which is wholly foreign and which has nothing of fitness to recommend it. Speed, in his Wilderness Road makes as good a plea for the new name as can well be made,32 but nothing which may be said will recompense for the loss of the musical and appropriate Indian name.

THE BIG SANDY RIVER-LOUISA-TOTERO-SHATTARA-TOTTEROY

Where did the name "Sandy," as applied to the Louisa River, originate? When did it first come into use? Who first bestowed it? Shaler attributes it to Dr. Thomas Walker.33 But this is most certainly an error. The Earl of Bellomont,34 in discussing Indian affairs, writes in 1699 "that the Shateras were supposed to be the Toteros, on Big Sandy River, Virginia." 35 Here we have the name Big Sandy River in use in 1699, and later it is mapped down and identified so that there can be no mistake about it. Some Totero Indians dwelt on the Big Sandy River at that time, and this gave their name to the river.36 Pownall in his map of North America, 1776, gives the Totteroy (i. e., Big Sandy) River.37 On Lewis Evans' Map, 1775, it is marked "Tottery or Big Sandy C." On the Nuremberg map, 1756, it is marked “Gt. Sandy."

It is evident from the foregoing that the early Virginians were much better acquainted with the Big Sandy Valley than has been supposed. The Earl of Bellomont wrote in 1699, twenty-eight years after the discovery of the Great Kanawha by the expedition of Gen. Abraham Wood. It is very probable that during this time the Big Sandy River was explored and given its present name, but by whom we cannot tell. Shaler says that "Raffinesque, in his most untrustworthy annals of Kentucky, says that a Captain Bolt came from Virginia to Kentucky in 1660." The first route from Virginia to Kentucky was down the

"38

different territories, not that there is any difference of right between one side and the other. Louisa, New River and Green Briar are fine large branches of Kanhaway, which in future time will be of service for the inland Navigation of New Virginia, as they interlock with the Monongahela, Potomac, James River, Roanoke, and the Cuttawa River."-Imlay's America, London, 1797, p. 118.

Doctor Walker traced none of the rivers which he discovered to the Ohio, nor to their mouths, and did not know the rivers which they emptied. He supposed that his Louisa River emptied into Kanawha, and it came to be so marked. It was the West Fork of the Big Sandy River.

32 "The name Cumberland, however, perpetuated in the everlasting mountain range, and in the beautiful river, is one hoary with antiquity. It came down to the Duke of Cumberland through the Cumbrians of the British Isles-the Cymry of the continent, and the Cimmerians about the Black Sea-directly from Gomer the son of Japhet. The Duke of Cumberland was a distinguished character, when Dr. Thomas Walker planted the name imperishably in the West. He was the son of George II, and commander in chief of the British armies at the time troops were sent over from England under Braddock to aid the colonists in the French and Indian wars."-Wilderness Road, 69, 70.

33 Shaler, History of Kentucky, 60.

34 Richard, Earl of Bellomont, was appointed governor of New York June 18, 1697. The correspondence referred to was with Count Frontenac, relative to the exchange of prisoners consequent upon the peace of Ryswick. Bellomont included in his demand the Indians detained in captivity in Canada, claiming their liberty as British subjects. He was one of the best of New York's governors. He died suddenly on the 5th of March, 1701.-Carpenter and Arthur's History of New York, 130, 134, 136.

35 7th Annual Report Bureau Ethnology, 114.

30 There was memory among the pioneers of the Big Sandy Valley of at least two Totero villages there. One was on the Lick Fork of Jennie's Creek at what was later known as Hager Hill, Johnson County. The other was on the high view river bottom below Prestonsburg, Floyd County, nearly opposite the mouth of the stream now known as Abbott's Creek. It was a little below this point and back from the river on a farm once owned by the May family, as nearly as it could be located. There must have been other towns of the tribe both above and below these. 37 Ibid.

38 Shaler, History of Kentucky, 59, note.

Big Sandy. Virginia sent an army of more than 400 men toward the Ohio by the way of the Tug Fork in 1756, on the "Sandy Creek Voyage." Boone tried to reach Kentucky by the way of the Sandy. The Big Sandy Valley may have been the first part of Kentucky to be explored by Englishmen. While other western rivers were spoken of by vague, indefinite and constantly varying names, the Big Sandy was definitely located and in possession of the name which it yet retains. And the designation, Big, or Great Sandy, would indicate that the Little Sandy had also been discovered and named.

Some have supposed that the name "Sandy" was given because of the sand in and along the bed of the stream. But the stream is even yet singularly free from large accumulations of sand. In early days, before the timber had been cut from its banks, there was almost no sand to be found along the bed of the river. After the people had cut the timber from its banks, there was considerable washing away of unprotected points, and some accumulation of sand, but not enough to make it a noticeable feature of the river.

In the early settlement of Virginia there were two persons by the name of Sandys famous in the annals of the colony. The first of these was Sir Edwin Sandys. He was a man of great force of character and persistency of purpose. In 1621 he obtained for the Virginians a written charter guaranteeing to them a free government. So zealous was he in behalf of the colonists that he incurred the displeasure of the King. In discussing the matter of a treasurer and suitable persons therefor the King said: "Choose the devil if you will, but not Sir Edwin Sandys." 39 His efforts did not cease with obtaining free government for the Virginians. He continued to exert himself in their behalf. He sent over a shipload of "maids" to become wives of the colonists.40 The settler was to pay for the wife he selected, or that selected him, in tobacco. The price was fixed at £120 of that plant, amounting to about $80.41 This was a wise provision. The plan of sending maids "young, handsome and chaste" to Virginia was a success. It changed the whole course of the colony. Most of the settlers had gone to Virginia for the purpose of making a fortune. Their intention was to return to England when this was accomplished. But "soon the wise device of Sir Edwin Sandys bore its fruit. The careless adventurers became 'provident fathers of families, solicitous about the prosperity of a country which they now considered as their own.' The colony, under the effect of these virtuous home-ties, grew to be a settled and well ordered society." 42

George Sandys was a brother of Sir Edwin. He came to Virginia in 1621 with Governor Wyatt. He was a scholar and a famous poet. He was the treasurer of the colony. His greatest service to Virginia was the introduction of the water-mill. He "introduced the first watermill in America." 43

The services rendered Virginia by these brothers were of great importance. The people manifested their gratitude in various ways, one of which was in giving their name to mountain and stream. Sandys Rivers, Sandys Creeks, and Sandys Ridges, were all over the colony. Some of these yet remain. Some Virginian must have explored, or, at least,

39 "The meeting of the first Assembly in 1619 was followed in 1621 by the formal grant to the Virginians of free government by written charter: 'a constitution after their heart's desire,' says Beverly. This was the work of Sir Edwin Sandys, the head of the Virginia party, of whom James I said, when he was spoken of for treasurer, 'Choose the devil if you will but not Sir Edwin Sandys.' Under his leadership, the Company persisted in their liberal policy."-Cooke's Virginia, 118. 40 Cooke's Virginia, 119.

41 Ibid., 120.

42 Ibid, 122.

43 Ibid., 140.

discovered the Big Sandy River before the year 1699, and remembering that his mother or grandmother was one of the maids, "young, handsome and chaste" sent over by Sir Edwin Sandys, in grateful remembrance, gave it the name Sandys River. Or, perhaps, the discoverer was a man who appreciated the first pact of Virginia, and gave the name in his honor. Or he may have been a backwoodsman who remembered the rude mill on some sluggish stream in the tidewater region, which he or his father had been enabled to build by the aid of the invention of George Sandys, and in commemoration of the introduction of that useful and indispensable device, called the stream he had found Sandys River. Whatever the circumstances of the discovery and bestowal of the name, there is probability that the Big Sandy River was given its present name by a Virginian in honor of one of the Sandys brothers. The name Chaterawha, or Chatterawah, or Chatteroi, is sometimes applied to the Big Sandy River. Shaler seems to imply that this was the Indian name of the stream.44 The Bureau of Ethnology says "the origin of Chatterawha is not clear. By location it seems to belong with Chattahoochi and Chattanooga, but as it contains an r sound it can scarcely belong to the Muskhogean language unless the r is really only a rough 1. Chattu is the Creek word for rock,' but what lawha would mean, if anything, might require considerable research." 45

As said before, the Big Sandy River was the dwelling place of a tribe of Indians of the Siouan linguistic family. The name of this tribe was Totero. From this it was called Totero River or Totero Creek, and, later, as we have seen, it was marked down on the maps as "Totteroy" and "Tottery" River, the river where the Toteros dwelt. The name Chatterawha is derived from another name of this same tribe of Indians. The usual name of these Indians seems to have been Shattara. The Earl of Bellomont says that the Shattaras dwelling on the Big Sandy River are supposed to be the Totero Indians. Chattarawha is only a different form of Shattara, as Totteroy is only a different form of Totero. These names were not bestowed upon the river by the Indians, and cannot properly be said to be the Indian names of the river. The Indians did not give these names to the river except in an indirect manner, by their presence. The names were used by white men to denote the stream upon which the Toteros or Shattaras dwelt. And a man used either the name Totero, or Shattara, as he chanced to call this tribe the Toteros, or the Shattaras. Totteroy was formerly the more common name, but afterward Chattarawha almost entirely superseded it. For the sake of uniformity with Kanawha, this name should be written Chatarawha.46

The Miami Indians called the Big Sandy River, the Wepepoconecepewe.47 [We-pep-o-con-ne-sippi.]

The Delawares called it Sikea-cepe,48 which means Salt Creek.

The Shawnees had two names for the Big Sandy River. They must have been bestowed at different times between which a long period had elapsed. The older one was Mich-e-cho-be-ka-sepe, which

44 Shaler, History of Kentucky, 60.

45 Letter to author, Dec. 14, 1895.

48 "Totteroy falls into the Ohio on the same side (as the Kanawha) and is passable with boats to the mountains. It is long, and has not many branches, interlocks with Red Creek, or Clinch's River (a branch of Cuttawa). It has below the mountains, especially for 15 miles from the mouth, very good land. And here is a visible effect of the difference of climate from the upper parts of Ohio. Here the long reed or Carolina cane grows in plenty, even upon the upland, and the severity of the winter does not kill them; so that travelers this way are not obliged to provide any winter support for their horses. And the same holds all the way down Ohio, especially on the southeast side to the Falls, and thence on both sides."-Imlay's America, London, 1797, p. 116.

47 Thomas Speed, in The Wilderness Road, 71. 48 Ibid.

means the Big Medicine River, or the River of the Great Mystery. The other was Me-tho-to-sepe, the river where buffalos are plenty. The Shawnees were greatly attached to the Big Sandy River country.

The Wyandots called the Big Sandy River Sees-ta-ye-an-da-wa, the Fire River, from the many burning springs caused by escaping natural gas found on its waters.

These Indian names applied to the whole river without reference to any one of its branches.

The Tug Fork obtained its name from the circumstance of the starving soldiers of the expedition of 1756, known as the "Sandy Creek Voyage," cutting buffalo hides into broad tubs and roasting them for food over the flames of the burning spring opposite the town of Warfield, to which point some of them must have penetrated. It was afterward known as the Tug Fork or the Tug River. There was a tradition in the Big Sandy Valley that it was called Tug River because of the hard tug, or pull, or effort the soldiers of that expedition were compelled to make to get back through its valley to Virginia. From one of these circumstances, the Tug Fork certainly obtained its name.

THE LOUISA FORK OF THE BIG SANDY RIVER

The name Louisa was given to this river by Dr. Thomas Walker, on Thursday, the 7th day of June, 1750. The entry in Doctor Walker's Journal describing this event is as follows: "June 7th. The Creek being fordable, we Crossed it & kept down 12 miles to a River about 100 yards over, Which We called Louisa River. The Creek is about 30 yards wide, & part of ye River breaks into ye Creek-making an Island on which we Camped.'

In the early days of the settlement of the Big Sandy Valley this stream was universally known as the Louisa River. Up to about 1825 it was generally called the Louisa Fork. After that time, and to some extent before, the name began to be corrupted to that of Levisa. The name Levisa is now used almost entirely. It appears that the name Louisa once attached to the whole state of Kentucky, but of how wide application this name was is not known. It appears too, that as early as 1775 the name Louisa was corrupted. Speed, in the Wilderness Road says "that Felix Walker, with Captain Twetty and six others, left Rutherford, North Carolina, in February, 1775 (according to Felix Walker's narrative), 'to explore the country of Leowvisay, now Kentucky.'

The Kentucky River was sometimes called the Louisa River by the pioneers and explorers, and it was called, also, the Cherokee River. In the deed from the Cherokees to Richard Henderson and the other proprietors of the Transylvania Company, conveying the tract of land known as the Great Grant, we find the description of the land beginning as follows: "All that tract, territory, or parcel of land, situated, lying and being in North America, on the Ohio River, one of the eastern branches of the Mississippi, beginning on the said Ohio, at the mouth of Kentucky, Cherokee, or what by the English is called Louisa River.” This calling of the Kentucky River by the name Louisa was caused by a misapprehension. It was not certainly known what river had been called Louisa by Doctor Walker as he traced none of the rivers which he named, to the Ohio. But that he did not call the Kentucky River, Louisa, is shown by Lewis Evans' Map, 1775, on which the Louisa River is marked as flowing into the Great Kanawha, and the upper course of the "Tottery or Big Sandy C." is marked "Frederick R." Frederick's River, now the Licking River, was discovered and named by Doctor Walker, on the second of June, 1750, five days before he discovered and named Louisa River.

Doctor Walker gave this river the name Louisa in honor of Louisa, the sister of the Duke of Cumberland. Louisa is a good old English name, coming down from the ancient Germans. It is a name of much beauty, and it was in great favor with our forefathers. It should be restored to the river on which Doctor Walker bestowed it. The Louisa Fork should be called the Louisa River. The Tug Fork should be called the Tug River. The river formed by their junction should be called the Big Sandy River.49

LICKING RIVER-FREDERICK'S RIVER

The Licking River has a name of beautiful significance. "Licking" denotes a country or a land diversified with springs and meadows. The Upper and Lower Blue Licks are upon its banks. These Licks were discovered by a party of explorers from Pennsylvania, in July, 1773.50 They at once became famous, and were the principal source of the supply of salt for the early settlers in Central Kentucky. Boone was captured by Indians near the Lower Blue Lick, where he and others. had gone to make salt, on February 7, 1778. The beauty and fertility of the lands, and the thousands of buffalo, deer, and elk which were seen pasturing on the cane in its broad bottoms, caused the early settlers to add the old Saxon word ing, meaning "a pasture or meadow, generally one lying low, near a river," to the word Lick, thus forming this appropriate name. It was at first called Great Salt Lick Creek, and was marked on the old maps by that name.

The Licking River was discovered by Dr. Thomas Walker and his party on the 2d of June, 1750, and named Frederick's River. See chapter "Explorations of Dr. Thomas Walker" in this work.

THE GUYANDOTTE RIVER

The Guyandotte River was one of the first of the smaller rivers or tributaries of the Ohio to receive a permanent name. It is marked on the Nuremberg map (1756), as flowing into the Ohio almost at the mouth of the Great Kanawha, and is called the "Guyendet." On the map of Fry and Jefferson (1755), it is laid down as flowing into the Ohio near the mouth of the Great Kanawha, and is called "Guyondot River." On the map of Lewis Evans (1775), it is laid down as a very short stream, and marked "Guyandotte C.

There is a tradition that the Wyandots had a town or settlement near the mouth of this beautiful stream, and that the French called it Wyandotte Creek. H. Clay Ragland, in his history of Logan County, W. Va., says it "certainly received its name from Henry Guyan, a French trader, who established a trading camp at its mouth about 1750, which was broken up by the Indians, and he, escaping to Virginia, was with Lewis on his Sandy Creek Expedition." The form of the name as now written is French, but it was bestowed for the Wyandot Indian tribe. Hale says that it was named after a tribe of Indians of the same name (Guyandotte).51 But there was no tribe of that name. The Miami Indians called it La-ke-we-ke-to Ce-pe-we. The Delawares called it Se-co-nee, Narrow Bottom River.52

MISSOURI

The State of Missouri has been called the daughter of Kentucky, for the people of Kentucky settled there in great numbers. They were

49 See Chapter V, "Explorations of Dr. Thomas Walker," this work.

50 Collins, History of Kentucky, under head of Nicholas County.

51 Trans-Allegheny Pioneers, 47.

52 Ibid., 47.