Col. Whitley, about 1790 - not certain as to date - perhaps later - with a party chased two Indians who had stolen a couple of fine mares - some snow on the ground and thus could track them - found them at their camp, and attacked them near day light, killing one, and recovering the horses - when the other Indian broke off on foot. Whitley and men pursued him as soon as it was light enough to track him - and followed him nearly all day, until he became too weary, that he dodged into a briar thicket - from which he was soon driven out and killed. Of Col. Whitley, can give no other details - speaks of his killing an Indian over the (--?--) in 1813, swimming his horse over and getting the scalp - and having one or two other scalps (which later is doubtful). Always loved to fight Indians. Col. Daniel Boone, 1795-'96 - Mr. Champ saw Boone but once. Champ was sent by his father with a stock of cattle to winter high up on Licking - and went during the winter with others on a hunt up Sandy. This was after Wayne's treaty - while Indians still lurked somewhat in the frontiers - and was before my informant's father's death, in 1799 - and before Boone migrated to Missouri. He met Col. Boone on head waters of Sandy - he had with him, his wife, two sons, two married daughters with their husbands. They had half faced camps - ate their meals form common tough tray very much like a tap trough, placed on a bench instead of a table, each using as needed a butcher knife to cut the meat, using forks, made of cane, with tines or prongs - and having only bread to eat with the meat. It was a hunting camp - a great number of bears had been killed, and the skins were curing, and the meat hung up drying all around the camp. Col. Boone said he decided to take the meat down Sandy by water, and up the Ohio and Kanawha salt works for market. He said he thought he ad killed, as he expressed it, "the master bear of the Western country" - he was a monster for size - two feet across the hip bones, but was very aged and poor - if in good condition, he would have weighed five or six hundred pounds. As Champ was out wintering stock the next winter, and went hunting at the very head of Sandy, Licking and Kentucky and there heard Indians yell and he and his party of hunters pursued, but Indians scattered and disappeared in the cover. I should think very likely it was the winter after Wayne's Treaty he met Boone: See Col. Nathan Boone's notes and Col. Thomas Rogers' letter, (etc.). Joe Scott - can only tell of him, that he was a witty and odd Irishman, who went scouting - lived at Miller's Station. John Champ - he was a cousin of my informant's father - don't know what became of him - and no knowledge of his settling in Ky. - certainly not in Madison region. Can tell nothing new of him. No knowledge of an Indian being killed in a bed by a woman, as represented by Capt. C. Wood. Nor about the wounded Indian in a cave trying to stab a soldier as represented by Peyton. Gen. Green Clay went out on Logan's campaign in 1786 - and behaved well. Boone's Gap is in the dividing ridge between Rockcastle River, Paint Lick and Silver Creeks -here Boone's old trace passes. Col. William Miller - thinks he was a native of Virginia - lived early on Reedy Creek of Holston - and was out on some early Indian Campaigns, but couldn't tell what ones. Has no knowledge of Miller's drawing a pension. At Estill's defeat thinks Miller not blamable. Estill sent him with six men to flank the Indians and the Indians killed two of his men in the first fire and broke the cock of his gun with a bullet, so it was useless. There was a thick cane-break and could not see how many nor where the Indians were and Miller and the survivors thought it foolhardy to remain and be shot down and so left. Col. Miller was called a brave man. He was not out on any expeditions after Mr. Champ came to this country, except scouting near home. Yelverton Peyton said Miller was as brave as any man, but that even the bravest sometimes falters.) Col. Wm. Irving was shot through the lights(?) At Estill's defeat and always after had a weak effeminate voice. (Here Draper inserts the word effeminate between the words weak and voice as if an afterthought. Shot through may mean the lungs or throat in this instance, otherwise?) Logan's Campaign, 1786. Col. Thomas Kennedy jumped and ran to the Indian, by his luck, who shot Capt. Irvine and others, and tomahawked him - the Indian had powder already in his hand for another load, and "his mouth full of balls" - so he would pour in the powder, and drop in the bullet from his mouth, and shake down the load, which would frequently pack itself, and ready to shoot again. Wm. Champ was often out scouting during the period 1792-95, but in no Indian fight. He is fully six feet in height - with a large bony frame - quite vigorous for his age, A Reformed Presbyterian. Col. Thos. Kennedy lived at Miller's Station in early times - was brave and reckless - loved horses - left a large estate, which his children mostly squandered. Sept. 11, 1863. NOTES: !. William's father, William Champ, Sr., was at Paint Lick in November of 1785 as his name appears on a petition to the General Assembly of Virginia for the resulting creation of Mercer and Madison Counties in 1786. Therefore, William Champ, Jr.'s account of the family's arrival in then Lincoln County is correct. James Rood Robertson, (Louisville, 1914), Petitions of the Early Inhabitants of Kentucky to the General Assembly of Virginia, p. 84 Petition No. 27, p. 185 name index. 2. By other historical accounts, Mr. Champ is in error as to when the McNitt-Ford Defeat occurred. Draper, by calendar date deductions, supposes that by Champ's description, his party arrived on the south bank of the Laurel River about September 30, 1784, and that the massacre occurred some eight days prior, September 22, 1784. October 3, 1786 is the date most consistently given for the McNitt Defeat and on the south bank of the Little Laurel River. Robert L. Kincaid, (Middlesboro, KY. 1966, 3rd Edition), p. 177, references Bayless Hardin, ed., "Whitley Papers" published in The Register of Kentucky State Historical Society, Vol. 36, No. 116, July 1938, pp. 190-209. Charles G. Talbert, William Whitley 1749-1813, published in, Early Lincoln County History, compiled and edited by Mrs. M. H. Dunn, 4th printing, February 1975, p. 51. Thomas D. Clark, ed., The Voice of the Frontier, John Bradford's Notes on Kentucky, referencing J. J. Dickey, "McNitt's Defeat", in Russell Dyche, History of Laurel County, pp. 17-18, gives night of October 1, 1786 for raid upon the McNitt party. 3. A legend persists that Polly did return and stay with her people (the whites); that she married a John Pruitt and had a family, that it was said she also had an Indian child, a girl. Madison County records report a marriage bond for a John Pruett and Polly Ford for 10 September 1805. This would be about 19 years after the capture. Her return was not before the death of her father, Peter Ford in 1801. Peter left his daughter 50 acres, should she ever return from captivity. The census records of Madison County lists a John Prewitt/Pruitt/Pruett from 1810 through 1830. By 1840, John is apparently deceased as Polly (Ford) Prewitt is listed as head of household, being between 50 and 60 years of age. Polly would have been but a child of about 8 years of age when captured. So, it would stand to reason that her Indian ways would tend to dominate her life style and would add credence to her return to her Indian husband as reported by Champ. Yet, there is evidence that Polly did return and stay. Some of the facts do contradict the above statements. Her child was actually a son, not a daughter as reported, of the Miami War Chief "Little Turtle", and was called by the whites, "Indian Jack". After Polly married John Pruett/Prewitt, Indian Jack was adopted and renamed John Ford Prewitt. He married Milly Green in Garrard County on 11 March 1823. They had one child, Elizabeth whose marriage to Sidney Warmouth has produced many descendants, some in present Madison County. John Ford "Indian Jack" Prewitt, walked away from home one day and is lost to history to this day. "Polly's Story" is an interesting one, but time and space does not permit its inclusion in this publication. Work will be done to add her story in the next publication of Heritage Highlights. (These notes are as appeared in the Madison County Historical Society's Heritage Highlights publication Vol. 3, No. 2 Winter 1999.) Forrest Calico, History of Garrard County and Its Churches, 1947, pp. 196-197. Bill and Kathy Vockery, Madison County Kentucky Marriage Records Vol. I 1786 - 1822, 1993. Anna Joy (Munday) Hubble, Madison County Kentucky Census Records, 1810-1840. Bill and Kathy Vockery, Garrard Co., Kentucky Marriage Records 1797-1853, 1989. Michael A. Leaverton, Prewitt, Pruitt, Pruet, etc. - a Miami name, published in Indian by Blood II by Richard Pangburn, 1996. Jim McNitt, James McNitt & Kentucky's Worst Indian Massacre, excerpts from the original by V. V. McNitt, 1951. 4. It is established that Hannah is the mother of William Champ, Jr. and Andrew Miller. As William Champ, Jr. is but an eight year old lad at the time of his arrival in Kentucky, it is apparent that his half-brother is somewhat older to have been included in Whitley's pursuit party. Champ established his birth place as near the head of the North Fork of the Roanoke River in Botetourt County, Virginia in 1776. At a Court held in Botetourt County on May 10, 1774, by the abstracts of Summers in his Annals of Southwest Virginia, page 124, a guardianship is set up for a William and Andrew Miller, orphans of David Miller. In the succeeding paragraph, it is ordered that Laird Robinson, John Robinson, and Samuel Robinson do lay off and Alott to Hannah Bryd (index says Byrd) late widow of Laird Miller (this may be an error in a duplication of the name Laird), decd., her dower in two tracts of land of the said dec'd estate lying on the North Fork of Roan Oak.... ....The location of the Miller estate and the birth place of William Champ, Jr. is close enough, in this recorder's belief, to rule out a coincidence. It is likely also that a check of the original Court Record will reveal a David Miller as Hannah's dec'd. husband. William Champ, Sr. last paid tax in Garrard County in 1799, his wife, Hannah is listed on the Tax List afterwards as a widow. William Champ, Sr.'s death was in the same year that he last paid taxes; his son relates to his death in the Boone segment of this Interview. Harold J. Kurtz, 1797 and 1799 Tax List of Garrard County Kentucky, 1990 and 1800 - 1802 Taxpayers of Garrard County, Kentucky, 1997. 5. By William Whitley's own words on the McNitt Defeat, "I was in Virginia, and they (the Indians) were not followed." Mrs. M. H. Dunn, Early Lincoln County History, p. 51, Charles Talbert, William Whitley 1749-1813. 6. This entire account may be of fact, but not for the Defeated Camp of McNitt. Numerous massacres occurred on the Wilderness Road during 1784. The McClure attack occurred on Scagg's Creek in October of 1784. Whitley and others followed up on this occasion and rescued Mrs. McClure. This is not likely the incident that Champ relates to. A few weeks later, south of Raccoon Spring, south of Laurel River was the attack on the Moore party. Whitley followed up and recovered 28 stolen horses, goods, cash, and eight scalps of the murdered party. No captives were found. Considering the years elapsed and the age of Champ at the interview with Draper, it is highly probable that the stories heard and told over the years became mingled into one. Champ was noted for his stories about the Indians. In the family records of Guy Boatright, he mentions that his mother used to relate to his (Champ's) Indian stories he told her. Robert L. Kincaid, TheWilderness Road, accounts of McClure's and Moore's Defeats. Guy Boatright, Family Notes, 1950. Van Every, Men of the Western Waters, 1956, p. 220 Appendix, 1784 Summer - 100 listed killed on Wilderness Road. 7. Meadow Fork is probably meant Walnut Meadow Fork, but likely different from when Stephenson/Stevenson settled. Today's Walnut Meadow, and how it is located on the 1876 Beers map, is an eastern tributary of Paint Lick Creek with its head waters near the present city of Berea. Mr. Calico, in his History of Garrard County and its Churches, supposes that in the beginning, the Walnut Meadow Branch began somewhat north of where it now joins Paint Lick Creek, and at the forks of present day White Lick and Paint Lick Creeks, thus taking the course of the current main Paint Lick Fork that serves as the eastern boundary line of Madison and Garrard Counties; that the White Lick Creek from the forks of Kennedy's Branch (current Walker's Branch)was once the main fork of Paint Lick. So, pinpointing Stevenson's settlement would require more research than this recorder will attempt. Sadie Ralston Kuhlman, Family Notes, places Stevenson's Station at or near Gum Spring, which is on the Garrard County side of Paint Lick Creek adjacent to State Highway 21 which parallels Paint Lick Creek and is somewhat south and west of Bell's Spring. 8. This recorder does not pretend to know the significance of the silk handkerchief and the wound treatment unless the absorption power of silk aids in some way the cleansing of the wound. Silk's "weight can be increased as much as 30% in moisture." I can report that the 18th century layman practitioner was in many ways a better doctor than the learned physician. Rick Brainard's segment on the Internet, History--The 18th Century, sourcing Daniel Boorstien, The American: The Colonial Experience, pp. 209-210 3 Vols. New York: Vantage Press, 1958. Encyclopaedia Britannica, Vol. 20, Silk p. 668, 1961. Further knowledge of the silk handkerchief treatment and its availability on the frontier would be interesting. Upon first examination of historical facts regarding this attack, it was felt that Champ again had been confused as to the time of this encounter. In September of 1790 the appraisal of the estate of an Elizabeth Stephenson , decd. was ordered, followed by the return of the Inventory and appraisement of the estate of Edward [Elizabeth] Stephenson in February 1791 made it apparent that it was not the same Stephenson family that fell victim to the Indian attack. The Edward Stephenson who died as a result of the attack made a nuncupative (oral) Will which was proved on 2 October 1792. The will allowed for his wife to keep the estate to raise the children which agrees with Champ that she lingered for a few years before dying. Additionally, in a newspaper account in Frederick County, Virginia, October 1, 1792, Winchester, " a traveler who passed thru this town on Friday informs that the Indians about 5 weeks ago killed a Mr. Stevenson and family not far from Madison Ct. House, Kentucky." There is more than one report on the Stephenson Attack which confirms the time of occurrence. Jackie Couture, Madison County, Kentucky, Court Order Book A, 1787 - 1791, 1996. Micro-filmed copy of Madison County Kentucky Book of Wills, Appraisements, Inventories (Vol. A), p. 44, Townsend Room, Eastern Kentucky University Library, Richmond, Kentucky. Jackie Couture, valued assistance to references at the Eastern Kentucky University Library's Townsend Room, Richmond, Kentucky. 10. Jenny Stevenson married Moses Turpin, 22 April, 1800. Madison County KentuckyMarriage Records Vol. I, 1786 - 1822, Compiled by Bill and Kathy Vockery, 1993. 11. Joseph Scott's survey covered a great portion of the area from William Miller's Paint Lick Station survey stretching to and including the Kirksville Road (Hwy 595 off Hwy 52) intersection. Fred L. Simpson, Back of the Cane, Early Virginia Surveys in Today's Garrard County, Kentucky, 1992 (Plotted Map - Some surveys are on both sides of the present Garrard and Madison County border). (These note are continued in the notes for William's wife, Hannah Daugherty as space has maxed out for notes under William) 13. William Miller left no male heirs, four of five daughters lived to adulthood and married. Other than his settlement at Paint Lick, little is known of him except his marriage to Nancy Yancy, a supposed biography (mostly fiction) penned by Anna Burnside Brown in first person, and William Harris Caperton's account of Estill's Defeat where he says, "It is, however, disgraceful to relate that, at the very onset of the action, Lieut. Miller, of Capt. Estill's party, with six men under his command, ' ingloriously fled' from the field, thereby placing in jeopardy the whole of their comrades, and causing the death of many brave soldiers." It might be said that Caperton lost kin in this battle. Additionally, Richard Collins, History of Kentucky, Vol. II, pp. 634-637, Battle of "Little Mountain, or Estill's Defeat", reports that..."7 were left dead upon the field; 11 came back to Estill's station, and were ever after held in high honor; and 7 returned to dishonor"-- (strange that 7 returned when Miller reports that 2 of his 6 men were killed at the first fire?). David Cook, Estill's Ensign, who was ordered to take Miller's abandoned position, is said to have watched for Miller to come to Richmond for over twenty years, "swearing he would kill him on sight, but Miller prudently kept away." (Richmond did not exist until about 1798, so if Cook looked for Miller for over twenty years it must have included the 16 years from the end of the Defeat up to the founding of Richmond. Perhaps Miller stayed away from the county seat of Milford during the time also). Lancaster Women's Club, Patches of Garrard County 1976 - 1974, 1974. The Register of the Kentucky State Historical Society, October, 1945, Vol. 43 No. 145, Colonel William H. Caperton, Estill's Defeat, pp. 333-335. Although there is no proof of a relationship of Champ to William Miller, it is possible as Champ's mother had been married to a Miller, and the Champ Party's destination, from the beginning, seems to have been Miller's Station. It is also possible that Champ's half-brother Andrew Miller may have already been at Miller's Fort before the arrival of the Champ Party. This recorder suggests that William Miller may have been an uncle to Andrew. 14. Col. Thomas Kennedy is an interesting study separate of this report. As to his estate, only his son, Thomas, Jr. is believed to have squandered his portion of the estate, which was the larger part. It only took him four years to do so as he only survived his father by the same period of time. NOTE: the notes above were not done by me, I take no credit and will give full credit when I learn the researcher.