USA > Kentucky > Collins historical sketches of Kentucky. History of Kentucky: Vol. II > Part 100
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During the fall of this year, (1777),f in order to make up the deficiency aris . ing from having raised no corn, the people of the fort determined to make a tur.
* Butler's History.
t Ibid, page 41.
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nip patch, about two hundred yards north-west of the station. While clearing the ground, an Indian was shot at by the guard, and the men retired. The next day the cattle were perceived to be disturbed, and snuffing the air about a small field in the furthest corner, that had been allowed to grow up in very high weeds. The presence of concealed Indians was instantly suspected, so sure were the cat- tle to betray their vicinity, either from the sight of the Indians themselves, or from the smell of the paint upon their persons. This indication prompted Major George Rogers Clark to turn the ambuscade upon the enemy. For this purpose, some men were still kept at work in the turnip patch nearest the fort, and, in or- der to prevent suspicion by the Indians of any movement from within, they occa- sionally hallooed to their companions to come out to their work, while Clark, with a party of the garrison, sallied out of the fort with great secrecy, and making a circuit, came up on the rear of the Indians as they lay concealed in the weeds. A volley was discharged at the concealed foe, and four of their number killed- one by Clark and another by Ray. The Indians instantly retreated, and were pursued by the whites about four hundred yards down the creek, where they came upon the remains of a deserted Indian encampment, of sufficient extent for the accommodation of five or six hundred warriors. From this camp the enemy had issued during the preceding summer to assail the stations, which they had kept in a state of constant alarm, and had destroyed the greater portion of their horses and cattle. The Indians had now abandoned their position, and the party which had just been pursued was supposed to be the remnant of the Indian force which had occupied the encampment. Major Clark complimented James Ray (subsequently General James Ray) with the gun of the Indian which he had shot, and which was the first he had ever killed. The property found in the In- dian camp, consisting, principally, of cooking utensils, was, as usual, divided by lottery among the captors.
In Dr. Spalding's " Sketches," we find a record of the following adventure, in which William Coomes was an actor :
"In the spring of 1778, he [ Mr. Coomes] was one of a party of thirty men sent out under Colonel Bowman, for the purpose of shelling corn at a plantation about seven miles distant from Harrodstown. The men were divided into pairs, each of which had a large sack, which was to be filled and brought back to the fort. While engaged in filling the sacks, they were fired on by a party of about forty Indians, who had lain concealed in a neighboring cane-brake. At the first fire, seven of the white men were shot down, and among them Mr. H. Berry, the person standing by the side of William Coomes, whose face was bespattered with the blood from the wounds of his fallen comrade. Eight others of the white men fled for shelter to the cane-brake ; but the rest of them, rallied by the loud cries of Colonel Bowman, seized their rifles, and sheltering themselves in an ad- joining cabin, or behind the trees, prepared to defend themselves to the last. One of« the men, observing the face of Coomes reddened with blood, mistook him for an Indian, and was leveling his rifle at him, when the latter, fortunately remark- ing his movement, cried out, and thus saved his life.
" Meantime, Colonel Bowman dispatched a courier on horseback to Harrods- town, to carry the alarm. and to obtain a re-inforcement. The messenger sped his way unharmed to the fort, though many a rifle was aimed at him, and though another strong party of savages were lying in ambush on the way he had to travel. In a few hours, the expected reinforcement arrived ; when the Indians, baffled in their object, betook themselves to flight. The white men, after burying their dead, returned to Harrodstown in the evening, with their replenished sacks of corn."
During May of 1779, an expedition was set on foot, from Harrodsburg against the Indian town at old Chillicothe, under the command of Colonel Bowman. The number of men who rendezvoused at Harrodsburg, is stated by Mr. Butler at three hundred, and by Mr. McClung at one hundred and sixty. Captains Benja- min Logan, John Holder, Wm. Harrod and John Bulger, accompanied the expe- dition. of which Captain (afterwards general) Logan was second in command- and Major George M. Bedinger, of Nicholas county, lately deceased, was adju- tant. (See pages 425 and 483.)
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MERCER COUNTY.
The First White Children born in Mercer county-so far as it is possible, at this late day, to ascertain-were : Ist. Harrod Wilson ; 2d. Wm. Hinton, who died about 1833, on Fox run, in Shelby co., Ky. ; 3d. Win. Logan, afterwards twice a judge of the court of appeals, in 1808 and again in 1810, and U. S. senator in 1819-20, born in the fort at Harrodsburg, Dec. 8, 1776, and died Ang. 8, 1822, when only 45 years old ; 4th. Anna Poague, daughter of Win. Poague, born in the same fort, April 20, 1777, married Gen. John Poage, of Greenup co., Ky., where she died April 24, 1848, aged 71.
The Oldest Colored Person now living (April 16, 1873) who was born in Kentucky, so far as is known, is at Harrodsburg-Sukey Letcher, widow of George Letcher. She was born a slave, at the residence of Col. Leonard Thompson, at or near White Oak spring, on Shawnee run, in Mercer county, about the year 1781, and is now about 92 years old. She was among the very first children of African descent born in the state, but few of that class having at that date been brought thither by emigrants; a census of the in- habitants of Harrodsburg on Sept. 2, 1777, showed 12 slaves above 10 years of age and 7 younger; several families of slaves were brought about that date, or earlier, to Boonesborough and Logan's stations.
Murder of Col. James Harrod .- Dr. Christopher Graham (still living, June, 1873, at the ripe age of 87) settled at Harrodsburg in 1819, and was the family physician of Gen. James Ray, Mrs. Ann Harrod (widow of Col. James Harrod), and others of the earliest pioneers of Kentucky, and acquainted with Daniel Boone, Simon Kenton, and other prominent cotemporaries. From their lips he took down in writing many incidents of pioneer adventure, some of them of wonderful and others of most thrilling interest. In a series of letters to the author, in the summer and fall of 1871, Dr. Graham com- municated a number of these incidents, several of which are herein given to the public :
Mrs. Harrod told Dr. Graham that her husband was murdered by a man named Bridges, with whom he had a law-suit about property. They had not spoken together for some time. Bridges left, for a few weeks, professing to to go in search of Swift's silver mine-which many have hunted for, even down to the present day. On his return, Bridges approached Harrod and said, " Colonel, I have found Swift's mine, and though we have been at outs, I have confidence in you and prefer you as a partner to any man in Kentucky, and you have the means to work the mine." When the colonel told this to his wife, she earnestly opposed his going, and insisted it was a plan to murder him. This suggestion only made him more determined, and he replied that " he was not afraid of any man living." She prevailed upon him to let a third man into the secret, and take him along. They reached the Three Forks of the Kentucky river, where Bridges said the mine was, stationed a camp, and each started out for game-Harrod taking the bank of the river, Bridges a few hundred yards from him, and the third man kept close by. In a very short time, this man heard the report of a gun exactly where he thought Col. Harrod might be ; and supposing he had killed a deer, returned to camp. There he found Bridges, who professed to be very much alarmed; he said he had seen fresh Indian "sign," and felt assured that Col. Harrod was killed. Despite the protestations of this third man, Bridges started back, and he, rather than be left alone, followed shortly after. Bridges took some furs and skins to Lexington, where a hatter had opened a shop. To him he sold his furs, and also a pair of silver sleeve-buttons, with the letter HI engraved upon them. These buttons being sent to Mrs. Harrod, she at once recognized them, and said her husband had worn them off, upon that last expedition, upon his linen hunting-shirt. A party of men started immediately for the Three Forks, and found the bones of Col. Harrod-picked bare by the beasts of the forests, but recognized by the hunting-shirt with the buttons gone. Bridges, said Mrs. Harrod in relating the sad story, took the alarm, left the country, and never returned. The exact date of his murder is not given, but it was probably in July, 1793 .*
" Records of Harrodsburg Trustees, page 17, from which it appears that, on Aug. 30, 1793 [because of his recent death], Harrod's seat in the board was declared vacant, and a successor chosen.
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MERCER COUNTY.
Col. Harrod, besides possessing remarkable executive talent and other qualities of a great leader, was a man of the tenderest sympathy and a stranger to fear. His widow said to Dr. Graham : " I am not superstitious, but I can't help being sometimes disturbed by dreams. When in the fort, I dreamed one night that the Indians attacked some of our men outside the fort; and that when my husband ran out to help them, I saw an Indian shoot him, and when he fell, stoop over and stab him. The very next day, three men were chopping upon a log on the creek alongside the old Harrod's fort, close by, when we heard guns fire and saw the three men killed and the Indians scalping them. The colonel started out with the others, but so forcibly was
my dream now impressed upon me that I clung to him. He forcibly tore himself from me, and hurried out. I ran up to the highest point and looked out. The Indians were in turn fired upon, and I saw the colonel shoot one and run him a short distance down the creek, and when the Indian fell I plainly saw my husband stoop over (just the 'contrary' of my dream) and stab him. When he came back, he did not exult but seemed distressed, and said he wished never to kill another of the poor natives, who were defend- ing their fatherland ; and that this feeling was forced upon him by the re- bound of his knife, when he plunged it into the heart of the fallen Indian,
who looked up so piteously into his face .. He shed a tear when telling me.' =
In the Fall of 1778, Harrodsburg was besieged. John Gist with a number of others went outside of the fort to give the Indians battle. Gist was struck by a ball on one side of his chin, cutting the skin along his jaw-bone but not breaking the bone, and knocking him over on his back. The Indian who fired the shot, supposing he had killed him, ran up to sealp him-but when very near, Gist took aim as he lay on his back, shot the Indian dead, and made his escape into the fort.
Items of Early History .- The items of earliest history of Mercer county are given under Madison county, in connection with the first settlement of the state ; and also under this county, page 605. The following, of a later period, are gathered from the diary of George Rogers Clark, Dec. 25, 1776, to Nov. 22, 1777; the journal of Capt. John Cowan, from March 6, 1777, to Sept. 17, 1777; MS. sketch of Wm. Poague's family, from their settlement in Har- rodsburg in Feb., 1776, to 1783, Ly Wm. Lindsay Pogue, a grandson (still living, June, 1873) ; conversations with, or memoranda left by, Win. Poague's eldest daughter Elizabeth (afterwards widow of Capt. John Thomas, first surveyor of Mercer county)-who came to Boonesborough in Sept., 1775, and to Harrodsburg in Feb., 1776, living in or near the latter place until her death, Oct. 10, 1850, aged 86; the MeAfee papers, journals of the McAfee brothers, 1773-75, and sundry articles by Gen. Robert B. McAfee, 1795 to 1841 ; and depositions of early settlers, in land-suits in the Mercer, Lincoln, and Madison county circuit courts :
Jan. 30, 1777, the fort at Harrodsburg was strengthened by the arrival of Geo. Rogers Clark, the MeClellands, Robert Patterson, Capt. Edward Worth- ington, Robert Todd, and others, and the families of several of them, from McClelland's fort (Georgetown)-which was abandoned because of recent In- dian attacks and threatened renewals of same.
On March 6, 7, 18, and 28, 1777, distinet attacks by Indians were made upon the fort, or upon working parties near the fort; Wm. Ray, Hugh Wil- son, Garret Pendergrast, Peter Flinn, Archibald MeNeal, killed or died of wounds ; Thos. Shores, supposed to be killed, but several years after returned from captivity among the Indians.
March 9, 1777, Ebenezer Corn and company arrived from Capt. Linn on the Mississippi. April 20, Ben. Linn and Samuel Moore sent express (as spies) to Illinois, by canoe down the Cumberland river; they returned, June 22.
April 19, 1777, Col. John Todd and Col. Richard Callaway elected burgesses, or members of the Virginia legislature ; May 23, they set off for Richmond, this was the first election in Kentucky county, now state of Kentucky.
April 19, 1777, James Berry married to widow Wilson (probably the widow of Hugh Wilson above, killed by Indians on March 18, 44 weeks previous) ; the first marriage at Harrodsburg, and second in Kentucky county (the first was Samuel Henderson to Elizabeth Callaway, Aug. 7, 1776, at Boonesborough)
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MERCER COUNTY.
July 9, 1777, at the marriage of Lieut. Linn, at Harrodsburg, there was " great merriment."
May 7, 1777, census of Harrodsburg fort taken (see page 606).
June 22, 1777, John Barney Stagner, Sen., killed by Indians, above the big spring, half a mile from the fort; his head cut off and stuck upon a pole. July 14 and 15, 1777, was reaped the first wheat ever sown at Harrodsburg, in a field of 4 acres west of the fort.
Sept. 2, 1777, court held at Harrodsburg, probably the first in Kentucky.
Sept. 11, 1777, a company of 37 men sent to Capt. Joseph Bowman's for corn; while shelling it (the first general corn-shelling in Kentucky), they were fired on by Indians-Eli Garrard killed, Daniel Brahan mortally and 5 . others seriously wounded.
Sept. 23, 1777, express arrived with news that "Gen. Washington had defeated Howe-joyful news, if true." [The reverse was true, at Brandywine creek, near s.E. corner of Pennsylvania, Sept. 11th, but the news could scarcely have reached Harrodsburg in 12 days, by horseback, the only mode of travel.]
Wm. Poague cleared ground and raised corn in 1776, at the Cave spring, about 2 miles N. E. of Harrodsburg. On Sept. 1, 1778, a company of 16 going to Logan's station (near Stanford), when near where Danville is now situated, was tired on by a party of Indians in ambush in a canebrake, and Wm. Poague wounded by three balls; the others made their escape unhurt. Next day, two parties were sent out in search of Poague, who had clung to his horse until out of reach of the Indians, then fell, crawled into a canebrake and hid, until he heard his friends passing near. They carried him to Fields' " lottery cabin," 1} miles w. of Danville, then an abandoned or waste cabin, and camped there for the night. The Indians tracked them thither, surrounded the cabin, and waited to attack them in the morning. But the whites discovered them in time, suddenly sallied out at daybreak, surprised them in their ambush, and killed 4 of them-one of whom had Wm. Poague's gun, which they brought to Harrodsburg and gave to his brave son Robert, then 12 years old (afterwards Gen. Robert Pogue, of Mayslick, Mason co., Ky.) Wm. Poague was set upon a horse, with Wm. Maddox to hold him on, and thus rode home to Harrodsburg, but died next day.
It is interesting to know how the first settlers procured the simple imple- ments of husbandry and the indispensable articles of kitchen and dairy furni- ture. Men all unused to labor of that sort exercised their ingenuity, and did what they could towards providing such conveniences. Wm. Poague was remarkably ingenious, and while he lived in Harrodsburg, from Feb., 1776, to Sept., 1778, he made all the buckets, milk-pails, churns, tubs, and noggins used by the people in the fort, the wood-work of the first plough made or used in Kentucky, the first loom on which weaving was done in Kentucky (by sinking posts in the ground, and piecing the beams and sley to them); while his wife (who, in the spring of 1781, was married to Joseph Lindsay, one of the illustrious victims of the terrible slaughter at the Blue Licks in Aug., 1782, and several years later, to James McGinty), well known to persons still living as Mrs. Ann McGinty, a woman of great energy and self-reliance, brought the first spinning-wheel to Kentucky, and made the first linen ever made in Kentucky (from the lint of nettles), and the first linsey (from this nettle lint and buffalo wool).
Caves in Mercer County .- On a tract of land, on the waters of Shawnee run, formerly owned by Col. John Thompson, but in 1845 by Hon. Albert Galla- tin Talbott, is a cave, at its entrance about 20 feet wide, and 8 or 9 feet high. On a high bank, just over the mouth of the cave, is a tree which bore the initials, still plainly seen in 1845, of Daniel Boone, with the year when prob- ably carved, D. B., 1770. The cave then was a good deal filled up, but on digging a few feet under ground, coals and burnt chunks were found. This is the same cave and tree referred to on page 605, ante, in which, according to general belief in the neighborhood, the old pioneer spent part of the winter of 1769-70, leaving the tree to keep the story of the fine, the place, and the occupant.
Another cave, or, more strictly, a rocky projection on the west bank of Salt
.
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MERCER COUNTY.
river, at the mouth of a small drain 200 to 300 yards below the mouth of the Harrodsburg branch, has preserved the fact, but not the time, of one of the very earliest visits to this region. In August, 1845, a youth named Sto- pher found a tomahawk, leather shot-pouch, the remains of a powder horn, and an Indian pipe (of granite, with 1714 engraved upon it) in a cleft of the rock.
Was it Coal Oil ( Petroleum) ?- In 1830, in the narrow bottom of Thompson's creek, a branch of Chapline's fork of Salt river, in the western part of Mer- cer county, Rev. John Rynerson bored for salt water, striking a fine vein of it; but a stronger vein of fresh water burst into the well, and ruined it for salt purposes. A water-wizard pointed out a spot on a still narrower bottom of the creek, 2 miles distant ; and another well was bored, 200 feet deep, all but 8 feet of it through solid rock. A powerful vein of strange water came pouring out at the top, which was neither fresh nor salt ; but when a hickory bark torchlight was applied, it canght fire and burned beautifully. Three days steady pumping, after the fire was smothered out, did not affect the strength of the flow nor the character of the water; so the well was filled up by the disgusted and disappointed salt-water-seeker, and thus remains to this day.
The Old Fort or Station at Harrodsburg, the second inhabited fort in the state, has long since disappeared ; not a trace left of any thing to show its exact position, except some scattering stones which were probably part of the foundation stones of several stick chimneys of cabins that formed part of the station. Accompanied by Benj. N. Passmore (aged 78), the oldest resi- dent citizen who is a native of the place, the author (April 16, 1873) spent several hours in trying to identify the early points of interest. The old or original " town spring" has been for many years entirely dry, except for a few days after each hard rain; the veins which supplied it so abundantly, when it was first discovered and became historic, 100 years ago, seem all to have been stopped up or diverted into other veins which make the present large town spring (often called the Gore spring, after Andrew Gore, who purchased the spring from the Pogue heirs about 1815)-just 265 feet w. of the old spring, at the N. w. corner of the large block or tract of land on which the fort stood. The N. line of the fort is supposed to have been about 250 feet s. of the old spring, on the brow of the hill where it rises to a com- parative level. The number of cabins in it, or its dimensions either way, is nowhere preserved-even proximately, as is that at Boonesborough. The old graveyard, which stands about 500 feet nearly s. E. from the former, is full of head-stones of rough limestone, without any letters even to indicate the names of the pioneers sleeping beneath ; nearly all the graves, even of per- sons buried 40 years later, are unmarked.
Harrodsburg, like Lexington, seems to be built upon a bed of cavernous limestone. Some adventurous college boys, years ago, partially explored the small, rough, irregular caves under the town. Corn meal or light rubbish thrown into the water at the mouth of a cave on Chiles street, just w. of the court house, came out at John Bull's corner-showing an underground con- nection of which no map exists.
The First Preaching in Mercer County-unless indeed the Rev. John Lythe, of the Church of England, who held the first divine service in Kentucky, at Boonesborough, on Sunday, May 28, 1775 (see under Madison county, ante, page 501), also preached, once or oftener, at his then home for the time being at Harrodsburg, which is not improbable-was at the Big Spring, on the farm now owned by Wm. Payne, and now within the corporate limits of Harrods- burg, by Rev. Peter Tinsley, followed immediately by Rev. Win. Hickman, Sen., both Baptist ministers (see some account of the latter, in vol. i). The text was the ejaculation of Balaam : " Let me die the death of the righteous, and let my last end be like his !" The congregation assembled at the edge of the spring, under the shade of a magnificent elin tree, the stump and roots of which still remain (June, 1873). The preachers enjoyed the hospitality of a Presbyterian layman, about 4 miles from the station. This was early in May, 1776 .*
* Letter to the author from Win. P. Harvey, Harrodsburg, June 9, 1873, and other reports.
618
ATTACK ON MCAFEE'S STATION.
From McClung's Sketches, we copy the following account of an attack on McAfee's station, in the year 1781 :
" Early in May, 1781, McAfee's station, in the neighborhood of Harrodsburg, was alarmed. On the morning of the 9th, Samuel McAfee, accompanied by another man, left the fort, in order to visit a small plantation in the neighborhood, and at the distance of three hundred yards from the gate, they were fired upon by a party of Indians in ambush. The man who accompanied him instantly fell,. and McAfee attempted to regain the fort. While running rapidly for that pur- pose, he found himself suddenly intercepted by an Indian, who, springing out of the cane-brake, placed himself directly in his path. There was no time for com- pliments, each glared upon the other for an instant in silence, and both raising their guns at the same moment, pulled the triggers together. The Indian's rifle snapped, while McAfee's ball passed directly through his brain. Having no time to reload his gun, he sprung over the body of his antagonist, and continued his flight to the fort.
" When within one hundred yards of the gate, he was met by his two brothers, Robert and James, who, at the report of the guns, had hurried out to the assis- tance of their brother. Samuel hastily informed them of their danger, and exhor- ted them instantly to return. James readily complied, but Robert, deaf to all remonstrances, declared that he must have a view of the dead Indian. He ran on, for that purpose, and having regaled himself with that spectacle, was hastily returning by the same path, when he saw five or six Indians between him and the fort, evidently bent upon taking him alive. All his activity and presence of mind was now put in requisition. He ran rapidly from tree to tree, endeavoring to turn their flank, and reach one of the gates, and after a variety of turns and doublings in the thick wood, he found himself pressed by only one Indian. McAfee hastily throwing himself behind a fence, turned upon his pursuer and compelled him to take shelter behind a tree.
" Both stood still for a moment, McAfee having his gun cocked, and the sight fixed upon the tree, at the spot where he supposed the Indian would thrust out his head in order to have a view of his antagonist. After waiting a few seconds he was gratified. The Indian slowly and cautiously exposed a part of his head, and began to elevate his rifle. As soon as a sufficient mark presented itself, McAfee fired, and the Indian fell. While turning, in order to continue his flight, he was fired on by a party of six, which compelled him again to tree. But scarcely had he done so, when, from the opposite quarter he received the fire of three more enemies, which made the bark fly around him, and knocked up the dust about his feet. Thinking his post rather too hot for safety, he neglected all shelter, and ran directly for the fort, which, in defiance of all opposition, he reached in safety, to the inexpressible joy of his brothers, who had despaired of his return.
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