settling a young couple in the world.
"A spot was selected on a piece of land of one of the parents, for
their habitation. A day was appointed shortly after their marriage, for
commencing the work of building their cabin. The fatigue-party consisted
of choppers, whose business it was to fell the trees and cut them off
at proper lengths. A man with a team for hauling them to the place
and arranging them, properly assorted, at the sides and ends of the
building; a carpenter, if such he might be called, whose business it
was to search the woods for a proper tree for making clapboards for the
roof. The tree for this purpose must be straight-grained, and from three
to four feet in diameter. The boards were split four feet long, with
a large frown, and as wide as the timber would allow. They were used
without planing or shaving Another division were employed in getting
puncheons for the floor of the cabin; this was done by splitting trees,
about eighteen inches in diameter, and hewing the faces of them with a
broad-axe. They were half the length of the floor they were intended
to make. The materials for the cabin were mostly prepared on the first
day, and sometimes the foundation laid in the evening. The second day
was allotted for the raising.

"In the morning of the next day the neighbors collected for the raising.
The first thing to be done was the election of four corner men, whose
business it was to notch and place the logs. The rest of the company
furnished them with the timbers. In the meantime the boards and
puncheons were collecting for the floor and roof, so that by the time
the cabin was a few rounds high, the sleepers and floor began to be
laid. The door was made by sawing or cutting the logs in one side so as
to make an opening about three feet wide. This opening was secured by
upright pieces of timber about three inches thick, through which holes
were bored into the ends of the logs for the purpose of pinning them
fast. A similar opening, but wider, was made at the end for the chimney.
This was built of logs, and made large, to admit of a back and jambs of
stone. At the square, two end logs projected a foot or eighteen inches
beyond the wall, to receive the butting poles, as they were called,
against which the ends of the first row of clapboards was supported.
The roof was formed by making the end logs shorter, until a single log
formed the comb of the roof, on these logs the clapboards were placed,
the ranges of them lapping some distance over those next below them,
and kept in their places by logs, placed at proper distances upon them.

"The roof, and sometimes the floor, were finished on the same day of the
raising. A third day was commonly spent by a few carpenters in leveling
off the floor, making a clapboard door and a table. This last was made
of a split slab, and supported by four round legs set in auger-holes.
Some three-legged stools were made in the same manner. Some pins stuck
in the logs at the back of the house, supported some clapboards which
served for shelves for the table furniture. A single fork, placed with
its lower end in a hole in the floor, and the upper end fastened to a
joist, served for a bedstead, by placing a pole in the fork with one
end through a crack between the logs of the wall. This front pole was
crossed by a shorter one within the fork, with its outer end through
another crack. From the front pole, through a crack between the logs of
the end of the house, the boards were put on which formed the bottom of
the bed. Sometimes other poles were pinned to the fork a little distance
above these, for the purpose of supporting the front and foot of the
bed, while the walls were the supports of its back and head. A few
pegs around the walls for a display of the coats of the women, and
hunting-shirts of the men, and two small forks or buck-horns to a
joist for the rifle and shot-pouch, completed the carpenter work.

"In the mean time masons were at work. With the heart pieces of the
timber of which the clapboards were made, they made billets for chunking
up the cracks between the logs of the cabin and chimney; a large bed of
mortar was made for daubing up these cracks; a few stones formed the
back and jambs of the chimney.

"The cabin being finished, the ceremony of house-warming took place,
before the young couple were permitted to move into it.

"The house-warming was a dance of a whole night's continuance, made up
of the relations of the bride and groom and their neighbors. On the day
following the young couple took possession of their new mansion."

[Footnote 50: Perkins. Peck.]




CHAPTER XIX.

Condition of the early settlers as it respects the
mechanic arts--Want of skilled mechanics--Hominy block and
hand-mill--Sweeps--Gunpowder--Water mills Clothing--Leather--Farm
tools--Wooden ware--Sports--Imitating birds--Throwing the
tomahawk--Athletic sports--Dancing--Shooting at marks--Emigration of
the present time compared with that of the early settlers--Scarcity
of iron--Costume--Dwellings--Furniture--Employments--The women--Their
character--Diet--Indian corn--The great improvements in facilitating
the early settlement of the West--Amusements.


Before having the subject of the actual condition of the early
settlers in the West, we take another extract from "Doddridge's Notes,"
comprising his observations on the state of the mechanic arts among
them, and an account of some of their favorite sports.

"MECHANIC ARTS.--In giving the history of the state of the mechanic
arts as they were exercised at an early period of the settlement of this
country, I shall present a people, driven by necessity to perform works
of mechanical skill, far beyond what a person enjoying all the advantages
of civilization would expect from a population placed in such destitute
circumstances.

"My reader will naturally ask, where were their mills for grinding
grain? Where their tanners for making leather? Where their smiths'
shops for making and repairing their farming utensils? Who were their
carpenters, tailors, cabinet-workmen, shoemakers, and weavers? The
answer is, those manufacturers did not exist; nor had they any
tradesmen, who were professedly such. Every family were under the
necessity of doing every thing for themselves as well as they could.
The hominy block and hand-mills were in use in most of our houses.
The first was made of a large block of wood about three feet long, with
an excavation burned in one end, wide at the top and narrow at the bottom,
so that the action of the pestle on the bottom threw the corn up to the
sides toward the top of it, from whence it continually fell down into
the centre.

"In consequence of this movement, the whole mass of the grain was pretty
equally subjected to the strokes of the pestle. In the fall of the year,
while the Indian corn was soft, the block and pestle did very well for
making meal for johnny-cake and mush; but were rather slow when the corn
became hard.

"The sweep was sometimes used to lessen the toil of pounding grain into
meal. This was a pole of some springy, elastic wood, thirty feet long
or more; the butt end was placed under the side of a house, or a large
stump; this pole was supported by two forks, placed about one-third
of its length from the butt end, so as to elevate the small end about
fifteen feet from the ground; to this was attached, by a large mortise
a piece of sapling about five or six inches in diameter, and eight or
ten feet long. The lower end of this was shaped so as to answer for a
pestle. A pin of wood was put through it, at a proper height, so that
two persons could work at the sweep at once. This simple machine very
much lessened the labor and expedited the work.

"I remember that when a boy I put up an excellent sweep at my father's.
It was made of a sugar-tree sapling. It was kept going almost constantly
from morning till night by our neighbors for a period of several weeks."

In the Greenbriar country, where they had a number of saltpeter caves,
the first settlers made plenty of excellent gunpowder by the means of
those sweeps and mortars.

"A machine, still more simple than the mortar and pestle, was used for
making meal while the corn was too soft to be beaten. It was called a
grater. This was a half-circular piece of tin, perforated with a punch
from the concave side, and nailed by its edges to a block of wood. The
ears of corn were rubbed on the rough edge of the holes, while the meal
fell through them on the board or block, to which the grater was nailed,
which, being in a slanting direction, discharged the meal into a cloth
or bowl placed for its reception. This, to be sure, was a slow way of
making meal; but necessity has no law.

"The hand-mill was better than the mortar and grater. It was made of
two circular stones, the lowest of which was called the bed-stone,
the upper one the runner. These were placed in a hoop, with a spout for
discharging the meal. A staff was let into a hole in the upper surface
of the runner, near the outer edge, and its upper end through a hole in
a board fastened to a joist above, so that two persons could be employed
in turning the mill at the same time. The grain was put into the opening
in the runner by hand. The mills are still in use in Palestine, the
ancient country of the Jews. To a mill of this sort our Saviour alluded
when, with reference to the destruction of Jerusalem, he said: 'Two
women shall be grinding at a mill, the one shall be taken and the other
left.'

"This mill is much preferable to that used at present in upper Egypt for
making the dhourra bread. It is a smooth stone, placed on an inclined
plane, upon which the grain is spread, which is made into meal by
rubbing another stone up and down upon it.

"Our first water mills were of that description denominated tub-mills.
It consists of a perpendicular shaft, to the lower end of which an
horizontal wheel of about four or five feet diameter is attached, the
upper end passes through the bedstone and carries the runner after the
manner of a trundlehead. These mills were built with very little expense,
and many of them answered the purpose very well.

"Instead of bolting cloths, sifters were in general use. These were made
of deer skins in the state of parchment, stretched over a hoop and
perforated with a hot wire.

"Our clothing was all of domestic manufacture. We had no other resource
for clothing, and this, indeed, was a poor one. The crops of flax often
failed, and the sheep were destroyed by the wolves. Linsey, which is
made of flax and wool, the former the chain and the latter the filling,
was the warmest and most substantial cloth we could make. Almost every
house contained a loom, and almost every woman was a weaver.

"Every family tanned their own leather. The tan vat was a large trough
sunk to the upper edge in the ground. A quantity of bark was easily
obtained every spring in clearing and fencing land. This, after drying,
was brought in, and in wet days was shaved and pounded on a block of
wood with an axe or mallet. Ashes were used in place of lime for taking
off the hair. Bears' oil, hogs' lard, and tallow answered the place of
fish oil. The leather, to be sure, was coarse; but it was substantially
good. The operation of currying was performed by a drawing-knife with
its edge turned, after the manner of a currying-knife. The blocking for
the leather was made of soot and hogs' lard.

"Almost every family contained its own tailors and shoemakers. Those who
could not make shoes, could make shoepacks. These, like moccasins, were
made of a single piece on the top of the foot. This was about two inches
broad, and circular at the lower end. To this the main piece of leather
was sewed, with a gathering stitch. The seam behind was like that of a
moccasin. To the shoepack a sole was sometimes added. The women did the
tailor-work. They could all cut-out, and make hunting-shirts, leggins,
and drawers.

"The state of society which exists in every country at an early period
of its settlements, is well calculated to call into action every native
mechanical genius. So it happened in this country. There was in almost
every neighborhood, some one whose natural ingenuity enabled him to do
many things for himself and his neighbors, far above what could have
been reasonably expected. With the few tools which they brought with
them into the country, they certainly performed wonders. Their plows,
harrows with their wooden teeth, and sleds, were in many instances well
made. Their cooper-ware, which comprehended every thing for holding milk
and water, was generally pretty well executed. The cedar-ware, by having
alternately a white and red stave, was then thought beautiful; many of
their puncheon floors were very neat, their joints close, and the top
even and smooth. Their looms, although heavy, did very well. Those who
could not exercise these mechanic arts, were under the necessity of
giving labor or barter to their neighbors, in exchange for the use of
them, so far as their necessities required.

"Sports.--One important pastime of our boys, was that of imitating the
noise of every bird and beast in the woods. This faculty was not merely
a pastime, but a very necessary part of education, on account of its
utility in certain circumstances. The imitations of the gobbling,
and other sounds of wild turkeys, often brought those keen-eyed, and
ever-watchful tenants of the forest within the reach of their rifle.
The bleating of the fawn, brought its dam to her death in the same way.
The hunter often collected a company of mopish owls to the trees about
his camp, and amused himself with their hoarse screaming; his howl would
raise and obtain responses from a pack of wolves, so as to inform him of
their neighborhood, as well as guard him against their depredations.

"This imitative faculty was sometimes requisite as a measure of
precaution in war. The Indians, when scattered about in a neighborhood,
often collected together, by imitating turkeys by day, and wolves or
owls by night. In similar situations, our people did the same. I have
often witnessed the consternation of a whole settlement, in consequence
of a few screeches of owls. An early and correct use of this imitative
faculty was considered as an indication that its possessor would become,
in due time, a good hunter and valiant warrior. Throwing the tomahawk
was another boyish sport, in which many acquired considerable skill.
The tomahawk, with its handle of a certain length, will make a given
number of turns in a given distance. Say in five steps, it will strike
with the edge, the handle downward; at the distance of seven and a half,
it will strike with the edge, the handle upward, and so on. A little
experience enabled the boy to measure the distance with his eye, when
walking through the woods, and strike a tree with his tomahawk in any
way he chose.

"The athletic sports of running, jumping, and wrestling, were the
pastimes of boys, in common with the men.

"A well-grown boy, at the age of twelve or thirteen years, was furnished
with a small rifle and shot-pouch. He then became a fort-soldier, and
had his port hole assigned him. Hunting squirrels, turkeys, and
raccoons, soon made him expert in the use of his gun.

"Dancing was the principal amusement of our young people of both sexes.
Their dances, to be sure, were of the simplest form. Three and
four-handed reels and jigs. Country dances, cotillions, and minuets,
were unknown. I remember to have seen, once or twice, a dance which was
called 'The Irish Trot,' but I have long since forgotten its figure."

"Shooting at marks was a common diversion among the men, when their
stock of ammunition would allow it; this, however, was far from being
always the case. The present mode of shooting off-hand was not then in
practice. This mode was not considered as any trial of the value of a
gun, nor indeed, as much of a test of the skill of a marksman. Their
shooting was from a rest, and at as great a distance as the length and
weight of the barrel of the gun would throw a ball on a horizontal
level. Such was their regard to accuracy, in those sportive trials of
their rifles, and of their own skill in the use of them, that they often
put moss, or some other soft substance on the log or stump from which
they shot, for fear of having the bullet thrown from the mark, by the
spring of the barrel. When the rifle was held to the side of a tree for
a rest, it was pressed against it as lightly as possible, for the same
reason.

"Rifles of former times were different from those of modern date; few
of them carried more than forty five bullets to the pound. Bullets of
a less size were not thought sufficiently heavy for hunting or war."

Our readers will pardon the length of these extracts from Doddridge,
as they convey accurate pictures of many scenes of Western life in the
times of Daniel Boone. We add to them a single extract from "Ramsay's
Annals of Tennessee." The early settlement of that State took place
about the same time with that of Kentucky, and was made by emigrants
from the same region. The following remarks are therefore perfectly
applicable to the pioneers of Kentucky.

"The settlement of Tennessee was unlike that of the present new country
of the United States. Emigrants from the Atlantic cities, and from most
points in the Western interior, now embark upon steamboats or other
craft, and carrying with them all the conveniences and comforts of
civilized life--indeed, many of its luxuries--are, in a few days,
without toil, danger, or exposure, transported to their new abodes,
and in a few months are surrounded with the appendages of home, of
civilization, and the blessings of law and of society. The wilds of
Minnesota and Nebraska by the agency of steam, or the stalwart arms
of Western boatmen, are at once transformed into the settlements of a
commercial and civilized people. Independence and St. Paul, six months
after they are laid off, have their stores and their workshops, their
artisans, and their mechanics. The mantua-maker and the tailor arrive
in the same boat with the carpenter and mason. The professional man
and the printer quickly follow. In the succeeding year the piano, the
drawing-room, the restaurant, the billiard-table, the church bell, the
village and the city in miniature, are all found, while the neighboring
interior is yet a wilderness and a desert. The town and comfort, taste
and urbanity are first; the clearing, the farm-house, the wagon-road and
the improved country, second. It was far different on the frontier in
Tennessee. At first a single Indian trail was the only entrance to the
eastern border of it and for many years admitted only of the hunter and
the pack-horse It was not till the year 1776 that a wagon was seen in
Tennessee. In consequence of the want of roads--as well as of the great
distance from sources of supply--the first inhabitants were without
tools, and, of course, without mechanics--much more, without the
conveniences of living and the comforts of house-keeping. Luxuries were
absolutely unknown. Salt was brought on pack-horses from Augusta and
Richmond, and readily commanded ten dollars a bushel. The salt gourd, in
every cabin, was considered as a treasure. The sugar-maple furnished the
only article of luxury on the frontier; coffee and tea being unknown, or
beyond the reach of the settlers, sugar was seldom made, and was only
used for the sick, or in the preparation of a _sweetened dram_ at a
wedding, or the arrival of a new-comer. The appendages of the kitchen,
the cupboard, and the table were scanty and simple.

"Iron was brought, at great expense, from the forges east of the
mountain, on pack-horses, and was sold at an enormous price. Its use
was, for this reason, confined to the construction and repair of plows
and other farming utensils. Hinges, nails, and fastenings of that
material, were seldom seen.

"The costume of the first settlers corresponded well with the style of
their buildings and the quality of their furniture. The hunting-shirt
of the militiaman and the hunter was in general use. The rest of their
apparel was in keeping with it--plain, substantial, and well adapted for
comfort, use, and economy. The apparel of the pioneer's family was all
home-made, and in a whole neighborhood there would not be seen, at the
first settlement of the country, a single article of dress of foreign
growth or manufacture. Half the year, in many families, shoes were not
worn. Boots, a fur hat, and a coat with buttons on each side, attracted
the gaze of the beholder, and sometimes received censure and rebuke. A
stranger from the old States chose to doff his ruffles, his broadcloth,
and his queue, rather than endure the scoff and ridicule of the
backwoodsmen."

The dwelling-house, on every frontier in Tennessee, was the log-cabin.
A carpenter and a mason were not needed to build them--much less the
painter, the glazier, or the upholsterer. Every settler had, besides his
rifle, no other instrument but an axe, a hatchet, and a butcher-knife. A
saw, an auger, a froe, and a broad-axe would supply a whole settlement,
and were used as common property in the erection of the log-cabin. The
floor of the cabin was sometimes the earth. No saw-mill was yet erected;
and, if the means or leisure of the occupant authorized it, he split
out puncheons for the floor and for the shutter of the entrance to his
cabin. The door was hung with wooden hinges and fastened by a wooden
latch.

"Such was the habitation of the pioneer Tennessean. Scarcely can one of
these structures, venerable for their years and the associations which
cluster around them, be now seen, in Tennessee. Time and improvement
have displaced them. Here and there in the older counties, may yet
be seen the old log house, which sixty years ago sheltered the first
emigrant, or gave, for the time, protection to a neighborhood, assembled
within its strong and bullet-proof walls. Such an one is the east end of
Mr. Martin's house, at Campbell's Station, and the centre part of the
mansion of this writer, at Mecklenburg, once Gilliam's Station, changed
somewhat, it is true, in some of its aspects, but preserving even yet,
in the height of the story and in its old-fashioned and capacious
fire-place, some of the features of primitive architecture on the
frontier. Such, too, is the present dwelling-house of Mr. Tipton, on
Ellejoy, in Blount County, and that of Mr. Glasgow Snoddy, in Sevier
County. But these old buildings are becoming exceedingly rare, and soon
not one of them will be seen. Their unsightly proportions and rude
architecture will not much longer offend modern taste, nor provoke the
idle and irreverent sneer of the fastidious and the fashionable. When
the last one of these pioneer houses shall have fallen into decay and
ruins, the memory of their first occupants will still be immortal and
indestructible.

"The interior of the cabin was no less unpretending and simple. The
whole furniture, of the one apartment--answering in these primitive
times the purposes of the kitchen, the dining-room, the nursery
and the dormitory--were a plain home-made bedstead or two, some
split-bottomed chairs and stools; a large puncheon, supported on four
legs, used, as occasion required, for a bench or a table, a water shelf
and a bucket; a spinning-wheel, and sometimes a loom, finished the
catalogue. The wardrobe of the family was equally plain and simple.
The walls of the house were hung round with the dresses of the females,
the hunting-shirts, clothes, and the arms and shot-pouches of the men.

"The labor and employment of a pioneer family were distributed in
accordance with surrounding circumstances. To the men was assigned the
duty of procuring subsistence and materials for clothing, erecting the
cabin and the station, opening and cultivating the farm, hunting the
wild beasts, and repelling and pursuing the Indians. The women spun
the flax, the cotton and wool, wove the cloth, made them up, milked,
churned, and prepared the food, and did their full share of the duties
of house-keeping. Another thus describes them: 'There we behold woman
in her true glory; not a doll to carry silks and jewels; not a puppet
to be dandled by fops, an idol of profane adoration, reverenced to-day,
discarded to-morrow; admired, but not respected; desired, but not
esteemed; ruling by passion, not affection; imparting her weakness,
not her constancy, to the sex she should exalt; the source and mirror
of vanity. We see her as a wife, partaking of the cares, and guiding
the labors of her husband, and by her domestic diligence spreading
cheerfulness all around; for his sake, sharing the decent refinements
of the world, without being fond of them; placing all her joy, all her
happiness, in the merited approbation of the man she loves. As a mother,
we find her the affectionate, the ardent instructress of the children
she has reared from infancy, and trained them up to thought and virtue,
to meditation and benevolence; addressing them as rational beings, and
preparing them to become men and women in their turn.

"'Could there be happiness or comfort in such dwellings and such a state
of society? To those who are accustomed to modern refinements, the truth
appears like fable. The early occupants of log-cabins were among the
most happy of mankind. Exercise and excitement gave them health; they
were practically equal; common danger made them mutually dependant;
brilliant hopes of future wealth and distinction led them on; and as
there was ample room for all, and as each new-comer increased individual
and general security, there was little room for that envy, jealousy,
and hatred which constitute a large portion of human misery in older
societies. Never were the story, the joke, the song, and the laugh
better enjoyed than upon the hewed blocks, or puncheon stools, around
the roaring log fire of the early Western settler. The lyre of Apollo
was not hailed with more delight in primitive Greece than the advent of
the first fiddler among the dwellers of the wilderness; and the polished
daughters of the East never enjoyed themselves half so well, moving to
the music of a full band, upon the elastic floor of their ornamented
ball-room, as did the daughters of the emigrants, keeping time to a
self-taught fiddler, on the bare earth or puncheon floor of the
primitive log-cabin. The smile of the polished beauty is the wave of the
lake, where the breeze plays gently over it, and her movement is the
gentle stream which drains it; but the laugh of the log-cabin is the
gush of nature's fountain, and its movement, its leaping water.'"[51]

"On the frontier the diet was necessarily plain and homely, but
exceedingly abundant and nutritive. The Goshen of America[52] furnished
the richest milk, the finest butter, and the most savory and delicious
meats. In their rude cabins, with their scanty and inartificial
furniture, no people ever enjoyed in wholesome food a greater variety,
or a superior quality of the necessaries of life. For bread, the Indian
corn was exclusively used. It was not till 1790 that the settlers on the
rich bottoms of Cumberland and Nollichucky discovered the remarkable
adaptation of the soil and climate of Tennessee to the production of
this grain. Emigrants from James River, the Catawba, and the Santee,
were surprised at the amount and quality of the corn crops, surpassing
greatly the best results of agricultural labor and care in the Atlantic
States. This superiority still exists, and Tennessee, by the census of
1850, was _the_ corn State. Of all the farinacea, corn is best adapted
to the condition of a pioneer people; and if idolatry is at all
justifiable, Ceres, or certainly the Goddess of Indian corn, should have
had a temple and a worshipers among the pioneers of Tennessee. Without
that grain, the frontier settlements could not have been formed and
maintained. It is the most certain crop--requires the least preparation
of the ground--is most congenial to a virgin soil--needs not only the
least amount of labor in its culture, but comes to maturity in the
shortest time. The pith of the matured stalk of the corn is esculent
and nutritious; and the stalk itself, compressed between rollers,
furnishes what is known as corn-stalk molasses."

"This grain requires, also, the least care and trouble in preserving
it. It may safely stand all winter upon the stalk without injury from
the weather or apprehension of damage by disease, or the accidents to
which other grains are subject. Neither smut nor rust, nor weavil nor
snow-storm, will hurt it. After its maturity, it is also prepared for
use or the granary with little labor. The husking is a short process,
and is even advantageously delayed till the moment arrives for using
the corn. The machinery for converting it into food is also exceedingly
simple and cheap. As soon as the ear is fully formed, it may be roasted
or boiled, and forms thus an excellent and nourishing diet. At a later
period it may be grated, and furnishes, in this form, the sweetest
bread. The grains boiled in a variety of modes, either whole or broken
in a mortar, or roasted in the ashes, or popped in an oven, are well
relished. If the grain is to be converted into meal, a simple tub-mill
answers the purpose best, as the meal _least perfectly ground_ is
always preferred. A bolting-cloth is not needed, as it diminishes the
sweetness and value of the flour. The catalogue of the advantages of
this meal might be extended further. Boiled in water, it forms the
frontier dish called _mush_, which was eaten with milk, with honey,
molasses, butter or gravy. Mixed with cold water, it is, at once, ready
for the cook; covered with hot ashes, the preparation is called the ash
cake; placed upon a piece of clapboard, and set near the coals, it forms
the journey-cake; or managed in the same way, upon a helveless hoe,
it forms the hoe-cake; put in an oven, and covered over with a heated
lid, it is called, if in a large mass, a pone or loaf; if in smaller
quantities, dodgers. It has the further advantage, over all other flour,
that it requires in its preparation few culinary utensils, and neither
sugar, yeast, eggs, spices, soda, potash, or other _et ceteras_, to
qualify or perfect the bread. To all this, it may be added, that it
is not only cheap and well tasted, but it is unquestionably the most
wholesome and nutritive food. The largest and healthiest people in the
world have lived upon it exclusively. It formed the principal bread of
that robust race of men--giants in miniature--which, half a century
since, was seen on the frontier.

"The dignity of history is not lowered by this enumeration of the
pre-eminent qualities of Indian corn. The rifle and the axe have
had their influence in subduing the wilderness to the purposes of
civilization, and they deserve their eulogists and trumpeters. Let
paeans be sung all over the mighty West to Indian corn--without it,
the West would have still been a wilderness. Was the frontier suddenly
invaded? Without commissary or quartermaster, or other sources of
supply, each soldier parched a peck of corn; a portion of it was put
into his pockets, the remainder in his wallet, and, throwing it upon his
saddle, with his rifle on his shoulder, he was ready, in half an hour,
for the campaign. Did a flood of emigration inundate the frontier with
an amount of consumers disproportioned to the supply of grain? The
facility of raising the Indian corn, and its early maturity, gave
promise and guaranty that the scarcity would be temporary and tolerable.
Did the safety of the frontier demand the services of every adult
militiaman? The boys and women could, themselves, raise corn and furnish
ample supplies of bread. The crop could be gathered next year. Did an
autumnal intermittent confine the whole family or the entire population
to the sick bed? This certain concomitant of the clearing, and
cultivating the new soil, mercifully withholds its paroxysms till the
crop of corn is made. It requires no further labor or care afterward.
Paeans, say we, and a temple and worshipers, to the Creator of Indian
corn. The frontier man could gratefully say: 'He maketh me to lie down
in green pastures. He leadeth me beside the still waters. Thou
_preparest a table before me in presence of mine enemies_.'

"The sports of the frontier men were manly, athletic, or warlike--the
chase, the bear hunt, the deer drive, shooting at the target, throwing
the tomahawk, jumping, boxing and wrestling, foot and horse-racing.
Playing marbles and pitching dollars, cards and backgammon, were little
known, and were considered base or effeminate. The bugle, the violin,
the fife and drum, furnished all the musical entertainments. These were
much used and passionately admired. Weddings, military trainings,
house-raisings, chopping frolics, were often followed with the fiddle,
and dancing, and rural sports."

[Footnote 51: Kendall.]

[Footnote 52: Butler.]




CHAPTER XX.

Indian hostilities resumed--Expedition of Davis, Caffre and
McClure--Murder of Elliot--Marshall's river adventure--Attack
on Captain Ward's boat--Affair near Scaggs' Creek--Growth of
Kentucky--Population--Trade--General Logan calls a meeting at
Danville--Danger of the country from Indian hostilities, and
necessity of defense considered--Convention called--Separation from
Virginia proposed--Other conventions-Virginia consents--Kentucky
admitted as an independent State of the Union--Indian
hostilities--Expedition and death of Colonel Christian--Attack
on Higgins' Fort--Expedition of General Clark--Its utter
failure--Expedition of General Logan--Surprises and destroys
a Shawanese town--Success of Captain Hardin--Defeat of
Hargrove--Affairs in Bourbon County--Exploits of Simon
Kenton--Affairs at the Elkhorn settlements--Treaty--Harman's
expedition--Final pacification of the Indians after Wayne's
victory.


Kentucky was not yet entirely freed from Indian hostilities. There was
no formidable invasion, such as to call for the exertions of Boone,
Kenton and the other warriors of the border, but there were several
occurrences which occasioned considerable alarm.

In the spring of 1784, a number of families started down the Ohio from
Louisville in two flat boats. They were pursued by Indians in canoes,
but awed by the determined aspect of the whites, they drew off, without
so much as a gun being fired on either side.

This same spring a party of southern Indians stole some horses from
Lincoln County. Three young men, Davis, Caffre and McClure, pursued
them, but failing to overtake them, concluded to make reprisals on the
nearest Indian settlement. Not far from the Tennessee River, they fell
in with an equal number of Indians. The two parties saluted each other
in a very friendly manner, and agreed to journey in company. The
whites, however, were by no means convinced of the sincerity of their
companions, and, seeing them talking together very earnestly, became
assured of their hostile intentions. It being determined to anticipate
the Indians' attack; Caffre undertook to capture one of them, while his
companions shot the other two. Accordingly he sprung upon the nearest
Indian, and bore him to the ground; Davis's gun missed fire but McClure
shot his man dead. The remaining Indian sprung to a tree from which
shelter he shot Caffre, who was still struggling with the Indian he had
grappled. He, in his turn was immediately shot by McClure. The Indian
whom Caffre had attacked, extricated himself from the grasp of his
dying antagonist, and seizing his rifle presented it at Davis, who was
coming to the assistance of his friend. Davis took to flight, his rifle
not being in good order, and was pursued by the Indian into the wood.
McClure, loading his gun, followed them, but lost sight of both.
Davis was never heard of afterward.

McClure now concluded to retreat, but he had not proceeded far, before
he met an Indian on horseback attended by a boy on foot. The warrior
dismounted, and seating himself on a log, offered his pipe to McClure.
Soon other Indians were seen advancing in the distance, when McClure's
sociable friend, informed him that when his companions came up, they
would take him (McClure) and put him on a horse, tying his feet under
its belly. In order to convey to his white brother an adequate idea of
the honor intended him, the Indian got astride the log and locked his
feet together. McClure took this opportunity of shooting his amiable but
rather eccentric companion, and then ran off into the woods and escaped.

This affair the reader will bear in mind, was with southern Indians, not
with those of the north-western tribes, from whom the Kentuckians had
suffered most. The only demonstration of hostility made by these, this
year, appears to have been the pursuit of the boats mentioned before.
In March, 1785, a man of the name of Elliot, who had emigrated to the
country near the mouth of the Kentucky River, was killed by Indians,
and his house destroyed and family dispersed.

As Colonel Thomas Marshall from Virginia was descending the Ohio, in a
flat boat, he was hailed from the northern shore by a man, who announced
himself as James Girty, and said that he had been placed by his brother
Simon, to warn all boats of the danger of being attacked by the Indians.
He told them that efforts would be made to decoy them ashore by means of
renegade white men, who would represent themselves as in great distress.
He exhorted them to steel their hearts against all such appeals, and to
keep the middle of the river. He said that his brother regretted the
injuries he had inflicted upon the whites, and would gladly repair them
as much as possible, to be re-admitted to their society, having lost all
his influence among the Indians. This repentance on the part of Girty
seems to have been of short duration, as he remained among the Indians
till his death, which according to some took place at the battle of the
Thames, though others deny it.

However sincere or lasting Girty's repentance had been, he could never
have lived in safety among the whites; he had been too active, and if
common accounts are to be credited, too savage in his hostility to them,
to admit of forgiveness; and it is probable that a knowledge of this
prevented him from abandoning the Indians.

"About the same time," says McClung, "Captain James Ward, at present a
highly-respectable citizen of Mason County, Kentucky, was descending the
Ohio, under circumstances which rendered a rencontre with the Indians
peculiarly to be dreaded. He, together with half a dozen others, one of
them his nephew, embarked in a crazy boat, about forty-five feet long,
and eight feet wide, with no other bulwark than a single pine plank,
above each gunnel. The boat was much encumbered with baggage, and seven
horses were on board. Having seen no enemy for several days, they had
become secure and careless, and permitted the boat to drift within
fifty yards of the Ohio shore. Suddenly, several hundred Indians showed
themselves on the bank, and running down boldly to the water's edge,
opened a heavy fire upon the boat. The astonishment of the crew may be
conceived."

Captain Ward and his nephew were at the oars when the enemy appeared,
and the captain knowing that their safety depended upon their agility
to regain the middle of the river, kept his seat firmly, and exerted
his utmost powers at the oar, but his nephew started up at sight of
the enemy, seized his rifle, and was in the act of leveling it, when
he received a ball in the breast, and fell dead in the bottom of the
boat. Unfortunately, his oar fell into the river, and the Captain,
having no one to pull against him, rather urged the boat nearer to the
hostile shore than otherwise. He quickly seized a plank, however, and
giving his oar to another of the crew, he took the station which his
nephew had held, and unhurt by the shower of bullets which flew around
him, continued to exert himself until the boat had reached a more
respectable distance. He then, for the first time, looked around him
in order to observe the condition of the crew.

His nephew lay in his blood, perfectly lifeless; the horses had been
all killed or mortally wounded. Some had fallen overboard; others were
struggling violently, and causing their frail bark to dip water so
abundantly as to excite the most serious apprehensions. But the crew
presented the most singular spectacle. A captain, who had served with
reputation in the continental army, seemed now totally bereft of his
faculties. He lay upon his back in the bottom of the boat, with hands
uplifted, and a countenance in which terror was personified, exclaiming
in a tone of despair, "Oh Lord! Oh Lord." A Dutchman, whose weight
might amount to about three hundred pounds, was anxiously engaged in
endeavoring to find shelter for his bulky person, which, from the
lowness of the gunnels, was a very difficult undertaking. In spite of
his utmost efforts, a portion of his posterior luxuriance appeared above
the gunnel, and afforded a mark to the enemy, which brought a constant
shower of balls around it.

"In vain he shifted his position. The hump still appeared, and the balls
still flew around it, until the Dutchman losing all patience, raised
his head above the gunnel, and in a tone of querulous remonstrance,
called out, 'Oh now! quit tat tamned nonsense, tere, will you!' Not
a shot was fired from the boat. At one time, after they had partly
regained the current, Captain Ward attempted to bring his rifle to
bear upon them, but so violent was the agitation of the boat, from the
furious struggles of the horses, that he could not steady his piece
within twenty yards of the enemy, and quickly laying it aside, returned
to the oar. The Indians followed them down the river for more than an
hour, but having no canoes they did not attempt to board; and as the
boat was at length transferred to the opposite side of the river, they
at length abandoned the pursuit and disappeared. None of the crew, save
the young man already mentioned, were hurt, although the Dutchman's
seat of honor served as a target for the space of an hour; and the
continental captain was deeply mortified at the sudden, and, as he said,
'unaccountable' panic which had seized him. Captain Ward himself was
protected by a post, which had been fastened to the gunnel, and behind
which he sat while rowing."[53]

"In October, a party of emigrants were attacked near Scagg's Creek, and
six killed. Mrs. McClure, with four children, ran into the woods, where
she might have remained concealed, if it had not been for the cries of
her infant, whom she could not make up her mind to abandon. The Indians
guided to her hiding-place by these cries, cruelly tomahawked the three
oldest children, but made her prisoner with her remaining child. Captain
Whitley, with twenty-one men, intercepted the party on its return, and
dispersed them, killing two, and wounding the same number. The prisoners
were rescued. A few days after, another party of emigrants were
attacked, and nine of them killed. Captain Whitley again pursued the
Indians. On coming up with them, they took to flight. Three were killed
in the course of the pursuit; two by the gallant Captain himself. Some
other depredations were committed this year, but none of as much
importance as those we have mentioned."

These acts of hostility on the part of the Indians led to the adoption
of measures for the defense of the Colony, to which we shall presently
call the reader's attention.

"Although," says Perkins,[54] "Kentucky grew rapidly during the year
1784, the emigrants numbering twelve, and the whole population thirty
thousand; although a friendly meeting was held by Thomas J. Dalton, with
the Piankeshaws, at Vincennes, in April; and though trade was extending
itself into the clearings and among the canebrakes--Daniel Brodhead
having opened his store at Louisville the previous year, and James
Wilkinson having come to Lexington in February, as the leader of a large
commercial company, formed in Philadelphia, still the cool and sagacious