Boonesborough: Its Founding, Pioneer Struggles, Indian Experiences, Transylvania Days, and Revolutionary Annals

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\V. LI-:XIN(;TON.

Member

of

RAXCK

KKSTITKY

The

Filson Club

FIL3ON CLUB. PUBLICATIONS No 10

BOONESBOROUGH ITS FOUNDING,

PIONEER STRUGGLES, INDIAN EXPERIENCES, TRANSYLVANIA DAYS,

AND REVOLUTIONARY ANNALS

With Full Historical Notes and Appendix BY

GEORGE W. RANCK Member

of

The

Filson Club

Author of

'The Bivouac

of the Dead and Its Author," "The Travelling Church,' "History of Lexington, Kentucky," "The Story of Bryan's Station," "Girty, the White Indian," etc.

Illustrated

LOUISVILLE,

JOHN

P.

KENTUCKY

MORTON & COMPANY

Winters

to

The Ftlsan 1901

fflnh

COPYRIGHTED HY

THE FILSON CLUB 1901

no.

PREFACE. like

vanished, and the BOONESBOROUGH,

know

it

no more

a mist of the morning, has

knew

place which

Not a cabin

forever.

that formed the parallelogram

the

of

fort

once

it

of

the

will

thirty

not a picket

;

of the bullet-battered lines that

encompassed the station, the stockades between the cabins is left.

and not a pale of Not even a chimney, the is left

perish, at its

last

standing or shows the

base as survivor of

unromantic cornfield, where the gathered crop,

war or

stolid

it

is

little

fall.

Its

habitation to

mound former

of debris site

seen the cultivated

is

soil

an

and

instead of preparations for aggressive

So thoroughly has the

station

affords no perch for the owl

and no

defense.

disappeared that

its

human

a

of

hiding-place for th^fox.

Neither

fire

nor flood, nor earth-

quake nor ruthless time has ever more completely swept a town from the face of the earth. Other towns in Kentucky,

like

Lystra and Franklinville and Ohiopiomingo,

have vanished, but they never had any except a paper existence, while

Boonesborough was a

reality.

Preface

iv

The

sites of

some

the world

the greatest cities of

of

were occupied by accident and yet succeeded, while design selected others

ligent

easy enough to choose a requires inhabitants

severance to

in

and lay

site

failed.

It

is

a town, but

it

utterly off

and manufactures and trade and per-

make

Clark,

Rogers

that

intel-

it

When

a success. the

led

1776,

General George against

opposition

the

Transylvania Colony, and Virginia asserted her old law forbidding private Indians,

to

citizens

lands from

purchase

Transylvania was doomed, and with

it

the

Boones-

was then only a question of time when the town and the fort would transfer their prestige to HarIt

borough.

rodsburg and become things of

roam through the untrodden

trie

past.

Boone could

forests in search of

game, and

could fight the Indian behind the trees of his native woods or on the open plain, but he lacked the municipal tact

and

persistence which builds up towns

into

cities,

and most

But gone place in

the

of his

companions were

forever, as

it

memory and

is,

it

like

the heart of its

the living. desolate

with chains of steel to our memories.

that civilization took wilderness.

Men had

its

firm

earlier

unto him.

Boonesborough yet holds a

perishable recollections hover over

bind

and turns them

stand

in the

It

site

Im-

and

was here

transmontane

roamed over the country as

hunters and explorers and traders, but in Boonesborough

Preface

\

they had their wives and children with them, and formed there

the

circle,

family

without which

The blood

civilization are mockeries.

any attempts at

that flowed through

warmed

the veins of these fearless and hardy pioneers and their

hearts

and nerved

through the veins of their of

the old

zealous of

arms yet courses descendants and makes the site

their

strong

vanished station hallowed

Mohammedan, when

Mecca, sees

and domes and descendant

of

As the

ground.

journeying to the Beit Allah

the mirage of the desert the minarets

in

spires of the sacred

the

Mosque, so the loyal

Boonesborough pioneers sees

in

the

mists of tradition the fort and stockade and cabins of the

vanished town as they were when occupied by his ancestors.

The

classical scholar reveres not

more the

sites of

departed Troy and Paestum and Thebes than does the

descendant of the

Here the

first

Boones,

settlers the site of

the

Hendersons,

Boonesborough.

the Galloways,

the

Harts, and Floyd and Kenton and Ballard and Stoner and

Holder and Rawlings and Pogue stood like an impregnable wall and rolled back the fierce tide of savage warfare until civilization

meval

and Christianity were established

forest.

It is

in

the

pri-

the recollection of the hardships endured

and the courage displayed by our ancestors there that makes Boonesborough dear to us and gives it a sure place in our memory and heart.

Preface

vi

vanished Every Kentuckian has some conception of Boonesborough, and imagines that he carries an image of it

in his

well,

town

memory

like

unto

it

as

it

once existed.

It

however, while we are cherishing conceptions of this of

the past, that

formed.

It

has

we hold

a

to

conception rightly

now been one hundred and twenty-six

years since Boonesborough was founded, and during long

is

period

written.

It

no

full

or

adequate history of

has been reserved for a

member

Club, an hundred years after the town

has been

it

of

this

The

Filson

had perished,

to

gather the conflicting traditions from their scattered sources, and, after separating the true from the false, to facts into

weave the

This Mr. George

an exhaustive narrative.

W.

Ranck, the author of the work which follows this preface, has done, and here presents Boonesborough as

and progressed and declined and

He who

the face of the earth. rative will learn

one

has

known

more about since

its

this

day

finally

it

began

disappeared from

reads Mr. Ranck's nar-

vanished town than any in

the

land.

And

the

reader will not only learn

much

borough, but he

something too important not to

be

will learn

known about pioneer

attempt of Henderson and

life

that

in

is

new about Boones-

Kentucky,

about

Company to establish a proname of Transylvania in Ken-

government by the tucky, and about the brave men and women who prietary

the

left

Preface

vii

comfortable homes on the Atlantic slope of the Alleghanies

and

settled

in

the

wilderness

of

amid wild

Kentucky,

animals and wilder savages, with no protection but their

own

own courage and skill and won the great West from the

Their

arms.

strong

daring, practically unaided, British

and the Indians and added

the Revolutionary

with

!

the

really the creature of the Transyl-

Mr. Ranck very properly began the

Colony, and

narrative

of

treaty

The

chased from the Indians. fort

Watauga

by which the southern half

775.

to the rich fruits of

War.

Boonesborough was vania

it

of

in

the spring

of

Kentucky was pur-

building of a

protecting

on the acquired lands on the Kentucky River near the

mouth

of Otter

Creek and the gathering

of pioneer families

there and the rise of a town around the fort followed in

the natural order of sequence.

and

sieges

And

naturally follow, with

atrocities

and

however,

in

sufferings.

spite of

The

all

so did their

confined

life

Indian war

heart-rending of

the

fort,

the dangers outside of the pickets,

soon began to drive the inhabitants to extramural cabins

upon lands selected after

for farms.

It

was not many years

Boonesborough was deserted and log cabins with women and children in them on bits of cleared land peeped out here and there from this

process

began

before

the dark shadows of the surrounding forest.

The steady

Preface

viii

and

decline

final extinction of

the fort and town naturally

followed the exodus of their inhabitants to the near and

The whole

distant farms.

and

fact

embracing every

historic field

has been covered,

tradition that

need be known,

and including biographic sketches of some of the leading Old and characters in those stirring and perilous times. manuscripts and scarce books and forgotten news-

rare

papers have been searched, and the whole story told in the book before us as

Not the

least

Ranck's work are

is

has never been told before.

it

important and instructive part of Mr.

its

excellent halftone illustrations.

illustrations too often are, but

the old

fort,

of

Boonesborough

numbered and a

There

lots.

Fine pictures represent

the fresh water spring, the river,

and other views

the ferry,

town

lick,

of the landscape, including the

itself is

with

Indians.

ticable scene Still

fort

after

by a suggestive merit

laid-off streets

men making

they discovered the

The author has

another

its

and

a striking likeness of Boone,

spirited picture of the treaty

back to the

as

meeting of the delegates, the

the place of

sulphur well, the salt

book,

appear at the pages where

they are described and belong.

the

the

not scattered indiscriminately through

These

of

Extracts from scarce books

their

way

treachery of

thus covered every prac-

picture.

the

now

work

is

the

Appendix.

inaccessible to the gen-

Preface manuscripts which exist only

eral reader, transcriptions of

in single originals at distant places,

and

newspapers

Among Indians

conveyed

is

the

up

appendix.

Henderson and

Richard

to

Colony

kept by Judge

Henderson while on

land of Transylvania and

therefrom

the

;

while

proclamations of

asso-

his

the southern part

all

Kentucky, embracing about 20,000,000 acres

nal

from old

articles

the deed by which the Cherokee

ciates for the Transylvania of

make

pamphlets

the selections

and

;

the Jour-

his proprietary

going to and returning the

Governors

Vir-

of

and North Carolina denouncing the Transylvania

ginia

enterprise; the Journal of the proceedings of the assembly of

Transylvania delegates to

trip

Boonesborough

Felix Walker's diary

;

in

1775,

and

of

numerous

his

other

papers that are valuable to the student of history.

A

book without an index

this rapid age.

and

No

is

open

to

many

one has time to turn over the leaves

The book under

what he may want to read. consideration is open to no such fault. lists

find

of

the illustrations in the text

appendix, giving the page of each, eral

index,

on which

giving each subject it

is

objections in

found.

It

is

Besides separate

and it

of articles in the

has an ample gen-

and name, and the page

an index,

too,

which gives

word with such certainty that we are disappointed when we turn to the given page. the

initial

not

Preface

x

be seen at a glance that the author has gone

will

It

he has given

to the original sources for his material, that

us no rehash of other books

and that

important part.

to appreciate

is

of other writers' opinions,

Another element

its

of

and

full

this

in

play

volume that no lover

in this

A

records

British

and

of

their

field

and value

strength

will fail

genuine history of

citation

free

very

authorities.

quibbler would have to contend with these authorities

not with the writer of the text.

alone It

seems, therefore, that the book of which this

preface of

a work of merit in

is

Boonesborough from

its

extinction in less than half

by

it

in

fullness

told all that

and

had need

before any thing

new

he has told

story as

been gone over,

in

all

its.

a century afterward

and

The whole

given

be long

added

historic

to the

field

has

gleaned every thing that

related to the vanished town or to

its

men and women who imparted

the

is

will

it

or important can be

it

its final

Indeed, the author has

of being told,

and from

a

history

beginning in 1775 to

detail.

it.

The

parts.

is

connections, or to to

it

their

own

immortality.

This

The

is

fifteen

the sixteenth publication of

volumes which preceded

it

The

Filson Club.

were issued from

year to year, and have gone forth into the world as pro-

moters of

history

and biography.

The

club

began

its

Preface when

work

in

of its

members

1884,

until all the

jects of

was formed, and

to continue in the

important matters

monographs and

women have form no

their

all of

who come

same

us

worth and bless us

is

the intention

line of

publications

Kentucky are the subthe representative men and of

the value of

after

it

in

Those

biographies.

just estimate of

but those

know

it

xi

in

for

us

now

living

can

such publications,

the distant future

will

them.

R. T. DURRETT, President of the Filson Club.

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.

The Author

Frontispiece

Daniel Boone,

IO

The Sulphur Well, The Lick Spring

i?

Site of Fort

25

iy

Boonesborough

Meeting of Transylvania House

30

of Delegates,

Plan of Fort Boonesborough, Site of Fort

The

Boonesborough from opposite

Hills of Clark

Relics of Daniel

35 side of river,

County

66

Boone

79

of the Treaty,

Sycamore Hollow,

The Town

of

Boonesborough,

40 5

Fort Boonesborough before Siege of 1778,

Climax

.

89 :

104 110

Residence of Judge Henderson

ri S

Boonesborough Ferry

125

The Old Sycamore,

134

BOONESBOROUGH. of

spring

THE

arrived

freedom but empire takes

not

its

had been

fate

the

than

was

lina

it

and

Kentucky,

hearts

of

struck in

But

the work.

in

in that distant forest

in

star of for

the

widely sepa-

in

no place

no American -

what

is

land keener

North Caro-

in

so conspicuous as in the scattered

settlement of Watauga, 3

American

unconscious instruments of

of

North Carolina, 2 and

in

assertion

1

of

Colony was the interest

the

The hour had

way."

fired for

The time had

come.

and "Westward the

spread,

permanent settlement rated regions

for

only

for its

had

1775

little

frontier

now East Tennessee.

'See Appendix A for "The Name Kentucky." 2 Which may be accounted for -by the fact that Gist, Findlay, Boone, many of the Long Hunters, and other Kentucky explorers were residents of

North Carolina. 3

The

usually mentioned in a general way as 1775, with its stockades, cabins, and clearings, distance along the Watauga River, in the region now known

scattered

"Watauga," for quite a

settlement,

straggled,

as Carter County,

in

Tennessee, and then included

Shoals, Colonel Charles Robertson's,

Elizabethton, and other interesting

"The Old sites.

As

"The

Fort," Sycamore

Fields," since occupied by the name Watauga is con-

nected with sundry things and places in Carter County, it may be well to say that this, the original pioneer Watauga we have described, must not be confused with the new town of Watauga, on the Southern Railroad, six or

seven miles from the historic

Watauga

of

which we

write.

Boonesborough

2

Ever since the preceding kept the minds of

its

a train of circumstances

had

inhabitants on that enticing country.

their old friend

First,

fall

and

pilot,

Daniel Boone,

who had

'

hunted there longer than any one, and who was stopping "

temporarily at

2 Snoddy's on the Clinch," had passed

through their settlement more than once on his way the Valley of the

Holston to the principal seats of the

Everybody knew

Cherokees. 3

Boone and these

down

Indians

Overhill

comradeship between

of the ;

had

that he

killed

deer with them and had slept in their cabins, but they also

knew

that

lands on which

had recently

the

Cherokees claimed

he had

the

very

hunted so much and where he

tried to settle with his family,

and somehow

the impression was

made

about Kentucky.

Later there was quite a buzz

"from

was "going on"

that something

over the news that Boone and two

clearings

across the

head men

Ridge"

still

goods"

all

more the

Watauga and

lively

carefully

the

strangers

and, in December, curiosity

when a wagon

way from

in

had held powwows with the

4

of the Cherokees,

became

game

train of

Fayetteville

inspected by six

was

"Indian

stored

silent,

in

watchful

'See Appendix B for note on "Boone Before 1775." See footnote on page 38, and Appendix C, for " Boone's First Attempt to Colonize Kentucky." 3 Chota, Tellico, and Tellassee. 2

4

The Blue Ridge Mountains, which shut

the old communities of North Carolina.

off

the infant settlement from

Boonesborough chiefs

the

of

Overhill

whole thing came

when

guessed,

pany,"

'

'

out,

advertised

publicly

the

order

Cherokees,

for

Watauga settlement grant,

the

Ocanostota,

to

had

and Com-

for

consider,

head

chief

his

people

of

meeting

spring

for himself

the

Kentucky and Indian runners car-

'

purchased,

a

Day

frontiersmen

"settlers

for "

of

Christmas

the shrewd

as

Richard Henderson,

lands about to be ried

On

tribes.

3

among

of

the

at the

other things, a

already substantially agreed upon, of those same

far-spreading lands.

Boone had kept

Settlers said

it

was

plain

now why

big family conveniently near to the

his

Warrior's Path ever since he had been driven back from

Walden's Ridge interrupted

plan

;

that he

had never once given up

plant a colony in Kentucky, but to

to

decrease the risks he wanted to the

full

make

his next start with

consent of the Cherokees, and so had suggested

and urged the formation

of this

accomplish his purpose as

its

new Company, and would

agent.

3

Judge Henderson, the ostensible head

was one 1

his

of the leading lawyers of the

of the

Colony

Company, of

North

Colonial Records of North Carolina.

"Richard Henderson was a native of Hanover County, Virginia, where he was born April 20, 1735, but had been a citizen of North Carolina

when

settled there. He was a been deferred and his opportunities came late, but he was gifted with pluck and ability, and when he did start he made rapid progress, and especially in his chosen profession, the law,

since 1756,

self-made man.

his father,

Samuel Henderson,

His education had

Boonesborough

4

and had

Carolina, ciate

Justices

of

self-reliant

Supreme

its

man

showy, he was a

recently been

until

one of the Asso-

Court.

Though

rather

genuine ability and culture, was

of

and a worker, and, though noticeable always

for enterprise

and ambition, had surprised the Colony by

the magnitude and boldness of his present venture. the

of

members

nine

North Carolina and

them were of

Company were

citizens

of

"from over the Ridge."

Three

of

of

the

residents of the then

Granville,

viz

All

very extensive

County

Henderson, John Williams, his cousin

:

and a bright lawyer, and Leonard Henley Bullock, exsheriff of the county and a connection also. The others,

who

lived in or near the adjoining

who were mainly a

Scotchman and

Hart, one of the 1

Indians

;

commercial

in

talented

first

of the

Thomas and David

County life,

man

of

Orange, and

of

were James Hogg, affairs

Company

to

;

Nathaniel

"sound"

the

Hart, his brothers, and John

and William Johnstone. The announcement of so novel an enterprise and

Luttrell

at

and in 1768 was appointed one of the Associate Justices of North Carolina. This position he held until his court was closed in 1770 by the Regulators,

who

rose against the corrupt

of the province.

and arbitrary exactions of the royal government is said to have sustained pecuniary losses,

After this he

and

in 1774 he seized upon Boone's suggestion as a means of repairing and augmenting his fortune. (Wheeler, Ramsey, and Draper.) 'Nathaniel Hart was born in Hanover County, Virginia, in 1734, but

moved

to

North Carolina

in

his youth.

sides against the Regulators in

1771.

Like Henderson, he had

taken

Boonesborough such

a

disturbed

and

threatening

created a sensation, and at least one officer

affairs

Colony anxiously inquired

If

lost

and had decided that

The Shawanese and

the very time to strike.

other Northern

Indians had

at Point Pleasant,

but recently been defeated

and had obligated themselves by treaty

hunt no more on the Kentucky side of the Ohio.

and

of the

Dick Henderson had

carefully investigated Kentucky,

now was

to

'

But "Dick" not only still possessed that conbut had used it. With the aid of Boone he

venience,

had

'

public '

"

head?

his

of

juncture

prior treaties

seemed

to leave

This

no other Indian claim-

ants to the Louisa 5 country but the Cherokees, and, to

as

Great Britain, her claim seemed destined to utter extinin

guishment

the Colonies.

enough

to

Carolina,

the conflict she was so rapidly forcing upon

The importance

Josiah

of the

Martin, the royal

and on the loth

movement was Governor

of February, 1775,

of

plain

North

he issued a

'Archibald Nelson, in Col. Rec. N. C. Kentucky seems never to have been known by any but Indian names until a short time before 1775, when "Louisa" came into limited use a

among

the whites.

The

generally accurate Bradford helped to perpetuate

the error that the Kentucky River was given the English

name "Louisa"

by Doctor Walker twenty-six years before this treaty, but not only does Marshall declare that Walker did not reach the interior of the country, as writers assert that it was a tributary of the Big Sandy It was that the of so named. on given 1750 explorer Jefferson's map some time after Walker's tour before the name of this tributary was applied to the country itself, and then, fortunately, it quickly subsided before the

but

later

original

and ancient Indian name

Kentucky.

Boonesborough

6

1

it

denouncing

proclamation

"a

as

lawless undertaking," "

4

'

an infraction of the Royal prerogative,

the of

Company,

it

if

persisted in

course,

its

and threatened "with the pain

His Majesty's displeasure and the most rigorous pen-

that this

The

law."

alties of the

greatness of the political change

had already occurred is evidenced by the proclamation was completely ignored.

Boone, who had been commissioned by the to

that

fact

Company

open a road to the Kentucky River, never ceased

woodmen

lecting

Powell's

in

concentrated them at

arrangements visions for to the

for

the

Long

the

Valley for 2

Island,

col-

the work, and

in the Holston.

While

were being made, pro-

expedition

entertainment of the Cherokees went on

appointed conference ground, and so did the Indians

and the white men, and early crowd that had ever gathered

in

in

March, 1775, the biggest

the

Watauga Settlement

of

North Carolina was encamped about the stockaded cabins of

3 Sycamore Shoals. 1

This spot, which took

its

name

For

text of proclamation see Appendix D. This noted island, which was about twenty-six miles from the appointed rendezvous, is nearly three miles long, is in main Holston River near the 2

junction of

its

north and south forks, and

is

included in the present Sullivan

County, Tennessee. 3

Boone,

in his Filson

memoir, merely states that the treaty took place

"at Watauga," without specifying the particular spot in the settlement that was used. Felix Walker, in his narrative, says it occurred "at Colonel Charles Robertson's," whose home tract in 1775 was about a mile west of Sycamore Shoals, but which, with Fort

Watauga near

by, often at that

Boonesborough from

the

was then the seat and which

tion,

trees

great sycamore

is

distinguished by

was on the southern bank three miles below

Elizabethton, It

in

which adorned

now famous Watauga

the

of

"The Old what

is

of

known

the

its

which

Associa-

memories,

'

Watauga River about

now Carter County, Tennessee. to the Indians, in a valley

and beauty, and bottom lands that

for its fertility

on the spacious stretch of rich

here,

historic

it,

Fields," the site of the present

was a rendezvous, familiar

that has long been

7

were bordered on one side by the winding river and on the other by the swelling foothills of Yellow Mountain,

and wigwams were pitched and the solemn, cereThe negomonious, and deliberate conference was held. tiators in behalf of the Company were Henderson and tents

Boone, Nathaniel Hart and Luttrell.

The most prom-

time designated the general Sycamore Shoals neighborhood. In his Annals of Tennessee, Ramsey, who was personally familiar with the historic spots included in the attention,

seems

to

Watauga

definitely locates

and who gave these points especial the treaty ground at Sycamore Shoals, which

Settlement,

be the verdict of both tradition and later investigation, which further it included the land opposite the late residence of Alfred M. C.

specify that

The writer is indebted to the Taylor and present home of E. D. Jobe. of N. E. and Messrs. D. N. Reese, of Carter County, Tencourtesy Hyder about the topography of the Watauga region. was the seat of that famous little republic, the Watauga Associathe tion, which was the beginning of the political history of Tennessee place where the permanent settlement of Kentucky was assured, and the rendezvous five years after of the patriot riflemen who rode from thence to King's Mountain and victory. nessee, 1

for facts

It

;

Boonesborough

8

inent

representatives

the aged, crippled,

kees

more aged, but matists

and distinguished head

still

Savanooko, and Dragging Canoe.

;

and extent

the price offered,

and

Ocanostota,

of the

Chero-

reputed the ablest of the Indian diplo-

Days were consumed daries

were

Indians

remarkable Attacullaculla, withered and even

the

;

the

of

the consideration of the boun-

in

of the

'

territory the

and the wisdom

Company

desired,

making such a

of

interpreters were kept busy translating "talks"

documents and speeches.

made by

treaty were

Earnest

protests

against

orators of the Cherokees,

sale,

and the

and espe-

by the eloquent and prophetic Dragging Canoe, but

cially

without

Grant

"

effect, 2

and on the

was signed, and

i

/th

for the

of

March

'

'

The Great

merchandise then stored

on the ground and valued at .10,000 Henderson and his associates

of the

were declared the owners

of territory south

Kentucky River, comprising more than

3 present State of Kentucky.

The

half of the

twelve hundred Indians

present assented to the treaty, and, though a few of them

grumbled that they had received only one 1

shirt apiece for

Virginia Archives.

'So named

to distinguish it from the Path Deed," signed at the same by which the Cherokees granted Henderson and Company another great tract which was on the Holston, Clinch, and Powell rivers. (See United States Register for 1840.)

conference,

3

For

of the

full

deed

description of the boundary of the

in

Appendix E.

Kentucky grant, see copy

Boonesborough

9

their share of the territory, the transaction

been open and

and certainly they

1

fair,

seems

have

joined at the

all

close of the meeting in the big feast the

to

Company had

provided.

The

plans of the

Company

for taking possession of the

magnificent Kentucky domain had already been arranged.

A

spot had been selected for headquarters directly on the

Kentucky River, near the mouth streams, which was as a road to

known even then

was a matter

it

Company, assured making

of

it

of

determined

Island before the treaty

for

Long

as

soon as he could be spared,

work.

His quota of

axes were there

all

in

who had

woodmen

tributary

as Otter Creek, 1 and,

advance, and Boone

in

its

immediate necessity, the

of

success,

one of

of

to

rush

the

Sycamore Shoals was concluded, and just left

in

order to direct the

with their hatchets and

waiting at the island, and

among

others

cast in their fortunes with the expedition

were his brother, the

tried explorer,

Squire Boone, and his

old Yadkin neighbor, Richard Calloway,

ably older than Boone,

3

was a native

who was

consider-

of Caroline County,

1

See deposition of Charles Robertson in Appendix F. Probably so named by an early hunter from the Peaks of Otter, though the otter itself was found there. 3

3

Daniel Boone, according to the Calloway was born about 1724. records of the monthly meeting of Exeter Township (now Berks County), Pennsylvania, was born November 2 (new style), 1734, and Doctor Draper says that date was entered by Boone himself on his family record.

Boonesborough

io

had been a captain

Virginia,

War, and was a

colonel

when he removed also

to

of

in

the

North

the

French and Indian

Bedford County

Carolina.

1

militia

The Company

Captain William Twetty and seven other

included

adventurous land hunters from Rutherford County, North Carolina.

On

the tenth of March,

all

being ready, this memorable

mounted men, armed, but mainly for huntno trouble was expected from Indians, and followed

party of thirty ing, as

by negro servants, loaded pack-horses, and hunting dogs, started out under the command of Captain Daniel Boone to

connect buffalo roads, Indian traces,

trails of

hunters and

Indian traders, and the great Warrior Path, to cut through forests

and canebrakes that were

tances on mile-trees, and thus

to

trackless, blaze the dis-

make

the

and continuous road through the wilderness

first

regular

to the

Ken-

Climbing the dreary ridges that loomed up

tucky River.

between them and Cumberland Gap, they threaded that sublime

2

defile,

forded rivers that for ages had been name-

and swallowed up in a region vast and solitary, were heard of no more until they had toiled over that depression less

the

of

since

historic

Big Hill

of

the present county of

1

Draper. *

Cumberland Gap is one of the grandest of natural passages. narrow roadway extends for six miles between mountain sides that twelve hundred feet above it.

Its

rise

DANIEL BOONE. (In his old age.)

From an

Oil I'aiinin

l,>

Chester Harding, owned by Colonel R. T. Uurrett, of Louisville, Kentucky.

ll

Boonesborough Madison, Kentucky, known to

day as "Boone's Gap,"

this

and had camped by a forest stream five miles south of the site of the then undreamed-of town of Richmond, Ken1

Here, on the 25th of March, before daylight, after

tucky.

an undisturbed journey of two weeks, and while confident of continued peace, they

were suddenly

who

A

retired.

quickly

fired

on by Indians,

manservant of Captain

negro

Twetty was instantly killed, Captain Twetty himself was mortally wounded and soon died, and a young companion, Felix

was

Walker,

nights after this

Only two another attack was made, and presumwounded."

dangerously

ably by the same Indians, and this time on a

little

detach-

ment which had camped near a stream some distance from With characteristic imprudence the men the main party. had lighted a casins

when

fire

and were drying

their badly-soaked

moc-

the savages surprised them, killing and scalp-

Thomas McDowell and Joseph McPheeters, and stampeding the balance, who ran barefooted through the snow ing

One

and escaped. Valley,

of the

men, Samuel Tate,

of Powell's

took to the stream to hide his tracks, for

it

was

a moonlight night, and from that day to this the stream

has been known as Tate's Creek. 3 1

2 3

Boone, who evidently

Walker's Narrative, Appendix G, and depositions of pioneers. Walker's Narrative, Appendix H, and Boone's letter to Henderson. Booue. Nat. Hart, junior, in Frankfort Commonwealth of July 25,

1838. letter,

Hart errs

in

date of this attack, which

is

correctly given in Boone's

which was written only four days after the

affair.

Boonesborough

i2

this

thought all

was the beginning

of a serious effort to drive

the white people from the country,

have been invested by the posted

off "

panies

of hunters

and

present Harrodsburg

Creek, and on the

1

settlers

'

then

of

dead and careful attention

April,

to the

in the vicinity of the

of the

of Otter

burial of the

wounded man, he

send aid as soon as possible, and said

way

mouth

after the

a messenger to Judge Henderson, urging

contained

the lower com-

all of

to concentrate at the

first

excited people

him

started

to bring or

in his quiet,

who were

for the

mouth

of Otter Creek,

Boone did not even know

men would

and would

'

'

very

start that

day

erect a fort there.

for certain

was yet on the road, but he was.

self-

sure that

another Indian war had commenced, that they were uneasy," and that he and his

to

with military powers,

Company

a courier at once, ordering

and who seems

that

Henderson

Prompt and

energetic,

he had completed his preparations two days after the treaty

March,

was signed, and on the 1

in spite of

third

day,

the

aoth

of

a threatened denunciation from another

1

Henderson says in his journal: "These men had got possession some time before we got here." It is plain from both Boone and Henderson that the site of Harrodsburg had been occupied just before they came, but Boonesborough, organized, garrisoned, and provisioned, was the only substantial settlement in

Kentucky in the spring of 1775, and the only one that insured the manent occupancy of the country. *

Henderson's Journal, Appendix

I.

per-

Boonesborough governor,

13

Lord Dunmore, he started from

little

sturdy

Watauga toward the distant land of his golden dream. The expedition was a prophecy of permanent occupation, for

a

it

included not only forty mounted riflemen

number

of

and quite

negro slaves, but a drove of beeves, forty

pack-horses, and

a

ammunition,

ions,

'

corn, garden seed,

wagons loaded with

of

train

material

provis-

making gunpowder, seed

for

and a varied store

necessity at an isolated settlement.

of articles of

prime

Henderson was accom-

panied by four other members of the Company, viz

:

the

Harts and John Luttrell, by his brother, Samuel Hender-

and by the

son,

patriotic

William Cocke," who had recently

declined militia service under the royal Governor of Virginia,

whose proclamation

they

started,

imprisonment

threatening if

it

was issued the very day

3

the

persisted

with

Company

in

the

fine

after

and

occupancy of crown

lands in Virginia "under a pretended purchase from the Indians."

had

left

Cocke was from Amelia County, Virginia, and his young wife at Watauga when he started to

"prospect."

He was

a stranger to Henderson,

suspected what material was

in

haired rifleman of twenty-seven.

this

Another member

Appendix, Henderson's Journal.

For

text of

of the

the witnesses of

'Walker and Calk. 3

little

black-eyed, black-

party was William Bailey Smith, one of

a

who

Dunmore's proclamation see Appendix

J.

Boonesborougk

14

the recent treaty,

was a native

too,

was

a

tall,

1

He,

He

migrated to North Carolina.

lately

unstable

rollicking,

as surveyor.

where he had served as major

of Virginia,

had

of militia, but

who was going out

bachelor,

energetic

and

brave, but with quite a turn for embellishing facts.

The

expedition, following

managed

in

directly in

Boone's

ten days, after clearing the road

to get through with the

to the

wagons

last

still

was

occupied

Company's agent purchase, in

advance

who

Captain

by

with several

men seems

Henderson's party.

of

and the savages who frequented it

as a peltry buyer,

when he had distant

been

driven

spot,

away by

to

the its

have gone on

he had explored

for

it,

five

a

established

and lonely

Martin,

Martin knew that region

and the cabin

same one he had used

the

This log

Powell's Valley division of

the

for

Joseph

more,

cabin on the

blazed route leading up to Cumberland Gap. shelter

tracks,

2

is

said to have been

years

little

before this time

trading -post

at

this

from which he had subsequently the

Indians.

Here

at

Martin's,

*

2

is

Draper. This cabin or station was

known

as Boone's

Path

in

what

Post-office.

now Lee County, Virginia, and Captain Martin, who at the aboveis

mentioned time was about Virginia.

He was

thirty-five, was a native of Albemarle County, a soldier in the French and Indian War, later on was

in 1769 settled in Powell's Valley. He served as capa company of scouts in Dunmore's War of 1774, and at its close became interested in the Henderson and Company scheme. (N. Cyclopedia

a fur trader, and tain of

of American Biography,

Volume VII.)

Boonesborough

'5

Henderson's party was joined by William Calk and four other immigrants from Virginia, and here they had to give

wagons, hide sulphur,

their

up

and

heavy material, their

carry

narrow

had

out with

It

attack

was on the 7th

of

arrived,

the

striking

bombshell and causing a few of the

The

back track that very night. several

of

pack-horses only to

April,'

when they

reached the Gap, that Boone's letter about the

just

first

of other

baggage over the freshly marked but very

trace.

Indian

start

and overplus

salt,

who had

started from

Boone

next day they met the

companies of panic-stricken adventurers

savage troubles, and to notify

camp like a small men to start on the

in

Kentucky

it

became

advance

at the earliest

news of

at once vitally important

of the

slow-moving pack-train

that aid was approaching in order to encourage his

hold

to

their

It

ground.

and they had reached

was the tenth

the

banks

River before any thing was done.

of

of

the

the

There, when most of

force

a

ing

messenger

to

Boone,

expecting to hear that even back, 1

3

the gallant

Henderson's

letter,

Henderson's

letter,

month

Cumberland

had been further demoralized by the more fleeing refugees, when Henderson despaired

the

men

and when

sight of of find-

everybody was

Boone's party had turned

2 Captain Cocke volunteered to be the

Appendix K. Appendix L.

Boonesborough

16

No

courier to the unterrified pioneer.

So, provided with

with him. ket,

one offered to go

"a good Queen Anne mus-

plenty of ammunition, a tomahawk, a large 'cuttoe'-

1

a Dutch blanket, and no small quantity of jerked

knife,

beef," he started out alone thirty miles over a wild

and

on a ride solitary

of a

hundred and

path which, according

stampeded throng, was beset by murderous ambuscades. It was one of the most romantic deeds in the to the

2

annals of the wilderness, and the hero of to be

it

was destined

heard of again.

But the sturdy and determined Boone had not turned He had started, as he said he would, from "the back.

way through the cane down

battle-ground," had cut a

the

meandering course of Otter Creek to the southern bank of the

Kentucky

River,

and had there connected

his

path

with a great buffalo trace which led broad and clear to the

site,

chosen

on the same side

for

the

official

seat

of of

the the

river,

which he had

Company.

horsemen moved on there was a sudden sound trampling

of

many

feet,

and when with eager

As

the

like

the

interest

they hastened nearer to the selected ground they saw a 1

2

Corruption of the French word "couteau" and redundancy besides. According to Mr. William Chenault, the historical writer of Richmond,

Kentucky, Cocke was fortunate enough before he reached Boone's camp to catch up with another horseman named Page Portwood, and the two then journeyed together.

t I

w

r

|

Boonesborough two or three hundred buffalo

drove of a

salt

calves

the midst of

in

lick

that

unconscious of an kind from

forded

the

about

was

the face of the earth.

off

from

to

as

they went,

nearly wipe

The ponderous

their

beasts

and disappeared, and the haunt that

river

the white

relief

that

making

and followed by young

it

skipped

enemy

they had known to

and

played

'

'7

unnumbered

for

man

forever.

ages was abandoned

The woodsmen

realized with

and some wonder that the project that so many had

shaken their heads at so solemnly was really accomplished.

Here the road ended. labored at saplings,

it!

blazing the ing

logs

long they seemed to have

day they had toiled, chopping down away vines and overhanging branches,

Day

cutting

How

after

way through woods, marking

and

holes, burning

fallen timber,

mile-trees,

connecting paths,

remov-

filling sink-

ways through dead brush, logging streams

for future footmen, cutting

swaths through almost endless

canebrakes, and so pushing that rough, thread-like but

all-

important trace deeper and deeper into the silent wilderness, until

home and

But the work was

settlements seemed

finished at last.

At

left

behind forever.

last in

deed and

in

by that river Kentucky which so often had seemed but a fable and a dream. The settlement site, truth they stood

where the long road and

historic

march terminated, included

Walker's Narrative. 4

Boonesborough

i8

a beautiful level in a sheltered hollow,

order to

the

halt.

It

was an

ideal

where Boone gave place for a camp.

1

thanks to generations of animals that had haunted the lick, was open, firm, and almost free from

The

rich

soil,

the trampled undergrowth, and, except about the broad buffalo path, was adorned, early as

white great patches of fine

clover

lick it

and

was,

3

in

with

and thickly carpeted

with a natural grass incomparable for richness and beauty,

now

so

known

widely

as

"Kentucky Bluegrass."

3

The

a feature whose spot was blessed with two bold springs,

importance no one but a pioneer could appreciate, and which, more than any thing else, caused Boone to select it. 1

Boone, Walker, and Henderson. According to the journals of early settlers and to Filson and Imlay, The spring began much earlier in the days of the pioneers than now. 2

destruction of the once all-pervading forests worked a great change in the

climate of Kentucky. 3

The

in

familiar tradition that blue grass is

was growing

at

Boonesborough

fully accepted by the writer, but not the story that "it grew

1775 from seeds planted by an English woman who settled there when Boone came." There was not only no white woman of any nationality at the fort until

September,

1775, but

the

evidence

is

incontestable that blue grass

was known as a native Kentucky product long before that time. James Nourse in his journal says, under date of May 30, 1775, that the growth of blue grass in central Kentucky was "amazing," while Gist in his journal 1751 mentions blue grass as a product of the almost unknown country Miami Indians nearly a quarter of a century before the white man settled permanently in the western wilderness. The term "blue grass" is

of

of the

it is green, and its apparently contrabe accounted for as an abbreviation of blue only for it reaches its of state on the grass," highest perfection

misleading, for, like dictory

all

other grasses,

name can

limestone

blue limestone

soil

'

of

Kentucky.

'

; -

I

> =

H " L n

x

o

Boonesboro^lgh The

i9

spring that was nearest the river was a sulphur

one, which soon accounted to the experienced for the existence of the lick

the

around

had been impregnated

soil

the

sulphur

was

still

from

the

The

river,

as

"The

2

which

other spring, which

furnished an abundant

supply of fresh water, but, curiously enough,

became known

found that

for ages with salt

water contained.

further

woodsmen

for they

it,

'

it

eventually

Lick Spring," a name that the

sulphur one was naturally entitled

Not

to.

from them

far

both were grouped some of the grandest trees that ever

human

delighted the

Of

noticeable.

Four

eye.

these,

three

of

them were

especially

were immense sycamores, 3

whose white trunks had been polished by the incessant touch of the salt-hunting elk and buffalo and deer, and one was an elm so magnificent in

its

proportions and

branches that one

the

in

who saw

it

in size

and so exceptional

spread of in

all

its

its

far-reaching

glory,

and had a

'The terms "salt spring" and "salt lick" are not synonymous, as some authorities on Kentucky seem to have supposed. Filson mentions a salt

"spring"

at

Boonesborough, meaning, probably, a

the actual settlers of

lick,

for

none

of

the

place record the existence of a spring of that kind in the locality, and so far as now known the lick was the result of the salt precipitated from the water of the sulphur spring, and not from

common salt one. Felix Walker, writing in his old age, speaks of both springs as sulphur ones, an error which the waters themselves make plain. 'Chloride of sodium, or common salt. a

3

The

occidental

buttouwood

tree.

plane

tree,

called

in

some American

localities the

20

Boonesborougk

Near by the ancient river ran solemn and beautiful, deep down between the rugged steepness of its southern side and the wooded soul

to

appreciate

called

it,

heights and everlasting

The

charms

natural

"divine."

it

that shut in the other shore.

hills

of the distant treaty

more Shoals were strangely duplicated

ground of Sycathe

in

camping-

"Sycamore Hollow." And here, on the ist of 1775, about a mile and a quarter below the mouth of

ground 2

April,

Boone and

of Otter Creek,

men unloaded after a

huts

1

their

good long

for

located

horses,

rest,

'

harassed and tired woods-

cooked a simple meal, and,

began the erection

and

shelter

temporary '

his

defense. 3

about sixty yards from the

They were "

river,

over two hundred yards southwest of the

several log

of

4

lick,

something 5

and con-

what was immediately named "Fort Boone." 6 " This so-called fort was neglected from the start. The

stituted

'

'

road-makers were so much engrossed with securing land and in the 1

2

3

wholesale destruction of animals for their skins that

Henderson. Boone. " Daniel Boone had

erecting

some small huts

prevailed

fragment of William Cocke. 4 Boone's own words. 5

men to assist him in an extract from a manuscript Wis. H. Library.)

upon

fifteen

for defense," says

(Copy

in

Compare distances given by Henderson, W.

B. Smith, and Bowman. have received that name as soon as erected, and is so called familiarly in both Henderson's and Calk's journals, under date of 6

It

seems

April 20, 1775.

to

The "borough"

termination was added later on.

21

Boonesborough even the

killing of

on the 4th It is plain,

of April

one of their comrades by the Indians did not

'

move them

to

complete

it.

though, that only the coolness and intrepidity of

Boone prevented the country from being entirely abanHenderson afterward doned, as it was the year before. was owing to Boone's confidence in us and 1 the people's in him that a stand was ever attempted." The whole panic subsided as quickly as it had started

declared, "it

when

it

was found that the attacks came from a

lously small

the

for

strongly stalk.

3

least,

number

settlers,

all

of

adventurous Indians.

condemned by

the chivalric and influential Corn-

The

Point Pleasant was, for a time at

treaty of

observed, and for more than a year from the date

this

season of peace, and so

savages were surprise,

almost

Indians visited

of

last

at Boone's settle-

ment, except in one solitary instance. 3

he

was a blessed

It

when Captain Cocke

arrived the

and

to

forgotten,

he,

greatly

found that his plucky adventure and the

brought excited

as

much

interest

as

reinforcements which he had risked his

life

1

2

Fortunately

such violent acts of bad faith were

murder no regular party Kentucky, and no skulker did mischief

of

the

his

letters

news

of

to bring.

Boone's Nar.

Henderson's

letter of July 12, 1775,

Appendix.

The Company,

September meeting, granted Boone two thousand acres services. 3

ridicu-

Williams'

letter,

Appendix.

of

land

at

for

its

his

Boonesborough

22

Judge Henderson and party, which now included Robert and Samuel McAfee, reached the unfinished and only 1

half-watched

little

on the 2oth of April, the Judge's

fort

They were welcomed with a discharge and with much rejoicing, and were all seated

fortieth birthday. of

rifles

forthwith to a dinner of cold water

down

buffalo

which the Judge declared was the most joyful ban-

beef,

Of that there could not be the shadow

quet he ever saw. of

and lean

a doubt, for with

ended the most intense and pro-

it

and anxiety he had ever experienced. The immense region of incalculable value for which he

tracted strain of care

and

Company had

his

after

grasp,

was

which,

to

seemed a eries,

the

was

so

still

and a journey

safe,

one used to

inns,

over.

To

from their

a solid

and

month,

court -rooms,

aggravations, and mis-

such a man, worn out and disgusted,

such a burden changed the poorest hunter's

lifting of

meal into a banquet

who saw an

to slip

of

offices,

solid year of hardships,

and which day

much,

many days seemed about

for

day

risked

'

fit

"

'

Ingin,

for the gods.

And

to the negroes,

bloody handed and awful, behind

every rock and tree on the route, the sight of the log huts

was as a

laughter,

merry songs, and exclamations

1

sight

Henderson's journal.

persuaded them

to

of

heaven

itself,

and

their loud

of delight

Henderson met them returning

go back.

little

echoed

to Virginia

and

23

Boonesborough along the river and eighty persons in

the

But with

the very hill-tops.

among

united companies,

boys

including

and negroes, the food question was a serious one, and especially since

driven

game.

away Even

the

the

improvident woodsmen had

but lately abounding multitudes of big early in the action squads of

this

had

detailed from the sixty-five riflemen,'

twenty, and

hunters,

to range fifteen,

even thirty miles away for the wild meat

was almost the

that

quickly

sole

dependence

of

the

settlers,

for

bread was already becoming a rarity and promised to give out altogether long

before the corn crop' could

Fortunately some of Boone's

days after they arrived.

men had

bers signing

it

tain

in

planted,

common

and com-

mem-

the

an agreement to appear every morning at

the blast of a horn or sound of a fields or

planted corn a few

More was now

panies were organized to work

mature.

drum and

labor in the

stand guard while others worked, as the "cap-

"

required.

3

Henderson saw as soon as he came that

his

men,

and especially his gunpowder, would require much more commodious and substantial shelter than either his

stores,

tents 1

or

Boone's

little

cabins could

It

is

also

Cocke.

*

Of course we refer here only meaning of the word in America. 3

afford.

United States Register.

to

maize or Indian corn, the accepted

Boonesborough

24

intimated

Boone's position was exposed to

that

from the over-topping

which

is

fire

of the river,

considering the distance, but especially

doubtful,

the fact that

on the other side

hills

rifle

the forests on

dense as to completely shut

both

sides

were

But

observation.

off

then so it

might

be that danger from very probable overflow of the river

Be

was considered.

at once to erect a

strong enough to

present settlers,

He

that as

fort that

may, Henderson decided

it

would be large enough and

accommodate and protect the and be capable of easy future

selected a site for

stores

extension.

on the opposite side of the

it

and

lick

from Boone's quarters and about three hundred yards from them,

staked

but

off

the

of

line

than a hundred yards of the

less it

1

was reached by a

hilly ascent.

its

lick

front

wall within

itself,

from which

The chosen

spot, there-

was much higher than the camp-ground it overlooked, which soon became known as " The Hollow "- -the " Sycafore,

more Hollow"

of

to-day

pioneer times than plateau, '

log

'

it

is

which now.

and was probably as "

huts,

but though

it

was much deeper

The close

fort

to

the

was on a

river

as the

was many feet above the water, have extended along a cliff, as

it

could hardly be said to

it

has sometimes been represented.

At any

back as the memory of the oldest residents 1

site

in

Henderson and Cocke.

rate,

as far

of the neigh-

M O

O H 03

O O z w D3

* i

O so O G O K

Boonesborough, borhood goes, the southern bank fallen

of

away from the

little

the river

and the

ridges,

elevated as

it

spot, as

really

is,

it

the river has always

of

does now,

in a

especially

when viewed from

The

or from the opposite shore.

itself

succession

does not appear nearly as

site

and

25

selected

ground was occupied by Henderson and most of the comers on Saturday, April reached the settlement.'

making a "clearing,"

in

and

2 ad,

the third day after they

Nearly a week was consumed shaping and notch-

felling trees,

clapboards, but on

ing

logs,

fort

was begun, under the supervision

splitting

last

of

the

29th the

Daniel Boone,

with the building of a small log magazine, which seems to

have been half under ground, with a shed roof covered with clay to protect

from sparks that would surely come

it

from chimneys and snapping that settlers

and from possible torches that attacking

One

Indians might use.

high, erected after this

of the earliest cabins,

1

"7

whom

the

which were thrown

Company was

indebted for services. 2

Henderson's Manuscript Journal, Appendix. In one item of the Company's ledger Michael Stoner is charged with 10 los 3 s 6d for powder, lead, and osnaburgs," and credited with "

work making roads Commonwealth. ) for

supplies,

to

an eager crowd of rangers, hunters, and road-

makers, to

J

one story

was made especially commodious

accommodate the Company's to

from "live chunks"

were always borrowing from each other to

start fires with,

open

flints,

to

Cantucke. "

5

(Nat.

Hart, junior, in

Frankfort

26

Boonesborough

This was the

store ever

first

Henderson took up at

this

time.

angle nearest the

been

also

his quarters

river.

when

built,

in

a

formed an angle

It

it

in

opened

block-house erected the defense

of

A number

of

much

completion of

the

other cabins had

was discovered that Indian signs

had ceased, and forthwith the workmen relaxed tions, and,

Judge

Kentucky.

their exer-

to the disgust of the leading spirits, the

the

fort

was

The

postponed.

error

has

been carelessly perpetuated that

was

entirely finished at this

Boonesborough Station time, and it is even pictured

with the stars and stripes flying over the front gate in in spite of

1775,

the fact that the

flag

was not adopted

It is gratifying to know that by Congress until 1777. the shape and general outline of this famous wooden

stronghold are not matters of mere conjecture. of

the

fort,

writing of

designed at this very time and in the hand-

of

it

is

station, as far as

it

in

herewith given.

was prosecuted

accordance with

carried out later on. sive

plan

Judge Henderson himself, was long preserved,

and a copy was done

A

this

building of the

in the spring of

plan,

which was

1775, fully

Fortunately the clearing was exten-

and ultimately cut no small

feature of the place.

The

1

A

figure

few trees were

left

as

a

defensive

standing inside

'It was in the possession of James Hall, the historical author, as late as 1835, and was copied by him.

27

Boonesborough the stockade, and

down on

the

the rugged

the long

sweep

of the

fort, but,

rifles

of

ground

in

the

river

projected

grew above

though stumps were plen-

pioneers had

a pretty clear

the rear of the defense, along the

descent to the springs siderable

to the

slope

the bank back of the tiful,

tops of several others that

in

"the hollow," and

for a con-

toward a long ridge that extended at

stretch

quite a distance off in front of the fort. " hill soon received the name of

This continuous

Hackberry Ridge."

On

the 26th

of

this

month, while the woodsmen on

the banks of the Kentucky were busy at their clearing, the representatives of the

through a

lina sought,

Company

skillful letter

1

in distant

North Caro-

that reflects the uncer-

tain condition of the times, to secure for their enterprise the

influence of the

and support

two already conspicuous

opening Revolution

Jefferson. ' '

of

Shortly after this

a plan of

lights

Henry and Thomas Judge Henderson formulated Patrick

"

for

government by popular representation

the Company's wilderness domain, and on the 8th of May, in behalf of the

bers of a "

House

proprietors, ordered

an election

of Delegates of the

Colony

of

mem-

of Transyl-

vania" to meet on the 23d of that month at Boonesborough.* its

In this call of the 8th of

"capital" are formally and for the 1

a

For

letter, see Appendix M. See Journal of the House, Appendix N.

May first

the Colony

and

time given the

28

Boonesborough

names

of

respectively

'

ough," which they bore duly held at the four

"

'

and

Transylvania

from that date. settlements

little

'

'

Boonesbor-

Elections were

south of the Ken-

1

tucky River, and on Tuesday, the 23d of May, 1775, the

chosen representatives of the Colony,

in

rifles

hand, rode

Judge HenBut while a few absolutely necessary cabins had

to the log quarters of the Chief Proprietor,

up

derson.

been

the fort

built,

was so incomplete and encumbered that

the "divine elm" in the hollow was selected as the tem-

Here the delegates did

porary forum of the capital.

their

preliminary work, and the next day, the 24th, under the

spreading

dome

fashioned,

and which overshadowed what an eye-witness

called

that the Immortal Architect himself

"a heavenly green " for

attempted

the

first

of fine white native clover,

had

was

time in the vast region west of

the Alleghanies the founding of an independent State which

proclaimed that sublime axiom that inally

the

in

largely for the

on the

people"

a

'

'

all

power

is

orig-

proprietary government

built

lines of a republic.

A House

of Delegates

Colony was there and then organized, and was

formally opened by Judge Proprietors

with

speech," in

which

a

Henderson

carefully

the

written

independence

in

behalf

of

the

and statesmanlike of

"the

newborn

1

Boonesborough, Harrodsburg, Boiling Spring, six miles southeast of Harrodsburg, and St. Asaph's, a mile west of the present Stanford. 2

House

Journal, Appendix.

Boonesborough "

asserted

is

country

make laws

right to

in

29

the declaration,

'

'

We

have the

conduct with-

for the regulation of our

out giving offense to Great Britain or any of the Ameri-

The House was

can Colonies."

during which nine

ducted though

it

the dignity,

all

bills

was

in

the open

and

regularity,

air,

type,

days,

business, con-

was transacted with

ability

The

its

marked the

that

laborers

to cut the first regular road to

usual woodchopping

the

of

three

session

were passed, and

Colonial legislatures of the time.

by Boone

in

employed

Kentucky were

but the

men who

ernment distinguished

it

with a moral and intellectual force

that utterly refuted the published assertions of Martin

Dunmore.

A

of the session,

the

House

par-

the effort to establish the Transylvania gov-

ticipated in

of

Seisin,"' the

striking incident of

and

Saturday, the last day

was the formal and public observance before the final

ancient act

in

feudal ceremony,

the

transfer of

'

the

'

Livery of

immense

portion of the territory sold by the Cherokees to Hender-

son and Company.

Standing under the great elm, the

attorney employed by the Indians, John Farrar, handed to

Judge Henderson a piece of the luxuriant

the

held

from

that extended beneath them, and, while they both

soil it,

turf cut

Farrar declared his delivery of seisin and possession

of the land, according to the terms of the title 1

House Journal, Appendix

;

deed which

Butler in Western Journal.

Boonesborougk

30

Henderson displayed, and the immediate reading completed a almost

requirement now long since obsolete and

legal

The

forgotten.

closed

session

most important

tion of its

with

it

the

is,

execu-

1

com-

which, crude

takes historical precedence as the constitution of

first

of the

the

feature, the signing of a

pact between the Proprietors and the People, as

which

of

government ever attempted west

representative

Alleghany Mountains.

The House

adjourned, but the delegates met once more

before they dispersed,

for,

the

next day being

Sunday,

the entire settlement assembled under the grand old elm,

where "divine service

for the first

time"

performed by Reverend John Lythe,

2

in

of

England, a minister from Virginia and a delegation from

Harrodsburg.

absolutely unique.

Most

It

was a

of the usual

Kentucky was the Church of

member religious

accessories

of

the

event of

the

service were wanting, from echoing church bell

drawn join

in

aisle" to pealing organ. litany or

men were

common

for

one 1

*

his

present

chance

hymn, no

child

spelt as above.

to

lisp

"amen."

Only

Dissenters as well as Episcopalians

dangers had drawn them together, and for

public

worship was

House Journal, Appendix. Henderson, who spelt proper names

journal as

No

and "long woman was there to

"Lyth," but

in

the

this

eagerly seized

to suit himself,

proceedings of the

by

gives this one in

Convention

it

is

w m 3 x o

-

-

I O

o '

(

(/I

=

M

O ^ ^

H m

Boonesborough pioneers

who were

heart, for there

as

strong in simple faith as stout

were others

besides the reckless few ell's

And

Valley.

in

off

from

the forerunners -of a mighty

knelt

together

magnificent

and as and

woodmen from Pow-

the

world,

tree, the sole

West

Kentucky

of

clover,

civilized

many

States

under

that

cathedral in a wilderness as vast

solitary as the illimitable ocean.

last

whole

the

sweet white

the

in

the Colony of Transylvania

among

cut

so,

in

3'

This was the

first

time that prayers were ever publicly recited on soil

for the

King and royal family

of

1

England.

In less than a week the news, so long on the road, of the battle of

Lexington' threw the settlements into a fever

of

excitement, and minister and people not only sided at once with " the rebels," but the pastor, like some he had preached to

under the elm, ultimately sealed

with

even

his

Martin,

The Transylvanians would have been

blood. 3

more

his devotion to liberty

excited

if

they had

who had proclaimed them

known outlaws,

that

had

Governor fled

from

'The very next spring

the. Virginia Convention expunged from the words relating to the royal family. The news was a little more than six weeks getting to Boonesborough,

liturgy the 2

and did not reach the

site of Lexington (Kentucky) until the 5th of June. (See page 19, History of Lexington, Kentucky.) 3 John Lythe was with the Virginia Militia, presumably as Chaplain, in the campaign of the next year against the Cherokees, and certainly

served in that capacity with the Virginia troops in 1777. of Militia in Virginia

by the Indians.

Records.)

(See Payments According to Morehead, Lythe was killed

Boonesborough

32

while their legislature was in

1

his

"palace"

they were responding to the slogan of the

while

that,

Lord Dunmore

Revolution,

British vessel.

On the

and

session,

of

a few days after the arrival of

June,

Dr. John

the notorious

news,

great

to fly to a

2

8th

the

was preparing

also

He

rode into Boonesborough.

said

D. Smythe

F.

he was touring the

Colonies for material for a book of travels, which he did the

after

publish

Revolution, 3

but

the

Scotchman

wily

kept religiously to himself the rather dangerous fact that

he was also a spying emissary of Lord Dunmore to aid

sweep

Virginia

"rebels." just

Indians and frontier Tories in

the

uniting

It

then,

and

her

Kentucky

was skimpy times

at

none too easy

from the

punches plotting

to get,

keep a

to

clean

executive

bread was not to be had, and the

for

Even

expected every day to give out.

managed

a scheme to

territory

the

garden,

"

'

big

salt

'

cats

was

meat was

Dan

some vegetables from the river, and milk

supply, and "

of

cabin

but Judge Henderson's black

'

fort

'

in

with

"the capital" was not without cows the guest was entertained. Smythe had his own for

reasons for enduring pioneer fare 1

Volume X, Colonial Records

2

He

3

In

escaped

London

to the in

1784.

of

Fowey June

for several weeks,

North Carolina. 8,

1775.

for

Boonesborough

33

during this time he openly and very innocently visited the

and

Shawanese

He

with the whites.

works

"

at

Ohio Indians,

other

doubtless

Boonesborough.

made

then at peace

all

a diagram of "the

In his notes, which the unsus-

pecting settlers did not get a chance to see, he mentions

"a man

Henderson as

of

vast and enterprising genius,

but void of military talents," and says, his

soul

loyal

of

conceive servants

these it

is

ignorant

an indelible

even

of

His

more disgusted before after this

folly,

and

ridiculous

backwoodsmen that they would disgrace and infamy to be styled Majesty."

he

left

The

doctor was

still

the country, for shortly

town, and later on was arrested, imprisoned,

and the plan nipped in

this

Bunker

in

the bud.

same month

troops were girding test at

the insolence,

the

of

he barely escaped being tarred and feathered

in a Virginia

Early

the disgust of

the outrageous independence

at

Transylvanians, "such pride

in

Hill,

of June, while the

American

themselves for the approaching conevery thing was quiet enough

the

in

Kentucky wilderness, and Boone, who wanted to bring out his wife and children to Boonesborough, was concerned to have them

safely lodged,

and again urged

men, as he had often done before, to complete their log

and

shelter

the

in

the hollow.

cabins

which,

his

little

This time he was successful,

though 6

they required

no

great

Boonesborougk

34

had been so long neglected, were easily finished. They seem never to have been used except for residence and domestic purposes.

'

attention,

It

was about

this time, too, that reports of

Indians began to reach and arouse

efforts to inflame the

Boonesborough, and

Boone

woodsmen "

fort

but

the

seized to

on the not

it

is

probable that Henderson and

chance

further

to

defensive

exertions,

much

completed,

entirely

the resident proprietors,

of

the

impel

overlooking the Lick

rise

Dunmore's

self-confident for

the

'

'

big

was then almost

to

the

satisfaction

who had been exceedingly

2 uneasy over their unprotected condition.

This was the

Western history to confuse these "the hollow" on the ist of April with the fort begun by Henderson on the the 22d of the same month, Even so late though they were so different in location and importance. a writer as Roosevelt makes the two defenses identical, as Marshall did. The mistake dates from 1784, when Filsou wrote his valuable but high'It is the usual thing for writers of

little

defensive cabins

commenced

in

flown account of Boone, iu which he fails to distinguish between the two, and makes the plain old hunter speak of the cabins begun April ist as

"works," and has him "busily employed" on them until the I4th of June. years after the event. Henderson, in his journal and

Filson wrote nine

on the ground, says the log

affair in the hollow was was persistently neglected in spite of repeated efforts of both himself and Boone to get the men to finish it. The large fort completed later on was the only one that could aspire to such a title as "works," or that men would be "busily employed" on for weeks. Writers followed Filson without investigation, and hence the perpetuation

in his letters written

" a small fort," and that

of the error.

it

(See Boone's Narrative, Henderson's letter of June 12, William Cocke, etc.) 1775, 2 Henderson's letter of June 12, 1775, Appendix X, and letter of July 18, 1775, to the Company. (See Frankfort Commonwealth, May 26, 1840.)

te

Vo I

a

PS

T3

r x o a

o

^|-

PC

03

r

S"

if :

.

3.

=

O O Z w X o o a

;.

.-.

to' ~m

-



'33 7

of

it

in

l

89

1778

Boonesborough Fort Battery

93

Boonesborough Fort Besieged

57.

75

in

77.

"9

Boonesborough Fort, Boys Boonesborough Fort, Books Fort, Cabin

at

Equipments

Boouesborough Boonesborough Fort Commenced

63 62 25 34, 5*, 69

Boonesborough Fort Completed 35

Index

266

Boonesborough Fort, Conveniences Boonesborough Fort,

Food

62

of

at

63

Boonesborough Fort, Friendly Savages

at

Boonesborough Fort, Garrison of

82, 83 57, 58, 77

26

Boouesborough Fort Incomplete Boonesborough Fort Mine Boonesborough Fort, Boonesborough Fort,

92

No Remnant No Well in

of Exists

Boonesborough Fort, Patriots Rejoice Boonesborough Fort, Plan

99

>

134 36, 69

132

53, 61,

26, 35, 79

of

100

Boonesborough Fort, Siege Abandoned

Boonesborough Fort, Site of

24, 40, 135, 172

Boonesborough Fort, Sufferings at Boonesborough Fort, Surrender Demanded

60, 61, 67, 78, 122, 125

81 81

Boonesborough Fort, the Truce

Women

Boonesborough Fort, Boonesborough Incorporated in

of

77, 129 1

10,

256

1792

133

Boonesborough, Land Disposed of by Lot Boonesborough, Location Described

172

Boonesborough

137

Boonesborough, Memorials Proposed

138

Boonesborough Named

28, 165

no

Boonesborough, Plat of

20

Boonesborough Settled Boonesborough, Site in 1900 Boonesborough, Trustees of Boonesborough,

Town Becomes

25, 135, 136 1 1

Extinct

1

134

Boston, Battle at

178

Bowman, Bowman, Bowman, Bowman, Bowman, Bowman,

177

Captain

John John, Letter to Clark John, Warning Letter to

Joseph

Major

Braddock's Defeat Bradford, John Bradley,

Edward

Brant, Joseph

60, 76, 85, 108,

1

18,

244

76, 251 1

18

230, 245

17?

74

5.72

in 124

Index Bread, Lack of

.

267

3 2 . '77. >9 2

.

161

James Commissary

Bridges, British

88 88

British Flag

156

Brooks, Castleton

4

Brooms, Hickory

57. 6 6

Brooks, Thomas Brush, Dead

17.163 2 55

Bryan, James Bryan's or Bryant's Station

1

107,

127, 128

13,

87, 127

Buchanan, William '7. '9.

Buffaloes

Buffalo

i

.

66

76

.

22, 192

Meat

8o

Buffalo Tongues

IO - l6

Buffalo Trace Bulger,

l8

Bullet, Captain

Bullock, Leonard

Bunker

H

4

33

Hill

2 55

Bunten, James Burton, C.

l8

*

Edward

IO 3

M

5

Bush, William

255

Butler, John Butler,

Butler,

Io8

Mann

'

l6 '

56, 67, 72, 10

Simon in the

=

75

Cabin Creek Cabins

'

20, 33, 40

Hollow

'

Cahokia Calk, William 49i 5*

Callaway, Elizabeth Callaway, Fanny Callaway, Flanders Callaway, John Callaway, Richard.. 9, 36, 38,

5'. 7^. 8

4L

49. 5o, 67. 77, 8

'.

8 7, 98, 105,

i",

'

Callaway, Richard, Death of

'

i:

Caldwell, William

Canadian Archives Campbell, Arthur

'

73.

J

7I

l6

'

Index

268

Campbell, Colonel

237

Cane

16, 153

Canebrakes

17

Cane Creek, North Carolina

39

Cannon, the Wooden

95 116

Canoe Ridge Capture of the Three Girls

49, 249

Caroline County, Virginia Carr,

9

John

72

Carter County, Tennessee Carter, T.

7

i,

W

38

Books

159

Carter's Valley

Cartwright, John

159 108

Cartwright, Robert

108

Carter's

Castlewood, Virginia

38

Catahecassa Chaplain,

74

Abraham

1

Chenault, William

16, 87,

Chenoca Cherokee River Cherokees Cherokees, Deed to Henderson and

18

127

143, 152

242 2, 3, 5, 6, 8, 29, 50,

161, 190, 242

Company

29, 151, 149

Cherokee Towns

2

Chillicothe

68,

Chota

71 2

Christmas at Boonesborough

46, 125

Clark County

119, 137

Clark Creek

240

Clark, George Rogers... 47, 48, 57, 67, 71, 76, 86, 107, 118, 121, 130, 245 Clark, Hills of 50

Clear Creek

107

Climax of the Treaty Clinch Mountain

159

89

Clinch River

38, 163

White Coburn, Samuel Clover,

Cocke, William

18,

28, 31, 176

161 13,

15, 16, 20, 21, 37,

185

Index

269

255

Collins, Elijah

255

Collins, Josiah Collins,

William

255

Collomes, Captain

'75

Ferry, South Carolina Commissioner, the Prostrate

i

Combahee

Commissioners, Attempt to Seize Commissioners, Peace

89

87 180

Conelly, Major Conference in the Hollow

Connecticut, Transylvania

9

9

87

Land Fever

in

4 2 55

Constant, John Continental Congress and Transylvania

42 2

Cook, David Coombs, William

55

2 55

Cooper.. 2 3. 7'. 74, 107,

Corn, Indian

Corn-makers'

in,

113,

U5, "6. '3. '79 2 3>

Company

'

46, 2 38

Cornstalk, Chief

12 5

Cornwallis' Surrender

*

Coronoh

5

*

9*

Counter Mine, The

IO 5

Court Martial, the Boone

Cowen, John Cowpens, Battle of Cradlebaugh, William

2 55

Crittenden, John '

Croghan, George Cross Plains Crow, William

Cumberland Gap Cumberland Mountain Cumberland River Curious Warfare

243 10, 14

15.

"4.

57

163.

'

Currency, Continental

Cuttawa Cuttoe-Knife

Dandridge, Alex. S

l6

'

'

Index Dark and Bloody Ground

144 144

Darlington

Deane,

De

Silas, Letter of

42, 219, 229

Chaine, Isadore

73, 85

Declaration of Independence at Boonesborough

53

Deed, Cherokee, to Henderson and Company

Deer

151, 230 2,

19,

166, 176

Deposition of Charles Robertson

De De De

Quindre, Dagneaux

157 72, 80, 85, 87, 88, 102, 104

Quindre, Death of Quindre, Autograph

1

of

Detroit Devil's

03

103 61, 68, 72, 74, 78, 86, 88, 91, 103

Race Path

146

Dick's River

172, 174

Dissension at Boonesborough

98

Dixon, Tilman

156 68

Donelly's Fort Donelson, Colonel

Doniphan, A.

158, 181

W

109 109

Doniphan, Joseph Dorchester, Lord

43,

72, 101, 104

Dragging Canoe

8,

144, 159

174

Drake, Joe Draper,

Lyman C

4, 9, 72, 7 6

,

IO 5, '7

See Douiller.

Drewyer.

135 126

Drinking Tube, Revolutionary Drouth of 1782 Dug-out,

133

196

Douglas, James Douiller, Peter

The

no, 115

Dunmore, Lord

13, 29, 32, 44, 181,

229

Dunning, James

170

Dunpard, John

255

Du Quesne

(see

Duree, Mrs Durrett, R.

T

De Chaine)

Durrett, R. T., Preface by

Election at Harrodsburg

72, 73

10,

125 66 iii

47

Index 28

Election of Transylvania Delegates

EliEabethtown, Tennessee

>

7

.

i9-?6

Elk

28

Ellis'

Station

Ellis,

William

i7,

'*8

"9.

19. 28, 88, 135, 176

Elm, the Divine

Down

Elm, the Divine, Cut

"35 I2

Escheat, the Jury of

2 55

James

Estill,

Estill's

Iz6

Defeat

1 l

'

James Exeter Township Falls of Ohio

Estre,

9 6 7. *35. 2 3

'47

Proclamation of Lord Dunmore Proclamation of Transylvania Proctor, Nicholas

Company

481 248 a '* 3

Reuben Proprietary Government Proctor,

Proprietary Government,

Puckashinwa Queer Conducts

Opposition to

of British

The

4'. 43> 47. 54

and Indians 43. 209, 2

Quit Rents Raft,

49

44.

Drifting -94. 9*. 98.

Rains and the Great Siege 37

i

Index

282

Ramsay's Annals Rawlings, Pemberton, Killed " Rebels of Kentuck " Reese, D.

117 71, IQO

N

Regulators, Reid,

4,7

7

The

4,

Nathan Freedom

Religious

51 in

Transylvania Reply of John Williams to Harrodsburg Remonstrance Revolution, Spirit

of, at

209 230 41, 62, 100

Boonesborough

Richland Creek

52, 171

Richmond, Kentucky Richmond, Made Capital

1 1

of Virginia

113

Richmond, Virginia

113

Riflemen

13, 23, 50, 52, 57, 60, 77, 88, 93, 97,

Roberts, Benjamin

i,

Rockcastle River

in,

Company

Hugh of

255

.

255 107, 109

Boonesborough People

Sailings,

143

H. Famine.

.

Salt Spring, the Secret

Value of

4,

41, 183

65, 78, 86, 117 40, 175

68 64

Saltville, Virginia

Sanders

38, 64

45,237 8,151

Savanooko

37, 116, 128

Scalping

Reward

19, 34. 39.

17, 19, 143

Salt-makers Captured Salt River

Scalps,

15.

32, 38, 54, 61, 63, 179

.

Salt Lick

Salt,

87

John

Salt Salt

54 161

116, 117, 255

Ruddle's Station

Ruse

6,

104, 138, 163

Rollins or Rawlings Roll of Holder's

246 118

Robertson, Charles, Deposition Robertson's Station

Ross,

145

for

45, 68

School at Boonesborough

109

Searcy, Bartlett

255

Index

283

Searcy, Reuben

255 177

Sennight

Sermon, the Sevier,

First in

Kentucky

30, 177

169

John

D

Shane, John

72, 130

Shawanese

5,

33, 46, 50, 51, 56, 65, 66, 68, 71, 72,74, 77,

90, 108, 109, 117, 131

Shawanese

at Boone's Station

131

Shelby, Isaac

Siege, Siege,

The The

54 107

Kentucky

Shelbyville,

Great, of Boonesborough

Great, of

72, 251

100

Boonesborough Abandoned

2

Silas Deane's Letter

Six Nations,

The

I21

Skaggs' Trace

Thomas Smith, Dan

75. '9

Slaughter,

160

Smith's Ferry

156

13. 5'- 55, 58, 67, 81, 87, 98, 115,

D

Snoddy, John Snoddy's Fort Sons of Liberty

32

"5 38 2 . 38 53.

"

8

'47

.

'3 2

.

I

Sorrell River -

South, John, Junior South, John, Senior

.

Stafford County, Virginia

Stagner, Barney

l

2 55

255

South, Thomas Spinning Wheel

Springs

7

2 55 2 55

South, the Younger

St.

'5

'

Smith, William Bailey

Smythe, John F. Snead, W. B. G

9

8. 2 4 J

43.

...

18, 68, 157.

17.

4 '7 2

>o8, 109

41

.

2 55

Asaph 2

Stearns, Jacob

Stephenson, John Stewart Stoner, Michael

55

2 55 J

25. 57.

7

'

72

Index

28 4

Store at Boonesborough, Story of Bryan's Station

The

Stratagems and Tricks

25,37 127 57, 85, 87, 90, 93, 105, 128

Strode's Station

107,

1

Sulphur

19 z

Sulphur Spring Sulphur Well

19, 39, 135,

5

166 I35

Sunbonnets

40

Superstitions of Settlers

130 62

Surrender of Burgoyne Celebrated Sycamore Hollow Sycamore Shoals Sycamores, The Four Sycamore, The Old

20, 24, 87, 104, 134 i,

49 136

Sycamore Trees Surveyors

19, 49, 88, 90, 135, 136 14,

Surveys

20

6, 7, 9,

44 54 ,

,

i

74l 2 io, 233, 234

214, 217

Survey Warrant of Henderson and Company Tanguay, Historian

240 1

03

Tate, Samuel

1 1

Tate's Creek

1 1

Taylor, Alfred Taylor, Edmund Tellassee Tellico

7

m

2

2

Tenase

157

Tennessee

157

Tennessee River Tents

151 173, 175

Thoughts on Government Thruston, Charles Thwaits Tivity.

See Twetty.

Tobacco

in

Kentucky

Todd, John

43

in, 256 66

133

57

Torches, Blazing, Used Tories

95, 101

Trabue, Daniel

87, 105

32

Index 10. 16,

Trails and Traces

17, 75.

Transylvania Colony Transylvania Compact 3. 4-

Transylvania Company of Transylvania Company, Members Abolished Government Transylvania Transylvania House of Delegates Transylvania House of Delegates, Journal Raised Transylvania Land Prices

of

7. 9-

The Name

Transylvania,

Town

-

.

Void Transylvania Purchase Declared Transylvania,

I2

*.

'

47, 55.

of

Traveling Church

Treaty of Paris Treaty of Point Pleasant

8

Treaty of Watauga Treaty at Boonesborough

-

Turey, Valentine

'"'

164, 166

Turkeys

l6 '' l6 4

'

Twetty, William United State Register Vallandigham, Benoni

3Z, 61, 83, 179

Vegetables

7. 7L

Vmcennes Lands

8 ' 3I>

Virginia Archives

'

Virginia, Campbell's History

Virginia Convention of Virginia Convention, Journal

Virginia Gazette Virginia

Land Grant

Virginia Ownership

to

of

Henderson Company

Kentucky

Wages Walden's Ridge Walker, Felix Walker,

Felix, Narrative

Walker, Thomas

*

53>

Vance County, North Carolina

Virginia and Indian

'

g

"

'

"

'

I0 7 -

Index

286

Wallen's

Gap