USA > Kentucky > History of pioneer Kentucky > Part 3
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they applied to them. In their eyes all Indians, male and female, were "varmints." An Indian to them was very much the same as a snake or weasel to ourselves. And the early Kentuckians were not peculiar in this respect; an over- whelming majority of the English race in America held the same opinion. The French and Spanish settlers did not hesitate to intermarry and intermingle with the Indians. But the English race, notwithstanding the celebrated union of Rolfe and Pocahontas, held itself aloof. Where the French proselyted and the Spanish exterminated, the Eng- lish were content to despise. Though the Indian some- times inspired them with pity and often with fear the most constant feeling was one of unmitigated loathing. The killing of an Indian was considered, if not a passport to paradise, at least an act highly commendable in itself. Evi- dently to men possessing such ideals, Indian fighting in Kentucky was a great attraction.
However pleasant might be the speculations in regard to Kentucky, physical entrance into it was by no means easy. There were, indeed, but two practicable routes from the east; one was the Ohio River at the north and the other the Cumberland Gap at the extreme southeast. The Ohio River which skirts the entire northern boundary of Kentucky is formed in western Pennsylvania by the junc- tion of the Alleghany and the Monongahela. Its name is a contraction and a corruption of the word Youghio- gheny. The Allegheny and its tributaries drain the north- western portion of Pennsylvania and even a small section of New York. The Monongahela, flowing from the oppo- site direction, drains the southwestern portion of Penn- sylvania and much of what is now West Virginia. These two rivers unite at Pittsburg, which became at an early date the chief point of departure for those seeking Ken-
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tucky from the north. The distance from Pittsburg to Maysville is almost four hundred miles and it required many weeks to make the trip. Nevertheless, after the first few years this became the chief route into the land.
In the extreme southeast corner of Kentucky lay Cum- berland Gap. Here Kentucky forms a corner with Vir- ginia on the boundary of Tennessee ; here, too, the Cum- berland Mountains have narrowed to a single range be- tween two valleys. In the eastern valley rises the Powell branch of the Tennessee and in the western valley is found the beginning of the Cumberland. For a considerable distance the courses of the two rivers are parallel and separated only by the single ridge of the Cumberland. This ridge is continuous and difficult of crossing save at one place where there is a pass or gap. Passing through this, the Cumberland, the immigrant had but to follow the windings of the Cumberland River until it bursts through the Pine Mountains, when he would find himself well into the interior of Kentucky. This was the route taken by the earlier immigrants who were drawn almost exclusively from the Shenandoah and Yadkin River re- gions.
There was a third route, though but little used; it was to follow the Greenbrier River through the mountains un- til it reached the Ohio. The wild and forbidding country through which this passed practically prohibited its use.
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PREHISTORIC KENTUCKY.
T HERE are many traditions to indicate, and a few shreds of evidence to prove, that in the far past Ken- tucky supported an advanced and extensive civilization. Nor was it a civilization whose greatness or decline has, like the Roman, left its influence largely written on suc- ceeding ages. It has vanished wholly ; the Kentuckians of today owe nothing of good or evil to its existence and have no link to connect them with its remains. Yet as this civilization existed on the same soil as we, it becomes the duty, if not the pleasure, of the historian of Kentucky to investigate the remains and describe, if he may, its history.
The Delawares, whom the Indians of every tribe ad- dressed in reverence of their antiquity as "grandfathers," 1 were accustomed to relate as an ancient and authentic tradi- tion that eastern North America was at one time occupied and possessed by a white people. The Indian name for these was Allegewi.2 They were no savages or nomads but a nation of fixed habitation and great culture. Whence they had come or when, are points upon which the tradi- tions are silent. But the traditions of the Delawares, the Sacs, the Shawnese and even other tribes attest the fact of their presence, their civilization and their power. In the dim past, continue the traditions, the savage Iroquois emerged from the great western country 3 and began to hew their conquering way to their present abode. The Delawares at the same time began their migration to the
1 The Iroquois, however, would address them only as "nephews."
2 The Allegewi left their name on the Allegheny Mountains and River.
3 Heckwelder, Indian Nations, Chap. I.
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east but took a route much south of the Iroquois. Both tribes were confronted and halted on the banks of the Mis- sissippi 4 by the strange Allegewi. But though the Iroquois forced their way resistlessly across, the weaker Delawares were treacherously assailed in mid-stream and all but de- stroyed by their foes. The Iroquois and Delawares soon formed an alliance and began a merciless war against their common enemy. The Allegewi in a number of terrific battles were driven southward and finally stood desperately at bay in their favorite land, Kentucky. Here they built huge mounds for fortifications, for burial places, and for temples. How long their last stand respited the Allegewi no one knows, but finally at the falls of the Ohio they staked their lives and fortunes on the issue of one great battle and lost. Their people were expelled and their civil- ization forgotten.
Each reader of these traditions may give or withhold his belief according to his character. A candid mind, how- ever, will fail to find in them anything of the improbable with the possible exception of the "white" color. The fact of a primitive alliance of the Delawares and the Iro- quois is a well attested one. And the eastward migration of the Iroquois, if not the Delawares, is an event so well known as to require no proof. No legend or tradition, moreover, if depicting the internecine strife of the Indians, need be considered wild or improbable. But in the absence of corroborative evidence an impartial seeker after truth would be slow to accept, on the authority of a savage tradi- tion, the idea of a white race and a great civilization in a country of red barbarism.
4 Rafinesque. Brinton, in his Walam Olum, says this was the Ohio. The Delawares called the Ohio the Allegewi-Sipu.
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When the Indians related these traditions to the first settlers, they observed that when the waters of the Ohio became low an island would be formed at the falls whereon the doubting white men might find evidence of the truth of their relation. When the waters fell the island was found to be covered with innumerable bones.5 These, said the Indians, were the skeletons of the Allegewi who had perished here in the last battle; it, of course, gave no ex- planation who the Allegewi were, what their color, or whence their origin. Indians of all tribes more than once expressed their astonishment that white men could dwell in the Kentucky land where, they asserted, the ghosts and the specters of the dead nations roamed eternally. They professed to believe that Kentucky was a land of blood and spirits wherein it was unholy for any man, white or red, to dwell.
Inasmuch as the Indians had obvious reasons for wish- ing to create in the white men a horror and dread of Ken- tucky, their statements in regard to its haunted character must be received, and were, at a considerable discount.
The Cherokees of Georgia were called in their own language Ani-Yunwiya, "real people"; and Ani-Ketu- waghi, "people of Kitwuha," an ancient settlement.6 They were also called in the Mobilian trade language Tsalagi, "people of the caves;" they were known to the Six Na- tions as Oyatageron, "inhabitants of the cave country," and by the Catawbas they were called Manterau, "coming out of the ground." But the Delaware Allegewi literally means "cave people." And considering the indubitable fact that the Cherokees were known far and wide as the cave dwellers, the conclusion seems certain that by "Allegewi"
5 Young, Prehistoric Men of Kentucky, p. 4.
6 The name Kituwha was commonly corrupted to Cuttawa.
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the Delawares meant the Cherokees. Furthermore the tradi- tions of the Cherokees in regard to their migration from the north agree in every essential point with the Delaware's tradition of the Allegewi.7 The Wyandots identified the Cherokees as Allegewi and affirmed that the latter were driven south from their fortification in the Ohio valley by the Iroquois. The Cherokees, or Allegewi, were near kins- men of the Iroquois and the truth perhaps may be that "in ancient times as in the historic period they were always the southern vanguard of the Iroquoian race, always pri- marily a mountain people, but with their flank resting upon the Ohio and its great tributaries, following the trend of the Blue Ridge and the Cumberland as they slowly gave way before the pressure from the north until they were finally cut off from the parent stock by the wedge of Algonquin invasion, but always, whether in the north or south, keeping their distinctive titles among the tribes as the people of the cave country."
The Delaware traditions have it that the war of the Iroquois and the Tallegewi or Allegewi continued during the reigns or leadership of five successive chiefs.8 There was a succession, furthermore, of twenty-five chiefs from the conquest of the Allegewi to the coming of white men. It would be impossible to express in years the time repre- sented by the rule of these chieftains, but that the expul- sion of the Allegewi occurred in a time far past is shown clearly by the many dialectic differences that came to dis- tinguish the Cherokees from the parent Iroquois.
The traditions of all tribes agree in attributing to the Allegewi the mounds that were scattered all over Kentucky
7 Mooney, "Myths of the Cherokees," in Nineteenth Report of American Bureau of Ethnology.
8 Brinton, "Walam Olum," in Lenape and their Legends.
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and the Ohio valley. Inasmuch as the character of a peo- ple may often be, in a great measure, ascertained or at least conjectured from their remains, a study of the mounds should throw light on the mound builders and aid in de- termining whether they were Indians or a white race that has perished from the earth.
A consideration of the mounds erected in ancient Ken- tucky shows that they were built of different forms and for varying purposes. Many have been cut down and the evidence thereby secured proves indubitably that they were erected for burial places. Others show by their size and contour that they were intended to be used for forti- fications in a great and extensive warfare. By far the majority of the mounds used for burial places were built in a conical form with an altitude of eight or ten feet, but sometimes reaching as high as forty. Within these were found the bones of men and women buried centuries ago. Nor was the style of burying at all uniform. A mound cut down at Mt. Sterling contained, although it was of considerable extent, but a single skeleton buried at the center. Around the skeleton, nearer the outer edge of the mound, were found many remains of primitive art of so much importance in character and amount as to justify the conclusion that the mound was the mausoleum of a great chief.ยบ The Moberly mound in Madison County, contained six skeletons, around whom were found many remains of primitive weapons conclusively showing that it was the grave of warriors. Indeed, in the femur of one skeleton was still remaining, deeply imbedded, the spearhead that must have caused death. A very peculiar mound was that known as the Lindsay mound in Union
9 Young, Prehistoric Men of Kentucky, p. 31.
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County. Here there was no burial at the center but the skeletons were found placed each with the head towards the center and the feet out, "similar to the spokes of a wheel." Moreover, within the mound were found many tiers of skeletons, the lowest of which was accompanied by no pottery or other remains. This was conjectured to be the burial place of the common people as distinguished from that of the chiefs or leaders. Numerous over the State are the mounds of pyramidal forms. They are rarely found containing bones, and generally are closely connected with other remains of a warlike nature. Per- haps the most remarkable of this class was that in Ballard County ;10 its base contained fifteen acres and it was but a few feet in height. Smaller mounds were scattered over its surface. Occasionally the mounds were made in the form of animals as, for instance, the great bear effigy in Greenup County. 412202
As the author of the Prehistoric Men of Kentucky has said, the pioneers knew little, and cared less, for the an- cient mounds that they encountered in Kentucky. Indeed, in the early days while the land was yet unrobbed of its forests, the majority of the mounds escaped detection. After the ground began to be cleared and the soil culti- vated, the settlers noticed the mounds and inquired their origin. The Indians said that they knew nothing of them ; that they were erected by a people earlier than they. The emergencies of a pioneer life forbade the settler to turn his attention to archaeological research. So the mounds, as any other land, were soon converted into cornfields, and plowshare in a few years levelled their elevation and destroyed their contents. Thus perished what, perhaps,
10 Collins, History of Kentucky, Vol. II, p. 39.
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could have thrown great light on the entire question of the mounds, their purpose, and their builders.
Yet the burial mounds were not the only remains of the ancient inhabitants of the land. Even more striking, though not so numerous, were the fortifications they built during the course of that great war in which they de- fended and lost Kentucky. In Hickman County still exists the ancient work known as O'Byam's Fort.11 It is located on a bluff whose southern end drops vertically almost fifty feet. There was a sloping ascent from its northern end, but it was blocked at the summit by a wall and ditch. This wall measures some eighteen feet, and is discontinued at the steep southern end. It has many times been pronounced the best chosen position for de- fense in the entire region ; its selection plainly shows that its builders, whether Indian or others, possessed great talent for military things.
Indeed, even a casual investigation of these ancient forts can not fail to show the unusual cunning displayed in the selection of their sites. Practically all are located on steep bluffs where some sides are fortified by nature ; considerable art is displayed in the protection of the sides exposed to attack. These features are all to be seen at their best in fortifications scattered all over the land and notable in the fort on Green River near Bowling Green in Caldwell County, in Larue County and in Hardin Coun- ty. The similarity of these show that they were probably all erected by the same people and their very existence indicates defensive warfare. Perhaps the most wonderful of the forts of these olden times is the one on Indian Fort Mountain in Madison County. The mountain rises pre-
11 Cyrus Thomas, in Twelfth Annual Report of the American Bureau of Ethnology.
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cipitously from the plain to an elevated height ; it is prac- tically unscalable at all points save the east. Here a long ridge of nearly a mile gradually sinks to the plain and gives a means of ascent from the valley to the summit of the mountain. But at the point where this ridge enters the top of the mountain the ancient people constructed, and there still exists, a huge stone wall three hundred and eighty-seven feet long. This wall, built on a steep slope, is sixty feet high on its outer side and five on the inner. As is shown by the nature of many of the stones, they must have been quarried in the valley and carried thence to the summit. Some of these are of five hundred pounds weight. The top is level and contains four or five hundred acres. At several places on the other and precipitate sides, walls were erected, evidently because the builders be- lieved these points pregnable to attack. Furthermore, on the top of the cliffs in various places may still be seen the stones heaped up in ages past to be hurled down on the enemy below. The fort, by reason of its size and strength, must have served as the great rallying place for a harassed nation.12
In the burial mounds, the fortifications and the caves of the land, have been found various remains that reveal the dress, the occupation and the civilization of the mound builders.13 Their clothing was made of tanned skins, of combed cloth and feathers, and of a cloth made of flax and the bark of trees. And in the preparation of the cloth they evidently had the knowledge of many dyes. They wore moccasins made of bark cloth, and the number of moccasins found prove the universal custom of wearing them. They had the use of coarse needles made of bone,
12 Young, Prehistoric Men of Kentucky, p. 75.
13 Ibid., p. 100.
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and of thread rudely made of hide, the bark or the wild hemp. Copper spools were in use. As a weapon they used a battle-axe weighing from one to thirty pounds, a battle- axe blade formed of flint and measuring five by three inches, and the bow and arrow. The arrowheads were probably in many cases dipped in poison. The spear and the flint knives were also in use. In his home life the mound builder used the stone axe for felling the trees, pestles and mortar in the preparation of corn, meats and nuts for food. The number found of these would indicate that the domestic life of their makers was more advanced than the ordinary Indian people. The pottery remains are likewise extensive and show great originality and con- siderable art. The manufactured fishhooks from bone and fashioned pipes of all sizes and designs from sandstone and steatite. Finally, by the remains, we can perceive that they worshipped idols of a peculiarly atrocious ap- pearance.
The mound builders have been considered in the light of Delaware tradition and their identity with the Chero- kees has been suggested. It has been endeavored by a consideration of the mounds, the forts, and the articles of dress, domestic life and military, to arrive at some facts by which their civilization and identity might be deter- mined. It now remains to hazard an opinion and, if may be, present the proof that the mound builders were not a peculiar or a vanished race but were red Indians calling themselves Kituwhagi and called by the English the Cher- okees.
From the standpoint of tradition, as already set forth, the testimony is overwhelming that the mound builders were called Allegewi, and the Allegewi were the same peo- ple as the Cherokees. The unusual and striking agree-
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ment of the many tribal traditions on this point must in the absence of controverting testimony, be received as an evidence of its truth, notwithstanding the notorious unre- liability of Indian legends. Then, if an examination of the remains discloses no opposing evidence, it may fairly be assumed that the identity of the two people was real. But nothing in the character of these remains would sug- gest that they are the remains of another race than the Indians.14 It is a fact, undoubtedly true, that the Indians of North America built mounds even in the historic period. They are not the exclusive product of Kentucky but are scattered all over the country. Furthermore, they are dis- similar one to another in many respects, indicating that they were erected not by a united people but by a people broken up into many separate tribes. There could have been no work involved in their construction that the Indians could not do, nor a culture that the Indians did not possess. Though some arc of considerable size, their proportions are as a rule so greatly exaggerated by writers as to sug- gest that Baron Munchausen may have fathered the theory of their origin and the report of their size. The Indians were not. without knowledge of such simple geometrical fig- ures as the square, circle, octagon, etc., which are used in the design of the mounds. Nor is the assertion of the Indians that they knew nothing of the Kentucky mounds of any moment ; the greatness of Indian ignorance, on even recent events is of such a character that if it were accepted as historical evidence the universe would quickly be re- duced to void. The methods of burial in the mounds were peculiarly Indian. Finally, when the white men reached America they found the Indians engaged in erecting and
14 Thomas, "Mound Explorations," in the Tenth Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology.
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utilizing the mounds ; many of those excavated have been found to contain articles of European manufacture.
In the case of the fortifications, the conclusion must perforce be the same. These, too, are scattered over the country, and not limited to Kentucky. Their number and position indicate, not a warfare between two great na- tions, but an internecine strife. The skill shown in the selection of their sites and the labor used in their building are such as the Indians were fully capable of displaying. In historic times, if there is any value in the testimony of white men, they were engaged in work of similar mag- nitude and for similar purposes. Notwithstanding many theories to the contrary, the American Indians were not nomads ; they had as a rule fixed habitations to which they invariably returned, no matter how far they had wan- dered afield.
The finding of the mortars and pestles, the cloth, the needles and thread, prove that the mound builders were people of agricultural pursuits, of skill in weaving, and ingenuity in fabricating tools. Yet all the southern Indians were the same. The evidence is overwhelming that the Cherokees lived on the fruits of the field and were considerably advanced in the arts of agriculture. They wore clothes made from home-spun flax, and that they understood the use of tools is shown by their possess- ing and utilizing mines of copper. The pottery of the mound builders differs in no essential from the pottery of the various Indian tribes and savage chieftains, from Hud- son Bay to Florida, pledged their solemn treaties in calumets that were unchanged from the time of the battle of Sandy Island.
It is pleasing, and perhaps profitable, to the imagina- tion, to picture olden Kentucky as a gloomy land peopled
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by the ghosts of the ancient dead, the superstitious Indians visiting it only in reverence, the very trees redolent of mystery. But though less pleasant to imagine, it is safer to believe that the desolation of the country was more due to the fear of an Iroquois tomahawk than to veneration of a fallen empire or dread of a spectral foe.
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EXPLORATION OF KENTUCKY.
T HE process of determining who was the first man to explore Kentucky is as unprofitable as it is difficult. The mere entering or crossing the land can not, unless the visit bore fruit, be considered as a part of State his- tory, however much it interested or lamented the visitor. Without doubt, it was no unusual occurrence for a trader, a hunter, or even a missionary, to be led by zeal or acci- dent into the Kentucky country. Indeed, if we may trust to legend or its colleague, early history, Kentucky, even before 1750, had a score of explorers whose adventures were as marvelous as those recorded by Dean Swift or by Marco Polo. Many of these left records of their travels. But these records, except as showing the sameness of colonial sufferings and displaying the imaginative capacity of the writers, bear no more relation to Kentucky history than do the precepts of the Zend-Avesta. The real history of Kentucky may be said to begin with the expedition of Dr. Thomas Walker in 1750.
The Americans in 1750 possessed many desires and few opportunities for acquiring great fortunes. Morever, then, as now, the far off and distant enterprises were those that possessed the greatest attractions. The men of the coast region found far greater pleasure in esti- mating the profits to be derived from western speculation than in turning the attention to the routine of business at home. Indeed, the plan of acquiring and exploiting trans- montane lands seems to have been a favorite before all others with the then seekers of riches. From time to time their wishes and desires took practical shape in the form-
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