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| Locataion of Scott County |
Addington, Robert. History of Scott County, Virginia, Bowie, MD: Heritage Books, Inc., 2002.
Originally published in 1932.
p. 1 Some Important Dates in Scott County History
- 1749-50 - Dr. Thomas Walker and companions visit Cumberland Gap and adjacent regions.
- 1763 - Treaty in which France gave up to England all claim to the mainland east of the Mississippi River.
- 1769 - Danile Boone passes through Big Moccasin Gap on his way to Kentucky.
- Uriah Stone, Casper Mansker, John Rains, and Abraham & Isaac Bledsoe pass through Big Moccasin Gap to Kentucky.
- Thomas McCulloch made the first settlement within the territory of Scott County near Fort Houston, on Big Moccasin Creek.
- 1770 - The Long Hunters pass through Big Moccasin Gap on hunting expeditions.
- Peter Livingston settled on the North Fork of the Holston at the mouth of Livingston Creek.
- 1771 - Silas Enyart settled on Little Moccasin Creek.
- 1772 - James Green settled near the mouth of Stony Creek.
- 1773 - James Boone, Henry Russell, and party were massacred by Indians in Powell's Valley.
- Daniel BOone takes his family to Castle's Woods and becomes a resident in the Valley of the Clinch.
- John Blackmore, Joseph Blackmore, John Blackmore, Jr., John Carter, and Andrew Davis settled at Fort Blackmore.
- William Nash settled in Rye Cove.
- Charles Kilgore settled on the east side of Fall Creek, near Osborne's Ford.
- Jonathan Wood settled on BIg Moccasin Creek, near Fort Houston.
- 1774 - Logan, the Mingo chieftain, captured two of Captain Blackmore's slaves at Fort Blackmore.
- [p.2] Dale Carter was killed by Indians at Fort Blackmore.
- Daniel Boone & Michael Stoner were sent from Castle's Woods to warn surveying parties in Kentucky of the danger of Indian attack.
- Daniel Boone was placed in command of Fort Blackmore and other forts on the Clinch whiile the militiamen were absent on the Point Pleasant campaign in Dunmore's War.
- Patrick Porter was given permission to erect a mill on Fall Creek by the County Court of Fincastle.
- John Livingston settled at the mouth of Little Moccasin Creek, north side of Clinch Mountain
- Samuel Livingston & Stephen Walling settled at the head of Little Moccasin Creek.
- 1775 - Samuel Richey settled on south side of Clinch River (William Gray farm).
- Daniel Boone and companions cut a road through Big Moccasin Gap.
- 1776 - Isaac Crisman and family were slain by Indians in the Rye Cove.
- The inhabitants of Martin's Station flee to Fort Blackmore for protection.
- Jacob Lewis and family were slain by Indians near the head of Stock Creek.
- The Rye Cove Fort evacuated by order of Colonel Bledsoe, the inmates going to Fort Blackmore.
- Samuel Stedham settled at the "Mint Spring" on Little Moccasin Creek.
- 1777 - Benge and band of Indians visit Fort Blackmore. They capture Polly Alley, and Jane Whitaker.
- Fannie Napper (nee Alley) and her five children were captured by Indians at Fort Blackmore.
- Col. Joseph Martin stationed in the Rye Cove to guard the frontier.
- 1779 - Capt. John Blackmore and family, and Jonathan Jennings and family, leave Fort Blackmore in boats for Nashboro, Tennessee.
- 1781 - Fort Blackmore attacked by Indians, four men captured, and a large number of horses taken away.
- 1782 [p.3] - Thomas Wallin settled at the mouth of Stock Creek.
- 1787 - John Carter's wife and six children killed by Indians near Fort Blackmore.
- 1788 - Indians capture two Carter boys in the Rye Cove.
- 1789 - Joseph Johnson's house on "Flat," or "Mill" Creek was burned, his wife and one child killed, and his other children carried into captivity by Indians.
- 1790 - Bishop Asberry [Francis Asbury], the great Methodist organizer, visited Fort Blackmore.
- Mrs. Henry Hamlin killed and Champ Hamlin captured by Indians at Fort Blackmore.
- 1791 - Benge attacks he house of Elisha Ferris, within the present limits of Gate City, and cruelly murders all but Nancy Ferris.
- 1793 - Benge murdered Harper Ratcliff and his entire family, six in number, near Big Moccasin Gap.
- Benge attacked Ensign Moses Cockrell and his packhorse train on top of Powell's Mountain (Kane Gap).
- 1794 - Benge captured the Livingston family, and was killed by Vincent Hobbs and his company.
- 1814 - An act forming Scott County from pars of Washington, Russell and Lee counties, passed by the General Assembly of Virginia. . . .
[p. 24] It is not possible, with the data at hand, to trace with absolute certainty, the location of the Kentucky Path at every point throughout its length. Like other roads, both then and now, it was subject to such alterations as suited either fancy or convenience of those who traveled over it, and divergence was, of course, always possible between the "gaps." Moccasin Gap was, no doubt, rached from the Holston Settlements by more than one way. In general, however, the following descriptionof the Kentucky Path may be taken as fairly accurate in so far as its passage through Scott County is concerned. It passed from Shelby's Fort (now Bristol) down Reedy Creek to the Blockhouse. Boone's orginal place of rendezvous, however, was Fort Patrick Henry on the Long Island of Holston. The modern town of Kingsport is situated in the "forks" of the Holston. Boone's route however, did not usually take him as far west as the site of Kngsport. He traveled down Reedy Creek to the neighborhood of Peltier, and then turned north to the Tennessee-Virginia boundary line, hence by way of the Blockhouse to the ford just above Holston Bridge. From this ford the took a northwest course, passing over Little Pine Mountain at a point where its elevation has been greatly reduced by Big Moccasin Creek. He then passed through Big Moccasin Gap, the great eastern gateway of the Kentucky Path. Thence up Little Moccasin Valley to the low divide which separates Little Moccasin from Troublesome Creek. The difficulty of traveling down the last-named creek is still commemorated in the name it bears. At [p. 25] or near the old Virginia & Southwestern depot at Speer's Ferry, the path turned aside from the narrow valley of Troublesome Creek, and passed along the south side of a limesone hill to the north of the late J.M. Horton's residence until it reached the narrow ravine at Horton's Chapel. Here it dropped down the ravine to the ford of the Clinch at Speer's Ferry. Persons yet living remember and point out the depression of the old Trace where it passed along the side of the limestone ridge from the old Virginia & Southwestern depot to Horton's Chapel. (See deeds, Michael Darter, George Graham, and George George.) After crossing Clinch River at Speer's Ferry, the Path passed up the west bank of the same to the "Ford of Stock Creek," the present site of Clinchport. From Clinchport it followed the meanders of Big Stock Creek up almost to the Natural unnel. Here i urned to the left around the Tunnel Hill by way of Horton's Summit, to the Little Flat Lick, near the new schoolhouse at Duffield. It may be stated in this connection that foot travelers and pack-horse trains often passed up the Devil's Race Path branch to the top of the Purchase Ridge, and then descended into the valley of the North Fork of Clinch, near the Little Flat Lick. Little Flat Lick, it seems, was one of the best known places on the Kentucky Pat. Not one of the early travelers over the Path, who has lef an account of his itinerary, has failed to mention Little Flat Lick. On the other hand, not one has deemed it worth while to make meniton of the Great Natural Tunnel, which lay directly across his path traveling through Stock Creek Valley. From this may it not be inferred that a "lick" was of much greater interest to the mind of the hunter-traveler than any bit of natural scenery, however grand it might be?
From Little Flat Lick, there seems to have been, at least, two ways of reaching Powell's Valley. One of these, and this was probably the oldest, passed over Powell's Mountain, at or near Kane's Gap, and descended into Powell's Valley not far from the head of Wallen's Creek, where Scott's Fort was located. The other, and this, no doubt, was the route taken by wagons, passed from Little Flat Lick down the valley of the North Fork of Clinch, by way of Pattonsville, over Powell's Mountain to Stickleyville - very much as the present [p.26] wagon road runs. William Brown, who traveled over the Kentucky Path in 1782, gives the distance from Little Flat Lick to the North Fork of Clinch as being one mile and the distance from the North Fork to Powell's Mountain one mile. These distances are approximately true only in the event that he crossed Powell's Mountain at, or near, the town of Duffield.
Furthermore, Thomas Speed, in his Itinerary from Charlote Courthouse to Kentucky, in 1790, mentions Scott's Fort as one of the stopping places o the Kentucky Path. Scott's Station was located near the head of Wallen's Creek and the mention of it by Speed indicates that much, if not most, of the travel to Kentucky at that time crossed Powell's Mountain near Duffield.
The road marked out by Boone was but a trace - a mere bridle path. It was not suited to wagons or wheeled vehicles of any kind. In places it was barely passable for pack-horse trains; yet during the four years next following the tim ein which Boone marked it out, the travel over it was so great tht it became the subject of legislative enactment. The Legislature of Virginia passed an Act providing that commissioners be appointed to explore the coutnry on both sides of the mountains and select the best place for a road, and cause the same to be cleared and opened for travelers with pack horses. In accordance with the provisions of this Act, Evan Shelby and Richard Callaway were appointed commissioners. Shelby, for some reason, declined to serve and Capt. John Kinkead was appointed in this stead. Richard Callaway was a member of Boone's party of road-makers. John Kinkead under date of December 1, 1781, presened a petition to the General Assembly of VIrginia, "setting forth that agreeable to appointment of the county court of Washington, he, in conjunction with the other commissioner, proceeded to and effected the opening of a road through the Cumberland Mountains in Kentucky and praying to be paid for the service." (Summers, p. 280). [L.P. Summers' History of Southwest Virginia and Washington County or The Annals of Southwest Virginia]
The Act above mentioned further provided that a guard of fifty men be furnished for the protection of the commissioners and laborers while carrying out its other provisions. Notwithstanding legislative enactment, the Kentuck Path did [p.27] not become a wagon road until some years later. In the meantime, settlers were pouring into Kentucky along this Trace in large and ever-increasing numbers. In 1790, the population of Kentucky was 13,000, and, in 1800, the population was 220,000, and the greater part of this population had entered the regioni of Kenucky by way of the Wilderness Road.
Travel over this road was mainly on foot. In fact, it was a better footpath than any other kind of road. A distance of several hundred miles did not daunt the hardy pedestrian of that day. Daniel Boone and Michael Stoner, in the summer of 1774, walked eight hundred miles in sixty-one days and stopped long enough at Harrodsburg for Boone to build a house as a basis of a claim to land there.
Children, household and kitchen furniure, and such other articles as the immigrant chose to take along, were carried through the Wilderness on pack horses. Each pack horse was equipped with a pack saddle, the framework of which was applied to the horse's back when the timbers were green and allowed to season there under the pressure of a load in such way as to be adjusted to the shape of the horse's back and sides. Children were often placed in large baskets tied together, which were thrown acorss the horse's back, one child serving to balance the other, and mutually keeping each other from falling off. Much care had to be excercised to prevent the baskets from being "rubbed off" by he saplings in the edge of the path.
In 1795, the Legislature of Kentucky passed an Act to convert the Kentucky Pat on its side of the Cumberland Mountains into a wagon road. Bids for this change were advertised for and Daniel Boone sought an opportunity to superintend the work . . .
p. 28 At the time when the travel to Kentucky was heaviest, there was a very thin line of forts and ordinaries extending from the Blockhouse on Holston to Boonesborough. How these primitive log-house hotels managed to furnish food and shelter to the hundreds of emigrants who thronged the way is difficult now to understand. No doubt they were often taxed to their utmost capacity in furnishing entertainment for their guests. Compalint that food supplies were almost exhausted at Martin's Cabin were made to Colonel Henderson oat one time.
William Brown, who traveled over the Kentucky Pat in 1782, has preserved the following list of important places along the way. I am quoting only those that are within the territory of Scott County or near to it.
From Washington Courthouse to Head Reedy Creek
- Sullivan County, NC 20 miles
- to Blcok House 13 miles
- to North Fork of Holston 2 miles
- to Moccasin Gap 5 miles
- 5o Clinch River (Speer's Ferry) 11 miles
- ford Stock Creek (Clinchport) 2 miles
- to Little Flat Lick (New Schoolhouse Duffield) 5 miles
- to North Fork Clinch 1 mile
- to Powell's Mountain 1 mile
- to Wallen's Ridge 5 miles
p. 29 William Brown in his Observations and Occurrences speaks as follows of that section of the Wilderness Road comprised within the limits of Scott County:
"Set out from Hanover, Monday 27, May, 1782; arrived at the Blockhouse about the first week in July. The road from Hanover to this place is generally very good; crossing the Blue Ridge is not bad; there is not more than a small hill with some winding to go over. Neither is the ALlegheny Mountain by any means difficult at this gap. There are one or two high hills about New River and Fort Chiswell. The ford of New River is rather bad; therefore we thought it advisable to cross in a ferryboat. This is generally a good-watered road as far as the Blockhouse. We waited hereabouts near two weeks for company, and then set out for the Wilderness with twelve men and ten guns, this being Thursday 18, July. The road from this until you get over Wallen's Ridge generally is bad, some part very much so, particularly about Stock Creek and Stock Creek Ridge It is a very mountainous country here about, but there is some fine land in the bottoms, near the warter courses, in narrow slips. It will be but a thin settled country whenever it is settled. The fords of Holston and CLinch are both good in dry weather, but in a rainy season you are often obliged to raft over. From the along down Powell's Valley until you get to Cumberland Gap is pretty good." (Hulbert's Boone's Wilderness Road, pp. 126-127.)
The following is the list of the stopping places along the Wilderness Road as given by Thomas Speed in 1790.
- from Washington Co. House to Blockhouse 35 miles
- to Farriss's (Old Kane Residence, Gate City) 5 miles
- to Clinch River 12 miles
- to Scott's Station (Head of Wallen's Creek) 12 miles
On April 10, 1833, Joshua Speer, by Joshua Speer, by order of court, established a ferry across Clinch River at a point which still bears the name Speer's Ferry. (5-62).
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