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+*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 41143 ***
+
+HISTORIC HIGHWAYS OF AMERICA
+
+VOLUME 6
+
+
+
+
+  [Illustration: CUMBERLAND GAP AND BOONE'S WILDERNESS ROAD]
+
+
+
+
+  HISTORIC HIGHWAYS OF AMERICA
+  VOLUME 6
+
+  Boone's Wilderness Road
+
+  BY
+  ARCHER BUTLER HULBERT
+
+  _With Maps and Illustrations_
+
+  [Illustration]
+
+  THE ARTHUR H. CLARK COMPANY
+  CLEVELAND, OHIO
+  1903
+
+
+
+
+  COPYRIGHT, 1903
+  BY
+  THE ARTHUR H. CLARK COMPANY
+
+  ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS
+
+
+                                      PAGE
+  PREFACE                               11
+    I. THE PILGRIMS OF THE WEST         19
+   II. THE FIRST EXPLORERS              48
+  III. ANNALS OF THE ROAD               78
+   IV. KENTUCKY IN THE REVOLUTION      145
+    V. AT THE END OF BOONE'S ROAD      175
+
+
+
+
+ILLUSTRATIONS
+
+
+    I. CUMBERLAND GAP AND BOONE'S WILDERNESS ROAD       _Frontispiece_
+   II. PLAT OF BOONESBOROUGH                                        97
+  III. FILSON'S MAP OF KENTUCKY                                    119
+
+
+
+
+PREFACE
+
+
+The naming of our highways is an interesting study. Like roads the world
+over they are usually known by two names--the destinations to which they
+lead. The famous highway through New York state is known as the Genesee
+Road in the eastern half of the state and as the Albany Road in the
+western portion. In a number of cities through which it passes--Utica,
+Syracuse, etc.--it is Genesee Street. This path in the olden time was
+the great road to the famed Genesee country. The old Forbes Road across
+Pennsylvania soon lost its earliest name; but it is preserved at its
+termination, for the Pittsburger of today goes to the Carnegie Library
+on the "Forbes Street" car line. The Maysville Pike--as unknown today as
+it was of national prominence three quarters of a century ago--leading
+across Ohio from Wheeling to Maysville (Limestone) and on to Lexington,
+is known in Kentucky as the Zanesville Pike; from that city in Ohio the
+road branched off from the old National Road. The "Glade Road" was the
+important branch of the Pennsylvania or Pittsburg Road which led through
+the Glades of the Alleghenies to the Youghiogheny. One of the most
+singular names for a road was that of the "Shun Pike" between Watertown
+and Erie, in northwestern Pennsylvania. The large traffic over the old
+"French Road"--Marin's Portage Road--between these points on Lake Erie
+and French Creek necessitated, early in the nineteenth century, a good
+road-bed. Accordingly a road company took hold of the route and improved
+it--placing toll gates on it for recompensation. Those who refused to
+pay toll broke open a parallel route nearby, which was as free as it was
+rough. It became known as the "Shun" Pike because those who traversed it
+shunned the toll road.
+
+Few roads named from their builders, such as Braddock, Forbes, Bouquet,
+Wayne, Ebenezer Zane, Marin, and Boone preserved the oldtime name.
+Indeed nearly all our roads have lost the ancient name, a fact that
+should be sincerely mourned. The Black Swamp has been drained, therefore
+there can be now no "Black Swamp Road." There are now no refugees and
+the "Refugees Road" is lost not only to sight but to the memory of most.
+Perhaps there is but one road in the central West which is commonly
+known and called by the old Indian name; this is the "Tuscarawas Path,"
+a modern highway in Eastern Ohio which was widened and made a white
+man's road by the first white army that ever crossed the Ohio River into
+what is now the State of Ohio.
+
+One roadway--the Wilderness Road to Kentucky from Virginia and
+Tennessee, the longest, blackest, hardest road of pioneer days in
+America--holds the oldtime name with undiminished loyalty and is true
+today to every gloomy description and vile epithet that was ever written
+or spoken of it. It was broken open for white man's use by Daniel Boone
+from the Watauga settlement on the Holston River, Tennessee, to the
+mouth of Otter Creek on the Kentucky River in the month preceding the
+outbreak of open revolution at Lexington and Concord. It was known as
+"Boone's Trail," the "Kentucky Road," the "road to Caintuck," or the
+"Virginia Road," but its common name was the "Wilderness Road." A
+wilderness of laurel thickets lay between the Kentucky settlements and
+Cumberland Gap and was the most desolate country imaginable. The name
+was transferred to the road that passed through it. It seems right that
+the brave frontiersman who opened this route to white men should be
+remembered by this act; and for a title to this volume "Boone's
+Wilderness Road" has been selected.
+
+As in the case of other highways with which this series of monographs is
+dealing, so with Boone's Wilderness Road: the road itself is of little
+consequence. The following pages treat of phases of the story of the
+West suggested by Boone's Road--the first social movement into the lower
+Ohio Valley, Henderson's Transylvania Company, the struggle of the
+Watauga settlement to prevent the southern Indians from cutting Kentucky
+off from the world, the struggle of the Kentucky settlements against
+the British and their Indian allies, the burst of population over
+Boone's Road into Kentucky, and what the early founding of that
+commonwealth meant to the East and to the West.
+
+Boone and Harrod and their compatriots assured the world of the splendid
+lands of Kentucky; Richard Henderson and his associates of the
+Transylvania Company proved the questionable fact that a settlement
+there could be made and be maintained. Boone's Road, opened for the
+Transylvania Company, made a way thither. The result was a marvelous
+westward movement that for timeliness, heroism and ultimate success is
+without a parallel in our annals. When the armies of the Revolutionary
+War are counted, that first army of twenty-five thousand men, women, and
+children which hurried over Boone's little path, through dark Powell's
+Valley, over the "high-swung gateway" of Cumberland Gap, and down
+through the laurel wildernesses to Crab Orchard, Danville, Lexington,
+and Louisville must not be forgotten. No army ever meant so much to the
+West; some did not mean more to the East.
+
+The author is greatly indebted for facts and figures to Thomas Speed's
+invaluable study _The Wilderness Road_, and to other Filson Club
+Publications, and for inspiration and suggestion to Mr. Allen's _The
+Blue Grass Region of Kentucky_.
+
+                                                              A. B. H.
+
+Marietta, Ohio, May 20, 1903.
+
+
+
+
+Boone's Wilderness Road
+
+
+    _It is impossible to come upon this road without pausing,
+    or to write of it without a tribute._
+
+                                         --JAMES LANE ALLEN.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I
+
+THE PILGRIMS OF THE WEST
+
+
+No English colony in America looked upon the central West with such
+jealous eye as Virginia. The beautiful valley of the _Oyo_--the Indian
+exclamation for "Beautiful"--which ran southwesterly through the great
+forests of the continent's interior was early claimed as the sole
+possession of the Virginians. The other colonies were hemmed in by
+prescribed boundary lines, definitely outlined in their royal charters.
+New York was bounded by Lake Erie and the Allegheny and thought little
+of the West. The Pennsylvanian colony was definitely bounded by the line
+which is the western boundary line of that commonwealth today.
+Carolina's extremity stopped at thirty-six degrees and thirty minutes.
+Virginia's western boundary was not defined; hence the West was hers.
+
+England herself was not at all sure of the West until after the fall of
+Quebec; but the Treaty of Paris was soon signed and, so far as the
+French were concerned, the colonies extended to the Mississippi. Then
+Pontiac's bloody war broke out and matters were at a standstill until
+Bouquet hewed his way into "the heart of the enemies' country" and, on
+the Muskingum, brought Pontiac's desperate allies, the Delawares and
+Shawanese, to terms.
+
+But now, when the West was his, the king of England did a wondrous
+thing. He issued a proclamation in the year 1763 which forbade anyone
+securing "patents for any lands beyond the heads or sources of any of
+the rivers which fall into the Atlantic Ocean from the West or
+Northwest!" Thus Lord Hillsborough, British Secretary for the Colonies,
+thought to checkmate what he called the "roving disposition" of the
+colonists, particularly the Virginians. The other colonies were
+restrained by definite boundaries; Virginia, too, should be restrained.
+
+Hillsborough might as well have adopted the plan of the ignoramus who,
+when methods for keeping the Indians from crossing the frontier were
+being discussed, suggested that a strip of land along the entire western
+frontier be cleared of trees and bushes, in the belief that the savages
+would not dare to cross the open! Yet the secretary's agent set to work
+to mark out a western boundary line which should connect the western
+lines of Georgia and New York and so accomplish the limitation of
+Virginia.
+
+But the Virginians also acted. They sent an agent of their own, Thomas
+Walker, to Fort Stanwix (Rome, New York) to treat with the Six Nations
+for some of this very western land that Hillsborough was contriving to
+keep them out of. For the king issued the proclamation in the interest
+of the western Indians (and the annuities he received when the fur trade
+was prosperous) who desired that the West should be preserved to them.
+But what could be said if Virginia purchased the Indian's claim? Could a
+king's proclamation keep the Virginians from a territory to which, for
+value received, the Indians had given a quit-claim deed?
+
+This famous Treaty of Fort Stanwix was held in the fall of 1768. Three
+thousand Indians were present. Presents were lavished upon the
+chieftains. The western boundary line crossed from the west branch of
+the Susquehanna to Kittanning on the Allegheny River; it followed the
+Allegheny and Ohio Rivers southwest to the mouth of the Great Kanawha.
+Here it met Hillsborough's line which came up from Florida and which
+made the Great Kanawha the western boundary of Virginia. Had the Fort
+Stanwix line stopped here the western boundary line of the colonies
+would have been as Lord Hillsborough desired. But Walker did not pause
+here. Sir William Johnson, British Indian Agent for the Northern
+District, who was "thoroughly versed in the methods of making profit by
+his office," allowed Walker to extend the line so as to enclose
+Virginia's prospective purchase; and the Tennessee River was made the
+western boundary instead of the Great Kanawha. Thus Johnson at once
+satisfied the claims of Virginia and the pride of the Six Nations, who
+were still anxious to prove their long-boasted possession over the
+Cumberland region, as well as their sovereignty over the hated Cherokee,
+by thus formally disposing of the land. So everyone was satisfied--but
+Hillsborough. And yet the Crown was compelled, finally, to approve the
+Treaty of Fort Stanwix.
+
+This treaty marks an epoch in the history of the central West, since,
+thereby, nearly half of it became a portion of one of the Thirteen
+Colonies. The other half, north of the Ohio River, remained in the
+possession of the Indians who inhabited it.
+
+It is remarkable how little known that great territory was which now
+became a part of Virginia. This was largely because it was an
+uninhabited country. The territory north of the Ohio River was filled
+with Indian nations, some of whom had reigned there from times
+prehistoric. This was likewise true of the country south, where the
+great southern confederacies had held sway since white men came to this
+continent. But between these inhabited areas lay a pleasant land which
+any tribe would have gladly possessed had there not been so many rivals
+for it. Consequently it became a "dark and bloody" land where a
+thousand unrecorded battles were fought by Indians from both North and
+South who had the temerity to come there to hunt, or by armies who were
+hurrying through it in search of their foes who lived beyond. No Bouquet
+had pierced through to the Cumberland to release prisoners who might
+bring back reports of the land. No missionaries had carried their "great
+and good" words to this battle ground of the Nations and returned with
+tidings of its splendid meadows and their fertility. One or two
+adventuresome explorers had looked there and brought back practically
+all that the world knew of it. But they had never visited the most
+pleasant portions and knew little, if anything, of its real value. And
+all the Indians seemed to know was that it was a bloody border-land
+where no tribe could hunt in peace; where every shadow contained a
+lurking foe; and where every inch of soil was drenched with blood.
+
+Thus to an unknown and unoccupied border-land between the Indians of the
+North and those to the South, Virginia obtained, from one of its alleged
+possessors, a nominal hold. Could she maintain it? The world asked the
+question and awaited the answer, wonderingly.
+
+The principal reason why Virginia was successful was because her
+inhabitants were an agricultural people like their ancestors before them
+in England. Being an agricultural people they had expanded further,
+geographically, than the inhabitants of any of the other colonies. As
+early as 1740, cabins were being built in Bedford County, Virginia, over
+one hundred and fifty miles from the seaboard. There were settlements on
+the New River, a branch of the Great Kanawha, before the French and
+Indian war. Fort Loudoun, over the border, was erected in 1756, and
+Forts Long Island and Chissel in 1758. The Wyoming massacre in New York
+State in the Revolutionary War occurred on what was then the frontier,
+though Wyoming was less than a hundred miles from New York City. And,
+fortunately, this agricultural people was located in the most favorable
+place along the Atlantic for expansion, for a reason already mentioned.
+Back of New York and Pennsylvania roamed the Iroquois, Delawares,
+Shawanese, and other Indian nations. Back of Virginia, whose fine rivers
+rose in the mountains, lay a comparatively uninhabited country; for, the
+moment the Indians became allied with either of the encroaching European
+powers, they ceased contending together in the border-land behind
+Virginia. It was not until Virginians began to occupy it that it became
+anew a "dark and bloody ground." Virginia knew less of Indian warfare
+than some of the neighboring colonies until the era of her expansion
+when her sturdy people began occupying the land obtained at the Treaty
+of Fort Stanwix.
+
+The expansion of Virginia was greatly facilitated by the geographical
+position of the mountains along her western frontier. While the
+mountains of western New York and Pennsylvania obstructed expansion, in
+Virginia the mountain ranges facilitated it. Further north they trended
+directly north and south and even the rivers could find a passage-way
+only by following the most tortuous courses. True, the Hudson and Mohawk
+valleys offered a clear course to the great highland across to the
+Niagara River, but it was not until very late in the eighteenth century
+that the path across this watershed was open to white men. The two
+routes through Pennsylvania crossed the mountains horizontally and
+almost feared to follow the waterways. Braddock's Road crossed the
+waters of one stream three times at right angles in the space of eighty
+miles and did not follow it one hundred yards altogether. In Virginia
+the mountain ranges trend southwesterly, with the rivers between them,
+offering a practicable though roundabout route westward.
+
+But there was another thing Virginia possessed in addition to an
+agricultural people--an uninhabited territory west of her and some plain
+courses into it. She had among her citizens some daring, far-sighted,
+energetic men who might easily be called the first promoters of America.
+They were moneyed men who sought honestly to make money; but they were
+also men of chivalry and intense patriotism--Virginians of Virginians.
+They thought of their pockets, but they also thought of their colony
+and their king; the standing of the Old Dominion was very dear to them:
+its growth in commercial as well as geographical dimensions. They
+desired to be thought well of at home; they desired that Virginia should
+be thought the best of all America.
+
+Of these men the Washingtons were the most prominent, and George
+Washington was a marvelously inspired leader. As early as 1749
+Virginians secured a grant of land south of the Ohio and directly west
+of old Virginia. The enterprise amounted to nothing save by
+precipitating the contest between England and France for the West. The
+example of the younger Washington in fighting for the possession of the
+West, in encouraging the disheartened people of the frontier in the dark
+days of defeat, in aiding in the final victory, in investing heavily in
+western land (for he, it is said, died the richest man in America, and
+half his wealth lay west of the Alleghenies), in encouraging the
+building of the Potomac Canal, in impressing upon the people the
+commercial value of exploiting the entire West from Lake Huron to
+Cumberland Gap, affords perhaps the most remarkable instance in our
+whole national history of one man inspiring a people to greater things.
+A place and a rough way thither was ready for expanding Virginia--and
+such sons as Washington gave the inspiration.
+
+Through the great "trough" between the Allegheny and Blue Ridge ranges
+passes the pioneer route to which we of the central West owe as much as
+to any thoroughfare in America--that rough, long, roundabout road which,
+coming down from Lancaster and Yorktown, crossed the Potomac at Wadkin's
+Ferry, and passed up the Shenandoah valley by Martinsburg, Winchester
+and Staunton; and on to the headwaters of the New River, where it was
+joined by the thoroughfare through central Virginia from Richmond. Here,
+near the meeting of these famous old-time Virginia thoroughfares, stood
+Fort Chissel, erected in 1758 and situated two hundred miles east of
+Cumberland Gap. Beyond Fort Chissel ran the Indian trail toward the Gap
+and, within fifty miles of the Gap, stood Fort Watauga on a branch of
+the Holston. This was the most westerly fort at the time of the Stanwix
+treaty, and about the rude fort was springing up the Watauga settlement.
+Other earlier settlements were made at Draper's Meadows and at Inglis
+Ferry on New River by families bearing those names. For more than a
+century the population of Virginia and North Carolina had been slowly
+sifting up the river valleys toward the West and by the time the king's
+proclamation was issued many cabins were already erected beyond the
+headwaters of streams which fell "into the Atlantic Ocean from the West
+or Northwest." Even the faithful Hillsborough seems to have recognized
+this since his boundary line passed through Chiswell's Mine on the Great
+Kanawha and the mouth of that river--much further west than a strict
+interpretation of the proclamation would allow.
+
+This vanguard which was moving westward was led by explorers and
+hunters. Of two of the former, mention will be particularly made. The
+parties of hunters who now began to press beyond the furthest
+settlements, while they subsisted on game, were also real explorers of
+the West and helped to set in motion and give zest to the great
+immigration which followed the signing of the Stanwix treaty. It was
+only one year after the Stanwix treaty when Daniel Boone came up from
+his home on the Yadkin in North Carolina and led a company of men
+through the Gap into the land whose hero and idol he was ever to be.
+About the same time John Finley and party were trapping on the forbidden
+rivers, and Colonel James Knox and company of nine hunted on the New,
+Clinch, and Holston Rivers, and reaching even to the lower Cumberland in
+1769-70. These parties of men found that a paradise for the husbandman
+was to be speedily revealed to the world at the foothills of the
+Cumberland and Pine mountains on the great plain falling away westward
+to the Mississippi. At first, only the most vague description of the
+rich meadows of the West reached the Virginian settlements, but, meager
+as they were, they started a tide of immigration quite unparalleled in
+American history. One of these descriptions is preserved for us in the
+autobiography of Daniel Boone, and, though couched in language with
+which he was probably less familiar than his amanuensis, still is not
+unlike the stories told in border cabins to eager listening frontiersmen
+who were soon on their rough way to this El Dorado beyond the horrid
+ranges of the Cumberlands:
+
+"We found everywhere abundance of wild beasts of all sorts, through this
+vast forest. The buffalo were more frequent than I have seen cattle in
+the settlements, browsing on the leaves of the cane, or cropping the
+herbage on those extensive plains, fearless, because ignorant of the
+violence of man.... Nature was here a series of wonders and a fund of
+delight. Here she displayed her ingenuity and industry in a variety of
+flowers and fruits, beautifully colored, elegantly shaped and charmingly
+flavored; and we were diverted with innumerable animals presenting
+themselves perpetually to our view.... Just at the close of day the
+gentle gales retired and left the place to the disposal of a profound
+calm. Not a breeze shook the most tremulous leaf. I had gained the
+summit of a commanding ridge, and, looking around with astonishing
+delight, beheld the ample plains, the beauteous tracts below: On the
+other hand had I surveyed the famous Ohio river, that rolled in silent
+dignity, marking the western boundary of Kentucky with inconceivable
+grandeur. At a vast distance I beheld the mountains lift their venerable
+brows, and penetrate the clouds."
+
+Inspired by such descriptions as these, there came in the wake of the
+hunter-explorers crowds of immigrants. Very many came even bringing
+their families, for the novelty of the adventure and because there was
+nothing to keep them where they had had but a tomahawk claim on the
+border. There were thousands who entered the West and became valuable
+citizens (considering the work to be done) who would best be described
+as gypsies. For a larger part of the way across the continent this
+peculiar class of people moved westward between the advanced explorers
+and the swarm of genuine "settlers" whose feet, even at this time, were
+making the middle of our continent tremble. For instance, very many of
+the first settlers in the territory near the Mississippi hailed from a
+portion of the land between their home there and the Allegheny
+mountains, just as many of the first settlers between the Ohio and Lake
+Erie hailed from Virginia's land between the Ohio and Tennessee. The
+phrase "following the immigration" was a common one and covered this
+class of pioneers who moved away from a given district of land when it
+began to fill with settlers. There has appeared a disposition in some
+quarters to attempt to minimize the value of the hosts of so-called
+"squatters" and "tomahawk claimers" who first moved into the West. Our
+pioneer literature is full of discreditable allusions, made by the
+second tide of pioneers who came West, concerning the scattered ranks of
+first comers, their moral character, their ways of thought and living.
+The later blueblood stock had not a little to say concerning the
+pioneers of Western Virginia and Kentucky flavored with the same spice
+that Dickens employed when, a little later, he jotted down his "American
+Notes." It seems as though it were reasonable to remember what these
+first comers did rather than the picture of what they were. But for them
+there could never have been a better West. Who composed the armies of
+McIntosh, Brodhead, Crawford, Harmar, St. Clair, and Wayne but these
+rough, wild-looking men who first entered the West? What is now western
+Pennsylvania, West Virginia, and Kentucky gave practically all the
+troops which conquered the land between the Ohio River and the Great
+Lakes. And all of them, save the few who could raise money to buy some
+of it, retired again to their slovenly "claims" south of the Ohio--and a
+flood-tide of newcomers came after them to bring a new era they could
+never have brought, and, incidentally, leave to posterity repulsive
+pictures of them. It hath been said: "Instead of the thorn shall come up
+the fir tree, and instead of the brier shall come up the myrtle tree;
+and it shall be to the Lord for a name, for an everlasting sign that
+shall not be cut off." The West was a land of brier and thorn, and men
+as rough as briers and thorns were needed to strike the first swift hard
+blows. The squatter in the West played an important part and should not
+be remembered solely by the pictures drawn of his filth, lawlessness,
+and laziness. The Cleaveland of 1798 was a paradise beside the Cleveland
+of 1810. Was it not Caleb Atwater who said that "not one young man,
+whose family was rich, and of very high standing in the Eastern States,
+has succeeded in Ohio?" A little later in this narrative we shall read
+of one "Abraham hanks" who went, an unknown pioneer, with Daniel Boone
+through Cumberland Gap at the very van of all the western immigration!
+Atwater was not referring to his grandson--the immortal son of Nancy
+Hanks. Theodore Roosevelt in the following words has emphasized the debt
+our country owes to this class of early citizens: "Nevertheless this
+very ferocity was not only inevitable, but it was in a certain sense
+proper; or at least, even if many of its manifestations were blamable,
+the spirit that lay behind them was right. The backwoodsmen were no
+sentimentalists; they were grim, hard, matter-of-fact men, engaged all
+their lives long in an unending struggle with hostile forces, both
+human and natural; men who in this struggle had acquired many unamiable
+qualities, but who had learned likewise to appreciate at their full
+value the inestimable virtues of courage and common-sense. The crisis
+[Revolution] demanded that they should be both strong and good; but,
+above all things, it demanded that they should be strong. Weakness would
+have ruined them. It was needful that justice should stand before mercy;
+and they could no longer have held their homes, had they not put down
+their foes, of every kind with an iron hand."
+
+With these uncouth border families moved another class of men known as
+land speculators. The schemes of these fortune hunters and of the many
+great companies of which they were the representatives would fill a
+moderate volume and can only be hinted at here. As we have noted, a
+company was organized very early to speculate in western lands, called
+the Ohio Company. It received from the king of England a grant of land
+between the Monongahela and Great Kanawha Rivers, but failed to fulfil
+the required conditions and the Charter reverted to the Crown. From that
+day to the breaking out of the Revolutionary War numerous land companies
+secured by one means or another a claim to certain lands and many sought
+such claims but never secured them. It will be necessary to refer to one
+of these companies later in the course of our narrative.
+
+Near the front in this race for the rich meadows between the Ohio and
+Tennessee were bounty-land claimants. One of Virginia's most effective
+pleas for the great territory which had come into her possession was
+that she might reward her soldiers of the French and Indian wars. While
+as a people she had known less of Indian warfare than some of the
+colonies, Virginia had been liberal in sending troops northward to
+defend the frontier. And these Virginians had made a name for themselves
+at Braddock's defeat and elsewhere. Washington was always insistent that
+the claims of these old veterans of the bloody border war be redeemed in
+good lands, and it must be remembered ever with pride that as late as
+1770, only six years before he became commander-in-chief of the armies
+of the United States at Cambridge, and but two years after the signing
+of the Stanwix treaty, he made the difficult journey to the Ohio River
+and down that river in a canoe to Virginia's new empire on the Great
+Kanawha, where surveys of bounty lands for his heroes of Fort Necessity
+were first made. Additional surveys were soon made along the Ohio and
+Licking Rivers.
+
+Explorers, hunters, squatters, speculators, and bounty-land
+claimants--this was the heterogeneous population that was surging
+westward to the land of which Boone wrote. But not all came down the old
+thoroughfare between the Allegheny and Blue Ridge Mountains and through
+Cumberland Gap. Many followed northward the rough trails which descended
+the New and Monongahela Rivers, while many went northwesterly over
+Braddock's overgrown twelve-foot road or along the winding narrow track
+of Forbes's Road through the Pennsylvania Glades to the little frontier
+fortress, Fort Pitt. From the time Bouquet relieved this beleaguered
+garrison until the Stanwix treaty, Pittsburg, as the town was now
+known, had been growing. One year after that treaty (1769) the manor of
+Pittsburg was surveyed, the survey embracing five thousand seven hundred
+and sixty-six acres. Upon the signing of the Stanwix treaty, Pittsburg
+became an important point and was claimed by both Pennsylvania and
+Virginia. About it sprang up villages and from it down the Ohio and up
+the Allegheny and Monongahela Rivers settlements spread. What was
+loosely known as the "Monongahela Country"--the territory between the
+Monongahela and Ohio Rivers--became quite populous.
+
+Here, high up along the Ohio River, the Virginians learned how to fight
+the red man, if they had never known before. The decade succeeding
+Pontiac's war, though nominally a peaceful one, was, nevertheless, one
+long and bitter duel between the Indians north of the Ohio and the
+Virginians who were coming "in shoals" to its southern bank. It has been
+estimated that the total loss of life within that decade was as great as
+the total loss in the open war--Dunmore's War--which soon broke out and
+which momentarily threatened the extinction of Virginia's great
+colonial movement into the southern half of this black forest of the
+West.
+
+We have refrained from using the name Kentucky long enough, perhaps, to
+accomplish the purpose of impressing upon the reader's mind the part
+Virginia and the Virginians played in the creation of the earliest
+settlement in the West, first known as the county, then the state, of
+Kentucky. As Professor Shaler has said: "She owes to Virginia the most
+of the people she received during the half century when her society was
+taking shape: her institutions, be they good or evil, her ideals of
+life, her place in the nation's history, are all as immediately derived
+from her great Mother Virginia as are an individual man's from the
+mother who bore him."
+
+The name Kentucky, Kentuckgin, Kantucky, Kentucke, Caintuck, as it was
+variously spelled, may have been derived from an Iroquois word
+_Ken-ta-kee_, which means "among the meadows." When, in the olden days,
+only the long, painted canoes of the Iroquois could be moored in safety
+in the shades of the woodland meadows south of the Oyo, the name
+Ken-ta-kee was first heard--a name which has come down to us so pregnant
+with pride and power. The Catawba River, which gained its name, perhaps,
+from the famous war-path which followed it toward the land of the
+Catawbas in the south, was first known as the Louisa River (named by
+Walker in honor of the wife of the "Bloody Duke" of Cumberland), and
+afterwards as the Kentucky River.
+
+After the treaty at the close of Dunmore's War, Virginia had two
+quit-claim deeds to her western empire: one from the Iroquois, who
+boasted their possession of it, and one from the Shawanese, who had
+disputed the settlement. There was yet another claimant to deal with,
+the Cherokees of the South. In the year following the battle of Point
+Pleasant (1774) a land company headed by Colonel Richard Henderson
+purchased from the Cherokees the land between the Ohio, Kentucky, and
+Cumberland Rivers. This purchase was achieved at Fort Watauga through
+the agency of Daniel Boone. This private purchase from the Indians was
+afterward annulled by both Virginia and North Carolina, but so far as
+the Indian claims to Kentucky were concerned it had passed into the
+possession of the white man. Every inch of soil had been fairly obtained
+from each and every claimant who had made it a "dark and bloody ground"
+through their battles for it, since the earliest period of recorded
+history. But at the time of the Cherokee purchase, an old Indian chief
+said to Boone: "Brother, we have given you a fine land, but I believe
+you will have much trouble in settling it." Perhaps the Cherokees knew
+what Shawanese quit-claim deeds were worth!
+
+After making this purchase for Colonel Henderson, Boone engaged to mark
+out a road through Cumberland Gap to the center of the newly acquired
+territory. Following the old trail through the Gap, Boone's Road ended
+at a new settlement at the mouth of Otter Creek on the Kentucky River
+named Boonesborough, in his honor. Fort Boonesborough was completed July
+14, 1775. Colonel Logan and party came westward through the Gap at the
+same time but diverged from Boone's Road on Rockcastle Creek, and
+opened the more important branch of the road toward Louisville by way of
+Crab Orchard and Danville, and erected Fort Logan one mile west of
+Standford, in what is now Lincoln County, Kentucky. Harrod's, Logan's,
+and Boone's forts were the important early "stations" in the West. To
+them the thousands wended their tedious way over the "Wilderness Road,"
+as both branches (Logan's and Boone's) were fitly called, or down the
+Ohio from Pittsburg. And along these lines of western movement cabins
+and clearings made their rapid appearance despite the era of bloodshed
+which began almost simultaneously with the opening of the Revolutionary
+War in the East.
+
+
+Such were the pilgrims of the West. It is interesting to note that these
+leaders of civilization in the West were true Americans--American born
+and American bred. It is remarkable that the discoverers of the American
+central West were either French or American. For the work of exploring
+this _hinterland_, England scarcely furnished a man; she can write no
+names opposite those of Brulé, Cartier, Champlain, Du Lhuth, Hennepin,
+Joliet, Marquette, and La Salle. Nearly all that England knew of the
+interior she learned from the French. Her great explorers were maritime
+explorers and her conquest of New France was effected by water. But
+while the West could not have for its first colonists the counterpart of
+the hardy, irresistible race who first came to the Atlantic seaboard, it
+did have the next best thing--the direct descendants of them. It was a
+race of Americanized Britons who pressed from Virginia into the West.
+Hardly a name among them but was pure Norman or Saxon. Of the
+twenty-five members of the Political Club at Danville, Kentucky, which
+discussed with ability the Federal Constitution, all but two were
+descendants of colonists from Great Britain and Ireland. Of forty-five
+members of the convention which framed Kentucky's first constitution,
+only three could claim European ancestry. Of the seven hundred members
+of the Filson Club, the representative historical society of Kentucky
+today, there are not more than twenty who are not either English,
+Scotch, Welsh, or Irish. The blood of the mother country flowed in purer
+strain in no portion of the continent at the outbreak of the
+Revolutionary War than in the Virginian settlement of Kentucky. That the
+blood was true to its fighting traditions is proved by the Revolutionary
+pension rolls. In 1840 there were nine hundred Revolutionary soldiers
+receiving pensions in Kentucky. This race gave to the West its real
+heroes--the Gists, Walkers, Boones, Clarks, Todds, Shelbys, Kentons,
+Logans, Lewises, Crawfords, Gibsons, and St. Clairs. In frontier cabins
+they were bred to a free life in a free land--worthy successors to
+Washington and his school, worthy men to subdue and rule the empire of
+which they began the conquest before the outbreak of the Revolutionary
+War. In the form of these sturdy colonizers the American republic
+stretched its arm across the Appalachian mountain system and took in its
+grasp the richest river valley in the world at the end of Boone's
+Wilderness Road. That arm was never withdrawn, that grasp never
+relinquished. The leaven of old Virginia leavened the whole lump.
+
+
+Thus may be outlined briefly the era of expansion in which Boone's Road
+played an all-important part. In the succeeding chapters the phases of
+this historic movement are reviewed as the meager data now obtainable
+can permit.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II
+
+THE FIRST EXPLORERS
+
+
+The first real explorations of the great territory secured by Virginia
+at the Treaty of Fort Stanwix were made by Dr. Thomas Walker, who later
+so skilfully managed Virginia's part of that treaty, and Christopher
+Gist, in the early years of the second half of the eighteenth century,
+1750 and 1751.
+
+The brief journals[1] written by these men are the sources of our first
+information concerning the vast territory west of the Appalachian
+mountain system--the eastern half of the Mississippi basin south of the
+Ohio River. They are meager records of hard day's pilgrimages, an
+outline of the routes pursued, and a description of the lands which were
+traversed. Both were explorers for two newly-formed land companies.
+Walker represented the Loyal Land Company of London, and Gist was the
+representative of the Ohio Company. The company for which Walker acted
+had secured a grant of eight hundred thousand acres in the territory now
+embraced in Kentucky north of 36° 30´. The Ohio Company had a grant of
+five hundred thousand acres between the Kanawha and Monongahela Rivers.
+These men were sent to search out favorable lands and report on the
+giants and grapes. They found both.
+
+Little suggestion of the romance and daring of these historic journeys
+can be found in either of the journals of them; they make slight books.
+But volumes can be written on what can be read by the most careless
+reader between their few lines. The long climbing over the almost
+pathless mountains, the nights spent in discomfort, the countless
+trials, fears, dangers of which they knew so much and told so
+little--all this should make a story if it never has, that could not by
+any means find an uninterested reader. No youth's history is of moment
+until we know the man and know that he is a man among men. Our nation is
+still a boy. Only with the passing of the years will its boyhood be
+studied and known as it should be known; when that time comes, the brief
+stories of such men as Walker and Gist will appear of priceless value.
+
+"Having, on the 12th of December last, been employed for a certain
+consideration to go to the Westward in order to discover a proper Place
+for a Settlement, I left my house on the Sixth day of March, at 10
+o'clock, 1749-50, in Company with Ambrose Powell, William Tomlinson,
+Colby Chew, Henry Lawless & John Hughs. Each man had a Horse and we had
+two to carry the Baggage. I lodged this night at Col. Joshua Fry's, in
+Albemarle, which County includes the Chief of the head Branches of James
+River on the East side of the Blue Ridge." Thus begins Dr. Walker's
+journal. At this time England and her colonies were dating by the old
+calendar, each new year beginning on the twenty-fifth of March.
+Accordingly they started nineteen days before the beginning of the year
+1750.
+
+It was a brave little company of adventurous men. Walker had attended
+William and Mary College, and then had joined the ranks of that
+distinguished army of representative Virginians who, with saddle-bags
+and surveying instruments, proved to be the vanguard of the army which
+was to achieve the real conquest of the West. His home was Castle Hill,
+near Charlottesville, Albemarle County, Virginia, where his companions
+had rendezvoused for the present expedition and from which point they
+began their historic journey. Powell was of the best Virginian stock,
+and has left his name to one of the great valleys through which the
+highway to the West ran. His son became a Revolutionary officer and his
+great-grandson was General A. P. Hill, the famous Confederate leader.
+Chew was from Orange County, Virginia, and belonged to the Maryland
+branch of the Chew family. Two Presidents of the United States, Madison
+and Taylor, could claim him as a relative. Seven years later he served
+in Washington's regiment in Forbes's expedition against Fort Duquesne,
+and was killed in Grant's wild attack on that fort. As the journal
+states, this company spent the first night out with Colonel Joshua Fry.
+Fry too was one of them in spirit, though he did not accompany them
+westward. He was a graduate of Oxford University, joint author with
+Jefferson of Fry and Jefferson's celebrated Map of Virginia, and a
+commissioner for the crown in establishing the boundary line between
+North Carolina and Virginia. He was killed by being thrown from his
+horse while taking command of Washington's expedition against Fort
+Duquesne, four years later. These statistics show plainly that the best
+brain and blood of Virginia was foremost in attempting to realize
+Virginia's dream of conquest and expansion.
+
+But it was a time for brave men to show themselves. Ambitious Virginia
+had been slow to claim the West, where even at this early date Frenchmen
+had gone so far into the wilderness. Céloron, bold emissary of the
+humpbacked Canadian Governor Gallissonière, was now burying leaden
+plates at the mouths of the rivers which emptied into the Ohio, as a
+sign of French possession of the West. One of these was placed at the
+mouth of the Great Kanawha "at the mouth of the river Chinodahihetha,
+this 18th day of August," claiming for the Bourbon crown the entire
+territory in which the grant of land to the Ohio Company was located.
+There was not a moment to lose if the West was to be saved to England. A
+settlement must be made quickly, and Walker and his band pushed on
+immediately to find a "proper Place for a Settlement."
+
+But all this, seemingly, is neither here nor there--so far as Walker's
+Journal is concerned. There is not one mention of the political crisis
+then at hand; instead of French claims, Walker deals with tired horses
+or broken-legged dogs, and where one might suppose he would mention
+national boundary lines he tells only of cutting names on trees. And at
+the end, where the reader might look for a summary statement of the
+results of his tour he finds this: "I got home about noon. We killed in
+the Journey 13 Buffaloes, 8 Elks, 53 Bears, 20 Deer, 4 Wild Geese, about
+150 Turkeys, besides small game. We might have killed three times as
+much meat, if we had wanted it." Yet, so far as human interest is
+concerned, the record is exceptionally entertaining, and to a student of
+the great thoroughfare from Virginia to Kentucky it is full of meaning;
+because of its many references to the difficulties of traveling at that
+early date, and to the varied experiences of explorers on the earliest
+thoroughfares westward. It is this story of experience in traveling west
+in 1750 that makes Walker's Journal of interest in the present study.
+
+On the day after the party left Colonel Fry's, "We set off about 8,"
+writes Dr. Walker, "but the day proving wet, we only went to Thomas
+Joplin's on Rockfish. This is a pretty River, which might at a small
+expense be made fit for transporting Tobacco; but it has lately been
+stopped by a Mill Dam near the Mouth to the prejudice of the upper
+inhabitants who would at their own expense clear and make it navigable,
+were they permitted." Virginia's great industry evidently flourished
+this far from tidewater even at this early date, though handicapped by
+these dams which were erected by the "Averice of Millers," on which Dr.
+Walker comments again in his next day's record. The record for Sunday,
+the eleventh, is appropriately brief: "11th. The Sabbath." In only one
+or two instances did the party travel on Sunday, and then the journey
+was occasioned by necessity. On the twelfth the party crossed the Upper
+James River above the mouth of the Rivanna, and lodged with one Thomas
+Hunt.
+
+"13th. We went early to William Calloway's and supplied ourselves with
+Rum, Thread, and other necessaries & from thence took the main Waggon
+Road leading to Wood's or the New River. It is not well clear'd or
+beaten yet, but will be a very good one with proper management." Wood's
+River--or New River, as we know it today--was discovered in 1671 by
+Colonel Abraham Wood, who explored along the line which later became the
+boundary line between North Carolina and Virginia. He crossed the
+Alleghenies through "Wood's Gap" (now Flower Gap) and, going down Little
+River, found New River not far from Inglis Ferry, where Walker's party
+crossed three days later. This mention of the road Walker traversed is
+his first reference to the great road westward toward Cumberland Gap; he
+remarks its roughness, but before he returned to Virginia he learned new
+lessons on rough roads. "This night we lodged in Adam Beards low
+grounds. Beard is an ignorant, impudent, brutish fellow, and would have
+taken us up, had it not been for a reason, easily suggested." When thus
+brought in contrast with the hospitality usually tendered Walker's
+party, the deportment of this churlish mountaineer is conspicuous.
+Travelers on these first highways were ever in need--if for nothing more
+than a camping-place. The people who settled beside the frontier roads
+were trained by bitter experience to a generous hospitality. This
+hospitality was particularly marked, throughout the colonies, among
+those who could afford it, especially on the frontiers; and here it was
+often bestowed upon travelers when it could be ill-afforded. The modern
+hotel has in a large measure relieved the general public from the burden
+of continual and promiscuous hospitality, and it has been found that
+where hotels are least known this prime requisite of an expanding
+civilization may still be found. On the frontier, men were dependent on
+those who lived beside the road, not only in time of accident and
+sickness, but at all times--for little food and forage could be carried.
+At times travelers nearly perished when once beyond the frontier line.
+Walker's party, though they killed the large amount of game mentioned,
+were once compelled to kill and eat one of their dogs. Captain Estill,
+who lost his life in Kentucky in the engagement which bears his name, is
+said to have done a great service for emigrants from Virginia by killing
+game and leaving the meat beside the road, in order to "pass on and
+notify incoming trains where they might find a supply of meat."
+
+Instances of vile treatment of travelers are not often cited, but the
+few that exist are the exceptions that prove the rule of generosity
+which was common to the time.
+
+Leaving Beard's, Walker and his men went, on the fourteenth, to Nicholas
+Welch's, "where," the Doctor writes, "we bought corn for our horses, and
+had some Victuals dress'd for Breakfast." From here they climbed the
+Blue Ridge through Buford's Gap, in Bedford County, through which the
+Norfolk and Western Railroad now passes. "The Ascent and Descent is so
+easie," writes Walker, "that a Stranger would not know when he crossed
+the Ridge." On the day after, they reached "the great Lick" near the
+present city of Roanoke, and continued up the trail on the following day
+to near the historic Inglis Ferry, not far from the present village of
+Blacksburg, Montgomery County, Virginia.
+
+From this on, Walker's route is not of importance to our study, as he
+missed the great trail which would have taken him to the pleasant
+meadows of Kentucky--though he struck it again at Cumberland Gap but did
+not follow it--and wandered over a circuitous route thus outlined by
+Daniel Bryan: "They started from low down in Virginia, traveled
+westwardly across Alleghany Mountains to Chissel's Lead Mine, on New
+River; thence into the Holston Valley, thence over Walden's Ridge and
+Powell's Mountain into Powell's Valley.... They then continued down the
+valley, leaving Cumberland Mountain a small distance on their right
+hand, until they came to Cumberland Gap.... At the foot of this mountain
+they fell into an Indian path leading from the Cherokee towns on
+Tennessee River to the Shawnee Indian towns on the Ohio, which path they
+followed down Yellow Creek to the old ford of Cumberland River....
+Thence they went on the path down the river to the Flat Lick, eight
+miles; here they left the river, continued on the path, turning more
+north, crossing some of the head branches of the Kentucky River over a
+poor and hilly country, until they concluded there was no good country
+in the West. They then took an easterly course over the worst mountains
+and laurel thickets in the world.... They crossed the Laurel or
+Cumberland Mountain and fell into the Green brier country, almost
+starved to death ... and reached home with life only to pay for all
+their trouble and suffering."
+
+Regretting that this opinion of the final value of Walker's journey
+cannot be gainsaid, it is yet of interest to follow his footsteps and
+learn what were some of the experiences of such early explorers as
+these.
+
+On the twenty-sixth they "left the Inhabitans," as Dr. Walker called the
+line of civilization, and were at last within the wild land where no
+settlers had yet come. On the night of the twenty-ninth the "Dogs were
+very uneasie," and the next day, on Reedy Creek, a branch of the South
+Fork of the Holston, the tracks of a party of Indians were discovered,
+which explained the restlessness of the dogs. It is probably little
+realized in this day how valuable dogs were to explorers and immigrants.
+They were not only of service in giving warning of the approach of
+strangers, but were well-nigh indispensable in securing game and in
+searching for lost horses. Dr. Walker's love for dogs is a tradition in
+the family, and his care of them on this journey is typical of the
+gentleman and the wise frontiersman. At the junction of Reedy Creek and
+the Holston--an historic spot in Tennessee--Walker found a gigantic elm
+tree, which measured twenty-five feet in circumference at a distance of
+three feet from the ground. Pioneers and explorers considered the study
+of trees a fine art. By this means they always judged the quality of the
+soil, and knew at a glance by the growth that stood on it the character
+of any piece of land. The diaries of all that old school of western
+adventurers contain frequent mention of trees which were an almost
+infallible criterion of the soil beneath. Washington had keen eyes for
+trees--as for everything else--as illustrated in the journal of his trip
+down the Ohio River in 1770. On the fourth of November he found a
+sycamore on the Great Kanawha, in comparison with which this first elm
+of Walker's was insignificant. It measured, three feet from the ground,
+forty-five feet in circumference, and near by stood another measuring
+thirty-one feet around. Upon hearing about this larger tree, some one
+remarked that Washington might have told the truth about the cherry tree
+but he told a "whopper" about the sycamore. But it was not guess-work,
+for the record states clearly that the girth of the larger tree lacked
+two inches of being the complete forty-five feet. Trees along the Ohio
+grew to an immense size; an old Ohio River pilot affirms that in his
+boyhood a burned trunk of a sycamore stood on his father's farm on the
+Little Muskingum, into which he has frequently driven a horse, turned it
+about, and come out again. General Harmar found on the Ohio a
+button-wood tree forty-two feet in circumference, which held forty men
+within its trunk.
+
+On the seventh of April Dr. Walker writes: "It snowed most of the day.
+In the Evening our dogs caught a large He Bear, which before we could
+come up to shoot him had wounded a dog of mine, so that he could not
+Travel, and we carried him on Horseback, till he recovered." On the
+thirteenth the party reached "Cave Gap," which Walker named Cumberland
+Gap in honor of the "bloody Duke," the hero of Culloden. "Just at the
+foot of the Hill is a Laurel Thicket.... On the South side is a plain
+Indian Road. On the top of the Ridge are Laurel Trees marked with
+crosses, others Blazed and several Figures on them.... This Gap may be
+seen at a considerable distance, and there is no other, that I know of,
+except one about two miles to the North of it, which does not appear to
+be so low as the other. The Mountain on the North Side of the Gap is
+very Steep and Rocky, but on the South side it is not So. We called it
+Steep Ridge."
+
+The party crossed the Cumberland River about four miles below the
+present village of Barbourville, Knox County, Kentucky, on the
+twenty-third of April. The river was named by Walker at this time. From
+this spot Walker, with two companions chosen by lot--Powell and
+Chew--went on a tour of exploration alone, leaving the others "to
+provide and salt some Bear, build an house, and plant some Peach Stones
+and Corn."
+
+Walker and his two companions floundered about the neighboring region
+for five days, not getting out of the mountainous country and not
+finding any good land. They crossed the Cumberland again, on the third
+day out, about twenty miles below the first crossing-place, and then
+returned up the river to the main party and found that the work he had
+ordered to be done was completed. "The People I had left had built an
+House 12 by 8, clear'd and broke up some ground, & planted Corn, and
+Peach Stones."
+
+Thus was raised, beside the tumbling Cumberland, on the farm now owned
+by George M. Faulkner four miles below Barbourville, Kentucky, the first
+house now recorded as built by white men in the fine territory between
+the Cumberland Mountains and the Ohio River, now the state of Kentucky.
+It was not an "improver's cabin"--a log pen without roof--but a roofed
+house, and instituted what the English Loyal Land Company could claim to
+be a "settlement" in the territory which they had been granted. This was
+completed by the planting of corn and peach trees. The formality of this
+"settlement" is evinced by the fact that, two days later, the entire
+party moved on for further exploration, never again to return to their
+house or to reap their crops. It was twenty years before a house was
+erected in Kentucky for the permanent dwelling.
+
+From this on, Dr. Walker's journal is a long story of accidents and
+disappointments. One horse became lame, and "another had been bit in the
+Nose by a Snake." "I rub'd the wounds with Bear's oil, and gave him a
+drench of the same and another of the decoction of Rattle Snake root
+some time after." On the same day "Colby Chew and his Horse fell down
+the Bank. I Bled and gave him Volatile drops, & he soon recovered." On
+the first of May they reached Powell's River. This was named from
+Ambrose Powell. During the journey Dr. Walker gave the name of each of
+his companions to rivers he discovered; none were given his name, though
+a mountain range to the north of Fort Chiswell still bears the name of
+Walker's Mountain. On Powell's River the party this day again struck the
+Indian path which later became the great highway to Kentucky. Again he
+was on the route that would have taken him to the famous meadows below
+the foothills of the mountains, and again he left it as he did when he
+chose to explore on the south side of Cumberland Mountain, instead of
+crossing at Pineville and following the trail northward. He did not
+cross Rockcastle River. J. Stoddard Johnson says: "This was the farthest
+western point reached by Doctor Walker. He did not cross the main
+Rockcastle River, and, therefore, was never on the waters of Salt or
+Green rivers, as claimed by some. A day or two's travel to the west or
+northwest would have brought him to the fertile lands of Lincoln or
+Madison County, his description of which would have left no doubt of his
+having passed the watershed between the Rockcastle, the Salt, and the
+rivers to the westward."[2]
+
+Shoes formed an important item in the catalogue of necessaries for the
+early traveler's outfit on the first traveled ways in America. Already
+Walker's party, though they traveled largely by horse, had worn out the
+shoes with which they started, and on the eleventh of May under one of
+the great cliffs near Rockcastle River they set to work to make
+themselves new shoes out of elkskin. "When our Elk's Skin was prepared,"
+writes Dr. Walker on the fourteenth, "we had lost every Awl that we
+brought out, and I made one with the Shank of an old Fishing hook, the
+other People made two of Horse Shoe Nails, and with these we made our
+Shoes and Moccosons."
+
+On the twenty-third the party was on the Kentucky River, where Walker
+found a sycamore which measured forty feet in circumference--almost, it
+will be seen, the size of the tree Washington found on the Great
+Kanawha--upon which he marked his initials, "T. W." On the day after, he
+found another sycamore thirty feet in circumference. These trees, it
+would naturally be inferred, marked the location of fertile soil. On the
+twenty-sixth the "Dogs roused a large Buck Elk, which we followed down
+to a Creek. He killed Ambrose Powell's Dog in the Chase, and we named
+the Run Tumbler's Creek, the Dog being of that Name."
+
+"31st. We crossed 2 Mountains and camped just by a Wolf's Den. They were
+very impudent and after they had twice been shot at, they kept howling
+about the Camp. It rained till Noon this day."
+
+"June ye 1st. We found the Wolf's Den and caught 4 of the young ones."
+It was very common for frontiersmen to invade the dens of wolves without
+any opposition on the part of the old wolves. Wolf cubs have often been
+pulled away from their mothers, who would only snarl and show their
+teeth. Bears, on the other hand, would fight to the death any invader of
+their dens. Notions which commonly prevail today, about the dangers in
+the primeval forests of America from wild animals, undergo a great
+change after a careful reading of pioneer literature.
+
+On the fourth of June "a very black Cloud appearing, we turn'd out our
+Horses, got tent Poles up, and were just stretching a Tent, when it
+began to rain and hail, and was succeeded by a violent Wind which Blew
+down our Tent & a great many Trees about it, several large ones within
+30 yds. of the Tent. We all left the place in confusion and ran
+different ways for shelter. After the Storm was over, we met at the
+Tent, and found all safe."
+
+On the fourteenth the party had gone east as far as the dividing ridge
+between the two forks of the Big Sandy; but within a few days the horses
+were spent, and the whole party floundered onward afoot. On the
+twentieth they reached Flat-top Mountain, Raleigh County, West Virginia.
+This day Dr. Walker's horse was bitten by a snake; "... having no
+Bear's Oil," he wrote, "I rub'd the place with a piece of fat meat,
+which had the desired effect."
+
+Passing the present site of Hinton, West Virginia, the party followed
+about the present line of the Chesapeake and Ohio Railway. They crossed
+the Allegheny divide July 8, and Hot Springs the ninth. They found "Six
+Invalides there. The Spring Water is very Clear & warmer than new Milk,
+and there is a spring of cold Water within 20 feet of the Warm one. I
+left one of my Company this day." They reached Augusta Court House
+(Staunton, Virginia) on the eleventh, and Castle Hill on the sixteenth,
+having been four months and seven days on the journey.
+
+Walker's hard tour amounted to very little for the plain reason that he
+never got west of the mountains. He found no good land and his report
+was depressing.
+
+
+It remained for another brave frontiersman to go further and bring back
+the welcome news of large areas of splendid land in the Ohio Valley. In
+1748 John Hanbury, London merchant; Thomas Lee, President of the
+Council of Virginia; and a number of prominent Virginians formed the
+Ohio Company, elsewhere mentioned, and received a large grant of land in
+the West. The grant was made March 18, 1749: two hundred thousand acres
+between the Monongahela and Great Kanawha Rivers, and later three
+hundred thousand acres, to be located on the waters of the lower Ohio.
+In 1750 this company employed Christopher Gist, a hardy, well-trained
+frontiersman who lived on the Yadkin in North Carolina, to explore the
+Ohio Valley and make a report upon the land there found. For his arduous
+service he was to receive one hundred and fifty pounds sterling "and
+such further handsome allowance as his service should deserve." His
+instructions read as follows:
+
+"You are to go out as soon as possible to the Westward of the great
+Mountains, and carry with you such a Number of Men as You think
+necessary, in Order to Search out and discover the Lands upon the river
+Ohio & other adjoining Branches of the Mississippi down as low as the
+great Falls thereof: You are particularly to observe the Ways & Passes
+thro all the Mountains you cross, & take an exact Account of the Soil,
+Quality & Product of the Land, and the Wideness and Deepness of the
+Rivers, & the several Falls belonging to them, together with the Courses
+& Bearings of the Rivers & Mountains as near as you conveniently can:
+You are also to observe what Nations of Indians inhabit there, their
+Strength and Numbers, who they trade with, & in what Comodities they
+deal.
+
+"When you find a large quantity of good, level Land, such as you think
+will suit the Company, You are to measure the Breadth of it, in three or
+four different Places, & take the Courses of the River & Mountains on
+which it binds in Order to judge the Quantity: You are to fix the
+Beginning & Bounds in such a Manner that they may be easily found again
+by your Description; the nearer in the Land lies the better, provided it
+be good & level, but we had rather go quite down the Mississippi than
+take mean broken Land. After finding a large Body of good level Land,
+you are not to stop but proceed further, as low as the Falls of the
+Ohio, that we may be informed of that Navigation; And You are to take an
+exact Account of all the large Bodies of good level Land, in the same
+Manner as above directed that the Company may the better judge when it
+will be most convenient for them to take their Land.
+
+"You are to note all the Bodies of good Land as you go along, tho there
+is not a sufficient Quantity for the Company's Grant, but You need not
+be so particular in the Mensuration of that, as in the larger Bodies of
+Land.
+
+"You are to draw as good a plan as you can of the Country You pass thro:
+You are to take an exact and particular Journal of all Your Proceedings,
+and make a true Report thereof to the Ohio Company."
+
+Gist was the man for the business in hand. He came from an enterprising
+family and was well educated. His father was one of the Commissioners
+for laying off the city of Baltimore. "Little is known of his early
+life, but the evidences he has left in his journals, his maps, plats of
+surveys, and correspondence indicate that he enjoyed the advantages of
+an education superior to that of many of his calling in those early
+days. His signature and manuscript are characterized by the neatness and
+uniformity of a copy plate, while his plats and surveys are models in
+their mathematical exactness and precision of drawing. To this evidence
+of scholarly order and professional skill he added the hardy qualities
+of the pioneer and backwoodsman, capable of enduring the exposure of
+long journeys in the most rigorous weather. In him were combined the
+varied talents which made him at once an accomplished surveyor, an
+energetic farmer who felled the forest and tilled the soil, a skilful
+diplomat who understood the Indian character and was influential in
+making treaties, a brave soldier, an upright man, trusted by the highest
+civil and military authorities with implicit faith."[3]
+
+The earlier portion of Gist's journey, which he began in October, 1750,
+is not of importance in the present monograph. He reached the Ohio River
+by way of the Juniata and Kiskiminitas Rivers. Crossing the Ohio he
+worked his way westward on the Great Trail to the "Crossing Place of the
+Muskingum" (Bolivar, Ohio), and from thence he traversed the Indian
+trail to the country of the Shawanese and Miamis.
+
+It was not until Tuesday, the twelfth of March, that Gist again crossed
+the Ohio, and entered what is now the state of Kentucky. His first day's
+experience was typical--in a land so well known for great things and
+strong; for on the day after crossing at the Shawanese Shannoah Town, he
+found two men who had "Two of the Teeth of a large Beast.... The Rib
+Bones of the largest of these Beasts were eleven Feet long, and the
+Skull Bone six Feet wide, across the Forehead, & the other Bones in
+Proportion; and that there were several Teeth there, some of which he
+called Horns, and said they were upwards of five Feet long, and as much
+as a Man could well carry."
+
+Gist was now in Kentucky--the land of which thousands were waiting to
+hear, the home of the race that was to come and conquer and settle and
+hold the West. Of it Gist came to know only a little, but this little
+was the beginning of a revelation.
+
+After crossing the Ohio, Gist journeyed over a hundred miles down the
+southern bank of the river, and on March eighteenth crossed "the lower
+Salt Lick Creek," the Licking River. Reports of Indians at the "Falls"
+and "the footsteps of some Indians plain on the Ground" made him desist
+from visiting that spot, but he took down descriptions of it. On the
+nineteenth he turned southward into the interior. On the twentieth he
+ascended Pilot Knob, near Clay City, Powell County, and writes of the
+view from that height from which he saw, as John Finley wrote later,
+"with pleasure the beautiful level of Kentucky."
+
+With but a glimpse of the good lands of Kentucky, Gist, like Walker
+before him, journeyed into the mountainous country to the southeast. For
+a month he floundered around in the desolate laurel ridges where Walker
+had spent so many distressing days the year before. On Red River Gist
+crossed Walker's route and came on homeward between Walker's outward and
+homeward courses. From Red River he went through Pound Gap and
+eastward, down what is known as Gist's or Guesse's Fork of the Clinch in
+Wise County, Virginia, and then upon Bluestone, a tributary of New
+River. On the thirteenth of May he crossed Walker's route again at
+Inglis Ferry, near Draper's Meadows. On the seventeenth he passed into
+North Carolina through Flower or Wood's Gap toward his home on the
+Yadkin. He reached home on the eighteenth and found that his family had
+removed to Roanoke, thirty-five miles eastward, because of depredations
+of the Indians during the winter.
+
+Gist's journey was far more successful than Walker's. He found the fine
+fertile valleys of the Muskingum, Scioto, and Miami Rivers north of the
+Ohio, and he caught a glimpse of the beautiful meadows of Kentucky. He
+singularly made a complete circle about the land between the Monongahela
+and Kanawha Rivers, where the Ohio Company's grant of land was made. As
+he did not approach it on any side it is probable that he knew that only
+rough land lay there. Had it not been for the sudden breaking out of the
+old French War, the Ohio Company would undoubtedly have settled on
+lands in the Ohio Valley according to Gist's advice. Hostilities on the
+frontier soon drove back the farther settlements, and rendered
+activities in the land Gist had discovered out of the question, either
+on the part of land companies or private individuals.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III
+
+ANNALS OF THE ROAD
+
+
+With the close of Pontiac's Rebellion and the passing away of the war
+clouds which had hung so long over the West, ten thousand eyes turned
+longingly across the Alleghenies and Blue Ridge. War with all its
+horrors had yet brought something of good, for never before had the
+belief that a splendidly fertile empire lay to the westward taken such a
+hold upon the people of Virginia. Nothing more was needed but the
+positive assurance of large areas of good land, and a way to reach it.
+It was ten years after the close of Pontiac's war before both of these
+conditions were fulfilled.
+
+First came the definite assurance that the meadows of Kentucky were what
+Gist and others had reported them to be. The Proclamation of 1763,
+forbidding western settlement, did not forbid hunting in the West--and
+the great emigration which started as slow as a glacier was finally put
+into motion by the proof brought back to North Carolina and Virginia by
+the hunters (of whom mention has been made) who went over the mountains
+between 1763 and 1773. In 1766 Colonel James Smith, undaunted by his
+captivity among the Indians, hunted through the southern portion of
+Kentucky. In 1767 John Finley traded with the Indians in northern
+Kentucky, and James Harrod and Michael Stoner were in the southern
+portion of the country. Finally, in 1769 Daniel Boone came into the land
+"a second Adam in another Eden." Boone reached the edge of the beautiful
+Blue Grass Region and returned home in 1771 to tell of what he saw, and
+to bring his family "as soon as possible to live in Kentucky, which I
+esteemed a second paradise, at the risk of my life and fortune." In 1769
+also, the party of stout hunters headed by Colonel James Knox reached
+Kentucky, and hunted on the Green and Lower Cumberland Rivers; they were
+so long absent from home that they were given the name of "The Long
+Hunters." These, too, brought glowing descriptions of the fine meadows
+of _Ken-ta-kee_.
+
+At once the forests were filled with cohorts of surveyors--the vanguard
+of the host under whose feet the continent was soon to tremble. These
+surveyors represented the various land companies and the bounty land
+seekers, who had a claim to the two hundred thousand acres promised the
+Virginian soldiers in the old French war. Scores of cabins were raised
+in 1774 at Harrodsburg, near Danville, on the east fork of Salt River,
+on Dick's River, and on Salt River. Their erection marks the beginning
+of the first settlement of the land one year previous to the breaking
+out of the war of the Revolution.
+
+These first comers found their way to Kentucky by two routes--the
+Warriors' Path through Cumberland Gap, and the Ohio River, which they
+reached either by the Kittanning Path up the Juniata or by Braddock's or
+Forbes's Roads. Each route was dangerous and difficult beyond
+description. It was a terrible road from Cumberland to Pittsburg, and
+the journey down the Ohio was not more inviting. When the river was
+high and afforded safe navigation it was as much a highway for red men
+as for white--and these were treacherous times. When the river was low,
+a thousand natural obstructions tended to daunt even the bravest
+boatmen--and the Virginian backwoodsmen were not educated to contend
+with such a dangerous stream as the Ohio, with its changing currents,
+treacherous eddies, and thousands of sunken trees. One frontiersman who
+made the river trip at an early date, cautioned those who essayed the
+trip against rowing their boats at night; lest the sound of the oars
+should prevent the watchman from hearing the "riffling" of the water
+about the rocks and sunken trees, on which many a boat had been wrecked
+with all its precious freight. The danger of river travel down such a
+stream appealed with tremendous force to the early pioneers, with the
+result that the majority chose the land route.
+
+But what an alternative! A narrow trail in the forests six hundred miles
+in length was the only path. It had been traversed by many even as early
+as 1775, but each traveler had made it worse, and the story of the
+hardships of the journey through "the Wilderness" would make even the
+bravest pause. It is a hard journey today, one which cannot be made
+without taxing even the strongest; what was it before the route was
+dotted with cities and hamlets, before the road had been widened and
+bridged, before the mountains had been graded and the swamps drained,
+before the fierce lurking enemies had been driven away?
+
+Neither Walker nor Gist traversed what became the famed Wilderness Road
+to Kentucky. When the Shawanese raided Draper's Meadows, near Inglis
+Ferry, in 1755, they took their prisoners away on the trail through
+Powell's Valley toward Cumberland Gap; and the rescuing party which
+followed them were perhaps the first white men who traveled what became
+the great pioneer thoroughfare to Kentucky. It was, undoubtedly, the
+route followed by the early hunters who passed through Cumberland Gap
+and found the fertile meadows of which Dr. Walker was ignorant, and of
+which Christopher Gist caught only a faint glimpse. Settlements sprang
+up slowly beyond Inglis Ferry, but by the time of Boone's return in 1771
+a few families were on the upper waters of the Holston, and settlements
+had been made on the Watauga where Fort Watauga was soon to be built,
+and at Wolf Hills, now Abington. These settlements were all one hundred
+miles east of Cumberland Gap, and the little path thither was not yet
+marked for white man's use.
+
+But the brave Boone was as good as his word--and he did attempt to bring
+his family and five other families to Kentucky in the year 1773, over
+what was soon to be known as Boone's Road. This was the beginning of the
+great tide of immigration through Cumberland Gap, a social movement
+which for timeliness and ultimate success ranks as the most important in
+the history of the central West. This initial attempt was not a success,
+for the party was driven back by Indians, with loss, entirely
+discouraged. But from this time on, despite Dunmore's War which now
+broke out, the dream of western immigration could not be forgotten.
+
+But all the western movement was now put at hazard by the outbreak of
+this cruel, bloody war between the "Long Knives"--as the Virginians in
+the Monongahela country came to be called, from the sabres that hung at
+their loins--and the Shawanese north of the Ohio. As suggested, the
+preceding years had been marked by continual bloodshed. It is
+undoubtedly true that those Long Knives on the upper Ohio had been doing
+some dreadful slashing. Perhaps the provocations were as enormous as the
+crimes; surely the Indians to the north were the most bloodthirsty and
+cruel of any on the continent. At the same time it is safe to say that
+many of their white foes on the Ohio were inhuman marauders, whose
+principal occupation was that of shooting game for a living and Indians
+for sport. Even in the statement in Boone's autobiography there is a
+plain suggestion of a guilty conscience on the part of those of whom he
+wrote: "The settlers [in the Monongahela country], now aware that a
+general warfare would be commenced by the Indians, immediately sent an
+express to Williamsburg, the seat of government in Virginia,
+communicating their apprehensions and soliciting protection." How aware?
+Because some of the relatives of the Indian chieftain Logan had been
+basely murdered, while intoxicated, on Yellow Creek?
+
+The Virginian House of Burgesses was quick to answer this appeal of the
+western colonists, and Governor Dunmore's earnestness in arranging the
+campaign resulted in the short wars bearing his name. General Andrew
+Lewis, a hero of Braddock's defeat, was commissioned to raise an army of
+border settlers and march down the Great Kanawha; while Lord Dunmore
+went northward to Pittsburg, where, in the Monogahela country, he would
+recruit another army and descend the Ohio to the mouth of the Great
+Kanawha. Here the armies would unite to pierce the valley of the Scioto
+in which the hell-hound Shawanese dwelt.
+
+Lewis gathered an army of eleven hundred experienced borderers from the
+Watauga settlement and the Greenbriar Valley, and marched swiftly
+northward. But the enemy knew of his approach, and instead of joining
+Dunmore's army at the mouth of the Great Kanawha he met a barricaded
+Indian horde, equal in size to his own army, and the bloody and
+momentous battle of Point Pleasant was fought and won. Arriving at the
+Ohio, Lewis encamped on the point of land between the two rivers. Soon
+two hunters pursuing a deer encountered the Indian vanguard which was
+bearing down on the ill-placed army of whites. One hunter fell dead and
+the other returned with the alarming news. General Lewis, a pupil in
+that school on Braddock's Road, lit his pipe and ordered the assault.
+Two regiments advanced on the Indian line, which now ranged from river
+to river, completely cutting it off from retreat. Both colonels
+commanding were soon killed and their men began to fall back
+disconcerted. Reënforcements drove the redskins back to their
+entrenchments, and renewed confidence. But at last fighting became
+desperate. Among his Virginians, the brave Flemming, twice wounded, kept
+repeating his order, "Advance, outflank the enemy and get between them
+and the river." Among his desperate followers the calm voice of
+Cornstalk was heard all day long: "Be brave, be brave, be brave!" As in
+the battle of Bushy Run, where the hope of the West lay with Bouquet as
+it did now with Lewis, so at Point Pleasant no way of success was left,
+at the close of that October day, save in strategy. The white man did
+not learn to conquer the red until he learned to deal with him on his
+own terms of cunning and deceit.
+
+In desperation Lewis sent three companies up the Great Kanawha under
+cover of the bank to Crooked Creek. Ascending this stream with great
+caution, these heroes of the day rushed from its bed upon the enemy's
+flank, and the tide of the battle was turned. The Indians, though having
+suffered least, fell back across the Ohio to their villages to the
+northward. The proposed junction of the two white armies was achieved,
+but Lewis had already sufficiently awed the Shawanese, who came to
+Dunmore's Camp Charlotte in their valley, and gave their affirmation to
+the Fort Stanwix Treaty, which surrendered to the whites all the
+territory south of the Ohio and north of the Tennessee.
+
+In less than a year Boone went through the Gap alone to the "Falls of
+the Ohio" (Louisville), and returned in safety, more possessed than ever
+with the ambition to take his family to the El Dorado which he had
+discovered, and of which he spoke in the enthusiastic vein which has
+already been quoted. He had found the splendid lands of which Gist had
+guessed; he had found a straight path thither. All that was lacking was
+an impetus to turn a floodtide of Virginians and their neighbors into
+the new land.
+
+This came, too, within a year after the close of Dunmore's War--an
+artificial impetus in the shape of a land company, headed by a brave,
+enterprising man, Colonel Richard Henderson, with whom were associated
+eight other North Carolinians of high social standing. Richard Henderson
+was the son of Samuel Henderson (1700) and Elizabeth Williams (1714). He
+was born in Hanover County, Virginia, on the twentieth of April, 1735.
+His two well-known brothers, Nathaniel and Pleasant, were born in 1736
+and 1756, respectively. The sons were worthy of their good Scotch-Welsh
+ancestry. When Richard was about ten years of age his father moved from
+their home in Virginia to Granville County in the province of North
+Carolina. Here the elder Henderson was afterward appointed sheriff of
+his county, and the young Richard was soon able to assist his father by
+doing the business "of the sherriffltry."[4]
+
+After this practical introduction to the science of law young Richard
+turned to the theoretical study, and read law for a twelve-month with
+his cousin, Judge Williams. In that day a prospective barrister was
+compelled to get a certificate from the chief-justice of his colony;
+this he presented to the governor, who, being satisfied as to the
+candidate's acquirements, gave him a license. Richard Henderson's
+self-confidence and genuine talent are exhibited by the story which his
+brother records, of his attempting to obtain a license to practice law
+after the brief period of study mentioned above.
+
+Procuring a certificate from the chief-justice he presented himself to
+the governor of North Carolina as a candidate for a license.
+
+"How long have you read law and what books have you studied?" asked the
+governor.
+
+"Twelve months," replied young Henderson, naming the books he had used.
+
+The governor replied brusquely that it was wholly unnecessary for him to
+take the time to give an examination, as no one could in that length of
+time and with such books become proficient.
+
+"Sir," replied Richard Henderson not a whit dismayed, "I am an applicant
+for examination; it is your duty to examine me and if found worthy, to
+grant me a license; if otherwise, to refuse one."
+
+It can well be imagined how quickly the governor bristled up and how
+mercilessly he would "quiz" a lad who informed him in such a spirited
+manner what the duties of his office required of him. But the running
+fire of questions did not daunt the candidate more than had the
+governor's indifference--and the young Richard received at the close of
+the interview, not only a license, but what meant more, many encomiums
+from his governor.
+
+Henderson soon acquired a good practice and became a judge on the bench
+of the Superior Court. In 1774 the conflict with the British agent in
+North Carolina was precipitated, and the colonial government was
+abolished. It was at this time that Judge Henderson became interested in
+the desire of the Cherokee Indians to sell land. Henderson's plan was to
+purchase from the Cherokees the great territory lying south of the
+Kentucky River--one-half the present state of Kentucky. This was quite
+against the laws and traditions of the only colony which had any valid
+claim to the territory--Virginia, his native state--but this seemed to
+matter not to Henderson and his associates; these were John Williams,
+under whom Henderson had studied law, Leonard Henley Bullock, James
+Hogg, Nathaniel Thomas, David Hart, John Luttrell, and William
+Johnstone. At the very beginning of the century Virginia had passed an
+act forbidding the private purchase of lands from the Indians. The
+founders of Transylvania evidently doubted Virginia's sweeping claims
+to the entire interior of the continent--at any rate land companies
+seemed to be the only means by which the vast wildernesses beyond the
+mountains could be opened up and settled. Though Virginia soon proved
+the invalidity of the purchase, she at the same time was frank enough to
+admit that Henderson's Company had done a good work in giving an impetus
+to westward expansion, by appropriately recompensing the North
+Carolinians for their expenditure and labors.
+
+Henderson's purchase was gigantic in its proportions, embracing nearly
+twenty million acres. The consideration was ten thousand pounds
+sterling. The purchase was made at the advance settlement at Watauga,
+March 17, 1775--only a month before the outbreak at Lexington and
+Concord. Henderson employed Boone to assist in the transaction, and
+immediately after engaged him to mark out the road through Cumberland
+Gap to a settlement in Kentucky, where the Transylvania Company (as
+Henderson strangely named his organization) was to begin the occupation
+of the empire it had nominally secured. Of this Boone writes modestly
+that he was "solicited by a number of North Carolina gentlemen, that
+were about purchasing the lands lying on the south side of the Kentucky
+River, from the Cherokee Indians, to attend their treaty at Watauga, in
+March, 1775, to negotiate with them, and mention the boundaries of the
+purchase. This I accepted, and at the request of the same gentlemen
+undertook to mark out a road in the best passage from the settlement
+through the wilderness to Kentucky, with such assistance as I thought
+necessary to employ for such an important undertaking."
+
+As in the case of Nemacolin's Path across the Alleghenies, so now a
+second westward Indian pathway was blazed for white man's use; and if
+the Transylvania Colony can in no other respect be said to have been
+successful, it certainly conferred an inestimable good upon Virginia and
+North Carolina and the nation, when it marked out through the hand of
+Boone the Wilderness Road to Kentucky. From Watauga the path led up to
+the Gap, where it joined the great Warrior's Path which came down
+through Kentucky from the Scioto Valley in Ohio. For about fifty miles
+Boone's Road followed this path northward, whereupon, leaving the Indian
+trail, Boone bore to the west, marking his course on a buffalo trace
+toward "Hazel Patch" to the Rockcastle. The buffalo path was followed
+onward up Roundstone Creek, through "Boone's Gap" in Big Hill; through
+the present county of Madison, Kentucky; and down little Otter Creek to
+the Kentucky River. Here Boonesborough was built for the Transylvania
+Colony, which became the temporary center of Kentucky.
+
+Felix Walker, one of Boone's road-making party, made an autobiographical
+statement about 1824 of this brave attempt to cut a white man's path
+into Kentucky. From this statement these quotations from De Bow's
+_Review_ (1854) are pertinent:
+
+"The treaty (at Watauga) being concluded and the purchase made, we
+proceeded on our journey to meet Col. Daniel Boon, with other
+adventurers, bound to the same country; accordingly we met and
+rendezvoused at the Long Island on Holsteen river, united our small
+force with Colonel Boon and his associates, his brother, Squire Boon,
+and Col. Richard Callaway, of Virginia. Our company, when united,
+amounted to 30 persons. We then, by general consent, put ourselves under
+the management and control of Col. Boon, who was to be our pilot and
+conductor through the wilderness, to the promised land.... About the
+10th of March we put off from the Long Island, marked out our track with
+our hatchets, crossed Clinch and Powell's river, over Cumberland
+mountain, and crossed Cumberland river--came to a watercourse called by
+Col.--Rockcastle river; killed a fine bear on our way, camped all night
+and had an excellent supper. On leaving that river, we had to encounter
+and cut our way through a country of about twenty miles, entirely
+covered with dead brash, which we found a difficult and laborious task.
+At the end of which we arrived at the commencement of a cane country,
+traveled about thirty miles through thick cane and reed, and as the cane
+ceased, we began to discover the pleasing and rapturous appearance of
+the plains of Kentucky. A new sky and strange earth seemed to be
+presented to our view.... A sad reverse overtook us two days after, on
+our way to Kentucky river. On the 25th of March, 1775, we were fired on
+by the Indians, in our camp asleep, about an hour before day. Capt.
+Twetty was shot in both knees, and died the third day after. A black
+man, his body servant, killed dead; myself badly wounded; our company
+dispersed. So fatal and tragical an event cast a deep gloom of
+melancholy over all our prospects, and high calculations of long life
+and happy days in our newly-discovered country were prostrated; hope
+vanished from the most of us, and left us suspended in the tumult of
+uncertainty and conjecture. Col. Boon, and a few others, appeared to
+possess firmness and fortitude. In our calamitous situation, a
+circumstance occurred one morning after our misfortunes that proved the
+courage and stability of our few remaining men (for some had gone back).
+One of our men, who had run off at the fire of the Indians on our camp,
+was discovered peeping from behind a tree, by a black woman belonging
+to Colonel Callaway, while gathering some wood. She ran in and gave the
+alarm of Indians. Colonel Boon instantly caught his rifle, ordered the
+men to form, take trees, and give battle, and not to run till they saw
+him fall. They formed agreeably to his directions, and I believe they
+would have fought with equal bravery to any Spartan band ever brought to
+the field of action, when the man behind the tree announced his name and
+came in.... At length I was carried in a litter between two horses,
+twelve miles, to Kentucky river, where we made a station, and called it
+Boonsborough, situated in a plain on the south side of the river,
+wherein was a lick with two sulphur springs strongly impregnated.... In
+the sequel and conclusion of my narrative I must not neglect to give
+honor to whom honor is due. Colonel Boone conducted the company under
+his care through the wilderness, with great propriety, intrepidity and
+courage; and was I to enter an exception to any part of his conduct, it
+would be on the ground that he appeared void of fear and of
+consequence--too little caution for the enterprise. But let me, with
+feeling recollection and lasting gratitude, ever remember the
+unremitting kindness, sympathy, and attention paid to me by Col. Boone
+in my distress. He was my father, my physician, and friend; he attended
+me as his child, cured my wounds by the use of medicines from the woods,
+nursed me with paternal affection until I recovered, without the
+expectation of reward."
+
+[Illustration: PLAT OF BOONESBOROUGH
+[_Based on a copy of the original in possession of John Stevens_]]
+
+It was altogether fitting that among the very first to follow Boone's
+blazed road to Kentucky we should find Judge Henderson and his
+fellow-promoters of the Transylvania Company. Nothing shows more plainly
+the genuineness of their purposes and the heroism of their spirit. They
+were not foisting on their countrymen a hazardous scheme by which they
+should profit, while others bore the brunt of the toil and danger. True,
+Henderson had, purposely or unwittingly, ignored the technicality of
+Virginia's claim to the possession of the West; but, with an honesty
+unparalleled at that day in such matters, they met the representatives
+of the real owners of the lands they desired, and had purchased them
+and paid down the purchase money. There is almost no doubt that they
+could have satisfied Virginia's technicalities at a less cost; and then
+have gone, as so many have done, to fortify their possessions and "fight
+it out" with the genuine owners of the soil, who would eventually get
+nothing and lose everything.
+
+This Judge Henderson did not do; nor did he sit down comfortably at home
+and send others to turn his holdings into money. He arose and
+started--amid dangers that shall not be mentioned lest they be
+minimized--for far-away Kentucky, on the little roadway Boone was
+opening.
+
+Henderson's party left Fort Watauga March 20, 1775, and arrived at the
+infant Boonesborough April 20. The leader of the party fortunately kept
+a record, though meager, of this notable journey. This precious yellow
+diary is preserved by the Wisconsin Historical Society. It reads:
+
+                                         "Monday March 20th 1775
+
+Having finished my Treaty with the Indians, at Wataugah Sett out for
+Louisa & arrived at John Shelbeys in the Evening--Tuesday the 21^{st}
+went to M^r John Seviers in Company of Col^o Williams & Col^o Hart &
+staid that day--Wednesday the 22^d--Mess^{rs} Williams & Hart set off
+Home & I staid with M^r Sevier Thursday 23^d Still at M^r Seviers--N. B.
+because our Horses were lost tho. not uneasiy as Mess^{rs} Hart and
+Letteral made a poor Hand of Traveling--
+
+Friday 24^{th} Sett of in pursuit of M^r Hart & Letteral. Overtook them
+Both & Lodged at Capt Bledsoe's--
+
+Satterday the 25^{th}. came to M^{rs} Callaway's.
+
+Sunday 26^{th} staid there.
+
+Monday 27^{th} Emplied in storeing away Goods.
+
+Tuesday 28^{th}--Sett off for Louisa
+
+Wednesday Continued Journey. N. B. M^r Luttrel not come up.
+
+Thursday 30^{th} Arrived at Cap^t Martins in Powels Valey--
+
+Fryday 31^{st} Imploy'd in makeing house to secure the Waggons as we
+could not possibly clear the road any further. N. B. My Waggon & Sam^l
+Hendersons came up in A.M. W. Luttrel in the Evin^g
+
+Satterday the 1 day of April--Imploy'd in making ready for packing &^c
+M^r Hart came up--
+
+Sunday 2^d Continued at Capt^t Martins Waiting for the Waggon Monday the
+3^d Still continued Waiting for the Waggon--
+
+Tuesday the 4^{th}--Still continued Waiting for the Waggon. The same
+evening the Waggon arrived--tho so Late we cood Not proceed--
+
+Wednesday 5^{th} Started off with our pack Horses ab^t. 3 oClock Traveld
+about 5 Miles to a Large Spring. The Same evening M^r Litteral went out
+a Hunting & has Not yet returned. [Next. Both Henderson and Sa^l Durning
+went in pursuit of him--_erased in diary_.] The same evening Sam^l.
+Hendersons & John Farriers Horses took a Scare with there packs Run away
+with Sams Saddle & Briddle. Farrars Saddle Baggs other things Damaged.
+Next Morning Sam^l Henderson & Farrar went in pursuit of there Horses.
+Saddle &c--the same Evening John Farrar returnd to our Camp with News
+that they had found all there goods. But two of there horses were
+Missing
+
+Thursday 6 sent John Farrar Back with provission to meet & Assist Sam
+Henderson with orders to stay with him, till they overtook Us, as we
+promis'd to wait for them at Cumberland Gap
+
+Fryday the 7^{th}--Sam^l. Henderson & John Farrar Returned to us with
+there Horses Packs & every thing safe.
+
+we having waited at our Camp 10 miles below Martins for them
+
+[Thursday the 6^{th}--_erased_]. Traveled about Six Miles to the last
+Settlement in Powels Valey where we were obliged to stop and kill a Beef
+wait for Sam Henderson & [N. B?] this was done whilst waiting for Sam^l
+Henderson as afo[re mentioned]
+
+Fryday the 7^{th}. About Brake of Day begun to snow, About 11 ^oClock
+received a letter from M^r Littereals camp that were five persons kill'd
+on the road to the Cantuckee by Indians--Cap^t Hart, uppon the receipt
+of this News Retreated back with his Company & determin'd to Settle in
+the Valley to make Corn for the Cantuckey People
+
+The same Day Received a Letter from Da^n. Boone. that his Company was
+fired uppon by Indians Kill'd Two of his men--tho he kept the ground &
+saved the Baggage &c.
+
+Satterday the 8^{th}. Started ab^t. 10 ^oClock Cross'd Cumberland Gap
+about 4 Miles Met about 40 persons Returning from the Cantuckey. on
+Acc^t. of the Late Murder by the Indians could prevail one one [_sic_]
+only to return. Mem^o Several Virginians who were with us returned.
+
+Sunday the 9^{th}. Arrived at Cumberland River where we met Rob^t Wills
+& his son returning &c
+
+Monday 10^{th}. Dispach^d Cap^t Cocke to the Cantukey to Inform Cap^t
+Boone that we were on the road Continued at Camp that day on Acc^t of
+the Badness of the Wether
+
+Tuesday 11^{th} started from Cumberl^d. made a very good days Travel of
+Near 20 Mile Kill'd Beef &c.
+
+Wednesday the 12 Travel'd about 5 Miles, prevented going any further by
+the rains & high water at Richland Creek--
+
+Thursday the 13^{th}. Last Night arrived men [of] our Camp Stewart & ten
+other men, campt within half mile of us on there Return from Lousia
+Campt. that Night at Larrel River--they had well nigh turnd three or
+four of our Virg & us back.
+
+Fryday the 14. Traveld about 12 Miles to a Camp &c
+
+Satterday the 15^{th}. Traveld about 18 Miles & campt on the North side
+of Rock Castle River.--this River's a fork of Cumberland--lost an ax
+this morn at Camp.
+
+Sunday the 16^{th}. About 12 oClock Met Jemes McAfee with 18 other
+persons Returning from Cantuckey Traveld about 22 Miles and Campt on the
+head of Dicks River where Luna from Mc.Afees camp came to us resolved to
+go to the Louisa--
+
+Monday 17^{th} Started about 3 oClock prevented by Rain. Traveld 7 Miles
+
+Tuesday the 18^{th}. Traveld about 16 Miles, met Michael Stoner with
+Pack Horses to assist us. Campt that Night in the Edge of the Rich
+Land--Stoner brought us Excellent Beef in plenty
+
+Wednesday 19^{th}. Traveld about 16 Miles Campt on Oter Creek--a good
+mill place
+
+Thursday the 20^{th}. Arrived at Fort Boone. on the Mouth of Oter Creek
+Cantukey River--where we were Saluted by a running fire of about 25
+Guns; all that was then at Fort--The men appeared in high Spirits &
+much rejoiced on our arrival"[5]
+
+Colonel Henderson (as the leader of the Transylvania Colony is best
+known) arrived at Boonesborough one day after the outbreak of the
+Revolutionary struggle at Lexington and Concord, and on his own fortieth
+birthday.
+
+A clearer glimpse of the fortunes of this company of pilgrims who
+followed in Boone's wake is preserved for us in the journal kept by
+William Calk, who was with Hart's party that Henderson met at Martin's
+cabin on the second of April. The original manuscript is in the
+possession of the family of the late Mr. Thomas Calk, near Mt. Sterling,
+Kentucky.
+
+It reads:
+
+"1775 Mond. 13th--I set out from prince wm. to travel to caintuck on
+tuesday Night our company all got together at Mr. Prises on rapadan
+which was Abraham hanks[6] philip Drake Eaneck Smith Robert Whitledge &
+my Self, thear Abrams Dogs leg got Broke By Drake's Dog.
+
+Wedns. 15th,--We started early from prises made a good Days travel &
+lodge this night at Mr. Cars on North fork James River.
+
+Thurs. 16th,--We started early it raind Chief part of the Day Snowd in
+the Eavening very hard & was very Coald we traveld all Day & got to Mr.
+Blacks at the foot of the Blue Ridge.
+
+fryd. 17th--We start early cross the Ridge the wind Blows very hard &
+cold and lodge at James loyls.
+
+Satrd. 18th--We git this Day to William Andersons at Crows ferrey &
+there we Stay till monday morning.
+
+Mond. 20th--We start early cross the fery and lodge this night at Wm.
+Adamses on the head of Catauby.
+
+tuesd. 21st--We start early and git over pepers ferey on new river &
+lodge at pepers this night.
+
+Wedns 22d--We start early and git to foart Chissel whear we git some
+good loaf Bread & good whiskey.
+
+thurs 23d--we start early & travel till a good while in the Night and
+git to major Cammels on holston River.
+
+fryday 24th--we start early & turn out of the wagon Road to go across
+the mountains to go by Danil Smiths we loose Driver Come to a turabel
+mountain that tired us all almost to death to git over it & we lodge
+this night on the Lawrel fork of holston under agrait mountain & Roast a
+fine fat turkey for our suppers & Eat it without aney Bread.
+
+Satrd 25th--We start early travel over Some more very Bad mountains one
+that is caled Clinch mountain & we git this night to Danil Smiths on
+Clinch and there we staid till thursday morning on tuesday night &
+wednesday morning it snowd Very hard and was very Coald & we hunted a
+good deal there while we staid in Rough mountains and kild three deer &
+one turkey Eanock Abram & I got lost tuesday night & it a snowing &
+Should a lain in the mountains had not I a had a pocket compas By which
+I got in a littel in the night and fired guns and they heard them and
+caim in By the Repoart.
+
+thursd 30th--We set out again & went down to Elk gardin and there suplid
+our Selves With Seed Corn & irish tators then we went on a littel way I
+turnd my hors to drive afore me & he got scard ran away threw Down the
+Saddel Bags and broke three of our powder goards & Abrams beast Burst
+open a walet of corn & lost a good Deal & made a turrabel flustration
+amongst the Reast of the Horses Drakes mair run against a sapling & noct
+it down we cacht them all agin & went on & lodgd at John Duncans.
+
+fryd 31st--We Suployd our Selves at Dunkans with a 108 pounds of Bacon &
+went on again to Brileys mill & suployd our Selves with meal & lodged
+this night on Clinch By a large cainbraike & cuckt our Suppers.
+
+April Satrd first--this morning there is ice at our camp half inch thick
+we start early & travel this Day along a verey Bad hilley way cross one
+creek whear the horses almost got mired some fell in & all wet their
+loads we cross Clinch River & travell till late in the Night & camp on
+Cove creek having two men with us that wair pilates.
+
+Sund 2d--this morning is a very hard frost we Start early travel over
+powels mountain and camp in the head of Powels valey whear there is
+verey good food.
+
+mond 3d We Start early travel down the valey cross powels River go some
+throu the woods without aney track cross some Bad hils git into
+hendersons Road camp on a creek in powels valey.
+
+Tuesday 4th Raney, we Start about 10 oclock and git down to Capt.
+martins in the valey where we over take Coln henderson & his Companey
+Bound for Caintuck & there we camp this Night there they were Broiling &
+Eating Beef without Bread.
+
+Wednesday 5th Breaks away fair & we go on down the valey & camp on
+indian Creek we had this creek to cross maney times & very Bad Banks
+Abrams saddel turnd & the load all fell in we go out this Eavening &
+kill two Deer.
+
+thurs 6th this morning is ahard frost & we wait at Camp for Coln
+henderson & companey to come up they come up about 12 o'clock & we join
+with them and camp there Still this night waiting for some part of the
+companey that had thier horses ran away with their packs.
+
+fryday 7th this morning is a very hard snowey morning we still continue
+at Camp Being in number about 40 men & Some neagros this Eaven--Comes a
+letter from Capt. Boone at caintuck of the indians doing mischief and
+some turns back.
+
+1775
+
+Satrd April 8th--We all pact up and started crost Cumberland gap about
+one oclock this Day We Met a great maney peopel turned Back for fear of
+the indians but our Companey goes on Still with good courage we come to
+a very ugly Creek with steep Banks & have it to cross several times on
+this Creek we camp this night.
+
+Sunday 9th--this morning we wait at camp for the cattle to Be drove up
+to kill a Beef tis late Before they come & peopel makes out alittel
+snack & agree to go on till Night we git to Cumberland River & there we
+camp meet 2 more men turn Back.
+
+Monday 10th--this is alowry morning & very like for Rain & we keep at
+Camp this day and some goes out ahunting. I & two more goes up avery
+large mountain Near the tops we saw the track of two indians & whear
+they had lain unter some Rocks some of the companey went over the River
+a bofelo hunting but found None at night Capt. hart comes up with his
+packs & there they hide some of thier lead to lighten thier packs that
+they may travel faster.
+
+tuesday 11th--this is a very loury morning & like for Rain But we all
+agree to start Early we cross Cumberland River & travel Down it about 10
+miles through Some turrabel cainbrakes as we went down abrams mair ran
+into the River with Her load & Swam over he folowd her & got on her &
+made her Swim Back agin it is a very raney Eavening we take up Camp near
+Richland Creek they kill a beef Mr. Drake Bakes Bread without washing
+his hands we Keep Sentry this Night for fear of the indians.
+
+Wednesday 12th this is a Raney morning But we pack up & go on we come to
+Richland Creek it is high we toat our packs over on a tree & swim our
+horses over & there we meet another Companey going Back they tell such
+News Abram & Drake is afraid to go aney further there we camp this
+night.
+
+thursday 13th this morning the weather Seems to breake & Be fair Abram &
+Drake turn Back we go on & git to loral River we come to a creek Before
+wheare we are able to unload & toate our packs over on a log this day we
+meet about 20 more turning Back we are obligd to toat our packs over
+loral river & swim our horses one hors Ran in with his pack & lost it in
+the River & they got it agin.
+
+fryday 14th--this is a clear morning with a smart frost we go on & have
+a very mire Road and camp this Night on a creek of loral River and are
+surprisd at camp By a wolf.
+
+Satterday 15th clear with a Small frost we start early we meet Some men
+that turns & goes With us we travel this Day through the plais caled the
+Bressh & crofs Rockcass River & camp ther this Night & have fine food
+for our horses.
+
+Sunday 16th--cloudy & warm we start early & go on about 2 mile down the
+River and then turn up a creek that we crost about 50 times Some very
+bad foards with a great Deal of very good land on it in the Eavening we
+git over to the waters of Caintuck & go a littel Down the creek & there
+we camp keep sentry the forepart of the night it Rains very har all
+night.
+
+monday 17th this is a very rany morning But breaks about a 11 oclock &
+we go on and camp this Night in several companeys on Some of the creeks
+of Caintuck.
+
+tuesday 18th fair & cool and we go on about 10 oclock we meet 4 men from
+Boons camp that caim to cunduck us on we camp this night just on the
+Begining of the good land near the Blue lick they kill 2 bofelos this
+Eavening.
+
+Wednesd 19th Smart frost this morning they kill 3 bofelos about 11
+oclock we come to where the indians fired on Boons company & kild 2 men
+& a dog & wounded one man in the thigh we campt this night on oter
+creek.
+
+thursday 20th this morning is clear and cool. We start early and git
+Down to caintuck to Boons foart about 12 o'clock wheare we stop they
+come out to meet us & welcom us in with a voley of guns.
+
+fryday 21st warm this Day they Begin laying off lots in the town and
+prearing for peopel to go to worck to make corn.
+
+Satterday 22nd they finish laying out lots this Eavening I went
+a-fishing and cactht 3 cats they meet in the night to Draw for choise
+of lots but refer it till morning
+
+1775
+
+Sunday April 23d this morning the peopel meets & Draws for chois of
+loots this is a very warm day.
+
+monday 24th We all view our loots & Some Dont like them about 12 oclock
+the Combses come to town & Next morning they make them a bark canew and
+Set off down the River to meet their Companey.
+
+tuesday 25th in the eavening we git us a plaise at the mouth of the
+creek & begin clearing.
+
+Wednesday 26th We Begin Building us a house & a plaise of Defense to
+Keep the indians off this day we Begin to live without Bread.
+
+thursday 27th Raney all Day But We Still keep about our house.
+
+Satterday 29th--We git our house kivered with Bark & move our things
+into it at Night and Begin houskeeping Eanock Smith Robert Whitledge &
+my Self.
+
+May, Monday first I go out to look for my mair and saw 4 bufelos the
+Being the first that I Saw & I shot one of them but did not git him when
+I caim Home Eanock & Robin had found the mair & was gone out a hunting
+& did Not come in for--Days and kild only one Deer.
+
+tuesday 2d I went out in the morning & kild a turkey and come in & got
+some on for my breakfast and then went & Sot in to clearing for
+Corn."[7]
+
+The personal statement of Mrs. Elizabeth Thomas is of interest in this
+connection. She was one of Col. Calloway's company that followed
+Henderson in September 1775. This statement is preserved in the library
+of the Wisconsin Historical Society and reads:
+
+"I was born in Virginia on the 4^{th} day of Sept 1764 In Rockbridge
+county near the Natural Bridge my father moved on the North Fork of
+Holston within 4 or 5 miles of Abbingdon & remained there two or three
+years and in March 1775 we moved down Holstien near the Big Island,
+[Long Island] where we remained until Sept 1775 when Col Calloway and
+his company came along going to Kentucky, when my father William Pogue
+packed up and came with him with our family, Col Boone and with his
+wife and family and Col Hugh Mcgary, Thomas Denton and Richard Hogan
+were on the road before us and when we arrived at Boonesborough the
+latter part of September There was only fur [four] or six cabbins built
+along on the Bank of the Kentucky river but not picketted in being open
+on two sides."[8]
+
+This was the great pathway of early pioneers to Kentucky, and the course
+of the marvelous floodtide of immigration which swept over the mountains
+in the last three decades of the eighteenth century.
+
+[Illustration: FILSON'S MAP OF KENTUCKY (1784)]
+
+The itineraries of early travelers describe the Wilderness Road in
+definite terms. One of the earliest is that given by John Filson, whose
+history of Kentucky was published as early as 1784. It described the
+route from Philadelphia to Louisville (eight hundred and twenty-six
+miles), as follows:
+
+                                   Miles
+  From Philadelphia to Lancaster,     66
+  To Wright's on the Susquehanna,     10
+  To Yorktown,                        12
+  To Abbotstown,                      15
+  To Hunterstown,                     10
+  To mountain at Black's Gap,          3
+  To other side of the mountain,       7
+  To Stone-house Tavern,              25
+  To Wadkin's Ferry on Potomac        14
+  To Martinsburg,                     13
+  To Winchester,                      13
+  To Newtown,                          8
+  To Stoverstown,                     10
+  To Woodstock,                       12
+  To Shenandoah River,                15
+  To North Branch Shenandoah,         29
+  To Staunton,                        15
+  To North Fork James River,          37
+  To Botetourt C. H.,                 12
+  To Woods on Catawba River           21
+  To Paterson.s. on Roanoke,           9
+  To Alleghany Mountain,               8
+  To New River,                       12
+  To Forks of Road,                   16
+  To Fort Chissel,                    12
+  To Stone Mill,                      11
+  To Boyds,                            8
+  To Head of Holstein,                 5
+  To Washington C. H.,                45
+  To the Block-house,                 35
+  To Powell Mountain,                 33
+  To Walden's Ridge,                   3
+  To Valley Station,                   4
+  To Martin's Cabin,                  25
+  To Cumberland Mountain,             20
+  To Cumberland River,                13
+  To Flat Lick,                        9
+  To Stinking Creek,                   2
+  To Richland Creek,                   7
+  Down Richland Creek,                 8
+  To Racoon Spring,                    6
+  To Laurel River,                     2
+  To Hazel Patch,                     15
+  To Rockcastle River,                10
+  To English Station,                 25
+  To Col. Edward's Crab Orchard,       3
+  To Whitley's Station,                5
+  To Logan's Station,                  5
+  To Clark's Station,                  7
+  To Crow's Station,                   4
+  To Harrod's Station,                 3
+  To Harlands',                        4
+  To Harbisons,                       10
+  To Bardstown,                       25
+  To Salt Works,                      25
+  To Falls of the Ohio,               20
+                                     ---
+                                     826
+
+Mr. Speed preserves for us the itinerary with "observations and
+occurrences" of William Brown, the father of Judge Alfred M. Brown, of
+Elizabeth town, Kentucky. "It is contained in a small manuscript book,"
+writes Mr. Speed, "which has been preserved in the family. It is
+especially interesting from the fact that immediately upon his arrival
+in Kentucky, by the journey of which he made a complete record, the
+Battle of Blue Licks occurred. He aided in burying the slain, among whom
+was his own brother, James Brown." The itinerary and "observations and
+occurrences" follow:[9]
+
+    (1782)
+
+  "Hanover to Richmond, Henrico Co.,          18
+  To Widow Simpson's, Chesterford,            14
+  To Powhatan Co. House,                      16
+  To Joseph Thompson's at the forks of
+    the road,                                  8
+  To Long's Ordinary, Buckingham,              9
+  To Hoolen's on Willis Creek,                 8
+  To Mrs. Sanders, Cumberland,                 3
+  To Widow Thompson's passing Hood's and
+    Swiney's,                                 27
+  To Captain Hunter's,                         5
+  To Thompson's on the Long Mo., Campbell,     5
+  To Dupriest,                                 6
+  To New London,                              10
+  To Liberty Town,                            16
+  To Yearley's, at Goose Creek, Bedford,      12
+  To M. Loland, at the Blue Ridge Gap,         6
+  To Big Flat Lick,                           10
+  To Fort Lewis, Botetourt,                   12
+  To Hans' Meadows,                           20
+  To English's Ferry, New River,              12
+  To Fort Chiswell,                           30
+  To Atkins' Ordinary,                        19
+  To Mid Fork Holstein,                       --
+  To Cross White's, Montgomery,                3
+  To Col. Arthur Campbell's,                   3
+  To 7-mile Ford of Holstein,                  6
+  To Maj. Dysart's Mill,                      12
+  To Washington Co. House,                    10
+  To Head of Reedy Creek, Sullivan Co.,
+    North Carolina,                           20
+  To Block House,                             13
+  To North Fork Holstein,                      2
+  To Moccasin Gap,                             5
+  To Clinch River,                            11
+  To Ford of Stock Creek,                      2
+  To Little Flat Lick,                         5
+  To North Fork of Clinch,                     1
+  To Powell's Mountain,                        1
+  To Wallan Ridge,                             5
+  To Valley Station,                           5
+  To Powell's River,                           2
+  To Glade Spring,                             4
+  To Martin's Station,                        19
+  To Big Spring,                              12
+  To Cumberland Mountain Gap,                  8
+  To Yellow Creek,                             2
+  To Cumberland River,                        13
+  To Big Flat Lick,                            9
+  To Little Richland Creek,                   10
+  To Big Richland Creek,                       1
+  To Robinson Creek,                          10
+  To Raccoon Spring,                           1
+  To Laurel River,                             2
+  To Little Laurel River,                      5
+  To Raccoon Creek,                            8
+  To Hazel Patch,                              4
+  To Rockcastle Creek,                         6
+  To Rockcastle River,                         7
+  To Scaggs' Creek,                            5
+  To Head of Dicks River,                     15
+  To English Station,                          8
+  To Crab Orchard,                             3
+  To Logan's Old Fort,                        11
+  To Doehurty's Station,                       8
+  To Harrod's Station,                         6
+  To Harrodsburg,                              6
+  From Hanover to Harrodsburg is 555 miles.
+
+_Observations and Occurrences_: Set Out from Hanover Monday, 27th May,
+1782; arrived at the Block-house about the first week in July. The road
+from Hanover to this place is generally very good; crossing the Blue
+Ridge is not bad; there is not more than a small hill with some winding
+to go over. Neither is the Alleghany Mountain by any means difficult at
+this gap. There are one or two high hills about New River and Fort
+Chiswell. The ford of New River is rather bad; therefore we thought it
+advisable to cross in the ferry-boat. This is generally a good-watered
+road as far as the Block-house. We waited hereabouts near two weeks for
+company, and then set out for the wilderness with twelve men and ten
+guns, this being Thursday, 18th July. The road from this until you get
+over Wallen's Ridge generally is bad, some part very much so,
+particularly about Stock Creek and Stock Creek Ridge. It is a very
+mountainous country hereabout, but there is some fine land in the
+bottoms, near the watercourses, in narrow slips. It will be but a thin
+settled country whenever it is settled. The fords of Holstein and Clinch
+are both good in dry weather, but in a rainy season you are often
+obliged to raft over. From them along down Powell's Valley until you get
+to Cumberland Gap is pretty good; this valley is formed by Cumberland
+Mountain on the northwest, and Powell Mountain on the southeast, and
+appears to bear from northeast southwestwardly, and is, I suppose, about
+one hundred miles in length, and from ten to twelve miles in breadth.
+The land generally is good, and is an exceeding well-watered country, as
+well as the country on Holstein River, abounding with fine springs and
+little brooks. For about fifty miles, as you travel along the valley,
+Cumberland Mountain appears to be a very high ridge of white rocks,
+inaccessible in most places to either man or beast, and affords a wild,
+romantic prospect. The way through the gap is not very difficult, but
+from its situation travelers may be attacked in some places, crossing
+the mountain, by the enemy to a very great disadvantage. From thence
+until you pass Rockcastle River there is very little good road; this
+tract of country is very mountainous, and badly watered along the trace,
+especially for springs. There is some good land on the water-courses,
+and just on this side Cumberland River appears to be a good tract, and
+within a few years I expect to have a settlement on it. Some parts of
+the road are very miry in rainy weather. The fords of Cumberland and
+Rockcastle are both good unless the waters be too high; after you cross
+Rockcastle there are a few high hills, and the rest of the way tolerable
+good; the land appears to be rather weak, chiefly timbered with oak,
+etc. The first of the Kentucky waters you touch upon is the head of
+Dick's River, just eight miles from English's. Here we arrived Thursday,
+25th inst., which is just seven days since we started from the
+Block-house. Monday, 29th inst., I got to Harrodsburg, and saw brother
+James. The next day we parted, as he was about setting off on a journey
+to Cumberland.
+
+On Monday, August 19th, Colonel John Todd, with a party of one hundred
+and eighty-two of our men, attacked a body of Indians, supposed to
+number six or seven hundred, at the Blue Lick, and was defeated, with
+the loss of sixty-five persons missing and slain.
+
+_Officers lost_: Colonels--John Todd and Stephen Trigg; Majors--Edward
+Bulger and Silas Harlan; Captains--W. McBride, John Gordon, Jos.
+Kincaid, and Clough Overton; Lieutenants--W. Givens, and John Kennedy;
+Ensign--John McMurtry.
+
+In this action brother James fell. On Saturday 24th inst., Colonel
+Logan, with four hundred and seventy men, went on the battle-ground and
+buried the slain; found on the field, slain, forty-three men, missing,
+twenty-two, in all sixty-five.
+
+I traveled but little about the country. From English's to Harrodsburg
+was the farthest west, and from Logan's Fort to the Blue Lick the
+farthest north. Thus far the land was generally good--except near and
+about the Lick it was very poor and badly timbered--generally badly
+watered, but pretty well timbered. At Richmond Ford, on the Kentucky
+River, the bank a little below the ford appears to be largely upward of
+a hundred feet perpendicular of rock.
+
+On my return to Hanover I set off from John Craigs' Monday, 23d
+September, 1782; left English's Tuesday, 1 o'clock, arrived at the
+Block-house the Monday evening following, and kept on the same route
+downward chiefly that I traveled out. Nothing material occurred to me.
+Got to Hanover sometime about the last of October the same year."
+
+Thomas Speed's grandfather gives the following itinerary from "Charlotte
+Court-House to Kentucky" under date of 1790:
+
+                                      Miles
+    "From Charlotte Court-House
+  to Campbell Court-House,               41
+  To New London,                         13
+  To Colonel James Callaway's,            3
+  To Liberty,                            13
+  To Colonel Flemming's,                 28
+  To Big Lick,                            2
+  To Mrs. Kent's,                        20
+  To English's Ferry,                    20
+  To Carter's,                           13
+  To Fort Chissel,                       12
+  To the Stone-mill,                     11
+  To Adkins',                            16
+  To Russell Place,                      16
+  To Greenaway's,                        14
+  To Washington Court-House,              6
+  To the Block-house,                    35
+  To Farriss's,                           5
+  To Clinch River,                       12
+  To Scott's Station,                    12
+  To Cox's at Powell River,              10
+  To Martin's Station,                    2
+  To--[manuscript defaced]
+  To Cumberland Mountain                  3
+  To Cumberland River,                   15
+  To Flat Lick,                           9
+  To Stinking Creek,                      2
+  To Richland Creek,                      7
+  To Raccoon Spring,                     14
+  To Laurel River,                        2
+  To Hazel Patch,                        15
+  To Rockcastle,                         10
+  To--[manuscript defaced]."
+
+The foregoing itineraries afford us some conception of the settlements
+and "improvements" that sprang up along the winding thoroughfare from
+Virginia to Kentucky. The writer has sought with some care to know more
+of these--of the modes of travel, the entertainment which was afforded
+along the road to men and beasts, and the social relation of the greater
+settlements in Virginia and Kentucky to this thin line of human lives
+across the continent. Very little information has been secured. It is
+plain that the great immigration to Kentucky would have been out of the
+question had there been no means of succor and assistance along the
+road. There were many who gained their livelihood as pioneer innkeepers
+and provisioned along Boone's Road. Among the very few of these of whom
+any record is left, Captain Joseph Martin is perhaps the most prominent
+and most worthy of remembrance. Martin's "cabin" or "station," as it is
+variously termed, occupied a strategic point in far-famed Powell's
+Valley, one hundred and eighty miles west of Inglis Ferry, twenty miles
+east of Cumberland Gap and about one hundred and thirty miles southeast
+of Crab Orchard and Boonesborough. Captain Martin was Virginia Agent
+for Indian affairs, and was the most prominent man in the scattered
+settlements in Powell's Valley, where he was living at the time of the
+founding of Boonesborough. Later he made his headquarters at Long Island
+in North Carolina. It is plain from Colonel Henderson's journal that
+wagons could proceed along Boone's Road in 1775 no further than Martin's
+cabin. Here everything was transferred to the packhorses. Several
+letters from Colonel Henderson to Captain Martin, preserved by the
+Wisconsin Historical Society, give us a glimpse of silent Powell's
+Valley. One of them reads:
+
+                                                  "Boonesborough
+                                                  12^{th} June 1775
+
+  Dear Sir:
+
+  M^r Ralph Williams, David Burnay, and William Mellar will apply to
+  you for salt and other things which we left with you and was sent
+  for us since we came away--Please to deliver to them, or those they
+  may employ what they ask for, and take a receipt--Also write me a
+  few lines informing me, what you have sent &c by hem & by whom--I
+  long much to hear from you, pray write me at Large, how the matter
+  goes with you in the valey, as well as what passes in Virginia--If
+  the pack-horsemen should want any thing towards securing my books
+  from Damage pack-saddles, provisions, or any thing which you see is
+  necessary; please to let them have it on our acc^t.--All things
+  goes well hitherto with us, I hope the[y] do with you would have
+  sent your Mares but am afraid they are not done horsing They will
+  be safely brought by my brother in a few weeks
+
+                                        I am D^r Sir your
+                                                  Hble Serv^t
+                                                  Rich^d. Henderson
+  M^r Joseph Martin in the Valley"[10]
+
+On July 20 he wrote again:
+
+"Am sorry to hear that the People in the valey are distressed for
+provisions and ammunition have given some directions to my brother to
+assist you a little with Powder.
+
+Standly, I suppose has before now delivered your Inglish mare, and the
+other you'l receive by my brother--when we meet will render an acc^t.
+for my behaviour in Keeping them so long--We did not forget you at the
+time of making Laws, your part of the Country is too remote from ours to
+attend our Convention you must have Laws made by an Assembly of your
+own, I have prepared a plan which I hope you'l approve but more of that
+when we meet which I hope will be soon, tho 'til Col. Boone comes cant
+say when--Am extreamly sorry for the affair with the Indians on the 23^d
+of last month. I wish it may not have a bad effect, but will use my
+endeavors to find out who they were & have the matter settled--your
+spirited conduct gives me great Pleasure--Keep your men in heart if
+possible, now is our time, the Indians must not drive us--depend upon it
+that the Chief men and warriors of the Cherokees will not countenance
+what there men attempted and will punish them--Pray my Dear Sir dont let
+any person settle Lower down the valey I am affraid they are now too
+low & must come away I did not want any person to settle yet below
+Cumberland gap--My Brother will [tell] you of the news of these
+parts--in haste D^r Sir...."
+
+In December, John Williams wrote Captain Martin from Boonesborough and
+his letter gives us a closer insight into affairs along Boone's Road:
+
+"... With respect to the complaints of the inhabitants of Powells Valley
+with regard to cattle being lodged there, I should think it altogether
+unjust than [that] non-inhabitants should bring in cattle to destroy and
+eat up the range of the inhabitants' stock; Yet, Sir, I cannot conceive
+that Col. Hart's stopping his stock there, when on their way here, to
+recruit them for their journey, can be the least infringement. Col. Hart
+is a proprietor, & [has] as great a right in the country as any one man.
+In the Valley are many lands yet unentered; and certainly if there be a
+right in letting stock into the range, he has a right equal to any man
+alive. I therefore hope you will endeavor to convince the inhabitants
+thereof, and that it is no indulgence to Col. Hart, but a right he
+claims, and what I think him justly entitled to.
+
+I hope to have the pleasure of seeing you at Boonesborough the 21^{st}
+instant--in the meantime making not the least doubt but that you will
+use every justifiable Method in Keeping up peace and harmony in the
+Valley"[11]
+
+As indicated in the former letter, the emigrants from the colonies were
+encroaching upon the Cherokee lands beyond the Henderson purchase.
+Joseph Martin was under the necessity of protesting to the Assembly of
+North Carolina against settlers from that state pressing beyond the
+Henderson lands and settling in the Cherokee country.[12] It is seen by
+Colonel Henderson's letter that Boone's Road marked the most westerly
+limit to which pioneers could go with safety. Irresponsible Cherokees
+invaded the Henderson purchase, and equally irresponsible (or ignorant)
+whites invaded the Cherokee country. The difficulty probably lay in not
+having a definite, plain boundary line that he who ran might recognize.
+
+The settlement here in Powell's Valley meant everything to the pioneers
+of Kentucky. This is made additionally plain by the attempt of
+interested parties to have Captain Martin's Indian Agency removed from
+Long Island to a point on Boone's Road near Cumberland Gap. In December
+1782 William Christian wrote Governor Harrison from "Great [Long]
+Island," explaining the dependence of the inhabitants (undoubtedly both
+red and white) upon Martin in time of need. "I find," he wrote, "that
+the party here, consisting of fifty odd, are living on Col. Martin's
+corn. Whenever a family begins to be in a starving condition, it is very
+probable they will push for this place & throw themselves upon him for
+bread."[13]
+
+Fourteen days later he wrote from Mahanaim to "Hon. Col. Sampson
+Matthews" of Richmond; protesting against Virginia's Indian Agency being
+kept at Long Island, North Carolina; and urging that it be removed to
+near Cumberland Gap:
+
+"The Gap is near half way betwixt our settlements on Holston and
+Kentucky, and a post there would be a resting place for our poor
+citizens going back and forward, and would be a great means of saving
+the lives of hundreds of them. For it seldom happens that Indians will
+kill people near where they trade; & it is thereabouts the most of the
+mischief on the road has been done.... I view the change I propose as of
+great importance to the frontier of Washington, [County] to our people
+journeying to & from Kentucky, particularly the poor families moving
+out...."[14]
+
+It was, throughout the eighteenth century, exceedingly dangerous to
+travel Boone's Road; and those who journeyed either way joined together
+and traveled in "companies." Indeed there was risk enough for the most
+daring, in any case; but a well-armed "company" of tried pioneers on
+Boone's Road was a dangerous game upon which to prey. It was customary
+to advertise the departure of a company either from Virginia or
+Kentucky, in local papers; in order that any desiring to make the
+journey might know of the intended departure. The principal rendezvous
+in Kentucky was the frontier settlement of Crab Orchard. Certain of
+these advertisements are extremely interesting; the verbal changes are
+significant if closely read:
+
+  Notice
+
+    is hereby given, that a company will meet at the Crab Orchard, on
+    Sunday the 4^{th} day of May, to go through the wilderness, and to
+    set out on the 5^{th}. at which time most of the Delegates to the
+    state convention will go[15]
+
+    A large company will meet at the Crab orchard on sunday the
+    25^{th} of May, in order to make an early start on Monday the
+    26^{th} through the wilderness for the old settlement[16]
+
+    A large company will meet at the Crab Orchard on the 15^{th}. day
+    of May, in readiness to start on the 16^{th}. through the
+    Wilderness for Richmond[17]
+
+  Notice
+
+    Is hereby given that several gentlemen propose meeting at the
+    Crab-orchard on the 4^{th}. of June in perfect readiness to move
+    early the next morning through the Wilderness[18]
+
+  Notice
+
+    A large company will meet at the Crab-Orchard the 19^{th}. of
+    November in order to start the next day through the Wilderness. As
+    it is very dangerous on account of the Indians, it is hoped each
+    person will go well armed[19]
+
+It appears that unarmed persons sometimes attached themselves to
+companies and relied on others to protect them in times of danger. One
+advertisement urged that everyone should go armed and "not to depend on
+others to defend them."[20]
+
+The frequency of the departure of such companies suggests the great
+amount of travel on Boone's Road. As early as 1788 parties were
+advertised to leave Crab Orchard May 5, May 15, May 26, June 4, and June
+16. Nor does it seem that there was much abatement during the more
+inclement (safer?) months; in the fall of the same year companies were
+advertised to depart November 19, December 9, and December 19. Yet at
+this season the Indians were often out waylaying travelers--driven no
+doubt by hunger to deeds of desperation. The sufferings of such
+redskinned marauders have found little place in history; but they are,
+nevertheless, particularly suggestive. One story, which has not perhaps
+been told _ad nauseam_, is to the point; and would be amusing if it were
+not so fatally conclusive. In the winter of 1787-88 a party on Boone's
+Road was attacked by Indians not far from the Kentucky border. Their
+horses were plundered of goods, but the travelers escaped. Hurrying "in"
+to the settlements a company was raised to make a pursuit. By their
+tracks in the snow the Indians were accurately followed. They were
+overtaken at a camp, where they were drying their blankets, &c., before
+a great fire. At the first charge the savages, completely surprised,
+took to their heels--stark naked. Not satisfied with recovering the
+stolen goods the Kentuckians pursued the fugitives into the mountains.
+Along the course they found trees stripped of pieces of bark, with which
+the Indians had attempted to cover their bodies. They were not
+overtaken, though some of their well protected pursuers had their own
+feet frost-bitten. The awful fate of the savages is unquestionable.
+
+Before Richard Henderson arrived in Kentucky Daniel Boone wrote him: "My
+advice to you, sir, is to come or send as soon as possible. Your company
+is desired greatly, for the people are very uneasy, but are willing to
+stay and venture their lives with you, and now is the time to flustrate
+the intentions of the Indians, and keep the country whilst we are in it.
+If we give way to them now, it will ever be the case."
+
+This letter shows plainly how the best informed man in Kentucky regarded
+Henderson's settlement at Boonesborough. Henderson's purchase was
+repudiated by both Virginia and North Carolina; but the Virginia
+Legislature confirmed Henderson's sales of land, in so far as they were
+made to actual settlers, and not to speculators, Henderson and his
+associates were granted land in lieu of that taken from them. The
+Transylvania Company, while looked upon askance by many who preferred to
+risk their tomahawk claim rights to those the Company granted, exerted
+as great a moral influence in the first settlement of Kentucky as Daniel
+Boone affirmed it would--a greater influence than any other company
+before the Revolutionary War.
+
+What it meant to the American colonies to have a brave band of pioneers
+in Kentucky at that crucial epoch, is an important chapter in the
+history of Boone's Road.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV
+
+KENTUCKY IN THE REVOLUTION
+
+
+History was fast being made in Kentucky when the Revolutionary struggle
+reached the crisis in 1775 at Concord and Lexington. South of the Ohio
+River Virginia's new empire was filling with the conquerors of the West.
+The Mississippi Valley counted a population of thirteen thousand, three
+thousand being the population of New Orleans. St. Louis, in Spanish
+possession, was carrying on a brisk trade with the Indians on the
+Missouri. Vincennes, the British port on the Wabash, had a population of
+four hundred whites. Detroit, the metropolis of the West, numbered
+fifteen hundred inhabitants, more than double the number in the dashing
+days of Gladwin only a decade before. The British flag also waved at
+Kaskaskia on the Mississippi, and at Sandusky. This fringe of British
+forts on the north was separated from the American metropolis of the
+West, Pittsburg, and from the first fortresses built in Kentucky, by
+leagues of forests, dark as when Bouquet pierced them; and filled with
+sullen Indian nations, awed for the time being by Dunmore's invasion,
+but silently biding their time to avenge themselves for the loss of the
+meadow lands of Ken-ta-kee.
+
+Such was the condition of affairs when, in April 1775, the open struggle
+for independence of the American colonies was roughly precipitated at
+Lexington. It might seem to the casual observer that the colonists, who
+were now hastening by way of Boone's Wilderness Road into the Virginian
+Kentucky, could not feel the intense jealousy for American interests
+which was felt by the patriots in the East. On the contrary, there is
+evidence that these first pioneers into the West had a profound
+knowledge of the situation; and a sympathy for the struggling patriots,
+which was enhanced even by the distance which separated them, and the
+hardships they had endured. Not a few of them, too, had known personally
+of the plundering British officials and the obnoxious taxes. It is the
+proud boast of Kentuckians that in the center of their beautiful Blue
+Grass country was erected the first monument to the first dead of the
+Revolution. A party of pioneers heard the news of the Battle of
+Lexington while sitting about their camp fire. Long into the night the
+rough men told and retold the news, and before morning named the new
+settlement they were to make, Lexington, in honor of New England's dead.
+
+It was not at all evident at first what the war was going to amount to
+in the West. Scarcely more was known in the West of the Revolutionary
+War than had been known two decades before of the French and Indian War.
+But at the outset it was plain that there was to be a tremendous
+struggle on both sides to gain the allegiance, as the British desired,
+of the Indian nations which lay between the Ohio River and the Great
+Lakes. For two years the struggle in the East went on, engrossing the
+entire attention of both parties. During 1776 and 1777 the history of
+the West is merely the continuation of the bloody story of the years
+which led up to Dunmore's campaign, like the savage attack on Wheeling,
+in September, 1777. Slowly the Indians forgot Lewis's crushing victory
+at Point Pleasant, and their solemn pledges at Camp Charlotte; and were
+raiding the feeble Kentucky posts with undiminished relish, or giving
+the Long Knives plenty of provocation for the barbarities of which the
+latter are known to have been guilty.
+
+The opening scene of the Revolutionary War in the West was the most
+important phase of the war in the history of Boone's Wilderness Road;
+for at the very outset the question was decided once for all whether or
+not that thin, long, priceless path to Kentucky through the Watauga
+settlement was to be held or lost. If it could not be held, there was no
+hope left for the brave men who had gone to found that western empire
+beyond the Cumberland Mountains. With their line of retreat cut in two
+by the southern Indians, they were left without hope of succor or
+success: for the success of their enterprise depended upon the
+inspiration their advance gave to those behind them. None would come if
+the Wautauga settlement did not survive.
+
+The British agents among the Southern Indians--the Cherokees, Creeks,
+Choctaws and Chickasaws--precipitated a quick and early struggle along
+this historic pathway by goading the Indians into a murderous attack
+upon the Watauga settlement. The Cherokees who had sold the Transylvania
+Company its lands, were the most easily incited to war, and fifty
+packhorse loads of ammunition scattered through their towns in those
+deep mountain valleys where the two Carolinas and Georgia meet,
+determined an outburst in July, 1776. Straight north from them lay the
+rude beginnings of civilization on the headwaters of the Tennessee, and
+further "in" was the frontier line of Virginia. The headquarters of the
+Watauga settlement may be said to have been Fort Watauga, commanded by
+the heroes Robertson and Sevier; here Boone had made the treaty with the
+Cherokees for Richard Henderson, a trifle over a year ago. Eaton's, Evan
+Shelby's, John Shelby's, Campbell's, and the Wommack forts were the
+important way stations on this path from Virginia to Kentucky. Two
+Indian parties larger than the others made for Fort Watauga and Eaton's
+Station, and the defenders of the latter post, learning from their
+scouts that a formidable array under the notorious Dragging Canoe was
+coming, resolved to give them a hot, unexpected welcome. Accordingly, on
+the morning of July twentieth nearly two hundred brown forms could have
+been seen stealing away from the fort in two thin lines half lost in the
+fog toward the open land known as "the Flats" near the "Long Island" of
+the Holston. In the march an advance party of a score of savages was met
+and put to flight. No other signs of the enemy could be discovered and
+the men started back to their fort at the end of the day.
+
+Dragging Canoe, not less audacious than his foes, awaited his time, and
+when the whites were marching homeward, came down upon them, his savages
+forming a wedge-shaped line of battle. Instantly the borderers fell back
+to the right and left, and with a desperate quietness awaited the
+onslaught. The Indian plan of rushing the whites off their feet by an
+overwhelming charge failed; the borderers settled deeper into the
+ground and met the rush and dashed the savage line into fragments. One
+charge--and all was over. There was no recovering from this form of
+attack for untrained soldiery, and the assaulting band instantly broke
+and fled. This battle of Long Island Flats was the first of the series
+of victories for the Watauga pioneers; its importance can hardly be
+measured today.
+
+Its best fruit was that it brought other victories to the encouraged
+Wataugans. On the same day the other Indian horde invested and assailed
+Fort Watauga at dawn. Only about two score men were at home to defend a
+large number of women and children, but they were fully equal to the
+emergency and with a frightful burst of fire drove back the line of
+savages which could just be seen advancing at that hour when Indians
+invariably made their attacks--the early dawn. Robertson was senior
+officer in command, and Sevier his brave assistant. The latter, having
+learned of the Indian uprising, characteristically wrote a message to
+the people far away on the Virginia border to look well to their
+homes--never even asking that assistance be sent to the much more feeble
+and vastly more endangered Watauga settlement on the Kentucky road.
+
+Elsewhere the border warfare was being waged with varying fortune; a
+small band of Georgian frontiersmen invaded the Cherokee country[20*] in
+the hope of capturing a notorious British agent, Cameron; it suffered
+heavily through the faithlessness of the Cherokees. The whole southern
+frontier was aroused, and plans for dashes into the Cherokee country
+were made but could not be forwarded simultaneously. Yet Cameron and his
+Tories and Indians acted in unison and brought sudden desolation into
+South Carolina. The force of the blow was broken by the brave Colonel
+Andrew Williamson, who, gathering over a thousand volunteers near the
+end of July began the first important invasion of the Cherokee country.
+Near Eseneka, the Cherokee town, the Carolinians found Cameron and won a
+costly victory. After some internal dissensions the little army got on
+its mettle and went steadily forward to wipe out the lower Cherokee
+towns, which was completely accomplished by the middle of August.
+Scarcity of ammunition, only, kept Williamson from attacking the middle
+towns.
+
+This task fell to the lot of the second expedition into the Cherokee
+country. This was a joint campaign waged by North and South Carolina,
+and Virginia, each to furnish two thousand men. The North Carolinians
+under Rutherford were earliest in the field. This officer with
+twenty-four hundred men left the head of the Catawba and opened
+"Rutherford's Trace" leading to Swananoa Gap in the Blue Ridge and on to
+the middle Cherokee towns by way of Warrior's Ford of French Broad and
+Mount Cowee. The middle towns were destroyed, and, uniting with
+Williamson, the two bodies of men swept over the Cherokee valley towns
+until "all the Cherokee settlements west of the Appalachians had been
+destroyed from the face of the earth, neither crops nor cattle being
+left."
+
+While the Carolinians had been sweeping into the lower Cherokee country,
+the Virginia troops had been assembling at the Long Island of the
+Holston under their leader Colonel William Christian. Their campaign
+against the Overhill towns was slowly formed here on the little westward
+pathway, and it was not until the first of October that all the
+contributions of men and arms from the settlements between Fort Watauga
+and the Virginia frontier were received. The advance, by way of Big
+Island of the Holston, was slow but determined--each encampment being
+made absolutely secure against surprise. The Indians, learning of the
+strength of Christian's army, knew better than to resist. They retired
+without a struggle and the borderers reached the heart of the Overhill
+country on the fifth day of November. Here they ravaged, burned, and
+razed to their hearts' content, until a deputation imploring peace came
+from the broken tribes. In this action old Dragging Canoe would have no
+part but stole away with a few followers toward the Chickamauga.
+Christian agreed to a treaty which definitely marked out the boundary
+line between the Indians and the whites, and then returned home leaving
+a garrison near the Kentucky path by the Holston. In the words of
+Roosevelt, who of all writers has done this campaign most justice: "The
+Watauga people and the westerners generally were the real gainers by the
+war. Had the Watauga settlements been destroyed, they would no longer
+have covered the Wilderness Road to Kentucky; and so Kentucky must
+perforce have been abandoned. But the followers of Robertson and Sevier
+stood stoutly for their homes; not one of them fled over the mountains.
+The Cherokees had been so roughly handled that for several years they
+did not again go to war as a body; and this not only gave the settlers a
+breathing time, but also enabled them to make themselves so strong that
+when the struggle was renewed they could easily hold their own. The war
+was thus another and important link in the chain of events by which the
+west was won; and had any link in the chain snapped during these early
+years, the peace of 1783 would probably have seen the trans-Alleghany
+country in the hands of a non-American power." If the holding of this
+pathway was of such moment the value of the pathway is plainly
+understood.
+
+Turning now to the end of Boone's Road, it will be necessary to review
+briefly the Revolutionary War in the "far" West; though in many of the
+campaigns the road itself played no part, in a large and genuine sense
+it was the pilgrims of Boone's Road who fought the most important
+battles of the Revolution in the West.
+
+Early in the struggle in the West, far-sighted ones saw signs of the
+growing despicable alliance of the savages to British interests; and
+before the bloody year of 1778 opened, it was only a question of how
+much England wanted of the savage allies who were crowded about their
+forts along the lakes. It is a terrible blot on the history of British
+rule in America, that when driven to face the same situation, English
+officers in the West used every means of retaliation for the use of
+which they so roundly condemned French officials a quarter of a century
+before. American officers employed Indians as guides and scouts, and
+were guilty of provoking inter-tribal war; but they did not pay Indians
+for bringing in British scalps, or praise them for their murderous
+successes and equip them for further service. As a brave American
+officer said, "Let this reproach remain on them"--and the people of the
+West will never forget the reproach, nor forgive! They remember, and
+always will remember, the burning words of Washington written more than
+ten years after the close of the Revolution: "All the difficulties we
+encounter with the Indians, their hostilities, the murder of helpless
+women and children along all our frontiers, results from the conduct of
+the agents of Great Britain in this country." There are today, in
+hundreds of homes of descendants of the pioneers in Kentucky, memories
+of the inhuman barbarities of British officers during the Revolution;
+these will never be forgotten, and will never fail to prejudice
+generations yet unborn. The reproach will remain on them.
+
+At the outbreak of the war, chiefs of the Indian nations were invited to
+Pittsburg, where the nature of the struggle was explained to them in the
+following parable:
+
+"Suppose a father had a little son whom he loved and indulged while
+young, but growing up to be a youth, began to think of having some help
+from him; and making up a small pack, he bid him carry it for him. The
+boy cheerfully takes this pack up, following his father with it. The
+father finding the boy willing and obedient, continues in this way; and
+as the boy grows stronger, so the father makes the pack in proportion
+larger; yet as long as the boy is able to carry the pack, he does so
+without grumbling. At length, however, the boy having arrived at
+manhood, while the father is making up the pack for him, in comes a
+person of an evil disposition, and, learning who was to be the carrier
+of the pack, advises the father to make it heavier, for surely the son
+is able to carry a larger pack. The father, listening rather to the bad
+adviser than consulting his own judgment and the feelings of tenderness,
+follows the advice of the hard-hearted adviser, and makes up a heavy
+load for his son to carry. The son, now grown up, examining the weight
+of the load he is to carry, addresses the father in these words: 'Dear
+Father, this pack is too heavy for me to carry, do pray lighten it; I
+am willing to do what I can, but am unable to carry this load.' The
+father's heart having by this time become hardened, and the bad adviser
+calling to him, 'Whip him if he disobeys,' and he refusing to carry the
+pack, the father orders his son to take up the pack and carry it off or
+he will whip him, and already takes up a stick to beat him. 'So,' says
+the son, 'am I to be served thus for not doing what I am unable to do?
+Well, if entreaties avail nothing with you, Father, and it is to be
+decided by blows, whether or not I am able to carry a pack so heavy,
+then I have no other choice left me, but that of resisting your
+unreasonable demand by my strength, and thus by striking each other
+learn who is the strongest.'"
+
+The Indians were urged to become neutral in the struggle that was
+opening. Impossible as such a course would have been to men who loved
+war better than peace, certain tribes promised to maintain neutrality.
+In a few months, however, most of the nations were in open or secret
+alliance with British officers. Only the better element of the Delaware
+nation, led by Captain White Eyes, became attached to the American
+cause. England was always handicapped in her use of the American Indian,
+because of the want of men who could successfully exert control over
+him. Even when the forts of the French in the West passed into British
+possession, Frenchmen were retained in control, since no Englishman
+could so well rule the savages who made the forts their rendezvous. The
+beginning of the successful employment of the Indians against the
+growing Virginian empire south of the Ohio, and against the multiplying
+cabins and forts of the Long Knives, may loosely be said to have begun
+in the spring of 1778 when three northern renegades, Simon Girty,
+Matthew Elliott, and Alexander McKee, eluded the continental General
+Hand at Pittsburg and took service under Lieutenant-governor Hamilton at
+Detroit. Bred to border warfare, and well known among the Indians from
+the Susquehanna to the Missouri, these three men were the "most
+effective tools for the purposes of border warfare" that the British
+could have secured. Hamilton immediately began to plan the invasion of
+Pennsylvania and the conquest of Pittsburg. The campaign was condemned
+by his superiors in the East, and was forgotten by its originator--when
+the news of a bold invasion of his own territory by a Virginian army
+suddenly reached his ears.
+
+The Transylvania Company came silently but suddenly to an end when the
+Kentuckians elected George Rogers Clark and Gabriel John Jones members
+of the Virginian assembly, for the assembly erected the county of
+Kentucky out of the land purchased by Henderson at Fort Watauga in 1775.
+Upon bringing this about, Clark, a native of Virginia and a hero of
+Dunmore's War, returned to Kentucky nourishing greater plans. With clear
+eyes he saw that the increasing affiliation of Indian and British
+interests meant that England, even though she might be unsuccessful in
+the East, could keep up an interminable and disastrous warfare "along
+the rear of the colonies," as long as she held forts on the northern
+edge of the Black Forest. Clark sent spies northward, who gained
+information confirming his suspicions; and then he hurried eastward,
+with his bold plan of conquering the "strongholds of British and Indian
+barbarity"--Kaskaskia, Vincennes, and Detroit.
+
+He came at a fortunate time. The colonies were rejoicing over the first
+great victory of the early war, Saratoga. Hope, everywhere, was high.
+From Patrick Henry, Governor of Virginia, Clark received two orders, one
+of which was to attack the British post Kaskaskia. He at once set out
+for Pittsburg to raise, in the West (where both Dunmore and Lewis raised
+their armies), troops for the most brilliant military achievement in
+western history. Descending the Ohio to Kentucky, where he received
+reënforcements, Clark marched silently through the forests--with one
+hundred and thirty-five chosen men--to Kaskaskia, which he took in utter
+surprise July 4, 1778. "Keep on with your merriment," he said to
+revelers whom he surprised at a dance, "but remember you dance under
+Virginia, not Great Britain." Clark brought the news of the alliance
+recently made between France and the United States into the Illinois
+country and used it with telling effect. A French priest at Vincennes
+raised a Virginian flag over that fort, telling the inhabitants and the
+Indians that their "French Father had come to life." In October Virginia
+incorporated the "County of Illinois" within her western empire--the
+first portion of the land north of the Ohio River to come under the
+administration of one of the states of the Union.
+
+Contemporaneously with Clark's stirring conquest, an expedition was
+raised at Pittsburg to march against the Indians in the neighborhood of
+the British fort at Sandusky--possibly to counteract the rumored attempt
+to invade Pennsylvania, by Hamilton at Detroit. Troops and supplies were
+to be assembled at Fort Pitt, where the famous route of Bouquet was to
+be followed toward the lakes. The expedition was put in charge of
+General Lachlan McIntosh. Distressing delays made the half-hearted
+Indians who were to guide the army, chafe; and McIntosh started before
+his stores arrived, fearing that longer delay would alienate his
+friendly Indians, among whom was the Delaware, White Eyes, now turned
+from a neutral course. At the mouth of the Beaver River McIntosh built
+the fort which bears his name--the first fort built by the Americans on
+the northern side of the Ohio. Advancing westward over Bouquet's
+tri-trail track with twelve hundred men, he reached the Muskingum
+(Tuscarawas) River in fourteen days, arriving November 19, 1778, where
+he erected Fort Laurens.
+
+But Lieutenant-governor Hamilton, learning of Clark's seizure of
+Kaskaskia and the treachery of the fickle inhabitants of Vincennes, set
+about to reconquer Illinois. Departing from Detroit on a beautiful
+October day, the expedition descended the Detroit River and entered the
+Maumee. The weather changed and it was seventy-one days before the
+American Captain Helm at Vincennes surrendered his wretched fort and
+became a prisoner of war. Hamilton was unable to push on to Kaskaskia
+because of the lack of provisions, and sat down to watch the winter out
+where he was. Thus the spectacular year 1778 closed--Clark at
+Kaskaskia, watching his antagonist feasting at Vincennes; McIntosh's
+little guard at Fort Laurens undergoing continual harassing and siege.
+In the East the evacuation of Philadelphia, the battle of Monmouth, and
+the terrible Wyoming massacre were the events of the year.
+
+The year 1779 was to see as brilliant an achievement in the West, as the
+East was to see in the capture of Stony Point. This was the recapture of
+Vincennes by Clark. Joined by an experienced adventurer, Colonel Francis
+Vigo, formerly of the Spanish service, Clark was persuaded that he must
+capture Hamilton or Hamilton would capture him. Accordingly, on the
+fifth of February, Clark set out for Vincennes with one hundred and
+seventy trusty men. In twelve days they reached the Embarras River,
+which was crossed on the twenty-first with great bravery, the men wading
+in water to their shoulders. On the twenty-fifth, Hamilton, the most
+surprised man in the world, was compelled to surrender. Within two weeks
+he was on his way to Virginia; where, being found guilty of buying
+Virginian scalps from the Indians, he was imprisoned, but was exchanged
+the year following.
+
+In July, while returning from New Orleans with supplies; Colonel Rogers
+and his party of Kentuckians were overwhelmed by Indians, under Girty
+and Elliott, on the Ohio River. In a terrible running battle sixty
+Kentuckians were killed. The sad news spread quickly through Kentucky
+and a thousand tongues called loudly for revenge. In response Major
+Bowman led three hundred volunteers up the Scioto Valley and attacked
+the Shawanese capital. There was bungling somewhere and a retreat was
+ordered before victory was achieved.
+
+During this summer the conqueror of Illinois expected to complete his
+triumph by the capture of Detroit. A messenger from Thomas Jefferson,
+Governor of Virginia, brought tidings that troops for this expedition
+would be forthcoming from Virginia and Kentucky, and rendezvous at
+Vincennes in July. When the time came, Clark found only a few soldiers
+from Kentucky and none at all from Virginia. The Detroit expedition
+fell through because of Virginia's poverty in money and in men; though
+artillery, ammunition, and tools had been secured for the campaign from
+Fort Pitt, at Washington's command. But with masterly foresight Governor
+Jefferson secured the establishment of a fort on the Mississippi River
+in the Illinois country. During this summer the little garrison which
+General McIntosh left buried in the Black Forest at Fort Laurens fled
+back over the trail to Pittsburg. Nowhere north of the Ohio were the
+scenes frequently enacted in Kentucky reproduced so vividly as at little
+Fort Laurens, on the upper Muskingum. At one time fourteen of the
+garrison were decoyed and slaughtered. At another time an army numbering
+seven hundred warriors invested the little half-forgotten fortress and
+its intrepid defenders. A slight embankment may be seen today near
+Bolivar, Ohio, which marks one side of the first fort erected in what is
+now Ohio, those near the lake shore excepted. Thus closed the year 1779:
+Clark again in possession of Vincennes, as well as Kaskaskia and
+Cahokia, but disappointed in the failure of the Detroit expedition;
+Hamilton languishing in a Virginia dungeon, twelve hundred miles from
+his capital--Fort Detroit; Fort Laurens abandoned, and the Kentucky
+country covered with gloom over Rogers's terrible loss and Bowman's
+inglorious retreat from the valley of the Scioto. On the other hand, the
+East was glorying in Mad Anthony Wayne's capture of Stony Point,
+Sullivan's rebuke to the Indians, and Paul Jones's electrifying victory
+on the sea.
+
+In 1780 four expeditions set forth, all of them singular in character,
+and noteworthy. The year before, 1779, Spain had declared war upon
+England. The new commander at Detroit took immediate occasion to regain
+control of the Mississippi by attacking the Spanish town of St. Louis.
+This expedition, under Captain Sinclair, descended the Mississippi from
+Prairie du Chien. The attack was not successful, but six whites were
+killed and eighteen taken prisoner.
+
+At the time of Bowman's expedition against the Shawanese, in the
+preceding year a British officer, Colonel Bird, had assembled a
+noteworthy array at Sandusky preparatory to the invasion of Kentucky.
+News of the Kentucky raid up the Scioto Valley set Bird's Indians to
+"cooking and counselling" again, instead of acting. This year Bird's
+invasion materialized, and the fate of the Kentucky settlements trembled
+in the balance. The invading army of six hundred Indians and Canadians
+was armed with two pieces of artillery. There is little doubt that this
+army could have battered down every "station" in Kentucky and swept
+victoriously through the new settlements. Ruddles's station on the
+Licking was first menaced, and surrendered quickly. Martin's fort also
+capitulated. But here Bird paused in his conquest and withdrew
+northward, the barbarity of the Indian allies, for once at least,
+shocking a British commander. The real secret of the abrupt retreat lay
+no doubt in the fact that the increasing immigration had brought such
+vast numbers of people into Kentucky that Bird dared not penetrate
+further into the land for fear of a surprise. The gross carelessness of
+the newly arrived inhabitants, in not taking the precaution to build
+proper defenses against the Indians, undoubtedly appeared to the British
+commander as a sign of strength and fortitude which he did not have the
+courage to put to the test. As a matter of fact, he could probably have
+annihilated every settlement between the Ohio River and Cumberland Gap.
+
+In retaliation Kentucky sent an immense army north of the Ohio, a
+thousand men volunteering under Clark, the hero of Vincennes. A large
+Indian army was routed near the Shawanese town Pickaway. Many towns with
+standing crops were burned. A similar expedition from Pittsburg under
+General Brodhead burned crops and villages on the upper Muskingum.
+
+In return for the attack on St. Louis, the Spanish commander at that
+point sent an expedition against the deserted British post of St.
+Joseph. Upon declaring war against England in the previous year, Spain
+had occupied Natchez, Baton Rouge, and Mobile, which, with St. Louis,
+gave her command of the Mississippi. But his Catholic Majesty was
+building other Spanish castles in America. He desired the conquest of
+the British northwest, to offset the British capture of Gibraltar. This
+"capture" of St. Joseph led to an amusing but ominous claim on the part
+of Spain at the Treaty of Paris: when, with it for a pretext, the
+Spanish Crown claimed all lands west of a line drawn from St. Joseph
+southward through what is now Ohio, Kentucky, Tennessee, Georgia,
+Alabama, and Mississippi. The Mississippi River boundary was, however,
+stoutly contended for and obtained by the American commissioners.
+
+In this year the first "gunboat" to ply western waters was built under
+direction of Brigadier-general Clark. It was a galley armed with light
+artillery. This queer-looking craft soon fell into disuse, though it
+became a terror to the Indians who continually infested the lower Ohio.
+It was relished little better by the militia, who disliked service on
+water. But it stands as a typical illustration of the enterprise and
+devotion of the "Father of Kentucky" to the cause for which he had done
+so much.
+
+The year following, 1781, saw the termination of the Revolution in the
+East, when Cornwallis's army marched down the files of French and
+American troops at Yorktown to the melancholy tune "The World's Turned
+Upside Down." The Treaty of Paris was not signed until 1783, and in the
+meantime the bloodiest year of all the war in the West, 1782, was adding
+its horrors to all that had gone before. While the East was rejoicing,
+the central West saw the terrible massacre of Gnadenhutten--the more
+terrible because committed by white men themselves.
+
+In May, 1782, the atrocities of the savages (encouraged by the British)
+along the Pennsylvanian and Virginian border were becoming unbearable,
+and an expedition was raised in the Monongahela country to penetrate to
+the Indian-infested country on the Sandusky River. Volunteers, four
+hundred in number, all mounted, rendezvoused at the Ohio near Mingo
+Bottom; they elected as commander Colonel William Crawford, an
+experienced officer of the Revolutionary War, following Washington
+faithfully through the hard Long Island and Delaware campaigns. Crawford
+struck straight through the forests, even avoiding Indian trails, at
+first, in the hope of taking his foe utterly by surprise. But his wily
+foe completely outwitted him and the Indians and British knew well each
+day's progress. The battle was fought in a prairie land near the
+Sandusky River in what is now Crawford County, Ohio, and though not a
+victory for either side, an American retreat was ordered during the
+night following. Colonel Crawford was captured, among others, and
+suffered a terrible death at the stake, perhaps the saddest single
+atrocity committed by the redman in western history. This gray-haired
+veteran of the Revolution gave his life to appease the Indians for a
+massacre of Christian Indians perpetrated by savage borderers from the
+Monongahela country the year previous.
+
+Kentucky had witnessed minor activities of the savages during the
+spring. In August a grand Indian army assembled on the lower Scioto for
+the purpose of invading Kentucky. The assembly was harangued by Simon
+Girty, and moved southward and invaded Bryant's Station, one of the
+strongest forts in Kentucky. After a terrible day, during which
+re-enforcements kept arriving, only to be compelled to fight their way
+into the fort or flee, Girty attempted to secure capitulation.
+Outwitted, the renegade resorted to a stratagem, as cunningly devised as
+it was terribly successful. In the night the entire Indian army vanished
+as if panic-stricken. Meat was left upon the spits. Garments lay strewn
+about the encampment and along the route of the fugitive army. The more
+experienced of the border army, which was soon in full cry on the trail,
+scented the deception; but the headstrong hurried onward in hope of
+revenge. At the crossing of the Licking, near the lower Blue Licks, the
+Indian ambush received the witless pursuers with a frightful burst of
+flame, and the battle of Blue Licks became a running fire, a headlong
+rout and massacre.
+
+A thousand men joined Clark for a retaliatory invasion of the north, and
+the usual destruction of villages and crops was accomplished. This may
+be considered the last military event in the Revolutionary War in the
+West.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V
+
+AT THE END OF BOONE'S ROAD
+
+
+On the nineteenth of April, 1775, the rumble of the running fire at
+Lexington and Concord told that the farmers of New England had at last
+precipitated the struggle which had been impending for a full
+generation. It was a roar that, truly, was "heard round the world."
+
+One day later, April 20, 1775, Colonel Henderson and his fellow-pioneers
+of the Transylvania Company reached Boonesborough; there they were
+joyfully received by a running fire of five and twenty muskets
+discharged by Boone's vanguard, which had preceded them to cut the road.
+If the musket-shot behind the New England stone walls was heard round
+the world, the rattle of that score of muskets in distant Kentucky was
+heard around a continent. The former uttered a hoarse defiance to
+tyrants--a cry to God for liberty; what was the faint roar which echoed
+back a thousand mountain miles from Kentucky but an answer to that cry?
+an assurance that "to him that hath shall be given?" There is something
+divinely significant to me in the coincidence of the opening shock of
+the Revolution, and the arrival in Kentucky of the first considerable
+body of determined, reputable men.
+
+The story of the Revolutionary War in the West has been told in
+preceding pages, as the merest record of fact. It is unnecessary to
+state that it was the most important conflict ever waged there, and it
+is equally trite to observe that the struggle centered around Kentucky.
+Boone's Road had made possible the sudden movement of population
+westward, and this pioneer host immediately drew upon itself the enemies
+that otherwise would have scourged the frontiers of New York,
+Pennsylvania, Virginia, and North Carolina. The first and principal
+portion of the Kentucky pioneers--those who fought the Revolutionary
+battles--entered Kentucky by the Cumberland Gap route. James Lane Allen
+writes: "That area [Kentucky] has somewhat the shape of an enormous
+flat foot, with a disjointed big toe, a roughly hacked-off ankle, and a
+missing heel. The sole of this huge foot rests solidly on Tennessee, the
+Ohio River trickles across the ankle and over the top, the big toe is
+washed entirely off by the Tennessee River, and the long-missing heel is
+to be found in Virginia, never having been ceded by that State. Between
+the Kentucky foot and the Virginia heel is piled up this immense, bony,
+grisly mass of the Cumberland Mountain, extending some three hundred
+miles northeast and southwest. It was through this heel that Kentucky
+had to be peopled. The thin, half-starved, weary line of pioneer
+civilizers had to penetrate it, and climb this obstructing mountain
+wall, as a line of traveling ants might climb the wall of a castle. In
+this case only the strongest of the ants--the strongest in body, the
+strongest in will--succeeded in getting over and establishing their
+colony in the country far beyond. Luckily there was an enormous
+depression in the wall, or they might never have scaled it. During about
+half a century this depression was the difficult, exhausting
+entrance-point through which the State received the largest part of its
+people, the furniture of their homes, and the implements of their
+civilization; so that from the very outset that people represented the
+most striking instance of a survival of the fittest that may be observed
+in the founding of any American commonwealth. The feeblest of the ants
+could not climb the wall; the idlest of them would not."[21] Mr. Speed
+agrees wholly in this opinion: "The settlers came in ... increasing
+numbers.... A very large proportion came over the Wilderness Road."[22]
+In the early days river travel was not practicable. During the
+Revolutionary War and for some time thereafter travel down the Ohio
+River was dangerous, both because of the hostility of the savages and
+because of the condition of the river. In earlier days the journey from
+the Ohio into the populated parts of Kentucky was a great hardship. The
+story of one who emigrated to Kentucky by way of the Ohio shows plainly
+why many preferred the longer land route by way of Cumberland Gap. The
+following is from an autobiographical statement made by Spencer Record,
+preserved by the Wisconsin Historical Society:
+
+"About the Twentieth of November (1783) we embarked on the Monongahela
+in our boat, in company with Kiser, I having with me four head of horses
+and some cattle. We landed at the mouth of Limestone Creek, but there
+was then, no settlement there. We made search for a road, but found
+none. There was indeed a buffalo road, that crossed Limestone Creek a
+few miles above its mouth, and passing May's lick about twelve miles
+from Limestone, went on to the Lower Blue Lick on Licking river, and
+thence to Bryant's station: but as we knew nothing of it, we went on,
+and landed at the mouth of Licking river, on the twenty ninth of the
+month.
+
+"The next day, we loaded periogue, and a canoe, and set off up Licking,
+sometimes wading and pulling our periogue and canoe over the ripples.
+After working hard for four days, we landed, hid our property (which
+was whiskey and our farming utensils) in the woods, and returned to the
+Ohio, which by this time had taken a rapid rise and backed up Licking,
+so that we took Kiser's boat up, as far as we had taken our property and
+unloaded her. We left on the bank of Licking, a new wagon and some
+kettles. Leaving our property to help Kiser, we packed up and set off up
+Licking, and travelled some days; but making poor progress, and snow
+beginning to fall, with no cane in that part of the country, for our
+horses and cattle, we left Kiser and set off to hunt for cane. He sent
+his stock with us, in care of Henry Fry, who had come down in his boat
+with cattle for his father.
+
+"When we came to the fork of Licking we found a wagon road cut out, that
+led up the South fork. This road had been cut by Colonel Bird, a British
+officer, who had ascended Licking in keel boats, with six hundred
+Canadians and Indians. They were several days in cutting out this road
+which led to Riddle's fort, which stood on the east side of Licking,
+three miles below the junction of Hinkston's and Stoner's fork, yet our
+people knew nothing of it, till they were summoned to surrender.... We
+took the road and went on, the snow being about half leg deep. Early in
+the morning, about three miles from Riddle's fort, we came to three
+families encamped. They had landed at Limestone but finding no road,
+they wandered through the woods, crossed Licking, and happening to find
+the road, took it.... We went on to the fort, where we found plenty of
+cane. The next morning, John Finch and myself set off to try to find
+Lexington, and left the horses and cattle ... as there was no road, we
+took up Will creek, and towards the head of it we met some hunters, who
+lived on the south side of Kentucky river who gave us directions how to
+find a hunting trace, that led to Bryant's station.... We went on, found
+the trace, and arrived at Bryant's station."[23]
+
+Adding to the difficulties of land travel the dangers of the river tide,
+the difficulty of securing boats, and their great cost, it is little
+wonder that emigrants from Virginia preferred the long but better-known
+land route, through Powell's Valley and Cumberland Gap to the Braddock
+Road and the Ohio River. At a later date, however, the difficulties of
+river passage were materially decreased and the Ohio became the great
+outward emigrant route.
+
+But for the return traffic from Kentucky to Virginia, there was no
+comparison between the ease of the land route and the water route. Mr.
+Speed affirms that the road through Cumberland Gap "was the only
+practicable route for all return travel."[24] Of course for a long
+period there were no exports from Kentucky, as hardly enough could be
+raised to feed the multitude of immigrants; but when at last Kentucky
+strode to the front with its great harvests of wheat and tobacco, the
+Mississippi and Ohio ports received them.
+
+The East received comparatively little benefit, in a commercial way,
+from Boone's Road; but in the earliest days that slight track furnished
+a moral support that can hardly be exaggerated. The vast population that
+surged westward over it was a mighty barrier which protected the rear of
+the colonies from the savages, until savage warfare was at an end.
+Though the frontiers of New York, Pennsylvania, and Virginia suffered
+greatly during the Revolution, it was Kentucky that was the thorn in the
+side of the British; Kentucky drew the fire of both British and Indians
+which otherwise would have desolated the rear of the eastern colonies,
+and necessitated a greater number of men than could possibly have been
+maintained there. It was not at Fort Pitt that the British were
+constantly striking, but at the Kentucky "stations;" it was not up the
+Allegheny or Monongahela that Colonel Burd pushed his keel boats, but up
+the Licking. This fact is splendidly urged by Col. John Floyd, in a
+letter to the governor of Virginia written on the sixth of October,
+1781, in a plea for assistance in maintaining the Kentucky settlements:
+
+"... A great deal more might be said concerning the dangerous situation
+of these counties, but I have not been informed whether Government think
+it absolutely necessary for the advantage of the community at large to
+defend this country [Kentucky] at so considerable expense as must be
+incurred thereby; and I therefore beg leave to offer your Excellency one
+or two reasons why it may be of advantage to defend the Kentucky
+country. It is now beyond a doubt, that the attention of at last [least]
+6000 savage warriors is fixed on this spot, and who will not disturb any
+other part of the Continent as long as we maintain our ground. But, on
+the contrary, as soon as this country is laid waste, they will
+immediately fall upon the inhabitants of Washington, Montgomery,
+Greenbriar, &c--in short, from South Carolina to Pennsylvania. I believe
+all the counties on the west side of the Blue Ridge were kept for many
+years penned up in forts by the Shawanese, Mingoes, Delawares & a few of
+their adherents; if so what will be the consequence when at least
+fifteen powerful Nations are united and combined with those above
+mentioned against about twelve hundred militia dispersed over three
+very extensive counties. Those nations have absolutely been kept off
+your back settlements by the inhabitants of Kentucky. Two or three
+thousand men in this country would be sufficient to defend it, and
+effectually secure the back settlements on New River & its waters, as
+well as those high up James River & Roanoake."[25]
+
+In addition to conferring the inestimable advantage of defending the
+frontiers of the colonies, the early settlement and the holding of
+Kentucky insured American possession of the Middle West; this meant
+everything to the East--for the steady, logical expansion of the nation
+was the one hope of the country when independence was secured. Upon the
+Americanization of the Mississippi Valley depended the safety of the
+eastern colonies, and their commercial and political welfare. It meant
+very much to the East that a strong colony was holding its own on the
+Ohio and Mississippi during the hours when the Revolutionary struggle
+was in progress; and it meant even more to the East that, upon the
+conclusion of that struggle, thousands whose future seemed as black as
+the forests of the West could immediately emigrate thither and begin
+life anew. But for the Virginians and Kentuckians along the Ohio it is
+almost certain that Great Britain would have divided the eastern half of
+this continent with the triumphant revolutionists. For the few posts
+along the lakes that she did hold there was a spirited wrangle for
+twenty years, until they were at last handed over to the United States.
+Boone did not blaze his road one day too soon, and the hand of divine
+Providence is not shown more plainly in our national history than by the
+critical timeliness with which these pioneers were ushered into the
+meadow lands of Ken-ta-kee. The onslaughts of Shawanese and Wyandot did
+not overwhelm them; nor were they daunted by the plotting of desperate
+British officers, who spread ruin and desolation along the flank and
+rear of the fighting colonies.
+
+Again, this earliest population in the immediate valley of the
+Mississippi had a powerful influence on the attitude of the United
+States toward the powers that held the Mississippi. Had it not been for
+a Kentucky in embryo in 1775-82, it is unquestionable that the confused
+story of the possession of that great river valley would have been worse
+confounded. The whirl of politics in Kentucky during the four decades
+after the Revolutionary War daunts even the student of modern Kentucky
+politics; and of one thing we may rest assured--had the State possessed
+a little less of the sober sense that came from Virginia through
+Cumberland Gap, it is certain the story of those wild days would not be
+as readable to modern Kentuckians as it is. It was more than fortunate
+for the young Republic that at the close of the Revolution there was a
+goodly population of expatriated Virginians and North Carolinians on the
+Mississippi, ready to press its claims there.
+
+Thus we may briefly suggest the benefits which the older colonies
+received from the earliest settlers in Kentucky--and but for Boone's
+Road made by the Transylvania Company, it is exceedingly doubtful, as
+Boone wrote, whether the settlement of Kentucky would have been
+successfully inaugurated as early as 1774. At any rate Boone's Road
+brought into Kentucky thousands of pioneers who probably would have
+refused to move westward by the Ohio River route.
+
+As for the benefit Kentucky itself received from Boone's Road, that is
+self-evident. Taking everything into consideration, no distinct movement
+of population in America, before or since, can compare in magnitude with
+the burst of immigration through Cumberland Gap between 1775 and 1790.
+Never on this continent was a population of seventy thousand people
+located, within fifteen years of the day the first cabins were erected,
+at an equal distance from the existing frontier line. It is difficult to
+frame the facts of this remarkable phenomenon in language that will
+convey the full meaning. If the brave pioneers from Connecticut who
+founded the Northwest Territory at Marietta, Ohio, in 1788, had gone on
+to Kentucky, they would have found themselves, within twelve years, in
+as populous a state as that they left in New England. The Stanwix Treaty
+and Boone's Road largely answer the question why Kentucky contained
+more than one-half as many inhabitants as Massachusetts, twenty-five
+years after its first settlement was made; and why it was admitted into
+the Union four years before Tennessee, ten years before Ohio,
+twenty-four years before Indiana, twenty-six years before Illinois
+(bounded by the Ohio and Mississippi and Lake Michigan), and
+twenty-eight years before Maine. Between 1790 and 1800 the population of
+Kentucky jumped from 70,000 to 220,000, only one-third less than proud
+Maryland, and five times that of Ohio. In the census of 1790 Kentucky
+stood fourteenth in a grouping of sixteen states and territories, while
+in 1800 it stood ninth. In 1790 it exceeded the population of Rhode
+Island, Delaware and Tennessee. In 1800 it exceeded New Jersey, New
+Hampshire, Georgia, Vermont, Maine, Tennessee, Rhode Island, and
+Delaware. In this year it had one hundred and sixty thousand more
+inhabitants than Indiana Territory, Mississippi Territory, and Ohio
+Territory combined. In the decade mentioned, New York State increased in
+population two hundred and fifty thousand; far-away Kentucky increased
+one hundred and forty-seven thousand.
+
+But the West as a whole was benefited by Boone's Road. The part played
+by this earliest population of Kentucky in the development of the
+contiguous states--Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, and Missouri--has never been
+emphasized sufficiently. No Ohio historian has given sufficient
+attention to the part played by Kentuckians in the conquest of that area
+of territory. The struggle between the Kentuckians and the Ohio Indians
+has been outlined. The former fought for and saved to the Union the
+great territory south of the Ohio; and then left their smoking cabins
+and threw themselves ever and anon across the Ohio, upon the Indian
+settlements between that river and the Great Lakes. Where is even the
+Kentucky historian who has done his state justice in telling the story
+of Kentucky's conquest of Ohio and Indiana? Of the brilliant operations
+of Clark in Illinois we know very much, and the part played by the
+Kentuckians on the Mississippi and Illinois has frequently been made
+plain. But a singular misconception of the nature of Indian warfare has
+robbed the heroes of old Kentucky of much honor due them. Judged by
+ordinary military standards, the numerous invasions of Ohio and Indiana
+by Kentuckians amounted to little. Such was not the real case, many
+times. The Indians could ever retreat helter-skelter into the forests,
+avoiding more than a mere skirmish with the advancing pioneers. But they
+could not take their crops--and the destruction of one slight maize crop
+meant more to the invading army than the killing of many savages. The
+killing of the Indians did nothing but aggravate hostilities and long
+delay the end of the conflict. On the other hand, slaying redskins
+became the passion of the whites, and it is probable that many of their
+expeditions seemed failures if blood was not spilt. But their very
+presence in the Indian land and the destruction of the grain fields was
+more to their purpose, could they only have realized it. The Indians
+were then compelled to live largely on game, and as this grew more
+scarce each year the simple problem of obtaining subsistence became
+serious. The hunters were compelled to go further and further into the
+forest, and the tribes followed them. By doing nothing more than burning
+the harvest fields and ruining the important springs, the whites were
+slowly but surely conquering the trans-Ohio country.[26] By such a
+process one river valley after another was deserted, until, when the
+first legalized settlement was made in Ohio--at Marietta, in 1788--the
+Muskingum, Scioto and Miami valleys were practically deserted by
+redskins. Little as the Indians relished the new settlement at Marietta,
+they paid practically no attention to it but kept their eyes on the
+populated valleys of Kentucky, where their enemies of so many years'
+standing had settled, held their own, and then carried fire and sword
+northward. In October 1788 Governor Arthur St. Clair wrote the Hon. Mr.
+Brown of Danville, Kentucky, to give warning of the Indian war that
+seemed imminent; "The stroke, if it falls at all, will probably fall
+upon your country," he wrote.[27] And the Indian War of 1790 was
+precipitated because of Indian marauds along the Kentucky border--not
+because of attacks upon the settlements along the upper Ohio. The
+Kentuckians had played a preëminent part in driving the Indians back to
+the head of the Wabash and the mouth of the Maumee, in the two decades
+preceding the Indian War which opened in 1790, and during that war they
+were to the American armies what the English were to the allies at
+Waterloo. Local histories and local historians have created the
+impression that Ohio was conquered largely by Ohioans. Nothing could be
+more misleading.
+
+Far-reaching as the influence of the little roadway through Cumberland
+Gap has been, its actual history is of little interest or importance.
+Perhaps none of our ancient roads has done so much for society in
+proportion to the attention paid to it. Any adjective ever applied to a
+roadway, if it were of a derogatory character, might have been fitly
+applied to portions of this old track which played an important part in
+giving birth to the first and most important settlement in the West.
+During the few important years of its existence Boone's Road was only
+what Boone made it--a blazed foot-path westward. It was but the merest
+foot-path from 1774 to 1792, while thousands floundered over its
+uncertain track to lay the rude foundations of civilization in the land
+to which it led. "There are roads that make a man lose faith," writes
+Mr. Allen; "It is known that the more pious companies [of pioneers] as
+they traveled along, would now and then give up in despair, sit down,
+raise a hymn, and have prayers said before they could go farther." There
+was probably not a more desperate pioneer road in America than this. The
+mountains to be crossed, the rivers and swamps the traveler encountered,
+were as difficult to overcome as any on Braddock's Road; and Boone's
+Road was very much longer, even if measured from its technical
+starting-point--the Watauga settlement.
+
+As early as 1779 the Virginia Assembly took up the subject of a western
+highway, and commissioners were appointed to explore the region on both
+sides of the mountains, to choose a course for a roadway, clear and
+open the route, and render a report upon the advisability of making a
+wagon road. Yet no improvement followed. The narrow path--rough,
+treacherous, almost impassable--remained the only course. A vivid
+description of what a journey over it meant in this year, 1779, has been
+left us by Chief-justice Robertson in an address given at Camp Madison,
+Franklin County, Kentucky, half a century ago:
+
+"This beneficent enactment [the land law] brought to the country during
+the fall and winter of that year an unexampled tide of emigrants, who,
+exchanging all the comforts of their native society and homes for
+settlements for themselves and their children here, came like pilgrims
+to a wilderness to be made secure by their arms and habitable by the
+toil of their lives. Through privations incredible and perils thick,
+thousands of men, women, and children came in successive caravans,
+forming continuous streams of human beings, horses, cattle, and other
+domestic animals, all moving onward along a lonely and houseless path to
+a wild and cheerless land. Cast your eyes back on that long procession
+of missionaries in the cause of civilization; behold the men on foot
+with their trusty guns on their shoulders, driving stock and leading
+packhorses; and the women, some walking with pails on their heads,
+others riding with children in their laps, and other children swung in
+baskets on horses, fastened to the tails of others going before; see
+them encamped at night expecting to be massacred by Indians; behold them
+in the month of December, in that ever memorable season of unprecedented
+cold called the 'hard winter,' traveling two or three miles a day,
+frequently in danger of being frozen or killed by the falling of horses
+on the icy and almost impassable trace, and subsisting on stinted
+allowances of stale bread and meat; but now lastly look at them at the
+destined fort, perhaps on the eve of merry Christmas, when met by the
+hearty welcome of friends who had come before, and cheered by fresh
+buffalo meat and parched corn, they rejoice at their deliverance, and
+resolve to be contented with their lot.
+
+"This is no vision of the imagination, it is but an imperfect
+description of the pilgrimage of my own father and mother, and of many
+others who settled in Kentucky in December, 1779."
+
+Not until 1792 was the mountain route improved. "In that year," writes
+Mr. Speed, "according to an account-book recently found among the Henry
+Innis Papers, by Colonel John Mason Brown ... a scheme was projected for
+the clearing and improvement of the Wilderness Road, under the direction
+of Colonel John Logan and James Knox. It was a private enterprise
+altogether; the subscribers to it are set down in the book as follows:
+
+  Isaac Shelby,            £3  0s
+  Robert Breckinridge,      2  8
+  George Nicholas,          2  8
+  Henry Pawling,            1 10
+  John Brown,               2  8
+  James Brown,              1 16
+  Alexander S. Bullitt,     2  8
+  Wm. McDowell,             1 10
+  Edward S. Thomas,         1 10
+  Joseph Crockett,          1 18
+  Wm. King,                   10
+  Wm. Montgomery, jr.,      1 10
+  John Hawkins,             1 10
+  Samuel Woods,             1  4
+  Hubbard Taylor,           2  8
+  Thomas Todd,              1 10
+  Wm. Steele,               1 10
+  James Trotter,            1 18
+  Joseph Gray,              2  2
+  Joshua Hobbs,             1  4
+  Robert Todd,              1 10
+  Jesse Cravens,            1 10
+  David Knox,               1 12
+  Thomas Lewis,             1 10
+  Samuel Taylor,            1  4
+  John McKinney,            1 18
+  Nicholas Lewis,           1  4
+  Jacob Froman,             3  0
+  Richard Young,            1  4
+  James Davies,             1 10
+  Robert Patterson,         1 10
+  Robert Mosby,             1 10
+  John Watkins,             1  4
+  Matthew Walton,           1 16
+  John Jouett,              1 10
+  Robert Abel,                12
+  John Wilson,                12
+  Richard Taylor,           1 10
+  Arthur Fox,               1  0
+  John Caldwell,              12
+  George Thompson,          1  4
+  Baker Ewing,
+  Abe Buford,               1  8
+  Willis Green,             1 10
+  Wm. Montgomery, sr.,      1 10
+  Morgan Forbes,              18
+  Daniel Hudgins,              6
+  Samuel Grundy,            1 10
+  James Hays,               1 10
+  James Edwards,               9
+  Wm. Campbell,               12
+  David Stevenson,             9
+  Hugh Logan,                  6
+  Peter Troutman,             12
+  Thomas Montgomery,           6
+  John Vauhn,                  6
+  Elijah Cravens,              6
+  Richard Chapman,             6
+  James Sutton,                3
+  Joseph Lewis,                6
+  Wm. Baker,                   6
+  Richard Jackman,             6
+  Jonathan Forbes,            12
+  Isaac Hite,                 12
+  John Blane,                 12
+  Abraham Hite,               12
+  John Caldwell,            1  4
+  Peyton Short,             1 10
+  George M. Bedinger,         18
+  Alex. D. Orr,             1 10
+  Philip Caldwell,          1  4
+  Cornelius Beatty,         1 16
+  Nathaniel Hart,           1  4
+  John Grant,               1 10
+  Andrew Holmes,            1 16
+  Alex. Parker,             1 16
+  Robert Barr,              2  8
+  James Parker,             1 16
+  Thomas Kennedy,           3  0
+  Wm. Live,                 1 18
+  George Teagarden,           18
+  George Muter,             1 10
+  James Hughes,             1 10
+  Buckner Thruston,         1 10
+  John Moylan,              1 10
+  Samuel McDowell,          1  4
+  James Parberry,           3  0
+  Joseph Reed,              2  0
+  Wm. Perrett,                 5
+  John Robinson,            2  0
+  John Wilkins,                4
+  Wm. Whilley,       Bacon acct.
+  Henry Clark,                 6
+  Hardy Rawles,             2  0
+  James Young,                12
+  John Warren,                 6
+  Peter Sidebottom,            6
+  John Willey,                 6
+  Moses Collier,              12
+  Abraham Himberlin,        1  0
+  Alex Blane,                 12
+  John Jones,                 18
+  Levi Todd,                1  0
+  Thomas Ball,                12
+
+"Besides these, it appears from a note in the memorandum book there were
+other subscribers. Among the Innis papers I have found the following
+paper:
+
+'Colonel John Logan and Colonel James Knox, having consented to act as
+commissioners to direct and supervise the making and opening a road from
+the Crab Orchard to Powell's Valley, provided funds to defray the
+necessary expenses shall be procured, we, the subscribers, do therefore
+severally engage to pay the sum annexed to our names to the Hon. Harry
+Innis and Colonel Levi Todd, or to their order, in trust, to be by them
+applied to the payment of the reasonable expenses which the said
+commissioners may incur in carrying the above design into effect, also
+to the payment of such compensation to the said commissioners for their
+services as the said Innis and Todd may deem adequate.'
+
+    June 20, 1792.
+
+  Thos. Barber,              $10
+  Wm. Crow,                    5
+  Green Dorsey,               18
+  John Cochran,                4
+  David Gillis,               10
+  Wm. Petty,                   1
+  John Warren,                10
+  Wm. Kenton,                  1
+  Philip Bush, jr.,           10
+  David Rice,                  1
+  John Rochester,             10
+  John Rogers,                 1
+  Samuel G. Keen,              5
+  Padtrick Curran,             1
+  John Reedyun,                1
+  Daniel Barber,               1
+  Philip Yeiser,               3
+
+"The money subscribed was disbursed by Harry Innis. Men were employed as
+'road cutters,' as 'surveyors,' to 'carry provisions,' to 'grind corn,'
+and 'collect bacon.' The pay was two shillings sixpence per day, and
+the work extended over twenty-two days in the summer of 1792."[28]
+
+The Kentucky legislature passed an act in 1793, which provided a guard
+for pilgrims on the Wilderness Road; in 1794 an act was passed for the
+clearing of the Boonesborough fork of the road, from Rockcastle Creek to
+the Kentucky River. In 1795 the legislature passed an act to make the
+Wilderness Road a "wagon road" thirty feet wide from near Crab Orchard
+to Cumberland Gap. Proposals being advertised for, the aged Daniel Boone
+addressed Governor Isaac Shelby the following letter:
+
+  "Sir                                     feburey the 11th 1796
+
+  after my Best Respts to your Excelancy and famyly I wish to inform
+  you that I have sum intention of undertaking this New Rode that is
+  to be Cut through the Wilderness and I think My Self intiteled to
+  the ofer of the Bisness as I first Marked out that Rode in March
+  1775 and Never Re'd anything for my trubel and Sepose I am No
+  Statesman I am a Woodsman and think My Self as Capable of Marking
+  and Cutting that Rode as any other man Sir if you think with Me I
+  would thank you to wright mee a Line by the post the first
+  oportuneaty and he Will Lodge it at Mr. John Miler son hinkston
+  fork as I wish to know Where and When it is to be Laat [let] So
+  that I may atend at the time
+
+  I am Deer Sir your very omble sarvent"[29]
+
+Boone probably did not get the contract.[30]
+
+In 1797 five hundred pounds were appropriated for the repair of the road
+and erection of toll-gates. The result of this and all subsequent
+legislation, to preserve a thoroughfare after its day and reason for
+existence had passed, is thus summed up by Mr. Allen: "But despite all
+this--despite all that has been done to civilize it since Boone traced
+its course in 1790 [1775?], this honored historic thoroughfare remains
+today as it was in the beginning, with all its sloughs and sands, its
+mud and holes, and jutting ledges of rock and loose bowlders, and twists
+and turns, and general total depravity." And yet "it is impossible,"
+Mr. Allen continues, "to come upon this road without pausing, or to
+write of it without a tribute."
+
+The mountainous portions of Boone's old road are the picturesque as well
+as the historic portions. And come what may, this zig-zag pathway
+through Powell's Valley and Cumberland Gap can never be effaced--never
+forgotten. The footsteps of the tens of thousands who have passed over
+it, exhausted though each pilgrim may have been, have left a trace that
+a thousand years cannot eradicate. And so long as the print of those
+weary feet can be seen in dark Powell's Valley, on Cumberland Gap, and
+beside Yellow and Rockcastle Creeks, so long will there be a memorial
+left to perpetuate the heroism of the first Kentuckians--and the memory
+of what the Middle West owes to Virginia and her neighbors. For when all
+is said this track from tide water through Cumberland Gap must remain a
+monument to the courage and patriotism of the people of old Virginia and
+North Carolina.
+
+Cumberland Gap, "that high-swung gateway through the mountain" stands
+as "a landmark of what Nature can do when she wishes to give an
+opportunity to the human race in its migrations and discoveries, without
+surrendering control of its liberty and its fate." Here passed the
+mound-building Indian and the buffalo, marking the first routes from
+North to South across the continent. Here later passed the first
+flood-tide of white men's immigration. There are few spots on the
+continent, it is said, where the traveler of today is brought more
+quickly to a pause, overcome equally by the stupendous panorama before
+him, and by the memory of the historical associations which will assail
+even the most indifferent. Ere you reach the Gap "the idea of it,"
+writes Mr. Allen, "dominates the mind. While yet some miles away, it
+looms up, 1675 feet in elevation, some half a mile across from crest to
+crest, the pinnacle on the left towering to the height of 2500 feet. It
+was late in the afternoon when our tired horses began the long, winding,
+rocky climb from the valley to the brow of the pass. As we stood in the
+passway, amid the deepening shadows of the twilight and the solemn
+repose of the mighty landscape, the Gap seemed to be crowded with
+two invisible and countless pageants of human life, the one passing
+in, the other passing out; and the air grew thick with unheard
+utterances--primeval sounds undistinguishable and strange, of creatures
+nameless and never seen by man; the wild rush and whoop of retreating
+and pursuing tribes; the slow steps of watchful pioneers; the wail of
+dying children and the songs of homeless women; the muffled tread of
+routed and broken armies--all the sounds of surprise and delight,
+victory and defeat, hunger and pain, and weariness and despair, that the
+human heart can utter. Here passed the first of the white race who led
+the way into the valley of the Cumberland; here passed that small band
+of fearless men who gave the Gap its name; here passed the 'Long
+Hunters'; here rushed armies of the Civil War; here has passed the wave
+of westerly immigration, whose force has spent itself only on the
+Pacific slopes; and here in the long future must flow backward and
+forward the wealth of the North and the South."
+
+
+
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+
+[1] Johnson's _First Explorations of Kentucky_ (Filson Club
+Publications, No. 13), contains the journals of Walker and Gist used in
+connection with this chapter.
+
+[2] Johnson's _First Explorations of Kentucky_ (Filson Club Publications
+No. 13), p. 59.
+
+[3] _First Explorations of Kentucky_ (Filson Club Publications No. 13),
+pp. 85-86.
+
+[4] MSS. of Major Pleasant Henderson in the _Draper Collection_,
+Madison, Wisconsin; _Kentucky MSS._, vol. 2, fol. 23.
+
+[5] Draper Collection: _Kentucky MSS._ vol. 1.
+
+[6] The maternal grandfather of Abraham Lincoln.
+
+[7] This copy of the journal was made from the original by Mary
+Catharine Calk, granddaughter of Thomas Calk, Jr.
+
+[8] Draper Collection: _Kentucky MSS._, vol. 4, cc. p. 85.
+
+[9] _The Wilderness Road_: pp. 18-20.
+
+[10] Draper Collection: _Kentucky MSS._, vol. 1, fol. 215.
+
+[11] _Id._
+
+[12] Draper Notes, Wisconsin Historical Society, vol. 2; _id._, _Martin
+to Gov. Harrison_, Trip of 1860, vol. 3, p. 27.
+
+[13] _Draper Notes_, vol. 2, p. 56.
+
+[14] _Id._, pp. 126-127.
+
+[15] _Kentucky Gazette_: no. 33, April 12, 1788.
+
+[16] _Id._, no. 36, May 3, 1788.
+
+[17] _Id._
+
+[18] _Id._, no. 38, May 17, 1788.
+
+[19] _Id._, vol. ii, no. 10, November 1, 1788.
+
+[20] _Id._, vol. ii, no. 14, November 29, 1788.
+
+[20*] See _Historic Highways of America_, vol. ii, note 32.
+
+[21] Allen: _The Blue Grass Region of Kentucky_, pp. 251-252.
+
+[22] Speed: _The Wilderness Road_, p. 30; cf. pp. 42, 43; cf. Roosevelt:
+_The Winning of the West_ (1899), vol. i, p. 316.
+
+[23] Draper Collection: _Kentucky MSS._, vol. 23, cc. pp. 19-24.
+
+[24] Speed: _The Wilderness Road_, p. 30. Cf. _American Pioneer_, vol.
+ii, pp. 219-220; _St. Clair Papers_, vol. ii, p. 246; _Life of Nathaniel
+Massie_, p. 121; Collins's _History of Kentucky_, vol. ii, p. 327.
+
+[25] _Draper's Notes_, vol. II, Trip 1860, iii, p. 56.
+
+[26] Cf. _Jesuit Relations and Allied Documents_, vol. 1, p. 145.
+
+[27] _Kentucky Gazette_: vol. ii, no. 9, October 25, 1788.
+
+[28] _The Wilderness Road_, pp. 48-50.
+
+[29] Collins: _History of Kentucky_, vol. ii, p. 242.
+
+[30] _Id._, p. 213.
+
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+Transcriber's Notes:
+
+1. Passages in italics are surrounded by _underscores_.
+
+2. Obvious errors in spelling and punctuation have been corrected except
+for narratives and letters included in this text.
+
+3. Footnotes have been moved to the end of the main text body.
+
+4. Images have been moved from the middle of a paragraph to the closest
+paragraph break.
+
+5. Carat character (^) followed by a single letter or a set of letters
+in curly brackets is indicative of subscript in the original book.
+
+6. For longtitude and latitude, the minutes and seconds are placed as
+single quotes within brackets. For example: 38° 47['] 20[''].
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Historic Highways of America (Vol. 6), by 
+Archer Butler Hulbert
+
+*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 41143 ***