Special Collections: Draper Manuscripts -- Draper's Interview Notes with Col. Putnam Ewing, Abel Morgan, J. McIlvaine, Wm. Boyd (DM12CC57) Transcribed and contributed for use in the USGenWeb Archives by Diana Lehman, dlehman@ix.netcom.com ********************************************************* USGENWEB ARCHIVES NOTICE: These electronic pages may NOT be reproduced in any format for profit or presentation by any other organization or persons. Persons or organizations desiring to use this material, must obtain the written consent of the contributor, or the legal representative of the submitter, and contact the listed USGenWeb archivist with proof of this consent. The submitter has given permission to the USGenWeb Archives to store the file permanently for free access. http://www.rootsweb.com/~usgenweb ********************************************************** The following are transcribed from microfilm copies of the original documents in the Draper Manuscripts Collection of the State Historical Society of Wisconsin, Madison, WI. * * * * * Draper Manuscripts 12CC57 No. 8. Col: P. Ewing. No. 9. A. Morgan Bath. P. 45 spent a night at his cabin. It was warm; Boon had some bear meat hanging in his cabin-which dripped grease in my face that night as I lay there. Andrew Swearingen - built at Morgan's S. the (Andw:Swearingen.) present house. (About in April) 1790, 4 indns:, waylaid in_ting (ambuscaded) Baker's S. on the head of Somerset, (and) wounded Isaac Baker (bro. (Baker's S. of J_s. B. that owned the S.) very badly (in the Isaac B.) side), & killed a man named Yeates The 2 had been down to the __assy Lick watching for deer, and the indns: dogged them on, and fired on them about 1/2 way back. Jno: Baker, Wm. Keeton, and one other, lived at B's S. It was j_bb__ 5 ms: inside of us. We had made as little sign as possible, in making our improvement at Smith's S., and don't think the indns: knew of us. They had crossed Hinkston at a deer Lick, just above Long's Mill: about a mi. below us, took the bells off of some horses; but not the horses themselves. Next day we pursued them on the Red.R. but didn't get them. In going out, they passed just along the south side of the artificial mound at Mt. S., and there crossed Hinkston, & continued on a buffaloe road, near where a big-road is now cleared out leading by Col. Tifton's: crossing slate - not so very far from Morgan's S. Esqr. Wade, has a memory like a day-book. I (Jas: Wade.) got of him &c - Moved down here in 1792. Morgan's S. was taken 1st April 1793. Only (Morgan's S.) 2 fams: then at Smith's S. Enoch Smith's & Joe Young's. I think there were only 2. When (Smith's S.) Baker's was attacked, we held on - but evacuated when Morgan's was taken. My son saw Joe Young; in Ind:, last fall, alive. (Joe Young.) Harry Martin was 10 yrs: older than I, and is (Harry Martin.) dead no doubt. The indns: shot at Geo: Harper (Geo: Harper.) as they came dancing there. (as they approached the S. in the Evening.) (Morgan's this?) 8. Col. Putnam Ewing: on Mill Cr. Did not come out to this country, for 10 or 12 (Ewing's yrs: after his bros. Nathl: & Wm. (the a/c very negroes.) well corresponds with Mr. Wade's.) The 2 bros: had left their farms, & gone into Md. Nathan'l's negro, Russel, &c, was moved over to Wm's. cabin where were Wm's Negroes, Perry, Bet, & a little girl. This was the year of peace. Some appearances of indns: had been seen, & Russel wanted them to leave. When they refused, he went to Troutman's S. The indns: appeared to have had a scuffle - as the blood was sprinkled over the house. Both the Ewings were single. Jacob Myers' family & connection, lived on (Jacob Myers.) Piper's Cr: Md. Heard him say that he gave 1000 acres of land for 10 bushels of corn and 1/2 that was rotten. Was the starter of the 1st. of every thing in Ky: the 1st. Furnaces, the 1st paper-mill, &c. Some of Myers papers are now at house in Md. principally relate to lands in Ohio and Inda:. 9. Abel Morgan. Without a house. Son of the (John Douglass, proprietor of M's S. His f. came to Ky. in 1779. killed at His mother was the widow of Jno. Douglass, who Holdon Defeat.. was killed at the Battle of the Upper Blue Licks. At the attack on Morgan's S., old Mrs. Allington (old Mrs. got into a hollow poplar, & the indns: passed by Allington.) (stood up&c) without seeing her. - Miss Becraft - not struck w. thk, but a club, so that she (Becrafts.) recovered. B's moved, & lived aftwds: back in this nghbhd. My f. gave Mr. Wade 100 acres of (Mr. Wade.) land. He also got McCullough $7__ per diem for his services as spy as he has since admitted. Tuscorigo, Allington's husbd's name. 1. John, 2. Sally, 3. Wm: the 3 chiln:. When she came (Cherokee chief, back, she marrd. a Newcomb and has since w. & family) moved over into O. Sally & Wm: are up in Floyd. John has gone down south, to see about some Morgan's Station estates his f. left him. Their mother was Apl, 1793 about 13, & their g. m. 71 at No. 10. J. McIlvaine. No. 11. W. Boyd P. 46 Historical Collection the time the S. was attacked. These children came to me, after their mother retd:. I was teaching school. Wm. was very wolfish. He was Ralph Morgan & living with one of his uncles - and had a grape son Abel vine swing. One day he was swinging, and his uncle's 2 dogs, very fierce, laying there, when a Miss Beatty, his Uncle's niece, came along. The dogs commenced barking, and this boy stopped his swing, jumped down, and set them on. They tore all her clothes nearly off from her, & bruised and bit her dreadfully: he shouting & setting them on. They came & took her to the house, where she lay confined about a month. His uncle tied him up for the whole day, and used the cowhide upon him at leisure. After the burning of Morgan's S., f. (my) moved (Morgan.) there, & settled, and there died. Some of his (Papers.) papers were left w. a man within 4 ms. of Fkft. Some w. my sister-&c. I have none of any importance. My f. sold out the choice of a thousand acres of land, out of any side or end of the 5000 acre tract, that was nearest (of (Indn: fields. those he owned) to the indn: fields. (Big-indn: suit. Mu_nneys fields on Botts; Little indn: fields, on Esqr. vs. Swearingen Crooks' place.) Sale was made to the Mu_nney's & Morgan) of Balt., and I think) of 2 of these _000. acre tracts. A dispute arose as to which of this 5000 it was; this one by the station; or that by the Furnace. Thos: Arnold; Clerk Bourbon Cir: Ct., was their Agt., and the suit ran on 27 yrs. H. Clay was their attorney. Mu_nneys vs. Swearingen & Morgan. My f. had sold to Swearingen - so that S. held under him. (Morgan sd. he w'd call & talk w. Mr. Wade, & then co'd give me more information. Born in Ky. 3 1/2 yrs. old, about, when the S. was settled) says he recollects going (his f's) there in a pac__ of mess, for to settle it. (This, I think, is what he sd.) 10. Ja: McIlvaine. Peeled-Oak States that he has often conversed with Jos. (Joe Young.) Young; (of _wing, now in Inda:) That the old man told him about the attack on Morgan's S. (Capture of and how he hunted for (3 yrs.) his w. before Morgan's he found her. Found her at last on the Ohio Station) R. The indns: had traded her to the French. Always cried freely talking about it. Old black woman at Esq. Crooks', kept her chickens (Hunter's arts.) by tying some thing that a human wore, about the tree in which they lodged. (while the white family lost theirs,) She took a big sheet from off her bed, and tied round one of our large trees, where ours roosted (says Mrs. C) and tho' the minks and small vermin had been very bad on them before, they did not trouble them, that night, or aftwds:. And Mr. Matthew Pointer, (present,) says he has heard of hunters fastening their coat around a tree, & keep game up there all night, ^ and next (that it might not get away,^) morning killing it. Which corresponds w. what H.F. Walker had been told about a prisoner among the indins:, had been compelled to go into caves -- in their hunts, and drive out bear - that the indns: showed the prisoner if he only held the clout, taken from off his legs, before him, the bear wo'd rush by him, and go out. They threatened to thk: him, the 1st time, if he didn't go in; & after that he wasn't so much afraid. Jas: Barber - was sd. to have cut, or been at (James Barber) the cutting of, the 1st. stick at Wheeling. (Wheeling) Died in the Eastern part of Bath, early in Feb. or late in Jany: 1843. 11. Wm: Boyd., Prickly Ash? Came from Amelia, now Nottoway Co., Va. (56 yrs ago. 1841-56) 1785. Came through the (Martin's S. Wilderness, by Martin's S.; Anderson's Block- Anderson's S.) house, upon Holston, &c. The indns:, ^, but a day or two before, had killed 27, on Big Laurel River. (Big Laurel a few days after their defeat, they killed River.) John English, living at Saml: Daviess', at (John English D's S. A man had been thrown from his horse, Davies' S.) and gotten in, but lost his money. He came in on foot