The Hartford republican. (Hartford, Ky.) 18??-1926, 1916-03-31
INITIAL EXPLORERS OF KEN
TUCKY WERE FORERUN-
NERs OF GOOD ROADS.
FIRST WHITE MEN In 1850
Good Roads Apostle Writes Interest
ingly Of Daniel Boone, Isaac
Shelby and Others. ..#I

shortly publish history of Daniel
Boone, and of Trails and Highways,
etc.
In 1850 a small party of Virgin
ians, from Orange and Culpeper ceun-
T, ties. DR.. Thomas Walker, Ambrose
Powell and Colby Chew among them,
! entered what is now the state Of
Kentucky at Cumberland Gap, being
the first white men known to have
! visited interior or Eastern Kentucky.
Isaac Shelby, the first Governor of
the State, stated that in 1870 he was
on yellow Creek, mile or two from
Cumberland Mountain, in company
with DR.. Walker and others, when
Walker told him of having been upon
that spot twenty years before, and
'yonder beech tree bears the record
of it; Ambrose Powell marked his
name and the year upon it; you will
find it there now Col. Shelby ex-
amined the tree, and found upon 1t
in large, legible characters, A. Pow
ell, 1850. The party travelled down
Holston River, crossed over the noun
tains into Powell's valley, thence
thru Cumberland Gap, and along the
route afterward celebrated as the
wilderness road, until they arrived
at Hazel Patch, now Laurel county.
Here the company divided. DR.. Wall
ker and his party turned northward
, to the Kentucky River, which he
called Louisa River; followed it down
some distance without finding much
level land, became disappointed and
turned up one of its branches to its
head and crossed over the mountains
to New River in Virginia to a place
now called Walkers Meadow.
1t is said that Walker was making
for the Ohio River, but bore too far
to the east. The party then returned
| to their homes. DR.. Walker later
surveyed out the border line between
Tennessee and Kentucky. Tonnes
see was first called the District of
Washington.
Other Explorers And Hunters.
In 1851, a company of nineteen
men. among them Wallen, Skaggs,
Newman, Blevins and Cox, part OF
them from Pennsylvania, the others
from Virginia, went thru the Mecca
sin Gap in Clinch Mountain, estab-
lished a station on Wallins Creek,
now Lee county, Virginia, and hunt
ed there for eighteen months. They
named Powells Valley, from seeing
the name of Ambrose Powell inscrib-
ed on a tree near the mouth of Wal
lens Creek, on Powell River. They
gave names to CIinch River, Copper
Ridge, Newmans, Wallens and Skaggs
Ridges. There is a Skaggs trace and
Skaggs Creek in Rockcastle county.
They passed thru Cumberland Gap.
How far they penetrated into Ken
lucky on this trip is not known.
The same company of hunters In
the fall of 1853 again passed thru
Cumberland Gap and spent the sea-
son in hunting on the Cumberland
River. The next year, 1764,was made
in Rockcastle River, not far from
Crab Orchard. (The town OF Crab
Orchard took its name from the in
thickets or orchards OF
crab apple trees, which when IN
bloom the perfume therefrom could
be smelled miles away These hum
tiers visited these parts a number OF
times thereafter.
In June, 1776, party Of five per-
sons passed thru Cumberland Gap. |
These men were Capt. James Smith
(afterward, until his death about
1S14,a prominent citizen of Bourbon
county, Kentucky, Joshua Horton,
Uriah Stone, William Baker and a
slave about Is years old.
They "found no vestibule of any
white man." The south branch OF
the Cumberland River, which emp
ties into it eight or ten miles above
Nashville, they named Stone River,
after one of their number.
Party From South Carolina.
In 1867, party from South Caro-
lima, Isaac Lindsey and four others,
came thru Cumberland Gap, to what
Lindsey called Rockcastle River, from
a romantic looking'rock thru the MS
sues of which the water dripped ana
froze in rows below. They went
down the river as far as the mouth
of Stone River. where they found
Michael Stone. who has come hither
with James Harrod from Illinois to
hunt. Later, lit. Harrod founded
Harrodstown or Harrodsburg. Stone
settled In Bourbon county and Stone
Creek took its name from him.
John FindIay 1867. r
In 1877 John Findlay made an ex-