KNOX COUNTY KENTUCKY HISTORY

Photo of Elmer Decker 1911
 
 

Later Photo of Elmer Decker
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

                                   Contains History and Records of Knox County

                                                                My $0.02

Who was Elmer Decker? He was a Knox County Lawyer in the late 1930's and early 40's.  He studied the History of Knox County and wrote the following manuscript.

When I was growing up in Barbourville.  There were people that didn't believe that the Boone Trace followed US 25E. I remember someone that had found marked trees and rocks by Daniel Boone.  So at that time a lot of people were interested in the history of Knox County and he was one of the few who left a record of this history.

In 1964 when the present courthouse was built the records were hauled to the dump.  And this manuscript is a work of Knox County Records that are now lost forever.  If he had not written this we would never know these things about Knox County. It was never published. And the only copy that I am aware of is one that was given to Union College at Barbourville.

By me placing this on the web I hope it will be preserved forever.  And will be an honor to Elmer Decker.  I am not any part of his family nor am I kin to him.  I just believe that someone should preserve this record for future generations to come.

I hope that you find it as interesting as I have.  Spelling is original. The orginal manuscript was typed on legal size paper and had a few pages of tables showing how many kids where in each school and how much the state paid each school for those pupils, no names where included and beening a home made form I couldn't type these. So the page numbers are different on this copy from the orginal.

If you would like to have a copy of this on cd with a search engine it can be bought for a tax deductable contribution of $25.00 plus shipping, from:
Bell County Historical Museum
PO Box 1344
Middlesboro, KY 40965
(606)242-0005
email Bell Historical Society
 

I do not receive one penny from any sales.
 
 

                         C. Richard Matthews
 
 

 At one time or another England, France, and Spain claimed various portions of North America, including Kentucky.

 It is not definitely known when any part of the State of Kentucky was first visited by white men. French colonists in Canada and Louisiana traveled the Mississippi and Illinois River routes passing Kentucky. Later the French came down the Ohio River from Ft. Duquesne (Pittsburg).

 These early explorers did descend the Mississippi River and passed Kentucky enroute. There are few authentic records of their ever landing on Kentucky soil. Louis Hennepin, a Catholic Priest, descended the Mississippi River and visited Kentucky in 1680. LaSalle and Captain Tonti trod Kentucky soil in 1682. In 1685 and 1688 Captain Tonti again visited West Kentucky. In northern Kentucky, near Limestone (Maysville), the Indians built log houses, which apparently, the French occupied at different times.

 In 1584 Sir Walter Raleigh, under an English patent, tried unsuccessfully to settle a colony. His charter included Kentucky.

 The charter of the Jamestown Colony, commanded by Captain John Smith and first settled in 1607, also included Kentucky.

 At Albany, New York in 1684?, a treaty with the Iroquois by Lord Howard, Governor of Virginia, and Colonel Dungan, Governor of New York, deeded to the British Government a vast tract of country, which embraced Kentucky.

 On November 5, 1768, another treaty, made at Ft. Stansix, between the Six Nations and the Delawares, Shawanees, and Mingoes of Ohio and King George III of England, included the sale of a large tract of land in which was Kentucky.

 Following the Battle of Point Pleasant, October 10, 1774, which was called the first battle of the American Revolution, the Shawanee Indians made a treaty with lord Durmore, Governor of Virginia, relinquishing all claim to lands south of the Ohio River.

 There were other and later treaties with the Cherokees and Chichasaws conveying parts of Kentucky.

 Thus it can be said that the Colony and State of Virginia had claim to Kentucky. This claim was generally recognized by the other colonies and states. This led to exploration parties from Virginia.

 The first English settlers, captured by the Indians, to enter Kentucky were Gabriel Authur, 1674, John Salling, 1730, John Howard, 1742, and Mary Draper Ingles, 1755, who was the first white woman in Kentucky.
 
 

 Dr. Thomas Walker, of Albermarle County, Virginia, on behalf of the Loyal Land Company, commenced a journey to Kentucky March 6, 1750. That part of his journal relating to early Knox County follows:
 

 April 13th. We went four miles to a large creek, which we called Cedar Creek, being a branch of Bear Grass, and from thence six miles to Cave Gap, the land being level. On the north side of the gap is a large spring, which falls very fast and just above the spring is a small entrance to a large cave, which the spring runs through, and there is a constant stream of cool air issuing out. The spring is sufficient to turn a mill. Just at the foot of the hill is a Laurel Thicket, and the spring water runs through it. On the south is a plain Indian road. On the top of the ridge are Laurel Trees marked with crosses, blazed and several figures on them. As I went down the other side I soon came to some Laurel on the head of a branch. A Beech stands on the left hand, on which I cut my name. This gap may be seen at a considerable distance, and there is no other, that I know of, except one about two miles to the north of it, which does not appear to be so low as the other. The mountain on. the north side is very steep and rocky, but on. the south side it is not so. We called it Steep Ridge.

At the foot of the hill on. the northwest side we came to a branch that made a great deal of flat land. We kept down it 2 miles. Several other branches come in to make it a large creek, and we called it Flat Creek. We camped on the bank where we found very good coal. I did not see any Limestone beyond this ridge. We rode 13 miles this day.

 April 14th. We kept down the creek 5 miles chiefly along the Indian road.

 15th. Easter Sunday. Being in bad grounds for our horses we moved 7 miles along the Indian road, to Clover Creek. Clover and Hop Vines are plenty here.

 April 16th. Rain. I made a pair of Indian Shoes those I brought being bad.

 17th. still rain. I went down the creek a hunting and found that it went into a river about a mile below our camp. This, which is Flat Creek and some other join'd, I called Cumberland River.

                      THE CUMBERLAND

A long thin line of Turquoise blue,
With tints in the sky of self-same hue,
The hills of purple, gray and green
Were enrapt in a golden sheen,
    Majestic hills, river between,
     The Cumberland rolls on.

From Letcher's rocks and rills it leaps,
Past miner's camp and home it sweeps,
Through Tennessee it flows along,
 
 

God's melodies it does prolong,
    Melody grand, infinite song,
      The Cumberland rolls on.

Down through the hills its crystal waves,
An everlasting roadway paves,
A path to nature's mysteries,
Path to appointed reveries,
    Reveries sweet, mysteries deep,
      The Cumberland rolls on.

Through a haze shrouded lane of time,
And beautiful nature sublime,
While the toilsome strife of ages,
Turns over history's pages,
    Honor ages, shimmer pages,
      The Cumberland rolls on.

Rippling always a merry song,
'Neath a brave empire building throng,
Leaping, laughing, singing along,
Never is the melody wrong,
   Musical dream, heavenly stream,
     The Cumberland rolls on.        Elmer Decker

 18th. Still Cloudy. We kept down the creek to the river along the indian road to where it crosses. Indians have lived about this ford some years ago. We kept down the south side. After riding 5 miles from our camp, we left the river, it being very crooked. In riding 3 miles we came on it again. It is about 60 or 70 yards wide. We rode 8 miles this day.

 19th. We left the river but in 4 miles we came on it again at the mouth of Licking Creek. Which we went up and down another. In the fork of Licking Creek is a lick much used by Buffaloes and many large roads lead to it. This afternoon Ambrose Powell was bit by a bear in the knee. We rode 7 miles this day.

 20th. We kept down the creek 2 miles to the river again. It appears not any wider here than at the mouth of Clover Creek, but much deeper. I thought it proper to cross the river and began a bark Canoe.

 21st. We finished the canoe and tried her. About noon it began to thunder, lightening, hail and rain. It continued about 2 hours.

 22nd. The Sabbath. One of the horses was found unable to walk this morning. I then propos'd that with two of the company I would proceed. And the other three should continue here, until our return, which was agreed to, and lots were drawn to determine who should go. Ambrose Powell and Colby Chew were the fortunate persons. William Tomlinson, Henry Lawless and John Hughs remained.

 23rd. Having carried our baggage over in the bark canoe and swam our
 
 

horses, we all crossed the river. Then Ambrose Powell, Colby Chew and I departed. Leaving the others to provide and salt some bear, build a house and plant some Peach Stones and corn. We traveled about 12 miles and camped on Crooked Creek. The mountains are very small here abouts and here is a great deal of flat land. We got through the cold today.

 April 24th. We kept on westerly 18 miles, go clear of the mountains and found the land poor and the woods very thick beyond them, and Laurel and Ivey in and near the branches. Our horses suffered very much here for want of food. This day we came on the fresh track of 7 or 8 Indians, but could not overtake them.

 25th. We kept on west 5 miles, the land continuing much same, the Laurel rather growing worse, and food scarcer. I got up a tree on a ridge and saw the growth of the land much the same as far as my sight could reach. I then concluded to return to the rest of my company. I kept on my track 1 mile then turned southerly and went to the Cumberland River at the mouth of Clover Creek. Rocky Creek runs within 40 yards of the river bank then turns off, and runs up the river, surrounding about 25 acres of land before it falls into the river. The banks of the river and creek mouth of the creek is an Ash mark'd T.W., a Red Oak A.P., a White Hiccory C.C. besides several trees blazed several ways with 3 chops over each blaze. We went up the north side of the river 8 miles and camped on a small branch. A bear broke one of my dogs forelegs.

 April 27th. We crossed Indian Creek and went down Meadow Creek to the river. There comes in another from the southward as big as the mouth are the remains of several Indian cabins and amongst them a rough hill made by Art about 20 feet high and over 60 over the top. We went up the river, and camped on the bank.

 28th. We kept up the river to our company whom we found all well, but the lame horse was as bad as we left him and another had been bit in the nose by a snake. I rub'd the wounds with bears oil, and gave him a drench of the same and another of the decoction of Rattle Snake Rott some time after. The people I left had built a house 12 by 8, clear'd and broke some ground, planted corn and Peach Stones. They also had killed several bears and cured the meat. This day Colby Chew and his horse fell down the bank. I bled and gave him Volatile Drops and he soon recovered.

 April 29th. The Sabbath. The bitten horse is better. 3 quarter of a mile below the house is a pond in the low ground of the river, a quarter of a mile in length and 200 yards wide much frequented by fowl.

 30th. I blazed a way from our house to the river. On the other side of river is a large Elm cut down and barked about 20 feet and another standing just by it with the bark cut around at the root and about 15 feet above. About 200 yards below this is a white Hickery barked about 15 feet. The depth of the water here, when the lowest that I have seen it, is about 7 or 8 feet, the bottom of the river sandy ye banks very high and the current very slow. The bitten horse is being much mended, we set off and left the lame one. He is white, branded on the rear Buttock with a swivil stirrup iron, and is old.
 
 

We left the river and having crossed several hills and branches, camped in a valley north from the house.

 May the lst. Another horse being bit, I applyed bears oil as before mentioned. We got to POWELL's River in the afternoon and went down it along an Indian road, much frequented, to the mouth of a creek on the west side of the river, where we camped. The Indian road goes up the creek and I think it is that which goes through Cave Gap.

 2nd. We kept down the river. At the mouth of a creek that comes in on the east side is a lick, and I believe there was a hundred Buffaloes at it. About 2 o'clock we had a shower of rain. We camped on the river, which is very crooked.

 May 3rd. We crossed a narrow neck of land, came on the river again and kept down it to an Indian camp, that had been built this spring, and in it we took up our quarters. It began to rain about noon and continued until night.

 4th. We crossed a narrow neck of land and came on the river again, which we kept down till it turn'd to the westward, we then left it, and went up a creek which we called Colby's Creek. The river is about 50 yards over where we left.

 5th. We got to Tomlinson's River, which is about the size of Powell's River, and I cut my name on a Beech, that stands on the north side of the river. Here is plenty of coal in the south bank opposite to our camp.

 6th. The Sabbath. I saw Goslings, which shows that wild Geese stay here all the year. Ambrose Powell had the misfortune to sprain his well knee.

 7th. We went down Tomlinson's River the land being very broken and our way embarrassed by trees, that had been blown down about 2 years ago.

 May 8th. We went up a creek on the north side of the river.

 9th. We got to Lawlesses River which is much like the others. The mountains here are very steep and on some of them is Laurel and Ivey. The tops of the mountains are very rocky and some parts of the rocks seem to be composed of shells, nuts and many other substance petrified and cemented together and with a kind of flint. We left the river and after traveling some miles we got among trees that had been blown down about 2 years, and were obliged to go down a creek to the river again, the small branches and mountains being impassable.

 This the first authentic account of a house been built by Englishmen in the Commonwealth of Kentucky. The site is about six miles below Barbourville on the north side of Cumberland River near Swan Lake.

 Corn and peach stones were first planted by white men during Dr. Walker's
 
 

journey. He didn't name the mountains or the gap. He called it Steep Ridge and left it Steep Ridge. The gap was named by one Wallen or Walden, a long hunter, after his native Cumberland County, Virginia.  Indians called Cumberland Mountain Ouassioto, or Wasseoto. On early maps Cumberland River is called Shawnee.

 The house site of Dr. Walker was acquired by Deaton-Smith Post No. 69, the American Legion, and donated to the Kentucky Park Commission.

 In 1751, Christopher Gist commenced a trip of exploration from the "Old Town on the Potomack River in Maryland." Gist may have touched the north tip of old Knox County. However, since he returned home up the north fork of the Kentucky River it is not thought that he was on Knox County soil.

 A party of long hunters, so called because they remained away from the settlement on hunts for twelve months or longer. Skaggs, Newman, Blevins, Cox and Wallen (for whom Wallen's Creek in Harlan County is named), entered Kentucky Cumberland Gap (it belonged to Kentucky until 1859, Tennessee archives) in 1761.

 In 1766 Captain James Smith, who later settled in Bourbon County, Joshua Horton, Uriah Stone, Wm. Baker and a mulatto slave came through the gap.

 From South Carolina in 1767 Isaac Lindsey, who is said to have named Rockcastle River, led a party through the gap toward the central part of the state. During this year John Findlay made a trip beyond Cumberland Mountain.

 Daniel Boone, piloted by Finley, made his first trip to and through Cumberland Gap in 1769. He later made several trips, and in 1775 blazed the famous trace.

 Another band of long hunters, James Knox, John Rains, Kasper Mansco, Abraham Bledsoe, John Baker, Joseph Drake, Obakian Terrell, Uriah Stone, Henry Smith, Edward Cowan, Thomas Gordon, Humphrey Hogan, Cassius Brooks, Robert Crockett and others came to Kentucky through Cumberland Gap in 1769.

 On March 17, 1775, Colonel Richard Henderson, Nathaniel Hart and others bought a track of land from the Cherokees, which included the territory in Kentucky between the Ohio, Kentucky and Cumberland Rivers, as far east as the Cumberland Mountain. It was called Transylvania Colony. Lord Dunmore, Governor of Virginia, refused to recognize the colony and the trade with the Indians, but assumed the benefits and granted the buyers a tract of land twelve miles square on the Ohio below the mouth of Green River. It was for Henderson, Hart and Company that Daniel Boone blazed the Trace, later known as the Old Wilderness Road.

 Within the bounds of the present City of Middlesboro, (according to the late Judge Aires of Pineville), was made the first entry of land that was made under any title in southeastern Kentucky, and the first that was made in Kentucky under the title of Richard Henderson and his Associates.
 
 

On the back of the first page of his journal, April 3, 1775, Richard Henderson entered Bryce Martin for 500 acres of land lying on the first creek after crossing Cumberland Gap. The next entry of any size, made by Virginia authorities, was that to Colonel Arthur Campbell, called the father of Washington County, Virginia, for 600 acres on Flatt (yellow) Creek in 1780. One Henderson made this survey for Col. Campbell. Richard Davis and Samuel Mosby carried the chains.

 Bryce Martin was a brother of Joseph Martin, who established the first ferry across the Cumberland River on the Warrior's Path near the ford (Pineville, the ford was at the foot of Laurel Street - the ferry was between there and the Wallsend Bridge), in 1791. This is the same Joseph Martin who built Martin's Station, near the present town of Rose Hill, Virginia and for whom Martin's Fork of the Cumberland River is named.

 At Harrodsburg on. June 6, 1775, a general meeting chose George Rogers Clark and Gabriel Jones as agents to the Virginia Assembly. Whether this Gabriel Jones, who was a Captain in the Virginia Militia and was later killed in a disastrous engagement with the Indians between the Blue Licks and Ohio River on the Old Limestone Trail, was of the Gabriel Jones who later settled in Knox County is not known. A Gabriel Jones was granted a certificate by the Knox County Court, for 400 acres of land below the mouth of Cranks Creek in 1801 "by virtue of an actual settlement made thereon."

 The first legislative body west of the Allegheny and Cumberland Mountains met at Boonesborough, May 23, 1775. The second legal, (the first was a court of and claims at Harrodstown in 1779, composed of four commissioners, William Fleming, Edmund Lyne, James Barbour and Stephen Trigg), ever held in Kentucky was for Lincoln County, parent of Knox, Bell and other southeastern counties. It was organized at Harrodsburg, January 1781. Logans, Bowmans and Craigs were appointed to office by the Governor of Virginia. John Logan Jr., prominently identified with the early history of Knox County was from Lincoln County and later returned there.

 Kentucky had always been a part of Virginia from early Colonial times. Orange County organized in 1734, embraced all Virginia territory west of the Blue Ridge. Augusta County was formed from Orange in 1738 and organized in 1745, Bottetourt formed from Augusta in 1769, and Fincastle was formed from Bottetourt in 1772, all of these included Kentucky.

 On December 31, 1776, Kentucky County was formed. Kentucky was a county before it was a state. This county was subdivided in 1780 into Jefferson, Fayette and Lincoln Counties.

 From 1780 until the admission of the state into the Union. the name Kentucky was not on the map except as the name of a river.

 In March 1783, Kentucky was formed into one district. A district court was opened at Harrodsburg, March 3, 1783, by John Floyd and Samuel McDowell as judges.
 
 

 The Virginia Assembly passed an act in January 1786, favoring the separation of Kentucky on certain conditions, but in October passed another postponing the separation until January 1, 1789.

 Assembled in convention at Danville an September 17, 1787, Kentucky delegates decided in favor of separation on the terms offered by Virginia. However, a later convention, July 20, 1789, protested the conditions of separation contained in the third act of the Virginia Assembly.

 This disagreement deprived Kentucky of the honor of being the first state admitted to the Union. It was, however, the first state for which an act of Congress was passed (February 4, 1791) granting admission. The act was signed by President Washington, who had in December 1790, recommended to Congress the admission of Kentucky into the Union.

 Virginia altered her conditions December 18, 1789, agreeable to the desires of Kentucky, and the ninth convention accepted the terms July 26, 1790 and fixed June 1, 1792 for the independence of the State of Kentucky. Kentucky was admitted to the Union June 1, 1792.

 The first capital was Lexington (later moved to Frankfort), where the first governor, Isaac Shelby was sworn in.

 Governors of Virginia during the time Kentucky was a part of that state were as follows: June 29, 1776, Patrick Henry; June 1, 1779, Thomas Jefferson; June 12, 1781, Thomas Nelson; November 1781, Benjamin Harrison; December 1784, Patrick Henry; December 1786, Edmund Randolph; December 1788, Beverly Randolph; December 1791, Henry Lee.

 At the time of admission as a state into the Union there were nine counties, which had been established by the Virginia Assembly. They were Lincoln, Fayette 1780, Jefferson 1780, Nelson 1784, Bourbon 1785, Mercer 1785, Madison 1785, Mason 1788, and Woodford 1788.

Counties formed after becoming a state, before Knox was formed
December 19, 1799, were Washington, Scott, Shelby, Logan, Clark, Hardin, Green 1792, Harrison 1793, Franklin, Campbell 1794, Bullitt, Christian, Montgomery, Bracken, Warren, Garrard 1796, Fleming, Pulaski, Pendleton, Livingston, Boone, Henry, Cumberland, Gallatin, Muhlenburg, Ohio, Jessamine, Warren, Henderson 1798, Beckenridge and Floyd 1799.

 There were many killed by Indians in southeastern Kentucky after the advent of white men. The long hunters first encountered the savages.

 The earliest Indian massacre within the confines of Knox County as first established took place in 1780 near Raccoon Spring, about two miles beyond Robinson Creek
 
 

now in Laurel County. According to Captain John Redd, who saw the slain "laid beside a log and covered with brush" five were killed.

 In 1784 the Indians murdered the McNutt family and others. Their remains were buried near where it happened, a short distance from Fariston in Laurel County. These graves may still be seen in Levi Jackson State Park. Nine headstones mark the resting places of the twenty-four who were killed.

 Captain Charles Gatliff recorded on the margin of page 57 of an old combination reader, grammar and arithmetic book, now in the possession of E.M. Gatliff, Williamsburg, the following, "March 12, 1793, Thomas Shelton, with three more ministers were killed on Little Richland Creek on the Wilderness Road from Kentucky to the Holston." This is the first account of a killing by Indians on Little Richland Creek which never appeared in any history.

 Fourteen persons were killed on the Wilderness Road near Hazel Patch in April 1793. Later in the same month and year Indians killed seven white men at Laurel River. About the same time Colonel Isaac Bledsoe was slain on the Cumberland. A party of Indians attacked two families on the Kentucky side of the Cumberland Mountain in October 1793. One man was killed and two children were wounded.

 John Tye and his son, who had settled on Big Poplar Creek now in Whitley County, were attacked by Cherokees in 1793. His boy was killed and he was wounded. Contrary to the accounts of Kentucky Historians, Tye killed several of the Indians and guarded the body of his son until help arrived. Tye had several vicious dogs which assisted him in repelling the Indians. It is said that another son, Joshua Tye, who later helped defeat the British and Indians at the Battle of the Thames, would kill every Indian he met.

 The Joe-Fields, near Woodbine, received their name from Joseph Johnson, who was slain by Cherokees in his cabin at that place. Before and during the Civil War the Joe-Fields developed an unsavory reputation. It is said to have been a haven for a gang of questionable characters. In Deed Book R, page 589, a deed from William Tankesly to his children reads as follows: "November 12, 1866, I William Tankesly, will now make it known the reason why I make this trade and will here in after mentioned, my reason is that I an afraid that the Jofield crowd, my enemies, will destroy me."

 John Spence King born ninety-six years ago (1842) an Log Mountain (now Bell County), states that he was always told that Baptist Gap, southwest of Cumberland Gap, was so named because three early Baptist Ministers were killed there by Indians. There were many early individual encounters with the Indians in southeastern Kentucky. Numerous such attacks are so veiled in obscurity, that it is difficult at this time to determine the real facts.

Information of another early massacre was obtained as follows:
 
 

 Leonard Oakley: When seen at his home about a half mile west of the scene of the McFarland Defeat on Sunday afternoon June 4, 1939, by Russell Byche. He stated that he had all his life heard a great deal about the McFarland Defeat, from his father, Henderson Oakley and others, and that in the past there had been a great many arrow heads, lead bullets and other relics found about the scene. He thought he had two or three of the arrowheads and when he found them he would give them to Levi Jackson Park Museum. He said all of the Indians were killed in the fight and that all of the McFarland company excepting McFarland himself and two others, whom he described as a woman and a child (girl) who had hidden under a cliff and found there three days later by men who came from Crab Orchard.

 W.R. Maples: Interviewed at his home Sunday afternoon June 4, 1938, by Russell Dyche. Mr. Maples gives as his authority a man named Jack Evens, who told him the story about 54 years ago, at which time Evans was 90 years old and lived about three miles (about Evans Ferry), on the Rockcastle River on the London-Somerset Road. Evans told him that his father was in the party that answered McFarland's appeal for help, and came from Lincoln County, probably Logan's Station, to help bury the dead before Jack Evans was born. McFarland's company was surprised by a band of indians and in the fight that ensued all had been killed excepting only McFarland and one indian, each of whom was armed with a musket. The indian's ramrod became fastened in his musket and this gave the victory to McFarland, for whom the branch that flows by his name. McFarland immediately set out for the Woods' Block House on Hazel Patch Creek, which at that time was the only settlement in what is now Laurel County. He and Mr. Woods continued their way to Logan's Station that night for help. Whether they reached there before next day, Mr. Maples was not informed, but it was the third day before a party from Logans's returned. They found two children and their dog under a rock cliff about a half mile to the west, and on the right side of the road as you go to London from his house. Someone had gotten there ahead of this party and had moved the bodies of the indians to a rock cliff some distance away. Among the 28 indians was a renegade white man, who had taken up with the indians. He was thought to have been the last man that McFarland killed. Mr. Maples did not know how many white people were in the party, but he thought there were between twenty and thirty. At that time, JacX Evans had told Mr. Maples, the land all about the McFarland Camp was an open prairie, and that the only trees were large trees along the creek.

The last recorded indian murder in the interior of the state appeared in the Kentucky Herald March 28, 1795. "By a gentleman just from the salt works we are informed that the indians stole some horses from that place and killed a man on Goose Creek." For several years, (after the northern tribes quit) the Cherokees from Tennessee and North Carolina continued to raid in Kentucky.
 
 

 Section I Be it enacted by the General Assembly, that from and after the first Monday in June next, all that part of the County of Lincoln, included in the following bounds, to-wit: Beginning where the Pulaski line strikes the Tennessee line, and with said Tennessee line east to the top of the Cumberland Mountain; thence along the said mountain to the line of Madison county, and with the same to a point due east of the mouth of the branch of Kentucky River that the Wilderness Road goes down; thence up the said branch to the said road; thence with the said road to the aforesaid Madison line, and with the same to the head of Rockcastle River, and down the said river to the Pulaski line, and with Pulaski line to the beginning, shall be one distinct county, and called and known by the name of Knox. A court for the said county shall be held by the justices thereof, on the fourth Monday in every month, in which the courts of quarter sessions are not hereafter directed to be held.

 Section 2 The justices to be named in the commission of the peace for the said county of Knox, shall meet at the house of John Logan, in the said county, on the first court day after the said division shall take place; and having taken the oaths prescribed by law, and a sheriff being legally qualified to act, the justices shall proceed to appoint and qualify a clerk, and fix on a place for holding courts in said county, at or near the center thereof, as situation and convience will admit; and thenceforth the said courts shall proceed to erect the necessary public buildings at such place; and until such buildings be complete, to appoint such places for holding courts as they shall think proper; provided always, that the place for erecting public buildings shall not be fixed on, unless a majority of the justices of both courts of the said county shall concur therein; but a majority of those present on any court day, may appoint a clerk pro tempore.

 Section 3 And be it futher enacted, that the court of quarter session for said county of Knox shall be held, annually, in the months of March, May, August, and November.

 Section 4 It shall be lawful for the sheriff of Lincoln to collect and make distress for any public dues and officer's fees, which shall remain unpaid by the inhabitants thereof at the time such division shall take place, and shall be accountable for the same in like manner as if this act had not been made. And the courts of the county of Lincoln shall have jurisdiction in all action and suits, either in law or equity, which shall be depending before them at the time of such division, and shall try and determine the name, issue process and award executin thereon.

                AN ACT FOR ADDING PART OF MADISON TO KNOX

      Approved December 12, 1804. Whereas it is represented to the present
 
 

general assembly, that some of the good citizens of Madison county labor under great inconveniences in attending at their present seat of justice, owing to the distance and badness of the road which they have to travel, and that it is much nearer and better way to Knox Courthouse; for remedy whereof.

 Section I Be it enacted by the general assembly, that from and after the first day of April next, all that part of Madison county, aforesaid, comprised within the following bounds, shall be added to and considered as part of the county of Knox, to-wit: beginning on the line of the present counties, at a point due west of the mouth of Collin's Fork of Goose Creek; thence east to the mouth of said fork; thence a straight line to a point fifty poles south of the house of James Kincaid Esq.; thence a straight line (so as to leave said Kincaid in Madison County) to the nearest part of the ridge that divides the waters of Goose Creek from those of the Red Bird Fork; thence with the said ridge eastwardly to the line of Knox County, and with the same to the beginning.

 Section 2 And be it futher enacted, that the sheriff of the said county of Madison may lawfully, after the first day of January next, distrain or collect all public dues and officer's fees from the inhabitants residing in the before mentioned boundary, which the said sheriff now is or may be before the said first day of April, bound by law to collect. This act shall commence and be in force from and after its passage.

 Knox County was named after Colonel James Knox, a long hunter, Indian fighter, Revolutionary War veteran (Major), and legislator. He was born in Ireland. In a letter to Dr. L.C. Draper, dated at Lexington, Kentucky November 18, 1848, Robert Wickliffe Sr., a celebrated lawyer, whose parents brought him to Louisville in 1748. Mr. Wickliffe was personally acquainted with Colonel Knox, who was a state Senator from Lincoln County at the time Knox County was created and who later married the widow of General Benjamin Logan and moved to Shelby County.

 Census records for 1800 of Knox County shows 1109 residents, 1044 whites, 3 free blacks, and 62 slaves. There were no towns. Settlers lived at Flat Lick, Cumberland Ford (Pineville), Hazel Patch, on the Cumberland, Rockcastle, and Laurel Rivers, on the Richlands, Lynn Camp, Robinson, Marsh, Watts, Poplar, Indian, Maple, Meadow, Yellow, Cannon, Straight, Greasy, Stinking, and Turkey Creeks. Several families lived in the vicinity of the salt works at the mouth of White's Branch on Goose Creek.

 Early settlers were from Virginia, North and South Carolina, Maryland and a small number from Pennsylvania, New Jersey, New York, and New England. A large majority came direct from southwest Virginia and North Carolina. Most of them stopped for brief periods of time in East Tennessee. They were chiefly of English descent. There were a lot of Irish, a few Scotch, Dutch, German, and French. Nearly all of them old enough, had been Indian fighters and Revolutionary War Veterans. Their descendants still live in southeastern Kentucky.
 
 

 At the house of John Logan Jr., on the 23rd day of June. One thousand, eight hundred and in the ninth year of the Commonwealth. It being the place appointed by an act of the General Assembly of Kentucky for holding the first court at and for Knox County.

 A commission of the peace from his Excellency James Garrard Esq., Governor of Kentucky, directed to James Mahan, George Brittain, John Reddick, John Ballinger and thereupon, pursuant to the said; commissions James Mahan a Gentleman, to administer the oaths of office and fidelity to George Brittain, John Reddick, John Ballinger and Joathan McNeil Esqurs. and then John Ballinger Esq. administered the oath of office and fidelity to James Mahan Esq.

 Alexander Goodin produced a commission from his Excellency James Garrard Esq., Governor of Kentucky, dated December 21, 1799, appointing him Sheriff of Knox county, which said commission was read and thereupon the said Alexander Goodin took the oath of office as the law directs.

 The sheriff then opened the first court for Knox County in the name of the Commonwealth.

 The court being thus constituted they proceed to elect a clerk and Richard Ballinger was appointed Clerk P.T. whereupon he took the oath of office prescribed by law, and he, together with George Brittain and John Ballinger (his securities), acknowledge their bonds unto the Governor in the penalty as the law directs.

 John Campbell produced a Commission from Caleb Wallace and George Muter, Judges of the Court of Appeals permitting him to practice as an attorney at law in any court of this Commonwealth which was read and thereupon the said John Campbell gentlemen took the oath of office as the law directs.

 Ordered that the county be laid off in four Constable districts, Vis: all that part of the county above Brownings Creek shall be considered as one district and known by the name of Number One. All that part below Brownings Creek and above Richland Creek shall be called Number Two. Between Richland Creek shall be called Number Three. Balance of the said county Number Four.

 Ordered that John Allsup be appointed Constable in the second district, John Allsup having taken the oath of office agreeable to law as Constable and he, together with John and Richard Ballinger, his securities, acknowledged their bonds to the Governor in the penalty of five hundred dollars as the law directs-

 Ordered that Isaac Cumstalk be appointed Constable in the third district, Isaac Cumstalk having taken the oath of office agreeable to law as Constable and he, together with Leonard Shoemaker and David Deweese, his securities, acknowledged their bonds to the Governor in the penalty of five hundred dollars as the law directs.
 
 

Ordered that court doth adjourn till tomorrow 9 o'clock at this place.

                                                       James Mahan

 At a court held for Knox County at the 'house of John Logan Jr., June 24, 1800. James Mahan, George Brittain, John Reddick, John Ballinger and Jonathan McNeil Esqrs.

 John Ballinger produced a Commission from his Excellency, James Garrard, Governor, appointing him Surveyer in said county. Having taken the oath prescribed by law he, together with Richard Ballinger, signr. and James Barbour, signr. acknowledged their bonds to the Governor as by law.

 Ordered that James Mahan, George Brittain and Jonathan McNeil be appointed and licensed by the court to solemnize the rites of Matrimony.

 James Mahan with Joel Collins, his security; George Brittain with John Ballinger, his security; Jonathan McNeil with Nimrod Farris, his security; all acknowledged their bonds to the Governor as the law directs.

 Ordered that Joel Collins, Alexander Goodin and Nimrod Farris be appointed processioners for this county.

 Joel Collins, Alexander Gooding and Nimrod Farris took the oath prescribed by law.

 Ordered that no man in this county be allowed to mark their stock with a half crop in the right ear and a swallow fork in the left except Jonathan McNeil.

 Ordered that no man in this county be allowed to mark their stock with a swallow fork in the right ear and a half crop in the left except John Reddick, Esq.

Ordered that fixing the Seat of Justice be postponed until next court.

Ordered that court doth adjourn until court in course at this place. James Mahan

 John Hudson was appointed constable in district number 1. Nathan Dickson was appointed a processioner.

                             FIRST TAVERN RATES
      Six shillings equals one dollar--three pence equals four and a half cents.
      For wine by the gallon or smaller quantity--6 shillings.
      For rum or French Brandy by the gallon or smaller quantity--6 shillings.
      Whiskey by the gallon or smaller quantity--12 shillings.
      Gin by the gallon or smaller quantity--24 shillings.
 
 

      Cordial by the gallon or smaller quantity--24 shillings.
      Brandy made of Peaches by the gallon or smaller quantity--16 shillings.
      For a warm dinner, supper or breakfast--1 shilling /6 pence.
      For a cold dinner, supper or breakfast--1 shilling.
      For a horse standing at hay or fodder for 12 hours--1 shilling /6 pence.
      Corn or oats by the bushel or smaller quantity--6 shillings
      Lodging per man for one night--6 pence.

      John Logan was appointed keeper of the stray pen.  He was ordered to
"finish off the southeast room of his house for the use of a jail."

      Ambrose Arthur was appointed and sworn in as the first deputy sheriff.

      At the house of John Logan Junior, on the twenty-fifth day of August and in the year of our Lord one thousand, eight hundred and in the ninth year of this Commonwealth of Kentucky, it being a place appointed by an act of this state for holding the first Court of Quarter Sessions at and for Knox County.

      John Logan Jr. and Joel Collins, present

      A commission of the peace directed to Richard Ballinger, John Logan Jr. and Joel Collins, from his Excellency, James Garrard, appointing them Justices of the Court of Quarter Sessions in and for the said county was produced, whereupon John Ballinger a justice of the peace then acting in and for the said county, administered the oaths of office and of fidelity to John Logan Jr. and Joel Collins, agreeable to the Constitution and laws of this state.

      The sheriff opened the first Court of Quarter Sessions for Knox County in the name of the Commonwealth.

      The court then proceeded to elect a clerk and Richard Ballinger was then appointed clerk pro tempore.

 Whereupon the said Richard Ballinger took the oath of office of fidelity as is directed by the Constitution and laws of this state.

 And the said Richard Ballinger, together with Joseph Johnson and John Cummins, his securities, acknowledged their bonds to the Governor in the penalty of one thousand pounds conditioned as the law directs.

 Thomas Montgomery, John Campbell and Martian D. Hardin, produced their licenses to practice as attorney at law in any courts of this Commonwealth, whereupon they took the oaths of office as directed by law.

 Ordered that Thomas Montgomery be appointed attorney for the Commonwealth of this county.
 
 

 Thomas Montgomery took the oath of office as attorney for the Commonwealth in this county as directed by law.

 On the motion of John Hudson by Thomas Montgomery, his attorney, it is ordered that the sheriff of this county do require bail of Pleasant Tucker in the sum of Seven pounds-four shilling in an action this day commended by the said John vs. the said Pleasant.

 A Grand Jury impaneled and sworn for the body of this county, to wit, John Cummins, forman of the Grand Jury, John Ballinger, Thomas Goodin, Joseph Johnson, James Culton, James Mahan, John Reddick, George Bunch, Nathan Dixon, John Dean, William Cox, Nathaniel Curtis, Alexander Stewart, James Hail and Thomas Sellers having received their charge were taken from the Bar to consider their presentments, etc.

 A recognizance was produced into court by James Mahan, a Justice of the Peace for said county wherein John Brown and Michael Shirley had bound themselves in the penalty of two hundred dollars conditioned for the appearance of John Shirley here this day, to abide by and perform the rules and orders of this court, and the said John Shirley, John Brown and Michael Shirley although solemnly called came not. Wherefore on the motion of the attorney for the Commonwealth it is ordered that the clerk do issue a shirefacias vs the said John Brown and Michael Shirley to appear here at our next court to show cause why their recognizance should not be forfeited.

 The Grand Jury returned into court and made the following presentments (to wit). The indictment, the commonwealth against George Rose for perjury, a true bill. Information by James Mahan, James Culton, John Ballinger and Thomas Goodin, all of the Grand Jury, and citizens of Knox County.

 An indictment vs. Christopher Hobbs, Ezekiel Hobbs, William Blanton, Hannah Hobbs, daughter of Vicent Hobbs, for a breach of peace, a true bill, information by John Hudson a citizen of Knox County and not of the Grand Jury. They having nothing further to present were discharged.

 At a court of quarter sessions holden for Knox County at the house of John Logan Jr., November 24, 1800.

      John Logan Jr. and Joel Collins present.

 The Commonwealth vs. George Rose on an indictment for perjury. A Nolle Posseque against the indictment.

 Archabald Mills produced a license to the court permitting him to practice as an attorney at law in any court of this Commonwealth which was read, and thereupon the said Archabald Mills, took the oath of office as by law is directed.

 A Grand Jury (to wit), Alexander Stewart forman, James Johnson, James
 
 

Hodges, Joseph Johnson, David Johnson, Ebenezer Ingram, Stephen Brindlee, Hugh Gaston, Leonard C. Shoemaker, Solomon Cox, John Cox, John Asher, Bruce Baker, James Culton, William Martin, John Thomas, Robert McWhorter and Stephen Taylor were sworn a jury of inquest for the body of this county, having received their charge they retired from the Bar to consider of their presentments.

 Chistopher Hobbs and others were found guilty by the following jury: John Laughlin, James Mahan, Thomas Dewees, Obediah Paine, Moses Brown, Ralph Platt, Eastnam Ballinger, John Brown, Joseph Heighley, James McWhorter, James Jenkins and John Alsup. They were fined thirty pounds and costs.

 The house of John Logan Jr., was a Big Richland Creek approximately one hundred yards above the present Callahan School House. It was on Shop Branch about the center of the present road up Big Richland Creek, "ferninst that willow stump," said an elderly lady of the neighborhood. It was on the Old State Road, and about as near the geographical center of early Knox County as roads and other connections would permit.

 Knox County, as first established, included what may well be said Southeastern Kentucky. In 1806 Clay County was formed from Madison, Knox and Floyd; in 1810 Rockcastle from Lincoln, Pulaski, Madison and Knox; in 1818 Whitley from Knox; in 1819 Harlan from Knox; in 1825 Laurel from Whitley, Rockcastle, Clay and Knox; in 1867 Josh Bell from Harlan and Knox. Many of the counties mentioned above had other counties formed from them, such as Perry from Clay and Floyd; Letcher from Perry and Harlan; Owsley from Clay; Estill, Breathitt and McCreary from Pulaski, Whitley and Wayne.

 When Knox County was first established there was but one main road, the Old State Road, referred to in another chapter. Other routes in use, as a rule, followed Indian trails and buffalo paths. The first road order reads:

 October 28, 1800. On the motion of George Brittain for to have a roadway viewed out from the top of Cumberland Mountain at Crank's Gap the nearest and
best way to intersect where the road crosses S'd river and Alexander Stewarts--and be it further ordered that Vincent Hobbs, John Asher, Samuel Howard, William Spurlock and George Brittain and the same are hereby appointed to view out s'd road and make a report to our next court.

                       Their report follows:

 Agreeable to an order of last court directing George Brittain, William
Spurlock, Samuel Howard, Vincent Hobbs and John Asher appointing them to view out a road way from Crank's Gap on the top of Cumberland Mountain to intersect the wilderness road between the Ford of Cumberland and Alexander Stewart whereupon three of the said Commissioners returned that they had viewed out a way to start from said Gap and to run on or near the old trace to the junction of the three forks of said river, thence crossing the Piney Mountain so as to fall on the head of Principole Branch of Strait Creek and down the said creek to the mouth. It is ordered that the above road be established. This road is in the present Bell and Harlan counties.
 
 

 The county court in 1800, and for many years thereafter, allowed out of the county levy, bounties for Wolf Scalps. John Akeman, William Pearl Sr., William Pearl Jr., James Hale, George Farris, Charles Gatliff, Jesse Pace, John Asher, Stephen Taylor, William Martin, Walter Burnis, Alexander Stewart, Jesse Cox, Joseph Johnson, William Thomas, Issiah Sallyers, Thomas and John Goodin were paid for killing wolves at the rate of 8 shillings for each grown wolf.

 Nimrod Farris, who had been appointed Commissioner of the Tax, by the county court of Lincoln, March 11, 1800 in such part of this county as will be included within the bounds of Knox County was engaged in taking the taxable property 57 days.

                         THE FIRST TAVERN KEEPERS

 The first tavern keepers were Thomas Johnson, at the Richland crossing of the state road, Nimrod Farris, at Thomases Old Station now in Laurel County, John Logan Jr., at White or Pleasant Plains, Richard Ballinger, at the Nineteen Mile Tree on the Wilderness Road, licensed September 22, 1800 and William Hogan, at Cumberland Ford and William White, at Mt. Pleasant, licensed October 22, 1800. These early tavern keepers were prominent and influential men. Many of them held responsible political positions.

 On September 22, 1800, John Eaton was appointed constable on District No.4

 The first deed between Thomas William and his wife, Jane Williams and Joseph Carey of Alexandria, Fairfax County, Virginia, Parties of the first part,
and James Barbour, of Garrard County, Kentucky, party of the second part, was recorded October 27, 1800. The tract conveyed five thousand acres and included the present site of Barbourville. The consideration was $4,000.00, current money of Virginia.

 To pay pole tax was called tything. In 1800 it was ordered that each male tythe and black female above the age of sixteen shall be taxed four shillings and six pence.

 October 28, 1800, Richard Ballinger made oath before the court that he had received three dollars and fifty cents, the tax on law processes, county seals, deeds, etc. during the year.

 Of the first justices of the peace James Mahan moved to what is now Whitley County, George Brittain, Harlan County, John Reddick, John Ballinger and John Logan Jr. were from now Knox County, Jonathan McNeil, from laurel County, and Joel Collins from near the present Clay County line.

 John Reddick and John Ballinger were appointed as judges for the elections for this county. Richard Ballinger was appointed clerk to the elections. They were the first election officers.
 
 

 On the last day of the county court for 1800 William Farris, John Ballinger, John Wood, James Johnson, George Brittain and Samuel hoard were appointed commissioners in this county for the dividing of lands agreeable to an act approved March 1, 1797.

 Before court adjourned Thomas Goodin, who with James Culton had been recommended to the governor as fit persons to fill the office of Coroner, was fined ten dollars for contempt to the court and that his body be taken to the jail of this county until he makes good the said fine. The fine was later suspended.

 At a Court of Examinations called and held at the court house in Barbourville in the County of Knox, on the 26th day of April 1805, for the examination of Robert Blakely, who stands charges with horse stealing. Present John Ruddick, Thomas Johnson and George W. Craig, Gentlemen Justices, being three of the five oldest.

 The said Robert Blakely was led to the bar in custody of the jailer, but before he was arrained the court quashed the warrant for want of form, and thereupon the prisoner was ordered to be liberated.

 Ordered that the Commonwealth do pay Joel Stoe, Robinson Stoe, Marvel Stoe, Jesse Cox, Joel Wakins, Terry Mullins and William McClelland for one days attendance, each 2 shillings and 1 pence, as witnesses vs. Robert Blakely. Ordered that Robert Blakely do pay William Wilson for one days attendance 2 shillings and I pence as a witness vs. Commonwealth.

Ordered that court be adjourned until court is course.

                                               (signed) John Ruddick

 On June 15, 1805, another court of Examination was convened for the trial of John Brown, who was charged with having stolen a bell and collar and buckle of the value of fifty cents, the property of Jesse Cox.

Brown was bound over to the circuit court.

 Agreeable to an act of the General Assembly of this Commonwealth, aforesaid, entitled an act to amend the several acts establishing circuit courts.

      The Honorable Jonathan McNeil and John Cummin produced a certificate from under the hand and seal of Alexander Stewart. In the words following, to wit, State of Kentucky of the state aforesaid, past in the year 1804 establishing a circuit court in the County of Knox County Jonathan McNeil and John Cummin who produced their
 
 

commissions as assistant judges for the oaths prescribed by law and the Constitution of the United States and Commonwealth of Kentucky. Given under my hand and seal this 1st April 1805.

                                              Alex Stewart (Seal)

 The same is ordered to be recorded and the first Circuit court was holden for Knox County at the Courthouse July 1, 1805.

 The Honorable Jonathan McNeil and John Cumin, assistant judges of the Circuit Court in the county as of present.

 The court proceeded to appoint a clerk and Richard Ballinger was appointed their clerk protem. Whereupon he had the oath prescribed by the Constitution of the United States and the Constitution of Kentucky and the laws of this state administered unto him and entered into bond with Alexander Stewart, Thomas Arthur, George W. Craig and Peter Engle, as his securities in the penalty of one thousand pounds and conditioned as the law directs and is ordered to be recorded, which if in the words following, to wit:

 Know all men by these present that we, Richard Ballinger, Alexander Stewart, Thomas Arthur, George W. Craig and Peter Engle, of Knox County and State of Kentucky are held and firmly bound unto his Excellency, Christopher Greenup, Governor of this Commonwealth for the time being and his successors in office in the just and full sum of one thousand pounds, good and lawful money of this Commonwealth to which payment will and truly be made we bind ourselves, our heirs, executors and administrators jointly and severally by these present, as witness our hand and seal this 1 July 1805.

Acknowledged in open court Jonathan McNeil.

Richard Ballinger, Alex Stewart, Thomas Arthur, George W. Craig, Peter Engle

 William Logan, Thomas Montogmery, Tunstall Quarles and George Walker, took the several oaths as counsels and attorney at law in the circuit court in this county prescribed by the Constitution and laws of this state.

 Thomas Montogamery is by the court appointed attorney for the Commonwealth in the circuit court of Knox County and had the several oaths of office administered unto him.

 A Grand Jury, to wit, John Bailey forman, Thomas Arthur, John Wood, Thomas Dicken, Thomas Begley, William Baker, Henry Colestone, David Deweese, Joseph Ryley, Elias Veach, Robert Lyon, Amos Veach, James Johnson, Walter Walker, John Coffee, Joseph Baker, Joseph Peace and Ezekiel Bledsoe were sworn a Grand Jury of Inquest the body of this county and having received their charge retired from the bar to consider of those things given them in charge, and after some time returned into the court having made the following indictment, the Commonwealth vs. John Brown, for felony, we of the jury find  a true bill, John Bailey forman of the Grand Jury, and having nothing futher
 
 
 
 
 
 

                                                                        22

to present were discharged.

              Commonwealth vs. John Gordon--for hog stealing.

 The defendant being called appeared in court and an the motion of the attorney for the Commonwealth it is ordered that John Gordon enter into bond, to be bound himself in fifty dollars and one security in fifty dollars more; whereupon the said John Gordon came into court and acknowledged himself justly indebted unto his Excellency, Christopher Greenup, Governor of this Commonwealth, in the sun of fifty dollars with this condition that if the said John Gordon do appear here on the 1st day of our next October term, and then and there abide by and perform the order and judgement of the said court, and not be void else to remain in full force and virtue.

                                                      mark
                                                 John E. Gordon
                                                      his
                                                  Thomas Begley

 The Commonwealth of Kentucky vs. John Brown. On an indictment the said John Brown, labourer was led to the bar in custody of the sheriff and being arrained of the offense of which he stands indicted, pleated not guilty, and for his trail put himself upon the county and the attorney for the Commonwealth, in the Knox Circuit likewise and thereupon came the juriors of a jury. To wit, Samuel Hibbert, George Bunch, Thomas Tuggle, William Anderson, Robert Boyd, Elijah Foley, Asack Elliott, John Laughlin, John Reece, William Logan, Joel Watkins and Daniel Alsup, who being elected, tried and sworn the truth of and upon the premises to speak and having heard the evidence retired to consider to their verdict,

Ordered that court be adjourned until Tuesday ten o'clock.

                                                      Jonathan McNeil

 The case against Gordon was finally dismissed. Brown was convicted and the jury found that he shall be imprisoned in the public penitentiary in Frankfort for one year. (for 50c)

 Judge Samuel McDowell held court April 7, 1806. He was the first regular circuit judge to hold court in Barbourville.

 Judge McDowell emigrated to Danville, Kentucky in 1784 with his wife, seven sons and two daughters from Rockbridge County, Virginia. He was one of the judges of the first Kentucky Court and president of the nine conventions which met at Danville between December 27, 1784 and July 26, 1790. He was also president of the convention, which framed the first Constitution of Kentucky. His son, Dr. Ephriam McDowell, was the first surgeon in the world to perform the operation for the removal of diseased ovaries.
 
 
 
 
 
 

                                                                        23

Dr. McDowell married Sallie Shelby, daughter of Governor Isaac Shelby.

                      FIRST COURT OF OYER AND TERMINER

 At a Court of Oyer and Terminer called and held at the courthouse in
Barbourville by the justices of the Knox County Court on, the 26th day of October 1805, for the trial of Silas (alias Watson Owens), a mulatto slave, the property of Henry Taulman, charged with breaking open the dwelling house of Julias Howard in the night time of the 21st of September last past, did burglariously and feloniously steal and carry away sundry goods and chattels of John Benneger and George Francisco both of the city of Baltimore, one coat of an olive colour, buttons lined with green baize, one blue superfine cloth coat, with gilt buttons and sundry other articles, and also on the night of the 23rd of said September last past did as aforesaid burglariously and feloniously break open the dwelling house of Patience Chestnut and did then and there steal and carry away three hundred and thirty-three dollars the right and property of the Patience and Benjamin, her son, also one pair of saddle bags, and sundry articles of clothing, at the same time and place and manner af'd did steal and carry away the sum of two hundred and thirty-nine dollars the right and property of John Sasley, of Wyth County, State of Virginia with other articles of clothing.

 Present John Reddick, John Ballinger, Thomas Johnson and Richardson Herndon, they being the four oldest Justices.

 The said Silas, a slave afs'd was led to the bar in custody of the jailer for burglary and thereupon arrained and on his arraignment pleated not guilty, and for his trial put himself upon God and his country, whereupon came a jury. To wit, John Neil, George Bunch, James Mahan, James Johnson, Henry Woodson, Robert Lyons, Robert McWhorter and William Baker who being elected, meet and sworn in, and upon the premises to speak, and having heard the evidence, upon their oaths do say, we of the jury find the prisoner guilty of the burglary before mentioned in manner and form as against hath been alledged, and thereupon he is remanded to jail. The prisoner again being led to the bar to receive his sentence and it being again demanded of him what he has to say, why the court should not proceed to give judgement and cause execution according to law, whereupon he saith that he hath nothing more to say than what he had said before, wherefore it is ordered by the court that on the twenty seventh day of November, being on Wednesday, that the said Silas be taken from the jail of this county between the hours of one and two in the evening to the lower end of Captain Richardson Herndon's Race Ground and there hung by the neck until he is dead, and that the sheriff of this county cause execution there of accordingly.

 Therefore it is the further opinion of the said Court that the said Negro man Silas is worth one hundred pounds.

 Courts of Oyer and Terminer were held for the trial of slaves, arrested for criminal acts and their offenses. This court was abolished when circuit courts were established. Under the law upon the execution of a slave his owner was reimbursed for his loss.
 
 
 
 
 

                                                                        24
 

 This first hanging took place about one mile and a half above Barbourville near U.S. 25E. The hill about a half mile above the entrance to the Barbourville Cemetery is called Race Track Hill by old timers now.

                                  ROADS

 Bufflers, injins and injineers were the first road makers, according to an early Kentuckian. That this was true is attested by the statement of explorers, trail blazers and pioneer surveyors.

 Christopher Gist, Dr. Thomas Walker, Daniel Boone and many other refer to buffalo roads and indian trails in Kentucky.

 Baffalo roads were broad and as a rule, followed the ridges rather than the streams. The roads opened by these animals in their progress through the woods may be reckoned among the natural curiosities of the state, being generally wide enough for a carriage or wagon, in which the trees and shrubs are all trampled and destroyed by the irrestible impetus of the night phalanx. These roads were sure to lead to a salt lick.

 There were many buffalo roads in Knox County. In 1813 a Knox Circuit Court order reads: "Andrew Evans enters 200 acres of land by virtue of a Knox Circuit Court Certificate No. 99, lying on Popular Creek to begin at a sweet gum hickory on the west bank of the said creek near the Old Buffalo Ford. The chief importance of the buffalo roads was one, which left the Cumberland River near Flat Lick, Knox County, ran along the broad divides between the Laurel and Rockcastle Rivers. Crossed the Rockcastle to Brick's River passed through Crab Orchard Gap.

 The indian trails were much narrower than the buffalo roads. They are classified as hunting, war, protage and trade routes. These paths through the wilderness kept to the water courses, and traveled by the indians in single file. According to the desposition of Simon Kenton, June 5, 1824, quoted by Collins, "war roads were distinguished by the marks and blazes upon them, frequently the rough drawing of wild animals, the sun or the moon, and by their being leading roads, going from one distant point to another."

 The first white man to ever set foot in Knox County and Kentucky. Was Gabriel Arthur, 1674, visited the Cherokees and accompany a war party to a Shawnee Village at the mouth of the Scioto River on the Ohio. In a brisk engagement, he was wounded and taken prisoner by the Shawnees. His captors treated him well and let him go.

 Indian trails were many in Knox County. Nearly every stream of any size had a well defined path. In 1803 a Knox County Court reads; Robert Stinson assee of Mary Scaggs, enters 90 acres of land by virtue of a Knox County Court Certificate No. 103,
 
 
 
 
 
 

                                                                        25

lying on the waters of Lynn Camp Creek, beginning at a double oak near the old indian trace--.

                            THE WARRIORS PATH

 Early maps of Kentucky, such as the Powell-Evans 1755-76, Filson's 1784, and Imlay's 1793, valuable relics, they may be but they are very inaccurate and misleading. Some Kentucky Historians relying on these maps have been led astray in locating the Warrior's Path.

 In surveying a Virginia land patent Morgan Culton, well known mountain surveyor, found that the Warrior's Path, mentioned in the patent, entered the present Knox County through the gap between the head waters of Otter Creek and Road Fork of Stinking Creek. Otter Creek is a branch of Goose, which is a fork of Kentucky River. Where the waters divide is called in the patent War Gap. The Path continues down Road Fork to main Stinking Creek, down it and around a low hill to Old Flat Lick, from there to Cumberland River about two miles down the same, from the mouth of Greasy (Buffalo) Creek, and up the river to Cumberland Ford (Pineville). Over the ford (at the foot of Laurel Street) the Path continued through a gorge (the narrows) in Pine Mountain cross-country to Yellow Creek, and up the Yellow Creek to Cumberland Gap.

 The act erecting Clay County reads, in part, as follows: "--thence along the dividing ridge between the waters of Cumberland and Kentucky to a point from which by running due east will pass by Collin's fork of Goose Creek, midway between Outlaw's salt works and Peter Hammonds'; thence a course to strike the ridge between Cumberland and Kentucky at War Gap."

 There is a water divide between Collin's Fork of Goose Creek and Little Richland. The War Gap was on the Warrior's Path, east of Collin's Fork and Big Richland is west of Little Richland. Obviously the Warrior's Path could not have led down either of the two Richlands.

 Before roads had been made by white men, Road Fork of Stinking Creek was known as Trace Fork. It is called that in early deeds. The fork received its name because of the Warrior's Path and for no other reason.

 A Knox County road order dated August 2, 1802, reads as follows: "Beginning at the State Road near the house of Thomas Goodin, leaving the house and plantation of the said Goodin on the right hand, thence nearly along the now Trace up Stinking, leaving the house and plantation now occupied by John Moore on the left hand, still keeping along the present trace, leaving the house and plantation whereon John Baker now lives on the right hand, still continueing nearly along said trace to the head branch of the left hand fork of Stinking Creek to the top of the ridge dividing the waters of Stinking Creek from the waters of Goose Creek."

 The Warrior's Path led south from Limestone (Maysville) almost a direct route to
 
 
 
 
 
 

                                                                        26

Cumberland Ford, across Clear Creek, and up Yellow Creek to Cumberland Gap. Northern tribes of indians made the trail, and it was much traveled by them. Later it was used by pioneers and settlers, as were its branches down Straight Creek and elsewhere.

      During the Civil War, the old branch of the Warrior's Path leading north and south from Pineville, crossing the Ohio to the mouth of the Scioto was used. Civil War records state: "General Morgan, in command of the Federal Troops, retreating from the Southern Forces under General Smith, marched his men through Pineville, Bell County; Manchester, Clay County; Proctor, Lee County; Campton, Wolf County; Grayson, Carter County; to Greenupsburg on the Ohio."

                      BOONE TRACE (OLD WILDERNESS ROAD)

 In 1775 Daniel Boone was employed by Richard Henderson, of the Transylvania Company, to mark out a road from the settlements of the Watauga through the wilderness to Kentucky. The Transylvania Company had purchased the lands claimed by the Cherokees in Kentucky and Tennessee, March 17, 1775, by the Treaty of Watauga.

 Again early maps and failure to investigate Knox County records, have led historians astray. It can be stated authoritatively that the Boon Trace did not go up the middle fork of Richland Creek, and that it crossed Raccoon Creek in now Laurel County.

 The following order, deed and affidavits recorded in the Knox County Court
Clerk's office are quoted to show the exact route.

 "February 1, 1802. We, Jacob Grindstaff, Robert McWhorter and George Bunch have viewed the road from the town of Barbourville to intersect the State Road and think it the nearest and best way to cross Little Richland below the cow ford, to go by said McWhorter's, to cross at the ford on Big Richland, AND SO ALONG THE OLD TRACE, and to recross Big Richland at Logan's Ford, AND TO FOLLOW THE TRACE, up to Logan's old place as near as the ground will admit of."

 This proves conclusively, when supported by the calls in a deed from Jacob Myers to Joel Collins, the younger, dated July 12, 1795, and recorded in the office of the County Court Clerk of Lincoln County, which located the Trace that LEADS FROM THE KENTUCKY TO THE SETTLEMENT OF HOLSTON on the west side of Big Richland; between the mouth of Little Richland and the bend at Bailey's (Logan's Ford) there Boone went up the west side of Big Richland Creek.

 It must be noted that the Road order, quoted above, is rather misleading to one unfamiliar with the names used by early Knox County lawyers and surveyors to describe the Boone Trace. When the names OLD TRACE and OLD WILDERNESS ROAD were used in an instrument the Boone Trace was almost invariably the route referred to. On the contrary, when just TRACE was used, it generally meant another route, unless applied to water courses. However, if trace was used in a deed prior to the opening of the Old State Road to traffic in 1796, and the road referred to parallel the approximate
 
 
 
 
 

                                                                        27

route of Boone, then his trace (the Old Trace) is meant. This is also true as to the use of Old route called the Wilderness Road. It must be remembered the Old State Road was called the Wilderness Road.

     In 1805 John Ballinger and James Johnson, Commissioners, deeded to William Barlow a tract of land bounded as follows:

 "Beginning at a White Oak and Black Oak Trees, thence N. 48 degrees, W. 180 poles to a main fork of Richland Creek and the Old Wilderness Road, in all 702 poles to a black gum, dogwood and hickory on the top of the ridge, thence S. 42 degrees, W. 90 poles to the middle fork of Richland, 215 poles to another fork, 450 poles to The Old Wilderness Road and another fork of said creek."

 Modern map makers show the main fork of Richland, mentioned above, as the Middle Fork, which is erroneous. Middle Fork was only a branch of the Main Fork, which heads up at Gillum Hill and flows into Big Richland at Bailey's. The Middle Fork flows into the Main Fork just above Campbell's store and filling station on U.S. 25E. Present day map makers have erred in thinking old timers would call the west fork of a stream the middle fork, one prong of which heads up near Knox's Fork, and the other near Lynn Camp waters. Certainly John Ballinger, first Knox County Surveyor and a deputy surveyor of Lincoln County before Knox was established would have known the proper names to apply to the different branches. As he names the streams in the deed, cited above, the Middle Fork is the middle. There are branches on either side of it. Whether this be
true or not, Boone did not go north around Gillum Hill. He went over Tunnel Hill.

 The tract conveyed by Ballinger and Johnson includes parts of surveys and entries to James Barbour and Doctor Derosal, 1787, Nehemiah Rossel to Joseph Denny, 1793, Nehemiah Rossel to George Marshall, 1795-96 and others. The dates of the transfers were before the Old State Road was first opened to traffic in 1795. Thus it can be determined Boone Trace is the route meant in the said deed. To show that the Boone Trace is the route mentioned in the last deed, quoted above, the following assignment is cited:

 "I do hereby assign all my right and title of an equal 1000 acres of land unto George Marshall, being an equal 1000 acres of land and water out of an entry of 800, entry being and lying on the waters of Cumberland River above the TRACE that I bought of James Barbour. In witness whereof I have hereunto set my hand the 20th day of April, 1795.

                           Test Stephen Rossel (Signed) Nehemiah Rossell

 Therefore, the Boone Trace continued on the west side of the main fork to Tunnel Hill Fork, which is the fork described as "450 poles to the Old Wilderness Road and another fork of said creek." The fork described as "215 poles to another fork" is the Owens Branch. The distances mentioned are correct when the deed is plated, or super-imposed on an accurate map of Knox County, Tunnel Hill Fork heads up at the L.& N.
 
 
 
 
 
 

                                                                        28

Railroad tunnel hill, sometimes called Emanuel Hill.

 Boone continued up Tunnel Hill Fork and over a water divide to about one quarter of a mile from Rossland, from thence to the Corbin-Barbourville Pike and across at a distance of about one mile from the top of Gillum Hill and the head waters of Lynn Camp Creek (besides Parker's Store) and from thence over the head waters of Lynn Camp Creek via Sam Black's and north of Grays to the Laurel County Line.

 In 1844 Parks D. Brittain bought from William Hays and others a tract of land north of Grays and on the waters of Lynn Camp Creek, bounded as follows: "Beginning at the back line of the Gillespie Patent of 4,064 acres near to the Scofield house at the distance of from 60 to 100 yards on the south or southeast side thereof on a white oak marked by us as supposed to be in daid line, thence along a marked line to a spotted oak on the side of the OLD TRACE about 200 yards northwest of my cleared land.",--

 Bishop Asbury of the Methodist Episcopal Church, wrote of a trip made in 1793, "we fed on the banks of Cumberland River, and kept up the head of Richlands." Undoubtedly, he refers to Big and Little Richlands. The Main Fork is a mere drain compared to either of the other two streams. It has always been known as a fork, not as a creek, whereas the other two have, from the earliest time, been known by their present names. And it must be noted that the Middle Fork was called for in the deed from John Ballinger and James Johnson, Commissioners, to William Harlow and no mention was made of either the Boone Trace or Old State Road.

 However, Bishop Asbury apparently left the Boone Trace at Beech Hill, went up and over the head waters of Little Richland and Goose Creeks to a gap, through it and down Shop Branch to Big Richland, using what was to be later known as the Old State Road cutoff and up Knox's Fork into Laurel County. Just when this change in the original route was made is not known. That it was made seems fairly certain. And the Bishop kept up the head of Richlands by using it. A short cut, it lessened the distance approximately ten miles, and elderly people living along the changed route are honest in believing it the Boone Trace.

 Most of the early explorers, travelers and settlers, who left records, write confusingly about Richland Creek. Even our county orders are not clear. In 1807, laying off Constable Precincts, the following appears: "For Samuel Preset's bounds, as follows, to with, beginning at Boone's old camp on Richland Creek, and running up the said creek so as to include all the settlers on said creeks, and all settlements to be made hereafter on said creeks."

 Certainly pioneers knew the two creeks by separate names, but for brevity used the name in its singular form.

 Just where Boone's old camp on Richland Creek was is problematical. The Old Trace
 
 
 
 
 
 

                                                                        29

first strikes Richland waters at the top of the water divide between Trance Branch of Fighting Creek and Trace Branch of Little Richland Creek. At that point there is not a suitable place for a camp. There are no fit places at its mouth near Beech Hill. In times of high water the lowlands around the hill are flooded for miles. The first places which, it seem, would have appealed to a pioneer surveyor and Indian fighter like Boone is the law hill above Camp Countesy, near the junction of U.S. 25E and Barbourville road. Such a strategic point would have commanded the approaches up both streams, rendering surprise attacks by Indians almost impossible.

Relative to the Boone Trace crossing Raccoon Creek in now Laurel County, John Farris and John Arthur, in an apparent attempt to establish a land boundary, made the following affidavits, dated November 29, 1813:

 John Farris, of lawful age, being duly sworn, deposeth and saith that as early as the year 1781, and ever since, he has been well acquainted with Raccoon Creek, on which Edward Cathers lives, from whose house we have just proceeded, that the Old Wilderness Trace formerly crossed said creek, and that it has been ever since he knew it a creek well known, and so far as his knowledge extends, was universally called Raccoon Creek; this deponent further says that he has been, during the said length of time well acquainted with Rockcastle into which Raccoon Creek empties, that this stream. was also well known and universally called, to the best of his knowledge, by the name of Rockcastle.

                                                 (signed) John Farris

 John Arthur, being first duly sworn, deposeth and saith that his acquaintance with Raccoon Creek, on which Edward Cathers lives, and Rockcastle into which said creek empties, commenced as early as the year 1771, and that as to his impressions as to those streams having been well known as Raccoon Creek and Rockcastle is the same as that of John Farris, whose deposition he has heard read, with this difference, that he has been longer acquainted with those streams than said Farris, as before stated, this deponent further says as to his knowledge the Wilderness Trace crossing from Cumberland Gap to the Crab Orchard crossed both those stream as early as 1779.

                                                 (signed) John Arthur

 If the road from Cumberland Gap to Crab Orchard crossed Raccoon Creek the Boone Trace did also. The two routes diverged at Hazel Patch, Laurel County-

 The trace marked by Boone led from the Watauga River in east Tennessee (Sycamore Shoals, Carter County) by way of Long Island to Moccasin Gap near Gate City, where it met the Big Road from Philadelphia and Richmond, extended along the old trail to Powell Valley, through which it passed to Cumberland Gap. From here Boone followed the Warrior's Path across the ford of the Cumberland, just below Pineville Gap, and down the Cumberland to Flat Lick. At this place he left the main trail and took the old Buffalo Trace, which led cross country to the Hazel Patch near Rockcastle River, and then continued up Roundstone Creek to a gap in Big Hill (Boone's Gap, two miles
 
 
 
 
 
 

                                                                       30

southeast of Berea) and on to Otter Creek and the Kentucky River, where Fort Boonesborough was built, near what is now Ford in Madison County.

 Daniel Boone entered Kentucky through Cumberland Gap, and traveled a N. 81 W. course, crossing Little Yellow Creek twice, to Big Yellow Creek and across; thence to and over Little and Big Log Mountains, across Clear Creek to Cumberland Ford; then down the river to Flat Lick (from Cumberland Gap to Old Flat Lick he followed the Warrior's Path), leaving the Warrior's Path around Culton Hill to the present U.S. 25E at Evergreen; thence with said road generally to Trace Branch of Fighting Creek; thence up the same and over the water divide to Trace Branch of Little Richland Creek; thence down the same and Little Richland Creek to Heidrick and across; thence to the present road near the junction of the Barbourville road on the north side; thence with the same to the old ford of Big Richland Creek north of the rock dwelling of Walter Evans and across; thence up Big Richland Creek, past Bailey's (Logan's old fort) to the mouth of the Main Fork; thence up the Main Fork to the mouth of Tunnel Hill Fork; thence up said fork and over a water divide to about one-quarter of a mile south of Rossland; thence to and across the road at Parker's store, about one mile from the top of Gillum Hill and the headwaters of Lynn Camp Creek; from thence via Sam Black's home and north of Grays to the present Laurel County Line, from thence north westwardly, past the home of Dan F. Westerfield, near and south of the present Fletcher Post Office, through the farm of Campbell Smith, south of Camp Ground to and past Raccoon Spring, on the farm of Hugh Elliott (deeds on record in the Laurel County Courthouse definitely identity the spring on the Elliott farm as Raccoon Spring, from Anna Black to Hugh Elliott--J.K. Lewis to Anna Black--others) from thence north westwardly across Little Laurel River to the London Courthouse, thence northeast in the vicinity of the old Bill Lovelace farm through the land recently owned by Elmer Hale to the top of the hill; thence down McFarland Branch (site of McFarland's defeat) to Big Raccoon Creek and northwest to Little Raccoon about the Feltner farm, by Mt. Pleasent, and across country to the headwaters of Parker's Creek, and down the same to the Rockcastle River and across.

 George Disney, 84 years old and George Owens, 75 years old (1938) remember seeing trees along Boone's route, which they were told were blazed by him and members of his party.

 Various names have been applied to the Boone Trace. In Claiborne County Tennessee, deeds, it is called the Kentucky Path. Colonel Arthur Campbell, called the "father of Washington County", writes of it that way. In Lincoln County, Kentucky deeds, it is referred to as "Trace leading from Kentucky to the Blockhouse" (the blockhouse was located near Big Moccasin Gap just across the Virginia line in Tennessee) and "trace that leads from Kentucky through the Wilderness to the Settlement of Holston". Knox County surveyors and lawyers called it the "Old Wilderness Road!' and the "Old Trace'.
 
 
 
 
 
 

                                                                        31

                             THE OLD STATE ROAD

 As early as 1779 Virginia authorities felt need of a road instead of a trace, to the Kentucky settlements. In that year two commissioners were appointed to locate a road through Cumberland Gap. They reported the advantages to be derived from making a good wagon road. The project was commenced and completed in 1781. Whether it was a good wagon road or not is the question.

 Guards had to be employed to protect workers from the Indians. By act of the General Assembly of Virginia, November 27, 1790, Mercer, Lincoln and Madison Counties were empowered to give aid to guard companies. These counties were to furnish thirty men each during the months of October and November. Officers received six shillings per day, while privates were paid four shillings per day. Certificates for these amounts were given, and some were not redeemed until after Kentucky became a state.

 Before the State Road was established by Kentucky, an effort had been made to improve the Old Wilderness Road by private enterprizes. Colonels John Logan and James Knox acted as commissioners. In 1792 men worked the road for Twenty-
two days. They received two shilling per day. Guards continued to be kept on the road during this time and afterwards. As late as November 16, 1799, there were two companies of troops from Lincoln County guarding the road. These troops were kept at the stations erected in the wilderness.

 Governor Shelby, November 6, 1793, in an address to the legislature, stated that he had been authorized by the President of the United States to establish two blockhouses on the Wilderness Road leading to the Holston Settlements, provided they could be garrisoned by militia, to be continued in service not longer than six months and who would be entitled to the considered, the rendering of this road safe so important to the State as to make the establishment of these posts a serviceable object, but has found it very difficult to establish and relive the garrisons with militia under the existing militia law, and almost impractical to procurement to engage in such service voluntarily for the pay and rations allowed the United States Troops. He therefore had appointed two officers to enlist the number of men necessary for such service, for the term of six months, giving up his opinion that volunteers would be allowed by the State Militia into the service of the United States Troops. He recommended the payment of same because the importance of the service rendered. It a savings as compared to calling out the militia, and owing to the impracticability of keeping up the posts with militia. An act of December 19, 1793, granted the additional pay to those men whom the Governor had deemed to expedient to enlist with expectation of the allowance, and also authorized the Governor to enlist any number of men, not exceeding thirty, to serve for not more than one year from the end of the Legislature then in session.

 In 1793 Hood had a station at Hazel Patch, mentioned by Bishop Asbury, by 1795 there were two, and possibly three, other stations; Moddrell's between the Rockcastle and Laurel Rivers, probably Wood's Blockhouse; Thomases, on a branch of the laurel River and Middleton's, not between Turkey and Little Richland
 
 
 
 
 

                                                                        32

Creeks, but between Turkey Creek and Stinking Creek at Woodson's. To show the exact location of Middleton's Blockhouse the following deed from George Smith of Jessamine County, Kentucky to Wade N. Woodson of Cumberland County, Virginia is cited. The description of the tract of land conveyed reading as follows:

 (May 2, 1805) Beginning at a red oak, hickory and ash standing on the side of a hill 200 poles east of Stinking Creek where a north line from. the road crosses said creek at the distance of two miles; thence west 200 poles to the creek, 760 poles to the road near Middleton's Station, 840 poles to Turkey Creek---

 Thomases Station was called old by Knox County authorities in 1800, when Nimrod Farris was granted a tavern license by the county court.

 The State Road was established by act of the General Assembly in November 1795. Governor Shelby had recommended it. Two thousand pounds was appropriated to build a wagon road thirty feet wide from Crab Orchard to Cumberland Gap.

It was understood that the Old Trace was to be enlarged and improved. Upon proposals being advertised for, the original trail blazer, Daniel Boone wrote Governor Shelby a letter, as follows:

feburey the 11th 1796

Sir,
 After my Rest respts to your Excelancy and famyly I wish to inform you that I have sum intention of undertaking this New Roade that is to be cut through the Wilderness and I thank My Self initeled to the ofer of the bisness as I first Marked out that Rode in March 1775 and Never re'd anything for my trubel and sepose I am no Statesman I am a Woodsman and think My Self as Capable of Marking and Cutting that Roade as any other man Sir is you think with Me I would thank you to wright me a Line by the post the first oportuneaty and he will Lodge it at Mr. John Miler son Hinkston fork as I wish to know Where and When it is to be Last So that I may attend at the time I am Deer Sir your very omble servent.

                                                (signed) Daniel Boone

To his Excelancy governor Shelby

      Boone did not receive the business.

 The new road was opened to traffic in 1796. It followed the direction of the Boone Trace, but by taking a more direct route, lessioned the distance between Crab Orchard and Cumberland Gap.

 The line of the old road between London and Flat Lick extended via the Laurel River, Lick Creek and Knox Fork of Richland Creek into the valley of the Richland. Then the course, known as the old State Road cutoff, with a grade of seventy-nine feet per mile
 
 
 
 
 

                                                                        33

for six thousand, one hundred feet, ascended to a path in the Kentucky Ridge and descended with a grade of sixty-six feet per mile for six thousand, four hundred feet into the valley of Collin's Fork. It passed over a low ridge into the valley of Little Richland Creek, which it followed for three miles, crossing a low ridge into the fighting Creek Valley, which it traversed for two miles. Crossing Turkey Creek and Stinking Creek to Flat Lick, it continued via the right bank of the Cumberland River to the crossing near Pineville and on through Pineville Narrows (3000 feet) via Patterson's Branch to Cumberland Gap.

         In 1814, the following distances were given:

Crab Orchard to Hazel Path . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26 miles
To Riceton . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   8 miles
Raccoon Spring . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10 miles
Middleston's . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16 miles
Flat Lick . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6 miles
Cumberland River . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11 miles
Cumberland Gap . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  13 miles

The above description is accurate and due to the sinuously of the road the distances may be correct.

Numerous changes were made in the original route throughout its entire course. The same authorities, quoted above, are again cited to show the route after such changes;

 The new line, noted in 1822, was identical as far as Richland Creek, but it passed down that stream into Barbourville and continued along the right bank of the Cumberland River, which it abandoned after crossing Fighting and Stinking Creeks, and passed along the cut off bend to Flat Lick.

 Another and far more important change was made, which the following Knox County order, dated February 22, 1864:

 In pursuance of an act of Assembly, passed 25th day of January 1864, giving to the County Court the right to sectionize the Turnpike and Wilderness Road in Knox County, and to appoint overseers to work the same, it is ordered that H.B. Campbell be, and he is hereby appointed, overseer of that portion of the road commencing at Cumberland Gap to the Widow Davison's, known as Section No. 1, and also that Wm. H. Baughman, be and he is hereby appointed, overseer of that portion of road from the Widow Davison's to the foot of Log Mountain above Mrs. Moor's house, as Section No. 2, and that Rufus M. Moss be, and he is hereby appointed, overseer of that portion of road from the foot of Log Mountain as Section No. 3 also that G. Hendrickson be, and he is hereby appointed, overseer of that portion of road from Cumberland River to Spencer Ball's, known as Section No. 4, also that James Ingrum. be, and he is hereby appointed, overseer of that portion of the road from Spencer Ball's to the forks of the road at A. Hunter's known as Section No. 5, and that Anthony Hinkle be, and he is hereby appointed overseer of that portion of road from the fork at Hunter's to Uriah  Smith's
 
 
 
 
 

                                                                        34

known as Section No. 6, and that Uriah Smith be, and he is appointed, overseer of the road from said Smith's to Barbourville Court House, known as Section No. 7, and that L.G. Dickinson be appointed overseer from the Court House to the top of the ridge the other side of Arch Brittain's, known as Section No. 8, and that Elijah Trosper be, and he is hereby appointed overseer of that portion known as Section No. 9, and that Alex Cole be and he is hereby appointed, overseer of that portion of road from Brafford's to the County Line, known as Section No. 10.

 The above change in the old route was made effective in 1839. The road passed to the north of Grays, and over the waters of Lynn Camp Creek. Most of the traffic through Barbourville continued over this route until the Louisville and Nashville Railroad Company built a line to Woodbine in 1883.

In 1861 a local change was ordered ratified and confirmed as follows:

 On motion of the commissioners an the Wilderness Turnpike Road, satisfactory proof having been made that it is difficult and expensive to keep a bridge across Clear Creek where the said road crosses said stream and that with very little expense the road could be so changed as to avoid said bridge and have a shallow ford across said stream, and that said change could be beneficial to the traveling publick, and Rufus Moss, the present occupant and owner of the land, having given his consent and having bound himself to be responsible for all damages to all the other owners of said land and the said change having been made, as follows: leaving the State Road at the foot of the bluff on the south side of Clear Creek near the old bridge, running thence up said creek about one hundred yards to a shallow ford in the bend of the creek, running thence along a ridge to the foot of the Pine Mountain, and running thence with the foot of said mountain to the State Road.

 It must not be thought, however, that the original route was abandoned. A Knox County Court order, dated April 25, 1864, reads as follows:

 Ordered that Elisha Howard be, and he is hereby appointed, overseer of the Old State Road from the fork of the toll gate to the top of the Paint Hill, Section No. 1, and that Isaac Hawn be and he is hereby appointed, overseer of the Old Road from the top of Paint Hill to the bridge on Little Richland Creek, being Section No. 2, and the F.G. Burnett be, and he is hereby appointed, overseer on that portion of the Old State Road from. Richland Bridge at Section No. 2 to the bridge over Big Richland Section No. 3, also that William Gilbert be appointed overseer of that portion of the Old State Road from the bridge on Big Richland to the County of Laurel Line.

 The Paint Hill referred to must not be confused with the Paint Hill on the Barbourville road at the head of Smoky Creek. This Paint Hill is the one on which Ewing Callahan now lives between Barbourville and Baughman. Between 1793 and 1800, when guards were stationed at Middleton's, the hill received its name.
 
 
 
 
 
 

                                                                        35

Renegade whites, painted like Indians often held up and robbed travelers on the sides of the hill. Thus it became known as the Painted Hill, later shortened to Paint Hill. The house now occupied by Mr. Callahan is only a part of the original, which was operated first as a tavern by David Johnson in 1807.

 During the Civil War in 1862, the county court complained of the damages to the Old State Road made by Federal Forces as follows:

 It appearing to the satisfaction of the Knox County Court that the Government wagons have greatly injured and nearly destroyed the Wilderness Turnpike Road running from Cumberland Gap to John Pitman's, as well as the bridges on said road; that said road is a State Road; that there is a toll gate on said road established by law and that none of the Government employers have paid toll on said road. It is ordered that the Clerk of this Court certify those facts to the Senators and Representatives in Congress from this state request of them to urge immediately the passage of an act making an appropriation of twenty thousand dollars for the benefit of said road, not as an internal improvement measure, but as a matter of justice.

There is one remarkable fact about the management of the Old State Road. Although, several miles of the road were within the limits of Harlan County, from its establishment in 1819 until 1867, date of the erection of Bell County and toll gates were later built across the road in Bell County, and that portion of the road from the Knox Line to John Pitman's was in Laurel County, the Knox County Court continued to control and manage it.

To show the location of the road during this time, above mentioned, the following report of commissioners was submitted to the Knox County Court:

 In pursuance of an act of the General Assembly of the Commonwealth of Kentucky, approved December 16, 1823, to run the dividing line between the Counties of Knox and Harlan, the undersigned met at Cumberland Gap on the 19th day of July 1824, and after ascertaining the course of said line agreeably to said act we proceeded from the mouth of Straight Creek, thence S. 15 W. 320 poles on the clift opposite from the Turnpike Gate, 474 poles crossing Clear Creek, 812 poles crossing the road leading up Clear Creek, 2720 poles crossing the Dick Fork of Yellow Creek, 3520 poles crossing Beam Fork of Yellow Creek, thence over the Fork Ridge, a spur of Black Mingo Mountain, passing a point five miles west of Cumberland Gap, 4200 poles to Bemett's Fork of Yellow Creek, in all 4300 poles to five hickories, two lynns, three buckeyes, a poplar, a black and a white walnut trees standing on the north side of Black Mingo Mountain on the State Line between Kentucky and Tennessee. This 29th July 1824

                                             (signed)George W. Craig
                                                Benjamin Tuggle
                                                Commissioners

                                  TOLLS
 
 
 
 
 
 

                                                                        36

 An act, passed by the General Assembly March 1, 1797, provided for the erection of a turnpike gate, or toll gate. The gate was erected in 1798 in the Narrows above Cumberland Ford on the Pineville side of the Narrows at the present bridge across Cumberland River, and was the only one until 1830.

                        Tolls were as follows:

All persons except post riders, express, women, and children
under ten years . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9 pence
Horse, mule or mare . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9 pence
Carriage with two wheels. . . . . . . . . . . . .  3 shillings
Carriage with four wheels . . . . . . . . . . . .  6 shillings
Head of meat cattle going eastward. . . . . 3 pence

 Six shillings made one dollar and three pence made four and one-half cents.

     Robert Craig was the first toll gate keeper, in the place of John Thurman who had refused to serve. His duties were to keep the road in repair, make bridges and etc. All the profit was to be given to him. On wheel carriages the toll was reduced one-half in 1798 and the toll gate was farmed out to the highest bidder for one year only.

 In 1799 the Governor was enpowered to lease for any term of years, not to exceed five, the gate to the highest bidder. The successful bidder had to furnish $500.00 bond.

 December 20, 1802, the Governor authorized to appoint a commissioner of the Wilderness Road. The one so appointed was to receive two dollars per day for the time he actually worked. The gate keeper, also appointed by the Governor, was to receive two hundred dollars per year.

        Toll rates at this time had been changed, as follows:

Each wheel per carriage . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12 1/2 cents
Each person above ten years . . . . . . . . . . . . 6 cents; 2 1/2 miles.
Each horse or beast . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  6 cents; 2 1/2 miles.
Each head of meat cattle. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 cents
Each hog or sheep . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  1 cent

 The General Assembly, December 19, 1804, divided up the road. The Knox County Court was given supervision of the part of the road from the Forty Mile Tree to Cumberland Gap. The commissioner, appointed by the court, was to receive three fifths of the total gate receipts after Madison County's share had been deducted.

 John Alsup Jr. was appointed the first commissioner of the turnpike road leading from the top of Cumberland Gap to the Forty Mile Tree an the State Road by the Knox County Court in 1804. It was ordered that he receive for his services nine shillings
 
 
 
 
 

                                                                        37

per day as commissioner while employed.

At the March 1805 term of the Knox County Court he made the following

May 26th  to cash received . . . . . . . . . $404.00
June 10th  to cash received . . . . . . . . .   44.00
July 20th  to cash received . . . . . . . . .   40.50
Sept. 19th  to cash received . . . . . . . . .  124.00
Oct. 30th  to cash received . . . . . . . . .   62.00
TOTAL. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $674.50

CONTRA . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Credit

by cash paid John Dougherty for 11 3/4 steel pr.,
16 lbs. iron at 2-6 and iron at 9 pence . . . . . . . . . .Ll-9-4 1/2
By John Ballinger for 457# iron at 9 pence. . . . . . . . . 1-2-0
By d. for oxen and driver, 2 Nos. at 25 d., l5by
John Barbour. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15-0-0
By John Barbour for 69 lbs. Iron at 9 pence . . . . . . . . 1-3-9
By Thomas Graham for smith work . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2-11-0
By David Webb for work at 10:00P.M .. . . . . . . . . . . . 7-2-6
By Willian Webb for work at 10:00 P.M . . . . . . . . . . . 4-11-10
By Wm. Freeman for work at 10:00 P.M. . . . . . . . . . . . 4-11-10
By George James for 200 bacon . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4-11-10
By Moses Brown for three days work. . . . . . . . . . . . . 6-1-0
By Stephen Smith. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1-9-0
By Richard Ballinger for sundries . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4-6-0
By James Bates for work at 10d  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1-11-0
By Joseph Girffith for b-smith work . . . . . . . . . . . . 4-1-0
By William Sam for sundries . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0-9-0
By James Lyons for pork . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5-13-0
By James Allsop for pork. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1-10-0
By Moses Dorton for sundries. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0-15-0
By Shite & Daugherty for sundries . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9-0-0
By William Hogan. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5-3-0
By Charles Stewart for beef and pork. . . . . . . . . . . . 2-10-0
By Charles Stewart for beef and pork. . . . . . . . . . . . 2-10-4 1/2
By William Robenson for meal at 2-6 . . . . . . . . . . . . 1-10-9
By Joseph Ballow for 1 1/2 months . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3-0-0
By Jacob Baughman for work and beef . . . . . . . . . . . . 6-0-0
By Wm. Tinsley for cart wheels, etc . . . . . . . . . . . . 2-12-6
By David Webb for work. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0-12-0
By Keyton Murry & John Holcomb blacksmith . . . . . . . . . 0-16-7
By Richard Davis for provisions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2-0-9
By Joseph Ballow for 170 lbs bacon at 10p . . . . . . . . . 5-3-0
By Nat Herberd & Daniel Miller for sundries . . . . . . . . 0-12-0
By Wm. White & George Thornsbury for sundries . . . . . . . 0-11-3
By John Gordan for work . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4-10-0
By Thomas Begley for beef, etc .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2-12-6
 
 
 
 
 

                                                                        38

By Moses McSpadden. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0-3-0
By Joseph Perce for work. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3-12-2
By Richardson Herdon for work.  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3-0-0
By Isaac Martin for cart and oxen . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3-6-0
By Daniel Alsup for 3 3/4 months work at $12. . . . . . . . 13-5-0
By Arthur Neil for 2/3 of a month's work. . . . . . . . . . 2-8-0
By act. for 336 lbs of beef at 18-8 per 100 . . . . . . . . 2-15-9
By Wm. Alexander for work . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0-13-9
By Joseph Riley for sundries. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2-2-0
By Old Mr. Hammons for sundries . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2-15-2
By Obadiah Payne for work . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1-10-3
By Reason Wheat for work. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0-12-0
By Hugh Hales for one deed. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0-6-0
By Gidian Smith for 5 months, 10 days . . . . . . . . . . . 16-0-0
By Richard Pierce for 12 days . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1-6-6
By Reynolds for four days . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0-10-0
By 3 bushels corn furnished . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0-9-0
By 1 horse furnished 72 days. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0-10-0
By John Walker for 129 lbs of beef at 16-8. . . . . . . . . 1-1-6
By John Barbour for packing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0-4-6
By Thomas Johnson for sundries. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1-10-0
By Moses Hignight for 1 bushel salt . . . . . . . . . . . . 0-12-0
By Wm. Spencer for 2 lbs steel at 2-9 . . . . . . . . . . . 0-5-6
By his services for 4 months, 12 days at 9. . . . . . . . . 59-8-0
TOTAL . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . L 236-7-5

 The above account was sworn to in open court and ordered to be recorded. It will be noted the gatekeeper collected his tolls in dollars and cents but paid his expenses in pounds, shillings and pence.

 An act of December 21, 1805, provided for a redivision of the road. Knox County was apportioned that part between Cumberland Gap and the Sixty-one Mile Tree, and was to receive one-half of the toll, the remainder to be divided between Lincoln and Madison Counties in proportion to their respective road mileage.

 To show that gate keepers and commissioners were held strictly accountable for the up-keep of the road it is recorded that in 1802, Thomas Moor (Moore) keeper of the Turnpike Road leading to Cumberland Gap was presented (indicated) for not keeping it in repair. At the October term of Circuit Court in 1807, John Alsup was also presented for not keeping the State Road in repair.

 In 1810 the General Assembly exempted citizens of Knox County and their property from the payment of tolls. This law was repealed February 24, 1824.

 By 1816 ferries instead of bridges and fords were being used. Ferriage rates were as follows:

Wagon and team . . . . . . . . . $0.50
 
 
 
 
 

                                                                        39

Two wheel carriage . . . . . . .  0.25
Man and horse. . . . . . . . . .  0.12 1/2
Single horse, mare or mule . . .  0.06 1/4
Head of cattle, sheep or goats .  0.01
Foot passengers. . . . . . . . .  0.06 1/4

 Even before the above date, ferries were being used in Knox County. April 27, 1801 the following order was passed by the Knox County Court:

 Be it remembered that this day on the motion of Isaac Shelby, by his attorney, it is ordered that a ferry be established on the land of the said Isaac Shelby, lying on the south side of the Cumberland River at the crossing of the State Road in Knox County to the lands of William Robertson on the opposite shore, and it is ordered that the rate of ferriage of coaches, wagons, etc., shall be in the proportion of the ferriage of a horse, established by law, whereupon the said Isaac Shelby, by John Ballinger, his attorney in fact, together with the said John Ballinger as the security, entered into and acknowledged this bond in the penalty of twenty pounds, as is directed by law. And be it further remembered, that at the time of moving for the establishment of said ferry the following notices of the motion were proven in Court by Richard Pierce to be given to William Robertson, Gent., of the same, better than one month before the making of this motion. A copy of this motion was certified in Court, and ordered to be recorded to wit:

Mr. William Robertson, Gent.
Take notice hereby that I will on the first day of our next April Court, holden for the County of Knox, move the Court for establishment of a ferry across the Cumberland River from my land lying on the south side of the river at the crossing of the State Road to your land on the opposite shore.
                                                  (signed)Isaac Shelby
                                                     January 31, 1801

 From October 1779, until the admission of Kentucky to the Union nine ferries had been established by Virginia. In 1791 Joseph Martin was granted the right to ferry travelers over the Cumberland River. March 17, 1795, James Berry was granted the right to establish a ferry across Cumberland River at the mouth of Straight Creek by the Lincoln County Court. Governor Shelby's ferry was the third one ordered established at about the same place, and the first by the Knox County Court.

June 23, 1801, an order was entered as follows:

Be it remembered that this day Uriah Gresham made a motion to the worshipful court to have a ferry established at the ford of Big Rockcastle River where the State Road crosses the same, owning the lands on both sides. The ferry was ordered established and the usual rates of ferriage charged.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

                                                                        40

 March 2, 1812, Richard Ballinger applied for a right to establish a ferry across Cumberland River near his hill, he owning land on one side and John Alsup on the other. The right was granted and he together with John Alsup entered into bond of twenty pounds. Usual ferriage rates were charged.

 May 4, 1812, William Hogan, who has been granted the right to establish a ferry, asked leave to keep his ferry anywhere between the ford of Cumberland River and the mouth of Straight Creek.

 June 1, 1812, Samuel Cox was allowed to establish a ferry to his house across Cumberland River. He was permitted to Charge the regular ferriage rates.

 As late as 1874 R.H. Vermillion operated a ferry on Cumberland River at Barbourville. His rates were as follows:

For man and horse . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . $0.15
For single man . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.05
For wagon and two horses. . . . . . . . . . 0.50
For wagon and four horses . . . . . . . . . 0.70
Sheep, hogs, goats or lambs . . . . . . . . 0.02
Cattle per head . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 0.10
Horses and mules per head . . . . . . . .  0.10

Two more toll gates were erected January 11, 1830, but the one in Knox County was to share its receipts for the support of the Barbourville road and the road to Goose Creek salt works.

 There were many branches of the Old State Road, which shared in the tolls collected
at the different gates. As early as 1810 provision was made for opening a road from Hale's old place on the Wilderness Road in Knox County to the upper salt works on Goose Creek in Clay County. By an act of February 10, 1816, one half of the toll received from wagoneers, pack horse, men or passengers traveling to or from Saltburg on the Cumberland River or to or from Barbourville was to be appropriated to clear out or repair the road from Colonel Arthur's on the Wilderness Road to Somerset in Pulaski County and it was to be expanded under the direction of the Knox County Court.

 By an act of December 9, 1820, a road was to be opened from Jackson's in Knox County through Williamsburg, Whitley County, to the Tennessee Line upon which a toll gate was to be erected.

 An interesting old newspaper clipping gives an excellent idea of the amount of business which passed through the toll gates on the Old State Road. It reads as follows:

 As estimate of the livestock sent from Kentucky in 1827 was sent by Mr. Renfro at Cumberland Ford, Knox County. It gave the numbers at 3,529 horses; 1,840 mules; 111,283 hogs; 2,700 steers; and 1,097 wethers. Value of the horses was estimated
 
 
 
 
 
 

                                                                        41

at $270,000, about $80 each; steers $62,100; hogs $667,000. Mr. Renfro was informed that 75,000 hogs in addition had gone the Kanawha Road to Virginia and 25,000 by Pikes Turnpike Road, southwest of the Kanawha Road. He estimated 1,383 hands were employed taking the stock to market. He concluded his report with enthusiastic praise of the enterprising sons of Kentucky, softening rocks with the vinegar of industry and preseverance and he advise them, keep Jackson to fight and all will be well.

 Mr. Renfro was James Renfro, Revolutionary War Veteran, and was one of those adventurous navigators and bold pioneers, who set out December 22, 1779 with Colonel John Donelson, by God's permission in the good boat "Adventure" from Fort Patrick Henry on the Holston River to the French Salt Springs (Nashville) on the Cumberland. After surviving the hardships of the four month trip, during which he traversed 2,000 miles by water, the Holston, Tennessee, Ohio and Cumberland Rivers, James Renfro later settled in Kentucky, buying the present site of Pineville from Isaac Shelby, Kentucky's first governor.

 In 1836, an attempt was made to turn the management and maintenance of the State Road over to private hands. A turnpike company was chartered that year. Knox County subscribed $11,150 of the stock. This company failed and new act enacted in 1844 repealed the charter of the Crab Orchard and Cumberland Gap Turnpike Road
Company. Although the state maintained a nomial control, the road was turned over the various counties through which it passed.

 In 1838, the livestock crossing Cumberland Ford bound for the southern market was 4,039 horses, 3,177 mules, valued at $577,280; 4,540 beef cattle, valued at $227,450; 68,764 hogs, valued at $962,696; 3,250 sheep, valued at $13,000. Because of the number of hogs driven over the Old State Road, it was given the name of the Old Hog Road.
Old timers call it by that now. The route of the Old Hog Road, varied from the Old State Road.

 Shelton Renfro, keeper of the toll gate in Knox County for 1832 returned that he had taken in $4,266.93-3/4. In 1833 the amount taken in was given as $4,245.25; in 1834, $4,932.32; in 1835, $4,340-1/4; and in 1836, $4,142.86. A complete report of a commissioner in 1854 follows:

 The amount of toll taken in at the Toll Gate in Knox County, Kentucky for the quarter ending 22nd of November, 1854 was $1,289.03, on the State Road $752.23, on the Goose Creek Road $536.80. After deducting from the State Road funds $36.54, its proportionable part of the gate keeper's salary and there being $19.00 of the Kentucky Trust Company money in the hands of the gate keeper, I have taken its proportionable part of said sum of $19,00 which is $11.08 from the State Road funds, from which tale $65.00 for the Old Road from Pogue's Old Stand to the County Line and there remains $619.61 to be divided between the different precincts on the State Road, after deducting from Goose Creek fund $25.96, its part of the gate keeper's salary, there remains $510.84, from which sum I take $7.92, its proportionable part of the Kentucky Trust funds, to be applied on the road from Joseph Payne's to the top of Cumberland Mountain--this sum, together with the State Road funds, give to the different
 
 
 
 
 

                                                                        42

precincts as follows:

From top of Cumberland Mountain to Rogue's Old Stand . . . . $394.83
From Pogue's Old Stand (Old Road) to County Line . . . . . .  135.77
From Pogue's Old Stand to County Line . . . . . . . . . . . . 228.27
From County Line to Mrs. Pitman's . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 152.20
From County Line (Old Road) to Laurel Bridge. . . . . . . . .  20.00
From Flat Lick, Stinking Creek to County Line . . . . . . . .  25.00
Otter Creek . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  25.00
Goose Creek . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 226.46

The gate keeper is entitled to the following credits:

Paid orders from top of Cumberland Mountain to Pogue's Old Stand $165.53 which taken from $394.83, there remains $229.50. Paid orders from Pogue's Old Stand to County Line $106.34 which taken from $228.27, there remains $121.93. Paid orders from the County Line to Mrs. Pitman's $73.03 which taken from $152.20, there
remains $80.17. Paid orders from Pogue's Old Stand (old road) to the County Line $42.48 which taken from $135.77, there remains $93.29. Paid orders from County Line (old road) to Laurel Bridge $5.00 which taken from $20.00, there remains $15.00. Paid orders from Flat Lick, Stinking Creek to County Line $43.32 which leaves the State in debt to that portion of road $18.00 Nothing paid to Otter Creek there remains for that portion of road $18.32. Paid orders from Goose Creek $11.91, which taken from $226.46 there remains $214.55.

 All vouchers herewith filed--all of which sums are due upon this quarter, commencing 22nd August 1845 shows the amount in the gate keeper's hands at that
time undalled for--all of which is respectfully submitted to the Knox County Court this 22nd November 1854.

                                       (signed) John M. Dickinson, Com.

      Sworn to before me by Ambrose Arthur, this 25th day of November 1854.

                                       (signed) John M. Dickinson, Com.

     Pogue's Old Stand was named after John Pogue, who married Hannah
Gillis in Augusta County, Virginia, October 9, 1798. A Robert and John
Poage emigrated from Ireland about 1739 and located in Augusta County
Virginia. It is believed the emigrant John was the grandfather of Knox
County's John. Knox County John's father is thought to have been William
Poage, a veteran of both the French-Indian and Revolutionary Wars. Knox
County's Pogue family is closely related to William Pogue, who accompanied Daniel Boone to Kentucky in 1775, and who brought his family to Boonesborough the same year.

 Where the figures given by gate keepers and commissioners in the reports quoted are correct cannot be determined definitely since it was difficult to decide which sums followed the different items. Other reports in brief follow:
 
 
 
 
 

                                                                        43

 Knox County Court, Febuary Special Term 1856: The amount of toll taken in at the toll gate in Knox County for the quarter ending 22nd February 1855 was $446.74; on the State Road $236.20; on the Goose Creek Road $210.54.

 Knox County Court, May Term 1855: The amount of toll taken in at the toll gate in Knox County for the quarter ending 22nd day of May 1855 was $246.30, on the State Road $207.55, on the Goose Creek Road $38.75.

 Knox County Court, August Term 1855: The amount of toll taken in at the toll gate in Knox County for the quarter ending 22nd August 1855 was $277.20; on the State Road $213.50; on the Goose Creek Road $63.70.

 After the toll gate in the Pineville Narrows had been moved to Flat Lick between 1830 and 1840, there remained but one gate in Knox County. However, by
order of the Knox County Court in 1865, another gate was built near Log Mountain. This gate was abolished in 1873. Other reports of the amount of tolls taken in follows:

            Knox County Court, February Term 1865:

A. Hunter this day returned his quarterly report, which was verified by his oath and ordered of record, as follows: The amount of toll taken in at the toll gate in Knox County for the quarter ending the 26th day of February 1865, was $156.05, on the State Road $95.55, on the Goose Creek Road $60.50, after taking $62.50, the amount of the gate keeper's salary for this quarter, leaves $93.66 to be applied to the roads, as follows: on the State Road $57.29, on the Goose Creek Road $36.21.

               Knox County Court, May Term 1865:

The amount of toll taken in at the toll gate in Knox County, for the quarter ending the 21st day of May 1865, was $128.90, on the State Road $109.70, on the Goose Creek Road $19.20, after taking $62.50, the amount of the gate keeper's salary for this quarter leaves $64.40 to be applied to roads as follows, on the State Road $56.34, on the Goose Creek Road $10.06.

                    Knox County Court August Term 1865.

The amount of toll taken in at the Toll Gate at the Flat Lick in Knox County, Kentucky, for the quarter ending 26th August, 1865, was $360.76, after taking $62.50, the amount of the gate keeper's salary for this quarter leaves to be expended an the roads $292.25, an the State Road $176.67, an the Goose Creek Road $121.58.

                    Knox County Court August Term 1865.

The report of Allen Goodin gate keeper of Knox Country for this quarter ending 26th August, 1865 was this day produced to Court, sworn to and ordered of record, as follows, to wit: the amount of toll taken in at the Toll Gate at Polly Moore's (Log Mountain)
 
 
 
 
 

                                                                        44

in Knox County was $258.90, after taking the gate keeper's salary for his services for the quarter $43.75, leaves to be expended on the roads $536.90, on the State Road $413.01, on the Goose Creek Road $125.89.

 Toll gates were also permitted on private roads. The county court had the authority to allow the erection of such gates as will be evidenced by the following order in 1859:

 "On motion of James M. Kincaid ordered that he be permitted to erect four gates on a newly established road running from the Baptist Gap road up the south side of Yellow Creek to H. Parker's, said gates to be erected on the lands of said Kincaid."

 According to John Spencer King, 96 years of age (1938), who was born and reared on Log Mountain in now Bell County, Baptist Gap received its name because of the murder by Indians of three Baptist ministers at the place in the early days. Mr. King said when he was a youth, he was told about it by old residents.

 The amount of tolls taken in at the gates gradually decreased. After the gate in Bell County was abolished, there remained but one gate in Knox County, which was at Flat Lick.

 In 1874 the gate at Flat Lick was "farmed!' out to the highest bidder, as will be noted from the following record:

 We, the undersigned William Fortney, principal, Madison Fortney and Preston Fortney bid ourselves in the sum of eight hundred and ninety-seven dollars to the Commonwealth of Kentucky, to be paid according to law for rent of the Toll Gate at Flat Lick, Kentucky, for one year.

 Kentucky abolished toll gates on State Roads in 1880. It is said that the passage of this law was the occasion of a wild celebration during which the toll gates were torn down.

 Flat Lick was a famous old place on the Warrior's Path, Boone Trace, and the Old State Road. It is mentioned by almost all early explorers, pioneers, and settlers. Captain Ambrose Arthur, who, with his father, Colonel Thomas Arthur, first settled near "the Flat Lick!' about 1800, told members of his family that there was, in reality, a large flat lick near the old village. Almost a half acre of flat rock had been licked bare by wild animals in quest of salt. Since that date the rock has disintegrated, and vegetation has sprung up.

 There is very little chance for a chronicler of history to philosophize, and, of then-time when he does, it is very tedious and boresome to the reader. However, it must be noted that, since there have been "Dark Ages" in the history of the world, Knox County also had a Dark Age. Contrary to what "furriners" think our dark age was not during the early years of our history, but was during the period between the beginning of the railroad era and the building of the present pike U.S. 25E. When railroads began to
 
 
 
 

                                                                        45

flourish,  business on the Old State Road began to wane. For the majority communication with the outside world practically ceased. Until the building of the railroad to Barbourville in 1888, which helped some, and the beginning of the "good roads era" (1912) in Kentucky, Knox County was practically isolated, Yet, Barbourville, as a seat of culture and refinement must not be overlooked. Amid the general gloom it shone with an added luster. Many of its citizens attained prominence in every walk of life, as will be later noted.

 Other gate keepers, a Commissioners, and managers besides those mentioned follows:

 Samuel Hibbard, gate keeper, 1814; Andrew Graig, gate keeper, 1815; Robert George, gate keeper, 1818; James Clinton, gate keeper, 1822-23/24; John Fletcher, gate keeper, 1825 to 1830; and Peter Engle, gate keeper, 1837; Randolph Adams, commissioner, 1819-20; James Renfro, commissioner, 1821; Thomas Tuggle, commissioner, 1829-30/31; Samuel F. Miller, commissioner, 1862; and John H. Wilson, commissioner, 1847; Benjamin Tuggle, manager, 1818; Richardson Herndon, manager, 1820-23; John Patton, manager, 1824; James B. Dorton, manager, 1827; and Joseph Payne, manager, 1830-31; John Pogue was an overseer of the Barbourville road in 1832.

                         THE MILITIA SYSTEM

 Kentucky counties inherited their road laws and militia system from Virginia, which, in turn, received hers from England. It was a modification of the old feudal system. In 1657-58 Virginia gave to county courts jurisdiction over roads. February 25, 1797, Kentucky enacted a law similar to that of Virginia.

 The system called for an organized militia, which in time of emergency
could be mustered into the military service. Counties were divided into
districts and militia captains appointed in each district.

     All "male laboring titheables" between certain ages (the age limit varied, but, in general, those required to pay poll tax) resident in the different districts were made to work the roads, or provide substitutes. The Old State Road had been kept in repair by those living within a certain number of miles of it. They were required to work from four to six days a year. To maintain the Old State Road other labor became necessary. An Act was passed by the General Assembly (1813) empowering the commissioners to engage laborers by the years, or they might "purchase, with any funds in their hands arising from said turnpike, any number of young able-bodied healthy Negro men, not exceeding ten, to be employed in working on the said road when necessary."

 In 1912 an act was approved by the Governor establishing a Department of Roads, creating the office of state commissioner of Public Roads and a fund in the treasury of the state to be known as the state road fund. It has been aptly described as "The act which lifted Kentucky out of the mud." This law
 
 
 
 
 

                                                                        46

practically abolished the militia system of building and maintaining roads. However, a Knox County order, dated August 24, 1914, reads as follows:

 It having been ordered by the Fiscal Court at a special term of said Court, held August 3, 1814, that the militia of Knox County, be required to work the County roads as provided in Section 85, Chapter 80, Acts 1914, and in conformity with Section 86, Chapter 80, Acts of 1914, it is ordered that the roads of Knox County be, and is hereby divided and laid off in sections and precincts, said boundaries as is now of record in Clerk's office, Knox County Court, of the sections that were last laid off and last overseer appointed on,
when the law working militia was abolished December 1, 1912.

 Thus it can be determined that the militias system was never really abolished. Under Section 43,560, Carroll's Kentucky Statutes, 1956, "the fiscal court of any county may require all able-bodied male citizens of the county, over eighteen and under fifty years of age, except licensed ministers of the Gospel, and citizens of incorporated towns and cities, to provide themselves with necessary tools and implements and to work on the public roads of the county not exceeding two days in a week, and six days in each year, and in cases of unusual emergency, the overseers may require the road hands to work a greater number of days in any week or year."

               Lists of Knox County Militia Captains follows:

 1810--Ambrose Arthur, Andrew Craig, William Morgan, James McNeil, Joseph Eve, Isaac Martin, Hugh Cummins, Elijah Gherton, James Smith, William Brittain, James Stotts, Benjamin Harris, Daniel Miller, and Reubin Hendrickson. 1814--
Angus Ross, Hugh Allison, Thomas Swift - ------ Meadows, Joseph Gilless, George Tye, Isaac Martin, Joseph Parman, Jarvis Jackson, Joab Moore, Ambrose Arthur, David Johnson, John Hendrixon, John Skidmore, Gobin Bailey, and William Reed.

                  "Views" of early Knox County roads follow:

Road from Barbourville to Outlaw's Salt Works, to go with the trace Outlaw went with his wagon to the salt works-until it intersects the Old Trace, and with the Old Trace until it leaves Little Richland Creek, thence up on the same side of the creek to a crossing below John Stewart's thence a straight course into Outlaw's wagon road, thence with said road until it crosses the creek, thence on the same side of the creek to a crossing place at the lower end of Bagley's field, thence with the present trace to the State Road. Given under our hands this 5th September, 1803.

                                             (signed)Thomas Bagley
                                                John Stewart

 Road from Barbourville to intersect the Wilderness Road the nearest and best way between John Gordan's and Alexander Stewart's, beginning at the ford of the branch of Fighting Creek near John Gordan's from thence to the Quaker Camp on the Old Trace, from thence a straight course to the old crossing on Fighting
 
 
 
 
 

                                                                        47

Creek, thence with the Old Trace to the first left hand path turns out, and thence with that path to where it leaves the hills, as close on the right as the nature of the ground will admit of until it intersects the trace leading from Barbourville to Sneed's from thence a straight course to Barbourville. 1801.

 Road leading from the three forks of the Cumberland River to the Little Stone Gap, the gap being out of this State, they started the road up the Clover Fork to the mouth of Youcome line leading towards the gap. 1801.

 And be it ordered that Solomon Cox, Rease Gatliff, Leonard C. Shoemaker, Christopher Cox, and James Hodges, they or any three of them, being first sworn, do view out a way from Charles Gatliff's to the Painted Gap, the nearest and best way, and from there to the town of Barbourville, and make report to our next court. 1801.

 Whereas, an order passed at last December Court, ordering a roadway to be viewed out from Charles Gatliff's to the Paint Gap, and from there to Barbourville, through negligence of said viewers it has been omitted and the order is expired for said view, therefore, be it ordered that Joseph Baker, George Bunch, and Jams Culton do view out the roadway, and make report to our next Court. 1802.

 Joseph Baker, George Bunch, and James Culton returned their view of the road leading from Barbourville to Charles Gatliff's in manner and form following, to wit, leading from town to the first branch above John Slaughter's,
thence to Charles Gatliff's. 1802.

Road from Barbourville to intersect the Pulaski road from James Lick at Rockcastle, John Ballinger, Richardson Herndon, and John Laughlin made a return of the review of the road from Barbourville to the mouth of Rockcastle in manner and form following, to wit, leading from the town of Barbourville up the Main Street, and a straight course to the mouth of Smoky an Richland Creek and up Smoky and out at the Painted Gap and down Indian Creek to the forks, to the first westwardly branch above John Thomas's plantation and through the Gap to William Campbell's improvement, thence Coxes old wagon way to John Eaton's place on Meadow Creek, thence the pathway to Isaac King's, along the same to Robert Craig's.

 Thence with Smith's trace to the Hog Camp on Spruce Creek, thence crossing said creek and leaving it on the right hand to the lower Hunter's Ford on Laurel River, thence to the open place in the cane in the brush, thence cross the same and generally with the divide between the waters of Laurel and Rockcastle to the head of the One Mile Branch and down the same to the first ford on Rockcastle above the mouth. 1802.

 From the State Road down Goose Creek through Peter Hammons land, and by Outlaw's and White's Salt Works, and through their land, and Richard Nicholson's and Reuben's Hall's, and Richard Smith's, and to Alexander Smith's claim of land
 
 
 
 
 
 

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on Goose Creek, none of the above persons objecting. 1805.

 To follow the present road leading from Barbourville until you get nearly a mile beyond the Rackoon Springs, then to leave the Trace on the right hand and intersect the said road at the old ford on Big Laurel, thence with the Old Trace on the left hand and keeping a ridge until it intersects to the State Road at the corner of John Farris's field. 1805.

 Agreeable to an order, granted at the August Term, 1805, for a road from the Madison line up the left hand fork of Goose Creek to the dividing ridge that divides the waters of Goose Creek from Stinking, and there being no objection made by the citizens, whose lands the said road passes through (apparently ordered established up the famous old Warrior's Path). 1806.

                                            (Signed)John Hibbard
                                               Wm. Jones
                                               William Hutson

 Beginning at the ford of Cumberland, and to run up said river as near as may be to the three forks. 1805.

 Pursuant to an order of the Knox County Court we have viewed and laid off a way for a road to be made, as follows: Beginning at the Pine Tavern, thence
along or near the path that leads to Angus Rosses, Esq. on Marsh Creek, thence to the mouth of Paint Creek, to the Gap of Gillico Mountain at the head of Brier Creek to where the path crosses said creek that leads from McGaston's to Samuel Coxes, Esq. 1806.

                                             (Signed)Joseph Evans
                                                Thos. Marlow
                                                Ezekiel Bailey

 William King, John Richmond, Frederick Snider made a report to the Court that they had viewed out the best way for a road to go from William Briant's on the Pine Tavern road to Richmond's mill, from thence to the Elk Fork (report not found). 1808.

 Road to lead from the lower end of the County line in a direction to the lower salt work on Goose Creek, between the house of Angus Ross, on Marsh Creek and Gillico Mountain, and to cross Cumberland River at the most suitable place in the lower settlements, from thence the best way to Lynn Camp, from thence to cross the State Road between Thomas Johnson's and William Stephenson's in a direction to the said salt works. 1808.

 Paint Hill, at the head of Smoky Creek, is said to have been named the "Painted Gap" because the Indian signs and pictures, which had been carved upon the rocks.

 Outlaw, of Outlaw's Salt Works, was Alexander Outlaw, a Revolutionary War
 
 
 
 
 

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veteran from North Carolina, who later settled in Jefferson County, Tennessee.

 Peter Hammons, Obadiah Hammons, John Richmond, and Thomas Johnson, were Revolutionary War veterans from North Carolina.

 John Laughlin, William Jones, Samuel Cox, John Thomas, and William Campbell, John Arthur, Robert Craig, John Moore, John Stewart, Thomas Goodin, were all Revolutionary veterans from Virginia.

 Charles Gatliff was a captain in the Virginia militia during the Revolutionary War. He was a noted Indian fighter, companion of Daniel Boone and Simon Kenton, and settled at the mouth of Maple Creek in 1786.

 Alexander Stewart (Stuart) was a Revolutionary War veteran from Virginia. He was a resident of Lee County, Virginia, before moving to Knox County,
Kentucky in 1800. There is a well founded tradition that he was a direct descendant of the Scottish Stuart kings.

 Edward Gathers was a Revolutionary War veteran from Virginia. He was a member of the first jury to try an escheat case in Kentucky. "on July 1,
1780, "according to Collins, vol. 2, page 183, "an inquest of escheat was held at Lexington, by the sheriff of Kentucky County -- Geor. May, escheator. John Bowman, Daniel Boone, Nathaniel Randolph, Waller Overton, Robert McAfee, Edward Cather, Henry Wilson, Joseph Willis, Paul Froman, Jeremiah Tilford, James Wood, and Thomas Gant, gentlemen, jurymen, were empaneled, sworn and charged to try whether John Connaly and Alexander McKee be British subjects or not." They were found to be British subjects, and their land forfeited.

 John H. Wilson, Son of Harlan K. and grandson of John 0. Wilson, mentioned as a commissioner, familiarly called by his acquaintances "John Henry", served in Congress as a Representative from 1889 to 1893. He was an able lawyer, and established the first newspaper (Mountain Echo, later moved to London, Kentucky) in Barbourville and Knox County in 1873.

 Joseph Eve, referred to as a militia captain in 1810, was born in Virginia in 1784. He settled in Barbourville early in 1807. Admitted to the practice of law in the Knox County Court February 2, 1807, he was appointed "Attorney for the Commonwealth in the County Court and took the several oaths prescribed by law" May 4, 1807. He served as county attorney for approximately ten years until 1817, was then appointed a circuit judge, serving with distinction until 1841, except for a short interval, and was a member of the Old Court party discussed elsewhere in this book. During the war of 1812 he served as a Major and Lt. Colonel. In the Kentucky House of Representatives and Senate he represented Knox County for ten years. In 1841 Judge Eve was appointed charge d'affaires to the Republic of Texas by President William Henry Harrison, and died while in that service June 10, 1843.

 Samuel F. Miller, also mentioned as a commissioner, apparently came to Knox County in 1837. He was the son of Frederick and Patsy Freeman Miller, and
 
 
 
 
 

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was born in Madison County, Kentucky, April 5th, 1816. His name appears first in Knox County records as a witness to a nuncupative will. He practiced medicine in Barbourville until 1846, at which time he was admitted to the Bar and commenced the practice of law as a partner of Silas Woodson (later Governor of Missouri). Dr. Miller left Barbourville in 1850, settling in Keokuk, Iowa. In 1862 he appointed an associate justice of the Supreme Court by President Abraham Lincoln and served on the bench for many years, becoming a foremost authority on constitutional law. April 26, 1847, the county court entered the following order:

 Ordered that Samuel F. Miller be vested and clothed with all the powers which belong to the County Court so far as the management of different roads in
Knox County which receive a pro rata share of the moneys received at the Turnpike Gate are concerned: that he shall settle with the former gate keeper, the former and present overseers of the different precincts of roads, in a word that he do anything which this Court has the right to do, subject to the
revision and approval of this Court and that he submit report of his acts at the
next term of this Court and every two months hereafter and that he be paid a reasonable sum for his service out of the funds of said gate.

April 24, 1848, it was ordered that he be paid, as follows:

 Ordered by the court that S.F. Miller be allowed the sun of $50.00 for his services rendered as Commissioner of this Court and that he collect such sum of the gate keeper after deducting the sum of $8.86 now in his hands.

 The importance of the Warrior's Path, Boone Trace, and the Old Wilderness Road to Knox County, Kentucky, and the nation cannot be minimized. Over their tortuous and rutted beds came the "empire builders" of the Northwest. Through dense canebrakes and up the beds of small mountain streams trudged and rode the pioneers. Their paths were beset with many difficulties. Hostile Indians lurked in the surrounding wilderness. Many were ambushed and slain. Others were taken prisoners and became victim of a worse fate at the hands of savage captors. Their source of meager supply was hundreds of miles away. Yet, they were not discouraged, these Revolutionary War veterans, Indian fighters and their descendants. By their sides, sharing every danger, were true helpmates, mothers, wives, and sisters. They were daring, gallant, sturdy, and persevering, to them we owe a debt of gratitude.
 
 
 
 
 

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                              CHURCHES AND SCHOOLS

 Kentucky mountaineers, like all "folks" closely associated with nature, were, and are, inherently religious. Almost all of the original settlers had their family Bibles. The Bible was their chief textbook. Such a substantial arsenal furnished them keen spiritual weapons, which, together with the sun, moon, stars, towering mountains and other natural phenomena, enabled them to work out a homespun and wholesome philosophy of life. It was a sort of "Trust God and keep your powder dry" formula, which other sections could well afford to copy and use.

 The Golden Rule, "Do unto others as you would have them do unto you," was the yardstick used to measure actions and character. And if others did not do unto them in accordance therewith, remediable legal steps were taken. Unfortunately a few took the law into their own hands, which provoked trouble and killings. It still does, although, not nearly as many in proportion to population as in the so-called more civilized sections of the nation. Available statistics reveal this an incontrovertible fact.

 Before and for some time after schoolhouses were built, church meetings were held at the homes of different people. November 17, 1803, Richard Ballinger noted on a page of the first County Court Order Book, "Philip Crowder will preach at my house at 2 o'clock."

                                CHURCHES

 The first church, with any recorded history, organized in Knox County and Southeastern Kentucky, was the Cumberland River Baptist Church, as follows:

 A memorandum of the constitution of the Cumberland River Church on the 12th day of May, anno. 1804. The following persons were constituted a church in Knox County, Kentucky, on Cumberland River (namely):

Elijah Foley 1 Martha Barber 2
Isaac Martin 2 Mary Barber 3
Samuel Hibbard 3 Elizabeth Barber 4
James Parker 4 Sarah Bailey 5

 In all nine members, and then adopted the following system of principles:

 1st. We believe in me only true and living God and that he hath created all things for a purpose of His own glory and all very good.
      2nd. We believe in the fall of man from the happy estate in which he as created and of his utter inability to recover himself to a state of favor with God.
      3rd. We believe Jesus Christ is our Redeemer through whose imputed righteousness alone man can be justified in the sight of God.
 4th. We believe in the Holy Ghost as the applier of the benefits of Redemption through Jesus Christ to our soul.
      5th. We believe in Baptism by Immersion to be a Gospel ordinance and that true believers are the only proper subjects of the same.
 
 
 
 
 
 

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      6th. We believe in the perseverance of the saints in grace and holiness.
 7th. We believe in resurrection of these our bodies after death and a general judgement.
 8th. We believe that the punishment of the wicked and joys of the righteous will be eternal.

      And now being constituted into a church congregationally, being baptised on the confession of our faith and order do agree to submit ourselves to the order and ordinances and discipline of this church as Christ's visible kingdom, to watch over each other in the fear of God, to reprove and admonish in Christian charity and brotherly love and not to discover the infirmities of one another out of the community where it may be avoided nor to any in the community but by Gospel peace and order according to the best light we have or shall have from the Holy Scriptures. To communicate of our worldly substances as shall be most to the glory of God in decent support of the church and ministry, and we are for the aforesaid purpose to attend our respective meetings unless providentially hindered and have reasons to be rendered to the church when called for.
Elders present at the constitution.
                         Lemual Hibbard, William Jones
                         1st clerk       Matthew Sims

      In August 1804, Elijah Foley was elected the first pastor.

 The Indian Creek "Arm of the Church" was organized May 17, 1805. On the first Saturday in November 1805, the Poplar Creek arm was organized. The Poplar Creek arm separated from the mother church the first Friday in November 1814. Clear Fork was constituted an arm of the church the last Saturday in June 1806. It had a meeting house in 1812, and separated from the parent organization the first Saturday in October 1814. February 10, 1810, the Red Bird arm was organized and had a meeting house by 1812. May 4, 1811, the parent church met at Finley's meeting house. On the fourth Friday in May 1811, an arm of the church was organized "on Jellico." April 1, 1812, the parent church met at the home of John Chestnut in now Laurel County and received members. Elijah Foley, first pastor, opened the door of membership to residents of the Watt's Creek settlements, the fourth Saturday in August 1812. On the second Saturday in September 1812, the Concord Church arm was organized at the home of Thomas Arthur (Flat Lick). It began to function as a separate church the first Saturday in October 1813. The Lynn Camp arm was organized the first Saturday in May 1814. The first recorded meeting in Barbourville took place in a school house in 1822.

 It appears that all of the members did not abide by the tenets of the church as faithfully as thought proper. Some of the sisters had been "tripping the light and fantastic" from the following:

2nd Saturday in June, 1806 -- The church met according to adjournment and unity appearing among us proceeded to business, first it being proven that
 
 
 
 
 

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Sister Jemima Carter has been guilty of the sin of dancing, and after Gospel steps being taken, and she not "complying with the Orders of the Church to answer the complaint laid in against her the church excluded her from their fellowship, 2nd, from Sister Sarah Bailey's own confession, the church holds her under suspense and Brother Hibbard chosen to cite Sister Sarah to appear at our next meeting--.

      Nor were the sisters the only offenders according to the following:

      1st Saturday in May, 1810--The church met and after worship, Brother David Deweese came forward and made a public acknowledgement to the satisfaction of the church for a public transgression, that of intoxication.

      Like Zacchaeous, who "climbed up into a sycamore tree to see" Jesus, these first Knox County Baptists sought the Load under a sycamore tree. Their first meeting is said to have been held under such a tree in the Narrows on the north side of Cumberland River about three miles below Barbourville. The first meting is also claimed to have been held at other places. However, in view of the fact that the first pastor, Elijah Foley, patented 200 acres of land in 1804, Where the Reserve Line crosses Cumberland River," about a mile from the Narrows, it is highly probable the first meeting was held under the sycamore tree in the Narrows.

 Near the present boundary line between Bell and Harlan Counties stood an old church on the waters of Meeting House Branch, Cumberland River. This church was erected by Lewis Green, Sr., Revolutionary war veteran from Virginia, who is said to have joined and accompanied Daniel Boone on some of his hunts. It was a small log building. When it was erected is not known. Behind the site of the church on Tan Yard Hill is a graveyard. The remains of Lewis Green, Sr., and his wife are buried there. Rev. James Hall, Revolutionary War veteran from Virginia, was the first pastor. In his application for a pension Rev. Hall stated that he had preached the Gospel of Jesus for fourteen years, and that he lived two miles from Lewis Green.

 The first reference to a meeting house within the present city limits of Barbourville is contained in a deed from Richardson Herndon (later pastor of the Cumberland River Baptist Church) to Peter Engle (later clerk of the Cumberland River Baptist Church), dated June 4, 1818, which reads in part, as follows:

 The said Richardson and Nancy Herdon hath for and in consideration of the sum of one thousand dollars to them paid, granted, bargained and sold, and by these presents do grant, bargain and sell unto the said Peter Engle, four acres town lots, lying and being in the town of Barbourville--also one certain tract of land adjoining said lots--(except one-half acre to include the graveyard and adjoin the said Engle's fence on the south and west, the road which runs by Goins and Smiths on the east and a swamp or drain on the north, is hereby reserved and specially deeded to the said Peter Engle, Thomas Tuggle and Joseph
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

                                                                        54
 

Eve as trustees, and their successors forever, for the use and exclusive benefit of a graveyard and meeting house).

 Whether there ever was a meeting house on this lot is not known. This one-half acre lot is on College Street opposite Union College. The north corner of same would be about the junction of Coyt and College Streets, from which point it would run south.

 Among those whose remains were buried in this old graveyard are the following:

 Thomas Tuggle, born Oct. 10, 1766, died Dec. 1, 1834. Susannah Herndon Tuggle, born Dec. 10, 1772, died Aug. 17, 1810. George Engle, Sr., died May 31, 1826, aged 76 years. Elizabeth Engle, died July 2, 1835, aged 77 years and 11 months. Peter Engle, who departed this life March 1, 1840 Margaret Engle, who departed this life Oct. 18, 1822". Martha Dameron Glass, widow of David Glass, who was a cousin of Senator Carter Glass, of Virginia, was buried in this graveyard.

 The remains of Elizabeth Johnson Eve, daughter of Col. William Johnson. and Elizabeth Cave Johnson, born in Orange County, Virginia, in 1757, married Rev. George Eve there in 1772, and died at Barbourville in 1832, were probably buried in this old graveyard. She was the mother of many other children, Joseph Eve, who was appointed Attache to the Republic of Texas by President William Henry Harrison and the aunt of Col. R.M. Johnson, hero of the Battle of the Thames and Vice President of the United States. Others, whose remains were interred in this old graveyard, are not known definitely.

 The second mention. of a meeting house within the present city limits of Barbourville was in 1834. The reference is to a school house, which later became known as "the old Baptist Church." John G. Eve, brother of Joseph Eve, uncle of Col. John G. Eve, reserved the site as a school house. In 1876 John H. Davis was empowered to act of the Legislature to sell this "old Baptist Church," and give half of the proceeds of the sale to the schools and half to the church. The late Governor, Jams D. Black, taught a "free school" in this old building, which stood in the rear of the residence of Senator J.M. Robsion. about twenty-five yards from College Street. Among the students of the late Governor were Judge Jesse D. Tuggle, James R. Tuggle, and Miss Nettie Pitzer, who later became his wife.

 From. their share of the proceeds of the sale of "the old Baptist Church" the Cumberland River Baptist Church bought the Mayhew School house were they worshipped for several years. May 27, 1886, Ellen Eve Matthews sold the Cumberland River Baptist Church one-half acre of land at the corner of Main and Pine Streets. It was not until June 18, 1893, a building was erected and dedicated on this site during the pastorate of Rev. Stephen Golden. March 19, 1921, the Cumberland River Baptist Church purchased their present site, upon which has been erected a beautiful and substantial modern edifice.
 
 
 
 

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      Elijah Foley, first pastor of the Cumberland River Baptist Church, was the son of Moses Foley, also a Baptist minister and Revolutionary War veteran from North Carolina, who soon followed his son to Knox County. Moses Foley was first licensed to solemnize the rites of matrimony in Knox County in 1811, soon after coming here from Washington County, Virginia. He was the father of all the Foleys in Southeastern Kentucky.

 Bishop Asbury, of the Methodist Episcopal Church, made six trips through Southeastern Kentucky over the Boone Trace and the Old State Road in 1790, 1792, 1793, 1803, 1805, and 1809. Of his trips he wrote, as follows:

 Saturday, May 8, 1790 -- We reached Richland Creek, and encamped on the road about nine o'clock at night, having made, by computation, forty-five miles.

 Tuesday, April 3, 1792 -- We reached Richland Creek, and were preserved from harm. About two o'clock it began to rain, and continued most of the day. After crossing the laurel River, which we were compelled to swim, we came to Rockcastle station. Here we found such a set of sinners as made it next to hell itself. Our corn here cost us a dollar a bushel.

 Wednesday, April 10, 1793 -- We hasted on. our way, meeting with our troubles at the foot of Cumberland Mountain, we then went foremost, and traveled at the great rate, and roads being uncommonly good. We fed on the banks of Cumberland River, and kept up the head of Richlands. We then pushed through Little and Big Laurel to the Hazel Patch, Hood's station. After resting here from three to six, we urged our way along the new road to Rockcastle. Fed at the deserted station, etc.

 Wednesday, Oct. 12, 1803 -- It rained today. We encountered the rocks and hills, on the route to Rockcastle river, and stopped dripping and willing, at Senior Faris's; here we had fire, food, prayer, a room and a bed. On Thursday we started and reached Richard Ballinger's; our host gave us entertainment gratis, and we had prayer at night and in the morning. Friday at Claiborne Courthouse.

      Saturday, Oct. 12, 1805 -- (From Rockcastle) We took the path about five o'clock in the morning and came eighteen miles to dinner at Mr. Freeman's. We reached Jobnson's upon Richland Creek. On the Sabbath day we were under the necessity of moving forward slowly, to Ballinger's, where we dined. The evening brought us to Dalton's.

 Sabbath, Oct. 15, 1809 -- I spoke in Bennett's chapel on John III, 19. I spoke very plainly to a gay congregation. Captain Irvin took me home with him. Our way led through Richmond on Monday and over the long hill: we pressed on to Dennis's -- any port in a story. A rough ride of fifteen miles, on Tuesday morning, brought us to Howard's: twenty years ago my find host received me in Georgia. Another rough ride of twenty miles brought us, by moonshine, to Johnson's, where we were entertained like gentlemen. An early start on Wednesday
 
 
 
 
 

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evening gave us advantage of the day, and we came twenty miles to breakfast; we ate and prayed and went forward to Mr. Whites, where we were comfortably lodged and entertained.

      Richard Ballinger was the first county and circuit court clerk of Knox County. He was the son of Joseph Ballinger, a Revolutionary War veteran from Virginia, who settled on Richland Creek in 1798. Several members of this family have distinguished themselves in Kentucky, other states and the nation. The Ballingers are of French extraction. Mr. Freeman, mentioned by the Bishop, was John Freeman, a Revolutionary War veteran from Virginia, who operated a tavern in now Laurel County. Captain Irwin was undoubtedly, Captain Christopher Irvines, who, with his brother, Colonel William Irvine, erected a station in Madison County near Richmond in 1778. Thomas Johnson was a Revolutionary War veteran from Virginia. He is the Mr. Johnson referred to by the Bishop, and was first licensed to operate a tavern in Knox County, September 22, 1800. Mr. White was William White, a Revolutionary War veteran, who was born in Pennsylvania in 1747, and was granted a tavern license in Knox County, October 27, 1800. His tavern stood near Ferndale in now Bell County. John White, son of Hugh L. White, and a grandson of William White, served four terms in Congress, and was elected Speaker of the House of Representatives in 1834. Another grandson, Addison White, served in Congress from 1851-53. John D. White, a great grandson of William White, served in the House of Representatives from 1881-1885. Other members of this family, which is of Irish extraction, attained prominence in the early history of the Mountain section.

 Bishop Asbury does not mention anything about having preached in Southeastern Kentucky, nor of having assisted in the organization of any churches.

 Shortly after the last trip of Bishop Asbury, and possibly a few years before, a meeting house, called Hopewell had been erected on the property of George Farris on the waters of Little Raccoon Creek in now Laurel County. September 29, 1810, George Farris and Patsy (Martha McNeil) Farris, his wife, deeded one acre of ground, whereupon is a meeting house known by the name of "Hopewell", to the Methodist Episcopal Society. This is the first record of a Methodist Church in Southeastern Kentucky. The deed was witnessed by Samuel Cox and Michael Johnson.

 Lindsay Robinson, of Laurel County, who had been interviewed by Russell Dyche, Editor, the Sentinel -- Echo, London, Kentucky, stated that the original church is now known as Bethel, and has been incorporated into a dwelling on Bethel Hill near Pittsburg. He added that the original church, through court procedure during Civil War times, fell to the M.E. Church, South, and that the Methodist Episcopal membership built the new Hopewell church about a mile distant. The Bethel congregation moved their place of worship to East Bernstadt.

 Martha McNeil was the daughter of Jonathan McNeil, Sr., a Revolutionary War veteran from Virginia, and married George Farris in Knox County, January 27, 1803. Two of her brothers, Captain James (War of 1812) and John settled on the
 
 
 
 
 

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Cumberland River below Barbourville in now Knox County. The late Dr. P.A. Farris, of London, was her youngest son. Mrs. C.P. Pearl and George Farris are grandchildren.

 Just when the first Christian Church was built is not definitely known. Thirteen years after the birth of the Christian Church (1830, is an arbitrary date can be settled upon for the founding of this denomination), Monday, 29th day of August, 1843, the following appears in the order books of Knox County:

 The congregation of Christ, a society of Christians, congregated in the Town of Barbourville, having produced satisfactory evidences to this Court that they had selected William Word, Peter Wilson, John Pogue, and Frank Ballinger as their trustees, and that they intended to build in said Town, or its vicinity, a house of worship, it is ordered that they, names aforesaid be spread upon this record that they may, for the purposes intended by said congregation receive a deed of conveyance for so much land as they may purchase for a site for said house.

 In the preceding year, 1842, Rev. John T. Johnson, brother of Vice President Richard M. Johnson and first cousin of John G. Eve, is said to have organized the Barbourville Christian Church. Later, February 25, 1860, the General Assembly of the Commonwealth of Kentucky passed the following act:

 1. That the trustees of the Christian Church in the Town of Barbourville, be, and they are hereby, empowered and authorized to sell the church-house and church property; also the lot on which said church-house stands.

      2. This act shall be in force from the date of its passage.

 It appears that such a church-house had been built on a lot purchased for the purpose sometime between 1843 and 1860. However, no record can be found of such a purchase and sale. Elder William Word was probably the first local pastor.

      February 1, 1866, Benjamin and Susan Ohler, "of the County of Hancocke and State of Illinois," by George M. Adam  sold Peter G. Wilson, Wm. W. Pope and Wm. Matthews, Trustees of the Christian, or Reform Church, their present lot at the corner of High and Liberty Streets, upon which there has been erected a splendid building.

 Six years after the founding of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South (1845), Silas Woodson deeded to Preston Bond, Adam Reader, Jesse Logan, John Jeffreys, Thomas Pope, John Cain, Robert Dowis, Edward Reader and Thomas Jeffreys, Trustees and their successors in trust for the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, a fraction of an acre, being a "part of Lot No. 54 according to the town part of Barbourville." This deed was signed February 6, 1851, by trustees should "erect and build thereon a house or place of Worship for the use of the members of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, according to the rules and disciplines, which from time to time may be agreed upon and adopted by the
 
 
 
 
 

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ministers and preachers of the said Church at their general conferences - authorized by the said general conference to preach and expound God's Holy Word - provided furthermore that, whenever a nonuser of said premises or lot of land shall occur for the uses and purposes herein before described, said lot, the
building excepted, shall revert to said Silas Woodson, his heirs and assigns according to law."

 A brick building was later erected facing High Street near the home of Mr. Harve Hatton. This building, according to Mrs. Martha Costellow, 91 years of age (1938), was allowed to gradually fall down after having been abandoned by the congregation. Rev. Jesse Logan was probably the first pastor.

 Silas Woodson was born May 18, 1819, near Barbourville, Knox County, Kentucky, where he grew to manhood and received a good education. He was the son of Wade Netherland Woodson, Sr., Revolutionary War veteran of Cumberland County, Virginia, and his second wife, Alice Chick. She was the daughter of James Chick, also a Revolutionary War veteran from Virginia, and was married November 11, 1813, in Knox County. Silas Woodson was elected and served as Governor of Missouri from January 1, 1873 to December 31, 1874. Olivia Adams was the daughter of Richardson Adams and the granddaughter of Randolph Adams of Virginia, and sister of Major (Civil War) George Madison (Little Matt) Adams, of Barbourville, who served as a Member of the House of Representatives, U.S. Congress from 1867 to 1875.

 H.M. Woodson, in his "The Woodsons and Their Connections", states that about the time Silas Woodson was sixteen years of age "James G. Blaine, a young man from the State of Maine, came to Barbourville to teach school. While engaged in this occupation, he organized a debating team of which he, being the schoolmaster, was president." At the time Silas Woodson was sixteen years of age, James G. Blaine was only five years old, and did not begin to teach school in the Western Military Institute, Georgetown, Scott County, Kentucky, until 1847, at the age of eighteen years. Obviously this is an error. The Barbourville Debating Society was formed in 1837, when James G. Blaine was seven years of age.

 The first mention of a Methodist Episcopal Church in Barbourville is contained in a deed from G.M. Adams to Colonel (Civil War) James D. Mayhew dated September 23, 1867, which reads in part, as follows:

 "About one acre of land, more or less, lying in the town of Barbourville on the right hand of the road, or Main Cross Street going westwardly, and bounded northwardly by a lot sold and deeded by me to William Sawyers, and southwardly the lot known as the Gran Mitchell lot where Tom Smith and John Davis now live and owned by Harvey Wilson, and bounded eastwardly by Alfred Tinsley's lot. Said land that I am deeding is the same upon which the Methodist Church is being built--."

 The Church acquired title to this lot, which is the present site of the Methodist Episcopal Church, June 9, 1869, by deed from James D. Mayhew to Thomas
 
 
 
 
 

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Faulkner, James R. Tinsley and Thomas J. Pitzer, Trustees. Who the first pastor was is not known. Rev. Alfred Tinsley, who lived on Walnut (College) Street in the rear on adjoining property, could have been.

      January 16, 1888, John M. Tinsley and Adam J. Tinsley, his wife, and Jane R. Helton, of Barbourville, sold Wm. Lock and D.R. Rawlings, trustees of the Barbourville Presbyterian Church "in the United States of America" the site of the Presbyterian Church at the Corner of South Main and Dishman Streets," a part of Lot No. 1 on plot of said town." July 6, 1888, Wm. Lock, "President of the Board of Trustees of the First Presbyterian Church of Barbourville in the County of Knox and State of Kentucky and Presbytery of Transylvania mortgaged to the Board of the Church Erection Fund of the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church in the United States of America" their lot to build a church. A small church was erected. The membership gradually dwindled until services finally ceased September 17, 1938. The property was sold, and the mortgage paid.

 The Methodist Episcopal Church, South, again organized in 1894. G.P. Bain sold Daniel A. Johnson, J.D. Faulkner and T.F. Faulkner, Trustees, a lot at the corner of Wall and Adams Streets, February 21, 1894. A small building, now known as the Faulkner Hotel annex was erected thereon. In 1919, this Church was merged with the Methodist Episcopal and ceased to exist. Thus it was that the Methodist of Barbourville anticipated the reunion of the different branches of Methodism.

 John M. Tinsley was the uncle of Judge Thomas D. Tinsley, brother of W.W. Tinsley, son of George W. Tinsley, grandson of William Tinsley, Jr. and great grandson of William Tinsley, Sr., a Revolutionary War veteran from Virginia. James H. Tinsley, prominent lawyer, judge, and former Federal District Attorney for Eastern Kentucky, was the son of Alfred Tinsley and a first cousin of George W. Tinsley. Thomas Pitzer was the son of Gary Pitzer, of Virginia, and the father of Mrs. Nettie Black, widow of the late Governor James D. Black. J.D. Faulkner was the son of Thomas Faulkner, the grandson of Daniel Faulkner, War of 1812 veteran, and the great grandson of another Francis Faulkner, Revolutionary War veteran of North Carolina. T.F. Faulkner was the son of Francis (Frank) Faulkner and first cousin of J.D. Faulkner. Wm. Lock was the son of Samuel Lock, Sr. and the grandson of Abraham Lock. His mother's maiden name was Sally Hendrickson. She was the daughter of Reubin Hendrickson, who was the son of Ezekiel Hendrickson, a Revolutionary War veteran from Virginia.

 St. Gregory's Church, on Broadway, was built and dedicated to Roman Catholics in 1910. Their first priest was the late Rev. Ambrose Reager, O.S.B., who later became an Abbot in the Benedictine Order, and was respected and liked by Protestants and Catholics.

 In the county, the different arms of the Cumberland River Baptist Church soon erected buildings.

 March 10, 1828, "David Miller deeded to Richardson Herndon, Harris H. Hopper and James T. Smith, Trustees of the Church of Liberty, a certain tract or parcel of land-supposed to be one acre - to begin on a buckeye and beach on a
 
 
 
 
 

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branch east of the meeting house of Liberty on the waters of Brush Creek." This was, and is, a Baptist Church. When it was organized and who the first pastor was, unless Rev. Richardson Herndon first filled its pulpit, is not known.

 The Clear Creek Baptist Church first acquired property the "4th day of March in the Year of our Lord, 1837." On that date Isaac and Dicy Gibson deeded "to the Elders and Deacons belonging to the Clear Creek Church -- one half acre of land off of the upper and of a survey on which the said Isaac Gibson now lives -- on Clear Creek." The name of the first pastor is veiled in obscurity.

      October 5, 1843, John P. Bruce and Charity Bruce, his wife, deeded to Robert George, Jefferson Craig and Samuel Lane, Sr., as Trustees, "all right title and interest unto a certain Meeting house on the southwest end of said Bruce's present farm and one acre of ground immediately around said Meeting house. Said Meeting house is never to be diverted from the purpose of a Meeting house and School house, and no one congregation is to appropriate it to its use to the exclusion of other Christian denominations -- free from all religious professions." This church stood on Yellow creek in now Bell County. For this day and time the donor displayed a commendable spirit, and furnished a practical example of religious tolerance, which could well be emulated today in all parts of the nation.

 In 1866 the first Negro was licensed to solemnize the rites of matrimony in Knox County. "Willis Eve (of color)" was thus licensed as a Baptist minister. Another Negro to be licensed early after slavery was abolished was Sandy Mills, of the Christian denomination, in 1878. June 22, 1888, Ellen Eve Matthews sold Willis Walker, James May and Peter Gregory (Baptist Church committee) the present site of the Negro Baptist Church in Barbourville. There was an African M.E. Church, organized in 1887 by J.R. Knight, which stood at the end of Liberty Street in the rear of the Christian Church. W.F. Westerfield, Com., deeded to John Jones, Alfred Bryand and John Cain the property described above Nov. 26, 1890.

      Many amusing incidents are related about our early preachers and citizens. It is said that, at the time the Rev. J.R. Hicks, who was a stone mason as well as a Baptist minister, was building the present jail of Knox County in 1885, he was invited to preach a sermon on the Lexington Circuit at Artemus. On the way to keep his appointment, he road past the home of "Uncle Press" Reader, a well known eccentric, though witty and sarcastic character, who lived about half way from Barbourville to Artemus. Rev. Hicks saw Uncle Press in the front yard of his home, told him what he was going to do, and asked him if he could not suggest a text for his sermon. Uncle Press, who had evidently disagreed with his Baptist neighbors, replied, "You're building that jail down there, ain't you, Just tell them I go to prepare a place for ye, that where I be, ye may be also," adding "and every dad blasted one of them ought to be there." Uncle Press talked with a nasal twang, which carried an unmistakable emphasis.

 The faults and foibles of the younger generation have been a prolific source of conversation since time immemorial. It is related of the Rev.
 
 
 
 
 

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Greenberry Foley, a Baptist minister of the county, that while preaching a sermon to his congregation, he was interrupted several times by the actions of some younger members. Becoming nettled he reproved them in the following words:
"Young folks of today remind me of a hickory sapling I once cut down. I had gone into the woods in search of a fit tree to make a maul. Seeing a sound looking, beautiful, young hickory sapling I cut it down. But it was rotten at the heart and 'holler' at the butt," which was a sever, though mirth provoking, indictment.

 It is related of the late Alec Baughn, familiarly known locally as Uncle Petey, and an ardent member of the Christian Church, that he usually occupied a regular seat in the old church building near a window, which remained open during the summer months, so that he could chew tobacco and spit through it. One day he meant to spit out the window and lay his hat on the bench beside him. Absentmindedly, he threw his hat out the window and spit on the bench.

 Several miles down the river from Barbourville, in the old days there lived a Baptist preacher by the name of John Lawson. He was well over six feet in height, had a commanding appearance and plenty of native intelligence. His religion was that of the "hard shell" brand. During a several week absence from his flock a strange preacher visited the community, and delivered numerous sermons to large crowds. Returning unexpectedly and hearing of the success attending the stranger's meeting he thus addressed his congregation: "Ladies and Gentlemen, I understand that during my absence strange doctrines have been broadcast throughout the land. And you, Nance Lawson" (referring to one of his cousins), "swallowed bait, hook, sinker and line. You were always one of the contrariest women in Knox County anyway." Straightening to his full height he thundered "Why, anyone with sense enough to know apple butter from thin mud would know such doctrines would no more withstand the Word of God than would the flash from a lightening bug's tail glitter against the noon day sun."

 The late lamented Fr. James Thomson McGarvey, Christian Church pastor in Barbourville for many years, a very fine and lovable character who made for himself a warm spot in the hearts of all, enjoyed a joke very much. With great relish he would relate them to friends, even though at his own expense. At one time Rev. McGarvey owned a bird dog pup, which Lewis (Mike) Hawn had agreed to train for him. Mike Hawn, also well known and like, has an impediment of speech. One day they took their dogs, Mike owning several, down the river road toward Big Poplar creek in a car. It had been raining. At the end of the paved road their difficulties commenced. Mike made several attempts to reach the top of a hill. After each unsuccessful effort the car would slide back to their original starting point. Mike was getting "hotter under the collar" each time. Becoming exasperated he finally exploded. "D-d-da-da-dern it Br-Br-Brother McGarvey if you wer-wer-weren't here I could make it in ten minutes." Mike had an idea a few old fashioned "cuss" words would supply the motive power necessary to negotiate the hill. Arriving at the destination Mike began training the pup. Thinking he would have some fun with Mike about his stammering Rev. McGarvey asked him why it was the dogs understood every word he said whereas only half of what he said
 
 
 
 
 

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was intelligible to others. Mike replied, as follows, we-we-well, Br-Br-Brother McGarvey, some d-d-dogs are smarter than others."

 Lewis (Mike) Hawn is the son of Frank and Alice Barner Hawn, the grandson
of Isaac and Mary Miller Hawn, the great grandson of David and Sally Warfield Miller, the great, great grandson of Reason and Mary Woodson Warfield, and the great, great, great grandson of Wade N. Woodson, Revolutionary War veteran from Virginia.

 In the latter part of Victorian era, prior to the "Gay Nineties," two old Negroes, Aunt Mary Tye and Uncle Harrison, stayed with and worked for Andrew M. Decker and his wife, Lida Sawyers Decker. This was during a time when numberous inhabitants would order shoes by mail. To obtain a fit, one placed his bare foot on a blank piece of paper and marked around it, enclosing the outline thus made with the order. On the eve of a Sunday School picnic at the Methodist Church, Aunt Mary had ordered a pair of shoes in this manner. The day of the picnic Aunt Mary put on her new shoes. Mrs. Decker had her cook enough food to fill a large split basket. With Uncle Harrison carrying the basket Aunt Mary went to the picnic. She helped serve many visitors. During this time her new shoes had begun to give her trouble. After everyone had been served and all of the food eaten Aunt Mary made her way painfully up the street "cussing" as she went. Uncle Harrison, following along behind, had difficulty keeping Aunt Mary from seeing him smile when she would complain, as follows, "Them dam crojers eat up all we had. Even called my custard buttermilk." Arriving home Aunt Mary crippled down the stairway to her quarters in the basement and sat dawn with a weary sigh. Taking one shoe off she began to look at it and "cuss". There my have been fancier "cussers", but none so loud and feelingly expressive. Be that as it may, Mr. Decker overhearing her, went to the door and calling down asked, what is the matter, Aunt Mary?" Recognizing his voice she replied, "Mr. Decker, I knows hell ain't more'n a half inch from the hell of this shoe."

      Prior to the Civil War "white folks" permitted the slaves to join their churches. Regular seats in the rear of the room were assigned them. The same rules and regulations governed both whites and blacks. Dancing was then regarded as very indecent and sinful. It was an offense for which a member could be excommunicated. The expression, he or she danced their way out of the church was common. Belonging to the Christian Church in Barbourville before the Civil War was Tuggle a Negro, who could not suppress a desire to commit this heinous offense. "Called on the carpet" he had no excuse to offer. The decision was that he be "churched" for fiddling and forlicking.

                                 SCHOOLS

      At the time of the establishment of Knox County the educational system of Kentucky consisted of a central university and several academies in the various counties. Kentucky Academy and Transylvania Seminary were united in 1798, and called Transylvania University. "The University", according to Judge Charles Kerr, in the History of Kentucky, "Was to be the capstone of the whole educational edifice, of which the academies were to make up the well-laid
 
 
 
 
 

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foundations."

 During this time throughout the state the so-called old field schools
flourished. For many years thereafter subscription schools were taught by wandering pedagogues and preachers.

 Kentucky inherited her school system from Virginia. In his will, the Father of our Country, George Washington, a native Virginian, had deplored the fact that many of our young students had felt it necessary to go abroad to obtain an education. He left a bequest to a national university to be established in the District of Columbia, and smaller bequests to Virginia academies. In this connection it is well to remember that Knox County was created the same year Washington's will was probated, in 1792.

 Large families were the rule among early Knox County plantation owners. Many of these early settlers taught their own children to read, write and figure to the rule of three. For textbooks they used the Bible, and combination readers, writers and arithmetics. In Communities where the population was numerous enough to justify it they erected school houses and employed subscription teachers. In 1808 reference is made to "the burnt school-house" in a "road-view" down Meadow Creek. September 6, 1819, it was ordered that Goodman Oldham leave to take out of this office a subscription paper signed by sundry person to Henry Woodson for teaching of a school, and assigned by said Woodson to said Oldham, and sent by Lot Pitman, Esq. to this office with other papers on an appeal, John Freeman, Appellan vs. said Oldham, Appellee, but not carried into effect." There are numerous other references to school houses in early Knox County.

 In effect at the time Knox County was established was the practice of "indentured servants." Orphans and children of indigent parents were "bound out" to family heads, farmers and craftsmen until they reached certain ages, as follows:

      This indenture, made this 7th day of March in the year of our Lord, one thousand, eight hundred and five, and of the Commonwealth the thirteenth, between Archabald Clayton, of the County of Knox and State of Kentucky, of the one part, and William Gibson, of the said County and State afs'd, of the other part, WITNESSETH, that the said Archabald Clayton hath volentarily put, placed and bound his infant son, Jeremiah Clayton, and by these presents doth put, and place, and bind his said son to be an apprentice with him, the said William Gibson, to dwell till the said Jeremiah Clayton shall attain the age of twenty-one years, which will be on the tenth day of September in the year one thousand, eight hundred and twenty-one. During all which term the said Archabald Clayton doth covenant and agree to and with the said William Gibson that the said Jeremiah Clayton the said William Gibson shall well and faithfully serve in all such lawful business as the said Jeremiah Clayton shall be put into by his said master, according to the best of the power, wit and ability of him, the William Gibson, and the said William Gibson on his part, doth covenant and agree to and with the said Jeremiah Clayton that he, the said William Gibson, will well and
 
 
 
 
 

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truly instruct the said Jeremiah Clayton in the ART, OR MYSTERY OF FARMING, which the said William Gibson now followeth, and will use due dilligence to make
the said Jeremiah Clayton as perfect in the said art, or mystery of farming as possible, and that the said William Gibson will allow to the Jeremiah Clayton good and sufficient mat, drink, apparel, washing, lodging and all other things suitable for an apprentice during said term, and also have the said Jeremiah Clayton instructed, or taught, reading, writing and arithmetic as far as the rule of three, and at the expiration of the term aforesaid will furnish the said Jeremiah Clayton with a horse of the value of twelve pounds and a good, new suit of fine clothing over and above his ordinary clothing. In witness whereof the parties of these presents hath hereunto set their bands and affixed their seals this day and year first above written.

                                            (Signed) Arch Clayton
                                                 William Gibson

Signed, sealed and delivered in presence of John Ballinger. (Signed) Josiah Clendennen. Stephen Bradley.

 Johnston Woodall was "bound out" to Robert Parson till he reached the age of twenty-one years, which was March 19, 1825, and was to be instructed "in the art, or mystery, of the shoemaking trade."

 Ira Martin was bound out to William Phelps till he reached the age of Twenty-one years, which was August 1, 1820, to be taught the bricklaying trade.

      Robert Henson, son of William Henson, was bound out to John Anderson till he reached the age of twenty-one years, which was May 10, 1830, to be taught "the art of a blacksmith," and, at the end of his term furnish him "a set of blacksmith tools, viz, good bellows, anvil, vise, sledge hammer, hand hammer and two pair of tongs," also "two suits of clothes for every day and one good suit fitten for the Lord's day."

      The first reference to the Knox County Academy reads, as follows:

      "Agreeable to an act of the General Assembly, passed on their first session in the year 1808, of Kentucky to appropriate 6,000 acres of land lying in any part of this Commonwealth not otherwise appropriated for the purpose of fixing of an academy in the several counties, wherefore in behalf of Knox County, agreeable to the laws on that subject made and provided, it is ordered that Richard Ballinger, Richardson Herndon, Thomas Johnson, Thomas Tuggle, Samuel Cox, George Brittain and Angus Moss be, and is hereby appointed Trustees to said Academy, and that Joseph Eve and Andrew Craig, Esquires, to be appointed to locate and survey the said mentioned 6,000 acres of land, and carry the same unto a grant, and that they do enter into bond and security in the Clerk's office in the sume of $2,000 to have the same duly entered, surveyed and patented agreeable to law, and for such services rendered they shall have one half of said lands to be divided agreeable to quantity and quality, subject to
 
 
 
 
 

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division as lands are between residents and non-residents, etc.

 Later the name of this apparently non-existent institution of learning was changed to the Knox County Seminary. The name of the first treasurer to be found on the records is that of John Chick, who furnished a bond of $1,000 with Richardson Herndon as security.

 There is no record of the erection of any seminary buildings. Since land sold at from five to ten cents per acre it is highly in-probable there ever were any such buildings. Provisions of an act of the General Assembly, approved January 31, 1812, permitted the trustees of any seminary of learning, whenever they deemed it expedient, to sell the whole or any part of their donation lands under the supervision of the circuit courts of the counties. The circuit courts, upon application of a majority of trustees, were empowered to appoint two persons to view the lands and arrive at a fair valuation. After being advised if the courts were of the opinion that a "fund in money would be more productive" than retaining possession of the land commissioners were appointed to sell same.

 Apparently the land donated to the Knox County Seminary was sold, June 3, 1811, it was "ordered that the Trustees, or the Court of Knox County to convey the Seminary land allowed to Knox County Court aforesaid to any person legally showing what they, or any of them, are justly entitled to whenever the patents do issue for the same." The money received from the sale of the donation land must have been applied to the support of the schools throughout the county. There is no record of its receipt or disbursal. Trustees of Knox County Seminary in 1850 were Benjamin Eve, James F. Ballinger, Ambrose Y. Anderson, Samuel F. Miller and George M. Adams.

 March 11, 1822, the first record of school districts reads, as follows; "The Court proceeded to fix the school districts in the County, agreeable to an act of Assembly, which bounds are ordered to be entered of record." A description of these bounds could not be found. An act of the General Assembly, approved December 18, 1821, "provided that one-half the net profits of the Bank of the Commonwealth should be set apart as the "Literary Fund," to be distributed in just proportions to the counties of the State for the support of a general system of education." according to Collins. The bank failed a few years later. As a result county schools received but little benefit from this act.

 In 1830 the Legislature enacted a law giving the people of the State a system of common schools. County Courts were empowered to lay off districts of convenient size, and appoint three commissioners to manage the schools. The people of the counties might vote not over fifty cents poll tax and six and one-half cents on the $100 for school purposes. As can be determined the responsibility for the organization and maintenance of this system was placed directly on the counties, which proved disastrous. No record of any action by the Knox County Court can be found in the county court clerk's office.

 An act, passed by the legislature February 16, 1838, established a new
 
 
 
 
 

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educational system. The school fund was to be apportioned among the different
counties in accordance with the number of children of school age. In pursuance of this act the county court July 23, 1838, passed the following order:

      "On motion of the school commissioners it is ordered by the court that the following person be appointed to district the County of Knox into a convenient number of school districts in pursuance of an act of the last Legislature of this Commonwealth, to-wit: Frank Ballinger, William Hopper, William L. Ewing, Henry Woodson, James T. Smith, Thomas Dean, A.Y. Anderson, Alfred Tinsley, Robert Hays, Henry S. Pope, Earch S. Brown, Peter G. Wilson, John Trosper, James Word, Elijah Harris, James Parton, Spender Tuggle, Richardson Tuggle, Henry H. Tye, and Benjamin Tuggle (Surveyor), and to ascertain the number of children in each district between the ages of 7 and 17, and that they return the same to the Clerk of this court as soon as may be."

 Apparently the Knox County Court had appointed Commissioners under the authority conferred in the act of 1830. The records do not reveal their names.

 The first schools in Knox County and the entire state of Kentucky were taught for three months terms. Later the periods of time was extended to five months.

 A report of the County Commissioner, Alfred Tinsley, of Barbourville, Kentucky for the year ending December 21, 1867, follows; this report shows how many children were in school in each district. It also shows how much money was received from the state in each district. No names.

The form was written with both vertical and horizontal writing which my scanner would not show.

 Among school item relative to schools for Negro children the following appears:

 In 1870 to Elizabeth Gregory for teaching school for three months with 25 scholars. Thirty ($30.00) Dollars. To Thomas Gregory for teach' school for three months with 21 scholars. Fifty ($50.00) Dollars. To America Mace for teaching school for three months with 20 scholars, Thirty ($30.00) Dollars. To George Mace for teaching school for three months with 29 scholars. Fifty ($50.00) Dollars. To George Cope for teaching school for three months with 17 scholars. Fifty ($50.00) Dollars. All of the above named are for teaching Negro schools.

 It was not until much later that high schools were established in the county under Superintendent Evans at Boone Heights and Lynn Camp. Later Junior high schools were established at New Bethel, Kay Jay, Fount, Dewitt and Flat Lick under Supt. George Messer. Knox Central is a Senior high school. Rosenwald, for negro students, is a senior high school. Both schools established by Supt. Messer.
 
 
 
 
 
 

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                             UNION COLLEGE

 It has been stated Union College was founded by the Kentucky Conference of
the Methodist Episcopal Church. This is an error. Union College Corporation was first organized October 21, 1879, by the following citizens of Southeastern Kentucky: W.W. Tinsley, J.N. Brafford, Green Elliott, A.L. Monroe, D.B. Faulkner, G.M. Parrott, Jesse T. Wilson, James D. Black, Thomas McDaniel, John Lay, W.B. Anderson, John Dishman, W.E. Dishman, A.H. Harriett, John B. Jones, John P. Davis, John H. Wilson, H.H. Hunter, Wm. Locke, T.G. Gibson, Parks D. Brittain, J.T. Gibson, A.Y. Culton, O.P. Herndon, J.H. Tinsley, A.E. Pogue, E.E. Sawyers, J.R. Sawyers, J.R. Hicks, Jane R. Halton, J.M. Dishman, John N. Baughnan, T.J. Wyatt, John A. Black and Daniel A. Johnson.

 Capital stock of the corporation was $20,000. The first officers were as follows: A.H. Harriett, President, W.W. Sawyers, Vice-president, James D. Black, Secretary, Green Elliott, Treasurer, and John Dishman, Attorney. These five officers, together with Peter Hinkle and W.B. Anderson, were appointed the first directors.

 Prior to incorporation, A.H. Harriett, an educator, had attended a teacher's institute in Barbourville. He recognized the need of a higher institution of learning for mountaineers, and, at once, set about interesting influential citizens. The plans for the organization of the college were discussed freely in the present home of Mrs. Lida Sawyers (Andrew M.) Dicker by Mr. Harriett and W.W. Sawyers, who became the chief buyer of stock and the most liberal contributor.

 A.H. Harriett continued as president until the close of the 1881 to 1882 year. He was succeeded by Thomas Poynter, who headed the institution for one school year. H.P. Grider then leased the buildings and grounds for two years, during which time he conducted the college.

 October 25, 1886, the buildings and grounds were sold, as the result of a suit by the First National Bank of Standford against the trustees of Union College, to Green Elliott for $4,425.00. This was not two-thirds of its appraised value. October 24, 1887, the redemption rights were sold to D. Stevenson for $1.00.

 March 19, 1888, W.F. Costellow, master commissioner, Knox Circuit Court, made a deed to D. Stevenson, H.D. Milward, J.G. Bruce, G.W. Monlyhon, J.R. Eads, B.P. Lewis, S.G. Pollard, J.D. Hearne, J.D. Walsh and J.H. Tinsley and their successors in office, composing the Board of Education of the Kentucky Annual Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church.

 W.W. Sawyers later succeeded A.H. Harriet as president of Union College Corporation. He built the first administration building at a considerable loss. Some subscribers for stock had failed to pay. His two sons, E.E. and J.R. Sawyers and his son-in-law, T.J. Wyatt, were prevailed upon by him to buy stock
and make other contributions. Later, after Dr. Daniel Stevenson became
 
 
 
 
 

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president, he donated five rooms of desks to the school.

 The first term of Union College was conducted by President Harriett on the second floor of the present store building of Miller and Ball. At that time the store and building was owned by James Gibson, who also was a liberal contributor.

      Other early contributors were: M.S. Costellow, J.D. Jarvis, G.P. Bain, J.T. Pitzer, E.C. Lyttle, E. Pogue, J. Harriett, J.M. Tinsley, R. Bain, W. Amis, J. Brogan, T.S. Wilson, J. Colson, J.H. Catron, I.C. Cartron, G.W. Tye, D.Y. Lyttle, T.J. Culton, J.E. Harriett, F. Gibson, P. Hinkle, S.F. Brafford, J.M. Stewart, A. Brittain, John Goodin, John G. Eve, Thos Henson, Wheat and Duff, Louisville, Kentucky, and Bamber, Bloom and Co., Louisville, Kentucky. There could have been other contributors as early records are incomplete.

 Due to the fact that any of the early founders religious beliefs were different, the late Governor James E. Black first suggested the name Union for the College. Your writer of the above facts conversed with the late Governor several times. He insisted that said facts ought to be published.

 In 1906, the Administration Building of the college was struck by lightning, and burned. Shortly thereafter certain members of the Board of Education tried to move the college down-state. Postmaster George Tye, of Barbourville (1938), states that it was largely through the efforts of Andrew M. Decker, local member of the Board of Education, that the college was kept in Barbourville.

 Union College continues to serve people of the mountain sections. Its graduates are prominent in all walks of life throughout the nation. At present it is a member of the Southern Association of Colleges and Secondary Schools, and in good standing.

 Presidents of Union College, and their terms in office, since the school was purchased by the Kentucky Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church follows:

 Dr. Daniel Stevenson, 1886-1887; Rev. James P. Faulkner, 1897-1905; Rev. James W. Easley, 1905-1910; Hon. James D. Black, 1910-1911; Prof. Percy L. Ports, 1912-1914; Rev. E.R. Overley (acting President), 1914; Rev. Ezra T. Franklin, 1915-1928; Rev. John 0. Gross, 1928-1938; and Dr. Conway Boatman, 1938-.

 W.W. Sawyers, mentioned as the chief founder of Union College, was the son of Larkin R. Sawyers and Elizabeth Chiles Sawyers and the grandson of Thomas and Mary Sawyers. Thomas Sawyers was an officer in a Virginia Regiment during the Revolutionary War.

      Andrew M. Decker, a member of the Board of Education for the State of
Kentucky of the Methodist Episcopal Church for many years, was the son of Andrew
 
 
 
 
 

                                                                        69

M. Decker and Eliza Jane Hurst Decker, the grandson of Andrew Decker and Rhoda
Hunt Decker and the great grandson of George and Ailsey Decker. George Decker was a Revolutionary War veteran from Orange County, New York.

      A. (Archibald) Brittain, an early contributor to Union College, was the son of Levi Brittain and the grandson of Nathaniel Brittain and Elizabeth Parks Brittain. Nathaniel Brittain was one of seven brothers, all of whom served in the Continental Army from North Carolina in the Revolutionary War.

 In 1891, S.J. Watts, E.J. Watts and Joseph Yeager established at Flat Lick, Kentucky, named Union Normal College. The directors, named above, mortgaged to W.S. Woodson and W.S. Stewart, Hugh Baker and W.A. Howard the following described property:

 "One lot of land, containing three across, to be the same more or less, at 'Old Flat Lick, Knox County, Kentucky', a part of the widow Jones" dower and set a part by deed as college lands, also the building on said land, it being 30 X 60 feet, two stories hight."

 This college continued until about 1895, at which time the building burned.

 At Barbourville in 1899, the Barbourville Baptist Institute was organized with R.L. Baker as the first president. The first trustees were: J.T. Stamper, J.H. Davis, M.A. Plank, P.D. Brittain, W.J. Caudill, W.F. Amis and H.T. Brown.
Among other contributers to this school were the following: John Parker, A.J. and J.W. Croley, W.N. Golden, J.W. Hughes, J.F. Hughes, J.J. Tye, H.H. Owens, B.C. Parker, W.R. Marsee, W.H. Detherage, H.B. Clark, W.R. Lay, W.W. Evans, C.C. Smith, J.H. Lawson, Victoria Rice, A.C. Black, W.T. Stewart, W.H. Green, D.B. Smith, J.H. Blackburn, James Golden, T.J. Moore, R.H. MacMillian and W.B. Sutton.

 This school continued in operation until the end of the school year 1935. Later the plant and grounds were sold to Knox County for the establishment of a high school, called the Knox Central High School.

 As the result of an election held in Barbourville in 1890, a graded school was established. In 1914, under Supt. Hugh Oldfield, this school was made a high school, and has continued as such until the present time.

 To our friends throughout the state of Kentucky, we desire to state that the only difference we can see between education in the mountains and in other sections of the state is that whereas they "raise their craps of terbaccer" we "raise our craps of corn."
 
 
 
 
 

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                               BARBOURVILLE

 October 27, 1800, the four county court and two quarter court magistrates voted on a motion "for fixing the seat of Justice-and the motion fell, three for the Flat Lick and three for the mouth of Richland."

 After the vote "James Barbour came into court and offered to give to the Court two acres for a publick square and six and thirty acres of Land to be laid off in a town in convenient lotts and then sold and half the money which shall arise from the sale of s'd lotts he will make a gift of to the Court for the use of the county, the other half he will keep himself-provided the s'd Court shall fix the Seat of Justice in this County at s'd place-near the mouth of Richland Creek."

There must have been "method in the madness" of a tie vote. It brought about the Barbour offer, which was unanimously accepted.

 John Logan, Jr., James Mahan, John Reddick (Ruddick), John Ballinger, James Johnson, Josiah Collins mentioned is thought to have been the same Josiah Collins who cut the first tree on the site of Lexington, Kentucky. Later he moved back to Fayette County.

      At the next meeting of the court, January 26, 1801, a plan of the town was submitted by the commissioners. It was ordered to be recorded. "The s'd Town is to be cawld Barbourville."

 For assisting to lay off the town of Barbourville the following persons were ordered paid the sums opposite their names: Isaiah Goin for two days services nine shillings, John Goin for two days services nine shillings, Clabon Goin for one day's service four shillings and six pence, James Johnson for two days service nine shillings, Joseph Johnson for one day's service four shillings and six pence and to John Ballinger for "laying off the town thirty-nine dollars and fifty cents, equal to eleven pounds and seventeen shillings."

 The first trustees of Barbourville were John Logan, Jr., James Mahan, John Reddick, John Ballinger, James Johnson, Alexander Goodin, James Culton, Richard Ballinger, Thomas Johnson and Alexander Stewart.

 James Barbour early came to Kentucky from eastern Virginia. In 1779, a Virginia land act set up a court of four commissioners to examine land claims and award valid titles. James Barbour was a member of the court, which first convened at Harrodstown in 1779. This was the first court of any kind in Kentucky.

 New trustees for Barbourville were appointed October 27, 1801, namely, John Reddick, Richard Ballinger, James Culton, Richardson Herndon and James Hodges.

 March 5, 1804, John Alsup was appointed "Constable for the Town of Barbourville, and he, together with Elijah and Thos. Tuggle, acknowledged their
 
 
 
 
 

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bond in the Penalty of 150 pounds as the law directs." Thus John Alsup was the first police official of the new town.

 The limits of Barbourville must have been vague, although the plan of the town had already been approved. August 2, 1801, it was "ordered that all the citizens within one mile of the town of Barbourville be exempted from working on a publick road but shall be considered as citizens of the said town and shall work accordingly." The reason for this may have been a lack of "male laboring titheables" within the town limits. In 1810, the population of Barbourville was 55, men, women, children and slaves.

 It will have been noted in this book that the first house mentioned as being in Barbourville was that of James Johnson. The July 1801 term or county court was held at his home "near the Publick Square in the Town of Barbourville." In December of the same year court was held at the house of Richardson Herndon in Barbourville. Just who built the first house is not known.

 Lot No. 1 in the original plot of Barbourville, which extended from Croley's store to and including the new Mitchell Building on the south side of the public square and back to Dishman street, one half acre square, was sold for $16 to Richardson Herndon, great, great grandfather of Dr. Dan and Colonel Ben Herndon. In 1802, Richardson Herndon also bought "Lott No. 19 in the corner of Long and Flatt streets, No. 41 at the end of Flatt street and adjoining No. 18, being an outside Lott in said town, and No. 42 adjoining Nos. 41 and 19 at the end of Middle street, an outside Lott of said town, which said four Lotts makes a Square agreeable to the plan of said town." The consideration was $350.

 Isaac King bought "Lott No. 46 for $5.25." and Lott No. 47 lying on Long street for $6.11 and "Lott No. 62 lying between Indian street and Liberty Street and cornering on River Street for $15.50." Isaac King was from North Carolina, and had stopped briefly in Claiborne County, Tennessee.

 John McClary, of Berkeley County, Virginia, bought "Lott No. 66 for $8.50, Lott No. 75 in the corner of Long Street and Short Street for $7.74, Lotts No. 22 and 45 for $10, Lott No. 35 for $24.25, and Lott No. 44 for $2.50" in 1804.

 February 14, 1822, Joseph Eve mortgaged lots No. 22, 23, 24, 45, 46, 47, 48, and 49, "on one of which lots there is a brick dwelling house two stories high" to James Lynn, of Sullivan County, Tennessee, for $5 and a debt of $3,483. The brick dwelling mentioned stood on the site of the Baptist Church, and was later owned by Ben Eve, brother of Joseph Eve. This was the first brick residence erected with the present city limits. It was inherited by Col. John G. Eve, son of Ben Eve, and within the author's memory became known as the Eve Hotel. Joseph Eve also conveyed by mortgage his interest in lots No. 1 and 11, "No. 11 being the lot upon which a hewed log house with a brick chimney now stands and now occupied by Wesley M. Garnett (brother-in-law of Joseph Eve) and deeded by William Stephenson to said Joseph and Benjamin Eve." "Lott No. 1 is
 
 
 
 
 
 

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the lott upon which a store house stands adjoining the publick square in said town and now occupied by said Joseph and Benjamin Eve, and was deeded to said Joseph and Benjamin Eve by John Cummin."

 Lot No. 11 is now occupied by the College Corner and my own Cages, Cole, Hughes & Company and Cole's Variety store facing the public square on the east. Lot No. 1 is the present site of the stores of Croley and Hopper and the new Mitchell Building.

 In 1824, Lewis H. Scruggs sold Henry C. Scruggs Lots No. 13, 14, 34, and 35 for $410.

 In 1828, William Williams mortgaged to Samuel Pilkington, of Lexington, Kentucky, "the houses and four half acre lots" for merchandise received.

 In 1832, Joseph and Betsy and Benjamin and Francis Eve sold to John Jackson Senr., of London, Kentucky, lots No. 1 and 12 for $450, "adjoining the public square, and on the main street running to the river, and adjoining Epperson's lot on the north, and Franklin Ballinger's lots on the south, and Liberty street on the east."

      September 28, 1848, Thomas C. Woods bought from Benjamin H. Ohler lots No. 8 and 9 for $650, "and being the same deeded by John Woods and wife to the said Benjamin H. Ohler, and now on record in the Clerk's office of the Knox County Court, and upon me of which lots the said Thomas C. Woods hath lately erected a new store house, with the exception of the office and the ground it occupied built by S. Woodson." This office, formerly occupied by Silas Woodson and Samuel F. Miller, still stands in the rear of Miller & Ball.

 In 1812, it was "ordered that Richardson Herndon and Andrew Craig be appointed commissioners for the Settlement of Barbourville, to ascertain and lay off the lands, etc. agreeable to the act authorizing of the County Court to appoint commissioners, hereby giving them full power to act as such."

 The population of Barbourville in 1830 was 138, 1840--224, 1850--184, 1860--230 and 1870--438. At present (1939) Barbourville has a population of approximately 3,000, greater Barbourville 6,000.

     Trustees of Barbourville in 1806 were Richard Ballinger, Richardson Herndon, Wm. B. McNutt, Arthur Neil and Andrew Craig, in 1810 Richard Ballinger, Richardson Herndon, James Smith, Joseph Eve and Reason Warfield, in 1812 Richard Ballinger, Richardson Herndon, Peter Engle, Benjamin Catching and Thomas Tuggle, in 1821 Joseph Eve, Peter Engle, Joseph Persons and Wesley M. Garnett, in 1827 Hiram Jones, Wm. Williams and John Patton, in 1862 James M. Dishman, H.K. Wilson, Thos. J. Pitzer, Richardson T. Tuggle and W.B. Anderson, and 1868 W.B. Anderson, T.J. Pitzer, H.K. Wilson, W.F. Costellow and B.F. Pierson. At the time Barbourville was first incorporated in 1890 the trustees were, according to fragmentary evidence Thos. J. Pitzer, W.B. Anderson, S.B. Dishman and A.M.
 
 
 
 
 

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Becker.

 Since it was first founded Barbourville has been noted for its town springs. There was such a spring in the rear of the present Community house near College Street, onee in the rear of the residence of Hon. Sawyers Smith and one just below the former home of Mack Hammons west of the court house. This latter spring was deeded to the trustees of Barbourville. The legislature authorized John H. Davis, on behalf of the trustees, to sell this "spring lot."

 December 18, 1856, "On motion it is ordered that R.T. Tuggle, Jas. M. Dishman, Wm. B. Anderson, Augustus Culton, Thos. J. Beughnan, Jas. T. Goshen, John G. Eve, Dave Marcum, Wm. W. Gibson, Isaac Henson, John M. Dickinson, E.H. Sawyers, A.E. Pogue, John W. Keiningham, Jordan Wilson, G.M. Adams, Jr., S.H. Renfro, A.J. Henson, H.K. Wilson, J.W. Sparks, Jas. M. Slatton, Wm. J. Heddens, Rich Herndon, Thos. Davis, Green Adams, William Sawyers, John J. Meed, Wm. Tuggle, Sr., Tice Cain, Peter Cain, Jas. T. Tuggle, Jas. M. Pope, Thadeus Burkett, V. Jackson, William Hopper, E. Reeder, David Tyerrs, Wash Reeder, Drewry Tye, Calvin Brogans, John Rogers, George Hinkle, Ruff Ward, I.T. Cotton, John Higgins, Benjamin Shorter and Jacob Goshen be, and they are hereby appointed, a patrols for the Barbourville district in Knox County, and the said James M. Dishman and R.T. Tuggle divide the above patrol equally and act as captains of said two companies, and that they are hereby authorized to patrol said district here-in each month during this continuance in office."

 The first bank in Barbourville and southeastern Kentucky was chartered by act of the legislature January 26, 1818. Richard Ballinger was cashier, and one of the directors. For more complete details reference is made to the act, quoted in this book. The act establishing these banks was repealed February 10, 1820. In 1854, a branch of the State Bank of Richmond was opened in Barbourville. This bank stood on the site of the Lawson building. It was moved out of Barbourville during the Confederate invasion of 1862. In 1875, there was another bank established. About 1890 Miller and Miller organized a bank. It was owned and operated by Joseph Miller and his son, James Miller. This was preceded by the Cumberland Valley Bank, organized February 14, 1888. The first meting of stockholders elected Green Elliott president and Wm. Lock vice president. C.F. Davison was named cashier. His salary was $1500 annually, and free house rent. This bank occupied the present residence of G.W. Tye. Its stockholders were John G. Barrett, W.R. Ray, C.F. Davidson, C. Rodes Barrett, Green Elliott, Admr. Dowis estate, Green Elliott, Mrs. M.P. Dowis, Frank Ingram, T.S. Ward, John Dishman, J.E. Smith, John H. Wilson, P. Hendrickson, J.L. Hemphill, Wm. Dock, Euphemis Pogue, S.B. Dishman, J.T. Gibson, J.H. Tinsely, J.W. Keele, V.L. Jackson, J.T. Pope, Wm. Phipps, G.W. Vermillion, Wm. Lee, J.M. Lock, W.B. Anderson, W.B. and S.W. Saylor, G.H. Albright, J.S. Kelly, W.L.C. Huff, C.D. Moss, Daniel K. Williams, W.C. Wynn and Elkahah Wynn.

 The Cumberland Valley Bank was merged with the First National Bank May 17, 1902, and known as the First National Bank. The first president under the new name and management was John G. Matthews. Mrs. M.P. Dowis was vice president. The directors were Jesse W. Keele, F.R. Barner, J.M. Lock, and S.B. Dishman. Wm. Lock was named cashier at a salary of $500 per year.
 
 
 
 

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      The National Bank of John A. Black was organized about 1890. During the second year of President Franklin D. Roosevelt's administration both the National Bank of John A. Black and the First National Bank were closed. The two were soon merged, and known by the name of the Union National Bank, with Kenneth H. Tuggle as president.

      Organized about 1920 the First State Bank closed its doors in 1938.

 During the land boon in 1890 several acts were passed by the legislature establishing various business enterprises in Barbourville. There was an act to establish the Barbourville Gas-Light Company. The capital stock was $25,000. The directors were James Givens, Archer Harmon, C.F. Davidson, J.D. Black, E.F. Hurt, S.B. Dishman, D.K. Rawlings and J.H. Tinsley. Another act was passed to establish the Barbourville Safety Vault and Trust Company. Still another was to incorporate the Barbourville Water Works Company. The directors of this water works company were John A. Black, S.B. Dishman, J.H. Tinsley, W.J. Caudill, C.F. Davdison and D.K. Rawlings. An act was also passed to amend the charter of the Barbourville Street Railroad Company. Barbourville was one of the last towns in the United States to dispense with a horse drawn street car.

      As has been stated the first newspaper in Barbourville was the Mountain Echo, first published in 1872 by John H. Wilson and W.E. Ward. The Peoples News, owned and operated by Walter S. Hudson and Charley Davis, was first published in 1906. It ceased publication in 1914. The Mountain Advocate commenced publication in 1903. The first editor was D.W. Clark. It continued to serve the community. From 1880 to 1900 local papers were published by Lewis Sampson, William B. Hudson, A.M. Decker and W.W. Sawyers, Jr.

 Barbourville is approximately 1,000 feet above sea level. It is a modern little city in the foothills of the Cumberlands, with electric lights, natural gas, water works, etc. It would prefer to be known as a city of churches and schools. Neighboring cities say that Barbourville produces school teachers and politicians.

 Barbourville has had several quaint characters. Many former residents will remember Aunt Luce Warfield, old colored woman, who would "doll up in the most outlandish clothes." There was also the "portah" for the Dishman house, better Known as Ambrose Rabbit. At one time a guest of the Dishman House left a call for 4 o'clock in the morning. He wanted to catch a train at 4:20 a.m. Ambrose overslept, and woke him up in time to hear the train as it was leaving the depot.

      Picture shows have been a town luxury almost from the time they were first introduced in this country. The author remembers seeing a picture of Spanish-American War scenes a short time after that war was over. The reels were shown in the Union College Chapel. Traveling shows continued to make Barbourville until W.W. Sawyers, Jr. opened a picture show. Later Sam Davidson operated such
a show in the Costellow, building. Guy L. Dickinson and James Miles then made attempts to establish themselves in the moving picture business. At present the city has one of the best and most elaborate theaters in the mountains. It is
 
 
 
 
 

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known as the Mitchell theater, and is owned and operated by Charles Mitchell.

 In 1939 there are five large, modern clothing stores, three hardwares, two furniture, twelve grocery, three drug, two Ten Cent, a Lumber company, and several Ice Cream stores in Barbourville at present. Five restaurants cater to the public. There is one bank, and one hospital. Practically all merchantile, grocery and other business establishments are financially sound, and have been given a first class rating by Bradstreet & Dunn. Almost any native will tell you that depressions do not hurt us and prosperity does not help us a great deal. There is a branch of the Jellico wholesale grocery company in the city, as well as an A & P store. Most streets are paved. The city owns the electric plant. There are two hotels, and several rooming houses. This is a far call from the straggling town of the author's youth, when Barbourville had mud holes for streets, cinder, board and a few natural stone sidewalks, no electric lights or water works, and only a few hundred people.

 In those old days some families had iron gates, which would swing out, in front of their homes. In the absence of electric lights many youngsters, anxious to get home before "boogers" commenced to roam, would start running on the sidewalk. And those gates would interpose a barrier to progress. They would flatten out against them. However the author believes that many of those same boys, now grown, regardless of the bruises sustained, would like to flatten out against those gates once more.

 All this took place in the days when, if a stranger asked a native what the population of the town was, the invariable reply was, "Wait until Sunday. You can see for yourself. The whole population, men, women and children, will be up at the depot to let the train by."

 Most residents of Barbourville are descendants of Revolutionary War and Colonial parents. Lack of space will not permit detailed accounts. Besides those mentioned elsewhere, Mrs. John Croley, wife of a local merchant, traces her ancestry-as follows: Samuel Buchanan, an Irish Emigrant to Virginia in 1702, had a son, Andrew, who had a son, John, who had a daughter, Elizabeth, who married George Washington Hamblin (George Washington Hamblin was the son of Pierce Dant Hamblin, Revolutionary War Veteran from Virginia), who had a daughter, Abbie Hamblin, who married James Teague, who had a son, Green Clay Teague, who had a daughter, Nancy Teague, who married Henry Clark, who had a daughter, Ida Clark, who married John Croley (The Croley's are a Virginia family. Their ancestry can be traced to Revolutionary War and Colonial parents.)

      Charles Black, local druggist, traces his ancestry as follows: James Chick, Revolutionary War veteran from Virginia, had a son, John (married Fanny Ballinger), who had a daughter, Mildred (married Captain Isaac Black, oldest brother of the late governor, James D. Black), who had a son, David Black (Married Otie Culton), who had a son, Charles.

      Other Barbourville families can trace their ancestry to England.
 
 
 
 
 
 

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            GEORGE M. ADAMS. RECOLLECTIONS OF THE FORTIES (1840)

(From the Lexington Herald, August 3, 1913, Section 4, page 4) By permission of the Editor.

                    Winchester, Kentucky, June 6, 1912.

      I was born seventy-four years ago and have spent most of my life in that portion of the mountains of Kentucky which is traversed by what is known as the Wilderness Road, leading from. East Tennessee through Cumberland Gap into the interior of Kentucky -- Commonly called "The Blue Grass Region" -- and ultimately to the city of Louisville. Hence I have been requested to write my early recollection of people and conditions in southeastern Kentucky, which will therefore be confined to the decade of 1840 to 1850, at which latter date I was thirteen years old.

 Cumberland Gap is a low gap in the Cumberland Mountains, on the dividing line between Kentucky and Tennessee, about 90 miles southeast of the town of Crab Orchard, in Lincoln County, Kentucky, it being the gap through which Daniel Boone passed in the year 1769 when he first set his foot on the soil of Kentucky And this Wilderness Road is the one over which the pioneers from Virginia and North Carolina Traveled in the early settlement of Kentucky; in fact, that portion of it which leads through Cumberland Gap into the interior of Kentucky was originally carved out by Daniel Boone in the year 1775. It was then, however, nothing more than a path of bridleway for pedestrians and pack-horses; but by order of the Legislature of Kentucky, it was in the year 1796, so greatly enlarged and improved that wagons and vehicles of every kind could conveniently pass over it; and for many years thereafter it was the principal highway between Kentucky and Tennessee. The travel over this road subsequently became so great that for many years prior to 1850 certain persons found it profitable to establish over this route a stage line, which consisted of handsome coaches drawn by four horses, the drivers of these coaches being equipped with a long tin horn which they frequently blew with much vigor and satisfaction -- especially when approaching a town or other stopping places where the mail was to be left or the horses were to be changed. And I remember that when a small boy my admiration for these drivers, as they dashed into my native town with cracking whip and sounding horn, was so great that I then wondered if time would ever come when I would be honored with the privilege of being a stage driver.

 Again, for many years prior to 1850, immense numbers of live stock, consisting of horses, mules and hogs, were annually driven over this road from the interior of Kentucky to what was then known as the southern market. A drove of horses or mules generally traveled eighteen or twenty miles, whilst a drove
of hogs only traveled six or seven miles each day; and hence stopping places or country taverns were established on this road only three or four miles from each other, where drovers or other travelers found excellent accommodations, especially in the matter of wholesome, well prepared meals such as would tempt the appetite of anyone except a most critical epicure. Under these conditions
the farmers, for miles on each side of this road, found a ready market for any
 
 
 
 
 

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surplus grain, which was grown in great abundance an the rich, productive bottom lands bordering on the rivers and creeks of that section.

 From what I have said about the immense travel over this road, it is apparent that the people of the counties through which it passes were necessarily brought into frequent and close contact with the people of other sections both north and south of them. They were, therefore, better informed and less primitive in their habits and ideas than were the people of the more remote mountain counties who had no such contact; but they were themselves quite primitive in many respects.

 They had in their houses large, open fire places, in which nothing but wood was used as fuel, although the surrounding hills were then, as now, all filled with an abundant supply of coal; and during the winter season large blazing fires furnished at night all the light desired except for reading, writing and sewing, for which purposes they used tallow candles made by themselves.

 Their cooking was all done in cast iron vessels, of convenient size for handling, supplemented by a rude gridiron for broiling purposes. The roasting and baking was done in ovens which set on the hearth in front of the fire with live coals under them and an top of the lids which covered them, whilst their boiling was done in kettle, hung upon what was called a pot rack, above the blazing fire; and I have always thought the food cooked in this cumbersome and primitive way was really much more toothsome than that which is now prepared by the use of cooking stoves and ranges.

 In the summer time they had no enclosed pastures for cattle and sheep, but permitted them to roam at will in the mountain forests, where there was then to be found a luxuriant growth of what was called peavine, by reason of its resemblance to the ordinary garden pea. The cattle and sheep ate this with much avidity and were generally in fine flesh at the coming of frost after which they were, of course, brought home during the winter.

 But before being permitted to thus roam at will in the forest they were all plainly marked with a notch or a slit in one or both ears, by which they could be readily identified; and around the neck of one of them was securely buckled a bell, made of thin sheets of copper, which could be distinctly heard at a distance of half a mile, thus enabling the owner more easily to find them, which he frequently had occasion to do in order to give them salt. If for no other purpose. Their hogs, after being thus plainly marked, were also permitted to roam much of the time in the forest, which consisted of chestnuts, beechnuts
and acorns, was abundant, these hogs frequently became quite fat before slaughtering time.

 Most of their wearing apparel, for both males and females, was spun, woven and made into garments by the wives and daughters of their respective families, and consisted of woolen garments for winter and flax or tow linen garments for summer. The spinning wheel and hand loom were, therefore, two articles
 
 
 
 
 

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considered necessary in every well-equipped household.

 The country people sold to the merchants in the town, in exchange for articles needed by their families, large quantities of produce, consisting of pelts or fur skins taken from the backs of the many captured wild animals indigenous to that section, and also feathers, wool, flaxseed, beeswax and ginseng, the latter of which was not cultivated but grew in great abundance in the mountain forest.

      A long, single-barreled flintlock rifle was the only firearm then used in that region, with which hunters killed large numbers of squirrels, wild turkeys and deer, with occasionally a bear or wildcat; and as late as the year 1842 a large panther was killed in that region, but whether the mountains of Kentucky was really the habitat of this panther, or whether it escaped from some traveling menagerie and found its way into that section, no one ever knew.

      These people were, however, as a rule, to which of course there were exceptions, honest, peaceable and most neighborly toward each other.

 No one thought of locking the door of his stable, his corncrib or his smokehouse; and frequently even merchants left some of their merchandise unprotected by lock and key. I now recall one merchant in my native town who often left thus exposed for many days, in a long open porch attached to his storeroom, eight or ten large sacks of coffee, from which anyone passing at night could have purloined all the coffee he desired with a single stroke of his pocketknife, but none of it was ever taken.

 Of course, individual combats sometimes occurred, but they were generally in the nature of fisticuffs, in which knives and pistols were conspicuously absent; in fact, when I was ten years old I had never seen more than two pistols, and I am very confident that not more than a dozen could have been found within the entire limits of the county. I now recall one of these individual combats which, about the year 1846, occurred in the town of Barbourville, where a public occasion had brought many of the country people and amongst them a large man by the name of Mills and another, but a much smaller man, by the name of Leith.

      These two men met in the street, when a collogue occurred between them in substance as follows. Mills said: "I came to town today for the express purpose of giving you a thrashing."

 Leith said in reply: "I have nothing against you; besides, I am not feeling well today and wish no difficulty with you."

 Mills said: "I won'st, of course, force a fight on a sick man; but I owe you a thrashing, and if I can't give it to you today, I will certainly do it to you next time we met."

 Leith then said: "If nothing but a fight will satisfy you, I will
 
 
 
 
 

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accommodate you now," and as a preliminary step he had one of his neighbors to chop off, with a pocket knife, his hair, which was rather long. Each one of them chose from his respective friends what was called a second; and these two seconds, whose business it was to see that the fight was fairly conducted, proceeded to draw in the dust on the street a ring about twelve or fifteen feet in diameter, into which the combatants came from opposite directions. In the first round Leith knocked Mills flat on the ground and continued to pound him for some little time, when Mills, whose face was then bleeding profusely, yelled "enough", which, according to the pugilistic code then in vogue, ended the fight.

 No one thought of accepting pay from his neighbor for a small quantity of fruit or vegetables of any kind; and when any one had a job of work, the performance of which required many persons, such as log-rolling and house or barn raising, his neighbors always came to his assistance in goodly numbers without money and without price. It may be necessary to explain that log-rolling was working parties which, after a forest had been felled and the trees cut into convenient lengths, proceeded to roll the large, unwieldy logs into heaps or piles, which were afterward burned so that the land might be cultivated; and that house or barn raisings were likewise working parties which fitted, one above the other into the walls of the building to be erected, the long, heavy logs much as they then wholly used by building purposes. And on such occasions an ample and appetizing dinner, consisting of the best that the county afforded, was always served, in the preparation of which the hostess was generally assisted by the wives and daughters of the workers. Such occasions were also frequently followed by a dance at night, in which the young people of the neighborhood all participated, and kept perfect time with the music from the fiddle. And when there was an intermission in the dance, any gentleman who happened to occupy a seat did not then, as now, surrender it to a lady who might be standing, but would gallantly invite her to be seated an his lap, which she would do without any hesitation or thought of impropriety; and whilst to some people this may now seem to have been quite indelicate and immodest, it was certainly no more so than are some of our present round dances, in which the ladies are clasped in the arms of the gentlemen.

 What I have previously said about the people of that section refers to those who lived in the country districts, rather than to those who lived in and around the towns and county seats of their respective community, and who in general intell in habits, in manners and in dress, were quite different from most of the country people. This was especially the case as to the town of
Barbourville, the cultivation and refinement of whose people were so universally recognized that even in the interior of the State it was called the "Athens of the Mountains." I do not hesitate to say that the lawyers who at one time or another from 1840 to 1850 made Barbourville their home, and most of them were native "and to the manner born," constituted a bar which, in point of ability and attainments, was equal to that of any town either large or small, in
Kentucky; and in verification of this statement here give their names and some of the salient features of their respective lives, as follows:
 
 
 
 
 
 

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 Joseph Eve, who for many years was Judge of the Circuit Court of that district and who, in the 1841, was appointed Charge d'Affaires to the Republic of Texas, where he died. I may also add that he was a first cousin of Col. Richard M. Johnson, once Vice President of the United States; and I now have in my possession three letters written to him by Colonel Johnson, the contents of which disclose the ardent friendship which evidently existed between them.

      James Love, who was once elected to Congress from that district, and who, about the year 1843, went to the Republic of Texas, where he became one of the closest and most trusted friends of Albert Sydney Johnston, then one of the most conspicuous men in Texas and afterwards one of the most distinguished generals in the Confederate army during the Civil War.

 William Pitt Ballinger, who was a young lawyer of very great promise before he left Barbourville, but who, about the year 1846, went to the city of Galveston, Texas where he pursued his profession until he died, and was universally recognized as one of the most profound lawyers of his adopted state; in fact he was at one time on the Supreme Bench of the state, which position he was compelled to relinquish for a more lucrative practice on account of the growing necessities of his family, I remember to have heard his brother-in-law, Judge Miller, as he familiarly called him was a more profound lawyer than himself.

      Samuel F. Miller, who about the year 1839 came from Richmond, Ky., to Barbourville where he married Lucy Ballinger, the sister of William Pitt Ballinger, above referred to. He was then a physician of very high standing, but about the year 1846 he turned his attention to the law, which latter profession he pursued at Barbourville until the year 1852, when he moved to the city of Keekuk, Iowa, and in the year 1862 was appointed a Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States, which position he filled with great distinction until the day of his death.

 William D. Miller, who was a brother of the last named, and who, about the year 1846, also came from Richmond, Ky., to Barbourville. He was a forceful and a ready speaker, and was then considered the equal in ability of his brother, but much less studious. About the year 1855, he went to the state of Texas, where he died.

 Frank Ballinger, who was a very fluent and effective speaker, and who,
after practicing his profession for many years at Barbourville, moved about the year 1845 to Harrodsburg, Ky., where he continued to pursue his profession until the year 1855, when he purchased and moved to a fine farm near the city of Keekuk, Ia., where he died.

 Green Adams, who was twice elected to Congress from his native district, was for six years Judge of the Circuit Court in the Barbourville district, and for four years sixth auditor of the Treasury Department at Washington, D.C. during Mr. Lincoln's administration.
 
 
 
 
 
 

                                                                        81

 Silas Woodson, who was possessed of very rare oratorical powers, was for many years Commonwealth's Attorney in the Barbourville district. About the year 1852, he moved to the city of St. Joseph, Mo., where he died. He was, in the year 1872, elected Governor of Missouri, for which position he was not an aspirant; but his speech on assuming the duties of chairman of the nominating convention so electrified every one who was present that he was shortly thereafter nominated by a clamantion over the three aspirants all of whom were men of marked ability and high standing. He was also for many years prior to his death Judge of the Circuit Court in the St. Joseph District.

 Joseph H. Eve, who was a brilliant speaker and writer, and a nephew of Judge Eve, above referred to, but died early in manhood.

 James Hays, who was a forceful and effective speaker, without any of the graces of oratory possessed by some of the members of that bar, was universally recognized by all who knew him as the most accurate pleader and most profound lawyer in the list above mentioned.

 Judge Samuel F. Miller of the Supreme Court, who was quite fond of indulging in reminiscences of his early manhood in Barbourville, and in a conversation he told that he had heard as able discussions in the debating society to which he belongs in Barbourville as at any other time or place, not even expecting the Supreme Court of the United States. And, concerning his Barbourville debating society, I now recall a conversation which I had more than thirty years ago with a gentleman, whose name I do not remember, was, I think, from the state of Illinois; but, be this as it may, he was possessed of fine conversational powers and was evidently a man of superior intelligence. When he incidentally learned that I was a citizen of Barbourville he said if it would not bore me he would like to tell me of an episode in his own life connected with that town, which, of course, I was anxious to hear. His story briefly stated was substantially as follows:

 About the year 1845, shortly after obtaining a license to practice law, he had occasion to make a visit to East Tennessee, and after reaching Lexington, Ky. by rail, the balance of the trip, in absence of railroad facilities, was made on horseback, much of it being over the Wilderness Road through Barbourville and Cumberland Gap. He was told at Lexington there was at Barbourville one of the very best little hotels that could be found in the
state. He reached Barbourville a little before noon on the third day after leaving Lexington, and took dinner at his hotel, which proved to be all that it had been represented, and being somewhat jaded, he concluded to remain there until the following morning. During the afternoon he met a number of gentlemen, at whose manifest education and general intelligence he was somewhat surprised. One of these was a lawyer; between whom and himself quite cordial relations were speedily established. This lawyer told him that the town had a debating society which would meet that evening at the courthouse, where the people of the town, both men and women, would be assembled for the purpose of hearing the discussion; that the regular disputants, two on each side had been designated at a previous meeting, but that, after they had been heard, what was known as an
 
 
 
 
 

                                                                        82

irregular debate would be announced, in which all gentlemen present would be at liberty to participate, and that the audience would then be pleased to hear him. He was told the subject to be discussed, which proved to be one with which he was quite familiar, having heard it frequently in his college society. And having, like most young men, his share of vanity, he then and there agreed to take part in the discussion. So at the designated hour he repaired to the courthouse with his newly found friend, cocked and primed to edify the people of that little mountain village with a speech such as he fancied they rarely had an opportunity of hearing.

 The first thing in order was an essay of very rare excellence, read by a young man by the name of Eve, who I at once recognized as Joseph N. Eve, above referred to. Regular debate was then announced; and before it was half over he realized that he was then listening to one of the ablest and most exhaustive discussions that he had ever heard on any subject, and that anything which he might be able to say thereafter would be absolutely tiresome-- and insipid. The result was that, although again cordially invited when the proper time came, he feigned a headache and made an ignominious retreat. I then asked him if he could recall the names of any of the regular disputants, to which he replied that he could only recall Silas Woodson and Samuel F. Miller, who then especially attracted his attention and who had subsequently achieved such great prominence.

 In addition to what I have said above, I venture to refer to a few incidents which may serve to illustrate still further some of the characteristics of the people then living in that section.

 Judge Joseph Eve, above mentioned, was considered an excellent judge, but was quite convivial in temperament, and hence inclined to look with lenience on small infractions of the law, especially when attended by mitigating circumstances. At one time during his incumbency of that office a citizen of Barbourville, by the name of Patton, was the owner of a jack, which during the day was turned out into a lot contiguous to the public square and in close proximity to the courthouse, and during the sessions of the court this jack frequently exercised his lungs with great vigor, much to the annoyance of his honor, Judge Eve. One day the grand jury brought into the court a presentment -- being one of the forms of accusation then in use -against a man by the name of
Cobb, for profane swearing, which, under the law of the state, was then punishable by a small fine. Mr. Cobb was accordingly called into the courthouse and asked by the judge whether he wished to make any defense, to which he replied substantially as follows: "I don't know what I do, but I would like to tell you all about it. I was talking to one of my neighbors under that shade tree by Mr. Patton's lot, when his jack began to bray in our ears, and I said G-- D-- the jack, which was overhead by one of the passing grand jurymen."

 The judge then said: Well, I say damn the jack to hell and you are dismissed."

 One of the most unique characters that I can now recall was Alexander Moore, who was owner of one of the country taverns heretofore referred to,
 
 
 
 
 

                                                                        83

located about nine miles from Cumberland Gap. During the winter season when the roads were at their worst a man from Tennessee was on his way to Barbourville with a wagon load of flour, and in a deep, ugly mudhole near this tavern his wagon was so badly stalled that his team could not pull it out. Mr. Moore, seeing his dilemma, came to his assistance with a team of his own horses and thus enabled him to get his wagon out on terra firma, after which the man was about to drive away, when Mr. Moore said: "My friend, haven't you forgotten something?" In reply to this the man indicated that he did not think he was leaving anything, and thereupon Mr. Moore said: "Well, sir, I'll give you to understand that in this country thank you is worth fifty cents and thank you kindly is worth one dollar." The man apologized as best he could for his seeming lack of appreciation of the kindness shown him, and resumed his journey. Two days thereafter he was on his return trip when night overtook him near Mr. Moore's tavern, where he secured accommodation for the night. The next morning he asked Mr. Moore what he owed him, to which Mr. Moore replied, "One dollar." The man with a merry twinkle in his eye said: "I thank you kindly." Replying, Mr. Moore said: "All right, my friend, that's a good one on me. You are entirely welcome to what you have had, and when passing I hope you will stop again on the same terms."

                                                           George M. Adam
 
 
 
 
 

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                                 DOCUMENTS
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

                              BY CHARLES FAIRMAN

Printed by permission of Professor Fairman and the editor of the Mississippi Valley Historical review.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

                         Reprinted from the Mississippi
                            Valley Historical Review
                          Vol. XVII, No. 4, March 1931
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

                                                                        85
 

                                DOCUMENTS

             JUSTICE SAMUEL F. MILLER AND THE BARBOURVILLE DEBATING
                                 SOCIETY

                            Edited by Charles Fairman

 Samuel Freeman Miller ranks among the half dozen judges who, after Marshall, have impressed their person abilities most deeply upon our constitutional law. Yet no appointee to the Supreme Court ever had less formal training or practical experience than he. The only other public office he had held was that of justice of the peace and member of the county court of Knox County, Kentucky. A frontier debating society seem to have been his first school in public affairs, and its journal helps to explain the personal views which, from 1862 to 1890, he wrote into the decisions of the Federal Supreme Court.

 Between 1837 and 1847 Miller practiced medicine -- and surreptitiously read law -- at Barbourville, in the hills of southeastern Kentucky, not far below Cumberland Gap. The community raised livestock, sugar, a little grain, some cotton, and tobacco. To a relatively high degree the goods consumed were made in the home. In politics the county was overwhelmingly Whig.

 In 1837 the young men of the town formed a debating society. Meetings were held in the court house every Saturday night. When winter set in the society disbanded, but reappeared in 1838 and 1839. Miller was the foremost participant in these encounters. Here he discovered his ability for effective public address, and developed those tastes, which caused him to turn from medicine to the law. As the journal shows, he was enthusiastic Whig, and advocate of a constitutional revision, which would put slavery in Kentucky in the course of extinction. In 1850 he moved to Iowa where he practiced law and took part in the organization of the Republican Party.

 Miller's chief rival in the debates was Green Adams, later a state judge and member of Congress from 1847-49 and 1859-61. Adams, who was subsequently chief clerk of the House, seems to have been the society's chief parliamentarian. Early in the journal he moves "a vote of censure on the conduct of the secretary for neglect of duty." The secretary records that "after some debate the motion was withdrawn," and eventually the minute was expunged. A later secretary, Dr. Williams was remiss in his reports, and Adams moved the imposition of a fifty-cent fine if the report should not be ready at the next meeting. "Joseph Eve then made it known that he together with Doctor Williams wished their names to be withdrawn from the roll." Other motions were made distributing praise and censure among the officers, seeming to indicate internal discord. Eventually the situation was cleared by a general expunging of motions and remarks. On another occasion a secretary editorialized in his minutes as follows:

      Dr. Miller having made a very able and efficient speech in the Aff. he was
 
 
 
 
 

                                                                        86
 

followed by Mr. Green Adams.

On motion of Mr. Adams this invidious entry was expunged.

      Joseph Eve referred to above was a judge and member of the legislature. In 1841 he was appointed charge' d' affaires to Texas. Another member was Silas Woodson, later governor of Missouri. Several other members went to the state legislature.

 In the order of business the roll call would be followed by a declamation and an essay. But the minutes frequently relate that there was no declaimer, and that the essayist offered an excuse, which was accepted by the house. Evidently such experts performances were less relished than the joined issue of debate. Two members had previously been detailed on each side of the question. A general discussion ensued, in which guests were invited to join. A vote should be taken on the merits of the question. The last item of business was the choice of the topic for the next debate, and the naming of participants

 For the most part the questions for debate were the current political issue:

            Is it constitutional and expedient for the
            United State in their federative capacity
            to make internal improvements.

 The vote on the merits was 9 in the affirmative to 4 for strict construction.

            Would it be politick to admit Texas as a member
            of this confederacy, provided she established
            her independence.

            Vote: 5 expansionists to 11 in the negative.

 Three months later the same question was reargued, resulting in a draw, 5 to 5. Miller seems to have been vehemently opposed to annexation, probably because of its relation to slavery. In 1839 the Texas question came up again, and Miller carried off a victory of 6 votes against 3.

            Would it be politick and constitutional in Congress
            to grant a charter for a national Bank.

            On the merits the vote stood in the affirmative, 12 to 1.

            Would it be more expedient and right to appropriate the
            surplus-revenue received by the State of Ky. from the Genl.
            government of internal improvement than education.

 The house divided 3 for improvements to 2 for education. Later a similar
 
 
 
 

                                                                        87
 

question was argued:

            Is education of more importance to the people of
            Kentucky than Internal Improvements.

 Miller spoke three times for education, and carried his point by 5 to 3. A year later the question was reargued, and Miller spoke twice for Improvements. Improvements carried, 4 to 3.

            Are Railroads of more publick utility than Canals?

      Miller joined with the Majority in the affirmative decision, 6 to 2.

            Would it be politick for the Legislature of Kentucky
            to grant a Bank charter to the Charleston & Ohio
            Railroad Company.

            The vote was in the affirmative, 9 to 5.

            Should the Government (Sic) admit the emigration (sic)
            of foreigners into the Country with the privilege of
            enjoying all the rights of citizenship.

 In the general debate on this proposition Miller spoke in the affirmative against Green Adams. The vote was 8 affirmative, 3 negative.

            Should foreign immigration to this country be prohibited
            by law.

            The house divided evenly, Miller voting in the negative.

 On October 28, 1837, Dr. U.S. Williams read "an instructive essay upon the Science of Phrenology," which was followed by debate an the question!'

            Have the acts of Andrew Jackson been of more benefit than
            injury to the United States.

 Miller argued that they had, but when the vote was taken, assumed the Whig position and joined in a vote of censure, 6 to 3. A year later the question was debated again, with what conclusion we cannot say, as several pages are town out at this point.

            On April 14, 1838, Miller proposed as the next topic:

            Should Henry Clay be the candidate run by the Whigs for
            President in preference to Wm. H. Harrison.

 This was debated on the twenty-eight, when the meeting must have taken on. the aspect of a monologue by Miller. First he read an essay: then, being the
 
 
 
 

                                                                        88
 

only one of the appointed debaters present, he spoke in favor of Clay's candidacy; next, general discussion being in order, he again took the floor. Two speeches in the negative were made from the floor, and the vote was taken; the result showed 6 for Clay and 4 for Harrison. Miller then proposed the question for the next meeting -the admission of Texas; Joseph Eve, who was shortly to be appointed charge' to that republic, was detailed to take the affirmative. On Miller's motion the house was then adjourned.

 The first question selected when the society was reorganized in the spring of 1839 was:

            Would it be to the interest of the United States to
            declare war against Great Britain (sic) if she refuses
            to give possession of the disputed territory.

 As usual, Green Adams and Miller opposed one another, Miller being on the negative side. The vote was 4 for war to 3 for peace.

            Would it be politick in the Genl. Gbot. to wholly exterminate
            the Seminole Indians, if they continue their depredations
            upon the citizens of the United States.

      Three members though it would; Miller and four others thought not.

 No doubt it was the recent administration of Andrew Jackson, which directed the attention of the house to questions of patronage and executive power. On April 13, 1839, Miller suggested as a topic:

            Should federal officers be prohibited from using
            means to secure (?) elections.

 The vote was in the negative, 4 to 2, Miller being absent. Twice there was debate an the question:

            Should the patronage of the President of the U.S.
            be curtailed?

 The vote was 2 yeses and 7 nays, and later 6 yeses and 5 nays; Miller though-the patronage should not be curtailed. He evidently favored a single presidential term of six years, for he proposed that subject and argued in the affirmative. But the society voted in the negative, 9 to 3. A later debate on the same question ended in a negative vote of 7 to 1.

      On September 8, 1837, the debate was on the question:

            Has the President the power under the Constitution to turn
            out of office any individual Commissioner by and with the
            advice and consent of the Senate.
 
 
 
 
 

                                                                        89
 

 The vote was in the negative, 5 against 3, ninety years later, in the Myers Case (272 U.S. 52) the Supreme Court of the United States had to pass upon the same question, and answered in the affirmative by a 5 to 4 decision. There are those who would prefer to follow the Barbourville debating society rather than the Supreme Court in this matter.

            The suffrage was a question of the day, and one debate was
            held on the question.

            Should the right of suffrage be restricted by a property
            qualification.

 Miller was strongly opposed to such restriction, and so were his fellows, who vote unanimously in the negative. This was the era of the all-competent citizens and the entries in the journal show that these men of the Kentucky hills were concerned with various aspects of egalitarian philosophy.

            Are all well and natural organized individuals endowed at
            Birth with the same intellectual capacity.

      Adams argued that they were; Miller that they were not. The sense of the house was to the negative by a vote of 6 to 3. The next year a similar question was discussed, leading to a negative vote of 10 to 5.

            Is the mind of man more capacious than that of woman?

Three thought it was, four that it was not. A reargument resulted in a tie vote.

            Should women be equally educated with men.

Two though they should, three not.

            Has wealth more influence than talent.

      On this the house divided 7 to 7; at a reargument it voted 1 yea, 4 nays. Miller voted in the negative, and believed as he voted. His whole life was oriented by this confidence in his own mental power. In his later years he fully realized that he had become a great judge -- great not in legal learning but in statesmanship. He had more constitutional law than most of the founding fathers. And with this realization there came a certain impatience with easer minds, a touch of wolfishness toward those who disagreed with his convictions. It was on his motion that the society voted to limit the length of speeches; yet Miller did not hesitate to take the floor himself more often than any other member.

            Will wealth enable one to pass through the world with
            greater honor to himself than education.

      Miller argued that it would not, and society agreed in a vote of 7 to 2.
 
 
 
 
 

                                                                        90
 

           Is civil fame more desirable than Military?

      The house was evenly divided.

 Knox County was a locality where slaves were few, and the opinion, that the negro was naturally and providentially destined to servitude was not generally entertained.

            Should Congress refuse the reception of abolition
            documents as contended by the Southern delegation?

 Miller argued in the negative against Green Adams. In the general discussion the society was addressed by Robert Wickliffe, Jr., a Lexington lawyer who had studied under Justice Story. The vote was 2 yeas, 12 nays.

            Is it a greater crime to drive the Indians from their land
            than to keep the negroes in Bondage?

      The vote was 3 in the affirmative, 6 in the negative.

 How far was it desirable for the state to go in applying its power upon the individual? Should it resort to capital punishment? Miller thought not, and said so each of the five times that the question was debated. The house was always voted to retain the death penalty. Years later, in the case of Medley, Petitioner (134 U.S. 160), Justice Miller saved one man from the gallows in an opinion which seems to belief the maxim that the law will not take notice of trifling matters.

 Should any laws exist regulating the rate of interest. The vote was for laissez faire, 7 to 2.

 Should imprisonment for debt be abolished? The house thought that it should, voting 8 to 2.

 Occasionally the debate would be upon some bootless topic -- the merits of Washington vs. those of Columbus, of Napoleon vs. Hannibal.

      Once the question was a religious one:

            Apart from Revelation and Human Tradition have
            we any evidence of the existence of Deity.

      Miller argued that there was no other evidence, and so voted. The house divided 3 yeas, 2 nays. This would indicate that Miller was something of a free thinker, which is probably the case. In later years he was prominent in the Unitarian Church, whose latitudinarian tenets were congenial to his highly critical habits of thoughts.
 
 
 
 
 
 

                                                                        91

 This record, as it seem, affords further insight into the character of a great judge, and incidentally into the political views of those Kentucky frontiersmen among whom he lived. The vital questions of the day were questions of public policy; their solution was sought not in books, but in original thinking and public discussion. As an academy of learning the Barbourville debating society had its limitations; but its graduates seem to have emerged with self-reliant habits of thought, convincing modes of utterance, and a flair for statecraft. The political interpretation of the Constitution, the efficacy of democratic institutions and the ability of the common man to work them. The journal is an authentic representation of the political philosophy of the American frontier.

                        My Own Book, by William E. Barton

Quoted by permission of Hon. Bruce Barton, literary executor of his father, William Barton.

 At length my opportunity came. I was invited to teach the public school at Jarvis Store, on Richland Creek, six miles from Barbourville, in Knox County. That was seventy miles back in the mountains, and the schools was the last five months. I was to receive thirty dollars a month, to pay five dollars a month for board and room, and twenty-five cents a week for laundry. My net earnings, therefore were to be twenty-four dollars a month less travel --------

                              A MOUNTAIN PEDAGOGUE

      I am glad to find in my diary a statement freely made that my examination before the County Commissioner of Schools at Barbourville did not warrant the granting to me of the First Class. First grade certificate which the Commissioner, Mr. Hayes, and his two associates, issued to me. So far as I remember the examination, I agree with this judgement. I had walked over Wildcat Mountain from Livingston's to London, and ridden on a jolting wagon load of merchandise from London to Jarvis Store, and the, halting only for a hurried lunch, ridden on horseback to the county seat on that Saturday afternoon, and I remember that I was tired and not very well. But I did not object to the certificate, the highest which the Superintendent could give me, and it was much to the advantage of my reputation that I carried this evidence of my ability to teach. The three local directors who had employed me were very well pleased, and when, on the following Monday morning, the three met at the schoolhouse and introduced me to the pupils and a goodly number of parents, the certificate was displayed and most flatteringly commented upon by the Board of Directors. They helped me make up the roll. The official school census showed seventy-three children of school age in my district. I enrolled fifty-six of them, and littler later recorded that of possible pupils in the district I had all but nine. I think there was one blind child and one feeble-minded, and I have forgotten about the rest. But I enrolled on the first day some pay pupils, and there were a few others later, who were themselves preparing to teach. I had pupils learning the alphabet and pupils learning a little Latin and Algebra. But these higher students did not recite daily.
 
 
 
 
 

                                                                        92

 The schoolhouse was a log building with door in me end. And a large fireplace in the other. On one side were two windows, and not all the glass was broken out. As for the cracks between the logs, I remember that one day a boy on the outside passed a switch through and tickled the leg of a boy inside and the inside boy kicked at the other through the crack. The outside boy caught the inside boy's foot, and the crack was not large enough for either boy to draw the other through. But that was probably the largest crack in the building.

  One of the trustees, addressing the school, said:

 "The hogs has been sleeping under this building, and hit's full of fleas. I've gotem on me now. Now, all you boys and girls when you come back from reecess, you bring big bundles of pennyroyal and put down on this floor, and trop it when you go and come, and keep fresh pennyroyal on the floor till these here fleas are druv out."

      There was a further announcement that the men were to haul wood, and as soon as the weather got cool, the boys were to cut it up and bring it in and keep the fire going without bothering the teacher. Also the large girls were directed to gather each day a broom or papaw branch and sweep the floor.

 All these things they did faithfully. Well do I remember the day when Emeline Berry, having swept the floor stood before my desk with arms akimbo and the papaw broom in her hand on the right hip, and said "Teacher, you want to look out for Sue. She's trying to spark you. And Sue sparked the last teacher, and she told." Emeline took one step nearer, and said, "Teacher, if I was to spark the teacher, I wouldn't tell nobody.

      I rather think I could have trusted Emeline with her black eyes, but she never sparked no teacher while I was teaching there, nor did Sue Taulbee.

 Some sparking was done, however, during intermissions and I remember a time when I caught two of my larger pupils in the act of kissing. I called them forward, and said to them that they need not act ashamed; I was sure that two pupils as old as they and themselves expecting to teach would not meet before the school a bad example; that whenever they felt that they must kiss each other they need only inform me and I would stop all exercises and give them opportunity, I said that to show them how willing I was, I would request them to repeat the act in the presence of the whole school. They stood confused and hesitant while the school was ready to explode. Then one of my youngsters, in a stage whisper, said, "Teacher, he's done forgot how. Couldn't you illustrate?"

 The way that thing ended was that the girl, knowing that it had to be done, faced the situation with more courage than the boy showed, gave him a peck of a kiss on the cheek and strode to her seat. I permitted the boy to follow and that ended that incident.

 I did not have much trouble in that school. I was never locked out or
defied, as some teachers were. I used the whip somewhat, all teachers did at
 
 
 
 
 

                                                                        93
 

that time, but I was thought to whip not only less than most teachers, but less severely. Still, the birch grew well beside Richland Creek. I remember that the trustees had informed the school at the outset that I had the reputation of beinq "the liddnest teacher" the school had ever had. I find it of record also, that when Commissioner Hayes visited my school in September, he told the children that they had one of the very best teachers in the county and ought to improve every opportunity.

      My school was a success, judged by the enrollment, the high average attendance, the number of pay pupils and by any other known test, and the new teacher did well. The summer and fall went rapidly and happily. I had lost sixteen pounds weight thought boarding at the Club, but I regained it in the summer and fall. And I enjoyed myself.

 I boarded with John D. Jarvis, and liked him and his family very much. He was elected a member of the legislature while I was in his home. He was a man of good ability and had a sense of humor, and we enjoyed our companionship together.

 I remember how I began my rifle shooting. One afternoon I had dismissed school at the usual time, and I was walking briskly to the Jarvis home, the children loitering some distance behind. I passed a house where two men hailed me gladly, saying, "Teacher, step into the house, and take down the rifle and shoot this hog."

 Hogs run semi-wild in the woods, fattening on the "mast" (Lincoln used to say of himself that he was "a mast-fed lawyer") and being identified by their earmarks. It was not good for a man's health to mistake another man's ear mark for his own. These two men had gone to the woods and driven up a hog, and were keeping him in the road in front of the house, one standing up the road the other down, because the women had gone away and there was no one to bring out the gun.

 I pulled the latch-string, found the rifle above the door and came out, cocking it and setting the trigger as I came. It was an old-fashioned weapon with a set-trigger. The hog stood on the opposite side of the road, I though directly facing me. I took a quick sight, such, as I was accustomed to take with a shotgun, and fired. The hog dropped, his four legs stiff. The men were upon him instantly with a barlow knife and stuck him. As the children came by, they were told what a remarkable shot the teacher was.

 When they came to cut up the hog, they could not find the bullet in any vital organ. It had passed through the outer ear and entered the shoulder. It presumably struck some nerve center, and the effect was immediate but would have been temporary. The hog was not fatally hurt. But my shot had answered all necessary purposes. This shows that a hog is dead as he thinks he is, and also
that a mountain hog may seem to be facing the observer when he really is standing at an angle of forty-five degrees. It also shows how much I lacked of
 
 
 
 
 

                                                                        94

being a good shot with a rifle. But I improved rapidly, and the time came when I could have done better.

 My school closed with a great exhibition, which was preceded by an oral examination. The examination lasted all day, and I had drilled the pupils so that they stood the test well. I examined them so profusely, if not thoroughly, that there was little for the directors to do, but they were invited to ask questions when I had finished, and in a perfunctory way they did, but they did not try to entrap the teacher or the pupils. They were proud of the school. My large pupils, my "normal class" as I called them, showed off remarkably well, I was very proud. It was my first school, and by no test could it be deemed a failure. Already I was engaged to return and teach again the next year. I honestly think that the year's work had been unusually well done.

 On the day of the exhibition, it was impossible to get the people inside of the house. I have the program, which included recitations, declamations, songs, dialogues, and a little operetta which we had given in my Stillman Valley days and I was able to reproduce from memory. This was an ambitious undertaking, and we did it over for the school of Frank Dizney, a Berea student who taught a school near by, the next day. For he came over to help me out, and I was able to assist him at the end of his term. He, too, had had a successful year. His school closed in a blaze of glory, and I was glad to be there to see it.

 One incident of that first school of mine I am reserving for a separate chapter. It remains only to tell of my return to Berea.

 On Tuesday morning, December sixth, Frank Dizney and I having sent our trunks ahead, started to walk seventy miles to Berea. We did not walk for the sake of exercise. We walked to save money. We walked past London to Mershon's Crossroads, where we stayed overnight, and set out before daylight. We were ferried across Rockcastle River by an interesting man who lived in the picturesque solitude and discussed theology with all whom he ferried over. We walked all that day across Big Hill which is fourteen miles long, until late afternoon, and as we passed through Narrow Gap we heard the college bell. It was a welcome sound.

                          THE TOP SIDE OF THE EARTH

"What have you learned in the long years of your ministry which would modify your methods if you were to begin life again?"

 This question I propounded to Reverend Doctor Leete of Hanover, New Hampshire, on a Sunday in the late "nineties when I was on the board of preachers at Dartmouth College

      I have often meditated on his answer:

 "This, that there is more to be said on the other side of almost my question than I once supposed."
 
 
 
 
 

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 I had always been taught that the earth was round. I had learned in school the common and accepted reasons in support of this thesis. I had never lived among intelligent people who had any other opinion. One of my most interesting experiences in the first year of my teaching on Richland Creek revealed how much might be said on the other side of this question.

      Leander Clouse was a son of a local Baptist preacher, and for a time attended my school. Reverend John Clouse was not a quarrelsome man and he was glad to have Leander in my school, but he took the boy out to prevent his becoming an infidel. He said so frankly and not unkindly. He told my friends, and later told me, that he thought well of me and had no disposition to make trouble. It was a matter of conscience with him. He would like to have Leander taught to read and write and spell and cypher, but he thought that was as far as the teacher had any business to go. He wanted his boy to be able to read the Bible, and for that purpose would be glad to have him in school. But he could not in good conscience permit his son to be taught that the earth was round.

 This incident does not appear to me a small or unimportant one even as viewed at a distance of more than forty-five years and at the time it was of very great significance. It has been to me through the course of my life since that event a reminder that some things that appear to me so true that they can need no proof might be very difficult to prove if I were called upon to establish their truth by argument. Further, I have been led to ponder some things I learned from John Stuart Mill on Liberty, that truth that has ceased to be questioned and defended is in some danger of becoming a lie.

 I learned that I must either stop teaching that the earth was round, or prepare to prove it.

 Moreover, this experience gave me a new idea about Lincoln. Reverend John Clouse, fairly intelligent and wholly honest, preached just as the Baptist preachers did whom Abraham Lincoln heard in his boyhood. In his first twenty-one years probably never head a preacher who believed the earth to be round. If in the years when he was reading and thinking, he rebelled against the narrowness of their instruction and was some times thought to have been an infidel and it not take much trouble to deny it, I was in position to know by what yardstick orthodoxy and infidelity were measured in the communities where Lincoln lived in his boyhood, both in Kentucky, and in that transplanted section of Kentucky, which he knew in southern Indiana and Central Illinois. It is affirmed that he was sometimes considered an infidel. I was in better position than any biographer of Lincoln had ever been to understand what that term probably signified in that day. For I, also, was deemed an infidel, for believing the earth to be round. I am afraid I was not as tactful as I ought to have been. As
I remember it, it seems to me a pity that I was unable to conciliate the father, or to assure him that his son was not in danger from my teachings. But he kept the boy out of school saying that while his progress was satisfactory in other things, he could not have him taught infidelity.

      The event made no small stir in the community. Some people agreed with the
 
 
 
 
 

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preacher and some with the teacher. Dr. John D. Jarvis proposed a public discussion on the question.

 It was at a "stir-off" that we arranged for the debate. Mr. Clouse owned a canemill, and took it from farm to farm in the season, grinding out the cane juice and boiling the sap into molasses. The sap which had boiled several hours was ready to be dropped into kegs at night and a merry throng surrounded the fire and waited for the sap to come off. When they lifted it off the molasses began to cool a score of newly whittled paddles came into requisition. All hands scraped the edges of the pan where "them molasses" was thickest licked the paddle clean and came again. Fresh sorgham molasses in that region should be spoken of and used in the plural.

 I had had molasses enough, and was watching the crowd around the pan, when Mr. Clouse came to me with a challenge to a public debate. I accepted and we quickly arranged the details amid a hum of merry voices and occasional laughter about the pan.

 It was agreed that Mr. Clouse should call as his colleague another preacher from Laurel County; that I find another school teacher to assist me; that the debate would occupy two evenings; that on each night the four speakers should consume three-quarters of an hour a piece in opening, and the leaders as half hour each in closing. The plan was the same for both evenings, except that the two sides were to alternate in opening and closing; the teachers had to open the first night, and were allowed to close; the preachers began and ended the discussion on the second night. Each side was to choose a judge, and the two were to choose a third, who were to render a decision at the close of the second evening.

      My colleague was Frank Dizney, a true and lifelong friend.

 Mr. Clouse had chosen as his colleague another Baptist preacher, Francis Marion Gillum, whose brother or cousin was a general in the Confederate army. Gillum was one of the most powerful men I have ever met, tall, muscular, all bone and sinew.

 The discussion took place in the log schoolhouse. There was a fire in the huge fireplace, and there were candles and little smoking chimneyless brass lamps that had been brought by different families, and these cast their flickering and uncertain light. The program as scheduled was four hours in length, but the debate began early, and the October evenings were long and the mountains of Kentucky do not demand short sermons or speeches.
 I opened the discussion by stating the arguments given in the geographies. I told of the masts of the ships, which appear before the hull, argument and declared that it might be true and yet prove nothing. Moreover, it was evident that to people living among the hills an argument based on unobstructed vision was ineffective; they had no experience which helped them to interpret it.

 As to eclipse, the preacher declared that eclipses varied. He had seen an
 
 
 
 
 

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eclipse of the sun, and the shadow came off on the same side it went on; how could that be if my revolution theory was correct? Eclipses were freaky things, and nobody knew how they could act. As to the story of men's sailing around the world, who did not know that men who traveled were notorious liars? They came back knowing that it was impossible to disprove their large stories, and people expected them to lie, and they did lie. Or, if the man who told this story did not lie, he might have been mistaken.

 "Like as not he sailed round pretty nigh the aidge of it, and so cam-- back all right, but he kept on the top side all the time," said the minister. He added with gestures that "the world may be round this-a-way" (i.e., round on top)," or even round this-a-way (i.e., cylindrical), "but hit ain't round this-a-way" (i.e., spherical).

 Then came the positive part of his argument. He appealed to reason and observation; he had sat up one night to see whether the mill pond ceased at any time to run over the dam as with the slightest inclination of the earth this one level stretch of water should have done. He had been something of a traveler himself and had been twice to Virginia and once well, gone into Tennessee, nor had he found any place where the earth appeared to curve. He ridiculed the theory which would compel us to hold on to the trees at night to keep from falling off, and squarely denied that there could be any people on the other side of the earth walking with heads down, and foolish enough to think their heads were up.

 Then came my colleague who reminded them of the fly on the apple, and illustrated by shadows on the wall the theory of eclipse and the procession of the seasons.

      Then came the other preacher, Francis Marion Gillum.

      He had come far -- "cl'ar over the aidge of the yarth in Laurel," as he ironically told us in his introduction. He was not bound by any false notion of courtesy; he'id not live here, he said, and he proposed to hew to the line and let the chips fly where they would. This was an age of new ideas, and most of them false ones; it was a time when people were likely to believe a lie and be damned; it was a time for the friends of the truth to stand by the truth, and not let any false ideas of friendship or hospitality keep them from opposing error and branding it as such.

 Having so spoken he moved around to where he could confront me and began
his argument. I was more than ever impressed by his gigantic stature. And he looked taller in his jeans coat, which he wore without a vest over his hickory shirt, and his gray jeans trousers. Certainly he showed no fear that night as he faced this new and dangerous error.

 He began with the declaration that the Bible affirms that God laid the corner stones of earth and stretched the line upon it. He asked how a straight line could conform to a curved surface, or a round earth have a corner-stone. He
 
 
 
 
 

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went on to affirm that the course of the sun according to the Bible was from one end of the heavens to the other, and that if the sun was stationery the Bible statement must be false. He showed that the Bible says there is nothing hid from the that thereof, whereas I had told of the poles long in darkness and in winter. He went through the Bible and sought out a long array of quotations. He went as far as Joshua, and spent the rest of the time upon him, and promised to resume next night. The closing addresses summed up matters, but did not materially change the status of the argument-

 My friend Dizney and I took counsel together. It was plain that the audience was divided in its sympathies. A small majority, we judged, was against us. Mr. Jarvis, our judge was an old school teacher; had been county commissioner of schools, and we were sure of his vote. Our opponents had chosen one of the local officers - a constable - Leonard Hutton, and until that year a school trustee. Personally he believed the earth flat, but he had a warm regard for me and his children were in school. How he would vote was uncertain. But apart from this we wanted to convince the community. So we prepared some simple apparatus to illustrate the motions of the heavenly bodies, and the next night began again the discussion of the questions: Resolved, that the earth is flat and stationary, and that the sun moves around it once in twenty-four hours."

 The discussion of the second evening developed no great or new ideas on either side, but the arguments grew more earnest, and on the side of our opponents more personal. Mr. Gillum was in dead earnest, and was dramatic as well. He chose a position beside my chair, and made occasional hammering gestures descending toward my head. I thought of the trip-hammer so finely adjusted that it would touch a watch on the anvil and not break the crystal, and hoped his mightly poundings would continue to stop above my head. At the close of each heated period he cleared his throat with a threatening gargle, looking down at me the while. At times he indulged in sarcasm.

      He's a college student - ah! And he's come out here to instruct us - ah! Yes and to larn us about the shape of yarth - ah! And he knows more'n what Joshua did - ah! Brethering, do ye reckon Joshua didn't know what to pray furl Did he say 'Yarth, stand thou still in thine axoltree? No! He says, sezee, "Sun, stand thou still upon Gibeon - ah!  And thou man in the valley of Ajalon - ah! But he knows moren's Joshua I Yes, I shouldn't wonder ef he allows he knows wren's God A'mighty that writ this book - ah! I tell ye, brethering, hit's the doctrine of infidelity - ah! And any man that'll teach it ought to be drummed out of the country - ah! B-r-rc-k!"

 Truly, there was more to be said on this side of the question than I had thought. And as evident that the audience was by not me as a unit in our favor. The hour grew late. The discussion ended and the judges went out in the dark to decide.

 The vote stood two to one in our favor. The constable cast the deciding vote. But he admitted to me that he was not fully satisfied. The decision lay somewhat heavily upon his conscience. He sought an interview with me soon,
 
 
 
 
 

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explaining that his vote was on the merits of the argument, as he understood it,
and not an endorsement of my position on the question. He asked me to come home with the children and spend a night and answer some other questions a few nights later I stayed at his home.

 After supper I set a candle an the table, and taking a ball of yarn, stuck a knitting needle through it, and walked around and round the candle, holding the ball high an one side and low on the other, and turning the ball the while. The explanation lasted long, but at last it was counted satisfactory. My friend, Mr. Hutton declared himself converted. So we went to bed, and the earth rolled out into the sunlight again.

      After all, we are not so far removed from the same opinion. When Cotton Mather preached in Boston that the sun was the center of the solar system and so learned and intelligent a man as Chief Justice Samuel Sewall went home and recorded in his diary his protest. Let us not hasten to call people ignorant who went into isolation in Sewall's time and have kept pretty well the ideas of his age on some matters.

 But I must tell about two of my converts. One of them came to me when I returned the next year. He had been to London, the county seat of Laurel County. The railroad has just been finished to that point, and he had seen it. The rails, he said, were as far apart as he could reach, but as they stretched away in the distance they almost came together.

 "Don't that show," he asked with the zeal of a new convert, "that everything works toward the center of gravitation?"

 The other was my friend Mr. Hutton, the constable. The subject came up in our last rather than first meeting. I brought it up, and he fought shy of it. So I pressed the matter, for I suspected that he had fallen from grace. At length, he said:

      Well, I reckon I might as well own up. They say an honest confession is good for the soul, You made that seem mighty plain, and I thought I believed it. But I wasn't comfortable peared like every time the old thing flopped over she was goin to spill us off, and I couldn't get Joshua and the corners and foundations of the earth. And I said, Let God be true and every man a liar! "And I don't want to believe it, and ain't a-goin to! "

      I took the hand of my good friend and said: 'If I were in your place I don't believe I would!'

      So I have no doubt there yet remains opportunity for some ambitious reader of this story to try whether his own success may be more enduring.

 Marion Gillum, though a preacher, was a desperate man. He had already been in the penitentiary for "stabbin a man". And in his last days, I am sorry to say, he reverted to his earlier career of violence and committed other crimes.
 
 
 
 
 

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On the night of our second debate it was freely rumored that he had come determined to stand on nonsense and to brook no opposition. He was said to have under his jeans coat "a round-barreled navy revolver" and I had no doubt this rumor was true. He not only approved of Joshua's method of stopping the sun, but also of his manner of dealing with the Canaanites, which was not by any means a gentle method. I think Mr. Gillum exercised some self-control when the decision went against him for he later sent me word that he did not think the decision a fair one, and he wanted one more discussion, and that a final one. This challenge I did not accept; I rather wonder that I did not, for I was not lacking in self-confidence in those days, and while I had no round-barreled navy under my coat, I was not in the habit of avoiding discussions. I am glad that I had sense enough to leave the matter where it was.
 
 
 
 
 

                                   SUNDRY ITEMS

                                 PUBLIC BUILDINGS

 Knox County has had four courthouses. The first erected in 1802, cost $240. It was built of logs. The contract or "undertaker" was Davis Deweese. The second, ordered constructed November 4, 1811, of "brick and timer" at a cost "not to exceed $1200" was completed in 1812. Richard Ballinger built it. The third, ordered built in 1829, "not to exceed $2000 cost," was completed in 1831. It was built by Jarvis Jackson after the plan of the Laurel County courthouse. Relative to this courthouse a County order reads as follows:

 Ordered that the site agreed upon for the Courthouse be equal distant from Patton's store and Smith and Pennistion Cabinet Shop, and ten feet from a direct line leading from the upper to the lower part of Town with the side of the house facing the street leading by White's and Epperson's lots, the Clerk's office to be on the south-east end.

 The fourth Courthouse was ordered built in 1874, and was completed in 1875. It was built by Daniel Johnson and his father at a cost of approximately $10,000. In 1906 and 1907, during the term of County Judge Flem D. Sampson, the building was remodeled and wings added.

      The first jail was built in 1801 by David and Thomas Deweese as follows:

 Agreeable to the following plan to wit, first there must be a pit dug in the earth two deep and twelve feet square. This pit is to be filled up with timber hewed to one square, 12 feet in length, the second course of timer to be laid across the first, nine inches shorter at each end than the first. On this foundation is to be built the house of hewed timber hewed to a square edge 15 inches, 12 feet square and the wall 8 feet high. The first course of logs that is laid for the wall is to be cut in gutters so as to fill up the vague space on the second course of timber in the foundation. The wall must be made close through this first wall must be two square holes cut, vix, one of each side secured with iron of the same thickness of the grate hereafter to be mentioned. On the top of the first story must be a floor laid from outside to outside with timer hewed to a foot square, laid close edge to edge, and a hatchway cut through that floor 3 feet by 2, and secured with an iron grate, four barrs three feet long, one inch one way and half inch the other and crossed with barrs of the same size in thickness, two feet long, five barrs put at an equal distance and well secured with a good lock, key, and hinges. This grate must be covered with a wooden door of 2 inch thick oak plank well rivetted together and well secured with a good lock, key and hinges as to completely cover the above hatchway in a strong workman like manner. On the top of the floor of this first story must be another story built with timer hewed 12 inches square, laid close, twelve feet square, eight feet high, and floored above with tinier of the same description, and laid close, edge to edge. There must be a door out through this wall five feet high, two feet and half wide, and be well secured as the hatchway before mentioned, one window in each side cut and secured in the same manner and size as them mentioned in the first story, and the house to be covered with
 
 
 
 
 

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strong rafters and shingles, and the cables ends, well secured up, studded and boarded up to the door in the second. In the second story there must be made steps, and a platform of four feet square in front of said door. The above mentioned jail is to be finished off in the best workman like manner, complete and strong of good oak timber.

 Later it was ordered "that one hundred dollars be paid to David and Thomas Dewees the fourth Monday in August next, and the other hundred dollars on Christmas next." Richard Ballinger was appointed to superintend the builders of the jail and select the place on the public square to fix it." The second jail was built in 1814, by Zadock Martin at a cost of $600, the third in 1845, the fourth 1855, the fifth in 1864, and the sixth in 1885 at a cost of $6,000. John Goodin Jr., built the fifth jail and "jailer's house." Relative to the fourth jail and order reads as follows:

      On motion it is agreed by the Court that a new jail be erected on the public square in the Town of Barbourville after the following plan, vix, that the outside wall shall be make of brick two brick thick up to the 2nd story, and that the 2nd story be one and a half brick thick to the top, that the inner wall be made of wood out of what logs of the old jail that will do for that purpose, and that from four to six inches be left between said outward and inner wall and said space be filled with large flat stones up to 2nd story, and that said inner wall be lined and ceiled with oak plank one and a half inches thick up to the 2nd story nailed with ten penny nails one inch apart, and that the foundation of said jail be dug two feet in the ground and sufficiently laid with large flat stones, and that the floor of the first story be made of stones, none to be smaller than three feet broad and five feet long and six inches thick and it is ordered that said jail be erected somewhere on the northwest corner of the public square about middle way below Courthouse and W.B. Anderson's store, and that the 2nd story be lined and ceiled with oak plank one inch thick nailed to the wood of the inner wall with ten penny nails driven one inch apart, and it is further ordered the joints of the stone floor of the lower story be secured by placing over said joints strong bars of iron, and it is further ordered that Wm. Stewart, R.M. Cobb, and Adam Reeder be and they are hereby appointed, commissioners to superintend the building of said jail.

 The courthouse erected in 1874 and 1875, under Judge Wm. Tuggle, which is the main part of the present building, was apparently the first for which bonds were voted by the county court. Prior to this time all public buildings were paid for out of the county revenues. Provisions were made in advance by increasing the amount of the poll tax to be collected. The site of the present courthouse was selected by T.J. Pitzer, John Lay, Daniel Home, John H. Davis, and N. Bryant.

 In 1813, it was "ordered that William Stephenson be appointed keeper of the Court house and Stray Pen, and to suffer no person to play at fives against the Court House, and to put the Stray Pen in repair as the law directs." The Courthouse was early ordered fenced in under the supervision of Joseph Eve, who
 
 
 
 
 

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was appointed "to lot out the building a good substantial post and railing fence around the Courthouse to the lowest bidder, the fence of the Courthouse to run ten feet from the said house and twelve feet at the ends. In 1838, it was "ordered that James M. Pogue and Green Adams be appointed commissioners to employ some suitable person to build a stray pen and fence in the Courthouse, and the erecting of three seats on the back part of the Courthouse." June 4, 1860, it was "ordered that Thomas J. Pitzer be permitted to remove the fence enclosing the Courthouse in the Town of Barbourville at the north end of said house, and to extend said fence in a circular form and so far northern as to include some fifty feet from the Courthouse to said fence at the entrance part of said circle, and the said Pitzer is directed to plant a suitable number of locust trees, said trees to be planted at the proper season of the years."

 In 1850, it was "ordered that the Barbourville Lyceum be permitted to hold their meetings in the Courthouse every Saturday night."

 In 1825, a county court clerk's office was ordered built at a cost not to exceed $250. The clerk's office was built on the northeast side of the courthouse. Main Street ran across the square between the courthouse and clerk's office. It was not until the erection of the courthouse in 1874-75 that the clerk's office was made a part of it. The site of the clerk's office was changed several times. In 1830 the clerk's office was built separate on the southeast end of the courthouse. Later it was moved back to the northeast side of the square.

 The first reference to a poor house is contained in an order dated October 24, 1842, as follows: "ordered that James H. Pogue, Richardson Adams, James Hays and Daniel Baker be appointed commissioners to inquire into the expediency of erecting a poor house for this county and to make report to our next County Court." January 24, 1848, another committee was appointed to make recommendations namely, James F. Ballinger, James Hays, Silas Woodson, Wm. York, James Barton, A.Y. Anderson, and James H. Pogue. A poor house was later built and ordered to be sold in 1866. Keepers of the poor house were Robert Henson and A.M. Roberts 1853. William Stewart and Abraham Dean 1856, Washington Valentine 1860, Daniel Baker 1862, Wm. York 1863. Prior to the building of the poorhouse, paupers were taken care of by individuals after the county court had made appropriations for their support.

                         THE SIMPLE TITLE OF KNOX COUNTY

      We do award that the said John Bailey, being justly entitle to the said land as appears to us; shall retain the said land with all the appurtenances thereto of right appertaining preference to the claims of the aforesaid Gillaspie, and that the said Gillaspie release to said Bailey all actions or demands whatsoever touching of said land or any matter therein relating from the Beginning of the World to the 10th day of July last past.

      In witness whereof we have hereunto set our hands and seals this 12th day
 
 
 
 
 

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of July 1806.

                                 (Signed) James Parker, Sam'l Smith.
                                          James Mahan, Arthur Neil.
                                          Isaac Martin, John Neil.
                                          John Black, Thomas Tuggle.
                                          Andrew Craig.

                         REPORT OF A GRAND JURY OCT. 7, 1805

      The jurors of the Grand Jury for the Commonwealth aforesaid, in and for the County and circuit aforesaid, upon their oaths present that Jacob Chestnut and Abraham Chestnut, farmers of the county aforesaid, not having the fear of God before their eyes, but being moved and induced by the instigation of the devil, on the 24th day of September, in the fourteenth year of our said Commonwealth, with force and arms -- broke into the promises of John Freeman, tavern keeper, and assaulted him and fired at his residence with a gun.

                                 "IN THE ROOM OF"

 Various authors have undertaken to explain the expression "In the room of" it commonly used by early settlers to designate the successor of an official. In I Kings 5:5, it is stated, "And, behold, I purpose to build an house unto the name of the Lord my god, as the Lord spoke unto David my father, saying, Try son, whom I will set upon thy "throne in thy room, he shall build an house unto my name." In I Kings 8:20 the prophecy is fulfilled as follows, "And the Lord hath performed his word that he spoke, and I am risen up "in the room of David my father, and sit on the throne of Israel, as the Lord promised, and have built an house for the name of the Lord God of Israel." Our forefathers knew their Bibles.

                              OLD AND NEW COURT FIGHT

 In the Old and New Court Fight in Kentucky from 1822 to 1826, Knox County, with Joseph Eve presiding as circuit judge, refused to do business with the New Court. The county, as a whole, did not believe just debts could be paid by so-called Relief Legislation, and upheld the integrity of the judiciary, the Court of Appeals, or the "Three Old Men." During the interval between 1822 and 1826 Kentucky had two courts of appeals. At the outset the Relief party was in control, and elected a governor by an overwhelming majority. It obtained a two thirds majority in the house, but lacked a few votes of having the same majority in the senate. The legislature, without a two-thirds majority in both branches, could impeach, but could not convict the "three Old Men." Therefore, the Old Court was abolished and New Court created. "The reign of political quackery was in its glory," according to Collins. He (the debt-ridden public) turned eagerly to the quacks, who promised him instantaneous relief, by infallible nostrums and specifics, without pain--without self denial, and without paying the penalty
 
 
 
 
 
 

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which nature always imposes, upon any gross violation of her laws." Eventually sanity prevailed. The New Court was dismissed, and the act establishing it declared null and void. The Old Court continued to function as the only Court of Appeals. By hard work and economy Kentucky solved her relief problem.

 Two times two equal four is a well known mathematical truth. Times may change, civilization become more complex, and human, national and international problems more intricate, yet, the truth remains, two times two still equal four. It always has, and it always will, just as there are certain "fundamental, inalienable rights" under God and men. Summed up it is the age-old difference between right and wrong. Obeying the same immutable precept the Knox County Bar condemned the attempt of the present Administration to enlarge the personnel of the Supreme Court of the United State. Such an attitude is facetiously called conservatism. A more appropriate name is "Good Morals."

Knox County taught her offsprings good moral ethics.

                              A KNOX COUNTY LIEN

      Whereas I have bought a gun, shot bag and powder horn of Frank Ballinger for which I agree to pay him the following sums, to wit, five dollars on or before the l7th of January, 1831, in pork, and a transfer on a note on L. Ewell, five dollars on the 1st of August, 1831, which may be discharged in oats at the highest price any man will give in ready money delivered in Barbourville, 600 pounds of good fat corn fed pork, on or before the 1st day of December, 1831, delivered in the Town of Barbourville, the said Ballinger to retain a lien upon the gun shot bag and powder horn until the purchase money is paid, 1st January, 1831.

Attest -- Larkin Erwin                     (Signed) Joseph Helton

                                CREEKS NAMED

 Watt's Creek, in now Whitley County, was apparently named after Captain John Watts, Revolutionary War veteran of Virginia, who patented land on the creek in 1783 and 1784.

 Brush Creek, in the present Knox County, was called Licking Creek by Dr. Thomas Walker. He called Clear Creek, in new Bell County, Clover Creek, apparently that part of Cumberland River above the mouth of Flatt (Yellow) Creek was considered only as another creek by Dr. Walker. Stinking Creek is said to have been named because hunters would kill buffaloes for their hides and leave the carcasses to rot. Browney's Creek was named after one Browney, a long hunter.

                               JOHN BRADFORD

 On the front page of Order Book A, Knox County Court Clerk's office, is
 
 
 
 
 

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the following notation, "Sept. 24, 1801. Rec'd of Mr. Rich'd Ballinger Ten dollars for this book.

                                          (Signed) John Bradford!'

 John Bradford, with his brother Fielding Bradford, established the Kentucky Gazette the first newspaper in Kentucky, at Lexington, August 18, 1787. According to Collins, it was the first newspaper in the west (except the Pittsburg Gazette). John Bradford's signature is original.

 In July 1803, at a quarter Sessions Court the defendants in a case were nonresidents. It was ordered that they appear the first day of the next Court and "Copy of this order be published forthwith in the Kentucky Gazette for two months successively, posted up on the front door of the Courthouse of this County, and published some Sunday immediately after Divine Service at the Presbyterian Meeting house near Standford."

                                  JOSIAH COLLINS

 Josiah Collins, one of the first Knox County magistrates, is thought to have been the same Josiah Collins who felled the first tree on the site of Lexington, April 17, 1779. He did not remain long in early Knox County, and soon return to Fayette.

                               EVAN (GOVERNOR) SHELBY

 Evan Shelby, an officer at the Battle of Point Pleasant in 1774 and father of Kentucky's first governor, Isaac Shelby, patented 100 acres of land on the south side of Cumberland River at the ford April 24, 1780. The title was apparently perfected June 28, 1799. Later, December 16, 1816, the Governor, in order to clear up a cloud on his title bought the same tract from James Johnson "For and in consideration of two likely negroes. A man and a woman of the value of one thousand dollars -- and for the further sum of one hundred and fifty dollars."

                             PRESIDENT JAMES MONROE

 "Sunday, Oct. 16, 1785, according to Collins, Col. James Monroe, then a member of Congress (and afterward President of the United States) reached Limestone, or Maysville, via the Ohio River, and returned to Virginia via Lexington and the "wilderness." He traveled over the Boone Trace through Knox County, and no doubt, looked over the land he had patented on the Rockcastle River in 1784.

                             CAPTAIN CHARLES GATLIFF

 Captain Charles Gatliff, who settled at the mouth of Maple Creek in 1786, was born in Virginia, May 28, 1745, and died in Whitley County, Kentucky, June
 
 
 
 
 

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30, 1838. His father came from England, and according to records made available by H.E. Gatliff of Australia, was one of the Brinkworth Hall connections of the Gatliffs. Brinkworth Hall is located in Yorkshire, England. Leslie Gatliff, of Douglas, Arizona, says that Captain Charles Gatliff's father was a retired captain of the English Navy. In the Indian Wars of Greenbrier County, Virginia, Captain Gatliff served under Col. Samuel Lewis. In The Historical Collections of Virginia, by Henry Howell, published at Charleston, S.C., and found in Casset's Library, Memphis, Tennessee, it is said, "In 1778 an attack was made by 200 Indians on Donley's fort. There were about 60 persons at the fort. About 68 men
under Col. Samuel Lewis went to their assistance. They discovered Indians
in a rye field looking earnestly at the houses." Mr. Stewart in his Memoirs says, "Capt. Gatliff and I fired upon them and we saw others running in the rye from where we stood. This ended our war in Greenbrier County with the Indians."

 In 1780, Captain Gatliff came to Kentucky. "In the Spring of 1780 (it was in June)," says Simon Kenton's manuscript statement, "The Indians with Captain Bird, a British officer and his men, came into Kentucky, and took Ruddle's and Martin's Stations. The Kentuckians then sent on a request to George Rogers Clark desiring him to command us against the Indians. He sent an answer that he would. Charles Gatliff and myself went on to Riddle's and Martin's Stations, and then found them both taken, and a number of people lying about killed and scalped. We then took Captain Bird's trail from there on to the South Fork of Licking, were Falmouth now stands; and when we got there we found that Captain Bird had build a block-house, and made a stockade fort - and Bird and the Indians had both left there. We returned back to Harrodsburg." But they did not return without accomplishing something which was not set down in the records. Clark took a brass cannon with him on this summer's campaign, and Kenton's son William, told Dr. Draper that his father once pointed out a white oak at Boston, on Mad River, in which a ball from this cannon had lodged, and said it was fired from a brass six-pounder that had been "captured" from Bird's retreating force on Bird's trace -- "thinks Kenton (and Gatliff) stole the cannon in the night." As these two were the entire pursuing party after Bird and his eight hundred and fifty warriors, it is a fairly drawn conclusion that they did.

 Later, in the same year (1780), Captain Gatliff led the pursuit of the Indians that had killed Daniel Boone's brother, Edward, and his party was returning from the salt lick. This pursuit was made from Harrodsburg to the mouth of the Licking.

      In his History of Kentucky, page 108, D.F. Smith says, "In October, 1780, from Bryan's, Lexington and Strode's he (Boone) summed a party of 60 under Captain Gatliff and Joseph Ray who went in pursuit of the Indians." It is also stated in the same history that Captain Charles Gatliff's wife was captured by the Indians, and held prisoner for almost a year. She was recaptured by Gatliff and others at a battle near present Mt. Sterling.

      Collins says, "Captain Charles Gatliff was an early emigrant to Kentucky
 
 
 
 
 
 

                                                                        108
 

and very active in many Indian campaigns and excursions. He was a captain from Bryan's Station in the expedition up the Ohio River above Maysville against the Indians who murdered Daniel Boone's brother, Edward, in October 1780. Shortly afterwards, he was appointed Captain at Martin's Station in what is now Harrison County. He was a brave man, of fine judgement and was highly esteamed by Daniel Boone, as appears from the latter's deposition Feb. 27, 1817, and by all that know him for his service and character."

 Captain Gatliff married Christiana McGuire in Virginia by whom he bad nine children. Cornelius, born in 1777, married Sally Langford. John Speed, their son born in 1820 married Louvisa Jones. Their son, Dr. Ancil, is the father of Hon. E.A. Gatliff of Williamsburg, Kentucky. John Gatliff, of present Knox County, is a direct lineal descendant.

 The old Bible of Captain Charles Gatliff, printed in Belfast, Ireland, by and for James Blow from the original Greek, M. DCC, LI, is now in the possession of the Hon. E.A. Gatliff. On the margin of the pages he recorded numerous quaint prescriptions and happenings as follows:

      Nov. 26, 1792 -- Left off Drinking a Broad, I hope until my death.

 This 30 day of December 1811 little past midnight there was a shock of earthquake that made the houses rock from side to side at the mouth of Maple Creek on the Cumberland River.

      Another Rose of the same name (Rose was a slave), 1777.

 Admiral Brng -- Braddock. Col. Pickens in the military line of General Lincoln in the South Army. With General Pickens in the South Army.

      A cure to stop the worms from cutting off cabbages, to pick up nine worms without counting of them and tie them up in a rag and hang them up a line the chimney. Given by C. and Mrs. Wood.

 For a horse that has distemper, smoke them with flax seed. Given by G. Oldman.

 July 6, 1814 -- The big fresh was at the full height at night. This was the Cumberland River at the mouth of Maple Creek.

      Sow wheat bran among turnips to keep the flyers from eating them, 1796.

      For the white swollen take yellow popler bark and the root of Pine bark and chestnut oak bark, and take a good guantity of all the barks and put them into a pot and boil until the strength is boiled out. then strain the juice and boil until it is thick like glue, and make it into little balls and put one of the balls into the bole and put in a tenth of slippery elm bark and this will bring out all the rotten flesh and so continue until all is well.
 
 
 
 
 

                                                                        109
 

 Kind of gollups made of red root, papaws and white walnut bark. Fill a good quantity of each together and when boiled strain and put in bottle and use when wanted.

 A cure for the dropsy. Steel dust, worm wood and ginger dried in an oven and ground to powder with the dust and mix up with honey into pills and take one in the morning, one in the middle of the day and one at night for two or three weeks until you are well.

                     One McDavis furnished this prescription.

 A cure for the corns. Go to a linden bush in the morning before the sun rises take holt of the top of a limb and say, Good Morning, Good Morning. For what have I come here? To cure the corns of my toes. Then brake off the point of the twig of the bush and drop them down, and you must say the whole of the words over for every corn that you want to cure and when you have done this turn your back to the bush and go away.

 Small pox was called the "Bold Hives" by Captain Gatliff. In 1814 he recorded that a pair of shoes cost "9 shillings".

 Charles Gatliff had the following children: Speed, born 1774; James, born 1775; Cornelius, born 1777; Sis, born 1779; Moses, born 1783; Aaron, 1785; Sarah, born 1807. Captain Gatliff married Rachel Cummins in Knox County. The remains of Rachel Cummins Gatliff are buried in the Carpenter graveyard on Big Poplar Creek.

                       ANOTHER ACCOUNT OF MCFARIAND'S DEFEAT

 As far back into time as my memory runs my grandmother was an old, old woman. She was born on the Old Wilderness Road 99 years ago. The greater part of her life was lived at a time when the country was exceedingly new. The clearings were few and small. Bear, deer and other game were to be had for the hunting. Wolves howled around the little farms at night. She told me that nothing was more apt to cause lonesomeness to creep all over a fellow than the sound of the howl of a hungry wolf prowling around the back fencing in the dead hour of the night. The first I ever heard about McFarland's Defeat was from my grandmother years ago. It took place even before her day and time, but not so long before but that she had heard it discussed by parties well acquainted with the facts -- possibly some who had visited the place the day after and had seen the awful evidence of the massacre.

 It took place about four miles to the northeast of London, the capital of Laurel County, in a narrow valley not over a mile long and drained by a branch of Big Raccoon Creek, ever since called McFarland's Branch. At this date there is nothing especially significant about the valley. It is peaceful. The steep hills an either side are covered mostly by briars and bushes. Here and there gulleys are cut deep into the red clay down the hillside through fields that
 
 
 
 
 

                                                                        110
 

have been cleared, tilled and worn out by men who were born and have died of old age since the occurrence that made the spot a place sacred in Kentucky history. Now and then there is a small farm where appear many evidences of honest struggle with a soil not over friendly. In 1775, when Boone made his famous Trace from Cumberland Gap to Boonesborough he cut it down this narrow valley through an unbroken forest as old as the world. For the next twenty years all Kentucky settlers came over the briddle path. The Wilderness Road was not made until 1795. It followed the same general course of the Trace, but in many places it made a near-cut, and in doing so left the Trace to one side for several miles.

 All emigrants before the building of the Wilderness Road were in more or less danger from the Indians, who, though they did not live within the State, enjoyed it as a hunting ground and did not wish to see it broken up by the settlements of the whites. The Indians who committed the massacre came from Tennessee, probably entering the State through Clear Creek Gap, where the town of Jellico, now is, and following the course that the Louisville and Nashville Railroad now follows north into Laurel County. Striking Laurel County they struck Boone's Trace and ambushed and murdered the emigrants for scalps and for plunder. In the year 1786 a party under the McNitt while encamped near Fariston were surprised in the night and nearly all of them, some 24, were killed. The place is known to the older natives as the Defeated Camps, and today the graves of the murdered emigrants are easily to be found in a wooded portion of the Levi Jackson farm, four miles south of London.

 At the time, the spring of 1790, there was no living person in Laurel County and probably none in the territory between Cumberland Gap and Fort Estill, in Madison County, except one lone man living in a blockhouse on Hazel's Patch Creek, on the side of the Trace. He was called John Woods, but it was said that his real name was a long German one and that he had adopted the name "Woods" for the conveniences of his friends. Just why Woods lived alone so far from other settlements I am unable to say, but it may be that he was put there by one Ramey, who owned a large body of land in that section under a survey made in 1785. WOOD'S BLOCKHOUSE STOOD ON A POINT OF THE SOUTH SIDE OF THE CREEK, ABOUT 100 YARDS ABOVE WHERE THE WILDERNESS ROAD, BETTER KNOWN BY THE NATIVES AS THE "STATE ROAD", CROSSES THE CREEK NINE MILES NORTH OF LONDON. Afterwards pioneer John Pearl bought a large portion of Ramey's survey and built his home within a stone's throw of the site of the blockhouse occupied by Woods. Still later the place became known as the Landrum farm because it became the home of a Pioneer Methodist circuit rider, W.B. Landrum, a son-in-law of Pearl. The pioneer Pearl was the father of judge Granville Pearl, a widely known jurist of his day. Editor John Pearl, of the "Laurel County Local," is a namesake and a grandson of the Pioneer Pearl.

 McFarland was a hunter, a woodsman and a man experienced in Indian warfare. He was well acquainted with the winding path made by Boone, and had tasted the dangers of the dark woods on either side. Many descendants of the venturesome and hardy English colonists of Virginia and the Carolinas heard the
 
 
 
 
 

                                                                        111
 

call of the wild and the west and came to cast their fortunes with the new settlements beyond the Cumberlands in "the land that is good but is hard to settle." For the sake of company and for safety sake they traveled together and engaged a pilot like McFarland to take them through the Wilderness. At this time McFarland was leading a company of 28 besides himself. Excepting those who became footsore by the way and those too young the company traveled on foot. Wagons on the Trace were impossible. What few horses the emigrants had were needed to carry on pack saddles provisions for the trip and a few belongins for furnishing the cabins they expected to build in the cane land. Knowing the dangers of the journey the company had, under the advice of McFarland, arranged a plan of action in case of an attack. At the appearance of the enemy it was agreed that the men should each seek the shelter of a tree and fight the Indians Indian fashion. The women and children were to push forward with the packhorses, leaving the men untrammeled. If the emigrants were victorious they could soon overtake the noncombatants. If the battle went against the whites the women would have some show of escaping by being out of sight. The little company passed where most of McNitt's company had found their graves by the Trace side only four years before. Perhaps some friend or a relative had fallen here, and when McFarland pointed out the spot a shudder, a chill, passed over some of the timid -- a premonition. Six miles beyond they passed down into the little valley. It was late in the afternoon. John Wood's sheltering blockhouse was five miles away. The whoop of the Indians hidden by the trees was followed by a deadly fire. There were stout hearted women in the company. They had severed ties at the old home and willingly undertook the hazardous journey to find a new one. They had agreed to the plan arranged for them and had thought themselves equal to it, but when the test came they found the task too great. Their feet refused to carry them forward. Terror struck the company, terror and grim dispair. The women and children clung to their protectors who could neither protect nor save themselves. Without the shelter of a tree the men, women and children were at the mercy of those who never knew mercy. McFarland had no women folks, and he was able to get to a tree. From behind it he shot- the leader of the Indians, who as he fell took off part of McFarland's shot pouch with a last bullet.

 Late in the night John Woods heard at his gates a call that was different. The howl of a wolf, the hoot of an owl, the scream of a panther, or the screech of a night hawk failed to attract attention from this man of the woods. Such sounds came nightly from the forest. But a call from human lips out in the darkness meant something to the lone man in the wilderness, and instantly put him on the alert. John Woods had not lived so long in the woods alone without learning lessons. Every wild animal was a foe, but could come only as a foe. A man might be a foe appearing as a friend. It was sometime before McFarland could convince Woods who he was and how he came to be there. Then he was admitted, and soon the story of the massacre was told. After a consultation, made short for fear that the Indians had followed and would overwhelm them, Woods and McFarland left the blockhouse and hurried through the darkness over the long 30 miles that lay between them and Captain Whitley's Station near where the town of Crab Orchard, Lincoln County, now is. Next day with assistance from Whitley's they
 
 
 
 
 

                                                                        112
 

returned to the scene of the massacre. They found the bodies of the entire
company and the body of the Chief that McFarland had killed. Upon examination they found that the Chief was a white renegade with a painted face and an Indian dress. It appeared at first that McFarland was the only survivor but a cry attracted them to a spot a little aside, and there they found a second survivor, a puny girl baby, and a third, a faithful dog that had lain huddled against her and kept her from freezing by warmth of his body. The mother and father and all the others sleep by the Trace side where they fell. The child and her protector were taken to Captain Whitley's. What became of the child I never heard. Whether or not my grandmother knew I did not think to inquire until it was too late. Probably the baby lived to womanhood and possibly there are today many that could trace their lineage back to the helpless baby, the only one, of the large company of strong men and women setting out to reach the land beyond the Wilderness.

 In the early spring of 1790 Bishop Asbury, of the Methodist Episcopal Church, came from Virginia to Lexington, Kentucky, over Boone's path, to hold the first conference in the State. In his account of his uncomfortable trip through the mountains he mentions seeing on his way the graves of 28 emigrants who had been slain by the Indians but a few days before he came along. It could have been none other then the graves of McFarland's company on McFarland's Branch of Big Raccoon Creek in Laurel County.

                                       (Signed) Charles Robert Baugh.

      Copied from "the Lexington Herald", dated January 20, 1907.

                            COLONEL ARTHUR CAMPBELL

      "In the year, 1757, Dickenson's fort, situated on the Cow Pasture
River, in Augusta County," according to Summers in his "History of Southwest
Virginia," was raided by the Indians. At the time -- the Indians captured a boy who was destined in after years to play such a part in the history of Washington County as would justly entitle him to the appellation of 'Father of Washington County'. The boy's name was Arthur Campbell. He was carried by the Indians to Ohio, and thence to the Lakes, where he was detained for a number of years. Upon his return he addressed a letter to the Governor of Virginia, detailing the circumstances of his capture and detention, and thereby made such an impression upon the governor that he was afterwards granted a thousand acres of land in consideration of his services."

      Colonel Campbell fought in the Revolution as an officer, commanding an expedition against the Tories in Virginia and North Carolina. He served as a Justice of the peace and held other offices in Washington County, Virginia.

 Just when Colonel Campbell moved to Kentucky is not definitely known. In 1780, he patented 600 acres of Flatt (Yellow) Creek. The late Judge Thomas D.
 
 
 
 
 
 

                                                                        113
 

Tinsley, who had investigated the matter, stated that his great, great grandfather, William Tinsley had been engaged by Colonel Campbell to settle upon his grant near Middlesboro. For several years prior to his death he was a resident of Lincoln County, Kentucky. His home was on Yellow Creek in the present Middlesboro, where he died in 1811. His remains were buried there. Later, according to Summers, the body was moved by Tennessee relatives. The same authority, quoted above, say the following inscription appeared on his tomb:

           Here lies entombed a Revolutionary sage,
           An ardent patriot of the age,
           In erudition great, and useful knowledge to scan,
           In philanthropy hospitable, the friend of man,
           As a soldier brave, virtue his morality,
           As a commander prudent, his religion charity,
           He practiced temperance to preserve his health,
           He used industry to acquire wealth,
           He studied physic to avoid disease,
           He studied address to please,
           He studied himself to complete his plan,
           For his greatest study was to study man,
           His statue tall, his person portly,
           His features handsome, his manners courtly.
           Sleep Honored Sire in the realms of rest
           In doing justice to thy memory a son is blest,
           A son inheriting in full thy name,
           One who aspires to all thy fame.
                       Colonel Arthur Campbell.

 His will was probated in Knox County, Kentucky. In 1812, the executor of the estate of Colonel Campbell, among other items, gives the following:

           By paid D. Root for a coffin, Voucher No. 1 . . . $10.00
           Do Penetentiary agent Ky. for Tombstone,
                       No. 2 . . . . . . . . . . . 120.00
           Do  Do For engraving No. 3 . . . . . . . . . . 45.58
           Pd. carriage of s'd tombstone from Frankfurt to
           Yellow Creek, Voucher No. 4  . . . . . . . . . . . 50.00

 The final report also shows that "paid traveling expenses six times to Louisville and back and boarding while there. To Abington, Lee, Barbourville, Knoxville, and many other places repeatedly, postage of letters, etc., all business of the estate, $750.00. He paid total bills of $11,977.37 1/2, and was allowed a ten percentun commission of said sum for fee, making a total expenditure out of the estate of $13,175.07 1/4. The estate was sold for $22,306.56 1/2 to various parties. The executor, Arthur L. Campbell's last report was approved, and ordered of record November 10, 1815.

      Colonel Campbell's will reads in part as follows:
I, Arthur Campbell, a citizen of the State of Virginia, now at times resident in the State of Kentucky, being of perfect mind and memory and
 
 
 
 
 
 

                                                                        114

calling to mind the uncertain duration of this life to all men, especially to the aged and infirm, do now make this my last will and testament for the disposal of my property.

 After my decease it is my desire that my body be decently buried in my garden, part of which was called Gidian's Tenement westwardly of Cumberland Gap, and that a handsome but not costly tombstone may tell where I lie--.

 Other authors have stated that Colonel Campbell had six sons and six daughters. This is evident by an error. It is possible David, named as a beneficiary in his will, was understood to have been a son. David was his nephew, and lived in Abingdon, Virginia. The widow and children as named in the will are, Widow, Margaret; Sons, William, John B., Charles Lewis, Arthur Lee, and James; Daughters, Elizabeth, Margaret, Mary Campbell Beard, Jane B., Martha C., and Ann Augusta. Margaret Campbell married Isaac Sawyers (Sayers in most Virginia records) in 1810. Ann Augusta Campbell married an Owens, and moved to Franklin, Williamson County, Tennessee.

                         GOVERNOR SHELBY'S BRICK HOUSE

 Just when Governor Isaac Shelby built a house at Cumberland Ford is not known. However, since he acquired land by inheritance from his father around the Ford, the title to which was apparently perfected June 28, 1799, and applied for the right to establish a ferry at the same place April 28, 1801, it is assumed he had some place prepared to accommodate travelers on his side of Cumberland River. The first mention of a brick at Cumberland Ford was July 11, 1811, when "Joseph Eve, Assee of the County Court of Boone "entered" four acres of land in the County of Knox on Cumberland River to begin 6 1/2 poles north of the door of Shelby's brick house between the State road and said rivers." William Hogan was the first man licensed to operate a tavern at Cumberland Ford, October 27, 1800, and probably his tavern was in the Governor's brick house.

                 FIRST BATTLE OF CIVIL WAR ON KENTUCKY SOIL

      The first battle of the Civil War on Kentucky soil, according to records in the War Department, took place at Lucas Bend of the Mississippi River, September 26, 1861. It is not expected that the War Department would have any records concerning actions by Home Guards. Collins says, "Sept. 19, 1861 Spirited skirmish at Barbourville bridge, between Home Guards and Confederate troops." In his History of Kentucky, Judge Kerr list the Battle (or Skirmish) of Barbourville as the first engagement of the Civil war on Kentucky soil. This
was the first engagement of the Civil War in Kentucky is beyond dispute. General Felix K. Zollicoffer, of the Confederate forces, occupied Cumberland Gap in July 1861. He attempted to move his forces over the then State Road through Barbourville to the Bluegrass area. The skirmish at Barbourville resulted later, October 21, 1861, the Confederates were halted by Union troops under Colonel, General T.T. Garrard at Camp Wildcat in Laurel County.  One was killed on each side during the skirmish at Barbourville. A Lt. Lane (or Payne) thought to have
been a member of a Mississippi company, and John Hendrickson, of the Home Guards, was killed. Several were wounded on each side.
 
 
 
 
 

                                                                        115

 During the Civil War two more skirmishes took place at Barbourville, the second April 27, 1863, and the third February 8, 1864.

 "At a County Court called and held for Knox County at the Courthouse thereof in the Town of Barbourville on Monday, the 10th day of February 1862, it being held as a court of claims which was not held at the usual October term in 1861 on account of the invasion of the Southern Army from Tennessee also in accordance with the act of General Assembly, 1861."

 "It is hereby ordered that the Knox Circuit Court for April 1863, be and the same is, hereby suspended, April 4, 1863.
                                          Granville Pearl,
                                    Judge of the 12 Judicial District."

 "It appearing to the satisfaction of the Court that copies of the commissioner's books in the hands of the Sheriff of this County have been lately captured by the Confederate forces from Cumberland Gap, and efforts have been made to recover them, but without success, and the Sheriff of said County is now delayed in the collection of the taxes of the years 1861 and 1862" it was ordered that the clerk copy same and give said copy to the sheriff.

                           THE BARBOURVILLE BRIDGE

 November 10, 1823, it was "ordered that the sum of one hundred dollars be allowed to build a bridge across the Spring Branch above Barbourville, Thomas Tuggle, Samuel Lusk and James Love, Esq. are appointed to let out the building of the said bridge to the lowest bidder, not to exceed the said sum of $100.00 and to take bond and security for the performance of said work and to do any and every act that may be required and make reports." Over one year afterwards, in 1824, the "bridge across Crooked Branch above Barbourville" was built. It was on Cumberland Avenue (Depot Street) near the junction of Dishman Street.

                       GENERAL GRANT AT BARBOURVUIE

 "General (Ulysses S.) Grant further attested to the loyalty of the people in this section (Mountain) when he made a special tour from Knoxville to Lexington via Cumberland Gap the first days in January 1864. He made the trip by horseback with a slow entourage. The ground was frozen and he says in his memoirs that the road over which he traveled was strewn with broken wagons, dead horses and other debris. He said however that all along the way he was welcomed by the local people, who swarmed about him showing intense interest in him. From his remarks it would seem to indicate that his journey through the Gap, near where Lincoln Memorial University is now located was more like a triumphant tour than one of routine military inspection. It is also interesting to note that when General Grant was passing through Barbourville he stayed all night on January 7, 1864, at the Ben Eve Hotel (then operated by William Matthews, son-in-law of Ben Eve).

                          ANDREW JOHNSON IN BARBOURVIL1E
 
 
 
 
 

                                                                        116
 

 During the Civil War Andrew Johnson spoke in Barbourville in the interest of the Republican ticket. He was a candidate for vice president on the same ticket. His speech was delivered from a temporary stand erected on the lawn of the present Community House. Mrs. Martha Costellow, who was fifteen years of age at the time, remembers that there was a large crowd present from all over Southeastern Kentucky. The speech must have made votes for the Republican ticket since Lincoln and Hamlin only receive 1,366 in the entire State in 1860, whereas in Knox County alone in 1864 President Lincoln received 629 to 129 for McClellan. The vote in the State was McClellan 64,260, Lincoln 27,775.

 Other Vice Presidents to speak in Barbourville were Charles W. Fairbanks and Calvin Coolidge, later President.

                          EARTHQUAKE AT BARBOURVILLE

 "Feb. 28, 1854 -- Shock of earthquake, felt at Paris, Lexington, Richmond, Barbourville, and other points." History of Kentucky, vol. 1, page 70, by Collins. Whether there was any damage the author has been unable to learn.

                              LEGAL WHIPPINGS

 Whipping for crime was abolished in Kentucky December 1, 1873. To James Daniels goes the dubious honor of being the first sentenced to receive a whipping as follows:

 August 8, 1808. Commonwealth vs. James Daniels. For Larceny. Jury: Isaac Sexton, James Johnson, William Baker, Joseph Cox, Solomon Turel, James Dudley, Thomas Kenworthy, Elijah Trosper, Benjamin Catchen, Elish Ruddick, Samuel Hibbard, and Valentine Gibson. Verdict: We of the jury find the within named James Daniel guilty of the crime as in the indictment against him is alledged and do adjudge and decide that he shall receive therefor on his bare back at the Public Whipping Pose five stripes.

 Perry Williams was the last man sentenced to receive a public whipping. He was sentenced in 1872, but he appealed. There is no record of the sentence ever having been carried into effect.

 Other whippings were carried into effect. John Emry was sentenced as follows:

 1817. We of the jury find the prisoner, John Emry, guilty of the larceny in the within indictment charged against him and do adjudge and find in consequence thereof that he receive eight stripes on his bare back
at the Public Whipping Post. The verdict was signed by John Pogue as
foreman.

      1857. Ordered that the Sheriff pay to G.L. Mitchell $3.50 for
arresting and whipping the slaves by order of Court March 23, 1857.
 
 
 
 
 

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      1864. Conmonwealth vs. Hiram Adams, of Color. For Murder. Verdict:
We of the jury find Hiram Adams guilty of Manslaughter and assess the fine
to one hundred and ninety-nine stripes.

      November 8, 1803, it was "ordered that Richard Ballinger be appointed
to let the building of a Stray Pen and Public Stocks to the lowest bidder as
soon as convenient.

                   A COUNTY CLAIMS LIST, NOVEMBER 5, 1805

To Thomas Smith for killing one grown woolf . . . . . . 12 shillings
To Joseph Cox for killing one grown wolf. . . . . . . . 12 shillings
To Henry Woodson for killing one grown woolf  . . . . . 12 shillings
To Richardson Herndon for sundries. . . . . . . . . . . 2 pounds and
                                                        14 shillings.
To John Fulk for killing one grown wolf . . . . . . . . 12 shillings
To Isaac Carter for killing five grown wolfs. . . . . .  3 pounds
To John Tye for killing one grown woolf . . . . . . . . 12 shillings
To John Barber for killing one grown wolf . . . . . . . 12 shillings
To Matthew McKee for killing one grown wolf . . . . . . 12 shillings
To Matthias Reed for killing one grown wolf . . . . . . 12 shillings
To Solomon Reed for killing one grown woolf . . . . . . 12 shillings
To Abner Davis for killing five grown woolfs. . . . . .  3 pounds
To John Walker for killing killing me young wolf. . . . .6 shillings
To John Laughlin, Sr., for killing one grown woolf . . . 12 shillings
To John Moore for killing two young wolfs. . . . . . . . 12 shillings
To Isaac Sexen for killing me grown wolf . . . . . . . . 12 shillings
To James Daniels for killing two grown wolfs . .. . . . . 1 pound and
                                                          4 shillings
To Curtis Blakely for killing me grown wolf . . . . . . .12 shillings
To William Cummin for killing one grown wolf. . . . . . .12 shillings
To Ezekiel Bledsoe for killing me grown wolf. . . . . . .12 shillings
To Brice Baker for killing two grown wolfs. . . . . . . . 1 pound and
                                                          4 shillings
To John Tye for killing one grown and three young woolfs  1 pound and
                                                     10 shillings
To Samuel Slaughter, assee of John Hart, one grown wolf. .12 shillings
To William Turner for killing one grown woolf. . . . . . .12 shillings
To Samuel Slaughter, assee of Wm. White, one grow wolf . .12 shillings
To Charles Gatliff for killing one grown woolf . . . . . .12 shillings
To William Thomas for killing me grown wolf. . . . . . . .12 shillings
To John Prewit for killing one grown wolf. . . . . . . . .12 shillings
To John Wood for killing one grown wolf. . . . . . . . . .12 shillings
To Pleasant Coffee for killing one grown wolf. . . . . . .12 shillings
To Samael Slaughter, assee of Garnett Jackson, 1 grown woolf . .12 shillings
To David Johnson, assee of Archabald Clayton, 2 grown wolfs. .1 pound and
                                                         4 shillings
To Elisha Ruddick for killing two grown woolfs . . . . . . 1 pound and
                                                           4 shillings
 
 
 
 

                                                                        118

To James Hodges for killing one grown wolf . . . . . . . . 12 shillings
To Alexander Stewart, 5 days attending of election as judge. .11 pounds and
                                                              10 shillings
To Samuel Hoard, 1 day attending of elections. . . . . . .  6 shillings
To Nimrod Farris, 3 days attending of elections. . . . . . 18 shillings
To John Ruddick, 3 days attending of elections . . . . . . 18 shillings
To David Hogan, 3 days attending of elections. . . . . . . 18 shillings
To Richard Ballinger, 3 days, one third to be paid Peter Engle 18 shillings
To Richardson Herndon, 1 day attending of elections. . . .  6 shillings
To Alexander Stewart, I day attending of elections as judge . . 6 shillings
To John Ruddick, 1 day attending of elections as judge . . .6 shillings
To Richard Ballinger, Clk. for Exoficio Services . . . . . .12 pounds
For paper for same . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 pound and
                                                            10 shillings
For the same acting as Comms. of Bridge  . . . . . . . . . . 6 shillings
Richardson Herndon for same  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 shillings
Arthur Neil same . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 shillings
John Alsup, Sr . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6 shillings
Samuel Slaughter, Sheriff for Exoficio Services (deputy) . . 12 pounds
Thomas Montgomery as C.W. atto. for C.C.K. . . . . . . . . . 24 pounds
Richard Ballinger C.D.C.C. for paper . . . . . . . . . . . .  1 pound and
                                                             10 shillings
Thomas Graham for sundries . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  9 shillings
Jarvis Seals for sundries furnished  . . . . . . . . . . . . 12 shillings
                                                        ------------------
Amount vs. the county . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76 pounds and three
                                                                 shillings

818 Ththes to pay 3 shillings per Tythe . . . . . . . . 122 pounds and fourteen
                                                                 shillings
Leave a balance in favor of the county of . . . . . . . 46 pounds and eleven
                                                                 shillings.

 Officials of Towns, Counties, States and Nations kindly note, "There was a Balance in the Treasury."

                                TREE OF JUSTICE

 Three miles south of Corbin on U.S. 25 E. stands a weather-beaten old oak. it is called the Tree of Justice, or Nigger Tree. In 1863, Uncle Tom Fowler, mill operator, who served citizens of Knox, Laurel, and Whitley, went to his mill one night to finish his grinding. He was methodical in his habits, and did not return at his usual time. His aged wife went to the mill looking for him. She found his body. With the coming of dawn she knew he had been murdered, and went to a neighbor, who spread the news.

 An inquest was held by A.L. Cox, Justice of the Peace. The jury, which had been hastily summoned, rendered a verdict that Uncle Tom Fowler had come to his death at the hands of unknown person.
 
 
 
 
 

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 A conference was held between Squire Cox, James Barton, James Votaw, and William Tinksley. Suspicion pointed at Matt Fowler, Negro, who had been the property of James Fowler, brother of the deceased. Sue Still, Negress, reported having seen the deceased and James Butler, a neighboring white man, together leaving Matt Fowler's house on the day of the murder. It was also known that Matt Fowler and Butler had been gathering corn together the day of the murder.

 Warrants were issued for both Fowler and Butler. Fowler was the first apprehended . He was arrested by Constable James Barton, and taken to the home of James Votaw, where he was guarded. At the examining trial next day in Squire Cox's Court there was not sufficient evidence to show the Negro guilty. However, he was ordered taken to Williamsburg for safe-keeping. The crowd was convinced of his guilt. Some one in the crowd attending the trial made a motion to hang the Negro. A vote on the motion was called for. Squire Cox did not vote, but the vast majority was in favor of hanging Fowler. The, Negro was hanged on a tree in "Grand-Dad" hollow near Siler, but not before he had confessed. According to the Negro, Butler was a participant in the crime. After he had hit Uncle Tom over the head with a club and did not kill him, Butler cut his throat. The Negro was placed astride General Brafford's horse, rope knotted around his throat and tied to a limb the horse was then led from under him by Parks Gray.

 Butler escaped, but was captured near Pine Hill by Barton, Robert Mitchell and Jesse Moore. April 12, 1865, James Butler was tried for murder. The jury was made up of the following: Spencer King, William Gatching, R.P. Franklin, Thomas Hale, John Smith, G.W. Kinsor, John Burnett, W.J. Lewis, Nelson Carnes, John Brackett, Lafayette Bingham and John Bingham. Their verdict follows, "We of the jury find the defendant guilty." He was ordered "taken to the forks of the road" and hanged. Later after an appeal, at a second trial he was acquitted. Butler left Kentucky and moved west.

 J.0. Barton owned the property on which stood the oak tree where the Negro was hanged. At the time, his son, John Barton, sold the same property to Sam Mays in 1898 the old man told Mr. Mays to take good care of the tree as he had always done. He added, "The Good Book says that a tree which bearth good fruit should not be cut down." The property is now owned by Forester Root, and is on U.S. 25E, a few hundred yards north of the Corbin Country Club, and the tree still stands.

                              INDICTMENTS FOR TREASON

 Among those indicted for treason during the Civil War were the following: William Stewart, Joseph E. Hays, George Tye, Richard Ball, Gus Gregory, Noah Cox, Jesse Glasscock, V.S. Jackson, David Dishman, James Tuggle, Jr., James Tuggle Sr., James Woods, T.J. Burket, James Smith, Edward F. Arthur, J.A. Bryant, John W. Culton, John Smith, A.P. Henson, Samuel Sparks, Andrew Benson, Thomas Safely, Henry Tye, Robert Henson, William Saftey, Isaac Henson, John W. Sparks, Benjamin Dickinson, Ambrose Leath, Jorden Stewart, John M. Dickinson,
 
 
 
 
 
 

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William Stewart (son of Isaac), John F. Arthur, James Pope, G.W. Kinsor, Wash Ball, Martin Bowls, John Dishman, J.H. Smith, Talbert H. Jones, James M. Dishman, William Johnson, A.E. Pogue, Sarah Parker, Jerry Pitman, Madison Pitman, William Pitman, Jas. Maricle, Robert Green, Jeff Pursifull, Jas. Pursifull, William Maricle, Abraham Miracle, Elisha Green, Wilkerson Green, Grank Jackson, John Helton, E.F. Green, Milton Unthank, Daniel Messer, and Elijah Gregory.

 There is no record of their trials. It is understood some were tried, by change of venue, in Clay County. However, after the General Amnesty proclamation, most if not all, of the indictments were noll-prossed, or filed away.

 In the list of those indicted will be found a majority of those who fought for the Southern cause. Edward Arthur, James Tuggle, John Arthur, Henry Tye, Guss Gregory, John W. Culton, Joseph Hays and Martin Bowls were with Gen. John Hunt Morgan's troops. Jourden Stewart was with the 20th Tennessee Regiment.

                        DANIEL BOONE IN LETCHER AND HARLAN

 Daniel Boone first trod Kentucky soil in 1767, according to Dr. Jillson in Tales of the Dark and Bloody Ground. He cites as his authority the manuscript of Dr. Lyman C. Draper in the State Historical Society of Wisconsin at Madison. Boone spent the winter at a salt lick ten miles west of Prestonburg on the Left Fork of Middle Creek in Floyd County. It is thought that Boone was not within the bounds of Old Knox County at this time, although it is possible he did extend some of his hunts across Pine Mountain and thus penetrated the northwestern section.

 It is well established that Boone was in Letcher County, according to G. Bennett Adams, county attorney of Letcher County, Whitesburg. "We have had plenty of evidence writes Mr. Adams, "that Daniel Boone was here. An old Boone tree, on which he had cut his name, stood on the route he would have traveled coming in from Pound Gap. The tree was cut down, and the part on which his name is carved, was sent to the museum at Harrodsburg. His name, with others, was also found cut on a cliff between here and Hazard. There was also another tree not far from my home with his name on it." Whether Boone crossed Pine Mountain is not known.

 There is a well founded tradition that Boone and one Yocum were captured by Indians near Pennington Gap, Virginia, and brought across the mountains into Harlan County. The story reveals a native shrewdness and intimate knowledge of Indian character. It is said that Boone and Yocum, after their capture, flapped their arms and crowed like roosters at well timed intervals. The Indians regarded them as crazy. As a result of this ruse they made their escape at the mouth of a creek since called Yocum's.

                   KNOX COUNTY MAGISTRATE GOVERNOR OF MISSOURI
 
 
 
 
 

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 Hancock Jackson, son of John and Mary Hancock Jackson, was born in Madison County, Kentucky, May 12, 1796. His parents were the first couple to obtain a marriage license in Madison County, and were married at Richmond, Kentucky, June 17, 1787. His parents later moved to old Knox County (Laurel). In 1818, at the age of 22 years, he served as a Justice of the Peace in Knox County. October 11, 1829, his father patented 640 acres of land in Missouri. In the settlement of his father's estate (1835) he and his brother George, took the Missouri land as their share. They settled in Missouri. Hancock Lee Jackson was elected lieutenant governor in 1856 with Trusten Polk, governor. The latter was elected to the U.S. Senate and Jackson became governor and served until October 1857.

                       PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES FOR ONE DAY

 David R. Atchison of Missouri, (a native of Kentucky), was president pro tempore of the Senate from 1846 to 1849 and from 1852 to 1854. By virtue of this office Senator Atchison was for one day legal President of the United States, since Zachary Taylor was not sworn in until Monday, March 5, 1849. During Senator Atchison's latter term, due to the death of Vice President Wm. R. King, of Alabama, he was acting vice president. A niece of the Senator, Jennie Atchison, married John Dishman, a Mexican War veteran and prominent lawyer and public official of Knox County for many years. Their descendants, among whom are the Hon. Edward Dishman, former treasurer of Kentucky and the Hon. S.B. Dishman, manager, Veteran's Administration, Lexington, Kentucky, still claim Barbourville as their homes. Another niece Eliza Atchison married Dr. R.T. Tuggle.

                               LEGAL HANGINGS

 The first hanging in Knox County, that of Silas, a slave, for stealing, is mentioned elsewhere in this book. It was the first case tried by a Court of Oyer and Terminer. Silas was hanged about one mile east of Barbourville near U.S. 25E.

 April 9, 1817, Isaac Callahan, Thomas Begley, Jr., and Archelous Gibson, on a change of venue from Clay County were tried for the murder of David Newberry. The verdict was: We of the jury find the prisoners at the bar guilty of the murder and felony in the within indictment charged against them! It was signed by Goodman 01dham, foreman. This was the second record of hangings. The order relative to their being sentenced reads as follows:

 The prisoners were again at the bar in custody of the sheriff, and they being asked if they bad anything further to say or alledge than what had been said why the Court should not now proceed to pronounce sentence of law upon verdict of the jury, said that they had nothing further to say or alledge than what had been said or alledged before. Wherefore it is considered by the Court that the said Isaac Callahan, Thomas Begley, Jr., and Archelous Gibson the 17th day of May next be hung by the neck until they be dead, dead, dead, and the sheriff is ordered to erect the gallows within a half mile of the Courthouse.
 
 
 
 
 
 

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 Under an act passed December 1816, those sentenced to hang had to be hanged in the County where tried. These men were hanged somewhere in the vicinity of Union College.

 Many of the old citizens have heard the tune which Callahan is said to have played on his fiddle while sitting on his casket just before being hanged. It is said he told his wife to give the fiddle to anyone who could play the tune as well as he had.

      That Callahan and Begley were hanged is attested by the following:

 Ordered that the Clerk of this Court do pay unto Isaac Cumstalk $13 out of any money in his hands when collected instead of paying to David Hogan $13 for making gallows, hauling Callahan and Begley to gallows, making coffins, and burying of the same, etc.

 Whether Gibson was hanged is not known definitely. It is said the remains of those hanged were buried opposite Union College.

      Third record of a hanging in Knox County:

      Commonwealth vs. Bob George (a negro boy slave).

 A jury: Thomas Rodes, Jonathan Henderson, Joah Laws, Samuel Hudson, Jacob Wells, James Owens, Isaac Moore, James Lee, Robert P. Treadway, Robert Dowis, Drury Tye and William Laws found the prisoner guilty of murder and attempted rape.

 The Court ordered: This day the said Bob George was by order of the Court brought before the court, and being asked by the Court whether he had anything further to urge why the judgement of the Court, in pursuance of the verdict of the jury, should not be pronounced upon him, stood mute. Wherefore it is the judgement of the Court that the said Bob George, slave, be remanded to the jail, whence he came, and be there safely kept until Saturday, the 30th day of July 1836, upon which day it is ordered that the sheriff convey him to the place of execution, to be within two miles of Barbourville and hang him by the neck until he be dead, dead, dead.

 This Negro is said to have been hanged on a tree in front of the Girl's dormitory of Union College. His remains were buried under a fence enclosing the old W.W. Sawyers home, on the side of College Street. Many years later the wheels of a heavy wagon caved in the grave. The remains were then dug up and moved. The author remembers an old Negro woman, Aunt Milly Anderson, a cook for his parents in the property referred to, who was present at the hanging.

 Jackson Waggoner was sentenced to be hanged October 21, 1855, "At which time the sheriff is directed to take the said defendant to the forks of the road leading to Manchester and London and there and then between the hours of 10
 
 
 
 
 

                                                                        123
 

o'clock a.m. and 2 o'clock in the afternoon to hang him, the said defendant, Jackson Waggoner, by the neck until he shall be dead, dead, dead," Waggoner had been tried for murder.

 Waggoner was never hanged, according to indisputable evidence, although the records do not reveal the facts. Dempsey King was sheriff at the time. His granddaughter Miss Sallie Hoskins says that he made arrangements for Waggoner to break jail, and placed a horse near the London bridge for him to continue his flight. The sheriff did not want to hang him. A short time thereafter, during the Civil War, Waggoner is said to have disguished himself as an officer in the army of the United States.

 Besides James Butler, mentioned under another item in this chapter, as having been sentenced to be hanged, Joseph Berry also received the same sentence for murder on April 2, 1873. His lawyers appealed. The Court of Appeals, in reversing the case, stated, "The appellant and Joseph Sampson, between whom angry words had passed, by mutual consent engaged in a personal conflict in which Sampson was stabbed and killed--." It is said the fight was to have been a fair fist fight, and that no weapons were to be used.

 After the case had been reversed, and before a retrial, Berry "broke jail" and escaped. It is said his lawyers advised him to go to Tennessee, or some other state, and steal a horse to continue his flight. Upon being apprehended in the other state for horse stealing his father is said to have employed a local attorney to prosecute him. Tried for horse stealing in that state, he was sentenced to the penitentiary, and died before being released.

 If Archelous Gibson were hanged with Callahan and Begley the sixth man hanged in Knox County was John Sexton. August 21, 1884, and entry reads:

 The defendant was brought into Court in the custody of the jailer, and the sworn jury here in took their seats and responded to their names, and returned the following verdict. "We of the jury agree, and find the defendant guilty of the charge in the indictment (murder), and fix his punishment at death." C.W. Taylor signed the verdict as foreman of the jury.

 (August 23, 1884) The defendant, John Sexton, was this day brought into Court, and being informed of the nature of the indictment, plea, and verdict, was asked if he had any legal cause to show why judgement should not be pronounced against him, and none being shown, it is ordered by the Court that the defendant be taken hence to the jail of Knox County and there safely kept until Monday, the 3rd day of November 1884, on which day between sunrise and sunset the sheriff of Knox County shall hang him by the neck until he is dead, same to be done in some enclosure convenient to said jail in the presence of not exceeding fifty persons, of whom the following named persons are selected by the Court, viz: T.J. Pitzer, Tyre Gibson, Wm. McDonald, W.P. Fox, Thos. Henson, George Corum, J.T. Byrley, W.B. Anderson, G.M. Parrott, and J.M. Bolton.
 
 
 
 
 
 

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 Sexton appealed. The Court of Appeals upheld the verdict, and affirmed the lower court. He was hanged in 1885 near the then new jail (present jail), and was led from the cage of the old jail on the western side of the Public Square to the site of the gallows. He maintained his innocence to the last.

 The seventh and last man hanged in Knox County was Jesse, a Negro for the murder of Martha Broughton. He was sentenced August 16, 1906. Upon an appeal the Court of Appeals upheld the verdict, and affirmed the lower court. The verdict reads, "We, the jury, do agree and find the defendant guilty of murder and fix his punishment at death." The verdict was signed by Coy Chitwood, foreman.

 This hanging took place the time our present courthouse was being enlarged. The wings were added during the term of County Judge Flem D. Sampson, and the trial was held in the main building of the Barbourville Baptist Institute. For fear that the Negro would be lynched, the local company of the State Guards was called into service while the trial was going on. He was kept in jails in Central Kentucky before the trial and after the appeal. He was hanged in 1907 on gallows erected in the present jail yard.

                                   CALEB POWERS

 Caleb Powers, born February 1, 1869, died July 25, 1932, was the son of Amos Powers and Elizabeth Perkins Blakely Powers. He was educated in the common schools of Knox County, the University of Kentucky and Centre College, Danville, Kentucky. Prior to this he had been appointed, and later studied, as a cadet at West Point Military Academy. Because of ill health he was discharged after completing about two years work at the academy. He studied law, and was graduated, from Valpariso University. His parents were not wealthy. He pulled himself up in his home county and state by his own bootstraps. The teaching he had received from plain, God-loving parents proved salutary, and sustained him in his later trials and tribulations. It enabled him to be elected superintendent of common schools of Knox County, Secretary of State in Kentucky and a member of Congress from Kentucky for eight years. It consoled him in the loss of his father, whose funeral he was not allowed to attend. Caleb Powers married first Miss Laura Rawlins, about whose death resolutions will be found in this book, and second Miss Dorothy Kaufman, by whom he has a daughter, Mrs. Robert Hays.

 Comparisons are always odious. However, since the publication of The First New Dealer (William Goebel), by Urey Woodson, and recent articles, we do not think it amiss to present another angle, which has received very little attention. In the March 27, 1938 issue of the Chicago Tribune, it was stated by William Shinnick that "Goebel was the director of the legislative forces (1900). He was tall, upstanding, vigorous, harsh. He was, moreover, a man of violent passions. In 1895 he had shot and killed a bank president, an old Confederate veteran, John Sanford, in his home town of Covington. As his power grew he became more and more dictatorial. At his bequest in 1898, the legislature passed
 
 
 
 
 
 

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a new election law which placed control of voting in a three man commission elected by the legislature. The measure was so drastic and according to its opponents, so vicious that it threatened to break up the Democratic party. There were charges, that it was designed merely to make frauds legal and to keep wronged voters from appealing to the courts for redress." The same article goes on to state that, after Goebel had been killed and Beckham had succeeded him, "He had the Goebel election law repealed, not because it was unjust (he said), but because it had made too much trouble."

 One hundred thousand dollars was appropriated by the legislature for the prosecution (in reality persecution) of Goebel's killers. Caleb Powers was one of the unfortunate victims of that bitter political persecution.

 It is not the author's purpose to discuss the different phases of the Powers' trials. Volumes could be written on both sides. It is his purpose, however, to show another angle, and let the reader reach his own conclusions.

                            OWENS LANDS A SHARP SLAP

 Exposes Goebel's Trickery of Capt. W.J. Stone, and Tells of the Inside Plots--Mr. Goebel had promised the nomination to Stone.

                 DEMOCRATIC EX-CONGRESSMAN REPUDIATES THE NOMINEE

 Probably the most pertinent expression coming from the inside of the late but still notorious State Democratic Convention is that by W.C. Owens, of Georgetown, who distinctly repudiates the nominee, William Goebel, and gives in black and white his reasons for turning his back on the latest outrage on long suffering Kentucky. In vigorous language and stunning detail, Mr. Owens describes how against his counsel W.J. Stone permitted himself to be cajoled by Goebel, only to be betrayed by the man who snatched the nomination for himself. Mr. Owens speaks as a friend of Capt. Stone, as well as thousands who will be influenced by the story of Goebel's and Stone's confidence.

 Mr. Owens is the former Democratic Congressman from the Seventh District, having defeated W.C.P. Breckinridge and C.J. Bronston for the nomination, and then having defeated Denny, the Republican nominee. Mr. Owens came to Louisville as a friend and advisor of Capt. Stone, and was one of the first to impugn Goebel's motives when the latter entered into a combination with Stone to organize the Convention. Through Owens' influence Capt. Stone withdrew from the combination, and later, against Owen's advice, fell a victim to Goebel's blankishments and lent himself to the plan that Goebel used to secure his own nomination.

                                  STORY VERIFIED

 In his narration of the causes that led to his parent declaration, Mr. Owens revealed some inside history that is startling. It may be said here that a
 
 
 
 
 

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reporter for the Commercial witnessed on the Friday of the Convention a few things that tend to bear out Mr. Owen's exposures.

 Goebel had reached the Convention Hall in company with Mr. Urey Woodson, of Owensboro, at 2:45 o'clock, and took a position on the ground floor under the right-hand steps. Upstairs he met W.C. Owens in front of the room where the Committee on Credentials was winding up its work. In the meantime Goebel's brother had been in the committee room and went down stairs to talk to Goebel. Presently Mr. Urey Woodson came upstairs and sought to enter a small room, which Capt. Stone had entered, but found Capt. Stone engaged in talking to his members of the Credentials Committee, who had come out. Capt. Stone then had a conference with Mr. Owens. Presently, Mr. Woodson was able to have a word with them, and soon afterwards Capt. Stone went downstairs, where he conversed for a while with Goebel under the stairway.

 Former Congressman Owens now says that in the interview under the steps Goebel had promised Stone the nomination if Stone would help him unset Hardin delegates. This promise was never kept.

 To rebuke such trickery former Congressman Owens says he owes it to himself to vote for the Republican nominee, and urges conservative, intelligent and honest manhood of the State to do the same.

                                INSIDE HISTORY

 The following is what Mr. Owens says in a card that was made public yesterday:

 Georgetown, Ky., June 30--"My personal friends know that for months I was the earnest advocate of the claims of Capt. Stone for the Democratic nomination for Governor. That I went to the Louisville Convention to serve his interests and that before that convention ended I was working in General Hardin's behalf. Prizing above all things the respect of my friends, I want them to know the reasons that controlled me.

 "When I reached Louisville I was informed by Capt. Stone that he had made a combination with Goebel. I asked him the extent of the combination, and was informed that it was to organize the Convention, and that wherever there was a contest the Hardin delegates were to be turned out of the Conventian."

 "The statement that two men seeking the high office of Governor of a once justly proud commonwealth had deliberately entered into such a compact to deprive the people of their representation was so astounding that I could scarcely credit the information. My first impression was to inform Capt. Stone that I could no longer be his friend, but a moment's reflection convinced me that it would be better to wait and see if the compact could not be broken. I labored incessantly to that end, and on Thursday night, at midnight had the pleasure of seeing Capt. Stone get into a carriage and drive to the Galt House
 
 
 
 
 

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to notify Mr. Goebel that his (Stone's) friends would not sustain such an agreement and that their contract was at an end.

                             SUCH A TEMPTATION

 "This condition of affairs continued until 3 o'clock Friday afternoon, when Capt. Stone went to the Convention hall where the Committee on Credentials was in session. I was talking with Capt. Stone when someone approached and told him Mr. Goebel wanted to see him. He left me and went to where Mr. Goebel was standing in the dark under the stairway. Five minutes later he returned and said: Mr. Goebel says that if I will carry out our original agreement he will nominate me in the morning. Can I afford to refuse the nomination?" I immediately told him that if he purchased the nomination at such a price the people ought to beat him at the polls by 50,000 majority. I said to him also, 'If Mr. Goebel has made such a promise he has no idea of keeping it; he'd only endeavoring to get you to tie your hands this afternoon that he may cut your throat in the morning.' Stone replied: 'I can't believe that he is so unscroupulous as that. Then I said, 'Tie your hands now and be convinced tomorrow.' it is needless to say that he was thoroughly convinced before the next morning had gone by, but it was too late--he was in Goebel's power, who simply laughed at him for his credulity.

 "When Capt. Stone informed me that he would carry out his agreement with Goebel, I notified him that our relations were at an end. That agreement was carried out by the combined votes of Stone and Goebel, every contest was decided in their favor except two, where the steal was so palpable and outrageous that some of their own forces revolted against the crime and forced them to forego their purpose. More than 150 delegates opposed to Goebel were turned out of the Convention or refused admission because of this agreement and their places filled with men, most of whom were ready to do his bidding. The combination put in the chair a man who was willing to do anything his master told him, who would submit to the Convention no motion made by the opposition, allow no appeal from any decision, and surrounded by long lines of uniformed policemen while as many more of the tools of the city administration in orders, throttled the Convention and forced it either to nominate Goebel or stay there all summer. In my judgement from the moment they secured the permanent organization and had the entire police force of Louisville placed at their command, no other result was possible, no other nomination would ever have been allowed or announced.

                                HEIGHT OF TERROR

 When the convention adjourned it was found that Goebel had placed at the head of your State Central Committee one the chief actors in a bloody mountain feud that disgraced our State and crimsoned the soil of Rowan County, with the blood of her citizens. Can anyone doubt Goebel's purpose to inaugurate a reign of terror in the state and make every Democrat his abject slave? Kentucky is on trial. What will she do about it? We boast much of our manhood and our honor and
 
 
 
 
 
 

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look down on the colder blooded brethren of the North with the ideas that they care more for business than for such things. Will we be able to compare favorably with them after the November election? Of course most of those who seek office will cry out to stand by the nominee, no matter how the nomination was secured, but surely the people who only do the voting and who do not want to expect office will not consent to this great crime against manhood and free government.

 We have fallen upon perilous times indeed. The Courier-Journal, long cherished by many as the representative of cursocial order, lured by the hope of the public printing and other patronage that will come to it through Goebel's triumph, has become the avowed champion of fraud, force and duplicity, while it holds its peculiar champion before the young men yield to such infamous advice and consent to follow such an example."

 "As a citizen and a Democrat I shall not be deterred by the boast of the machine men that they will steal the election, no matter how the people vote. I never scratched a Democratic ticket in my life, never voted for a Republican, but I realize that if the Democratic party does not hold in its ranks sufficient honest vitality to punish and rebuke this great wrong and save the State from the threatened danger, it ought to perish. To help rebuke that wrong and save for the future our party, I intend to vote for the Republican candidate for Governor this fall, and I appeal to the Conservative, the intelligent and the honest manhood of our State to do the same, and make the majority too big to steal, and by perfect organization make it dangerous to attempt to steal it."

                                                             Yours,
                                                             W. C. Owens

 Mr. Shinnick, referred to above, further says, "When the votes were counted (remember, the counting was done under the Goebel law) Taylor had 193,714, Goebel 191,331, and John Young Brown, the Independent Democrat 12,140. With him went into office the rest of a Republican state administration. On the other hand, the Democrats had substantial majorities in both the senate and the house of representatives. No objections were made at the time of Taylor's induction, but on Jan. 2, when the legislature met, the Democrats immediately filed a contest."

 Call it a new deal if you please. The cards were dealt from a stacked deck. Goebel was declared the winner. After being shot he was sworn in.

      Thus Mr. Owens' Prophetic Forebodings were proven true.

 According to Mr. Shinnick, "There are Kentuckians yet who believe that he (Goebel) died on. Jan. 30, and that a dead man was sworn in as governor." Thus J.C.W. Beckham is believed by some to have succeeded a corpse.

 In all accounts of those hectic times the "Mountain men" are represented
 
 
 
 
 

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as moonshiners and feudists. Yellow journalists and publicity seeking writers still think John Fox, Jr. was a historian, instead of a novelist. A perusal of the pages in this book should convince even the most skeptical that the Mountaineer if not the character he has been falsely represented to be. His ancestry is of the very best America affords. He is God-fearing, patriotic and law abiding. He respects a lady, and will fight to protect her rights. In substance, he is of the basic spirit, of which this country is made, a two-times-two-is-four men. We do not believe a comparison of moonshining activities are grudge killings would be very favorable as between, say Chicago or New York on the one side, and the entire Mountain Section of Kentucky, on the other, to either metropolis.

      Was William Goebel a native Kentuckian?

 We hold no brief for Caleb Powers, as do certain of our Republican friends. We recognize the fact that William Goebel was a politician par excellent in the "And politics the damnedest in Kentucky" sense, and that he possessed some admirable qualities. However, Caleb Powers was a Knox County, Kentucky mountaineer. Having known him all our life we are compelled to state that he was honorable and honest in his dealings with his fellow man. He was a good neighbor, a man of good morals, ambitious, conscientious, and industrious. He had never been involved in any trouble until accused of complicity in the murder of William Goebel, and none since.

 It is about time down State Democrats cease trying to fit wings on William Goebel, cease writing and speaking of the "People's Monuments to Goebel," and stop referring to the "Mountain men" as though it were an opprobrious epithet. This whole practice is ridiculous and absurd. Any two-times-two-is-four Democrat knows the wings will not fit that monument, at the state capital, was erected by a Democratic governor and legislature and Mountain men are as good citizens as will be found anywhere in Kentucky and the nation.

 This whole subject should have been left alone by down-State partisan writers, especially active participants in the Taylor-Goebel campaign. The curative effect of the balm of time should have been applied. This First New Dealer comparison automatically suggest one which should never have been made. The vast majority of Kentucky mountaineers disagree with our President's policies, but respect the great office of President of these United States. They do not believe the President relished the idea of being a Second (such) New Dealer.

 If there were any martyrs involved in the Taylor-Goebel trouble, Caleb Powers was the martyr, the victim of an unreasoning and bitter political mob-hatred. His was a rotten deal instead of a new deal.

 "In November, 1907," according to Urey Woodson, in his The First New Dealer, "Augustus E. Willson (Republican) was elected Governor of Kentucky the
 
 
 
 
 
 

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Democrat having become hopelessly divided on the liquor question." Any unbiased political observer of those times, and that election, could have told the later Mr. Woodson that as a political diagnostician he was a good editor. The real reason Augustus E. Willson was elected governor on the Republican ticket by Democrats was so that he could pardon those accused of complicity in the murder of William Goebel. Democrats and Republicans alike had become disgusted with the spectacle.

 On page 111, in a footnote, it is stated, "Believing Powers was innocent and persecuted, Republicans in many parts of the United States had contributed to his defense fund. The Post Office at Georgetown, where Powers spent years in jail, was deluged with money orders payable to Powers." The foot note continues with reference to a suit between the daughter of Caleb Powers and his widow over his estate. Regardless of the fact that Mr. Woodson has departed this life it seems that not even the intimate family matters of Caleb Powers could be spared false implications. A Kentucky Mountaineer would have left the women-folk of even his most bitter enemy severely alone. Mr. Woodson allows the reader to infer that Caleb Powers was given a large fortune, and as a result, left a very valuable estate. Apparently he failed to realize that, following his release from prison in 1908, Caleb Powers made approximately $10,000 or more, annually, for twenty-four years. Being frugal and economical in his habits it was only natural that Mr. Powers accumulated a small estate.

 In another footnote on page 84, it is written, "John Powers fled to Guatamala (Guatemala) and was never apprehended. He died years ago." If there is no more truth in the entire book than is contained in this statement, then it is not worthy of any credence. This belated announcement of Mr. John Powers' death is rather premature. The author has talked with John Powers this year, 1939. He now resides in Wabassa, Florida, where his wife is postmistress.

 Many more inaccurate statements could be cited, which is probably the reason why some of the First New Dealers heartily endorsed and approved the book. It is to be regretted that such a book was ever published. To help bolster a weak case the author was compelled to rely upon the hallucinations of poor, old Henry E. Youtsey, whose discredited testimony was so contradictory as to be thoroughly ridiculous.

 If William Goebel was the First New Dealer, strangers, not being as charitable as mountaineers, might think another pure specimen of the Nordic race, Adolph Hitler, was the Second New Dealer.

 Everyone recognized the fact that Mr. Woodson was an able journalist. It is thought, however, that silence on his part would have been the better part of valor, or discretion. The author does not like to write about one who is not here to defend himself. We refer solely to the First New Dealer.

                              GRAVEYARD EPITAPHS
 
 
 
 
 
 

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 In the Wells Graveyard in Whitley County near the Knox line the following inscription appeared on a tombstone:

George Bryant, Sr., Born June 19, died January 18, 1886.

            Remember folks as you pass by,
            As you are now so once was I,
            As I am now you'll quickly be,
            Prepare for death and follow me.

 Had it not been for the presence of a native, who lived close by, we would have been tempted to add:

            To follow you I'm not content,
            Until I know the way you went.
 
 
 
 
 
 

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 It has since been found out that the old gentleman was an upright, honest, and honorable citizen, in other words, a Christian gentleman.

      In the Mt. Olivet Graveyard the following inscription was found:

            Laura, Wife of B. A. Jowdy, daughter of
            Benjamin Chestnut,
            Born April 9, 1878, Died October 20, 1915.
            Married To B.A. Jowdy August 20, 1898.
            She was 5 ft., 11 3/4" T., and weighed
            165 lbs. in health.

 At Four Mile, in what would probably be called the Hendrickson Graveyard, the following inscription is carved on the rocks of an old time vault:

            Beneath this stone my Ibie lies,
            A gift of Heaven, a goodly prize,
            Her loss I mourn, but in me still the hope remains,
            That shortly we will meet again with Christ to reign
            where parting is no more.
            Ibie Porter that handsome frame
            I once did love so well,
            Her breathless clay doth slumber here
            amongst the silent dead,
            And I am left alone her loss to mourn
            Till I with her to dust return.

                        (Signed) J.F.

 The J.F. stands for John Fletcher, Revolutionary War veteran from North Carolina. His wife was Isabella Porter Fletcher. They are the great, great grandparents of Mrs. George (Marcis Moss) Lewis, of Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania.

                                   WILLS

 In his will, probated at the October term of Court, 1859, John Hendrickson made certain bequests to his widow, "but if she marries or acts otherwise unlawfully then I desire that my effects shall be sold and a lawful distribution made of the same amongst my children."

 A.Y. Culton, a well known lawyer of Barbourville, in his will, dated May 29, 1892, wrote, "I belong to no faith, or particular religious sect, and claim the obsequies of none. Yet, hoping and wishing all well of whatever denomination, when I die, I die believing it takes a heap of praying to save a sinner in Barbourville, this I mean for the class of people that does the praying."

                   THE FIRST KENTUCKY UNIVERSITY STUDENT

 This day Levi J. Westerfield produced in Court a certificate of having
 
 
 
 
 

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passed the Board of Examiners for Knox County, as being qualified to enter the Kentucky University at Lexington as a pupil from the County of Knox in accordance with an act of Assembly, approved February 28, 1865. And it appearing to the satisfaction of the Court that said Levi J. Westerfield is a man of good moral character it is ordered that he be, and he is hereby permitted and elected, a pupil to attend said school, a majority of the Justices being present and concurring therein."

 Josephus Moore, James Herndon and David Colyer were appointed pupils to Kentucky University in 1866.

 In 1867, W.D. Engle, J.B. Evans and H.H. Wilson were elected pupils to the University. These selected in 1868 were John A. Pope and Bird Berton. John Henry Wilson later served two terms in Congress.

                ONLY WOMAN PENSIONER OF THE UNITED STATES

 In the Williamsburg cemetery are buried the remains of the only woman to receive a pension from the United States government for personal service in time of war. Julia A. Marcum, November 7, 1844 to May 9, 1936, was also a member of the Grand Army of the Republic. She won her honors as a Civil War heroine.

                                   POLITICS

 Normally Knox County has always been found in the conservative column. Prior to the Civil War whichever party, whether Whig or Democrat, which represented the conservative issues, generally polled a majority of votes. Since the Civil War only two Democrats have been elected to county offices, namely, William Fox, jailer, and the later Governor James D. Black, member of the legislature. Hon. George Madison (Little Matt) Adams, a native of Barbourville and a Democrat, generally carried the county in his races for Congress. It is worthy of note to state that William Fox and Major Adams were both Union veterans of the Civil War, and the late governor's brother, Isaac Black, was a captain in the old 8th District November 3, 1868, Adams received 10,323 votes to 9,861 for Sidney M. Barnes. In 1870 Adam received a majority of 795 over A.T. Wood.

 In the not so very old days one J. Payne ran for a county office. During the campaign he interviewed many voters. Whenever a voter would tell him he was for him that voter's name and address was written down in a note book. In this way Mr. Payne obtained the names of over 1500 voters. After the election it was found he had received 50 votes. Some of his friends asked him how he felt about it. He replied that he knew there were over 1500 liars in Knox County.

 During the 1939 campaign for governor in Kentucky a local Republican met a New Dealer on the street and asked him if he were going to listen to Senator Barkley, to which he replied as follows, "I don't know. Where is he going to
 
 
 
 
 
 

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speak?" The republican answered, "I don't know either, but I understand you can hear him over W. P. A."

                                INDICTMENTS

 In September, 1851, James Price, Thomas Hendrickson and Sampson Slusher were indicted "for playing cards with a Negro." Slusher was also indicted "for playing cards with a free person of color."

                                  VAGRANCY

 Isaac Whitson was convicted as a vagrant in 1896. He refused to give "security to the Court, whereupon the Court ordered the sheriff that between the hours of eleven and two o'clock on this day that he could sell him at publick sale to the highest bidder for the space of nine months." The idea of a vagrant in those days seem to have been one who would, or could not pay poll tax. This idea prevailed until the author's day. He remembers the sale of several such delinquents.

                             WHERE COURTS WERE HELD

 Besides John Logan's and James Johnson's, court was held at the home of "George Bunch, near the Town of Barbourville, June 23, 1801, "At the home of Wesley M. Garnett dec'd., on Monday the 13th day of July, 1829." "At the home of Gen'l Jarvis Jackson in the Town of Barbourville Monday, the 12th day of October, 1928." and "on Monday, the 22nd day of March, 1830" and "At the home of Randolph Adams in the Town of Barbourville on Monday, the 27th day of September, 1830." During the building of the present Court house in 1874-75, court was held in the clerk's office. When the wings were added to the present structure in 1906-07, courts was held in the administration building of the Barbourville Baptist Institute, now the Knox Central High School.

                              WEIGHTS & MEASURES

 December 1, 1803, it was "ordered that Jesse Cox do provide the legal standard for weights and measures in the County agreeable to law and lay his claim in at the next Court after providing the same-." August 7, 1804, William Sneed was ordered paid by the sheriff $9.00 for "bringing of the measures from Frankfort for this County." November 5, 1804, Reason Warfield was appointed "Keeper of the Weights and measures for this County."

                         PROHIBITION AND UNION COLLEGE

 An Act to prohibit the sale of spirituous, vinous, or malt liquors in four miles of Union College, Knox County.

      Be it enacted by the General Assembly of the Commonwealth of Kentucky:

1. That from and after the passage of this act is shall be unlawful for
 
 
 
 

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any person to sell spirituous, vinous, or malt liquors, either directly or indirectly, in any quantities less than half a barrel, within four miles of Union College, located in the town of Barbourville, Kentucky.
 2. Any person violating the provisions of this act shall be fined one hundred dollars for each offence.
 3. The police court of the town of Barbourville, the county judge of Knox County, and any magistrate living within four miles of Union College, shall have concurrent jurisdiction with the circuit court in the enforcement of this act.
 4. That all laws authorizing the county court to issue license within said boundary, and all laws authorizing the trustees of Barbourville to issue license to sell spirituous liquors, and all laws in conflict with the provisions of this act, are hereby repealed.
 5. This act shall take effect from its passage, but shall not be held to interfere with any license already granted by the county court or trust as of said town during the time for which they were granted.
Approved March 10, 1882.

 Later, May 7, 1886, another act limited the quantity to "less than ten gallons," and extended the distance to "within five miles of Union College." The first act was sponsored by W.W. Sawyers, a State senator at the time and chief founder of Union College. It has been understood that Hon. John Henry Wilson sponsored the last act.

 1884 - The Commonwealth vs. John M. Tinsley; Charge, Selling Liquor in four miles of Union College.

 The Commonwealth vs. Larkin Miller; Charge, Selling Liquor in four miles of Union College.

 The Judge fined both offenders $100 and costs. David Dishman was the prosecution witness.

 It has been learned the offenders did not sell liquor, but a patent medicine, which would apparently intoxicate. Both men were prominent merchants of Barbourville.

                         NEUTRALITY VOTE IN KNOX COUNTY

 In 1861, Knox County, according to Judge James Hays, native Knox Countian now living in Oklahoma, who examined the record, voted on the question of whether to remain neutral or take part in the Civil War. There was only one vote for Secession, cast by John Culton, who lived in what would now be Bell County. Mr Culton later joined General John Hunt Morgan's troops. He named his son, Morgan Culton, who now resides in Manchester, Clay County, Kentucky.

 Judge James Hays is the son of Joseph E. Hays and Minerva Bain Mays, the grandson of John Hays and Maria Fortney Hays, the great grandson of Jonas Fortney and Letitie Hern Fortney and the great, great grandson of Christopher
 
 
 
 
 

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Horn, Sr., Revolutionary War veteran from Virginia. Jonas Fortney was a veteran of the War of 1812.

                                 THE FORTY NINERS

 Some of those who went to California during the great gold rush in 1849 follows: Edward F. Arthur, Thomas F. Arthur, Daniel Baker, Jack Berry, Nelse Barry, Taylor Byrley, Russell Dickinson, William Dozier, Isaac Den, Joseph Burnfin, John Helton, Robert Henson, Elijah Gregory, John Higgins, Ruffian Ward, Skelton Ward, A.E. Pogue, Thomas Pitzer, Nelson Stewart, Ben Taylor, James Taylor, Frank Faulkner, Thomas Jefferson Woodson, John Woodson, Hiram Woodson and Anthony Hinkly.

 Edward F. Arthur was 19 years of age at the time. Thomas Jefferson Woodson was 53 years of age when he and his two sons, John, aged 19 years, and Hiram, aged 16 years, started their long trek to the west coast. He was regarded as the leader of the party. At St. Louis, then a small trading post, the company completed its outfitting and proceeded westward. Two weeks out from St. Louis Asiatic cholera broke out. The elder Woodson was one of the first victims. His remains were buried on the banks of the Little Blue River in what is now Kansas. "My father stated," according to Mrs. Belinda Moss, daughter of Edward F. Arthur, "that he saw seven of his comrades in one grave. It took six months and eight days for them to go from St. Louis to South Pass, where they crossed the Rocky Mountains."

 Pitzer D. Black, grandson of Thomas Pitzer, has a large gold ring made from a nugget brought back from the gold fields.

                       THE UNITED STATES IN THE MAKING

 This indenture, made this 4th day of February 1811, between William Henderson, of Rockcastle County and State of Kentucky, and John Ballinger, of the District of West Florida.

 Fortunatus Cosby, of the County of Jefferson and State of Kentucky, and Marston C. Clark, of the County of Clark and Indiana Territory. 1811

 John Ruddick and Catherine, his wife, of Harrison County, Indiana Territory. 1812

      Jesse Cox, of Missouri Territory and District of Saint Louis. 1812

 John Slaughter and Sarah, his wife, of the county of Madison, Mississippi Territory. 1812

 April 10, 1807 -- George W. Morrison, Plff. vs. William Stephenson, Deft. This action is founded on the record of the judgement of one of the judges of
 
 
 
 
 
 

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the Common Plea and a justice of the peace of the District of St. Louis in Upper Louisiana.

      Many more such references could be cited, which space will not permit.

 This day James Mayne, an alien, personally appeared in Court and upon his solemn oath made the following declaration of his intention to become a citizen of the United States; that he came to the United States on the 21st day of May, 1856 from the County of Cornwall in England, that he hereby renounces and abjures all allegiance and fidelity to any foreign prince, potentate, or sovereignty uhatever, and particularly to Victoria, Queen of Great Britain, of whom he was a subject.

 William Matthews, a native of Ireland, who came to the United States a minor, proved in 1860 five years residence in the United States, and one year in Kentucky, and was declared a citizen of this country, after taking the oath to support the Constitution.

              PRECINCTS, MAGISTERIAL & CONSTABLE DISTRICTS

 February 3, 1806, it was "ordered that this County be divided into two precincts in the following manner, to wit, from the mouth of Richland Creek to the head, thence including the Goose Creek settlements in the upper part, which is called No. 1, and the lower part is called No. 2."

 1807 -- Constable district, Beginning at the mouth of Main Richland Creek, running up the Cumberland River to the Mouth of Muddy Branch, and up the Branch so far as to include Clabon and Isaiah Goins, and thence with a straight line to the mouth of Little Richland Creek, thence with a general corse to the poplar bridge, thence to include Levy Brittain, thence to the first narrows below Asael Elliott's on Cumberland River, thence to the Beginning.

 At a meeting of the undersigned commissioners appointed by an act of the General Assembly of the Commonwealth of Kentucky, approved the 12th day of December, 1850, to divide Knox County into Justices' and Constables' districts at the Clerk's office in the Town of Barbourville, on Monday and Tuesday, the 6th and 7th days of January, 1851, according to previous notice, the following proceedings were had:

 Upon motion of Dempsey King, A.Y. Anderson, Esq. administered to the commissioners the oath required by the act aforesaid -- Upon motion of James H. Pugue, James Barton was appointed Chairman of the Board of Commissioners, and upon motion of George M. Adams, James H. Pogue was appointed secretary.

 The said commissioners then proceeded to lay off the following districts for Knox County:
 No. 1- Barbourville District- Beginning at the mouth of the first branch above Harrod Hendrickson's on the northeast side of Cumberland River, thence up
 
 
 
 
 

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said branch, including all of its waters to the head thereof, thence with the ridge which separates the waters of Fighting Creek and Stinking Creek to where the old road crosses Side Ridge near Isaiah Williams, thence to the meeting house on the top of the hill just below Mrs. Randrick's, so as to include the Williams and Rasnick places, thence across Fighting Creek to the top of the ridge back of the old Grindstaff place, thence with said ridge to the top of the ridge which divides the waters between Fighting and Richland Creeks, thence between the headwaters of the Trace Branch and the Fore Branch, thence down the spur of the ridge between said branches to the second ford of Richland below Isaac Jones, thence across Richland to the dividing ridge between the waters of Big Richland and Little Richland, thence with the top of said ridge to the headwaters of Parrott Branch, thence down said branch to its mouth, including all its waters, thence across the Fork Ridge to the mouth of Poplar Bridge Branch, thence up said branch, including all its waters and citizens except Isham Isarael and Susan Fox, so as to embrace the residence of James McVey, thence to the top of the Paint Ridge to the headwaters of Bull Run, thence down Bull Run to its mouth, including all its waters, thence across Cumberland River, to the top of the ridge between the waters of Swan Pond and the Stony Fork of Poplar, thence with the dividing ridge between the right and the right hand fork of Brush Creek and Cumberland River, crossing Brush Creek at the forks thereof, and thence to the Rockhouse, so as to include all the beginning. Place of voting, Barbourville as district No 1.

 No 2-Flat Lick District- Beginning at the mouth of the Mill Branch on District No.1, thence down Cumberland River with District No.1 to the Rockhouse, thence up Cumberland River on the top of the river ridge, crossing Greasy Creek where T. Dean and A. McRoberts' farms join on said creek to the mouth of Straight Creek, so as include the former possessions of James Renfro, dec'd., thence with the Harlan County line to the Clay County line, thence with the Clay County line to the top of the ridge dividing the waters of Hammond's Fork of Goose Creek from those of Stinking Creek, thence with the top of the dividing ridge between the waters aforesaid and those of Fighting Creek and Richland to the Old State Road near Isaiah Williams upon District No 1, thence with the line of District No. 1 to the beginning. Place of voting in District No.2, at Flat Lick.

 No. 3-Goose Creek and Richland District- Beginning on the Old State Road near Isaiah Williams, where the line of District No. 1 strikes said road, thence with the line of District No, 1 to the mouth of the Poplar Bridge Branch, including all of the citizens living above said line in this District, thence with the dividing ridge between Richland and Lynn Camp to the Laurel County line, thence with said line to the Clay County line, thence with said Clay County line to the dividing waters of Goose Creek and Stinking Creek on line of No.2, thence with said line to the begining. Place of voting in District No.3, Joseph Paynels.

 No. 4 Lynn Camp and Indian Creek District -- Beginning at the mouth of Poplar Ridge Branch upon the line of District No. 1, thence with the said line
 
 
 
 
 

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to Cumberland River, thence down the river to the Whitley County line, thence with said line to the Laurel County line, thence with the Laurel County line to the line of District No. 3, thence with said line to the beginning -- Place of Voting at Hiram Thompson's in District No. 4.

 No. 5 Yellow Creek District -- Beginning at the upper corner of District No. 2 at the Harlan County line, thence with said line to the Tennessee line, thence with the Tennessee line to the Whitley County line, thence with the Whitley County line to the log mountain, which divides the waters of Little Clear Creek and Yellow Creek, thence on said mountain to the head of Cannon Creek, thence with the top of the ridge which divides the waters of Cannon and Clear Creeks to the State Road, to include all the waters of Cannon Creek, thence with the State Road so as to include all who live, or may live within one fourth of a mile of the south side road to the beginning -- Place of Voting in District No. 5, Henry Lee's.

 No. 6 Greasy and Clear Creek District -- Beginning on District No. 5 opposite the State Road, thence with the line of District No. 5 to the Whitley County line, thence with the Whitley County line to the top of the Pine Mountain, thence with the top of said mountain to the dividing ridge between Greasy and Poplar Creeks, thence with the top of the dividing ridge between Brush Creek and Greasy Creek to the line of District No. 2, thence with said line to the line of District No. 5, thence with said line to the beginning - Place of Voting, John Mason's on Clear Creek in District No.6.

 No. 7 Poplar and Brush Creeks Districts -- Beginning at the Rockhouse on the lower end of No. 2 and running with the line of District No. 2 to the line of District No. 6 up Cumberland River, thence with said line to the Whitley County line, thence to the Cumberland River, thence up the river to District No. 1, thence with the line of District No. 1 to the beginning -Place of Voting in District No. 7, William T. Mays' on Poplar Creek, Knox County.

 TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS COME KNOW YE that we, the undersigned Commissioners for the purposes aforesaid, have this day laid off the County of Knox into Seven Justices' and Constable's Districts, with the metes and bounds specified upon the three foregoing pages.

      Given under our hands this the 7th day of January 1851.
                                         (Signed) James Barton
                                                  Isaac Jones
                                                  James H. Pogue
                                                  Dewey King
                                                  James S. Woods
                                                  Geo. M. Adams

                              SWIFT'S SILVER MINE

 Swift's silver mine has been located in various places throughout the
 
 
 
 
 

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Appalachian Range States. The author is inclined to agree with the late William J. Reams, of Wandotte County, Kansas, who was born and reared in Laurel County, Kentucky, according to Judge Charles Kerr in his History of Kentucky that Swift and his associates were buccaneers. He believers they carried their gold and silver to the mountains of Kentucky later minting some of it into coins. John Swift was an Englishman. His associates were Jonathan Munday, Seth Montgomery, James Ireland, Shadrack Jefferson, Joshua McClintock, Samuel Blackburn, Henry Hazlett, Isaac Campbell, Moses Fletchor, Abram Flint, Harmon Staley, William Wilton, John Motts, Alexander Bartol and Jeremiah Bates. Two Frenchmen, Pierre St. Martin and Andrew Renaud, and some Shawnee Indians completed the party. That Swift and his company actually explored the mountains of Kentucky in 1761 seem beyond dispute. This was before other parts of the state were settled. There is said to have been a Swift furnace on Clear Creek in now Bell County. A.P. Wilson, now County Surveyor, claims to have a copy of Swift's journal. While there is some silver in the Kentucky mountains it would not be commercially profitable to mine it. This should convince one that Swift brought his silver and gold with him.

                            THE TREATY OF TELLICO

 The Cherokee Indians sold their land to the Transylvania Company. Later they sold it again to the Government. As a matter of fact the same land had been claimed by the Shawnees and other Indian tribes, who had also disposed of their titles to the government. October 25, 1805, a treaty was held with the Cherokees at Tellico, Tennessee. All of their land north of a line beginning at the mouth of Duck River and up the main stream of same to the junction of the fork at the head of which stood Fort Nash with the main South Fork, thence a direct course to a point on the Tennessee River bank opposite the mouth of Himassa River was ceded to the Government. This included all the land claimed by them in Southeastern Kentucky. In 1810, they again ceded all claim to land in Kentucky. The Legislature passed the following act:

      An Act appropriating the Lands acquired by the Treaty of Tellico.
                     Approved January 31, 1810.

 Sec. 1. Be it enacted by the General Assembly, that is shall be lawful for every free white male, or widow, or other unmarried female, above the age of eighteen years, who may have actually settled and resided, and who may hereafter actually settle and reside, for the space of six months, on any waste and unapproprated lands, lying in that section of this Commonwealth, acquired by the Treaty of Tellico, to apply to the Circuit Court of the County in which such actual settlement may have been made, and upon proving to the said Court, by two reputable and disinterested witnesses, that he or she has actually settled and resided on the lands aforesaid for the space of six months last past, shall be entitled to a certificate for any quantity of land, not exceeding two, nor less than one hundred acres, including the said settlement, and which certificate shall contain a special location, describing as accurately as may be, the land so contemplated to be included in his said certificate, a duplicate of which said certificate shall be made out by the clerk, and delivered to the claimant,
 
 
 
 
 

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who shall pay the said clerk one shilling therefor. But no provision contained in this act shall authorize the appropriation of any salt spring, silver or lead mine together with one thousand acre of land around such spring or mine, including the same as near the center of a square as may be.

 Sec. 2. And be it further enacted, that the person obtaining such certificate, shall within twelve months after the date thereof, upon producing the same to the register of the Land Office, and paying to the Treasurer at the rate of forty dollars per hundred acres, be entitled to a warrant for the same, in which warrant shall be contained the location as specified in the certificate, for which warrant the proprietor shall pay to the Register twenty-five cents.

      This act shall be in force from and after the first day of April next.
            Vol. IV, The Statue Law of Kentucky, by William Littell.

 Grants of Tellico lands will be found elsewhere in this book. Their locations can be determined by the streams mentioned.

                   KNOX COUNTY ANTICIPATED COUNTY JUDGES

 In 1846, the Knox County Court began to feel the need of a presiding officer clothed with authority. The following rules were adopted:

 The undersigned having been appointed by the Knox County Court to draught rules and regulations for the government of the Court aforesaid ask leave to submit the following rules to your worshipful body-1. It shall be the duty of the Justices composing said Court when their names are called by the sheriff to take their seats upon the bench and remain there during the sitting of the Court, vote upon all matters and questions arising in said Court and not leave the bench without special permission of a majority of said Court- 2. The Court shall at the present term of said Court, provided a majority of all the Justices are present (and if not at the first Court when there is a majority) select from their body a presiding officer, who shall be styled the President of said Court, whose duty is shall be to preserve order, take the vote upon all question arising in said Court, announce the conclusions of said Court, and direct the Clerk to enter up all fines and make all orders passed by the Court- 3. No member of said Court shall be permitted to make any motion in said Court without arising to his feet and addressing the presiding officer, "Mr. President," nor shall any member of the Court make more than one speech upon any motion or question pending before the Court without permission of the Court- 4. Whenever any member of said Court shall presume to take his seat upon the bench in a state of intoxication it shall be considered a contempt offered the Court and he
shall therefore be fined any sum in the power of the Court at the discretion of the presiding officer- 5. All appeals to said Court of every description shall be regularly decimated by the Clerk and shall be the first business disposed of by the Court- 6. All persons having business in said Court shall be heard by himself or counsel in the following manner, to wit, the parties holding the affirmative of any proposition shall be allowed by himself or counsel to make
 
 
 
 
 

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the opening speech, but using titles addressing the presiding officer: Two speeches if demanded shall then be heard in the negative when the party holding the affirmative shall conclude the argument- 7. The presiding officer proposed in the 2nd rule shall hold his office for one year, at the expiration of which time the Court shall select some other member of their body as aforesaid to perform the duties of the presiding officer as specified in the 3rd rule selecting a new one every year- 8. It shall be the duty of the sheriff to remain in Court by himself or deputy during the sitting of the Court, as well as the jailer, and if either shall leave the Court whilst in session without permission of the Court he shall be subject to a fine- 9. If the presiding officer should be absent at any term of the Court the Court shall proceed to elect one protem to discharge his duties- 10. The presiding officer whenever the Court is ready to take the vote upon any question shall arise to his feet and state the question to the Court, whereupon all who are in the affirmative shall answer "Aye", and those of the contrary opinion No.
                                       (Signed) James F. Ballinger
                                           S. Woodson

 Under the foregoing rules James H. Pogue is appointed presiding officer of said Court. Additional rule adopted-wherever a report, account, claim or anything of the kind is presented to the Court for its consideration and action the papers shall be distinctly read in the hearing of the Court by the Clerk or presiding officer of said Court. Samuel F. Miller was elected the second President of the Court.

 At a County Court held for the County of Knox at the Court House in Barbourville on Monday the 28th day of June, 1847. Present:
 Sam'l F. Miller (Pres't), Parks D. Brittain, Joseph Payne, James Barton, Ran. Adams, Dan'l Baker, Wm. T. Mays, and William, Ingram, Esqurs.

                                  CUT MONEY

 February 8, 1809, the General Assembly passed an act providing for the exchange of "cut money" at three per cent discount. It also forbade its receipt for taxes after April 1, 1812. This is the substance of the act as reported by Littell, Vol. IV, page 45. In Knox County such money was long in use. When Knox County was established and for many years afterwards, silver money, especially in small denominations, was scarce. This gave rise to the policy of cutting silver dollars into four places. E (Zeke) Wyrick long preserved some pieces of "cut money", which had been found around the site of John Logan Jr's home on Richland Creek, where the first County Court was held.

                         JUDGES PEARL AND RANDALL

 November 3, 1865 "Granville Pearl," according to Collins, Vol. 1, page 164, Judge of the 12th circuit, appears in Lexington under arrest, by order of General Brisbin -- whose command here is a brigade of negro soldiers because in the discharge of his duties as judge he had ordered the sale, in partition among some infants, of a negro woman who, to avoid the sale, married or pretended to
 
 
 
 
 

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marry a negro soldier, a squad of Negro soldiers was sent to arrest him; but an influential friend succeeded in turning them back, and saved him that humiliation -- by his personal assurance that he would report as soon as cited, and which he did."

 Apparently Judge Pearl was released. He was only obeying the plain intent of the law in effect at that time.

 April 6, 1871, Judge Wm. H. Randall, of the 12th Judicial District became one of the first judges in the Commonwealth of Kentucky to admit the validity of negro testimony. He announced his intention to be governed by the XIV Amendment of the Constitution. Judge Randall served in Congress from the old 8th District from 1864 to 1868. He was what was then known as a radical, in other words, an uncompromising Republican. In 1865, he defeated General T.T. Gerrard (Conservative) by a majority of 6,810. Later he was elected Judge of the 12th Judicial District on the Republican ticket, and served for many years.

                             CORNER TO A SURVEY

 In a mortgage from the Louisville Property Company to the Louisville Nashville Railroad Company, recorded in Mortgage Book 1, page 272, a tract of land is described as follows: "A tract of land lying on the waters of Cumberland River, beginning at a small black oak near the Kentucky and Tennessee State line, - thence with conditional line fence between the Jack Rose and Dick Davis lands, - thence North 39 degrees, 09 minutes, East 49.71 poles to two black gums on the crest of a flat spur, 1 1/2 poles South of the County road, and 1 pole Southeast of the Sal Noe Grave-." The author thinks some of his readers might know who Sal Noe was.

                                 PAYNE'S CREEK

 Several years before the building of good roads one William Hignite married into the Payne family, and afterwards lived on Payne's Creek, a branch of Little Richland Creek. The longer he resided on Payne's Creek the more disgusted he became. Finally, in desperation, he moved. Asked why he was leaving he replied with the explanation, "If I owned all of Payne's Creek and hell, I'd rent out Payne's Creek and move to hell."

                                  JONESVILLE

 On motion of E. (Ezekiel) S. Jones and upon proof made as the law requires of due advertisement of this application it is hereby ordered that a town be, and it is hereby established, upon the lands of said E.S. Jones on Richland Creek in Knox County, to be called "Jonesville", said town to contain ten acres, to have as a center, the center of the intersection of the two roads