USA > Kentucky > The history of Kentucky, from its earliest discovery and settlement, to the present date, V. 1 > Part 6
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54
"A young man of our company called Alexander Neely came to camp to camp one night & told us he had been that day to Lulbegrud, & had killed two Brobdignags in their capital. . * * and further sayeth not. DANIEL BOONE"
I Treaty of Stanwix. Butler's History, p. 378.
-
.
15
WAR THE FORCED ALTERNATIVE.
of the main army, crossed the mountains and intercepted the entire Indian forces, near the mouth of the Kanawha. At Point Pleasant, in the vicinity, was fought the greatest and most severely- contested battle known in the annals of Indian warfare in Virginia. The confed- erate tribes were signally defeated, and compelled to retreat to their towns, on the Scioto. Governor Dunmore, who was nearly one hundred miles above with his troops when the battle occurred, at once crossed the Ohio and marched for these towns. The Shawanee confeder- ates sued for peace, and, in the negotia- tions, relinquished all'title to the country south of the Ohio, for all future time. 1 observance.
BLACK HOOF. (CATAHECASSA. ) [Shawanee chief, from a picture owned by the Polytechnic Society of Kentucky.] The sequel shows the faith of the
Again, the following year, 1775, in the name of the Transylvania Com- pany, organized under the lead of Colonel Henderson and associates, Daniel Boone negotiated with the Cherokees, at Fort Wataga, located on a branch of Holston river, for all the territory of present Kentucky south and west of the Kentucky river, except the few western counties of the Purchase. 2
And finally, the balance of Kentucky lying west of the Tennessee river, and to the Mississippi. was purchased by treaty with the Chickasaws, con- firmed on the 19th day of October, 1818.3 Thus, all Indian titles and rights, to this devoted land of disputed claim and stubborn strife, were extinguished in succession. by the arbitrament of negotiation ; and yet, the birth-throes of the nascent Commonwealth of Kentucky were to be endured, amid the blood and waste and anguish of the most cruel of savage warfare. Jealousies, animosities, and other causes of strife seemed ever recurring, and peaceful negotiations gave no guarantee of safety to life, or of permanency to possession. Indeed, the dominion of Virginia, after the declaration of inde- pendence and during the revolutionary war, seemed to rely mainly on her rights under the charter granted by James I., of Great Britain, to the cradle of empire she claimed from the Alleghany to the Mississippi, as set forth in her first constitution, of June 29, 1776. " Within these limits, she asserted the exclusive right of purchasing the soil from the aborigines."
But we must not disparage the heroic valor and hardy endurance of the famed pioneers, by whose deeds and sufferings regenerated Kentucky re- ceived her baptism of blood, and her children the inheritance of liberty, with all the immunities of an exalted civilization. The rights of arms and of conquest are yet a part of the law of nations, and when the conditions of
I Burk's Virginia, Vol. III., p. 306. 2 Collins, Vol. II., p. 496. 3 Butler. p. 15.
16
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY.
stipulation and treaty failed to restrain, there was left no better alternative. Amid the perils of continued invasion, and the atrocities and carnage ot relentless savage warfare, instigated and abetted by one of the most powerful empires of Europe, the issue of title and possession was transferred; and the brave backwoodsmen of Kentucky vindicated and sealed by the valor and skill of arms, upon a hundred battlefields, the right to build their homes and fortunes upon her generous soil, for which peaceful compacts gave no certain guarantee.
Of such travail was born our noble Commonwealth, destined to offer up the patriotic blood of her children upon every battlefield of our common country, to become the nursing mother of new commonwealths of the great West, and to rear up statesmen for the councils of the nation. Her children, at home and abroad, delight to own and honor her; and with pardonable pride.
We bear in mind that at this first quickening into embryotic life, Ken- tucky was but an outlying wilderness of Virginia territory, claimed by a shadowy parchment title which was barely worth asserting, as yet ; and that Virginia was but a colonial dependence of Great Britain across the ocean, from whence she derived her rulers. her laws, and her authority. It formed the pivotal center of the vast empire of transmontane area of the North American continent. which had, for two centuries, been shuffled in the bal- ances of treaty stipulations between England, France, and Spain, in the frequent changes of the fortunes of almost incessant wars between these rivals. True, English dominion was just now dominant; but how long this jurisdiction might continue, so depended on the issues of European strife. that no one could conjecture the government to whom allegiance might be due in a decade of years. The people, who went out to seek their fortunes in this unknown and mysterious land, knew not whether the King of Eng- land, or of France, or of Spain. if either, should own their allegiance. Out of this chaos of uncertain changes, Kentucky must have her genesis.
17
BOONE'S UNFORTUNATE EXPEDITION.
CHAPTER V.
In 1773, Daniel Boone, with a party, sets Out to return to Kentucky.
Attacked by Indians ; Boone's son slain. The party abandon the visit to Ken- tucky, and fall back to Clinch river.
Impetus to emigration and adventure.
Bullitt, Harrod, McAfee, and Douglas lead parties out.
Bullitt's hazardous visit to the Indians. The talks in council.
McAfee's detour through Bracken.
At Big Bone Lick.
The mammoth remains there.
Separate at the mouth of Kentucky river.
Bullitt and Harrod go to Falls of Ohio. Anchor in Beargrass, and camp on its banks.
Survey first plat on site of Louisville.
McAfee and Hancock Taylor go up the Kentucky to Drennon's Lick.
Continuing by Frankfort and Lawrence- burg, they pass on to the vicinity of Har- rodsburg.
By Three Forks of Kentucky they re- turn home, but suffer great privations.
Douglas and party tarry at Big Bone, the " graveyard of the mammoths."
The era of the mastodons.
Their extermination by first men.
Kentucky now part of Fincastle county.
Surveyor and deputies.
John Floyd's character.
Simon Kenton.
He falls in love, and whips his rival.
Flees the country, westward ; changes his name to Butler.
His adventures.
Mrs. Ingles' captivity and wonderful es- cape.
Ominous bodings of the future.
The period from 1771 to 1773 was less eventful in actual exploration in Kentucky, yet the spirit of unrest and adventure was alive in the colonies. For two years the Boones had tarried at their homes, vying with the returned Long Hunters in repeating the fascinating stories of their experiences in the transmontane wilds. The delay was from no want of fixed resolve, but rather to reconcile their families to the idea of such a change of home, to convert their farms and fixtures, and to gather about them a body of friends willing to share the fortunes of the wilderness with them. All arrangements complete, on the 25th of September, 1773, Daniel Boone, with his own and five other families, set out upon the journey toward Kentucky. He was joined in Powell's valley by forty men, who were willing to accept him as their leader. Driving their cattle and swine in procession, and with bedding and baggage on pack-horses, they pursued their route in buoyant hope, until they neared the pass in the mountains, known as Cumberland Gap. Some young men. with the cattle, had fallen in the rear several miles, when they were suddenly assailed by a party of Indians, and six of them killed and a seventh wounded. The reports of firearms hastened the main body of the whites to the rescue, when the savages were driven off. and the dead buried. 1
i Hartley's Daniel Boone, pp. "rand ?:
18
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY.
This was a sad day for all, especially for the family of Daniel Boone, for among the slain was a beloved son. This disaster greatly disturbed the plans of the party. The Boones, and some others, were for proceeding onward to Kentucky, but the majority insisted on a return. The former yielding, all retraced their steps to the settlement on Clinch river, in south-west Virginia, about forty miles from the place where the Indians had attacked them. Here Boone remained through the winter, with his family. But the infection had spread far and wide, and moved others to visit Kentucky during this interval. A new impetus was given to this desire of adventure by the pro- visions of the Virginia government, granting bounties in lands, to be located in the Ohio valley, to the officers and soldiers of her own troops who had served in the British war in Canada, against the French, which terminated in the treaty of 1763, and in which France relinquished all future claim to the country from Canada to the Ohio valley, and back to the Mississippi river, inclusive. In 1773, and previously, adventurers, led by daring men, some of whom became illustrious in after history, explored these valleys, with a view to locating the choicest lands. No less a personage than George Washington surveyed 2,084 acres of land on Great Sandy, now embracing the town of Louisa, about the year 1769, carving his name on the beginning corner. For this land, a patent was issued to John Fry, by the crown of Great Britain, in 1772.
In June, 1773, four parties from Virginia passed down the Ohio, led respectively by Captain Thomas Bullitt, Captain James Harrod, James Doug- las, and the McAfee brothers. A most remarkable incident, illustrative of the self-possessed courage and forethought of Captain Bullitt, is authentically given. Landing with his comrades on the north bank of the Ohio, at a con- venient point, and instructing his party to await his return, he set out alone for the Shawanee town of Chillicothe. Bullitt had come out to Kentucky with the double intention of surveying lands and of making a permanent settlement. For the first object, he had a special commission from William and Mary College, in Virginia, in the managers of which was vested the right of conferring such authority. He knew that the Miami tribes vet claimed their hunter's rights to this land, although, at the treaty of Fort Stanwix, the Six Nations had ignored such claim in the transfer to the Eng- lish. His comrades watched his departure, and awaited his return. with doubting anxiety. Bullitt reached the town without being discovered, and made known his presence by waving a white flag, as a token of peace. The astonished Indians gathered about him, and with curious interest asked him how and why he had so suddenly come to them. Bullitt, with ready self- possession, replied that he was from the Long Knife, and as the red men and white men were at peace, he had come among his brothers for a friendly talk about the white men settling on the other side of the Ohio. His own jour- nal gives his speech, and their response : 1
1 Marshall, Vol. 1., P 33.
-
19
CAPTAIN BULLITT'S SUCCESSFUL MISSION.
" Brothers: We come from Virginia. The king of my people has bought from the nations of red men, both north and south, all the land, and I am instructed to inform you, and all the warriors of this great country, that the English and Virginians are in friendship with you. This friendship is dear to them, and they hold it sacred. The same friendship they expect from you. The Shawanees and Delawares are our nearest neighbors, and we want them to be our best friends.
" Brothers : You did not get any of the money or blankets given for the land which we are going to settle. This was hard for you. . But it is agreed by the great men who own the land, that they will make a present to both the Shawanees and Delawares the next year and the year following.
" Brothers : I am appointed to settle the country, to live in it. to raise corn, and to make proper regulations among my people. There will be some principal men from my country soon, who desire to say more to you. The governor will come out this year, or the next. When I come again, I will have a belt of wampum. This time, I came in haste, and had not one ready. My people want the country, to settle and cultivate. They will have no objection to your hunting and trapping there. I hope you will live by us as brothers and friends. You know my heart, and as it is single toward you, I expect you to give me a kind talk. I will write to my governor what you say to me, and he will believe all I write."
The Indians, as was their custom in council or conference, were grave and deliberative, and this matter concerned their hunting-grounds. They asked a day for an answer, and on the morrow they assembled again, with Bullitt present, and through Richard Butler returned the following response:
"Oldest brother. the Long Knife: We heard you would be glad to see your brothers, the Shawanees and Delawares, and talk with them. But we are surprised that you sent no runner before you, and that you came quite near us, through the trees and grass, a hard journey, without letting us know until you appeared among us.
" Brother : We have considered your talk carefully, and we are made glad to find nothing bad in it, nor any ill meaning. You speak what seems very kind and friendly, and it pleases us well. You mentioned to us your inten- tion to settle on the other side of the Ohio with your people. We are pleased that they are not to disturb us in our hunting ; for we must hunt to kill meat for our women and children. and to have something to buy our powder and lead, and to get us blankets and clothing. All our young people are pleased with what you said. We desire that you will be strong in fulfilling your promises toward us, as we are determined to be very straight in advising our young men to be kind and peaceable toward you. This spring. we saw something wrong on the part of our young men. They took some horses from the whites; but we have advised them not to do so again, and have cleaned their hearts of all bad intentions."
Richard Butler was the interpreter, and made Captain Bullitt his guest
20
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY.
while at Chillicothe. The latter, having executed his mission with rare satis- faction to himself, departed to meet again his comrades. All, with light hearts and high anticipations, launched their frail boats for their destinations down the river.
This reception of Bullitt, and the tenor of the talk on both sides, inter- pret to us the attitude and feelings of these Miami tribes toward the whites. They could not have been blinded to the results of the settlement of their hunting-grounds by the latter, and must have felt the keenest jealousy of such encroachment. But they were expecting some important favors of the whites, and this held them in abeyance. At the treaty of Stanwix, less than five years previous, the English had paid the Six Nations fifty thousand dol- lars for this country, a part of which the Shawanees once dwelt in, and which they yet claimed as the hunting - grounds of themselves and confederates. Why ? Because the Six Nations had, years before, swept down the Ohio, with their firearms against the bows and arrows of the Miamis, and con- quered the latter. The Shawanees regaining the occupancy and use of this country still claimed under their old rights. They were discontented with being ignored at Stanwix, and this meant trouble and danger to the whites. For these reasons, no doubt. the Virginia authorities meditated making them presents in addition, which, in goods, trinkets, and ammunition, would pur. chase good will at small cost. Bullitt hazarded his bold adventure on a knowledge of the situation. The desire of the Indians for the gratuities was stronger than the passion of hatred toward a few enemies in their power. Could they have anticipated the events of the next twelve months. which caused them to assemble an army of fifteen hundred confederated warriors, to invade Virginia and to assail the whites in the desperate and bloody battle of Point Pleasant, the issue might have been far less flattering to Bullitt and party.
The company of whites descended the Ohio to Limestone creek, at which point Robert McAfee separated from the others and made a detour through the country to North Licking, and down that stream some twenty-five miles, and thence through Bracken county to the Ohio river. Here, with toma- hawk and knife, he made a bark canoe. and overtook his friends at the mouth of the Licking. . All descending farther, they landed and spent the 4th and 5th of July at Big Bone Lick, in Boone county, wondering at the great herds of buffalo and deer which swarmed in the vicinity, and at the. huge vertebra, ribs, and tusks of mammoth skeletons, of which they made their seats and tent-poles. Continuing their journey, they separated at the mouth of Kentucky river. Captain Bullitt, with James Harrod. John Smith, Isaac Hite, Jacob Sandusky, and others, reached the Falls of Ohio July 8th. and pitched their camp above the mouth of Beargrass creek. 1 They began their first surveys in this vicinity, and continued exploring and locating lands for some six weeks, southward as far as Salt river, in Bullitt county. This.
I Butler, p. 22.
1
2I
DRENNON'S LICK DISCOVERED AND NAMED.
tiver derived its name at this time, from a salt lick, near its banks, which became afterward a noted place in-the early history of Kentucky, known as. Bullitt's Lick. The scene that mapped out before them as they approached the falls was a blending of the picturesque and unique. Before them, as far as the eye could reach, the bounding and foaming waters of the hitherto placid Ohio leaped angrily away, with a current of ten miles an hour, broken up by dangerous rapids, and offering an impediment to the further progress of their little boats that forced them to turn about for a safe retreat. Fortu- nately, the mouth of Beargrass tempted them into its quiet harbor, where they secured their boats and proceeded to build a camp upon its inviting banks, yet taking the precaution to retire in their boats at night to a shoal above Corn island. Early in August, they were joined by Taylor, Bracken, and Drennon, from the McAfee party. From notes preserved of Jacob San- dusky, Captain Bullitt, during the same month of August, laid off the town site of Louisville, the first surveyed in Kentucky, within the limits of the plat of the present city.1 These survey parties were evidently acting with the sanction of Governor Lord Dunmore, of Virginia, as Bullitt avowed for himself; and so charmed was this sagacious and adventurous pioneer, that he determined at once to return to his home and prepare for removal and permanent settlement upon the lands he had located. . But sickness and un- timely death soon after put an end to all his plans, and lost to the early settlers the services of one whose abilities, enterprise, and fortitude promised to rank him among the most conspicuous characters of Kentucky history. He served in the war against the French and Indians; and was at Brad- dock's defeat, and other engagements, serving as a captain in Washington's regiment. Had he survived. his experience and ability would have fitted him to be among the greatest of the pioneers.
The McAfee party. left at the mouth of the Kentucky river, consisted of James, George, and Robert McAfce, James McCoun and Samuel Adams, who had come from Bottetourt county, in Virginia, and Hancock Taylor and Matthew Bracken. Turning up the Kentucky, they rowed their light canoes some twenty miles, to the mouth of a creek, where they landed and went out a mile or so to view a great salt lick, with herds of buffalo, deer, and elk dispersed over the valley. Here they fell in with Jacob Drennon, who had crossed the country from Big Bone, and preceded them one day. From the incident and the man. Drennon's creek and Drennon's Lick, in Henry county, were named. 2 Jacob Drennon was with the same parties at Big Bone a few days before. where, bribing a Delaware Indian with a trifle. he obtained information of this lick as a great game resort, and quietly set out through the forests, that he might lay claim to its first discovery. One day an unusual number of buffaloes were ranging at the lick, when Samuel Adams fired his rifle at one. Suddenly startled by the shot, the entire herd stam- peded directly toward Adams and James MeAfee, and threatened to trample
I Butler, p. 22.
2 Collins, Vol. II , p. 607
22
HISTORY OF KENTUCKY.
them to death under their hoofs. Adams sprang into a leaning tree near by, while McAfee was only able to get behind a tree smaller than his body. The whole herd rushed by in this dangerous position, the horns scraping the tree on either side, and their bodies pushing him to one side or the other, while he aimed to draw himself within his smallest dimensions. After all was over, and the lucky escape made, Adams crawled down from his perch, and attempted to conciliate McAfee. The latter replied, quietly, but meaningly : " My good boy, we are safely over it now, but don't try that again."
After tarrying a week, and gazing in new wonder at the profusion of game of every sort struggling around the lick for the salt, or waiting their turn at a distance, and beholding the country adjacent trodden into roads as wide and beaten as in the vicinty of a great city, the hardy explorers took one of these roads, or buffalo traces, as they are called and known even yet, and pursued their way up the west side of the river. This trace was a main way for the passage of these vast herds of wild animals, always traveling in file, to and fro, between Drennon's Lick and the canebrakes and bluegrass lands of Elkhorn plains. It led the adventurers to cross the Kentucky at a ford below Frankfort, which was afterward Leestown station. Entering the valley above on the 16th of July, they surveyed the land which is the present site of Frankfort, for six hundred acres. Passing out by the ridge where the Lexington road runs, they turned southward. and again crossed the river, about seven miles above Frankfort, and encamped at a remarkable spring, not far east of Lawrenceburg, since known as Lillards. Hunting and sur- veying at intervals, they discovered Salt river, some twenty miles farther on, and near the site of Harrodsburg. On the last day of July the party divided, Taylor, Bracken, and Drennon going to the Falls of Ohio. The McAfees and comrades, directing their course south-eastwardly, crossed Dick's river, and a few days after reached the forks of Kentucky river. Here the mount- ains appeared next to impassable, while the forest, undergrown with brush and thick laurel, seemed to forbid a passage onward. In this region of bar- renness and gloom, no living animal save themselves seemed to dwell, while an oppressive silence reigned everywhere.
It was the drouthy season of the year. Through brush and thorns, over rocks and mountains, and under the shadows of the pitying trees, they wan- dered for two days without food, their feet blistered and bruised, and their flesh pierced with briars. Nor could they find water. In despair, George McAfee and Samuel Adams, falling upon the ground, declared they could go no farther. In this critical strait, Robert McAfee determined on an effort to rescue and save his companions from the horrible fate of starvation in such a wilderness, and started alone upon a hunt. As by a providence, on reach- ing a ridge beyond, he espied a buck, and was fortunate enough to bring it down with his rifle. Hearing the report of the gun, the starving men, re- vived and reanimated with the hope it inspired, rose to their feet again, and, struggling on, gathered around the precious carcass. Slaking their
23
THE GRAVEYARD OF THE MAMMOTHS.
thirst with its yet warm blood, they then feasted and slept, and the next day resumed their journey. Traveling by what is known as the hunters' path, across the head of Powell's valley, they reached their homes safely. The McAfees were a splendid type of the men of iron-willed resolution and hardy endurance, in the face of perils and misfortunes, which sustained our ancestors through the sacrifices by which the foundations of our homes and civilization were laid. These hard experiences were but the prelude to successive and cruel misfortunes, that finally induced the family to exile themselves from their native land and to seek a refuge in the wilderness of the far West. 1
James Douglas, of Virginia, leading another survey expedition, shortly followed Bullitt down the Ohio to the falls On the way, he landed and tarried for a considerable time at Big Bone. His description of the scenes and experiences there is full of interest. He found over ten acres, consti- tuting the lick, bare of trees and herbage, and vast numbers of the bones of the mastodon and of the arctic elephant, scattered over the plain. Through the midst of the lick ran the creek, on either side of which were never-failing springs of salt water. To this place of convergence, came roads leading from every point of the compass, beaten down and trodden smooth by the hoofs of countless buffaloes, passing to and fro in their alternating rounds between the lick and the canebrakes and bluegrass plains most convenient thereto. Douglas noticed that the ground of the lick was depressed and worn below the original surface, here and there a knob, or the ground around the trees at the outer edge of the lick, showing the original eleva- tion. This was conclusive that there was a time not far distant in the past when there were no such wearing and depression of the lick. But the sight of the mammoth bones. so surprising in number as well as in their incredible dimensions, most gratified the curiosity of the men, and well justified the appellation given the place by a subsequent writer, as the "graveyard of the mammoths." Future descriptions confirm all, and more, than Douglas said of it. Tusks have been taken from thence measuring eight, nine and some few ten feet in length; thigh bones four and five feet long; ribs five feet in length and five inches broad: teeth seven by five inches on the grinding surface, and weighing ten pounds, and skulls over two feet across the front. Douglas speaks of a certain tusk with one end standing six feet out of the ground, and the other buried in the mud so firmly that the efforts of six men failed to extract it. 2
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.