xt75x63b056d https://exploreuk.uky.edu/dips/xt75x63b056d/data/mets.xml Kinkead, Elizabeth Shelby. 1896  books b92-154-29771522 English American Book Co., : New York ; Cincinnati : Contact the Special Collections Research Center for information regarding rights and use of this collection. Kentucky History. History of Kentucky  / Elizabeth Shelby Kinkead. text History of Kentucky  / Elizabeth Shelby Kinkead. 1896 2002 true xt75x63b056d section xt75x63b056d 







A



HISTORY OF KENTUCKY





              BY



ELIZABETH SHELBY



KINKEAD



  NEW YORK .:. CINCINNATI -:- CHICAGO
AMERICAN BOOK COMPANY

 















































     COPYRIGHT, 1X896, Dv

AMERICAN BOOK COMPANY



  HISTORY OF KENTUCKY
          C-, q

 































          TO THE MEMORY OF MY FATHER

          William   )1urp DinkeaD

              FROM WHOM WAS DERIVED

WHATEVER TRUTHFUL UNDERSTANDING OF THE KENTUCKY PEOPLE
              THIS LITTLE BOOK CONTAINS


 
















































      454


















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CowIs  t X  j  \ F
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PREFACE



  IN the preparation of this book, an attempt has been
made to relate the events of practical, everyday life, in
such a manner as to make the study of the history of our
State a pleasure to the pupil. While adhering to facts
as closely as they could be ascertained, the aim has been
that the whole shall entertain as a connected story.
Special effort has been made to portray the spirit of the
Kentuckians, in order that the student may understand
and revere the people from   whom he is sprung. To
this end, more space has been given to their character-
istics as indicated by tales of particular acts, than to the
statistics of battles in which they have taken part.
  As this is a narration of the life of a State, and as the
connection of one incident with another is of more im-
portance in a work of this kind than the grouping of
kindred topics, the chronological order of development
has been followed.
  The subject naturally divides itself into five clearly
marked periods.   And these lend themselves readily
to important subdivisions.  That portion of the history
which extends to the close of the War of 1812 belongs
to the poetic stage in the State's life; and that which
follows, to the prose stage. It has been necessary in
developing the later prose periods to depart somewhat

 









from the simple method followed when setting forth
the early poetic periods. But this seems rather an ad-
vantage; for if the interest of the pupil is awakened
at the outset, he will be eager to follow the fortunes
of his State to the end, and will, it is hoped, patiently
study the more prosaic episodes, in order to get a thor-
ough grasp of the whole.
  It has been my earnest desire that the work should
be historically sincere. The difficult aim has been con-
stantly before my mind to make it impartial in all in-
stances, and at the same time forceful and inspiriting.
A Kentuckian, from my infancy I have been imbued
with a knowledge and love of the State.    And yet,
having grown up in the New Kentucky, in her days
of quietude, I have been enabled to approach the con-
sideration of her significant periods with little individual
prejudice. I have made a laborious and careful study
of all available material, and I have tried to let the actions
of the people, as they have been unfolded to me, speak
for themselves, and reveal the Kentuckians. It is my
hope that what I have written will find favor with my
own people.                                  E. S. K.



PREFACE



6


 

















                  CONTENTS




                  I - PIONEER DAYS

                       1669-1782
                                                 PAGE
   I. FIRST WHITE MEN IN KENTUCKY                    9

   II. EARLY SETTLEMENTS IN KENTUCKY               19

 III. THE COUNTY OF KENTUCKY.                     29

 IV. DIVISION OF THE COUNTY    .   .   .       . 40


      II- THE STR UG GLE FOR INDEPENDENCE

                      1782-1792

  V. THE DISTRICT OF KENTUCKY   .  .   .   .      so

  VI. BEGINNING OF THE STRUGGLE   .   .   .     .  59

VII. THE SPANISH CONSPIRACY.   .   .   .   .  .69

VIII. THE END OF THE STRUGGLE.  .  .   .   .   .  82



     III - FOUNDING OF THE CO.IMMIONWEALTH

                      1792-1850

 IX. ORGANIZATION OF THE GOVERNMENT.              93

 X. POLITICAL SITUATION IN KENTUCKY.  .   .   . 105

 XI. THE WAR OF 1812.   .  .   .   .   .   .   .   6

 XII. LOCAL AFFAIRS .   .   .   .   .   .  .   . 127

XIII. CIVIL AFFAIRS AND THE MEXICAN WAR    .     . 141
                       7

 











8                      CONTENTS


                 IV -HTHE CIVIL WAR

                       185O-1865
                                                    PAGE
 XIV. THE SITUATION IN KENTUCKY  .   .   .    .   . 151

 XV. KENTUCKY'S POSITION OF NEUTRALITY   .   .   . i6i

 XVI. THE INVASION OF KENTUCKY   .   .   .    .   . 173

 XVII. THE SECOND INVASION OF KENTUCKY    .   .   . i86

 XVIII. CIVIL CONFLICTS.  .    .   .   .   .   .   . I96



              V- THE NEW KENTUCKY

                       1865-1896

 XIX. THE RESTORATION OF PEACE   .   .   .   .      205

 XX. THE ERA OF TRANSITION  .   .    .   .   .   . 213


CONSTITUTION OF KENTUCKY  .       .   .   .   .   . 227

INDEX        .   .     .   .      .       .       . 273


 














      I-PIONEER          DAYS,      1669-1782



                     CHAPTER I

       FIRST WHITE MEN IN KENTUCKY, 1669-1775

  THE history of Kentucky is at once unique and attract-
ive. It begins like a romance, thrilling in tales of heroic
deeds and exciting adventures.  From  the
                                             Kentucky's8
earliest settlement of the State, all through the honored
                     ..    .            .tposition
crises in its own life and the life of the nation,
Kentucky has held an honored position, and has produced
men of great and noble character. None but the brave
dared or desired to risk the perils of these untried forests;
therefore, Kentucky was founded by men of forceful
qualities, remarkable as well for strength of mind as for
endurance of body. The tide of immigration has passed,
for the most part, to the north and to the south of Ken-
tucky; hence its present population consists almost exclu-
sively of the descendants of the early settlers. The men
who are prominent to-day are, in the main, sons of fathers
whose fathers helped to establish the Commonwealth.
  Long ages before Kentucky was discovered, there dwelt
in the land a race of beings called Mound Builders, on
account of the mounds or monuments they The Mound
erected.  Many of these mounds have been Builders
opened, and have been found to contain bones of human


 








PIONEER DAYS



beings and of the mastodon (a gigantic animal now extinct),
as well as implements of stone, flint arrowheads, and pieces
of pottery. Until recently, historians believed that these






                      Relics from Mounds

remains indicated a people different from, and more civil-
ized than, the Indians; but modern scientists have con-
cluded that the Mound Builders were simply the ancestors
of the present Indians.
  At the time when Kentucky was visited by the first
pioneers, it was not the home of Indians, as were many of
           the other parts of America; but it was the
Kentucky as
seen by    hunting ground and battlefield of neighboring
pioneers  tribes from the north, the west, and the south.
The beautiful and luxuriant for-
ests were filled with elk a



buffl   n    ae
ties of game that
have long been extinct.
Bears and wolves, pan-
thers, tigers, and wild cats
abounded in the dense undergrowth. Wild Animals of Kentucky



IO


 







FIRST WHITE MEN IN KENTUCKY



   Seven rivers drain the land, -the Big Sandy, the Lick-
ing, the Kentucky, the Salt, the Green, the Cumberland,
and the Tennessee.   Following a northwestward course
through the east, the middle, and the west of the State,
these all flow into the Ohio, and thence into the waters
of the mighty Mississippi.
  The Indians were by no means ignorant of the value of
this land. They were prepared to resist its permanent
            settlement
Indian valua-
tion of the  to their ut-
land
            most ability,
so that the pioneers, or
first white men who
came to Kentucky, had  
to  contend  not only
with the wild beasts of
the forest but with the
equally savage Indian
warriors. From the
fierce encounter of
Indians with Indians,
and Indians with pio-
neers, it came about that
the State was called
" The Dark and Bloody              Indian Warriors
Ground."
  That courage which was a necessity to our forefathers
is still a marked characteristic of the sons of Kentucky.
The pioneers were men sent forth by the wis- Courage of
dom of God to found a new Commonwealth. Kentuckians
They went in peace, but with their rifles cocked to defend
their lives from the Indians.
  In the early days of American discovery, some people



I I


 







PIONEER DAYS



believed that there was a great river in America leading
across the continent to China.  The distin- First white
guished Frenchman, La Salle, while in search meninKen-
of this river, in the year 1669 or i670, passed tucky
                      through a portion of Kentucky from
                      the Big Sandy to the rapids of the
                      Ohio.   As early as 1750, Dr.
                      Thomas Walker of Virginia led an
                      exploring party into Kentucky by
                 ,  way of Powell's Valley, through the
                      mountains in the eastern part of
 /                  the State, and built a log cabin on
                      the Cumberland River. But the land
                      company he represented was not
                      successful, and he returned home
                      with little knowledge of the coun-
try. One year later, Christopher Gist, an agent of the
Ohio Land Company, beheld, stretching out before him,
from some point on the Kentucky River, the impressive
and beautiful land of Kentucky. There is also a tradition
that, in the year 1754, a man by the name of McBride cut
his initials on a tree at the mouth of the Kentucky River.
  Faint rumors now reached Virginia and North Carolina
of the fertile land beyond the mountains, and, in the year
Daniel Boone 1769, John Findley piloted Daniel Boone and
in Kentucky four other companions into the country which
he had visited two years before. These courageous men
were not driven by persecution, nor by the need to seek
a livelihood for themselves and their families. Each one
left behind him a " peaceable habitation," as Boone called
his quiet home on the Yadkin, in North Carolina, and
started forth with a rifle in one hand and a hatchet in the
other, in quest of adventure.



12


 







FIRST WHITE MEN IN KENTUCKY



  They pitched their tent on the banks of the Red River (a
Boone and  branch of the Kentucky), and remained peace-
Stewart in the fully hunting until late in December. But one
woods     day Boone and John Stewart, when alone in
the woods, were captured by Indians. After seven days
they succeeded in
making  their  es-
cape, and returned
to their camp, to
find it deserted, no
trace being left of
their former com-
panions. Boone and
Stewart were soon
joined  by Squire
Boone, a younger
brother of Daniel's;
but shortly after this,
Stewart was killed
by Indians. T he
two brothers, find-
ing that they did
not  have enough
ammunition, decided that the younger should go back to
North Carolina to supply their need. Daniel was now
left alone in the vast forests.
  In July, 1770, Squire Boone arrived with the ammuni-
tion. The two brothers remained until March of the
following year, and then returned to North The Long
Carolina. Five other adventurers had joined Hunters
them in their camp on the Red River. In the year 1769,
a party of about forty men from Virginia and North Caro-
lina went out on a hunting expedition. Nine of this



I 3

 







PIONEER DAYS



company, led by Colonel James Knox, reached Kentucky
the following year, and explored the country about the
Cumberland and Green rivers. They did not come in
contact with Boone's party. From the length of time all
these adventurers were absent from home, they were
called " The Long Hunters."
  Up to the year I763, France had claimed the country
on the east of the Mississippi which included Kentucky.
Conflicting After the French and Indian War, Great
claims     Britain gained the right to this region. But
because of prior possession, various tribes of Indians laid
claim to the country. In the year 1768, the English gov-
ernment purchased from the tribes of Indians called the
Six Nations the title to all the lands lying between the
Ohio and Tennessee rivers. This treaty was held at Fort
Stanwix, now Rome, in New York.
  Bounty lands on the Ohio River were then granted to
many of the officers and soldiers of the Virginia troops,
Sureyorasent and surveyors were sent to mark them out.
to Kentucky Thus were brought to Kentucky many of the
clever and gallant young men of Virginia whose names,
or those of their descendants, afterwards became asso-
ciated with the history of the State.
  Two interesting characters of this period were Han-
cock Taylor and John Floyd. They were deputies under
HancockTay- Colonel William Preston, surveyor of Fin-
lor and    castle County, Virginia, of which Kentucky
JohnFloyd  was a part until 1776. These men started
forth in the high hopes of their young manhood, to survey
the far-famed lands of Kentucky. Honor and wealth lay
before them, and all the exciting pleasures of a perilous
undertaking. The one was shot down by Indians a few
months after his arrival; the other lived nine years -



14


 







FIRST WHITE MEN IN KENTUCKY



long enough to establish his family in Kentucky, and to
aid in founding the new country-and then he fell a
victim to the same death.
  There were other surveyors in the early days of Ken-
tucky to whom  a romantic interest attaches.  Captain
Thomas Bullitt, of Virginia, at the head of a
                                             Other surveyors
party, in 1773, made surveys of land for Dr.
John Connolly, at the falls of the Ohio, where the city of
Louisville now stands. Close upon his explorations fol-
















                    Early Kentucky Settlers

lowed those of James Douglas, who visited Big Bone Lick,
where he found scattered on the ground the bones of the
mastodon, whose huge ribs he used for his tent poles. The
scholarly John Todd, later to be noticed, and his brother
Levi, came to Kentucky in the same capacity, as did also
two representatives of the Lee family of Virginia.
  The same year, there came into Kentucky a party of
hunters and surveyors from Virginia, led by three brothers,
James, George, and Robert McAfee, who later on became



I 5

 







PIONEER DAYS



prominent in the new courntry. This visit was for investiga-
tion, and after selecting lands on the Salt River, in Mercer
The McAfees, County, they made their way homeward, well-
Boone, and  nigh exhausted by the trials of the journey.
others    In Powell's Valley they met a large party
which Daniel Boone was guiding into Kentucky. The life
in the wilderness was so delightful to Boone that he deter-
mined to make his home there. On the 25th of Septem-
ber, 1773, he set out with his wife and children, and was
joined by five other families and forty men besides. Their
progress was interrupted, however, on the very thresh-
old of Kentucky soil by an Indian attack, and six of the
company were killed, Boone's son being one of the num-
ber. This so disheartened the pioneers that they turned
back toward their old homes.
  The same year, Simon Kenton roamed through Ken-
tucky. The following year, James Harrod and forty-men
Indian hostili- built themselves cabins and laid off the town
ties       of Harrodsburg, which, however, they were
soon obliged to abandon. Shortly afterward, Governor
Dunmore of Virginia sent Daniel Boone and Michael
Stoner to guide out of the wilderness the surveyors who
were in Kentucky. The Shawnee Indians had become so
hostile to the settlement of Kentucky that it was danger-
ous for any white man to remain there. They were now
gathering under their great chief, Cornstalk, for the blood-
iest conflict that ever occurred between the whites and
the Indians.
  The battle of Point Pleasant took place the ioth of
Battle of Point October, 1774, near the mouth of the Kanawha
Pleasant  River.   The white forces were collected
by General Andrew Lewis, but the latter took no per-
sonal part in the fight, being occupied with superintending

 






FIRST WHITE MEN IN KENTUCKY



the erection of certain breastworks, necessary for the en-
counter. The forces consisted mainly of sturdy Scotch-
Irish from Virginia, under the command of Colonels
Charles Lewis, William Fleming, and John Field. They
were joined by two companies of brave men from beyond
the Cumberland Mountains, who were eager to avenge the
injuries they had suffered fronm the Indians; one of these
companies was under the command of Captain Russell,
and the other under Captain Evan Shelby, who, with his
fifty volunteers from the Watauga settlement, in North
Carolina, hurried forward to the encounter. The attack was
opened upon the division of Colonel Charles Lewis, but
he was soon mortally wounded. In quick succession, the
two remaining colonels, William Fleming and John Field,
were cut down, the one being wounded, the other slain.
The command then fell to Captain Shelby.
  From sunrise the battle raged fiercely. Victory wavered
between the two sides. Many had already fallen, when,
toward noon, Cornstalk determined to outflank Result of the
the whites and, by a bold movement, to end battle
the conflict. But just at this time, Isaac Shelby, then a
young lieutenant left in charge of his father's company,
determined also to make a flank movement against the
Indians. He took with him two other companies, com-
manded by James Stewart and George Matthews. They
crept through the underbrush, along the banks of the
Kanawha, and surprised the enemy in the rear. The
Indians became alarmed and began to retreat. The fight-
ing, however, did not cease until near sunset. The victory
thus gained by the whites was of the utmost importance
in the settlement of Kentucky. Shortly afterward, the
Shawnees entered into a treaty with Governor Dunmore,
of Virginia. They gave up all their title to the lands
        KENT. HIST.-2



17

 









PIONEER DAYS



south of the Ohio River, and promised not to molest the
white men further. Peace now reigned for a time, and
the pioneers were enabled to make their homes in Ken-
tucky.
                          RECAPITULATION



Kentucky's romantic history.
Interesting relics found in ancient
  mounds.
Mound Builders the ancestors of
  Indians.
No Indian homes found in the region.
The region the Indian hunting
  ground.
A valuable region.
Indians determined to resist its set-
  tlement.
The courage of the pioneers.
La Salle in Kentucky in i669 or '70.
Walker, Gist, and McBride come be-
  fore I754.
Findley guides a party in 1769.
Boone and Stewart captured.
They escape, to find their camp de-
  serted.
They are joined by Squire Boone.
Stewart is killed by Indians.
Squire Boone goes home and returris.



The brothers leave in 1771.
The Long Hunters.
Great Britain gains the region in 1763.
Also, she buys it from the Six Nations.
Floyd, Taylor, and other surveyors
  sent to Kentucky.
The McAfee brothers.
Boone's party attacked by Indians.
Simon Kenton visits Kentucky.
James Harrod lays off Harrodsburg.
Indian hostilities force the surveyors
  to leave.
Indians gather under their great
  chief, Cornstalk.
The battle of Point Pleasant.
Colonels Lewis, Field, and Fleming
  killed or wounded.
Captain Evan Shelby commands.
Flank movement against the Indians.
The whites gain a significant victory.
Dunmore's treaty secures peace for a
  time.



18


 













CHAPTER II



      EARLY SETTLEMENTS IN KENTrUCKY, 1775-1776

  IN the year I775, permanent homes were made in Ken-
tucky. James Harrod and his company came back to
their cabins, which they had been forced to Permanent
leave by Indian hostilities, and the McAfees stations
returned to their settlement on the Salt River. Not far
from Harrodsburg, Benjamin Logan, with a few slaves,
erected a station, to which he brought his family during
the following year. A most important aid to the settle-
ment of the country was the road Daniel Boone cut from
Cumberland Gap to the fort in Madison County which
bore his name.
  Far and wide was spread Boone's glowing account of
the unknown region; and though he did not succeed in
firing very many with a desire to brave the Boone's
perils of its untried forests, the news soon account of the
reached some of the influential and wealthy land
men of North Carolina, who quickly foresaw the vast riches
and power which might be theirs if they could gain pos-
session of it.
  We have already seen that the Six Nations had sold
to the English their title to that vast area of country
which included the present State of Kentucky, Sale of Indian
and that after the battle of Point Pleasant, the titles
Shawnee Indians, also, had renounced their right to the
region. But such was the lawless and unstable condition
                           19

 







PIONEER DAYS



of Indian possessions that the ownership seemed to rest
with that nation which had gained the latest victory in
the tribal wars. Thus the Cherokees, likewise, asserted
a claim to the land.
  Captain Nathaniel Hart, of North Carolina, formed a
company, known as Henderson and Company (consisting
Hendersonand of himself, his two brothers, and six others), to
Company    purchase this Cherokee title.  They chose
Colonel Richard Henderson as their legal head. Across
the country, a distance of about three hundred miles, Hart
and Henderson went to hold a conference with the Indians
at their villages beyond the Alleghany Mountains. The
Indians promised to consider the matter, and sent a com-
mittee to examine the goods to be given in exchange for
the land. These proved satisfactory, and a place of treaty
was determined upon.   On the 17th of March, I775,
twelve hundred savage warriors assembled at the Sycamore
Shoals of the Watauga River. The nine members of the
company were there, and all the men, women, and children
of the settlement gathered to hear the decision of the
council. When the Indian chiefs finally decided, after
much speech-making on both sides, to sell to the whites
their "hunting ground," - about seventeen million acres
of land,-for the consideration of ten thousand pounds
sterling, there was great rejoicing.
  The land bought by the company lay on the other side
of the mountains; and though it was covered with wide-
The colony of spreading forest trees, they gave it the pic-
Transylvania turesque and not inappropriate name of Tran-
in rica    sylvania, beyond the woods. The purpose of
the company was to found a colony of which they should
be the proprietors, and to sell lands to persons desiring to
make their homes in the region. The scheme was brilliant



20

 







EARLY SETTLEMENTS IN KENTUCKY



and gigantic; and though it was soon abandoned, it had a
most important influence on the future of the State. The
proprietors were all educated men, who attracted to the
country other men of ability.
  Daniel Boone was sent ahead to open a road for the
proprietors. The trace then cut was later widened into
the famous Wilderness Road,' one of the two
ways (the other being by means of flatboats  e
down the Ohio) by which there entered Kentucky the
brave men and women who laid the foundations of the
State.  Colonel Boone's company consisted of about
twenty-two men, and they were joined by a party of
eight, under the leadership of Captain William Twetty.
Their task was not so difficult as it was perilous, and just
before it was completed their courage was put to the test.
One morning, while they still lay asleep in camp, they
were attacked by Indians. Two of their number were
killed, and one was wounded so seriously that he could
not be moved immediately. With that spirit of heroism
inspired by the times, several of the men remained with
their wounded comrade at the risk of their lives, while the
others went on ahead about fifteen miles, to select a site
upon which to erect a fort.
  When the proprietors arrived, they found three stations
besides Boonesborough already settled in the country.
They called for an election of delegates from
                                              The Boones-
these, in order that laws might be made for borough
the govern-nent of the colony. Twelve dele- parliament
gates were duly elected and sent from Harrodsburg, Boil-
ing Springs, and St. Asaph's or Logan's Station, and six



  1 Tht Wilderness Road.  By Thomas Speed. Filson Club Publication
No. 2.



l1


 







22  PIONEER DAYS



were elected for Boonesborough. This first legislative
assembly held west of the Alleghanies met at Boones-
borough, May 23, I775, under the branches of a mighty
elm which could comfortably shelter in its shadow one
hundred people. The parliament passed nine laws to the
satisfaction of all concerned, and adjourned to meet the
following autumn; but it never again assembled.
t-The independent settlers in the country soon became
dissatisfied, and asked Virginia to take them under her
protection. Accordingly, in 1778, the legislature of that
State annulled the purchase of the Transylvania propri-
etors; but in order to compensate them for their loss, she
granted them 200,000 acres of land, and gave good titles
to all those who had bought lands from the company.
  The structure Boone and his men erected at Boones-
borough was the first military fortification on Kentucky
The Boones- soil, and it -proved a very secure stronghold
borough fort  against the unskilled attacks of savages. It
was laid out as a parallelogram, inclosed by posts sharp-
ened at the end
and driven firm-

ground. At the

w er e  b u iIt
strong two-story  
log cabins with
windows which looked out
on the open space or court      -
of the inclosure.  The sides
which faced the forest had no     F
windows, but only loo1)holes
through which the pioneers could fire at their enemies.



22


 







EARLY SETILEMENTS IN KENTUCKY



  The furnishings of the cabins were very rude, - a bed
in one corner made of upright forks of trees, on which
rested poles whose ends were thrust into holes The furnish-
in the wall of the building, and on these poles ings of the
were thrown for mattress and covering the cns
skins of wild animals; a rough-hewn dining table, and
a few three-legged wooden stools.  The windows were
covered with paper saturated with bear's oil, through
which the light penetrated, and an air of cheerfulness was
gained by the huge fireplace which stretched nearly across
one side of the room.
  Shortly after the fort was completed, in September,
Pioneer women 1775, Daniel Boone brought his wife and daugh-
           ter to Kentucky. At Harrodsburg, also, Hulgh
McGary, Richard Ho-
gan, and Thomas Den-                        /
ton settled with their
families.  In  Novem-
ber of this year, John
McClellan brought his
family into Kentucky,
and, in company with
Colonel Robert Patter-
son, built a station which
was named McClellan's.
Here, fifteen years later,         
the town of Georgetown
was incorpor sted. With
the coming of the
women, home life began
in the wilderness, with
all of its hardships, its
perils, and its inspiriting     A Brakwoods Girl



23


 







PIONEER DAYS



adventures. The women stood side by side with the men,
and suffered and grew strong, labored and prospered, with
them. To-day we look back to their lives of unselfish
devotion, and are thrilled by admiration for their courage.
There are no wild beasts for us to fight, no Indians, no
dangers from hunger and cold.  But if we would be
true children of brave ancestors, there is a battle to enter
far harder and more worthy of victory than any they were
called upon to wage -a battle for the honor and purity
of our own lives and of the State.
  Daniel Boone can in no way stand as a type of the early
Kentuckians. They were far more remarkable and clever
men. He did not feel himself inspired by Character of
any high motive, though he was always kind Daniel Boone
                                   and courageous. He
                                   sought the unpeopled
                                   lands of Kentucky
                                   because he loved the
                                   wild life of the woods.
                                   With the coming of
                                   civilization, he  de-
                                   parted. But he was
                                   an instrument in the
                                   hands of God too oen
                                   the way for the foun-
                                   dation of a great State.
                                     By the side of Dan-
                                   iel Boone there towers
                                   another picturesque
                                   figure, Simon Kenton,
            Simon Kenton        f a m o u s Simon Kenton
                                   as an In-
dian scout, and the hero of many startling adventures.



24


 







EARLY SETILEMENTS IN KENTUCKY



His manhood began with a tragedy. He loved a girl who
was won by his friend. He fought a duel with his rival,
and, believing that he had killed him, fled from his old
home in Virginia, and under another name tried to forget
his deed in the wilderness of Kentucky. But he could
not forget. The burden of that thought weighed heavily



Running the Gauntlet



upon his naturally kind and simple-hearted nature. Long
years afterward, he ventured to return to Virginia to visit
his family and to bring them to Kentucky. To his over-
whelming joy, he found the man he supposed he had
killed, alive and ready to be his friend.
  Once he was captured by Indians. Eight times he was
made to run the gauntlet; that is, to run down a long line
of Indian men, women, and boys, each armed with a tom-



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PIONEER DAYS



ahawk, club, or switch, with which the runner was struck.
Three times he was tied to the stake to be burned alive,
and every time he was saved through some unexpected
deliverance. By his daring coolness, he filled even the
Indians with terror, and thus he aided much in the settling
of the new country. But he, too, like Boone, passed away
before the advance of civilization in Kentucky.
  For the most part, the pioneers of Kentucky were from
that unsurpassed race of people, the Scotch-Irish, who
Character  settled in the valley of Virginia, and then
of the    spread out into the neighboring States. Their
Kentuckians
            ancestors had suffered religious persecutions
in the Old World, and the pioneers brought into the rich,
free land of Kentucky an intense love of God, of liberty,
and of education, -three important factors in the great-
ness of a nation as well as of an individual. Such men,
seeking homes and prosperity for their children, were not
to be daunted even by the fury of the savages.
  Occasionally, the faint-hearted would grow weary of the
hardships and dangers, and would depart; but they left
behind them the strong and brave who were worthy to be
Healthful life the possessors and founders of the beautiful
of the pioneers new country. The men could not safely plant
the crops, nor could the women milk the cows, except
under the protection of armed guards who stood ready
for the attacks of Indians; yet none the less they perse-
vered in their determination to remain. An existence of
healthful work with a steadfast purpose made them cheer-
ful. The children played, and the young people laughed
and were happy, although the only variety in their 'lives
was the dread of a surprise or an occasional Indian raid.
  One day in the summer of I776, Jemima Boone and
the two daughters of Colonel Richard Callaway were out



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EARLY SETITLEMENTS IN KENTUCKY



on the Kentucky River, in a canoe, when they were cap-
tured by five Indians. The girls tried to beat Aromantic
off the savages, while they screamed for help. episode
Be