4-5 MILES UPRIVER FROM MANCHESTER,OH,BUT ON KY BANK. Have long read DR TALLEY'S articles. LEWIS CO KY genealogy and history owns much to him. I startd reading his articles in KY ANCESTORS' quarterly 20+ years ago By chance,the names and locations I associate with GRAHAM'S STATION differ a bit. And a KENTON'S STATION in the location he mentions,is new to me,but predicted. From: William Talley <watalley@kih.net> To: hermfagley@juno.com Date: Fri, 25 Jun 1999 12:00:59 -0400 Subject: Graham's Station & Quick's Run Message-ID: <l03110700b39957063115@[209.209.169.41]> Return-path: <watalley@kih.net> Rontent-Type: text/plain FOLLOWING IS AN ARTICLE I WROTE AND PUBLISHED LAST YEAR RELATIVE TO GRAHAM'S STATION AND QUICK'S RUN: BICENTENNIAL HISTORY GRAHAM'S STATION: AN OLD FORT IN KENNEDY'S BOTTOM by William M. Talley Vanceburg, Ky., & Montreal, Qc. During the 1790s, when thousands of settlers destined for the Kentucky settlements were coming down the Ohio River on flatboats, Indian activity increased all along the river and attacks on the boats and their passengers were frequent and devastating. The section of the river between the mouth of the Big Sandy River and Limestone (now Maysville) was carefully patrolled by about a dozen spies who kept a lookout for signs of Indians, and when there appeared to be trouble-in-the-making, they would warn the settlers. These men, sometimes known as Simon Kenton's men, were selected and trained; the order employing them was dated March 31, 1792. Their names were: Mercer Beason, Archibald Bennett, William Bennett, Henry Cochran, Samuel Davis, John Dowden, John Dyal (Doyal), Matthew Hart, James Ireland, Ellis Palmer, Isaac Pennington, and Cornelius (Neal) Washburn. In addition, several blockhouses or forts were built along the river as additional protection for those who felt that attacks were imminent. One of these blockhouses was located in what was once known as Kennedy's Bottom, and sometime later Stout's Bottom, and in later years known more commonly as Carrs, in what was then Mason County, now Lewis County. It was called Graham's Station and was named for Col. Richard Graham, a Revolutionary War officer, of Dumfries, Virginia, who was granted thousands of acres of land in the general area of Quick's Run and Carrs for his services in the war. Actually, it was probably Graham who erected the blockhouse for protection of those persons who were settling on some of his lands, although there is a mention of Capt. Kennedy's cabin in this vicinity as early as 1782. Its location has been argued from time to time, but Capt. John G. McDowell, in his interview with Dr. Shane, stated that Graham's Station was two miles above the mouth of Ohio Brush Creek on the Kentucky side, and about 20 miles above Limestone (Maysville). As Dugan points out in his history (1940), some have speculated that this blockhouse was at the mouth of Quick's Run, but that cannot be correct in view of what Jacob Stricklett, John Doyal, and John G. McDowell, former inhabitants, said of its location. At one time, the county commissioners recommended that the county seat be located near the mouth of Quick's Run and that it be called Baldwinsville. This, perhaps, is the source of the error. Additionally, one of the inhabitants of the blockhouse was a Mr. Quick and thus the association between Mr. Quick and Quick's Run made it seem logical that that is where the blockhouse would be. Dugan (1940) states that Jacob Stricklett, an Indian fighter who served with "Mad Anthony" Wayne at the Battle of Fallen Timbers, was quartered at one time in this blockhouse and before his death he pointed out its location to his family. He identified the site as being on the shore of the Ohio River on land lately owned by the Bierley family, but in later years has been sold to Kentucky Power Co. We have concluded that the exact spot of the fort cannot be determined without scientific exploration but that (1) it was opposite the mouth of Ohio Brush Creek , (2) near the upper end of Brush Creek Island, (3) on a riverbank location once known as the Jennings farm. Some researchers have confused Graham's Station with Kenton's Station, which was about 5 miles further down the river on the Highfield place, above the old Dunbar farm, and within a short distance of the Three Islands. There was a great deal of traffic between these two stations and Lee's Station located below Maysville. Stricklett stated that the Stout, Cox, and Stalcup families found shelter in this blockhouse when he was there. In 1798, he married Martha Cox, a widow, whose husband had been killed by the Indians. Most of these people had come from Pennsylvania. Stricklett also said that inhabitants of Graham's Station would slip from the blockhouse or fort at opportune times to clear ground and plant crops. On one occasion, while the men were at work clearing land, a canoe full of Indians slipped across the river, intent on raiding the settlement. They almost got into the gates before they were noticed. There was quite a commotion among the younger women, but one old grandmother who had been through such situations in Pennsylvania, grabbed a musket and shot the first Indian coming through the gate. The others then succeeded in closing the gate, while the grandmother beat an alarm on a big drum, to give a warning sound to the men. By the time the men returned the Indians were half way back across the river. In a letter from Col. Robert Rankins to Col. Thomas Lewis, dated Apr. 3, 1790, he states that "ten men were killed and seven more, one woman and five children, taken prisoners about six week's ago in Kennedy's Bottom, on the Ohio, 20 miles above Limestone (Maysville) where they were engaged in erecting a new settlement". This incident in late February or early March, indicates the approximate date of the initial building of the fort. The above encounter may have been the one in which two children, John and Obadiah Stout, sons of Obadiah Stout, were tomahawked and killed near the station. Capt. John Doyle, another one of the Indian spies, also gave his deposition to Dr. Shane. He says he left Graham's Station in June, 1792 and went with Ellis Palmer up river as far as the mouth of the Scioto, where they encountered numerous Indians. He mentions several other forays during his stay at the station. (Doyle says emphatically in his interview that Graham's Station was the same as Kennedy's Bottom.) Apparently, from the descriptions given by former residents in the fort, there was a blockhouse and some kind of stockade, with several cabins of settlers at certain distances. For example, the spies speak of staying in the fort, but others, like Mr. Quick had made his settlement (cabin) at the end of a run just above Kennedy's Bottom. Doyle relates this story: "One morning his (Quick's) wife went out to bring in a little something to put in the fire to get breakfast and Blackfoot (Blackfish) stepped up, and said, 'Howdy do?' He didn't offer to trouble her, and she went into the house, and told them the Indians were out of doors. They flew to their guns, and were going to make a defense. But Blackfoot, who had come up, told them they might as well surrender, for that they were too many for them, and that he could shoot them through the cracks. (Whenever they would have peeped out to get a shot, the Indians from behind the trees all around would have shot them.) Quick concluded to do so, and opened the door. Blackfoot came in and shook hands with them all around. After they had been there about three hours, Kennedy brought a black man, and came to see Quick. When the Indians saw him coming, they slipped out and surrounded them. Blackfoot told Kennedy he must go with them. Kennedy said he'd be damned if he should. Blackfoot told him he might as well go along peaceably, and they wouldn't hurt him. Kennedy then told the Negro to go home and tell his mistress what had happened. But he must go along too, Blackfoot insisted. Kennedy said he be damned if he should. Blackfoot said he wanted him, too. Kennedy then drew his sword and aimed to strike Blackfoot, when one of Blackfoot's men shot him dead. Blackfoot asked Quick if he had any horses. He said, two. They were out in the meadow. He told him to go out and get them; he could catch them better than they could, and if he ran off they would kill his wife and children; if he came back, they would treat him well. Quick went and caught his horses, and they then put his wife and children across the river in a pirogue, and swam the horses. I saw him afterwards. He came back on a visit. Said it was the best swap he ever made in his life. The British gave him a good piece of land, a fine farm [in Ontario, Canada]." Capt. John G. McDowell, who was an Indian spy (but not a member of the Simon Kenton group), said that his father, Joseph McDowell, moved to the station in 1794. His description of Graham's Station and the Indian activities directly across the river in Ohio at a deer lick give the impression that the station was an important place and that well-known people stopped there. He says that when Gen. Alexander Orr, of Mason County, was on his way to the U. S. Congress in 1794, that the boat on which he was travelling stopped to pick up mail, which it did regularly on a weekly basis. Four spies generally stayed at Graham's Station and two of them took it week about to go out and patrol around the station. Another inhabitant of the blockhouse was George Calvin (Colvin), who gave aid to the settlers against any band of lurking Indians. He once related how he killed an Indian who was attempting to entrap some of the settlers by walking through the hills carrying a small bell, giving the impression it was a lost horse or cow. There is very little further information on Graham's Station. It probably ceased to be a major fortification after the Indian threat subsided in the mid-1790s. It appears that many of the original inhabitatnts of this station settled on Martin's Fork of Quick's Run or at other points along the stream. The old route that was traveled heavily by the early settlers going to Quick's Run started near Ky. 8 in the lower end of Kennedy's Bottom and ran up over the hill by way of Fairmount Church and then down Martin's Fork into Quick's Run. It should be noted that both Kenton's Fort and Graham's Station were placed near treacherous islands, Brush Creek Island and the famous Three Islands. Settlers and travellers found it hazardous to navigate these narrow channels with the ever-present danger of attacks from Indians. As a concluding note, it is important to point out that Kennedy's Bottom seems to have become a general ( or generic) term among the early settlers to refer to almost all of the bottom land between the bottoms just below Salt Lick Creek through present-day Carrs to the bottom land just east of the "Concord Island". More specifically, it referred primarily to that section of bottom land currently known as Carrs. Somewhere in this vast stretch of bottom land lie the ashes of its namesake, Capt. Kennedy, who played such an important role in steering early settlers from Pittsburgh to this area, and was rewarded by being shot to death by one of Chief Blackfoot's warriors. REFERENCES: History of Lewis County, by W. C. Dugan (1940); Draper Mss., Dr. Shane's Interview with Capt. John G. McDowell; Draper Mss., Dr. Shane's Interview with Capt. John Doyal; History of Maysville and Mason County, by G. Clift (1936); Collins' History of Kentucky, Vol. 2, page 553; personal correspondence between W. A. (Gus) Doyle and W. C. Dugan; Salt Lick Creek and Its Salt Works, by W. M. Talley (1966), in The Register, Vol. 62, No. 2, pp.85-109. ___________________________________________________________________ Get the Internet just the way you want it. Free software, free e-mail, and free Internet access for a month! Try Juno Web: http://dl.www.juno.com/dynoget/tagj.