Heroes and Hunters of the West

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Frost John. Heroes and Hunters of the West

PREFACE

Daniel Boone

Simon Kenton

George Rogers Clarke

Benjamin Logan

Samuel Brady

Lewis Whetzel

Caffree, M’Clure, and Davis

Charles Johnston

Joseph Logston

Jesse Hughes

Siege of Fort Henry

Simon Girty

Joshua Fleehart

Indian Fight on the Little Muskingum

Escape of Return J. Meigs

Estill’s Defeat

A Pioneer Mother

The Squatter’s Wife and Daughter

Captain William Hubbell

Murder of Cornstalk and his Son

The Massacre of Chicago

The Two Friends

Desertion of a young White Man, from a party of Indians

Morgan’s Triumph

Massacre of Wyoming

Heroic Women of the West

Indian Strategem Foiled

Blackbird

A Desperate Adventure

Adventure of Two Scouts

A Young Hero of the West

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In all notices of border life, the name of Daniel Boone appears first – as the hero and the father of the west. In him were united those qualities which make the accomplished frontiersman – daring, activity, and circumspection, while he was fitted beyond most of his contemporary borderers to lead and command.

Daniel Boone was born either in Virginia or Pennsylvania, and at an early age settled in North Carolina, upon the banks of the Yadkin. In 1767, James Findley, the first white man who ever visited Kentucky, returned to the settlements of North Carolina, and gave such a glowing account of that wilderness, that Boone determined to venture into it, on a hunting expedition. Accordingly, in 1769, accompanied by Findley and four others, he commenced his journey. Kentucky was found to be all that the first adventurer had represented, and the hunters had fine sport. The country was uninhabited, but, during certain seasons, parties of the northern and southern Indians visited it upon hunting expeditions. These parties frequently engaged in fierce conflicts, and hence the beautiful region was known as the “dark and bloody ground.”

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But it was in a deliberate attack upon a party of four Indians that our hero displayed the climax of daring and resolution. While on a fall hunt, on the Muskingum, he came upon a camp of four savages, and with but little hesitation resolved to attempt their destruction. He concealed himself till midnight, and then stole cautiously upon the sleepers. As quick as thought, he cleft the skull of one of them. A second met the same fate, and as a third attempted to rise, confused by the horrid yells, which Whetzel gave with his blows, the tomahawk stretched him in death. The fourth Indian darted into the darkness of the wood and escaped, although Whetzel pursued him for some distance. Returning to camp, the ranger scalped his victims and then left for home. When asked on his return, “What luck?” he replied, “Not much. I treed four Indians, and one got away.” Where shall we look for deeds of equal daring and hardihood? Martin, Jacob, and John Whetzel were bold warriors; and in the course of the Indian war, they secured many scalps; but they never obtained the reputation possessed by their brother, Lewis. All must condemn cruelty wherever displayed, but it is equally our duty to render just admiration to courage, daring, and indomitable energy, qualities in which the Whetzel brothers have rarely if ever been excelled.

General Clark, the companion of Lewis in the celebrated tour across the Rocky Mountains, having heard much of Lewis Whetzel, in Kentucky, determined to secure his services for the exploring expedition. After considerable hesitation, Whetzel consented to go, and accompanied the party during the first three months’ travel, but then declined going any further, and returned home. Shortly after this, he left again on a flat-boat, and never returned. He visited a relation, named Sikes, living about twenty miles in the interior, from Natchez, and there made his home, until the summer of 1808, when he died, leaving a fame for valor and skill in border warfare, which will not be allowed to perish.

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