xt7jsx645255 https://exploreuk.uky.edu/dips/xt7jsx645255/data/mets.xml Speed, Thos. (Thomas), 1841-1906. 1894  books b92-47-26953444 English John P. Morton, : Louisville, Ky. : Contact the Special Collections Research Center for information regarding rights and use of this collection. Kentucky History To 1792. Kentucky Biography. Danville (Ky.) History. Political Club, Danville, Kentucky, 1786-1790  : being an account of an early Kentucky society from the original papers recently found / Thomas Speed. text Political Club, Danville, Kentucky, 1786-1790  : being an account of an early Kentucky society from the original papers recently found / Thomas Speed. 1894 2002 true xt7jsx645255 section xt7jsx645255 





FILsoN CLUB PUBLICATIONS NUMBER 9.



THE POLITICAL CLUB





        DANVILLE, KENTUCKY

                   1786 -t7go




 BEING AN 4CCOUNT QF AN EARLY KENTUCKY
     SOCIETY FROM THE ORIGINAL PAPERS
             RECENTLY FOUND.



   BY THOMAS SPEED,
     Author of ' The Wlde-ness R-J. "









     LOUISVILLE, KENTUCKY:.
JOHN P. MORTON AND COMPANY,
      frinterz to tie Jilean Vht.
            1894

 







































       COPYRIGHTED BY

JOHN P. MORTON  COMPANY.

           1894

 




















                       DEDICATION.


    I dedicate these pages to Center College, which for seventy-
five years has been an honor to the State of Kentucky and the
pride of the town of Danville.   It was nmy privilege to attend
this institution as a student during the presidency of Dr. Lewis
[V. Green, whose father was a member of The Politial Club, aped
my college days at Danville gave me a lasting attachment both
for the school and the delightful place of its location.

                                             THE AUTHOR.

 This page in the original text is blank.

 

                     PREFACE.


 FIFTEEN years ago it was my fortune to discover
      among my grandfather's papers the records of
"The Political Club," a society which had its existence
at Danville, Kentucky, from  1786 until 1790.  I have
often been requested to publish these records, together
with some account of the work of the club, but it has
not been convenient for me to do so until now.    To
meet expectation on this subject I prepared this work
and read it before the Filson Club.
   I have felt that it is a duty I could not fail to
perform. The existence of The Political Club is a
chapter in Kentucky history worthy of even more
detailed treatment than is here given.  Nothing that
has been recorded of the pioneers so well illustrates
their character for intelligence. Professor Shaler, in his
History of Kentucky, published in i885, says: "The
early records of Kentucky are too imperfect to afford

 

RIEI'EA CE.



any clear insight into the condition of education or the
intellectual motives of the pioneers. Recently, however,
there has been disinterred a quantity of papers giving
the record of a Political Club that existed at Danville
from 1786 to 1790." . . . "The notes of this club give
a very fair idea of the intellectual quality of its meet-
ings.  For several years, or until the changes of the
shifting population removed its leaders far from their
original abodes, this club industriously debated the ques-
tions of polity that concerned the settlements."
   There is no historic mention of "The Political Club"
prior to finding the records, nor was there any tradition
of its existence; the old papers alone have preserved it
from oblivion.  Perhaps this is not strange under the
circumstances. There was no newspaper to publish its
meetings and discussions. Besides, what occurred at the
meetings was not publicly known, as none were admitted
except the members. When the club ceased to exist
many of the members removed from Danville to other
places in the State, and other interests superseded
thought or memory of the club meetings.
   The historian, Humphrey Marshall, knew of the club,
though as he was not a member he could not have



vi

 

PREFACE.



known particularly of its work. It was not at all likely
that the later historian, Butler, knew of the club at all,
and Collins, though his history contains much in detail
of every county in the State, failed to discover that there
had been such a society at Danville.
   The preparation for public service which the club
gave to the body, of men composing it was so soon
made use of, and the ideas developed there so quickly
embodied in the first State Constitution, that the club
debates were overshadowed by real legislation. But it was
these debates that laid the foundation of the practical
usefulness of the actors in this legislation.
   The sketches of the members show that for more
than a quarter of a century they took a leading part in
affairs in Kentucky.  Going out from  the sessions of
the club to engage in the public transactions of the
day, they made an impression upon the times, but the
club itself, to which they owed so much for training in
political knowledge, was lost sight of and forgotten.
   In the preparation of this work I have deemed it
advisable to point out some of the reasons, and partic-
ularly those of a geographical nature, which brought
the town of Danville to the forefront in the early



-Iii

 

PREFA CE.



days, and made it the place for the existence of a
society like The Political Club.
   Following the suggestions offered on this subject,
sketches of the members are given. Many of them are
so well known, however, that biographical mention is
almost unnecessary. Some account of their descendants
is also shown. Following these sketches the work of
the club is presented.
   I wish to acknowledge my indebtedness to the Pres-
ident of the Filson Club, Colonel R. T. Durrett, for
suggestions, and for assistance in finding in his full
collection of historical works facts which could not be
found in any other collection.
   For information concerning the members of the
club and their descendants, I am indebted to Colonel
Thomas M. Green personally, and to his valuable work,
"Historic Families of Kentucky."
   I am also indebted to Judge James S. Pirtle and
Judge W. Overton Harris, of the Louisville Bar, and in
general I acknowledge my indebtedness to the members
of the Filson Club.
   LOUiSVILLE, KY., October 1, 1894.


 



                          CONTENTS.

                                                                  PAGE.
Early Kentucky, . . .. . . . . .. ..  ..   .... ..                 1-8
     Climate, Soil, People......... . ... .     2
     Inducements to Settlement... . ... . .    3
     Attractions,............ ........ .......     4
     The Great Immigration..                      5
     Incidents of Removal to the West .  . . .... .  6
     Character of the Pioneers .               .               7
The Kentucky Woods .......... .. . .......     12-i6
     Grandeur of the Forest ....... ........... .  13
     Descriptions   ......... .1.4... . . r4
The Traveled Ways           .           ........... . 17-19
     From Limestone to Crab Orchard ........ . . . . . .  17
     From Mouth of Licking to Crab Orchard  . .S... .  IS
     From Falls of the Ohio to Crab Orchard   . .  . is
     Danville the Gate City . .. . . ...... .......  19
Location of Danville .                   .19-30
     The Center of the State, but at the Southeast Corner of the
         Portion First Settledt.                    6
     Influence of the Wilderness Road .......... .   .  ..  21
     Population of Kentucky in 1790.. .. ..                         23
     The Town of Washington (note), . .. .                          23
     Pioneer Stations near Danville  . ........ .  25
     Situation of Danville.... ...         .2.5...............       .      25
     Founding of Danville (note)  . .167
     Early Settlement in this Section,  .26
     First Court Held at Danville  . .27
     Place of Holding Conventions..... .  .  .. ... . ..            27
     Transylvania Seminary... ........... .                          27
     Center College .......... ..............     29
     Danville Theological Seminary ....... ......... .  30
     Influence of Railroads, ..30

 




CONTENTS.



Formation of The Political Club, ......

     No Record or Tradition of the Club,. . ..  
     Accidental Finding of the Papers .....
     Major Beatty's Diaryr.y..........
     Mention of the Club after Discovery of the

The Members of the Club, .........

     List of Members............
     Genera] Characteristics.... ......

Sketches of the Members, . .......
     Harry Innes ................
     Thomas Todd. ...............
     George Muter...... . . . . ......
     Abraham Buford, . .... . ......
     Robert Dougherty .............
     Christopher Greenup .. ... .
     Samuel McDowell .............
     William McDowell .............
     John Brown ................
     James Brownn.,............
     James Speed, ................
     Thomas Speed ...........
     Willis Greenn...............
     Stephen Ormsby .............
     Matthew Walton, .............
     Thomas Allin. ...............
     Peyton Shortr.t.............
     William Kennedy . ..... ...... .
     William McClung, ............
     Gabriel Jones Johnston ..........
     Joshua Barbee ...............

     John and James Overton, .........
     Baker Ewing..  .............
     Benjamin Sebastian, ...,  ......
     John Belli,..... ..  ..  . . . ..  .
     Peter Tardeveau.. . ...........
     Robert Craddock.k.   ............
     James Nourse. ...............
     David Walker,.......     .   .. . -



.. . .. . .     .
.. . .. . .     .
.. . .. . .     .


Papers,


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  .. . .. .


.. . .. . . .



x



31-37
   32

   33
   33
   35
38-41
   38

39-41

42-97
   42
   45
   47

   50
   52

   53
   56
   62

   63
   66
   66
   69

   70
   74
   75
   77
   77
   79
   81
   82
   83

   84
   89
   90
   91

   93
   95
   95
   96

 



CONTENTS.



Object of the Club,. ..     ........
     Position and Influence of the Members,
     Period Through Which They Lived, - .
Organization and Minutes ........
     First Meeting ...........
     Constitution of the Club . -  . - - -
     Rules of the Club ...........
     Navigation of the Mississippi .....
     Separation from Virginia, ....    ..
     Separation on Terms of the Act,....
     Representation by Numbers or Counties,



              . . . 97-100
.. . .. . . ....         98
... . . . . ....         99

                  ,  100-I55
.. .. .. .. ...         ror
.. . . ..   ...........  102
.. . . .. . . .   .......   105
.. . . .. . . ... ...   107
.. . . . .. . .111.     III
... . . ...  . .      112
                        114



Resolution as to Persons Attending after Being Elected,  . .
Periods of Election .....................
Committee Appointed to Prepare Form of Government for
    Kentucky.
Right of Indians to the Soil, ...   .........
Resolution as to Admission of Members ..  .... . . ..
Expatriation.
Suffrage.
Capital Punishment, ... .   . ...............
Impressment of Arms.. ..    ................
Culture of Tobacco ....................
Power of Courts to Adjudge Legislative Acts Unconstitutional.
Intermarriage with Indiansa. ns...............
Powers of Second Branch of the Legislature ....  ....
Uniting with Cumberland........       .... .... ...
One or Two Branches of Legislature .
Period of Elections.. .                         .. ...
Emission of Paper Currency ...............
Discussion of the Constitution of the United States.....
The Club Revision of that Instrument, .
Resolutious Concerning Federal Constitution .  .....
"Enforce" or "Execute" Laws by Militia ..........
Ineligibility of the President after One Term, ......
Ineligibility of Senators. ....... . . .  . ........
Existing Laws as to Citizenship...... . .  .   ......
Slavery and Slave Trade.e.        ................



xi



    r16
r i6-I r8


    118
    120
    12r
    122
    125
    126
    128
    129
    130
134, 135
   136
   137
   139
   141
   142
   143
   145
   146
   148
   149
   5SO
   150
   151

 



xii                       CONTENTS.


Organization and Minutes-Continued.                               ral.
     Tobacco as a Commutable for Taxes..s.... . .. . . . .  .       !51
     Polygamy,. ...................                     .   .      152
     Laws as to Citizenship,..[..... .  . ...........              f52
     Resolution as to Members not in the Neighborhood of Danville,  152
     Places of Meeting of the Club.   ..... . .. . . . ..   .     152
     Treasurer's Accounts.......  . ..............                 153
     Humors of the Club................... ....                    154

Books Brought out in "Packs,"........... .. . . . .. . . .   .     is6
High Character of the Members....... . .   ..'... .. . . .   .     157
Intelligence of the Pioneers     ....... . . . . .                 157
Kentucky Society for the Proulotion of Useful Knowledge, .           S
Manufacturing         ........ . . . . . .. . . 158, 159
Schools and Churches...... .  . .. . . . .. . . . .. . . .  .      159
Spanish Intrigues,.  ........... .. ..          .    .... .         6o
Devotion to the Union..i.i....    ....... . . .       .....        i6i
Influence of Political Club on First Kentucky Constitution, . .     62
Devotion of the Members to Cause of Good Government . ..[..    .   i65
Note..............            ..     .   . ........          ...     167


 


        THE POLITICAL CLUB.



                  EARLY KENTUCKY.

THE events in the early history of Kentucky are
  T invested with that peculiar fascination which be-
longs to heroic and romantic periods.
   The people of the present generation look back to
the pioneer days with feelings somewhat akin to the
memories of their own childhood. They read of Daniel
Boone and his times very much as they read old leg-
endary romances. In the hazy distance of a hundred
years ago men assume heroic proportions, and their
deeds excite wonder. But there is a reality in these
Kentucky annals which gives them a charm above the
mere fanciful. The assurance of veritable history gives
an irresistible interest to narrations which also have
features of the marvelous.
   This singular fascination, which is found in the
accounts of the pioneer days of Kentucky, springs from
a combination of conditions which attended the occupa-
tion of the country by the white man.
                          2

 

THE POLITICAL CLUB.



   The climate was propitious; it is the most delight-
ful part of the temperate zone. Having neither too
great heat nor cold it was favorable to out-door life,
which, to a great extent, was necessarily the lot of the
pioneers. The country was covered with woods, which
gave shelter against the winds and afforded material
for fuel and house-building. In the woods of Kentucky
Robin Hood would have found a boundless expansion
of Sherwood Forest.   The land itself was extremely
fertile, and so drained by nature that the soil was dry
and easily cultivated, while springs and running streams
afforded an abundant supply of water.
   The people who settled Kentucky were families from
the Atlantic States, of substance and education, being
of the best stock and having the refinements of society.
Yet it was their fortune to undergo hardships of the
severest sort and face dangers that were frightful.
They had to endure bereavements and losses, and make
their wilderness homes at the cost of blood and tears.
Thus there came about in the great immigration which
settled Kentucky in the days between I775 and 1792 a
remarkable conjunction of circumstances as to people,
country, and climate.
   The explorations and adventures of Doctor Thomas
Walker, Christopher Gist, Daniel Boone, Stewart, and



2

 

THE POLITICAL CLUB.



Finley, and the " Long Hunters," together with those
of Simon Kenton, Benjamin Logan, Richard Henderson,
and many others, are all as thrilling as any romance,
with the added interest of being real occurrences. The
settlement of Kentucky, which closely followed these ex-
ploits, furnishes incidents not less interesting. Placing
ourselves one hundred and twenty years back, we find
a deep meaning in the statement that the settlements
in Kentucky were in the wilderness. It was a wilder-
ness of magnificent distances, being so vast in extent
that for all practical purposes it might be described as
boundless. Eastward the habitations of men were beyond
the mountains; to the west all was unknown; north lay
the unoccupied regions to the lakes and beyond; south-
ward all was desolate to the Gulf. In the heart of this
limitless wilderness the Kentucky Commonwealth grew
up while all the surrounding land remained unbroken
and untouched.
   The " Land of Kentucke," as the country was called
by the explorers, had many rare attractions, which have
often been described. It lay on the waters of a beau-
tiful river, and possessed inducements for occupation
second to no spot on the earth. Yet it was hid away,
like a jewel in an unopened mine, up to the very period
of its sudden settlement. One writer describes it thus:



3

 

THE POLITICAL CLUB.



" Covered with boundless forests and protected by Alpine
barriers terrific to the eye, and almost inaccessible to
the most adventurous foot, this lovely country remained
unexplored until Boone and his associates resolved to
subdue and people it." '
   The people east of the mountains knew, indeed, that
there was land extending far away toward the west, but
for aught they knew the mountains continued on and
on in wild, inhospitable, and uninhabitable grandeur
without a break. They did not know that a delightful
region lay spread out upon the southern tributaries of
the Ohio like the garden of the Lord for beauty and
fertility.
   This secluded and hid-away condition of Kentucky
has been beautifully described in verse by Henry T.
Stanton, in his Centennial Ode:
         Shut out from civil bound by rivers deep,
         By forests dark, and mountains high and steep,
         By rocks, ravines, and rude, forbidding lines
         Of gnarled laurels and of tangled vines,
         The Unknown Land, that on the sunset rim
         Stretched over distance limitless and dim,
         Lay, with its spread of plain and vale and hill,
         Beyond the eye, mysterious and still.
         To daring hunter and explorer bold
         Unbroken stood the fastness of its hold,
   Hall.



4

 

               THE POLITICAL CLUB.                       5

         While, south and westward, dimly stretched away,
         With range on range the bristled mountains lay,
         The Blue Ridge, Smoky, Clinch, and Cumberland,
         Toward the sky, precipitous and grand,
         As if to bar from man's ambitious quests
         The dark beyond, upheld their cloud-hid crests.
         With no brave hand to grasp and put aside
         The thorny hedging of its thickets wide,
         And no sure foot to make its toilsome trail
         From peak to farther peak, and vale to vale;
         For centuries this now historic bound
         Remained to civil man untrodden ground.

   The great immigration which suddenly made Ken-
tucky a State in the Union began about the close of the
Revolutionary War, but the whole period of seventeen
years from 1775 to I792 constitutes the peculiarly heroic
or romantic age of Kentucky. It was the immigration
in this period which established the power of the white
man in the western country. It pierced and broke the
center of the barriers which had barred the west against
occupation. It divided the Indians north from those in
the south; it operated as a flank movement upon the
powerful tribes which occupied the choicest portions of
New York and Pennsylvania, and caused them to give
way before the advance of civilization. It made the
vast territory of the West, including Ohio, Indiana, and
Illinois, vulnerable to settlement, and opened the way
to Tennessee and Alabama.'
  i Wilderness Road.

 

THE POLITICAL CLUB.



   The contemplation of families of people in Kentucky
during the earlier period of the immigration brings to
the mind a continuous series of exciting scenes-the
breaking up of the homes and associations east of the
Alleghanies; the excitement attending the proposed re-
moval; the perils and hardships of the long journey.
We follow them along the toilsome way; the first stages
lead upward to the tops of the mountains, where the
streams which run westward begin to take their rise.
Then comes the descent by the rugged passages through
vast solitudes, either to Cumberland Gap or to the
Ohio River; then the dangerous descent of the river,
or wearisome travel over the equally dangerous trace
through the mountains of Kentucky. The arrival at
the destined end of the journey was at no town or set-
tlement, it was only a halt in a solitude. The hastily
constructed cabins clustered about common centers called
stations, which were stockades intended for refuge from
Indian attacks. Subsisting on the bare necessities of
life, in constant dread, fighting for their lives, nursing
the wounded, burying the slain; men, women, and child-
dren spent their days and nights, weeks, months, and
years, until a State was evolved at a period when the
greater portions of New York and Pennsylvania, and
even Virginia, were untouched by the hand of civiliza-
tion.



6

 

THE POLITICAL CLUB.



   The boldness, energy, hardihood, self- denial, and
perseverance of the pioneers have often been described.
Their bravery in Indian fighting, skill and sagacity in
hunting, their wonderful powers of endurance have been
the theme of many writers. But it is not alone in such
accounts of the early days in Kentucky that we find
extraordinary interest. There are facts and features of
those early days which have not received their full
share of attention from the historian, which are of the
deepest interest to those whose more thoughtful minds
seek for the philosophy of remarkable events occurring
among mankind.
   The pioneers were more than hunters and fighters.
They were a people who brought into intelligent order
the original and elementary material of a State; they
erected from the very elements of social life an organ-
ized Commonwealth. They did their work under many
difficulties, and in the face of many discouragements;
and, it may be added, they resisted inducements to form
other connections than that of the newly formed union
of the States. Every thing connected with this work
of State building in the wilderness is full of interest.
   These pages will set forth a chapter of this early
history which, from causes to be made to appear, has
not been heretofore written; and this long forgotten



7

 

THE POLITICAL CLUB.



and newly discovered feature in the early annals of
Kentucky will be found to have an interest second to
nothing else bearing upon her first civic affairs.


         LOCATION OF THE FIRST SETTLERS.

   Preliminary to an account of "The Political Club,"
it will be interesting to consider some of the facts and
conditions of the times and place of its existence.
   In the spring of I775 Daniel Boone marked out the
trace which soon became the Wilderness Road. This
was the route by which immigrants came to Kentucky
"overland" or through the mountains. They entered
the State at Cumberland Gap, and by that road made
their way to the interior. At the time this trace was
made there were no settlers in the country of Kentucky.
From that time until the close of the Revolutionary
War in 1783, a period of eight years, the immigration,
while not so rapid as it afterward became, yet resulted
in a population of over twenty thousand. The close of
the war led to a greatly increased interest in the western
country, and from that time until I792, and later, the
immigration was so remarkable it is best described as
a movement of population.' In I790 there were more
   I In a document transmitted by Lord Dorchester to Lord Sydney in Eng-
land, 1789, it is said: " The last census of the people (in Kentucky), taken in



8

 

THE POLITICAL CLUB.



than seventy-five thousand inhabitants in Kentucky. In
five more years that number was about doubled.
   The geographical distribution of the first settlers is
a subject of great interest. What attractions were most
powerful  What portion of the State was first occu-
pied  Did the early settlers scatter themselves generally
over the extensive territory which now constitutes the
State of Kentucky, or did they cluster together in some
favored portion of it
   If the reader will take a map of Kentucky and draw
a line from Maysville to Crab Orchard, and another line
from Louisville to Crab Orchard, it will be seen that
the two lines form almost a right angle. Taking then
the course of the Ohio River from Maysville to Cincin-
nati, and front thence to Louisville, a body of land is
included almost square, and about one hundred miles
in extent each way. It contains about ten thousand
square miles, and is larger than the State of Massachu-
setts. The country lying east of the line from Maysville
to Crab Orchard begins to be hilly and soon becomes

1788, amounted to 62,ooo souls, including a much greater portion of adult
males than is usually to be looked for in a common estimation of this nature,
to which great additions have been made since, the writer having seen five
hundred persons at Limestone who had just landed or arrived there in the
course of two days-the time of his stay--besides a constant influx of fami-
lies he met on the high road." (See Colonel John Mason Brown's " Political
Beginuings," Appendix.)



9

 

THE POLITICAL CLUB.



mountainous. Also southwardly of the line from Louis-
ville to Crab Orchard lies the broken country of the
Muldraugh Hill range, which, beginning in the semi-
mountainous section near Crab Orchard, extends across
the State to the Ohio River a little below the Falls at
Louisville.
   Within the square described the land is generally
level or gently undulating, almost all of excellent qual-
ity and admirably adapted to cultivation. It well merits
the encomiums it received from the early explorers. It
is traversed by the Kentucky, the Licking, and Salt
rivers and their numberless tributaries. Two sides of
the square are washed by the Ohio River. It now com-
prises thirty-six counties, twelve of which border on the
Ohio River. The world - famous Bluegrass land lies
within this area, constituting a large part of it. Those
portions which do not properly come under the desig-
nation of " Bluegrass" are yet like it in respect to
being gently undulating and of fertile soil.
   The first settlers naturally sought this singularly
favored body of land. It was this section which Daniel
Boone called "A Second Paradise," and Felix Walker,
a companion of Boone, tells in his diary how, after
leaving  the mountains, "we began to discover the
pleasing and rapturous appearance of the plains of



IO

 

THE POLITICAL CLUB-



Kentucky." Colonel Richard Henderson, who came out
over Boone's trace the same spring it was opened,
speaks of leaving the Rockcastle hills and " camping in
the eye of the rich lands." John Filson, writing in
1784, says: " By casting the eye upon the map and
viewing that great compass of about one hundred miles
square is seen the most extraordinary country the sun
enlightens with his celestial beams."
   The "level lands " of Kentucky were first reached
by the immigrants who came over the Wilderness Road
at Crab Orchard, which was not far from the spot which
became the site of Danville. The immigrants who came
down the Ohio River first reached the level lands at
the landing-place called Limestone, afterward Maysville.
While some landed there others proceeded on and landed
at the mouth of Licking River or Kentucky River, or at
the Falls of the Ohio. From these river gate-ways, as
well as from the entrance at Crab Orchard, the settlers
spread themselves over the area described. Having nat-
urally passed beyond the mountainous country before
landing at Limestone, they as naturally did not pass
down the river beyond the Falls, where navigation was
impeded. Nor did they go into or beyond the rough
country of the Muldraugh Hill range as long as they
could find eligible locations without doing so.



I I

 

I2



THE POLITICAL CLUB.



   The following extract from Shaler's History of Ken-
tucky confirms the foregoing statements:

   "In the middle section of the State, stretching from the Ohio
River to the escarpment of Muldraugh Hill, lay the rich lands
since known as the 'Bluegrass' district; west of them the unwooded
district known as the Barrens, which were at first supposed from
their treeless condition to be worthless lands; and still further west
a tract of sandy country like that of the easternmost district-good
lands, it is true, but not rich enough to attract the first settlers.
It was this bluegrass land that was the incentive to immigration.
. . . After the Bluegrass district was occupied the population
began to move to the less attractive lands."



                 THE KENTUCKY WOODS.

   At the coming of the white race the whole of this
region was a dense woods. No more magnificent forest
ever adorned the face of the earth. It was not excelled
even in the imaginings of poetry and romance. Every
conceivable grandeur of forest scenery was displayed.

       "The loftie trees, yclad with sommer's pride,
         Did spread so broad that Heaven's light did hide."

   From the margins of the streams to the tops of the
hills, on the slopes and the outspread plateaus stood
the finest timber of oak, poplar, ash, chestnut, hickory,
sugar - tree, beech, walnut, mulberry, wild cherry, and

 

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many other varieties, all evidencing the rich, strong
soil beneath.
   As the primeval forest of Kentucky has been so
destroyed that all its original grandeur has disappeared,
it is worth more than a passing mention in this work,
which is intended to bring to view transactions which
occurred before the destruction took place. Many writers
have endeavored to present to the mind a picture of the
Kentucky woods. Professor Shaler says: "This forest
territory was singularly unbroken, having a continuity of
woods unknown in the other States." He says: " This
forest was principally of the broad-leaved tree, no great
extent of coniferous woods existing then in the eastern
part of the District.  Fortunately for the settlers the
broad-leaved trees were of old growth, and singularly
open beneath, so that the early trackways and wagon
roads were easily made through them." This is a cor-
rect statement, as many now living, and who in their
earlier years traversed portions of these forests un-
broken at that date, can testify.  The long stems of
the trees, measuring from fifty to one hundred feet in
height, and from three to six feet in diameter, sus-
tained a leafy canopy, the shade of which prevented
undergrowth and produced the solemn cathedral-like
impression often mentioned.



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   Colonel Durrett in his centennial address takes the
distinction between the timber-shadowed land and the
more open spaces where a lower growth was found. He
says: "Over an area that millions might inhabit, of
mountain and hill, and plain and valley, stands a dark
forest. . . . Here and there where the trees cast not
their shadow the cane and the clover and the rye and
the bluegrass cover the soil like emerald isles in the
forest seas."
   In the singularly weird story of early Kentucky days
by Doctor Robert M. Byrd, entitled "Nick of the Woods,"
he says: "The forest was of the grand and gloomy char-
acter which the fertility of the soil and the absence of
the axe for a thousand years imprinted on the western
woodlands. Oaks, poplars, elms, walnuts, and beeches,
with other monarchs of the wilderness, lifted their
trunks like so many pillars, and swung their majestic
arms far overhead."
   Roosvelt in his "Winning of the West" uses very
graphic expressions on this subject. He says the coun-
try "had been shielded by the forest which lay over
the land like an unrent mantle. All through the moun-
tains and far beyond it stretched without a break."
   Speaking of the Indians, he says: "Their wars were
carried on in the never - ending stretches of gloomy



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woodland