USA > Kentucky > The history of Kentucky, from its earliest discovery and settlement, to the present date, V. 1 > Part 10
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"Thirteenth-That nothing with respect to the number of delegates from any town or settlement shall hereafter be drawn into precedent, but that the number of representatives shall be ascertained by law, when the state of the colony will admit of amendment.
"Fourteenth-That the land office be always open.
"Fifteenth-That commissions without profit be granted without fee.
"Sixteenth -- That the fees and salaries of all officers appointed by the proprietors be settled and regulated by the laws of the country.
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HISTORY OF KENTUCKY.
"Seventeenth-That the convention have sole power of raising and appro- priating all public moneys and electing their treasurer.
"Eighteenth-That for a short time, till the state of the colony will permit to fix some plan of holding the convention which shall be permanent, the place of meeting shall be agreed upon between the proprietors and the con- vention.
"To the faithful and religious and perpetual observance of all and every of the above articles, the said proprietors and the chairman of the said convention have hereunto interchangeably set their hands and affixed their seals, the 27th day of May, 1775.
"RICHARD HENDERSON [ Seal], "NATHANIEL HART [ Seal], "JOHN LUTTRELL [ Seal], "THOMAS SLAUGHTER, Chairman [ Seal]."
Throughout, these proceedings evince the spirit of lordly assumption and crafty self-seeking, which were instinctive with royalty and its patronizing favoritism to an exclusive few. It manifested itself in the extortions and wrongs with which the minions of the English Government outraged the colonists, and finally drove them into the war of the Revolution. Too many rights and powers were reserved in. this compact to admit of a government of the people and by the people; the pervading principle of republicanism, which alone could satisfy the common sentiment of personal and civil liberty.
Only a little time and reflection were needed to awaken discontent among the settlers. By that fatality which seems ever coincident with enterprise founded in uncertain justice and unstable tenure, the advantages gained by this concession of the delegates to the proprietors tempted the latter to the imprudent step of announcing the in- creased rates for lands, and for the fees of entry and survey, by an appreciable percentage.
"UNCLE UCK."
[ The first slave brought to Boomesborough, by Colonel Nathaniel Hart ; from a portrait by Beard, and kindly loaned the author by Mrs. Rebecca Hart, Woodford county Unile Dick long lived, and diet and was buried at "Traveler's Rest." the old Governor Shelby homestead, yet owned by Mrs. Hart. By white and colored, he lived and died honored and respected.]
These and other irritant causes led the settlers to open protest. Virginia had, on the 4th of July, united with the other colonies in the Declaration of Independ- ence, and all were at war with Great Britain. Yet Kentucky was held by many to be as much a part of Fincastle county, Virginia, now as before separa- tion from the mother country. Under this jurisdiction of Virginia, the discontented settlers sought for a refuge. Feeling and action culminated in December in a formal petition to the General Assembly of Virginia, signed by eighty-four of the
1
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SETTLERS PETITION VIRGINIA FOR RELIEF.
settlers, protesting against the usurpations of the proprietors, and setting forth grievances on account of the extortions of the same, and asking the Government of Virginia to assert and maintain its jurisdiction over this part of Fincastle county. Many of these signers were the best men among the settlers, and some even were delegates in the Boonesborough convention. From the petition, we quote in part as follows :
" But your petitioners have been greatly alarmed at the late conduct of those gentlemen in advancing the price of the purchase money from twenty to fifty shillings per hundred acres. At the same time, they have increased the fees of entry and surveying to a most exorbitant rate, and by the short period fixed for taking up the lands, even on these extravagant terms, they plainly evince their intention of rising in their demands as settlers increase, or their insatiable avarice shall dictate. * * As we are anxious to concur in every respect with our brethren of the united colonies for our just rights and privileges, as far as our infant settlement and remote situation will admit of, we humbly expect and implore to be taken under the protection of the honorable convention of the colony of Virginia, of which we can not help thinking ourselves still a part, and request your kind interposition in our behalf, that we may not suffer under the rigorous demands and imposi- tions of the gentlemen styling themselves proprietors." 1
The animus of resistance, as well as the earnestness of protest, is breathed throughout. It is but the part of justice to permit the friends of Henderson to offer their defense against the charge in this petition, that the promoters of the Transylvania colony "plainly evince their intention of rising in their demands as the settlers increase or their insatiable avarice shall dictate." In the Virginia Calendar, John Williams is shown to have replied to this allegation, that the original purposes and propositions of the Transylvania Company were not changed. They had originally offered their lands to first settlers and improvers at minimum prices; but that privilege was announced to expire by limitation. With the increase of settlers, the assurance of greater safety, and the growing attractions of the country, the value of lands would naturally be enhanced, and this they had anticipated and set forth from the first. This statement of Williams was confirmed by Colonel John Floyd, which entitles it to great weight and respect.2
In the matter of Virginia vs. Henderson, from the same authority, Nathan Henderson, brother of Richard, stated in his deposition that the Transyl- vania Company reserved the right of veto over any act of the improvised Legislature, and gave as a reason for it that it would be dangerous to their rights and interests in the property purchased at the Wataga treaty to sur- render the final and sovereign power of legislation to the people or their delegates.3 Whether he referred to the provision in the compact between the company and the people, by which the proprietors were made a third
t Hall's Sketches of History in the West, Vol. II .. pp. 236-9.
2 Virginia Calendar, Vol. 1., p 275.
3 Virginia Calendar, Vol. I .. p. 307.
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HISTORY OF KENTUCKY.
arm of government, beside the Legislature and council, with power to con- cur or not in all acts, or to some further agreement not mentioned in the earlier histories, is not determined with certainty.
There is a remarkable episode brought out in this same case of Virginia vs. Henderson, in the deposition of Sam Wilson.1 There was much con- tention and dissent on the part of some of the Indians at Wataga, as to. concessions to the Transylvania Company, and especially when the latter insisted on including all the territory south of the Kentucky river to the: Cumberland. In the proceedings of the council, Dragging Canoe, a noted. chief, arose and made an impassioned speech, in the delivery of which he- turned to the white party, and lifting his arm and pointing his finger omi- nously to the north-west, sternly said: "Bloody ground!" and then pausing a moment, he stamped his foot violently on the earth and continued, "and" dark and difficult to settle!"
In a few minutes, Oconistoto's squaw, whose suspicions were intensely excited by some person telling her that a dangerous advantage was being. taken of her tribe in the terms urged, rushed frantically into the midst of the assembly, and by her wild and hysteric cries produced a panic in the proceedings. In a babel of confusion, the council was adjourned to another day.
With some delay and trouble, confidence was enough restored to reas- semble the parties and resume negotiations. Henderson boldly warned the- Indians that unless Chenoca, or all the land south of Kentucky to the Cum- berland river was embraced, he would not open the goods for distribution as. presents. The majority of the Indians yielded assent, and the treaty was. finally concluded and duly ratified.
We here recall the coincidence of the passage in the closing sections of Boone's autobiography, where he relates that at Wataga an old Indian chief, who signed Colonel Henderson's deed, took him by the hand at the delivery of the same, and said: "Brother, we have given you a fine land, but I believe you will have much trouble in settling it." This evidence of new light upon the question of the origin of the phrase, "Dark and Bloody Ground," brought out in the State papers as published in the Virginia Calen- dar, is interesting. It affords strong presumptive evidence to the minds of some of the most learned in this literature, that the significant appellation crystalized into this form from the frequent utterances of a current sentiment among the Indians at Wataga.
The Boonesborough convention never reassembled, and the rights and powers claimed by the proprietors of Transylvania were more and more feebly asserted. Dissensions among themselves sprang up, and the ambitious dream of an independent and sovereign government west of the Alleghanies. to be molded and destined amid the confusion and doubt of jurisdictions for the future, was not now to be realized.
I Virginia Calendar, Vol. I., p. 233.
:
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TRANSYLVANIA PURCHASE DECLARED NULL AND VOID.
The proprietors met at their old home, in Oxford, North Carolina, on the 25th of September, and appointed James Hogg to represent the colony of Transylvania in the Continental Congress, then sitting at Philadelphia, and to request "that Transylvania be added to the number of the united colo- nies, and that Mr. Hogg be admitted to a seat as their delegate." 1 He was refused the honor of such admission. Patrick Henry and Thomas Jefferson failed to encourage their advances toward gaining the acquiescence of Vir- ginia; and Governor Martin, of North Carolina, early in this same year of 1775, issued his proclamation declaring illegal the Wataga purchase from the Cherokees, so far as it embraced lands now in Tennessee; and Governor Dunmore did the same for the territorial jurisdiction of Virginia. Soon after, the transaction was made null and void by statute.
As a measure of equity, on November 4, 1778, the Virginia House of Delegates formally
" Resolved, That the purchases heretofore made by Richard Henderson & Company, of that tract of land called Transylvania, is void. But as the said Henderson & Company have been at very great expense in making the said purchase and in settling the said lands, it is just and reasonable to allow the same a compensation."
Soon after, it was
"Enacted by the General Assembly of Virginia, That all that tract of land situate and being on the waters of the Ohio and Green rivers, to-wit: Begin- ning at the mouth of Green river, thence up the same twelve and a half miles, when reduced to a straight line, thence running at right angles with the said reduced lines twelve and a half miles on each side the said river, thence running lines from the termination of the line extended on either side the said Green river, at right angles with the same. until the said lines intersect the Ohio, which said Ohio shall be the western boundary of the said tract, be, and the same is, hereby granted the said Richard Henderson & Company-two hundred thousand acres at the mouth of Green river, and on both sides of same." 2
In the like spirit of justice, the Assembly of North Carolina granted to the company two hundred thousand acres more, lying within its jurisdiction. Thus ended, in compromise and concession, the first bold attempt to separate Kentucky from her natural alliance with Virginia. Whether England or Spain secretly connived at this movement at a time most opportune, we may conjecture, but will never know. If it was the first, it was certainly not the last, interference by retainer and intrigue upon the same theater. Had the proprietors been less extortionate and more conciliatory, the future of Kentucky might have been different.
I Collins, Vol. Il .. n. 511.
2 Littell's Laws of Kentucky, and Virginia Appendix, Vol. III., p 5.
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HISTORY OF KENTUCKY.
CHAPTER IX.
Harrod, McAfee, and others lead in one hundred men.
Many return home from fear of the In- dians.
First crops raised.
Harrodstown fortified.
Life and services of Captain James Har- rod.
His untimely death.
Other gallant spirits at Harrodstown.
St. Asaphs settled by Colonel Benjamin Logan.
Person and qualities of Logan.
Rejects the rights of primogeniture, and divides his property with his brothers and sisters.
His military spirit.
Comes to Kentucky.
Other daring adventurers enter upon this theater of action.
Simon Kenton leaves Fort Pitt to join Lewis' army as a scout and spy.
After the battle of Point Pleasant, he resumes a hunter's life in Kentucky.
Finds the "Caneland " at last.
Builds a camp at Washington, Mason county, clears and plants an acre in corn, and eats the first roasting-ears.
The Blue Licks a great rendezvous of game.
Meets there two wandering white men. Hendricks captured in camp and burned at the stake.
Accompany Michael Stoner to Hink- son's station.
Other settlements and surveys in Mason county.
Settlement of McClelland and others at Royal Spring, Georgetown, becomes Mc- Clelland's station.
Other settlements at Hinkson's, Bour- bon county, and Drennon's Lick, Henry county.
Three hundred explorers in Kentucky this year.
Over two hundred acres of corn planted, besides gardens and orchards.
Stories of the New Canaan.
The First women in Kentucky come to Boonesborough and Harrodstown.
Origin of the name of Lexington.
Hinkson and Haggin make settlements on Licking.
Miller's follow these.
Douglas', Gist's, and other survey par- ties.
Three weeks in advance of Boone's arrival at the mouth of Otter creek, on the Kentucky river, early in April, nearly one hundred men, in separate parties, had arrived at Harrodstown and vicinity, the vanguard of immigra- tion for 1775. Captain James Harrod and his comrades, after the campaign and great battle of the Kanawha, not only held firmly to their purpose of settling in Kentucky, but were re-enforced by others who volunteered to share the dangers of the wilderness with them. Harrod and Hite led about fifty men on their return, and this party reached the site of their cabin improvements, near Salt river, on the 15th of March, and finding them yet standing, at once reoccupied them. On the rith of March, four days before, the McAfee company had preceded them, and located at their old sur- vey, a short distance below. on Salt river, and at what was afterward known
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INDIAN ATROCITIES CAUSE MUCH FEAR.
as McAfee's station, a few hundred yards above old Providence Church, in Mercer county. The latter remained only long enough to clear up and plant in peach-stones and apple-seeds two acres of ground. On the 11th of April, they started with the purpose of returning to Virginia for a time, and left two of their men, Higgins and Poulson, with Harrod, to care for their property and to prevent any intrusion upon the same. They followed in the wake of quite a number of Harrod's men and others, who were leaving Kentucky with even more alacrity than had hastened them in. From Col- onel Henderson's journal, we read of date, "Saturday, April 8th .- About four miles north of Cumberland Gap, we met about forty persons returning from the Cantuckey on account of the late murders by the Indians." And again, "April 16th .- Met James McAfee, with eighteen others, returning from Cantuckey."
After the attacks by the Indians on Boone's party, near the site of Rich- mond, March 25th and 28th, Captain Boone dispatched a messenger to Colonel Henderson with the following letter :
"APRIL THE IST, 1775.
"Dear Colonel: After my compliments to you, I shall acquaint you of our misfortunes. On the 25th, a party of Indians fired on my company about half an hour before day, and killed Mr. Twetty and his negro, and wounded Mr. Walker very deeply, but I hope he will recover. On the 28th, as we were hunting for provisions, we found Samuel Tate's son, who gave us an account that the Indians fired on their camp on the 27th. My brother and I went down and found two men killed and scalped, Thomas McDowell and Jeremiah McPheeters. I have sent a man down to all the lower companies, in order to gather them all to the mouth of Otter creek.
"I am, sir, your most obedient, DANIEL BOONE."
The "lower companies " were those at Harrodstown and vicinity. Instead of rendezvousing at Otter creek with Boone, a large number made a hasty retreat toward the old colonies, alarmed at such demonstrations of hostilities least expected. The disastrous defeat of the Indians at the Kanawha but a few months before, the treaty of peace negotiated at Chillicothe. and the proclamation of assurance by Governor Dunmore, quieted all fears of danger from that quarter, and had largely to do with inducing so early and numer- ous an emigration at the first dawn of spring to Kentucky.
There were doubtless numbers among these who were of roving and rest- less spirit, with little purpose for the future, and whose only compensation was the pleasure and novelty of adventure, without much aim for permanent stay or established interest in the country. Such persons cared to risk little of such dangers for the compensation, and hence were quick to leave on the first appearance of savage hostilities. Of those whom Colonel Henderson met, Robert and Samuel McAfee, and a number with them, readily turned back on his invitation, and accompanied him to Boonesborough. Harrodstown was still occupied by Holmes, Benson, Lynch, Cartwright, Linn, and others
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HISTORY OF KENTUCKY.
after this exodus of so many comrades. Captain James Harrod, Isaac Hite, and others had settled at and in the vicinity of Boiling Spring, six miles south-east of Harrodstown, now on the turnpike to Danville.
In a letter dated June 12th, at Boonesborough, Colonel Henderson writes: "To the west, about fifty miles from us, are two settlements within six miles of each other, Harrodstown and Boiling Spring. There were, some time ago, about one hundred men at the two places, though now, perhaps, not more than sixty or seventy, as many of them are gone up the Ohio for their fami- lies, and some returned by the way we came, to Virginia and elsewhere." It is of record, that at least fourteen of the settlers of this vicinity planted and raised corn within a few miles of Harrodstown this season, and two near Lexington. On May 8th, Henderson's journal mentions that Colonel Slaughter of Harrodstown, and Captain Harrod of Boiling Spring, who that day arrived at Boonesborough to confer concerning the titles to lands, had with him "much dispute about the respective claims of the two for lands to be apportioned to their respective companies."
The exact date and circumstances of the building of the fort at Har- rodstown are matteis not of record 'so well preserved as at Boonesborough. Collins says: "The north line of the fort is supposed to have been about two hundred and fifty feet south of the old spring, on the brow of the hill where it rises to a comparative level. The number of cabins in it, or its dimen- sions, is nowhere preserved. The old graveyard, which stands five hundred feet nearly south-east from the former, is full of head-pieces of rough lime- stone, without any letters even to indicate the names of the pioneers sleeping beneath."
The representative man and the moving spirit whose indomitable will, prudential instinct, and unfaltering courage gave life and leadership to the community of settlers at Harrodstown and vicinity, was Captain James Har- rod, a noble type of that manhood which distinguished the pioneer deeds and incidents of our earliest history. But a year before, gathering around him a band of thirty men, he penetrated to its central depths the great wilderness, and made the first "cabin improvements" ever built in Ken- tucky, at the site of his own choosing.
1 Late in summer, he was summoned by Governor Dunmore's messengers to hasten back to Virginia, in view of the invasion of that colony by the confederated Indian army. Summoning his little band, he marched them four hundred miles through the unbroken forests and across the mountains, joined in General Lewis' campaign at the mouth of Kanawha, and there participated in the battle fought and victory won. Tarrying only through the severest winter months. Captain Harrod, with his company re-enforced to fifty men, started back to Kentucky, repeating the long and perilous march through the wilderness for the third time in twelve months. From sketches of him by Marshall, we learn that James Harrod was a man six feet in height,
I Marshall, pp. 23-25; Morehead's Address
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DEATH AND EULOGY OF CAPTAIN JAMES HARROD.
well proportioned, and finely constructed for activity and strength. His com- plexion was dark, his hair and eyes black; his countenance animated, and his deportment grave. His speech was mild and his manners conciliating, rather by the confidence they inspired than any grace or elegance they displayed. Yet was he but imperfectly educated, even in the elements of the English language. Indeed, it was not letters he learned, or books he studied; and without the culture of these, he knew how to be kind and obliging to his fellowmen, and active and brave in their defense. To breathe the fresh air of the forest, to range the country on hunting and trapping excursions, and to provide his comrades with the spoils of the camp, were far more congenial to his tastes. He was actively engaged in the defense of the country, on scouts on the frontier, and with several expe- ditions into the Indian country. On such occasions, the dexterity of the woodsman and the bravery of the soldier were as conspicuous as useful. He seemed to be free from ambition, though by instinct a leader. Simple in manner and frugal in diet, independent in sentiment and open in council, destitute of art and without public authority, Captain Harrod nevertheless had a party; not so much that he wanted one, but because the party wanted him. Wherever the social principle exists, when in the midst of danger men instinctively seek a leader to concentrate their force and direct their enter- prise, especially of protection and defense. Such a leader is usually the favorite in companionship, and a man in whose courage, skill, and devotion they have the most implicit faith. He lived in the affections and confidence of all around him, and died lamented by surviving friends.
After the country became more populous, Harrod would leave home and domestic comforts and repair to distant unsettled parts and remain for weeks at a time, to gratify the hunter's longing for the forest and the camp. On one of these expeditions he lost his life, some eighteen years after the date of his final settlement, and as his wife testified, by treachery and assassi- nation, by one Bridges, who became offended at him about a lawsuit over property, and under pretense of conciliation, lured him to the forests. After murdering him, Bridges fled the country. 1 The rank of colonel was con- ferred on Harrod, as a testimonial of his qualities as a soldier and officer.
Besides that of Harrod, the names of impetuous McGary, of ever vigilant and daring Ray, of brave. expert, and devoted Chapline. McBride, Har- lan, and others, will not be forgotten, though their deeds of valor were better known than their names in history.
The third important settlement during the spring of 1775 was made at St. Asaphs. more popularly known after as Logan's Fort. This was located near one of those large, flowing springs which were often found in the lime- stone region of Kentucky, and here forming the head of St. Asaphs run. The site is about one mile west of the present town of Stanford, in the midst of a fine cane and bluegrass country. The settlement here owed its existence
I Collins, Vol. 11., p. 614.
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HISTORY OF KENTUCKY.
and permanent success to the courage and enterprise of Colonel Benjamin Logan, one among the earliest and most distinguished of those bold pio- neers, says Collins, who, penetrating the western wilds, laid the foundation of arts, civilization, and religion in the solitudes of the boundless forests. It is among the proudest of those distinctions which have exalted the char- acter of our venerated Commonwealth, that it numbers among its founders men beneath whose rough and homespun hunting-shirts, there dwelt qualities of heroism which would have made them immortal to the historian or poet in Greece or Rome. As the eye wanders along the serried ranks of those stern and iron men, who stood firm and fearless under the gloom of the overshadowing forest, it will rest awhile on a commanding form that towers conspicuously above them all, tall, manly, and dignified; a face cast in the finest mold of manly beauty, dark, grave, and contemplative, and which, while it evinces unyielding fortitude and impenetrable reserve, invites to a confidence that never betrays. Such a man was Benjamin Logan. 1 He was born in Augusta county, Virginia, of Irish parents. At fourteen years of age, he lost his father, and found himself prematurely at the head of a large family. His surroundings had not been favorable to his education, and the widowhood of the mother is not presumed to have added to his opportunities. To his limited knowledge of books, however, he studied in the school of rough experience, and became an adept in the knowledge of men and things.
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