In his book THE TRAVELLING CHURCH, George W. Ranck listed HUNT as one of the families that were members of the Travelling Church caravan. In light of this I thought the following excerpt would be of interest, especially relating to the settlement of Barren County, KY where some HUNT ancestors originate. --Doug This was posted to KYROOTS by Julie Adams <julie@NETSET.COM>: The following is taken directly from the pages of "History of Churches in Boone's Creek Association" regarding the Traveling Church: "Tradition says that when Daniel Boone was passing through Virginia from his old home in PA to his new home in North Carolina, he met William Bush, then a young man and the two became friends. The following inscription can be found on the headstone of Capt. William Bush "He was the friend and companion of Daniel Boone and others in the settlement of Kentucky". We know that Capt. Billy was one of the men that assisted Boone in blazing the trail to Boonesborough in 1775 and was one of the party that went in pursuit of the two Callaway sisters and Boone's daughter when they were captured by Indians in 1776. Capt. Bush was so well pleased with the new country that he returned to his old home in Orange Co. Va for the purpose of organizing a colony, and from the glowing description which he gave, a colony was soon organized, consisting of about 40 families from among his kinsmen, neighbors and friends in Orange and Culpepper Co.'s, most of them being Baptists. Early in 1780 preperations were begun for the exodus in the fall of that year to the land of "Kaintuckee". Some months before the colony started, Capt. Billy had returned to Boonesborough to select and locate farms for the different families whom he wished to be near him. He located approx 3000 acres directly across the river from Ft. Boonesborough." In a nutshell, the traveling church had started their journey and had reached the settlement of "Holston" which was also known as Wolf Hills (current day city of Abingdon). There was a fort there called Blacks Fort. (Historical landmark in Abingdon shows the site of the fort). The settlement of Holston was pretty much the last civilized stop before entering unchartered territory. There is a restaurant in d/town Abingdon called "The Tavern" it was the original "stage coach stop" and has been restored to its original condition - orig. built in 1779 and since the Traveling Church arrived at Blacks Fort in Dec. of 1780, some of the party most likely was in that very building as it was the central place for supplies and mail. We have eaten dinner in this place - it is truly worth the trip! Nothing can bring you closer to how they lived than to visit a place that still has the very walls and floors it did back then. Anyway, the colony remained there until 1783 as Capt. Billy had sent a runner from Ft. Boonesborough warning them to stop there as the trail to B/borough and the fort itself had been under heavy seige by Indians and was not safe. There are records in Washintong Co. showing these Baptists grew crops and raised livestock for 3 years before they continued on their journey. Our ancestor, Josiah Bush, Capt. Billy's brother, died while in Black's Fort, therefore never making the full journey. When the colony reached Kentucky, an area SE of Ft. Boonesborough, there was some sort of disagreement (religious) and a small portion of the party decided to go to an area then called "The Barrens" which is now Glasgow, Ky in the far SW corner. The remainder of the colony contined to Ft. Boone and they settled on the lands that Capt. Billy had claimed for them in the year 1784.. The first years of Church meetings were held in Capt. Billy's home, Pastor Elder Elkin while they built the Providence Church - which still stands and is still in use as a church today. It is estimated that the church was built about 1792. They had a temporay log church between 1785 and 1792." ___________________________________________________________________ You don't need to buy Internet access to use free Internet e-mail. Get completely free e-mail from Juno at http://www.juno.com/getjuno.html or call Juno at (800) 654-JUNO [654-5866]