COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT 
 
EASTERN KENTUCKY PAPERS 
 
 THE FOUNDING OF 
 
 BARMAN'S STATION 
 
 WITH AN ACCOUNT OF 
 
 THE INDIAN CAPTIVITY OF MRS. JENNIE 
 
 WILEY AND THE EXPLORATION AND 
 
 SETTLEMENT OF THE BIG SANDY 
 
 VALLEY IN THE VIRGINIAS 
 
 AND KENTUCKY 
 
 By WILLIAM ELSEY CONNELLEY 
 
 AUTHOR OF QUANTRILL AND THE BORDER WARS: THE HECKEWELDER NAR- 
 RATIVE: JOHN BROWN: WYANDOT FOLK-LORE: THE PROVI- 
 SIONAL GOVERNMENT OF NEBRASKA TERRITORY, ETC. 
 
 TO WHICH IS AFFIXED A BRIEF ACCOUNT OF THE CONNELLY 
 
 FAMILY AND SOME OF ITS COLLATERAL AND 
 
 RELATED FAMILIES IN AMERICA 
 
 NEW YORK 
 
 THE TORCH PRESS, 29-33 West 42d Street 
 
 MDCCCCX 
 
 iyo 
 
LSI 
 
 COPYEIGHT 1910 BY 
 
 WILLIAM ELSEY CONNELLEY 
 
 ALL EIGHTS RESEKVED 
 
 THE TORCH PRESS 
 
 CEOAR RAPID6 
 
 IOWA 
 
 lO^}^i)dt) 
 
 8 
 
 >CI.A275791 
 
PREFACE 
 
 The introductory chapter to the history of most of the 
 early settlements of Kentucky is the story of a tragedy. 
 In many instances this characteristic of their annals is 
 repeated, often deepened and intensified, for a number of 
 years after their beginning. This feature does not apply 
 to the history of one locality more than to that of ayiother. 
 It is the general ride and is found in the story of almost 
 every community. The founding of Barman's Station 
 on the Louisa River ^ ivas directly caused by a tragedy as 
 dark and horrible as any ever perpetrated by the savages 
 upon the exposed and dangerous frontier of Virginia. 
 The destruction of the home of Thomas Wiley in the valley 
 of Walker's Creek, the murder of his children, the cap- 
 tivity of his tvife by savages and her miraculous escape 
 were the first incidents in a series of events in the history 
 of Kentucky ivhich properly belong to the annals of the 
 Big Sandy Valley. Over them time has cast a tinge of 
 romance, and they have groivn in historical importance 
 for more than a century. While they have been treasured 
 by the people in that portion of Eastern Kentucky adja- 
 cent to the Virginias for more than a hundred years they 
 
 1 The Louisa River was named hy Dr. Thomas Walker on Thursday, the 
 7th day of June, 1750. The entry in Br. Walker's Journal describing this 
 event is as follows: "June 7th. — The Creek being fordablc, ive Crossed it 
 4" kept down IS miles to a Eiver about 100 yards over, Which We called 
 Louisa Eiver. The Creek is about SO yards wide, 4" port of ye Eiver 
 breaks into ye Creek — making an Island on which we Camped." 
 
 In the early days of the settlement of the Big Sandy Valley this stream 
 was known altogether as the Louisa Eiver. As late as 18S5 it was generally 
 called the Louisa Eiver. After that time, and to some extent before, the 
 name began to be corrupted to that of Levisa. The name Levisa is now used 
 almost entirely. That the name is a corruption of the true name, Lowisa, 
 
are preserved mainly in tradition. Indeed, it is to tradi- 
 tion principally that we must look for the sources of much 
 of the history of all Eastern Kentucky. For the history 
 of Kentucky, so far as it has been written at all, deals 
 almost wholly ivith events which transpired in the ''blue 
 grass region" of the State. 
 
 Thirteen years after the establishment of the first per- 
 manent white settlement of Kentucky at Harrodsburg a 
 strong healthy settlement of hardy, bold, self-reliant back- 
 woodsmen was made in what is noiv Johnson County. 
 Among the founders of this settlement were a number of 
 the most noted explorers, scouts, guides, riflemen, and 
 Indian fighters ever developed by the harsh and dangerous 
 times of the frontier days of Virginia and the Carolinas. 
 Why some substantial account of the station founded by 
 these men in that wilderness was not made a matter of 
 record by some historical writer of those times is one of 
 the strange things occasionally found in the annals of a 
 State. In the company ivhich made this settlement ivere 
 Matthias Harman, Henry Skaggs, James Skaggs, and 
 Robert Halves, all members of that famous party knoivn 
 in history as the Long Hunters. These and others of the 
 company had been in the front ranks of those audacious 
 rangers of the wilderness who wrested the Ohio Valley 
 from its savage owners. Through this settlement they 
 seized and finally held the valley of the Louisa River. 
 The contest was desperate, and they ivere forced to aban- 
 don their station for a time by fierce and frequent attacks 
 made upon it by the Indian tribes living beyond the Ohio, 
 
 there is no doubt. It appears that the iuime Louisa once attached to the 
 whole State of Kentuclcy, hut the extent of the application of this name is 
 not now Tcnown. There is reason to believe that as early as 1775 the name 
 Louisa was corrupted to Levisa. Speed, in the Wilderness Road, says "that 
 Felix Walker, with Captain Tivetty and six others, left Eutherford, North 
 Carolina, in February 1775 (according to Felix Walker's narrative), 'to ex- 
 plore the country of Lcowvisay, now Kentucky.' " But the u ivas formerly 
 written v, and it may have been so in this word Lcowvisay; in that case it 
 would be Lcowuisay, an erroneous spelling of Louisa. 
 
 The Kentucky River was sometimes called the Louisa River by the pion- 
 eers and explorers, and it was called, also, the Cherokee River. In the deed 
 
ivho destroyed the blockhouse. But these courageous 
 hunters returned with reinforcements and rebuilt their 
 ruined fort never again to yield it to any foe. There most 
 of them spent the remainder of their days, and there they 
 lie buried. Descendants of many of them live in that 
 country to this day. 
 
 It was distinctly remembered by many old people whom 
 I knew in my youth that Matthias Harman in company 
 ivith his kinsmen and other forest rangers established a 
 hunting station and built a large cabin of logs, prior to the 
 Sandy Creek Voyage, on the identical spot tvhich after- 
 wards became the site of their blockhouse. It is probable 
 that this hunting lodge ivas the first log cabin built in what 
 is noiv the State of Kentucky ivhich came to be the basis 
 of a permanent settlement of English-speaking people. 
 The settlement made there was self-supporting. No gov- 
 ernme7it took any notice of its existence until it was firmly 
 established. It did not cost the States of Virginia or Ken- 
 tucky a farthing at any time. Not so much as a pound of 
 poivder or bar of lead was ever contributed by either State 
 to its equipment or defense, although it ivas repeatedly 
 raided by Indians and the fort fiercely attacked, once so 
 persistently and ivith such force that, as said above, the 
 settlers returned to Virginia for a short time. 
 
 I recognized the necessity for some reliable record of the 
 historical events in the settlement of Eastern Kentucky 
 while but yet a boy. Seeing that no man set his hand to 
 the task, and believing it the duty of every one to labor for 
 the common good, as best he can, I began then to collect 
 
 from the CheroTcees to Richard Menderson and others, projyrictors of the 
 Transylvania Company, conveying the tract of land knotvn as the Great 
 Grant, we find the description of the land heginninrj as follows: "All that 
 tract, territory, or parcel of land, situated, lying and being in North America, 
 on the Ohio River one of the eastern branches of the Mississippi Biver^ begin- 
 ning on the said Ohio, at the mouth of Kentucky, Cherokee, or what by the 
 English is called Louisa River. ' ' This calling of the Kentucky River by the 
 name Louisa was caused by a misapprehension. It was not certainly known 
 what river had been called Louisa by Dr. Walker, as he traced none of the 
 rivers, which he named, to the Ohio. But that he did not call the Kentucky 
 River Louisa is shown by Lewis Evans's Map, 1775, on which the Louisa 
 
and preserve such information pertaining to that subject 
 as I could find. I knew personally many pioneers of that 
 country; some of them were of my own family. Some of 
 these old people could give little of value. Others could 
 recite connected and interesting narratives covering the 
 events of three-fourths of a century. Many of them had 
 been through the stirring times of the early settlements 
 made in the country about the New River and the head 
 ivaters of the Clinch and the Holston. Of these events 
 they told me. 
 
 Tradition alone does not constitute sufficient authority 
 for positive historical statements. When, however, tra- 
 dition is found ivell defined and uniform as to material 
 facts throughout a large district it always preserves valua- 
 ble material for the historian, and very frequently it is 
 found to be more reliable than written annals. As a con- 
 firmatory medium it often renders the writer the highest 
 service. In that capacity I have availed myself of its 
 assistance in preparing this account of the founding of 
 Harman's Station. The sources of my authority are far 
 above mere traditional declarations. The pioneers gave 
 me information of events of which they had, in many in- 
 stances, personal knowledge, and all the events of ivhich 
 they spoke ivere so recent that their knowledge of them 
 may properly be considered personal. 
 
 In all matters concerning Mrs. Jennie Wiley I have fol- 
 loived the account given me by her son, Adam P. Wiley. 
 There are several reasons ivhy I have adhered to his state- 
 ments in that matter. I knew him intimately and long, 
 
 Biver is marJced as flowing into the Great Kanawha, and the upper course of 
 the "Tottery or Big Sandy C." is marked "FredericTc B." Frederick's 
 River was discovered and named hy Dr. Walker on the Sd of June, 1750, 
 five days before he discovered and named the Louisa Eivcr, and as it is now 
 known that the Louisa Biver does not flow into the Great Kanaivha, it fol- 
 lows that the west branch of the Big Sandy Biver ivas the stream upon xvhich 
 Br. Walker bestowed the name Louisa. 
 
 Bev. Zephaniah Meek wrote me from Catlettsburg, Kentucky, November 
 19, 1895, as follows: "I called on Capt. Owens yesterday, formerly of Pike 
 county, and asked him the origin of the name Levisa as applied to the west 
 fork of the Big Sandy. He says that i?i the early settlement of this part of 
 
and I never heard his reputation for truth and veracity 
 brought into question. He was a minister of the Gospel. 
 His mijid was a storehouse of history afid horder story. 
 He possessed fine oratorical and conversational powers. 
 His memory was wonderful and it was not impaired by the 
 great age to which he lived. He was thirty-three when his 
 mother died. His opportunity for exact knowledge of 
 what did actually transpire was far superior to that of any 
 other pioneer living into my generation. When I saw 
 him last he was past eighty, but he was erect and only 
 slightly gray. He knew personally a number of the Lo?ig 
 Hunters. He knew the Ingles family and could give a 
 better account of the captivity and escape of Mrs. Mary 
 Ingles than I have ever found in any published work. He 
 was perfectly familiar ivith the topography of all the coun- 
 try over luhich his mother was carried captive, and this 
 enabled him to identify localities and make his narrative 
 complete and explicit. It is possible he may have been in 
 error in some minor matters. It ivas long my opinion 
 that Mrs. Wiley could not have marched to the Tug River 
 in the time allowed by Mr. Wiley. But he insisted that he 
 was right, and knowing the iron endurance of the pioneer 
 men and ivomen it came to be my conviction that Mrs. 
 Wiley did make this march in the time stated. I was 
 doubtful, too, of the ability of the Indians to cross the Tug 
 and the Louisa rivers with Mrs. Wiley in the manner de- 
 scribed by Mr. Wiley. Since then, however, I have become 
 ivell acquainted ivith members of the Wyandot, Shawnee, 
 Delaiuare, and Cherokee tribes, and have seen them per- 
 
 the State, a French trader hy the name of Le Visa came to tchat is now 
 Louisa, and oiving to some experiences of his, that fork came to be called after 
 his name, hence, Americanized Levisa. ' ' 
 
 There may have been a French trader at the forks of the Big Sandy by the 
 name of Le Visa, but the word of Captain Owens is all the evidence I have 
 found of that fact. If there was s^ich a trader he was not prominent enough 
 to change the name of a river ar to have his name attach to it. The i in 
 French is e in English. Anglicised, the Frenchman's name would have been 
 Levesay or Levesy. Levisa could not possibly have come from it. The ex- 
 pla7}ation of Captain Oicens is a very improbable one. 
 
 John P. Hale, in his Trans-Allegheny Pioneers says: "The La Visa, or 
 
form feats in swiftly running water much more marvelous 
 than that pictured by Mr. Wiley. In the matter of dates 
 I have invariably followed Mr. Wiley. I believe it was 
 sound judgment to do so. There are many circumstances 
 to corroborate him, among the strongest being the mention 
 of Barman's Station in the map published by Imlay in 
 1793. 
 
 Mr. Wiley ivas very anxious that the exact account of 
 his mother's captivity and escape should be preserved. 
 Although deficient in the matter of education he did try 
 more than once to write it out. So unsatisfactory ivere 
 his efforts that he did not preserve them. He exacted 
 from me a promise that I would ivrite the account of the 
 trials and sufferings of his mother. This is the fulfilment 
 of that promise. I have performed the ivork to the best 
 of my ability. I believe there ivill be found no great er- 
 rors, though I realize that I may hai^e fallen into minor 
 mistakes. If it should turn out so, I am confident any 
 fault discovered will prove unimportant and immaterial. 
 
 Mrs. Wiley has many descendants living in Kentucky 
 and West Virginia. The Indians murdered her brother 
 and five of her children. After her return from captivity 
 to her husband there were five children born to them — 
 Hezekiah, Jane, Sarah, Adam, and William. 
 
 Hezekiah married Christine Nelson, of Lawrence Coun- 
 ty; moved to Wayne County, West Virginia, and settled 
 on Twelve Pole Creek; died near his old home while on a 
 visit, in 1882. 
 
 Levisa, fork is said to mean the picture, design, or representation. It was 
 so called hy an early French explorer in that region, from Indian pictures or 
 signs, painted on trees, near the head of the stream." 
 
 These painted trees rvere to be found in early times all along the Louisa 
 River from the mouth of Big Paint Creek, ivhere they were most numerous, 
 to its head. Christopher Gist was on the Pound Biver in 1751. The entry 
 in his Journal for Wednesday, April 3, is as follows: " . . . to a small 
 Creek on which was a large Warriors camp, that would contain 10 or 80 
 Warriors, their Captains Name or Title was the Crane, as I knew by his 
 Picture or Arms painted on a tree." Darlington says: "This was on 
 the .<itream called Indian Creek, the middle fork of the Big Sandy, in Wise 
 
Jane married Richard Williamson; also settled on 
 Twelve Pole Creek; died there. 
 
 Sarah married first Christian Yost; moved to Wayne 
 County, West Virginia. There, after the death of her first 
 husband, she married Samuel Murray; died March 10, 
 1871. 
 
 Both Adam and William left families in Johnson Coun- 
 ty, Kentucky. 
 
 The full name of Adam luas Adam Prevard Wiley. 
 Prevard was a mispronunciation of Brevard. Mrs. 
 Wiley was related by blood to the North Carolina family 
 of that name. That is ivhy she gave the name to her son. 
 The name was often erroneously written Prevard, and 
 even Pervard. 
 
 Mr. Wiley gave Matthias Barman due credit for intelli- 
 gent leadership as this work ivill shoiv. He believed few 
 men on the border ever equaled Matthias Harman in In- 
 dian warfare and ivoodcraft. 
 
 Like all people who divell in rural communities Mr. 
 Wiley kept himself tvell informed on all subjects of local 
 lore. He kneiv the locality from ivhich almost every fam- 
 ily had emigrated to Kentucky, and he knew what families 
 had intermarried both before and after they left Virginia. 
 He knew the number of children of most of the pioneers, 
 their names, and when they ivere born. To this day ivhen 
 a number of Big Sandy Valley people meet they discuss 
 the intermarriages of various families of their acquaint- 
 ance, when they occurred, ivhen and where the contracting 
 parties were born, where the families came from to Keu- 
 
 County. The Crane was a totem or badge of one of the Miami tribes; also 
 of the Wyandots. A common practice among the Indian tribes, u-ilh war 
 parties at a distance from home, urns to paint on trees or a rock figures of 
 tvarriors, prisoners, animals, etc., as intelligible to other Indians as a printed 
 handbill among the whites." Darlington is in error when he says there was 
 a totem of the Crane among the Wyandots. But they had a chief named 
 Tarhe, or the Crane, tcho was old enough in 1751 to have led a hunting party 
 or even a war party into the wilderness. He became head chief of the Wyan- 
 dots on the death of the Half King. 
 
 It might be possible that these many^ patintings suggested to some of the 
 early explorers and hunters some .tuch name for this .ftrcam as Device Fork, 
 
tuchy, and every other feature of the matter. The work 
 on the history of the Big Sandy Valley by Dr. William 
 Ely is made up of family genealogies. Rev. M. T. Burris 
 wrote for me a manuscript of almost one hundred pages 
 on the history of the Valley ; nine-tenths of it is genealogy. 
 I have been collecting information along that same line for 
 forty years and am still at it. I believe I have material 
 from which can be constructed a genealogical record of the 
 people of that valley ivhich ivill be more complete than can 
 possibly be made of any other district in America of equal 
 age and area. 
 
 This is a beginning in the work of ivriting the history of 
 Eastern Kentucky. I am confident that no other part of 
 the State has a more interesting history than that of the 
 Big Sandy Valley. When the full record is made up it ivill 
 show that Eastern Kentucky ivas settled almost exclusive- 
 ly by men ivho served in the patriot armies of the Revolu- 
 tion, and that no other community of equal size had so 
 great a proportion of those heroic men. I mention that 
 fact at this time because malice and ignorance in the "blue 
 grass region" delight to speak in disparaging terms of the 
 ancestry of the mountaineer. The blood of the mountain- 
 eer is the purest on the continent, and his language is the 
 purest Anglo-Saxon speech to be found in America. 
 
 William Elsey Connelley 
 816 Lincoln Street, Topeka, Kansas, 
 July 7, 1910 
 
 or Device River, or Devices Fork, or Devices River, and that such name or 
 names finally assumed the form of Levisa Fork, etc. This is only suggested 
 as a remotely possible origin of the name Levisa. It is far-fetched; there is 
 no prohaiility at all that such is the origin of the name. That Levisa is a 
 corruption of Louisa may be accepted as beyond dispute or question. 
 
 Dr. Walker gave this river the name Louisa in honor of Louisa, the wife 
 of the Duke of Cumberland, it is said. Louisa is a good old English ncme, 
 coming down from a more ancient people. It is a name of much beauty, and 
 it was iyi great favor with our ancestors. It should be restored to th^ river 
 to which Dr. Walker gave it. The Louisa Fork should be called the Louisa 
 River. The Tug Fork should be called the Tug River. The river formed 
 by their junction should be called the Big Sandy River. 
 
TABLE OF CONTENTS 
 
 I. 
 
 Preface .... 
 
 5 
 
 II. 
 
 Harman's Station . 
 
 17 
 
 III. 
 
 The Connelly Family 
 
 93 
 
 IV. 
 
 John Wesley Langley 
 
 . 150 
 
 V. 
 
 Milton Forrest Conley 
 
 . 153 
 
 VI. 
 
 Announcement 
 
 . 155 
 
 VII. 
 
 Index .... 
 
 157 
 

MAPS AND ILLUSTRATIONS 
 
 Arms of the Connelly Family . . . .93 
 
 Battle with Indians at the Hunting Camp . . 28 
 
 Blockhouse Bottom, View of ... . 104 
 Conley, Constantino, Junior .... 
 
 I. Portrait of . . . . .144 
 
 II. Standing on Site of Blockhouse . . 148 
 
 Conley, Milton Forrest, Portrait of . . . 153 
 
 Connelly, Dr. Henry, Portrait of . . . .96 
 
 Falls of Little Mudlick Creek in Winter . . .54 
 
 Finding the Trail of the Indians . . . .64 
 
 Indians on River Bank . . . . .90 
 
 Langley, John "Wesley, Portrait of . . 150 
 Maps — 
 
 I. State of Kentucky, from Imlay . . 10 
 
 II. Country About Falls of Little Mudlick Creek 50 
 
 III. Showing Route of Mrs. Wiley's Escape . 78 
 Sellards, Hezekiah, Colony of. Moving to Walker's Creek 20 
 
 Settlers on their way to Build the Blockhouse . . 34 
 
 Torture of the Captive . . . . .58 
 Vancouver's Post, 1789 ..... 68 
 
 Wiley Cabin on Walker's Creek . . . .26 
 Wiley, Mrs. Jennie — 
 
 I. Carried into the Wilderness . . .38 
 
 II. Trying to Escape with Her Child . . 42 
 
 III. Indians Crossing Tug River with . . 46 
 
 IV. Rescuing Her Child . . . .48 
 
 V. Tied to the Stake for Torture . . 60 
 
 VI. Dream of ... . Frontispiece 
 
 VII. Crossing the River with Skaggs . 74 
 
 VIII. Escape of from the Indians . .80 
 
 IX. Calling Across the River for Help . . 84 
 
 X. At the Mouth of Little Paint Creek . . 88 
 
CHAPTER I 
 
 By virtue of conquest the Iroquois claimed all the 
 country between the Ohio and the Tennessee. They could 
 not themselves occupy the land they had conquered. Other 
 tribes stood in terror of them and did not encroach upon 
 the territory to which they laid claim. Consequently few 
 aboriginal settlements were found in what is now the 
 State of Kentucky. Alien tribes seem to have roamed 
 over it in search of game. Hostile nations sometimes 
 met in the gloom of its great forests in deadly conflict. 
 It came to be regarded as the common battle ground. In 
 time the Cherokees formulated a shadowy claim to a por- 
 tion of it which they disposed of to Henderson and his as- 
 sociates. This gave the English an ambiguous title to the 
 soil which was never relinquished, although the French 
 appealed to arms in contention for possession of the Ohio 
 Valley. The defeat of Braddock left the English frontiers 
 without protection from savage bands. Frequent and 
 bloody invasions followed, and these were not ended by 
 the final triumph of the English. The French inhabitants 
 of Canada passed under the dominion of a government 
 against which they bore the deepest enmity. The result 
 was the Conspiracy of Pontiac, which carried the torch, 
 the tomahawk, and the scalping-knife into the frontier 
 settlements from Pennsylvania to Georgia. Painted war- 
 riors lurked on the skirts of every frontier community, 
 save for brief intermissions, for the next thirty years. 
 Blazing cabin-homes in the red glare of which lay mur- 
 dered and scalped families, captive wives and daughters 
 led away into the wilderness to degradation worse than 
 
18 HARMAN'S STATION 
 
 death, fathers and sons tortured at the stake — these were 
 common occurrences all along the western borders of the 
 English settlements until the peace of Greenville in 1795. 
 
 To oppose, and, so far as possible, to prevent these 
 atrocities, and to occasionally perpetrate similar or more 
 horrible ones upon the Indians, there was developed that 
 class of hardy backwoodsmen, hunters, adventurers, rifle- 
 men, and forest-rangers who traversed the wilderness 
 beyond the confines of civilization and afforded what pro- 
 tection they could to the exposed and defenseless pio- 
 neers.^ 
 
 In 1763 the line defining the frontier extended from 
 Ingles 's Ferry on the New River to the Susquehanna. It 
 followed along the crest of that range of the Alleghanies 
 which separates the waters of the Ohio from the head 
 branches of the Potomac and the James. Fort Pitt was 
 an outpost far beyond the remotest settlements. A few 
 pioneers were to be found on the head waters of the Mon- 
 ongahela and other tributaries of the Ohio.^ South and 
 southwest from Ingles 's Ferry there were at that time no 
 settlements of English-speaking folk west of the Allegha- 
 nies on the borders of Virginia or the Carolinas. A chance 
 settler or an occasional hunter, all trace of whom is now 
 
 2 ' * They were a distinct, peculiar class, marked with striking con- 
 trasts of good and evil. Many, though by no means all, were coarse, 
 audacious and unscrupulous; yet even in the worst, one might often have 
 found a vigorous growth of warlike virtues, an iron endurance, an undespair- 
 ing courage, a wondrous sagacity, and singular fertility of resource. In them 
 was renewed, with all its ancient energy, that wild and daring spirit, that 
 force and hardihood of mind, which marked our barbarous ancestors of 
 Germany and Norway. ' ' — Parkman, Conspiracy of Pontiac, Vol. I, p. 158. 
 
 3 In his Journal Dr. Thomas Walker mentions one Samuel Stalnacker 
 whom he assisted to build a house on the Holston River in 1750. He seems 
 to have been an Indian trader and to have been in this region for a number 
 of years previous to that date; but the house he built in 1750 never, so far 
 as we know, became the nucleus of any permanent community. One James 
 McCall is also mentioned by Dr. Walker as living west of the New River in 
 1750. A colony of ' ' Duncards ' ' lived on the west bank of the New 
 River at Ingles 's Ferry in 1750, so Dr. Walker says in his Journal. 
 
HARMAN'S STATION 19 
 
 lost to us, may previously have taken up his abode in those 
 regions. To the line indicated the vanguard of the Eng- 
 lish advance had pushed. Beyond lay the wilderness, 
 deep, dark, dangerous, unexplored, unknown, but with a 
 fascination wholly irresistible. Mongrel hordes of paint- 
 ed savages wandered through its forest reaches in search 
 of the buffalo, the deer, the bear, and often in stealthy and 
 deadly search for one another. 
 
 Here was a land having the inherent capacity for the 
 development and maintenance of an empire unpeopled 
 and wrapped in the unbroken silence of perpetual soli- 
 tude. It was a desirable land, a land of plenty for even 
 barbarians. Food was easily obtained by them, for un- 
 numbered thousands of the American bison congregated 
 on the treeless plains of the Illinois and the Ohio, and 
 herds of deer wandered in the sunless mazes of the forest- 
 clad ranges of the Cumberland and the Alleghanies. It 
 was a land of enchanting beauty. Savage tribes of 
 barbarians contended for it. The contumelious French- 
 man buried leaden plates upon the wooded shores of its 
 principal rivers in defiant challenge to the further advance 
 of the stubborn Briton who was slowly but irresistibly 
 pushing deeper and deeper into it from his compact hab- 
 itat along the Atlantic seaboard with the immutable pur- 
 poses of conquest and occupancy. 
 
CHAPTER II 
 
 Hezekiah Sellards was a Scotch-Irish pioneer in the 
 Upper Shenandoah Valley. He moved into that country 
 from Pennsylvania. He built his cabin twenty miles from 
 the nearest neighbor. He was a typical settler and a gen- 
 uine frontiersman and backwoodsman. The location of 
 his residence in the Valley cannot now be determined with 
 any degree of certainty. It was in the mountains about 
 the sources of the Shenandoah River. It was in a com- 
 munity where many Presbyterians afterward settled. 
 Sellards himself was a Presbyterian of the strictest sort. 
 He was a man of strong character and sterling worth. 
 He was of such standing in his church that in the absence 
 of the minister he could hold the services, and he often 
 preached to congregations which assembled in his house 
 upon his invitation. For his time and place he was a man 
 of considerable property, industry, economy and thrift 
 being strong characteristics of the old woodsman. He 
 was a man of some learning, and at considerable trouble 
 and expense he had his children instructed in the common 
 elementary branches. His children were strictly trained 
 in that severity of morals exacted of the old Covenanters. 
 These religious principles were the foundation upon which 
 they were expected to build correct lives. 
 
 The above makes up the sum total of what is known of 
 Hezekiah Sellards in his residence on the Shenandoah. 
 In addition to his farming he was a hunter. In company 
 with his neighbors he made annual journeys into forests 
 beyond the New River. The object of the hunter in those 
 days was as much to find a desirable place in which to lo- 
 cate when next he determined to move as to secure meat 
 
X 
 
 c 
 
HARMAN'S STATION 21 
 
 and skins. A more charming country than the western 
 highlands of Virginia would be difficult indeed to find. 
 Sellards and his associates hunted in that region about 
 the head of Wolf Creek, and along Walker's Creek, going 
 sometimes to the Clinch and the Holston. Their choice 
 of locality finally fell upon W^alker's Creek and Walker's 
 Mountain. Long before it was safe to do so, perhaps be- 
 fore 1760, a colony of which Sellards was a member and 
 perhaps the leader settled about Walker's Mountain. The 
 date is not definite, but they were beset by Indians for 
 thirty years. In their migration to their new home they 
 drove their flocks and herds before them and carried their 
 wives and children and their household effects upon pack- 
 horses. 
 
 The names of the other families of this western migra- 
 tion are not now positively known. It is probable that the 
 Staffords, Porters, Damrons, and others now represented 
 in the Eastern Kentucky families came into that part of 
 Virginia with Hezekiah Sellards. The number of persons 
 and families cannot now be told, but prudence demanded 
 that settlers going into the wilderness should go in suffi- 
 cient force to withstand the Indian bands by which they 
 were sure to be assailed. Sellards and his associates con- 
 formed to the type found all along the frontier. They 
 were soldiers as well as settlers. They were armed with 
 the old, long, heavy, hair-trigger, flint-lock rifle, and with 
 that rude weapon their aim was true and deadly. In wood- 
 craft they could circUmvent the Indian. They were cool, 
 positive, confident, alert, courageous, resourceful, and 
 self-reliant. 
 
 Before going on with the work in hand it will be profit- 
 able to note a few features of backwoods life. The pio- 
 neers were their own tanners, harness-makers and shoe- 
 makers. They built their own houses and made their own 
 furniture and agricultural implements. Salt and iron 
 
22 HARMAN'S STATION 
 
 were indispensable and had to be brought in upon pack- 
 horses from the stations or older settlements where they 
 were purchased with skins, furs, dried venison, and gin- 
 seng. Both were used sparingly. Often a cabin was com- 
 pleted without there being a single nail, bolt, or spike used 
 in its construction. Flax and cotton were grown by al- 
 most every settler. These with the wool from the few 
 sheep that escaped the wolves furnished material for cloth 
 which was woven in looms in the pioneer homes. The 
 feathers of ducks and geese furnished beds which found so 
 much favor that they have not been discarded to this day. 
 Clothing for the women was home spun, home woven, and 
 home made, coarse, but substantial and comfortable. That 
 of the men was of the same manufacture and often sup- 
 plemented with skins, dressed and not dressed. The 
 fringed hunting-shirt and leggins, fur cap and moccasins, 
 made a picturesque garb, and for the scout, guide, hunter, 
 trapper, explorer, or any other dweller in the wilderness 
 it was the most appropriate that could have been devised. 
 
 For food the pioneer depended upon Indian corn, his 
 hogs, and the fruits of the chase. The cornfields sur- 
 rounded every cabin. Bacon was the favorite meat. Vege- 
 tables and fruits grew quickly and of fine quality ; many ed- 
 ible fruits were found growing wild. Coffee was unknown, 
 and tea was unheard of; substitutes were made from 
 spicewood and sassafras. Chickens, turkeys, ducks, and 
 geese were found about most cabins. 
 
 The division of labor was not so distinct as it is now. 
 Women often worked in the field, plied the axe, sheared 
 the sheep, pulled the flax, plucked the feathers from the 
 geese and ducks and frequently did effective service 
 with the rifle. These things were in addition to their or- 
 dinary work of preparing food, spinning and dyeing 
 thread and yarn, weaving cloth therefrom, making the 
 clothing, and attending to many other affairs amid all the 
 
HARMAN'S STATION 23 
 
 cares and anxieties incident to rearing large families on 
 an exposed and dangerous frontier.* 
 
 * The manner of living here described had not entirely changed in 
 Eastern Kentucky even in 1875. Many of the features here described 
 remained in the home of my grandfather, Henry Connelly, Esq., who lived 
 on the Middle Fork of Jennie's Creek, Johnson County, until his death 
 in 1877. Most of the cloth for the clothing of himself and his fam- 
 ily was made by my aunts from cotton, flax and wool produced on his 
 farm. I often assisted in this manufacture when a child. I could spin on 
 the " big wheel," fill the " quills " for the shuttles used in weaving, and 
 I have " reeled " thread and yarn, much against my will, sometimes, I 
 must say, until my arms ached. My grandfather raised on his farm his 
 own com and wheat. He raised cattle, hogs, and horses. He cured his 
 own bacon and dried and cured his omti beef. He manufactured most of 
 the agricultural implements used on his farm. He had large orchards. For 
 more than forty years he made his own sugar from the maples growing 
 on his land. He manufactured his own cheese. He was an industrious and 
 independent American citizen, and his manner of life was the best. A re- 
 turn to it by the people would solve many serious questions now troubling 
 the Eepublic. 
 
I 
 
 CHAPTER III 
 
 Hezekiah Sellards had a large family, but all his chil- 
 dren save four died before they were grown up. Two of 
 his sons, Thomas and Jack, lived on the Buffalo Fork of 
 John's Creek and died there, each at a great age.^ One 
 daughter married John Borders, a British soldier who 
 served under Cornwallis and was captured at Yorktown. 
 During his service he had come to believe in America and 
 in her cause and had resolved to make this country his 
 home as soon as he could secure his discharge from the 
 army. It is said that he had acquainted his officers of his 
 intention. After the surrender of Cornwallis Borders 
 soon contrived to be released, and he went immediately to 
 the back settlements of Virginia to begin life in his adopt- 
 ed country. There he met and married a daughter of Hez- 
 ekiah Sellards. He was an excellent man in every respect, 
 so it is said. From his marriage with Miss Sellards are 
 descended several families living now in Eastern Ken- 
 tucky, one of the most numerous and respectable being that 
 of Borders.*^ 
 
 The remaining daughter of Hezekiah Sellards was Jean, 
 familiarly called by her family and others Jennie Sellards. 
 Her son informed me that she had black hair through 
 which ran a tinge of auburn in her youth. Others say her 
 
 5 Stated on the authority of Adam P. Wiley, also Eev. M. T. Burris, now 
 of Golden, Mo. Mr. Burris writes me that he knew these brothers. He was 
 born and brought up in the Leslie Settlement on John's Creek, and is a de- 
 scendant of the pioneer Leslie. 
 
 6 The descendants of John Borders live now mainly in Lawrence and 
 Johnson counties, Kentucky. They are scattered over all the Mississippi 
 Valley. Wliile many of them were farmers, they usually followed commer- 
 cial life and were very successful. 
 
HARMAN'S STATION 25 
 
 hair was coal black, and they saw her many times and had 
 opportunity to know. All agree that she was strong and 
 capable of great exertion and great endurance. Until past 
 middle life she was of fine forai and her movements were 
 quick. In her old age she became heavy and slow. She 
 had then, too, heavy overhanging brows. Her eyes were 
 black. She was above medium height. Her face was 
 agreeable and indicated superior intelligence. She was 
 persistent and detemiined in any matter she had decided 
 to accomplish. She labored in her father's fields. She 
 was familiar with eveiy feature of woodcraft and was a 
 splendid shot with the rifle ; even after she settled in the 
 Big Sandy Valley it required an expert to equal her. Be- 
 fore her marriage she had killed bears, wolves, panthers 
 and other wild animals. She was at home in the woods 
 and could hold her way over the trails of the country 
 either by day or by night. She was endowed with an 
 abundance of good hard Scotch common-sense. In spin- 
 ning, weaving, and other work of the household she was 
 proficient. I have set down what her son said about her. 
 Most of it was confirmed by other witnesses. Her son in- 
 sisted that until age began to tell on her she was a hand- 
 some woman.^ 
 
 Captain Matthias Hamian lived on Walker's Creek and 
 not a great distance from Hezekiah Sellards. He was 
 familiar with all the country along the frontier and this 
 
 7 Eev. M. T. Burris says ' ' she was rather dark skinned, dark hair 
 and heavy eye bones. ' ' He also says that Thomas Lewis, a pioneer in 
 the Big Sandy Valley who knew Mrs. Wiley well, told him that ghe " had 
 dark hair, rather heavy eyebones, and dark eyebrows. ' ' Joseph Kelley 
 was also a pioneer in the Big Sandy Valley and knew Mrs. Wiley well; he 
 told Mr. Burris that she had dark hair. Mr. Burris says that her brothers, 
 Thomas and Jack Sellards, had black or dark hair. Mr. Burris did not 
 know Mrs. Wiley. Adam P. Wiley was dark of skin, and his hair was 
 black. My great grandmother, Mrs. Susan Connelly, knew Mrs. Wiley well; 
 she told me that Mrs. Wiley had very dark hair, was tall, handsome form 
 and face until old age made her heavy and slow, very intelligent, kindly 
 disposition but firm and determined, and a devout and earnest Christian 
 
26 HARMAN'S STATION 
 
 brought his services into demand by persons seeking new 
 lands suitable for settlements. It is said that in the spring 
 if 1777 he led a number of settlers from Strasburg, Vir- 
 ginia, to Ab's Valley. Thomas and Samuel Wiley were 
 members of this party. They were brothers, recently ar- 
 rived from the north of Ireland. Samuel Wiley settled in 
 Ab's Valley, but Thomas remained at the home of Captain 
 Harman, of whom he finally purchased a tract of land. 
 This tract of land was on a branch of Walker's Creek im- 
 mediately north of the residence of Harman. Wiley built 
 a cabin of two rooms with an open space between on his 
 land and cleared a field. He courted Jennie Sellards and 
 met with many a rebuff from her father whose hostility 
 availed nothing, for Jennie looked with favor on the young 
 man and they were married. This was in the year 1779. 
 
 There is nothing in the life of Thomas Wiley and his 
 wife essential to this account the first few years of their 
 married life. They labored to raise corn and other crops. 
 Cows and pigs were among their possessions. Wiley did 
 not become a good hunter, but he ranged the woods in 
 search of ginseng. Children were bom to them. They 
 lived the simple lives of pioneers as did their neighbors. 
 And their neighbors were few and far between. 
 
 It is necessary here to return to the transactions of 
 Matthias Harman.^ Mention has been already made of 
 the colony located by him in the vicinity of Ab's Valley. 
 
 8 Matthias Harman was born in or near Strasburg, Virginia, about 
 the year 1732. His father, Heinrich Herrmann, came from Prussia 
 to Pennsylvania, it is said, and from thence to the vicinity of Strasburg 
 while yet a young man, Matthias Harman and his brothers, of whom he 
 had several, early became hunters and ranged the woods far and near. 
 They joined every expedition into the wilderness made up in their com- 
 munity, and it is said that their father also joined these expeditions, 
 whether for hunting, exploration, or for war. The Harmans bore the In- 
 dian a bitter hatred and believed in his extermination. There came to 
 America also, two brothers of Heinrich Herrmann, Adam and Jacob, but 
 they came at a later date. These three brothers and their families were 
 among the first settlers at Draper's Meadows in 1748. Michael Steiner or 
 Stoner, was a cousin to Matthias Harman, and was also an early settler at 
 
HARMAN'S STATION 27 
 
 He made a number of such settlements in the country west 
 of the New Eiver. It had been for thirty years his inten- 
 tion to make a settlement at the mouth of John's Creek 
 on the Louisa River when the attitude of the Indians 
 would permit him to do so with safety. The Indian tribes 
 beyond the Ohio and the Cherokees living along the Little 
 Tennessee had all to be taken into account. Some vagrant 
 bands of Cherokees lived also along the Ohio River at the 
 time. Harman was infatuated with the Louisa River 
 country because game was more plentiful there than in 
 any other region of which he knew. The great Indian 
 trails between the Ohio River Indians and the Cherokees 
 and other southern tribes lay up the Big Sandy, which ac- 
 counts for the fact that the Indians roamed that country 
 several years after they had disappeared from all other 
 parts of Kentucky. For this colony Harman had enlisted 
 a number of his old-time associates and companions in 
 wilderness exploration. In 1787 he believed it safe to 
 
 Draper's Meadows. It is said that Casper Mansker, the famous pioneer 
 of Tennessee, was in some degree related to the Harmans. These men 
 ■were called Dutchmen by the early settlers. They were all explorers of 
 the wilderness, and hunting became a passion with them. Matthias Har- 
 man became infatuated with the life of the woodsman and the dangers of 
 the frontier. In woodcraft and Indian warfare it is doubtful if he ever 
 had a superior. He was one of the men employed to guide the Sandy 
 Creek Voyage, and tradition says that if General Lewis had been governed 
 by his judgment the expedition would not have failed of its purpose. He 
 and his Dutch companions and relatives slew about forty Cherokees who 
 were returning home from assisting the English against Fort Du Quesne 
 in 1758, so tradition in the Harman family says, and they justified their 
 action by aflSrming that the Indians had stolen horses and cattle from the 
 settlers along their route. Tradition in the Big Sandy Valley said that 
 Michael Stoner and Casper Mansker were with Harman in this foray, and 
 that the party received pay from the colony of Virginia for the scalps of 
 the Indians slain and that it amounted to a considerable sum per man. 
 
 These Germans and explorers with whom they were associated became 
 familiar vrith every part of the Big Sandy Valley soon after settling at 
 Draper's Meadows. They built a lodge or hunters' cabin on the Louisa 
 River just below the mouth of John's Creek about the year 1755, and they 
 went there to hunt the deer, elk, buffalo, bear, beaver, and other game 
 animals and birds every year. Matthias Harman appears to have been the 
 
28 HARMAN'S STATION 
 
 establish his settlement, and it was agreed that it should 
 be made in the winter of 1787-88. 
 
 Harman 's father was yet living. He always went with 
 the other jHoueers to hunt in the Big Sandy Valley. Ex- 
 cejjt for a few years during the Revolution this hunt had 
 been made annually for twenty five years and perhaps 
 longer. As the hunters would not return when they went 
 out in the fall of 1787, and as Harman, senior, was now 
 too old to go with the colony and was desirous of making 
 a hunt with his sons this year it was arranged that a party 
 would go out for a few weeks prior to the departure to 
 build the fort on the Louisa. Where the hunters made 
 their camj) cannot now be detennined. It was not far from 
 the settlements, and it appears to have been near the head 
 waters of both the Tug and Louisa rivers. It is said that 
 about twenty hunters went out in this party. Henry Har- 
 man and his sons, Henry Skaggs, James Skaggs, Robert 
 
 leader. Associated with him were Henry Skaggs and James Skaggs, fa- 
 mous hunters and explorers. 
 
 Matthias Harman was called ' ' Tice " or " Tias ' ' Harman by his 
 companions. He was diminutive in size, in height being but little more 
 than five feet, and his weight never exceeded one hundred and twenty 
 pounds. He had an enormous nose and a thin sharp face. He had aE 
 abundance of hair of a yellow tinge, beard of a darker hue, blue eyes 
 which anger made green and glittering, and a bearing bold and fearless. 
 He jiossessed an iron constitution, and could endure more fatigue and 
 privation than any of his associates. He was a dead shot with the long 
 rifle of his day. The Indians believed him in league with the devil or 
 some other malevolent power because of their numbers he killed, his mirac- 
 ulous escapes, and the bitterness and relentless daring of his warfare 
 against them. He was one of the Long Hunters, as were others of the 
 Hurmans, and more than once did his journeys into the wilderness carry 
 him to the Mississippi River. He and the other Harmans able to bear 
 arms were in the Virginia service in the War of the Revolution. He is 
 said to liave formed the colony which made the first settlement in Ab's 
 Valley. He formed the colony which made the first settlement in Eastern 
 Kentucky and erected the blockhouse. He brought in the settlers who re- 
 built the blockhouse, and for a number of years he lived in the Blockhouse 
 liottom or its vicinity. In his extreme old age he returned to Virginia 
 and died there. It is said he lived to be ninety-six, but I have not the date 
 or jdaco of his death. 
 
HARMAN'S STATION 29 
 
 Hawes, some of the Damrons, and a man named Draper 
 are known to have been of the party that went on this pre- 
 liminary hunt. 
 
 As it was the intention of the hunters to remain some 
 time in the woods they built a rough camp in which to sleep 
 and to shelter their trappings in case of rain. The camp 
 must have been near the Indian highway, for one day it 
 was surprised and attacked by a roving band of Indians. 
 Few particulars of this skirmish have been preserved, 
 though the memorj^ of it is widespread. It is said that the 
 previous night had been rainy and the morning cloudy and 
 damp. The men had not gone out early, and that fortunate 
 circumstance saved the camp from destruction, in all prol)- 
 ability. The hunters not being beyond hearing of gun- 
 shots returned at once, catching the Indian party in the 
 rear and defeating the savages in a short time. Robert 
 Hawes was wounded in one of his arms. The Indians 
 were pressing the party at the camp when the other hunt- 
 ers returned. A young Cherokee, son of the chief and 
 leader, was armed with bow and arrows only, but he came 
 near killing Henry Harman and would possibly have 
 done so had not Matthias Hannan killed him with a rifle 
 shot. The death of the Indian boy ended the fight. The 
 chief carried the body of his son away with him. Matthias 
 Harman recognized the Cherokee chief as one of the bold- 
 est raiders on the Virginia settlements to be found in all 
 the tribes. He stole horses all along the frontier, mur- 
 dered families, and carried off plunder of all kinds. Har- 
 man had followed him often and had met him in many a 
 running fight. A bitter hatred existed between the two 
 men, and the Cherokee had tried to destroy Harman 's fam- 
 ily several times when Harman was engaged in scouting 
 and was absent from home, but his attempts had never 
 been successful ; he had frequently driven off horses and 
 cattle belonging to Harman. It is said that Harman and 
 
30 HARMAN'S STATION 
 
 this chief had been friends at one time, and that they were 
 both o^uides in thQ Sandy Creek Voyage.' 
 
 ^Vhen the Indians disappeared Matthias Harman deter- 
 mined to return home at once. He was certain that the 
 Cherokee would fall upon the settlements and inflict what 
 damage he could, for he was a daring marauder and is 
 represented to have been persistent in the pursuit of re- 
 
 9 The traditionary accounts of this Indian attack vary much. In some 
 of them little of what actually happened can be found. H. C. Ragland, of 
 Logan, West Virginia, confuses it with the Sandy Creek Voyage. Matthias 
 Harman, a nephew of the fourth generation from his famous uncle, for 
 whom he was named, wrote me the following: 
 
 " William Harman and Aquilla Harman were once out hunting on a 
 very cold day and the Indians made a raid upon the settlement in the 
 Baptist Valley [and] about this time or 1780 gave the settlers some 
 trouble. Henry Harman and his three sons, George Harman, Ed. Harman, 
 Tias Harman. and a man by the name of Draper followed them down the 
 Tug Fork of Sandy to what is now Warfield where they found the Indians 
 <am[)od by a log and Harman fired on them. Draper left them. 
 
 " The Indians shot the old man Harman in the breast with arrow spikes 
 until he could not stand without leaning against a tree. His son, George, 
 loaded his gun for him. There he stood until he shot six of the Indians 
 dead. The seventh was wounded, ran into the Tug River and drowned 
 himself. " 
 
 Rev. M. T. Burris included the following account in the manuscript he 
 prepared for me : 
 
 " Daniel Harman was a brother of Henry, George and Matthias Har- 
 man, the great Indian fighters and early explorers of Tug and Levisa Fork 
 of Big Sandy. They had a terrible battle with Indians on Tug River, up 
 near the Va. line. They came upon the Indians a little unexpected, George 
 HHrnian commanded his squad, and the battle opened in earnest, it seemed 
 at first that the Indians would be too much for them; Harman 's boys said 
 to him, ' Had we not better retreat and try to save ourselves? ' (A man 
 by the name of Draper ran at the first fire.) Harman replied in a de- 
 termined voic^, ' No! give them h — 1! When you see me fall it will be 
 time to retreat.' At that word the boys took fresh courage and loaded 
 and kept blazing away. G. Harman was a brave man; the chief ran up 
 flow to him, made motions to Harman to throw down his gun so he could 
 fnk<' him a prisoner but he would not, they closed in a scuffle, they were so 
 near o«ninlly yoked in strength the Indian could not hold him down; in 
 (the] scuffle Harman got hold of the Indian's butcher knife that was in 
 hlH iM-lt. and began to use it in earnest, having the Indian by the legs, In- 
 dian 'h lirml down, biting Harman 's legs. Harman stabbed him 24 times 
 before ho diajMitched him, the others took to their heels, as the Harman 
 cotnpiiny wjui j.roving too much for them. The Hannans had a rock [house] 
 
HARMAN'S STATION 31 
 
 venge, which it was believed he would now seek for his son 
 slain in battle. The absence of Hannan and other rifle- 
 men from the settlements gave him an opportunity which 
 the hunters believed he would not let pass. 
 
 A number of arrowheads remained in the wounds of 
 Henry Harman, making his condition serious. On this 
 account no pursuit of the Indians was attempted. A litter 
 
 or cave in that region where they camped when on Tug, hunting and ex 
 ploring. (These facts I learned from Adam Harman)." 
 
 Adam Harman, here mentioned by Mr. Burris, was a nephew in the 
 third generation, of Matthias Harman. While there is much error in these 
 meager accounts, they evidently preserve some of the details of the battle 
 between the hunters and the Indians. I heard many such accounts as those 
 quoted above. The one written in the text was given me by Adam P. 
 Wiley. There were some things of which he was uncertain, and my descrip- 
 tion of the encounter is deficient in the matter of detail. But I wrote 
 down all that I was certain of. 
 
 It is believed that this battle with the Indians by Harman and his 
 sons and others was in fact that which is described by Bickley in his 
 History of Tazewell County, Virginia. Adam P. Wiley said that Bickley 
 had this battle in mind when he wrote his account, and that he was in 
 error in many things, particularly the date, locality, the number of per- 
 sons engaged on each side, and the important developments which grew 
 out of it. 
 
 The late Dr. Witten, of Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, knew Bickley, and 
 was in Tazewell County when his history was published. I have seen a 
 letter from him to his son, T. A. Witten, Esq., a lawyer in Missouri, saying 
 that Bickley fell into a good many errors, and that these were pointed out 
 by the people there upon the appearance of the book. The same letter is 
 authority for the assurance that Bickley was conscientious, and that the 
 errors in his book were the result of insufflcient research and investigation. 
 He places the battle in 1784 and makes nothing of it more than an in- 
 significant collision of stragglers, while in fact it was an important meet- 
 ing of those contesting for the supremacy of the wilderness. I give his 
 account : 
 
 " In the fall of 1784, Henry Harman and his two sons. George and Mat- 
 thias, and George Draper, left the settlement to engage in a bear hunt on 
 Tug River. They were provided with pack-horses, independent of those 
 used for riding, and on which were to be brought in the game. The coun- 
 try in which their hunt was to take place was penetrated by the * war-path ' 
 leading to and from the Ohio River; but as it was late in the season, they 
 did not expect to meet with Indians. 
 
 " Arriving at the hunting-grounds in the early part of the evening, 
 they stopped and built thpir camp; a work exocuted generally by the old 
 man, who might be said to be particular in having it constructed to his 
 own taste. George and Matthias loaded and put their giins in order, and 
 started to the woods to look for sign, and perchance to kill a buck for the 
 
32 HARMAN'S STATION 
 
 was made and the wounded man was sent to his home, 
 which was in the vicinity of Ab's Valley, so it is said. 
 
 The surmise of the hunters concerning the intention of 
 the Cherokee chief proved correct. He went as directly 
 to Walker's Creek as he could from the battlefield. It 
 was the judgment of the hunters afterwards when all the 
 facts were known that he divided his band and sent a part 
 
 evening repast, while Draper busied himself in hobbling and caring for 
 the horses. 
 
 " In a short time George returned with the startling intelligence of 
 Indians. He had found a camp but a short distance from their own, in 
 which the jiartly consumed sticks were still burning. They could not, of 
 course, be at any considerable distance and might now be concealed near 
 them, watching their every movement. George, while at the camp, had made 
 a rafiid search for sign, and found a pair of leggins, which he showed the 
 old man. Now, old Mr. Harman was a type of frontiersman, in some 
 things, and particularly that remarkable self-possession, which is so often 
 to be met with in new countries, where dangers are ever in the path of the 
 settler. So taking a seat on the ground, he began to interrogate his son 
 on the dimensions, appearance, &c., of the camp. Wlien he had fully sat- 
 isfied himself, he remarked, that ' there must be from five to seven Indians, ' 
 and that they must pack up and hurry back to the settlement, to prevent, 
 if possible, the Indians from doing mischief; and, said he, '// tee fall in 
 mth thrm irc must fipht them.' 
 
 " Matthias was immediately called in, and the horses packed. Mr. 
 Harman and Draper now began to load their guns, when the old man ob- 
 serving Drajier laboring under what is known among hunters as the ' Buck 
 ague,' being that state of excitement which causes excessive trembling, 
 remarked to him, ' My son, I fear you cannot fight.' 
 
 " The plan of march was now agreed upon, which was, that Mr. Harman 
 and Draper should lead the way, the pack-horses follow them, and Matthias 
 and George bring up the roar. After they had started. Draper remarked 
 to Mr. Harman. that he would get ahead, as he could see better than Mr. 
 Harman, and that he would keep a sharp lookout. It is highly probable 
 that he was cogitating a plan of escape, as he had not gone far before he 
 declared he saw the Indians, which proved not to be true. Proceeding a 
 short distance further, he suddenly wheeled his horse about, at the same 
 time crying out, ' Yonder they are — behind that log.' As a liar is not 
 to be believed, even when he speaks the truth, so Mr. Draper was not be- 
 lieved this time. Mr. Harman rode on, while a large dog he had with him, 
 ran up to the log and roared himself upon it, showing no signs of the pres- 
 ence of Indians. At this second a sheet of fire and smoke from the Indian 
 riflj-s, com|detely concealed the log from view, for Draper had really 
 i>I>(>ken the truth. 
 
 ' ' Hefore the smoke had cleared away, Mr. Harman and his sons were 
 dinmounted, while Draper had fled with all the speed of a swift horse. 
 There were seven of the Indians, only four of whom had guns; the rest 
 beiny armed with bows and arrows, tomahawks and scalping-knives. As 
 Koon ns they fired, they rushed on Mr. Harman, who fell back to where 
 hJH minH stood ready to meet the Indians. 
 
 " They iMiiiicdiatcly surrnundcd the three white men, who had formed a 
 trian^;))-, each looking out, or. what would have been, with men enough, a 
 holii.w H<|unrf. Thr did gcntlenian bid Matthias to reserve his fire, while 
 bimiM-lf and (ieorge fired, wounding, as it would seem, two of the Indians. 
 
IIARMAN'S STATION 33 
 
 of it on to the Cherokee towns, perhaps with the body of 
 his son. The hunters believed there were more Indians 
 in the party which attacked their camp than in the band 
 which fell upon the home of Thomas Wiley. It was known 
 later that the party with which the Cherokee attacked the 
 settlement was composed of two Cherokees, three Shaw- 
 nees, three Wyandots, three Delawares, a total of eleven 
 Indians — a mongrel band, a thing not uncommon at that 
 
 Gr€orge was a lame man, from having had white swelling in his childhood, 
 and after firing a few rounds, the Indians noticed his limping, and one 
 who had fired at him, rushed upon him, thinking him wounded. George 
 saw the fatal tomahawk raised, and drawing his gun, prepared to 
 meet it. WJien the Indian had got within striking distance, George let 
 down upon his head with the gun, which brought him to the ground; he 
 soon recovered and made at him again, half bent and head foremost, in- 
 tending, no doubt, to trip him up. But as he got near enough, George 
 sprang up and jumped across him, which brought the Indian to his knees. 
 Feeling for his own knife, and not getting hold of it, he seized the Indian's 
 and plunged it deep into his side. Matthias struck him on the head with 
 a tomahawk, and finished the work with him. 
 
 " Two Indians had attacked the old man with bows, and were maneuver- 
 ing around him, to get a clear fire at his left breast. The Harmans, to a 
 man, wore their bullet-pouches on the left side, and with this and his arm 
 he so completely shielded his breast that the Indians did not fire till they 
 saw the old gentleman 's gun nearly loaded again, when one fired on him, 
 and struck his elbow near the joint, cutting one of the principal arteries. 
 In a second more, the fearful string was heard to vibrate, and an arrow 
 entered Mr. Harman's breast and lodged against a rib. He had by this 
 time loaded the gun, and was raising it to his face to shoot one of the 
 Indians, when the stream of blood from the wounded artery flew into the 
 pan, and so soiled his gun that it was impossible to make it fire. Raising 
 the gun, however, had the effect to drive back the Indians, who retreated 
 to where the others stood with their guns empty. 
 
 " Matthias, who had remained an almost inactive spectator, now asked 
 permission to fire, which the old man granted. The Indian at whom he 
 fired appeared to be the chief, and was standing under a large beech tree. 
 At the report of the rifle, the Indian fell, throwing his tomahawk high 
 among the limbs of the tree under which he stood. 
 
 " Seeing two of their number lying dead upon the ground, and two more 
 badly wounded, they immediately made off, passing by Draper, who had 
 left his horse, and concealed himself behind a log. 
 
 ' ' As soon as the Indians retreated, the old man fell back on the ground 
 exhausted and fainting from loss of blood. The wounded arm being tied 
 up and his face washed in cold water, soon restored him. The first words 
 he uttered were : ' We are whipped ; give me my pipe. ' This was furnished 
 him. and he took a whiff, while the boys scalped one of the Indians. 
 
 " When Draper saw the Indians pass him, he stealthily crept from his 
 hifling-place, and pushed on for the settlement, where he reported the whole 
 partv murdered. The people assembled and started soon the following 
 morning to bury them: but they had not gone far before they met Mr. 
 Harman and his sons, in too ffood condition to need burying. 
 
 " T"^pon the tree under which the chief was killed, is roughly carved an 
 Indian bow. and a eun. in commemoration of the fight. The arrows which 
 were shot into Mr. Harman are in possession of some of his descendants. 
 
34 IIARMAN'S STATION 
 
 time. It was also learned that the party was on the trail 
 from the villages beyond the Ohio to the Cherokee towns 
 on the Little Tennessee, and that they had come upon the 
 camp of the hunters by chance. It was not a war party 
 l>ut a roving band such as might be encountered at any 
 time in those days in the wilderness/'' 
 
 Mrs. Wiley, upon her return, gave a good description of 
 the Indians. She supposed the Cherokee chief to have 
 been more than fifty years of age, possibly sixty. He was 
 a large man, stern and hard of countenance, resourceful, 
 full of energy and quick of mind and body for an Indian, 
 nnich more cruel than his companions, and treacherous 
 but bold and relentless. His ears and nose were decorated 
 with Indian ornaments, among them silver rings of elabor- 
 ate workmanship, some of them as much as three inches 
 in diameter. He wore buckskin leggins and beaded moc- 
 casins, a shirt of red cloth, carried a knife and a tomahawk 
 in his belt, had the shot-pouch and powder-horn of the 
 white man slung over his left shoulder and under his right 
 ann, and was armed with a long rifle which he carried 
 nmzzle forward on his shoulder. He was fierce and irasci- 
 ble, and Mrs. Wiley stood in much fear of him from the 
 first. He had carried away a white woman from some 
 Kanawha settlement a few years previous to this raid. 
 Many years afterwards it was believed this was a Mrs. 
 Tacket, descendants of whom live now in Johnson County, 
 Kentucky. 
 
 Among the Shawnees of the band there was a chief, 
 lie was an old man and while a warrior he was also a sort 
 of medicine man or i)riest. He was of grave and solemn 
 nii.'ii. and like the Cherokee, had his nose and ears decor- 
 Jited with Indian gewgaws, but these he seldom wore while 
 
 '"Till- iiuiiihiT of liitliiiiiH holonj^ing to the different tribes represented in 
 th.. huii.l Mr. Wiley had from his mother. This party was not on the war- 
 puth. Tlie Indians were ^o'liK to visit in the Cherokee country. Their 
 MUH'tiuK with these hunters was purely accidental. 
 
HARMAN'S STATION 35 
 
 on the war-path, they being a part of his ceremonial 
 regalia. He had a number of small silver brooches strung 
 together in chains with which he oraamented himself, and 
 he carried rings and other ornaments for his arms, wrists, 
 and ankles. He worshiped the New Moon, or performed 
 some manner of incantation at the appearance of ever}^ 
 new moon. His songs were long and always recited with 
 solemn dignity, often sung while he marched about a fire 
 kindled for the purpose and upon which he flung some 
 substance with which tobacco had been previously mixed. 
 Age had not impaired his strength, although he was long 
 since done with much of the ardor which had animated his 
 youth. He was of a more kindly disposition than the 
 other Indians. He did not make such show of his orna- 
 ments as did the Cherokee chief who carried a buckskin 
 bag containing his silver ornaments, and another also 
 which contained ornaments of shell, bone, brass, and cop- 
 per. Mrs. Wiley gave good descriptions of the other 
 Indians, but it is not necessary to repeat them here. 
 
CHAPTER IV 
 
 Mrs. Wiley remembered well the state of the weather 
 the day the attack was made upon her home. A heavy 
 rain began at noon, and soon clouds of fog hung about the 
 mountain tops and drifted up the valleys. The autumn 
 frosts had turned the forests a sombre hue which showing 
 under the dull and leaden sky aroused a sense of melan- 
 choly. 
 
 Thomas Wiley was absent from home that day. Before 
 daylight he had set out for some trading station with a 
 horse laden with ginseng and other marketable commodi- 
 ties which he would barter for domestic necessaries. Mrs. 
 Wiley's brother, a lad of fifteen, remained with her in the 
 absence of her husband. The trading station was a con- 
 siderable distance from Wiley's residence, and it was not 
 ex])ected that he could reach home until late at night. 
 
 There had been bom to Thomas W^iley and his wife four 
 children, the age of the youngest being about fifteen 
 
 lllOlltllS. 
 
 John Borders lived about two miles from the house of 
 Wiley. Some of his sheep had broken from an enclosure 
 and esca])ed into the woods. Wliile they remained there 
 they were in danger of destruction from wolves and other 
 wild animals. In the morning of this day Borders had 
 gone out to search for his sheep. He had not found them 
 when the rain set in. After wandering awhile in the rain 
 lie found liiuisolf in the vicinity of AViley's cabin and went 
 down to it. Tie found Mrs. Wiley engaged in weaving a 
 piece of (•h)tli for use in her family. He called her atten- 
 tion to tlu' cries and liootings of owls which could be 
 plainly heard from different points in the woods around 
 
HARMAN'S STATION 37 
 
 the house. He said that he had heard these cries since 
 the rain began to fall, but had not heard them before. 
 While it was not unusual for the owls to call from moun- 
 tain to mountain on dark and rainy days Borders was 
 apprehensive that the hootings heard this day came from 
 Indians signaling to one another. Indians always used 
 the cries of wild animals as such signals. Borders urged 
 Mrs. Wiley to take her children to his house and remain 
 there over night as a matter of precaution. Mr. Wiley 
 would pass his house on his return and could be hailed and 
 remain there also. Mrs. Wiley agreed to go as Borders 
 requested, but wished first to complete the piece of cloth, 
 which would require but a few minutes. As her brother 
 could assist her in bringing the children Borders returned 
 home at once through the woods and made further search 
 for his sheep. 
 
 To follow along the course of the creek it was a mile 
 from the cabin of Thomas Wiley to that of Matthias 
 HaiTnan, but by the path which led over a low hill the 
 distance was less than half a mile. When standing in this 
 mountain path on the top of the range if you went down 
 to the south you came to Harman's house; by descending 
 to the north Wiley's cabin was reached. 
 
 As soon as Borders departed Mrs. Wiley made all haste 
 to feed and care for the domestic animals on the farm 
 and arrange for her absence from home over night. The 
 Indians were always expected in those days, but Mrs. 
 Wiley felt no fear. It was her judgment that no attack 
 would be made upon any settler until after night came on. 
 Usually that course would have been taken by the Indians, 
 but in this instance they were anxious to proceed as 
 rapidly as possible. 
 
 It was about four o'clock in the afternoon when Mrs. 
 Wiley and the children were wrapped and ready to st-art 
 to the home of Borders. Suddenly the house was filled 
 with Indians. They came in at the open door yelling 
 
38 HARMAN'S STATION 
 
 the war-whoop and began to strike down the children with 
 their tomahawks. Little resistance could be offered by 
 Mrs. Wiley. She realized the awful condition she was in, 
 but she tried to save her children. She could not reach 
 any weapon and could only struggle to protect the little 
 ones. Her brother aided her as much as he could until 
 he was brained with a tomahawk. Only the youngest child 
 remained alive of her children and her brother. She 
 caught up this child and fought off the Indians a few 
 moments, after which the Shawnee chief found an oppor- 
 tunity to seize her and claim her as his captive. This 
 angered the Cherokee chief, and a controversy arose. Mrs. 
 AViley learned in some way from the actions of the two 
 chiefs and what they said that they supposed themselves 
 at the house of Matthias Harnian. She made haste to 
 infoiTn them that they were not at the Harman residence 
 and told them her name. It appears that there had been 
 some doubt as to which was Harman 's house in the minds 
 of the savages. For the time being Mrs. Wiley's life was 
 spared, also that of the child she had in her arms. Her 
 slain children and her brother were scalped before her 
 eyes. 
 
 The Indians found that their plans had miscarried, 
 'i'lic family of their arch enemy had escaped, though they 
 lia<l ])erpetrated a bloody deed in the settlement. The 
 ('herokee insisted that Mrs. Wiley and her child should 
 Ik* killed at once and a descent made upon Harman's house. 
 The Shawnee chief believed that the hunters would return 
 lliat (lay and that they would meet with resistance at the 
 I larman ca])in. It was his opinion that they should make 
 their escajjc from the settlements and continue their jour- 
 ney, for ]iursuit was certain. The Cherokee was equally 
 (•(•rtain that thoy would be followed by the settlers and 
 was liiially ))r()ught to the opinion of the Shawnee, but he 
 pointed out that they could not escape if they carried any 
 prisoners. The Shawnee chief contended for his right to 
 
■7C 
 
 '< 
 
 o 3 
 
a 
 
HARMAN'S STATION 39 
 
 take a captive and carry her to his town. It was finally 
 decided that the Shawnee might retain his captive for tlie 
 time being, though it necessitated, as they believed, a re- 
 turn to the Indian towns beyond the Ohio. Their decision 
 to follow this course saved Mrs. Wiley's life. She did not 
 know what the Indians were saying, and only came to know 
 what had passed long afterwards when she understood 
 the Shawnee language. Both chiefs could speak English 
 a little, but this discussion had been carried on in the 
 Indian tongue. The Shawnee chief infonned her that he 
 had saved her life that she might take the place of his 
 daughter who had recently died, the last of his children." 
 
 The Indians set the house on fire, but such torrents of 
 rain were falling that it did not completely burn. They 
 entered the woods at a point near the house. Darkness 
 was coming rapidly on. Mists and the black clouds of 
 night swallowed up the valley and shut out the view. Mrs. 
 Wiley's dog came hesitatingly after them and was per- 
 mitted to follow her. They ascended a hill north of the 
 
 11 In all his recitals to me Mr. Wiley never omitted to include the 
 fact that his mother -nas to be the daughter of the Shawnee chief. The 
 formal adoption, he insisted, could not be made until the Indians reached 
 the towns of the Shawnees, consequently she could not be given in marriage 
 to any one before they reached there. Being, to all intents and purposes, 
 the daughter of the chief, Mr. Wiley maintained that his mother was safe 
 from violation and escaped that humiliation. I have heard statements to 
 the effect that an Indian daughter was bom to Mrs. Wiley after her es- 
 cape and return to the Virginia settlements. Mr. Burris writes me that 
 he has heard the same thing. I have been told that Adam P. Wiley was 
 the son of the Shawnee. That was certainly untrue, for Mr. Wiloy was 
 born in 1798. Some versions of the captivity of Mrs. Wiley had it that 
 she was carried to Old Chillicothe and that her sale to the Cherokee oc- 
 curred there, after which she was carried to the old Indian town at the 
 mouth of Little Mudlick Creek by the Cherokee as his wife. 
 
 There was never any uniformity in these versions, and they always ap- 
 peared to me as mere conjecture of those having indefinite information. 
 It was natural, of course, for Mr. Wiley to believe that his mother escaped 
 violation. It is the province of the historian to state all the facts in his 
 possession, and I have performed that duty to accuracy in historical ac- 
 counts in this instance. 
 
40 HARMAN'S STATION 
 
 house, marching in Indian file headed by the Cherokee 
 chief, the Shawnee chief being hindmost with Mrs. Wiley, 
 her child in her arms, just in front of him. 
 
CHAPTER V 
 
 After leaving Wiley's house the Indians took a general 
 course leading to the head of Walker's Creek. They fol- 
 lowed mountain ways and short cuts from one valley to 
 another, coming to Brushy Mountain, which they crossed 
 to the head waters of Wolf Creek. When the night was 
 far advanced they halted in a large rockhouse^^ in the 
 range between Wolf Creek and the Bluestone River. 
 There they made a fire under the overhanging rock and 
 broiled some venison which a Cherokee took from a pack 
 he carried by thongs on his back. They made a hasty meal 
 of this venison, which appeared to refresh them all, and 
 when the rain ceased they again set forward after extin- 
 guishing the fire and concealing as far as possible all traces 
 of its existence. It was still quite dark. The dull dawn 
 found them on the head waters of the Bluestone, branches 
 of which river they waded as they came to them, though 
 all were running high from the recent rains. They crossed 
 the Great Flat Top Mountain and ascended the south end 
 of one of those ridges lying in the watershed between 
 Guyandotte and Tug rivers. This rough range extends 
 almost to the Ohio. The great Indian trail up the Tug 
 
 12 The term " rockhouse " is heard only in the South, and principally 
 in the region of the AUeghanies south of Pennsylvania. It is not used in 
 connection with a cave. It does not apply to a cave ; a cave is entirely dis- 
 tinct from a rockhouse. A rockhouse is the open space beneath an over- 
 hanging rock or cliff. Rockhouses are sometimes of large extent T have 
 know-n them to be used as stables for horses and cattle. They are the 
 favorite resorts of sheep in summer. They are cool and pleasant in the 
 warmest weather, but having a large opening along the entire front they are 
 poor protection from cold in winter. They are found only where the pre- 
 vailing rocks are sandstone. 
 
42 HARMAN'S STATION 
 
 River often followed along its tortuous and uneven crest 
 and from that cause it was long known as Indian Ridge, 
 especially in its southern reaches. 
 
 The Indians made no halt during this day's travel until 
 late in the afternoon, when, believing themselves beyond 
 any immediate danger of being overtaken by the whites, 
 they made a camp in a rockhouse in the head of a creek 
 below the crest of the mountain. They had not killed any 
 game during the day, although both bear and deer were 
 in sight more than once. Their meal consisted of venison 
 from the pack of the Cherokee. This venison was dried 
 until hard, but the Indians held it in the flames of their 
 camp fire until it was cooked a little, then they ate it. Mrs. 
 Wile}' ate some of it, also some parched com from the wal- 
 let of one of the Indians. She was exhausted with the long 
 and rough march of twenty-four hours she had been forced 
 to make. She had climbed mountains and waded streams ; 
 she had forced her way through thickets of laurel and ivy, 
 and had tramped through quagmires and over stones ; she 
 had been compelled to ascend almost perpendicular cliffs 
 and to descend sheer precipices. Much of the time she 
 had been drenched to the skin. Her child was in great 
 distress and had cried until it could cry no more because 
 of hoarseness. At this camp she saw the warriors make 
 hoops of green boughs and over them stretch the scalps 
 of her brother and her children. In after life she often 
 declared that at no other time did despair so take hold 
 of her as it did this second night of her captivity. 
 
 When the Indians lay down to sleep they bound Mrs. 
 Wiley with strips of raw deer skin. She was in a state of 
 ner\'ous delirium and could not sleep, neither could she 
 rest. Every time she closed her eyes she seemed to be- 
 liold the slaughter of her children anew, and more than 
 onct' she shrieked aloud. Her cries aroused the old 
 Shawnee, wlio finally unbound her. He lighted a torch 
 .•ind c.-irricd it into the woods, retuming soon with some 
 
^ 
 
 B' 
 
HARMAN'S STATION 43 
 
 leaves from which he made an infusion in a small vessel 
 he carried. He gave her some of this preparation to 
 drink, after which she fell into a troubled sleep that con- 
 tinued through the night. 
 
 The Shawnee chief aroused Mrs. Wiley before the dawn. 
 The Indians were preparing to depart. She was given 
 some corn and venison for the morning meal, and the whole 
 party again set forward. The mountain streams were 
 running bank full from the recent heavy rain, and the 
 Indians avoided them as much as possible by keeping to 
 the paths which followed the ridges. It was with much 
 diificulty that Mrs. Wiley could proceed. She was urged 
 by the Indians to quicken her pace, but her progress was 
 slow and painful. The only thing which enabled her to 
 drag herself along was the fear that if she failed to keep 
 up with the Indians they would kill her child. More than 
 once was this proposed by the Cherokee chief, and it was 
 acquiesced in by all the band save the old Shawnee. As 
 the day advanced the reserve forces of her strong consti- 
 tution came to her aid and she made better time, but her 
 marching was not satisfactory to the Indians. 
 
 AAHien the Indians were starting out this morning they 
 sent two of their number back over the trail to keep watch 
 for the whites, for they were confident that the hunters 
 would follow them. Some of the younger members of the 
 band believed the hea%^ rains had washed out their trail, 
 but the Cherokee said such was not the case, especially if 
 they should be followed by Matthias Harman. This wjis 
 one of his strong arguments in favor of killing Mrs. 
 Wiley's child. It was with difficulty that the old Shawnee 
 withstood the demands of the Cherokee chief. 
 
 At the end of this day 's march an encampment was made 
 in a location much like that of the preceding night. The 
 Indians halted before the sun was down because one of 
 their number had killed a fat bear at the time, and tliey 
 feasted most of the night. Though the march bad been 
 
44 HARMAN'S STATION 
 
 severe the distance passed had been much less than was 
 covered during the same time of the day before, and Mrs. 
 Wiley's condition had improved somewhat, but her feet 
 were terribly bruised and blistered. She had little hope 
 that her child would live through the night. There being 
 nothing better at hand she rubbed it well with bear's 
 grease, and at the suggestion of the Shawnee chief she 
 forced it to swallow some of the melted fat. This seemed 
 in a measure effective, for the morning showed improve- 
 ment in the child's health. The Shawnee chief made a 
 decoction of some leaves boiled with the inner layers of 
 the bark of the white oak, which he caused Mrs. Wiley to 
 a|)i)ly to her feet, and which gave her immediate relief. 
 An additional application in the morning caused still 
 further improvement, and this, together with the improved 
 condition of her child, caused Mrs. Wiley to begin the day 
 with more hope than she began the previous one. The 
 party left the camp before it was light and continued the 
 journey in the direction of the Ohio. A heavy rain had 
 fallen in the night, and it rained most of the day. A terri- 
 fic storm of wind and rain drove the party under a cliff 
 shortly before darkness came on, and they built a fire and 
 cam]ied there. That camp was in the hills just west of 
 tlie liead of Twelve Pole Creek. The Indian scouts who 
 had been sent back each day reported late at night, and 
 liore tliey said they had seen no pursuers on their trail. 
 
 Tlie Indians left their camp, as was their custom, on the 
 following morning before it was light. Insufficient food 
 and the continuous marching was rapidly exhausting Mrs. 
 Wiley, and she found herself unable to move forward so 
 rapidly as on the previous day. She was failing under 
 liar(lsiii])s and the burden of her child. The Shawnee 
 cliief warned her of the consequences of failing to keep up 
 with the warriors. But try as she might she could not 
 satisfy licr captors. 
 
 Tile Indians who had been sent back as scouts this 
 
HARMAN'S STATION 45 
 
 morning returned late in the day and reported that they 
 had seen a large party of white men on horseback follow- 
 ing their trail. This was not unexpected intelligence, but 
 the Indians discussed earnestly what it was best to do in 
 the matter. Some proposed an ambush of the white men, 
 but this was not taken as the best course to follow. The 
 Cherokee chief proposed the immediate death of the child 
 and a change of course. Mrs. Wiley promised to keep up 
 with the march, and with the aid of the Shawnee chief 
 saved the life of the child for a time. The Indians turned 
 west and descended the hills toward Tug River. They 
 sought a small stream and waded down it until it became 
 too deep for that purpose, when they changed to another. 
 Mrs. Wiley kept well up for a few miles, then began to 
 fail. Despite her utmost exertions she could not march 
 at the rate the Indians were then going. She fell behind 
 the Indians marching in front of her, and began to feel 
 that her child was in great danger. She suspected that 
 her friends were near, although the Indians had told her 
 nothing. At length the Cherokee chief stopped. He was 
 leading the march, and he and most of the party were far 
 in advance. Mrs. Wiley knew what he would do when 
 he came back to her place in the line. His arrival there 
 meant death for her child and possibly death for herself. 
 The Shawnee chief was following her in the water. Mrs. 
 Wiley ran out of the stream and with her last strength 
 ran back up its course with her child." She had no partic- 
 
 13 This stream flows into Tug Elver. It is the first stream of any 
 considerable size on the West Virginia side below Marrowbone Creek. 
 The Indians waded down the last named creek until it got too deep to 
 allow rapid traveling; then they crossed the mountain to the creek upon 
 which Mrs. Wiley's child was killed. Ever since the country has been 
 settled this creek has been called Jennie's Creek, in honor of Mrs. Wiley. 
 After she moved to Kentucky Mrs. Wiley went to this creek and identified 
 the place where her child was killed; she identified the big beech tree 
 against which the Cherokee chief dashed out its brains. This tree was 
 preserved, and it was standing twenty years ago, since which time I have 
 not heard anything concerning it. 
 
46 HARMAN'S STATION 
 
 ular object in doing this except to carry her child out of 
 danger, and that was a vain effort. The old Shawnee was 
 surprised, but he ran after her and caught her just as the 
 Clierokee chief came up. She was surrounded by the 
 Indians. The Cherokee chief seized her child by the feet 
 and dashed out its brains against a big beech tree. He 
 scalped it, and she was pushed back into the stream and 
 forced to continue her flight. 
 
 It was almost dark when the party reached the Tug 
 Eiver, which they found much swollen from the recent 
 rains. x\s the Indians arrived on its banks a violent 
 thunder storm broke over the valley. The Indians realized 
 that in crossing the river at once lay their only hope of 
 escape from the party in pursuit. Their only means of 
 crossing the stream was by swimming. With the river at 
 the stage at which they found it that was a dangerous 
 undertaking. At all times a swift mountain stream, it was 
 now a raging torrent covered with drift and all manner of 
 river-rubbish. Mrs. Wiley was amazed and terrified when 
 told she must cross the mad stream by swimming in com- 
 pany with the Indians. In the gathering gloom its con- 
 tortions were visible only by the fierce flashes of lightning 
 that burned in the heavens. It seemed impossible for 
 any one to survive a conflict with this raging river. But 
 she was seized by two Shawnees and dragged screaming 
 into the surging flood. One swam on either side of her. 
 They gras])ed her fiiTnly by her arms and swam easily and 
 swiftly. They went with the current of the stream and 
 avoided the drift with the dexterity of otters. Their 
 ])()sition was almost upright with much of the body above 
 the water ; and they ])ushed but slightly against the current 
 but were all the time working themselves toward the op- 
 posite shore. After being carried down the river what 
 seenieil to Mrs. Wiley several miles they were all cast to 
 tile west bank and found themselves in "dead" water 
 in the mouth of a small creek. There it was much more 
 
HARMAN'S STATION 47 
 
 difficult to swim and support the captive above the water, 
 but they succeeded in effecting a landing. The whole 
 party was exhausted and some time was spent in resting, 
 after which the journey was continued. The Indians 
 waded up the stream into the mouth of which they had 
 been cast by the river. It led up into a very rough moun- 
 tain covered with bristling thickets of laurel and ivy. The 
 storm cleared and the air became chill as they descended 
 the mountain range they were crossing. A large rock- 
 house was sought at the base of the range and a small fire 
 made in it and the blaze screened. The Indians left tliis 
 camp at dawn, and in the afternoon reached tlie Louisa 
 River. There they cooked and ate a small deer which 
 had been killed on the march and which made an insuffi- 
 cient meal for the party. The Louisa River was found 
 full to the brim. After resting until almost dark the In- 
 dians crossed it as they had crossed the Tug. They went 
 into camp under a cliff behind a mountain and built a 
 roaring fire about which all slept through the night. In 
 the early light of the following morning they sent out two 
 of their number to hunt. In a short time the hunters re- 
 turned with part of a buffalo they had killed in a cane- 
 brake. The day was spent in eating and sleeping. The 
 Indians believed they had made a complete escape from 
 their pursuers and did not again give that subject any 
 serious consideration. As the sun was nearing the tops 
 of the hills in the western range the party set forward 
 again. They followed a trail which led through valleys 
 and over rough hills, but they marched in a leisurely way. 
 It was well for Mrs. Wiley that they made no fon^ed marcli- 
 «s for she was by this time worn out. The loitering march- 
 es brought the Indians to the Ohio River on the ninth day 
 of Mrs. Wiley's captivity. 
 
CHAPTER VI 
 
 The Indians did not descend directly to the Ohio, but 
 came down the hills west of the Big Sandy and followed, 
 that stream about a mile to its mouth. They found an 
 immense flood in the Ohio, something they said was unus- 
 ual for that season of the year. This flood increased the 
 difficulty of their retreat. Notwithstanding this fact, how- 
 ever, the Indians appeared much pleased to reach the Ohio. 
 The younger members of the band exclaimed "O-hi-yoT 
 O-hi-yo ! O-hi-yo ! ' ' seemingly in great delight. 
 
 How to cross the Ohio was now the question for the 
 Indians. They discussed the matter for some time with- 
 out arriving at a satisfactory conclusion and finally re- 
 turned to the hills to avoid the backwater, pushed far up 
 the small streams, and kept down the Ohio. Much of the 
 time tliey were not in sight of the Ohio. They reached the 
 mouth of the Little Sandy River without finding any means 
 to cross the Ohio and again held council to determine upon 
 a course. They were assisted in a decision apparently 
 by the return of two Indians whom they had sent back 
 from the crossing of the Louisa River to spy upon the 
 movements of the pursuing party. Their report was de- 
 livered (lilt of the hearing of Mrs. Wiley who was begin- 
 ning to understand a few words of the different Indian 
 tongues. After several hours spent in talk the party 
 divided. Tlie Cherokee chief, the Cherokee warrior, two 
 \\'>an<lots, and two Delawares swam across the Little 
 Sandy River and disappeared in the woods. 
 
 The remaining Indians, witli Mrs. Wiley, took their 
 way up tlic Little Sandy. They appeared to be in no 
 
:\ris. Wil.y rescuing her child from the liidinu Oi-ileal in the Cherokee 
 
 Fork of Big Hhiine Creek 
 
liAKMAN'S STATION 49 
 
 hurry. They left the main stream at the month of the 
 J)ry Pork, which they followed to the head of one of its 
 branches. They crossed the divide through the Cherokee 
 Gap to the Cherokee Fork of Big Blaine Creek. As they 
 were descending this creek Mrs. Wiley became seriously 
 ill, but she concealed her condition from the Indians as 
 long as possible, fearing she might be killed should they 
 discover the tiiith. It soon became impossible for her to 
 proceed, however, and the Indians went into camp near 
 the mouth of the creek. They placed Mrs, Wiley in a small 
 roekhouse near the camp and left her alone. There a son 
 was born to her. The birth was |)remature and she was 
 near death for some time, but she finally recovered and 
 the child lived. She attributed her recovery to a season 
 of fine weather which came on. The Indians brought her 
 meat from the game they killed and from the first of her 
 illness kept her a fire; but as soon as slie could walk they 
 left her to gather her own fire-wood. Knowing that it 
 was impossible for her to escape the Indians paid little 
 attention to her. 
 
 The Indian party spent the winter in camj) at the mouth 
 of Cherokee Creek and allowed Mrs. Wiley to live alone 
 in the roekhouse with her child. She lost all account of 
 time. She did not know the day of the week from the 
 time they went into camp there until she made her escape. 
 The Shawnee chief gave her child a name. The sojourn 
 at this place was uneventful but for one instance. One 
 day when the weather was becoming wanner the Shawnee 
 chief came to the roekhouse and said the child was "three 
 moons, ' ' meaning that its age was then about three months. 
 He informed her that he was mjiking preparations to give 
 it the first test a boy was expected to undergo, lie nuide 
 no explanation and soon left the roekhouse. He returned 
 in a short time and commanded her to take the child and 
 follow him. He led her to the creek where the other In- 
 dians were assembled. The chief tied tlu? child to a large 
 
50 HARMAN'S STATION 
 
 slab of diy bark and set it adrift in the swift water of a 
 small slioal. The child began to cry as soon as it felt the 
 cold water, and this action seemed to condemn it in the 
 minds of the warriors. They brandished their toma- 
 hawks, and Mrs. Wiley rushed into the water and rescued 
 the infant, immediately returaing to the rockhouse with it. 
 The Indians followed her, and when they arrived at the 
 rockhouse the Wyandot killed the child with his tomahawk 
 and immediately proceeded to scalp it. She was not mo- 
 lested, but she saw that the Indians were very angry. She 
 was pei-mitted to bury the child in a corner of the rock- 
 house. 
 
 Soon after the murder of her child and while the streams 
 were full from melting snow the Indians left their camp at 
 the mouth of Cherokee Creek. Mrs. Wiley was not strong 
 but was forced to keep up with the party. They followed 
 a trail which led up Hood's Fork of Big Blaine Creek. 
 Crossing through a gap at the head of one of its branches 
 they came to the Laurel Fork, which they followed to that 
 fine rolling country now known as Flat Gap, in Johnson 
 County. From that point they followed a small stream to 
 the main branch of Big Mudlick Creek, which they de- 
 scended to the great buffalo lick from which the stream 
 derived its name. They camped at the lick in hope of kill- 
 ing some game, but none came during their stay. They 
 broke camp one morning at dawn and went down the 
 creek, arriving during the day at an old Indian town at the 
 mouth of Little Mudlick Creek. The actions of the In- 
 <liaii.s there made Mrs. Wiley suppose that the end of their 
 journey had been reached and that they would remain for 
 some time. As that is a somewhat remarkable location 
 and the Indians kept Mrs. Wiley there until the follow- 
 ing October a description of some of its most prominent 
 features will not be out of place here. 
 
 I -ittle Mudlick Creek is about three miles in length. In 
 <li\ MimiiKMs there are times when little water can be 
 
th 
 
 lo r t U 
 
 ^"-^i^ 
 
 TVf AT 
 
 i K t C o IX 11 t I- V ft b ( 11 1 t lit ^^ 
 inoutli t^ LittK /Vfui- 
 
 N 
 
 2. .S'eoMi FdiljL/WixiL It k 
 ^ T/.i.<i /"diuj Cri^eK . 
 4; ficcHhou.ce. o< Cdve wha.«. 
 Jennie Wwev i^ar /lept 
 tv^» b, tlie li, iV...j in /TtfjIiiii-Ke-i X 
 •^//•ih Xock, c.v^^.i .v.th I.,Jx.. 
 
HARMAN'S STATION 51 
 
 found in its bed. Its general course is from north to 
 south, but it falls into Big Mudlick Creek from the east. 
 It joins the larger stream about half a mile from where 
 Big Mudlick and Big Paint Creek unite. A short distance 
 above the junction of the Mudlick creeks each stream flows 
 through narrows or gorges f onned by their having broken 
 through a range of low hills and cut deep channels in 
 ledges of sandstone. In the space enclosed between the 
 two streams there is a perfectly level tract, a miniature 
 table-land or plateau, which runs from near their junction 
 back several hundred feet to a succession of low hills. The 
 beds of the streams are as much as two hundred feet below 
 this plateau, the edges of which are perpendicular and 
 overhang the creeks. These overhanging cliffs contain 
 caves and fissures or rockhouses and projecting ledges of 
 sandstone to which it is difficult to gain access. At some 
 points the rock is steep and bare from the surface of the 
 water to its utmost height. In other places great masses 
 of sandstone are broken from the main ledges and lie 
 piled about the base of the cliffs in great confusion. The 
 broader ledges, huge crevices, and long interstices in these 
 cliffs are thickly grown with laurel and ivy, shrubs indi- 
 genous to the sandstone hills and cliffs of the South. At 
 the base and far up the sides of the cliffs at points where 
 sufficient footing exists grow huge hemlocks, gnarled chest- 
 nuts, and misshapen black pines, many of these overhang- 
 ing the creeks. Interspersed with these are holly-trees 
 covered in winter with scarlet berries. Along the creeks 
 are willows and sycamore trees and sometimes slender 
 birches. The creek bottoms were formerly covered with 
 beech trees which long since fell before the axe of the 
 backwoodsman. The steep ravines are choked with thick- 
 ets. The plateau itself is covered with a thin and strag- 
 gling growth of stunted trees and indigenous shrubs. 
 
 On the face of the cliff overhanging the waters of the 
 larger creek were formerly found many Indian liiero,i>:lyi>h- 
 
52 II ARM AX'S STATION 
 
 ics and strange pictiiies. These pictures were usually 
 skeleton drawings of animals native to the country, such 
 as the l)uffalo, hear, deer, panther, wolf, turkey, and a few 
 of turtles and rattlesnakes. These figures were put on 
 tlie cliifs with hlack or red paint: no other colors were 
 used. Tliere was no mixing of colors; there were red 
 grou])s and hlack grou])s, hut nowhere were the two colors 
 found in the same group. In no instance were the figures 
 cut or scratched into the rock. Time, thoughtless and 
 mischievous vandalism, and the weather have destroyed 
 them all. In 1850, it is said, some of the gi-oups were 
 faintly visihle, and as late as 1880 one group of deer in 
 hlack, on the cliff over the larger creek, was yet very 
 distinct." 
 
 n When .loliDBon County, Ki'iitucky. was first settled there were 
 found alonj^' the Indian trail from the mouth of ?^Iudlick Creek to the 
 mouth of Big Paint Creek occasional trees which had been stripped of their 
 bark from the ground to a considerable height, sometimes as far up as thirty 
 feet. Often a tree had the bark stripped from but one side, which made 
 a dry hard surface on that side of the tree, while the other side still lived 
 and preserved the tree. Trees thus treated were found all along the trail, 
 but at some points there would be found groups of them all of which had 
 been so denuded. The smooth surface thus provided was covered by the 
 Indians with outline figures of animals and birds, put on with a tenacious 
 and lasting paint of two colors only — black and i"ed. As it is not known 
 that trees thus treated and marked were found at any other place in the 
 I'liited StJites this circumstance may be regarded as very remarkable. The 
 signification of these paintings was never discovered, and it is not known 
 whether they were made by but one tribe or by all the tribes inhabiting 
 the Dhio Valley. Trees so marked were to be found all along the valley 
 of the Big Sandy, inchuling both branches, but so far as I could ever dis- 
 I'liver no locality had them in so great abundance as the country around the 
 lower course of Big Paint Creek. Whether the custom had prevailed among 
 the tribes for ages, or whether it was of recent date and origin was never 
 known. It is known that the Shawnees, Delawares, Wyandots, Toteros, 
 ( litToktis, iintl Iroquois, regarded the Big Sandy Valley with peculiar and 
 laHting veneration. They clung to it with tenacity, and it was the last 
 Mreain in Kentucky to ho surrendered by them. It was a favorite valley of 
 the Mouiiil Builders, as evidenced by many remains of their occupation. 
 
 Big I'aint Creek is a large and rapid stream. Just below the town of 
 T'aintBville if flows over an inclined sandstone bed. This point has various 
 Inen! un»ne«, Huoh as the " flat rock," " flat rock ford," etc. The incline 
 i« »hj4rp. iiiid the >\ater in passing over it was carried with force suflicient 
 
HARMAN'S STATION 5;j 
 
 Beyond each of the creeks the plateau is irregularly 
 continued. To the east across the smaller creek there is a 
 mound-like hill the base of which rests upon an expanse 
 of country of the same elevation as tlie plateau. To the 
 north between the smaller stream and Big J^aint C'reCU 
 stand two such hills with bases resting upon a similai" 
 elevation. To the west beyond the larger creek the contin- 
 uation of the plateau is narrow, a ledge of sandstone with 
 its east and south sides almost ])er])endicular. At a little 
 distance south of this ledge and entirely detached from it 
 is a large mass of sandstone with sides nearly perpendic- 
 ular. This rock rises from the low-lying creek bottom 
 and has a flat top of considerable area which can be reached 
 with difficulty. From this elevation to the mouth of Big 
 
 to excavate in the bed of the creek below it a very deep pool and to cut 
 away the banks, giving the expansion the appearance of a lake through 
 which the creek ran. In early times the pool was spoken of as bottomless, 
 so great was its depth, and it was always spoken of in my time as ' ' the 
 deep hole. ' ' The principal boat yards of the Big Sandy Valley were around 
 this remarkable pool ; hundreds of barges for carrying tan bark, hoop poles, 
 staves, sawed lumber, and other ])roducts of that country wt're built upon 
 its banks. 
 
 Upon the south bank of the creek against the ' ' flat rock ford " is a 
 low cliff, beneath which there is a small rockhouse which would afford 
 shelter for fifty or sixty people. This locality seemed to hold a fascination 
 for the Indians. On the top of the cliff a great elm had been stripped of 
 its bark to a height of thirty feet or more. Winding about the tree and 
 encircling all the smooth surface made by taking off the bark was a huge 
 rattlesnake put on with black paint. Many other trees in the vicinity 
 were stripped or partly stripped of their bark, and painted, various an! 
 mals of the country being represented. One tree in the upper end of the 
 creek bottom in which is situated the town of Paintsville, on the spot where 
 Rev. Henry Dickson (Dixon, it is now written by his descendants) built a 
 grist mill to be operated by horse, mule, or ox power, and called by the early 
 settlers a " horse mill," was painted; it was a giant elm, and it bore a 
 huge bear put on with red paint. 
 
 There were many salt springs or " licks " in the vicinity of where 
 Paintsville was located. Several of them were at the foot of the hills back 
 of the town and are now covered by the washings from the cleared hillsides 
 above them. The trees about these licks were painted by the Indians, the 
 characters being of the same nature as those already described. From this 
 cause the first hunters and explorers of the country called these licks 
 " painted licks," and they named the stream ii\<ou which they were found 
 
54 HARMAN'S STATION 
 
 Mudlick Creek it is half a mile, and the land is a bottom 
 lying just above overflow. This creek bottom is an old 
 Indian field. At the time of the coming of the white man 
 it contained many mounds. There is one very large mound 
 or mound-shaped hill covered with broken sandstone. 
 Human bones, stone axes, spear and arrow heads of flint, 
 
 Paint Lick Creek, and it is so marked on the map of Kentucky in the 
 1797 edition of Imlay's America. The name was given by Matthias Har- 
 man and his associates. When Colonel John Preston, Judge French, and 
 others of Virginia who speculated in the lands of the Louisa Eiver Valley, 
 wished to name the trading station which they established on the present 
 site of Paintsville in 1790, they called it Paint Lick. The Eev. Henry 
 Dickson came from North Carolina and bought the land about the old 
 station and laid out the present town and named it Paintsville. Prestons- 
 burg was also founded by Col. Preston and others, and first called Preston's 
 Station. The station was established in 1799. After Vancouver left the 
 forks of the Big Sandy a town was established there and named Balclutha. 
 On the Imlay map already mentioned Paint Lick and Balclutha are both 
 marked. To Johnson County belongs the honor of having within her bounds 
 the sites of both the first and second settlements made in the Big Sandy 
 Valley and in Eastern Kentucky. 
 
 Above the mouth of Big Paint Creek there is a river bottom extending 
 up the Louisa River about a mile. At a point near the creek bank, and at 
 an equal distance from the river, there is a large mound, the work of pre- 
 historic inhabitants of the valley. Several hundred feet up the river, and 
 directly south of this mound, there is another, not quite so large. At an 
 equal distance south of this second mound there is a third one a little 
 smaller than the second. And there is at an equal distance south from 
 this third mound a fourth one still a little smaller than the third. There 
 is a mound just back of the rockhouse overlooking the flat rock ford. These 
 mounds were covered with large trees when first seen by white men. The 
 original public highway up the Big Sandy Eiver was laid out to cut the 
 north side of the second mound. In making this public road the mound 
 was cut, and the skeleton of a man of large size was found. It was en- 
 closed in a sort of rude box made by placing flat thin river stones about 
 and over it. It was on the land of Valentine Van Hoose, and I saw one of 
 his sons wantonly destroy the skull of this skeleton. The large mound was 
 opencMl a few years since, and the skeleton of a man was found, or rather 
 the plain imprint of one, but the bones had perished. These mounds were 
 made of layers of different kinds of earth, and there were several layers 
 of ('lf>un river sand in them. Layers of ashes and charcoal were found, in- 
 difating that it may have been the custom of the builders to burn their 
 doad there, or place the ashes of their dead there after the bodies had been 
 burned at some other yilace. The Cherokee Indians said to the early set- 
 tlers there, in speaking of these mounds: " There is fire in all those 
 moimdH. " What thoy meant by this statement they could not explain. 
 
The Falls of Ijittlc Mudlick Civck in Wint.-r 
 
 \ I'liiihiiiifipli hji Liillnr. Loiii.'ii. A'//. I 
 
HARMAN'S STATION 55 
 
 carved shells, and stone pipes were here turned uj) hi 
 great abundance by the plows of the first settlers. 
 
 The diminutive gorge of Little Mudlick Creek is a thing 
 of wild and romantic beauty. The first fall is but ten feet. 
 One hundred feet below is a fall of about six feet, below 
 
 Many pipes, arrowheads, spearheads, and stone axes wore found in and 
 about these mounds. The best specimen of the stone axe I ever saw was 
 found there by my nephew and is now in my collection. 
 
 To the southwest of Paintsville and in plain view of the town there is a 
 solid sandstone ledge rising from the top of a hill to a height far above 
 the surrounding forest. This immense mass of sandstone is locally known 
 as the " hanging rock." On the hilltop back of this great cliff there 
 are a number of Indian graves covered with a great quantity of loose 
 sandstone fragments which have evidently been carried there from a con- 
 siderable distance. Indian graves of this description are very common in 
 East-em Kentucky, and they are always found on the tops of ridges. I 
 never saw any account of such graves in any work on the Mound Builders. 
 
 Above the small cliff at the ' ' flat rock ford ' ' the first explorers found 
 a number of decaying cabins. The Ohio Indians said that they and the 
 French had built them many years before, and that they had lived there. 
 They also said that the Toteros or Shatara Indians had lived there before 
 they built the cabins. These Totero Indians had a town on the Lick Fork 
 of Jennie's Creek, extending from the forks of that stream to the point 
 now known as Hager Hill. The Shawnees and Cherokees pointed out to the 
 early settlers the sites of many towns occupied by the Totero Indians. I 
 shall locate them in some future work. 
 
 It is a tradition in our family that some of the Connellys, probably 
 Harmon Connelly and his brother Thomas, Daniel Boone, Matthias Har- 
 man, Walter Mankins, and a number of other parties, among them James 
 Skaggs and Henry Skaggs, descended the Louisa River about 1768 in 
 search of a suitable place to settle. They camped about these old cabins 
 at the mouth of Big Paint Creek for six weeks. The river and creek bot- 
 toms were covered with a rank growth of cane, much of it so high that 
 it would conceal a man on horseback. The fierceness of the Indians made 
 it impossible for them to locate there then. They killed much game. Great 
 herds of buffalo roamed the country at the time. .lohn Howe, Esq , the 
 famous millwright, son-in-law- of Rev. Henry Dickson, has often told me of 
 this journey of the Connellys, Boone, and others. He also said that the 
 river was sometimes so full of buffalo wallowing in the shoals that it was 
 impossible to get a canoe either up or down until the shaggy animals had 
 departed. Mr. Howe and many other pioneers of Johnson County have 
 often told me that Simon Kenton occupied the old cabins at the mouth of 
 Big Paint Creek two winters, or parts of two winters, 1773-74 and 1774-75. 
 He hunted in that region during those winters and it is very probable that 
 the old settlers were right in saying he lived in one of these old cabins. 
 
56 HARMAN'S STATION 
 
 which the stream expands into a lakelet fringed with 
 mountain evergreens. A short distance below this lakelet 
 the stream plunges some fifty or sixty feet into pools 
 overhung with the ever-present mountain evergreens. 
 From this point the stream has a rapid descent over shoals 
 of boulders and brook-stones to the larger creek. The 
 gorge was heavily timbered with hemlocks, oaks, beeches, 
 holly-trees, laurel and ivy. 
 
 The Shawnees told Mrs. Wiley that in ancient times 
 their ancestors had their villages about the junction of the 
 Mudlick creeks, also all along Big Paint Creek from the 
 mouth of Big Mudlick Creek to the Big Sandy River. They 
 also told her that they never passed through that part of 
 the country without visiting Little Mudlick Creek and the 
 country about their ancient village. 
 
CHAPTER VII 
 
 The Indians holding Mrs. Wiley in captivity arrived at 
 the mouth of Little Miidlick Creek about the first of April, 
 possibly as much as a week or ten days earlier tlian that. 
 They took up their abode in a rockhouse in the face of the 
 cliff on the east side of the plateau. This rockhouse was 
 just below the falls of Little Mudlick Creek, but at a higher 
 elevation in the cliff than is the bed of the creek at the falls. 
 The ledge at the entrance of the rockhouse overhangs the 
 creek which runs a hundred feet or more below it, and the 
 entrance is sixty feet at least below the top of the cliff. It 
 is reached by following a narrow ledge along the face of 
 the cliff from a point opposite the upper falls. This rock- 
 house is of considerable extent. It afforded a safe retreat 
 for the party and one almost inaccessible to enemies if 
 properly defended by even a few persons. It afforded a 
 cool and pleasant habitation in summer. 
 
 The manner of life of the party was not unlike the daily 
 life in an Indian village. Mrs. Wiley was compelled to 
 ]ierform all the drudgery- of the camp. The warriors 
 lounged about the caves and slept when not hunting or 
 scouting. Hunting was not extensively engaged in, sum- 
 mer peltries being of poor quality. Only enough game 
 was killed to furnish food for the party. Usually turkeys, 
 deer, and buffalo were easily found near the cam]), though 
 the Indians often went to the great lick on Big Mudlick 
 Creek to kill buffalo, especially when visited l)y other 
 bands. They sometimes hunted on what is now known 
 as Barnett's Creek, also on Big Paint Creek between that 
 stream and Big Mudlick Creek. They sometimes recinircd 
 
58 HARMAN'S STATION 
 
 Mrs. Wiley to follow them and bring in the game they 
 killed. She was shown how to care for the skins of the 
 animals killed. She gathered the wood for the camp fires. 
 As the Indians had no axe she was obliged to gather the 
 dry branches which had fallen from the trees, and before 
 the smnmer was over these were exhausted near the camp. 
 ,The French and the Indians had discovered lead in that 
 vicinity, and Mrs. Wiley was made to carry the ore from 
 the lead mines to the east edge of the plateau and there 
 smelt it out to be used for bullets for the guns. To do this 
 she had to collect a great quantity of wood and build a hot 
 fire which had to be maintained for some hours. When 
 the lead was melted from the ore it was conducted through 
 small trenches to the bottom of a depression which Mrs. 
 Wiley had made for the purpose and which was to be seen 
 as late as 1880. It was just above the entrance to the 
 rockhouse. She was also made to plant some corn in the 
 old Indian field which had been the site of the old Indian 
 town. 
 
 The Indians remained at the camp on some mysterious 
 mission, as Mrs. Wiley judged. They were often visited 
 by other bands, some of which contained as many as twen- 
 ty Indians. Sometimes these visiting bands remained 
 several days ; at other times they departed in a few hours. 
 Mrs. Wiley learned the Shawnee language, also something 
 of other Indian tongues. She made many efforts to hear 
 wliat the visiting Indians said to her captors, but was 
 never able to get any information of benefit to her. The 
 Shawnee chief told Mrs. Wiley he would take her to the 
 Indian towns beyond the Ohio when Indian summer came 
 on, at which time he expected a large force of Indians to 
 arrive and relieve him. Mrs. Wiley sought an opportunity 
 to escape after this conversation with the old Shawnee, 
 but none presented itself that she could believe promised 
 siK'coss. She was entirely ignorant of the general physi- 
 cal iVatnres of the country in which she was held, although 
 
torture of tlie ("aptivo 
 
HARMAN'S STATION 59 
 
 she believed that she was nearer the Virginia settlements 
 than when she was on the Ohio River. She had feigned 
 sleep in the hope that her captors would say something 
 about the settlements of white people that she might hear, 
 but they never did so. There had been times when she 
 was out of sight of her captors and might have escaped, 
 but never having been able to bring herself to believe the 
 effort would prove successful, she had waited for a more 
 favorable opportunity. As the time approached when she 
 was to be taken to the Indian towns she became more 
 determined upon escape, or upon death in the effort. Her 
 resolution in this matter was overturned by an event whol- 
 ly unexpected. 
 
 One day about the end of October the Indians were 
 aroused from their indolent loungings by the quavering 
 war-whoop cried by some party about the mouth of Big 
 Mudlick Creek. The Shawnee chief answered the war- 
 QYj, and it was repeated. The Shawnee chief informed 
 his party that the Cherokee chief had been on tlie war- 
 path, had lost some of his warriors, and was now coming 
 into camp with a captive white man. War-whoops were 
 exchanged, and g-uns were fired by both parties. The 
 Shawnee chief led his party to the plateau to receive the 
 Cherokee chief and his warriors, who soon arrived. The 
 Cherokee chief was followed by a mongrel band of some 
 twenty Indians, and he brought with him a white man as 
 prisoner. Mrs. Wiley supposed this prisoner to be about 
 twenty years old, though she was not permitted to come 
 near enough to him to have any conversation with him. 
 This captive was terribly beaten when he arrived on tlio 
 plateau. 
 
 Mrs. Wiley was sent back to the rockhouse when the 
 Cherokee chief had talked with the Shawnee chief. The 
 Cherokee gave her a kettle and told her to cook him some 
 meat as soon as she could. She built up a fire in the rock- 
 house and slung the kettle, which she filled with bear meat 
 
60 HARMAN'S STATION 
 
 and venison. She could hear the mad howling, whooping, 
 and screeching of the warriors on the lieight above her, 
 also the discharge of guns and the thumping and stamping 
 of feet in an Indian dance. Shortly after dark the whole 
 band came down from the plateau, and the captive was not 
 with them. It did not take her long to gather from the 
 convei-sation of the Indians that the prisoner had been 
 tortured at the stake. The Cherokee chief was in a great 
 rage, sullen and savage. He did not remain long in the 
 camp but returned to the heights above with his hands full 
 of meat from the kettle. Mrs. Wiley was rudely treated 
 by the Indians recently arrived, and the Shawnee chief 
 and his followei's were excited and blood-thirsty. The 
 cam)) was overflowing with whooping Indians threatening 
 to kill her, and for the first time the Shawnee chief did not 
 stand her friend. She appealed to him but he did nothing 
 to quiet the howling mob, and he left the camp to join the 
 Cherokee. Finally the Indians left the camp and went 
 above, yelling along the gorge above the falls. Mrs. 
 Wiley was more at ease when she heard them whooping 
 on the ])lateau, but what the night would bring forth she 
 could not tell.'"'^ 
 
 An hour or two after dark a band of Indians, all of the 
 late arrivals, came down from the assembly. They tied 
 
 '•'- Mr. Wiley wsis ])()sitive of the death of this white man. Mrs. 
 Wiley (lid not see him tortured, nor did she see his dead body. She said 
 the captive was tortured on the plateau overlooking Big Mudlick Creek. 
 The fire about which the Indians were gathered when she was taken to the 
 plateau was nearer the falls of Little Mudlick. Mr. Wiley and I searched 
 the plateau more than once for evidences of fire, and at a point near where 
 Mrs. Wiley believed the captive was burned we found charcoal, but of course 
 tliert' was no way in which it could be connected with the death of the 
 captive. In many versions of the story of Mrs. Wiley there was no men- 
 tion (»f the death of this prisoner. As his name was never known and 
 nothing was known about him there was little to keep the interest in his 
 death in the minds of the peo]de. The older generation, though, had a dis- 
 tinct recollection uf the burning of this young man. He came to Mrs. 
 Wiley ill liiT striiiiyc liicjun and pointed out the settlements of the white 
 mcu. 
 
Mrs. Wilcv tied to the strike to l)f tortui't-d hv the lii»li;ins 
 
HARMAN'S STATION 61 
 
 Mrs. Wiley's hands with a stri]) of raw hide, hy one end 
 of which she was led to the heig-lit where the Indians were 
 assembled aboitt a big* fire. The dancing ceased when she 
 arrived. The Cherokee chief a])peared as the connnander 
 of the Indians and told her that she was to be burned. 
 She appealed to the Shawnee chief, but he made no definite 
 answer. There was no sympathy for her in the mad 
 band. She remembered the cruelties and many outrages 
 she had suffered at the hands of the Indians, and as no 
 prospect of escape came to her or seemed likely to come 
 in the future even should she live, she was the more easily 
 reconciled to death. In after years she affinned that con- 
 cern for her life and all earthly things departed from her, 
 leaving her calm and collected. In this frame of mind 
 she was bound to the tree, a small oak from which all the 
 lower branches had been cut. Her demeanor seemed to 
 please the Cherokee chief. Because of her courage or 
 from some other cause which was never known to her, pro- 
 ceedings in the execution were suspended. The Indians 
 retired for council and talked for a long time, as Mrs. 
 Wiley believed. Wlien they returned the Cherokee chief 
 informed Mrs. Wiley that he had bought her from the 
 Shawnee and that he would take her to his town on the 
 Little Tennessee where she could teach his wives (he spoke 
 as though he had quite a number of them) to write and to 
 weave cloth like her dress. He unbound her and led her 
 back to the camp in the rockhouse, followed by the Shaw- 
 nee chief. There the fire was lighted anew. The Chero- 
 kee chief produced a buckskin bag from which he counted 
 down to the Shawnee five hundred little silver brooches 
 about as large as the silver dime of to-day, the ])rice he 
 had agreed to pay for Mrs. Wiley. They were received 
 by the Shawnee as though he had a supreme contemi)t for 
 money, and swept by him from the buckskin upon which 
 they had been counted to him into a bag similar to that 
 
62 HARMAN'S STATION 
 
 from which they had been taken. This bag he placed in 
 his pack and lay down by the fire to sleep. 
 
 The Cherokee chief bound Mrs. Wiley with raw thongs 
 cut from a buffalo hide, which he drew very tight, causing 
 her great pain. He returned to the plateau and was gone 
 a long time. He came back with several of his band some 
 time in the night, and all slept in the rockhouse. 
 
CHAPTER VIII 
 
 It was late in the day when John Borders returned home 
 from the search for his sheep, and a thick and foggy 
 darkness was settling over the valley of Walker's Creek. 
 When he found that Mrs. Wiley had not yet arrived at 
 his house he feared that harm had come to lier and her 
 family, and her sister, Mrs. Borders, was distressed and 
 anxious. Borders sought a neighbor who lived near hira 
 and together they went to Wiley's house, which they found 
 partly burned. After some time spent in a cautious ex- 
 amination of the place they ventured to enter the house, 
 where they found the bodies of the slain children. The 
 animals about the place were excited and Borders he- 
 lieved the Indians were yet lying in wait to do further 
 murder. Not finding Mrs. Wiley and the young child 
 they were uncertain of their fate, but they supposed none 
 of the family had escaped death. No light was kindled 
 by Borders and his companion, and after a short time 
 spent in making the examination by which they learned 
 the facts set out above they left the house and alanned 
 the settlers. 
 
 The Indians had been seen by no one, and the uncer- 
 tainty in the minds of the people as to their number and 
 further purpose spread terror in the settlement. No 
 attempt could be made to follow the Indians during the 
 night. Those most capable of determining just what to 
 do in this extremity were out of the settlement and it was 
 not known when they would return. On the following 
 morning a number of the settlers gathered at Wiley's 
 cabin and looked the premises over carefully, but the 
 trail of the savages was not discovered. From some cause 
 
64 HARMAN'S STATION 
 
 it was supposed that the Indians had gone down the New 
 River. Thomas Wiley and a dozen settlers followed the 
 Indian road down that stream hoping to come up with the 
 Indians, but no tidings of Mrs. Wiley came from that 
 pursuit. 
 
 In the afternoon of the day after the attack upon Wiley's 
 liouse, Matthias Harman and the hunters returned to the 
 settlement. The swollen streams and the heavy loads 
 carried by their horses had delayed them twenty-four 
 hours ; but for these impediments they would have arrived 
 in time to have prevented the murders committed by the 
 Indians. The confidence of the hunters that they would 
 arrive in the settlement before the Indians, had caused 
 them to neglect to send a runner to warn the settlers of 
 their danger. 
 
 Immediately upon his return Matthias Harman went to 
 the house of Wiley where he found many of the settlers. 
 He made a minute examination of the country around 
 the house. In the hills north of the house he found evi- 
 dences that the Indians had passed that way. He followed 
 this discovery some miles, and upon his return to the 
 cabin he assured the settlers that Mrs. Wiley was alive 
 and a prisoner, that she was carrying her child which 
 had been spared, and that the Indians would follow the 
 Tug Uiver war-trail and try to cross the Ohio to their 
 towns. It was his opinion that the Cherokee chief was 
 the leader of the band, the number of which he had deter- 
 mineil from the trail. He was confident that he could over- 
 take the Indians and recover the prisoners. His purpose 
 to do tliis was determined upon at once. 
 
 Harman was a bold and active man. He believed this 
 raid was made more by accident than design and that it 
 indicated no uprising of the Indians nor any purj^ose to 
 harass the settlements. It was not regarded as of suffi- 
 cient im])ortance to delay the settlement to be made at the 
 mouth of John's Creek. He assembled those interested 
 
5" 
 
 orq 
 
 
HARMAN'S STATION 65 
 
 in that enterprise and gave them instructions as to what 
 they should carry with them, when to set out, wliat to do in 
 case they should arrive before he could return there from 
 pursuit of the Indians, and the most favorable route for 
 them to take on the journey. There were about twenty- 
 five men in this colony, but the exact number is not known, 
 and their names are lost to us. We know that among 
 them were Matthias Ifarnian, Absalom Lusk, Henry 
 Skaggs, James Skaggs liis brother, Robert TIawes, Daniel 
 Harman, Adam Harman, and Henry Harman. It is be- 
 lieved that a man named Horn, also one named Leek, were 
 with the colonists. Harman selected ten of the most 
 experienced Indian fighters to go with him in ])ursuit of 
 the ])arty having Mrs. Wiley and her child in cai>tivity. 
 Thomas Wiley was not a member of the colony and did not 
 go out with tliem.^" 
 
 Matthias Harman and his company of hunters sot out 
 early in the day in juirsuit of the Indians. So confident 
 that he was right did Harman feel that he did not at first 
 attem]it to follow the trail made by the savages, but went 
 directly to the head waters of the Bluestone River and 
 crossed the Great Flat Top Mountain. He found the trail 
 of the Indians in the hills about the head of the Tug River ; 
 it followed the old Indian wai^iath as Harman had con- 
 jectured. This ancient way was so well defined that it 
 required no effort to discover and follow it, which made 
 their pursuit rapid and certain. Each camp of the In- 
 dians was discovered, and it was i)lain that the Indians 
 were being gained upon every day. 
 
 If the Indians had not left the old war-path and turned 
 down the small streams to Tug River they would have 
 been overhauled by Harman and his party in a few hours. 
 
 16 Mr. Wiley had not returnod from tlio i)ursiiit made down the New 
 River, so his son always said. He also said that his father was unnerved by 
 the destruction of his family, and that he was at the time unfit for the war- 
 path. 
 
66 BARMAN'S STATION 
 
 It was difficult traveling on horseback along the small 
 streams, for they were frequently choked with thickets. 
 This caused delay when rapid movement was so necessary. 
 Hai-man saw that the Indians were not far in advance and 
 were aware of the presence of the party in pursuit. Just 
 before night they found the body of Mrs. Wiley's child, 
 which they buried in a shallow grave hastily dug with 
 tomahawks and scalping knives. A few minutes after the 
 Indians had plunged into the water and crossed Tug River 
 Harman and his men stood upon the spot they had left. 
 It was impossible to get the horses across the river in its 
 flooded condition on such a night. The party camped on 
 the bank of the river and spent the night in building rafts 
 upon which to carry over the baggage in the morning. 
 
 HaiTnan effected a safe crossing early the following 
 day. It was past noon when he again found the Indian 
 trail, which wound through a country so rough and hilly 
 that it was well nigh impossible to follow it with horses. 
 When he arrived at the point where the Indians had 
 crossed the Louisa River it was the unanimous opinion 
 of all the hunters that it was useless to follow the trail 
 further. They all believed that it would be impossible 
 to come up with the Indians. Mrs. Wiley was relieved of 
 the burden of her child, and the Indians being apprised 
 of the pursuit would hold their course to the rough, bush- 
 grown, stony ridges where horses could scarcely go. So, 
 with regret, the pursuit was abandoned at the Louisa 
 River. 
 
 From the point where the Indian trail was abandoned 
 Harman and his company ascended the Louisa River to 
 the mouth of John's Creek and went into camp in the old 
 iiuiiting lodge built there by Harman more than thirty 
 years before. There the river runs against the bluff on 
 its west side, leaving a broad bottom on the east side of 
 the river below the mouth of John's Creek. It was an 
 ideal i>hice for a pioneer settlement. The great war-path 
 
HARMAN'S STATION 67 
 
 up the river ran on the west side of the stream at that 
 point. There the stream is deep. John's Creek is a 
 stream of considerable size, having its sources in the moun- 
 tain ranges about the head waters of the Tug and Louisa 
 rivers. Should the larger streams be beset with Indians 
 the valley of the smaller one would afford a safe way to 
 the settlements in Virginia. 
 
 The bottom in which it was designed to build the fort of 
 the settlement was then covered with trees ranging in size 
 from the shrub to the giant sycamore with its girth of 
 forty feet. These trees were of several varieties -birch, 
 beech, maple, linn, oak, poplar, and others. It was cov- 
 ered with a thick growth of cane which furnished winter 
 pastures for buffalo, elk, and deer, and which was an indi- 
 cation of deep and lasting fertility. 
 
 The colonists expected directly from Virginia did not 
 arrive for some days after the coming of Harman and his 
 company. Their horses were heavily packed, and their 
 progress through forests and over streams was necessar- 
 ily slow. High water hindered much. 
 
 The site selected for the fort was almost half a mile 
 below the mouth of John's Creek and about one hundred 
 yards back from the east bank of the Louisa River. The 
 fort was built on the plan common to the forts in frontier 
 settlements. It was about twenty feet square and two 
 stories in height. The upper story projected beyond the 
 walls of the lower story about two feet on eveiy side, and 
 this extra space was floored with lieavy timbers in which 
 loop-holes were cut through which to fire down upon 
 besieging Indians should they ever come to such close 
 quarters. The walls of both stories were provided with 
 openings through which to fire upon a foe. Tlie door or 
 gate was made of split oak timbers six inches in thickness. 
 It was hung upon strong wooden hinges made by the 
 hunters, opened inward, and was secured by an immense 
 beam of oak. The roof sloped up from eaoli of the four 
 
68 HARMAN'S STATION 
 
 sides of the fort to a point in the center, and was made of 
 tliick slabs of white oak timber ' ' pinned " to the log " ribs ' ' 
 or rafters with long wooden pins or pegs driven into holes 
 bored with an auger. A small stream flowed from the 
 hills back of the bottom and passed close by the fort, and 
 upon it the settlers relied for water. The timber about 
 the fort was cut off close to the ground and burned back 
 the full space of rifle range. This was done to deprive 
 the Indians of cover should they ever besiege the fort. 
 
 This rude and strong ])uilding thus erected by the rough 
 backwoodsmen of the A^irginia frontier, all of whom were 
 as brave and hardy as any who ever founded a frontier 
 post, was the famous blockhouse. The settlement com- 
 menced by its erection was called 
 
 haeman's station 
 
 It was the first settlement made in Eastern Kentucky. 
 There was at that time no settlement in either of the 
 present counties of Pike, Floyd, Lawrence, Boyd, Greenup, 
 Carter, Elliott, Morgan, Wolfe, Magoffin, Breathitt, Knott, 
 Letcher, or Martin. There were no settlements on the 
 Tug River, and none in any of the present counties of 
 West Virginia touching that stream. 
 
 This fort was built by Matthias Harman and back- 
 woodsmen whom he had induced to cast their lots with 
 liini in the wilderness. 
 
 The fort was built in the winter of 1787-88.^' 
 
 17 In the preface it was announced that the dates fixed by Mr. Wiley 
 would be followed. This is the date fixed by him. E have no doubt 
 as to its aeoiiracy. F refer again to the inap to be found in Imlay 's Amer- 
 ican Topnfini])lni. The author says: " In order to communicate a distinct 
 idea of the present complexion of the State of Kentucky, I have drawn a 
 map from the best authorities, from which you will discern that Kentucky 
 is nlron<ly divi<led into nine counties; and villages are springing up in every 
 I«irt within its limts, while roads have been opened to shorten the distance 
 to Virpinin." llannan's Station is correctly located on the said map. 
 The «itc i»f Vancouver's attempted settlement is marked " Vancouvers. " 
 Hclntive u, ttint attemy.t T set out an afTidavit made bv .John Planks in 18:^8. 
 
IIAR.MAXS ►STATION 69 
 
 wheu Hanks was in his seventy-fifth year. It was first i-ublislunl by Dr 
 Ely in his work on the Big Sandy Valley : 
 
 " 1 was employed by Charles Vancouver in the month of February, 1789. 
 along with several other men, to go to the forks of Big Sandy River, for 
 the purijose of settling, clearing and improving the Vancouver tract, situ 
 ated on the point formed by the junction of the Tug and Levisa Forks, and 
 near where the town of Louisa now stands. In March, 1789, shortly after 
 Vancouver and his men settled on said point, the Indians stole all their 
 horses but one, which they killed. We all, about ten in number, except 
 three or four of Vancouver's men, remained there during that year, and 
 left the next March, except three or four men left to hold possession. Hut 
 they were driven off in April, 1790, by the Indians. Vancouver went East 
 in May, 1789, for a stock of goods, and returned in the fall of the same year. 
 We had to go to the mouth of the Kanawha River, a distance of eighty- 
 seven miles, for corn, and no one was settled near us; probably the nearest 
 was a fort about thirty or forty miles away, and this was built may be 
 early in 1790. The fort we built consisted of three cabins and some pens 
 made of logs, like corn cribs, and reaching from one cabin to the other. 
 
 ' ' We raised some vegetables and deadened several acres of ground, 
 say about eighteen, on the point, but the horses being stolen, we were unabh- 
 to raise a crop. (Signed) John H.\nks." 
 
 The nearest fort, " about thirty or forty miles away," which was 
 " built may be early in 1790." was the fort erected in rebuilding the 
 blockhouse put up by Matthias Harman and his associates in the winter 
 of 1787-88. and which had been destroyed by the Indians, who burned it. 
 The settlers who had been obliged to return to Virginia at the time of its 
 destruction, returned with reinforcements in the winter of 1789-90 and 
 built another fort in the Blockhouse Bottom. Although often attacked, they 
 never again abandoned the settlement. 
 
CHAPTER IX 
 
 After passing through the horrors of such an ordeal as 
 that to which she had been subjected Mrs. Wiley found it 
 impossible to sleep. She had nerved herself to face death 
 with resignation, and her nerves were unstrung with the 
 relaxation following her unexpected deliverance from the 
 stake. And she was troubled by the change of masters. 
 She feared the Cherokee. He was in every way different 
 from the Shawnee chief. He was quick and energetic of 
 action, cruel, savage, and treacherous by nature, always 
 restless and anxious to be moving. While she believed 
 that she owed her life to his interference in her behalf she 
 was not sure the future would prove that she would have 
 much to be thankful for in that matter. Her chance of 
 escape seemed cut off and that troubled her ; she regretted 
 that slie had not made the effort to escape months before. 
 While pondering over these things she fell into a broken 
 and troubled sleep. She found this a most strange sleep 
 for she seemed more awake than ever. She was never 
 sure she was asleep at all, but she always insisted that she 
 saw this vision or had this remarkable dream: The 
 young man so lately tortured by the Indians came to her 
 bearing in his hand a lamp made from the bleached skull 
 of a sheep, the brain cavity of which was filled with buffalo 
 Uillow in wliich was a wick that was burning brightly. 
 The young man did not speak, but by signs indicated that 
 she must follow him. Then her bonds fell away. The 
 young man threaded the deep defiles of the forest with the 
 flame of his lamp fluttering in the wind. He did not look 
 hack to sec if she wore following him. Arriving at a steep 
 moiiiitaiii oi" great height he rapidly ascended it. Wlien 
 
HARMAN'S STATION 71 
 
 he reached the top he blew strongly upon his lamp-flauio 
 which immediately leaped to a height sufficient to reveal 
 the whole country below. She looked where he pointed 
 across a river. There stood a fort erected by white men. 
 As she was anxiously appealing to him for infonnation 
 as to who dwelt there the light paled, flickered a moment, 
 then was gone. She was left alone in the darkness, and 
 was immediately roused from her slumber. This dream 
 or manifestation or phenomena, by whatever name, was 
 repeated twice, the last time being just as the Indians 
 began to stir in the camp.^® 
 
 Mrs. Wiley was unbound by the Cherokee, and informed 
 by him that it was his purpose to set out on the journey to 
 his town in a day or two, but that he was going that morn- 
 ing to the great buffalo lick on Big Mudlick Creek to kill 
 game. It was not long until the whole band of Indians 
 left the camp. Mrs. Wiley was again bound and left in 
 the camp in the rockhouse. She soon fell into a deep 
 sleep from which she was wakened by the roaring of a 
 heavy storm of wind and rain. The instant that she awoke 
 the peculiar dream came to her mind with gi-eat force. It 
 seemed to be a call to her to make an effort to escape ; at 
 least, she so regarded it, and she decided to act upon it. 
 She saw the wind was blowing the rain into one comer of 
 the rockhouse. She rolled herself over and over until 
 she lay in this rain blown in by the wind. It was but a 
 short time until the raw-hide thongs with which she was 
 
 18 To those familiar with psychology and psychical ijheuomcna re- 
 markable dreams or manifestatious to one under stress of nervous ex- 
 citement or great strain or disturbance of the mental faculties are not 
 strange; they are not impossible, improbable, nor even unusual. Volumes 
 could be filled with authentic instances of such dreams or manifestations. 
 Mrs. Wiley always believed she was assisted by this dream to make her 
 escape. She believed after this dream that there were white people in 
 the country about her. The route by which the settlement could be 
 reached was unknown to her and had not been seen in her dream. The 
 young man led her straight through the woods to a high mountain which 
 does not in fact exist. But she saw it in her dream, and from the top of 
 it she saw the fort in a settlement of her own people. 
 
72 HARMAN'S STATlOxN 
 
 bound were soaked and became slippery and easily re- 
 moved. AVlien free she bound her dog to a large stone to 
 prevent his following her, seized a tomahawk and a scalp- 
 ing knife, and descended quickly to the bed of Little Mud- 
 lick Creek. She waded that stream to its junction with the 
 larger stream, which she waded to Big Paint Creek. There 
 she remembered that she had no well-defined plan of ac- 
 tion, but after a little time spent in reflection she remem- 
 bered that she had seen a river in her dream, and concluded 
 that she might reach this river by wading continuously 
 down stream. She acted upon that conclusion. She 
 found it difficult to wade in Big Paint Creek. It is a 
 deep, swift stream, and the heavy rain quickly raised the 
 small streams flowing into it, and they carried in muddy 
 water, which soon made it impossible for her to determine 
 the depth. She was often carried oiT her footing, and 
 more than once was in danger of drowning. 
 
 Big Paint Creek makes a big bend which she was com- 
 pelled to follow around, and it was growing dusk when she 
 was at the mouth of the Rockhouse branch. At the mouth 
 of Jennie's Creek she crossed Paint Creek. She waded 
 up Jennie's Creek, which the heavy rain had put out of its 
 banks. Wind and i-ain continued all night. When she 
 reached the forks of Jennie's Creek she was almost ex- 
 hausted, and for a time there she was much puzzled as to 
 which hiimdi of the stream she should follow. Her choice 
 of branches was right; she turned to the left and followed 
 the Lick Fork. In half a mile she was again compelled 
 to choose between two branches of the stream, for there 
 the M iddle Fork falls into the Lick Fork. She again turn- 
 ed to the h'ft, and again her choice was right. She followed 
 the l>ick Foi-k to the mouth of a small branch coming in 
 I'loin the east. Here she left the larger stream and fol- 
 lowed the little one to its head, where she crossed through 
 a gaj) to tlu; stream now known as the Bear Branch, which 
 iilie descended to its junction with Little Paint Creek. 
 
II ARM AN "S STATION 73 
 
 Continuing down the latter stream she stood upon the 
 bank of the Louisa Kiver as the dull dawn of a cloudy 
 morning appeared in the east. It is unnecessaiy to dwell 
 here upon the exhausted condition of Mrs. Wiley. She 
 had waded against swift currents of ovei'flowed streams 
 for more than twelve hours, and had been wading for as 
 much as eighteen hours. She dragged lierself u]) the bank 
 of the river and soon came O]:)posite the block) louse. She 
 saw women and children there, but no man was in sight. 
 She called out to make her presence known and for assist- 
 ance to cross the river. So unexyiected a cry alanned the 
 people at the fort, and they went in hurriedly and closed 
 the gate.'*' 
 
 Here was a wholly unlooked-for discouragement. Mrs. 
 Wiley was impatient and anxious, fully ex])ecting to be 
 followed by the savages. Seeing now the blockhouse, she 
 reasoned that the Indians knew of its existence and would 
 seek her in that direction. She was fearful that they 
 might appear at any minute. She continued to call to the 
 people in the fort, calling out her name and saying that 
 
 1'' Mrs. Wiley always insisted that she had no knowledge of the 
 existence of the blockhouse when she left the rockhouse at the falls of 
 Little Mudlick Creek. She had seen a fort beyond a river in her dream 
 the night before her escape, and she supposed that by descending the 
 creeks she would reach the fiver. Her contention is upheld by the facts 
 developeil in the flight. It was almost dark when she was at the mouth 
 of the Rockhouse branch, and at the mouth of .Jennie's Creek it was dark 
 and was raining very hard. She said something told her she must cross 
 to Jennie's Creek and follow it. To do this was to abandon her original 
 plan of following down stream until she found the river. At the mouth 
 of Jennie's Creek she was not two miles from the Indian camj). If she 
 had known anything of the route u]) Jennie's Creek she could have reached 
 the mouth of the creek in less than an hour by following the route of the 
 present highway between the two points, and the amount of rain falling 
 would have enabled her to wade small streams all the way and conceal 
 her trail. Her ignorance of the physical features of the surrounding 
 country saved her; for it was afterward discovered that when the Indians 
 found that she had escaped they supposed that she had goiu* tlirectly to 
 the mouth of Jennie's Creek, and they followed tiiat route in their first 
 si-arcli lor lier. Wliiie it was yet light they were scduring the banks of 
 I'aint Creek ami those of the lower courses of .leiinie's Creek seeking some 
 
74 HARMAN'S STATION 
 
 she had escaped from the Indians, whom she expected to 
 follow her. After what appeared to her to be a long time 
 an old man came out of the fort. She recognized him at 
 once as Henry Skaggs, an old-time friend of her father. 
 It did not require much time for her to convince him that 
 she was Jennie Wiley, and that she stood in great danger 
 of being recaptured by the Indians. Skaggs knew the 
 Cherokee chief well. He saw that no time was to be lost 
 in getting her across the river. He told Mrs. Wiley that 
 the men of the fort, except himself, had gone away early 
 in the morning with the canoes. He said they would not 
 return for some time, and that he would be compelled to 
 construct a raft upon which to bring her over. He advised 
 her to endeavor to swim across should the Indians appear, 
 as it was his opinion that she would suffer death if recap- 
 tured. 
 
 A dead mulberry tree stood on the bank of the river and 
 Skaggs and the women went vigorously to work to fell it. 
 It was tall and had but few branches. When it fell it very 
 fortunately broke into three pieces of about equal length. 
 These logs were hastily rolled into the river and bound to- 
 
 sign of her, and finding none they abandoned the idea that she had set 
 out for the blockhouse over that route. From the footprints of the In- 
 dians discovered by the settlers and other signs left by the Indians, they 
 sui)i)08Pd that the savages had not been gone an hour when Mrs. Wiley 
 reached the mouth of Jennie's Creek. 
 
 Jennie's Creek was given its name in her honor and because she made 
 her escape in wading several miles against its rapid current. Mrs. Wiley 
 said that it was perfectly plain to her that she must take the left-hand 
 branch, as she was traveling, at the forks of Jennie's Creek. And the 
 Hame thing occurred at the mouth of the Middle Fork. And it wonld seem 
 a miracle that any one could find the mouth of the small branch where 
 Hho turned out of the Lick Fork. It must be remembered that it was pitch 
 d;irk, and that the whole country was covered with a heavy forest, be- 
 neath the boughs of which it would be dark on even a starlight night. 
 Thf darkness, dense as it was, had torrents of rain to augment it. The 
 stnams were running bank full, and for many miles she pushed against 
 the current. Considered from any point, the achievements of Mrs. Wiley 
 that night were most remarkable. I doubt if it is equaled in all the annals 
 of the Border. Her adventures have in them all the requisites for a ro- 
 mance of bordiT life, and the subject is worthy the ablest pen. 
 
Mrs. Wiley and lli'nry Skaggs crossing the Hiv<'r on ;i llaU 
 
HARMAN'S STATION 75 
 
 gether with long grapevines pulled down from the forest 
 trees where they grew wild. Placing two rifles upon the 
 raft Skaggs pushed out into the river which was full to 
 overflow, and which was caiTying much drift. After being 
 carried far down the stream Skaggs made a landing. Mrs. 
 Wiley stepped upon the rude raft and it was again pushed 
 into the stream. When in mid-stream the raft was caught 
 by drift and nearly pulled to pieces but by hard work both 
 raft and drift were brought to some overhanging trees 
 standing on the east bank. The branches of these trees 
 were seized and the raft brought to shore about half a 
 mile below the blockhouse. 
 
 When Mrs. Wiley and Skaggs had gone up the river to 
 the fort and were about to enter the gate Indian yells 
 broke from the thickets over the Louisa. A moment later 
 a large band of Indians came into view, among them the 
 Cherokee chief ; and with them was Mrs, Wiley 's dog. The 
 Cherokee chief saw Mrs. Wiley at the entrance to the fort. 
 He called out to her to know why she had left him after he 
 had saved her life and paid his silver for her. lie insisted 
 that she had not treated him as she should have done, and 
 closed his appeal with the words, *' honor, Jennie, honor!" 
 She did not reply to him. Skaggs fired his rifle in the 
 direction of the savages, though the distance was too great 
 for the range of small arms. At the discharge of the rifle 
 the Cherokee turned about, and with a defiant gesture-" 
 uttered a fearful whoop, in which he was joined by his 
 warriors. Seeing that Mrs. Wiley had escaped and that lie 
 could not recapture her, the Cherokee chief disappeared 
 in the woods, followed by his savage companions and Afrs. 
 Wiley's dog. 
 
 The report of the gun discharged by Henr>' Skaggs 
 brought the men back to the blockhouse. Later in the day, 
 after some preparation, the men crossed the river and 
 followed the trail of the Indians almost to Little Mudliok 
 
 20 Patted his buttocks 
 
76 HARxMAN'S STATION 
 
 Creek. From Mrs. Wiley's account of the number of In- 
 dians at the camp the hunters believed they had a force too 
 small to attack them, so they returned after having gone 
 to the mouth of Jennie's Creek. It was not improbable 
 that the Indians would attack the fort soon, and upon the 
 return of tlie hunters things were put in a posture of de- 
 fense. No attack was made upon the blockhouse, but the 
 Indians prowled about it for several days, and they were 
 in tlie vicinity for some weeks. 
 
 Airs. Wiley found friends in the blockhouse. Most of 
 the settlers were well known to her in Virginia. She was 
 anxious to return to her husband and relatives. When 
 the winter was well commenced a party commanded by 
 Matthias Ilarman took her to her Virginia settlements and 
 restored her to her husband and relatives. On the way the 
 party was attacked several times, but succeeded in beating 
 off tlie savages.-^ It was unusual to find Indians in the 
 woods in the winter, and from this circumstance it was 
 feared that they would prove exceedingly troublesome to 
 the settlers at the blockhouse the next summer. 
 
 Mrs. Wiley was in captivity about eleven months. Af- 
 ter her return she and her husband lived in Virginia about 
 twelve years; they then moved to Kentucky, settling on 
 the Big Sandy River just above the mouth of Tom's Creek, 
 in what is now Johnson County, and some fifteen miles 
 from the blockhouse and ten or twelve miles from the old 
 Indian town at the mouth of Little Mudlick Creek. The 
 Presbyterians had no church organization in that part of 
 Kentucky, and she and hei- husband were members of the 
 i^>;i I »t i st ( '1 1 u rcli. Thomas Wiley died where he first settled 
 ill Kentucky about the year 1810, and Mrs. Wiley re- 
 mained a widow twenty-one years, dying of paralysis in 
 
 -' Till' attiicks madp l)v the Indians upon the party which escorted Mrs. 
 Wiley back to Virginia .iiid the devices practiced to evade the savages would 
 in thoiMHelves make an interesting story. It often seemed as though they 
 were lost, and Mrs. Wiley had to bear a rifle aiui fight with the others, \vhich 
 she did efTecfively and with a good will. 
 
TIARMAX'S STATION 77 
 
 the year 1831. They left a hirge family and their deseend- 
 ants live now in the Big Sandy Valley and are numerous 
 and respectable. 
 
 The Indians attacked the l)lockhouse several times dur- 
 ing the summer of 1788. The settlers surrounded it with 
 a stockade. The Indians maintained something of a 
 siege which lasted for about three weeks. This was in 
 September. On account of their presence all the time no 
 crops could be raised that smnmer. Several of them were 
 killed by the settlers. Some of the settlers became dis- 
 couraged, and as soon as cold weather enabled them to do 
 so they returned to the Virginia settlements. Thus weak- 
 ened it was not believed that the fort could be defended 
 another year. The settlers all returned to Virginia during 
 the winter of 1788-89. The Indians immediately destroy- 
 ed the blockhouse. It was burned, together with some 
 cabins which the settlers had erected in the vicinity. 
 
 In the winter of 1789-90 some of these settlers returned 
 to the blockhouse site. They were accompanied by other 
 settlers, a majority of whom were from Lee and Scott 
 counties, Virginia. They erected a second blockhouse 
 where the first one had stood, but it was not so substan- 
 tially built as was the first one. In the sunmier of 1791 
 many new settlers came. The settlement was troul)led 
 much by the Indians for several years, but it was never 
 again broken up. It is believed that iMatthias Harman 
 did not again settle ]iermanently in the Blockhouse Bot- 
 tom, though he was there for some years. He died in 
 Tazewell County, Virginia. Daniel Harman became a 
 permanent settler in the vicinity of the first settlement, 
 and his descendants in the Big Sandy Valley are many. 
 They are industrious, and are good citizens. Henry Skaggs 
 and James Skaggs both returned to Kentucky. They 
 lived for some years in the vicinity of the Blockhouse Bot- 
 tom, but when times were settled they went to live on the 
 head waters of Big Blaine Creek. Their (h'scendants live 
 
78 HARMAN'S STATION 
 
 now on Big Blaine Creek, the Little Sandy River, and the 
 Licking River. The Leeks came with the second settle- 
 ment, and their descendants are yet to be found on the 
 Louisa River. The same can be said of the Horns. An 
 account of the families which came with the settlers in the 
 second colony will be furnished at some time in the future. 
 

CHAPTER X 
 
 OTHER ACCOUNTS 
 
 I have believed it well to set out in an additional chapter 
 other accounts of the captivity of Mrs. Wiley. It is not 
 necessary to make any comment on them, for when they 
 are read in connection with my account as written from 
 the dictation of Adam P. Wiley the causes for any differ- 
 ences of statement will readily appear. 
 
 The adventures of Mrs. Wiley are related in every 
 household in the Big Sandy Valley. I was perfectly famil- 
 iar with them long before I ever saw Mr. Wiley. They are 
 related now in a variety of forms, and like all traditionary 
 accounts of an important event after the lapse of more 
 than a century they differ somewhat as to details. The 
 following account furnished me by my friend, James Hay- 
 den Van Hoose, of Fayetteville, Arkansas, is a fair state- 
 ment of the tradition as it is briefly related in these days. 
 Writing me under date of August 4, 1895, he says : 
 
 I have heard my grandmother tell the story as she re- 
 ceived it from old Jennie Wiley nearly ninety years ago. 
 Jennie Wiley was one of the early settlers in Western 
 Virginia, and on a day in the fall of the year while all the 
 men folks of the settlement were off on a scout, a band of 
 Indians came in and murdered and plundered the ]ieople 
 left at home. All her children were killed excei)t her 
 youngest, then about 15 months old, which they allowed 
 her to carry with her into captivity. They took her down 
 into Kentucky and kept her with them until in the early 
 part of the next spring. Another babe was l)orn which 
 they allowed her to nurse for a few weeks, but becoming 
 uneasy about some news brought in by their scouts, they 
 killed'both of her babes one night and dried tlioir little 
 scalps by the fire before her eyes. She saw that trouble 
 was brewing and resolved to make an effort to escape. 
 
80 IIARMAN'S STATION 
 
 After they were asleep slie quietly stole away from the 
 cam}), traveling- in the direction she thought would lead to 
 the white settlements. All night she traveled, accompan- 
 ied by her faithful little dog who had followed her from 
 her home, and stayed by her all the time in captivity. 
 
 She reached the mouth of this little creek which empties 
 into Paint Creek, and she followed it to its head. During 
 the day a little snow fell, and for fear they would track her 
 in the snow she waded in the water, but her little dog would 
 run along the bank. To keep them from finding his tracks 
 in the snow, she called him to her in the water, and held 
 him under until he was drowned. She said she could not 
 keep back the tears while drowning him as she thought of 
 how faitfhul he had been to her. She said she passed 
 through the low gap now known as " Hager's Gap," where 
 my father afterward built his house, in which I was born 
 ()G years ago and a ])ortion of which yet stands. Travel- 
 ing up a little branch, once known as the " Stillhouse 
 Branch," to its head, she reached the " Limestone Cliff," 
 at the mouth of the " Limestone Branch," late at night. 
 She rested under the clifT of rocks and slept a few hours 
 until daylight, when she renewed her tramp along the 
 river bank, until she reached a point directly opposite the 
 blockhouse, or rude fort. She called loudly as she could 
 for some one to come over after her. The river was very 
 high, and some of the women came down to the bank. She 
 called to them to send some one over after her, as she 
 knew the Indians were after her ; but they answered her 
 by saying there was no canoe about the fort, and that the 
 men were all gone after Indians on a scout, and only one 
 old man left with the women and little children, and he 
 was 80 years old, and feeble. She told them to get some 
 dry logs and ])in them together and make a raft, but they 
 told her llici-e was not any auger about the place. Then 
 siie said tie the logs together with ropes. But there was 
 no ro])e. 'i'hen she said " get a grape vine " and tie the 
 logs together with that. 
 
 The old man and women got three dry ])oplar logs and 
 fa.stened them together with grape vines, and got a board 
 for a j)addle. The old nuin got on the raft and shoved it 
 from the shore, lie finally reached the side where she 
 was so Miixiously waiting, and she got on the other end of 
 
The escape of Mrs. Wiley from the Indiiiiis ;it tln' Falls of 
 Little Mudliek Creek 
 
HARMAN'S STATION 81 
 
 the raft and shoved it from the shore. Tlie ohl man be^^^au 
 paddling for the shore from whence lie liad eome. The 
 strong current carried tliem down the river some distance, 
 and finally the vines began to come loose. The raft began 
 to spread apart. The old man ceased ))addling and fell 
 upon his knees and began to ])ray, l)ut Mrs. Wih^y Jiad more 
 faith in " works " than in }»rayei-. She s<mz(m1 the paddle 
 out of his hands, and while he prayed she paddled, and 
 succeeded in ])i"0])elling the raft in under some swinging 
 maple limbs that overhung the water. The old man 
 grabbed hold of the limbs and pulled the raft ashoie ; they 
 both reached dry land in safety. And none too soon, 
 either; for just as they reached the top of the bank, three 
 Indians came to the opposite shore, on her trail, and called 
 out in a loud voice, '^ Whoopee, my pretty Jinnie ! " But 
 '* Jinnie " was all right, for she had reached the fort, and 
 the Indians not knowing that the men were all gone, were 
 afraid to venture over. 
 
 The following is the account of the captivity of Mrs. 
 Wiley written by Rev. Zephaniah Meek, editor and pro- 
 prietor of The Central Methodist, of Catlettsburg, Ken- 
 tucky, for Dr. Ely's The Big Sandy Valley. With the 
 exception of the date this brief sketch is singularly ac- 
 curate. Mr. Meek was familiar with the stor>' of Mrs. 
 Wiley almost all his life. I believe he was born near the 
 Wiley homestead on the Big Sandy River. 
 
 Jenny Wiley 
 
 The most romantic histoiy in the early settlement of 
 the Big Sandy Valley is that of Jenny Wiley. This histt)ry 
 we proceed to give from the most reliable sources at our 
 command, drawing our facts mainly from TTardesty's 
 *' Historical and Biograi)hical Encyclopedia." 
 
 There is hardly a man or woman in Eastern Kciihicky 
 who is not familiar with the story of the life of tiiis re- 
 markable woman. The facts of her ca]iture by the In- 
 dians, escape from them, and return to her home, have 
 been handed down from parent to child, and they are well 
 remembered. Her maiden name was Jenny Sellards. She 
 married Thomas Wilev, a native of Trelanrl, who h:id em- 
 
82 HARMAN'S STATION 
 
 igrated and settled on Walker's Creek, in Wythe, now 
 Tazewell County, Va., where they were living at the time 
 of the capture by the Indians. She had a sister living near 
 by, the wife of John Borders, who was the father of the 
 Rev. John Borders, a noted Baptist preacher, Hezekiah 
 Borders, Judge Archibald Borders, and several daughters. 
 Several families named Haniion lived in the same neigh- 
 borhood, some of whom were noted Indian scouts. 
 
 At the time of the capture of Jenny, Thomas Wiley, her 
 husband, was out in the woods digging ginseng. This was 
 in the year 1790. The destruction of the Wiley family, as 
 hereafter recorded, was a result of a mistake on the part 
 of the savages. Some time previously, in an engagement 
 with a party of Cherokees, one of the Harmons had shot 
 and killed two or three of their number, and a party of five 
 returned to seek vengeance on the Harmons, but ignorant 
 of the location of their cabin, fell upon Wiley's instead. 
 
 John Borders warned Mrs. Wiley that he feared Indians 
 were in the neighborhood, and urged her to go to his house 
 and remain until Wiley's return, but as she had a piece of 
 cloth in the loom, she said she would finish it and then go. 
 The delay on the part of Mrs. Wiley was a fatal one. 
 Darkness came on, and with it came the attack upon the 
 defenseless family. The Indians rushed into the house, 
 nnd after tomahawking and scalping a younger brother 
 and three of the children, and taking Mrs. Wiley, her in- 
 fant (a year and a half old), and Mr. Wiley's hunting 
 dog, started towards the Ohio River. At the time the In- 
 dian trail led down what is now known as Jennie's Creek, 
 and along it they proceeded until they reached the mouth 
 of that stream, and then down Tug and Big Sandy rivers 
 to the Ohio. 
 
 No sooner had the news of the horrid butchery spread 
 among the inhabitants of the Walker's Creek settlement 
 than a party, among whom were Lazrus Damron and 
 Matthias Harmon, started in ])ursuit. They followed on 
 for several days, ])ut failing to come up with the pei-pe- 
 trators of tlie terrible outrage, the pursuit was abandoned, 
 and all returned to their homes. The Indians expected 
 that they would be followed, and the infant of Mrs. Wiley 
 ])r()viiig an incumbrance to their flight, they dashed out its 
 bniiiis against a beech tree when a sliort distance below 
 
HARMAN'S STATION 83 
 
 where Mr. William C. Crum now resides, and two miles 
 from Jennie's Creek. This tree was standing and well 
 known to the inhabitants of this section during the first 
 quarter of the present century. 
 
 When the savages, with their captive, reached the Ohio, 
 it was very much swollen ; with a shout of 0-high-o, they 
 turned down that stream, and continued their journey to 
 the mouth of the Little Sandy. Up that stream they went 
 to the mouth of Dry Fork, and up the same to its head, 
 when they crossed the dividing ridge and proceeded down 
 what is now called Cherokee Fork of Big Blaine Creek, to 
 a point within two miles of its mouth, where they halted and 
 took shelter between a ledge of rocks. Here they remained 
 for several months, and during the time Mrs. Wiley was 
 delivered of a child. At this time the Indians were very 
 kind to her; but when the child was three weeks old they 
 decided to test him, to see whether he would make a brave 
 warrior. Having tied him to a flat piece of wood they 
 slipped him into the water to see if he would cry. He 
 screamed furiously, and they took him by the heels and 
 dashed his brains out against an oak tree. 
 
 When they left this encampment they ])roceeded down 
 to the mouth of Cherokee Creek, then up Big Blaine to the 
 mouth of Hood's Fork, thence up that stream to its source ; 
 from here they crossed over the dividing ridge to the 
 waters of Mud Lick, and down the same to its mouth, 
 where they once more formed an encampment. 
 
 About this time several settlements were made on the 
 headwaters of the Big Sandy, and the Indians decided to 
 kill their captive, and accordingly prepared for the execu- 
 tion ; but just when the awful hour was come, an old Chero- 
 kee chief, who in the meantime had joined the party, pro- 
 posed to buy her from the others on condition tluit she 
 would teach his squaws to make cloth like the gown she 
 wore. Thus was her life saved, but she was reduced to the 
 most abject slavery, and was made to carr>" water, wood, 
 and build fires. For some time they bound her when they 
 were out hunting ; but as time wore away they relaxed their 
 vigilance, and at last permitted her to remain unbound. 
 
 On one occasion, when all were out from camp, they 
 were belated, and at nightfall did not return, and Mrs. 
 Wilev now resolved to earn- into eifect a long-cherished 
 
84 HARMAN'S STATION 
 
 object, that of making her escape and returning to her 
 friends. The rain was falling fast, and the night was in- 
 tensely dark, but she glided away from the camp-fire and 
 set out on her lonely and perilous journey. Her dog, the 
 same that had followed the party through all their wan- 
 derings, started to follow her, but she drove him back, lest 
 by his barking he might betray her into the hands of her 
 pursuers. She followed the course of Mud Lick Creek to 
 its mouth, and then crossing Main Paint Creek, journeyed 
 up a stream (ever since known as Jennie's Creek) a dis- 
 tance of some miles, thence over a ridge and down a 
 stream, now called Little Paint Creek, which empties into 
 the Levisa Fork of Big Sandy River. When she reached 
 its mouth it was day-dawn, and on the opposite side of the 
 river, a short distance below the mouth of John's Creek, 
 she could hear and see men at work erecting a block-house. 
 To them she called, and informed them that she was a cap- 
 tive escai)ing from the Indians, and urged them to hasten 
 to her rescue, as she believed her pursuers to be close upon 
 her. The men had no boat, but hastily rolling some logs 
 into the river and lashing them together with grape-vines, 
 they pushed over the stream and carried her back with 
 them. As they were ascending the bank, the old chief who 
 had claimed Jenny as his property, preceded by the dog, 
 appeared upon the opposite bank, and striking his hands 
 upon his breast, exclaimed in broken English, ''Honor, 
 Jenny, honor! " and then disappeared in the forest. 
 
 That was the last she ever saw of the old chief or her 
 dog. She remained here a day or two to rest from her 
 fatigue, and then with a guide made her way back to her 
 home, having been in captivity more than eleven months. 
 Here she rejoined her husband, who had long supposed 
 her dead, and together, nine years after — in the year 
 1800 — they abandoned their home in the Old Dominion, 
 and found another near the mouth of Tom's Creek, on the 
 ))anks of the Levisa Fork of Big Sandy. Here her hus- 
 l)aii(l died in the year 1810. She survived him twenty-one 
 years, and died of paralysis in the year 1831. 
 
 The Indians had killed her brother and five of her chil- 
 • Ircii, hut after her return from captivity five others were 
 l»<)ni, namely : Ilezekiah, Jane, Sally, Adam, and William. 
 
 Iff'zcki.'ih married Miss Christine Nelson, of George's 
 
Mi's. \ViI('>' oil llic I\i\cr-lt;mk ojjpositc tlic Ulocklioiisc ciillinf,' tor lidp 
 
HARMAN'S STATION 85 
 
 Creek, Kentucky, aud settled on Twelve Pole Creek, where 
 he lived for many years ; he died in 1832, [ 1882 ], while on a 
 visit to friends in Kentucky. Jane married Richard 
 Williamson, who also settled on Twelve Pole. Sally first 
 married Christian Yost, of Kentucky, and after hisdcath 
 was united in marriage with Samuel Murray. Slie died 
 March 10, 1871. William raised a large family, and after 
 the sale of the Wiley fann moved to Tom's Creek, ahout 
 two miles from the mouth, where he lived until his death. 
 
 Of the children of Jenny Wiley, Adam P. was the most 
 noted. In physique he was scarcely excelled by any man 
 in the Sandy Valley. Tall, straight as an arrow, brown of 
 skin, slow of movement and speech, he was an attractive 
 figure to look upon. He was known far and wide as 
 ^ ' Vard ' ' Wiley, sometimes called * ' Adam Pre Vard. ' ' 
 Why thus designated the writer is unable to say.* In his 
 early life '' Vard " was a great fiddler, and carried his 
 violin far and near, to make music for the young people to 
 dance by. But uniting himself with the Baptist Church, 
 he for a time gave up the fiddle and went to preaching. 
 His sermons were, like himself, very long, and he was very 
 zealous and earnest. After some years in the ministry — 
 the number we do not remember — he gave up his calling, 
 and was often seen making his old violin ring out charm- 
 ing music for the young people at the log-rolling, house- 
 raising, or corn-husking. He lived to a ripe old age, and 
 died only a few years ago, at his home in Johnson County. 
 Before his death he visited the vrriter, for the purpose of 
 having him write out the life of his mother as he would de- 
 tail it from memory, but our business engagements were 
 such that it was impossible to comply with his request. 
 
 The Wiley family, descendants of Jenny, are quite nu- 
 merous in Johnson ; they are a hard working set of men, 
 and retain in their memory the heroic life of Jenny Wiley 
 as a heritage of priceless value. 
 
 The farm upon which Mr. Wiley settled, just below the 
 mouth of Tom's Creek, was known to all the old peoi)le, 
 far and near, as the '' Wiley Farm." About forty years 
 ago it was sold to James Nibert, who lived upon it until 
 
 * His name was Adam Prevard Wiley. The name Adam was for .\dam 
 Harman who settled at Draper's Meadows in 1748. The SellardB and 
 Harman families intermarried. — B'ilHam E. ConnelU}i. 
 
86 BARMAN'S STATION 
 
 some ten years ago, when he sold it to Samuel Spears, who 
 is the present owner and occupant. 
 
 As the writer was born and reared almost in sight of the 
 •' AViley Farm," he is perfectly familiar with all the lead- 
 ing facts in the life of Jenny Wiley, during her stay with 
 the Indians, and after her escape. 
 
 AMiile they were camping on Mud Lick, some six miles 
 above where Paintsville now stands, she said they fre- 
 ([uently ran short of lead, and when they wanted to re- 
 plenish their stock they had no trouble to do so, and in a 
 very short time. They would go out in the forenoon, and 
 after three or four hours' absence return with something 
 which looked like stones. Then they would build a large 
 fire out of logs, on sidling ground, throw the ore on, and it 
 would melt and run off into trenches prepared for it; 
 afterwards, as needed, it was moulded into bullets. But, 
 notwithstanding the ease with which the Indians procured 
 their lead, the whites have never been able to find the 
 mines from which it was taken. Years have been spent 
 in its search, and long pilgrimages have been made, by 
 those claiming to be able to point out the place, but thus 
 far to no purpose. 
 
 Were we to repeat all the legends that have been handed 
 down from the days of Jenny Wiley, they would seem too 
 incredible for belief in this age, when romance and hard- 
 ships are not so intimately associated as they were then. 
 So, in the preparation of this chapter we have confined 
 ourselves to facts, leaving out the fanciful, which the im- 
 agination of the reader can supply. 
 
 That there are vast lead mines in the valley of Paint 
 Creek, ])erhaps on Mud Lick, there is little room to doubt. 
 That they have never been found, in view of the universal 
 belief of their existence, is likely due to the fact that the 
 peo}tle in that section do not know lead ore when they see 
 it. The stoiy of Jenny Wiley was abundantly confirmed 
 by Indians friendly to the whites, in later days, but they 
 would give no infonnation as to the location. We are 
 sorry wo can not toll our readers where to find these mines ! 
 
 1 iiiscit hcio Iho account written by H. Clay Kagland, 
 Esq., editor and ])ro])rietor of the Logan County (West 
 Virginia) lunmcr. Mr. Kagland wrote a history of his 
 
HARMAN'S STATION 87 
 
 county in installments, which he published in his paper. 
 While there are some errors in it, the history is very valu- 
 able, and in the publication of it Mr. Ragland did his 
 country a great service. I recognized its value as soon as 
 I saw the first chapter, and procured it all; I have it 
 pasted in a scrap book in consecutive order. It is one of 
 the best annals of the valley yet written. The portion 
 given here is chapter five in the series as published in the 
 paper. 
 
 History of Logan County 
 
 By 
 
 H. Clay Ragland 
 
 Chapter V 
 
 As eariy as 1777 Henry Hai-man, a native of Prussia, 
 with his sons, Henry, George and Mathias, and Absalom 
 Lusk, made a settlement in what is now known as Ab's 
 Valley, in what is now Tazewell County. The place se- 
 lected by them had formerly been occupied by Indian 
 lodges, and a portion of the land was ready for cultivation. 
 They were soon joined in their new settlement by John 
 Draper, James Moore, James Evans, Samuel Wiley and 
 George Maxwell, with their families, and thus strength- 
 ened they felt themselves in a manner secure from Indian 
 raids, and their horses and cattle were allowed to run at 
 large in the fertile valley. For awhile all went well. The 
 crops were planted and the wild game so abundant in the 
 valley was hunted, and peace and plenty was promised. 
 Indian eyes, however, watched from the wooded ridge to 
 the west, and on a bright morning in the early summer of 
 1778, Mathias Hanuan and John Draper were out hunting 
 about a mile from the settlement, when, becoming sep- 
 arated, young Harman shot a deer and then commenced 
 to reload his rifle. Before he had finished ho was seized 
 from behind by a stalwart Indian, and on looking up he 
 saw several other Indians in a few feet of him, and he gave 
 up without a struggle. The whoop which the Indians 
 raised at his capture notified Draper of tlie fact and he 
 hurried to the settlement with the news. IToniy Uannan 
 and his sons Heniy and George at once seized their arms, 
 
88 HARMAN'S STATION 
 
 and with Draper pursued rapidly after the Indians whom 
 they overtook, on what is now known as Harman's branch, 
 in McDowell County. Harman and his companions at 
 once opened fire on the Indians, and when the fight was 
 over young Harman was a free man, and five of the In- 
 dians were dead on the field while the others had saved 
 themselves by flight. None of the whites were hurt ex- 
 cept Henry Harman, Sr., who was covered with wounds, 
 six arrowheads being broken off in his flesh ; not extracted 
 until he had been carried back to his home by his boys. 
 Draper is said to have deserted during the fight, and on 
 reaching the settlement had reported that Harman and all 
 of his sons were killed. Eevenge is one of the strongest 
 characteristics of the Indian, as well as all other uncivil- 
 ized races, and doubtless the Indians who escaped with 
 their lives from the fight of Harman's branch, dreamed 
 of being revenged upon the little settlement of Ab's Val- 
 ley ; yet bided their time until the little settlement should 
 again feel themselves secure from attack. 
 
 The crops for 1779 had been scarcely planted and young 
 Mathias Harman was busy raising a company of Rangers 
 to join the patriots in the Carolinas, when in the early 
 part of the spring a party of some thirty Indians dropped, 
 as if from the clouds, upon the little settlement, capturing 
 first James Moore, who had gone to the pasture to look 
 after his horses, and with a savage whoop, bursting into 
 the houses, murdering the Wiley, Moore and Maxwell 
 families, and capturing George Maxwell and Jennie Wiley, 
 the wife of Samuel Wiley, and daughter of James Evans. 
 The alann was soon given, and Captain Mathias Harman, 
 with about forty men of the company which he had been 
 raising, was soon in the saddle and ready for pursuit. 
 General Preston, who had about one hundred men in his 
 command was notified, and made a junction with Harman 
 the next day at or near the present site of W^elch. With 
 tliis force they pushed down the Tug River to its junction 
 with Levisa, and then down the Big Sandy as rapidly as 
 possible, keeping their scouts in advance of them, but 
 they failed to overtake the Indians; in fact they lost all 
 sign of their trail after passing the mouth of Jennie's 
 (^reek, on Tug River. When in al)out eight miles of the 
 mouth of the Big Sandy, at what is now White's Creek, 
 
Mrs. Wiley at the mouth of Little Paint Creek (Kast Point 
 escape from tlie Indians 
 
 in lit'r 
 
HARMAN'S STATION 89 
 
 the scouts reported a large force of ludians, ostiinatcd at 
 a thousand warriors, in front of them, and rapidly ad- 
 vancing up the river. The men iiad not .stop})ed to liuut 
 on the march, and they were entirely out of ])roviHions, 
 and the forced march which they had made had jaded both 
 horses and men. Less than one hundred and fifty men in 
 a wilderness, more than two hundred miles from a settle- 
 ment, fronted by a wily and savage foe, numbering more 
 than five to one, and acquainted with eveiy mountain pass 
 in the country, by which a party could have been thrown 
 in their front and an ambuscade formed, was indeed a 
 critical position. To fight was certain death and even 
 retreat promised but little else. Nothing else, however, 
 remained to be done, and posting his most ex]ierienced 
 men in the rear of his column. Gen. Preston and his l)rave 
 men, chagrined at their failure in recapturing the prison- 
 ers who had been taken from Ab's Valley, set out on their 
 weary retreat up the river. In the meantime a hea\'y rain 
 had commenced, and the mountain streams were in ])laces 
 overflowing their banks, making fording at times difficult, 
 while the soft and yielding earth doubled the labor of the 
 jaded steeds. 
 
 The weary march was kept up during the night, but 
 without incident. The next morning both deer and buffalo 
 were in sight, but they were afraid to fire a gun lest their 
 Indian pursuers might locate them and hurry forward, or 
 worse still, send a column by some nearer route to inter- 
 cept them. Arriving at the mouth of Marrowbone, they 
 found the carcass of a buffalo, which had been left by the 
 Indians on their retreat down the river, and tlie bones with 
 what flesh had been left upon them, were divide<l among 
 the men. A short distance above Marrowbone they came 
 upon a gas spring which had been lighted. Hero they 
 paused for the purpose of resting their horses, and of 
 roasting, as best they could, the meat and bones which they 
 had found at the mouth of Marrowbone. Some of the men 
 to satisfy their hunger, cut the tugs from their saddles 
 and roasted them over the s])ring. After a short rest the 
 gallant little band again took up their line of march up 
 the river. Arriving at the month of Piiroon. they found 
 that Charles Lewis, who had been taken si(*k on their 
 march down the river, and left at that ])lace in cliarge of 
 two companions, had died. Tliey liastily dng a grave and 
 
90 BARMAN'S STATION 
 
 buried him, but just as the last sad rites were being com- 
 pleted, scouts reported the Indian column but a short dis- 
 tance below. Examining the creek, and finding it out of 
 its banks and covered with driftwood and debris, they 
 concluded that it was dangerous to attempt to cross it in 
 the face of the foe, and leaving the old trail, they took up 
 their line of march up the northeastern bank of the creek, 
 hoping to find further up the stream where it could be 
 forded, a gap in the mountain by which they could return 
 to the old trail on the river. Arriving at what is now the 
 mouth of Hell Creek, they went up that stream, thinking 
 it would lead them to the old trail, but after proceeding 
 about three miles they found in front of them an impass- 
 ible barrier of stone and they were forced to retrace their 
 steps to Pigeon, expecting to encounter there the whole 
 force of the Indians. Every gun was examined and a 
 fresh charge of powder put in every pan of their flint-lock 
 rifles. On reaching Pigeon they were agreeably surprised 
 in meeting their scouts to learn that the Indians had gone 
 into camp at the mouth of the creek, throwing only a few 
 scouts across the creek on the old trail. 
 
 Gen. Preston then determined to follow the creek to its 
 head, intending to rest for awhile wherever game could be 
 found. A short distance up the creek and at the mouth of 
 a small creek flowing into Pigeon from the eastward, sev- 
 eral! elks were seen, which were speedily brought down by 
 the trusty rifles, and the party went into camp, picketing 
 their horses so they could feed on the wild grass which was 
 abundant. There were no signs of Indians during the 
 afternoon or night, and after partaking of a hasty meal 
 the next morning the command slowly resumed its march 
 up the creek. A hunting party under charge of Ben Cole 
 was sent on in advance for the purpose of hunting game 
 and fixing up a camp for the next night. This little party 
 ])ushed to the front, leaving a trail by which the main col- 
 umn could be guided, never leaving the creek until they 
 came to its head. Here they crossed over the mountain 
 and wended their way down a small stream until they 
 came to what is now known as the '' Forks of Ben Creek," 
 where they found both game and grass abundant, and 
 Coh', selecting it as the cam]ung ground for the night, 
 made ])i('));n;itions for the command, sending a part of 
 
Tlio TndiMns on the River-bank opposite the l-5Ioekhouse 
 Wih'y liad been taken from this point on the 
 Raft a few minutes before 
 
HARMAN'S STATION 91 
 
 his men out to kill game. Gen. Preston on arriving went 
 into camp, and next morning, having heard nothing fur- 
 ther of the Indian force, detennined to give his men and 
 horses a much-needed rest. It was to him and his com- 
 mand a new country, and scouts were sent out in every 
 direction for the purpose of finding out what they could of 
 the surrounding country, as well as their distance from 
 the old trail over which they had traveled. It was soon 
 ascertained that they were within a mile of the old trail 
 that led up the Tug River, and that they were really 
 camped on another trail that led from the river up the 
 creek. Scouts following this latter trail found that it 
 crossed over a gap of a mountain to another creek which 
 flowed into the Guyandotte Eiver, and now known as Gil- 
 bert's Creek. 
 
 After resting a few days. Gen. Preston sent the com- 
 mand of Capt. Harman back to the settlements, and 
 crossed with his command to the Guyandotte River, where, 
 after reconnoitering the country as far down as the mouth 
 of Buffalo Creek, and then after resting a few days and 
 feasting on buffalo which were found in large herds, he 
 took up his line of march for the settlements, passing up 
 Huff's Creek by the grave of Peter Huff, which being rec- 
 ognized by some of the men, who were with Huff when he 
 was killed, the command paused and refilled the sunken 
 grave with fresh earth and marched back to the settle- 
 ments on New River by the same route over which Capt. 
 Hull had returned two years before. 
 
 Mr. Rag] and places the date of the captivity of Mrs. 
 Wiley in 1779. It is evident that this date is much too 
 early ; it is the year given me by Adam P. Wiley as that in 
 which his parents were united in marriage. At the time 
 of the destruction of their family they had four children. 
 Mr. Ragland has the events and dates mixed in the treat- 
 ment of this and other matters in relation to the history of 
 the Big Sandy Valley. He fixes the number of Indians in 
 the party at "about thirty" or ''some thirty." He 
 makes the pursuing party consist of the expedition com- 
 manded by General Andrew Lewis, and which was sent 
 out in Pebruar}% 1756, and which is known in histor>' as 
 
92 BARMAN'S STATION 
 
 the * ' Sandy Creek Voyage. ' ' He has the expedition com- 
 manded by General William Preston and Captain Matthi- 
 as Harman. 
 
EN DIEU EST TOUT 
 FIAT DEI VOLUNTAS 
 
 Arms Of The. Connelly Family 
 
THE CONNELLY FAMILY 
 
THE CONNELLY FAMILY 
 
 The Connelly Family, we are told, is descended from 
 Milesius,^ King of Spain, through the line of his son Here- 
 mon. The founder of the family was Eogan, ancestor of 
 the Northern Hy Nials and son of Nial of the Nine Host- 
 ages, King of Ireland, A. D. 379. The ancient name was 
 Conally and signifies " A Light." 
 
 The possessions of the clan were located in the present 
 counties of Gal way, Meath, and Donegal. The Connellys 
 were also chiefs in Fermanagh. 
 
 The names Connelly, Conally, Conneally, Connolly, Con- 
 neallan, 'Connell, and other names of Irish families, are 
 derived from the ancient Milesian name-O'CoNOHALAiGH. 
 
 The Connelly family is a Southern one in America. It 
 has been our boast and our pride that it was one of the 
 first families in the ancient and honorable Commonwealth 
 of South Carolina. Thomas Connelly and his brother 
 Edmund, and perhaps two other brothers, John and 
 Henry, came from County Armagh, Ireland, and settled at 
 Old Albemarle Point about the year 1689. This settle- 
 ment was moved later, to become Charlestown, in the col- 
 ony of South Carolina; it is now the metropolis of the 
 state of South Carolina, and the name is written Charles- 
 ton. 
 
 These brothers were men of fortune and alTairs, and 
 they obtained large grants of land from the proprietors 
 
 1 Genealogy of Irish Families, by John Rooney, p. 420. Because of 
 this descent the family belontjs to that people called Milesians in Ireland. 
 The Milesians subdued and conquered the primitive race in Ireland, the 
 Firbolgs, the small, bow-legged, long-armed, red-headed, Irishmen of today 
 The Milesians have dark hair and eves and very fair oomi>h'xion. 
 
96 THE CONNELLY FAMILY 
 
 of the colonies, one such grant embracing, it is said, a por- 
 tion of the present site of the city of Charleston. It is said, 
 too, that they never parted with the title to this tract. 
 They engaged in town building and the purchase, subdi- 
 vision and sale of large tracts of land in various colonies, 
 but principally in Virginia and the Carolinas. They in- 
 duced many Germans to move from Pennsylvania to the 
 Carolinas, so the traditions in our family say, a colony of 
 whom they settled on their lands near the present town of 
 Camden, South Carolina. In this business their descend- 
 ants were also engaged, and it became necessary for them 
 to send members of the family to live in different parts of 
 the country, especially in Pennsylvania and Virginia, to 
 prevail on persons to migrate to their lands and towns in 
 the Carolinas. And they engaged largely in traffic and 
 merchandising by sea, owning vessels which plied between 
 the different colonies and which visited the West India 
 Islands. They also traded extensively with the Creek and 
 Cherokee Indians. 
 
 In the Revolution the Connellys fought in the patriot 
 armies of Virginia, the Carolinas, and Pennsylvania. 
 They served under Washington, Greene, Morgan, Gates, 
 Howard (of Maryland), Lincoln, and Charles Cotesworth 
 Pinckney. At the close of the Revolution many of them 
 moved to the West, and the family became still more wide- 
 ly scattered. There is a belt of them extending across 
 Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, and to Central Missouri. Some 
 members of the family settled at a very early day in the 
 wilderness of Northwestern Pennsylvania, and many of 
 their descendants are to be found there. Quite a number 
 of tliem settled in Kentucky, in different parts of the State. 
 Descendants of these pioneer brothers are to be found in 
 Tennessee, Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, and 
 Texas. Indeed, there are descendants of this early family 
 in every Western State and Territory. They remain in 
 large niinihors in the Carolinas, Virginia, and Pennsyl- 
 
Dr. PIenry Connelly 
 
 One of the first traders overland from Missouri to 
 northern Mexico. An explorer in Mexico, New Mexico, 
 Texas, and Oklahoma. Was long a merchant at Chihua- 
 hua. Appointed Governor of New Mexico by Prtsident 
 Lincoln. Born in Nelson (now Spencer) County, Ken 
 tucky, in the year 1800. Died at Santa Fe. New Mexico, 
 in July, 1866. 
 
 [From photograph in possesition of his son, Pctrr Con- 
 nelly, Kansas City, Mo.] 
 
THE CONNELLY FAMILY i^ 
 
 vania. They have been exceedingly piolilic, very large 
 iamilies having- been the rule from the first. Conservative 
 estimates place the number of descendants of Captain 
 Henry Connelly, who, after the Revolution, moved from 
 North Carolina to Virginia and from thence to Kentucky, 
 at certainly more than one thousand, and possibly more 
 than two thousand, counting only the living. The writer 
 once had a list of thirty Connelly families in Eastern Ken- 
 tucky, each of which had ten or more children. The name 
 is now written in various forms, and there has been, of 
 late years, a tendency to shorten it to Conley, all the im- 
 mediate relatives of this author so writing it. Some of the 
 Illinois relatives write it Connelli, and accent the second 
 syllable. Taken all together, the Connellys have been men 
 of fair fortune. They have been of influence in every com- 
 munity in which they have lived. Many of them havi; been 
 possessed of fine literary taste — some of them fair lit 
 erary ability. They have been ever in the advance guard 
 in the spread of civilization over the West, and in a num- 
 ber of States they have been pioneers. In the Civil War 
 they were divided according to the locality in which they 
 lived, but they fought on either one side or the other al- 
 most to a man. Constantine Couley, the father of this 
 writer, was in the Union army, from Eastern Kentucky 
 (the Forty-fifth Regiment, Mounted Infantry). 
 
 One of the most distinguished members of the family 
 was Dr. Henry Connelly, late Governor of New ^Fexico. 
 He was bom in Nelson County, Kentucky, in the y<»ar 
 1800. His father was John Donaldson Connelly, born in 
 Virginia, and either brother or first cousin to Captain 
 Henry Connelly, later to be mentioned herein. Dr. Con- 
 nelly graduated in medicine from the Transylvania Uni- 
 versity, Lexington, Kentucky, in 1828, and went that same 
 year to Clay County, Missouri, to practice his profession. 
 But there forming the accpiaintance of one Powell, an 
 overland trader, he joined his expedition, undei* one 
 
98 THE CONNELLY FAMILY 
 
 Stephenson, to Chihuahua, Mexico, where he became a 
 merchant. In partnership with Edward J. Glasgow, he 
 amassed a large fortune. He married a Spanish lady. 
 The War with Mexico, in 1846, made it necessary for him 
 to leave that country, and a large part of his fortune was 
 confiscated. He went to New Mexico and met General 
 Kearny and Colonel Doniphan entering that country to 
 annex it to the United States. He took part in their op- 
 erations, aiding them in many ways. At the close of the 
 war he settled in what is now Valencia County and again 
 engaged extensively in merchandising. His first wife hav- 
 ing died, he married there Dolores Perea, widow of Jose 
 Chavez. President Lincoln appointed him Governor of 
 New Mexico, and to him, more than to any other man, be- 
 longs the honor of saving the Territory to the Union in 
 the Civil War. He died in 1866 from an over-dose of med- 
 icine. He has many descendants in New Mexico, and his 
 son, Peter Connelly, Esq., has long been a highly esteemed 
 citizen of Kansas City, Mo. Dr. Connelly was one of those 
 hardy pioneers to whom the United States owes the ex- 
 tension of her borders. For nearly forty years his cara- 
 vans were among the largest that annually crossed the 
 Plains over the Old Santa Fe Trail. He led a large party 
 from Chihuahua to Fort Towson, on the Red River, Choc- 
 taw Nation, now Oklahoma, in 1839. He spent the winter 
 at that fort, returning to Chihuahua in 1840. In this trip 
 he explored a large part of what is now Oklahoma and 
 Texas, and he marked out new routes for commerce. 
 
 Pjdmund Connelly, the youngest son of Henry Connelly, 
 is said to have married, in South Carolina, a lady named 
 Mary Edgefield. They left sons and daughters, among 
 tboni, Harmon and Thomas. 
 
 Ilannon Connelly moved to North Carolina, where he 
 owned lands on the then frontier. Tradition says that he 
 there married the daughter of a physician named Hicks. 
 This Hicks, it is affirmed, had married the daughter of a 
 
THE CONNELLY FAMILY 99 
 
 Scotchman who was engaged in trading with the Clierokees, 
 and who had married a Clierokee woman ; he seems to have 
 roamed the country tributary to the Little Tennessee. 
 Hannon Connelly appears to have been of an adventurous 
 disposition, for it is related that he made several visits to 
 the wilderness of Kentucky, one of which was about 17(J3.= 
 Thomas Connelly followed in the steps of his fore- 
 fathers and dealt in lands and townsites. In this business 
 he was often in Pennsylvania, where, it seems, he must 
 have settled, as others of his family had done. Whom he 
 married is not known, but in the light of recent reliable in- 
 formation it must have been a Pennsylvania Dutch woman. 
 Our family traditions have always said that the Connelly 
 family in Kentucky had a strain of Dutch blood, though as 
 to the ancestor from whom it flowed we were never in- 
 formed.^ 
 
 V Harmon Connelly and Thomas Connelly were in the 
 War of the Revolution. Thomas returned from Pennsyl- 
 vania to North Carolina and lived in Guilford County. 
 He was getting old, but he served for a time in the First 
 South Carolina Regiment, commanded by Colonel Cliarles 
 Cotesworth Pinckney. His service was in the defense of 
 Charleston, where he had gone to consult Colonel Pinck- 
 ney, who was his attorney in some business growing out of 
 land owned about that city by his ancestors. This service 
 was in the winter of 1779-80. It is said, also, by the tradi- 
 tions of our family, that he was wounded at the Battle of 
 King's Mountain, the following October, being there shot 
 
 2 Before coming into possession of all these facts and when I supposed 
 I had obtained complete infonnation I believed Hannon and Thomas mar 
 ried sisters, daughters of this Dr. Hicks, and so v.rote it in my apj>lication 
 for membership in the Society of the Sons of the American Revolution. 
 The family Bible of Captain Henry Connelly disproves this, and I had 
 learned before seeing it, from the pension |pa])ers of the Captain, that this 
 was an error. 
 
 3 Uncle Edmund Connelly, son of Captain Henry Connelly, always fwiid 
 that bis grandmother was a Pennsylvania Dutch woman. We never ^;avo 
 it credit until I saw the pension pai)ers of Captain Henry Connelly. 
 
100 THE CONNELLY FAJVIILY 
 
 through the body ; and the above-mentioned Dr. Hicks is 
 said to have passed a silk handkerchief several times 
 througli the wound — through the body — to cleanse it. 
 The soldier died from the effect of this wound some two 
 years later. 
 
 Captain Henry Connelly, the Revolutionary soldier, was 
 the son of the above mentioned Thomas Connelly. He was 
 bom in Chester County, Pennsylvania, and came with his 
 father to Guilford County, North Carolina, while yet a 
 child, probably soon after Braddock's defeat. Thomas 
 Connelly was a soldier in Braddock's expedition and was 
 at the defeat. And it is probable that it was the expedition 
 and its disastrous results which caused him to return to 
 North Carolina. 
 
 The Clan MacAlpine 
 
 The (Jlan MacAlpine is believed to be the most ancient 
 clan of the Highlands of Scotland. There is an old Gaelic 
 tradition which says the origin of the clan was contem- 
 porary with the formation of hillocks and streams. The 
 Mac Alpines are descended from the ancient people whose 
 successors became kings of Scotland for twenty-five gen- 
 erations. The war cry of the clan is ' ' Remember the 
 death of Alpin," alluding to the murder of King Alpin 
 by Brudus after the Picts defeated the Scots near Dundee 
 in the year 834. The seat of the ancient clan was in 
 Arg>ilshire. 
 
 The Clan MacAlpine is one of the oldest families in the 
 world with an authentic history. A daughter of this old 
 clan -Edith MacAlpine -is the maternal ancestor of all 
 the Connellys, Conleys, Connelleys, and Langleys, and 
 many of tlie Salyers, Holbrooks, Stampers, Halls, McCoys, 
 Grahams, Underwoods, Spradlins, Williams, Stapletons, 
 Ifamiltons, Jajmes, Hackworths, Caudills, McGuires, 
 Mays, I^itricks, Rices, Prices, Blairs, Webbs, Fairchilds, 
 Kobinsons, juid many other Eastern Kentuckv families. 
 
THE CONNELLY FAMILY KU 
 
 The Clan MacGbegor 
 
 The most famous clan in Scotland was that of Mac- 
 Gregor. It claims descent from Gregor, third son of King 
 Alpin, who ruled Scotland about the year 787, and the clan 
 is spoken of in Scotland as the Clan Alpin. The motto 
 of the clan is ^'Srioghail mo r//^ream"-'' Royal is my 
 race. ' ' 
 
 Sir Walter Scott found more in the annals of tiio (Man 
 MacGregor for his famous Waverley Novels than in t)ie 
 lore of all the other clans of Scotland. Rob Roy was Rob- 
 ert Roy MacGregor, and the novel of that name is an 
 account of the adventures of that famous Borderer. In 
 his Legend of Montrose Scott finds some of his most inter- 
 esting characters among the Children of the Mist, who 
 were the MacGregors, this being one of their ancient 
 names. In his history of the clan Scott gives much r-urious 
 and interesting information about the MacGregors. Tie 
 says ''that they were famous for their misfortunes and 
 the indomitable courage with which they maintained them- 
 selves as a clan. The MacGregors strove to retain their 
 lands by the cold steel." They had extensive possessions 
 in Argyllshire and Perthshire which they held by the 
 sword. No other clan in Scotland ever did so much fight- 
 ing for their rights or for their country. 
 
 The ancient seat of the Clan MacGregor was along both 
 sides of Loch Tay, and in modern times they have lived 
 about the old Church of Balquhidder, where Rob Koy is 
 buried. 
 
 Next to the MacAlpine the MacGregoi- is the oldest of 
 Highland clans, and these two are closely related, one 
 being a branch of the other. The MacGregors an' now 
 scattered all over the world, and many of them have l)een 
 eminent as statesmen, soldiers, scholars. They are often 
 distinguished by a stern and haughty bearing, arisiim- from 
 a consciousness of having played a famous and honorable 
 
102 THE CONNELLY FAMILY 
 
 part in the wars of Scotland and the world, giving them a 
 sense of superiority they are always ready to maintain 
 by an api^eal to arms. 
 
 We are proud of our descent from the Clan MacGregor. 
 
 Archibald MacGregor, of the Clan MacGregor, High- 
 lands of Scotland, espoused the cause of Charles Edward, 
 the Young Pretender, in 1745, as did his clan and his 
 country. He was a young man of fine stature and immense 
 physical strength. His clan was not in the battle of Cullo- 
 den Moor, having been stationed at another point, so it is 
 said in the traditions of our family, but he had been sent 
 to the commander of the Pretender forces with despatches, 
 and so was on that disastrous field. There he was dread- 
 fully wounded, being left on the gory field for dead, and 
 his body stripped by the Royalist looters. He, however, 
 revived and with great difficulty and much sutfering 
 reached his own country. There he was concealed until 
 he had recovered somewhat from his wounds, when he 
 succeeded in escaping to the colony of North Carolina, 
 where so many of his countrymen were then living. There 
 he married Edith MacAlpine, the daughter of a Highland- 
 er who had also been in the battle of Culloden Moor, and 
 who had with great difficulty escaped with his family to 
 America. 
 
 MacGregor never fully recovered from his wounds. His 
 daughter Ann was bom February 14, 1756, and some two 
 years later he died. His widow married a Scotchman 
 named Langley, and by him had several children. Ann 
 MacGregor, growing up with these Langley children, was, 
 it is said, always called Ann Langley by her friends and 
 ac(iuaintances. Some of these Langleys moved from 
 North (Carolina to the Big Sandy region of Kentuck^^ at an 
 early day, and their descendants may be yet found there. 
 
 Captain Henr>' Connelly married Ann MacGregor. 
 Xoither the date nor the locality of this marriage is known, 
 but it must liave been early in 1774, for their first child 
 
THE CONNELLY FAMILY 103 
 
 was born in June, 1775. Tlie family Bible of Captain 
 Henry Connelly had the following record, which 1 re- 
 moved, and which is now in my library. The Bible was 
 found in the Caudill family, in Johnson County, Ky., in 
 1902. It was published in Philadelphia in 1802, and it is 
 not the Bible spoken of in the pension papers, in which the 
 date of his birth was recorded by his father '' in Dutch," 
 as he says in his pension declaration. As he had a son 
 Henry he was Henry Connelly, senior : 
 
 Henry Connelly, sieg'', was born May 2d, A. D. 1752. 
 
 [In his pension declaration he says he was born 
 in Chester County, Pennsylvania, and removed 
 to North Carolina with his father.] 
 
 Ann Connelly, his wife, was born February 14th, A. D. 
 1756. 
 
 [Her maiden name was not given, as it should 
 have been.] 
 
 Edmund Connelly, a son of Heni-y and Ann Connelly, 
 was born June 2d, A. D. 1775. 
 
 [I remember him very well. He married, in 
 North Carolina, a Miss Joynes. He lived to a 
 great age. His home was at the head of the 
 State-road Fork of the Licking River, in what 
 is now Magoffin County, Kentucky, where I 
 often visited him when a lad. He said his 
 grandmother was a Pennsylvania Dutch wom- 
 an. I have seen him at my father's house, in 
 Salyersville, and have heard him tell much of 
 the early history of our family, but as T did not 
 write it down at the time, what lie said became 
 confused in my mind, and it has taken nmch 
 labor to correct many errors into which I had 
 fallen. I was too young to fully comprehend 
 the importance of what he said, and T had not 
 then learned to write well enough to make a 
 record. I was at religious services held in liis 
 house in 1865, and he lived some years after 
 that.] 
 
104 THE CONNELLY FAMILY 
 
 Thomas Connelly, a son of Henry and Ann Connelly, 
 was born 25tli of January, A. D. 1777. 
 
 [He was my great grandfather. He was married 
 in North Carolina to Susan Joynes. She was 
 the sister of the wife of his brother Edmund. 
 A number of their children were born in North 
 Carolina. It is probable that they moved, with 
 his father, the Captain, to Botetourt County, 
 Virginia, where lived many of the Connellys, 
 and after a residence of some years there, 
 moved to Kentucky, settling first in the Indian 
 Bottom, on the Kentucky River, at the mouth 
 of the Rockhouse Pork, in what is now Letcher 
 County, where their son, Henry Connelly, my 
 grandfather, was born, in 1810. They moved 
 to what is now Johnson County, Kentucky, and 
 settled on the main branch of Jennie's Creek, 
 at the mouth of Mill Creek, where they opened 
 one of the largest and best farms in the county, 
 which was afterwards for many years the home 
 of Martin R. Rice, Esq., long the wealthiest 
 citizen of Johnson County. From this farm 
 they moved to a large farm at the mouth of 
 Miller's Creek, near the Limestone Cliffs, four 
 or five miles above Paintsville. This farm was 
 long known as the Burd Preston farm. There 
 Thomas Connelly died and was buried. My 
 grandfather, Henry Connelly, there grew to 
 manhood. Peter Mankins was their neighbor, 
 and a good one he was ; later he moved to Wash- 
 ington County, Arkansas, where he died at the 
 age of one hundred and fourteen years. He 
 came from North Carolina to Kentucky with 
 the (/onnellys. My great grandmother lived 
 for many years with my gTandfather, Henry 
 Connelly, on the head of the Middle Pork of 
 Jennie's Creek, and she died there in the sum- 
 wov of 1875, aged about ninety-two. She was 
 <les('euded from Prench Huguenot families 
 named Partonairre and Guyon or Guyan. Her 
 unde, Heniy Guyan, is said to have had a trad- 
 ing establishment at the mouth of the Guyan- 
 
THE CONNELLY FAMILY 100 
 
 dotte River, West Virgiuia, as early as IT.jO. 
 By some it is said that the river took its name 
 from him, though I am of the opinion that it 
 was named, because the Wyandot Indians 
 found it a favorite hunting-ground, in theii- 
 honor or for them, and was later corrupted to 
 Guyandotte. 
 
 My grandfather, Henry Connelly, married 
 Eebecca, daughter of George Blair, and settled 
 on the farm above-mentioned. My father, Con- 
 stantine Conley, was bom and reared on that 
 farm, and when he married he was given a i)or- 
 tiou of it — the Wolf Pen Branch — upon which 
 he built a hewed-log house, where he went to 
 housekeeping, and where I was born. My 
 grandfather died and was buried on liis farm, 
 and many others of my kindred are there bur- 
 ied, including my great grandmother, above 
 mentioned.] 
 
 Pegg>^ Connelly, a daughter of Henry and Ann Con- 
 nelly, was bom August 8th, A. D. 1779. 
 [Of her I have learned nothing.] 
 
 David Connelly, a son of Henry and Ann Connelly, was 
 born June 24th, A. D. 1781. 
 
 [Of him I have not learned anything. | 
 
 Rachel Connelly, a daughter of Henry and Ann Con- 
 nelly, was born April 8th, A. D. 1783. 
 
 [She married James Spradlin, senior, who settK'«l 
 at the mouth of the Twin Branches, on the main 
 branch of Jennie's Creek, at a very early day. 
 Spradlin was one of the pioneers of Eastern 
 Kentucky, and was a substantial and exec H en t 
 citizen. He left many descendants. I remem- 
 ber him well, for he lived to be almost a liun 
 dred years old. He was bowed with the wciglil 
 of his years, and after he was ninety I iiavc 
 seen him on horseback, riding to Paint sville. 
 T helped to dig his grave, and my fatlier assist- 
 ed to place him in his coffin. So IxMit forward 
 was his head that the coffin-lid would not dose, 
 
106 THE CONNELLY FAMILY 
 
 and it was sawed off by my father so as to reach 
 only to his breast. Then the lid of the box 
 which enclosed the coffin bore heavily on his 
 head, when nailed on. His death must have 
 occurred in the year 1871 -possibly in 1872. 
 He died at the home of his stepson, William 
 Evans, who lived at the foot of the gap on the 
 road to Barnett's Creek, perhaps a mile from 
 the old Spradlin homestead, which was then 
 owned by Martin R. Rice. He was buried on 
 the hill across the Lower Twin Branch from his 
 old home. I am unable to say when his wife 
 Rachel died.] 
 
 John Connelly, a son of Henry and Ann Connelly, was 
 born August 8th, A. D. 1785. 
 
 [He married in North Carolina a sister of my 
 great grandmother, Susan Joynes Connelly. He 
 settled on Little Paint Creek, near where the 
 road from Paintsville to Salyersville strikes it, 
 and in this vicinity, also, lived his father. Cap- 
 tain Henry Connelly. Hairston Litteral, Esq. 
 (almost invariably spoken of as "Austin " Lit- 
 teral) lived near this point for sixty years. The 
 descendants of John Connelly live mostly about 
 the Flat Gap, Johnson County, Kentucky^ his 
 children having intermarried with those of a 
 settler named Jayne at that point.] 
 
 Henry Connelly, Jun^, a son of Henry and Ann Con- 
 nelly, was bora December 1st, A. D. 1787. 
 
 [I knew him very well. He lived on the East 
 Branch of the State-road Fork of Licking Riv- 
 er, in Magoffin Countj^, Kentucky. His faiTU 
 lay above that of Jilson Prater, father of Jeff 
 Prater, now a wealthy banker of Salyersville. 
 I have been at the house of Uncle Henry fre- 
 quently. He was quite old, somewhat corpu- 
 lent, but large and erect. He was a kindly 
 man, but Aunt Polly was of sharp feature, sour 
 visage, and cutting tongue. I have not any 
 pleasant recollections of her. She was tall and 
 bony, and I was afraid of her, and think Uncle 
 
THE CONNELLY FAMILY 107 
 
 Henry had a dread of her two-edged tongue. 
 I have not the date of his death,] 
 
 Elizabeth Connelly, a daughter of Henry and Ann Con- 
 nelly, was born April 8th, A. D. 1789. 
 
 [I know nothing of her; am uncertain as to her 
 having lived to womanhood, though she may 
 have married and left children.] 
 
 William Connelly, a son of Henry and Ann Connelly, 
 was born July 8th, A. D. 1791. 
 
 [He was a millwright, and was drowned in the 
 ford of the Big Sandy River below the mouth 
 of Abbott's Creek, two miles below Prestons- 
 burg, Floyd County, Kentucky. He was build- 
 ing a mill there at the time. The weather was 
 warm, and after eating dinner one day he and 
 his workmen went bathing or swimming in the 
 deep water above the ford. He was a fine 
 swimmer, but it was supposed that having so 
 recently eaten caused some revulsion of nature 
 when he had been in the water a few minutes, 
 and he sank and drowned before assistance 
 could be had. His body washed through the 
 ford and settled in a deep eddy below. His 
 men joined hands and formed a line reaching to 
 him and rescued him. He was unmarried, a 
 young man of great promise, and was sincerely 
 mourned by the settlers. He was buried on 
 the farm of my great grandfather, at the mouth 
 of Miller's Creek.] 
 
 Joseph Connelly, a son of Henry and Ann Connelly, 
 was born July 8th, A. D. 1795. 
 
 [I have no information concerning him other than 
 this entry.] 
 
 The above is an exact copy, excepting my comments, 
 with the difference that the name is uniformly written 
 "Connely." There is no '*A. D." in the dates of William 
 and Joseph. The record is well writtc^n in blue ink, and 
 was evidently copied at one sitting from some other rec- 
 
108 THE CONNELLY FAMILY 
 
 ord, for the writing is uniform. The writing is not that 
 of Captain Connelly. He wrote his name on the inside 
 front cover of the Bible, and the signature is in a fine, firm, 
 bold one, and the name is written "Connelly." I took it 
 out of the Bible, tearing off the white lining-sheet of the 
 cover, and I have the signature in my library. It is the 
 same signature I saw affixed to papers in the Pension 
 Bureau. Each and every letter is distinctly and perfectly 
 formed, and the signature was rapidly written, as is evi- 
 dent from its appearance. It is ''Henry Connelly Sen^." 
 
 There is no record of marriages and none of deaths, 
 except the entry: 
 
 Henry Connelly, Sen^", deceased May the 7th, 1840. 
 
 On a leaf inserted in the Bible is the record of the 
 Hitchcock family, as follows: 
 
 John Hitchcock was born Jan. the 2nd, 1772. 
 
 Temperance Hitchcock, his wife, was born March 22nd, 
 1781. 
 
 Names and births of the above named parents. 
 
 Phebe Hitchcock was bom Dec. 5th, 1798. 
 
 Margaret Hitchcock was bom July 25th, 1800. 
 
 John Hitchcock was born Sept. 8th, 1803. 
 
 Parker Hitchcock was bom Sept. 1st, 1805. 
 
 The date of the death of Ann Connelly is not given, and 
 I have not been able to discover it, but it must have oc- 
 curred about 1830. In 1832 (March 8th) Captain Con- 
 nelly married Temperance Hitchcock, above named, widow 
 til en of John Hitchcock. The Hitclicocks were Quakers, 
 and came to Kentucky from North Carolina, and it is 
 ])ossible that they there knew Captain Connelly and 
 family. Prom the Hitchcock family here mentioned are 
 descended many of the Caudills, Pelphreys, and all the 
 Hitclicocks of Johnson and Magoffin counties, Kentucky. 
 
 I )()\vii to the family Bible from which the foregoing rec- 
 ord is taken our infoimation rests on traditions told in our 
 faniily, and not on written records, and later research may 
 
THE CONNELLY FAMILY 100 
 
 discover some errors, though I am of the opinion that it 
 will be confirmed largely, if not completely, for I have 
 devoted much time to sifting the matter and gathering 
 information. I was fortunate in knowing the old people 
 of the family, with whom I talked from my youth up. The 
 record of Dr. Heniy Connelly, Governor of New Mexico, 
 and of his family, is made from written documents. 
 
 Heniy Connelly was a captain of cavalry, in the War 
 of the Eevolution, in North Carolina. The record of this 
 service is contained in the declarations made in application 
 for a pension, now on file in the Bureau of Pensions, 
 Washington, and of which I made complete copies in the 
 year 1902. These declarations are set out here : 
 
 State of Kentucky ) 
 County of Floyd ( ^^ 
 
 DECLARATION 
 
 On this 15th day of August, 1833, personally appeared 
 before me, James Davis, a Justice of the Peace now sit- 
 ting, Henry Connelly, a resident of Floyd County, and 
 State of Kentucky, aged Eighty-one years, who being first 
 duly sworn according to law doth on his oath make the 
 following declaration, in order to obtain the benefit of the 
 act of Congress passed June 7th, 1832: 
 
 That he entered the service of the United States under 
 the following named officers and served as herein stated : 
 
 That he entered the sei-vice and commanded one hundred 
 men as State troops of North Carolina (called militia) 
 as the Captain thereof on the 7th day of July, 1777, for 
 five years or during the war in the County of Guilford, 
 North Carolina. TTis Colonel in the first inst-ance was 
 Colonel John Williams. Then under Colonel Paisley. 
 Then by Colonel John Taylor. And lastly, by Colonel 
 Billy Washington. This applicant's company was a Horse 
 Company and was raised for the es])(Minl pnri)ose of keep 
 
110 THE CONNELLY FAMILY 
 
 ing down a daring Tory Colonel by the name of Fanning 
 who had made several daring attempts in the neighbor- 
 hood of Salisbury and Charlotte.* During the first year 
 of the service of this applicant, by the orders of his Col- 
 onel, the company traversed and marched to Rowan and 
 Guilford in order to keep Fanning and his confederates 
 down. During this year, in the month of October, the 
 company encountered his scouts and routed them with 
 some loss. The general rendezvous of the Tories was in 
 that region of the country called the Haw Ford on Haw 
 River. These counties and the adjacent neighborhood 
 was assigned to the applicant's charge by his Excellency, 
 the Governor of North Carolina, in the month of June, 
 1778. This this applicant and his company continued to do 
 during this year 1778. And that winter he and his com- 
 pany rendezvoused at Salisbury. The particulars of this 
 year's service was only a few fights with the Tories. The 
 war was raging in the North, whither that distinguished 
 
 * Fanning, the Tory, mentioned here was the famous and notorious outlaw 
 of the Revolution. He was born in Johnston County, North Carolina, in the 
 year 1754, "of obscure parentage." The poverty of his condition was such 
 that he was ' ' bound out ' ' for his support to a Mr. Bryant, who proved a cruel 
 and perhaps brutal master, and Fanning ran away when about sixteen. His 
 plight was so miserable that some of his acquaintances secured for him a 
 home with a substantial citizen, John O. Deniell, who lived at the Haw Fields, 
 in Orange County. He had the scald head and was not allwoed to eat at the 
 table with the family, nor was he permitted to sleep in a bed. When grown 
 up he always wore a silk cap — his most intimate friends never saw his head 
 uncovered. When about twenty years of age he went to trade with the 
 Catawba Indians, in South Carolina, and there accumulated considerable prop- 
 erty. Up to this time he had been a Whig. As he returned to North Caro- 
 lina ho was set upon and robbed of all his property by ' ' some lawless fel- 
 lows, ' ' whom he supposed to be Whigs. He immediately became a bitter and 
 relentless Tory and sought every opportunity to wreak vengeance on Whigs 
 indiscriminately and to injure the Revolutionary cause. He murdered, as he 
 says, many (latriots and burned their houses. He was bold and daring and 
 succeeded in capturing Governor Burke, of North Carolina, whom he carried 
 a prisoner into the British lines. He was the Quantrill of the Revolution. 
 
 At the close of the Revolution he went to Florida. He wished to return 
 to North ('arolina, but he was always excepted in bills of amnesty passed by 
 the Legislature and remained, consequently, proscribed and exiled. He 
 
THE CONNELLY FAMILY 111 
 
 and active officer, Colonel William Davidson had ^one, and 
 all remaining for the constituted authorities to do was to 
 keep down the Tories, which were so numerous in this 
 region of North Carolina. During this year, 1778, the 
 men suffered much for clothes and every necessaiy, and 
 our forage master frequently had to press forage for our 
 perishing horses. Continental money was then one hun- 
 dred dollars for one -for this applicant could not get a 
 breakfast for $100 in Continental money. During this 
 year, by order of the Governor, this applicant's comjiany 
 was placed under the direction of Colonel Davie, who then 
 commanded the North Carolina Cavalry ; but he renewe<i 
 the old orders, and my district still remained as under 
 my former orders. 
 
 Early in March, 1779, the Tories broke out with great 
 fury at a place called the Haw Fields, whither this a])pli 
 
 moved to New Bruuswick and was there a member of the local Lefjisiature. 
 In 1799 he moved to Nova Scotia, where he was Colonel of the militia. Ho 
 died at Digby, Nova Scotia, in the year 1825. 
 
 Fanning was a man of ability and the local leader of the Torifs in the 
 Carolinas. He was the man on whom the King's forces always relied and who 
 never failed them. It was a distinct compliment to Captain Heiuy Con 
 nelly that he was selected to fight Fanning and keep him down, and he s<>cnis 
 to have been able to cope with the daring Tory leader. Fanning says many 
 of his men were taken to Hillsboro and Salisbury and there hung by the 
 "rebels" as he called the Revolutionary authorities. No doubt these |>ri8 
 oners were taken there by Captain Connelly. 
 
 Fanning wrote an account of his doings in Xorth Carolina, and the book 
 waa published at Richmond, Virginia, for private distribution only, in 1S61 — 
 "In the First Year of the independence of the Confederate States of Amer- 
 ica." The edition was very limited, only fifty cojiiea of the (|uarto form 
 being printed. And it is probable that these were the only cojiies j.rinted. 
 The copy of Colonel James H. Wheeler, the historian of North Carolina, is 
 now in my private library. It is one of the rarest and most valuable of all 
 American books. The title of the work is as follows: 
 
 "The Narrative of Colonel David Fanning, (A Tory in the Revolutionary 
 War with Great Britain;) (Jiving an Acc<uint of his .Vdventures in North 
 Carolina, From 1775 to 1783. As Written by Himself. With an Introduction 
 and Explanatory Notes. Richmond, Va. I'rinted for Private Distribution 
 Only. 1861. In the First Vear of the Iniiei)en(leni-e of fli.' ("onfod.'mte 
 States of .\ni(>rica. ' ' 
 
112 THE CONNELLY FAMILY 
 
 cant and his company repaired and dislodged them with 
 the assistance of Colonel Lyttle from Rowan, who com- 
 manded a regiment of militia. During this year the Tories 
 were fast accumulating in Rowau, and this applicant's 
 Horse Company was almost withdrawn from Guilford to 
 that section of North Carolina. The Whigs this year took 
 a great many Tories, who were all put in jail and confined 
 at Hillsboro and Salisbury. 
 
 In the month of November, 1779, orders were received 
 by Colonel Paisley from Colonel Davie, the commanding 
 Colonel, to rendezvous at Salisbury to start to the South 
 to join General Lincoln at Savannah, but about this time 
 news arrived that General Lincoln was overtaken at 
 Charlestown, and all were taken prisoners. General 
 Davidson now raised several hundred men, and Colonel 
 Smnner and Colonel Brevard had several skirmishes with 
 the Loyalists, in which this applicant and his company 
 actively participated at Colson's Mills. About this time 
 at a place in the western part of the state (N. C.) the 
 Tories had collected to a great number and we marched 
 against them and [met them] at Colson's Mills. This 
 was in the Month of May, 1780, as well as this applicant 
 recollects. He recollects well that it was just before or 
 about the time of Gates' defeat at Camden. During this 
 winter and the fall this applicant's company abandoned 
 his district of " protection " and under Colonel Davie and 
 (ieneral Davidson opposed the passage of Lord Corn- 
 wallis through North Carolina. At the time of the ap- 
 proach of Cornwallis to Charlotte, under Colonel Davie 
 the troops posted themselves to meet the enemy. On 
 the enemy's api)roach the companies commanded by this 
 a])plicant received the first onset from Tarleton's cavalry, 
 and the firing became general on the left wing. The troops 
 were conmianded by Colonel Davie in person, and for three 
 times we succeeded in rejnilsing the enemy. At length we 
 
THE CONNELLY FAMILY ll.j 
 
 had to yield to superior numbers. In tliis battle we liad 
 many men killed, several from under this applicant. 
 
 In December, just before Christmas, General Nathaniel 
 Greene, from the North, took command of us all. This 
 was in 1780. We all, by his proclamation and the orders 
 of our Governor, were placed under his command, and 
 assembled at Charlotte. From there this applicant was 
 placed under Colonel Washington and marched to South 
 Carolina, to Augusta and Ninety Six. After marching 
 in a southern direction for several days news came that 
 Tarleton was after us. We were all now under General 
 Morgan, and a terrible conflict ensued at the Cowpens 
 between Tarleton 's men and the army under General 
 Morgan. Here the Americans were victorious and took 
 a great many militaiy stores, cannons, baggage, and six 
 or seven hundred British and Tory prisoners. This was 
 in January, 1781. It was cold weather, but inclined to be 
 raining during this battle. The company which belonged 
 to this applicant was placed under a Colonel Howard, on 
 the extreme right of the Division, and this ap])licant com- 
 manded a company in the center. Our com])any, when 
 just about to catch up our horses, was hid about four hun- 
 dred paces in the rear of the line of battle. [The enemy] 
 fell upon us with great fury, but we were fortunately re- 
 lieved by Washington's Legion that hastened to our as- 
 sistance. 
 
 After this engagement we all formed a junction with 
 General Greene, and retreated with him to Dan [River], 
 and crossed over into Virginia, and remaining there but 
 a short period, marched back to Guilford Court House, 
 and this applicant actively participated in this memorable 
 battle, and he had the mortification to see his men in a 
 panic fly at the approach of the enemy; and although this 
 applicant endeavored to rally them, it was im})ossil)U'. and 
 many even retreated to their homes. But this a])plicant 
 
114 THE CONNELLY FAMILY 
 
 remained and continued to fight until the Americans were 
 thrown into disorder and confusion and defeated. 
 
 At this time, or a few days afterwards, this applicant 
 being unwell, and his company broken, obtained a respite 
 for awhile, which was granted him [by the Governor]. 
 He remained at home and did not go with General Greene 
 to Ninety Six. During this summer he did all he could 
 to get his company to assemble. Their cry was ' ' no pay ' ' 
 and their families required them at home. He then went 
 from Guilford over to Virginia, and in September, 1781, 
 he raised a small volunteer company for three months, to 
 join General Washington at Little York [ Yorktown] . Lit- 
 tle York was, however, taken before this applicant ar- 
 rived. He knew a great many Continental officers and 
 Regiments, and Militia officers, during his service. In 
 the month of October the term of service of the Company 
 from Montogmery County, Virginia, just mentioned, ex- 
 piring, he gave them their discharges, and he himself re- 
 turned to North Carolina, where he received the thanks of 
 the Governor and a Certificate stating his services. 
 
 This applicant knew General Smallwood, General Dav- 
 idson, General Rutherford, General Pickens, General 
 Sumner, General Otho Williams, Colonel Cleveland, Col- 
 onel Lyttle, Colonel William Washington, Colonel Mal- 
 mody ( f ), Colonel Lee (from Virginia), General Goodwin, 
 Colonel Howard who commanded the Third Maryland 
 Regiment, Captain Holgin, Colonel Paiseley, John Wil- 
 liams, the Baron DeKalb, Colonel Brevard, and many 
 other Continental and Militia officers that he has now 
 forgotten. 
 
 He has now no documentary evidence in his favor, hav- 
 ing forwarded his commission about six years ago by 
 General Alexander Lackey to the War Department. It 
 lias never been returned to this applicant. He received 
 a letter from the Secretary of War informing him that 
 as he was not a regular he could not be allowed his [pen- 
 
THE CONNELLY FAMILY 115 
 
 sion]. His commission was from the Governor of North 
 Carolina. He has made search and inquiry for it for 
 some time, and he believes the same is now lost or mislaid. 
 
 He refers the War Department to Henry B. Mayo, Esq., 
 the Hon. David K. Harris, to Colonel Francis A. Brown, 
 to Colonel John Van Hoose, the Rev*^ Henry Dixon, the 
 ReV^ Cuthbert Stone, the ReV* Samuel Hanna, the Rov** 
 Ezekiel Stone, and Rev<^ Wallace Bailey, to Andrew Rule, 
 Esq., to John Rice, to Jacob Mayo, Esq., Clerk of the 
 Floyd County and Circuit Courts. These can testify to 
 his character for veracity and their belief of this apj)!!- 
 cant's services as a soldier and officer of the Revolution. 
 
 Sworn to and subscribed the day and year aforesaid. 
 (Signed) Henry Connelly [Seal! 
 Att: J. Davis. 
 
 We, Wallace Bailey, a Clergyman, residing in the Coun 
 ty of Floyd and State of Kentucky, and John Rice, resid- 
 ing in the same, towit, Floyd County, Kentuck}", hereby 
 certify that they are well acquainted with Henry Connelly, 
 who has subscribed and sworn to the above declaration, 
 that we believe him to be eighty-one years of age, that he 
 is reputed and believed in the neighborhood where he 
 resides to have been a soldier of the Revolution, and that 
 we concur in that opinion. 
 
 Sworn to and subscribed the day and year aforesaid. 
 (Signed) Wallis Bailey [Seall 
 
 John Rice [Seal] 
 
 And I do hereby declare my opinion after the investiga- 
 tion of the matter, and after putting the interrogatories 
 prescribed by the War Department, that the above named 
 applicant was a Revolutionary soldier (an officer) and 
 served as he states. And I further certify that it appears 
 to me that Wallis Bailey who has signed the pret'oding 
 certificate is a Clergyman resident in the County of Floyd 
 
116 THE CONNELLY FAMILY 
 
 and State of Kentucky, and that John Rice, who has also 
 signed the same, is a resident of the County of Floyd and 
 State of Kentucky, and are credible persons, and that their 
 statement is entitled to credit, and I do further certify 
 that the applicant cannot, from bodily infirmity, attend 
 court. 
 
 (Signed) James Davis, J. P. F. Co. [Seal] 
 
 INTERROGATORIES 
 
 Where and what year were you bornf 
 
 Ans. I was born in Pennsylvania, Chester County, on 
 the 2d day of May, 1751. 
 
 Have you any record of your age, and if so, where is it ? 
 
 Ans. I have it in my Bible, recorded there by my 
 father (in Dutch), I have it now at my house. 
 
 Where were you living when called into service, where 
 have you lived since the Revolutionary War, and where 
 do you now live? 
 
 Ans. I was living in Guilford County, North Carolina, 
 where I had lived since my father moved from Chester 
 [County] Pennsylvania, up to the Revolution. I have 
 lived three years in the County of Montgomery, in the 
 State of Virginia, and the residue of the time I have lived 
 in this County - where I now live. 
 
 How were you called into service. Were you drafted, 
 did you volunteer, or were you a substitute, and if a substi- 
 tute, for whom? 
 
 Ans. I was a volunteer, under the Government of 
 North Carolina, by an invitation from the Governor, and 
 [my command] were called State troops or Militia. A 
 part of the men under my command were drafted men for 
 eighteen months. A small portion was for six months, 
 and about forty were volunteers for and during the War. 
 T WHS called into sei-vice by a recruiting officer by the name 
 of llolgin, I think a regular officer. I made up my com- 
 
THE CONNELLY FAMILY 117 
 
 pany and reported to the Colonel and went forthwith 
 into active service. 
 
 State the names of some of the regular officers who were 
 with the troops when you served, such Continental and 
 Militia Regiments as you can recollect, and the general 
 circumstances of your service. 
 
 Ans. I knew General Greene. I have seen General 
 Gates at Hillsboro. [I knew] General Smallwood, 
 General Davidson, General Pickens, General Sumner, 
 General Otho Williams, Colonel Billy Washington, Col- 
 onel Lee, Colonel Howard, the Baron DeKalb. 1 have 
 seen, in 1780, Captain Holgin, Colonel John Williams, Col- 
 onel Nat Williams, who commanded the Ninth Regiment 
 North Carolina Militia in 1778, Colonel Paiseley, Colonel 
 Buncombe, Captain Charles Briant, Colonel Brevard, 
 Major (often called Colonel) De Malmody, and old Col- 
 onel Cleveland, Lieut. Joseph Lewis, Major Charles An- 
 derson, William Boma, Ensign. 
 
 I was directed by Governor Burke and Colonel Davie to 
 keep down Fanning in Guilford and Rowan. This this 
 applicant did with one hundred men, a horse company. 
 He served in 1777 in tliis capacity, likewise in 1778, and 
 until the fall of 1779. He then joined General Davidson 
 and was with him at the battle of Col son's Mills, where 
 he got wounded. This was in May or June, 1780. He 
 was at the battle of Hillsboro, and had nineteen of his 
 horsemen killed on the field, and seven died the next day 
 of their wounds. I was in the battle of the Cowpens, 
 under Colonel Washington, in January, 1781, and Tarle- 
 ton was defeated and we took his baggage and several 
 hundred prisoners. I retreated with my horse company 
 with General Greene to Dan [River | went over into Vir- 
 ginia, and remained with the ai-my until the battle of 
 Guilford [Court House]. T was in that battle, and my 
 men all broke very near at first charge, in a ])aiiic, and 
 fled, and many went even home. When my roll was called 
 
118 THE CONNELLY FAMILY 
 
 at the Iron Works I had but a few men left. I was then 
 taken in a few days afterwards sick, and was permitted 
 for my health to retire for awhile from the service. This 
 was in April, 1781. General Greene went to South Caro- 
 lina, and I went over into Montgomery County, Virginia, 
 to see my relatives, and I here raised a three months vol- 
 unteer company to march to Little York. I marched 
 them on to the Big Lick, in Botetourt County, in Septem- 
 ber, and waited for orders, but before I received them it 
 was too late, and I gave my men their discharges. We 
 all went home. 
 
 Did you ever receive a Commission, and if so, by whom 
 was it signed, and what has become of it? 
 
 Ans. I did receive a Captain's Commission from Gov- 
 ernor Burke of North Carolina. It was, I believe, signed 
 by him. I gave it about six years ago to General Lackey, 
 who says he sent it on to the War Department, he thinks. 
 I have made search and cannot find it. It was never re- 
 turned to me. 
 
 State the names of persons to whom you are known in 
 your present neighborhood and who can testify as to your 
 character for veracity, and their belief of your services as 
 a soldier (and officer) of the Revolution. 
 
 Ans. I refer to General Lackey, to Colonel Brown, Col- 
 onel T. W. Graham, to Austin Litteral, to Jacob Mayo, 
 Esq., to Andrew Rule, to the Rev"^ Ezekiel Stone, to Rev"* 
 Wallis Bailey. 
 
 Sworn to before me. 
 
 (Signed) James Davis, J. P. F. C. [Seal] 
 
 AFFIDAVITS 
 State of Kentucky 
 
 Floyd County '^ 
 
 Personally appeared before the undersigned, one of the 
 Conimonwealth's Justices of the Peace, Phillip William- 
 
THE CONNELLY FAMILY 119 
 
 son, Senior, of the County of Lawrence, Kentucky, and 
 naade oath that he is eighty-four years of age, that prev- 
 ious to the commencement of the American Revolution he 
 resided in Wake County, North Carolina, that he shortly 
 after the commencement of the Revolution moved to Guil- 
 ford County, and afterwards to Rowan County, that in the 
 year 1777, in the fall season thereof, Captain Heniy Con- 
 nelly, now of this County, Floyd, was constituted and 
 commissioned a Captain in the North Carolina Cavalrj'. 
 I was then well acquainted with him, and he was appointed 
 to keep down one Fanning. I was frequently with him 
 in the next year in Rowan. This was in the summer of 
 1778. He then commanded the company of Cavalry afore- 
 said. I recollect to have seen him several times in Hills- 
 boro where the prisoners were kept. And I also recollect 
 him and his company was in the service during the year 
 following, in 1779, for I well remember several Tories 
 his company brought in. In the month of February, 1780, 
 I left Rowan, and came over to Washington County, in 
 the State of Virginia. I remained there till May, and I 
 went back to North Carolina. Captain Connelly was then 
 out with his horse company under General Davidson 
 against the Tories. I do not now remember that I saw 
 him any more for some time. I, about this time, enlisted 
 in the service as a '^ Three Months "man, and joined Gen- 
 eral Greene. When we were retreating I again saw Capt. 
 Connelly commanding his company in the service as a 
 Captain. The Infantry was compelled to assist the Cav- 
 alry over the streams. He was in the battle of Guilford. 
 I recollect that I saw him a day or two afterwards in the 
 army. I have known him for a long time since the Revolu- 
 tion. Captain Connelly was a Ca])tain of the troops 
 raised by North Carolina (not Continental). And further 
 this deponent saith not. 
 
 (Signed) Philli]) Williamson |Seall 
 
 [Signed by mark] 
 
120 THE CONNELLY FAMILY 
 
 Sworn to and executed before Francis A. Brown, Justice 
 of the Peace of Floyd County, October 2d, 1833. 
 
 ss 
 
 Floyd County Court 
 August, 1833 
 
 On this 24th day of August, 1833, personally appeared 
 before me, the undersigned, one of the Commonwealth's 
 Justices of the Peace for Floyd County, Jonathan Pytts, 
 an aged man, and now on the Pension Agency of Ken- 
 tucky, and made the following statement on oath relative 
 to the service of Captain Henry Connelly, who was an 
 officer in the Eevolutionary War. This affiant states that 
 he resided in Rowan County, North Carolina, long before 
 the War, and that during the year 1777 Captain Henry 
 Connelly, who was a Captain of a horse company from 
 Guilford arrived in the neighborhood of the uncle of this 
 affiant, with whom this affiant then resided. His business, 
 as he told us, was to assist us in keeping the Tories down. 
 A great many Scotch Tories had accumulated under Fan- 
 ning, and many about the Haw Fields, and a place called 
 Cross Creek. He was, off and on, during that year, in 
 Rowan. I saw him several times in Salisbury in that 
 year. In the year 1778 he and his company still were in 
 Rowan. He knew him very well in the year 1779, for he 
 was, according to this affiant's recollection, all the year in 
 Rowan until Colonel William Davidson came back from 
 General Washington's army and raised men to go and 
 help General Lincoln at Charleston, South Carolina. This 
 affiant saw Captain Connelly frequentlj^ with his horse 
 company in Rowan. And the next year, or the year after, 
 this affiant again saw him and his company just before 
 General Greene got to Dan, He was along with the army. 
 This affiant does not know whether Captain Connelly was 
 in the ])atth' of Guilford or not, for this affiant had been 
 sent on an express to Burke (now called Burke). He 
 does not know liow long Ca])tain Connelly enlisted for. 
 
THE CONNELLY FAMILY 121 
 
 He belonged to the North Carolina Cavalry, and how long 
 he served this affiant does not know precisely. He does 
 not know who was Captain Connelly's Colonel; if he ever 
 knew he has entirely forgotten. The impression of this 
 affiant is that Captain Connelly's horse com])any consisted 
 of one hundred men, but he does not pretend to certainty 
 about this fact. And further this deponent saith not. 
 (Signed) Jonathan Pytts [Seal] 
 [Signed by mark] 
 Subscribed and sworn to before Stephen Hamilton, Jus- 
 tice of the Peace, Floyd County, Kentucky, August 24, 
 1833. 
 
 Commonwealth of Kentucky ) ^^ 
 Floyd County, to-wit ) 
 
 On this [10th] day of October, 1833, personally ap- 
 peared before me, the undersigned, one of the Common- 
 wealth's Justices of the Peace, Benedict Wadkins, aged 
 seventy-four years, who being duly sworn on the holy 
 Evangelists, [deposes and says] that he was a resident of 
 the State of North Carolina, Rowan County, during the 
 Revolution ; that in the year 1777, and 1778, he knew there 
 Captain Connelly, who then commanded as a Captain in 
 the North Carolina Cavalry; and I saw him in Salisbury 
 also in the summer of 1779. He was still commanding 
 his horse company in the service of the United States as a 
 Captain. Captain Connelly then, I think, lived in Guil- 
 ford [County] . When the army was under General (xreene 
 I saw him with the amy once at Hillsboro ; and he was with 
 the army in the retreat from Comwallis. The ast tiine T 
 remember to have seen him was after the battle of (mil- 
 ford-the next day. He was then a Captain as he ..is m 
 1777 and 1778 and 1779. I cannot state lunv long Cai.tain 
 Connellv served, but I know he was comnussionod as a 
 Captain of Cavalry and served in that capacity for .e - 
 eral years. When I came to Saiuly [the I^.g Sand> \ al- 
 
122 THE CONNELLY FAMILY 
 
 ley] many years since, I found Captain Connelly here. 
 Since then I have known him well. I recollect to have 
 heard it asserted that he was at the Cowpens when Tarle- 
 ton got defeated, but as I was not there, cannot testify 
 to that fact. The Tories were very bad in the western 
 part of the State, and Captain Connelly was appointed to 
 assist and keep them down. I distinctly remember that 
 he commanded one hundred men and they were all chiefly 
 Dutch soldiers. And further this deponent saith not. 
 (Signed) Benedict Wadkins [Seal] 
 [Signed by mark] 
 Subscribed and sworn to before Stephen Hamilton, Jus- 
 tice of the Peace, Floyd County, Kentucky, October 10, 
 1833. 
 
 [State of Kentucky ) 
 Floyd County] ) ^^ 
 
 The deposition of William Haney, aged seventy-five 
 years, that in 1781 he became acquainted with Captain 
 Henry Connelly of the North Carolina Light Horse. He 
 was then commanding as a Captain in the North Carolina 
 troops. When General Greene's army retreated into Vir- 
 ginia I remember that he was with the army. He was in 
 the battle of Guilford, I well remember. I have known 
 him many years since the Revolution, and I know him well 
 to be the same man. 
 
 Given under my hand this 9th day of October, 1833. 
 (Signed) William Haney 
 
 Sworn to before Shadrach Preston, Justice of the Peace, 
 Floyd County, October 9th, 1833, and the Justice certifies 
 that Haney was a credible witness, as had all justices with 
 the other affiants. 
 
 Kentucky, to wit. 
 
 The statement of Mesias Hall, aged sixty-five years, who 
 upon his oatli, states that he is a native of the State of 
 
THE CONNELLY FAMILY 123 
 
 North Carolina, Wilkes County. That he recollects many 
 of the events at the close of the Revolution. That he 
 lived and was raised a near neighbor to CapUiin Henry 
 Connelly, Sr. That he always understood from all per- 
 sons that he served in the North Carolina State troops 
 in that capacity in which he has stated. That he never 
 was doubted by any person. He thinks one of his broth- 
 ers-in-law served under him in the Revolution, who is long 
 since dead. 
 
 (Signed) Mesias Hall 
 
 [Signed by mark] 
 Subscribed and sworn to before John Friend, Justice 
 of the Peace, Floyd County, Kentucky, who certifies that 
 Hall was a credible witness. No date. 
 
 The attorney who made out the papers of Captain Con- 
 nelly was Henry C. Harris, of Prestonsburg. He was 
 attorney for the family for a generation. In a letter, in 
 the files relating to the pension of Captain Connelly there 
 is a letter written by Mr. Harris, in which he says : 
 
 ''The old man is a Dutchman, and when I made out his 
 statement I could scarcely understand everything he 
 said." 
 
 His claim was allowed and he was placed on the Pen- 
 sion Roll of the Soldiers of the Revolution at one hundred 
 and fifty dollars per annum, beginning 4th March, 183L 
 
 After his death his widow. Temperance Connelly, was 
 granted a pension, and in consideration of the inadequate 
 allowance to Captain Connelly, she was paid six hundred 
 dollars per annum. In making this allowance to the 
 widow of Captain Connelly a copy of his declaration for 
 pension was sent to the Comptroller's office of North 
 Carolina for verification. Concerning his sei-vico, the 
 Comptroller wrote the Commissioner of Pensions the 
 following 
 
124 THE CONNELLY FAMILY 
 
 LETTER 
 
 Raleigh, North Carolina. 
 Comptroller's Office 
 November 10th, 1851. 
 
 Sir: 
 
 I have attentively examined the records of this office 
 for evidence respecting the Revolutionary services of 
 Captain Henry Connelly, and I regret to say, unsuccess- 
 fully. A portion of the records are undoubtedly lost. The 
 Capitol was burned about twenty years ago and many 
 of the papers of this office destroyed. 
 
 In addition to this, I find a remark in the Journal of the 
 Commissioners on behalf of this State to state the account 
 of North Carolina against the United States, that Col. 
 (afterwards General) W. R. Davie neglected to make a 
 return of the Cavalry forces of this State under his com- 
 mand, and expressing strongly the difficulty which they 
 experienced in making out the accounts of the dragoons. 
 
 The abstract of the Declaration which you sent to me 
 contains the best history of the Revolutionary struggle 
 from 1777 to 1781, in the Middle Counties of North Caro- 
 lina which I have ever seen. 
 
 There are not five men in the State who could have 
 written so concise and correct a histoiy. I could not have 
 done it, and I have studied the subject for ten years and 
 with unusual opportunities for inforaiation. The names 
 of officers, places and dates are all correct. Where did 
 he get them from ? For you must remember that the His- 
 tory of the Revolutionai*y War in North Carolina has not 
 been written, (except Colonel Wheeler's history, now in 
 press). Is not the presumption, then, powerfully strong 
 thai Ills statements relative to his services are also 
 correct. 
 
 T ho])e at some future time to write a historical Memoir 
 
THE CONNELLY FAMILY 125 
 
 of the period embraced in tlie Declaration, and will keep 
 your letter to refer to. 
 
 Very Respectfully, 
 
 Your obedient Sei*vant, 
 
 Wm. J. Clarke, Comptr. 
 
 The letter is now on file with the other papers, in the 
 Bureau of Pensions, where I copied it. 
 
 Captain Henry Connelly moved to Rowan County, Ken- 
 tucky, about 1835, but returned to Johnson County in a 
 short time. He died May 7, 1840, and is buried in what 
 is known as the William Rice Graveyard, on Little Paint 
 Creek, not far from the old Litteral farm, Johnson Coun- 
 ty. The headstone at his grave is of sandstone, and it 
 bears his name and date of birth ; also date of his death. 
 
 Captain Henry Connelly was the founder of the Con- 
 nelly family in Eastern Kentucky. No family ever had 
 a more patriotic or honorable head. He was of strong 
 mentality, as is shown by his remarkable pension Declar- 
 ation, which he dictated at the age of eighty-one, and 
 which is so highly praised by the high State official of 
 North Carolina. It is said that he was a member of the 
 Presbyterian Church, but that Church had no organiza- 
 tion in Eastern Kentucky, and there he united with the 
 Baptist Church. This was the Primitive Baptist Church, 
 members of which were sometimes called the ''Hardshell " 
 Baptists. About the year 1834 there occurred a split in 
 this Church in Eastern Kentucky, and at the Low Gap 
 Church, in what is now Magoffin County, on the Licking 
 River, three or four miles below Salyers\dlle, Rev. Wall is 
 Bailey led a secession which he named the United Baptists. 
 Captain Connelly and his descendants followed Bailey, 
 and most of them have been members of the United Bap- 
 tist Church down to the present time. 
 
 The children of Thomas Connelly (and Susan -loynes 
 Connelly) were: 
 
126 THE CONNELLY FAMILY 
 
 Frances, born in North Carolina, probably Wilkes Coun- 
 ty, in 1800. She married Benjamin Salyer, who owned a 
 large farm on Big Mudlick Creek, Johnson County, Ken- 
 tucky, where the road leaves that stream to go to Flat Gap. 
 There he and his wife died, and they are buried on the 
 farm. He died of cancer on the lower lip. I have seen 
 him often. His son, Hendrix, lived on the home farm ; he 
 married Margaret Williams. One of the daughters mar- 
 ried Joseph Stapleton, and another married Edward Sta- 
 pleton, brothers. A daughter, Christiana, married John 
 Williams, Esq., and their son, Powell Williams, is a prom- 
 inent citizen of Johnson County. 
 
 William, born in Wilkes County, North Carolina, in 
 1803. Died there. 
 
 Constantine, born in Wilkes County, North Carolina, 
 in 1805. He married, in what is now Johnson County, 
 Kentucky, Celia Fairchild, granddaughter of Abind Fair- 
 child, the Revolutionary soldier later mentioned herein. 
 
 Celia, born in Wilkes County, North Carolina, in 1806. 
 She married Dr. Isaac Rice, son of Samuel Rice, the first 
 settler on Little Mudlick Creek, Johnson County. She left 
 a large family of children. After her death Dr. Rice mar- 
 ried Malinda, widow of Britton Blair, and daughter of 
 James Spradlin, the pioneer who settled at the mouth of 
 the Twin Branches, and who was mentioned hereinbefore. 
 
 John, bom probably in Wilkes County, North Carolina, 
 in 1808. He married Margaret, daughter of Noble Blair. 
 He lived on the Lick Fork of Jennie's Creek. He had a 
 large family, one of whom is James Hayden Conley, of 
 Johnson County, a man of culture and ability. 
 
 Henry, born in the Indian Bottom, at the mouth of the 
 Rockhouse Fork of the Kentucky River, in 1810. This 
 point is now in Letcher County. He married, in what is 
 now Johnson County, Rebecca, daughter of George Blair. 
 He lived on a large farm on the Middle Fork of Jennie's 
 Creek. He was my grandfather. 
 
THE CONNELLY FAMILY 127 
 
 Thomas, born in what is now Johnson County, in 1812. 
 He married a Miss Davis, sister to the first wife of Martin 
 R. Rice, Esq., of Johnson County. He lived on Abbott's 
 Creek, in Floyd County, where his descendants are yet to 
 be found. 
 
 Nancy, born in what is now Johnson County, in 1813. 
 She married Asa Fairchild, son of the Revohitionar}' sol- 
 dier to be later mentioned. They lived and died on a 
 branch of the Main Fork of Jennie's Creek, the first con- 
 siderable branch from the west side to flow in above the 
 mouth of the Twin Branches. They left a large family, 
 some of whom moved to Lebanon, Ohio. 
 
 Susan, bom in what is now Johnson County, in 1815. 
 She married John, the son of Noble Blair. He was a 
 millwright and was a fine workman. He built a mill in 
 the Middle Fork of Jennie's Creek, on his farm, to which 
 I have often gone. They left a large family. 
 
 THE FAIRCHILD FAMILY 
 
 The Fairchild Family, of Eastern Kentuckj% was found- 
 ed by Abind Fairchild, a Revolutionary soldier, born in 
 Westmoreland County, Virginia, but from North Carolina 
 to Kentucky. His service as a Revolutionary soldier was 
 in North Carolina. In 1902 I made a copy of the papers 
 in his pension case ; these papers are on file in the Bureau 
 of Pensions, and are as follows : 
 
 State of Kentucky ) 
 County of Floyd ) ^^ 
 
 On this 18th day of February, 1834, personally appeared 
 in open court before the Justices of the Floyd County 
 Court now sitting, Abind Fairchild, a resident of Ken- 
 tucky, in the county of Floyd, aged seventy-one years, who 
 being first duly sworn according to hiw, doth on liis oath 
 make the following declaration in order to obtain the 
 
128 THE CONNELLY FAMILY 
 
 benefit of the provision made by the act of Congress of the 
 7th of June, 1832. 
 
 That he entered the service of the United States under 
 the following named officers and served as herein stated. 
 He resided in Wilkes County, in the State of North Caro- 
 lina, when he first entered the service as a drafted soldier 
 on or about the 10th day of October, in the year 1778, in a 
 company of North Carolina Militia of which John Bob- 
 bins had been appointed Captain. He met his company at 
 Wilkesborough, in Wilkes County, North Carolina, and 
 Captain Bobbins not joining us, William Gillery, the 
 Lieutenant of the company, took the command and com- 
 manded the company throughout the whole tour. Wil- 
 liam Sutton, the Ensign, acted as Lieutenant, and the 
 Sergeant, whose name, to the best of his recollection, was 
 James Lewis, acted as Ensign. 
 
 From Wilkesborough we marched down to Salisbury, in 
 Kowan County, North Carolina, where we lay three or 
 four days, and then marched out to the town of Charlotte, 
 in Mecklenberg County, where we did not halt, but march- 
 ed directly on to Camden, in South Carolina, where we 
 halted and staid about a week. From Camden we 
 marched and crossed Santee River at Nelson's Ferry, at 
 the mouth of Eutaw Spring Branch. At Nelson's Feny, 
 where we lay one night only, we took the right-hand road 
 and marched on to Dorchester and came near to Peros- 
 burg, tlie headquarters of the North Carolina troops. The 
 South Carolina troops were there when we arrived. We 
 encamped about a half mile from the town where we re- 
 mained about six weeks. Colonel John Brevard was the 
 coiiimanding Colonel of the regiment to which his com- 
 pany belonged. From the encampment near Perosburg, 
 we marched up the Savannah Biver to the Three Sisters, 
 whore we staid but a short time, when Captain Gillery 
 and his company left the other troops and we marched 
 <lown the river about three miles to a place called the 
 
THE CONNELLY FAMILY 12'J 
 
 White House, where we went as garrison to guard a ferry 
 on the Savannah River. But a few days after, his com- 
 pany left the Three Sisters. General Lincoln having un- 
 der his command about six thousand regulars (as he, this 
 applicant, was informed) came on to the Three Sisters and 
 remained there but a few days. During our stay at the 
 White House, Colonel Syms having under his command 
 about two hundred Light Horse troo])s, came there and 
 encamped with us one night, and next morning left us. 
 Every morning during our stay at the White House a 
 Corporal and six men were sent to the ferry as sentinels 
 where they remained until they were relieved by another 
 Corporal and six men more. After remaining at the 
 Wliite House, to the best of his recollection, about six 
 weeks, his company was marched around a swamp called 
 the Black Swamp, lying near the river, to a place called 
 the Turkey Hill, where the company was discharged, on 
 the 10th of April, 1779. His discharge was signed by 
 Captain or Lieutenant William Gillery. 
 
 From the 10th of April, 1779, to the 1st of June, 1780, 
 he was out as a volunteer on short excursions, receiving 
 orders from Colonel Benjamin Cleveland, in what direc- 
 tion to proceed in pursuit of the Tories, and if the Tories 
 should be too strong, to return and give information to 
 the Colonel, so that he could go or send a force sufficient 
 to take them. In these he was accompanied, generally, 
 by ten, fifteen, or twenty men detached from the men 
 under command of Colonel Cleveland. In excursions of 
 this kind and sometimes in service under Colonel Cleve- 
 land, with the other troops of the regiment, he was in ser- 
 vice a few days over twelve months between the 10th of 
 April, 1779, and the first of June, 1780, in the counties of 
 Wilkes, Burke, and Rutherford, but mostly in Burke. 
 
 In the last of June or first of July, 1780, lie went as a 
 volunteer and joined Colonel Cleveland at Wilkesborough, 
 in Wilkes County, North Carolina. H<' was i.lacrd in a 
 
130 THE CONNELLY FAMILY 
 
 company by Colonel Cleveland, the names of none of the 
 officers of which he can recollect. Colonel Cleveland had 
 under his command about two hundred men. We marched 
 on to Eamsour's about ten o'clock, A. M., the day of the 
 month not recollected, but he thinks it was between the 
 5th and 10th of July, 1780. When we arrived the battle 
 between the Mecklenberg troops and the Tories was over, 
 and the Tories had been defeated. He then understood 
 that in this battle about one hundred Tories were slain 
 and two hundred taken prisoners. From Eamsour's he 
 returned home to his residence, in Wilkes County, having 
 been in service about two weeks. 
 
 He next went into the service as a volunteer in a com- 
 pany of which William Jackson was Captain. The names 
 of the other company officers he does not now recollect. 
 Colonel Benjamin Cleveland was his commanding Colonel. 
 He joined his company at Wilkesborough, in Wilkes 
 County, on or about the 1st day of September, 1780. From 
 Wilkesborough we marched on to Krider's Fort, in Burke 
 County, North Carolina, where we remained two or three 
 weeks, and then marched up and crossed the Catawba 
 River at Greenleaf Ford, near Morgantown. From there 
 we marched to the head of Cane Creek, a branch of Little 
 Broad River. Between Greenleaf Ford and the head of 
 Cane Creek we fell in with the Virginia troops under com- 
 mand of Colonel Campbell. From here we marched to 
 Colonel Walker's old place (then so called) on Little 
 Broad River, and halted but a very short time, when 
 Colonel Campbell, whose troops were all horsemen, and 
 Colonel Cleveland, after raising all the horses he could, 
 marched on with what mounted soldiers there were, and 
 left the footmen, about one hundred in number, to follow 
 on with all possible expedition. From Colonel Walker's 
 old place, he, this applicant, marched on under command 
 of Captain William Jackson, and crossed Broad River 
 and wont down by Buck Creek and passed a place called 
 
THE CONNELLY FAMILY i:U 
 
 the Cowpens. We then passed down Buck Creek some 
 distance and left Buck Creek and crossed Broad River 
 again at Cherokee Ford. We then niarclied on to King's 
 Mountain - arrived the next day after the battle, a little 
 after dark, at the encampment of the American forces, 
 about two miles from the battle ground. Colonel Fergu- 
 son, the commander of the British troops at King's Moun- 
 tain, was killed and the troops under his command defeat- 
 ed, and, to the best of his recollection, about — hundred 
 of them taken prisoners. The battle was fought, to the 
 best of his recollection, on the 4th or 5th of October, 1780. 
 
 From King's Mountain we marched back to Colonel 
 Walker's old place and then turned back towards King's 
 Mountain again, to Vickerstaff [see Ki)i{j's Mountain and 
 its Heroes, by Draper, page 328- W. E, C] where we re- 
 mained about two days. Here ten of the Tory prisoners 
 were sentenced to be hanged. Nine of them were ac- 
 cordingly executed, and the other escaped. From Vicker- 
 staff we again marched to Colonel Walker's old place. 
 Here this applicant and six or seven other soldiers were 
 left with directions from Colonel Cleveland to bring on a 
 wagon which he had taken at the battle of King's Moun- 
 tain, and the other troops marched on and left us. We 
 went on towards Wilkes County, and on Cane Creek we 
 met four or five men sent back to assist us with the wagon. 
 We then went on to Wilkes County with the wagon, and 
 he received a discharge signed by Captain Jackson for a 
 three months' tour. The time when he received this dis- 
 charge he does not recollect, but he is able to state posi- 
 tively that he was in the service three months on this tour. 
 
 He next went out as a volunteer under John Cleveland, 
 a young man, the son of Colonel Cleveland, who command- 
 ed as Captain. He met the company at Wilkcsborough 
 on or about the 3rd of March, 1781, and we then marched 
 down (there being about forty of us under Ca])tain Cleve- 
 land) to the old Trading Fort on the Va<lkin K*iv«>r, in 
 
132 THE CONNELLY FAMILY 
 
 Kowan, and returned from this expedition about the 25th 
 of April, 1781, and received no written discharge, to the 
 best of his recollection. 
 
 He has no documentary evidence, and he knows of no 
 person whose testimony he can procure who can testify 
 as to his services. 
 
 Sworn to and subscribed the day and year aforesaid. 
 (Signed) Abind Fairchild. 
 
 The Court then propounded to the said Abind Fairchild 
 the following interrogatories, to wit : 
 
 1. Where and in what year were you born? 
 
 Ans. I was born in the year 1762 in the County of 
 Westmoreland and State of Virginia. 
 
 2. Have j^ou any record of your age, and if so, where is 
 it? 
 
 Ans. I have no record of my age. My father had a 
 record of my age, but what has become of it since his death 
 I do not know. 
 
 3. Where were you living when called into service, 
 where have you lived since the Revolutionary War, and 
 where do you now live? 
 
 Ans. I lived in Wilkes County, North Carolina, until 
 about twenty-five years ago, when I removed to Floyd 
 County, Kentucky, where I now reside. 
 
 4. How were you called into service ; were you drafted, 
 did you volunteer, or were you a substitute, and if a sub- 
 stitute, for whom ? 
 
 Ans. In my first tour of service I went as a drafted 
 soldier, and in all my subsequent service, as a volunteer. 
 I never was a substitute. 
 
 5. State the names of some of the regular officers who 
 were with the troops when you served such Continental 
 and Militia regiments as you can recollect, and the general 
 circumstances of your sei'vices. 
 
 Ans. These are as fully set forth in the body of the 
 declaration as I am able to do from my recollection. 
 
THE CONNELLY FAMILY r.i.i 
 
 6. Did you ever receive a discharge from tlie service, 
 and if so, by whom was it signed, and what has become of 
 it? 
 
 Ans. I never received but two discharges that I recol- 
 lect of. The first was given by Captain William Gillery, 
 and the last by Captain William Jackson, both of wliich 
 were lost many years ago, but in what manner they were 
 lost I do not know or recollect. 
 
 7. State the names of persons to whom you are known 
 in your present neighborhood, and who can testify as to 
 your character for veracity and the belief of your services 
 as a soldier of the Revolution. 
 
 Ans. I will name the Rev*^ Ezekiel Stone and John 
 Colvin. 
 
 The affidavits of Ezekiel Stone and John Colvin are at- 
 tached to the declaration, and the Court certifies that 
 they are credible witnesses. The Court also certifies that 
 Abind Fairchild is a reputable citizen and that it is believ- 
 ed that he was in the Revolutionar\" War. 
 
 The claim for pension was allowed, and his name was 
 inscribed on the Roll of Kentucky at the rate of $40 per 
 annum, to commence on the 4th day of March, 1831. Cer- 
 tificate was issued the 27th day of March, 1834, and sent 
 to Hon. Richard M. Johnson. 
 
 Fairchild, the Revolutionary soldier, moved from Wilkes 
 County, North Carolina, to what is now Jolmson County, 
 Kentucky, in the year of 1808, and settled on Bii; Paint 
 Creek. His home was near the Fish Trap Meeting 1 louse, 
 a famous Baptist Church building some six miles from 
 the town of Paintsville. I have not a list of the names of 
 his children, but I know that many of his descendants live 
 in Johnson, Floyd, Magoffin, and other counties of ?iastern 
 Kentucky. One daughter married John Colvin. men- 
 tioned in the pension ])apers. Two sons of John (\)lvin 
 were in the Fourteenth Kentuckv Regiment, rnfantry. in 
 
134 THE CONNELLY FAMILY 
 
 the Civil War - Jeliisa and Abind - in Company I. Abind 
 was called ''Bide" Colvin. I knew them and saw them 
 while their company was stationed at Salyersville. The 
 Colvin Family, in Eastern Kentucky was founded by John 
 Colvin, and it numbers many families now- the McDowells 
 and others. These are all descended from Abind Fair- 
 child. 
 
 The eldest child of Abind Fairchild was Mary. She 
 married George Blair, my great-grandfather, and they 
 left a large family. 
 
 THE BLAIR FAMILY 
 
 There is no more honorable or distinguished family in 
 America than the Blair Family. It was founded in Amer- 
 ica by two brothers. Rev. Samuel Blair and Rev. John 
 Blair. They were eminent Presbyterian ministers, and 
 the founders of the Fagg's Manor school which was the 
 beginning of Princeton University. Samuel was pastor 
 of the Old South Church, Boston, for some years. 
 
 Some of the distinguished descendants of these pioneer 
 brothers are mentioned here: 
 
 Montgomery Blair. 
 
 Francis Preston Blair, Junior, the first Attorney-Gen- 
 eral of New Mexico, Brigadier-General of Union troops 
 in the Civil War, and United States Senator from Mis- 
 souri ; his statue stands in the Hall of Fame, Washington, 
 beside that of Benton. 
 
 John I. Blair, the railroad builder and millionaire, of 
 New Jersey. 
 
 Henry W. Blair, late United States Senator from New 
 Hampshire. In discussing the family and its descendants 
 with me in May, 1910, he told me that his sister had spent 
 much time studying the early history and origin of the 
 Blair family. She found that a colony went from an 
 ancient town in France called Belaire and settled in Scot- 
 
THE CONNELLY FAMILY 135 
 
 land. The colonists were known there by the name of the 
 town from which they had migrated ; they were absorbed 
 by the Scotch and the name of their ancient habitat given 
 them as a family name -^eZaire- and finally Blair. There 
 are other origins of the family and name given, but this 
 has historic support and also probability, and it nnist be 
 admitted as the most reasonable. 
 
 Descendants of these brothers settled in Southwestern 
 Virginia, and from these descended James Blair, the first 
 Attorney General of Kentucky, and whose son, Francis 
 Preston Blair, Senior, was editor of the Washington Globe 
 and political adviser of President Andrew Jackson. 
 George Blair came of this family, and was born in Lee 
 County, Virginia. He and his brother Noble moved to 
 Kentucky when young men, settling in what is now John- 
 son County. They lived for some time near the mouth 
 of Big Mudlick Creek. Later, George Blair bought an 
 extensive tract of land across Big Paint Creek from where 
 Paintsville was afterwards built. He erected a largo 
 hewn-log house on the bluff opposite where the water-mill 
 was erected by John Stafford, at the mouth of the Black- 
 berry Branch. This he sold to the Staffords, after which 
 he and his brother Noble bought all of the Middle Fork 
 of Jennie's Creek, George taking the upper portion of the 
 creek. Near the head of this stream, about seven miles 
 from Paintsville, he erected a large house of hewn logs, 
 where he lived until too old to look after a home, when he 
 went to live with his youngest child, Asa, in whose house 
 he died, on the old John Rice farm, on the Main Branch 
 of Jennie's Creek. I was present at his funeral. A year 
 before his death I taught my first school in that district, 
 and much of the time I boarded with my Uncle Asa, and 
 talked much with Grandfather Blair. He was a strong 
 character, rugged and independent. He was, in his young 
 manhood, of immense strength, and he loved the rude 
 sports of pioneer days and always particiapted in them. 
 
136 THE CONNELLY FAMILY 
 
 His people had been Presbyterians, but no organization 
 of that faith being found in Eastern Kentucky, he united 
 with the Primitive Baptists, and he followed Rev. Wallis 
 Bailey in the secession which resulted in the United Bap- 
 tists of Eastern Kentucky. Though a strict member of 
 the church and an honored one, he would sometimes drink 
 enough whiskey to make him boastful and " funny, " which 
 he always repented in great humiliation after the castiga- 
 tion administered by his wife in the form of curtain lec- 
 ture, and which, he has admitted to me, he dreaded more 
 than any punishment that could have been inflicted on 
 him. The children of George Blair and Mary Fairchild 
 Blair were: 
 
 1. John. Called, b}^ way of nickname "Goodwood." 
 I do not now know whom he married. I have been at his 
 house when he lived on the Louis Power Farm, at the ford 
 of the Licking River, where he once rescued Mr. Power 
 from a watery grave. 
 
 2. Levi. Married a Miss Cantrell, whose family lived 
 on the headwaters of Big Paint Creek, He was a shoe- 
 maker, and lived all his later life at the head of a branch 
 of Barnett's Creek. He had a large family. I have often 
 seen him, having been at his house many times. He was 
 a sharp trader in horses and cattle, very thrifty, and of 
 keen wit. Of these traits in him I could repeat a number 
 of stories. His wife was a hypochondriac. 
 
 o. Britton. Married Malinda, daughter of James 
 Spradlin, the pioneer who settled at the mouth of the Twin 
 Branches. He owned a large farm opposite the house of 
 his father-in-law, where he died and is buried. After 
 his death his widow married Dr. Isaac Rice. I have often 
 been at their house. Aunt Malinda was a good motherly 
 woman when I knew her, and still retained traces of the 
 great beauty for which she was noted in her younger days. 
 Fiu'le Isaac was cross and disagreeable at home, being 
 particularly aggressive and sometimes offensive in argu- 
 
THE CONNELLY FAMILY i:{7 
 
 ment on religion. Aunt Malinda often requested iiu' to 
 come and remain Sundays, so that Uncle Isaac would talk 
 and argTie with me rather than with her, upon wliich occa- 
 sions I was furnished with a surfeit of cake, pie, and fried 
 cliicken as an inducement to come again. 
 
 4. Washington, Called always "Watt." He mar- 
 ried a daughter of James Spradlin, the pioneer, and lived 
 on the headwaters of the Upper Twin Branch. 1 was 
 often at his house, having been always veiy fond of him. 
 He was a genius, intellectually the equal of any man I ever 
 knew, barring none. He was a sort of rustic Samuel .John- 
 son, whom, indeed, he resembled in appearance as well as 
 in mental traits. He always ate with his hat on his head, 
 presiding at the meals of the family much as a sovereign 
 wearing his crown. He was brusque and contentious, of- 
 ten abrupt and overbearing, imperious, but he had a kind 
 heart, and he was very fond of children. He exacted im- 
 plicit obedience of his children even after they were mar- 
 ried and gone to themselves, saying that such was taught 
 in the Bible. He was, indeed, a patriarch, surrounded by 
 Ills large family of married children, all paying him a sort 
 of homage. He was quaint and droll, and his conversa- 
 tion was eloquent and as pleasing as any I ever heard, or 
 saw in literature. I have sat for hours wrapped in a sort 
 of enchantment by his fine discourses delivered always 
 at his own fireside, for he never talked nnich in i)ubli(' 
 His home was liis castle. 
 
 5. James. I do not now recall whom he married. He 
 moved to Minnesota when I was but a child, and fivuii 
 thence he went to Washington Territory. 
 
 6. Rebecca. Married Henry Connelly, my gran«l 
 father. She was a woman of fine mental endowment, ver>' 
 affectionate, thrifty, manufacturing in her home the finest 
 cloth made in Eastern Kentucky; and in this art her 
 daughters also excelled. I remember that she was greatly 
 interested in the improvement of the breeds of cattle. 
 
138 THE CONNELLY FAMILY 
 
 horses, hogs, and fowls. Of all these my grandfather 
 had good specimens on his farm. She talked much, I re- 
 call, of orchards and the cultivation of crops, especially 
 of cotton and flax. Her flock of sheep was her pride. I 
 remember how white and clean they always seemed to me, 
 and how she went among them and was followed by them 
 seemingly in love and affection. No man ever had a better 
 ancestor, and I remember her with reverence. She died 
 of tyiDhoid about the year 1861, and she is buried on the 
 old homestead. 
 
 7. William. Also married a daughter of James Sprad- 
 lin, the pioneer. Her name was Sarah. He was a very 
 intelligent man and a Baptist minister. He built a mill 
 in the Licking River, just above the present town of Sal- 
 yersville, where he lived until the State bought it and re- 
 moved it under the impression that the stream could be 
 made navigable. Then he settled at the mouth of the 
 Rockhouse, in Johnson County, where he died. He was 
 rather impulsive, and I could relate some amusing inci- 
 dents this quality developed during the Civil War. Aunt 
 Sally, so we called her, was an excellent woman, but of an 
 excitable temperament. After her death he married 
 Edith Montgomery. 
 
 8. Noble. Married a Miss Stambaugh. Lived at the 
 extreme head of the Middle Fork of Jennie's Creek. Left 
 a large family. 
 
 9. Clarinda. Married John Stambaugh, supposed in 
 Johnson County to have been the most polite and well- 
 bred man in the whole world. His wife's society became 
 irksome to him, and he lived for a time openly with an- 
 other woman, whom he believed more compatible and 
 more ''polite." In his last sickness, however, her polite- 
 ness did not prevent her forsaking him, when his wife 
 sought him, took him home, and cared for him until his 
 death. She never married again. They had one child, a 
 son, Buchanan Stambaugh. 
 
THE CONNELLY FAMILY 139 
 
 10. Mary. I can not now recall whom she married. 
 
 11. Asa. Married Mahala, daughter of Josiah Sprad- 
 lin, and granddaughter of James Spradlin, the pioneer. 
 Two children, Alamander and Ellen. 
 
 Henrj' Connelly and Eebecca Blair were married in 1830. 
 They were given by her father a large farm on the head 
 waters of the Middle Fork of Jennie's Creek. On this 
 farm they lived until their deaths. They were members 
 of the Baptist Church, United Baptists. Services were 
 often held in their home, upon which occasions the whole 
 countryside were invited to remain for dinner. I well 
 remember these feasts, though I was often ke]it busy 
 caring for the horses of the guests until I thought I should 
 starve to death. My grandfather was a large man, but 
 without any tendency to corpulency, and he was one of the 
 strongest men in that country. I remember his feats of 
 physical strength, perfonned in clearing lands, erecting 
 houses, in conflict with the wild beasts of the forest. 1 le 
 was also of fine mind, though this was of a practical turn, 
 and he never cared much for books. He was a fine hunter, 
 and a collection of his adventures would make an inter- 
 esting volume. When he was but six years old he went 
 into the woods a few rods from the house. There he saw 
 a large bear seize his pet pig. He ran to the house and got 
 his father's rifle and hurried back, followed by his mother. 
 But before she came up he had shot the bear through the 
 head and saved his pet, which was dreadfully torn, but 
 survived. On another occasion he went into the woods 
 with his elder brother, Constantine, who, while l)usy about 
 some matter, gave him the gim to hold. The elder liroth- 
 er was startled to hear the report of the gun, and called 
 out roughly to know what he was doing. '*I shot a wolf," 
 said grandfather. And there was the wolf snarling and 
 struggling in its death throes. He was but seven. It 
 was necessary for the person who killed a wolf to appear 
 
140 THE CONNELLY FAMILY 
 
 before the County Court to get the bounty paid for the 
 scalp. This was the cause of his first visit to a town, he 
 having to go with his father to Prestonsburg, where his 
 appearance in Court caused so much wonder, when his 
 business was known, that it was impressed vividly on his 
 mind. On another occasion, when he was no more than 
 seven, some young men were chasing a deer with hounds. 
 He believed the deer would run through a field just below 
 the house. He took his father's rifle and concealed him- 
 self in a hollow stump in the field. Soon the deer came by, 
 as he had judged, and he shot it dead, though it was run- 
 ning at full speed. This was when his father lived at the 
 mouth of Mill Creek. His good markmanship once caused 
 him to receive a severe whipping from his mother. He 
 made himself a pop-gun of the common elder. One of the 
 family flock of sheep, which had been driven from North 
 Carolina, was walking along one of the logs hauled in to be 
 used in building the residence, eating the moss from its 
 bark. He shot this sheep with his pop-gun. The "wad" 
 struck the sheep just back of the "knuckle" of the front 
 leg, where there is no wool. The sheep fell from the log 
 as though dead, for the ball had struck just over the heart. 
 But by the time he was soundly flogged, the sheep got to 
 its feet and ran away. 
 
 Henry Connelly was a good citizen, esteemed by all who 
 knew him. I could relate an incident in his life which 
 showed his good judgment, his justice, his humanity. It 
 saved a man from a life of crime and made him an honest 
 citizen, but as his children are yet living I will not write it. 
 
 The children of Henry Connelly and his wife Rebecca 
 Blair, were as follows: 
 
 1. Constantine. My father. Bom December 5, 1831. 
 Married Rebecca Jane McCarty. Lived on the Wolf Pen 
 Branch of the Middle Fork of Jennie's Creek, where I was 
 bom. Moved to Salyersville, Kentucky. 
 
 2. Celia. Died unmarried. 
 
THE CONNELLY FAMILY 141 
 
 3. Thomas. Married his cousin, Connelly. 
 
 Died at the beginning of the Civil AVar, leaving one son. 
 
 4. William. Born in 1835. Was in the Fourteenth 
 Kentucky Cavalry, and died at Lexington, Kentucky, of 
 typhoid while in the service. I remember that Grami 
 father went there with a wagon drawn by oxen and brought 
 the body home, stopping one night at our home in Salyers- 
 ville, where the friends and companions of Uncle William 
 gathered to mourn his death. He was umiiarrici], and liis 
 genial nature, cordial manner, bright conversation, love 
 of manly athletics, made him a favorite over a wide range 
 of country. In youth he met with an accident, cutting olT 
 the fingers of his left hand while making a wedge to split 
 timber. 
 
 5. Mahala. Born in 1837. Married William, son oi' 
 Josiah Spradlin, hereinbefore mentioned. They had two 
 children, Clarinda and Mantford. After the death of her 
 first husband she manied Nathaniel Picklesimer. Xo 
 children by second marriage. 
 
 6. Clarinda. Born in 1839. Married Jeremiah Hack- 
 worth, a soldier in the Fourteenth Kentucky Infantry. 
 Lived on the headwaters of Middle Creek. Left a large 
 family. 
 
 7. Mary. Born in 1841. Married Farmer May. but 
 died shortly after marriage. 
 
 8. Lucina. Born in 1843. Married May. 
 
 9. John. Born in 1845. Married Matilda, daughter 
 of Morgan Long, of North Carolina, who live<l a short time 
 in Paintsville after the Civil War. He was the largest 
 man in Johnson County, but not in the least corjiulent. 
 He was above six feet, probably six feet four, broad shoul- 
 ders, and of fine foim. He was a man of immense 
 strength. Lives now in Paintsville. 
 
 10. Amanda. Born in 1849. Married May. 
 
 11. Catherine. Born in 185L Married Andrew .1.. 
 son of Martin R. Rice. 
 
142 THE CONNELLY FAMILY 
 
 12. Cynthia. Born in 1855. Married Lewis F. Cau- 
 dill. He was a Baptist minister. Both still living. Have 
 a large family. 
 
 THE BURKE FAMILY 
 
 The Burke Family is of Norman origin, and with the 
 Butlers and Fitzgeralds, is ranked with the most distin- 
 guished of the Norman-Irish. The ancestor of the Irish 
 Burkes was William Fitz-Adelm de Burgo, who accom- 
 panied King Henry the Second to Ireland as his steward, 
 in 1171. The family was related by blood to that of Wil- 
 liam the Conqueror. Two of them, Robert de Burgo and 
 William, his half-brother, were with him at the invasion 
 of England, and the former was afterwards created Earl 
 of Cornwall. In the reign of King John the Burkes ob- 
 tained large possessions in Connaught through the rivalry 
 and quarrels of the 'Connors. Becoming powerful, they 
 subsequently renounced their allegiance to the kings of 
 England, and adopted the Irish language, dress, and cus- 
 toms, and compelled all the other familie'fe of Norman 
 origin in Connaught to do likewise.- Genealogy of Irish 
 Families, by James Rooney, page 458. 
 
 William Burke was a private in the famous Cavaliy 
 command of Lieutenant-Colonel Henry Lee, of Virginia, 
 in the Revolutionary War. This was the famous Light 
 Horse Troop of ''Light Horse Harry." In our family 
 there are many traditions of his adventures, his prowess, 
 his hair-breadth escapes. Once he was captured and con- 
 demned to death as a spy, but was saved by being allowed 
 to escape in the night before he was to be executed by a 
 brother Freemason, the acquaintance of whom he had in 
 some way made, and who was his guard. 
 
 After the war he came to what is now Scott County, 
 Virginia, where he died about the year 1795. Among his 
 children was a son, John, who migrated to Kentucky with 
 
THE CONNELLY FAMILY 143 
 
 a colony of Methodists led by Rev. Alexis Howes, founder 
 of the Howes Family in Eastern Kentucky. John Burke 
 had a daughter, Lydia, born in Scott County, Viri^nnia. 
 I have mislaid the date of her birth. John Burke settled 
 on the Rockhouse Fork of Big Paint Creek, where he 
 bought a large farm. He was a cedar-cooper, and famous 
 for the fine wares he made -pails, churns, piggins, and 
 other vessels. I have seen him, but he was very old, as was 
 his wife. They lived in a log cabin in the yard of the resi- 
 dence of my Grandfather McCarty. They must have died 
 in 1860. 
 
 THE McCARTY FAmLY 
 
 The MacCarthy, McCarty, or Carty Family is descended 
 from Milesius, King of Spain, through the line of his son 
 Heber. The founder of the family was Coi*mac, King of 
 Munster, A. D. 483. The ancient name was Carthann, 
 which signifies "Kindness." The chief of the sept was 
 McCarthy More, Prince of Muskerry, King and Prince of 
 Desmond, King of Cashel and ]\Iunster, The possessions 
 of the family were located in the present counties of Cork, 
 Limerick, and Clare. The sept comprised the families of 
 the McCarthy More, McCarthy Raigh, 'Donovan, 
 O'Keefe, O'Mahony, McAulifl:e', 'Cowley, 'Curry, 
 'Collins, O'Dunnady, McCartney, McCurtin, McCutch- 
 eon, McHngh, and O'Scanlon. The McCarthys took their 
 name from Cartagh, King of Desmond, A. D. 1100. Un- 
 der the Irish kings, and long after the advent of the Anglo- 
 Norman invader, the McCarthy family maintained their 
 princely \)vommence.- Genealogy of Irish Fajnilics, by 
 John Rooney, page 74. 
 
 Richard McCarty was born in Culpeper County, \'ir- 
 ginia. He was a soldier under Braddock, and was at 
 Braddock's defeat. His company was raised by one 
 Slaughter, of Culpeper, and was under command of Gen- 
 
144 THE CONNELLY FAMILY 
 
 eral Washington on the Braddock expedition. In the War 
 of the Revolution Richard McCarty was Captain of the 
 company from 1778 to 1781, when it was in the Virginia 
 Line. He died of disease about the close of the Revolu- 
 tion. (See Heitman's Register, Washington, 1893). His 
 son Abner settled in Scott County, Virginia, and some of 
 our family say Captain McCarty lived until about 1785, 
 when he died in Scott County, but of this I have no proof. 
 It is usually believed in the family that he died either in 
 the war or soon after he returned to Culpeper County. 
 Abner McCarty had a son Wiley, born in Scott County, 
 whose son, John, came with a second colony of Methodists 
 to what is now Johnson County, Kentucky. There he 
 married Lydia, the daughter of John Burke, in 1836, and 
 settled on a farm given him by his father-in-law, on the 
 Rockhouse Pork. He lived there until his death, which 
 was caused by inflammatory rheumatism about 1861. I re- 
 member his funeral. My mother had taken me with her 
 in her visit to him in his last illness. He was a small man, 
 inclined to corpulency, with the Irish fondness for amuse- 
 ment and merriment. He was noted for his sharp wit and 
 fortunate speeches in repartee. He was a member of the 
 Methodist Church founded by Rev. Alexis Howes, perhaps 
 the first in Eastern Kentucky. 
 
 The temperament, spirit, genius, of the Irish people were 
 strongly preserved in the family of my mother. The love 
 and reverence for the ancient traditions, stories, fairy 
 tales, and lore through which fancy and the supernatural 
 were interwoven were a passion with my Grandfather Mc- 
 Carty, and all this, intensified and multiplied, was inherit- 
 ed by my mother. Grandfather sang innumerable songs 
 of Old Ireland, and his stories of the McCarty banshee 
 charmed me and so frightened me when a child that I was 
 in terror when put to bed at night. My mother sang many 
 of tliese old folk-songs to her children. She died so young 
 tliat 1 did not have opportunity to presence any of them, 
 
CONSTANTINE CoNLEY, Jr. 
 
 Father of tlio Autlior 
 
 [Photofiriij'h I'll Liitlii r. f.Diii.sn, Ky. 
 
THE CONNELLY FAMILY 145 
 
 but the spirit and rhythm of them so took hold of me that 
 I hear always the music of them. 
 
 My Grandmother McCarty lived to a great age, dying 
 a few years ago in Owsley County, Kentucky, but I have 
 not the date of her birth or death. C^hildren : 
 
 1. Rebecca Jane. Born January 14, 1S37. My motli- 
 er. Married my father, Constantine Conley, Junior, in 
 1854, in Johnson County. 
 
 2. Mary A. Married Rev. Samuel K. Ramey, long 
 Presiding Elder of the Middlesboro District. No cliil- 
 dren. 
 
 3. Martha. Married Franklin Centers, of Clay Coun- 
 ty, Kentucky. They have a large family. 
 
 4. John. Married Sarah, daughter of Burkett. 
 
 Lives at Brazil, Indiana. Has two sons, Wiley and 
 James. 
 
 5. Abner. Was made deaf and a mute by scarlet 
 fever when an infant. Never married. 
 
 6. Wiley. Married Frances, daughter of Rev. Robert 
 Calhoun, of the Methodist Church. Lives in Johnson 
 County. 
 
 7. Amanda. Married James Estep, and removed to 
 Booneville, Owsley County, Kentucky. 
 
 8. Angelina. Married Joseph Estep. They live in 
 Booneville, also. 
 
 A sister of my grandmother married Rev. William 
 Green, a devout and eloquent minister of the Methodist 
 Church in Johnson County, and who was bom in Scott 
 County, Virginia. They left a large family, but I am not 
 infoimed as to number and residence. 
 
 CONSTANTINE CONLEY, JUNIOR 
 
 Constantine Conley, Junior, son of Henry Connelly 
 and Rebecca Blair, his wife, married, in Johnson County, 
 Kentucky, Rebecca Jane McCarty, June 1), 1854. Tlie 
 
146 THE CONNELLY FAMILY 
 
 marriage ceremony was performed by Rev. Alexis Howes, 
 the venerable pioneer Methodist preacher of Eastern 
 Kentucky. My father told me that when he offered to 
 pay him a fee for performing the ceremony the old man 
 said to him: "Young man, you could well afford to pay 
 me a large sum, for I have united you in holy wedlock 
 with one of the fairest daughters of the Church and one 
 of the best girls that ever lived. I baptized her, an in- 
 fant, and I have known her all her life. Her value is 
 above that of rubies. I love her as my own daughter. 
 Among the viands prepared by her own fair hands I will 
 find a pie made for her wedding feast, and that is all the 
 pay I desire or will have. ' ' This tribute I believe to have 
 been deserved, and my father treasured it as long as he 
 lived. 
 
 My father was the firstborn, and his mother had train- 
 ed him to aid her about the house when he was a small 
 boy. He was a fine cook. In those days the farmhouse 
 was a manufactory where the shoes for the family were 
 made. Those were days of homespun, pioneer days, the 
 heroic days in the life of any land. In them was laid 
 well the foundation of our government, and he that would 
 have inspiration must study to understand them. My 
 father was taught to make the shoes of the family, and 
 these were made from leather tanned on the farm. This 
 became his occupation in after life, and this trade he 
 taught to me. His father gave him a farm on the Wolf 
 Pen Branch, a prong of the Middle Fork of Jennie 's Creek- 
 a part of the old homestead. My mother was energetic 
 and ambitious. When the County of Magoffin was formed 
 and the county-seat fixed at Salyersville she desired to go 
 there and see if opportunities could be found. They mov- 
 ed there about 1858, and built the first hotel there. For 
 many years it was known as the Hager House ; and it yet 
 stands. Uncle William Blair sawed the lumber for it in 
 his mill in the Licking River. 
 
THE CONNELLY FAMILY 147 
 
 My father early enlisted in the Union army -in the 
 Fourteenth Kentucky Regiment. But for some reason 
 he was not mustered in that regiment. He enlisted in the 
 Forty-fifth Regiment, Mounted lnfantr>-, and served to 
 the end of the war. My mother died in Novemher, 1802. 
 She is buried on the hill above where the mill of Uncle 
 William Blair was, on a tract of land on which there was 
 an old graveyard. My father married, for a second wife, 
 Artemisia, eldest daughter of Caleb ^lay, but she lived 
 but a few months. He then married Charlotte Picklesini- 
 er, a niece of Louis Power, and a granddaughter of Wil 
 liam Prater, one of the first settlers of that region. After 
 the war he moved to Johnson County, where he lived until 
 his death, in 1904. He died at East Point, and is buried 
 there. Children : 
 
 1. William Elsey. Born on the Wolf Pen Branch. 
 Johnson County, Kentucky, March 15, 1855. The name 
 ** Elsey" was given me by my mother for an old Virginia 
 family with whom her family was connected by blood, but 
 in what degree I do not know. The Sweatnam and Lit- 
 teral families of Eastern Kentucky are also connected 
 with this old Virginia family. I remember many things 
 which occurred at the home of my birth, one of which T 
 will relate. There was some game then, and my father 
 was an expert hunter. There was an immense turkey in 
 the forest about our home that had often been shot at by 
 the old hunters, but he was so wary that all the shots had 
 to be from long distances, and he had always escaped. ()n«' 
 evening, at dusk, my father came in from a hunt, and 1 
 heard him tell my mother that the big turkey had just flown 
 into the top of a large poplar that stood at the back of our 
 fields, there to roost for the night. He said he would go 
 out there at daylight and try to get a shot at him. I im- 
 mediately set up an outcry to be taken along, which was 
 finally, at my mother's solicitation, agreed to. I rcnicm 
 ber that it was not light when we set out, but the distance 
 
148 THE CONNELLY FAMILY 
 
 was not more than a quarter of a mile. I was left at the 
 fence, beyond which there was a thicket in which the big 
 poplar grew. I could see the turkey outlined against the 
 sky, and he was stretching his neck downward as far as 
 he could, apparently seeking a place to fly down to, for it 
 was dark below. My father must have seen that the tur- 
 key was intent on flying down, for he shot, as he said, 
 before it was light enough to get a good "bead" on him. 
 But it was a lucky shot, though one that came near miss- 
 ing. The turkey's neck was shot in- two at the body. Here 
 he came flopping down from the height of a hundred feet 
 and fell in the thicket very near me. I remember with 
 what pride my father carried him home and exhibited him 
 to my mother. The parents of both my father and moth- 
 er were invited to come to a dinner when he was roasted. 
 I remember seeing my mother roasting the turkey in a 
 large iron kettle used usually for laundry purposes. I 
 am not sure I remember the weight of the turkey accur- 
 ately, but thirty-nine pounds always seems to me to be 
 the weight. While I have a perfect recollection of seeing 
 the turkey cooked, I have none whatever of the dinner 
 nor of either of my grandfathers or grandmothers, though 
 I have been told all were present. 
 
 2. Henry Clay Harris. Born October 18, 1856. 
 
 3. Louisa Elizabeth. Born May 26, 1858. 
 
 4. Martha Ellen. Born July 19, 1860. 
 
 5. John Mason. Bom May 5, 1862. 
 
 Children by Charlotte Picklesimer, the third wife : 
 
 1. James Mason Brown. Born November 20, 1865. 
 This is the date I have, but I am certain that it should be 
 1866. 
 
 2. Joseph Milton. Born April 28, 1868. 
 
 3. Sarah. Born August 29, 1870. 
 
 4. Mary. Born June 5, 1873. 
 
 5. Susan. Born June 11, 1875. 
 
'^^^ 
 
THE CONNELLY FAMILY 149 
 
 Having traced the family from the beginning to a point 
 where all descendants can easily discern their particular 
 branches and continue them, I cease at this point. Uur 
 family, and all the families with which it has intermarried, 
 are of the i:>ioneer stock of America. They are neither 
 better nor worse than the other pioneer American fami- 
 lies. Pride of ancestry is an inspiration, and we of the 
 South have it in large degree. But it should not degen- 
 erate into arrogance or intolerance. 
 
JOHN WESLEY LANGLEY 
 
 John Wesley Langley was born near the close of the 
 Civil War, in Floyd County, Kentucky. He is descended 
 from the Langley Family of North Carolina and the Rob- 
 inson Family of Virginia, both old Revolutionary families. 
 On his mother's side he is descended from the Salmons 
 and Click families of Virginia and Kentucky. His ma- 
 ternal ancestor was Edith MacAlpine, who married Arch- 
 ibald MacGregor, and, afterwards, Langley. Her 
 
 daughter, Ann MacGregor, married Captain Henry Con- 
 nelly. John W. Langley, therefore, is descended from the 
 Clan MacAlpine, the first of the Scottish Highland clans. 
 And he and all the Langleys of his family are cousins to 
 the descendants of Captain Henry Connelly — making, 
 perhaps, the largest blood-relationship in Eastern Ken- 
 tucky. Through his mother's line he inherits a large 
 element of German blood. 
 
 Langley was educated in the common schools of Floyd 
 County, and in the Georgetown, Columbian, and National 
 Universities of Washington City, at which he attended at 
 night while holding a government position. He won the 
 first honors in all three of these Universities and took the 
 degrees of A. B., LL. B., and LL. M., Doctor of Civil Law 
 and Master of Diplomacy. He, therefore, has taken the 
 highest working degrees conferred by any University in 
 the country. His early education was secured with the 
 usual difficulties encountered by a country boy in the 
 mountains of Kentucky, and almost entirely through hia 
 own unaided efforts. 
 
 At the age of sixteen Langley was granted a teacher's 
 certificate, receiving the highest rating in the county. He 
 
.loII.V WksI.I'.V LvNdl.KV 
 
THE CONNELLY FAMILY i:,l 
 
 taught school for three years, and was then apj^ointed to a 
 clerkship in Washington. Later, he returned to Ken- 
 tucky and was twice elected to the Legishiture of that 
 State, receiving at the beginning of his second term the 
 caucus nomination of his party for S])eaker of the House, 
 which made him the minority leader of that body. He 
 afterwards was appointed a member of the Board of Pen- 
 sion Appeals, having received the highest rating of all 
 who took the examination for the position ; and the Secre- 
 tary of the Interior, in one of his official reports, said that 
 Langley stood at the head of the list for amount of work 
 accomplished. 
 
 After holding this position for some time Langley re- 
 turned again to his native State and was the nominee of 
 his party for Member of Congress. The district was over- 
 whelmingly Democratic, and he was defeated. lie was 
 then given the position of Appointment Clerk of the Cen- 
 sus Office, and, later, the office of Disbursing Clerk was, by 
 Act of Congress, combined with that of Appointment 
 Clerk, and he held both positions until he was given his 
 second nomination for Congress, in his home district, in 
 1906. In this position he made an exceptional record, and 
 his salary was twice increased by special Act of Congress. 
 While his district had been Democratic by a good mar- 
 gin, Langley was elected to Congress in 1906 by a majority 
 of nearly one thousand. In Congress he at once took liigh 
 rank, and his record was so satisfactory to the peo]ile that, 
 two years later, he was re-elected by a majority of almost 
 three thousand. He is at this time, 1910, the unanimous 
 nominee of the Republican party in his district for -x tliird 
 term in Congress. 
 
 In Congress Langley has been particularly active in his 
 efforts to secure additional pension legislation, appropria- 
 tions for the erection of public buildings and the improve- 
 ment of the Kentucky and Big Sandy rivers, and F'cderal 
 aid in the construction of public highways. 
 
152 THE CONNELLY FAMILY 
 
 Langley has been a delegate to two Republican National 
 Conventions, and he was the first to propose Roosevelt 
 for Vice-President on the floor of the convention at Phil- 
 adelphia in 1900. He is forceful, tactful, energetic, of a 
 pleasing personality, ambitious to accomplish things for 
 his people and the country, of the highest integrity and 
 sense of honor, and a man in whom the people repose the 
 fullest measure of confidence. 
 
Milton hdKKKsT Conley 
 pjditor and l^anker, Louisa, Ky. 
 
MILTON FORREST CONLF.Y 
 
 Milton Forrest Conley (spelling of name changed from 
 Connelly by his father) was born June 13, 18(18, at Louisa. 
 Lawrence County, Kentucky, where he now lives, lie is 
 a great-great grandson of Captain llenrj^ Connelly, of the 
 Revolution, through the soldier's son Thomas and through 
 Constantine, the eldest son of Thomas. 
 
 Milton Forrest Conley is the eldest of three chihlreii 
 (two sons and a daughter) of Asa Johnson Conley and 
 Elizabeth Leslie Conley. The other son is Martin Leslie 
 Conley, General Manager of the Ohio & Kentucky Rail- 
 way Company and President of the Morgan County Na- 
 tional Bank at Cannel City, Ky. 
 
 Milton Forrest Conley was educated in the common 
 schools, and in his sixteenth year established the Big 
 Sandy News, a weekly newspaper since continuously pub- 
 lished by him. It was the first weekly newspaper in Ken- 
 tucky to install a linotype machine. During the years 
 1901 and 1902 he was a one-half owner in the Ashland, 
 (Ky.), Daily Independent, the Catlettsburg, (Ky.), Daily 
 Press, and the Kentucky Democrat, dividing his time be- 
 tween these and the Big Sandy News. He has ])een a 
 member of the Kentucky Press Association for twenty- 
 two years and an Executive Committeemman several 
 terms; and he has attended the National Editorial Asso^ 
 ciation four years as Delegate from Kentucky. In W.i 
 he was appointed Postmaster at Louisa and served four 
 years In 1904 the Louisa National Bank was organized 
 with a capital of $50,000, and he was ofForod t^^^M;;;'^^ 
 of Director and Cashier, which he accepted aiul st.l ho Ms. 
 He is identified with other business enterprises m the Hig 
 
154 THE CONNELLY FAMILY 
 
 Sandy Valley, and is one of the two Trustees of the Ken- 
 tucky Normal College, at Louisa, which has four hundred 
 boarding students and a like number of local students. 
 He was married to Miss Willie Burgess in 1894, and of 
 this union three children have been born. 
 
ANNOUNCEMENT 
 
 This volume is the first of a series which 1 intend to 
 publish on the history and genealogy- of Eastern Kentucky. 
 
 Eastern Kentucky has a history as important and in- 
 teresting as has any part of America, and it is my design 
 to set it down faithfully in these volumes. 
 
 As shown in this volume, the people of Eastern Ken- 
 tucky are descended from the best families of Europe 
 and America. The only trouble has been that they have 
 not made any effort to collect and preserve family annals 
 and traditions. To gather authentic information about 
 the early history of a family is extremely expensive, and 
 this has been the principal cause of delay in securing it by 
 some families. 
 
 I have extensive records of the Mayo, Leslie, Auxier, 
 Hager, Meek, Cecil, Preston, Brown, Harris, Dixon, Wit- 
 ten, Patrick, Prater, May, Stafford, Mankins, Porter, 
 Hanna, Rice, Rule, Price, Caudill, Adams, Gardner, How- 
 ard, Williams, Salyer, and many other pioneer famihes 
 of Eastern Kentucky. I hope to treat these, or some of 
 them, at least, even more extensively and thoroughly than 
 I have the Connelly and other families in this volume. 
 
 William Elsey Connelley 
 
INDEX 
 
INDEX 
 
 Albemarle Point, Old: the Con- 
 nellys first settled at, 95. 
 
 Anderson, Major Charles: known to 
 Captain Henry Connelly, 117. 
 
 Argjilshire: former home of the 
 MacGregors, 101. 
 
 Armagh: County of in Ireland, the 
 Connellys came from, 95. 
 
 Backwoodsmen, the: character of; 
 how they subdued the wilderness, 
 21; their manner of life in their 
 settlements, 22. 
 
 Bailey, Rev. Wallis: referred to for 
 character by Captain Henry Con- 
 nelly; certificate of; certified to 
 by clerk as a clergyman, 115; re- 
 ferred to by Captain Connelly, 
 118; formed United Baptist 
 Church in Eastern Kentucky, 125. 
 
 Balclutha : town at forks of Big 
 Sandy River so named, 54. 
 
 Balquhidder: burial place of the 
 MacGregors at Church of, 101. 
 
 Baptists: formation of the United 
 from Primitive Baptists in East- 
 em Kentucky. 125. 
 
 Bear Branch: descended by Mrs. 
 "Wiley in her escape, 72. 
 
 Bear : pictured on an elm tree in 
 Paintsville, 53. 
 
 Bickley, : quotation from 
 
 History of Tazewell Co., Va., writ- 
 ten by, 31. 
 
 Big Mudlick Creek, the: Indians de- 
 scended, 50: painted rocks along, 
 52. 
 
 Big Paint Creek, the : description of ; 
 painted trees along found by the 
 
 first settlers, 52 ; mounds above 
 mouth of, 54; Simon Kenton 
 lived two winters at mouth of, 55; 
 followed by Mrs. Wiley in her es 
 cape, 72. 
 
 Big Sandy River, the: veneration of 
 the Indians for; Cherokees, Shaw- 
 nees, Delawares, Toteros and Wy- 
 andots roamed over, 52. 
 
 Big Sandy Valley, The: by Dr. Wil- 
 liam Ely, referred to, 81. 
 
 Blair Family, the: in America; 
 founded by Rev. Samuel Blair and 
 Rev. John Blair; founded schools 
 which became Princeton Univers- 
 ity; distinguished men of; origin 
 of name of, 134. 
 
 Blairs, the: many of descended from 
 Edith MacAlpine, 100. 
 
 Blair, Alamander: son of Asa Blair, 
 139. 
 
 Blair, Asa: son of George Blair; 
 author lived at house of; George 
 Blair died at home of, 135 ; mar- 
 ried whom; children of, 139. 
 
 Blair, Britton: married Malinda 
 Spradlin, 126; son of George 
 Blair; death of, 136. 
 
 Blair, Clarinda: daughter of George 
 Blair; married whom, 138. 
 
 Blair, Ellen: daughter of Asa Blair, 
 139. 
 
 Blair, Francis Preston, Sr. : frienti 
 of Andrew Jackson; editor of the 
 Washington Globe, 135. 
 
 Blair, General Francis Preston, Jr.: 
 distinguished member of the Blair 
 Family, 134. 
 
160 
 
 HARMAN'S STATION 
 
 Blair, George: daughter of married 
 Henry Connelly, 105, 126 ; married 
 Mary Fairchild, 134; lived where 
 in Johnson County; death of; 
 character of, 135; Presbyterian, 
 but united with Baptist Church ; 
 wife of sometimes lectured; child- 
 ren of, 136. 
 
 Blair, Henry W. : former U. S. Sen- 
 ator from New Hampshire; mem- 
 ber of this Blair Family, 134. 
 
 Blair, James: first Attorney-General 
 of Kentucky, 135. 
 
 Blair, James: son of George Blair, 
 137. 
 
 Blair, Rev. John: Presbyterian min- 
 ister; founded Fagg's Manor 
 School, the beginning of Prince- 
 ton University, 134. 
 
 Blair, John : son of Noble Blair ; 
 married Susan Connelly ; was a 
 millwright, 127. 
 
 Blair, John: son of George Blair; 
 some account of, 136. 
 
 Blair, John I. : member of this Blair 
 Family, 134. 
 
 Blair, Levi: son of George Blair; 
 lived where; traits of, 136. 
 
 Blair, Malinda: widow of Britton 
 Blair; married Dr. Isaac Rice; in- 
 duced author to visit home and 
 argue scripture with husband, 136. 
 
 Blair, Margaret: married John Con 
 nelly, 126. 
 
 Blair, Mary: daughter of George 
 Blair, 139. 
 
 Blair, Noble: brother of George 
 Blair; daughter of married John 
 Connelly, 126; lived where, 135. 
 
 Blair, Noble: son of George Blair; 
 lived where, 138. 
 
 Blair, Rebecca: daughter of George 
 Blair, grandmother of the author; 
 traits of; married Henry Connolly, 
 137 ; some account of, 139. 
 
 Blair, Rev. Samuel : Presbyterian 
 
 minsiter; preached in Old South 
 
 Church, Boston, 134. 
 Blair, Washington: called "Watt" 
 
 Blair; characteristics of; a genius, 
 
 137. 
 Blair, William : son of George Blair ; 
 
 lived where; married whom; death 
 
 of, 138; sawed the lumber for 
 
 hotel, 146. 
 Bluestone: headwaters of crossed by 
 
 the Indians with Mrs. Wiley, 41. 
 Boma, William, Ensign : known to 
 
 Captain Henry Connelly, 117. 
 Boone, Daniel: trip of to Big Sandy 
 
 Valley, 55. 
 Borders, John: soldier under Corn- 
 
 wallis; surrendered at Yorktown; 
 
 married daughter of Hezekiah Sel- 
 
 lards; descendants of, 24; warned 
 
 Mrs. Wiley that Indians were in 
 
 the setlement, 36; urged Mrs. 
 
 Wiley to go to his home, 37; 
 
 alarmed the settlers, 63. 
 Braddock's Defeat: mention of, 17. 
 Brevard, Colonel Ephraim: had 
 
 skirmishes with Loyalists, 112; 
 
 known by Captain Henry Connelly, 
 
 114, 117. 
 
 Brevard, John: commanded regiment 
 
 to which Abind Fairchild belonged, 
 
 128. 
 Briant, Captain Charles: known by 
 
 Captain Henry Connelly, 117. 
 Brown, Colonel Francis A.: referred 
 
 to by Captain Henry Connelly, 
 
 115, 118; Justice of the Peace, 
 120. 
 
 Brushy Mountain : Indians carried 
 Mrs. Wiley across, 41. 
 
 Buncombe. Colonel : known by 
 
 Captain Henry Connelly, 117. 
 
 Burgess, Miss Willie: married Milton 
 Forrest Conley, 154. 
 
 Burke Family: origin of; influential 
 in Ireland; name of Norman an- 
 cestor and founder of, 142. 
 
INDEX 
 
 161 
 
 Burke. Governor: eaptured by the 
 famous Tory. Fanning, 110; di- 
 rected Captain Henry Connelly to 
 keep down Fanning, 117; commis- 
 sioned Captain Connelly, 118. 
 
 Burke. Jolni : came to Kentucky whh 
 the Howes colony; some account 
 of; children of, 143. 
 
 Burke, Lydia: married .Tohn Mc- 
 Carty, 14.3. 
 
 Burke, William: in the Revolution 
 under "Light Horse Harry" Lee; 
 Descendants of, 142. 
 
 Burkett, Sarah: married .John (son 
 of John) McCarty, 145. 
 
 Burris, Rev. M. T. : wrote for the 
 author an account of the early set- 
 tlement of the Big Sandy Valley. 
 12; gave information Sellards fam- 
 ily, 24; gave description of Mrs. 
 Wiley, 25; wrote an account of 
 battle with Indians at camp of the 
 liunters, 30. 
 
 Cabins: those built at the mouth of 
 Big Paint Creek by the Frcndi 
 and Indians, 55. 
 
 Calhoun, Frances: married Wiley 
 McCarty, 145. 
 
 Camden. S. C. : company of Abiml 
 Fairchild marched to, 128. 
 
 Campbell, Colonel William: con- 
 duct of in King's Mountain 
 campaign, 130. 
 
 Cane Creek: Abind Fairchild 's com- 
 pany fell in with Virginia troops 
 at on King's Mountain campaign, 
 130. 
 
 Captive, the: brought to Little Mud- 
 lick Creek by the Cherokee Chief, 
 15; torture of; name of not 
 known; memory of lost; Mrs. Wi- 
 ley certain of torture of, 60; ap- 
 peared to Mrs. Wiley in her 
 dream ; pointed out way to Har- 
 nian "s Station, 70. 
 
 Caudills, tliL': some of descended 
 from Edith MacAlpine, 100. 
 
 Centers, Franklin : married Martha 
 McCarty, 145. 
 
 Central Methodist, The: edited by 
 Rev. Zephaniah Meek, 81. 
 
 Charles Edward, the Pretender: 
 cause of espoused by Archibald 
 MacGregor, 102. 
 
 Charleston, S. C. : the Connellys own- 
 ed a part of the site of, 95. 
 
 Charlotte, N. C. : troops marched to, 
 128. 
 
 Chaves, ,Tose: Dr. Henry Connelly 
 married widow of, 98. 
 
 Cherokees. the: sold to Henderson a 
 shadowy claim to Kentucky, 17; 
 many killed by Matthias Harman ; 
 trails of, 27; some of in band 
 that murdered family of Wiley, 
 33; regarded the region about the 
 mouth of Big Paint Creek with 
 veneration, 52; told early settlers 
 that mounds there had fire in them, 
 54; pointed out towns of the To- 
 teros, 55. 
 
 Cherokee Ford: Broad River crossed 
 at by troops on King's Mountain 
 campaign, 131. 
 
 Cherokee Fork: Indians with Mrs. 
 Wiley camped on, 49. 
 
 Cherokee Gap: Indians carried Mrs. 
 Wiley through, 49. 
 
 Cherokee Chief, the: leader of the 
 band which attacked the hunters; 
 son of killed by Matthias Har- 
 man, 29; guide in Sandy Creek 
 Voyage, 30; angered by death of 
 son, 31; went to Walker's Creek 
 to murder family of Harman, 32; 
 account of given by Mrs. Wiley, 
 34; planned the escape of the In- 
 dians with Mrs. Wiley, 38; could 
 apeak English imperfectly, 39; 
 furnished food, 42; wished to kill 
 ^frs. Wiley's child, 43; killed the 
 child, 46; separated from the 
 
162 
 
 HARMAN'S STATION 
 
 Shawnee party, 48 ; arrived at Lit- 
 tle Mudlick Creek with the cap- 
 tive; made Mrs. Wiley cook for 
 him, 59; bought Mrs. Wiley, 61; 
 characteristics of, 70 ; went to kill 
 buffalo, 71 ; pursued by Mrs. Wi- 
 ley; too late; his exclamation and 
 disappearance, 75. 
 
 Children of the Mist : were of the 
 Clan MacGregor, 101. 
 
 Clarke, William J. : Comptroller oi' 
 North Carolina; said pension De- 
 claration of Captain Henry Con- 
 nelly was the best history of the 
 Revolution in Middle Couuties of 
 North Carolina ever written, 125. 
 
 Cleveland, Colonel Benjamin: known 
 by Captain Henry Connelly, 114. 
 117; Abind Fairchild served un- 
 der, 129 ; fought at Ramsour 's 
 Mill, 130; commanded troops in 
 King's Mountain campaign, 131. 
 
 Cleveland, Captain John: son of 
 Colonel Benjamin Cleveland, com- 
 manded company of Abind Fair 
 child, 131. 
 
 Cole, Ben : sent out to hunt game. 
 90. 
 
 Colson's Mills: Captain Henry Con 
 nelly wounded at battle of. 117. 
 
 Colvin Family: founded by John 
 Colvin; descended from Abind 
 Fairchild, 134. 
 
 Colvin, Abind: in Fourteenth Ken- 
 tucky Infantry, 134. 
 
 Colvin, Jehisa: in Fourteenth Ken- 
 tucky Infantry, 134. 
 
 Colvin, John: referred to by Abind 
 Fairchild whose daughter he mar 
 ried; sons of in Fourteenth Ken- 
 tucky Infantry, 133; founder of 
 Colvin Family, 134. 
 
 Connelly Family, the: descended 
 from Mih^sius, King of S])ain ; 
 founded by Eogan, King of Ire 
 land; Ileremon, son of Milesius, 
 its aueestiir; sigiiifu'iit ion of name 
 
 of; possessions of where in Ire- 
 land ; ancient form of name ; 
 South Carolina the first American 
 home of, 95. 
 Connellys, the: with Boone visited 
 the Big Sandy Valley about 1763, 
 55; dealt in lands and townsites; 
 induced Germans and Scotch-Irish 
 to settle in South Carolina ; fought 
 in the Revolution; served under 
 famous American Generals; where 
 settled; where now found. 96; 
 many descended from Edith Mae- 
 Alpine, 100; proud of their de- 
 scent from the Clan MacGregor. 
 102. 
 Conley: one form of the name Con- 
 nelly; the most common form in 
 Eastern Kentucky; relatives of the 
 author so write it, 97. 
 Conley, Amanda: date of birth of; 
 
 married whom, 141. 
 Conley, Asa Johnson: marriage of; 
 
 children of, 153. 
 Conley, Catherine: date of birth of; 
 
 married whom, 141. 
 Conley, Celia : date of birth of. 140. 
 Conley, Clarinda: date of birth of-, 
 
 married whom, 141. 
 Conley, Constantine, Jr : portraits 
 of, 145, 148 ; in Union Army in 
 Civil War; father of the author; 
 lived in log cabin on Wolf Pen 
 Fork, 105 ; married Rebecca Jane 
 MeCarty; lived where, 140; mov- 
 ing of mentioned; reply of Rev. 
 Alexis Howes to; was a shoe- 
 maker; built hotel at Salyersville, 
 146; enlisted in Fourteenth Ken- 
 tucky Infantry but was not mus- 
 tered; served in Forty-fifth, 
 Mounted Infantry; second and 
 third marriages of; killed the fa- 
 mous wild turkey. 147; children of. 
 148. 
 Conley. Cynthia: date of birth of; 
 married whom, 142. 
 
INDEX 
 
 163 
 
 Conley, Elizabeth Leslie: married 
 Asa Johnson Conley; children of, 
 153. 
 
 Conley. Henry C. H.: date of birth 
 of, 148. 
 
 Conley, James Hayden : son of John 
 Connelly, 126. 
 
 Conley, James Mason Brovrn : date 
 of birth of, 148. 
 
 Conley, John: son of Henry Con- 
 nelly; date of birth of, 141. 
 
 Conley, John M. : son of Constantine 
 Conley, Jr.: date of birth of, 148. 
 
 Conley, .Joseph Milton : date of birth 
 of, 148. 
 
 Conley, Louisa Elizabeth : date of 
 birth of, 148. 
 
 Conley, Lucina, date of birth of; 
 married whom, 141. 
 
 Conley, Mahala: date of birth of; 
 married whim ; children of, 141. 
 
 Conley, Martha Ellen: date of birth 
 of, 148. 
 
 Conley, Martin Leslie: parents of; 
 President of Morgan County Na- 
 tional Bank; General Manager 
 Ohio & Kentucky Railway Com- 
 pany, 153. 
 
 Conley, Mary: date of birth; mar- 
 ried whom, 141. 
 
 Conley, Mary: daughter of Con- 
 stantine Conlej'', Jr.; date of birth 
 of, 148. 
 
 Conley, Milton Forrest: portrait of; 
 date of birth of; parents of; 
 founded Big Sandy News; has 
 had interests in other papers; was 
 Postmaster of native town ; Cash- 
 ier of Louisa National Bank; con- 
 nected with other enterprises, 153 ; 
 marriage of; Trustee of Kentucky 
 Normal College, 154. 
 
 Conley, Sarah: date of birth of, 148. 
 
 Conley, Susan : date of birth of, 148. 
 
 Conley, Thomas: son of Henry Con- 
 nelly; date of birth of, 141. 
 
 Conley, William: son of Henry Con- 
 
 nelly; was in Fourteenth Kentucky 
 Cavalry; died in the service; traits 
 of, 141. 
 
 ConuelU: one form of the name Con- 
 nelly, 97. 
 
 Connelly, Anu: wife of Captain 
 Henry Connelly; was Ann Mac- 
 Gregor; probable date of death 
 of, 108. 
 
 Connelly, Celia: birth of; married 
 Dr. Isaac Rice, 126. 
 
 Connelly, Constantine: born in North 
 Carolina; lived in Kentucky; mar- 
 ried Celia Fairchild, 126. 
 
 Connelly, David : birth of, 105. 
 
 Connelly, Edmund : came from Ire- 
 land to South Carolina, 95. 
 
 Connelly, Edmund : son of Henry, 
 the emigrant ; married Mary Edge- 
 field; sons of, 98. 
 
 Connelly, Edmund: son of Captain 
 Henry Connelly ; always claimed 
 his mother was a Pennsylvania 
 Dutch woman, 99; date of birth 
 of ; lived in Magoffin County, Ky. : 
 author attended religious services 
 at home of; married whom, 103. 
 
 Connelly, Elizabeth: date of birth 
 of, 107. 
 
 Connelly, Frances: married Bcnja- 
 min Salyer, 126. 
 
 Connelly, Harmon : visited Kentucky 
 with Boone and others, 55; mar- 
 ried whom ; moved to North Caro- 
 lina, 98; visit to Kentucky men- 
 tioned; was in the Revolution, 99., 
 
 Connelly, Henry: came from Ire- 
 land to South Carolina, 95. 
 
 Connelly, Henry: manner of" life in 
 home of, 23; born in Letcher 
 County, Ky ; mother died at home 
 of; lived where, 104; married Re- 
 becca Blair, 105; date of birth of, 
 married whom, 106; where born; 
 date of birth of ; married whom ; 
 lived where; grandfather of the 
 
164 
 
 HARMAN'S STATION 
 
 author, 126 ; some incidents in the 
 life of, 139; children of, 140. 
 Connelly, Captain Henry: the numer- 
 ous descendants of; moved from 
 North Carolina to Virginia, then 
 to Kentucky; soldier in the Rev- 
 olution, 97; son of whom; born 
 where; settled in Guilford County, 
 North Carolina, 100 ; married Ann 
 MacGregor, 102; family Bible of; 
 family record of; date of birth 
 of; wife of; mother a Pennsyl- 
 vania Dutch woman, 103 ; signa- 
 ture of; date of death of; for sec- 
 ond wife married whom, 108 ; ser- 
 vices of in Revolution ; declara- 
 tion of for pension ; when he en- 
 listed; officers served under, 109, 
 et. seq. ; appointed to keep down 
 Colonel David Fanning, the fa- 
 mous Tory leader of the Revolu- 
 tion; where company of served in 
 1778, 110; in the battle of the 
 Cowpens; in the great retreat of 
 Colonel Greene; in battle of Guil- 
 ford Court House; men of in 
 panic, 113; names of officers of 
 the Revolution known to him; 
 raised company to go to York- 
 town; gave his commission to Gen- 
 eral Lackey, 114; date of birth 
 of; said his father recorded date 
 in family Bible "in Dutch"; 
 where he lived; services of in Rev- 
 olution, 116 ; wounded at Colson 's 
 Mills; nineteen of men of killed 
 at battle of Hillsboro; was at bat- 
 tle of Cowpens and Guilford Court 
 House; with General Green in his 
 retreat to Dan River, 117; went 
 to Montgomery County, Va., and 
 raised company to go to York- 
 town; company discharged; had a 
 commission from Governor Burke; 
 testimonials to character of, 118; 
 affidavit of Phillip Williamson for, 
 119; affidavit of Jonathan Pytts 
 
 for, 120; affidavit of Benedict 
 Wadkins for, 121; affidavits for of 
 William Haney and Mesias Hall, 
 122; enrolled for pension at $150 
 per annum; was called a Dutch- 
 man, 123; remarkable letter con- 
 cerning pension declaration of; 
 best history of the Revolution ever 
 written, 124; moved to Rowan 
 County, Ky. ; where buried; of the 
 Baptist Church; founder of the 
 Connelly family in Eastern Ken- 
 tucky, 125. 
 
 Connelly, Dr. Henry: portrait of; 
 was Governor of New Mexico; 
 where born ; son of whom ; grad- 
 uated at Transylvania University; 
 went to Missouri and to Mexico, 
 97; merchant in Mexico; aided 
 General Kearny and Colonel Doni- 
 phan in Mexico; trader over Old 
 Santa Fe Trail; explored Okla- 
 homa and Texas; saved New Mex- 
 ico to the Union; son of lives in 
 Kansas City, 98; account of writ- 
 ten from documents, 109. 
 
 Connelly, John: came from Ireland 
 to South Carolina, 95. 
 
 Connelly, John: son of Captain 
 Henry Connelly; date of birth of; 
 married a Miss Joynes; settled 
 where; descendants of live where, 
 106. 
 
 Connelly, John: son of Thomas; 
 birth of; married whom; lived 
 where; one of the sons of, 126. 
 
 Connelly, John Donaldson: father 
 of Dr. Henry Connelly, 97. 
 
 Connelly, Joseph: date of birth of, 
 107. 
 
 Connelly, Nancy: married Asa 
 Fairchild; lived where, 127. 
 
 Connelly, Peggy: date of birth of, 
 105. 
 
 Connelly, Peter: son of Dr. Henry 
 Connelly, 98. 
 
INDEX 
 
 165 
 
 Connelly, Eachel: date of birth of; 
 married James Spradlin, Sr., 105. 
 
 Connelly, Susan: where and when 
 born, married John Blair, 127. 
 
 Connelly, Susan Joynes: described 
 Mrs. Wiley, 25; children of, 125. 
 
 Connelly, Temperance: allowed pen 
 sion of $600 for services of hus- 
 band in the Revolution, 123. 
 
 Connelly, Thomas: came from Ire- 
 land to South Carolina, 95. 
 
 Connelly, Thomas: visited Kentucky 
 with Boone and others, 55 ; was 
 the son of Edmund Connelly, 98 ; 
 moved to Pennsylvania ; married 
 a Pennsylvania Dutch woman; 
 was in the Revolution under Gen- 
 eral Charles Cotesworth Pinckney; 
 wounded at the battle of King's 
 Mountain, 99; was at the defeat 
 of Braddock, 100. 
 
 Connelly, Thomas: son of Captain 
 Henry Connelly; date of birth of; 
 married whom ; great grandfather 
 of the author, 104 ; names of child- 
 ren of, 125. 
 
 Connelly, Thomas: son of Thomas 
 and grandson of Captain Henry 
 Connelly; married whom; lived on 
 Abbott's Creek, Floyd County, 
 Ky., 127. 
 
 Connelly, William : son of Captain 
 Henry Connelly; drowned in the 
 Big Sandy River; where buried, 
 107. 
 
 Connelly, William : son of Thomas 
 Connelly; death of, 126. 
 
 Connelley, William Elsey: date of 
 birth of; given his name for 
 whom; author of this work; saw 
 the famous wild turkey shot ; some 
 recollections of, 147, 148. 
 
 Conspiracy of Pontiac: causes of, 
 17. 
 
 Conspiracy of Fontiac, the: men- 
 tioned, 18. 
 
 Continental money: the depreciation 
 of. 111. 
 
 Cormac, King of Munster: founder 
 of the McCarty FamUy, 143. 
 
 Cornwallis, Lord: opposed to North 
 Carolina troops, 112. 
 
 Cowpens: the battle of; Captain 
 Henry Connelly in, 113; men- 
 tioned, 117; troops passed on 
 King's Mountain campaign, 131. 
 
 Crane, the: chief of the Wyandots, 
 11. 
 
 Crum, William C. : tree against 
 which Indians dashed Mrs Wiley 's 
 child on farm of, 83. 
 
 Damrons, the: moved from the 
 Shenandoah with Hezekiah Sel- 
 lards, 21. 
 
 Damron, Lazarus: with Matthias 
 Harman in pursuit of Indians, 82. 
 
 Davidson, General: known by Cap- 
 tain Henry Connelly, 114, 117; re- 
 turn of from Washington's army, 
 120. 
 
 Davidson, Colonel William: aided 
 the North for a time in the Rev- 
 olution, 111 ; opposed Cornwallis, 
 112. 
 
 Davie, Colonel W. R. : Captain Henry 
 Connelly served under, 111; in 
 command of district; opposed 
 Cornwallis, 112; directed Captain 
 Henry Connelly to keep down Fan- 
 ning, 117; failed to make roll of 
 forces, 124. 
 
 Davis, James: Justice of the Peace; 
 attestation of to pension declara- 
 tion of Captain Henry Connelly, 
 115, 116; certificates of. 118. 
 
 De Kalb, Baron: known by Captain 
 Henry Connelly, 114, 117. 
 
 Dela wares, the : some of in band 
 which murdered family of Wiley, 
 3.3. 
 
 DcnioH, .Tolin O. : David Fanning, 
 the Tory, bound to, 110. 
 
166 
 
 HARMAN'S STATION 
 
 Dickson, Eev. Henry: owned land 
 on which Paintsville, Ky., is sit- 
 uated, 53; referred to by Captain 
 Henry Connelly, 115. 
 
 Donegal: County of in Ireland, seat 
 of ancient Connelly Family, 95. 
 
 Doniphan, Colonel A. W. : aided by 
 Dr. Henry Connelly, 98. 
 
 Draper's Meadows: the Harmans 
 settled at, 26. 
 
 Draper, George: in battle with In- 
 dians at camp of hunters, 30; ran 
 away, 32. 
 
 Draper, John: action of in captivity 
 of Mrs. Wiley, 87. 
 
 Duncards, the: lived about Ingles 's 
 Ferry in 1750, 18. 
 
 Dutchmen: the Harmans, Steiner, 
 Stoner, and Mansker, as well as 
 all other Germans in Backwoods 
 so called, 27. 
 
 Edgefield, Mary: married Edmund 
 
 Connelly, 98. 
 Ely, Dr. William: work on Big 
 
 Sandy Valley referred to, 12. 
 Eogan: King of Ireland, A. D. 379; 
 
 founder of the Connelly Family, 
 
 95. 
 Estep, James: married Amanda Mc- 
 
 Carty, 145. 
 Estep, Joseph: married Angelina 
 
 McCarty, 145. 
 Evans, James: actions of in capture 
 
 of Mrs. Wiley, 87. 
 Evans, Lewis: map of referred to, 
 
 7. 
 Evans, William: lived where; James 
 
 Spradlin, Sr., died at house of, 
 
 106. 
 
 Fagg's Manor School: forerunner 
 of Princeton University, 134. 
 
 Fairchilds, the: many of descended 
 from Edith MacAlpiue, 100. 
 
 Fairchild Family, the: founded by 
 
 Abind Fairchild, a soldier in the 
 Revolution, 127. 
 
 Fairchild, Abind: founder of the 
 Fairchild Family in Eastern Ken- 
 tucky; soldier in the Eevolution; 
 born in Westmoreland County, 
 Va. ; pension declaration of, 127; 
 history of Eevolutionary services 
 in pension declaration of, 128, et. 
 seq. ; in King 's Mountain cam- 
 paign; routes of march, 130; 
 served under John C. Cleveland, 
 131; where and when born; lived 
 where and when; Revolutionary 
 services of, 132; references of; 
 services rendered; when moved to 
 Kentucky; lived about Fish Trap 
 Meeting House; enrolled as Eevo- 
 lutionary pensioner, 133. 
 
 Fairchild, Asa : married Nancy Con- 
 nelly, 127. 
 
 Fairchild, Celia, married Constantine 
 Conley, 126. 
 
 Fairchild, Mary: married George 
 Blair, 134, 
 
 Fanning, Colonel David: the fam.ous 
 Tory of the Eevolution; biograph- 
 ical sketch of; Captain Henry 
 Connelly appointed to keep him 
 down, 110, 119. 
 
 Ferguson, Colonel: killed at battle 
 of King's Mountain, 131. 
 
 Fermanagh: the Connellys chiefs in, 
 95. 
 
 Firbolgs: subdued by the Milesians, 
 95. 
 
 Fish Trap Meeting House: Abind 
 Fairchild lived near, 133. 
 
 Fitz-Adelm de Burgo, William : the 
 Norman ancestor of the Burke 
 Family, 142. 
 
 Flat Gap, the: Indians passed 
 through with Mrs. Wile}', 50. 
 
 Flat Rock Ford : a noted place, 52 ; 
 painted trees about, 53. 
 
 Fort Towson: Dr. Henrj' Connelly 
 spent winter at, 98. 
 
INDEX 
 
 167 
 
 French, the: v>ith Indians, built 
 cabins at the mouth of Big Paint 
 Creek, 55. 
 
 Friend, John: Justice of the Peace, 
 123. 
 
 Galway: County of in Ireland, seat 
 of ancient Connelly Family, 95. 
 
 Gates, General Horatio: the Con- 
 nellys served under in Revolution, 
 96. 
 
 Genealogy of Irish Families: by 
 Rooney, referred to, 95, 142, 143. 
 
 Gillery, Lieut. "William : acted as 
 Captain of Abind Fairchild's com- 
 pany, 128; discharged men at Tur- 
 key Hill, 129. 
 
 Gist, Christopher: entry in Journal 
 of referred to, 10. 
 
 Glasgow, Edward J. : partner of Dr. 
 Henry Connelly in Mexico, 98. 
 
 Goodwin, General: known by Cap- 
 tain Henry Connelly, 114. 
 
 Grahams, the: many of descended 
 from Edith MacAlpine, 100. 
 
 Graham, Colonel T. W. : referred to 
 by Captain Henry Connelly, 118. 
 
 Great Flat Top Mountain: Indian 
 trail ran along the top of, 41 ; 
 sometimes called Indian Ridge, 42. 
 
 Green, Rev. William : mentioned, 145. 
 
 Greene, General Nathaniel: the Con- 
 nellys served under in the Revo- 
 lution, 96; in command of the 
 troops of the Carolinas; great re- 
 treat of, 113; Captain Henry Con- 
 nelly with on famous retreat to 
 Dan River. 117. 
 
 Greenleaf Ford: on the Catawba; 
 troops crossed at on King's Moun- 
 tain campaign, 130. 
 
 Guilford Court House: battle of, 
 113; Captain Henry Connelly at 
 battle of, 117. 
 
 Guyan, Henry: said to have had 
 trading post at mouth of Guyan- 
 dotte River in 1750; the uncle of 
 
 Susan Joynes, 104; Guyandotte 
 River said to have been named 
 for, 105. 
 Guyandotte River: origin of name 
 of, 105. 
 
 Hackworths, the: many of de- 
 scended from Edith MacAlpine, 
 100, 
 
 Hackworth, Jeremiah: in the Four- 
 teenth Kentucky Infantry; mar- 
 ried Clarinda Conley, 141. 
 
 Hager Hill: mention of, 55. 
 
 Hale, John P. : work of referred to, 
 9. 
 
 Half -King, the: chief of the Wyan- 
 dots; succeeded by Tarhe, the 
 Crane, 11. 
 
 Halls, the: many of descended from 
 Edith MacAlpine, 108. 
 
 Hall, Mesias: affidavit of for Cap- 
 tain Henry Connelly, 122. 
 
 Hamiltons, the : many of descended 
 from Edith MacAlpine, 100. 
 
 Hamilton, Stephen: Justice of the 
 Peace, 121. 
 
 Haney, William: affidavit of for 
 Captain Henry Connelly, 122. 
 
 Hanging Rock: view of from Paints- 
 ville, Ky., 55. 
 
 Hanks, John : in the settlement at 
 Vancouver's post, 68; affidavit of 
 concerning post, 69. 
 
 Hanna, Rev. Samuel: referred to by 
 Captain Henry Connelly, 115. 
 
 ITardestji's Historical and Biograph- 
 ical Encyclopedia: referred to, 81. 
 
 Harman 's Station : shown on Imlay's 
 Map of Kentucky, 1793, see map; 
 cause of founding of, 5; some of 
 the founders, 6; first cabin built 
 on site of as early as 1755; prob- 
 ably the oldest settlement in Ken- 
 tucky; had no aid from any stao, 
 7; site of fixed; blockhouse built 
 at described, 67; dates fixed be 
 yond doubt; shown on Imlay's 
 
168 
 
 HARMAN'S STATION 
 
 map, 68; beseiged by Indians in 
 1788; abandoned; destroj^ed by 
 Indians; rebuilt in winter of 1789- 
 90, 77. 
 
 Harman, Adam: one of the found- 
 ers of Harman 's Station, 65. 
 
 Harman, Adam: came to America 
 from Prussia; settled first in 
 Pennsylvania, then in Virginia, 26. 
 
 Harman, Aquilla: in battle with In- 
 dians at camp of the hunters, 30. 
 
 Harman, Daniel: in battle with In- 
 dians at camp of the hunters, 30; 
 one of the founders of Harman 's 
 Station, 65; became permanent 
 settler in Kentucky; descendants 
 of live there, 77. 
 
 Harman, Ed: in battle with Indians 
 at camp of the hunters, 30. 
 
 Hannan, George: in battle with In- 
 dians at camp of the hunters, 30 ; 
 actions of according to Eagland, 
 87. 
 
 Harman, Henry: one of the found- 
 ers of Harman 's Station, 65; ac- 
 tions of according to Eagland, 87. 
 
 Harman, Henry, Jr.: actions of ac- 
 cording to Eagland, 87. 
 
 Harman, Jacob: came from Prussia 
 to Pennsylvania and then to Vir- 
 ginia, 26. 
 
 Harman, Captain Matthias: led com- 
 pany to found Harman 's Station; 
 one of the Long Hunters, 6; cred- 
 it given to by Adam P. Wiley, 11 ; 
 lived on Walker 's Creek, 25 ; bio- 
 graphical sketch of; located col- 
 ony in Ab 's Valley ; sold Thomas 
 Wiley land on Walker 's Creek, 26 ; 
 formed colony to settle in Big 
 Sandy Valley at mouth of John 's 
 Creek, 27; called "Tice" or 
 "Tias" Harman; personal ap- 
 pearance of; made first settle- 
 ment in Kentucky possibly; was 
 in the Eevolution ; went on hunt 
 in fall of 1787, 28; killed son of 
 
 Cherokee chief ; enmity of chief 
 towards, 29; was guide on Sandy 
 Creek Voyage; actions of in bat- 
 tle at camp of the hunters de- 
 scribed by various persons, 30; 
 thought Cherokee chief would at- 
 tack the settlement; various parts 
 assigned to by writers, 31; Indians 
 seek his cabin to destroy his fam- 
 ily, 33; situation of house of, 37; 
 Cherokee chief said he would find 
 trail, 43 ; visited Kentucky at early 
 day with Boone and others, 55; 
 went to house of Thomas Wiley 
 and took direction of affairs; saw 
 there was no Indian uprising; 
 went forward to the founding of 
 Harman 's Station, 64 ; set for- 
 ward on the trail and followed it 
 rapidly, 65; gave up the pursuit 
 of the Indians; went to site of 
 blockhouse, 66; founded Harman 's 
 Station, 68 ; rebuilt the block- 
 house in the winter of 1789-90, 69; 
 took Mrs. Wiley back to Virginia, 
 76; returned to Virginia and died 
 there, 77; went in pursuit of In- 
 dians, 82 ; what Eagland says. 87 ; 
 raising a company of rangers for 
 service in the Carolinas, 88; sent 
 back to the settlements, 91; men- 
 tioned, 92. 
 Harman, Matthias, Jr.: wrote ac- 
 count of the battle at camp of 
 the hunters for the author, 30. 
 Harman, William: in battle with In 
 dians at camp of the hunters. 30. 
 Harris, David K. : referred to by 
 
 Captain Henry Connelly, 115. 
 Harris, Henry C. : Attorney for Cap- 
 tain Henry Connelly; said the 
 Captain was a Dutchman, 123. 
 Haw Fields: meeting place for the 
 
 Tories in the Eevolution, 111. 
 Hawps, Eobert : one of the party to 
 found Harman 's Station ; one of 
 the Long Hunters. 6 ; went on 
 
INDEX 
 
 169 
 
 hunt with the Harmaus in fall of 
 1787, 29; one of the founders of 
 Ilarmau's Station, 65. 
 Heber: son of Milcsius, McCarty 
 
 Family descended through, 143. 
 Henderson, Richard: bought coun- 
 try from the Cherokees; named it 
 Transylvania, 7; sale of claim 
 mentioned, 17. 
 Heremon: son of Milesius, Connelly 
 
 Family descended through, 95. 
 Herrman, Heinrich: came from Prus- 
 sia to Pennsylvania; moved to 
 Strasburg, Va. ; brothers of came 
 to America; father of Matthias 
 Harman, 26; went on hunt with 
 his sons in fall of 1787, 28; shot 
 with arrows by young Cherokee, 
 29; other accounts of the battle, 
 30. 
 Hicks, Dr. : daughter of mar- 
 ried Harmon Connelly, 98; traded 
 with Cherokees; had married a 
 Cherokee woman, 99; attended 
 Thomas Connelly on battlefield of 
 King's Mountain, 100. 
 Hillsboro: battle of, 19; Captain 
 Henry Connelly's men killed at. 
 117. 
 History of Tazewell County, Vir- 
 ginia: quoted from, 31. 
 Hitchcock, John: date of birth of; 
 married whom ; a Quaker ; dates 
 of births of children of; widow of 
 married Captain Henry Connelly, 
 108. 
 Hitchock, Temperance: widow of 
 John Hitchcock; Eastern Ken- 
 tucky families descended from, 
 108. 
 Holgin, Captain: known by Captain 
 
 Henry Connelly, 114, 117. 
 Hood's Fork, the: Indian trail fol- 
 lowed, 50. 
 
 Horn, : believed to have been 
 
 one of the founders of Harman 's 
 Station, 65. 
 
 Howard, General John E. : Captain 
 Henry Connelly served under in 
 Revolution, 96; at battle of Cow- 
 pens, 113; known by Captain Con- 
 nelly, 114, 117. 
 
 Howe, John: early exploration of 
 Kentucky told of by, 55. 
 
 Howes, Rev. Alexis: led colonies of 
 Methodists to Kentucky, 143, 144. 
 
 Huff, Peter: grave of, 91. 
 
 Hy Nials, the Northern: descended 
 from Eogan, 95. 
 
 Indian Bottom : Henry Connelly 
 
 born at, 104. 
 Imlay's American Topography: map 
 
 in shows Harman 's Station, 68. 
 Ingles 's Ferry : mention of ; Dun- 
 cards lived at 18. 
 Ingles, Mrs. Mary; adventures of 
 
 told of by Adam P. Wiley, 9. 
 Iron Works, the: Captain Henry 
 
 Connelly called roll of his men at, 
 
 118. 
 Iroquois, the: claimed the country of 
 
 Kentucky, 17. 
 
 Jackson, Captain William: Abind 
 Fairchild served under in King's 
 Mountain campaign, 130. 
 
 Jaynes, the : live about the Flat Gap 
 in Kentucky, 100. 
 
 Jennie's Creek: followed by Mrs. 
 Wiley, 72, 73 ; named for Mrs. 
 Wiley, 74; Thomas Connelly set- 
 tled on, 104; James Spradlin lived 
 on, 105. 
 
 John 's Creek : Harman 's Station be- 
 low mouth of, 66; stream de- 
 scribed, 67. 
 
 .Johnson, Richard M. : Attorney for 
 Abind Fairchild, 133. 
 
 Johnson County, Ky.: has sites of 
 first and second settlements made 
 in Eastern Kentucky, 54. 
 
 Joynes, Susan: descent of; married 
 Thomas Connelly; sketch of; Hen- 
 
170 
 
 BARMAN'S STATION 
 
 ry Guyan the uncle of; death of, 
 104; where buried, 105. 
 
 Kanawha, the Great: Louisa River 
 marked as flowing into, 8. 
 
 Kearny, General S. W. : aided by Dr. 
 Henry Connelly, 98. 
 
 Kelly, Joseph: Mrs. Wiley described 
 by, 25. 
 
 Kenton, Simon: lived two winters at 
 mouth of Big Paint Creek, 55. 
 
 Kentucky: history of, as written, 
 deals only with ' ' blue grass re- 
 gion, " 6; possibly first settled at 
 Harman's Station, 7; people of 
 the east part of descended from 
 Revolutionary soldiers; pure An- 
 glo-Saxon speech of people of, 12; 
 early claims to; aboriginal claims 
 to, 17; home of many of the Con- 
 nellys, 96. 
 
 King's Mountain: Thomas Connelly 
 wounded in battle of, 99; Abind 
 Fairchild in forces which marched 
 against, 130. 
 
 King's Mountain and its Heroes: 
 mentioned, 131. 
 
 Krider's Fort: passed by troops on 
 way to King's Mountain, 130. 
 
 Lackey, General Alexander: com- 
 mission of Captain Henry Connelly 
 given to, 114; referred to by Cap- 
 tain Connelly, 118. 
 
 Langleys, the: descended from Edith 
 MacAlpine, 100. 
 
 Langley: Ann MacGregor so called, 
 102. 
 
 Langley, John Wesley : portrait of ; 
 ancestry of; descended from the 
 Clan MacAlpine; cousin to all the 
 descendants of Captain Henry 
 Connelly; early life of; blood-re- 
 lationship of the largest in East- 
 ern Kentucky ; educated where ; 
 degrees taken by, 150; positions 
 held by ; elected to Congress ; 
 
 good record of, 151; proposed 
 name of Roosevelt for Vice Pres- 
 ident; character of, 152. 
 
 Laurel Pork, the: Indians crossed 
 over to, 50. 
 
 Lee, Colonel: known by Captain 
 Henry Connelly, 114, 117. 
 
 Leek, : believed to have been 
 
 one of the founders of Harman's 
 Station, 65. 
 
 Legend of Montrose, the: mentioned, 
 101. 
 
 Lewis, General Andrew: commanded 
 Sandy Creek Voyage, 91. 
 
 Lewis, Charles: death of, 89. 
 
 Lewis, Lieut. Joseph : known by Cap- 
 tain Henry Connelly, 117. 
 
 Lewis, Thomas: described Mrs. Jen- 
 nie Wiley, 25. 
 
 Le Visa, : a French trader on 
 
 the Big Sandy; Louisa River said 
 to have been called Levisa Eiver 
 for, 9. 
 
 Lick Fork: Mrs. Wiley followed it 
 up in her escape, 72. 
 
 Lincoln, President Abraham: ap- 
 pointed Dr. Henry Connelly Gov- 
 ernor of New Mexico, 98. 
 
 Lincoln, General Benjamin: the Con- 
 nellys served under in the Revolu- 
 tion, 96. 
 
 Litteral, Hairston : called ' ' Austin, ' ' 
 Connellys lived by, 106; referred 
 to by Captain Henry Connelly, 118. 
 
 Little Mudlick Creek, the: Indians 
 camped at, 50 ; a description of, 
 51 ; cliffs and rocks about mouth 
 of, 52 ; Falls of very fine, 55. 
 
 Little Paint Creek: followed down 
 by Mrs. Wiley. 73. 
 
 Loch Tay: the MacGregors lived on 
 both sides of, 101. 
 
 Long, Matilda: married John Con- 
 ley, 141. 
 
 Louisji River: named by Dr. Thomas 
 Walker; corrupted to Levisa 
 I\ii:<r; the name written Leow- 
 
INDEX 
 
 171 
 
 visay by Felix Walker, 6; Ken- 
 tucky Eiver called Louisa River 
 under misapprehension, 7; on some 
 maps marked as flowing into the 
 Great Kanawha; called Frederick 
 Eiver and Tottery Creek on old 
 maps; other accounts of, 8; origin 
 of name of; should have correct 
 name restored, 12. 
 
 Low Gap Church: division in Baptist 
 Church occurred at, 125. 
 
 Lusk, Absolom: one of the founders 
 of Harman's Station, 65. 
 
 Lyttle, Colonel : aided Captain 
 
 Henry Connelly to dislodge the 
 Tories, 112; referred to by Cap- 
 tain Connelly, 114. 
 
 MacAlpine, Clan of: origin and his- 
 tory of; American families de- 
 scend from, 100. 
 
 MacAlpine, Edith : maternal ancestor 
 of Eastern Kentucky families of 
 Connelly, Langley and others, 
 100 ; married whom, 102. 
 
 MacGregor, Clan of: origin and his- 
 tory of; motto of; famous in an- 
 nals of Scotland; possessions of; 
 second oldest clan in Scotland, 
 lOL 
 
 MacGregor, Archibald: espoused the 
 cause of the Pretender; wounded 
 at Culloden Moore; escaped to 
 North Carolina; married Edith 
 MacAlpine; daughter of married 
 Captain Henry Connelly; widow 
 of married Langley, 102. 
 
 MacGregor, Ann: called Ann Lang- 
 ley ; married Captain Henry Con- 
 nelly, 102; date of birth of; chil- 
 dren of, 103. 
 
 McAuliffes, the: a sept of the Me- 
 Carty Family, 143. 
 
 McCalls, the: a sept of the McCatry 
 Family, 143. 
 
 McCall, James: lived on the New 
 River in 1750, 18. 
 
 McCarthy More: a sept of the Mc- 
 Carty Family, 143. 
 
 McCarthy Raigh: a sept of the Mc- 
 
 Carty Family, 143. 
 
 McCartneys, the: a sopt of the Mc- 
 Carty Family. 143, 
 
 McCarty Family, the: origin of; 
 families allied with ; a famous 
 family in Ireland, 143. 
 
 McCarty, Abner: son of Captain 
 Richard McCarty; settled in Scott 
 County, Va., 144. 
 
 McCarty, Abner: son of John Mc- 
 Carty, 145. 
 
 McCartj^, Amanda: married James 
 Estep, 145. 
 
 McCarty, Angelina: married Joseph 
 Estep, 145. 
 
 McCarty, John: son of Wiley; came 
 to Kentucky with Methodist col- 
 ony; married Lydia Burke; lived 
 w-here; traits of; death of, 144. 
 
 McCarty, John: son of John; mar- 
 ried Sarah Burkett, 145. 
 
 McCarty, Martha: married Franklin 
 Centers, 145. 
 
 McCarty, Mary A.: married Rev. 
 Samuel K. Ramey, 145. 
 
 McCarty, Rebecca Jane: married 
 Constantine Conley, Jr., 140; 
 mother of the author, 145; tribute 
 of Rev. Alexis Howes to, 146; 
 buried where, 147, children of, 
 148. 
 
 McCarty, Richard: born in Culpeper 
 County, Va. ; at Braddock 's de- 
 feat ; in company of one Slaught- 
 er, 143; in the Revolution as Cap- 
 tain in the Virginia Line; died in 
 service, 144. 
 
 McCarty, Wiley: son of Abner; lived 
 in Scott County, Va., 144. 
 
 McCarty, Wiley : son of John ; mar- 
 ried Frances Calhoun, 145. 
 
 McCoys, the: a sept of the McCarty 
 Family; many of descended from 
 Edith MacAlpine, 100. 
 
172 
 
 HARMAN'S STATION 
 
 McCurtins, the: a sept of the Mc- 
 Carty Family, 143. 
 
 MeCutcheons, the: a sept of the Mc- 
 Carty Family, 143. 
 
 McDowells, the: a part of the Col- 
 vin Family, 134. 
 
 McGuires, the: many of descended 
 from Edith MacAlpine, 100. 
 
 McHughes, the: a sept of the Mc- 
 Carty Family, 143. 
 
 Malmody, Colonel: referred to by 
 Captain Henry Connelly, 114, 117. 
 
 Mankins, Peter: neighbor of Thomas 
 Connelly; died in Washington 
 County, Ark., aged 114 years, 114. 
 
 Mankins, Walter: early explorations 
 made by, 55. 
 
 Mansker, Casper: related to the Har- 
 mans, 27. 
 
 Maxwell, George: in battle with In- 
 dians, 87. 
 
 May, Artemisia: eldest daughter of 
 Caleb May; married Constantine 
 Conley, Jr.,* 147. 
 
 May, Caleb: mentioned, 147. 
 
 Mayo, Henry B. : referred to by Cap- 
 tain Henry Connelly, 115. 
 
 Mayo, Jacob: refen-ed to by Captain 
 Henry Connelly, 118. 
 
 Meath : County of, seat of ancient 
 Connelly Family, 95. 
 
 Meek, Rev. Zephaniah: letter of to 
 author, 8; wrote remarkably ac- 
 curate account of the adventures 
 of Mrs. Wiley; account of given; 
 editor of Central Methodist, 81. 
 
 Middle Fork: passed by Mrs. Wiley, 
 72. 
 
 Milesians: wliom they arc in Ireland, 
 95. 
 
 Milesius: King of Spain; Connelly 
 Family descended from, 95; Mc- 
 Carty Family descended from, 143. 
 
 Montgomery, Edith: married Wil- 
 liam Blair, 138. 
 
 Moore, James: in battle with In- 
 dians, 87. 
 
 Morgan, General Daniel: the Con- 
 nellys served under in the Revolu 
 tion, 96; commanded at battle of 
 Cowpens, 113. 
 
 Mounds: those at mouth of Big 
 Paint Creek, 54. 
 
 Mound Builders, the: monuments of 
 in Big Sandy Valley, 55. 
 
 Murray, Samuel: married Sarah 
 Wiley, 11. 
 
 Nelson, Christine : married Heze- 
 
 kiah Wiley, 10. 
 Nelson 's Ferry : troops crossed at, 
 
 128. 
 Nibert, James: owned the Wiley 
 
 farm, 86. 
 
 O 'Collins, the: sept of the McCarty 
 Family, 143. 
 
 O 'Conghailaigh : ancient form of the 
 name Connelly and other Irish 
 names, 95. 
 
 O 'Cowleys, the : sept of the McCarty 
 Family, 143. 
 
 O'Currys, the; a sept of the McCar- 
 ty Family, 143. 
 
 O 'Donovans, the: a sept of the Mc- 
 Carty Family, 143. 
 
 O'Dunnadsys, the: a sept of the Mc- 
 Carty Family, 143. 
 
 O'Keefes, the: a sept of the Mc- 
 Carty Family, 143. 
 
 O'Mahoneys, the: a sept of the Mc- 
 Carty Family, 143. 
 
 O 'Scanlons, the : a sept of the Mc- 
 Carty Family, 143. 
 
 Ohio, the: joy of Indians on reach- 
 ing, 48. 
 
 Owens, Captain : theory of con- 
 cerning the Louisa River, 8; the 
 ory wrong, 9. 
 
 Painted licks: those on site of 
 
 Paiutsville so called, 53. 
 Paint Lick: first name for Paints 
 
 ville, Ky., 54. 
 
INDEX 
 
 173 
 
 Painted rocks: those at junction of 
 Mudlick creeks, 52. 
 
 Paintsville, Ky. : origin of name of, 
 54; cabins built below site of by 
 the French, 55. 
 
 Painted trees: many found on the 
 Big Sandy River, 10; those at 
 mouth of Big Paint Creek, 52; 
 above Flat Rock Ford, 53. 
 
 Paisley, Colonel : Captain Hen- 
 ry Connelly served under, 109; 
 ordered South to join General Lin- 
 coln, 112; referred to by Captain 
 Connelly, 114, 117. 
 
 Partonairre: family of Susan Joynes 
 descended from, 104. 
 
 Patricks, the: many of descended 
 from Edith MacAlpine, 100. 
 
 Perthshire: former home of the Mac- 
 Gregors, 101. 
 
 Picklesimer, Charlotte: married Con- 
 stantine Conley, Jr., 147; children 
 of, 148. . 
 
 Picklesimer, Nathaniel: married 
 whom, 141. 
 
 Pickens, General : known by 
 
 Captain Henry Connelly, 114, 117. 
 
 Pinckney, General Charles Cotes- 
 worth, the Connellys served under 
 in the Revolution, 96. 
 
 Prater, Jeff: banker at Salyersville, 
 Ky. ; son of whom, 106. 
 
 Prater, Jilson: Henry Connelly, Jr., 
 liver near, 106. 
 
 Prater, William : pioneer in Magof- 
 fin County, 147. 
 
 Preston, Shadrach: Justice of the 
 Peace, 122. 
 
 Preston, General William: in Sandy 
 Creek Voyage, 88; mentioned, 92. 
 
 Pretender, the: Archibald MacGreg- 
 or espoused cause of, 102. 
 
 Prices, the: some of descended from 
 Edith MacAlpine, 100. 
 
 Princeton University : first schools of 
 founded by the Blairs, 134. 
 
 Porters, the: came with Hezekiah 
 Sellards from Shenandoah, 21. 
 
 Pound River: mention of, 10. 
 
 Powell, : mentioned, 97. 
 
 Power, Louis: saved from drowning 
 by John Blair, 136; niece of mar- 
 ried whom, 147. 
 
 Pytts, Jonathan: a soldier of the 
 Revolution; affidavit of for Cap- 
 tain Henry Connelly, 120. 
 
 Ragland, H. C: confused Sandy 
 
 Creek Voyage with captivity of 
 Mrs. Wiley, 30; edited the Logan 
 County (West Virginia) Banner, 
 86; account of given, 87. 
 
 Ramey, Rev. Samuel: married Mary 
 A. McCarty, 145. 
 
 Rattlesnake: picture of on tree at 
 Flat Rock Ford, 53. 
 
 Revolution, the: in Middle Counties 
 of North Carolina; Captain Henry 
 Connelly 's pension declaration best 
 history of written, 124. 
 
 Rices, the: many of descended from 
 Edith MacAlpine, 100. 
 
 Rice, Andrew J.: married Catherine 
 Conley, 141. 
 
 Rice, Dr. Isaac: married Celia Con- 
 nelly; son of Samuel Rice, sec- 
 ond marriage to Malinda, widow 
 of Britton Blair, 126; traits of, 
 136. 
 
 Rice, John : referred to by Captain 
 Henry Connelly, 115. 
 
 Rice, Martin R. : wealthiest man in 
 Johnson County; lived on old Con- 
 nelly farm, 104. 
 
 Rice, Samuel: first settler on Little 
 Mudlick Creek, 126. 
 
 Robbins. Captain John: Abind Fair- 
 child served under, 128. 
 
 Robinsons, the: many of descended 
 from Edith MacAlpine, 100. 
 
 Rockhouses: what they are and 
 where found, 41. 
 
174 
 
 HARMAN'S STATION 
 
 Eooney, John: -work of referred to, 
 95. 
 
 Eoy, Eobert: hero of Scott's famous 
 novel; was a MacGregor, 101. 
 
 Eule, Andrew: referred to by Cap- 
 tain Connelly, 115, 118. 
 
 Eutherford, General : known by 
 
 Captain Henry Connelly, 114. 
 
 Salisbury: troops marched to in 
 Eevolution, 128 
 
 Salyers, the: many of descended 
 from Edith Mac Alpine, 100. 
 
 Salyers, Benjamin: married Frances 
 Connelly; lived on Big Mudlick 
 Creek; died of cancer, 126. 
 
 Salyer, Christina : married John Wil- 
 liams, 126. 
 
 Salyer, Hendrix: son of Benjamin 
 Salyer; married Margaret Wil- 
 liams; lives on Big Mudlick 
 Creek, 126. 
 
 Sandy Creek Voyage, the: Cherokee 
 Chief and Matthias Harman had 
 been guides in, 30; mentioned, 92. 
 
 Santa Fe Trail: Dr. Henry Connelly 
 sent caravans over, 98. 
 
 Scott, Sir Walter: found material 
 for his famous novels in annals of 
 Clan MacGregor; what he says of 
 the Clan, 101. 
 
 Sellards, Hezekiah: some account of, 
 20; hunted in Western Virginia; 
 led colony into Walker's Creek 
 country; names of those who came 
 with him, 21 ; family of ; daughter 
 of married John Borders, 24. 
 
 Sellards, Jack: son of Hezekiah Sel- 
 lards, 24. 
 
 Sellards, Jennie: daughter of Heze- 
 kiah Sellards, 24 ; personal appear- 
 ance of; characteristics of, 25; 
 married Thomas Wiley, 26. 
 
 Sellards, Thomas: son of Hezekiah 
 Sellards, 24. 
 
 Shataras, the: lived in the Big 
 Sandy Valley, 55. 
 
 Shawnees, the: some of in the band 
 which carried away Mrs. Wiley, 
 33 ; graves of about Paintsville, 
 Ky., 55; told Mrs. Wiley their an- 
 cestors had lived about the Falls 
 of Little Mudlick Creek. 56. 
 
 Shawnee Chief, the: description of, 
 34; made prisoner of Mrs. Wiley 
 and saved her life, 38; care of for 
 prisoners, 42; planned ordeal for 
 Mrs Wiley's child, 49; sold Mrs. 
 Wiley to the Cherokee Chief, 61. 
 
 Skaggs, James: one of the founders 
 of Harman 's Station ; one of the 
 Long Hunters, 6; in battle with 
 Indians, 28; came to Kentucky at 
 early day, 55 ; sent to build block- 
 house, 65; death of, 77. 
 
 Skaggs, Henry: one of party to 
 found Harman 's Station; one of 
 the Long Hunters, 6; in battle 
 with Indians, 28; explored Ken- 
 tucky, 55; sent to build block- 
 house, 65 ; recognized Mrs. Wiley, 
 74 ; got her across the Big Sandy 
 Eiver, 75; helped to rebuild Har- 
 man 's Station; died where, 77. 
 
 Smallwood, General : known by 
 
 Captain Henry Sonnelly, 114, 117. 
 
 Spears, Samuel: owned the Wiley 
 farm, 86. 
 
 Spradlins, the: many of descended 
 from Edith MacAlpine, 100. 
 
 Spradlin, Clarinda, daughter of Wil- 
 liam Spradlin, 141. 
 
 Spradlin, James: a pioneer in Ken- 
 tucky; lived where; married 
 Eachel Connelly; death of; author 
 helped to dig grave of; Constan- 
 tino Conley, Jr., sawed off lid of 
 Coffin, 105. 
 
 Spradlin. Mahala: married Asa 
 Blair. 139. 
 
 Sfiradlin, Malinda: married whom, 
 126. 
 
 Spradlin, Mantford: son of whom, 
 141. 
 
INDEX 
 
 175 
 
 Spradlin, Sarah: married William 
 Blair, 138. 
 
 Spradlin, William: married Mahala 
 Conley, 141. 
 
 Staff ords, the: came with Hezekiah 
 Sellards from the Shenandoah, 21. 
 
 Stalnacker, Samuel : lived on the 
 
 Holston in 17.50, 18. 
 
 Stambaugh, Buchanan: son of whom, 
 138. 
 
 Stambaugh, John: married Clarinda 
 Blair, 138. 
 
 Stampers, the : many of descended 
 from Edith MacAlpine, 100. 
 
 Stapletons, the: many of descended 
 from Edith MacAlpine, 100. 
 
 Stapleton, Edward: married daugh- 
 ter of Benjamin Salyer, 126. 
 
 Stapleton, Joseph: married daughter 
 of Benjamin Salyer, 126. 
 
 Steiner (or Stoner), Michael: cousin 
 to the Harmans, 26. 
 
 Stephenson, : Dr. Henry Con- 
 nelly went to Mexico with, 98. 
 
 Stone, Rev. Cuthbert: referred to by 
 Captain Henry Connelly, 115. 
 
 Stone, Rev. Ezekiel: referred to by 
 Captain Henry Connelly, 115, 118, 
 133. 
 
 South Carolina, Colony of: first 
 American home of Connellys, 95. 
 
 Sumner, Colonel: opposed the Loyal- 
 ists, 112; known by Captain Henry 
 Connelly, 114, 117. 
 
 Syms, Colonel: served with Abind 
 Fairchild in Revolution, 129. 
 
 Tarleton, Sir Banastre: defeated at 
 battle of Cowpens, 113. 
 
 Taylor, Colonel John: Captain 
 Henr>' Connely served under, 109. 
 
 The Narrative of Colonel David Fan- 
 ning: a rare book; copy of in li- 
 brary of author; some account of, 
 111. 
 
 Tories, the: Captain Henry Connelly 
 appointed to keep down ; where 
 
 they congregated, 111; many of 
 them captured and put in jail; 
 made a stand at Colson 's Mills, 
 112; to be put down, 119; many 
 about Haw Fields, 120; very bad 
 in Western Carolina, 122; pur- 
 sued by Colonel Benjamin Cleve- 
 land, 129; defeated at Ranisour's 
 IMill, 130; nine of hanged, 131. 
 
 Toteros: lived in the Big Sandy Val- 
 ley, 52 ; had many towns there, 55. 
 
 Trans-Allegheny Pioneers, referred 
 to, 9. 
 
 Turkey Hill, Abind Fairchild dis- 
 charged at, 129. 
 
 Twelve Pole Creek, Hezekiah Wiley 
 settled on, 10; other children of 
 Mrs. Wiley lived on. 11; Indians 
 camped at head of, 44. 
 
 Twetty, Captain : explored Ken- 
 tucky, 6. 
 
 Twin Branches, the; James Spradlin 
 settled at Mouth of, 105. 
 
 Underwoods, the: many of descend- 
 ed from Edith MacAlpine, 100. 
 
 Vancouver, Charles: built post at 
 forks of Big Sandy River in 1789, 
 69. 
 
 Vancouver 's post, building of : affi- 
 davit concerning, 69. 
 
 Van Hoose, James Hayden: gave ac- 
 count of Mrs. Wiley, 79. 
 
 Van Hoose, Colonel John: referred 
 to by Captain Henry Connelly, 115. 
 
 Van Hoose, Valentine: mounds on 
 land of, 54. 
 
 Vickerstaff 's: nine Tory prisoners 
 hanged at farm, 131. 
 
 Wadkins, Benedict; affidavit of for 
 Captain Henry Connelly, 121. 
 
 Walker, Felix: extract from Journal 
 of, 6. 
 
 Walker, Dr. Thomas: extract from 
 Journal of; named the Louisa 
 
176 
 
 HARMAN'S STATION 
 
 River, 5 ; name not known for 
 some years, 7; Frederick River 
 discovered and named by, 8 ; Jour- 
 nal of mentions Stalnacker and 
 McCall as living in the wilderness, 
 18. 
 
 Walker 's Creek : Hezekiah Sellards 
 settled on, 21. 
 
 Walker's Place: troops stopped at 
 on King's mountain campaign, 
 130; returned to after battle, 131. 
 
 Washington, General George: the 
 Connelly's served under in Revolu- 
 tion, 96. 
 
 Washington, Colonel William (or 
 Billy) : Captain Henry Connelly 
 served under, 109 ; known by Cap- 
 tain Connelly, 114, 117. 
 
 Washington's Legion: came to aid 
 of Captain Connelly at battle the 
 Cowpens, 113. 
 
 Webbs, the: some of descended from 
 Edith MacAIpine, 100. 
 
 Wheeler, Colonel John H. : copy of 
 Fanning 's Narrative formerly 
 owned by in library of author, 111. 
 
 White House: on the Savannah, 
 guarded by Abind Fairchild, 129. 
 
 Wilderness Boad, the: mentioned, 6. 
 
 Wiley, Adam P. : statements of con- 
 cerning his mother followed by 
 author, 8; character of; physical 
 condition of when author knew 
 him; minister of the Gospel; au- 
 thority on Border lore, 9 ; account 
 of agrees with best authorities; 
 exacted from author a promise to 
 write an account of adventures of 
 his mother, 10; left family in 
 Johnson County, Ky. ; full name 
 of; gave credit to Matthias Har- 
 man, 11; knew Thomas and Jack 
 Sellards, his uncles, 24; text of 
 account of battle with Indians at 
 camp of hunters given author by; 
 said Bickley, in History of Taze- 
 well Count n had tliis battle in 
 
 mind when he wrote of fight be- 
 tween the Harmans and the In- 
 dians, 31; gave number of In- 
 dians in band -which murdered 
 Wiley family, 34; erroneously said 
 to have been son of Shawnee 
 Chief, 39; certain of the torture 
 of the captive, 60 ; date of found- 
 ing Harman's Station fixed by, 
 68; Meek's characterization of; 
 name of in full ; called ' ' Yard ' ' 
 Wiley, 85; account of differs from 
 that of Ragland, 91. 
 
 Wiley, Hezekiah: married whom; 
 lived where; died when, 10. 
 
 Wiley, Jane : daughter of whom, 10 ; 
 married Richard Williamson ; lived 
 where, 11. 
 
 Wiley, Mrs. Jennie: account of by 
 son followed by author, 8 ; wonder- 
 ful endurance of, 9 ; descendants of 
 mentioned, 10 ; whom they married 
 and where they lived, 11; described 
 the Indians who carried her away 
 captive, 34; was weaving when In- 
 dians came; warned of Indians 
 by John Borders, 36; prepared to 
 go to home of Borders, 37; the 
 attack, 38; adopted by Shawnee 
 Chief as daughter; escaped viola 
 tion, 39 ; route taken by the In- 
 dians, 41 ; second day and night 
 of captivity, 41 ; second day and 
 of captivity; child of sick; Shaw- 
 nee Chief treated, 42; march of 
 the third day; child in danger, 43; 
 again aided by the Shawnee 
 Chief; failed to keep up, 44; ran 
 back, 45 ; creek named in her 
 honor, 45 ; child killed by the Cher- 
 okee Chief; forced to cross the 
 Tug River; a terrible ordeal, 46; 
 course of to the Ohio, 47; at the 
 Ohio; down the Ohio; captors sep- 
 arate, 48; up the Little Sandy; 
 camped on Cherokee Fork of Big 
 Blaine Creek ; son born to her 
 
INDEX 
 
 177 
 
 there; ordeal for the child, 49; 
 child tomahawked and scalped ; 
 carried to Little Mudlick Creek, 
 50; ancient home of the Shawnees, 
 56; arrived there in April; made 
 slave of, 57; made to smelt lead 
 ore; promised all rites of regular 
 adoption, 58 ; arrival of Cherokee 
 Chief with captive; made to cook 
 for Cherokee Chief, 59; certain 
 that the captive was tortured; 
 rudely treated, 60; advised that 
 she was to be tortured; bought by 
 the Cherokee Chief, 61; dead child 
 of found and buried; Indians 
 escape with, 66; strange dream of, 
 70; such dreams not unusual; de- 
 termined to escape, 71; escape of; 
 route taken by; awful night, 72; 
 knew nothing of country; arrived 
 at Harmans Station, 73 ; her escape 
 almost miraculous, 74; when safe, 
 Indians appeared in pursuit of, 
 75; length of captivity of; re- 
 stored to husband; moved with 
 husband to Kentucky; a widow 21 
 years ; death of, 76 ; story of wide- 
 ly known; some other accounts of 
 her adventures, 79; version of 
 James Hayden Van Hoose, 80; 
 married in 1779, 91. 
 
 Wiley, Sarah: daughter of whom, 
 10; marriages of, 11. 
 
 Wiley, Samuel: settled in Ab's Val- 
 ley, 26; Eagland's account of, 87. 
 
 Wiley, Thomas: home of destroyed 
 by Indians, 5; came from Ireland; 
 bought land from Matthias Har- 
 man ; built house on Walker 's 
 Creek ; married Jennie Sellards. 
 26; children of; absent from 
 home when Indians came, 36; sit- 
 uation of home of, 37; house of 
 destroyed and family murdered, 
 63 ; followed the Indians unsuc- 
 cessfully, 64 ; not at home when 
 pursuers went on trail, 65; moved 
 
 to Kentucky ; death of ; married 
 
 when, 91. 
 Wiley, William: mentioned, 10, 11. 
 Wilkesborough, troops marcheu from 
 
 to King's Mountain, 130. 
 William the Conqueror: ancestor of 
 
 the Burke family related to, 142. 
 Williams, the: many of descended 
 
 from Edith MacAlpine, 100. 
 Williams, Colonel John: Captain 
 
 Henry Connelly served under, 109. 
 Williams, John: married Christina 
 
 Salyer, 126. 
 Williams, Margaret : married Hen- 
 
 drix Salyer, 126. 
 Williams, Colonel Nat : known by 
 
 Captain Henry Connelly, 117 " 
 Williams, General Otho: known by 
 
 Captain Henry Connelly, 114, 117. 
 Williams, Powell: son of John Wil 
 
 liams, 126. 
 Williamson, Phillip: affidavit of for 
 Captain Henry Connelly, 119. 
 Williamson, Richard: married whom, 
 
 11. 
 Witten, Dr. : knew Bickley, au- 
 thor of work on Tazewell County; 
 
 said Bickley fell into some errors, 
 
 31. 
 Witten, T. A.: letter of father of 
 
 mentioned, 31. 
 Wolf Creek: Indians passed up with 
 
 captives, 41. 
 Wolf Pen Branch, the: Constantino 
 
 Conley, Jr., lived on; the author 
 
 born on, 105. 
 Wyandots, the: had no totem of 
 
 the Crane; had no chief named 
 
 Crane, 11; some of in band which 
 
 captured Mrs. Wiley, 33. 
 
 Yokktown: Captain Henry Connelly 
 raised company to go to; called 
 Little York, 114; men discharged 
 at Big Lick, 118. 
 
 Yost, Christian: married whom; 
 lived where, 11. 
 
EASTERN KENTUCKY PAPERS 
 
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