The mossing place mentioned by Doctor Walker was in the short bend of the Licking, just below the mouth of the State Road Fork. The land was high next to the river, but lower back toward the hills. The land in the bend was covered with magnificent trees. Where the ground was lower, there was a luxurious growth of the switch cane, which remained green all winter and which furnished pasturage for the elk, the deer and the buffalo. There were thousands of acres of it along that part of the Licking.

The land across the neck of the band was always overflowed in high water and a channel was finally cut there by the current, and the river runs permanently there now, eliminating the bend or island where Doctor Walker found the stamping place of the great herd of elk which always wintered there. The buffalo road mentioned by Doctor Walker was plain and well defined, for a number of them converged there. The party left camp about 10 o'clock, going up the State Road Fork. At its forks they turned up the main stream, which was named Falling Creek, for in early times it was a deep and rapid stream. A 5 o'clock, on the approach of a heavy cloud, they stopped to pitch camp. There was rain, hail and violent wind. The large trees were blown down in such numbers that the members of the party fled, running different ways to shelter in smaller timber. The tent was blown down, but it was found after the storm that little damage had been done. There was a heavy rain just before daylight on the 5th. On attempting to ascend the creek it was found that the fallen timber made the path impassable. The highlands were taken to and a ridge was followed to the head of the creek, when the party turned down the head stream of Little Paint Creek, along the old Indian trail, now the main road from Paintsville to Salyersville. Camp was made early because of the rain. On the 6th they followed down the branch until it became a large creek. They called it Rapid Creek. They continued and evidently reached the main stream-Big Paint Creek-after traveling, as they believed, eight miles. They must have supposed Little Paint Creek to be the main stream, which, when it is swollen, it appears to be, though Big Paint Creek is formed by the junction of Little Paint and the Open Fork. The creek could not be crossed, and camp was made in a bottom. On the morning of the 7th it was possible to ford the creek, when it was crossed. They kept down it a distance which they called twelve miles, coming to a river about 100 yards wide and which they named Louisa River. This is the present Levisa or Louisa Fork of the Big Sandy River. They named it, it is said, for Louisa, sister to the then Duke of Cumberland. In reaching the river they passed over the site of the present Town of Paintsville, county seat of Johnson County. The courthouse is half a mile from the river up Big Paint Creek. There was no island, as Doctor Walker says, but the heavy rains had filled the cane-covered low grounds with slowly moving backwater which, flowing back of the high land at the mouth of the creek, gave it the appearance of an island which was very real. In fact, in times of freshets, there were sometimes two such islands, one on each side of the creek, down to the pioneer days of that part of Kentucky, caused by the flooding of the lowlands by backwater. On the 8th the river was still too high to be forded, and in the afternoon Doctor Walker and Ambrose Powell went hunting. They must have gone down the river, and at a point below where was afterward built the old Concord meeting-house they heard the discharge of a gun on the opposite side

8 If there had been less backwater in the cane-covered bottoms, Doctor Walker would have found many signs of Indians on and around the site of Painstville. He had noted "great sign of Indians on this creek," on the 6th of June. See Chapter on The Founding of Harman's Station for these Indian marks and signs.

of the river. Those who have not heard, in the wilderness, sounds indicating the presence nearby of fellow-men cannot conceive the joy of it. Doctor Walker made efforts to attract the attention of the person who had fired the gun. But caution probably prevented the hunter from making himself known. He doubtless feared that Doctor Walker and his companions were Indians seeking to decoy him to captivity or death. So a meeting which would have proven a pleasure to all parties was rendered impossible by the conditions under which men were compelled to range the mighty forests of the West in those times.

The flood in the Louisa River was caused by the local rains of the past few days, and it subsided quickly. By the morning of the 9th it was possible to ford the river, which the party did at the break at the head of a shoal just below the mouth of the Muddy Branch. This break is locally known as "Jeffy's Ripple," from Jefferson Preston's residence there in pioneer times. The precipitous mountains, above and opposite the mouth of Big Paint Creek, coming down to the river made it necessary for the party to go down the river after crossing it. The party went up Greasey Creek, having passed the Buffalo, which was too small to promise any opening across the mountains. Camp was made on the Rockhouse Fork of Rockcastle River. The 10th was Trinity Sunday and only a short distance was traveled, and this only to secure better camping facilities. The way was choked by the trees which had been blown down by the storm of Monday. In the night it rained violently and on the morning of the 11th it was found impossible to go on because of the flood. A tomahawk and a vessel which they called a can was lost by the high water. The morning of the 12th found the waters much reduced, and they moved down to the mouth of the creek. They found many trees torn up by the roots and some barked by the driftwood which had been washed down by the flood waters. The way became rough on the 13th, and the streams were abandoned for the tops of the ridges. And these proved well nigh impassable. The laurel and ivy were so thick that a way had to be cut with their tomahawks. This condition continued on the 14th, for they were slowly working their way southeastward through that tangle of steep ridges between the two forks of the Big Sandy River. They finally emerged from these on the 19th of June, when they reached the Tug Fork, which they named Laurel Creek. There they were charged by an enraged buffalo bull, which they shot before he had injured any of them. They ascended the creek six miles to a north fork, which they followed to the head, but in attempting to cross a mountain they failed, and they camped on the side of it. They were now bearing much to the eastward. On the morning of the 20th they succeeded in crossing the mountain which had proved too difficult the day before. The stream they descended on the other side took them back to Laurel Creek.

The party continued the journey to the eastward. On the 28th of June they reached New River, just below the mouth of the Greenbrier River, and crossed it by wading and carrying their baggage on their shoulders. They started up the Greenbrier on the 29th. They began to meet people on the 7th of July, and were then but eight miles from a settlement on Jackson's River. The party arrived at Augusta Courthouse on the 11th. On the 12th Doctor Walker left his company and set off for his home, where he arrived about noon of the 13th of July. He ends his Journal with this:

"We killed in the Journey 13 buffaloes, 8 Elks, 53 Bears, 20 Deer, 4 Wild Geese, about 150 Turkeys, besides small Game. We might have killed three times as much meat, if we had wanted it."

Doctor Walker did not find the fine, rolling, wooded plains of Central Kentucky. He missed them by the journey of only a day or two.

Vol, I-9

But if he had found the now famous Blue Grass lands they could not then have been utilized. The Ohio gateway had to be first opened by Dunmore's war; Braddock must make his unfortunate expedition; the French and Indian war had to be fought; Pontiac had to appear and his Conspiracy had to burn down to white ashes; and the final predominance of England had to be established before Kentucky could be fashioned from the wilderness and begin that brilliant course which was to blaze the way for government for the people and by the people in America.

CHAPTER VI

EXPLORATION OF KENTUCKY BY CHRISTOPHER GIST

The Ohio Company was organized in 1748 for the purpose of colonizing lands on the Ohio belonging to the Colony of Virginia. The members of the company were Arthur Dobbs, Esqr., John Hanbury, Samuel Smith, James Wardrop, Capel Hanbury, Robert Dinwiddie, Esqr., The Exec. of Thomas Lee, late President and Governor of Virginia, 2 shares, John Taylor, Esqr., Prestly Thornton, Esqr., Exrs of Lawce Washington, Augusne Washington, Richard Lee, Nathel Chapman, Jacob Giles, Thomas Cresap, John Mercer, James Scott, Robert Carter, George Mason.1

The company was granted 200,000 acres of land. This land was to be located on the south side of the Ohio River between Kiskiminitis Creek and Buffalo Creek, and on the north side of the Ohio between Yellow Creek and Cross Creek. This manner of grant would place an English settlement across the Ohio River at that point where the valley widens out, and which the Delawares designated as the true head of the Ohio Valley. For the land was given with the condition that the company should settle 100 families thereon within seven years, and also erect and maintain an adequate fort. If these conditions were complied with, the company was to become entitled to 300,000 acres of additional adjoining land.

In preparation for the compliance with the terms of the grant, the company erected a large storehouse, and perhaps other buildings opposite the mouth of Will's Creek, now the City of Cumberland, Maryland. From this point it caused a road to be opened to the Turkey Foot, as the point at the three forks of the Youghiogheny was called. This road was completed in 1751. A large quantity of merchandise, suitable for the frontier trade, was sent over from England in 1749-50 and placed in the storehouse at the mouth of Will's Creek.

In the further pursuance of its engagements the company employed Christopher Gist to make an exploration of the country in which the opera

1 John Hanbury and Capel Hanbury were merchants in the City of London. John Taylor, Prestly Thornton, Philip Ludwell Lee, Thomas Lee, Richard Lee, Guwin Corbin, John Mercer, George Mason, Lawrence Washington, Augustus Washington, Nathaniel Chapman, Esquires, and James Scott Clerk, were all of the Colony of Virginia. James Wardrop, Jacob Giles and Thomas Cresap, Esquires, were of the Province of Maryland. All were prominent in the public affairs of their time. Christopher Gist's Journals, Darlington, pp. 225, 235.

2 The Ohio Company's storehouse stood on the south bank of the Potomac, directly opposite to the present City of Cumberland, Maryland, in Frederick (now Hampshire) County, Virginia. It was built in the year 1750, by Hugh Parker, the factor of the company, on land purchased for them from Lord Fairfax by Parker and Col. Thomas Cresap. The main building was constructed of timber, a double house and two stories in height; it stood on the bank, a short distance east of the present residence of Captain Perry, fronting and near the river. The name of "Caicutuck or Wills' Creek" first appeared on Fry & Jefferson's Map of Virginia and Maryland, 1751. It is accurately laid down, but not named, on Mayo's Map of the Survey of the Potomac in 1736. The gap in the Allegheny Mountains is four miles west of Cumberland, where the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad crosses the National Road at "Braddock's Run," as the southwest fork of Wills' Creek has been called since 1755; Braddock's route and the National Road as at first constructed being on the same track as that of Gist. Christopher Gist's Journals, Darlington, p. 137.

tion of its enterprise was to be conducted. Gist was a surveyor, as his father, Richard, had been. He was a native of Maryland, "a man of excellent character, energetic, fearless and a thorough woodsman." 8

The instructions to Gist were brief and of general application, and were of the date of September 11, 1750. They are here given:

"You are to go out as soon as possible to the Westward of the great Mountains, and carry with you such a Number of Men, as You think necessary, in Order to search out and discover the Lands upon the River Ohio, & other adjoining Branches of the Mississippi down as low as the great Falls thereof: You are particularly to observe the Ways & Passes thro all the Mountains you cross, & take an exact Account of the Soil, Quality, & Product of the Land, and the Wideness and Deepness of the Rivers, & the several Falls belonging to them, together with the Courses & Bearings of the Rivers & Mountains as near as you conveniently can: You are also to observe what Nations of Indians inhabit there, their Strength & Numbers, who they trade with, & in what Commodities they deal.

When you find a large Quantity of good, level Land, such as you think will suit the Company, You are to measure the Breadth of it, in three or four different Places, & take the Courses of the River and Mountains on which it binds it Order to judge the Quantity: You are to fix the Beginning & Bounds in such a Manner that they may be easily found again by your Description; the nearer in the Land lies, the better, provided it be good & level, but we had rather go quite down the Mississippi than take mean broken Land. After finding a large Body of good level Land, you are not to stop, but proceed farther, as low as the Falls of the Ohio, that We may be informed of that Navigation; And You are to take an exact Account of all the large Bodies of good level Land, in the same Manner as above directed, that the Company may the better judge where it will be most convenient for them to take their Land.

You are to note all the Bodies of good Land as you go along, tho

3 Gist was living on the Yadkin River, in North Carolina, when employed by the Ohio Company to make this exploration. The following sketch of Christopher Gist was written by William M. Darlington, and is to be found in his edition of Christopher Gist's Journals, at pages 88-89: Christopher Gist was of English descent. His grandfather was Christopher Gist, who died in Baltimore County in 1691. His grandmother was Edith Cromwell. They had one child, Richard, who was surveyor of the Western Shore and was one of the commissioners for laying off the town of Baltimore. In 1705 he married Zipporah Murray, and Christopher was one of three sons. He was a resident of North Carolina when first employed by the Ohio Company. He married Sarah Howard. He had three sons, Nathaniel, Richard and Thomas, and two daughters, Anne and Violette. Nathaniel was the only son that married. With his sons, Nathaniel and Thomas, he was with Braddock on his fatal field of battle. Urged by bribes and the promise of rewards, two Indians were persuaded to go out on a scouting expedition. As soon as they were gone, Christopher Gist, the general's guide, was dispatched on the same errand. On the 6th both Indians and Gist rejoined the army, having been within half a mile of the fort. Their reports were favorable and the army advanced. After Braddock's defeat he raised a company of scouts in Virginia and Maryland and did service on the frontier, being then called Captain Gist.

In 1756 he went to the Carolinas to enlist Cherokee Indians for the English service. For a time he served as Indian agent. He died in the summer of 1759, of smallpox, in South Carolina or Georgia. Richard Gist was killed in the battle of King's Mountain. Thomas lived on the plantation. Anne lived with him until his death, when she joined her brother Nathaniel in Kentucky. Nathaniel was a colonel in the Virginia Line, during the Revolutionary war, and afterwards removed to Kentucky, where he died early in the present century. He left two sons, Henry Clay and Thomas Cecil. His eldest daughter, Sarah, married the Hon. Jesse Bledsoe, United States senator from Kentucky. His grandson, B. Gratz Brown, was the democratic candidate for vice-president in 1872. The second daughter of Colonel Gist married Col. Nathaniel Hart, a brother of Mrs. Henry Clay. The third daughter married Doctor Boswell, of Lexington, Kentucky. The fourth married Francis P. Blair, and they were the parents of Montgomery Blair and Francis P. Blair. The fifth married Benjamin Gratz, of Lexington, Kentucky.