When, therefore, we learn that Boone, Harrod, and Logan were little advanced in artificial learning, let no reader be so unjust or unthinking as to treat their memory with contempt. Letters could have ill supplied their manly spirit, their vigorous frames, and, above all, their talents and tact in commanding the respect and confidence of a rough and fierce class of men. while living, and which excited their sincerest regrets when dead. These gallant and magnanimous hunters of Kentucky will ever be sacred in the hearts of all lovers of brave and noble deeds, however they may have been adorned by the polish and beauty of learning. Charlemagne was no less the Emperor of the West of Europe; he was no less the master spirit of his time, stamping his impress on his generation, because he signed, and could not artificially subscribe his name. Artificial education, or the learning of books, is too often confounded with that higher education, consisting in the development of the mind, inspired by surrounding circumstances, and which is open to all the children of man, whether favored by civilization or not.

The religion of these times must necessarily have suffered amid the pressing privations surrounding the inhabitants. It could not have been greatly cultivated amid the struggles with want and battles with Indians. Yet the heart of the hardiest male, much more of the female, must often have melted with reverence for that Being, whose secret and invisible providence watched over their weakness, and saved them from the perils of the rifle and the tomahawk. True, many fell victims to the Indians; many were burned and tortured, with every refinement of diabolical vengeance; others were harrowed with the recollection of their children's brains dashed out against the trees, and the dying shrieks of their dearest friends and connections. Still, the consolations of Heaven were not absent from the dying spirits of the former, or the wounded hearts of the latter.

The religion of the heart, gratitude to God, and love for man flourished in the rudest stages of society; and not less frequently, with more purity than amid the accumulated temptations of refined life. There was, indeed, as might very naturally be expected, a roughness of exterior; though conventional forms of society are never to be confounded with the essence of true politeness. There was too exact a retaliation of the savage warfare of their subtle and ferocious enemies, and too little respect for the rights and moral claims of Indians. But to lie, to cheat, to desert a fellow pioneer in distress, were vices unknown to the brave and simple men who conquered Kentucky. A manly love of truth, an independence of spirit, which would right itself in the "courts of heaven," were almost invariable traits in their characters.

There are some curious particulars in our early arts, which may well be recorded. Hats were made of native fur, and sold for five hundred dollars in the paper money of the times. The wool of the buffalo, and the bark or rind of the wild nettle were used in the manufacture of cloth, and a peculiar sort of linen out of the latter.

FIRST COURT IN LINCOLN COUNTY.

187

The Virginia Legislature had early fixed by law a scale of depreciation for the paper money, at one and a half for one in silver or gold. In 1781, that body extended the scale of depreciation to the enormous difference of one thousand dollars in paper for one in specie. Certificates of depreciation were issued on this basis, and directed by law to be taken for taxes and for public lands, at fifty cents per hundred acres, in specie. A certain consequence was to inundate the country with land warrants. To this circumstance may be traced the embarrassments, the confusion, and the litigation of after years in the Commonwealth of Kentucky; for thus were the means and the inducements furnished to shingle over one claim with another, until they were sometimes tripled and quadrupled upon the same tract of land.

The first court ever in Lincoln county was organized at Harrodsburg, January 16, 1781. A commission from the Governor of Virginia was produced and read, appointing the following thirteen "gentlemen" justices of the peace to hold the county court, and to be commissioners of any court of oyer and terminer or for the trial of slaves, one of the first seven to be a part of each court to make it legal: John Bowman, Benjamin Logan, John Logan, John Cowan, John Kennedy, Hugh McGary, William Craig, Stephen Trigg, Abraham Bowman, Isaac Hite, William McBride, William McAfee, and James Estill. Two were already dead when the commission was received, killed by Indians, Kennedy and McAfee; and within seventeen months after, three more fell victims to the savages in battle, Trigg, McBride, and Estill.

Benjamin Logan and John Cowan first administered to John Bowman the oath: First-Of allegiance to the Commonwealth of Virginia; Second-Of a justice of the peace; Third-Of a commissioner or a judge of oyer and terminer. John Bowman then administered said oaths to Messrs. Benjamin and John Logan, McGary, Trigg, and McBride. John Cowan, because he had already taken the oath of fidelity to the United States, refused to take the oath of allegiance to the State of Virginia; but having slept upon it, and received new light, came into court next morning and "took the oath," and a seat upon the bench. The others qualified when they could conveniently come to court, except Abraham Bowman, who removed to Fayette county.

On January 21, 1783, the court was increased in numbers by the commission and qualification of George Adams, John Edwards, Hugh Logan, Gabriel Madison, and Alexander Robertson, gentlemen. At the September term ensuing, William Montgomery, Sr.; at the November term, Isaac Shelby, Christopher Irvine, and John Snoddy, became justices and members of the court. In February, 1787, shortly after the formation of Madison and Mercer counties had taken off large portions of the territory, with justices residing therein, eight new justices were commissioned by the Governor of Virginia.

The annals will show that the year 1782 was an eventful one. The opening was marked by several successful enterprises on the part of the enemy, and with more than usual fatality to the whites. They were the

THE KILLING OF MISS JENNIE GASS.

189 precursors to further misfortunes, more calamitous than had yet befallen our harassed countrymen. The drama opened with what has ever since been known as the "Battle of Little Mountain," or "Estill's Defeat," than which there is no record of a more desperate and bloody contest, for the numbers engaged. The account given by Rev. Proctor is most graphic and interesting. The narrative of this noted participant, taken from Montgomery's statement and embodied in a descriptive article on Madison county, 1 is accurate and intensely interesting:

"On the 19th of March, 1782, Indian rafts, without any one on them, were seen floating down the Kentucky river past Boonesborough. Intelligence of this fact was immediately dispatched to Captain James Estill, at his station, fifteen miles from this fort. Estill lost not

a moment in collecting a force to go in search of the Indians, not doubting from his knowledge of their character that they designed an immediate blow at his or some of the neighboring stations. From his own and the nearest stations he raised twenty-five men. Joseph Proctor was of the number. While Estill and his men were on this expedition, the Indians suddenly appeared around his station at the dawn of day, on the 20th of March, killed and scalped Miss Jennie Gass, the daughter of Judge David Gass, and took Monk, a slave of Captain Estill, captive. The Indians immediately and hastily retreated, in consequence of a highly-exaggerated account which Monk gave them of there being forty men in the fort; that these had heard of Indians being in the country, and were then molding bullets for a pursuit and fight. There were really but four invalid men, beside the women and children. Undoubtedly, the ready sagacity of Monk saved these from a fearful massacre.

ESTILL MONUMENT.
[Erected to the memory of
Captain James Estill, near
Richmond, Kentucky.

"No sooner had the Indians commenced their retreat than the women in the fort dispatched two boys, Samuel South and Peter Hackett, to take the trail of Estill and his men, and, overtaking them, give information. of what had transpired at the fort. The boys succeeded in coming up with them early on the morning of the 21st, between the mouths of Drowning creek and Red river. After a short search, Estill struck the trail of the retreating Indians near the mouth of Red river. It was resolved at once to make pursuit, and no time was lost in doing so. On the ever-memorable day of March 22, 1782, at Little Mountain, just south of and opposite the depot at Mount Sterling, Captain Estill's party came up with the Indians. They proved to be the Wyandottes, and 1 Early Days in Madison County, William Chenault, in Courier-Journal.

twenty-five in number, exactly that of Captain Estill's.

An authority in the Estill family adds two Frenchmen to the number of the Wyandottes.

"The ground was highly favorable to the Indian mode of warfare; but Estill and his men, without a moment's hesitation, boldly and fearlessly commenced an attack upon them, and the latter as boldly and fearlessly, for they were picked warriors, engaged in the bloody combat. It is, however, painful to record that in the very outset of the action Lieutenant Miller, of Captain 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. Hence, Estill's party numbered eighteen and the Wyandottes twenty-five. Between these parties, at the distance of fifty yards, the battle raged for the space of three hours. Deeds of desperate daring were common. On either side wounds and death were inflicted, neither party advancing nor retreating. Every man to his man, and every man to his tree.' Captain Estill was now covered with blood from a wound received early in the action. Thirteen of his brave companions lay dead upon the field, or so disabled by their wounds as to be unable to continue the fight. Himself wounded also, Estill's fighting men were now reduced to four. Among this number was Joseph Proctor. The brave leader of this Spartan band was now brought into personal contest with a powerful and active Wyandotte warrior. The conflict was for a time fierce and desperate, and keenly and anxiously watched by Proctor, with his finger on the trigger of his unerring rifle. Such, however, was the struggle between these fearless and powerful warriors that Proctor could not shoot without greatly endangering the safety of his captain. Estill had his right arm broken the preceding summer in an engagement with Indians; in the conflict with the Wyandotte warrior on this occasion that arm gave way, and in an instant his savage foe buried his knife in the brave hero's breast. Instantly the gallant Proctor sent a ball from his rifle to the Wyandotte's heart. Thus ended this memorable battle. It lacks nothing but the circumstance of numbers to make it one of the most memorable in ancient or modern times. The loss of the Indians in killed and wounded, notwithstanding disparity of numbers after the shameful retreat of Miller, was even greater than that of Captain Estill. There is a tradition derived from the Wyandotte town, after a peace, that but one of the warriors engaged ever returned to his nation. It is certain that the chief who led on the Wyandottes with so much desperation fell in the action. Throughout this bloody engagement the coolness and bravery of Proctor were unsurpassed. But his conduct after the battle has always, with those acquainted with it, elicited the warmest encomiums. He brought off the field of battle, and much of the way to the station, a distance of forty miles, bearing on his back his badly wounded friend, the late Colonel William Irvine, so long and so favorably known in Madison county. With the few horses left, the wounded were alternately packed by horses or men."