l
28 UNION COUNTY PAST AND PRESENT
F through which he passed. George Croghan, as early as 1765,
passed down the Ohio, and on June 6 he noted that there were
"several large fine islands . . . in the Ohio, opposite the mouth
` of the Ouabache (Wabash) ." However, Cuming’s account of the
country bordering the Ohio was made at a time when numerous
pioneering farmers and frontiersmen had already penetrated
into the western wilderness, away from the river. His trip was
undertaken partly to inspect some lands in Ohio which he had
previously purchased in Europe, and with the situation and
location of which he was "agreeably surprised." He wished, also,
"to afford information to Europeans and Eastern men of a
country, in its infancy, which from its rapid improvement in a
few years, will form a wonderful contrast to its present state/’*’
Slim Island was the first of the several Ohio River islands
mentioned by Cuming that came under the jurisdiction of Union
County. He reported that it was three and one-half miles long
and on its upper end was settled, He relates that on the Indiana
side, opposite the mouth of Highland Creek, then blocked with
drift, were three families of Robinsons—"the first settlements in
_ that district." A short distance below Highland Creek, on the
Kentucky side, Cuming reported a fine landing and two "beauti-
ful settlements" owned by a Mr. Cooper and a Mr. Austin, as
well as a frame house rented by a Mr. Gilchrist, identified as a A
temporary settler. This was the settlement that later developed
into Uniontown. In the History of Union County, published by
the Evansville (Ind.) Courier in 1886, it is stated, inaccurately
no doubt, that "Robert Gilchrist settled at the mouth of High-
land Creek in 1810 .... " At the time Cuming was here there were
several boats laid up at the mouth of Highland Creek, A number
of families, then newly settled in the neighborhood, had been
brought down the river in these boats. After passing on the north
side of Wabash Island, five miles long and containing 3,000 acres,
he and his party rowed past Brown’s Island and the two upper-
most of the Three Sisters and moored for the night on the Ken-
tucky shore "just under the cabin and well improved farm of _
Peter Lash, who has been here four years, and informed us that ’
there was a fine populous settlement of several families behind
us.""“ On May 17 they passed the Third Sister and then mooret`c
and landed at Shawneetown. ,
*Repriutecl by permission of the publishers. The Arthur H. Clark Com-  
pany, from Thwziitess Emly I/V¢2stw1·;i I/'v·