came to his fort in the fall; among them, the famous scout, Simon Kenton, and John Todd,[29] a man of high and noble character and well-trained mind, who afterwards fell by Boon’s side when in command at the fatal battle of Blue Licks.  In this year also Clark[30] and Shelby[31] first came to Kentucky; and many other men whose names became famous in frontier story, and whose sufferings and long wanderings, whose strength, hardihood, and fierce daring, whose prowess as Indian fighters and killers of big game, were told by the firesides of Kentucky to generations born when the elk and the buffalo had vanished from her borders as completely as the red Indian himself.  Each leader gathered round him a little party of men, who helped him build the fort which was to be the stronghold of the district.  Among the earliest of these town-builders were Hugh McGarry, James Harrod, and Benjamin Logan.  The first named was a coarse, bold, brutal man, always clashing with his associates (he once nearly shot Harrod in a dispute over work).  He was as revengeful and foolhardy as he was daring, but a natural leader in spite of all.  Soon after he came to Kentucky his son was slain by Indians while out boiling sugar from the maples; and he mercilessly persecuted all redskins for ever after.  Harrod and Logan were of far higher character, and superior to him in every respect.  Like so many other backwoodsmen, they were tall, spare, athletic men, with dark hair and grave faces.  They were as fearless as they were tireless, and were beloved by their followers.  Harrod finally died alone in the wilderness, nor was it ever certainly known whether he was killed by Indian or white man, or perchance by some hunted beast.  The old settlers always held up his memory as that of a man ever ready to do a good deed, whether it was to run to the rescue of some one attacked by Indians, or to hunt up the strayed plough-horse of a brother settler less skilful as a woodsman; yet he could hardly read or write.  Logan was almost as good a woodsman and individual fighter, and in addition was far better suited to lead men.  He was both just and generous.  His father had died intestate, so that all of his property by law came to Logan, who was the eldest son; but the latter at once divided it equally with his brothers and sisters.  As soon as he came to Kentucky he rose to leadership, and remained for many years among the foremost of the commonwealth founders.

All this time there penetrated through the sombre forests faint echoes of the strife the men of the seacoast had just begun against the British king.  The rumors woke to passionate loyalty the hearts of the pioneers; and a roaming party of hunters, when camped on a branch[32] of the Elkhorn, by the hut of one of their number, named McConnell, called the spot Lexington, in honor of the memory of the Massachusetts minute-men, about whose death and victory they had just heard.[33]