A History of the Daniel Boone National Forest 1770 - 1970

Judge Henderson regarded his responsibilities as chief proprietor and leader of the new colony seriously. He realized that he must act promptly and objectively if he were to hold the people already there together, and if he were to gain the respect of the other settlements and bring them in as a part of the Transylvania Colony. He had already taken care of the immediate need for land distribution and he had provided for the safety and welfare of the people in the months ahead by organizing to insure food supply and initiating construction of the fort for their protection. He must now establish the rights of the Transylvania Company, and he proceeded forthwith to lay the foundation for this action. As pointed out in the previous chapter, Judge Henderson had formulated a plan of government by popular representation for the Transylvania Company's wilderness domain. On May 8, 1775, as chief proprietor of this colony he had issued, in behalf of the proprietors, an order for an election of members of the house of delegates of the colony of Transylvania to meet on the 23rd of that month at Boonesborough.

The elections ordered were duly held at the four little settlements south of the Kentucky River. On Tuesday, May 23, 1775, the chosen representatives of the Transylvania Colony, rifles in hand, rode up to the log quarters of the chief proprietor, Judge Henderson, and reported for service. While a few of the absolutely necessary cabins and blockhouses had been constructed, the fort was still incomplete and so encumbered with the debris and disorderliness of construction that it was not a suitable place to hold such a convention. As an alternate, the site of this convention was chosen to be the huge elm in the hollow adjacent to the fort. Here the delegates assembled on the next day, May 24, 1775, under the spreading dome of the great elm, as reported by an eye-witness, "Which overshadowed what was called a heavenly green of fine white clover. Here was attempted for the first time in the vast region west of the Alleghenies the founding of an independent state based on the axiom that all power is originally in the people." It was to be a proprietory government built largely on the lines of a republic. A House of Delegates for the Colony was then organized and was formally opened by Judge Henderson in behalf of the proprietors in a carefully written and statesman-like speech.

For accuracy let us quote directly from the journal of the proceedings of the house of delegates or representatives of the Colony of Transylvania: "The proprietors of said colony having called and required an election of delegates or representatives to be made for the purpose of legislation, or making and ordaining laws and regulations for the future conduct of the inhabitants thereof, that is to say, for the town of Boonesborough six members, for Harrodsburg three, for the Boiling Springs settlement four, for the town of St. Asaph — four, and appointed their meeting for the purpose aforesaid, on the aforesaid 23rd of May, Anno Domini 1775: . . ."

"It being certified to us here this day, by the secretary, that the following persons were returned as duly elected for the several town and settlements, to wit:

"For Boonesborough there was Squire Boone, Daniel Boone, William Cocke, Samuel Henderson, William Moore and Richard Callaway; for Boiling Springs, James Harrod, Nathan Hammond, Isaac Hite and Azarrih Davis; for Harrodsburg, Thomas Slaughter, John Lythe, Valentine Harmon and James Douglass, and for St. Asaph, John Todd, Alexander Spotswood Dandridge, John Floyd and Samuel Wood."

As a part of their organization, the House unanimously chose Colonel Thomas Slaughter as chairman and Matthew Jouett as clerk. After the divine service was performed by Rev. John Lythe, the House initiated the business for which they had assembled.

As the first order of business, Colonel Richard Henderson, speaking in behalf of himself and the rest of the proprietors of the colony, opened the convention with a speech in which he asserted the independence of the new colony in the declaration, "We have the right to make laws for the regulation of our conduct without giving offense to Great Britain or any of the American colonies."

The convention directed a committee appointed from their group to prepare a reply to the opening address of Judge Henderson. On May 25, 1775, this reply was presented in which the members of the convention stated, "That we have an absolute right, as a political body, without giving umbrage to Great Britain, or to any of the colonies, to frame rules for the government of our little society, can not be doubted by any sensible, unbiased mind . . . and being without jurisdiction of, and not answerable to any of His Majesty's courts, the constituting tribunals of justice shall be a matter of our first contemplation; and as this will be a matter of the greatest importance, we will still keep in the genius and spirit of the English laws, which happy pattern it shall be our chief care to copy after."

The convention continued with all of the dignity, regularity, and ability that was to be found in the Colonial legislatures of that day.

At the end of the convention, it had passed nine bills which were essentially as follows: an act for establishing courts of jurisdiction, and regulating the practice therein; an act for regulating the militia; an act for the punishment of criminals; an act to prevent profane swearing, and Sabbath breaking; an act for writ of attachment; an act for ascertaining clerks' and sheriffs' fees; an act to preserve the range; an act for improving the breed of horses and an act for preserving game.

At the close, the convention adjourned until the first Thursday in September next then to meet at Boonesborough. Unfortunately, this first convention of the Transylvania Colony in Kentucky, which adjourned on May 27, 1775, with the order to meet again on the first Thursday in September of that year at Boonesborough, was destined to be the last convention of the Transylvania Colony. The outbreak of the Revolutionary War on the eastern seaboard and other developments in Virginia served to alter this plan materially.

On Saturday, May 27, 1775, on the final day of the Transylvania Colony's convention, a striking incident was enacted which was the formal and public observance before the assembly of the ancient feudal ceremony, Livery of Seisin. This was the final act in the transfer of the immense portion of the territory sold by the Cherokees to Judge Henderson and his company. This scene is described best by George W. Ranck in his Filson Club publication, Boonesborough, in which he says, "Standing under the great elm, the attorney employed by the Indians, John Farrow, handed to Judge Henderson a piece of the luxuriant turf cut from the soil that extended beneath them and, while they both held it, Farrow declared his delivery of Seisin and possession of the land, according to the terms of the title deed which Henderson displayed, and the immediate reading of which completed a legal requirement now long since obsolete and almost forgotten." The session closed with the execution of its most important feature, the signing of a compact between the proprietors and the people, which, crude as it is, takes historical precedent as the constitution of the first representative government ever attempted in America west of the Allegheny Mountains.

Although the House of Delegates adjourned on Saturday, the met once more as a group before they dispersed on Sunday, May 28, 1775. On this day the entire settlement assembled under the grand old elm where divine services for the first time were performed in Kentucky by Reverend John Lythe of the Church of England, a minister from Virginia and a member of the delegation from Harrodsburg. Ranck tells, "It was a religious event absolutely unique. Most of the usual accessories of the service were wanting, from echoing church bell and long drawn aisle to pealing organ. No woman was there to join in Littany or hymn, no child to lisp Amen. Only men were present — Dissenters as well as Episcopalians — for common dangers had drawn them together, and this one chance for public worship was eagerly seized by pioneers who were as strong in simple faith as stout in heart, for there were others in the Colony of Transylvania besides the reckless few among the woodsmen from Powells Valley. And so, cut off from the whole civilized world, the forerunners of a mighty west of many states knelt together in the sweet white clover, under that magnificent tree, the sole cathedral in a wilderness as vast and solitary as the illimitable ocean. This was the first and the last time that prayers were ever publicly recited on Kentucky soil for the King and royal family of England."

Less than a week after this impressive ceremony, the news of the Battle of Lexington arrived in Boonesborough. It threw the Kentucky settlement into a fever of excitement. The minister and the people not only sided at once with the rebels but the pastor, like some he had preached to under the elm, ultimately sealed his devotion to liberty with his blood. These same residents of Transylvania would have been even more excited had they known that Governor Martin of North Carolina, who had proclaimed them outlaws, had abandoned his palace while their legislature was still in session, and also that while they were responding to the slogan of the revolution, Lord Dunmore, Governor of Virginia, also was preparing to fly to the refuge of a vessel of the British fleet.

Early in the month of June, 1775, while the American colonists were preparing for the assault on Bunker Hill, all appeared quiet in the Kentucky wilderness. Daniel Boone again prevailed on the men to complete the three small cabins in the hollow, known as Fort Boone, and this time he was successful. The cabins were easily finished and were used primarily for residence until they were burned during the siege of Boonesborough in July, 1777.

About this time word was received at Boonesborough of the efforts of Lord Dunmore to inflame the Indians against the settlements in Kentucky with the motive of eliminating them. This news served to motivate again the residents of Boonesborough to complete the fort. This effort was almost, but not quite, successful, as the fort was nearly completed except for the gates and some of the connecting stockades. Before these final touches could be given to complete the fort, the lack of evidence of Indians in the country caused the workers to cease their labors and to repair their own property for clearing and planting.

With the main fort nearly finished, Daniel Boone set out on June 13, 1775, to return to the settlements for the purpose of bringing his family to Boonesborough. He was accompanied along the way by Richard Callaway who was returning to the settlement for the same purpose, and by Thomas Hart. Also with Daniel Boone was a detail of men from Boonesborough whose mission it was to bring back the salt which had been left at Martin's Station by Henderson when the wagons were abandoned there on the initial trip. When this group left Boonesborough, it was on the eve of a salt famine, which was in full force by the middle of the following month. This salt famine resulted in the increasing of the scarcity of provisions because of the extreme difficulty of preserving wild meat, particularly that of big game animals, which now had to be brought in from quite a distance. This, combined with the hot weather, tended to limit the amount of meat that should be killed at any one time. This salt detail, after securing the salt, waited in Powells Valley to accompany Boone back to Boonesborough on the return trip. The delay of the salt caused increasing hardship at the settlement. Judge Henderson wrote on July 18, 1775, "Our salt is exhausted, and the men who went with Colonel Boone for that article have not returned, and until he comes the devil could not drive the others this way." This is another testimonial of the respect which the men of Boonesborough had for the leadership and integrity of Daniel Boone.

As the effect of the lack of salt at Boonesborough became increasingly acute, the distressed settlers made every attempt to make salt from the sulphur spring in the hollow below the fort. The results were too small to encourage any repetition of this experiment.

Others at Fort Boonesborough were also awaiting anxiously for the return of Daniel Boone. Judge Henderson and Mr. Luttrell were both anxious to visit North Carolina, for pressing business demanded their presence; but they delayed their start until they were assured that Daniel Boone was well on his way on the return trip and would soon be back in Boonesborough. The records indicate that they left Boonesborough for North Carolina sometime during the latter part of August. When Judge Henderson left Boonesborough, he little dreamed that his absence from this settlement would be one of years rather than weeks or months. By the same token, Mr. Luttrell could not have known or even guessed that he would never see Boonesborough again. As a sidelight, Mr. Luttrell eventually became engaged in the Revolution, for he was active against the Tories and met his death at their hands. He was shot through the body at the Battle of Cane Creek, North Carolina on September 14, 1781, in an engagement with the notorious David Fanning, the Tory partisan leader, and died the following day. Colonel Luttrell was a native of Westmoreland County, Virginia, and he left a widow but no children.

When Boone passed through Powells Valley with his family (Boone had eight children not including James — killed at Wallen's Gap in 1773) on the return trip to Boonesborough, he was joined by the salt detail as well as by quite a number of immigrants, which included several families from North Caroline. Among these was that of the reckless Hugh McGary, bound for Harrod's Station, who was to become notorious in Kentucky history as the instigator of the charge at the Battle of Blue Licks in 1782, which resulted in the unnecessary death of a great many prominent Kentuckians. When the Boone party reached the location known as the Hazel Patch in what is now Laurel County, Kentucky in the heart of the Daniel Boone National Forest, the McGary family and others bound for Harrod's Station left the party.

After their departure, Boone's party still contained about 30 persons, who with their cattle, dogs and the packhorses loaded the the precious salt and provisions, as well as the household traps of the new families, still comprised a sizeable cavalcade. When this group arrived at Boonesborough on September 8, 1775, the fort turned out enmasse to welcome it. Daniel Boone's family, which included his wife and grown daughter Jemima, was the only family in the party. These two were not only the first white women to set foot upon the banks of the picturesque Kentucky River, but they remained for nearly three weeks the only women in the settlement. Initially the Boones' occupied one of the original cabins in the hollow, but soon exchanged it for more commodious quarters in the big fort. It is said that the influence of sun bonnets, there were but a solitary two present, were soon evidenced about the settlement. The men, particularly the younger ones, presented an immediately improved appearance as a result of sudden craze for shaving and hair cutting. The accouterments of frontier living, such as an ashhopper, a soap kettle and a clothes line, were soon set up while hickory brooms and homemade wash boards were much in evidence. The sound of the spinning wheel was heard in this land for the first time, and the appearance of a small mirror, a patchwork quilt, knitting needles and a turkey tail fan were new evidence of the presence of women on the Kentucky frontier.

This was a somewhat lonely time for the two women of the Boone family who were cut off completely from companionship of females of their own race. However, to the relief of both Mrs. Boone and Miss Jemima, on September 26, Colonel Callaway returned with his family and the party which included William Pogue and Barney Stagner with their families. This added three matrons and several younger women to the social life on the community of Boonesborough. William Pogue was a make of piggins and noggins, as well as washtubs and churns. Now that provisions were more plentiful and there was salt to preserve the game and the first fruits of the plantings were beginning to be harvested in the gardens of Boonesborough, times were better and the inhabitants happier.