The Wheeling daily register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1864-1878, 1869-02-09
GEN. HENRY CRIST.
one Of the Hunter. of Kentucky.
From the Courier-JOurnal, 4th.l

From the Courier-Journal, 4th.l
The Legislature of our State, in a
spirit of judicious patriotism, has for
sumo years past been eudeavoring to
gather the remains of those grand old
pioneers who braved the wilderness of
Kentucky, destroyed the wild beast, ex-
PEELED the savage through many a
bloody conflict, and prepared COM
monwealth of freedom and glory, filled
with delightful homes for the peaceful
enjoyment of the present generation,
and deposit them in the beautiful Gene.
terry of State at Frankfort. Among
those most worthy to lie beside the
Boones and Kentons, the Ballards and
Logans, was deemed the intrepid Gener-
al Henry Crist. So at the session of '67
and '6S they passed resolution to re-
move his remains from Bullitt county,
where they lay inferred, to that spot
His remains have been recovered from
their resting place, and to-day they are
to be escorted to Frankfort by q COM
mittee of the Legislature, together with
a committee of the City Council of
Louisville and other admiring friends,
to be laid in the tomb over which his
couptry's glory shall be the most en-
duting memorial.
General Crist was born in Berkeley
county, Virginia, in the year 1764. Dur
iDg'the Revolution his father removed
to the western part of Pennsylvania.
From thence the subject of this notice
made frequent excursions into the west
ern wilderness, and saw the falls of the
Ohio in 1873, four years before Louis
Vile was town. During these adven-
turous excursions he had many bloody
skirmish with the murdcrous savages,
who contested with indomitable per-
tinacity his right to the hunting grounds
of Kentucky. In 1873, in a tlatboat
loaded with saltkettles, and accom-
panied by thirteen others, he ascended
Salt river, in the direction OF Bullits
Lick. On this trip only three persons
returned alive, and one of them fe-
male, after many years of captivity.
Crist got into the Licks wounded, man
gled, exhausted, famished. The other
reached the Licks without a wound to
tell the tale of the disaster. The little
party had been attacked by band OfOne
hundred and twenty Indians, and after
the most obstinate and fiercest conflict
of several hours. in which thirty of
the savages fell dead, Moore and Crist
escaped-MoOrc unhurt and CTist with
his heel shattered by ballet.
After the savages had been expelled
the State and the State admitted into
the Union, General Crst was mem
her of the Convention TO frame the
first Constitution of Kentucky, the Con-
stitution of 1893. He then served his
country in the Legislature, and was
again member of the Convention that
framed the Constitution of 1899, the
best, perhaps, the Commonwealth will
ever have. Then having served his
country in both Houses of the Legisla-
ture fer some years, he became a mem
ber of the Congress of the United States.
After having served in that capacity he
retired to private life and lived and died
on his farm, in Bullitt county, in the
year lS44, in the eighty-tirst year of his
ago, having lived to see the wilderness
he had helped to open grand and
flourshing commonwealth, and the ma
tion, OF which she was u component
part, one of the first powers on earth.
Strange to say, the greedy plouGhshare
uNh bSNu va 'Oh ONNl MO SDo'"iN hNN
by degenerate strangers. So 1T was with
difficulty his grandson, W. X Thomas,
Esg. could obtain q knowledge of its
whei a8boRts. Indeed, it was not until
he paid two hundred dollars to William
Crenshaw, who alone had the clue to the
sacred spot, and who alone had desecra-
ted this grave, that he could ascertain
the location of the remains.
And, stranger still, the remains were
identified by the bullet hole in the bone
of the heel received in the conflict allu-
ded to, when contending for the very
ground this fellow titled.
We are informed by his biographer
that ain person Crist was a model of
manly beauty and native grace; his
countenauce was expressive and engag-
ing; his manner was polished and defer
cntial, and there was gravity and com
poSure about him noticeable only among
those who have led lives Of peril and
been exposed to the greatest dangers
that threaten mortal life. He was by
nature generous and humane, ana looked
down on the little merCenary weakness
of men with all the indulgence and al
lOwance of great mind that had pene-
trated tho profoundeSt depths of human
nature and knew all its frailties."