Biographical cyclopedia of the commonwealth of Kentucky, Part 55

Author: Gresham, John M., Co., Pub
Publication date: 1896
Publisher: Chicago, Philadelphia, J. M. Gresham company
Number of Pages: 726

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In 1786 he emigrated to Kentucky and settled in Mercer County. In the border war which raged with so much fury on the northwestern frontier, General (then major) Adair was an active and efficient officer, and frequently engaged with the Indians. On the 6th of November, 1792, Major Adair, at the head of a detachment of mounted volunteers from Kentucky, while en- camped in the immediate vicinity of Fort St. Clair, twenty-six miles south of Greenville, near where Eaton, the county seat of Preble County, Ohio, now stands, was suddenly and violently attacked by a large party of Indians, who rushed on the encampment with great fury. A bloody conflict ensued, during which Major Adair ordered Lieu- tenant Madison, with a small party, to gain the

right flank of the enemy, if possible, and at the same time gave an order for Lieutenant Hall to attack their left, but learning that that officer had been slain, the major with about twenty-five of his men made the attack in person, with a view of sus- taining Lieutenant Madison.

The pressure of this movement caused the ene- my to retire. They were driven about six hun- dred yards, through and beyond the American camp, where they made a stand, and again fought desperately. At this juncture about sixty of the Indians made an effort to turn the right flank of the whites. Major Adair foreseeing the conse- quences of this maneuver, found it necessary to order a retreat. That movement was effected with regularity, and as was expected, the Indians pur- sued them to their camp, where a halt was made and another severe battle was fought, in which the Indians suffered severely and were driven from the ground. In this affair six of the whites were killed, five wounded, and four missing. Among the wounded were Lieutenant (afterwards gov- ernor) George Madison and Colonel Richard Taylor, the father of the President, Major General Zachary Taylor, the hero of Palo Alto, Monterey, Buena Vista, etc.

The Indians on this occasion were commanded by the celebrated Little Turtle. Some years after- ward, in 1805-6, when General Adair was regis- ter of the land office in Frankfort, Captain William Wells, Indian agent, passed through that place on his way to Washington City, attended by some Indians, among whom was the chief, Little Tur- tle. General Adair called on his old antagonist, and in the course of the conversation the incident above related being alluded to, General Adair attributed his defeat to his having been taken by surprise. The Little Turtle immediately re- marked with great pleasantness: "A good gen- eral is never taken by surprise."

In the campaign of 1813 he accompanied Gov- ernor Shelby into Canada, as an aide, and was present in that capacity at the battle of the Thames. His conduct during this campaign was such as to draw from his superior officers an ex- pression of their approbation, and his name was honorably mentioned in the report to the war de- partment. Governor Shelby afterwards con-

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ferred upon him the appointment of adjutant gen- eral of the Kentucky troops, with the brevet rank of brigadier general, in which character he com- manded the Kentuckians in the glorious battle of New Orleans. The acrimonious controversy be- tween him and General Jackson, growing out of the imputations cast by the latter on the conduct of the Kentucky troops on that eventful day is fresh in the recollection of all.

In 1820 he was elected governor of Kentucky, in opposition to Judge Logan, Governor Desha and Colonel Butler. He was often a member of the state legislature, and on several occasions was speaker of that body. In 1825 he was elected to the senate of the United States from Kentucky for the term of one year. In 1831 he was elected to Congress, and served in the house of repre- sentatives from 1831 to 1833, inclusive.

General Adair was a brave soldier, an active, vigilant and efficient officer-a politician of sound principles and enlarged views, and an ardent patriot. Among the early pioneers of Kentucky, he deservedly occupies a prominent place and a high rank. He died on the 19th day of May, 1840, at the advanced age of eighty-three years.

P RESTON H. LESLIE, Twenty-sixth Gov- ernor of Kentucky, was born in that part of Wayne which now forms Clinton County, Ken- tucky, March 2, 1819. Left an orphan at an early age, his fellow citizens are proud of that self-rely- ing spirit and indomitable energy which made him, in his poverty, a cart-driver in the streets of Louisville at the age of thirteen, a wood-chopper at fourteen, a ferryman, farmer's boy and cook for tan-bark choppers at fifteen, a lawyer at twenty- two, a representative in the legislature at twenty- five, a senator at thirty-one, and governor of the eighth state in population of the American Union at fifty-one. He began the practice of law in Monroe County and represented that county in the legislature in 1844 and 1850, and the counties of Monroe and Barren in the senate in 1851-55. After removing to Barren, he was again in the senate, in 1867-71; in December, 1869, was chos- en speaker of the senate, and thereby acting lieutenant governor; on February 13, 1871, upon the resignation of Governor Stevenson, was in-

augurated for the unexpired term, until Septem- ber, 1871; in August, 1871, was the Democratic candidate and elected governor for four years, from 1871-75, by the remarkable majority of 37,156.

W TILLIAM KRAUS, the efficient manager of the Rehkopf Horse Collar Manufac- turing Company of Paducah, is a son of Philip and Louisa (Keyser) Kraus, and was born in Baltimore, Maryland, September 2, 1846.

His father was born in Hanover, near Bremen, Germany, and was a glass stainer, who came to America, and was the first man who engaged in that business in this country. He first went to Fredericksburg, Virginia, in 1834, and removed to Baltimore, Maryland, in 1840, where he followed his trade industriously until his death in 1872. He was a strictly honest and upright man and left no estate. His wife was a native of Saxony and was a woman of superior intelligence who took especial care and pride in the education and prop- er training of her son.

William Kraus was reared in Baltimore and was educated at Irvin College, Hanover, Lan- caster County, Pennsylvania. After spending seven years in that institution, he entered the government service in the ambulance department and served for four years, during the war of the '60's.

When the war was over he returned to Balti- more and served an apprenticeship of three years with John D. Hammond & Company, learning the trade of horse-collar making, and then ac- cepted a position with John D. Lemp of Wheel- ing, West Virginia, and, after spending a short time there, made a tour of the west.

He first came to Paducah in April, 1876, and after spending about three months there, went to Jefferson City, Missouri, where he was em- ployed in the State Prison for a short time, when he was induced to return to Paducah and to ac- cept his present position as manager of the Reh- kopf Horse Collar Manufacturing Company, the plant of which was established by E. Rehkopf in 1858. Under Mr. Kraus' management, the business of the concern has greatly increased and the present average product of the factory is about

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two hundred dozen collars a week. Nine trav- eling salesmen are employed who cover the entire southern trade and as far north as Michigan. This manufactory has a reputation all over the country for the excellence of its collars, and it is probably one of the largest establishments of the kind in the country. Much of its success is due to the excellent management of Mr. Kraus, whose thorough knowledge of the details of the work in the shop and of the wants of the trade through- out the country enables him to keep abreast with the demands of the trade and to produce a class of work that cannot be excelled. Mr. Kraus is an educated gentleman, of most agreeable man- ners, and is popular among a host of acquaint- ances. He has frequently been called upon to serve the city in the capacity of Councilman and School Trustee, to which offices he was elected on the Democratic ticket. He is a popular and active member of a number of the benevolent orders, including the Masons, Odd Fellows, Knights of Honor and the "Sapient Screechers," Nest No. 17; has served as master of his Masonic lodge; as dictator of Rapidan Lodge of Knights of Honor and past Grand Sire of I. O. O. F. Lodge No. 19. Mr. Kraus was married January 31, 1876, to Anna E. Earhart of Cincinnati.

C OLONEL DANIEL BOONE, who was the first white man who ever made a permanent settlement within the limits of the present State of Kentucky, was born in Bucks County, Penn- sylvania, on the right bank of the Delaware River, on the IIth of February, 1731. Of his life, but lit- tle is known previous to his emigration to Ken- tucky, with the early history of which his name is, perhaps, more closely identified than that of any other man.

It is said that the ancestors of Daniel Boone were among the original Catholic settlers of Mary- land; but of this nothing is known with certainty, nor is it, perhaps, important that anything should be. He was eminently the architect of his own fortunes; a self-formed man in the truest sense- whose own innate energies and impulses gave the moulding impress to his character. In the years of his early boyhood his father emigrated first to Reading, on the headwaters of the Schuylkill,

and subsequently to one of the valleys of South Yadkin, in North Carolina, where the subject of this notice continued to reside until his fortieth year.

In 1767, the return of Findlay from his adven- turous excursion into the unexplored wilds be- yond the Cumberland mountains, and the glow- ing accounts he gave of the richness and fertility of the new country, excited powerfully the curi- osity and imaginations of the frontier backwoods- men of Virginia and North Carolina, ever on the watch for adventures; and to whom the lonely wilderness, with all its perils, presented attractions which were not to be found in the close confine- ment and enervating inactivity of the settlements. To a man of Boone's temperament and tastes, the scenes described by Findlay presented charms not to be resisted; and, in 1769, he left his family upon the Yadkin, and in company with five others, of whom Findlay was one, he started to explore that country of which he had heard so favorable an account.

Having reached a stream of water on the bor- ders of the present State of Kentucky, called Red River, they built a cabin to shelter them from the inclemency of the weather (for the season had been very rainy), and devoted their time to hunt- ing and the chase, killing immense quantities of game. Nothing of particular interest occurred until the 22d of December, 1769, when Boone, in company with a man named Stuart, being out hunting, they were surprised and captured by Indians. They remained with their captors seven days, until, having by a rare and powerful exertion of self-control, suffering no signs of impatience to escape them, succeeded in disarm- ing the suspicions of the Indians, their escape was effected without difficulty. Through life Boone was remarkable for cool, collected self- possession in moments of most trying emergency, and on no occasion was this rare and valuable quality more conspicuously displayed than dur- ing the time of this captivity. On regaining their camp, they found it dismantled and deserted. The fate of its inmates was never ascertained, and it is worthy of remark, that this is the last and almost the only glimpse we have of Findlay, the first pioneer. A few days after this they were

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joined by Squire Boone, a brother of the great pioneer, and another man, who had followed them from Carolina, and accidentally stumbled on their camp. Soon after this accession to their num- bers, Daniel Boone and Stuart, in a second ex- cursion, were again assailed by the Indians, and Stuart shot and scalped; Boone fortunately es- caped. Their only remaining companion, dis- heartened by the perils to which they were con- tinually exposed, returned to North Carolina, and the two brothers were left alone in the wilderness, separated by hundreds of miles from the white settlements and destitute of everything but their rifles. Their ammunition running short, it was determined that Squire Boone should return to Carolina for a fresh supply, while his brother remained in charge of the camp. This resolu- tion was accordingly carried into effect, and Boone was left for a considerable time to encounter or evade the teeming perils of his hazardous soli- tude alone. We should suppose that his situation now would have been disheartening and wretched in the extreme. He himself says that for a few days after his brother left him he felt dejected and lonesome, but in a short time his spirits recovered their wonted equanimity, and he roved through the woods in every direction, killing abund- ance of game and finding an unutterable pleasure in the contemplation of the natural beauties of the forest scenery. On the 27th of July, 1770, the younger Boone returned from Carolina with the ammunition, and with a hardihood almost in- credible, the brothers continued to range through the country without injury until March, 1771, when they retraced their steps to North Carolina. Boone had been absent from his family for near three years, during nearly the whole of which time he had never tasted bread or salt, nor beheld the face of a single white man, with the exception of his brother and the friends who had been killed.

On the 25th of September, 1773, having dis- posed of all his property, except that which he intended to carry with him to his new home, Boone and his family took leave of their friends and commenced their journey west. In Powell's valley, being joined by five more families and forty men, well armed, they proceeded towards their destination with confidence; but when near

the Cumberland mountains they were attacked by a large party of Indians. These, after a severe engagement, were beaten off and compelled to retreat, not, however, until the whites had sus- tained a loss of six men in killed and wounded. Among the killed was Boone's eldest son. This foretaste of the dangers which awaited them in the wilderness they were about to explore so dis- couraged the emigrants that they immediately re- treated to the settlements on Clinch river, a dis- tance of forty miles from the scene of action. Here they remained until 1775. During this in- terval Boone was employed by Governor Dun- more of Virginia, to conduct a party of surveyors through the wilderness, from Falls of the Ohio, a distance of eight hundred miles. Of the inci- dents attending this expedition, we have no ac- count whatever. After his return he was placed by Dunmore in command of three frontier sta- tions, or garrisons, and engaged in several affairs with the Indians. At about the same period, he also, at the solicitation of several gentlemen of North Carolina, attended a treaty with the Chero- kees, known as the treaty of Wataga, for the purchase of the lands south of the Kentucky river. It was in connection with this land purchase, and under the auspices of Colonel Richard Hender- son, that Boone's second expedition to Kentucky was made. His business was to mark out a road for the pack-horses and wagons of Henderson's party. Leaving his family on Clinch river, he set out upon this hazardous undertaking at the head of a few men, on the 10th of March, 1775, and arrived, without any adventure worthy of note, on the 25th of March, the same year, at a point within fifteen miles of the spot where Boones- borough was afterwards built. Here they were attacked by Indians, and it was not until after a severe contest, and loss on the part of the whites of three men in killed and wounded, that they were repulsed. An attack was made on another party, and the whites sustained a loss of two more. On the Ist of April they reached the southern bank of the Kentucky river, and began to build a fort, afterwards known as Boonesborough. On the 4th they were again attacked by the Indians, and lost another man; but, notwithstanding the dangers to which they were continually exposed,

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the work was prosecuted with indefatigable dili- gence, and on the 14th of the month finally com- pleted. Boone shortly returned to Clinch river for his family, determined to remove them to this new and remote settlement at all hazards. This was accordingly effected as soon as circumstances would permit. From this time the little garrison was exposed to incessant assaults from the In- dians, who appeared to be perfectly infuriated at the encroachments of the whites, and the forma- tion of settlements in the midst of their old hunt- ing grounds; and the lives of the emigrants were passed in a continued succession of the most ap- palling perils, which nothing but unquailing cour- age and indomitable firmness could have enabled them to encounter. They did, however, breast this awful tempest of war, and bravely and suc- cessfully, and in defiance of all probability the small colony continued steadily to increase and flourish, until the thunder of barbarian hostilities rolled gradually away to the north, and finally died in low mutterings on the frontiers of Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois. The summary nature of this sketch will not admit of more than a bare enumer- ation of the principal events in which Boone figured in these exciting times, during which he stood the center figure, towering like a colossus amid that hardy band of pioneers, who opposed their breasts to the shock of that dreadful death struggle, which gave a yet more terrible signifi- cance, and a still more crimson hue, to the history of the old dark and bloody ground.

In July, 1776, the people at the fort were thrown into the greatest agitation and alarm, by an incident characteristic of the times, and which singularly illustrates the habitual peril which en- vironed the inhabitants. Jemima Boone and two daughters of Colonel Callaway were amusing themselves in the neighborhood of the fort, when a party of Indians suddenly rushed from the sur- rounding coverts and carried them away captives. The screams of the terrified girls aroused the in- mates of the garrison; but the men being gener- ally dispersed in their usual avocations, Boone hastily pursued with a party of only eight men. The little party, after marching hard during two nights, came up with the Indians early the third day, the pursuit having been conducted with such

silence and celerity that the savages were taken entirely by surprise, and having no preparations for defense, they were routed almost instantly, and without difficulty. The young girls were restored to their gratified parents without having sustained the slightest injury, or any inconvenience beyond the fatigue of the march and a dreadful fright. The Indians lost two men, while Boone's party was uninjured.

From this time until the 15th of April, the gar- rison was constantly harassed by flying parties of savages. They were kept in continual anxiety and aların; and the most ordinary duties could only be performed at the risk of their lives. "While plowing their corn they were waylaid and shot; while hunting, they were pursued and fired upon; and sometimes a solitary Indian would creep up near the fort during the night, and fire upon the first of the garrison who appeared in the morning." On the 15th of April, a large body of Indians invested the fort, hoping to crush the settlement at a single blow; but, destitute as they were of scaling ladders, and all the proper means of reducing fortified places, they could only annoy the garrison, and destroy the property ; and being more exposed than the whites, soon retired pre- cipitately. On the 4th of July following, they again appeared with a force of two hundred war- riors, and were repulsed with loss. A short period of tranquillity was now allowed to the harassed and distressed garrison; but this was soon fol- lowed by the most severe calamity that had yet befallen the infant settlement. This was the cap- ture of Boone and twenty-seven of his men in the month of January, 1778, at the Blue Licks, whither he had gone to make salt for the garrison. He was carried to the old town of Chillicothe, in the present state of Ohio, where he remained a prisoner with the Indians until the 16th of the following June, when he contrived to make his escape, and returned to Boonsborough.

During this period, Boone kept no journal, and we are therefore uninformed as to any of the particular incidents which occurred during his captivity. We only know, generally, that, by his equanimity, his patience, his seeming cheerful submission to the fortune which had made him a captive, and his remarkable skill and expertness

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as a woodsman, he succeeded in powerfully ex- citing the admiration and conciliating the good will of his captors. In March, 1778, he accom- panied the Indians on a visit to Detroit, where Governor Hamilton offered one hundred pounds for his ransom, but so strong was the affection of the Indians for their prisoner, that it was un- hesitatingly refused. Several English gentlemen, touched with sympathy for his misfortunes, made pressing offers of money and other articles, but Boone steadily refused to receive benefits which he could never return.

On his return from Detroit, he observed that large numbers of warriors had assembled, painted and equipped for an expedition against Boons- borough, and his anxiety became so great that he determined to effect his escape at every hazard. During the whole of this agitating period, how- ever, he permitted no symptom of anxiety to es- cape; but continued to hunt and shoot with the Indians as usual, until the morning of the 16th of June, when, making an early start, he left Chil- licothe, and shaped his course for Boonsborough. This journey, exceeding a distance of one hun- dred and fifty miles, he performed in four days, during which he ate only one meal. He was re- ceived at the garrison like one risen from the dead. His family supposing him killed, had re- turned to North Carolina; and his men, appre- hending no danger, had permitted the defenses of the fort to fall to decay. The danger was im- minent; the enemy were hourly expected, and the fort was in no condition to receive them. Not a moment was to be lost: the garrison worked night and day, and by indefatigable diligence, everything was made ready within ten days after his arrival, for the approach of the enemy. At this time one of his companions arrived from Chil- licothe, and reported that his escape had deter- mined the Indians to delay the invasion for three weeks. The attack was delayed so long that Boone, in his turn, resolved to invade the Indian country; and accordingly, at the head of a select company of nineteen men, he marched against the town of Paint Creek, on the Scioto, within four miles of which point he arrived without dis- covery. Here he encountered a party of thirty warriors, on their march to join the grand army

in its expedition against Boonsborough. This party he attacked and routed without loss or in- jury to himself; and, ascertaining that the main body of the Indians were on their march to Boonsborough, he retraced his steps for that place with all possible expedition. He passed the In- dians on the 6th day of their march, and on the 7th reached the fort. The next day the Indians appeared in great force, conducted by Canadian officers well skilled in all the arts of modern war- fare. The British colors were displayed and the fort summoned to surrender. Boone requested two days for consideration, which was granted. At the expiration of this period, having gathered in their cattle and horses, and made every prepara- tion for a vigorous resistance, an answer was re- turned that the fort would be defended to the last. A proposition was then made to treat, and Boone and eight of the garrison, met the British and In- dian officers, on the plain in front of the fort. Here, after they had gone through the farce of pretending to treat, an effort was made to detain the Kentuckians as prisoners. This was frus- trated by the vigilance and activity of the intended victims, who springing out from the midst of their savage foeman, ran to the fort under a heavy fire of rifles, which fortunately wounded only one man. The attack instantly commenced by a heavy fire against the picketing, and was re- turned with fatal accuracy by the garrison. The Indians then attempted to push a mine into the fort, but their object being discovered by the quantity of fresh earth they were compelled to throw into the river, Boone cut a trench within the fort, in such a manner as to intersect their line of approach, and thus frustrated their de- sign. After exhausting all the ordinary artifices of Indian warfare, and finding their numbers daily thinned by the deliberate and fatal firing from the garrison, they raised the siege on the ninth day after their first appearance, and returned home. The loss on the part of the garrison, was two men killed and four wounded. Of the savages, twenty-seven were killed and many wounded, who, as usual, were carried off. This was the last siege sustained by Boonsborough.

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Biographical cyclopedia of the commonwealth of Kentucky, Part 55

Author: Gresham, John M., Co., Pub Publication date: 1896 Publisher: Chicago, Philadelphia, J. M. Gresham company Number of Pages: 726

Author: Gresham, John M., Co., Pub
Publication date: 1896
Publisher: Chicago, Philadelphia, J. M. Gresham company
Number of Pages: 726