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 59
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The pioneers had now become formidable to the Indians, and kept them at bay. Kenton's station was a frontier for the interior settlements, and manfully beat back the foe, in his incursions into the State. The country around Washington was fast filling up, and bid fair soon to be in a condition to set the Indian at defiance. Kenton. universally esteemed and beloved, was acknowledged to be the chief man in the community. His great experience and reputation as a fron- tier man : his superior courage and skill in the fight, as well as the extent of his possessions, rendered him conspicuous. In all the incursions made into the country of the enemy, and the urany local contests that took place with the Indi ans, Captain Kenton was invariably the leader selected by the settlers.
From 1789 to 1793, many small but bloody conflicts came off around the set- tlements in Mason county, in which the Indians were severely punished by Cap- tain Kenton and his volunteers. In 1793 the Indians made the last incursion into this. or perhaps any other part of Kentucky. On that occasion (see Mason county) Kenton ambushed thein at the place where they crossed the Ohio, killed six of the party, and dispersed the remainder. They never afterwards invaded the long contested shore of their beloved hunting ground. After a desperate and sanguinary struggle of more than twenty years, Kain-tuck-ee. "the dark and bloody ground," was lost to the red man forever. The Saxon. in his insatiable thirst for land, had felled her forests, driven out her elk and buffalo, ploughed up her virgin sod, polluted her soil with the unfamiliar city and village, and in the blood of the red man written his title to the country, which he held with a grasp of iron. Cornstalk, Blackfish, Logan, Little Turtle, Elinipsico, Meshawah. the young Tecumseh. and the thousand north-western braves. bled in vain. Equal courage, superior intellect, and the destiny of the Saxon. overthrew the heroisin, the perseverance, and the despair of the sons of the forest.
In 1793. General Wayne came down the Ohio to prepare for his successful ex- pedition. Kenton, at that time a major, joined Wayne with his battalion, and proceeded to Greenville, where he was conspicuous among the hardy hunters composing the army, on account of his superior reputation. courage. skill, and activity. He was not in the battle of the Fallen Timber, having been discharged with his battalion the winter previous. The Indians, being defeated by Wave. and their power completely broken, sued for peace, which was granted, and the war was over.
Kentucky and the west, after the peace of Greenville, rushed forward with rapid strides in the career of population and wealth. Emigrants came ponting over the Alleghanies into the fertile valley of the Ohio, to occupy the beautiful "land of the cane." These lands rose rapidly in price and importance, and Rea- ton was now thought to be one of the wealthiest ment in his State, and deserved to be so, for he had purchased his wealth by many a bloody centret, and by many incredible hardships. But behold the gratitude of his countrymen !
The crafty offsprings of peace, who slept in the lap of eastern case and secu- rity, while this noble pioneer was enduring the hardships of the wilderness, and
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KENTON COUNTY.
braving the gauntlet, and stake, and tomahawk of the Indian to redeem the soil of the west, creep in when the fight, and toil, and danger are past, and by dis- honorable trick, miserable technicality, and cunning procedure, wrest the pos- sessions bought at such a terrible price from the gallant, unlettered, simple hearted man, unversed in the rascality of civilization. He lost his lands acre after acre, the superior skill of the speculator prevailing over the simplicity and ignorance of the hunter. What a burning, deep disgrace to the west, that the hero who had suffered so much and fonght so well to win the soil of his glorious * cane land" from the savage, should, when the contest was ended, be compelled to leave it to those who never struck a blow in its defence ! Together with Boone and numerous other brave old frontier nien, who bore " the heat and burden of the day," Kenton, like an old shoe, was kicked aside when he was no longer of any use, or had become too antiquated for the fashion of the times. Kentucky treated her earliest and staunchest defenders scarcely so well as they treated their dogs-after running down the game, she denied them the very offal.
The fate of General Simon Kenton was still more hard than that of the other simple hearted fathers of the west. His body was taken for debt upon the cov- enants in deeds to lands, which he had, in effect, given away, and for twelve months he was imprisoned, upon the very spot where he first built his cabin in '75-where he planted the first corn ever planted on the north of the Kentucky river by the hand of any white man-where he ranged the pathless forest in free- dom and safety-where he subsequently erected his foremost station house, and battled the Indians in an hundred encounters, and, nearly alone, endured the hardships of the wilderness, while those who then reaped the fruits of his for- mer sufferings were yet unborn, or dwelt afar in the lap of peace and plenty.
In 1:02, beggared by law-suits and losses, he moved into Ohio, and settled in Urbana. He was no longer young, and the prospect of spending his old age in independence, surrounded by plenty and comfort, which lightened the toils and sufferings of his youth. was now succeeded by cheerless anticipations of poverty and neglect. Thus, after thirty years of the prime of his life, spent faithfully in the cause of Kentucky and the west, all that remained to him was the recollec- tion of his services, and a cabin in the wilderness of Ohio. He himself never repined, and such was his exalted patriotism, that he would not suffer others to upbraid his country in his presence, without expressing a degree of anger alto- gether foreign from his usual mild and amiable manner. It never occurred to his ingenuous mind that his country could treat any body, much less him, with neg- lect, and his devotion and patriotism continued to the last unimpaired.
In 1805. he was elected a brigadier general in the Ohio militia, and in 1810 he joined the Methodist Episcopal church. It is a consoling fact, that nearly all the " old fathers of the west" devoted the evening of their stormy lives to the service of their Maker, and died in the triumphs of the Christian faith. In 1813, the gallant old man joined the Kentucky troops under Governor Shelby. into whose family he was admitted as a privileged member, and was in the battle of the Thames. This was his last battle, and from it the old hero returned to ob- scurity and poverty in his humble cabin in the woods. He remained in Urbana till 1820, when he moved to the head of Mad river, Logan county, Ohio, in sight of Wapatomika, where he had been tied to the stake by the Indians when a prisoner in their hands. Here he was harassed by judgments and executions from Ken- tucky, and to prevent being driven from his cabin by his white brethren, (as for- merly by the savages) to the forest for a shelter, he was compelled to have some land entered in the name of his wife and children. He still had many tracts of mountain land in Kentucky of little value, which. however, were forfeited to the State for taxes. In 1-21, then seventy years of age, he undertook a journey to Frankfort, in tattered garments and on a sorry borse, to endeavor to get the legis- lature, then in session, to release the claim of the State on his mountain lands.
Here, where he had roved in an unbroken wilderness in the early day. now stood a flourishing city. but he walked up and down its streets, an object of curiosity to the boys, a stranger, recognized by no our. A new generation had arisen to people and possess the land which he had defended, and his old friends and com- panions were gone. At length General Thomas Fletcher, from Bath county, saw and knew him, and by his means the old pioneer was clothed in a decent suit, and entertained in a kind and becoming manner. When it became known that
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SIMON KENTON.
Simon Kenton was in the town, numbers speedily assembled to see the celebra- ted warrior and hunter, and testify their regard for him. He was taken to the capitol and placed in the speaker's chair, " and then was introduced the second great adventurer of the west, to a crowded assembly of legislators, judges, offi- cers of the government, and citizens generally." This the simple hearted old man was wont to call " the proudest day " of his life. His lands were at once released, and shortly afterwards, by the exertions of Judge Burnet and General Vance of Congress, a pension of two hundred and forty dollars a year was ob- tained for him, securing his old age from absolute want.
Without any further reward from his government, or particular notice from his fellow-citizens and contemporaries, General Kenton lived in his quiet and obscure home to the age of eighty-one, beloved and respected by all who knew him. In April, 1836, in sight of the place where the Indians, fifty-eight years before. pro- posed to torture him to death, he breathed his last, surrounded by his family and neighbors, and supported by the consolations of the gospel.
The following is a description of the appearance and character of this remark- able man, by one who often shared with him in the dangers of the forest and the fight :
"General Kenton was of fair complexion, six feet one inch in height. He stood and walked very erect ; and, in the prime of life, weighed about one hundred and ninety pounds. He never was inclined to be corpulent, although of sufficient fullness to form a graceful per- son. He had a soft, tremulous voice, very pleasing to the hearer. He had laughing, gray eyes, which appeared to fascinate the beholder, and dark auburn hair. He was a pleasant, good-humored, and obliging companion. When excited, or provoked to anger, (which was seldorn the case), the fiery glance of his eye would almost curdle the blood of those with whom he came in contact. His rage, when roused, was a tornado. In his dealing, he was perfectly honest ; his confidence in man, and his credulity, were such, that the same man might cheat him twenty times; and if he professed friendship, he might cheat him still."
The thing which strikes us most forcibly, in contemplating the lives of the great leading men, who pioneered the march of civilization to the west. is their complete simplicity of character. Some have not hesitated to pronounce this stupidity, but we can not agree with them. The pioneers of the west, in addi- tion to a plentiful lack of education and mental discipline, were certainly chil- dren in their knowledge of the great book of human nature. Still the courage, skill, sagacity, perseverance and endurance exhibited in their lite of privation and danger, prove them to have been men of no ordinary mould, and the same intellectual and physical forces called into action in any other sphere of lite, expressed with the same energy, would have rendered their possessors distin- guished.
We can easily see how unfit for civilized life, were Boone and Kenton, sud- denly transposed from an almost primitive and savage state of society, unsophis- ticated and simple-minded as they were. The great questions of property, regu- lated by law, and liberty, regulated by policy, in their profound mysteries. were to them as sealed books : they had not studied them ; but for more than twenty years, battling with the savages, and enduring bitter privations with constant and necessary activity, they lived in the free wilderness, where action was unfettered by law, and where property was not controlled by form and technicality, but rest- ed on the natural and broader foundation of justice and convenience. They knew how to beat back the invader of their soil, or repel the aggression of the private wrong-door-they knew how to bear down a foe in the open field, or circumvent him by stratagem, or destroy him by ambush. But they knew not how to swindle a neighbor out of his acres, by declaration, demurrer, plea and replication, and all the scientific pomp of chicanery-they knew not how damages could salve a pri- vate injury or personal wrong. 'or how the verdict of a jury could remove the poison from the tongue of the slanderer, of medicine the incurable wounds inflicted by the seducer. Hence, in the broad and glorious light of civilization, they were stupid. Their confidence in men, their simplicity, their stupidity, by whatever name proper to call it, rendered them an easy prey to seinsh and un- principled speculators. Certain it is, that hundreds arose to prey upon the sim- ple Fathers of the West ; and they were driven out in their old age yet Further into the wilderness. Instead of seeing their children possess and people the beauty- ful land won by their fathers, after so long and terrible a conflict, we see them,
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KENTON COUNTY.
like their sires, on the borders of civilization, beating back the savage, them- selves ever driven back by that wave of population which follows on their steps, by a strange decree, the exterminators of the red man, soon thereafter, thein- selves to be exterminated.
It is now perhaps too late, to repair the injustice done to these old heroes by the west ; yet one act remains to Kentucky, demanded alike by gratitude and a just sense of honor. It is to gather up the sacred remains of Simon Kenton, from their last, obscure resting place, and placing them in the cemetery of her capi- tal, in the bosom of that beloved soil which he was among the first and stoutest to defend ; to erect a monument over his grave, commemorating throughout all succeeding years the services and virtues of her Great Pioneer. Will it ever be done ?
BANK LICK is a beautiful stream, emptying into the Licking river, five miles from its confluence with the Ohio, in Kenton county. This stream received its name from the early settlers, and its banks have, doubtless, been trodden by Boone and Kenton. The engraving represents a scene on this stream, about a mile above its junction with the Licking. The picture is by Frankenstein, a young artist of Cincinnati.
VIEW OF BANK LICK, KENTON CO., KY.
395
KNOX COUNTY.
Among the prominent citizens of Kenton county, is the Honorable JASUS T. MOREHEAD, late Senator in the Congress of the United States. He enjoys a .. .. utation for ability and eloquence, which is co-extensive with the limits of the 1 ..- ion, and ranks among the first public men of the State. He was born on the 31th May, 1797, near Shepherdsville, in the county of Bullitt. When he was three er four years old, his father removed to Russellville, Logan county. where he enjoyed the advantages of the village schools. In the spring of 1513, he was sent to Transylvania University, where he continued until 1615. The University way then under the charge of Dr. Blythe, as principal. Rev. Mr. Bishop, professor of moral philosophy, and Mr. Ebenezer Sharpe, professor of languages. On his return to Russellville, Mr. Morehead commenced the study of the law under the Honorable H. P. Brodnax, then one of the circuit court judges; and he contin- ued it in the office of the Honorable J. J. Crittenden, who was then living at Russellville. In the spring of 1818, Mr. Morehead settled at Bowling Green, and commenced the practice of law. In August, 1828, he was elected to the legislature from the county of Warren, and was re-elected in 1829-1430. In the winter of 1831-2, while attending the convention at Baltimore which nomina- ted Mr. Clay for the presidency and John Sergeant for vice president, he was nominated by the state convention that met at Frankfort as candidate for lieu- tenant governor. He was elected to this office in August, 1832. He presided over the senate until the death of Governor Breathitt, in February, 1834. and succeeded that gentleman in the administration of the government. In his first message to the legislature, he recommended an enlarged system of internal im- provements, which the legislature, on the 28th of February, 1835, provided for by " an act for the internal improvement of the State of Kentucky," creauny a board of internal improvement, of which Mr. Morehead was made ex-officio the president. In the fall of 1836, he resumed the practice of the law in Frankfort. In March, 1837, he was commissioned by Governor Clark, as the agent of the State, for the sale of the bonds for internal improvement purposes. In August. 1837, he was elected to the legislature in Franklin county. In the spring of 1-34, he was appointed by Governor Clark, president of the board of internal improve- ments. In the winter of the next year, he was selected by the legislature, in conjunction with Colonel J. Speed Smith, of Madison, as a commissioner to the State of Ohio, to obtain the passage of a law for the protection of the property of the citizens of Kentucky in their slaves. The mission was entirely successful. Mr. Morehead remained in the board of internal improvement until the latter pirt of February, 1811, when he was elected to the senate of the United States for the term of six years. In the senate, as a debater, few men ranked higher than Governor Morehead. An announcement that he was to speak, never failed to fill the lobbies and galleries with spectators. As a speaker, he is remarkably fornt and energetic, with a manner eminently graceful and dignified. His polisen information is extensive. and his opinions as a statesman, sound and conserva- tive. Governor Morehead is now living in Covington, engaged in the practice of his profession.
KNOX COUNTY.
Kvox county was formed in 1799, and named in honor of Gen- eral HENRY Kvox. It is situated in the southeastern part of the State, and lies on both sides of the Cumberland river : Boun ded on the north by Laurel and Clay : northeast by Clay ; southeast by Harlan ; south by Tennessee line; and west by Whitley. The Pine mountain, a spur of the great Cumberland, skirt - this county on the southeast. The face of the country, except on the river bottoms, is hilly and mountainous-the staple products, corn
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KNOX COUNTY.
and oats, though other grains are produced, and horses, cattle, hogs and sheep are raised in considerable numbers.
Valuation of taxable property in 1846, $767,326 ; number of acres of land in the county, 150,308 ; average value of land per acre, $2.74; number of white males over twenty-one years of age, 1,027 ; number of children between five and sixteen years old, 1,688. Population in 1840, 5,722.
BARBOURSVILLE, the county seat and only town, is situated on the right bank of the Cumberland river, about one hundred and fifty miles from Frankfort. It contains three churches, one school, court-house, five stores and groceries, one tavern, three lawyers, two physicians and six mechanical trades-population 225. Es- tablished in 1812.
The State road from Frankfort to the State of Tennessee, crosses at the Cum- berland ford in this county, thence passes out of the State at the Cumberland Gap. The Pine mountain, which is situated on the border of this county, presents to the eye all the grandeur and sublimity of nature in her wildest and most romantic aspect, through which the Cumberland river seems to have forced its way, the cliffs on either side, consisting of almost interminable heaps of lime- stone, rising to the height of thirteen hundred feet. In the vicinity of this cliff, there is a cave of considerable magnitude.
Three miles from Barboursville, on the north bank of the Cumberland, there are the remains of an ancient fortress, around which a circular ditch is discerni- ble, enclosing about four acres of ground.
It was through the Cumberland Gap, in this county, that the distinguished pi- oneer, Daniel Boone, first penetrated Kentucky.
General HENRY KNox, in honor of whom this county received its name, was a native of Massachusetts, having been born at Boston, on the 25th July, 1750. He received a good education, and at an early period of his life was a booksel- ler. At the age of eighteen, he was chosen one of the officers of a company of grenadiers, and evinced a fondness and ability for the military profession. At the battle of Bunker Hill he served as a volunteer ; and soon after undertook the perilous task of procuring from the Canada frontier some pieces of ordnance, greatly needed by the American army, which he successfully accomplished. For this daring feat, he received the most flattering testimonials from the commander- in-chief and congress, and was soon after entrusted with the command of the artillery department, with the rank of a brigadier general. In the battles of Trenton and Princeton, Germantown and Monmouth, he displayed peculiar skill and bravery ; and subsequently contributed greatly to the capture of Cornwallis at Yorktown. Immediately after this event, he was created a major-general. He was subsequently one of the commissioners to adjust the terms of peace-was deputed to receive the surrender of New York from the English forces-and at- terwards appointed commander at West Point, where he executed the delicate and difficult task of disbanding the army, which he executed with extraordinary address. In 17-5, he was appointed secretary at war, the duties of which office he discharged with general approbation until tl > year 1794, when he retired to his estate. in the then district, but now State of Maine. In 1798, when the state of our affairs with France indicated a rupture, he was again appointed to a com- mand in the army ; but the re-establishment of amicable relations with that power, enabled him soon to return to his retirement. He died October 25, 1806. at his seat in Thomaston, Maine, at the age of 56. General Knox was as amiable in private. as he was eminent in pubhe life. But few men in the stirring times in which he lived. possessed in a higher degree those traits of character which dig- nify and ennoble human nature.
397
LARUE COUNTY.
LARUE COUNTY.
LARUE county was formed in 1813. and named for JOHN LARUE. It lies on Salt river, in the middle portion of the State : Boun- ded on the north by Hardin and Nelson ; east by Nelson and Washington ; south by Hart and Greene; and southwest and northwest by Hart and Hardin. The surface is generally undu- lating, a portion rolling or hilly-the celebrated Muldrow's hill skirting the county on the north. The soil is good in the more level portion-the hills producing fine grasses, and well adapted for sheep culture. Principal products, corn, tobacco and hogs. The Rolling fork of Salt river, and Nolin and Otter creeks, arc the principal streams.
Value of taxable property in 1846, $727,344 ; number of acres of land in the county, 123,157 ; average value of land per acre, $3.58; number of white males over twenty-one years of age, 872; number of children between five and sixteen years old, 1,207.
The towns of the county are-Hodgenville, the county seat, and Levelwood. HODGENVILLE is about ninety miles from Frank- fort, and is a pleasant place, of some business-containing a neat court-house with the usual county buildings, and has tive law- yers, two physicians, six stores, with a number of' mechanics' shops.
About one mile above Hodgenville on the south side of Nolin creek, there is a knoll which may be appropriately termed a natural curiosity. It is about thirty feet above the level of the creek. and contains about two acres of ground, thetop of which is level, and a comfortable house has been erected upon it. Benjamin Lynn and others, early pioneers of the county, encamped on this knoll. In a hunting excursion, shortly after they made their encampment, Lynn got lost. The remainder of the company returned to camp, and not finding their companion, some one remarked, " Here is the Nole (knoll) but Vo Lynn, from which circum- stance the creek which runs near the knoll took its name-Nolin. They imme- diately started in search of Lynn, and traveled a south coarse about fifteen miles. and found where he had encamped on a creek. from which circumstance they called the creek Lynn-camp creek. [The creek lies within the present county of Hart. ] Philip Phillips erected a fort about one fourth of a mile from the kind !. on the north side of Volin, abont the year 1780 or '81, where the first settlement of the county was made. Phillips was from Pennsylvania, and a surveyor.
JOHN LARUE, for whom the county was named. emigrated with a considerable company, from Virginia, and settled in Phillips' fort. When they left the fort, Larue bought and settled the land which includes the kno !!. Robert Ho!10. his brother-in-law, bought and settled the land on which Hodgenville bis ha erected. They were both noted for their uprightness and sterling moral wort, - both of them members of the Baptist church, and beloved for their unober. Iva and devoted piety. Benjamin Lynn was a minister of the same church, and also distinguished for his zeal and piety.
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