Source: The History Quarterly of the Filson Club, July 1936, Vol. 10, No. 3

INTERVIEW WITH MRS. HINDS OF BOURBON COUNTY

[page 5.1 No. 3. Mrs. Hinds. (A Mrs. James Mills [or Hill?] before.) Met with at Mr. Thomas L. Cunningham's, near Clintonville [met at home of her granddaughter's husband].

James Mills: My husband, James Mills (or Hill?) was out in 1781, under Clark, who had raised a company in the back parts of Virginia (Pennsylvania?). He was out also in Crawford's campaign. Was also in Harmer's and St. Clair's campaigns in the North West, after he moved out here.

Coming Out: We came down the [Ohio] River the winter preceding Harmer's campaign (or the winter before that time, one year) (1788-9). We came down in a merchant's boat that tried to get down that winter. When we got to the Alleghany, we found it full of ice.

Dunlap: The merchant was Dunlap, who had a store in Danville, and had been down before.

Lemmons: There were also along two Lemmons, traveling merchants, one living here by Georgetown now. On our way down we passed an island. At the head of it my husband wanted to get into the canoe and go ashore. Mr. Dunlap wouldn't let him. About the middle of the island, we passed some Indians, or saw them (standing around a fire?). They did not attempt to interrupt us.

We came up to Bourbon. Only staid there two weeks. We then went up to Lexington and spent the winter there.

Perry's Station-Saundersville: We then removed two miles out to Perry's Station, now Saundersville. Perry died the week (or a week) before we went there.

Colonel [Robert) Patterson & Co., starting to North Bend: The next summer after we came here, four men started from Lexington to go to the North Bend, to purchase land; Col. Patterson, Wm. Brown, and two brothers of the name of Ellison.

Brown-the Ellisons: Brown had come the spring succeeding the the fall or winter of our coming. We would have come together but he couldn't get ready. Just beyond Georgetown Brown was killed and one of the Ellisons. Brown had a wife and four or five children. The oldest children were twins. One married a James Laughhead.

Brown's brother: Brown had a brother that was out a year or two before, taken prisoner on the Ohio, and carried on to Detroit. From there he made his escape.

Georgetown: Not far from Georgetown the Indians stole horses and, I think, either killed or got a negro. It was warm weather, the first night the men had camped out and hitched up their horses. They came into Lexington to get help to pursue the Indians; but before they [the help] got there, the Indians had ransacked all their houses, or plunder, and gone.

Memorandum: [Appended is a memorandum of conversation with Thomas L. Cunningham relative to Mrs. Hinds, his wife's grandmother.]

Thomas L. Cunningham, Mrs. Hinds' last husband, went off and left her without any reason whatever assigned: On this account she would far rather go by her first husband's name. She is the grandmother of my [Cunningham's] wife.

McConnel Captured: McConnel was taken, I have understood, right in the fork where Town Fork and Wolf Creek come together; there by Isaac Cummingham, right where the mill dam now is. [This reference is to Alexander McConnel who in 1780 was captured by Indians near Lexington and shortly thereafter escaped by killing three of his captors.]

Boon and Callaway Girls: The Boon and Callaway girls were recaptured [July, 1776] up a little creek that puts into Licking just above Parker's Ferry. [The capture of these three girls, their rescue and their marriage to three of the pursuers is a well known romance of the pioneer days.]

Boon's youngest son: The youngest son of Daniel Boon [Nathan Boone, Born 1781, Died, 18561, from Missouri, passed through Clintonville last summer [18431. He stopped an hour. I [Cunningham] didn't see him. Was said to have been a rough, slovenly, indifferent looking man.

INTERVIEW WITH PATRICK SCOTT OF BOURBON COUNTY

No. 4. Patrick Scott. [He lives] about a mile, on the Paris road, from North Middletown, on Scott's Branch. Patrick Scott's first wife was a Campbell, daughter of William Campbell, Elder at Point Pleasant. He lived in that neighborhood. His second wife was a Robinson, (or Poston?) an Ironside-Baptist.

[Page 6.] Simon Girty. My father knew Simon Girty in Pennsylvania. He was a keen, shrewd man. He was affronted at not being promoted and on that account left the Americans.

Abraham Corn and brother: Abraham Corn, mentioned in Morehead, lived in Clark. [James T. Morehead's Boonesborough address, 1840.] He was sent to the Penitentiery for burning a Negro to death. He was pardoned by the Governor. His brother [Ebenezer] had his teeth knocked in at the Blue Licks Battle; the buillitt went out at the side of his mouth (?).

Colonel [Stephen] Trigg: Colonel Trigg, that was killed at the Blue Lick Battle, lived one-half mile from the fort where I lived.

Aaron Burr, [Gov. John] Adair, [Gov. Joseph] Desha: Aaron Burr was taken at Hubbard Taylor's, in Clark [County]. General John Adair and Governor Desha were confederates of Burr. [Hubbard Taylor was one of the best known public spirited men of Central Kentucky.)

Boon's house on Yadkin: [1] was at Boon's house, on the Yadkin, thirty-five years ago.

Coming out: My father came down the spring [of] 1778, with Clark's company and stopped at the Falls of the Ohio.

Patton and Swan: Patton and one Swan were of the party. They planted corn on Corn Island [at Falls of the Ohio). [Colonel R. T. Durrett's list of names of the first settlers of Louisville includes James Patton, but not Swan or Scott, nor does it include the "two Spaniards" later referred to.)

Corn [on] Corn Island: Have heard my father say, as he used to sit of nights in his cornfield, that he thought he could hear the corn go tick, tick, it grew so fast.

The Fort. A man killed: Built a fort above Corn Island, on the main land. I remember there was one man killed, out to ward the swamps, after the fort was built. [This may have been Fort-on-Shore, built in 1779 opposite Corn Island, at the foot of 11th St; or Floyd's (first) Station built in 1779, at the mouth of Beargrass Creek, at the foot of 3rd St; or Fort Nelson built in 1782, at the foot of 7th St.]

The two Spaniards. There were two Spaniards staying at the Fort, while we were there, that had come up from Natchez. We left them there when we left the Fort. They were named Blackfish: an old man and a young one, loiterers. The old one was a sulky old dog; savage looking, they were. I have seen him chase the young one (not a son) with his tomahawk in hand to km him, for hours at a time.

Clark's Campaign: It was the 24th of June [1778) when Clark started from there to go on his campaign.

Captain Isaac Hite-McAfee's Station: Captain Isaac Elite was at McAfee's Station when the Indians attacked the station. He came to Harrodsburg in a remarkably short time. I do not recollect how many seconds, but he was quick. He lived at Harrodsburg when we did.

Bowman's Station: While we were at Harrodsburg [Abram] Bowman lived at Bowman's Station on Dick's River.

Riddles: Old man Riddle [Isaac Ruddle] was a great rogue, and George Riddle, his son, as great a rogue.

Lexington: I recollect seeing that first company, that went to Lexington, start. I was at Harrodsburgh then. Sam McMullen and James McBride of it. Both lived with my father.

Harrodsburgh in 1779: 1 could go to the spot where Harrodsburgh fort was, now. A stone wall came down to the spring (arched over with flat stones ?), so that they could go down to the spring in safety. There was an Indian, that had been killed and burried [near] by Harrodsburgh, whose skull we boys got and were used to plaguing each other, throwing it at one another. I could point out my father's house, now, in the fort at Harrodsburgh, the place it was. Had the spring fenced in, and the passway to it covered over with large stones.

Hammond: One Hammond also lived in Harrodsburgh.

Negro with Indians at Harrodsburgh: Gun, called cannon, shot at a Negro with Indians who was in a tall sycamore that grew in the bottom there by Harrodsburgh. [Some one wrote on this manuscript suggesting that the place of this incident might be Boonesboro.]

Items: [mnemonic notes intended for future elaboration]: Sconce's Trace. Templeton Poston, a son of Elijah Poston. Cow and calf, Main Street, Lexington, living on Boon's Creek. My father's escape on Benson.

Logan's Campaign: Three years after we came over here, they wanted to press a horse for Logan's campaign. I ran him into the cane [to hide him].

Removals (to the West, Harrodsburgh and S[cott]'s Creek): [We] settled at this place, about [the] fall [of] 1789. My father came to Kentucky with Clark's troops that were going against the O'Post [Vincennes], 1778. The next season [we] went up to Harrodsburg. Boonesboro, Harrodsburg, and Whitley Station were then the only settlements.

Coming Out: Thirteen families came down [the Ohio]. We got to Louisville [The Falls], on 24 June, 1778. (Error plainly, perhaps first of June.) That day the sun was eclipsed totally.

William Scott: My father was named William Scott. He came to Kentucky when I was but four years old. I was born in 1774.

Clark's Campaign: Clark started from Louisville the 24th of June; Governor Hamilton had taken O'Post, and Clark came down with a company to go and retake Post Vincent. We came down the River with that company, spring, 1778. Clark mounted a black-jack [Page 7.] log on a pair of truck wheels, that is when he got into the bend below Post St. Vincent, and then sent in word to Governor Hamilton to surrender or he would blow him to hell and burn him up soul and body.

Corn Island: Clark settled these thirteen families on Corn Island. Of the thirteen families, one was this [James] Patton's who died in Louisville some years ago. Another was this Lynn's. (Which Lynn's?) [William Lynn]

Main Shore: When we came down there was no one living on the main land. There was nothing there until after Clark came back from the O'Post. [Old Post or possibly Ouabache Post, i.e. Wabash Post, i.e. Vincennes.] He then built a fort on the bank. Raised an onehalf acre of corn on that island. It was a warm, sandy soil, and my father used to say that of nights he could hear the corn grow.

Clark: The last time I met with Clark was out on Triplett [Creek], at one Henderson's, while I used yet to go to Sandy Salt-works [near present day Morehead].

Clark's troops, on their return from the O'Post Expedition, going back to Virginia, went by Harrodsburgh and along through on the Wilderness Road. My father removed up to Harrodsburgh in [Clark's] company, as they went up.

Wabash Indians: The tribe of Wabash Indians went up with us. (Clark had the Indians with him.) The king (Really, Baltise, Kaskaskia chief, I think. L. C. Draper's inserted note.] and queen of the tribe were along. I remember her (the queen's) looks very well. She was an ugly old creature.

Removed to Harrodsburg: Went up to Harrodsburg the fall of the hard winter, 1779-80. We didn't remain at Harrodsburgh over winter. We staid there two or three weeks and then went to Corn's Station on Cane Run.

George Corn's Station: George Corn had a bullet shot into his mouth, which knocked in his foreteeth. He swallowed a bullet and gulped it up again, not until two or three days after. Old George Corn, that owned the Station, had a son, Ebenezer, that lived in Clark [County) and who was sent to the penitentiary for killing a negro. Corn Station was about six miles from Harrodsburgh, on a branch of Cane Run (that came in from ?) towards Danville.

Colonel Stephen Trigg: Old Colonel Stephen Trigg lived at what was called the Vineygrove, near Corn's Station. He was killed at the Battle of Blue Licks [August 16, 1782]. His son was a cashier in the bank at Paris. Was a physician. Stepped aside with a young woman.

Hugh McGary: McGary was a creature without consideration. Was by nature a savage. He married a Yocum. She had a bastard child, as well as he, when they married. He went to drive her bastard child off; she said, to drive off both; and they did. Daniel McGary, a son of old Hugh, lived in Montgomery County, was a trifling, gambling sort of fellow.

Lexington: I was at Harrodsburgh when the first man that came to Lexington started from there.

Corn's Station and Riddle: I was at Corn's Station when Riddle (that was taken at Riddle's [Isaac Ruddle's Station)) got back [from British captivity].

McCune's. One McCune, who was at Bowman's Station when Riddle got there, went out and got a hoop-pole, of which he had a parcel, and wore it out on Riddle. McCune had been a fellow prisoner with Riddle, and had been planning to run away, when Riddle went and told the British on him, who put McCune in irons. "Now," says McCune, "Tell on me again!"

Swan: Swan was one of the men that lived in Harrodsburgh when we were there. [The same Swan who was at Corn Island?]

Colonel Thomas Hinkston: Colonel Thomas Hinkston was also about Harrodsburg. [John Hinkston escaped at the capture of Martin's Station and gave the alarm, but we do not know whether or not Colonel Thomas Hinkston was kin to him. Ruddel's and Martin's stations were captured by an army of British and Indians under Colonel Byrd who brought the first British cannon into Kentucky, on June 22, 1780.]

Joseph Jackson: [Addenda, page 17.] Old Jackson, at Lee's Lick, in the lower end of this county [Bourbon County] was on the British side in the Blue Lick Battle. (Joe Jackson showed me the place, at the Lower Blue Licks where he was caught by the Indians. He was with them twenty or thirty years, till after the wax. He married, late in life, a young woman. They did not always agree; and this spring of 1844 Jackson went and hung himself.)

[Michael] Stoner: [Page 7, resumed.] Stoner came to a tree, a good deal scratched with a bear. He climbed the tree, got on a limb, and hallooed "The house." The bear came out and Stoner, having no arms, had to fall off the limb.

Colonel Bill Lynn: Colonel Bill Lynn was a very mischievous fellow. He always carried an old British musket. Would make snakes crawl into it and then shoot them out against a tree. (Kentucky's first snake story, and an evidence of the kind of whisky made in those days I] He was out hunting on Salt River. Five Indians took after him, three in the rear and two on the flanks. He killed the last of the five just at the brush fence that was around the fort. He was asked, when he got in, if he ran booty. He declared he didn't. Lynn was a [Page 8.] very swift runner. A great many bets were made on him, but they were always lost; he didn't want to encourage gambling. A number of men from Harrodsburgh were out on Hardin Creek, buffalo hunting. One day they turned out on a hunt and at night, when they came in, Lynn was wanting, missing, and it wa's No Lynn! No Lynn! On the next day they turned out and found him tomahawked and three of his fingers cut off. [This was Ben Linn at this place, a brother of Colonel William LinnL. C. Draper's inserted note. But B. Linn was not tomahawked; lived to good old age--anon. note.] [sic.] [William Lynn-or Linn-and George Gibson in 1766-77 made a trip from Pittsburgh to New Orleans to procure powder; this they conveyed up the Mississippi and Ohio to Wheeling. Lynn Station, on Beargrass, near Louisville, was established in 1779 by William Lynn who was an outstanding pioneer.]

John Luckey and Colonel James Smith: John Luckey, old Joseph Luckey's father, and Colonel James Smith were going around to see if they could make up a church; and for that, examining the people. They came to my father who was of the old secedar-Adam Rankin-order. After talking with him some, Colonel Smith observed to Luckey, "Wen, Brother John, what do you think of him." Luckey replied, 'Well, I reckon if we canna get hewn stone, we must tak donics." [Colonel James Smith is the author of "An Account of the Remarkable Occurrences in the Life and Travels of Colonel James Smith during his Captivity with the Indians, 1755-59, to which is added A Brief Account of some Very Uncommon Occurrences which transpired after his return from Captivity." It is a book of 88 pages, first published by John Bradford, Lexington, in 1799.)

Cane Ridge Church: My father helped to build Cane Ridge Church. The Cane Ridge people were great emancipators, in those times.

Peter Houston: Peter Houston, brother of old James Houston that lives there now, saw Negroes flying through the air [witches). He moved to Indiana a few years ago, and is still living.

John Johnston: Old Johnny Johnston and his wife (a sister of old John Luckey), both from Cane Ridge, joined the Shakers.

Peter Bonta: Old Peter Bonta, that left the Shakers after being made their treasurer, and getting rather a better farm than the one he had let them have, said, next morning, he believed he would move down.

Benj. Mills: Benj. Mills went to school at Cane Ridge. He lived down by Jack's Town. Caleb Letton married a sister of his. [Benj. Mills was one of the justices of the "old" Appellate Court which decided, in 1823, that the debt-relief laws were unconstitutional.)

John Scott, Pleasant Point: My brother, John Scott, was an elder in Joseph Howe's congregation, that is, at Pleasant Point. When the Newlights [Alexander Campbell's Reformation] came about he joined them. When the Shakers came about, I reported it on him that he had joined them. He came to my house, having found it out on me, and enquired, sitting on his horse. I told him to light and eat his breakfast, that I could show it was extremely probable he would, if he hadn't. He had quit fiddling and dancing and joined the Presbyterians. It was extremely probable, if he could quit the Presbyterians to join the Newfights, he could quit the Newlights to join the Shakers. The change was not more wonderful.

Mrs. [William] Logan, Pleasant Point: Mrs. Logan, widow of William Logan, both members at Pleasant Point. I told John, MY brother, how I had seen her filch in a store while sitting on a barrel. He told me not to tell him anything about it, as he would be bound to report it. Mr. Logan was sort of hand at mending and fixing clocks. Lived by Pleasant Point.

James Rice, Stephen Biles, Robert Sconce: Colonel James Rice married a daughter of Old Stephen Biles [Boyle]. Sconce's house was a hewed log-house. Sconce's son, William, left his wife and took up with a black woman he had bought.

Irish Station: The Irish Station, now called Scott's Station (where Mrs. Allen's sister Scott lives) eight or nine miles below Millersburg, to the left of the Maysville Pike, nearly on the dividing ridge between Hinkston and Licking.

Scott's Creek, Wolf Run: This Scott's Creek used to be called Wolf Run.

The Huff's and Swinneytown: Paul Huff-we used to call him the Old Apostle (Paul). John, his son, we used to call the Young Apostle. Paul Huff's son-in-law, Swinney, settled Middletown; hence first called Swinneytown.

Sconce's Trace: Sconce's Trace went along by where an old buffalo road crossed Stoner just at the mouth of Scott's Creek, lead on through Jack Thomas' farm, and on by Hornback's mill.

Salt Lick: I went to the salt lick, nearly up to opposite the mouth of the Scioto, in early times after salt [in Lewis County].

Mann's Lick: My father went from this country to Mann's Lick after salt [near Louisville].

My Father's Adventure: On his way [from Mann's Lick], as he laid on a prong of Benson [in Franklin County), just below now Hardinsville; and in the morning, just before day, as he lay he heard somebody stepping in the creek. When the foot was raised out of the water, he could hear the water dripping off again into the creek, He rose, caught up his two horses, saddled his, and just as he got on his, he raised the shout (hollow). They saw where the mocassin tracks had followed in pursuit of him an that day. The Indians got a great many salt packers in early times.

Another Adventure: At another time my father was going out in Bath [County) to survey a piece of land. Passing Gassy Lick, he was again chased. He crossed over and lay that night near or at Bramlette's Lick, upon Stoner Creek, by Judy's Store. Next morning he got up before day, raised the hollow, and put off home. The moccasin tracks were seen where they had followed him that day.

[Page 9.] Hinkston Creek: Licking [River) was named [for the] Blue Licks; Hinkston for one Hinkston. He lived at Harrodsburgh when I first knew him.

Minary's Station: Minary's Station was by Sconce's, at the place where one Caleb Hall lived. Hall died and one Campbell, I think it was, married his widow.

Robert Sconce: Old Sconce was an Irishman; came from Greenbriar out here. He had a house full of girls. I was then just grown and quite fond of going there. One son living there now. The son, William Sconce, lived at the mouth of Strode's Creek. The old man, "Bauld Robin Sconce," lived on the headwaters of Little Flat Creek towards Towles. He was here before came.

Blue Jacket: They caught an Indian there, one time, and kept him all night, but he got away (1788). [See this story as told in "John D. Shane's Interview with Pioneer William Clinkenbeard" in THE FILSON CLUB HISTORY QUARTERLY, April, 1928, No. 3 of Vol. 2, and "A Sketch of the Early Adventures of William Sudduth in Kentucky," in the same magazine, January, 1928, No. 2 of Vol. 2.]

Aaron Burr: [Addenda, page 18.] Aaron Burr was taken by the marshall of Virginia at Hubbard Taylor's, in Clark. They went to Winchester where he dined with him at Joe Calloway's. Adair, Desha, and Taylor, Burr men.

Joe Jackson: Joe Jackson was making salt at the Blue Licks, and taken by the Indians, when they came to attack Bryant's Station.

William Scott: My father married near Lancaster, Pennsylvania. Moved up and up until he moved and lived near to a place called the Standing Stone.

My father was pack-horse master in Braddock's army. Got another pack-horseman's horse, one night, blacked over the ball of his face, with a camp kettle, and so drove him two or three days before he was detected.

My father moved thirteen times in one year-the year before he moved down here from the Red Stone Country. My mother carried me on her lap. My father took a bed, opened a place at the two ends, put one child in one end and the other child in the opposite, while the third, the stoutest, rode the horse [saddlebag style].