The Carbon County news. [volume] (Red Lodge, Mont.) 1924-1931, 1929-08-15
BY ELMO SCOTT WATSON

BY ELMO SCOTT WATSON
=, imagine great paraelogram made of log cab
nus set end to end, their common outside wall be-
ing the wall of the fort and loopholed Al tbe four
oinefs OF the parallelogram the cabins jutted out
Win Mi.h ports IN the angle in order to give Ranking
y. III case the savages reached the palisade nd
.hen there were huge log gates with watehtowers
on elmer side. where sentres day and night
scanning the forest line. Within the fort WINS :,
Dig common dotted with forest trees where snc,
cattle as had been saved browsed on the scantv
before our arrival - nv 80
And the settlers How shall 7 desoriha tt, -
.ney crowded around us inside the gates? some
.t re-. a, us with sallow faces eyes frightened
ny the lever yet others had the red glow of health
Mahy oil the men wore rough boards unkemnt and
senoW Weathern-worn hunting shirts often
stained with blood. The barefooted women 49,
sunbonnets and loose homespun gowns sn,,n =
men made from nettles while the children
oma a mere and there and everywhere in anv
costume that chance had given them All see,n '
irsiy talked at once they piled us with ounstion
after question of the trace the Wataupa sattIa
,e me news In the Caronas, and how the
Or course, the love of the frontier was in the
e.. ~ u 'hese men But what did they come back
70! Day after day would the sun rise over tbe
forest and beat down upon the little enclosure in
when we were penned The row of cabins le.n
ing against the stockade marked the honndari as
OF our dminutive world Beyond tbe,, iaai., ies
iufked relentless foe. Within the greater souls
- - s si caim ana mans worth was set down
10 ha1rs breadth. Some were ALWAYS - ~
. .ound squattlng on their doorsteps cursine the
noul Wnleh mad seen them depart for this land.
s soife Wfestled and fought the common for q
ist night with fair field and no favor was a favor
iee amusement of the backwoodsmen
-, 'iie summer wore away, while we lived from,
manu- 10 mouth on such scanty fare as tha i've ae
them shot and what we could venture ~ 49,
~ the unkempt fields near the gate A vintar 80
famine lurked ahead and men were eoadad 49, ~
~ mauress at the thought of clearings made ana
corn planted in the spring within reach Of th aai
80 : were ana they might not harvest it,
~ UGH is the picture of an American scene
100 years ago which Winston Churchill
panied IN his book, "The Crossing" For
~ II you remember that great novel of a
quarter OF a century ago, you will recall
chat Churchill was writing of those American
VINO, in the words of Arthur Guiterman. the noet
Built their lonely stations and the Ioqs
were cut and hewn
BY the breed of Simon Kenton and the hlood oe
Daniel Boone =
They stood behind the oopholes in their rnsad
palisades
Through hot and weary sieges attacks and am
buscades.
They shot and made their salIies tin the Oh vnao
broke and fed
While the women charged the rifles and the women
shaped the lead,
The women nursed the wounded and the women
watched by night,
The women brought the water through the nerit
of the fight "
The mothers never fatered; and the sons that thar
small
Grew as Hunters of Kentucky and were s+rona
and brave and tall
And this great paraelogram made of log
cabins set end to end" was the cradle of Ken
lucky, the first English settlement west of the
Alleghanes the place which has been aptlv
called the jamestown of the West"-historic
Harrodsburg. Althou. III the stirring events which
TOOK place within and around it's walls are now
century and half in the past that historic
past sui lives Go to Harrodsburg today and
you VIII rub your eyes in establishment For
there you will see these logs and cabins broiling
In the midsummer sum-" much as Churchill has
described them, and as you walk through the
huge log gates" which stand nvitingly open.
1t is easy to forget that you arc living in the
twentieth century America of radios and automo-
biles and airpanes and it is easy to believe tbat
some magic has carried you back to that faroff
Time when the nation was in the making
for on the edge of the modern city of Harrods
ours, ny, IS park which has been presented
to the state by the citizens of Harrodsburg as a
memorial to her pioneers, and dominating all Of
the other reminders of the past is heavily.
stockaded enclosure, replica of Harrod's fort
AS you stroll across the grassy common insida
is walls, it is not difficult to people those cabins
lround with you with the pioneers who once
lved and loved, labored and fought and (some of
hem) died there.
over in that doorway stands James Harrod
tall, massive, strong active digniied one Of
he handsomest rem of his time" Look through
he doorway of that cabin and there Won might
ee young man, tall square-but sln-reddened
andy of hair his piercing blue eyes scanning
ntently the papers which litter the hand-hewn
able before which he sits. 1t IS George Rogers
lark planning his conquest of the British forts
the ILLINOIS country. From another cabin
ONES the sound of voices in loud dispute There
J an angry note in the deep, coarse voice of q
1ort thick-set man. For Hugh McGary is hot
empered man, a brave but rash and hastv
IAN as the story of the disastrous battle of Blue
icks testihes. Equally brave are Joseph Row.
an' john Floyd, John Todd and Benjamin
ogan, Dut they cannot persuade Hugh McGary.
no then speaks up the quiet voice of another,