NOTES
NOTE 1 (PAGE 5)
WHAT Sandy said about the extensive boundaries of Virginia was notsurprising; for at this early day, just before the breaking out ofthe Revolutionary War, the colonists had only a vague idea of thenext-to-unknown land that lay to the west. Beyond the Alleghanies,extending to the far-away Mississippi, the country was considered tobe a part of Fincastle County, Virginia. Beyond that lay the NorthwestTerritory, a practically unexplored country, still awaiting the comingof the bold adventurer.
NOTE 2 (PAGE 7)
While the flood which the young pioneers witnessed may well havebeen the greatest that the Indians had ever known, it was probablyslight compared with the annual floods of the present day. Everyspring the Ohio and its tributaries receive a huge volume of waterfrom the melting snows, and from the torrential rains which occur atthat season, and these spring freshets are looked upon as a matter ofcourse, and only commented on when they cause unusual loss of propertyor of human life. One of the greatest floods that the Valley of theOhio has ever experienced was that in the latter part of March, 1913,when property valued at hundreds of millions of dollars was destroyedand many hundreds of people were drowned.
As far as possible, disaster is guarded against by an elaborate systemof reservoirs and levees, but a year seldom passes in which the riverdoes not break through at some point and flood many miles of theValley. The increased volume of the annual floods is ascribed to thefact that the forests which originally lined the banks of the Ohio andits tributaries have been cut down, with the result that the excessof water is not absorbed by the soil, but comes pouring down from thehills.
NOTE 3 (PAGE 9)
Pontiac, a powerful chief of the Ottawa Indians, is famous as the oneIndian who succeeded in uniting the numerous tribes along the frontierin a well-organized confederacy for the purpose of driving the Englishfrom the country. The uprising took place in 1763 and the war continuedfor three years, during which period the Indians captured practicallyevery frontier fort except Detroit, which was besieged by them formany months, but succeeded in holding out against them. The war is oneunending succession of massacres and Indian outrages, but the Indianswere finally overcome, chiefly through their inability to persist inan enterprise unless immediately successful, joined to the jealousiesamong the tribes themselves. Throughout the war Pontiac was a mostromantic figure, brave and able, and with all those characteristicswhich go to make up "the noble Red Man." Pontiac was assassinated in1769 by a Delaware brave who had been bribed to do the deed by anEnglish trader who had a personal grudge against the great Chief.
NOTE 4 (PAGE 55)
Every one has heard of Boone and Kenton; but history has but littleto tell of James Harrod, surveyor, pioneer and scout. It is knownthat, even before Boone penetrated into Kentucky, Harrod had builthimself a cabin on the site of the present city of Harrodsburg. Undera gentle and mild exterior, he seems to have been one of the bravestand most resourceful of the group of pioneers who contributed somuch to the settling of Kentucky and the Valley of the Ohio. Aboutthe only anecdote of him which has come down to us is of the timewhen, single-handed, he tracked five Indian braves who had destroyeda frontiersman's home and carried off two of his daughters. It seemsalmost incredible; but, without aid, he killed four and wounded thefifth Indian, and returned the girls to their father. His fate isshrouded in mystery. While in the prime of life he one day disappearedinto the forest, and never returned, and just how he met his end willnever be known.
NOTE 5 (PAGE 62)
Whatever feeling the frontiersmen had against the hostile Indians,it was as nothing compared with their hatred and loathing for therenegade white men who joined with the Indians against the settlers.These men, fortunately few in number, were usually either desperatecriminals whose lives were unsafe in the colonies, or else degeneratebrutes who found life among the Indians more to their liking than thatin civilized surroundings. The Indians, as a whole, had many noblequalities, such as loyalty to friendship and a strong regard for theirword of honor, but the renegades lacked every good quality, being morecruel, more treacherous, more brutalized than the Indians with whomthey cast in their lots.
The history of the frontier is full of accounts of these men, andprominent among them was Simon Girty, concerning whom many stories aretold. McKee is less well known, but is mentioned occasionally as thecompanion of the more famous, or, rather, more infamous Girty.
NOTE 6 (PAGE 64)
History tells us that Little Turtle lived and died as the enemy ofthe settlers who came out from Virginia to people the wilderness.Many years later, when he was sachem of his tribe, and said to be theshrewdest foe the whites had ever known, it was under his leadershipthat the associated tribes--Wyandots or Hurons, Iroquois, Ottawas,Pottawottomies, Chippewas, Sacs, Delawares, Miamis and Shawanees--camedown upon General St. Clair and his army before daylight, and won amost decisive victory over the forces he was leading against theirtowns of Old Chillicothe, Pecaway, and others.
NOTE 7 (PAGE 81)
The Shawanee invariably shaped his flints after the custom of hispeople; the Huron, the Wyandot, the Delaware, the Pottawottomie didhis in an altogether different way. One arrowhead was long; anotherrather broad; a third had a small shank that fitted in the crotchmade by splitting the end of the shaft; while a fourth needed no suchappendage, but was inserted direct, and the two sides of the arrowsecurely bound, until the whole was as rigid as though forming onepiece.
NOTE 8 (PAGE 127)
Boone at this time was held to be the finest borderman west of theAlleghanies. With his calm, resolute bearing he impressed every one hemet as few men have the faculty for doing.
Even the hostile Indians felt that he was a _real_ man; and when,several years later, Boone had the misfortune to fall into their hands,instead of putting him to the torture post, or making him run thegauntlet, as ordinary prisoners were treated, they took him a prisonerto one of their villages far away in Ohio, where he was finally adoptedinto the tribe, and treated with great respect as a brother. Indeed, hehad considerable difficulty in escaping later on, when he learned thathundreds of the Shawanee warriors were assembling, with the purpose ofsurprising his favorite settlement, which he managed to reach in timeto prepare it for the defence that has become historic.
NOTE 9 (PAGE 149)
This prophecy of Bob Armstrong really came true, since the name of BlueJacket figures on many pages of border history. He never loved thewhites as a class; it was only the Armstrongs whom he had come to carefor; and this explains why, at a later stage of his life, Blue Jacketeven led his warriors against the settlements that were encroaching onthe hunting grounds of the red men. Those who would know more aboutthis brilliant young brave, who afterwards became so noted a chief,must study the accounts of border warfare, in which his exploits arewritten.
NOTE 10 (PAGE 209)
This wonderful man of the border, Simon Kenton, seemed to bear acharmed life. Many times was he captured; and on three occasions, atleast, made to run the gauntlet of his foes, while the brush was piledup around the stake at which they fully intended to burn him; but healways escaped. He had come to believe that he was never fated to dieat the hands of the red foe of the pioneers; and this made him the morerash. Even so valued a friend as Boone was unable to hold him in check,once he allowed this spirit of recklessness to have dominion over him.
Once, it is recorded that, just after his funeral pile of brush hadbeen lighted, there came a furious thunder storm, the rain putting outthe fire, and the crash of the elements sending fear to the hearts ofthe Indians. Then the medicine-man hastened to warn them that the GreatSpirit was angry with his red children because they had attempted toput to death a paleface whom the spirits especially favored; and soKenton had been put back in the prison lodge again, from which in timehe made his escape, as usual.
NOTE 11 (PAGE 242)
France and England both claimed this country as their own; but for along time those who owed allegiance to the lilies
of France had heldsway here, undisturbed, bargaining with the many Indian tribes, andassuming all the airs of real owners of these woods and waters, whichfairly teemed with game or fish.
When they learned that the first bold band of English had braved allthe perils that lay in wait for them, and had even established newhomesteads on the shore of the mighty Mississippi, they were firstamazed, and then furious.
The Pioneer Boys of the Mississippi; or, The Homestead in the Wilderness Page 34
