HARMAN'S STAT AND THb WILEY CAPTIVITY CONNEIXKY EASTERN KENTUCKY PAPERS In lirr ilic.iiii Mrs. Wilrv is slit>\vii Il.itiii.in s St.-itimi EASTERN KENTUCKY PAPERS THE FOUNDING OF HARMAN'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 Fi-s COPYRIGHT 1910 BY" WILLIAM ELSEY CONNELLEY ALL EIGHTS RESERVED THE TORCH PRESS CKOAH KAPIOS 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 another. It is the general ride and is found in the story of almost every community. The founding of Harman's Station on the Louisa River ^ was 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 m^urder of his children, the cap- tivity of his ivife by savages and her miraculous escape were the first incidents in a series of events in the history of Kentucky which properly belong to the amials of the Big Sandy Valley. Over them time has cast a tinge of romance, and they have grown 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 Eiver tvas named hy Dr. Thomas WalJcer on Thursday, the 7th day of June, 1750. The entry in Dr. Walker's Journal describing this event is as follows: "June 7th. — The Creek being fordable, we Crossed it 4" kept down IS miles to a River about 100 yards over, Which We called Louisa Eiver. The Creek is about 30 yards wide, 4' pc""* 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, Louisa, iV!l61720 are preserved mainly in tradition. Indeed, it is to tradi- tioti 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 ivholly with 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 now Johnson County. Among the founders of this settleineyit were a number of the most rioted 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 ivilderness 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 cojnpany which made this settlement were Matthias Harman, Henry Skaggs, James Skaggs, and Robert Hawes, all members of that famous party known 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 were 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 douht. It appears that the name Louisa one-e attached to th« whole State of Kentucky, but the cxtmt of the application of this name is not now known. There is reason to believe that as early as 1775 the name Louisa was corrupted to Lovisa. Speed, in the Wilderness Road, says "that F'lix Walker, with Captain Twetty and six others, left Butherford, North Carolina, in February 1775 (according to Felix Walker's narrative), 'to ex- plore the country of Leowvisay, notv Kentucky.' " But the ii tnw forvierly written v, and it may have been so in this word Leowvisay; in that case it would be Leowuisay, an erroneous spelling of Louisa. The Kentucky River was sometimes called the Louisa Eivcr by the pion- eerg and explorers, and it was called, also, the Cherokee River. In the deed who 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 Barman in company with 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 ivhich after- wards became the site of their blockhouse. It is probable that this hunting lodge was the first log cabin built in what is now the State of Kentucky luhich came to be the basis of a permanent settlement of English-speaking people. The settlement made there was self-supporting. No gov- ernment took any notice of its existence until it ivas 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 powder or bar of lead ivas ever contributed by either State to its equipment or defense, although it was repeatedly raided by Indians and the fort fiercely attacked, once so persistently and with 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 Cherokees to Bichard Henderson and others, proprietors of the Transylvania Company, conveying the tract of land known as the Great Grant, we find the description of the land beginning 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 Eiver." This calling of the Kentucky River by the name Louisa was caused by a misapprehension. It was not certainly known wJuit 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 Eiver Louisa is shown by Lewis Evans's Map, 1775, on which the Lmiisa 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 waters of the Clinch and the Uolston. Of these events they told me. Tradition alone does not constitute sufficient authority for positive historical statements. When, however, tra- dition is found well 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, hi that capacity I have availed myself of its assistance in preparing this account of the founding of Ilarman'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 which they spoke were so recent that their knowledge of them may properly be considered personal. In all matters concerning Mrs. Jennie Wiley I liave fol- lowed the account given me by her son, Adam P. Wiley. There are several reasons why I have adhered to his state- ments in that matter. I knew hi)n intimately and long, Kivcr i.t marked as flowing into the Great Kanawha, and the upper course of thf "Tottery or liifj Sandy C." is marked "Frederick R." Frederick's Eiver tra.^- " r i" r q a. - ^ M 5^ 2 ^ !?; S, ? 1 5 1 1 Ic ■ SIX . ? ^^ 1 1 r/ I ^ j^/^-^Jj^ Af'?i °^^^ ^ ' >,-l 1 §^^^'^^ 1 I t 00 1 b ^S^&*^^'* ■ "^ 1 ■rf ' \ j-^y I - -' T"^"^ ~ — V II ,^ " r,., ^v ;,i, / ' ^ , ^ 7 _j Er r ^ s 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 Couley, Constantine, 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 \drtiie 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 II ARM AN '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 opi)Ose, 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 1703 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 unscnipulous; 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 sjigncity, 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 Imrbarous ancestors of Germany and Norway." — Parkman, Co^ispiracy of Poiitiac, Vol. I, p. 158. 3 In his Journal Dr. Thomas Walker mentions one Samuel Stalnacker whom he assisted to build a house on the Ilolston River in 1750. He seems to have been an Indian trader ami 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 aa we know, InM-anie the nucleus of any permanent comnuinity. 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 'a Ferry in 1750, so Dr. Walker saya in his Journal. BARMAN'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 Hezekiali Sellards was a Scotcli-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 ])ro]»orty, 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 Hezekiali Sellards in his residence on the Shenandoah. In addition to his farming he was a hunter. In com]iany 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 X IIARMAN'S STATION 21 and skins. A more charming country than the western highlands of Virginia wouki be difficult indeed to find. 8ellards 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 Walker's Creek and Walker's Mountain. Long before it was safe to do so, perhai)s 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 fniits 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 sheej), 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 manv 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 w'ool 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 own 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 Republic. 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 liis 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 eveiy resj^ect, 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 6 Stated on the authority of Adam P. Wiley, also Rev. M. T. Burris, now of Golden, Mo. Mr. Burris writes me that he knew these brothers. He was honi and brounht up in the Leslie Settlement on .John's Creek, and is a de- fk^'eiidunt of the pioneer Tioalio. 8 The do8C(>nilnnfs of .John Borders live now mainly in Lawroncc and Johnson eonntios. Kentucky. They are scattered over all the Mis8issip|>i Vailt-y. While many of them were farmers, they usually followed commer- cial life and wore very successful. HARMAN'S STATION 25 hair was coal black, and they saw hor many times and liad 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 form 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. Iter face was agreeable and indicated superior intelligence. She was persistent and determined in any matter she had decided to accomplish. She labored in her father's fields. She was familiar with every 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 Harman 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 Rev. 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 she " had dark hair, rather heavy eyeboncs, 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 .Tack 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 com 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 born 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. •* Mntthiiis Harman was born in or near Straslnirp, 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 uji in their com- munity, and it is said that their father also joined these expeditions, whether for hunting, exploration, or for war. The Hannans bore the In- dian a bitter hatred and believed in his extermination There came to America also, two brothers of Heinrich Herrmann, .\dam and .Tacob. 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 3- ?r CfQ HARMAN'S STATION 27 He made a number of such settlements in the country west of the New River. 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 Hamians. 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 Moodsman 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 affirming 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 with 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 IIARMAX'S STATION establish his settlement, and it was agreed that it shpuld be made in the winter of 1787-88. Harman's father was yet living. He always went with the other pioneers to hunt in the Big Sandy Valley. Ex- cept 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 camp cannot now be determined. 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 iiad an enormous nose and a thin sharp face. He had ac iibundance 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. Ho jmssessed an iron constitution, and could endure more fatigue and I)rivation than any of his associatos. He was a dead shot with the long ritle of his day. The Indians believed him in league with the devil or some other malevolent power because of their numlx>rs 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 Harmnns, and more than once did his journeys into the wilderness carry iiim to tlie Mississippi Kiver. He and the other Harmans able to In^ar arms were in the Virginia service in the War of the Revolution. He is said to have formed the colony which made the first settlement in Ab's Viiliey. He formed the colony which made the first settlement in Fjistern 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 Hottom 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 |>laco of his death. IIARMAN'S STATION 29 Hawes, some of the Damrons, and a man named Draper are known to have been of the party tliat went on this pre- liminary hnnt. As it was the intention of the hunters to remain some time in the woods they bnilt a rough camp in whicli 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 memory 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 prob- 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. Kobert 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 ^\iiatclied him, the others took to their heels, as the Harman company was proving too much for them. The Harmans had a rock fhou8«?] HARMAN'S STATION 31 venge, which it was believed he would now seek for his son slain in battle. The absence of Ilarman and other rifle- men from the settlements gave him an oi)portimity 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 insuflicient 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 ' warpath ' 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 bnilt their CMnii>; a work oxecuted generally by the old man, who might be said to he j)articular in having it constructed to his own taste. George and Matthias loaded and put their guns in order, and started to the woods to look for sign, and perchance to kill a buck for the 32 1 1 ARM AX'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 jud^^ment 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 partly 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 rapid 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. When 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, ' // ire fall in u^th them wc miu'tt 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 cause's 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 rear. 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 Indi.ans, 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 S{)eaks the truth, so Mr. Draper was not be- lieved this time. Mr. Harman rode on, while a lar^e dug ho had with him, ran up to the log and reared himself upon it. showing no signs of the pres- ence of Indians. At this second a sheet of fire and smoke from the Indian rifles, conij)letely concealed the log from view, for Draper had really spoken the truth. " Before the smoke had cleared away, ^Ir. Harman and his sons were dismounted, while Dra]ier had fled with all the speed of a swift horse. There were seven of the Indians, only four of whom had guns; the rest being armed with bows and arrows, tomahawks and scnlpingknivos. As soon as they fired, they rushed on ^fr. Harman, who fell back to where his sons stood ready to meet the Indians. " They inimediately surrounded the three white men, who had formed a triangle, I'ach looking out, or, what would have been, with men enough, a hollow S(iunre. The old gentleman bid Matthias to reserve his fire, while himself and George fired, wountling, as it would seem, two of the Indians, IIAHMAN'S STATION Mi of it on to the Cherokee towus, perhaps with the body of his son. The hunters believed there were more Indians in the party which attacked their camp than in tlie 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 George 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. ^\ nen 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 grin, 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. Eaising 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 hiding-place, and pushed on for the settlement, where he reported the whole party 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 good condition to need burying. " Upon the tree under which the chief was killed, is roughly car\-ed an Indian bow. and a gun, in commemoration of the fight. The arrows which were shot into Mr. Harman are in possession of Bome 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 but a roxang band such as might be encountered at any time in those days in the wilderaess.^" 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 energ>^ and quick of mind and body for an Indian, much more cruel than liis 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 aim, and was armed with a long rifle which he carried muzzle 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. Tackot, descendants of whom live now in Johnson County, Kentucky. Among the Shawnees of the band there was a chief. He was an old man and while a warrior he was also a sort of medicine man or priest. He was of grave and solemn mien, and like the Cherokee, had his nose and ears decor- ated with Indian gewgaws, but these he seldom wore while 10 The number of Indians belon^^ng to the different tribes represented in the band Mr. Wiloy had from his mother. This party was not on the war- path. The Indians were jj^^ing to visit in the Cherokee country. Their meeting 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 ornamented 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 every 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 toj)? 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. W^iley'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 expected that he could reach home until late at night. There had been born to Thomas AViley and his wife four children, the age of the youngest being about fifteen months. John Borders lived about two miles from the house of Wiley. Some of his sheep had broken from an enclosure and escaped into the woods. While 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 he found himself in the vicinity of Wiley's cabin and went down to it. He found Mrs. Wiley engaged in weaving a piece of cloth for use in her family. He called her atten- tion to the cries and hootings of owls which could be plainly lieard from different ])oints in the woods around IIARMAN'S STATION 37 the house. He said that he had heard tliese cries since the raiu 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 Harman, 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 ])roceed as rapidly as possible. It was about four o'clock in the afternoon when Mrs. Wiley and the children were wrapped and ready to start to the home of Borders. Suddenly the house was filled with Indians. They came in at the open door yelling 38 HARAIAN'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. Wiley learned in some way from the actions of the two chiefs and what they said that they supposed themselves at the house of Matthias Harman. She made haste to inform 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. The family of their arch enemy had escaped, though they had perpetrated a bloody deed in the settlement. The Cherokee insisted that Mrs. Wiley and her child should be killed at once and a descent made upon Harman 's house. The Shawnee chief believed that the hunters would return that day and that they would meet with resistance at the Harman cabin. It was his opinion that they should make their esca])e from the settlements and continue their jour- ney, for pursuit was certain. The Cherokee was equally certain that they would be followed by the settlers and was finally brought 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 c — HARMAN'S STATION 39 take a captive and carry lier to his town. It was finally decided that the Sliawnee might retain his captive for the 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 informed 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 bum. 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 was 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. Wiley 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 IIARMAN'S STATION house, marching in Indian file headed l\v the Cherokee chief, tlie Shawnee chief })eing liindmost 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 lialted 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 " roekhouse " is heard only in the South, and principally in the region of the Allcghanies south of Pennsylvania. It is not used in connection with a cave. It docs not apply to a cave; a cave is entirely dis- tinct from a roekhouse. A roekhouse is the open space beneath an over- hanging rock or cliff. Rockhouses are sometimes of large extent. I have known 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 coM 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. Wiley 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 peii^endicular 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 capti\aty. When the Indians lay down to sleep they bound !Mrs. Wiley with strips of raw deer skin. She was in a state of nervous delirium and could not sleep, neither could she rest. EverA' time she closed her eyes she seemed to be- hold the slaughter of her children anew, and more than once she shrieked aloud. Her cries aroused the old Shawnee, who finally unbound her. He lighted a torch and carried it into the woods, returning soon with some t; 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 difficulty 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. AVhen 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 heavy 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 was 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 they feasted most of the night. Though the march had been 44 HARM AN 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 apply to her feet, and which gave her immediate relief. An additional aj)j)lication 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 ]irevious one. The party left the cam]) 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 camped there. That camp was in the hills just west of the head of Twelve Pole Creek. The Indian scouts who had been sent back each day reported late at night, and here they said they had seen no pursuers on their trail. The Indians left their camp, as was their custom, on the following morning before it was light. Insufficient food and the continuous marching was rajiidly exhausting Mrs. Wiley, and she found herself unable to move forward so ra])idly as on the ])revious day. She was failing under hardslii])s and the burden of her child. The Shawnee chief warned her of the consequences of failing to keep up with the warriors. But try as she might she could not satisfy her captors. The Indians who had been sent back as scouts this HARM AN 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. Tliis 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 River. 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 trt^ 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 Cherokee 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 River, which they found much swollen from the recent rains. As 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 grasped her firmly 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 position was almost upright with much of the body above the water ; and they pushed but slightly against the current but were all the time working themselves toward the op- I)osite shore. After being carried down the river what seemed to Mrs. Wiley several miles they were all cast to the 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 tlie water, but they succeeded iu 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 veiy 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 this camp at dawn, and in the afternoon reached the 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 forced march- es 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 *'0-hi-yo! ()-hi-yo! 0-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 backwattM", ])ushed far up the small streams, and kept down the Ohio. Much of the time they were not in sight of the Ohio. They reached the mouth of the Little Sandy River without finding any means to cross tlie Ohio and again held council to detennine 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 u]ion the movements of the pursuing party. Their report was de- livered out 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 ])arty divided. The Cherokee chief, the Cherokee warrior, two Wyandots, and two Delawares swam across the Little Sandy River and disapjieared in the woods. The remaining Indians, with Mrs. Wiley, took their way u]i the Little Sandy. They appeared to be in no Irs. AVih'V rescuin.u' Ikt child from the Indi.iii Oi-dcil in \hr (Mici-okiM Fork of Big Blaine Creek IIAHMAN'S STATION 49 Imrry. They left the maiu stream at the inoutli of tlie Dry Fork, 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 seiiously ill, but she concealed her condition from the Indians as long as possible, fearing she might be killed should they discover the tnith. It soon became impossible for her to ])roceed, however, and the Indians went into camp near the mouth of the creek. They placed Mrs. Wiley in a small rockhouse near the camp and left her alone. There a son was born to her. The birth was premature 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 she 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 camp at the mouth of Cherokee Creek and allowed ^Irs. Wiley to live alone in the rockhouse 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 rockhouse and said the child was ''three moons, ' ' meaning that its age was then about three months. He infonned her that he was maJ^ing preparations to give it the first test a boy was expected to undergo. lie made no ex])lanation and soon left the rockhouse. He retuimed 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 the child to a large 50 HARM AX'S STATION slab of dry bark and set it adrift in the swift water of a small shoal. 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- liawks, and Mrs. Wiley rushed into the water and rescued tlie infant, immediately returning 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 angrv\ She was permitted to hury the child in a comer 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 keeji 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 JohnsoR 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 moutli of Tiittle Mudlick Creek. The actions of the In- dians 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 kei)t Mrs. Wiley there until the follow- ing October a description of some of its most prominent features will not be out of place here. Little Mudlick Creek is about three miles in length. In drv summers there are times when little water can he u^> — ^ J Tvf AP iKe Co u II t I'v ah c lit t Ixe Dioutll «> LittU Mlii- Zit/v. C 1 «-C Iv. ^ '--- * ■-■"'. r- i ■•--■. ii^ Muiii^ ,5 T/.i...v ^^^ ^ 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 formed 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 hieroglyph- r)2 IIAK.MAXS STA'IMON ics and strange pictures. Tliese pictures Avere. usually skeleton drawin^js of animals native to the country, such as the i)utTalo, hear, deer, panther, wolf, turkey, and a few of turtles and rattlesnakes. These figures were ])ut on the cliffs with hlack or red paint; no other colors were used. There was no mixing of colors; there were red groui)s and hlack groups, hut nowhere were the two colors found in the same group. Tn no instance were the figures cut or scratched into the rock. Time, thoughtless and mischievous vandalism, and the weather have destroyed them all. Tn 1850, it is said, some of the groups were faintly visible, and as late as 1880 one group of deer in hlack, on the cliff ovei- the larger creek, was yet very distinct.'* '* When .fdhnson roiinly. Kentucky, was first settlcfl there were found alonj; the Indian trail from the mouth of Mudlick Ch-eek to the mouth of Big Paint Creek occasioual 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 stripjied from but one side, which made a dry hard surface on that side of the tree, while the other side still liveid streajn. .Inst below the town of T'aintsvillc if flows over an inclined sandstone lx>laco. The Hierokee Indians said to the early set- tlers there, in speaking of these mounds: " There is fire in all those mounds. ' ' What they meant by this statement they could not explain. Tile Falls of Ijittle ^ludlick (^vek in AVinter I Photoiirajtli hji Luther, Lnund. I\ i/. \ HARMAN'S STATION 55 carv'ed shells, and stone pipes were here turned up in 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 were 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 Eastern 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 Bar- man, Walter Mankins, and a number of other parties, among them James Skaggs and Henry Skaggs, descended the Louisa Eiver about 1763 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 eane, 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. John Howe, Esq., the famous millwright, son-in-law of Eev. 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 IIARMAXS STATION whif'li tlio stream expands into a lakelet fringed with mountain evergreens. A short distance below this hikelet the stream jiluuges some fifty or sixty feet into pools overhung with the ever-present mountain evergreens. From this ])oint 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 ^^udlick Creek to the Big Sandy River. They also told her that they never passed through that i)art 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 Mudlick Creek about the first of April, possibly as much as a week or ten days earlier than 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 perform 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]i, though the Indians often went to the great lick on Big Mudlick Creek to kill buffalo, especially when visited by 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 ('reek. They sometimes required 58 HARMAN'S STATION Mrs. Wiley to follow them and bring in the game they killed. She was showTi 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 summer 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 carr}' 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. AViley 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 what the visiting Indians said to her ca]itors. but was never able to get any information of benefit to her. The Shawnee chief told Mrs. Wiley he would t^ke 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 ()p])oi'tunity to escape after this conversation with the old Shawnee, but none presented itself that she could believe promised success. She was entirely ignorant of the general ]ihysi- cal features of the country in whicli she was held, although Tlic torture of the Captive HARMAN'S STATION 59 she believed that she was nearer the Virginia settlements tiiau 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 deteimined 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- ciy, and it was repeated. The Shawnee chief informed his party that the Cherokee chief had been on the war- path, had lost some of his warriors, and was now coming into camp with a captive white man. War-whoops were exchanged, and guns 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 the 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 HAKMAXS STATION and venison. She could liear tlie mad howling, whooping, and screeching of tiie warriors on tlie lieight above her, also the discharge of guns and the thumping and stamjnng of feet in an Indian dance. Shortly after dark the whole band came down from the plateau, and tlie ca]>tive was not with them. It did not take her long to gather from the conversation 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 followers were excited and blood-thirsty. The cam]) was overflowing with whooi)ing Indians threatening to kill her, and for the first time the Shawnee chief did not stand her friend. She ai)pealed 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 plateau, 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 was positive of the death of tliis white man. Mrs Wiley (litl not see him tortured, uor did she see his dead body. She saiil the eaptivo 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 i»l!iteaii more than once for evidences of fire, and at a point near whore .Mrs. Wiley believed the cajitive was burned we found charcoal, but of course there was no way in which it could be connected with the death of the ca|>tive. Tn many versions of the story of Mrs. Wiley there was no men tion of tlie death of tiiis 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 j>eople. The older generation, though, had a dis tinct recollection of the burning of this young man. Fie came to Mrs. Wiley in her strange dream and pointed out the settlements of the white IIKMI. Mrs. Wilcv tied to tlic stake to be tortuird by the ludiuus HARMAN'S STATION 61 Mrs. Wiley's hands witli a strip of raw hide, by one end of which slie was led to the heii»:ht where the Indians were assembled about a big- fire. The dancing ceased when she arrived. The Cherokee chief appeared as the commander of the Indians and told her that she was to be burned. She ap])ealed 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 affirmed 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. AA^hen 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 ]H-ice he had agreed to pay for Mrs. Wiley. They were received by the Shawnee as though he had a supreme contempt for money, and swept by him from the buckskin upon which they had been counted to him into a bag similar to that 62 HARMANS 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 Johu Borders returned home from the search for his sheep, and a thick and loggy 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 hann had come to her and her family, and her sister, Mrs. Borders, was distressed and anxious. Borders sought a neighbor who lived near him and together they went to Wiley's house, which they found ])artly 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 be- 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 alarmed 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 IJAli.MANS STATION it was su})posed that tlie Indians had gone down the New Elver. Thomas Wiley and a dozen settlers followed the Indian road down that stream hoping to come U]) with the Indians, but no tidings of Mrs. Wiley came from that })ursuit. Jn the afternoon of the day after the attack u}jon Wiley's house, Matthias Hanuan and the hunters returned to the settlement. The swollen streams and the heavy' loads carried by their liorses had delayed them twenty-four hours; but for these im]»ediments they would have arrived in time to have prevented the murders conmiitted 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. hnmediately u))on 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 discoveiy some miles, and u])on 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 River war-trail and try to cross the Ohio to their towns. It was his o])inion that the Cherokee chief was the leader of the band, the number of which he had deter- mined from the trail. He was confident that he could over- t{ike the Indians and recover the prisoners. His purpose to do this 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 U])rising of the Indians nor any ]nii-])ose to harass the settlements. It wns not regarded as of suffi- cient importance to delay the settlement to be made at the mouth of John's (^reek. He assembled those interested IIARMAN'S STATION 65 ill that entei*prise and gave them instructions as to what they should carry witli them, wlien 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- tive 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 Harman, Absalom Lusk, Henry Skaggs, James Skaggs his brother, Robert Hawes, Daniel Harman, Adam Harman, and Henry Hannan. 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 pursuit of the party having Mrs. Wiley and her child in captivity. Thomas Wiley was not a member of the colony and did not go out with them.^^ Matthias Hannan and his company of hunters set out early in the day in pursuit of the Indians. So confident that he was right did Hannan feel that he did not at first attempt 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 warpath 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 plain that the Indians were being gained upon eveiy 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 returned from the pursuit made do^\n 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- ytath. 66 II ARYAN'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. Harman 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, whicii 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 Hannan 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 cany over the baggcige in the morning. Harman effected a safe crossing early the following day. It was past noon when he again found the Indian trail, whicli wound through a countiy^ 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 ])ursuit 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 whore the Indian trail was abandoned Ilarman and his com]Kiny ascended the Louisa River to the mouth of John's Creek and went into camp in the old hunting lodge built there by Ilarman 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)lace for a pioneer settlement. The great war-path IIARMAN'S STATION 67 up the river ran on the west side of the stream at tliat 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 Ijouisa 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 every side, and this extra space was floored with heavy 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. The 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 each of the four 68 HARMAN'S STATION sides of the fort to a point in the center, and was made of thick 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 building thus erected by the rough backwoodsmen of the Virginia 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 harman'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 Iiim in the wilderness. The fort was built in the winter of 1787-88.'* IT In the preface it was announced that the dates fixed by Mr. Wiley would be followed. This is the date fixed by him. T have no doubt as to its nccuracy. T refer apain to the map to bo found in Inilay's Avi♦ 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 river. Her contention is upheld by the facts developed in the flight. It was almost dark when she was at the mouth of the Kockhouse 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 moutli of Jennie "s Creek she was not two miles from the Indian camp. If she had known anything of the route up 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 gone directly to the mouth of .Jennie's Creek, and they followed that route in their first search fur Iut. While it was yet light they were scouring the banks of Paint Creek ami those of the lower courses of .Tennie's Creek seeking some 74 HARM AN '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 constiiict 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 supjtosed that tho 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 same thing occurred at the mouth of the Middle Fork. And it would seem a miracle that any one could find the mouth of the small branch where she turned out of the Lick Fork. It must be remembered that it was pitch dark, and that the whole country was covered ^vith a heavy forest, be- neath the boughs of which it would be dark on even a starlight night. TTie darkness, dense as it was, had torrents of rain to augment it. The streams 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 border life, and the subject is worthy the ablest pen. Mrs. Wiley and Henry Skaggs erussiny the l{iver on a Raft HARMAN'S STATION 75 gether with long grapevines pnlled down from the forest trees wiiere they grew wild. Placing two rifles upon the raft Skaggs pushed out into the river which was full to overflow, and which was carrying 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. He 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 he could not recapture her, the Cherokee chief disappeared in the woods, followed by his savage companions and Mrs. Wiley's dog. The report of the gun discharged by Henr>^ Skaggs brought the men back to the blockhouse. I^ater in the day, after some preparation, the men crossed the river and followed the trail of the Indians almost to Little Mudlick 20 Patted his buttocks 76 HARMAX'S STATION Creek. From Mrs. Wiley's account of the uuiuber 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 tlie fort soon, and upon the return of the hunters things were put in a posture of de- fense. No attack was made upon the blockhouse, but the Indians i)rowled about it for several days, and they were in the vicinity for some weeks. Airs. Wiley found friends in the blockhouse. Most of the settlers were well known to lier in Virginia. She was anxious to return to her husband and rehitives. When tlie winter was well commenced a party commanded by Matthias Harman 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 the savages.-^ It was unusual to find Indians in the woods in the winter, and from this circumstance it was feared that they would ]irove exceedingly troublesome to the settlers at the blockhouse the next summer. Mrs. Wiley was in ca]itivity 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 MudUck Creek. The Presbyterians had no church organization in that part of Kentucky, and she and her husband were members of the Baptist Church. Thomas Wiley died where he first settled in K<'ntucky about the year 1S10, and Mrs. Wiley re- mained a widow twenty-one years, on tho party which pscorted Mre. Wiley back ti) Virginia aiul tiio ilcvicrs practicoil to cviidp the aavayes woulil in thomsclvps inako an infprostinjj story. It often sopnicd as though they were lost, and Mrs. Wiley had to bear a rifle and fight "ith the others, which she did effectively and with a pood will. HARM AX'S STATION 77 the year 1 831 . Tliey left a large family and their descend- ants live now in the Big Sandy Valley and are nnrnerons and respectable. The Indians attacked the blockhouse several times dur- ing the snmmer 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 summer. 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 summer of 1791 many new settlers came. The settlement was troubled much by the Indians for several years, but it was never again broken up. It is believed that Matthias Harman did not again settle permanently 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 descendants live 78 HARMAX'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 tlie families which came with the settlers in the second colonv 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 people left at home. All her children were killed except 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 ])art of tlie next spring. Another bal)e was born 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 their little scalps by the lire before her eyes. She saw that trouble was brewing and resolved to make an effort to escape. 80 1 1 A KM AX S STAT I ON After they were asleep she quietly stole away from the camp, traveliiiij: in tlie 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 niontli 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 faitflml lie hare 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 tlnTe was not any auger about the place. Then she said tie the logs together with ropes. But there was no ro])e. Then she said " get a gra])e vine " and tie the logs together with that. The old man and women got three dry poplar logs and fastened them together with gra])e vines, and got a board for a paddle. The old man got on the raft and shoved it from the shore. He finally reached the side where she was so anxiously waiting, and she got on the other end of The escape of AFrs. Wiley from the Indians at tlic Falls of Little Miidliek Creek HARM AN S STAT ION 81 the raft and shoved it from the shore. The ohl man l)eedia." There is hardly a man or woman in Eastern Kentucky who is not familiar with the story of the life of this re- markable woman. The facts of her capture 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 Ireland, who had em- 82 HARMAN'S STATION igrated and settled on Walker's Creek, in Wythe, now Tazewell County, V^a., 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 tiie Kev. John Borders, a noted Baptist preacher, Hezekiah Borders, Judge Archibald Borders, and several daughters. Several families named Harmon lived in the same neigh- borhood, some of whom were noted Indian scouts. x\t 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 HaiTnons, but ignorant of the location of their cabin, fell upon Wiley's instead. John Borders warned Mrs. AViley 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, flnd 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- ilian trail led down what is now known as Jennie's Creek, and along it they ]n'oceeded 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 sju'ead among the inhabitants of the Walker's Creek settlement than a party, among whom were Lazrus Damron and Matthias TTarmon, started in ])ursuit. They followed on for several days, but failing to come up with the })erpe- trators of the terrible outrage, the pursuit was abandoned, and all returned to their homes. The Indians exjiected that they would be followed, and the infant of Mrs. Wiley ])roving an incumbrance to their Hight, they dashed out its brains airainst a beech tree wlien a short distance below HARMAN'S STATION 83 where Mr. William C. Criiin 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 eentur3^ 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 Diy 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 proceeded 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- loosed to buy her from the others on condition that 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 carry 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. Wiley now resolved to carry into effect a long-cherished 84 II ARMAN'S STATION object, that of making lier 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 Rig 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 l)oat, but hastily rolling some logs into the river and lashing them together with grape-xdnes, 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 pro])erty, i)receded by the dog, appeared u]ion the oi^posite 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 mouths. 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 banks of the Levisa Fork of I^ig Sandy. Here her hus- band died in the year 1810. She survived him twenty-one years, and died of paralysis in the year 18.'n. The Indians had killed her brother and five of her chil- ilren, but after iier return from captivity live others were bom, namely: Hezekiali, Jane, Sally, Adam, and William. Hc'/ekiah married Miss Christine Nelson, of George's Mi"s. Wiley oil tlu' KiviT-bank opposite tiie Blockhouse calling: for help HARMAN'S STATION 85 Creek, Kentucky, and settled on Twelve Pole Creek, where lie lived for many years ; he died in 18o2, [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 his death was united in marriage with Samuel Murray. She died March ]0, 1871. William raised a large family, and after the sale of the Wiley fann moved to Tom's Creek, about 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 wi-iter 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 writer, 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 people, far and near, as the ** Wiley Fai*m." 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 Adam Hannan who settled at Draper's Meadows in 1748. The Sellards and Harmau families intermarried. — William E. Connelle)/. 86 HARMAN'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 " Wiley 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. While they were camping on Mud Lick, some six miles above where Paintsville now stands, she said they fre- quently ran short of lead, and when they wanted to re- plenish their stock they had no trouble to do so, and in a veiy 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; aftei-wards, 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 sui)])ly. 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 peoj)le in that section do not know lead ore when they see it. The story of Jenny Wiley was abundantly confinned by Indians friendly to the whites, in later days, but they would give no information as to the location. We are sorrv we can not tell our readers where to find these mines ! I insert here tlic account written by 11. Clay Ragland, Esq., editor and ]iro])rietor of the Lofjan County (West Virginia) Bnnurr. Mr. Hagland wrote a lii story of his. IIARMAN'S STATION 87 county in installments, which he i)ublished 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 early as 1777 Henry Harman, a native of Prussia, with his sons, Henry, George and Mathiaa, 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 Harman and John Draper were out hunting about a mile from the settlement, when, becoming sep- arated, young Haraian shot a deer and then commenced to reload his rifle. Before he had finished he 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 the fact and he hurried to the settlement with the news. Heniy Harman and his sons Henry and George at once seized their arms, 88 HARMAN 'S STATION and witli 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 wliile 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 reacliing the settlement had reported that Harman and all of his sons were killed. Revenge is one of the strongest characteristics of the Indian, as well as all other unciWl- 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 xVb'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 AViley, ^^oore and Maxwell families, and ca]ituring George I\[axwell and Jennie Wiley, the wife of Samuel Wiley, and daughter of James Evans. The alarm was soon given, and Ca])tain Mathias Harman, with about forty men of the company which he had been raising, was soon in the saddle and ready for })ursuit. General Preston, who had about one hundred men in his connnand was notified, and made a junction with Harman the next day at or near the present site of Welch. With this force they ])uslied down the ^Png River to its junction with Levisa, and then down the P>ig Sandy as rai)idly as possible, kee])ing their scouts in advance of them, but they failed to overt^ike the Indians; in fact they lost all sign of their trail after passing the mouth of Jennie's '(.reek, on Tug i^iver. Wlien in about eight miles of the juouth of th<' Wmx Sandv, at what is now White's Creek, Mrs. Wiley at tlic iiioutli of I.ittic I'aint ('rrek (East Point) in her escape from the Indians HARMAN '8 STATION 89 the scouts reported a large force of Indians, estimated at a thousand warriors, in front of them, and rapidly ad- vancing up the river. The men had not stopped to hunt on the march, and they were entirely out of provisions, 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 live to one, and acquainted with every mountain pass in the countiy, 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 experienced men in the rear of his column, Gen. Preston and his brave 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 heavy rain had commenced, and the mountain streams were in places 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 the bones with what flesh had been left upon them, were divided among the men. A short distance above Marrowbone they came upon a gas spring which had been lighted. Here they paused for the pur])ose 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 theii- hunger, cut the tugs from their saddles and roasted them over the spring. After a short rest the gallant little band again took up their line of march up the river. Arriving at the mouth of Pigeon, they found that Cliarles Tjewis, who had been taken sick on their march down the river, and left at that place in charge of two companions, had died. They hastily dug a grave and 90 IIAKMAN "8 STATION buried him, hut just as tlie hist 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 attemjjt 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, ho]ung to lind 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 surj)rised 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. (Jen. 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 conmiand slowly resumed its nuircli up tlie creek. A hunting jiarty under charge of Ben Cole was sent on in advance for the ))ur])ose of hunting game and fixing uj) a camp for the next night. This little jmrty pushed to the front, leaving a trail by which the main col- umn could be guided, never leaving the creek until they came to its iiead. 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 Cole, selecting it as the cam]ung ground for the night, made ]u-(^par;itions fen* the command, sending a part of Tho Indians on the River-bank opposite the Blockhouse. Mrs. Wiley had 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, determined 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 River, 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. Ragland 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. jNIr. 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 February, 1756, and which is known in history as 92 HARMAN'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 Apms 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 CoJially and signifies " A Light." The possessions of the clan were located in the present counties of Galway, Meath, and Donegal. The Connellys were also chiefs in Fermanagh. The names Connelly, Conally, Conneally, Connolly, Con- neallan, O'Connell, and other names of Irish families, are derived from the ancient Milesian name-0'CoNGHALAiGH. 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 j^ear 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 affairs, 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 belongs 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 Itair and eyes and very fair conii)l(>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 ])urchase. subdi- vision and sale of large tracts of land in various colonies, but i)rincipally 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 sei*ved 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 them 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 ever}- Western State Jind Territory. They remain in large numbers in the Carolinas. Virginia, and PtMinsyl- Dr. Henry Connelly One of the first traders overland from Missouri to northern Mexico. An exjilorer in Mexico, New Mexico, Texas, and Oklahoma. Was loiij^- a merchant at Chihua- hua. Appointed Governor of New Mexico by President Lincoln. Born in Nelson (now Spencer) County, Ken tucky, in the year I8I111. Died at Santa Fe, New Mexico, in July, 1S66. [From photograph in possessiou of his son, Peter Con- nelly, Kansas City, Mo.] THE CONNELLY FAMILY 97 vauia. Tliey have beeu exceedingly piolilic, very large raiiiilies having been the rule i'roin the lirst. Conservative estimates place the number of descendants of Captain Henry Connelly, wlio, 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 beeu men of fair fortune. They have been of influence in every com- munity in which they have lived. ^lany of them have been possessed of fine literai*y taste — some of them fair lit- erary abilit}'. 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 Conley, the father of this writer, was in the Union army, from Eastern Kentucky (the Forty-fifth Regiment, Mounted Infantiy). One of the most distinguished members of the family was Dr. Heniy Connelly, late Governor of New Mexico. He was born in Nelson County, Kentucky', in the year 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 acquaintance of one Powell, an overland trader, ho joined his expedition, under one 98 THE CONNELLY FAMILY 8tei)heuson, 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 witli 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 Territor}' to the Union in the Civil War. He died in 18()() from an over-dose of med- icine. He has many descendants in New Mexico, and liis 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 1830. 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 connnerce. Edmund Connelly, the youngest son of Henry Connelly, is said to have married, in South Carolina, a lady named Mary Edgefield. Tliey left sons and daughters, among them, Harmon and Thomas. Hannon Connelly moved to North Carolina, where he owned lands on the then frontier. Tradition says that he there married the daugliter of a i^hysician named Hicks, "^riiis ilicks, it is afliriiied, had married the daughter of a THE CONNELLY FAMILY 99 Scott'liinaii who was engaged in trading witli the Cherokees, and who had married a Cherokee woman ; he seems to have roamed the country tributaiy to the Little Tennessee. Haimon 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 1763,- 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- fo imation 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.^ 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 Charles Cotesworth Pinckney. His servdce 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 hind 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 - Before coming into possession of all these facts and when I supposed I had obtained comj)lete information I believed Harmon and Thomas mar- ried sisters, daughters of this Dr. Hicks, and so wrote it in my application 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 papers of the Captain, that this was an error. 3 Uncle Edmund Connelly, son of Captain Henry Connelly, always said that his grandmother was a Pennsylvania Dutch woman. We never gave it credit until I saw the pension papers of Captain Homy Connelly. 100 THE CONNELLY FAMILY through the body; and the above-mentioned Dr. Hieks is said to have passed a silk handkerchief several times through 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 born 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. Thf. Clan Mac Alpine The C'lan AlacAlpine is believed to be the most ancient clan of the Higlilands of Scotland. There is an old Gaelic tradition which says the origin of the clan was contem- l)orary with the formation of hillocks and streams. The MacAlpines 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)'llshire. The C'lan MacAlpine is one of the oldest families in the world with an authentic history. A daughter of this old clan-pjdith MacAlpine -is the maternal ancestor of all the Connellys, Conleys, Connelleys, and T.angleys. and many of the Salyers, Holbrooks, Stampers, Halls, McCoys, Grahams. Undei^woods, Spradlins, Williams, Stapletons, Hamiltons, Jaynes, Hackworths, Caudills. McGuires, Mays, Patricks, Rices, T^riccs, Blairs, Webbs, Fairchilds, Robinsons, and nianv other Flastcin Kcntnckv families. THE CONNELLY FAMILY IQI The Clan MacGregor The most famous clan in Scotland was that of Mac- Gregor. It claims descent from Gregor, third son of King Alpin, who rnled Scotland ahont the year 787, and the clan is spoken of in Scotland as the Clan Alpin. The motto of the clan is '^Srioghail mo r//irertw"-" Royal is my race. ' ' Sir Walter Scott found more in the annals of the Clan MacGregor for his famous Waverley Novels than in the 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 curious and interesting infomiation about the MacGregors. He says "that they were famous for their misfortunes and the indomitable courage with which they maintained them- selves as a elan. The MacGregors strove to retain their lands by the cold steel." They had extensive possessions in Arg}^llshire 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 Roy is buried. Next to the MacAlpine the MacGregor is the oldest of Highland clans, and these two are closely related, one being a branch of the other. The MacGregors are now scattered all over the world, and many of them have been eminent as statesmen, soldiers, scholars. 1liey are often eal to arms. We are i)rond 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. lie 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 countr>\ 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 counti'j'men 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 ])y him had several children. Ann MacGregor, growing up with these Langley children, was, it is said, always called Ann Langley by her friends and a('^ 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, iiiontionod lioro 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 j)overty 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 misorablo that some of his a<'tpiaintances secured for him a home with a substantial citizen, John O. Dcniell, 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 jiemiitted 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 acciunulated considerable prop- erty. Up to this time he hail been a Whig. As he returned to North Caro lina he was set upon and robbed of all his property by "some lawless fel- lows," whom lie .supj>oaed to be Whigs. He immediately became a bitter and relentless Tory :ind sotight every opportunity to wreak vengeance on Whigs indiscriminately and to injure the Kcvolutionary cause. He murdered, as he Bays, many jiatriots and burned their houses. He was bold and daring and succctuled 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 Carolina, but he was always excej)ted in bills of amnesty ,>as8ed by the Legislature and remained, conseijuently, proscribotl and exiled. Ho THE CONNELLY FAMILY 111 and active officer, Colonel William Davidson had .e: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 company was placed under the direction of Colonel Davie, who then commanded the North Carolina Cavalry ; but he renewed 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 appli- ino\ ed to New Brunswick and was there a member of the local Legislature. In 1799 he moved to Nova Scotia, where he was Colonel of the militia. He died at Digby, Nova Scotia, in the year 1825. Fanning was a man of ability and the local leader of the Torii^s 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 Henry Con- nelly that he was selected to fight Fanning and keep him down, and he seems 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 pris- oners were taken there by Captain Connelly. Fanning wrote an account of his doings in North Carolina, and the book v.as published at Richmond, Virginia, for private distribution only, in 1861 — " In the First Year of the Independence of the Confederate States of Amer- ica. ' ' The edition was very limited, only fifty copies of the quarto form being printed. And it is probable that these were the only copies printed. The copy of Colonel James H. Wheeler, the historian of North Carolina, is now in my jjrivate 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;) Gi\nng an Account of his Adventures in North Carolina. From 1775 to 178."^, As Written by Himself, With an Introduction and Kxphmatory Notes. Richmond, Va. Printed for Private Distribution Only. 1861. In the First Year of the Independence of the Confederate States of America." 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 Rowan, and this ai»plicant's Horse Company was almost withdrawn from Guilford to that section of North Carolina. The AVhigs this year took a great many Tories, who were all put in jail and confined at ITillsboro and Salisbury. in the montli of November, 1779, orders were received by Colonel Paisley from Colonel Davie, the commanding Colonel, to rendezvous at Salisbuiy 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 Sumner and Colonel Brevard had several skirmishes with the T^oyalists, in which this a])]ilicen- 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 lie 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 Rev"* 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 appli- 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, Kentucky, 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) WalUs Bailey [Seal] Jokn 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 preceding 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 born! Ans. I was born in Pennsylvania, Chester County, on the2ddayof 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. Flow 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 was callod into sen'ire by a recruiting officer by the name of Holgin, T 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 Smnner, General Otho Williams, Colonel Billy Washington, Col- onel Lee, Colonel Howard, the Baron DeKalb. I 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 this capacity, likewise in 1778, and until the fall of 1779. He then joined General Davidson and was with him at the battle of Colson'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 army until the battle of Guilford [Court House]. I was in that battle, and my men all broke very near at first charge, in a panic, 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, 178L 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 oflficer) 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 tlie undersigned, one of the Commonwealth's Justices of the Peace, Phillip William- THE CONNELLY FAMILY 119 son, Senior, of the County of Lawrence, Kentucky, and made 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 Henry Con- nelly, now of this County, Floyd, was constituted and commissioned a Captain in the North Carolina Cavalry. 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 cormnanding 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 liim for a long time since the Revolu- tion. Captain Connelly was a Captain of the troops raised by North Carolina (not Continental). And further this deponent saith not. (Signed) Phillip Williamson [Seal] [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. 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 Revolutionary War. This affiant states that he resided in Rowan County, North Carolina, long before the War, and that during the year 1777 Captain Henr}* 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 Salisburj^ 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 frequently with his horse company in Rowan. And the next year, or the year after, this affiant again saw him and his company just before (jleiieral Greene got to Dan. He was along with the anny. This affiant does not know whether Captain Connelly was in the battle of Guilford or not, for this affiant had been sent on an express to Burke (now called Burke). He does not know how long Captain Connelly enlisted for. THE CONNELLY FAMILY 121 He belouged 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 Imew he has entirely forgotten. The impression of this affiant is that Captain Connelly's horse company 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, Eowan 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 Salisburj^ 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 Greene I saw him with the army once at Hillsboro ; and he was with the army in the retreat from Comwallis. The last time I remember to have seen him was after the battle of Guil- ford -the next day. He was then a Captain as he was in 1777 and 1778 and 1779. I cannot state how long Captain Connelly served, but I know he was commissioned as a Captain of Cavalry and served in that capacity for sev- eral years. When I came to Sandy [the Big Sandy Val- 122 THE CONNELLY FAMILY ley] many years since, 1 found Captain Connelly here. Since then 1 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 Planey, 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 vnth 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) AVilliam 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 oath, 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 Captain 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, 1831. 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 oflSce of North Carolina for verification. Concerning his service, 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 yon sent to me contains the best history of the Revolutionaiy 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 liave 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 infonnation. 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 Revolutionary War in North Carolina has not been written, (except Colonel Wlieeler's history, now in press). Is not the presumption, then, powerfully strong that his statements relative to his services are also correct. I hope at some future time to write a historical Memoir THE CONNELLY FAMILY 125 of the period embraced in the Declaration, and will keep your letter to refer to. Very Respectfully, Your obedient Servant, Wm. J. Clarke, Comptr. The letter is now on file with the other papers, in the Bureau of Pensions, where I copied it. Captain Heniy 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 Salyersville, Rev. Wallis 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 Joynes Connelly) were: 126 THE CONNELLY FAMILY Frances, bom in North Carolina, probably Wilkes Coun- ty, in 1800. She married Benjamin Salyer, who owned a large farm on Big Miidlick 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 liim often. His son, Ilendrix, lived on the home farm ; he man-ied 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. W^illiam, 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 AVilkes 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, born ])robal)ly in Wilkes County, North Carolina, in 1808. lie 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 Ilayden Conley, of Johnson (^)unty, a man of culture and ability. Henry, born in the Indian l)ottom, at the mouth of the Rockhouse Fork of the Kentucky River, in 1810. This point is now in Letcher County, lie married, in what is now Johnson County. Rebecca, danglitcr 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 Revolutionary 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 Kentucky, 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 law, doth on his 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 serv^ed 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 Rob- bins had been appointed Captain. He met his company at Wilkesborough, in Wilkes County, North Carolina, and Captain Robbins not joining us, William Gillerj', the Lieutenant of the comj)any, 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 Rowan 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 Ferry, where we lay one night only, we took the right-hand road and marched on to Dorchester and came near to Peros- burg, the headquarters of the North Carolina troops. The South Carolina troops were there when we arrived. We ('ncamped about a half mile from the town where we re- mained about six weeks. Colonel John Brevard was the commanding Colonel of the regiment to which his com- pany belonged. From the encampment near Perosburg, we marched up the Savannah River to the Three Sisters, whore we staid but a short time, when Captain Gillery and his company left the other troops and we marched down tlic river about three miles to a place calhMl the THE CONNELLY FAMILY 129 White lloiiso, where we went as garrison to guard a ferry on the Savannah River. But a few days after, his eom- })any left the Three Sisters. General Lincoln having un- der his command about six thousand regulars (as he, this ap})licant, 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 troops, came there and encamped with us one night, and next morning left us. Every morning during our stay at the White House a Corj)oral 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 AVhite 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, he went as a volunteer and joined Colonel Cleveland at Wilkesborough, in Wilkes County, North Carolina. He was placed in a 130 THE CONNELLY FAMILY company by Colouel 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 Ramsour'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 Ramsour'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 wo marclied 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 ^forgantown. 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 Cam])bell. From here we marched to Colonel Walker's old ]ilace (then so called) on Little Broad River, and halted but a veiy short time, when Colonel Campbell, whose troojis were all lioisemeu, 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 a])]>li('ant, inarched on under counnand of Cajitain William Jackson, and crossed Broad River and went down by Buck Creek and i)assed a place called THE CONNELLY FAMILY 131 the Gowpens. We then passed clown Buck Creek some distiince and left Buck Creek and crossed Broad River again at Cherokee Ford. We then marched 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 King'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 Wilkesborough on or about the 3rd of March, 1781, and we then marched down (there being about forty of us under Captain Cleve- land) to the old Trading Fort on the Yadkin River, in U2 THE CONNELLY FAMILY Kowan, and returned from this expedition about the 25th of April, 178], and received no written discharge, to the best of his recollection. He has no dociunentary evidence, and he knows of no jjerson whose testimony he can procure who can testify as to his services. Sworn to and subscril^ed the day and year aforesaid. (Signed) Abind Fairchild. The Court then ])ropounded 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 you 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. Wliere 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, (iierhaps the first in Eastern Kentucky. The tem])erament, s])irit, genius, of the Irish ])eo])lo were strongly jireserved 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 intenvoven were a ])assion with my Grandfather Mc- Carty, and all this, intensified and mnlti])lied, was inherit- ed by my mother. (innidfatluM- sang innumerable songs of Old Ireland, and his stories of the ^fcCarty banshee charmed me and so frightened me when a child that I was in terror when ])ut to bed at night, ^fy mother sang many ot" these old folk-songs to her children. She died so young that I (lid not have oi)i)ortunity to preserve any of them, CONSTANTINE CoNLEY, Jr. Father of the Autlior I'lintoiiniiih 1,11 Lnlhcr, Louisa, Ky. THE CONNELLY FAMILY 145 but the spirit and rliytlim of them so took liokl 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. Children : 1. Rebecca Jane. Born January 14, 1837. My moth- er. Married my father, Constantine Conley, Junior, in 1854, in Johnson County. 2. ]\[ary A. Married Rev. Samuel K. Ramey, long Presiding Elder of the Middlesboro District. No chil- 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 born in Scott County, Virginia. They left a large family, but I am not informed 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 9, 1854. The 146 THE CONNELLY FAMILY marriage ceremony was performed by Rev. Alexis Howes, the venerable pioneer Methodist preacher of Eastern Kentuck>\ My father told me that when he offered to pay him a fee for performing the ceremony the old man said to him: "Y'oung 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 fann 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 Hagor House; and it yet stands. Uncle AVilliam Blair sawed the lumber for it in his mill in the Licking River. THE CONNELLY FAMILY 147 My father early enlisted in the Union array -in the Fourteenth Kentucky Regiment. But for some reason he was not mustered in that regiment. He enlisted in the Forty- fifth Regiment, Mounted Jnl'aiitry, and served to the end of the war. My mother died in November, 1862. 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 May, but she lived but a few months. He then married Charlotte Picklesim- 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 I 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! One evening, at dusk, my father came in from a hunt, and I 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 remem- 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 po])lar 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 veiy 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. AVliile 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 1 have, but I am certain that it should be 1866. 2. Josoiih Milton. Born A]>ril 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. Our family, and all the families with which it has intermarried, are of the pioneer 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 Henrj^ 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 Henr}^ Connelly — making, perhaps, the largest blood-relationship in Eastern Ken- tuck>'. 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 his own unaided efforts. At the age of sixteen Tjangley was granted a teacher's certificate, receiving the highest rating in the county. He Joiix Wi;sij:v L\.\(ii,i:y THE CONNELLY FAMILY 151 taught school for three years, and was then appointed to a clerkship in Washington. Later, he returned to Ken- tucky and was twice elected to the Legislature of that State, receiving at the beginning of his second term the caucus nomination of his party for Speaker 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. He was then given the position of Appointment Clerk of the Cen- sus OflSce, 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 high rank, and his record was so satisfactory to the people 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 a third 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 Federal 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 countr\% of the highest integrity and sense of honor, and a man in whom the people repose the fullest measure of confidence. / .Mii.TiiN I<'()i{i;i;s-r ( ';iiiki'i'. Ii(»iiis,i. Kv. MILTON FORREST CONLEY Milton Forrest Conley (spelling of name changed from ConneUy by his father) was born June 13, 1868, at Louisa. Lawrence County, Kentucky, where he now lives. He is a great-great grandson of Captain Henry 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 children (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- tuckj^ 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 Neivs. He has been 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 1893 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 offered the position of Director and Cashier, which he accepted and still holds. He is identified with other business enterprises in the Big 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 I 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 infonnation 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, Eice, Eule, Price, Caudill, Adams, Gardner, How- ard, Williams, Salyer, and many other pioneer families 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 voliune. William Elset Connelley INDEX INDEX Albemarle Point, Old: the Con- nellys first settled at, 95. Anderson, Major Charles: known to Captain Henry Connelly, 117. Argyllshire: 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, Eev. 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. : friend 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 Ilcnry Connelly, 105, 126; married Mary Fairchild, 134; lived where in Johnson County; death of; cliaracter 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 Connelly, 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 Scl- 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: cai)ture>l by the famous Tory, Fanning, 110; di- rected Captain Henry Connelly to keep down Fanning, 117; commis- sioned Captain Connelly. 118. Burke. John : came to Kentucky with the TIowos colony ; some account of; children of. 143. Burke. Lydia: married John Mc- Carty, 143. Burke, William: in the Eevolution 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 Scllards fam- ily, 24; gave description of Mrs. Wiley, 25 ; wrote an account of battle with Indians at camp of the hunters, 30. Cabins: those built at the mouth of Big Paint Creek by the French 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- man's Station. 70. Caudills, the: some of descended from Edith MacAlpinc. 100. Centers, Franklin: married ^fartha 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, Jose: 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 Elver 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 speak English imperfectly. 39; furnished food, 42; wished to kill Mrs. Wiley's child, 43; killed the child, 46; separated from the 162 H ARYAN'S STATION Shawnee party. 48; arrived at Lit- tle Miidlick Creek with the cap- tive; made Mrs. Wiley cook for him, ri9; bought .Mrs. Wiley, 61; characteristics of, 70; went to kill buffalo, 71; pursued by Mrs. Wi- ley; too late; his oxihmKiticn and disappearance, 75. Children of the Mist: \\iii' i>! thi' Clan MacGregor. 101. Clarke, William J.: Comjttroller of North Carolina ; said pensicm De- claration of Cajjtain Henry Con- nelly was the best history of the Revolution in Middle Counties of North Carolina ever written, 125. Cleveland, Colonel Benjamin : known by Captain Henry Connelly, 114. 117; Abind Fairchild served un- der, 129; fought at Ranisour's Mill, 1.30; commanded troops in King's Mountain campaign, 131. Cleveland, Captain John: son of Colonel Benjamin Cleveland, com- manded company of Abind Fair child, 1.31. Cole, Bon : sent out to hunt game. 90. Colson 's Mills: Captain Henry Con nelly wounded at battle of, 117. ColvJn Family: founded by John Colvin; descended from .Vbind Fairchild, 1.34. Colvin, Abind: in Fourteenth Ken- tucky Infantry, 1.34. Colvin, .Tehisa: in Fourteenth Ken- tucky Infantry, 134. Colvin, .Tohn : referred to by .^bin(l Fairchild whose daughter he mar ried; sons of in Fourteenth Ken- tucky Infantry, 133; founder of Colvin Family, 134. Connelly Family, the: descended from Milosius, King of 8p:nn ; founded by Kogan, King of Ire land; lleremon, sou of Milesius, its ancestor; 8ignificati<»n of name of; possessions of where in Ire- land ; ancient form of name ; South Carolina the first American home of, 95. ('onnellys, the: with Bpone visited the Big Sandy Valley about 176;!. 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 Mac Alpine, 100; proud of their de- scent from the Clan MacGregor, 102. Conley: one form of the name Con- neUxi; the most common form in Eastern Kentucky; relatives of the author so write it. 97. Conley, Amanda: date of birth of; married whom, 141. C'onley, 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, Constant ine, 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 .lane >fcCarty: lived where. 140; n>ov ing of mentioned; rejdy of Rev. •\lexis 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; chiltain was a Dutchman, 123 Haw Fields: meeting place for the Tories in the Revolution, 111. Hawes, Robert: one of the party to found Harman 's Station; one of the Long Hunters, 6; went on INDEX 169 hunt with the Ilarmaus in fall of 1787, 29; one of the founders of Harman 's Station, C;"). riobcr : son of Milcsius, McCarty Family desoended 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 w-hom ; 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, Oeiicral .lolin K.: Captain llonry 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. .Toynes, Susan: descent of; married Thomas Connelly; sketch of; Hen- 170 HARMAN'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, Joaeph: 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. Kridcr's Fort: passed by troops on way to King's Mountain, 130. Lackey, General Alkxander: 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 Cajitain Honry Connelly; early life of; blood-re- lationship of the largest in Kast- 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 Fork, 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 Biver 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 c.imped 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 .Tohn Con- ley, 141. Louisa River: named by Dr. Thomas Walker; corrupted to Lrvuta Hirer; the name written Leow- INDEX 171 visay by Felix Walkor, C; Kcu- tucky Kiver called Louisa Kiver under misapprehension, 7 ; on some maps marked as flowing into tlio Great Kanawha; called Frederick Biver 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 Mc- 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 scjit of the Mc- Carty Family, 143. McCarthy Kaigh: a sept of the Mc- Carty Family, 143. McCartneys, the: a sept of the Mc- Carty Family, 143. McCarty Family, the: origin of; families allied with; a famous family in Ireland, 143. MeCarty, Abner: son of Captain Richard McCarty; settled in Scott County, Va., 144. McCarty, Abner: son of .Tohn Mc- Carty, 145. McCarty, Amanda : married .lames Estep, 145. McCarty, Angelina: married Joseph Estep, 145. McCarty, John : son of Wiley ; came to Kentucky with Methodist col- ony; married Lydia Burke; lived where; traits of; death of, 144. MeCarty, 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. McCutoheons, 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: referred 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 are 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 Kevolu 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. P.M.STF.n licks: those on site of Paintsville so called. 53. Paint Lick : first name for Paints- ville, Ky., 54. INDEX 173 Painted rooks: those iit jiinetiou of Mudliok creeks, 52. Paintsville, Ky. : orijjin 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. Partonairro: 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. 14S. Picklesimer, Nathaniel : married whom, 141. Pickens, General : known by Captain Henry Connelly, 114, 117. Pinekney, 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. I'ortora, the: came with Ilozekiah SoIIards 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; afl5davit 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 Rooney, John: work of referred to, 95. Roy, Robert : hero of Scott 's famous novel ; was a MacGrogor, 101. Rule, Andrew: referred to by Cap- tain Connelly. 11.5, 118. Rutherford, General : known by Captain Henry Connelly, 114. Salisbury: troops marched to in Revolution, 128 Salvers, the: many of descended from Edith MacAlpine, 100. Salyers, Benjamin: married Frances Connelly; lived on Big Mudlick Creek; died of cancer, 126. Salyer, Christina: married John Wil- liams. 12fi. 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, ."^O; 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; mnrried Thomns Wiley, 26. Sellards, Thomas: son of Hezekiah Sellards, 24. Shatarns, the: lived in the Big Sandy Valley, 55. Shawneea, 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, .Tames: 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 River, 75; helped to rebuild Har- man 's Station ; died where, 77. Small wood. General : known by Captain Henry Sonnelly, 114, 117. Spears, Samuel : owned the Wiley farm, S6. Spradlins, the: many of descended from Edith MacAlpine, 100. Spradlin, Clarinda, daughter of Wil liam Spradlin, 141. Spradlin, .Tames: a pioneer in Ken tucky; lived where; married Rachel Connelly; death of; author helped to dig grave of; Constan- tine Conley, Jr., sawed oflf lid of Coffin, 105. Sjiradlin, Mahaia: married .Vsn Blair. 1.39. S[)radlin, Malinda: married whom. 126. Sjiradlin, Mantford: son of whom, 141. INDEX 175 Spradlin, Sarah: married Williani Blair, 138. Spradlin, William: marriod Mahala Conlcy, 141. Staflfords, the: came with Ilezokiah Sellards from the Shenandoah, 21. Stalnaeker, Samuel: lived on the Tlolston in 1750, 18. Stambauph, 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. Taeleton, Sir Banastre : defeated at battle of Cowpens, 113. Taylor, Colonel John: Captain Henry 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 Ramsour's Mill, 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 Ilayden : 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 Kiver, 5 ; name not known for some years, 7; Frederick River discovered and named by, 8 ; Jour- nal of mentions Stalnackor and McCall as living in the wilderness, 18. Walker's Creek: Hczekiah Sellards settled on, 21. Walker's Place: troops stopped at on King's mountain campaign, l.'JO; 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 Cowpcns, 113. Webbs, the: some of descended from Edith MacAlpine, 100. Wheeler, Colonel John H. : copy of Fanning 's Narrative formerly o^med by in library of author. 111. White House : on the Savannah, guarded by Abind Fairchild, 129. Wilderness Eoad, 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 Jolinson County, Ky. ; full name of; gave credit to Matthias Har- man, 11; knew Thomas and Jack Sollards, his uncles, 24; text of account of battle with Indians at camp of hunters given author by; said Bickley, in Ilistory of Taze- well Comity had this 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 "Vard" 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 aud 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 marched 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. YoRKTOWN: 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. 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