hurtswritings

In the autumn of 1771, Col. James Knox, Kasper Manecoe, Henry Knox, Richard Skaggs, Isaac,Bledsoe, Abraham Bledsoe, James Graham, Joseph Drake, John Montgomery, William Allen, William Lynch, David Lynch, Chris Stoph, __________ Russell, __________ Hughed, and six others whose names have not been preserved were engaged in hunting in the Wayne County region. They numbered 22 in all, and had with them 4 pack horses. These were the same men who made a camp at the place where Mount Gilead Church, in Green County, now is and gave to it the name of Camp Knox, which it has ever since borne. The date of the camp, at Camp Knox, is however, shrouded with some uncertainty. All agree that it was either in 1770 or 1771,. If the Long Hunters were at Camp Knox in 1770; and in Wayne County in 1771, it is evident that they proceeded to Wayne County when they abandoned the camp at Camp Knox. This is not improbable as they have been in Wayne County, in 1769 and were well acquainted with that territory. Mr. Allen, in his History of Kentucky, says the date of the encampment at Camp Knox was in the year 1770; and that the Long Hunters came to that point from the head waters of the Dick's River in Lincoln County. Mr. Allen was born and reared in Green County and had exceptional means of information upon the subject. He was acquianted with many of the descendants of the Long Hunters. Henry Skaggs, who was one of the Long Hunters, resided for many years and died in Green County. The conclusion that in June 1770, after some members of the party returned to their homes upon the New Clinch and Holston Rivers, and ten of them took a voyage down the Cumberland above related; the force now being reduced to twenty-two men with foru horses, they removed from there to Camp Knox and when driven away from Camp Knox they returned to Wayne County where they were in 1771, seems based upon the preserved facts and to be the only reasonable conclusion. If this conclusion is correct, when the party left Wayne County in June 1770 it crossed to the north side of the Cumberland and proceeded through the present county of Pulaski into Lincoln County and to the neighborhood of Dick's River. Whether the above conclusions are correct or incorrect when the party was in the present county of Lincoln it determined to go into the county which lay to the westward of them and to the south of the Green River; and endeavoring to accomplish that purpose it came to and crossed over the Dick's River but at what point is not now remembered. Within a short distance of Dick's River, the party encountered a solitary Indian who was known to Captain Dick, and whom they had seen at the lead mines in the Holston River country. The Indian was greatly pleased at the fact of his recognition by the white men in the forests, and at so great a distance from the point of their first meeting with him. When the Indian learned that they were seeking game, he informed them that to the westward there was a river which ran in a westwardly direction and he directed them to proceed to that river and after crossing same and passing over certain streams and ridges, traveling with the river upon their right hands, they would come into the Beech Woods Valley which abounded with game. His parting injunction to them was to kill as much game as they desired, and then to return home. Following the directions received from Captain Dick, the party arrived at the Green River, which they crossed and very soon came to the Beech Woods Valley. The village of Cane Valley, in Adair County, is situated in and the country surrounding it is a part of the Beech Woods Valley. The small stream which has its source at or near Cane Valley is one of the headwaters of the Caney Fork which from its source to its mouth runs through the center of the Beech Woods Valley. In the valley at that early time, the cane grew luxuriantly; and the wild pea vine carpeted the earth in the surrounding forests. The region was watered with many noble springs and was a veritable paradise for game.

If Knox and his party crossed the Green River at any point in Casey County and traveled with the river to their right hands, they necessarily covered the width of Adair County in going to their destination. In all probability, however, coming from their crossing over Dick's and endeavoring to reach the Green, they followed the route from Lincoln County to Adair, which afterward became the course of Casey's Creek through Casey and Adair to where it empties into Green River at Plum Point; and there crossed to the south side of the river. This, of course, is conjecture but that was the route pursued by Col. William Casey and his party who, twenty years later, removed from the neighborhood of the Hanging Fork of Dick's River to permanently occupy Adair County. [I'll transcribe the article on this later]

Upon the site now occupied by the Christian Church known as Mount Gilead, Knox and his aprty pitched their tents and made camp where they remained for some time; and the members of the party made hunting excursions into all parts of the surrounding country. The site of the camp is just within the present limits of Green County, and scarcely more than a stone's throw from the line of Green and Adair Counties. There they erected a pen or house and covered it with the bark of trees; and in it they stored the skins of the wild animals which they killed while there. The incursions of the Indians after a while frightened them away; and when three or four years afterward some of the parties were enabled to return to the camp, the roof of the pen had become disarraged and the skins rotted. One of the hunters, said to have been either Abraham or Isaac Bledsoe, commemorated the loss by the following irreverent inscription which he wrote upon a large poplar tree which has lost its bark: "2,300 deer skins lost: ruination by G_D". The house for the skins gave the name to the broook upon the bank of which the camp was erected; and it is called the Skin House Branch until this day. The name of the camp yet remains as the name of the post office in the community--it bears the name of Camp Knox.

So the Long Hunters were the first white men to breath the atmosphere and to walk upon the soil of Adair County.