Fellow researchers, I searched my files and came across some old Draper manuscripts of letters from Nathaniel Hart, grandson of the original settler by that name. These are very interesting letters in that they portray life along the frontier. I have maintained the spelling and punctuation--so be prepared for some deciphering on your part. Enjoy! Bob Francis ----- >From Gleanings from Draper Mss. Library of Wisconsin State Historical Society--HART LETTER BY NATHANIEL HART TO DRAPER. 1838. 2CC26 I have been a resident of Kentucky since the fall of 1779 to the present time. I was too young to be an actor in many of the trying scones of that early period but from 1788 until the conclusion of Col Wayne's treaty in 1795, 1 missed few opportunities of joining in the pursuit of such parties of Indiana as made incursions into the section of Kentucky where I resided. From 1779 to 1786 my residence was in the fort at Boonsborough, which my father, in conjunction with others, had erected as early as 1775. He fell by the Indian tommahawk in the dangerous season of 17821 just before the disasterous battle of the Blue Licks and as my widowed mother survived him but two years, from that period I relied upon my rifle for a greater part of my food and rainment. From the fall of 1786 1 resided in the neighborhood of Harrodsburg and the Indians, who then annoyed that part of the Country, generally crossed the Ohio Ohio river between the mouth of the Kentucky and Louisville, passing up on the south side of the river, which was then a wilderness, to McAfees Station. I was twice engaged in the pursuit of these Indiana an far as the banks of the Ohio without further success than that of killing a fine blooded horse under an Indian who made his escape. Gen. Scott's song while fishing on the bank of the Kentucky rivers was killed by a party of of these Indians, in sight of his fathers house and surveyor, Robert Todd, as late as 1794, was killed in view of Frankfort immediately before the Legislature convened at that place. In 1780, the Brittish officer,, Bird Col Bird, with his Indian army, decended the Big Miami and ascended Licking river as far as the mouth of Beaver creeks captured Riddles and Martins stations with the aid of his artillery. Some years after this the Federal government, for a while prohibited the Kentuckians from pursuing the Indians beyond the Ohio, but they were sometimes tempted to cross over in disregard of the injunction. On one occasion, I think in the spring of 1788, in the immediate neighborhood of your flourishing city, they met an unexpectedly large encampment of the enemy, who gave them battle and soon routed our little party with considerable loss, Samue1 and Moses Grant, the later of whom had been my school mate the previous year, were both killed at this time. Gen. Wm Lytle, after participating in the conflict, exerted himself in conducting from the ground to the canoes one or two men who were wounded, apprehending that the foremost of the party might push out from the shore before the wounded could reach it, he went ahead and finding them in the act of starting, he was only able to restrain them by raising his rifle and threatening to to shoot the first man who struck an oar till the wounded men could get up. At this critical juncture, when they expected to be fired on every instance by the enemy, an individual, then of some note in the country, threw himself out of the canoe into the river on the opposite side from the shore and patiently held on until the wounded were brought up, to the great merriment of all the rest. But in the spirit of the old injunction "to say nothing of the dead but what is creditable", so it may be proper here to remark that the decendants of this individual have long since distinguished themselves by driving the Indians beyond the Lakes. About the year 1790, Gen. Scott and Col. John Edwards conducted a party across the Ohio to break up an encampment of the enemy who had been committing great depredations on our river craft. On their arrival, the Indians had decamped, but they caught a white man in a canoe who refused to give satisfactory answers to their interragatories, when their patience was nearly exhausted, Gen. Scott demanded of him how long he had been with the Savages. Looking cooly up to the sun, he replied, " About two hours", alluding to the time he had been their prisoner. Strange to say, the party left this individual uninjured, being unable to determine whether he was deranged or totally regardless of his life. My first and only visit to Fort Washington, The site of your city, was in 1794, on my way to join Gen. Wayne's army, and I shall never forget a scene which I witnessed on my return; Cincinnati then of ten or a dozen rough log cabins on the bank of the river. A two story hewed log house, where I found Capt Gordon, an old acquaintance, keeping a house of entertainment, with whom Gen. Barbee, Col. Beatty and myself quartered for a day or two. On our way out, one of our Kentucky Colonels, (who was more remarkable for his willingness to fight than to pay his just debts), had contracted a debt with grocer, which the grocer was anxious to collect on our return, but as it was not entirely convenient, the Colonel refused to discharge it - a writ was obtained and placed in the hands of the Sheriff to arrest him. He was found smoking a pipe tommahawk in one of these cabins with a crowd of officers and soldiers around him and evinced a desposition not to be taken, when the sheriff exclaimed, "Clear the way and let me at him, God Almighty just made me to take such a man". When he had approached near enough the Col reached forward with his tommahawk and gave him a gentle chop on the heads upon which the officer wheeled to the right about and marched off with double quick step, considerably doubting the purpose for which he had been created. We had but little intercourse with the Licking previous to 1790. Frankfort, Georgetown and Paris were fronteer settlements when the U. S. Army erected Fort Washington, and even after that periods Kentucky had several forts or blockhouses on the banks of the Ohio to guard our frontier. In 1791, Gen Scott went to Fort Washington to consult with Gen Harmer in regard to the campaign conducted that year from Kentucky by Scott and Wilkinson. A guard of twenty dragoons was furnished from Lexington, who were equiped in handsome style, the General, himself in ordinary dress. Upon reaching the river he started to lead his horse into the boat ahead of the dragoon when the ferryman directed him to stand aside while the gentlemen crossed over. Some one of the company then whispered to the ferryman that the man was Gen Scott, when he exclaimed, with an oath, that he had taken him for a waiter. This, of course, diverted the old General very much and furnished the material for one of his good stories. I know of no person living in this part of Kentucky who participated in the settlement of Cincinnati as early as the year 1788; My former neighbor, Jacob Sodusky, of Jessamine county, who died some six years since, informed me that he had cut down the first tree on the site of Cincinnati for the purpose of building a cabin there. He was a man proverbial for his truth and integrity as well as for enterprise, having come out with a small party as early as 1774 to explore Kentucky and finding the country much infested with the Savages, they were detained from attempting to return to Virginia directly either by land or water, but ran down to New Orleans, in their canoes, and taking passage on a vessel to Baltimore, thence reached their homes on the South Branch of the Potomac after the absence of a year. When Fort Washington was first erected, the Indiana showed no disposition to kill the regular soldiers for some time, and in consequence of this, the oommander of the U S Army was induced to charge the Kentuckians with unnecessarily provoking the attacks of the Indians. In a short time, however, his tune was changed, for they soon evinced as great a desire to scalp his men as the had done the Kentuckians. Col. Elliott, the contractor of the U S Army, and the father of the present Commander Elliott of the American Navy, was the last person killed in the neighborhood of Fort "Washington that I knew of. As soon as Gen Wayne had succeeded in the objects of the campaign of 1794, Elliott quit the Army and was hastening in to forward out supplies to the garrison, when he was shot and scalped by the Indians between Fort Washington and Hamilton, having directed his servant to make his escape. On the following day a detachment of soldiers went with a cart and oxen with a coffin to bring in his remains. The party had placed the corpse in the cart they were fired on, Elliott's servant killed, the coffin broken open and the corpse much mutilated. On the third day the soldiers, for they were much attached to their contractor, rode to the place and throwing the corpse across a horse, galloped off with it. A few days afterwards, on my return from Fort Wayne, I saw the coffin lying on the road side broken to pieces. Had it not been for the buffalos and other wild game I am satisfied that Kentucky could not have been settled at the time it was, for this constituted the main resource with the settlers who were frequently without bread and salt. In the winter it was hung up in an open house and kept frozen; in the summer it was jerked in the woods and afterwards used in that state, sometimes recooked with butter and cream, of which we had an abundance. There were some 40 to 50 persons in my fathers family. One bushel of salt was as much as we could procur a year; the article was manufactured at Mann's Lick and at Bullit's Lick, in the neighborhood of Louisville, and was procured in the upper settlements with great trouble and risk. I have frequently seen a party of 10 or 15 hunters in the woods for a week with a little bag of salt containing perhaps a gill, which of course was used most sparingly. The hump of the buffalo was the choice delicacy with the hunters; when they were killed near our forts, they were split into and with a pole, or, when too heavy for that, with the assistance of a sapling, bent down for the purpose, half the buffalo was put upon the pack saddle and taken in. When killed at a distance from the forts, the skins were taken off and used as a sack, in which 3 or 4 hundred pounds of meat was carried at a load. But the constant dread of Indians made this an unwelcome business to all but the intrepid, as they were frequently fired on with these heavy loads on their horses, the riders sometimes on the packs, in such cases to get clear of the loads and save their lives was no trifling consideration. -- Bob Francis, 1920A Butner St., Ft. Eustis, VA 23604 My Homepage is: http://www.shawhan.com Ruddell's Fort Page: http://www.shawhan.com/ruddlesfort.html Early Bourbon Co. Fam. Pg.: http://www.shawhan.com/bourbonfamilies.html Bourbon Co., Ky., Bios: http://www.shawhan.com/biographies.html Shawhan Genealogy: http://homepages.rootsweb.com/~shawhan/Homepage.html