A History of the Daniel Boone National Forest 1770 - 1970

Daniel Boone had barely had time to get rested from the exhaustion of the Great Siege of Fort Boonesborough when he had a summons served on him to appear before a court martial. Here, Colonel Callaway and Captain Ben Logan charged him with treason, of attempts to aid the British, of surrendering the saltmakers, of undertaking the expedition from Fort Boonesborough into the Indian country just prior to the Great Siege, and in favoring the attacking force in the peace negotiations at Fort Boonesborough.

Captain Boone appeared before the court martial and proved, to the entire satisfaction of the court, that all of the acts mentioned were patriotic and in the interest of the settlement. He proved that his conduct at both the salt camp and at the treaty conference were deceptions and strategy necessitated by the emergencies of war and practiced entirely for the advantage of the settlers and in defense of the fort. After due deliberation by the court martial, he was not only completely exonerated of the charges, but his conduct was endorsed by the court and he was promoted to the rank of Major in the Virginia Militia. A competent authority, who thoroughly investigated these charges and the ensuing court martial, attributes the charges to unfounded prejudices.

Immediately following his exoneration by the court martial, Daniel Boone left Fort Boonesborough for North Carolina in early October to visit his family and prepare for their return to Kentucky. He did not return to Kentucky to stay until the second summer after the Great Siege at Fort Boonesborough.

The act of the first session of the Virginia legislature, passed on December 7, 1776, created the County of Kentucky out of all of the territory west of the mountains, including the Transylvania Company's purchase from the Cherokees. It implied that the government of Virginia did not honor Judge Henderson's claim; that this act had been prefaced by the resolution of the Virginia convention, adopted June 24, 1776, against purchases of land from the Indians without authority from the State; and by their act of July 3, 1776, appointing commissioners to examine into such a legal purchase, which indicated that the matter had been thoroughly considered.

On November 4, 1778, the Virginia House of Delegates passed a resolution which stated, "Resolved, That all purchases of lands, made or to be made, of the Indians, within the chartered bounds of this commonwealth, as described by the constitution or form of government, by any private persons not authorized by public authority, are void."

The same resolution continued, "Resolved, That the purchase heretofore made by Richard Henderson and Company, of that tract of land called Transylvania, within this commonwealth, of the Cherokee Indians, is void; . . . . ."

See appendix E for the full text of this resolution.

In recognition of the expense and effort put forth by Richard Henderson and Company in establishing a settlement at Boonesborough, this same legislature granted to Richard Henderson and Company and their heirs a tract of land on the Ohio River running 12-1/2 miles either side of the mouth of the Green River and 12 miles deep. Part of this tract is the site of the city of Henderson, Kentucky, today.

All things considered, it was generally conceded that the year 1778 was the hardest year Fort Boonesborough had experienced since its establishment.

In February of 1779, word arrived that George Rogers Clark had captured the British post at Vincennes and, with it, Governor Hamilton. This success of American arms inspired immigration from east of the mountains, and before the spring of that year was over, settlers had again planted themselves once more on the north side of the Kentucky River. Blockhouses and stockaded cabins had risen between Fort Boonesborough and the Indian country beyond the Ohio. The founders of Bryan's Station, the company under John Grant who settled Grant's Station, and the groups who settled Strode's, Martin's and Ruddie's all came by way of Fort Boonesborough. About this time, Squire Boone, who by now had recovered from the wound received at the siege of Fort Boonesborough, set out with a small company and established his own station on Clear Creek near the present town of Shelbyville, Kentucky. On April 1, 1779, a small company, headed by a man named Robert Patterson, came by the way of Harrodsburg and established a blockhouse on a site which later became the city of Lexington, Kentucky. In the summer of 1779, culture also came to the wilderness. A young teacher from Stafford County, Virginia, by the name of Joseph Doniphan, conducted a school in one of the log cabins in Fort Boonesborough. This is believed to be the first school to be established in Kentucky. It is reported that this school had an average of 17 pupils during the summer of 1779.

With the main force of the Indian attacks on Kentucky appearing to be slacking off, immigrants began pouring into Kentucky over the Boone Trace in the spring of 1779. Fort Boonesborough, at the end of the Boone Trace, became the busiest post in the Kentucky backcountry. The old fort soon became overcrowded and too small, and the inhabitants of Fort Boonesborough petitioned the Virginia Assembly to incorporate the town of Boonesborough and to authorize a ferry across the Kentucky River.

In response to this petition, the Virginia Assembly passed an act in October 1779, which established the town of Boonesborough, in the County of Kentucky, as a result of which a number of trustees were appointed for the town, including Richard Callaway and Daniel Boone. However, in view of the coldness which had developed between Daniel Boone and Richard Callaway as a result of the court martial immediately following the great siege, Daniel Boone declined to serve as a trustee of the new town of Boonesborough.

During this period, the fort itself remained unchanged, but more and more cabins were being constructed outside the fort to accommodate the great numbers of people coming into Boonesborough over the Boone Trace.

Early Claims & Settlements, 1763-79 (click on image for a PDF version)

With the collapse of the Transylvania Company and the establishment of the area formerly held by that company as a part of Kentucky County, Virginia, great confusion existed as to the validity of land claims. In an attempt to settle this vexing situation, the government of Virginia sent out a special land commission, headed by Colonel Flemming of Virginia, for the purpose of hearing all claims and of determining which were valid. This commission had authority to issue certificates for 400 acres where settlers' right of occupation was established, and of awarding a preemption right to 1,000 acres of land adjoining each claim. In return, the settlers awarded titles were to pay the Commonwealth of Virginia 10 shillings for each 100 acres, plus 10 shillings to the clerk for validating the claim and issuing a certificate.

Needless to say, all landholders or those professing to own land in Kentucky were vitally interested in the operations of this commission. The commission began hearings in Kentucky on October 13, 1779, and continued thereafter, moving from one fort to another and awarding land to settlers who appeared before them and offered sufficient evidence as to the validity of their claim. This commission held several sittings at Boonesborough, during which Daniel Boone established what then appeared to be a good claim to 1,400 acres for himself, another 1,400 acres for Israel Boone, and 1,000 acres for George Boone. In addition, Daniel Boone appeared in behalf of six other settlers. In all, this special land commission issued certificates for 3,200 claims in Kentucky. At the conclusion of their work, it appeared as though the question of land titles in Kentucky had been settled at last. How little did they or anyone else know that this question of land titles would continue on down to the present day.

As a result of the activities of the Virginia Land Commission in establishing true and valid land titles, a great many immigrants from Virginia and North Carolina came to Boonesborough over the Boone Trace in the hope of securing tracts of fertile land in Kentucky at reasonable rates. One of these groups which came to Kentucky in the fall of 1779 was a company of approximately 40 mounted men and many packhorses, and headed by Colonel Richard Callaway who had served as a representative of Kentucky County in the General Assembly of Virginia that year. His arrival also brought forth the information that, as a result of the petition to the Virginia legislature to grant a franchise for a ferry across the Kentucky River at Boonesborough, this franchise had been granted to Colonel Richard Callaway and that the toll was set at three shillings for each man or horse.

The fort at Boonesborough was again experiencing a critical situation as to the supply of gunpowder. Colonel Callaway, on his return from Virginia, had brought in a good supply of lead and gun flints for the garrison, but because the supply of gunpowder in Virginia was critical at that time due to the Revolutionary War, he was able to bring only a small quantity of that important commodity. By early spring of 1780, the supply of gunpowder at Fort Boonesborough was nearly exhausted and the situation was highly critical. However, relief was experienced when Uncle Monk, an intelligent Negro slave who lived at Estill Station only a few miles away, came over to Boonesborough to visit his wife whose owner lived at that point. While there, Uncle Monk volunteered to make a supply of gunpowder which, to the amazement and relief of all, he accomplished. Needless to say, he was highly regarded and favored for this accomplishment. He explained that he had learned how to make gunpowder when he was living at an exposed settlement in the valley of Virginia. As his fame spread, he was called upon several times after this at the various stations in Kentucky to make gunpowder for them.

Because of a particularly favorable season, an unusually good corn crop was produced at Boonesborough in the fall of 1779, which not only provided ample corn for the needs of that settlement that winter, but also returned a good profit to those farmers who had raised it. It was as a result of this available corn that Judge Richard Henderson, the first proprietor of the Colony of Transylvania, returned to Boonesborough. In the spring of 1780, the colony which Judge Henderson had succeeded in establishing at French Lick, on the site of what today is the city of Nashville, Tennessee, experienced an acute shortage of corn. Colonel Henderson had come to Boonesborough to procure corn and while his stay there lasted but five days, he saw enough of the increased settlement and expansion to the town of Boonesborough to feel that his early estimates of the desirability of this part of Kentucky as the site for a future colony were thoroughly justified.

While Judge Henderson was able to procure the corn which he desired, because of the shortage of corn in most locations across the frontier and the devaluation of the continental currency, he was required to pay $200 per bushel for the corn which he secured. This corn was shipped to the present site of Nashville in large canoes or boats which travelled down the Kentucky River and the Ohio, and back up the Cumberland River to French Lick Station. This visit of Judge Henderson was the last he ever made to the famous Fort Boonesborough, which he was the prime mover in establishing.

In the spring of 1780, Colonel Richard Callaway was making plans to put into effect the franchise which he had received to establish and operate a ferry across the Kentucky River at Boonesborough. Early in March, he began making preparations. for this establishment; and on March 8, he, Pemberton Rawlings, and three Negro slaves were engaged in building a ferryboat on Canoe Ridge about a mile above Boonesborough. Shortly after, one of the Negro slaves ran to Boonesborough, breathless and excited, with the news that without warning a volley of rifle shots had rung out and that the ferry builders had been attacked by Indians. Immediately Captain John Holder, then in command of the fort, with a hastily assembled party of riflemen, galloped to the scene in hope of saving Colonel Callaway and his people and of apprehending the Indians. On arrival there, however, they found that Colonel Callaway had been killed instantly, scalped and robbed of his clothing. Rawlings had been shot, tomahawked in the back of the neck, and scalped. Although terribly wounded, he still lived. The remaining two Negro slaves had been taken off as prisoners by the Indians and were never heard of again. Colonel Callaway's faithful assistant, Rawlings, died of his wounds that night; and the next day Colonel Richard Callaway and Pemberton Rawlings were buried in a single grave back of the fort that they had helped to defend, and overlooking the beautiful Kentucky River, which they had hoped to bridge with their ferry.

Colonel Callaway's hair was outstanding on the frontier, both for its length and its peculiar shade of gray. When this scalp was brought back to the Indian town across the Ohio and stretched on a willow hoop for drying, it was recognized with horror by Joseph Jackson, who had been with the unfortunate party of salt makers at Blue Lick prior to the great siege, and who was still a captive of the Indians.

About the middle of May 1780, two prisoners escaped from the Wyandotte. Abraham Chaplain and another by the name of Henricks appeared at Boonesborough and reported that Indians and Canadians in unusual force were planning to attack Boonesborough in about four weeks, and were bringing cannons to destroy the stockade. Needless to say, this news brought great apprehension not only to Boonesborough but to the Kentucky frontier, and a letter was dispatched immediately to Virginia requesting militia to help repel this invasion. Serious as the threat appeared to be, there is no record to indicate that the inhabitants of Boonesborough made any definite preparations to meet this obvious threat. Only the inhabitants of Grant's Station did make a wise withdrawal well in advance of the enemy force.

In spite of the warning some four weeks in advance, the invading force of Indians and Canadians under Captain Bird reached the heart of Kentucky without resistance and without discovery. On June 22, this force appeared before Ruddle's and Martin's Stations, and after a brief demonstration with their artillery, both stations surrendered. The fact that this force had cannons with them spread throughout the Kentucky frontier, and again the citizens of Boonesborough felt that they were doomed. The panic at Boonesborough probably reached its height when information came that this invading Indian army had surrounded Strode's Station which lay just across the river and about eight miles distant (the site of the present city of Winchester, Kentucky). This group that surrounded Strode's Station, however, came primarily to steal horses and to plunder, and did not bring artillery with them, much to the relief of Boonesborough. It was suddenly discovered that the entire invading force had strangely withdrawn from the country without striking another blow, which was difficult to understand when the whole interior of eastern Kentucky was at their mercy.

About this time, Daniel Boone returned from North Carolina with his family. He found that the population at Boonesborough had changed greatly during his absence, most of his old friends and associates having moved on or returned to the settlements. After a brief stay, he determined that the population of the fort and the surrounding cabins was entirely too crowded for his frontier life. About this time, his brother, Edward, who had returned from North Carolina with him, was killed by Indians during a hunting expedition in the vicinity of Blue Licks. Shortly after this, Daniel Boone moved out of the Boonesborough community with his packhorses and his dogs, crossed the river and located in what is now Fayette County in a site about five miles northwest of Boonesborough on a stream, which from that day to this, has been known as Boone's Creek. He inherited the tract on which he now settled from his eldest brother, Israel Boone, who had taken up this land and had settled briefly on this tract shortly after 1776. Israel Boone having recently died, the tract was inherited by Daniel Boone. Here, he built a new log and stockaded home which he called Boone's Station, and from here he made many a hunting trip and exploration trip into the forest surrounding the area. The site of Boone's Station was directly adjacent to the present location of the town of Athens, Kentucky.

In November of 1780, Kentucky County, Virginia, was divided by the Virginia legislature into three counties — Jefferson, Fayette and Lincoln — these counties being named after leaders of the American Revolution. Boonesborough was located in the most heavily populated of the three counties, Lincoln. Daniel Boone, at Boone's Station, now resided in Fayette County, and he was appointed the lieutenant colonel of that county.

Kentucky County, Virginia Divided Into Three Counties, November, 1780

The winter of 1780-1781 was one of the most terrible the frontier had seen. It began with a succession of snowstorms which came unusually early, and was followed by the coldest weather that the settlers had ever experienced. The snow was banked high and was locked with ice, and trees were so covered with ice they appeared to have been made of glass. The streams were solid; the Kentucky River became lost under the snow. Firewood had to be chopped out of encircling ice, and food for wild animals was nonexistent. Many forest animals and cattle and hogs about the stations either froze to death or died of starvation. Food was scarce for humans, who found it difficult to eke out an existence. This unprecedented weather of the winter of 1780-1781 was forever after known as the hard winter.

With the coming of spring, the influx of immigrants from Virginia and North Carolina again raised the population of the Kentucky frontier. However, Indian trouble started early, and it appeared that Indians were attacking some point in Kentucky continually from their initial strike at McAffee's Station in May until winter came. Again, Boonesborough escaped without an Indian attack in force.

News of the surrender of Cornwallis at Yorktown, which made the eastern colonies feel that the war of the Revolution was won, brought little peace or comfort to the Kentucky frontier. It appeared as though the British and Indians were redoubling their efforts to wipe out the last of the settlers from the Kentucky stations. The spring of 1782 found the Kentucky settlers again pinned up as closely in their cramped, crowded and congested forts and stations as they had been at any time since their establishment. In March of 1782, Captain James Estill of Estill's Station, with a small body of men, was in pursuit of a body of marauding Wyandotte Indians, when he overtook them in the vicinity of Little Mountain near Mount Sterling. Forces being approximately equal, there occurred one of the most desperate and bloody combats between Indians and whites that occurred on the Kentucky frontier. Captain Estill and a number of his men were killed, and the Wyandottes withdrew to the north.

In August of 1782, another formidable Indian army, composed of Indians and Canadians, under the leadership of Simon Girty and Captain William Caldwell, swarmed across the Ohio in a last major effort to eliminate the frontier stations of Kentucky. Their attention was directed first at the capture of Bryan's Station near Lexington. Hoy's Station, only a few miles south of Boonesborough, was also threatened. In this period, two residents of Boonesborough were killed. One was Captain William Buchanan, who was a part of Captain Holder's force in pursuit of one of the small bands of Indians. The other was a member of the Transylvania Company, Colonel Nathaniel Hart. Colonel Hart was ambushed in the vicinity of White Oak Station, while he was out hunting horses, unaware that there were Indians in the vicinity. The Indians attempted to take him prisoner, and in the ensuing exchange of shots, Colonel Hart's thigh was broken and the Indians, finding that he would be unable to accompany them, shot him through the heart with a rifle at such close range that the powder burned his skin. He was then tomahawked, scalped and mutilated. Such was the turmoil that it was two days before his mutilated body was found.

Another serious and determined attempt was made against Hoy's Station. Daniel Boone left his station and hurried across the river to Boonesborough to assume command of the riflemen who were going to the relief of the threatened post. At this point, it was found that the demonstration against Hoy's Station was a ruse to decoy the frontiersmen away from the primary object of the attacking force, which was Lexington and Bryan's Station. Immediately, all companies moved to the relief of those stations. This appears to be the last time that Daniel Boone moved out in command of a force of frontiersmen to repel a large force of Indians in Kentucky.

The Indian army withdrew to the north, and the force, of which Boone's Company was a part, pursued them. Other companies were assembling throughout the frontier to come to their aid. This initial force overtook the Indian army in the vicinity of Blue Licks. By a clever maneuver, the Indians drew the force of settlers into a trap in which a great many of them were killed and the force severely defeated. Daniel Boone's son, Israel, was killed in this battle, and Daniel Boone himself barely escaped with his life.

All of the frontier stations in Kentucky were in deep grief and mourning for the people who had been killed at the Battle of Blue Licks. Probably at no other time since the spring of 1775 was there such deep despair throughout Kentucky, and never since that time had the pioneers come so near abandoning the entire frontier. It was feared that an additional force of Indians and British would again invade Kentucky before the summer was through. Fortunately, the Battle of Blue Licks was the last battle of the American Revolution.

Fortunately for the Kentucky frontier and its people, leaders again came forward. George Rogers Clark sent forth a call for a Kentucky force to invade the Indian country north of the Ohio. After two months of careful preparation, they moved out, on November 10 crossed the Ohio River, and descended upon the town of the Miamis, from which the astonished Indians fled without a fight. The Indian towns were burned and their corn and other winter supplies destroyed, and the pioneers of the Kentucky frontier regained their confidence, their defiance and their determination to stick it out.

The decisive defeat of the Indians, coupled with the negotiations between the Americans and the British which were eventually to culminate in the Treaty of Paris, gave the inhabitants of frontier Kentucky new courage. Regardless of this, as the spring of 1783 progressed, minor Indian outrages occurred from small bands roving throughout Kentucky. Of special interest to Boonesborough was the killing of its former resident, John Floyd, who had been chief surveyor for the Transylvania Company. Another group attempted to capture Daniel Boone at his home station, but he managed to outwit them.

In the spring of 1783, another unprecedented flood of settlers poured into the Kentucky country. Early in the year, the three Virginia counties had been combined into a separate district called the District of Kentucky. In the spring of that year, news of the signing of the treaty reached Kentucky. When this news arrived at Boonesborough, there was again an old-time frontier celebration of bonfires, shouts, and pistols and rifles discharging in the air. Toasts were drunk and the health of Washington and the Continental Congress was toasted repeatedly far into the night.

From that day of rejoicing and celebration in spring of 1783, the ponderous and clumsy gates of battle-scarred Fort Boonesborough were opened, never to be closed again. The pickets between the cabins gave way to progress. New streets were opened up, the number of log houses increased, and the former capital of the colony of Transylvania, which had been enclosed by the stockades and the cabins of Fort Boonesborough, now became a thriving open town.

The Treaty of Paris, signed April 19, 1783, officially ended the American War of the Revolution; and, with it, the repeated invasion of Kentucky by Indian armies, equipped and directed by the British, ceased. However, for the next 10 years, small bands of roving redmen from the Indian towns north of the Ohio continued to harrass the small settlements and individual cabins of the Kentucky frontier.

At this time, there were less than 30,000 people in all of Kentucky. With the close of the war, the Boone Trace swarmed with new families from Virginia, Pennsylvania, Maryland, and the Carolinas, bound for Kentucky in search of new land. By 1790, the population of Kentucky had increased to more than 75,000 people. On the first of June 1792, Kentucky was admitted to the Union as an independent state. Isaac Shelby, a veteran officer of the battles of Point Pleasant, King's Mountain and Cowpens, was elected as the first governor and inaugurated with great ceremony at the newly designated state capitol at Lexington on June 4, 1792. Kentucky was now a state. At that time, Boonesborough was one of the largest towns in the new state, and had already become famous for its shipment of the great tobacco crops which originated there. At one time, it was proposed as the location for the capitol of the new commonwealth.

>Kentucky Counties at Time of Statehood, 1792 (click on image for a PDF version)