Western news and the Libby times. [volume] (Libby, Mont.) 1920-1933, 1929-08-15
BY ELMO SCOTT WATSON

BY ELMO SCOTT WATSON
Imagine great parallslogram made Of log cab
ms set end to end, their common outside wall be-
Ing the wall OF the fort and loopholed. At the four
corners of the parallelogram the cabins iuted out,
with ports In the angle in order to give Ranking
IRE In case the savages reached he palisade. And
then there were huge log gates with wafchtowers
on either side. where senries sat day and night
scanning the forest line Within the fort was n
DIG common dotted with forest trees, where such
cattle as had been saved browsed on the scanty
grass There had been but the one scra wnv horsa
before our arrival
And The settIersI How shall I describe tbeo 40
they crowded around inside the gates? Some
stared at us with sallow faces and eyes frightened
by the fever yet others had the red glow Of health
MANY of the men wore rough Boards unkempt and
yellow. weathernworn hunting shirts often
stained with blood. The barefooted women wore
sunbonnets and loose homespun gowns some Of
linen made from nettles while the children
Hwarmed here and there and everywhere in any
costume that chance had given them. All SEEM
tngIY talked at once, they piled us with question
after question OF the trace the Watauga settle
ments, the news In the Carollnas and how the
or course. the love OF the frontier was IN the
gram OF these men But what did they come back
tog Day after day would the rise over the
forest and beat down upon the little enclosure In (
Wnich we were penned. The of cabins lean
Ing against the stockade marked the boundaries
OF our dimnutive world. Beyond them Invisible
iurked relentless foe Within the greater souls
alone were calm, and mans worth was set down
10 hairs breadth Some always to be
round squatt1ng on their doorsteps cursing the
hour which had seen them depart for this land.
some wrestled and fought on the common for
fist tight with fair field and no favor was favor
lie amusement Of the backwoodsmen.
SO the summer away. while we lived from
mana 20 mouth on such scanty fare the two OF
50 .neh IN shot and what we could venture to gather
IN the unkempt fields near the gate. A winter OF
Famine lurked ahead and men were goaded near
% madfess at the thought OF clearinrs made and
corn planted In the spring within reach of their
aaHus aS IL WeTe and they might ha
~ UGH Is the picture OF an American scene
loo years ago which Winston Churchill
painted In his book, 1.-THE Crossing" For
y II you remember that great novel OF a
quarter OF century ago, you will recall
that Churchill was writing OF those American
who, In the words OF Arthur GuIterman, the poet
Built their lonely stations and the logs
cut and hewn
BY the breed OF Simon Kenton and the blood az
Daniel Boone
They stood behind the loopholes in their rugged
palisades
Through hot and weary sieEes attacks and am
buscades.
They shot and made their salies till the shawnees
broke and fled,
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 per
OF the fight
The mothers faltered: and the sons that then
small
Grew as Hunters OF Kentucky and were strong
ana brave and tall
AND this great parallelogram made OF log
cabins set end to end" was the cradle of Ken
lucky, the first English settlement west OF the
Aleghanies, the place which has been aptly
called the "Hamestown OF the West"-historIc
Harrodsburg. Although the stirring events which
LOOK place within and around Its walls are now
century and half In the past, that historic
past still lives Go to Harrodsburg today and
you will rnb your eyes In establishment For
there you will see these logs and cabins brong
IN the midsummer SUM-" much ms Churchill has
described them, and as you walk through the
huge log gates" WHICH stand invtingy omen
IL Is easy to forget that you arc living In the
Twentieth century America of radios and automo-
bies and arpanes and ii Is easy to believe that
some magic has carried you back to that far-of
lime when the nation was In the making
For on the edge Of the modern city of Harrods.
burg ky. 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 inside
Its walls, 1t Is not difficult to people those cabins
around with you with the pioneers who once
lived and loved, labored and fought and tsome OF
them) died there
Over In that doorway stands James Harrod
tall, massive, strong, active, dlgnlfed, one OF
the handsomest rem OF his time. Look through
the doorway OF that cabin and there you might
see young man, tall, sauaFe-buIit, sun redeemed
sandy OF hair, his piercing blue eyes scanning
intently the papers which litter the hand-hewn
table before which he sits 1t ID George Rogers
Clark planning his conquest OF the British forts
In the Illinois country. From another cabin
comes the sound OF voices In loud dispute. There
Is an angry note In the deep, coarse voice of
short, thickset man. For Hugh McGary is hot
tempered man, brave man but rash and hasty
man rs the story OF the disastrous battle OF Blue
Licks testihes. Equally brave Joseph Bow
man, John Floyd John Todd and Benjamin
Logan but they cannot persuade Hugh McGary.
And then sppakr nm the uupf xetea ~ annthar