Collins historical sketches of Kentucky. History of Kentucky: Vol. II, Part 9

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 9

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The First White Woman in Kentucky was Mrs. Mary Inglis, nee Draper, who in 1756, with her two little boys, her sister-in-law, Mrs. Draper, and others, was taken prisoner by the Shawanee Indians, from her home on the top of the great Allegheny ridge, in now Montgomery county, West Virginia .* The captives were taken down the Kanawha to the salt region, and, after a few days spent in making salt, to the Indian village at the mouth of the Scioto river, where Portsmouth, Ohio, now is. Here, although spared the pain and danger of running the gauntlet, to which Mrs. Draper was sub- jected, she was, in the division of the prisoners, separated from her little sons. Some French traders from Detroit visiting the village with their goods, Mrs. Inglis made some shirts out of the checked fabrics. As fast as one was finished, a Frenchman would take it and run through the village, swing- ing it on a staff, praising it as an ornament, and Mrs. Inglis as a very fine squaw; and then make the Indians pay her from their store at least twice its value. This profitable employment continued about three weeks, and Mrs. Inglis was more than ever admired and kindly treated by her captors.

A party setting off for the Big Bone Licks, on the south side of the Ohio river, about 140 miles below, to make salt, took her along, together with an elderly Dutch woman, who had been a long time prisoner. The separation from her children, determined her to escape, and she prevailed upon the old woman to accompany her. They obtained leave to gather grapes. Securing a blanket, tomahawk, and knife, they left the Licks in the afternoon, and to prevent suspicion took neither additional clothing nor provisions. When about to depart, Mrs. Inglis exchanged her tomahawk with one of the three Frenchmen in the company, as he was sitting on one of the big bones, cracking walnuts. They hastened to the Ohio river, and proceeded un- molested up the stream-in about five days coming opposite the village their captors and they had lived at, at the mouth of the Scioto; there they found an empty cabin and remained for the night. In the morning, they loaded a horse, browsing near by, with corn, and proceeded up the river-escaping ob- servation, although in sight of the Indian village and Indians for several hours.

Although the season was dry and the rivers low, the Big Sandy was too deep to cross at its mouth; so they followed up its banks until they found a crossing on the drift-wood. The horse fell among the logs, and could not be extricated. The women carried what corn they could, but it was exhausted long before they reached the Kanawha; and they lived upon grapes, black walnuts, pawpaws, and sometimes roots. These did not long satisfy the old Dutch woman, and, frantic with hunger and exposure, she threatened-and several days after, at twilight, actually attempted-the life of her companion. Mrs. Draper escaped from the grasp of the desperate woman, outran her, and concealed herself awhile under the river bank. Proceeding along by the light of the moon, she found a canoe-the identical one in which the Indians had taken her across the river five months before-half filled with dirt and leaves, without a paddle or a pole near. Using a broad splinter of a fallen tree, she cleared the canoe, and contrived to paddle in it to the other side. In the morning, the old woman discovered her, and with strong prom- ises of good behavior begged her to cross over and keep hier company ; but

* Sketches of Virginia, 2d series, by Rev. Wm. Henry Foote, D.D., pp. 150-159.

BOONE COUNTY.

she thought they were more likely to remain friends with the river between them. Though approaching her former home, her condition was growing hopeless-her strength almost wasted away, and her limbs had begun to swell from wading cold streams, frost and fatigue. The weather was growing cold, and a light snow fell. At length, after forty days and a half of remark- able endurance, during which she traveled not less than twenty miles a day, she reached a clearing and the residence of a friendly family, by whose kind and judicious treatment she was strong enough in a few days to proceed to a fort near by, and the next day was restored to her husband. Help was sent to the Dutch woman, and she, too, recovered. One of the little boys died in captivity not long after the forced separation ; the other remained thirteen years with the Indians before his father could trace him up and secure his ransom. Mrs. Inglis died in 1813, aged 84. Her family was one of the best, and her daughters married men who became distinguished.

Loughrey's Defeat .- In 1781, Col. Archibald Loughrey (or Lochrey), county lieutenant of Westmoreland county, Pennsylvania, at the instance of Gen. Geo. Rogers Clark, raised a force of about 120 men to join Gen. Clark in an expedition against the British post at Detroit. July 25th, they left that county for Fort Henry (Wheeling), where they were to join the main army. But Clark's men becoming restless, 19 of them deserting, he was compelled to hasten down the river. Loughrey followed, with various delays and mis- haps. Capt. Shannon and four men, who in a small boat, were sent ahead, hoping to overtake the main army and obtain supplies, were captured by the Indians, and with them a letter to Clark detailing Loughrey's situation. Thus, and by some deserters, apprised of the weakness of Loughrey's party, the Indians collected below the mouth of the Little Miami river, determined to destroy them. These five prisoners were placed in a conspicuous position on the Indiana shore, near the head of what has ever since been called Loughrey's Island (4 miles above Rising Sun, Indiana, and about opposite the village of Belleview, in Boone county), as a decoy -- their lives promised on condition they would hail their companions, and induce them to surrender. The Indians were concealed near by.

But before reaching this point, and somewhere nearly opposite the mouth of a stream, on the Indiana side, ever since called Loughrey's creek (3 miles above the island, and over 2 miles below Aurora, Indiana), one of the boats was taken to the Kentucky side, and Capt. Wm. Campbell's men went on shore and began cooking some buffalo meat. While still around the fires, and while the rest of the troops finished bringing their horses ashore, to graze enough (in the absence of food) to keep them alive until they should reach the Falls, 103 miles below, and were joining the others for a meal, they were assailed by a volley of rifle balls from the overhanging Kentucky bank, covered with large trees, where the Indians then appeared in great force. The volunteers defended themselves so long as their ammunition .lasted, then attempted to escape by their boats: But as soon as the boats began to move in the low water, with its sluggish current, another large body of Indians on the Indiana shore rushed out on the sand-bar afd fired upon the men. : Further resistance was useless, and they were compelled to sur- render. The Indians fell upon and massacred Col. Loughrey and several other prisoners, before the chief (said to be the celebrated Brant, but it is doubtful if he were then in the west) arrived and stopped the inhuman work. Over 300 Indians were engaged. Of the Pennsylvanians, 106 in number, 42 were killed in the fight or massacred afterwards, and 64 taken prisoners- most of whom were ransomed by British officers, in the spring of 1783, and exchanged for British soldiers taken prisoners in the Revolutionary war.

Tanner's Station, on the Ohio river, 22 miles below Cincinnati, was on the site of the present town of Petersburg. It was settled by, and named after, Rev. John Tanner, the first Baptist preacher resident in this part of Ken- tucky-certainly before 1790. In April, 1785, a company from Pennsylvania, composed of John Hindman, Wm. West, John Sinnons, John Seft, oid Mir. Carlin, and their familie , cleared thirty or forty acres on the claim of Mr. Tanner-the firs' learn. ; in Boone county. They remained there a month or six weeks, then went to Ohio to "make improvements." but did not remain

BOONE COUNTY.

there. In May, 1790, John Tanner, a little boy of nine years, was made prisoner by the Indians, and in 1791, an older brother, Edward, nearly fifteen (both sons of Rev. John Tanner). Edward made his escape two days after his capture, and returned home. Except that the Indians told Edward of their having taken John, the year before, the latter was not heard of by his friends for twenty-four years. He spent his life among the Indians, and in 1818 was employed by the United States authorities at Sault St. Marie as an interpreter. The father removed in 1798 to New Madrid, Missouri, and died there a few years after.

Baptist Preachers and Church .- Next to Rev. John Tanner, above mentioned, came Rev. Lewis Dewees, to the same station, in 1792. They both preached there and in the neighboring stations in Ohio, until after Wayne's terrible defeat of the Indians and treaty with them, in August, 1794, when it became safe to live and preach outside of the fortified stations. Bullittsburg church, the first Baptist church in Boone county, was constituted in June, 1794. The first members were Rev. Lewis Dewees, John Hall and his wife Elizabeth, Chichester Matthews and his wife Agnes, Jos. Smith and his wife Leannah. They were the principal residents of the infant settlement in Bullitt's Bot- tom (now North Bend), on the Ohio river. A small town had been laid off by a Mr. McClellan, and named Bullittsburg, in honor of the original claimant of the land.

First Survey .- Robert McAfee's private journal says that on July 5, 1773, Capt. Thos. Bullitt surveyed " a tract of very good land on Big Bone creek." Several Delaware Indians were there at the time, who had piloted the whites to the Lick. One of them, about 60 years old, in reply to inquiries of Jas. McAfee, said, "the big bones just as he saw them now, had been there ever since his remembrance, as well as that of the oldest of his people." They were lying in the Lick and close to it, as if most of the animals were stand- ing up side by side, sticking in the mud, and had thus expired together. Some of the joints of the back bones lay out upon the solid ground, and were used by the company as seats; the ribs, which were sufficiently long, they made use of as tent poles ; one of the tusks stuck out of the bank six feet, and was imbedded so firmly that they could not get the other end out, or even shake it. The bones were much destroyed by the different companies who had been to visit them. The McAfee and Bullitt companies carried away many of the pieces, as curiosities.

Major JOHN P. GAINES was a native of Virginia, but removed when quite young to Kentucky; represented Boone county in the legislature during the years 1825 '26, '27, '30, and '32; in May, 1846, was a volunteer in the Mexi- can war, and chosen major of the Ist regiment of Ky. cavalry. March 1, 1848, the legislature put on record the story of his service, thus : " Resolved, , That Major John P. Gaines, Capt. Cassius M. Clay, Lieut. George Davidson, and their thirty companions in arms, who were taken prisoners by a force of three thousand Mexicans, under command of Gen. Minon at Encarnacion, deserve th thanks of the people of Kentucky for their bravery, and for their cool determination to maintain the reputation of Kentucky, when escape was impossible, and destruction inevitable, save by a surrender." Also, "Re- solved, That Maj. John P. Gaines has won the admiration of the people of Kentucky, by honorably withdrawing his parol as a prisoner of war, when ordered by Gen. Lombardini to go to Toluca; by his escape through the lines of the enemy ; by his successful junction with the American army, and by his gallant bearing at Churubusco, Chapultepec, and all the battles fought before the walls and in the city of Mexico-he being the only volunteer from Kent icky who participated in the achievements of Gen. Scott and his army .in those memorable victories." While thus a prisoner, his neighbors and friends elected him to congress, where he served from 1847 to 1849. Sep- tember 9, 1850, President Fillmore appointed him Governor of Oregon Territory, which office he held until March 16, 1853. He died shortly after.

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BOONE COUNTY.

COL. DANIEL BOONE, who was the first white man who ever made a perma- nent settlement within the limits of the present State of Kentucky), was born in Bucks county, Pennsylvania, on the right bank of the Delaware river, on the 11th of February, 1731. Of his life, but little is known previous to his emigra- tion to Kentucky, with the early history of which his name is, perhaps, more closely identified than that of any other man. The only sources to which we can resort for information, is the meagre narrative dictated by himself, in his old age,-and which is confined principally to that period of his existence passed in exploring the wilderness of Kentucky, and which, therefore, embraces but a com- paratively small part of his life ; and the desultory reminiscences of his early as- sociates in that hazardous enterprise. This constitutes the sum total of our knowledge of the personal history of this remarkable man, to whom, as the founder of what may without impropriety be called a new empire, Greece and Rome would have erected statues of honor, if not temples of worship.

It is said that the ancestors of Daniel Boone were among the original Catho- lic settlers of Maryland ; 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 en- ergies and impulses, gave the moulding impress to his character. In the years of his early boyhood, his father emigrated first to Reading, on the head waters 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. Our knowledge of his history during this long interval, is almost a per- fect blank ; and although we can well imagine that he could not have passed to this mature age, without developing many of those remarkable traits, by which his subsequent career was distinguished, we are in possession of no facts out of which to construct a biography of this period of his life. We know, indeed, that from his earliest years he was distinguished by a remarkable fondness for the exciting pleasures of the chase ;- that he took a boundless delight in the unrestrained freedom, the wild grandeur and thrilling solitude of those vast primeval forests, where nature in her solemn majesty, unmarred by the improving hand of man, speaks to the Impressionable and unhacknied heart of the simple woodsman, in a language unknown to the dweller in the crowded haunts of men. But, in this knowledge of his disposition and tastes, is comprised almost all that can absolutely be said to be known of Daniel Boone, from his childhood to his fortieth year.

In 1767, the return of Findlay from his adventurous excursion into the unex- plored wilds beyond the Cumberland mountain, and the glowing accounts he gave of the richness and fertility of the new country, excited powerfully the curiosity and imaginations of the frontier backwoodsmen 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 confinement 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 com- pany 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 borders of the present State of Ken- tucky, 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 hunting and the chase, killing immense quantities of game. Nothing of particu- lar interest occurred until the 22d 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 disarming the suspicions of the Indians. their escape was ef- fected 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 during 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.

DANIEL BOONE.

A few days after this, they were joined by Squire Boone, a brother of the great pioneer, and another man, who had followed thein from Carolina, and accidentally stumbled on their camp. Soon after this accession to their numbers, Daniel Boone and Stuart, in a second excursion, were again assailed by the Indians, and Stuart shot and scalped; Boone fortunately escaped. Their only remaining com- panion, disheartened by the perils to which they were continually exposed, re- turned 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 every- thing but their rifles. Their ammunition running short, it was determined that Squire Boone should return to Carolina for a fresh supply, while his brother re- mained in charge of the camp. This resolution was accordingly carried into effect, and Boone was left for a considerable time to encounter or evade the teem- ing perils of his hazardous solitude alone. We should suppose that his situa- tion now would have been disheartening and wretched in the extreme. He him- self 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 abundance 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 incredible, 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.

We, of the present day, accustomed to the luxuries and conveniences of a highly civilized state of society-lapped in the soft indolence of a fearless secu- rity-accustomed to shiver at every blast of the winter's wind, and to tremble at every noise the origin of which is not perfectly understood-can form but an im- perfect idea of the motives and influences which could induce the early pioneers of the west to forsake the safe and peaceful settlements of their native States, and brave the unknown perils, and undergo the dreadful privations of a savage and un- reclaimed wilderness. But, in those hardy hunters, with nerves of iron and sinews of steel, accustomed from their earliest boyhood to entire self-dependence for the supply of every want, there was generated a contempt of danger and a love for the wild excitement of an adventurous life, which silenced all the suggestions of timidity or prudence. It was not merely a disregard of danger which distin- guished these men, but an actual insensibility to those terrors which palsy the nerves of men reared in the peaceful occupations of a densely populated country. So deep was this love of adventure, which we attribute as the distinguishing characteristic of the early western hunters, implanted in the breast of Boone, that he determined to sell his farm, and remove with his family to Kentucky.

Accordingly, on the 25th of September, 1773, having disposed of all his prop- erty, 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, how- ever, until the whites had sustained 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 discouraged the emigrants, that they immediately retreated to the settlements on Clinch river, a distance of forty miles from the scene of action. Here they remained until 1775. During this interval, Boone was employed by Governor Dunmore, of Virginia, to conduct a party of surveyors through the wilderness, from Falls of the Ohio, a distance of eight hundred miles. Of the incidents attending this expedition, we have no account whatever. After his return, he was placed by Dunmore in command of three frontier stations, or garrisons, and engaged in several affairs with the Indians. At about the same period, he also, at the solicitation of sev- eral gentlemen of North Carolina, attended a treaty with the Cherokees, known as the treaty of Wataga, for the purchase of the lands south of the Kentucky

BOONE COUNTY.

river. It was in connection with this land purchase, and under the auspices of Col. Richard Henderson, that Boone's second expedition to Kentucky was made. His busines 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 Boonesborough 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 1st 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 at- tacked by the Indians, and lost another man ; but. notwithstanding the dangers to which they were continually exposed, the work was prosecuted with indefat- igable diligence, and on the 14th of the month finally completed. 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 Indians, who appeared to be perfectly infuriated at the encroachments of the whites, and the formation of settlements in the midst of their old hunting grounds ; and the lives of the emigrants were passed in a con- tinued succession of the most appalling perils, which nothing but unquailing courage and indomitable firmness could have enabled them to encounter. They did, however, breast this awful tempest of war, and bravely and successfully, and in defiance of all probability, the small colony continued steadily toincrease 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, Indi- ana, and Illinois. The summary nature of this sketch will not admit of more than a bare enumeration 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 deatlı struggle, which gave a yet more terrible significance, 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 illus. trates the habitual peril which environed the inhabitants. Jemima Boone and two daughters of Col. Callaway were amusing themselves in the neigh- borhood 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 inmates of the garrison ; but the men being generally 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 defence, 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.

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Collins historical sketches of Kentucky. History of Kentucky: Vol. II, Part 9

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