“Such were the founders of Kentucky; and in them we behold the elements of a society inferior, in all the essentials of goodness and greatness, to none in the world.  First came the hunter and trapper, to trace the river courses, and spy out the choice spots of the land; then came the small farmer and the hardy adventurer, to cultivate the rich plains discovered, and lay the nucleuses of the towns and cities, which were so soon, and so rapidly, to spring up; and then came the surveyor, to mark the boundaries of individual possessions and give civil shape and strength to the unformed mass, the speculator to impart a new activity and keenness to the minds of men, and the chivalrous and educated gentleman, to infuse into the crude materials here collected together, the feelings and sentiments of refined existence, and to mold them into forms of conventional beauty and social excellence.  Kentucky now began to have a society, in which were the sinews of war, the power of production, and the genius of improvement; and from this time, though still harassed, as she had been from the beginning, by the inroads of a brave and determined enemy on her north, her advancement was regular and rapid.”

[Footnote 20:  W.D.  Gallagher, “Hesperian,” Vol.  II., p 89.]

CHAPTER VII.

Daniel Boone sets out for Kentucky with his family and his brother Squire Boone—­Is joined by five families and forty men at Powell’s Valley—­The party is attacked by Indians and Daniel Boone’s oldest son is killed—­The party return to the settlements on Clinch River—­Boone, at the request of Governor Dunmore, goes to the West and conducts a party of surveyors to Virginia—­Boone receives the command of three garrisons and the commission of Captain—­He takes a part in the Dunmore war—­Battle of Point Pleasant and termination of the war.

Having completed all his arrangements for the journey, on the 25th of September, 1774, Daniel Boone, with his wife and children, set out on his journey to the West.  He was accompanied by his brother, Squire Boone; and the party took with them cattle and swine, with a view to the stocking of their farms, when they should arrive in Kentucky.  Their bedding and other baggage was carried by pack-horses.

At a place called Powel’s Valley, the party was reinforced by another body of emigrants to the West consisting of five families and no less than forty able-bodied men; well armed and provided with provisions and ammunition.

They now went on in high spirits, “camping out” every night in woods, under the shelter of rude tents constructed with poles covered with bed-clothes.  They thus advanced on their journey without accident or alarm, until the 6th of October, when they were approaching a pass in the mountains, called Cumberland Gap.  The young men who were engaged in driving the cattle had fallen in rear of the main body a distance of five or six miles, when they were suddenly assailed by a party of Indians, who killed six of their number and dispersed the cattle in the woods.  A seventh man escaped with a wound.  The reports of the musketry brought the remainder of the party to the rescue, who drove off the Indians and buried the dead.  Among the slain was the oldest son of Daniel Boone.