Page 124 Times are still real bad but we are hanging on.  Everyone
around is doing their best to help out every way they can.  The spoils
of war is a bad bad thing.  So many killed and mangled for life.  Food
is still a big problem.  Catherin is trying to teach our grandchildren.
They need to learn to read and write and arithmetic so bad.  If they
lived through all this.  It will not keep them from being cheated later
on in life but it will sure help.  Catherin has been my ray of sunshine
since I first saw her and she is more so today.  If ever a woman was
close to being a angle, she is it.  24th December 1777.

Page 125 I am putting my Account Book up.  It hurts to bad to write in
it.  Some of our neighbors have lost sons in the war.  Catherin lost her
parents in 1749 and in June 1750 I got word from Germany that my parents
had died in February that year with pneumonia and we lost our little
daughter and all that hurt.  But our sons that we have raised all these
years, I truly do not know.  We do not know if our sons are dead or
alive.  They could be somewhere wounded in the cold with no shelter.  We
do have a shelter and fire to keep us warm and dry and food to eat.  It
has been so cold with sleet and rain and snow.  It is so hard on their
wives and children not knowing if they will see them again or not.  The
only thing that we can do is pray that they will be sent home to us safe
and not be wounded and mangled for life and that the day will be soon.
2nd January 1778.

  Signed: Nicholaus Heinrich Crist, Sr.
  (his seal affixed)

Page 126 Me and Nicholas and Henry want to explore the land in Kaintuck
that Daniel Boone keeps talking of.  He says there is thousands of acres
of land waiting to be claimed.  Plenty of wild game and wild horses and
that the land will grow anything.  The Indians are worse there but we
think with enough men it would be safe enough. 5th May 1778.

Page 127 Henry, Moore, Spears, Brown, Patton, Graham, Sanders, Green,
Thomas, Shaw and about six others went to a meeting and after it was
over they decided to go to Kaintuck.  Daniel Boone says that "A man that
stays in the valley always wonders what is on the other side of the
mountain, he can guess but never knows for sure.  So they decided to see
for their self.  26th May 1778.

Page 128 Remember man as you pass by, as you are now so once was I, as I
am now so must you be, so   prepare to follow me.   George H. Crist

  Since man to man is so unjust it is hard to know what man to trust.  I
have trusted long to my   sorrow.  Pay today and I will trust tomorrow.
10 September 1778 George H. Crist.

Page 130 Today we signed the petition requesting the division of
Yohogania County.  Besy's Pa and two brothers was signers too along with
others.  My own Pa was not well enough to take a part.  His leg wound
and the hard work he had to do while we was gone to war took its toll on
him and Ma too.  27 October 1778.

Page 132 I wish I had gone with Henry.  I feel that something has gone
wrong and I could have helped him.  We thought he would have been back
by now. 12 March 1780.

Page 144 We buried our parents today.  Ma died the day before Pa.  She
was his life but they always said that me and Besy was just like them.
We laid them to rest by our four little ones, my little sister and Ma's
parents and two brothers and sister.  It was a very sad day.  It is
going to be hard on all of us boys.  We depended on Pa and Ma for so
many things as did others in the Colony.  They was always wise and they
was smart.  They was more educated than the other people here.  Pa
always said that Germany had one thing better than America and that was
schools for children to learn.  They died with pneumonia.  What a loss
and we will feel it for a long long time.   12 February 1783.

Page 146 Me, Henry, Nicholas and William and our families and Besy's
parents and their families along with many more it's about three hundred
in all are going to leave in two days to go to Kaintuck.  More settlers
in the Colony are going to come later.  16 May 1783.

Page 148 If we do not get this Station built, the Indians are going to
kill us all.  If we could get a few nights sleep without so much fear of
being killed in our sleep.  It is hard on the women and children.
Sometimes I think we should never have come here.  20 October 1783.

Page 150 Nelson County, Kentucky was created this month.  It was a lot
of hard work but we got it through and more people are moving in.
November 1784.

Page 152 We finally got the court to agree to start building some
roads.  I will work with them on the one from Bairdstown to Salt River
and the next one will go to Hawkins Ferry.  But it will take a while to
start on it.  May 1785.

Page 155 The case between me and James Morrison was dropped this month.
He is a crook and a bad one.  December 1786.

Page 158 George, Jr. came home today with his wife and baby daughter.
They make a fine family.  He married Elizabeth Gerard 10 December 1793.
Elizabeth is the daughter of William and Hanna Frost Gerard one of our
neighbors in the Colony before they moved on down the river and settling
there.  They are going to stay with me and Besy for a while.  Their
daughter Hanna is a little older than our Catherine.  It is good to have
them with us.  15 May 1795.

Page 160 George, Jr. wants to move onto Northwest Territory.  Besy's
brother William Elston Collings, George and one of the Payne boys and
one of the Biggs boys has been talking about this and some of the
others.  George wants me and Besy to go with them. 12thand August 1795.

Page 165 Besy's brother William Elston, the Payne boys and about a dozen
other families moved onto Indiana Territory.  They say the Indians are
not as bad there.  William says the Shawnees are friendly,  he trades
and barters with them.  They call him Long Knife.  2 May 1810.

Page 168 George Heinrich Crist, Jr. was borne in the year of our Lord 1
June 1768 in Virginia.

 William Lee Crist was borne in the year of our Lord 5 May 1770 in
Virginia.

 Baby Girl was borne in the year of our Lord 3 March 1772 in Virginia,
lived a few hours.

 Baby Girl was borne in the year of our Lord 2 February in Virginia,
lived one day.

 Baby Girl was borne in the year of our Lord 1 January 1776 in Virginia,
was borne dead.

 Baby Girl was borne in the year of our Lord 2 October 1779 in Virginia,
lived a few hours.

 Sarah Ann "Sally" was borne in the year of our Lord 4 April 1782 in
Virginia.

 Elizabeth Crist was borne in the year of our Lord 20 June 1784 in
Kentucky.

 Nancy Crist was borne in the year of our Lord 10 December 1785 in
Kentucky.

 Henry Philip Crist was borne in the year of our Lord 16 January 1789 in
Kentucky.

 Nicholas George Crist was borne in the year of our Lord 2 September
1790 in Kentucky.

 Catherine Crist was borne in the year of our Lord 12 November 1794 in
Kentucky.

 Amandy Jane Crist was borne in the year of our Lord 4 December 1796 in
Kentucky.

Page 173
Page 174 There was a great shaking of the earth this morning.  Tables
and chairs turned over and knocked around.  All of us knocked out of our
bed.  The roar I thought would leave us deaf if we lived. It was not a
storm.  When you could hear, all you could hear was screams from people
and animals.  It was the worst thing that I have ever witnessed.  It was
still dark and you could not see nothing.  I thought the shaking and the
loud roaring sound would never stop.  You could not hold onto nothing
neither man or woman was strong enough.  The shaking would knock you
lose like knocking hickory nuts out of a tree.  I do not know how we
lived through it.  None of us was killed.  We was all banged up and some
of us knocked out for awhile and blood was every where.  When it got day
break you could see the damage done all around.  We still had our home
it was some damage.
16 Dec 1811

Page 176
Page 177 What are we gonna do?  You cannot fight it cause you do not
know how.  It is not something that you can see.  In a storm you can see
the sky and it shows dark clouds and you know that you might get strong
winds but this you can not see anything but a house that just lays in a
pile on the ground.  Not scattered around and trees that just falls over
with the roots still on it.   The earth quake or what ever it is come
again today.  It was as bad or worse than the one in December.  We lost
our Amandy Jane in this one, a log fell on her.  We will bury her upon
the hill under a clump of trees where Besy's Ma and Pa is buried.  A lot
of people thinks that the devil has come here.  Some thinks that this is
the beginning of the world coming to an end.  23 January 1812.

 If we do not get away from here the ground is going to eat us alive.
We had another one of them earth quakes yesterday and today the ground
still shakes at times.  We are all about to go crazy from pain and
fright.  We can not do anything until we can find our animals or get
some more.  We have not found enough to pull the wagons. 8 February
1812.

Page 178 I do not know if our minds have got bad or what.  But everybody
says it.  I swear you can still beel the ground move and shake some.  We
still have not found engough animals to pull the wagons and you can not
find any to buy or trade.  10 MARCH 1812

Page 179
Page 178 We lived to make it to Pigeon Roost.  We did not lose any lives
but we had aplenty troubles.  As much as I love my place in Kentucky, I
never want to go back.  From December to April no man, woman or animal
if they could talk would dare to believe what we lived through.  From
what people say it was not that bad here.  They felt the ground move and
shake but it did not destroy cabins and trees like it did in Kentucky.
I guess that things was as bad here but at least they could see the
enemy.  On 3 September 1812 the Shawnees that William twenty four people
most of them thought was friendly went crazy and them savages killed was
just little children.  William says they was all drunked up and that
there was some bad blood between them and two of the settlers over a
white elk that the Indians claimed these two settlers stole.  I don't
know how one elk could cause this.  So many little innocent ones gone
because of greed and hate, I guess.  Me and Besy have decided to live
out our lives here.  These people need help it is bad.  William lost his
son Henry and his wife.  Henry lived to tell that little Kill Buck shot
him.  William thought the Indian was his friend.  His son Richard's wife
was killed and nine of his grandchildren was killed.  They dug a big
hole under the big sassafras tree and buried all the dead together.  It
is all so very sad.  We all have bad nightmares amongst us and we will
most likely always have them. 14th April 1813.

Page 181
Page 182 We go out under the sassafras tree ever day and hold prayer.
It is a cool calm feeling under this tree that I can not put into
words.  It kind of feels like that something just wants to hold you
there but you are not afraid.  We all feel it even the children.  It is
the biggest tree that I have ever seen in my life.  I am gonna put the
account book up and give it to George, Jr. my oldest son when I see
him.  My Bess and my Pa always wanted to let their grandchildren and the
ones that followed them to know a little something about them.  Maybe
just maybe that we have done a little something to help the ones that
will follow us in the years to come.  All me and Besy ask for is to be
able to worship our God, a place to lay our bodies and a little food to
eat and to see our children and grandchildren and for them to have a
easier life than we have had.  I was borne a long time ago today.  That
old sassafras tree just seems to keep on drawing a body to it just
before the sun goes down.  Even in the hot summer it is a cool calm
feeling under it.  I wish that I could understand it enough to tell
about it.  23 November 1813.

  Signed: George Heinrich Crist
  (His Seal Affixed)

  Notes now being made by son #1
  of George Heinrich Crist, Sr.

Page 183 Me and my son Reason got to Pigeon Roost two days ago.  The
wars and savage Indian attacks and them earth quakes has took its toll
on Pa and Ma.  It is about the same with Uncle William and Aunt Phoebe.
I don't think that none of them will ever be the same.  The Indian raids
and attacks has been bad on all of us never knowen when they would
attack or how many it would be.  If Captain John Norris had not been at
Uncle Williams, him and John and Lydia would most likely been killed.
Aunt Phepe was at Zebs helpen tend the sick and I am thankful for that
cause what she had to go through burning the dead was hard on her.
George H. Crist, Jr.  10 October 1814.

Page 184 Some more kin got here today.  We are going to help build back
the cabins that was burned.  Ma don't much like the dogs I brought, says
she is as scared of them as a savage.  One will stay inside the cabin at
night and one outside to warn them of danger. The dogs they have is old.

Page 185 I thought when I came here that Pa and Ma would go back home
with me but they won't here of it.  They say they want to live out the
rest of the years here.  They feel that these people need them.  Some of
the other children has moved onto Indiana Territory from Kentucky on
account of them earth quakes.  28 October 1814.

Page 186
Page 187 George H. Crist, Jr. and Elizabeth Gerard married 10 December
1793 in the year of our Lord.

 Hanna Crist borne 30 August 1794 in the year of our Lord.

 Elizabeth Crist borne 5 December 1796 in the year of our lord.

 Stephen Crist borne 15 January 1799 in the year of our Lord.

 Reason Crist borne 29 March 1801 in the year of our Lord.

 Sarah Crist borne 12 May 1804 in the year of our Lord.

 Benjamin Crist borne 15 October 1806 in the year of our Lord.

 James Martin Crist borne 10 November 1807 in the year of our Lord.

 Elizabeth Gerard Crist died 10 November 1807 and we buried her at
Miller Burying Ground.

 George H. Crist, Jr. and Elizabeth Lard married 12 June 1809 in the
year of our Lord.

 George Washington Crist borne 24 June 1812 in the year of our Lord.

 Rebecca Crist borne 19 October 1813 in the year of our Lord.

 John Edward Crist borne 1 May 1815 in the year of our Lord.

 Daniel Maury Crist borne 15 April 1817 in the year of our Lord.

 Hiram Heinrich Crist borne 26 July 1819 in the year of our Lord.

 Mary Ann Crist borne 4 May 1821 in the year of our Lord.

 Noah Franklin Crist borne 4 October 1823 in the year of our Lord.

 Elizabeth Lard Crist died 4 October 1823 and we buried her at Pierce
Cemetery.

 George H. Crist, Jr. and Elizabeth Simmons married 29 April 1824 in the
year of our Lord.

 Emily Crist borne 8 January 1825 in the year of our Lord.

 Catherine Crist borne 17 October 1826 in the year of our Lord.

 Malinda Crist borne 10 January 1830 in the year of our Lord.

 Emily Crist died 10 January 1830 and we buried her at Pierce Cemetery.

 Rebecca Crist Stockton died 1 January 1835.

 Hanna Crist Flood died 24 November 1843.


Transcribed by Tom Steele, April 1988

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