the Pennsylvanians as well as the Marylanders, Virginians, and North Carolinians,[12] usually went overland by the Wilderness Road.  This was the trace marked out by Boon, which to the present day remains a monument to his skill as a practical surveyor and engineer.  Those going along it went on foot, driving their horses and cattle.  At the last important frontier town they fitted themselves out with pack-saddles; for in such places two of the leading industries were always those of the pack-saddle maker and the artisan in deer leather.  When there was need, the pioneer could of course make a rough pack-saddle for himself, working it up from two forked branches of a tree.  If several families were together, they moved slowly in true patriarchal style.  The elder boys drove the cattle, which usually headed the caravan; while the younger children were packed in crates of hickory withes and slung across the backs of the old quiet horses, or else were seated safely between the great rolls of bedding that were carried in similar fashion.  The women sometimes rode and sometimes walked, carrying the babies.  The men, rifle on shoulder, drove the pack-train, while some of them walked spread out in front, flank, and rear, to guard against the savages.[13] A tent or brush lean-to gave cover at night.  Each morning the men packed the animals while the women cooked breakfast and made ready the children.  Special care had to be taken not to let the loaded animals brush against the yellow-jacket nests, which were always plentiful along the trail in the fall of the year; for in such a case the vicious swarms attacked man and beast, producing an immediate stampede, to the great detriment of the packs.[14] In winter the fords and mountains often became impassable, and trains were kept in one place for weeks at a time, escaping starvation only by killing the lean cattle; for few deer at that season remained in the mountains.

Both the water route and the wilderness road were infested by the savages at all times, and whenever there was open war the sparsely settled regions from which they started were likewise harried.  When the northwestern tribes threatened Fort Pitt and Fort Henry—­or Pittsburg and Wheeling, as they were getting to be called,—­they threatened one of the two localities which served to cover the communications with Kentucky; but it was far more serious when the Holston region was menaced, because the land travel was at first much the more important.

The early settlers of course had to suffer great hardship even when they reached Kentucky.  The only two implements the men invariably carried were the axe and rifle, for they were almost equally proud of their skill as warriors, hunters, and wood-choppers.  Next in importance came the sickle or scythe.  The first three tasks of the pioneer farmer were to build a cabin, to make a clearing—­burning the brush, cutting down the small trees, and girdling the large—­and to plant corn.  Until