Collins historical sketches of Kentucky. History of Kentucky: Vol. II, Part 10

Author: Collins, Lewis, 1797-1870. cn; Collins, Richard H., 1824-1889. cn
Publication date: 1874
Publisher: Covington, Ky., Collins & Co.
Number of Pages: 1654

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From this time until the 15th of April, the garrison 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 way-laid 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 precipitately. On the 4th of July following, they again appearel with a force of two hundred warriors, and were repulsed with

DANIEL BOONE.

loss. A short period of tranquility was now allowed to the harassed and dis- tressud garrison ; but this was soon followed by the most severe calamity that had yet befallen t'e infant settlement. This was the capture 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 sub- mission to the fortune which had made him a captive, and his remarkable skill and expertness as a woodsman, he succeeded in powerfully exciting the admiration and conciliating the good will of his captors. In March, 1778, he accompanied 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 unhesitatingly 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 as- sembled, painted and equipped for an expedition against Boonsborough, and his anxiety became so great that he determined to effect his escape at every hazard. During the whole of this agitating period, however, he permitted no symptom of anxiety to escape; 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 hundred and fifty miles, he performed in four days, during which he ate only one meal. He was received at the garrison like one risen from the dead. His family supposing him killed, had returned to North Carolina ; and his men, apprehending no danger, had permitted the defences of the fort to fall to decay. The danger was imminent; the enemy were hourly expected, and the fort was in no condition to receive them. Not a moment was to be lost : the gar- rison 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 Chillicothe, and reported that his escape had determined 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 coun- try ; 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 discovery. Here he encountered a party of thirty warriors, on their march to join the grand army in its expedition against Boons- borough. This party he attacked and routed without loss or injury 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 Indians 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 warfare. 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 preparation for a vigorous re- sistance, an answer was returned 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 Indian 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 frustrated by the vigilance and activity of the intended victims, who springing out from the midst of their savage foemen, 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 returned with fatal accuracy by the garrison. The Indians then at- tempted 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

BOONE COUNTY.

trench within the fort, in such a manner as to intersect their line of approach; and thus frustrated their design. After exhausting all the ordinary artifices of Indian warfare, and finding their numbers daily thinned by the deliberate and fatal fire 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 sus- tained by Boonsborough.

In the fall of this year, Boone went to North Carolina for his wife and family, who, as already observed, had supposed him dead, and returned to their kindred. In the summer of 1780, he came back to Kentucky with his family, and settled at Boonsborough. In October of this year, returning in company with his brother from the Blue Licks, where they had been to make salt, they were en- countered by a party of Indians, and his brother, who had been his faithful com- panion through many years of toil and danger, was shot and scalped before his eyes. Boone, after a long and close chase, finally effected his escape.

After this, he was engaged in no affair of particular interest, so far as we are informed, until the month of August, 1782, a time rendered memorable by the celebrated and disastrous battle of the Blue Licks. A full account of this bloody and desperate conflict, will be found under the head of Nicholas county, to which we refer the reader. On this fatal day, he bore himself with distinguished gallantry, until the rout began, when, after having witnessed the death of his son, and many of his dearest friends, he found himself almost surrounded at the very commencement of the retreat. Several hundred Indians were between him and the ford, to which the great mass of the fugitives were bending their way, and to which the attention of the savages was particularly directed. Being inti- mately acquainted with the ground, he together with a few friends, dashed into the ravine which the Indians had occupied, but which most of them had now left to join in the pursuit. After sustaining one or two heavy fires, and baffling one or two small parties who pursued him for a short distance, he crossed the river below the ford by swimming, and returned by a circuitous route to Bryan 's station

Boone accompanied General George Rogers Ciark, in his expedition against the Indian towns, undertaken to avenge the disaster at the Blue Licks ; but be yond the simple fact that he did accompany this expedition, nothing is known of his connection with it : and it does not appear that he was afterwards engaged ir. any public expedition or solitary adventure.

The definitive treaty of peace between the United States and Great Britain, in 1783, confirmed the title of the former to independence, and Boone saw the standard of civilization and freedom securely planted in the wilderness. Upon the establishment of the court of commissioners in 1779, he had laid out the chief of his little property to procure land warrants, and having raised about twenty thousand dollars in paper money, with which he intended to purchase them, on his way from Kentucky to the city of Richmond, he was robbed of the whole, and left destitute of the means of procuring more. Unacquainted with the nice- ties of the law, the few lands he was enabled afterwards to locate, were, through his ignorance, swallowed up and lost by better claims. Dissatisfied with these impediments to the acquisition of the soil, he left Kentucky, and in 1795, he was a wanderer on the banks of the Missouri, a voluntary subject of the king of Spain. The remainder of his life was devoted to the society of his children, and the employments of the chase-to the latter especially. When age had enfeebled the energies of his once athletic frame, he would wander twice a year into the remotest wilderness he could reach, employing a companion whom he bound by a written contract to take care of him, and bring him home alive or dead. In 1816, he made such an excursion to Fort Osage, one hundred miles distant from the place of his residence. " Three years thereafter," says Gov. Morehead, "a patriotic solicitude to preserve his portrait, prompted a distinguished American artist to visit him at his dwelling near the Missouri river, and from him I have received the following particulars : He found him in a small, rude cabin, indis- posed, and reclining on his bed. A slice from the loin of a buck, twisted round the rammer of his rifle, within reach of him as he lay, was roasting before the fire. Several other cabins, arranged in the form of a parallelogram, marked the spot of a dilapidated station. They were occupied by the descendants of the

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Sant Loves

Judge John Jahren

Dear Sir

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in hatte But Deep in Markump out Not able to Come Down & Shall Say Nothing about our petition but Love it all te your Self I am Deer is youres

Daniel Boone

Judge Cobren

DISTINGUISHED MEN.

The number of horses marked as killed, on the roll. is eight, and eight as wounded.

This county was the residence of Governor JAMES GARRARD, whose biograph- ical sketch will be found under the head of Garrard county. The monument to his memory, erected by the state of Kentucky, contains the following inscription :

" This marble consecrates the spot on which repose the mortal remains of Colonel JAMES GARRARD, and records a brief memorial of his virtues and his worth. He was born in the county of Stafford. in the colony of Virginia, on the 14th day of January, 1749. On at- tainining the age of manhood, he participated with the patriots of the day in the dangers and privations incident to the glorious and successful contest which terminated in the inde- pendence and happiness of our country. Endeared to his family, to his friends, and to society, by the practice of the social virtues of Husband, Father, Friend and Neighbor; honored by his country, by frequent calls to represent her dearest interests in her Legislative Councils ; and finally by two elections, to fill the chair of the Chief Magistrate of the State, a trust of the highest confidence and deepest interest to a free community of virtuous men, pro- fessing equal rights, and governed by equal laws; a trust which, for eight successive years, he fulfilled with that energy, vigor, and impartiality which, tempered with christian spirit of God-like inercy and charity for the frailty of men, is best calculated to perpetuate the ines- timable blessings of Government and the happiness of Man. An administration which re- ceived its best reward below, the approbation of an enlightened and grateful country, by whose voice, expressed by a resolution of its general assembly in December, 1822, THIS MONU- MENT of departed worth and grateful sense of public service, was erected, and is inscribed. He departed this life on the 19th day of January, 1822, as he had lived, a sincere and pious christian, firm, constant and sincere in his own religious sentiments, tolerant for those who differed from him; reposing in the mercy of God, and the merits of his Redeemer, his hopes of a glorious and happy Immortality."

This county has been the nursery of many prominent, and some very distin- guished men, particularly at the bar and on the bench. It was the residence of Judge Robert Trimble, of the supreme court of the United States, (see Trimble county )-of Judge Mills, of the court of appeals of Kentucky-and of Judge Bledsoe, who was remarkable for his forensic powers. Captain William and General James Garrard, were active soldiers in the war of 1812-both frequent representatives in the legislature, and the former for many years clerk of the Bourbon county court. Several distinguished pioneer divines were also residents of this county, who are noticed under proper heads.

The Honorable Thomas Corwin, the able and eloquent senator of Ohio, and the Rev. John P. Durbin, D. D., late president of Dickinson college, and one of the most eloquent divines in the United States, are both natives of Bourbon county.

Colonel James Smith, whose interesting narrative of his captivity in western Pennsylvania and residence among the Indians, was published many years since, and transferred, in an abridged form, to the " Sketches of Western Adventure, " settled in Bourbon, seven miles above Paris, in 1788. Having been prominent in his native State, as an Indian fighter, a member of the Pennsylvania conven- tion, and a member of her legislature, his public and private worth became spee- dily known in Bourbon ; and in the first year of his residence, he was elected a member of the convention, that sat at Danville, to confer about a separation from the State of Virginia. From that period until 1799, with an intermission of two years only, according to his narrative, he continued to represent Bourbon county, either in convention or as a member of the general assembly. A few extracts from the narrative of Colonel Smith are subjoined.

On the second evening succeeding his capture, (in the year 1755), Colonel Smith arrived with his captors at fort Du Quesne, now Pittsburgh. When within half a mile of the fort, they raised the scalp halloo, and fired their guns. The garrison was instantly in commotion, the cannon were fired, the drums were beaten, and the French and Indians ran out in great numbers to meet the party and partake of their triumph. Smith was instantly surrounded by a multitude of savages, painted in various colors, and shouting with delight. They rapidly formed in two long lines, and brandishing their hatchets, ramrods, switches, etc .. called aloud upon him to run the GAUNTLET.

* Never having heard of this Indian ceremony before, he stood amazed for some time, not

BOURBON COUNTY.

knowing what to do; one of his captors explained to him, that he was to run between the two lines, and receive a blow from each Indian as he passed, concluding his explanation by exhorting him to " run his best," as the faster he run the sooner the affair would be over This truth was very plain ; and young Smith entered upon his race with great spirit. He was switched very handsomely along the lines, for about three-fourths of the distance, the stripes only acting as a spur to greater exertions, and he had almost reached the opposite ex. tremity of the line, when a tall chief struck him a furious blow with a club upon the back of the head, and instantly felled him to the ground. Recovering himself in a moment, he sprung to his feet and started forward again, when a handful of sand was thrown in his eyes, which, in addition to the great pain, completely blinded him. He still attempted to grope his way through; but was again knocked down and beaten with merciless severity. He soon became insensible under such barbarous treatinent, and recollected nothing more, until he found himself in the hospital of the fort, under the hands of a French surgeon, bea- ten to a jelly, and unable to move a limb. Here he was quickly visited by one of his cap- tors, the same who had given him such good advice, when about to commence his race. He now inquired, with some interest, if he felt " very sore." Young Smith replied, that he had been bruised almost to death, and asked what he had done to inerit such barbarity. The Indian replied that he had done nothing, but that it was the customary greeting of the In dians to their prisoners ; that it was something like the English " how d'ye do !" and that now all ceremony would be laid aside, and he would be treated with kindness."

Smith was still a captive and at fort Du Quesne, when General Braddock was defeated, the same year, and nearly the whole of his army cut down, or dragged into captivity, and reserved for a more painful death.

" About sunset, [on the day of battle] he heard at a distance the well known scalp halloo, followed by wild, quick, joyful shrieks, and accompanied by long continued firing. This too surely announced the fate of the day. About dusk, the party returned to the fort, driving before them twelve British regulars, stripped naked and with their faces painted black ! an evidence that the unhappy wretches were devoted to death. Next came the Indians dis- playing their bloody scalps, of which they had immense numbers, and dressed in the scarlet coats, sashes, and military hats of the officers and soldiers. Behind all came a train of bag- gage horses, laden with piles of scalps, canteens, and all the accoutrements of British sol- diers. The savages appeared frantic with joy, and when Smith beheld them entering the fort, dancing, yelling, brandishing their red tomahawks, and waving their scalps in the air, while the great guns of the fort replied to the incessant discharge of rifles without, he says, that it looked as if h-Il had given a holiday, and turned loose its inhabitants upon the .upper world. The most melancholy spectacle was the band of prisoners. They appeared dejected and anxious. Poor fellows ! 'They had but a few months before left London, at the command of their superiors, and we may easily imagine their feelings, at the strange and dreadful spectacle around them. The yells of delight and congratulation were scarcely over, when those of vengeance began. 'The devoted prisoners-British regulars-were led out from the fort to the banks of the Alleghany, and to the eternal disgrace of the French commandant were there burnt to death, one after another, with the most awful tortures. Smith stood upon the battlements and witnessed the shocking spectacle. The prisoner was tied to a stake with his hands raised above his head, stripped naked, and surrounded by In- dians. They would touch him with red hot irons, and stick his body full of pine splinters and set them on fire, drowning the shrieks of the victim in the yells of delight with which they danced around him. His companions in the meantime stood in a group near the stake, and had a foretaste of what was in reserve for each of them. As fast as one prisoner died under his tortures, another filled his place, until the whole perished. All this took place so near the fort, that every scream of the victims must have rung in the ears of the French commandant !"

Colonel Smith has an article in his pamphlet on the manners and customs of the Indians, their traditions and religious sentiments, their police or civil govern- ment, ect. 'The following extracts must suffice :

"Their traditions are vague, whimsical, romantic, and many of them scarce worth relat- ing; and not any of them reach back to the creation of the world. They tell of a squaw that was found when an infant, in the water, in a canoe made of bull-rushes; this squaw became a great proplietess and did many wonderful things; she turned water into dry land, and at length made this continent, which was, at that time, only a very small island, and but a few Indians in it. Though they were then but few, they had not sufficient room to hunt ; therefore this squaw went to the water side, and prayed that this little island might bo enlarged. The great Being then heard her prayer, and sent great numbers of water tortoises and muskrat4, which brought with them inud and other materials, for enlarging this island, and by this means, they say, it was increased to the size that it now remains; therefore,

BENJAMIN MILLS.

they say, that the white people ought not to encroach upon them, or take their land from them, because their great grand-mother made it. They say that, about this time, the angels or the heavenly inhabitants, as they call them, frequently visited them and talked with their forefathers ; and gave directions how to pray, and how to appease the great Being when he was offended They told them they were to offer sacrifice, burnt tobacco, buffalo and deer bones ; but that they were not to burn bear or raccoon bones in sacrifice.

" The Indians, generally, are of opinion that there are a great number of inferior Deities, which they call Carreyagaroona, which signifies the Heavenly inhabitants. These beings, they suppose, are employed as assistants in managing the affairs of the universe, and in in- specting the actions of men : and that even the irrational animals are engaged in viewing their actions, and bearing intelligence to the gods. The eagle, for this purpose, with her keen eye, perched on the trees around their camp in the night ; therefore, when they observe the eagle or the owl near, they immediately offer sacrifice, or burn tobacco, that they may have a good report to carry to the gods. They say that there are also great numbers of evil spirits, which they call Onasahroona, which signifies the inhabitants of the Lower Region. These spirits are always going after them, and setting things right, so that they are constantly working in opposition to each other. Some talk of a future state, but not with any certainty : at best, their notions are vague and unsettled. Others deny a future state al- together, and say that after death they neither think nor live.

"I have often heard of Indian kings, but never saw any. How any term used by In- dians in their own tongue, for the chief man of a nation, could be rendered king, I know not. The chief of a nation is neither the supreme ruler, monarch or potentate : He can neither make war or peace, league or treaties : He cannot impress soldiers or dispose of magazines: He cannot adjourn, prorogue or dissolve a general assembly, nor can he refuse his assent to their conclusions, or in any manner control them. With them, there is no such thing as hereditary succession, title of nobility or royal blood, even talked of. The chief of a nation, even with the consent of his assembly, or council, cannot raise one shilling of tax off' the citizens, but only receive what they please to give as free and voluntary dona- tions. The chief of a nation has to hunt for his living, as any other citizen."

BENJAMIN MILLS was born in the county of Worcester, on the eastern shore of Maryland, January 12th, 1779. While he was quite young, bis family emi- grated to the vicinity of Washington, Pennsylvania, where he obtained his edu- cation, and engaged in the study of medicine. While yet a youth, he was called to the presidency of Washington Academy, an institution which was soon after erected into Washington College, and which has sent from its walls a number of prominent public inen. Having removed with his father to Bourbon county, Kentucky, and relinquished the study of medicine for that of the law, in 1805 or '06, he commenced in Paris the practice of the latter profession. His abilities and diligence soon ensured him, in his own and the adjacent counties, an exten- sive practice. For several years he was elected to represent the county of Bour- bon in the legislature, and in 1816 failed of an election to the senate of the United States, in competition with Isham Talbot, Esq., by only three votes. In 1817, to relieve himself from an oppressive and injurious practice of the law, he accepted the appointment of judge in the Montgomery circuit. In the succeed- ing year, by the unanimous request of the Fayette bar, he was transferred to that circuit. In 1820, he was elevated to a seat on the bench of the court of appeals, which he filled with great firmness, through a period of extraordinary excitement with reference to the judiciary of the State, till he retired in 1828. Having re- signed this post, he removed from Paris to Frankfort, to engage again in the practice of the law in the higher courts of the State. Success commensurate with his wishes again crowned his labors, till the morning of the 6th of Decem- ber, 1831, when, by an apoplectic stroke, his mortal existence was terminated.

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Collins historical sketches of Kentucky. History of Kentucky: Vol. II, Part 10

Author: Collins, Lewis, 1797-1870. cn; Collins, Richard H., 1824-1889. cn Publication date: 1874 Publisher: Covington, Ky., Collins & Co. Number of Pages: 1654

Author: Collins, Lewis, 1797-1870. cn; Collins, Richard H., 1824-1889. cn
Publication date: 1874
Publisher: Covington, Ky., Collins & Co.
Number of Pages: 1654