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Early
Kentucky History
- Excerpt from Volume II of The Great Republic by the Master
Historians, Hubert H. Bancroft, editor.
Kentucky
was first discovered in 1767, by a bold hunter named John Finley,
who, with some companions, in that year crossed the Alleghanies
and entered this unknown land. It was no easy enterprise. There
was a mountain-region nearly fifty miles in width to cross, traversed
by parallel ridges, all rugged, and some almost impassable. Yet
the beautiful and fertile expanse which they beheld from the western
slope repaid the hardy pioneers for their toil, and for months they
wandered in this new Eden, which was full of game, and pleasantly
salubrious in its climate, while unclaimed by those savage tenants
whose presence filled with peril all other regions of the country.
No Indians possessed the country. It was the hunting and battle
region of Northern, Western, and Southern tribes, who frequently
crossed its soil, yet never made it their home. Yet here desperate
battles frequently took place, and the name of "the dark and
bloody ground," which it subsequently received, was always
appropriate.
The story
told by Finley on his return was eagerly heard by Daniel Boone,
a noted hunter of North Carolina, whither his parents had emigrated
from Pennsylvania. In 1769 a party under the leadership of Boone
crossed the mountains, and entered Kentucky by way of Cumberland
Gap. His adventures in this region for several years succeeding
were numerous and exciting. He acquired the reputation of a mighty
hunter, became dreaded by the Indians, and, though on several occasions
taken prisoner, always managed to escape from their hands. During
this interval the Indian war known as Lord
Dunmore's War broke out, through the assassination, by white
fiends, of the family of the renowned Indian chief Logan. The borders
of the Virginia frontier were terribly raided, and it needed an
army of three thousand men to subdue the savages. In the final battle,
which was desperately contested, two hundred and fifteen Virginians
and several hundred Indian warriors were killed and wounded. The
repulsed tribes fled in terror, and their whole country was devastated
by the victors.
In this
campaign Boone took part, and its conclusion was followed by a more
rapid inflow of settlers into the region which he had explored,
and which had become now more safe for white emigrants. Under his
directions a strong fort was built at Boonsborough, on the left
bank of the Kentucky River. To this frontier post came a party of
adventurous settlers, under his leadership. It was a dangerous location.
Lurking Indians waited to cut off any settler who ventured too far
beyond the walls of the fort. At one time a daughter of Boone and
two other girls, while canoeing on the river, were captured by savages.
Boone rapidly pursued, and succeeded in surprising the captors and
rescuing their prisoners. The story of the adventures of these pioneers
is full of thrilling incidents, and their life was one of hairbreadth
escapes. Finally Boone was taken prisoner, while out with a party
making salt at the Salt Lick Springs. As the Indians were not resisted,
the captives were well treated, taken to Detroit, and all ransomed
except Boone, whom they would not surrender. They took him back
with them to Chillicothe, the home of the tribe, and adopted him
into the family of Blackfish, a distinguished Shawnee chief. The
ceremony of adoption was a severe and painful one, as part of it
consisted in the plucking out of all the hairs of the head, with
the exception of the scalp-lock tuft, of three or four inches' diameter.
Yet the shrewd and politic captive bore all these inflictions with
equanimity, and managed to appear perfectly content with his lot.
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