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I settled my family in Boonsborough once more; and shortly after, on the 6th day of October, 1780, I went in company with my brother to the Blue Licks; and, on our return home, we were fired upon by a party of Indians. They shot him, and pursued me, by the scent of their dog. three miles; but I killed the dog. and escaped. The winter
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soon came on, and was very severe, which confined the Indians to their wigwams.
The severity of this winter caused great difficulties in Kentucky. The enemy had destroyed most of the corn the summer before. This necessary article was scarce and dear; and the inhabitants lived chiefly on the flesh of buffalo. The circumstances of many were very lamen- table: however, being a hardy race of people, and accustomed to diffi- culties and necessities, they were wonderfully supported through all their sufferings, until the ensuing autumn, when we received abundance from the fertile soil.
Towards spring, we were frequently harassed by Indians; and, in May, 1782, a party assaulted Ashton's Station, killed one man, and
O. DANIEL BOONE
DANIEL BOONE HOWMEET FRANK+ALT.
OLD FORT AT HOONE SBOROUGH 17
DANIEL BOONE-OLD FORT-MONUMENT
took a negro prisoner. Captain Ashton, with twenty-five men, pursued, and overtook the savages, a smart fight ensued, which lasted two hours; but they being superior in number, obliged Captain Ashton's party to retreat, with the loss of eight killed, and four mortally wounded; their brave commander himself being numbered among the dead.
The Indians continued their hostilities; and, about the 10th of Au gust following, two boys were taken from Major Hoy's Station. This party was pursued by Captain Holder and seventeen men, who were also defeated, with the loss of four men killed and one wounded. Our affairs became more and more alarming. Several stations which had lately been erected in the country were continually infested with savages. stealing their horses and killing the men at every opportunity. In a field near Lexington, an Indian shot a man, and running to scalp him, was himself shot from the fort, and fell dead upon his enemy.
Every day we experienced recent mischiefs. The barbarous savage nations of Shawanese, Cherokees, Wyandots, Tawas, Delawares, and several others near Detroit, united in a war against us and assembled their choicest warriors at Old Chelicothe to go on the expedition, in order to destroy us, and entirely depopulate the country. Their savage minds were inflamed to mischief by two abandoned men, Captains McKee
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and Girty. These led them to execute every diabolical scheme; and on the 15th day of August, commanded a party of Indians and Canadians, of about 500 in number, against Briant's Station, five miles from Lex- ington. Without demanding a surrender, they furiously assaulted the garrison, which was happily prepared to oppose them; and after they had expended much ammunition in vain, and killed the cattle around the fort, not being likely to make themselves masters of this place, they raised the siege, and departed in the morning of the third day after they came, with the loss of about thirty killed, and the number of wounded uncertain. Of the garrison four were killed and three wounded.
On the eighteenth day Colonel Todd, Colonel Trigg, Major Harland, and myself, speedily collected 176 men, well armed, and pursued the savages. They had marched beyond the Blue Licks to a remarkable bend of the main fork of Licking River about forty-three miles from Lexington, where we overtook them on the nineteenth day. The savages observing us, gave way: and we, being ignorant of their numbers. passed the river. When the enemy saw our proceedings having greatly the advantage of us in situation, they formed the line of battle, from one bend of Licking to the other, about a mile from the Blue Licks. An exceeding fierce battle immediately began, for about fifteen minutes, when we, being overpowered by number, were obliged to retreat, with the loss of sixty-seven men, seven of whom were taken prisoners. The brave and much-lamented Colonels Todd and Trigg, Major Harland, and my second son, were among the dead. We were informed that the Indians, numbering their dead, found they had four killed more than we; and therefore, four of the prisoners they had taken were. by general consent, ordered to be killed, in a most barbarous manner, by the young warriors, in order to train them up to cruelty; and then they proceeded to their towns.
On our retreat we were met by Colonel Logan, hastening to join us, with a number of well-armed men. This powerful assistance we unfortunately wanted in the battle; for notwithstanding the enemy's superiority of numbers, they acknowledged that, if they had received one more fire from us, they should undoubtedly have given way. So valiantly did our small party fight, that, to the memory of those who unfortunately fell in the battle, enough of honor cannot be paid. Had Colonel Logan and his party been with us, it is highly probable we should have given the savages a total defeat.
I cannot reflect upon this dreadful scene, but sorrow fills my heart. A zeal for the defense of their country led these heroes to the scene of action, though with a few men to attack a powerful army of experienced warriors. When we gave way they pursued us with the utmost eager- ness, and in every quarter spread destruction. The river was difficult to cross, and many were killed in the flight, some just entering the river, some in the water, others after crossing, in ascending the cliffs. Some escaped on horseback, a few on foot; and, being dispersed every- where in a few hours, brought the melancholy news of this unfortunate battle to Lexington. Many widows were now made. The reader may guess what sorrow filled the hearts of the inhabitants, exceeding any thing that I am able to describe. Being reinforced, we returned to bury the dead, and found their bodies strewed everywhere, cut and mangled in a dreadful manner. This mournful scene exhibited a horror almost unparalleled : some torn and eaten by wild beasts; those in the river eaten by fishes; all in such a putrified condition, that no one could be distinguished from another.
As soon as General Clark, then at the Falls of the Ohio, who was ever our ready friend, and merits the love and gratitude of all his countrymen, understood the circumstances of this unfortunate action,
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he ordered an expedition, with all possible haste, to pursue the savages, which was so expeditiously effected, that we overtook them within two miles of their towns, and probably might have obtained a great victory, had not two of their number met us about 200 poles before we came up. These returned quick as lightning to their camp with the alarming news of a mighty army in view. The savages fled in the utmost dis- order. evacuated their towns, and reluctantly left their territory to our mercy. We immediately took possession of Old Chelicothe. without opposition, being deserted by its inhabitants. We continued our pursuit through five towns on the Miami River, Old Chelicothe, Pecaway, New Chelicothe, Will's Towns, and Chelicothe, burnt them all to ashes, en- tirely destroyed their corn, and other fruits, and everywhere spread a scene of desolation in the country. In this expedition we took seven prisoners and five scalps, with the loss of only four men, two of whom were accidentally killed by our own army.
This campaign in some measure damped the spirits of the Indians. and made them sensible of our superiority. Their connections were dissolved, their armies scattered, and a future invasion put entirely out of their power; yet they continued to practice mischief secretly upon the inhabitants in the exposed parts of the country.
In October following, a party made an excursion into that district called the Crab Orchard, and one of them, being advanced some dis- tance before the others, boldly entered the house of a poor defenseless family, in which was only a negro man, a woman and her children, terrified with the apprehensions of immediate death. The savage, per- ceiving their defenseless situation, without offering violence to the family, attempted to captivate the negro, who happily proved an over-match for him, threw him on the ground, and, in the struggle, the mother of the children drew an axe from a corner of the cottage, and cut his head off, while her little daughter shut the door. The savages instantly appeared, and applied their tomahawks to the door. An old rusty gun-barrel, without a lock, lay in a corner, which the mother put through a small crevice, and the savages perceiving it, fled. In the meantime the alarm spread through the neighborhood; the armed men collected immediately, and pursued the ravagers into the wilderness. Thus Provi- dence, by the means of this negro, saved the whole of the poor family from destruction. From that time, until the happy return of peace be- tween the United States and Great Britain, the Indians did uis no mischief. Finding the great king beyond the water disappointed in his expectations, and conscious of the importance of the long knife, and their own wretchedness, some of the nations immediately desired peace ; to which, at present, they seem universally disposed, and our sending ambassadors to General Clark, at the Falls of the Ohio, with the minutes of their councils ; a specimen of which, in the minutes of the Piankashaw council, is subjoined.
To conclude, I can now say that I have verified the saying of an old Indian who signed Colonel Henderson's deed. Taking me by the hand, at the delivery thereof, "Brother," says he, "we have given you a fine land, but I believe you will have much trouble in settling it." My footsteps have often been marked with blood, and therefore I can truly subscribe to its original name. Two daring sons, and a brother, have I lost by savage hands, which have also taken from me forty valuable horses, and abundance of cattle. Many dark and sleepless nights have I been a companion for owls, separated from the cheerful society of men, scorched by the summer's sun, and pinched by the winter's cold. an instrument ordained to settle the wilderness. But now the scene is changed ; peace crowns the sylvan shade.
What thanks, what ardent and ceaseless thanks, are due to that
Vol. 11-31
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all-superintending Providence which has turned a cruel war into peace, brought order out of confusion, made the firerce savages placid, and turned away their hostile weapons from our country! May the same almighty goodness banish the accursed monster, war, from all lands, with her hated associates, rapine and insatiable ambition! Let peace, descending from her native heaven, bid her olvies spring amidst the joyful nations; and plenty in league with commerce, scatter blessings from her copious hand !
This account of my adventures will inform the reader of the most remarkable events of this country. I now live in peace and safety, en- joying the sweets of liberty, and the bounties of Providence, with my once fellow-sufferers, in this delightful country, which I have seen purchased with a vast expense of blood and treasure, delighting in the prospect of its being, in a short time, one of the most opulent and powerful states on the continent of North America; which, with the love and gratitude of my countrymen, I esteem a sufficient reward for all my toil and dangers. DANIEL BOONE.
Fayette County, Kentucky.
CHAPTER LXX
TRANSYLVANIA UNIVERSITY
Axe prints were still fresh along the trail of the Wilderness Road when the pioneers of Kentucky engaged in savage warfare in the midst of all the perils and problems of the frontier, even before a newspaper was published in the Ohio Valley, laid foundations for the first institu- tion of higher learning west of the Alleghanies.
The orthography of the immortal backwoodsman, Daniel Boone, who carved upon the trunk of a sturdy beech the laconic statement that he had "cilled a bar" indicated an education much inferior to many of the hardy settlers who, at an early date, crossed the mountains into the Western Country.
In the spring of 1775, and while "Kantuckee" was still a part of Fin- castle County, Virginia, Col. Richard Henderson, a man of considerable learning himself, gathered about him at Boonesborough, a company of men, many of whom had received the best education which the older Commonwealths afforded, and among these Col. John Todd, son of the Rev. John Todd, a Presbyterian clergyman of Louisa County, Virginia, was an outstanding figure.
In the spring of 1780, Colonel Todd was sent as a delegate from the County of Kentucky to the General Assembly of Virginia. It was largely through his efforts and the assistance and influence of his father that the Virginia Assembly in May, 1780, passed a law to vest 8,000 acres of escheated lands, formerly the property of British subjects in the County of Kentucky, in Col. John Todd and twelve other trustees for a public school, "In order," says the preamble of the bill, "to promote the diffusion of knowledge even amongst the most remote citizens whose situation a barbarous neighborhood and a savage intercourse might other- wise render unfriendly to science." Thus the first charter of Transyl- vania University was enacted into law. No name was given the proposed school and it was probably not contemplated that an institution should be immediately established, for at this time there was not a school house of any kind in Kentucky.
During the next three years the undertaking, well begun by Colonel Todd, remained but a scheme on paper. The settlers were wholly ab- sorbed in defending themselves against the dangers of the "barbarous neighborhood," and in that defense the institution which in the years to come furnished its sons in every national crisis, now scarcely born and yet unnamed, gave the lives of three of its trustees. Colonel Todd and Col. Stephen Trigg were killed at the ill-fated Blue Licks, August 19, 1782, and Col. John Floyd was shot from ambush near Floyd's Sta- tion in April, 1783.
In 1783, Kentucky having become a district of three counties, Jef- ferson, Lincoln and Fayette, the General Assembly of Virginia passed another act by which the number of trustees was increased to twenty- five and the name, Transylvania Seminary, given to the proposed school. "Transylvania" is a classical synonym for backwoods or frontier, and was probably suggested by Colonel Henderson's Colony of Transylvania, which he attempted to set up in the new country, Colonel Todd having
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been a member of the temporary legislature which Henderson convened at Boonesborough in 1775-
The Hon. Caleb Wallace, representative in the Assembly of Virginia for the County of Lincoln, and later one of the judges of the Supreme Court of the State of Kentucky, was active in behalf of the school at this session, and in the selection of the trustees under the new act. On this Board of Trustees may be found the names of men who were des- tined to play a prominent part in the development of the new Common- wealth, Benjamin Logan, Levi Todd, John Cowan, Thomas Marshall. Samuel McDowell, George Rogers Clark, Isaac Shelby, David Rice, Caleb Wallace, Christopher Greenup, and John Crittenden being among the number.
The act also conveyed to the seminary 12,000 acres of land in addi- tion to the 8,000 acres contained in the original grant and the whole of this endowment was exempt from taxation. On the 10th day of Novem- ber, 1783, the trustees held the first meeting at John Crowe's Station, a
TRANSYLVANIA COLLEGE, LEXINGTON
few miles from Danville, in what was then Lincoln County, with "Father" Rice, the first Presbyterian minister to cross the mountains in the chair.
The times were still troublesome, the trustees widely separated and nothing except organization was accomplished until at a meeting at Dan- ville, November 4. 1784, resolutions were adopted which provided "That one or more Grammar Schools be erected, as funds would permit" and "that the first be erected in Lincoln County, near the Rev. Rice's dwel- ling" and on the Ist day of February, 1785, at the residence of "Father" Rice, a log cabin of two rooms with a covered passageway between and a stick chimney, the first session of Transylvania Seminary began with the Rev. James Mitchell as Master "for one year at a salary of thirty pounds sterling."
But there were very precarious years ahead for the infant institution that aspired to be the beacon light of the new civilization. The grant of 20,000 acres from the Assembly yielded but a scanty revenue. Real- izing this, the Assembly passed an act granting to the seminary one-sixth of all the surveyors' fees in the District of Kentucky and, as a further means of increasing slender resources, the Transylvania Seminary Lot-
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tery was organized, a now antiquated gambling project, popular in that time as a means of raising public funds.
The year 1788 found the seminary without permanent location, and on October 13th of that year a committee was appointed "To rent con- venient houses in or near the Town of Lexington for the purposes of the seminary, until houses can be built on the lands of the same." Under this direction Isaac Wilson, who for some time had been master of the Lexington Grammar School, opened the seminary on June 1, 1789, "at the public school house adjacent to the Presbyterian Meeting House, near Lexington." In September, 1791, Mr. Wilson was succeeded by Rev. James Moore, a Presbyterian clergyman, who conducted the school for a while in his own house.
It had now been eight years since the first session at David Rice's cabin, and the institution was still without a fixed place of abode. The unsettled condition of the seminary must have excited the concern of those citizens of Lexington interested in higher education and the devel- opment of the town, for on March 27, 1792, John Bradford. editor of the Kentucky Gazette, and other prominent men of Lexington, formed the Transylvania Land Company, which purchased a lot of about three acres on the present site of Gratz Park and upon which a two-story brick building stood. This property the company offered to the sem- inary, provided the institution should be permanently located in Lexing- ton. The trustees accepted this donation on April 8, 1793, and thus the fortunes of the seminary became inseparably linked with the town it was soon to make "the Athens of the West."
The seminary had scarcely become settled in its new home when the smouldering fire of sectarian dispute, through which it was ever after- wards to run the gauntlet, burst into flame for the first time. The Rev. James Moore had for some time been principal of the seminary, and to him much credit was due for his untiring nurture of the school in its feeble infancy, in which he had the earnest support of the Presbyterians.
Therefore, when on February 5, 1794, the Board of Trustees cast a majority vote in favor of Harry Toulmin, a very able Baptist min- ister, for president, the indignation of Reverend Moore's friends ran high. Threats were made to establish a rival school. but the majority of the board, led by John Breckinridge, later United States senator from Ken- tucky and attorney-general in the Cabinet of Thomas Jefferson, and the Rev. Ambrose Dudley, father of the celebrated surgeon, Benjamin W. Dudley, could not be intimidated, and Mr. Toulmin became the first head of the seminary to be designated as president.
The Presbyterians, good as their word, very promptly withdrew, and on October 26, 1795, the Kentucky Academy began its first session at Pisgah, several miles southwest of Lexington, the State Legislature hav- ing granted a charter therefor on December 12. 1794. The Rev. Andrew Steele was the first teacher, although succeeded in a few months by the deposed president of the seminary, Rev. James Moore. This was the first strictly denominational school in the state, and its trustees were those who had hitherto staunchly supported the seminary, among them being David Rice, Judge Caleb Wallace and Rev. James Blythe. A com- mittee sent East to raise funds for the new institution obtained subscrip- tions from many prominent men, George Washington, John Adams, Rob- ert Morris and Aaron Burr being on the list.
This division among the friends of education necessarily had a de- pressing influence on both institutions. The attendance was small and at the seminary President Toulmin and one assistant were the only teachers. The situation was relieved, however, in a short time by the resignation of Mr. Toulmin as president of the seminary, around whom the storm had centered, and his retirement on April. 4, 1796, shortly
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to become secretary of state under Governor Garrard and later Federal judge in Alabama.
On September 23, 1796, Rev. James Moore again became the head of the seminary, and in the following month negotiations for a merger of the two institutions began. After much delay and considerable argu- ment the union was accomplished and a joint petition presented to the Legislature, which granted a charter to Transylvania University on De- cember 22, 1798, to become effective at the beginning of the new year.
It was, therefore, on the first day of January, 1799, during a sectarian calm, that out of the travail of denominational jealousy and contention, Transylvania University was born. The university, by the merger, came into existence with a substantial endowment. The Kentucky Academy had about $8,000 in cash, besides subscriptions, books, apparatus, while the value of the combined land endowment was estimated as high as $179,000. It possessed, for that time, modern and adequate chemical and philosophical equipment and the library numbered 1,300 volumes. Among the Kentuckians of prominence on the Board of Trustees were James Garrard, Samuel McDowell, Robert Marshall, George Nicholas, Caleb Wallace, Levi Todd and John Bradford.
At the first meeting of the board, John Bradford was elected chair- man and the several departments were organized. The Rev. James Moore, who had been head of the seminary, was made president of the university, and with him on the faculty were Rev. James Blythe and Rev. Robert Stuart. The medical department was placed under the direction of Dr. Samuel Brown, first professor of medicine in the West, famous for his introduction of vaccination into America. His associate was Dr. Frederick Ridgely, the early instructor of the celebrated Dr. Ben- jamin W. Dudley. Doctor Brown is said to have vaccinated as many as 500 people in Lexington and vicinity before any other physician in America would undertake the experiment. Having proved successful here, it was then attempted in Philadelphia and New York.
In 1799 the Hon. George Nicholas, one of the ablest lawyers Kentucky ever produced, was appointed professor of law. Mr. Nicholas had taken a prominent part in the Virginia convention that adopted the Federal Constitution, and the phraseology of the First Constitution of Kentucky is generally accredited to his pen.
No doubt the greatest success awaited the law school under the in- struction of Mr. Nicholas, had he lived. His career, however, was cut short by death before the end of the first year, and a flourishing class of nineteen students, among them William T. Barry, was placed tem- porarily in charge of a committee of lawyers selected from the Board of Trustees. On October 18, 1799, the Hon. James Brown succeeded Mr. Nicholas as professor of law.
There is no record of the number of students attending the first session of the university, but in 1800 there were forty-five students in the department of arts and sciences, nineteen in the law department, and six students of medicine-an excellent enrollment considered in the light of the Census of 1798, which gave Lexington a total population, includ- ing slaves, of 1,475, and the total voting population of Fayette County, then including an area since subdivided into a number of counties, only 2,247.
The century had scarcely begun when the peace and prosperous quietude of the institution was again disturbed by religious troubles in the form of charges made by certain students against the Rev. James Welch, a Presbyterian clergyman occupying the chair of languages. The indictment against him was that he held "deistical opinions" in religion and was a "heretic" in politics. The archives reveal a long and tedious trial, lasting two days, at the end of which Mr. Welch was acquitted
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of the charges by the Board of Trustees, who, however, intimated that his days of influence as a professor in the university were over, and he thereupon tendered his resignation, which was accepted. This internal disturbance had its usual depressing effect upon the enrollment, which by the middle of the year 1801 had fallen to thirty students.
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