Jessamine County KyArchives History - Books .....The Last Indians 1898 ************************************************ Copyright. All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://www.usgwarchives.net/ky/kyfiles.html ************************************************ File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by: Joy Fisher sdgenweb@yahoo.com August 4, 2007, 11:45 pm Book Title: A History Of Jessamine County, Kentucky The Last Indians. The high cliffs, covered with dense forests of cedar and other timber, along the Kentucky river, and their utter inaccessibility, rendered them excellent hiding places for the Indians who disturbed the settlers as late as the end of 1792. No great incursion of the Indians into Kentucky happened after the battle of Blue Licks, in 1782, but predatory bands, consisting of four or five men bers, both from the south and from the north, gave the settlers great disturbance and uneasiness and murdered a great many women and children. Shortly after the battle of Blue Licks the people abandoned the forts and scattered out in their log cabins over the state. Fear of Indian raids had been removed and the immense tide of settlers which came into the state during this period took up lands in every part, but as fete as 1792 many people were killed in Garrard, Lincoln, Madison and Jessamine. On July 6, 1793, Major Benjamin Netherland wrote the following letter to Governor Shelby, which gives a contemporaneous account of these troubles: "Mingo Tavern, Fayette county, Ky., "July 6, 1792. "To His Excellency, Isaac Shelby, "Governor of Kentucky: "Dear Sir—Your letter of the 29th of June, was handed to me on yesterday by John Wilson. I tender to you my hearty, warm thanks for the good opinion you express concerning my poor services in the defense of our beloved country. To enjoy your confidence and friendship may well be considered a distinguished honor, and I shall at all times consider it a pleasure to be of service to you. There have but few depredations occurred in these parts of the county. Last year it was reported three men were killed by a party of Shawnees. They were pursued, overtaken and two of them were killed the following day at Boonesboro. About three months ago two Indians crossed the Kentucky at the mouth of the Dix river, and came among the settlers, as they said, for trading. I was not pleased at seeing such treacherous enemies, and gave orders to Tom Lewis and his father to keep a watch on them. They spoke English very well and were trying to make the impression that they were our best friends. When they left the next morning they met one of the settlers named Michael Hiffner, who had been to see Thomas Rowland, who settled on a plantation some miles above. The Indians told Hiffner he must let them have his horse. This he refused, when he heard the snap of a gun. He at once jumped from the horse and stabbed the Indian to the heart. He then turned upon the other,-who shot him in the arm and ran off into the timber. Hiffner, being-a good Indian fighter and a brave and active man, pursued him, and before the Indian could reload his gun Hiffner caught him and knocked his brains out with a club, and threw his body down the high cliffs into the river. The body of the Indian he stabbed to death was buried. A party of Wyandots killed a man at the mouth of Jessamine last spring. At the various crossings Indian tracks have been discovered. At Paint Lick two years ago two men were killed by this same party of Indians. It is my opinion that if 50 mounted men were employed to scour the Kentucky river cliffs during the fall, I feel sure no more of our people would be ambushed and killed. These hills and cliffs, Major Whitley says, are good hiding places for Indians to do us much injury. I must urge you to appoint Tom Wilson captain and lieutenant of this end of the county. He is young and active and can run like the wind, and such service would be in keeping with his nature, which is daring and full of adventure. I would seek the place myself, but I have so long neglected my private affairs that it would be ruinous for me to put my affairs into the hands of others, who seek their own interest to the neglect of mine, besides I have now the high and responsible duties of husband and father, which I can not throw aside without doing great injustice to the innocent who look to me for protection as husband and father. "Your old friend, "B. NETHERLAND." All sorts of "varmints" were plentiful in the days of the early settlers. Bears and rattlesnakes were in great abundance. On the farm of Mr. Alexander Willoughby, near Sulphur Well, one of the great curiosities was a place known as "Rattlesnake Spring." When the land was first settled this spring was a great resort for these snakes. The water issued from a large crevice in a limestone rock, overlaid by a bold bank. Near the spring was a cave. Major Netherland, who visited the place in 1796, says: "In the fall of the year they would crawl from the cave to the spring and enter the crevice of the rock, where they remained torpid during the winter. When the warmth of spring revived them they would emerge from the crevice and the cave and bask in the warm sun. At this season they fell an easy prey to the destroyer. Henry Allsman, who is now living on this portion of Mr. Willoughby's land, told me he and his family have killed hundreds of them in. the last week. He would pile them up on a log heap and burn them. By this wholesale slaughter, this enemy of God and man was extirpated, and in another season of spring and summer .nothing will remain of that representative of the transgression but his hateful name." The man Allsman here referred to was the father of the notorious Andrew Allsman, who caused General McNeil to shoot ten innocent men at Palymra, Mo. He was born on this farm in 1805 and left home in 1829. Allsman boasted on the streets of Palmyra-of causing the death of these men. The next day after he made this dreadful confession his dead body was found hung and riddled with bullets. He had been put to death by Col. Joe Porter's men in the neighborhood. Additional Comments: Extracted from: A HISTORY OF JESSAMINE COUNTY, KENTUCKY, FROM ITS EARLIEST SETTLEMENT TO 1898. By BENNETT H. YOUNG, PRESIDENT POLYTECHNIC SOCIETY; MEMBER FILSON CLUB; MEMBER CONSTITUTIONAL CONVENTION, 1890; AUTHOR HISTORY OF THE CONSTITUTIONS OF KENTUCKY, OF "BATTLE OF BLUE LICKS, ETC, ETC. S. M. DUNCAN, ASSOCIATE AUTHOR. Every brave and good life out of the past is a treasure which cannot be measured in money, and should be preserved with faithfullest care. LOUISVILLE, KY.: COURIER-JOURNAL JOB PRINTING CO., 1898. File at: http://files.usgwarchives.net/ky/jessamine/history/1898/ahistory/lastindi244gms.txt This file has been created by a form at http://www.genrecords.org/kyfiles/