Nena Here is the archived email on the Murder that you were asking about, all the Smothers-L mail list letters are archived on rootsweb.com. Noah CNIDR Isearch-cgi 1.20.06 (File: 25) ============================================================ Date: Sat, 12 Feb 2000 15:46:54 CST From: "LaVelda Faull" <[email protected]> To: [email protected] Message-ID: <[email protected]> Subject: [SMOTHERS] William Smuthers article Part 1 Content-Type: text/plain; format=flowed This article that I found on the murder of William Smuthers was in the following book: "Kentucky Skaggs Records" by Juanita Skaggs Luttrell. This story was written by Cyrus Edwards who also wrote a history of Barren Co., Kentucky. Perhaps some of you have already heard this story, but it is quite interesting. The story goes on to tell of the murders by Indians ca 1787. An exact date is not given, but it was after 1787. Mr. Edwards then continues to tell the story of what happened to the land afterwards, the lives of some of the participants, and the finding of William Smuthers papers in an old chest many years later by the Skeggs family. It's rather long, so I'll just start with a page or two and then stop till later on tonight as I am at work. p. 56 "THE MURDERS AT FRENCHMANS KNOB An account of the murder of two soldiers of the Revolution, GILBERT LeCLERC and WILLIAM SMUTHERS, in what is now Hart County, Ky. and the strange chain of circumstances resulting therefrom. "Written Feb. 1916 - part - Murder" "In the year 1782 the lands lying on the north side of Green River, at and near the "Big Buffalo Crossing" of same, in what was then Jefferson County, Virginia, were surveyed, and afterwards patented by the Commonwealth of Virginia, as follows: 2,500 acres binding on the river, including the site of the present town of Munfordville, to ROBERT VAUGHN, 31,000 (1) acres, lying westward of the Vaughn survey, to WILLIAM POLLARD. A corner to the Vaughn survey and to Pollards 31,000 acres. (1) the original field notes of this 31,000 acre tract, with references to Robert Vaughn 2,500 acres and William Pollard's 19,000 acres, with a rough map of same, are in the possession of Mr. Roy Cann, at Munfordville, Ky. This land came to William Pollards through "16 warrants #18129, #18121, #18123, #16110, #18120, #18127, #138125, #16109, #16120, #16115, #16123, #16116, #16112, #16112, #1813_, #18133 & #18135. Boundaries are given corresponding to other records. This tract is no doubt recorded at Frankfort, Ky. the paper is dated March 16, 1784, and is signed Phillip Phillips, Agt. Geor. May S. J.C. - the 31,000 acres tract is also described in Record Book A, page 150 at Hardin County Court House, Elizabethtown, KY, when William Pollard of Philadelphia, Penn. became bankrupt and the land was sold to JAMES STEEL on Sept. 10, 1791. This record sets forth that the land was acquired by "letters Patent" underhand of Patrick Henry, Governor of Virginia, and fully describes the land as given in the surveyors field notes of earlier date. Another record is the surveyors report, filed in a lawsuit the Pollard's Heirs in Hart Co., Court June 27, 1857, giving boundaries, and of the 19,000 acre tract the commissioner's report" we find the survey to be 19,896.57329+ acres". This last paper is also in possession of Mr. Cann. F. E. G. - "a walnut, a hickory, and a white oak (2) stand in the road which now leads from Munfordville into the Logsdon Valley, about a hundred yards or so westward of the old Mt. Olivet Church, and about 100 to 120 feet southwestward of the large gateway to the lands of the late J.T.S. Brown. The hickory has disappeared long ago, and only a little of the stump of the white oak was visible thirty years ago, and the walnut was standing and alive the last time I was along that road five or six years ago, and I presume it is yet standing. The tree is hollow, having only a thin outside shell, and as I now remember was not much over twenty inches in diameter. The small size of the tree, considering its known age, is accounted for by the fact that several other trees stood close around it for most of its life time, and the road as I now remember it ran on both sides of it, (3) The identify of this walnut tree as being one of the original corner trees is unquestioned, and has been attested to in depositions taken at different times by nearly all of the old time surveyors of Hart County and this section of country for over 120 years including Dudley Roundtree, R. S. Thompson, W. B. Thompson and james L. Hardy. I have known this tree for nearly 40 years, and I have seen the book in which the original field notes were written on the ground at the time, showing that the tree was marked on the 5th day of Sept 1782." "A year or two previous to this date a few settlers had built the cabins on Nolin, and Phillips Station and was built for their protection, on the north side of the creek just above Hodgenville. From this base bold settlers ventured out until the year 1787 a thin fringe of cabins extended along Bacon Creek, and the overflow from the Rolling Fork camp settlement had the Upper Green River and as far down as Nolin Camp. These first cabins were generally two, and sometimes three, close together, each man building on his own land, for protection, and then probably a mile or two of woods between this and the next settlement of the same sort. This was then the extreme frontier of civilization, fronting southward, between the Cumberland Mountains and the Mississippi River, but preparations were already made to extend the line to Green River, from the mouth of Lynn camp down the "Big Buffalo Crossing", the following Spring. The Country between Bacon Creek and the river was not considered safe from Indians. They still ranged as far north as the river, but none except friendly parties for purpose of trade had crossed the river, during the year 1787." "In Dec. of this year a small party of land hunters came down from the Lexington settlement to look out head right claims or to buy land already taken up. Most of them laid out claims and made improvements south of the river (the improvements generally consisted of 4 small log notched together to form a foundation of small cabins); but two of the party, having some money and thinking the location very promising and knowing the price asked for the land, concluding to purchased a part of the Vaughn survey above mentioned, and they buried some grapevine cutting and apple and peach seeds, which they had brought with them, on top of the bluff above the big spring and not farm from the house where John Hubbard now resides. They then returned to Lexington and bought 200 acres of land each from Robert Vaughn at one dollar and fifty cents per acre and took a title bond for same - each one paying half the purchase price in cash and giving notes for the balance due in one, two, and three years equal installments, without interest. One of these young men, GILBERT LECLERC, had served in the French Army under General Rochambeau in American during the Revolution. He was charmed with the new country and its opportunities and, after discharged in France, he returned to his native village and married his old sweetheart who had waited for him, and they started with high hopes and brave hearts to find a home in the new land of liberty. The other was WILLIAM SMUTHERS, a native of Maryland, who had served in the Maryland Line during the Revolution, and became acquainted with LERCLERC at the seige of Yorktown. They came west together and, on reaching Lexington, LECLERC left his wife in good hands until he returned and he and SMUTHERS joined the party of land hunters above mentioned." To be continued....... LaVelda ______________________________________________________ Get Your Private, Free Email at http://www.hotmail.com ______________________________ - ----------------------------