in what is now Sumner County, and established a fort or station at “Bledsoe’s Lick”—­now known as the Castalian Springs.  The families being thus united, and the eldest daughter of Anthony married to David Shelby, the station became a rallying-point for an extensive district surrounding it.  The Bledsoes were used to fighting with the Indians; they were men of well-known energy and courage, and their fort was the place to which the settlers looked for protection—­the colonels being the acknowledged leaders of the pioneers in their neighborhood, and the terror, far and near, of the savage marauders.  Anthony was also a member of the North Carolina Legislature from Sumner County.

From 1780 to 1794, or 1795, a continual warfare was kept up by the Creeks and Cherokees against the inhabitants of the valley.  The history of this time would be a fearful record of scenes of bloody strife and atrocious barbarity.  Several hundred persons fell victims to the ruthless foe, who spared neither age nor sex, and many women and children were carried far from their friends into hopeless captivity.  The settlers were frequently robbed and their negro slaves taken away; in the course of a few years two thousand horses were stolen; their cattle and hogs were destroyed, their houses and barns burned, and their plantations laid waste.  In consequence of these incursions, many of the inhabitants gathered together at the stations on the frontier, and established themselves under military rule for the protection of the interior settlements.  During this desperate period, the pursuits of the farmer could not be abandoned; lands were to be surveyed and marked, and fields cleared and cultivated, by men who could not venture beyond their own doors without arms in their hands.  The labors of those active and vigilant leaders, the Bledsoes, in supporting and defending the colony, were indefatigable.  Nor was the heroic matron—­the subject of this notice—­less active in her appropriate sphere of action.  Her family consisted of seven daughters and five sons, the eldest of whom, Sarah Shelby, was not more than eighteen when she came to Sumner.  Mrs. Bledsoe was almost the only instructor of these children, the family being left to her sole charge while her husband was engaged in his toilsome duties, or harassed with the cares incident to an uninterrupted border warfare.

Too soon was this devoted wife and mother called upon to suffer a far deeper calamity than any she had yet experienced.  On the night of the 20th July, 1788, the family were alarmed by hearing the horses and cattle running tumultuously around the station, as if suddenly frightened.  Colonel Anthony Bledsoe, who was then at home, rose and went to the gate of the fort.  As he opened it, he was shot down; the same ball killing an Irish servant, named Campbell, who had been long devotedly attached to him.  The colonel did not expire immediately, but was carried back into the station, while preparations were made for defence.  Aware