USA > Kentucky > Fayette County > Lexington > History of Lexington, Kentucky : its early annals and recent progress, including biographical sketches and personal reminiscences of the pioneer settlers, notices of prominent citizens, etc., etc. > Part 8
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The Indians gradually extended their line to turn the right of the Kentuckians and cut off their retreat. This was quickly perceived by the weight of the fire from that quarter, and the rear instantly fell back in disorder, and attempted to rush through their only opening to the river. The motion quickly communicated itself to the van, and a hurried retreat became general. The Indians instantly sprung forward in pursuit, and falling upon them with their tomahawks, made a cruel slaughter. From the battle- ground to the river, the spectacle was terrible. The horse- men generally escaped, but the foot, particularly the van, which had advanced farthest within the wings of the net, were almost totally destroyed. Colonel Boone, after wit- nessing the death of his son and many of his dearest friends, found himself almost entirely surrounded at the very com- mencement of the retreat.
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HISTORY OF LEXINGTON.
[1782
Several hundred Indians were between him and the ford, to which the great mass of fugitives were bending their , flight, and to which the attention of the savages was prin- cipally directed. Being intimately acquainted with the ground, he, together with a few friends, dashed into the ravine which the Indians had occupied, but which most of them had now left to join in the pursuit. After sustain- ing one or two heavy fires, and baffling one or two small parties, who pursued him for a short distance, he crossed the river below the ford, by swimming, and entering the wood at a point where there was no pursuit, returned by a circuitous route to Bryant's station. In the mean time, the great mass of the victors and vanquished crowded the bank of the ford.
The slaughter was great in the river. The ford was crowded with horsemen and foot and Indians, all mingled together. Some were compelled to seek a passage above by swimming; some, who could not swim, were overtaken and killed at the edge of the water. One of the Lexington militia, by the name of Benjamin Netherland, who had formerly been strongly suspected of cowardice, here dis- played a coolness and presence of mind equally noble and unexpected. Being finely mounted, he had outstripped the great mass of fugitives, and crossed the river in safety. A dozen or twenty horsemen accompanied him, and having placed the river between them and the enemy, showed a disposition to continue their flight without regard to the safety of their friends who were on foot and still strug- gling with the current. Netherland instantly checked his horse, and in a loud voice, called his companions to halt, fire upon the Indians, and save those still in the stream. The party instantly obeyed, and, facing about, poured a close and fatal discharge of rifles upon the foremost of the pursuers. The enemy instantly fell back from the opposite bank, and gave time to the harassed and miserable footmen to cross in safety .* The check was, however, but momentary, The Indians were seen crossing in great numbers above and
* Bradford's Notes.
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AARON REYNOLDS.
1782.]
below, and the flight again became general. Most of the footmen left the great buffalo track, and plunging into the thickets, escaped by a circuitous route to Bryant's station.
But little loss was sustained after crossing the river, although the pursuit was urged keenly for twenty miles. From the battle-ground to the ford the loss was very heavy, and at that stage of the retreat, there occurred a rare and striking instance of magnanimity, which it would be crimi- nal to omit .* Aaron Reynolds, already famous for his reply to Girty at Bryant's station, after bearing his share in the action with distinguished gallantry, was galloping with several other horsemen in order to reach the ford. The great body of fugitives had preceded them, and their situation was in the highest degree critical and dangerous. About half way between the battle-ground and the river, the party overtook Colonel Patterson, of Lexington, on foot, exhausted by the rapidity of the flight, and in consequence of former wounds received from the Indians, so infirm as to be unable to keep up with the main body of the men on foot. The Indians were close behind him, and his fate seemed inevitable. Reynolds, upon coming up with this brave officer, instantly sprung from his horse, aided Patter- son to mount into the saddle, and continued his own flight on foot. Being remarkably active and vigorous, he con- trived to elude his pursuers, and turning off from the main road, plunged into the river near the spot where Boone had crossed, and swam in safety to the opposite side. Un- fortunately, he wore a pair of buckskin breeches, which had become so heavy and full of water as to prevent his exerting himself with his usual activity, and while sitting down for the purpose of pulling them off, he was overtaken by a party of Indians, and made prisoner.
A prisoner is rarely put to death by the Indians, unless wounded or infirm, until they return to their own country ; and then his fate is decided in solemn council. Young Reynolds, therefore, was treated kindly, and compelled to accompany his captors in the pursuit. A small party of
*Bradford.
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Kentuckians soon attracted their attention, and he was left in charge of three Indians, who, eager in pursuit, in turn committed him to the charge of one of their number, while they followed their companions. Reynolds and his guard jogged along very leisurely; the former totally un- armed; the latter, with a tomahawk and rifle in his hands. At length the Indian stopped to tie his moccasin, when Reynolds instantly sprung upon him, knocked him down with his fist, and quickly disappeared in the thicket which surrounded them. For this act of generosity, Captain Pat- terson afterward made him a present of two hundred acres of first rate land.
Late in the evening of the same day, most of the survivors arrived at Bryant's station; but many familiar forms were missing. Colonel John Todd, of Lexington, had fallen fight- ing to the last, with the blood flowing from many a wound. Colonel Stephen Trigg, Majors Silas Harlan, Edward Bulger, Captains John Gordon and William McBride, together with Isaac Boone, son of Colonel Daniel Boone, had all fallen .* Sixty men had been killed in the battle and flight, and seven had been taken prisoners,; part of whom were after- wards put to death by the Indians, as was said, to make their loss even. This account, however, appears very im- probable. It is almost incredible that the Indians should have suffered an equal loss. Their superiority of numbers, their advantage of position (being in a great measure shel- tered, while the Kentuckians, particularly the horsemen, were much exposed), the extreme brevity of the battle, and the acknowledged bloodiness of the pursuit, all tend to con- tradict the report that the Indian loss exceeded that of the Kentuckians.
At Lexington, Boone tells us, "many widows were made," and the whole station was given up to the most frantic grief. It was the same at Bryant's station, and soon the melancholy news spread throughout the country and the whole district of Kentucky was covered with mourning for many a long and dreary day. Colonel Logan, after being
*Bradford.
+Bradford.
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THE BATTLE OF BLUE LICKS.
1782.]
joined by many of the friends of the killed and missing from Lexington and Bryant's station, continued his march to the battle-ground, with the hope that success would em- bolden the enemy, and induce them to remain until his arrival.
On the second day after the battle, in solemn silence the whole party reached the field. The enemy were gone, but the bodies of the Kentuckians still lay unburied on the spot where they had fallen. Immense flocks of buzzards were soaring over the battle ground, and the bodies of the dead had become so much swollen and disfigured, that it was im- possible to recognize the features of the most particular friends. Many corpses were floating near the shore of the northern bank, already putrid from the action of the sun, and partially eaten by fishes .* The whole were carefully collected by order of Colonel Logan, and interred as de- cently as the nature of the soil would permit. Being sat- isfied that the Indians were by this time, far beyond his reach, he then retraced his steps to Bryant's station, and dismissed his men.
The fatal battle of the Blue Licks like the massacre of Wyoming and Braddock's defeat, which it so much resembled, brought misery and slaughter when least ex- pected, and like them, will be read of with increasing in- terest as time advances. The last great blow struck by the Indian for the recovery of his favorite hunting grounds, will become adorned by age, with a golden halo of roman- tic attractions not less bright than that which now encir- cles the last struggle of the chivalric old Moors for the possession of Spain.
The women of Lexington-women like the one who came to the rescue of the dying hunter at the gate of the fort-were not idle during this time of siege, and battle, and retreat. With tearful hearts, but brave words, they hastened on their husbands and brothers to the aid of Bry- ant's station, and with but feeble help, guarded the fort until relieved by the footmen who escaped from the savages
*Bradford's Notes.
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HISTORY OF LEXINGTON.
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who surrounded that apparently doomed place .* They tenderly dressed the wounds of the brave fugitives with many a thought of Ruddell's and Martin's station, shud- dering at the sound of the distant war whoop, and praying for the defeat of the savage army. The seige was raised. Elated with success, the settlers, young and old, abandoned Lexington to join the force now wild to pursue the In- dians ; and again the fort was left to be garrisoned this time, almost entirely, by the brave women who were fit companions of the men who charged through twenty times their number, to aid the little band in Bryant's station. Who can picture the hours of watchfulness and solicitude, the alarms, the terror, and the heroic conduct of these true, de- voted, and undaunted mothers of Lexington, while dis- charging their sublime duty. The pioneer women of Lex- ington, may we not class them with the patriotic women of the Revolution ? Were the women of old colonial Lex- ington stouter-hearted than those of the Lexington of the savage wilderness ?
"The mothers of our forest land, Their bosoms pillowed men; And proud were they by such to stand In hammock, fort or glen, -
To load the sure old rifle, To run the leaden ball, To watch a battling husband's place, And fill it, should he fall." t
One of the most thrilling and remarkable incidents in the entire history of border life and warfare, occurred at this time .¿ A settler named James Morgan, with more daring than prudence, lived with his wife and one infant child in a cabin outside the fort at Bryant's station. When he discovered the presence of the Indians by their firing on the fort, he raised one of the slabs of the cabin floor, con- cealed his wife under it, strung his baby to his back, and unbarred the door to escape. As he bounded out he was attacked by several Indians. He killed two of them and
*Bradford. tW. D. Gallagher.
#Western Monthly, 1833.
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ADVENTURE OF JAMES MORGAN.
1782.]
outstripped the rest, but an Indian dog pursued him with all the ferocity of a wild cat; he finally succeeded in kill- ing him : and then looking back for the first time, saw his cabin and part of the station in flames. In agony at the impending fate of his tenderly beloved wife, but utterly. unable to assist her, he watched his burning dwelling until he was on the point of being captured, when he again re- treated, and finally arrived at Lexington.
When the Indians raised the seige he left his baby in the care of one of the sympathizing women in Lexington station, and hastened with a throbbing heart to the spot where his cabin had so lately stood. He found a heap of ashes, some smoldering embers, and a few poor charred bones which he reverently gathered and buried, almost in- sane with grief and the desire for revenge. He went to the Blue Licks, and while rushing into the midst of the conflict, he saw an Indian wearing a handkerchief which he recognized as his wife's. He raised his rifle and killed him with savage joy. During the retreat he was wounded, and after dragging himself some distance from the scene of conflict, he had laid himself down to die, when he was discovered and rescued by the wife he had mourned as dead. It turned out that the Indians who rushed into his cabin after his escape, quarreled over the little spoil in it, got to fighting, and one of them was killed. In her fright, Mrs. Morgan screamed, was discovered, and was carried a captive along with the retreating savages, but managed to escape, and at once set out to find her husband and child. The bones found and buried by Morgan, were those of the Indian who was killed by his comrades.
Clark and retribution followed the Indians after the battle of the Blue Licks, as Sullivan and extermination fol- lowed them after the massacre of Wyoming. The call of the Lion of Kentucky for troops was promptly answered by a thousand mounted riflemen, a number of whom were from Lexington, and in September, after a rapid march under their brilliant leader, they penetrated the heart of
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HISTORY OF LEXINGTON.
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the Indian country .* Five of the Chillicothe towns, where the savages had gathered before starting to Bryant's station, were reduced to ashes, their crops were destroyed, the country for miles around made desolate, and such of the swiftly-fleeing Indians as were overtaken met with no quarter at the hands of the enraged avengers of the pioneers who were slaughtered at the Blue Licks. The Indians were disheartened. They had dealt their heaviest blow, and it had rebounded against themselves. They now dis- paired of ever recovering Kentucky, and no great body of them ever after invaded the state. But though they came not with an army, the rifle, tomahawk, and scalping knife of the plundering and murdering Indian was not yet en- tirely banished from the now truly Dark and Bloody Ground.
Lexington station gained another school-teacher this year, in the person of John Filson, the author, in 1784, of the first history ever written of Kentucky. He afterward gave to Cincinnati her first name, "Losantiville." Filson was an early adventurer with Daniel Boone, and after the discoverer of Kentucky returned to Lexington, in October, from the Chillicothe towns, Filson wrote, at his dictation, the only narrative of his life extant from the old pioneer's own lips. This narrative was indorsed at the time by James Harrod, Levi Todd, and Boone himself. Filson taught in Lexington for several years, and did no little to secure the early organization of Transylvania Seminary .; He was killed by the Indians near Cincinnati, in 1789.
In the November after the Blue Lick's massacre, Colonel Thomas Marshall, surveyor of Fayette county, opened an office in Lexington, and a calamitous scramble for land re- commenced .¿ Colonel Marshall was a Virginian, had dis- tinguished himself in the war of the Revolution, and soon became one of the leading citizens of Kentucky.
*Butler and Marshall. TOld Gazette. įButler.
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HOSTILITIES CEASED.
1783.]
CHAPTER X.
Peace-McKinney and the Wild Cat-The Old Fort-Lot Owners and Early Settlers-Christopher Greenup, Humph- rey Marshall, John Sharp, Robert Todd, John Carty, Sen., Benjamin Howard, William Dudley, William Russell.
ON the 20th of January, 1783, nostilities ceased between the armies of the United States and England, and the news was received with great joy by the settlers in Fayette county. This much desired event did not necessarily bring with it security from the Indians, but the pioneers hoped it would. At any rate Clark had demoralized the savages, so that this year was one of comparative peace. The Lexing- ton settlers were now, for the first time, encouraged to build cabins outside the walls of the fort, and the land which they had bought with the heavy price of blood and suffering they commenced to occupy and improve. Some attention could now be paid to gardening; vegetables and other comforts of civilized life began to appear. The live stock, unmolested by the Indians, fattened and multiplied, and the settlers, free from the prison-like restraints of the fort, felt a new pleasure in life.
A log school-house, located on Cheapside, was one of the first buildings erected outside of the fort walls, and here, early one morning in June,* Mr. John McKinney, the teacher, became the hero of a now celebrated combat. He was sitting at his rude desk waiting for the appearance of his little band of pupils, when a wild cat of uncommon size made its appearance at the door, and, without seeming to notice him, suddenly leaped into the room, snapping its jaws and foaming at the mouth. On observing it, his first
*Western Review ..
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HISTORY OF LEXINGTON.
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thought was, what fine sport it might afford him, if he had a good dog and the door was closed.
But, to his great surprise, on casting its eyes around and seeing him, instead of precipitately retreating as he had expected, it advanced toward him in a menacing manner. He instantly reached forward to a table near him, and at- tempted to grasp a ruler, but before he had obtained it, the animal was upon him, and seized him by the teeth on the collar bone near his throat. With some difficulty, by striking at it upward under his jacket, he relieved himself from this grasp, but the enraged animal instantly caught him by the right side, and, with its long crooked tusks, pierced through his clothes, and penetrated between his ribs, where it held him so fast that he found it impossi- ble to extricate himself. At the same time its sharp claws were employed with astonishing rapidity in cutting off his clothes, and tearing the flesh from his side. From its sit- uation he was unable to strike it with any considerable force, but, in the effort, only wounded his own hand against the table. Finding he could do nothing in that way, he seized the animal with both arms, brought its hinder part between his thighs, and pressed it with all his force against the table. It struggled violently, and fearing it might es- cape from his grasp and again attack him with its claws, he now for the first time made an exclamation, in the hope that some one might come to his relief. The ladies, who were engaged near the place milking their cows, were most of them alarmed at the cry, and ran precipitately into the fort, exclaiming that something was killing Mr. Mckinney in the school-house. Three of them, however, Mrs. Mas- terson, Mrs. Collins, and Miss Thompson, being less timid than the rest, ran toward the house, and after some delib- eration among themselves as to who should venture to look in first, entered the door. Mr. Mckinney, perceiving that they were females, and knowing Mrs. Masterson to be in a delicate state of health, was fearful of alarming them, and, notwithstanding his own dreadful situation, assumed an air of composure, and, with a smile, observed : "Don't be alarmed, it is only a cat I have caught, and I want some
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MCKINNEY AND THE WILD CAT.
1783.]
person to assist me in killing it." He was thus careful not to inform them, as he might have done with far greater correctness, that THE CAT HAD CAUGHT HIM. The ladies then boldly advanced toward him, and one of them, stooping down and observing the size of the animal, exclaimed, " what a monster !" ran to the door and called a gentleman who happened to be passing by. He came in, and proposed cutting off the claws of the cat, but Mr. Mckinney, per- ceiving it to lie perfectly still, concluded he had killed it, which, on rising, he found to be the fact. They then en- deavored to draw out the animal's teeth from Mr. McKin- ney's side, but finding them so hooked in between the ribs that they could not extricate them, the whole party left the school-house, and advanced toward the fort, to which, by this time, the alarmed and excited people were rushing in crowds, under the impression that the Indians were about to attack the place. After reaching the fort, new efforts were made to relieve Mr. Mckinney from the tusks of the cat, which were at length rendered successful by placing its head in the same position as when it made the attack.
Notwithstanding his wounds, Mr. Mckinney attended his school that morning, but at noon found himself so ex- hausted, and his pain so extreme, that he was compelled to dismiss his scholars and resort to his bed. By proper ap- plications, however, he was soon relieved; his wounds healed rapidly and his usual health was speedily restored. Mckinney afterward settled in Bourbon county, and lived to a green old age, and the account here given is an almost verbatim statement made by him in 1820.
The alarm occasioned by the wild cat's attack upon Mc- Kinney was the last one that ever brought the garrison together in arms within the fort. The block-house re- mained standing for several years after this, however, as the settlers never knew at what time they might need the protection of its friendly walls. At last, the only vestige of the " Old Lexington Fort" went down before the power of advancing civilization, but the memory of the trials and sufferings endured within it, recollections of Boone, Ken- ton, Harrod, G. Rogers Clark, Patterson, Todd, and many
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others it had sheltered, and remembrances of the days of grief and anguish that hung like a pall over all its inmates after the bloody ambuscade at the Blue Licks, consecrated it till death in the hearts of the pioneers of Lexington.
In this year (1783), the trustees reserved three lots " where the garrison stands," for public use, and other lots were disposed of to the following persons,* viz : Humphrey Marshall, Benjamin Netherland, Caleb Williams, Robert Todd, John Carty, Martin Dickinson, Samuel January, Christopher Greenup, Wm. Anderson, John Sharp, Thomas Marshall, Patrick Owens, Robert Parker, Valentine Dick- inson, Widow McDonald, Christopher Kirtner, George Shepherd, John Mikins, Archibald Dickinson, Andrew Steele, John McDowell, William Steele, Stoffre Zunwalt, James Mitchell, Benjamin Haydon, Jane Todd, David Blanchard, Widow Kirtner, Amor Batterton, John Brooke, Matthew Patterson, William Galloway, Adam Zunwalt, Jacob Zunwalt.
The names of many of these lot owners are linked with the history of the state. Christopher Greenup, who had been a soldier in the war of the Revolution, settled in Ken- tucky, together with many of his comrades in arms, at the close of that struggle. When he located in Lexington, he had just been sworn in as an attorney at law in the old dis- trict court. He was elected governor of Kentucky in 1804, and died in 1818.1
Humphrey Marshall, eminent in his day as a land lawyer, represented Fayette in the Danville convention of 1787, and in the Virginia convention which ratified the constitution of the United States. His duel with Mr. Clay is well known. He subsequently removed to Franklin county, and was long one of its most distinguished citizens. After having served as United States Senator, he published a well-known and greatly esteemed, though rather partisan history of Ken- tucky. He died at the residence of his son, Thomas A. Marshall, in Lexington.}
Major Ben. Netherland, named in the above list of lot-
*Trustees' Book.
tCollins, 332. #Collins, 317.
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LOT OWNERS AND EARLY SETTLERS.
1783.]
owners, who had made himself noted by his gallant con- duct at the Blue Licks battle, was born in Powhatan county, Virginia, on the 27th day of February, 1755. During the war of the Revolution he volunteered his services as a private soldier in the army of the South, under General Lincoln, and was taken a prisoner of war at the siege of Savannah, where he was kept in close confinement for ten months. At the end of this time he made his escape, but was retaken again as a prisoner of war, and confined at San Augustine, a British post in Florida. Whilst the American army was in full retreat from Savannah, he again attempted to make his escape, and was successful. He joined the army at Beaufort, in South Carolina. After he had served twelve months as a private soldier, he was promoted to a lieutenancy. He came to Kentucky in 1781, settled at Lex- ington station, and became a prominent actor in all the In- dian wars that for so long a time deluged Kentucky in blood. He finally removed to Jessamine county, where he died, in October, 1838, and was buried with the honors of war .*
John Sharp, whose son was afterward jailer of Fayette county, was one of the Lexington militia ambuscaded at Bryant's station. He was pursued by several Indians, but managed to keep them at bay with his rifle, until he es- caped in a cane thicket.
Robert Todd was senator from Fayette in the first ses- sion of the legislature; was for a long time circuit judge, and held other important positions.
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