tants of the state know the great value of his
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services at a critical period in our history, or the tremendous effect of his subsequent mili- tary successes upon the history of our country. Fewer still know that he sleeps in a humble grave not many miles from the great metropo-
lis of the state, which he helped to politically found and so faithfully served. Nor do they know that outside the pages of history there has been practically no recognition of his great services.
CHAPTER VIII.
BRINGING THE POWDER TO KENTUCKY-AT HARRODSBURG-DEATH AND DISASTER-IN- DIANS DEFEATED-TRUE PIONEERS REJOICE-CLARK THE MAN OF THE HOUR.
Clark having won his double victory in se- curing the powder unconditionally and defeat- ing the plans of Henderson, was preparing to start upon his return to Kentucky, when he learned that no one had appeared at Pittsburg to take charge of the powder which had cost him so much in danger and labor. It was not an easy matter to transport this powder over the mountains to Kentucky. Danger was at- tended upon every step, since through spies, or otherwise, the Indians had learned that it had been granted Clark and was to be trans- mitted to Kentucky. But danger never caused Clark to hesitate; it rather spurred him to ac- tion.
Accompanied by his colleague, Gabriel John Jones, who appears to have been always around but never doing anything in particular, Clark set out for Pittsburg with the determin- ation to get that powder safely to Kentucky at no matter what cost. The safety of the few scattered stations was dependent upon it. Reaching Pittsburg, Clark and Jones secured a small boat into which the powder was placed and began their long journey down the Ohio river to the Kentucky settlements. They suc- ceeded in escaping the Indians by whom they were pursued and who knew what cargo they carried. The savages unable to keep pace with Clark's boat by water, took to the land, but without success, and were far behind when the latter landed at a point near where Maysville now stands, the landing-place being then known as Three Islands. Entering the mouth
of Limestone creek, Clark concealed parts of liis precious cargo at each of several points along its heavily wooded shore, allowing his boat after removal of the powder to drift down the stream and into the river to mislead the pursuing Indians.
Clark and his eight companions, the names of none of whom are known, other than that of his colleague, Jones, then set out for the settlement at Harrodsburg. While journeying through the forest they met at the cabin of John Hinkson, a party of surveyors, who stated that, owing to the depredations of the Indians, many of the small stations had been abandoned. These surveyors also informed Clark that Colonel Jolin Todd was somewhere in the neighborhood in command of a body of men sufficiently large, if joined with his own, to safely convey the powder to the settlements. Clark sent Jones and five boatmen to find Col- onel Todd and his party while he, with two other men, went forward to McClelland's Fort, where he found the garrison so weak- ened by desertions, following the renewal of Indian depredations, as to be barely sufficient to retain the fort; none could therefore be spared for the purpose of securing the pre- cious powder. At this post, Clark met with Simon Kenton, who was to play so important a part in the future of Kentucky, and under his guidance hastened to Harrodsburg, where he secured a guard of adequate strength and retraced his steps towards Hinkson's where disaster had preceded him. After his depar-
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ture for Harrodsburg, Colonel Todd with some five or six men had arrived at Hinkson's and upon hearing of the hidden powder, had re- quested Jones to lead him to the places of de- posit.
December 25, 1776, as Todd and his party of ten approached the banks of the Limestone to secure the powder, they were fired upon by a body of Indians commanded by Pluggy, a noted Mingo chief. who had discovered the abandoned boat and followed Clark's trail. Jones, poor fellow! who had been Clark's faithful shadow and had uncomplainingly played second fiddle in the Virginia negotia- tions, and William Graydon, were killed and two others captured, while Colonel Todd and his remaining men escaped to McClelland's station, where Clark and Kenton soon after- wards found them. This was a welcome re- inforcement to the weakened garrison.
One week after the killing of Jones, on New Year's Day, 1777, Pluggy, believing the fort to be but weakly garrisoned, led his war- riors to an attack upon it, but suffered a re- pulse, the savages being driven off after the killing of their chief, Pluggy. Of the garri- son. McClelland and one other were killed. After the repulse of the savages, Clark hastily secured the hidden powder which was safely taken to Harrodsburg. McClelland's station was abandoned, some going to the stockades while others. not being true pioneers and hav- ing no desire for further conflicts with the Indians, returned across the mountains to the older settlements whence they came.
The rejoicing of the pioneers over the suc- cess of Clark in securing the powder and safely conveying it to them, was not so great as their satisfaction caused by his victory over Colonel Henderson and his associates. These brave men had pushed out into the wilderness, in the face of savage opposition, to make homes for themselves, when they had been confronted by Henderson with quit rents and titles which might or not stand the scrutiny of
the courts. They desired indefensible titles to the lands entered by them and feared that the Lords Proprietors could not give them. When Clark returned from Virginia, they not only saw the Henderson idea dissolve into the air, but they saw something tangible behind their titles ; they saw Virginia claiming the territory in which their lands were found; and more than that, they saw Virginia ready to assert that claim and to protect it. More than all else, they saw George Rogers Clark, the sol- dier-pioneer, ever ready, ever willing, to go out in defense of their rights ; to face the sav- age foe ; to endure any hardship ; to do all, to dare all, that might be necessary to not only defend the territory they occupied but to ven- ture beyond and seize from the enemy that which he claimed as his own.
Before the coming of Clark, the pioneer conducted his own campaigns. He went out to-day and killed any stray Indian whom he might meet and returned to his station. This method of disposing of the opposing forces had its limitations. Of course if every pio- neer went out every day and every pioneer killed an Indian every day, it was only a ques- tion of mathematics as to when the Indian would be eliminated from the problem. But sometimes the Indian killed the pioneer, which interfered with the problem of arithmetical progression. Clark's return changed these conditions, because the Indians had changed their methods under the guidance of their British teachers. Whereas, they had before gone among the white settlers of Kentucky in small parties, burning, robbing and murdering in outlying stations, they now came in larger and more compact bodies, frequently under the command of British officers, and con- ducted their campaigns in keeping with the rules of recognized warfare, save in the in- stances where they were successful in defeat- ing the settlers, on which occasions they gave way to their savage instincts and ruthlessly tortured and slaughtered their helpless cap-
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tives. It is to the everlasting disgrace of our own kith and kin, our English forefathers, that they permitted the torture of white prisoners by their Indian allies. Clark knew of this
from conferences with the settlers in Ken- tucky, with whom he conferred, and planned an expedition for their relief.
CHAPTER IX.
HAMILTON, CLARK'S OPPONENT-RESCUE OF THREE KENTUCKY DAUGHTERS-FIRST MAR- RIAGE IN KENTUCKY-HARRODSBURG MARKED FOR DESTRUCTION-INDIANS THWARTED- FUTILE ATTACK ON BOONESBOROUGH-LOGAN'S BRAVERY AND WISDOM.
Clark correctly believed that the bands of savages who were harrying Kentucky were in British pay and under British control and that they were used in the rear of the colonies to draw off protecting columns from the Conti- nental army, and with this correct view he knew, with the intuitive knowledge of the born soldier, that a counter-move should be made. To this end he proposed a campaign into the enemy's country, and set about its ar- rangement.
Col. Henry Hamilton, of the British army, had been assigned by Governor General Carle- ton to the command of the post at Detroit, which included a large territory under savage control. Hamilton seems by nature to have been fitted for savage warfare. He had. ac- cording to his own statement, sent out fifteen Indian expeditions against the white settlers and it has been claimed that he offered prizes for white scalps, though this has not been def- initely proven, but it is known that he joined in the war songs of returning Indian maraud- ers, during which they gloatingly exhibited the scalps of the white men, women and children whom they had slain, though these victims were, like himself, of English blood in the main.
Clark, not to be taken unaware, sent out spies to range up and down the Ohio river. to report from the outlying stations the move- ments of the Indians, and these spies were of great benefit to him and to the colonists up to
the time of 1777, during the spring of which Hamilton concluded that the time had arrived for a crushing blow to be delivered to the Kentucky stations of Boonesborough, Har- rodsburg and Logan's Fort, thus hoping to drive the colonists back to Virginia and to give back to the Indians their hunting grounds.
The people at Boonesborough had enjoyed a peaceful existence for some time but there was to be a rude awakening. There were but few women who had braved the dangers of the western frontier, but there were some heroic in spirit as their brave husbands and fathers. In July, 1777, there occurred an event which wrought the gallant pioneers to desperation and boded ill for any Indian who fell into their hands. On the 14th of July, two daughters of Col. Richard Calloway, Eliz- abeth and Frances, and Jemima, the daughter of Daniel Boone, the first two just budding into womanhood and the latter but fourteen years old, ventured out of the fort at Boones- borough for a boat ride on the Kentucky riv- er, all unsuspicious of danger. They were surprised by a band of Indians lurking on the opposite shore and made prisoners, though not before Elizabeth Calloway, possessed of the true courage of the pioneer, had inflicted a serious wound with her paddle upon one of her captors. The cries of the captive girls attracted the attention of those in the fort and immediate steps were taken to rescue them. Boone and Calloway were temporarily absent,
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but soon returned. Within the fort were They were required by the savages to walk three young men, lovers of the captives. apart through the brush and to wade up and down through such water as they crossed, hop- ing thus to hide their trail and deceive the pursuers as to their number. Samuel Henderson was the betrothed lover of Elizabeth Calloway and the nuptial day had been fixed; Col. John Holden was the lover of Fannie Calloway, and Flanders Calloway of Jemima Boone, though that young lady was but fourteen years old at that time. Our forefathers and especially our foremothers, did not postpone matrimony unduly in those days when our state was young as they were.
A party of eight men, including the three lovers of the girl captives, at once placed themselves under the command of Daniel Boone and started to their rescue, a second party on horseback following after. Night- fall brought the pursuit to a temporary end, as they were unable to follow the trail in the darkness, but at dawn of day they were again in pursuit with Boone at their head, his un- rivalled knowledge of the Indian and his methods standing them in good stead. The Indians fled northward, evidently intent upon crossing the Ohio to one of their villages, fol- lowing a route which took them near to the Winchester, North Middletown and Carlisle of to-day. Tuesday morning, the third day after the capture of the young women, they halted near Blue Licks, closely followed by the party under Boone. Elizabeth Calloway, a true frontier girl, with a view to marking the trail, had now and again broken twigs on the trees and bushes along the line of march, which, being observed by the Indians, caused her to be threatened with death. Not dis- mayed by the uplifted tomahawk, she re- frained from further efforts to thus mark their trail and, as opportunity presented, tore off and dropped small portions of her wear- ing apparel. She had previously refused to exchange her shoes for moccasins, as her fel- low captives had done, and as opportunity presented, she had dug deep into the trail the heels of her shoes, hoping thus to attract the attention of those who followed in pursuit.
By dawn on Tuesday, Boone and his party of pursuers were again on the trail and soon saw smoke arising over the trees, indicating that the Indians were preparing their morning meal. In Smith's "History of Kentucky" is found the following record of the rescue of the prisoners.
"Col. Floyd says in a letter written a few days afterward: 'Our study had been how to get the prisoners without giving the Indians time to murder them after being discovered. We saw each other nearly at the same time. Four of us fired and all rushed on them, by which they were prevented from carrying any- thing away except one shot-gun without am- munition. Col. Boone and myself had pretty fair shots and they hastily fled. I am con- vinced I shot one through the body. The one he shot dropped his gun; mine had none. The place was covered with thick cane, and being so much elated recovering the poor, lit- tle broken-hearted girls, we were prevented from making any further search. We sent the Indians off almost naked, some without their moccasins and none of them with knife or tomahawk. After the girls came to them- selves enough to speak. they told us there were five Indians, four Shawnees and one Cherokee ; they could speak pretty good Eng- lish and said they were going to the Shawnee towns. The war-club we got was like those we have seen of that nation, and several words of their language which the girls retained were of the Shawnee tribe.'"
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