Collins historical sketches of Kentucky. History of Kentucky: Vol. II, Part 84

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

USA > Kentucky > Collins historical sketches of Kentucky. History of Kentucky: Vol. II > Part 84

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# Map of Survey by James Thompson, surveyor Lincoln co., Aug. 20, 1802.

Conversations between Gen. Robert B. McAfee and Col. Abraham Chapline.

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MADISON COUNTY.

after in the great battle of " the Point" or Point Pleasant, at the mouth of the Kanawha river, in West Virginia, Oct. 10, 1774, and in which most of the above 42 men were engaged)-reached there, and Boone assisted in laying off lots. A lot was assigned to him adjoining one laid off for - (John or Evan) Hinton ;- upon which was immediately built a double log cabin. which was known indiscriminately as Boone's or Hinton's cabin, until it, with the other 3 or 4 built at the same time near by, was burnt by the Indians, March 7, 1777, just after Thomas Wilson and his family had escaped from one of them into the fort .* Thus Daniel Boone himself assisted in the foundation of the first inhabited town in Kentucky. [Capt. Thomas Bullitt laid off the town of Louisville on the Ist of August, 1773, but it was not settled for five years after, until Oet., 1778.] These 4 or 5 cabins stood on the south side of the town branch, near where Archibald Woods was living in 1841, and about 120 yards below the town spring. They were occupied by the men of the two companies until July 10, 1774, when the Indians fired upon a party of 5 of them at Fontaineblean or Fountain Blue, a large spring 3 miles below Harrodstown (where corn had already been planted). They instantly killed Jared Cowan, while engaged in drying some papers in the sun. Jacob San- dusky and two others, not knowing but that the others had been killed. escaped through the woods to the Cumberland river, and thence went by canoe to New Orleans ; The remaining man fled to Harrodstown, and gave the alarm. Captains Harrod and Chapline, and a strong party went down and buried Jared Cowan and secured his papers; then collected up their scattered men, and returned to Virginia by the Cumberland Gap.

'The town thus laid off' was named Harrodstown, and subsequently known or spoken of as Oldtown, even for years after it received its present name of Harrodsburg. These cabins and this "town " thus suddenly vacated-under the double operation of the alarm created by Boone's message and the panic resulting from the killing of Jared Cowan-were re-occupied on the 15th of March, 1775, by a new company (including many who were with him in 1774) under Capt. James Harrod, although Harrod himself shortly after set- tled at his new Harrod's station, 6 miles s. E. of Harrodstown on the present turnpike to Danville. Although more than half of the early adventurers of 1775 (who had come intending to settle) were frightened hurriedly back to Virginia by the several Indian attacks in March (see Daniel Boone's letter, ante, page 493] ; yet these cabins were not abandoned. Of Harrod's company from the Monongahela country, besides others temporarily, 5 at least-Lewis Holmes, Richard Benson, John Lynch, Samuel Cartwright, and Daniel Linn t- continued in the occupancy of one or more of the cabins, and were thus found on Sept. 8, 1775, when Gen. James Ray, then quite a young man, accompany- ing his mother, Mrs. Hugh MeGary, her husband, and the children of both husbands, Richard Hogan and Thomas Denton with their families, and several others, reached Harrodsburg. At the head of Dick's river, in now Rockcastle county, this MeGary party separated from Daniel Boone and his family, who with 21 men took their course to the new fort at Boonesborough-reaching there also on Sept. S, 1775. Thus Daniel Boone's wife and daughter, as he himself said, were " the first white women who ever stood upon the banks of Kentucky river,' | while on the same day Mrs. McGary, Mrs. Hogan, and Mrs. Denton formed the first domestic circle at Harrodsburg, and were the first white women upon the waters of Salt river.

As to the continued occupation of Harrodsburg, the Hon. Felix Walker says, in his narrative before quoted from, that he spent two weeks at Har- rodsburg in June, 1775, "where we had a few men," in company with his old North Carolina friend, Capt. James Harrod. Col. Richard Henderson, in his letter from Boonesborough, June 12, 1775, to the proprietors of Tran- sylvania colony, says: " To the west, about 50 miles from us, are two settle-

& Capt. John Cowan's Journal, at Harrodsburg, from March 6, to Sept. 17, 1777. Also, Gen. George Rogers Clark's Diary, at Harrodsburg, from Dec. 25, 1776, to Nov. 22, 1777.

t Sketch of Jacob Sandusky or Sodousky, American Pioneer, ii, 326.

t Gen. James Ray so informed the historian, Mann Butler, in 1833.

; Boone's Autobiography in Filson's Kentucky.

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MADISON COUNTY.

ments, within 6 or 7 miles one of the other [Harrodsburg, and the Boiling Spring, or Harrod's Station]; there were, some time ago, about 100 at the two places-though now, perhaps, not more than 60 or 70, as many of them are gone up the Ohio for their families, etc., and some returned by the way we came, to Virginia and elsewhere." And Daniel Boone, in his letter to Col. Henderson, dated April 1, 1775 [see page 498, ante], says : " I have sent a man down to all the lower companies, in order to gather them all to the mouth of Otter creek." Of these lower companies, the head and front in numbers and influence was Harrodsburg. That, and the settlements at Boiling Spring (6 miles s. E, of Harrodsburg), and at St. Asaph's (as Gen. Logan's station, 1 mile w. of Stanford, was called), were duly and strongly represented in the legislative assembly of Transylvania colony, May 23d to 28th, 1775.

Depositions and other well authenticated statements in possession of or examined by the author of this, show that the following persons were among those who resided or spent some time at Harrodsburg, during some portion of the year 1775, after March 11th, which was the date of the first arrival and re-occupancy of the cabins built in 1774-and which was at least 20 days before Col Daniel Boone's company reached the Kentucky river and laid the foundations of Boonesborough. Fourteen of them raised corn, within a few miles of Harrodsburg, and 2 of them near Lexington, that season :

David Adams, John Grayson, Richard Benson, Nathan Hammond, Evangelist Hardin,

John Lynch, Rev. John Lythe,

Sevier Paulson, Nathaniel Randolph, James Ray,

John Braxdale,

George McAfee,

James Brown,

Valentine Harmon, James Harrod,

Robert McAfee, Samuel McAfee,

Samuel Scott,

Abraham Chapline, John Cowan, Wm. Crow,

John Higgins, Henry Higgins, Isaac Hite, Richard Hogan, Lewis Holmes,

Wm. McAfee, Wm. McBrayer, James McCown,

John Severns, John Shelp,

Thomas Denton,

John McCown,

John Dougherty,

Samuel Ingram,

Hugh McGary,

Edward Williams,

James Douglass,

Garret Jordan,

John McGee,

John Wilson.

William Fields,

Patrick Jordan,

James Gilmore,

Daniel Linn,

Wm. McMurty, Archibald McNeill,

Thomas Ryan,

Samuel Cartwright,

James McAfee,

James Sodousky,

Azariah Davis,

Col. Thos. Slaughter, David Williams,

Thus, there is cumulative testimony-from contemporary letters or private journals of the earliest settlers, attested and amplified by scores of depositions- that the first habitable cabins by white Americans in what is now Kentucky were built at Harrodstown (now Harrodsburg), immediately after the town was laid off into lots on June 16, 1774; that on July 10, 1774, because of information sent by Gov. Dunmore of expected Indian hostilities, verified on that day by the killing of Jared Cowan, a panic seized all the adventurers and settlers alike, and the entire country was abandoned as rapidly as pos- sible; that it was not re-visited until Feb., 1775, nor re-occupied anywhere until March 11, 1773, when some of the aforenamed reached Harrodstown and took possession of the cabins of 1774; that these cabins were not all abandoned nor unoccupied at any time thereafter, but were burned by the Indians, and their occupants driven into the fort, on March 7, 1777-while others built by the families that reached Harrodsburg on Sept. 8, 1775, were permanently occupied and afterwards included in the fortification ; that Daniel Boone, the founder of Boonesborough, on the morning of the day (April 1, 1775), when his company reached the spot which became Boonesborough, and while yet 15 miles distant from it, wrote his earliest preserved letter, and therein told Col. Henderson that he had " sent a man to all the lower com- panies" [of whose location at the Boiling Spring or Harrod's Station, and at Harrodsburg, he was advised by Samuel Tate's son and otherwise] " in order to gather them all to the mouth of Otter creek "-evidently designing that as the base of defensive military operations and strength ; that on April 8, 1775, when only 4 miles from Cumberland Gap, Col. Richard Henderson, the great man of the Proprietary government of Transylvania, met 40 persons return- ing from Kentucky, and on April 16th (on Skaggs' creek in the s. E. part of now Rockcastle county, about 45 miles s. of Boonesborough and 55 miles s. E. of Harrodsburg), met James McAfee and 13 others just from the latter place,

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MADISON COUNTY.

and persuaded Robert, Samuel, and William McAfee to turn back and go with him to Boonesborough-of course, learning from them all about the set- tlements at Harrodsburg and the Boiling Spring; that his own Journal shows that on May 8, 1775, Col. Henderson learned from Capt. James Harrod and Col. Thomas Slaughter that "Harrod, accompanied by about 50 men, had come down that spring from Monongahela, and got possession some time before we (Henderson & Co.) got here.'

But it is unnecessary to further recapitulate, or bring out in detail other evidence tending to the same point, viz: That the FIRST SETTLEMENT OF KENTUCKY WAS AT HARRODSBURG, ON THURSDAY, JUNE 16, 1774.

The First Fort in Kentucky was erected on the 26th of March, 1775, about five miles s. of Richmond, in Madison county. From a survey made by Maj. John Crooke, surveyor of Madison county, on May 28, 1817, it appears that TWETTY'S FORT-or THE LITTLE FORT, as it was indiscriminately called- was just 132 feet over one mile from Estill's old station, in an almost s. w. direction, on a small branch of Taylor's fork of Silver creek, and about a quarter of a mile w. of Hart's fork of Silver creek. There does not exist any printed' mention of it; and yet from the depositions, on file in suits in the Fayette and Madison circuit court clerk's offices, of Wm. Bush, Jesse Oldham, Rev. Jos. Proctor, Peter Hacket, and 10 others, we gather-that it was built on the day after the before-day Indian attack upon Boone and T'wetty's company, upon ground a little elevated, and about 100 yards from Boone's trace, in square form, about 6 or 7 feet high, of logs, and probably was not roofed ; that it was built as a protection against further surprises or sudden attacks of Indians; that the wounded bodies of Capt. Wm. Twetty and his ward, young Felix Walker, were removed into it, and nursed there; that on the second day after it was built, being the third day after he was wounded, Capt. Twetty (who was shot in both knees) died, and was buried within the fort; that the company (see names in part, vol. i, page 18), remained there to nurse young Walker-all of them until April 1st, and part of them probably until April 6th, when he was well enough to be removed to Boonesborough. It was never finished nor again occupied as a fort, but was allowed to rot down and disappear. For six years it was one of the best known and most notorious localities in what is now Madison county ; but its very existence and its name were entirely unknown to the present generation (1873).

The Second Fort in Kentucky, and the first station fortified, was that at Boonesborough. Col. Daniel Boone and his company arrived there April 1, 1775, and immediately built a couple of cabins having some of the advantages of a stockade fort, near A, the Elin tree, in the Plat of Boonesborough, ante, and which Col. Henderson, on his arrival with his company, April 20, 1775, dignified with the name of Fort Boone. Next day, Col. Henderson (see his Journal, page 499, ante), "after some perplexity, resolved to erect a fort on the opposite side of a large lick near the river bank, which would place us at a distance of 300 yards from the other fort-and yet the only place where we could be of any service to Boone's men, or vice versa." Here the main fort was built, and, according to the generally received account, completed on the 14th of June, 1775-which, if true in date, must have been suddenly hastened .* The accompanying rough engraving of the still rougher fort is filled out from an original plan of it, preserved in the handwriting of Col. Henderson. The dimensions of the enclosure are not stated; but, allowing 20 feet as the average size of the cabins and the intervening openings, would make the fort about 260 feet long and 180 feet wide.

The First Families which reached Boonesborough were-Daniel Boone's on Sept. 8, 1775 ; Col. Richard Callaway's, Wmn. Poague's, and John Barney Stagner's, in company, about Sept. 26, 1775. Wm. Poague, in Feb., 1776, removed his family to the fort at Harrodsburg; and Barney Stagner his,

# Col. Henderson's letter to the Proprietors, dated Boonesborough, June 12, 1775, says that when his company reached that place on April 20th, " a small fort only wanted two or three days work to make it tolerably safe. . . . . and unto this day remains unfinished."

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MADISON COUNTY.

within a year and a half-for on June 22, 1777, he was killed by Indians and beheaded, half a mile from Harrodsburg .* But few families were brought to Madison county before 1779-80.

The First Marriage in Kentucky was in the fort at Boonesborough, August 7, 1776, by Squire Boone; Samuel Henderson, younger brother of Col. Richard Henderson, to Elizabeth (generally called Betsey) Callaway, eldest daughter of Col. Richard Callaway. Their first child, Fanny, was born in the fort, May 29, 1777-the first white child of parents married in Kentucky, and the 5th white child born in the state. t This was the Betsey Callaway who, with her younger sister Fanny, and Jemima Boone, were captured by Indians on July 14, 1776, and rescued two days after (see below).

The Stations in now Madison county were: Boonesborough, established April 1, 1775. Estill's, 32 miles s. E. of Richmond, on the turnpike to Big Hill and Cumberland Gap; settled by Capt. James Estill, Thos. Warren, Rev. Joseph Proctor, and others, in Feb. and March, 1780; it was sometimes called Estill's old station, to distinguish it from the new one of the same name, started by James and Samuel Estill about 2 miles distant, s. E., and 5 miles from Richmond, which now belongs to Jonathan T. Estill. George Boone's (a brother of Daniel and Squire Boone, who moved to Shelby county about 1810), 23 miles N. w. of Richmond, near the turnpike to Lexington, on farm of Smith Collins. Hoy's, on w. side of Lexington turnpike, 6 miles N. w. of Richmond, and about 400 yards s. w. of Foxtown (where James Hendricks now lives) ; settled in spring of 1781, by Wm. Hoy, who died in March, 1790. Irvine's, in Tate's creek bottom, 2 miles w. of Richmond; settled in the fall of 1781, by Capt. Christopher Irvine and Col. William Irvine. Grubbs' on T'ate's creek, about 2 miles w. of Hoy's station; settled in 1781 by Hig- gason Grubbs-who settled another station, some years later, further east, on Muddy creek. Tanner's, 80 yards nearly E. of Gen. Cassius M. Clay's resi- dence, 6 miles N. w. of Richmond ; settled by John Tanner in 1781, but station not built until 1782. Bell's, 3 mile from Paint Lick creek, and 3 miles E. of the railroad station of that name, enclosed one of the most remarkable springs in the world-about 12 feet square at top, and 100 feet deep, boiling up pure, cold, and fresh, and flowing off in a large and constant stream. White Oak Spring, sometimes called Hart's station, 1 mile above Boones- borough, in same Kentucky river bottom; settled in 1779, by Capt. Nathaniel Hart and some Dutch families from Pennsylvania. Warren's, 1 mile from Estill's station; settled by Thes. Warren. Crews', about 1 mile N. W. of Fox- town, 6 miles.N. w. of Richmond, and 1 mile from George Boone's station; on Samuel B. Phelps' farm, near the Lexington turnpike-in a direct line from the Shallow-ford station to Boonesborough, 2 miles from the former and 6 miles from the latter; settled by David Crews in the fall of 1781. Shallow- ford station, at the Shallow-ford prong of Tate's creek, on the farm of Isaac Shelby Irvine, 43 miles N. of w. of Richmond, 3 miles from Foxtown, and S miles from Boonesborough ; the second station established in the county; was on the main road from Boonesborough to Harrodsburg; signs of the old fort are still seen. A straight quarter-race-track, probably the first in the state, passed within less than 200 yards; at the end of the track, just as he was pulling up his horse, a rider was shot by an Indian in the edge of the cane- brake. 'The remains of a water-mill and small still-house are yet seen, about {tha of a mile N., which are claimed to have been the first erected in the state. Col. Robert Rodes, one of the noblest of the pioneers, lived on Shallow- ford creek, in 1783. (John) Woods' station was on Dreaming creek. (Stephen) Hancock's was close by Irvine's station, also on Tate's creek. E'still's station was sometimes, by a failure to catch the right sound of the name, called Aston's or Ashton s-as Daniel Boone and others at first called Capt. James

* Papers of the Poague family, examined by the author. Also, statements of Wm. Poague's daughter, Mrs. Elizabeth Thomas, in 1806 and 1845.

R.H.C.

t On the authority of Alfred Henderson, their son, 80 years old, living at High Hill, Texas-in letter to the author from Rev. R. H. Rivers, D.D., Louisville, dated Feb. 10, 1873. Besides this son, two daughters are still living-Mrs. Sally Rivers, Louis- ville, aged 86, and Mrs. Estill, Talladega, Ala., aged 82.

522

MADISON COUNTY.

Estill. Warner's station was on Otter creek. The locality of Scrivener's sta- tion is unknown.

The following stations were in adjoining counties, close to the Madison county line. Adams', Kennedy's, and Paint Lick, in Garrard county ; (Daniel) Boone's station, E. of where Athens is, and McGee's, on Cooper's run, both in Fayette county, the former 4 and the latter 3 miles from Boonesborough ; Marble creek station, 7 or 8 miles from Boonesborough .*

The First Court House of Madison county was at Milford (now known as the mythical " Old Town "), 4 or 43 miles s. w. of Richmond. It was estab- lished by act of the Virginia legislature, in 1789. The same act of the Ken- tucky legislature which directed the removal of the county seat to the new town of Richmond, authorized the county court of quarter sessions-then composed of Thomas Clay, his brother Green Clay, and Robert Rodes-to meet at Milford in April, and adjourn to John Miller's new stable in Rich- mond. A bitter feeling of opposition to the removal was manifested in the s. w. part of the county-not even allayed by the fact that a commission fairly assessed all individual damages caused by the removal, nearly $2,000 in the aggregate, which were promptly paid by the friends of the removal. A coup d'état, worthy of the then great Napoleon or his since illustrious nephew, was planned and executed. To avoid a difficulty with old Tom Kennedy, who did nothing by halves, the judges, and sheriff (Archibald Woods), met in the court house at Milford at sunrise, made proclamation as provided in the leg- islative act, and at once adjourned court to the stable in Richmond. Two hours later, about 93 A.M., the quiet residents of the dead capitol "snuffed the battle from afar," and alarm ruled the hour. Tom Kennedy (oldest of a noteworthy set of pioneer brothers)-John (who was killed by Indians at Cumberland Gap, when returning to Kentucky in 1780 or 1781), Joseph, David, and Andrew-at the head of about 300 excited men, armed with canes and clubs, rode up to the door of the old stone court house, and swore the judges should not open and adjourn court that day. He called on Sam Estill, the landlord of the village tavern, for whiskey for the crowd, and repeated his threat. Estill nonplussed him by the assurance that the court had been held and the records removed, several hours ago. Dave Kennedy, the bully- a man of remarkable physical development, whom few would have the hardi- hood to encounter-then offered to "whip any body who was in favor of the removal." At last, Win. Kerley was found, who consented to " fight him in the stray pen, if nobody would interfere." Dave, cried out in homely phrase, " it's a wedding." Kerley objecting that his hair was too long, they both had their hair trimmed, and then well greased. Kerley soon got his antagonist down, straddled him, and kept on knocking him on the head and jerking his arms against the sharp rocks in the rough natural floor of the stray pen. Blood flowed, and the fight grew more earnest, but Kennedy scorned to ac- knowledge defeat. With a lockjaw grip he seized Kerley's left forefinger with his teeth, but Kerley tore the bone out, leaving the mouthful of flesh. Hugh Ross, his brother-in-law and second, stooped down with his mouth close to Kennedy's, and hallooed "enough," and thus ended the bloody set-to. But this personal defeat only intensified the bitterness of the Paint Lick people. To propitiate them, the new county of Garrard was formed in 1796, and the disaffected were given a county seat at Lancaster, miles nearer home than Richmond.

The County of Madison was organized Aug. 22, 1786, at the house of George Adams. Maj. Geo. Adams, Col. John Snoddy, Capt. Christopher Irvine, Capt. David Gass, James Barnet, John Bowles [the misspelled and mispronounced name, for many years, of the father of Chief Justice John Boyle], James Thompson, Archibald Woods, Nicholas George, and Joseph Kennedy, gentle- men, were the first justices and held the first court. Col. Wm. Irvine was elected the first clerk, and Joseph Kennedy the first sheriff.

The next term of court was held at the house of David Gass, Oet. 24, 1786 ; "Ordered, That the south end of this house [Gass' residence] be appointed the public jail of this county until the next court."

Most of the above was obtained from depositions, and explained by old residents.

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MADISON COUNTY.

Feb. 27, 1787-"Ordered, That the court house be erected at the place near where Capt. Gass' path leaves the great road, near Taylor's fork of Silver creek.". Also-"Ordered, That Geo. Adams, gentleman, be appointed and desired to purchase record books for the use of the clerk's and sur- veyor's offices, and that he procure the same on credit if in his power." Madison county was once not so wealthy as at present.

The First Cabin in Madison county, outside of the fort at Boonesborough, or its vicinity, was built by Squire Boone, Daniel's younger brother, in 1775-near his "Stockfield " tract of 1,000 acres of Silver creek. But while fixing to remove his family, he sold out and left.

The First Store in Kentucky was at Boonesborough, where Henderson & Co. sold goods in April, 1775-so say both the historian, Mann Butler, * and the late Nathaniel Hart, Sen., of Woodford county, Ky. The extent of its business and variety of its stock of goods, is not known. Lead was charged at 163 cents and powder at $2.663 per pound, while ordinary labor was only credited at 333 cents per day, and 50 cents per day for " ranging, hunting, or working on roads."

The Number of Settlers in Kentucky, in May, 1775, all within 50 miles of Boonesborough, was computed by a close observer-at least as far back as 1833, when many of them were still living, with whom he may have con- sulted-at fully 300; and that they had about 230 acres under cultivation in corn t-of which latter, probably not over one-third was within the present boundaries of Madison county.

The Eurliest Crops in Madison county .- In 1775, corn was raised by Col. Richard Callaway, Capt. Wm. Cocke, George, Robert, and Wm. McAfee, Wm. and Samuel Barton, Wm. Cooper, John Farrow, Capt. Nathaniel Hart, Thos. Johnston, Jesse Oldham, and Page Portwood-as proved by depositions, ex- amined by the author, in the courts of Fayette, Madison, and Lincoln counties, and by the records of the Land office of Kentucky. Doubtless, more than 20 other men raised corn in Madison county, the same season. In 1776, many others raised corn, for the first time. John Boyle, in Oct., 1775, planted some peach stones, near where Estill's station was established, 43 years later. In 1776, Richard Hinde raised watermelons and muskmelons, near the Kentucky river, 6 miles above Boonesborough. In 1775, James Bridges had a turnip patch, of 4th of an acre, on Muddy creek, 5 miles above its mouth. In the fall of 1779, emigrants along Boone's trace helped themselves to pumpkins from Capt. Nathaniel Hart's field, 1 mile from Estill's station. They scat- tered the seed along a branch of Otter creek, which came up, and in conse- quence it was named Pumpkin Run.

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Collins historical sketches of Kentucky. History of Kentucky: Vol. II, Part 84

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