The Kentucky Pioneers

 

* Originally part of Virginia, the land that is now Kentucky was formed into Kentucky county, Virginia in 1776. Four years later it was divided into the Fayette, Jefferson, and Lincoln counties of Virginia. It became the fifteenth of the United States in 1792. The name Kentucky is of Native American origin and as been attributed to several languages with several possible meanings from "land of tomorrow" to "cane and turkey lands" to "meadow lands." The name Kentucky referred originally to the Kentucky River and from that came the name of the region.

The entrance of the pioneers into Kentucky must be by one or the other of two routes. The parallel ranges of the Alleghany and Cumberland mountains, and the wild precipitous country between, made a march directly westward and across them impossible. It is still beyond attempt. 

From the frontier settlements of Virginia the pioneer would take his way southwestward, following the trend of the mountains and the valleys, till East Tennessee and the valley of the Holston were reached. 

Then an arduous journey across the Cumberland Gap and the rugged hills beyond it brought him, as he kept toward the northwest, to the waters of the Kentucky and of Salt River, and to that pleasant land of the Kentuckian, the "Bluegrass." But the journey was one of quite six hundred miles, and it traversed an inhospitable and dangerous region. No white inhabitant was to be found in all its length. From the Holston River to the Kentucky hostile Indians were numerous. There was no road, and the direction of the trail was only indicated by occasional choppings made upon the trees. It was in 1775 that this "marking the road" was done by Boone, to serve for others' use. For him neither marks nor compass nor directions were necessary. His instinct served him better than any such aids.

It was by this route that Boone and his comrades entered Kentucky, and by it came most of the early pioneers. It was aptly called, by a name that still adheres to the excellent thoroughfares that have supplied its place, the Wilderness Road.

The other mode of reaching the Kentucky hunting grounds was one less convenient and even more dangerous. It was to proceed from the interior settlements to Fort Pitt, and from that place float down the Ohio in a flat-boat of rude construction. Such journeys were once or twice made, without serious loss, as far as to the falls of the Ohio (Louisville), but they generally ended, if the adventurers succeeded, at Limestone, where Maysville now is built. Thence by overland march through the canebrakes the emigrant would, if not waylaid by Indians, join the little settlements at Boonesborough, or Harrodstown, or St. Asaph. This river route was, however, exceedingly hazardous. The Indians who occupied Southeast Ohio watched the banks for plunder and scalps. The flat-boats were necessarily small, and could not be sufficiently manned to repel attack, and were so rudely framed that they could not be manounvred to escape the swift canoes paddled by full crews of well-armed warriors.

The great "Warriors' Path" of the Shawnees extended through eastern Kentucky, from Chickamauga to the Scioto, and along its length war parties incessantly moved. ...

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Another of the group [of Kentucky settlers] was that great soldier George Rogers Clark, whose genius foresaw the importance of the Northwest, and whose prowess and skill conquered for the new republic that empire where now are established the great States of Indiana, Illinois, and Michigan. The magnitude of the conception was appreciated by none but himself and the comprehensive mind of [Thomas] Jefferson. ...  His younger brother ... will be remembered for the marvelous expedition which, commanded by himself and his brother officer Lewis, crossed the continent to the mouth of the Columbia River.

... Boone and Floyd, with others, among them Parson Lythe, an adventurous preacher, were members of the first legislative body that met west of the Allegheny Mountains. It gathered at the stockade called Boonesborough, on the banks of the Kentucky, in May, 1775, and seventeen pioneers took part. ...

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Public opinion committed the honor of females to the keeping of their armed kinsmen, and would have scouted appeal to a court for redress upon a wrong-doer. Each was competent to protect himself and that which personally concerned him, and was expected to do so; and this received notion gained such general and sure footing that an almost ceremonious regard for others' feelings and others' persons became universal. ...

The slayer of a seducer has never been punished. ...

 

The little fort at Boonesborough was in an almost constant state of attack, and the increasing numbers and strength of the Indian war parties caused Boone and his comrades to enlarge it to such proportions as would give a refuge for those who ventured to clear land and plant corn in the vicinity. It may well be considered as the central point of early pioneer life in Kentucky. The walls of the fort were in part composed of the log cabins in which the pioneers lived, and constructed partly of tall palisades. At the four corners the cabins projected like bastions, and enabled the defenders to resist attempts to scale or burn the defenses. 

Within the enclosure, as in the other earliest settlements, there was collected the little wealth of the adventurers. The pots and pans brought with such toil from Virginia upon the pack-horse were, next to the gun and axe, their most valued possessions. They came along with the first wives and daughters of the pioneers, of whom there were as many as seven families within the area of Kentucky in 1775.

These brought, too, the spinning-wheel, with which coarse yarns were made from buffalo wool; and it was not long before a few rude looms were improvised, that served for weaving a rough cloth suitable for the men's winter wear. The name of William Poague, who first made noggins and buckets, has been preserved, coupled with that of his ingenious daughter, who discovered that a fiber for weaving could be beaten from nettles and woven in the loom which her father made.

Buckskin was the usual outer garb of the men as well from choice as necessity. Their rough marches through thickets and cane would soon have  destroyed a less strong -material. The cotton cloth for underclothing was painfully brought from Virginia along with the occasional supplies of ammunition.

The wives and daughters of the pioneers were more carefully provided for. They were appareled in woolens and cottons, and wore shoes, brought over the Wilderness Road. Withal there was comfort and plenty. The list of luxuries was a short one; the comforts were substantial. ...   

... During the period from 1783 to 1790 no less than fifteen hundred authenticated instances of death by the Indian rifle or tomahawk occurred; but they were, after a rough fashion, regarded as part of the risk that pioneers took. The Indians must have suffered as much or more, and they too regarded it as the fate of continual war. ...

 

Thomas Baldwin, Frontispiece from: Narrative of the massacre :  by the savages, of the wife and children of Thomas Baldwin.  Scanned from original version published: New-York : Martin and Wood, 1835.  Source: American Memory at http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/D?fawbib:106:./temp/~ammem_W6tm::@@@mdb=manz,eaa,aaeo,aaodyssey,hh, gottscho,bbpix,bbcards,magbell,berl,lbcoll,cdn,cic,cwnyhs,cwar,consrvbib,coolbib,coplandbib,curt,dag,fsaall,aep,fine,fmuever,dcm,cmns,cowellbib,toddbib,lomaxbib,ngp,gottlieb,alad,mcc,mymhiwebib,aipn,afcwip,fawbib,omhbib,pan,vv,wpapos,psbib,pin,presp,qlt,ncr,mesnbib,denn,runyon,wtc,detr,upboverbib,varstg,horyd,hawp,suffrg,awh,awhbib,wright

The dangers which Boone and his companions encountered in the fields came to the very doors of their cabins, and constantly menaced their families. Indians lurked singly or in parties to seize a prisoner or take a scalp whenever an incautious white should give the opportunity.  Frequent combats (and each combat ended, as a rule, in the death of one or both of those engaged) had habituated the men to danger.

It was later that they felt the danger of their wives and children. Late on a Sunday afternoon in July, 1776, three young girls ventured from the enclosure of Boonesborough to amuse themselves with a canoe upon the river that flowed by the fort. Insensibly they drifted with the lazy current, and before they were aware of their danger were seized by five warriors. Their resistance was useless, though they wielded the paddles with desperation. Their canoe was drawn ashore, and they were hurried off in rapid retreat toward the Shawnee towns in Ohio. Their screams were heard at the fort, and the cause well guessed.

Two of the girls were Betsey and Frances, daughters of Colonel Richard Callaway, the other was Jemima, daughter of Boone. The fathers were absent, but soon returned to hear the evil news and arrange the pursuit. Callaway assembled a mounted party, and was away through the woods to head off the Indians, if possible, before they might reach and cross the Ohio, or before the fatigue of their rapid march should so overcome the poor girls as to cause their captors to tomahawk them, and so disencumber their flight.

Boone started directly on the trail It was through the thickets and canebrakes. His  rule was never to ride if he could possibly walk. All his journeys and hunts, escapes and pursuits, were on foot. His little party numbered eight, and the anxiety of a father's heart quickened its leader, and found a ready response in the breasts of three young men, the lovers of the girls.

Betsey Callaway, the oldest of the girls, marked the trail, as the Indians hurried them along, by breaking twigs and bending bushes, and when threatened with the tomahawk if she persisted, tore small bits from her dress, and dropped them to guide the pursuers. Where the ground was soft enough to receive an  impression, they would press a footprint.

The flight was in the best Indian method: the Indians marched some yards apart through the bushes and cane, compelling their captives to do the same. When a creek was crossed they waded in its water to a distant point, where the march would be resumed. By all the caution and skill of  their training the Indians endeavored to obscure the trail and perplex the pursuers.

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The nightfall of the first day stopped the pursuit of Boone before he had gone far; but he had fixed the direction the Indians were taking, and at early dawn was following them. The chase was continued with all the speed that could be made for thirty miles. Again darkness compelled a halt, and again at crack of day on Tuesday the pursuit was renewed.

It was not long before a light film of smoke that rose in the distant showed where the Indians were cooking a breakfast of buffalo meat.  The pursuers cautiously approached, fearing lest the Indians might slay their captives and escape. Colonel John Floyd, who was one of the party (himself afterward killed by Indians), thus described the attack and the rescue, in, a letter written the next Sunday to the Lieutenant of Fincastle, Colonel William Preston:

"Our study had been how to get the prisoners without giving the Indians time to murder them after they discovered us: Four of us fired, and all of us rushed on them; by which they were prevented from carrying anything away except one shot-gun without any ammunition. Colonel Boone and myself had each a pretty fair shot as they began to move off. I am well convinced I shot one through the body. The one he shot dropped his gun; mine had none. The place was covered with thick cane, and being so much elated on recovering the three poor little heart-broken girls, we were prevented from making any further search. We sent the Indians off almost naked, some without their moccasins, and none of them with so much as a knife or tomahawk. After the girls came to themselves sufficiently to speak, they told us there were five Indians, four Shawanese and one Cherokee; they could speak good English, and said they should go to the Shawanese towns. The war-club we got was like those I have seen of that nation, and several words of their language, which the girls retained, were known to be Shawanese."

The return with the rescued girls was the occasion for great rejoicing. To crown their satisfaction, the young lovers had proved their prowess, and under the eye of the greatest of all woodsmen had shown their skill and courage. They had fairly won the girls they loved.

Two weeks later a general summons went throughout the little settlements to attend the first wedding ever solemnized on Kentucky soil. Samuel Henderson and Betsey Callaway were married in the presence of an approving company that celebrated the event with dancing and feasting. The formal license from the county court was not waited for, as the court-house of Fincastle, of which county Kentucky was part, was distant more than six hundred miles. The ceremony consisted of the contract with witnesses, and religious vows administered by Boone's brother, who was an occasional preacher of the ersuasion popularly known as Hardshell Baptists. Frances Callaway became within a year the wife of the gallant Captain John Holder, afterward greatly distinguished in the pioneer annals; and Boone's daughter married the son of his friend Callaway. ...

 

Source: http://www.kentuckystewarts.com/Kentucky/KyPioneers.htm