USA > Kentucky > Historical sketches of Kentucky : embracing its history, antiquities, and natural curiosities, geographical, statistical, and geological descriptions with anecdotes of pioneer life, and more than one hundred biographical sketches of distinguished pioneers, soldiers, statesmen, jurists, lawyers, divines, etc. > Part 58
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from the fort by a large body of the foe, which had got between him and the gate. There was no time to be lost ; Boone gave the word-" right-about-fire --- charge ! " and the intrepid hunters dashed in among their adversaries. in a despe- rate endeavor to reach the fort. At the first fire from the Indians, seven of the fourteen whites were wounded, among the number the gallant Boone, whose leg was broken, which stretched him on the ground. An Indian sprang on him with uplifted tomahawk, but before the blow descended, Kenton, every where present, rushed on the warrior, discharged his gun into his breast, and bore huis leader into the fort. When the gate was closed and all things secure, Boone sent for Ken- ton :- " Well, Simon," said the old pioneer, " you have behaved yourself like a man to-day-indeed you are a fine fellow." This was great praise from Boone, who was a silent man, little given to compliment. Kenton had deserved the eu- logium : he had saved the life of his captain and killed three Indians, without having time to scalp any one of them. There was little time to spare, we may well believe, when Kenton could not stop to take a scalp.
The enemy, after keeping up the siege for three days, retired. Boonesborough sustained two other sieges this year, (1777), in all of which the youthful Kenton bore a gallant and conspicuous part.
Kenton continued to range the country as a spy until June, 1778, when Major Clark came down the Ohio from Virginia with a small force, and landed at the Falls. Clark was organizing an expedition against Okaw or Kaskaskia, and in- vited as many of the settlers at Boonesborough and Harrodsburgh as desired, to join him. The times were so dangerous that the women. especially, in the sta- tivus objected to the men going on such a distant expedition. Consequently, to five great mortification of Clark, only Kenton and Haggin left the stations to ac- company him. This expedition, so honorable to the enterprise of Virginia and the great captain and soldiers composing it, and so successful and happy in its results, is elsewhere fully described (see Clark county-life of General Clark). After the fall of Kaskaskia, Kenton returned to Harrodsburgh. by way of Vin- cennes. an accurate description of which, obtained by three days' secret observa- tion. he sent to Clark, who subsequently took that post.
Kenton, finding Boone about to undertake an expedition against a small town on Paint creek, readily joined him. Inaction was irksome to the hardy youth in such stirring times; besides, he had some melancholy reflections that he could only escape from in the excitement of danger and adventure.
The party, consisting of nineteen men, and commanded by Boone, arrived in the neighborhood of the Indian village. Kenton, who, as usual, was in ad- vihre, was startled by hearing loud peals of laughter from a cane brake just be- fire hin. He scarcely had time to free, before two Indians, mounted upon a small pony, one facing the animal's tail and the other his head. totally unsuspi- ci mis oft danger and in excellent spirits, made their appearance. Ile pulled trigger, and both Indians fell, one killed and the other severely wounded. He hastened up to scalp his adversaries. and was immediately surrounded by about forty Indi- ans. His situation, dodging from true to tree, was uncomfortable enough, until Boone and his party coming up, furiously attacked and defeated the savages. Buone immediately returned to the succor of his fort. having ascertained that a large war party had gone against it. Kenton and Montgomery. however, resol- ved to proceed to the village to get 'a shot' and steal horses. They lay within good rifle distance of the village for two days and a night without seeing a single warrior ; on the second night. they each mounted a fine horse and put off to Ken- tucky, and the day after the Indians raised the siege of Boonesborongh. they can- tored into the fort on their stolen property.
This little speculation. cifortunately, appears to have whetted the appetite of Kenton and Montgomery for hor-+ flesh. Accordingly, in September of the same year, (1778), in company with George Clark, they proceeded to Chillicothe on a similar expedition. Arriving in the night. they found a pound of horses. and succeeded in haltering seven. not without much noise. They mounted in haste. hotly pursued by the enraged savages. Riding all night and next day, they struck the Ohio at the mouth of Eagle creek, a few miles below Maysville. The wind was high and the river exceedingly rough, so that the frightened horses re- fused to cross, after several ineffectual efforts to compel them. Here they rashly waited until the next day, hoping that the wind would abate ; but, although the
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next day the wind did subside, the horses could by no means be forced into the river, owing to the fright they had received the day before. Satisfied that Inturer delay would be dangerous, they each mounted a horse, abandoning the remaining four. But after turning thein loose, with an indecision unworthy of the leader at least, it was determined that they would have all or none. They now separated to hunt up the horses they had just nnhaltered. Kenton had not ridden far before he heard a whoop behind him. Instead of putting spurs to his horse and gallop- ing off like a sensible man, he deliberately dismounted from his horse, tied him, and crept back in the direction of the noise. At the top of the bank he saw two Indians and a white man, all mounted. It was too late to retreat-he raised his ride, took aim, and-it flashed ! Now, at last, he took to his heels, the Indians dashing after him with a yell. He gained some fallen timber, and thus was in a fair way to elude his mounted pursuers, when, upon emerging into the open woods, he beheld an Indian galloping around the brush within a few rods of him. The game was up, and for the first time he was a prisoner in the hands of the savages, furious at the attempt to steal their property.
While the Indians were yet beating and upbraiding him as a "hoss steal." Montgomery very foolishly came to his assistance, fired without effect, and fled. Two of the Indians gave chase, and in a few moments returned with his bleeding scalp. Clark, the only one of the three having his five wits in a healthy con- dition, laid whip and escaped.
Bitterly now did Kenton expiate his horse stealing offences. It was a crime not easily to be pardoned by the very virtuous tribe into whose hands he had fallen. After beating him until their arms were too tired to indulge that gratify- ing recreation any longer, they secured him for the night. This was done by first placing him upon his back on the ground. They next drew his legs apart, and lashed each foot firmly to two saplings or stakes driven in the earth. A pole was then laid across his breast, and his hands tied to each end, and his arms lashed with thongs around it. the thongs passing under his body so as to keep the pole stationary. After all this, another thong was tied around his neck. and the end of it secured to a stake in the ground, his head being stretched back so ' as not entirely to choke him. In this original manner he passed the night, unable to sleep, and filled with the most gloomy forebodings of the future. In the morn- ing he was driven forward to the village.
The plan of this work forbids a particular account of Kenton's adventures during his long captivity, running through a period of more than eight months. The cru- elties he suffered at the hands of the Indians-his narrow escapes from death in an hundred forms-his alternate good and bad fortune. and his final successful flight, form one of the most romantic adventures anywhere furnished by the inet- dents of real life, seeming more like an invention of the novelist, than a veracious narrative. He was eight times compelled to run the gauntlet. three times tied to the stake, once brought to the brink of the grave by a blow from an axe; and throughout the whole time, with brief intervals, subjected to great hardship and privations. Once his old friend, Simon Girty, the infamous hater of his race, interposed and saved him for a short space from the flames. Being again con- demned to the stake in spite of the influence of Girty. Logan the celebrated Wing .. (whose wrongs had not obliterated the nobility of his nature. ) exerted his intine nee in his behalf, and prevailed upon a Canadian trader, namned Druver to purchase him from his owners. Druyer succeeded in obtaining him as a prisoner of war. upon a promise of returning bint. which he of course never intended to full !. Kenton was now taken by his new friend and delivered over to the British co .- mander at Detroit. Here he remained working for the garrison, on half pav, noul the summer of 1779. when he effected his escape, by the assistance of Mr. Her- vey, the wife of an Indian trader. Kenton, at this time but twenty-four years of age, according to one who served with him, "was fine looking, with a dienttied and manly deportment. and a soft, pleasing voice, and was wherever he went a favorite among the ladies." This lady had become interested in him, and upon his solicitation, promised to assist him and two other Kentuckians, prisoners with him. to procure ristes. ammunition. &c., without which a journey through the wil- derness conld not be performed. Engaging in their cause with all the enthusiasm of her sex, she only awaited an opportunity to perform her promise. She had not long to wait. On the 3d of June, 1779, a large concourse of Indians assembied
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at Detroit to take "a spree." Preparatory to getting drunk, they stacked their guns near Mrs. Harvey's house, who as soon as it was dark stole silently out to the guns, selected three of the best looking, and quickly hid them in her garden in a patch of peas. Avoiding all observation, she hastened to Kenton's lodgings and informed him of her snecess. She told him, at midnight to come to the back of her garden, where he would find a ladder, by means of which he could climb over and get the guns. She had previously collected such articles of food, cloth- ing, ammunition, &c., as would be necessary in their adventure. These she had hid in a hollow tree well known to Kenton, some distance out of town. No time was now to be lost, and the prisoners at once set about getting things in order for their flight. At the appointed hour Kenton with his companions appeared at the de- signated spot, discovered the ladder and climbed into the garden, where he found Mrs. Harvey sitting by the guns awaiting his arrival. To the eyes of the grate- ful young hunter, no woman ever looked so beautiful. There was little time how- ever for compliments, for all around could be heard the yells of the drunken sav- ages, the night was far advanced, and in the morning both guns and prisoners would be missed. Taking an affectionate leave of him, with many tender wishes for his safety, she now urged him to be gone. Heaping thanks and blessings on her, he left her and re-joined his companions. Kenton never saw her afterwards, but he never forgot her ; for, more than half a century afterwards, when the wil- derness and the savages who peopled it, were alike exterminated before the civi- lizing march of the Anglo Saxon, the old pioneer, in words that glowed with gratitude and admiration, delighted to dwell on the kindness, and expatiate on the courage and virtue of his benefactress, the fair trader's wife. In his reveries, he said he had seen her "a thousand times sitting by the guns in the garden."
After leaving Detroit the fugitives, departing from the usual line of travel, struck out in a western direction towards the prairies of the Wabash. At the end of thirty-three days, having suffered incredible hardships, the three adventurers, Kenton, Bullitt and Coffer, safely arrived at Louisville some time in July '79.
Here he stayed but a short time to recruit his strength. He had been long a prisoner and thirsted for action and adventure. Shouldering his rifle he set out through the unbroken wilderness to visit his old companion in arms, Major Clark, then at Vincennes. This post he found entirely quiet, too much so for him. He had been treading the wilderness and fighting the savages since his sixteenth year, and was yet too young and strong to be contented with a life of inaction. He had no family or connection to bind him to a particular spot here in the west, and by a deed utterly repugnant to his generous nature, he was exiled as he yet believed, from his home and friends in the east ; it was therefore his destiny, as it was his wish, to rove. Striking again into the pathless wilderness then lying between Vincennes and the falls of the Ohio, he soon reached the latter place, whence he immediately proceeded to Harrod's station, where he was joyfully wel- comed by his old companions.
The winter of 1;79-50 was a peaceful one to the Kentuckians, but in the spring the Indians and British invaded the country. having with them two pieces of can- non, by means of which two stations. Martin's and Ruddell's, fell into their hands; whereupon the allied savages immediately retreated.
When General Clark heard of the disaster, he hastened from Vincennes to concert measures for present retaliation and the future safety of the settlements. Clark was no doubt one of the greatest inen ever furnished by the west, of no ordinary military capacity. He believed the best way to prevent the depreda- tions of the Indians, was to carry the war into their own country, burning down their villages and destroying their corn, and thus give them sufficient employ- ment to prevent their incursions among the settlements on the south side of the river. Accordingly an expedition consisting of 1100 of the hardiest and most courageous men that the most adventurous age of our history could furnish, inured to hardships and accustomed to the Indian mode of fighting, assembled at the mouth of the Licking. Kenton commanded a company of volunteers from Har- rod's station, and shared in all the dangers and success of this little army. Com- manded by Clark, and piloted by one of the most expert woodsmen and the great- est spy of the west, Simon Kenton, the Kentuckians assailed the savages in their dens with complete success. Chillicothe, Pickaway and many other towns were burnt, and the crops around thein destroyed. At Pickaway, the Indians
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were brought to a stand. Here where he had run the gauntlet and afforded the Indian squaws and warriors so much fun, two years before, Kenton now at the head of his gallant company, Had the satisfaction of dashing into the thickest of the fight and repaying with usury the blows he had received at their hands. Af- ter an obstinate resistance the savages were defeated and fled in all directions, leaving their killed and wounded on the field. (See life of Clark.)
This was the first invasion of Ohio by the Kentuckians in any force. and the red man long remembered it. For two years the stations enjoyed comparative peace, and Kenton passed away his time as a hunter, or spy, or with surveying par- ties, heavily enough until the fall of 1782. Then for the first time he heard that his old father yet lived, and learned the joyful intelligence that he had not killed his old playmate and friend William Veach. It is impossible to describe his feelings upon hearing this news. For eleven years he wandered in the wilder- ness filled with remorse for his rash, though unpremeditated crime, the brand of murder upon his heart if not upon his brow, isolated from his home and friends, about whom he dare not even inguire. and his very name forbidden to him. At length after expiating his crime by these long sufferings, unexpectedly the weight of murder is removed from his mind-his banishment from home and family revoked, and his long abandoned name restored. Kenton was Simon Butler now no longer, and he felt like a new man.
In the fall of 1782 General Clark, to revenge the disaster of the Blue Licks, led another army 1500 strong against the Indian towns, which spread destruction far and wide through their country. (See life of Clark.) Kenton again com- manded a company on this occasion, and was again the pilot for the army. as his knowledge of the country was unsurpassed, and his skill in woodcraft unequalled. It was upon the return of this expedition opposite the mouth of the Licking, Nov. 4th, 1782, that the pioneers composing it. entered into the romantic engagement, that fifty years thereafter, the survivors "should meet and talk over the affairs of the campaign." and the dangers and hardships of the past. It was first suggested by Captain M'Cracken of the Kentucky light horse, who was then dying* from the mortification of a slight wound received in the ann while fighting, immediately by the side of Kenton in the attack on Piqua town. To carry out the request of the dying soldier, Colonel Floyd, from the Falls of the Ohio. brought forward a resolution, and the semi-centennial meeting was determined upon. All around was the unbroken wilderness ; but as they bore the dying M'Cracken down the hill above Cincinnati. the future stood revealed to his fast closing eyes, the cities and villas peopled with tens of thousands. crowning the valley and the hill tops. the noise of abounding commerce in the streets and on the rivers-building rising upon building-palace and temple and all the magnificent panorama of fifty years, passed in review before him. The desire to link one's name with all this great- ness was pardonable in him who had shed his blood in the struggle to achieve it. The interesting day that was to witness the re-union of the surviving heroes of '82, fell upon the 4th of November. 1832. At that the many were still survi- ving, among the rest General Simon Kenton. As the day drew near, the old hero was deeply affected at the prospect of meeting his old brothers in arms, as weit as solicitous to keep the solemn appointment. To encourage a large attend ince he published an interesting and feeling " address to the citizens of the western country." It is a fair type of his kind heart, dictated to a friend who wrote it for him, and signed with his own hand. The following is the only extract the limits of this work will perinit us to make.
"Fellow citizens !- Being one of the first, after Colonel Daniel Boone, who aided in the conquest of Kentucky, and the west. I am called upon to address you. My heart muts on such an occasion ; I look forward to the contemplated meeting with melancholy pleasure ; it has caused tears to flow in copions showers. I wish to see once more before I che. any few surviving friends. My solemn promise, made fifty years ago, birds me to meet them. I ask not for myself; but you may find in our assembly some who have never received any pay or pension, who have sustained the cause of their country, equal to any other service ; who in the decline of life are poor. Theu, you prosperous sons of the west, forget not those old and gray-headed veterans on this occasion; let them return to their families with some
* He died as the troops descended the hill where Cincinnati now stands, and was buried near the block-house at the mouth of the Licking, on the Kentucky side.
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little manifestation of your kindness to cheer their hearts. I add my prayer. may kind heaven grant us a clear sky, fair and pleasant weather-a safe journey and a happy meeting, and smile upon us and our families, and bless us and our nation on the approaching occasion.
Simon Ponton
URBANA, Ohio, 1832.
The day at last came so long looked for by our "old fathers of the west," and the terrible cholera, more barbarous than the savages, who fifty years before bat- tled the pioneers, spread death far and wide over the west, sparing neither age nor sex. Cincinnati was wrapt in gloom, yet many of the veteran patriots assem- bled, and the corporation voted them a dinner. General Kenton, in spite of his ardent desire, was unable from sickness and old age, to attend. He met his beloved companions no more until he met them in the spirit land.
After the volunteers disbanded at the mouth of Licking, Kenton returned to Harrod's station. He had acquired many valuable tracts of land, now becoming of importance, as population began to flow into the country with a rapid in- crease, as the sounds of savage warfare grew fainter in the distance. He set- tled on his lands on Salt river, and being joined by a few families in 1782-3, he built some rude block-houses, cleared land, and planted corn. His settlement thrived wonderfully. In the fall. having gathered his corn, he determined to visit his father, ascertain his circumstances, and bring him to Kentucky. He had not seen his family for thirteen years, a period to him full of dangers, sufferings and triumphs. Who can paint the joy of the returning adventurer, young in years, but old in deeds and reputation, on reaching home, to find that his aged father " vet lived." The reunion was joyful to all, especially so to his friends, who had long considered him dead. He visited with delight the friends and the scenes of his early childhood. so different from his boisterous manhood. and the gaunt- let, the stake, and the fierce foray, and the wild war-whoop were to him as the confused image of some uneasy dream. Veach and the ungracious fair one, his first love. were still living ; he saw them, and each forgot the old feud.
He gathered up his father and family and proceeded as far as Red Stone Fort, journeying to Kain-tuck-ee, where his old father died, and was buried on the winding banks of the Monongahela, without marble or inscription to mark the last resting place of the father of the great pioneer. Kenton, with the remainder of his father's family. reached his settlement in safety in the winter of 1784.
Kentucky was now a flourishing territory, and emigrants came flocking in to appropriate her fertile lands. Kenton deterinined to occupy his lands, around his old camp. near. Maysville, remarkable for their beauty and fertility. This part of Kentucky was still uninhabited, and infested by the Indians. In July, 1:84, collecting a small party of adventurers. he went to his old camp, one mile from Washington, in Mason county. The Indians being too troublesome, the party returned to Salt river. In the fall of the same year Kenton returned, built some block-houses, and was speedily joined by a few families. In the spring of '85, many new settlements were made around Kenton's station, and that part of the country soon assumed a thriving appearance. in spite of the incursions of the savages. In 1:56. Kenton sold (or according to M'Donald ), GAVE Arthor Fox and William Wood one thousand acres of land, on which they laid out the town of Washington; "Old Ned Wallet" had settled at Limestone (Maysville) the year before.
The Indians were too badly crippled, by Clark's last expedition, to offer any considerable opposition to the settlers ; nevertheless, they were exceedingly trou- blesomne, during their many small predatory incursions, and plied the fashionable trade of horse-stealing with praiseworthy activity. To put a stop to such pro- ceedings, on the part of their red neighbors, in expedition, seven hundred strong, Composed of volunteers from all the surrounding stations, assembled at Washing- ton under the command of Colonel Logan. Fighting, in those days. cost our affectionate "Uncle Sam" very little, as every man paid his own war expenses.
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Kenton commanded a company from his settlement, and, as usual, piloted the way into the enemy's country. The expedition fell upon Mochacheek and Pick- away very suddenly, defeated the Indians with considerable loss, burnt for offer towns, without resistance, and returned to Washington with only ten men killed and wounded.
Notwithstanding this successful blow, the Indians, all next year, kept the inhabitants around Kenton's station in perpetual alarm. Kenton again called on the stations to rendezvous at Washington, for the purpose of punishing the lu- dians, by " carrying the war into Africa;" a trick he had learned from his old commander, General Clark. It was essentially to the interest of the interior stations to see Kenton's well sustained, as thereby the savages were kept at a distance from them. They were, consequently, always ready to render their more exposed brethren any assistance required. Several hundred hardy hunters, under Colonel Todd, assembled again at Washington. Kenton again commanded his company, a gallant set of young men, trained by himself, and piloted the expedition. Near Chillicothe a detachment. led by majors Hinkston and Kenton, fell upon a large body of Indians, about day-break, and defeated them before Todd came up. Chillicothe was burned down, and the expedition returned without losing a man.
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