Source: Otis K. Rice,Frontier Kentucky, (Lexington, Kentucky, 1993), pp. 123-132

THE MATERIALS, both primary and secondary, available to the student of the history of frontier Kentucky are extensive. Many of the former have been explored by careful scholars. My purpose in the present work has not been to reconnoiter the same ground that they have covered but rather to synthesize their most important findings and interpretations. By its very nature this work is constructed largely upon secondary sources. Since a major purpose is to set the history of frontier Kentucky in a broad context of regional and national development, it also follows that considerable reliance has been placed upon writings of a more general nature.

In this selected bibliography no effort has been made to be comprehensive. The reader interested in a detailed bibliography of pioneer Kentucky history is referred to J. Winston Coleman's excellent A Bibliography of Kentucky History (Lexington, Ky., 1949) and to the annual "Writings on Kentucky History," compiled by Jacqueline Bull and published in the Register of the Kentucky Historical Society.

The most useful general histories of the American frontier are Thomas D. Clark, Frontier America: The Story of the Westward Movement (New York, 1-969), and Ray Allen Billington, Westward Expansion: A History of the American Frontier (New York, 1974). Still of importance is Frederick Jackson Turner's The Frontier in American History (New York, 1920), the pioneer work in the field.

Of regional studies, one of the earliest but still valuable is Theodore Roosevelt, The Winning of the West, 6 vols. (New York, 1889). Much briefer is the highly readable work of Constance Lindsay Skinner, Pioneers of the Old Southwest (New Haven, Conn., 1921). More recent works include John A. Caruso's well-written The Appalachian Frontier: America's First Surge Westward (Indianapolis, Ind., 1959) and Francis S. Philbrick's The Rise of the West, 1754-1830 (New York, 1965). More restricted in its focus but conceived in a regional perspective is Otis K. Rice, The Allegheny Frontier: West Virginia Beginnings, 1730-1830 (Lexington, Ky., 1970).

State histories of Kentucky which deal with the pioneer period are numerous. Older accounts worthy of note include Temple Bodley, History of Kentucky, 4 vols. (Chicago, 1928); Charles Kerr, ed., History of Kentucky, 5 vols. (Chicago, 1922), of which the first volume, written by William Elsey Connelley and E. M. Coulter, pertains to the period here considered; and Lewis and Richard H. Collins, History of Kentucky, 2 vols., rev. ed. (Covington, Ky., 1874). More useful for interpretations are two works by Thomas D. Clark, History of Kentucky (Lexington, Ky., 1954) and Kentucky: Land of Contrast (New York, 1968). Robert S. Cotterill's History of Pioneer Kentucky (Cincinnati, Ohio, 1917) is more specifically concerned with the frontier era but needs correction at some points.

Studies dealing with the international conflict in the Ohio Valley are legion. Of older works, Francis Parkman, A Half Century of Conflict, 2 vols. (Boston, 1898), is still useful. Recent scholarly studies are Lawrence Henry Gipson, The British Empire before the American Revolution, 15 vols. (New York, 1936-1970), and Howard H. Peckham, The Colonial Wars, 1689-1763 (Chicago, 1964). W. J. Eccles has provided fresh interpretations in two excellent volumes, France in America (New York, 1972) and The Candian Frontier, 1534-1760 (New York, 1969). Of special value for the basis of the English claim to the Ohio Valley is Clarence Walworth Alvord and Lee Bidgood, The First Explorations of the Trans-Allegheny Region by Virginians, 1650-1674 (Cleveland, Ohio, 1912). The role of Virginia in the French and Indian War is set forth in Hayes Baker-Crothers, Virginia and the French and Indian War (Chicago, 1928); Louis Knott Koontz, The Virginia Frontier, 1754-1763 (Baltimore, Md., 1925); and Otis K. Rice, "The French and Indian War in West Virginia," West Virginia History 24 (January 1963). The Sandy River expedition is covered in detail in Otis K. Rice, "The Sandy Creek Expedition of 1756," West Virginia History 13 (October 1951). The most detailed account of the captivity of Mary Ingles is in John P. Hale, Trans-Allegheny Pioneers: Historical Sketches of the First White Settlers West of the Alleghenies (Charleston, W. Va., 1886).

General accounts of Pontiac's War are Francis Parkman, The Conspiracy of Pontiac, 2 vols. (Boston, 1910), and Howard H. Peckham, Pontiac and the Indian Uprising (Princeton, N.J., 1947). Peckham takes issue with Parkman's view that the war was a tightly organized undertaking and that Pontiac exercised decisive authority.

There are no comprehensive accounts of the Long Hunters. Useful brief summaries may be found in Harriet Simpson Arnow, Seedtime on the Cumberland (New York, 1960); Robert L. Kincaid, The Wilderness Road (Indianapolis, Ind., 1947); and Thomas D. Clark, Kentucky: Land of Contrast, already mentioned.

For the beginnings and later use of the Wilderness Road, the best accounts are William Allen Pusey, The Wilderness Road to Kentucky (New York, 1921), and Robert Kincaid, The Wilderness Road, already noted. A brief article is Thomas L. Connelly, "Gateway to Kentucky: The Wilderness Road, 1748-1792," Register of the Kentucky Historical Society 59 (April 1961). The exact route of the road, as well as of others into early Kentucky, is traced in Neal Owen Hammon's excellent article, "Early Roads into Kentucky," Register of the Kentucky Historical Society 68 (April 1970).

Two works are of prime importance to understanding British policy with respect to the trans-Allegheny region between 1763 and 1775. They are Clarence Walworth Alvord, The Mississippi Valley in British Politics, 2 vols. (Cleveland, Ohio, 1917), and Jack M. Sosin, Whitehall and the Wilderness: The Middle West in British Colonial Policy, 1760-1775 (Lincoln, Neb., 1961).

Writings on western land speculation are voluminous. The most significant general study is Thomas Perkins Abernethy, Western Lands and the American Revolution (New York, 1937). For the Ohio Company, essential works include Kenneth P. Bailey, The Ohio Company of Virginia and the Westward Movement, 1748-1792: A Chapter in the History of the Colonial Frontier (Glendale, Calif., 1939); Alfred P. James, The Ohio Company: Its Inner History (Pittsburgh, Pa., 1959); Kenneth P. Bailey, ed., The Ohio Company Papers, 1753-1817 (Ann Arbor, Mich., 1947); and Lois Mulkearn, ed., George Mercer Papers Relating to the Ohio Company of Virginia (Pittsburgh, Pa., 1954). The best study of the Indiana Company is George E. Lewis, The Indiana Company, 1763-1798: A Study in Eighteenth Century Frontier Land Speculation and Business Venture (Glendale, Calif., 1941), and the most satisfactory account of the Loyal Company is Archibald Henderson, "Dr. Thomas Walker and the Loyal Land Company of Virginia," American Antiquarian Society Proceedings, n.s., 41 (1931). Corporate-sponsored explorations of Kentucky are documented in J. Stoddard Johnston, First Explorations of Kentucky (Louisville, Ky., 1898), which contains the journals of Christopher Gist of 1751 and Dr. Thomas Walker of 1750, and William M. Darlington, ed., Christopher Gist's journals (Pittsburgh, Pa., 1893).

Three excellent studies of a biographical nature are Albert T. Volwiler, George Croghan and the Westward Movement, 1741-1782 (Cleveland, Ohio, 1926); Nicholas B. Wainwright, George Croghan: Wilderness Diplomat (Chapel Hill, N.C., 1959); and John Richard Alden, John Stuart and the Southern Colonial Frontier: A Study of Indian Relations, War, Trade, and Land Problems in the Southern Wilderness, 1754-1775 (Ann Arbor, Mich., 1944).

There are ample works on areas from which Kentucky settlers were drawn. Useful for the Holston and Watauga settlements are Samuel C. Williams, Dawn of Tennessee Valley and Tennessee History (Johnson City, Tenn., 1937), and briefer accounts in Thomas Perkins Abernethy, From Frontier to Plantation in Tennessee (Chapel Hill, N.C., 1932), and Stanley J. Folmsbee, Robert E. Corlew, and Enoch L. Mitchell, History Of Tennessee, 2 vols. (New York, 1960). The standard biography of John Sevier is Carl S. Driverjohn Sevier: Pioneer of the Old Southwest (Chapel Hill, N.C., 1932). There is no full-length study of James Robertson. Accounts of two important frontier settlements are James W. Hagy, "The Frontier at Castle's Woods, 1769-1786," Virginia Magazine of History and Biography 75 (October 1967), and William Allen Pusey, "The Location of Martin's Station, Virginia," Mississippi Valley Historical Review 15 (December 1928). For the Pennsylvania and West Virginia springboards to Kentucky, convenient accounts may be found in Solon J. Buck and Elizabeth Hawthorn Buck, The Planting of Civilization in Western Pennsylvania (Pittsburgh, Pa., 1939), and Otis K. Rice, The Allegheny Frontier, previously noted.

Although there remains much about Lord Dunmore and the situation in the Ohio Valley that is controversial, there are several works of merit for any understanding of the conditions there. Essential to that understanding is Reuben Gold Thwaites and Louise Phelps Kellogg, eds., Documentary History of Dunmore's War, 1774 (Madison, Wis., 1905), a valuable collection of documents from the Draper Manuscripts. Useful interpretations are those of Randolph C. Downes in "Dunmore's War: An Interpretation," Mississippi Valley Historical Review 21 (December 1934), and Council Fires on the Upper Ohio: A Narrative of Indian Affairs in the Upper Ohio Valley until 1795 (Pittsburgh, Pa., 1940). Special aspects of the conflict are treated in Percy B. Caley, "Lord Dunmore and the Pennsylvania-Virginia Boundary Dispute," Western Pennsylvania History Magazine 22 (June 1939), and Jack M. Sosin, "The British Indian Department and Dunmore's War," Virginia Magazine of History and Biography 74 (January 1966). A summary of events on the Ohio in the spring and summer of 1774 is in Otis K. Rice's introduction to John J. Jacob's A Biographical Sketch of the Life of the Late Captain Michael Cresap (Parsons, W. Va., 1970), a work originally published in 1826. The most detailed account of the battle of Point Pleasant is Virgil A. Lewis, History of the Battle of Point Pleasant (Charleston, W. Va., 1909).

Full-length studies of Kentucky pioneers include Charles Gano Talbert, Benjamin Logan: Kentucky Frontiersman (Lexington, Ky., 1962), the most scholarly biography of any pioneer Kentuckian, and the less satisfactory studies by Kathryn Harrod Mason, James Harrod of Kentucky (Baton Rouge, La., 1951), and Sylvia Wrobel and George Grider, Isaac Shelby: Kentucky's First Governor and Hero of Three Wars (Danville, Ky., 1974). Of the large number of works on Daniel Boone, the best is John Bakeless, Daniel Boone (New York, 1939). Other useful biographical works are Edna Kenton, Simon Kenton: His Life and Period, 1755-1836 (Garden City, N.Y., 1930); James A. James, The Life of George Rogers Clark (Chicago, 1928); and Temple Bodley, George Rogers Clark (Philadelphia, 1957).

Of the numerous articles dealing with pioneer Kentuckians, mention should be made of Neal O. Hammon, "Captain Harrod's Company, 1774: A Reappraisal," Register of the Kentucky Historical Society 72 (July 1974); Lucien Beckner, "John Findley: The First Pathfinder of Kentucky," History Quarterly 1 (April 1927); James W. Hagy, "The First Attempt to Settle Kentucky: Boone in Virginia," Filson Club History Quarterly 44 (July 1970); and Anna M. Cartlidge, "Colonel John Floyd: Reluctant Adventurer," Register of the Kentucky Historical Society 66 (October 1968). Three articles by Neal O. Hammon throw light on early surveying expeditions and the opening of the way to central Kentucky. They are "Fincastle Surveyors in the Bluegrass, 1774," Register of the Kentucky Historical Society 70 (October 1972); "The Fincastle Surveyors at the Falls of the Ohio, 1774," Filson Club History Quarterly 47 (January 1973); and "The First Trip to Boonesborough," Filson Club History Quarterly 45 (July 1971).

The role of the Transylvania Company in the settlement of Kentucky was first set forth in detail by Archibald Henderson in his The Conquest of the Old Southwest (New York, 1920), but the author's objectivity was marred by his esteem for Richard Henderson, his ancestor. More satisfactory, therefore, is William S. Lester, The Transylvania Company (Spencer, Ind., 1935).

For the Revolutionary War in Kentucky, one of the best places to begin is with a carefully edited four-volume series drawn from the Draper Manuscripts. Two of them, The Revolution on the Upper Ohio, 1775-1777 (Madison, Wis., 1908) and Frontier Defense on the Upper Ohio, 1777-1778 (Madison, Wis., 1912), were edited by Reuben Gold Thwaites and Louise Phelps Kellogg. The other two, edited by Kellogg, are Frontier Advance on the Upper Ohio, 1778-1779 (Madison, Wis., 1916) and Frontier Retreat on the Upper Ohio, 1779-1781 (Madison, Wis., 1917).

Among the many general secondary works on the war, those of special value for the Kentucky frontier include John R. Alden, The American Revolution, 1775-1783 (New York, 1954) and The South in the American Revolution, 1763-1789 (Baton Rouge, La., 1957); Willard M. Wallace, The Appeal to Arms (New York, 1951); and two other works of more restricted scope, Jack M. Sosin, The Revolutionary Frontier, 1763-1783 (New York, 1967), and Dale Van Every, A Company of Heroes: The American Frontier, 1775-1783 (New York, 1962).

Of interest for specific aspects of the war in Kentucky are George W. Ranck, Boonesborough (Louisville, Ky., 1901); Randolph C. Downes, "Indian War on the Upper Ohio, 1779-1782," Western Pennsylvania History Magazine 17 (June 1934); Charles G. Talbert, "Kentucky Invades Ohio-1780," Register of the Kentucky Historical Society 52 (October 1954), and "Kentucky Invades Ohio-1782," Register of the Kentucky Historical Society 53 (October 1955); and Patricia Watlington, "Discontent in Frontier Kentucky," Register of the Kentucky Historical Society 65 (April 1967).

The role of George Rogers Clark in the West is covered in James A. James, ed., George Rogers Clark Papers, 1771-1784, 2 vols. (Springfield, Ill., 1912-1926), and in two secondary accounts, Milo M. Quaife, The Capture of Old Vincennes (Indianapolis, Ind., 1927) and August Derleth, Vincennes: Portal to the West (Englewood Cliffs, N.J., 1968), as well as in biographies previously noted. In "To What Extent Was George Rogers Clark in Military Control of the Northwest at the Close of the Revolution?" American Historical Association Annual Report for 1917 (Washington, D.C., 1920) and "The Northwest: Gift or Conquest?" Indiana Magazine of History 30 (March 1934), James A. James contends that Clark won the Northwest, but Clarence W. Alvord in "Virginia and the West: An Interpretation," Mississippi Valley Historical Review 3 (June 1916) disputes this claim. More recent assessments are John D. Barnhart, ed., Henry Hamilton and George Rogers Clark in the American Revolution, with the Unpublished journal of Lieut. Gov. Henry Hamilton (Crawfordsville, Ind., 1951) and Barnhart's "A New Evaluation of Henry Hamilton and George Rogers Clark," Mississippi Valley Historical Review 37 (March 1951).

Information on cultural developments in frontier Kentucky is scattered. In addition to general histories, a valuable study of early education is Moses Edward Ligon, A History of Public Education in Kentucky (Lexington, Ky., 1942). For the beginnings of Transylvania College see James F. Hopkins, The University of Kentucky: Origins and Early Years (Lexington, Ky., 1951), and William Walter Jennings, Transylvania: Pioneer University of the West (New York, 1955).

General accounts of religious beginnings in Kentucky may be found in Walter Brownlow Posey, Frontier Mission: A History of Religion West of the Southern Appalachians to 1861 (Lexington, Ky., 1966), an excellent work, and Robert H. Bishop, An Outline of the History of the Church in the State of Kentucky (Lexington, Ky., 1824). For the Baptists, useful works include John H. Spencer, A History of Kentucky Baptists, 2 vols. (Cincinnati, Ohio, 1885); John Taylor, A History of Ten Baptist Churches (Frankfort, Ky., 1823); George W. Ranck, The Traveling Church (Louisville, Ky., 1922); and two more recent studies of a general nature, Walter B. Posey, The Baptist Church in the Lower Mississippi Valley, 1776-1845 (Lexington, Ky., 1957), and William Warren Sweet, ed., Religion on the American Frontier: The Baptists, 1783-1830 (New York, 1931).

Methodist beginnings are traced in Albert H. Redford, The History of Methodism in Kentucky, 3 vols. (Nashville, Tenn., 1868-1870), and set in perspective in Walter B. Posey, The Development of Methodism in the Old Southwest, 1783-1824 (Tuscaloosa, Ala., 1933), and William Warren Sweet, ed., Religion on the American Frontier: The Methodists, 1783-1840 (Chicago, 1946). The foundations of Presbyterianism are set forth in Robert Davidson, History of the Presbyterian Church in the State of Kentucky (New York, 1847); Walter B. Posey, The Presbyterian Church in the Old Southwest, 1778-1838 (Richmond, Va., 1952); Ernest T. Thompson, Presbyterians in the South (Richmond, Va., 1963); and William Warren Sweet, ed., Religion on the American Frontier: The Presbyterians, 1783-1840 (New York, 1936). Useful for the planting of the Roman Catholic Church in Kentucky are Mary Ramona Mattingly, The Catholic Church on the Kentucky Frontier, 1785-1812 (Washington, D.C., 1936), and Benjamin J. Webb, The Centenary of Catholicity in Kentucky (Louisville, Ky., 1884).

Political developments, at this early period often coupled with land problems and defense needs, are noted in most general histories of pioneer Kentucky. Especially useful are standard documentary collections such as William Waller Hening, comp., The Statutes-at-Large: Being a Collection of All the Laws of Virginia from the First Session of the Legislature in the Year 1619, 13 vols. (Richmond, Va., 1809-1823); William P. Palmer and others, eds., Calendar of Virginia State Papers and Other Manuscripts, 11 vols. (Richmond, Va., 1875-1893); and James R. Robertson, ed., Petitions Of the Early Inhabitants of Kentucky to the General Assembly of Virginia, 1769 to 1792 (Louisville, Ky., 1914). Other works which should be mentioned are George H. Alden, New Governments West of the Alleghenies before 1780 (Madison, Wis., 1897); Patricia Watlington, The Partisan Spirit: Kentucky Politics, 1779-1792 (Chapel Hill, N.C., 1974); and Robert M. Ireland, County Courts in Antebellum Kentucky (Lexington, Ky., 1972).