Dr. Thomas Walker’s Journal, 1750, Part 2
|
____________________
1 Walker’s “1749-50” indicates use of the Old Style (Julian) Calendar, the Gregorian Calendar not adopted by England and its colonies until after 31 Dec 1751. (Combs &c. Glossary)
2 Walker’s purpose in stopping in at Colonel Fry’s undoubtedly included information-gathering since Fry had himself apparently just returned the year previous from the Peters Rock-Steep Rock survey.
3 Summers states that the Woods-New River “was first discovered in 1671 by Colonel Abraham Wood, who lived at the falls of the Appomatox, now Petersburg Virginia. The line of his exploration was near and parallel to that of the boundary line between Va. and North Carolina as run in 1728-29 and described by Col. William Byrd, one of the Va. Commissioners, in the “Westover Papers.” He crossed the Alleghaney mountains by a gap called Wood’s (now Flower) Gap, and, passing down Little River, reached New River not a great distance above Ingle’s Ferry, mentioned later [in Walker’s Journal].” The 1751 Fry-Jefferson Map refers to this river as “The Great Konhaway called also Woods River and New River.”
4 Summers (inexplicably?) adds here that “The Kenawha [Kanawha] River was in early days commonly supposed to signify in the Indian Tongue, “River of the Woods,” but the name of Wood’s River, as it was for some time called, evidently came from that of New River, its Main Branch.”
5 Summers identifies the “great lick” as “now the thriving town of Roanoke, in the Co. of the same name.”
6 Both Summers and Williams comment on the mention of buffalos. Summers states that “It has been a generally received opinion that there were no buffalo east of the Blue Ridge, but while the locality here named is west of that mountain, it is not likely that the limit of their range was bounded by it. Col. Byrd killed buffalo in 1729 at points on the boundary line southeast of Roanoke between which and the coast there was no mountain. He states that it was not believed that they went any further north than the latitude of 40.” Williams adds as a footnote to Walker’s 30 Mar 1750 entry that “there were droves of buffaloes in the region in later years,” and references his own Memoirs of Lt. Henry Timberlake, 120.”
7 Summers states that the north fork of the Roanoke River is “formed by the junction of the Staunton and the Dan rivers in Halifax Co. about ten miles north of the dividing line between Va. & N. Carolina. It rises in the Alleghaney mountains and flows S. E. The upper portion of Staunton River is now called Roanoke, the lower portion Staunton, and after the junction with the Dan the Roanoke again.”
8 Summers locates William English’s land as “Near the present village of Blacksburg, Montgomery Co. Virginia.”
9 Summers identifies this crossing of the New River as “near the present crossing of the turnpike which runs from Wytheville to Christiansburg and several miles above the crossing of the Norfolk and Western Railroad,” and adds that “It was afterward known as Ingles’s Ferry. It is still owned and occupied by descendants of William and Mary Ingles.”
10 Summers states that “Peak Creek enters the New River near the village of Newburn, in Pulaski Co.,” and that Reed Creek was “Probably Reed Creek in Wythe County.” The 1751 Fry-Jefferson map, however, shows Peak and Reedy as only a few miles apart, both on the west side of the New River, which seems more likely since Williams states that Max Meadows is the present (1928) name of the Reedy Creek site near McCall’s, and that “James McCall served in Col. William Christian’s campaign against the Cherokees in 1776.”
11 Williams begins his transcription with this date, but shows the above as “bought what Bacon I wanted.”
12 Summers identifies this location as “the Middle fork of the Holston, which joins the South Fork of Holston near Abingdon and forms the Tennessee,” adding that “The Holston was called by the Indians first the Cat-Cloo, afterward the Watauga. It took its name, its present name, from an early hunter and explorer named Holston or Holstein.” Stephen Holston, a corn hunter, settled on the Holston sometime prior to 1749 when the above-referenced 1751 Fry-Jefferson map referred to this as “Holston’s River”
13 Summers states that “Samuel Stalnaker was probably, as his name indicates, one of the early pioneers from the Lower Shenandoah Valley or from Penn. of German descent, the family having numerous representatives in the Valley. He was doubtless a hunter and Indian trader who had visited the Cherokees and was acquainted with the route to Cumberland Gap, upon which Dr. Walker had never been or he would not have needed a guide. It was from him evidently that Dr. Walker received information as to certain localities he was about to visit, as Clinch River, Cave Gap, and other points of which as he advanced into Kentucky, he gave previous information. It was not improbable that the route from the Ohio River to the Cumberland Gap and the Cherokee country, which at that time was defined and known as “the Warriors Path” was travelled by hunters and traders, and that Stalnaker was acquainted with it personally or from others. On Fry and Jefferson’s Map, 1751, Stalnaker’s settlement is put down as the extreme western habitation.” [not found]
Williams also discusses Stalnaker’s, about which he states: “Stalnacker’s was a noted place in colonial days. The command of Col. Wm. Byrd, III, of Westover, encamped there during the winter of 1760-1761 before proceeding to the Tennessee Country against the Cherokees. (Williams, Memoirs of Lt. Henry Timberlake, 36, 37). Stephen Holston’s cabin was on the head-springs of the Middle Fork of Holston River about nine miles above Stalnacker’s. Holston did not remain there long. Disposing of his “corn rights” — to a hundred acres for each acre planted in corn — to James Davis, Holston and a party of friends constructed canoes and passed down the river into the Tennessee, the Ohio and the Mississippi as far as Natchez. This notable adventure fixed his name to Holston River. No record of the journey exists; Holston was not a journalizer. As Walker’s Journal indicates[,] that stream was so called in 1750 (See Thwaites, Wither’s Chronicles of Border Warfare, 50, note by Draper. Further as to Stalnacker: Smyth’s Tour, I, 313).”
14 Summers notes that “From the fact that Dr. Walker was here in 1748, historians have fallen into the error of stating that it was in this year that he went to Cumberland Gap, in company with Col. James Patton, Major Charles Campbell and others, but there is nothing upon which the assertion remains except a misty tradition. It is doubtless based upon the fact that these gentlemen, in 1748 Dr. Walker being one of the number, made an exploration with a view of taking up lands, as some of them did, on the Holston. This region then began to excite attention for settlement and the following year the boundary line between Virginia and North Carolina was extended to a point beyond that at which Doctor Walker was this day.” He also adds that “The Cherokee Indians occupied East Tenn. and a part of Northwest Georgia adjacent. They were at times, and until 1759, friendly and very faithful to the Whites, furnishing volunteers in the early part of the French and Indian War. They were thus deadly enemies of the Shawnees and other tribes north of the Ohio, but in the Revolutionary War they united with them under British influence against the Americans.”
15 Summers interprets Walker’s phrase “left the Inhabitans” as meaning that he had “past the frontier of civilization.”
16 Summers notes that Reedy Creek “Enters the South Fork of the Holston River a short distance above its junction with the North Fork.” Williams states that “This Reedy Creek rises in Washington County, Va., just above the state line, and flows into the South Fork of Holston at the present Kingsport, Tenn. Its head-springs are at the base of Walker’s Mountain,named for Dr. Thomas Walker, the journalist.”
17 Williams suggest that the Indians were “Either the Cherokees or Shawnees on hunt or going to war.”
18 Williams notes that “At the mouth of Reedy Creek is Long Island of Holston, one of the most historic spots in the Old Southwest. Strangely enough, the Island is not mentioned by Dr. Walker. It was an ancient and revered treaty ground and rendezvous of the Cherokee Indians. The houses found opposite the Island evidenced its use by them, an, perhaps, by early white traders to their towns lower down the Valley of the Tennessee. Dr. Walker’s entry is, however, the first glimpse of the spot in recorded history.” Summers, too, makes mention of Long Island, stating that Reedy Creek “empties into the Holston at the Foot of Long Island, a noted locality in the early history of Tenn. Nearby a fort was erected by advice of Washington in 1758, by Col. William Byrd, which was later known as Fort Patrick Henry. Just below the mouth of Reedy Creek is the town of Kingsport, Sullivan County, and a short distance below the town the North Fork puts into the Holston. It was at this point the treaty of Watauga was held March, 1775, when the Cherokees sold to Richard Henderson And Company the land in Kentucky called Transylvania.”
In respect to the Ford mentioned by Walker, Williams states: “This ford was in use as the crossing-place of one of the great highways from the Valley of Virginia to the Valley of the Tennessee until 1818 when a bridge was constructed by Rev. Dr. Frederick A. Ross across the North Fork immediately at its junction with the South Fork. Ross built his “Rotherwood” mansion on an eminence on the west bank of the North Fork, at the end of this bridge. The steel highway bridge now across the river is located just a few feet above the ruins of the old bridge. Ross, Rotherwood, 12-14. The “four Indian houses” mentioned by Walker probably stood on the site of “Rotherwood.” The huge elm referred to in this entry yet stands, but is in a dying condition. Its trunk measures twenty-two feet in circumference and its branches have a spread of one hundred and fifty feet. The tree stands over a spring on the north bank of the North Fork of the river, just below an old mill, operated by Ross as a cotton mill and later known as Jordan’s woolen mill, which is yet standing.” (Ib., 22.) Williams adds that the Indian Fort is “At or near the present Solitude Ford of Holston.”
19 Summers notes that “On leaving the Holston River his route was northwest,” and Williams that they travelled Williams: “Up a small creek that runs into the Holston at Solitude Ford along a road of the present time that leads northwesterly to Carter’s and Stanley’s Valleys.” Williams identifies the “Reeds” as “Cane, frequently called by early travelers “Carolina cane.”
20 Summers identifies the Rocky Ridge as “The Clinch Mountain which runs through part of East Tennessee and Southwest Virginia in a northeasterly direction, a very regular chain with gaps at long intervals. The small hills refered to are the paralell outliers of the Clinch Mountain” In reference to the Buffalo Road, Williams states that “The explorers naturally followed the buffalo trails through the wilderness. Now following the Stanley Valley road of the present day, up Stanley Creek and over a divide to Big Creek, in Hawkins county, Tenn.”
21 Williams identifies Holly Creek as “Now called Big Creek.”
22 Summers states that Walker “crossed Clinch Mountain most probably at Looney’s Gap and reached the Clinch River above the present site of Sneedville, Hancock County Tenn. Thence he went up Greasy Creek northwestward and entered the narrow valley between Newman’s Ridge and Powell’s Mountain, running paralell to the Clinch. The former, or Eastern Ridge, as Dr. Walker calls it, is twenty-five hundred feet high, and the latter, or Western Ridge, two thousand feet high as shown by the excellent contour map of the U. S. Geological Survey, with the details of Dr. Walker’s route as indicated by his journal agrees with striking accuracy.” He adds that “On the 11th Dr. Walker went down Big Sycamore Creek, which runs southwest between these ridges, to its junction with an unnamed creek coming into it from the southwest. He travelled up the latter by a buffalo road over several divides, and on the 12th reached Powell’s River, ten miles from Cumberland Gap.” Williams also identifies this crossing as “Looney’s Gap of the Clinch Mountains, named for a leading pioneer family. John Looney lived in the section in 1779. (Journal of Daniel Smith, Tenn. Hist. Mag., I, 54.).”
23 The 1751- Fry-Jefferson map lists this river as the “Pelesippi or Clinches River,” and Williams identifies the location as “Clinch River, crossed near Sneedville, the county seat of Hancock County, Tenn.” Summers describes the Clinch as “A tributary of the Tenn. running paralell with the Clinch Mountain, rising in Tazewell and Bland Cos. Va. and interlocking with the Bluestone River and Wolf Creek, tributaries of New River.”
Both Williams and Summers comment on the fact that Haywood’s Civil History of Tennessee mistakenly states that the Clinch wasn’t so named until 1761, Haywood having ascribed its naming to a tradition that the river was named by a party of hunters: “They named Clinch River and Clinch Mountain from the following circumstance. An Irishman was one of the company; in crossing the river he fell from the raft into it, and cried out clinch me, clinch me; meaning lay hold of me. The rest of the company unused to the phrase amused themselves at the expense of the Irishman and called the river Clinch.”
Williams adds that “Notwithstanding the fact that Walker describes the river as being one hundred and thirty yards wide at the place of crossing, Justin Winsor has him crossing “to the head of Clinch River and entering Cumberland Gap.” The Mississippi Basin, 277,” and Summers notes that Walker’s “correct nomenclature of the River indicates that he had received information concerning the route travelled from Stalnaker or other source.”
24 Williams states that Turkey Creek was “Believed to be Wallen’s Creek, between Powell Mountain on the east and Wallen’s Ridge on the west,” but Summers identifies it as “Now Big Sycamore Creek.”
25 Williams adds that “Ambrose Powell, of Walker’s party, here carved his name on a tree, which, being found by a company of hunters in 1761, they gave to the river the name “Powell” which it retains.” (Ref: Haywood, 32). He also states that “The valley of this stream was within the bounds of Richard Henderson and Associates’ Path-Deed purchase from the Cherokees at the treaty held at the Sycamore Shoals of the Watauga in March, 1775.” (Ref: Williams, Henderson and Company’s Purchase within the Limits of Tennessee, Tenn. Hist. Mag., V, 5-28.)
26 Williams notes that “The region is rich in cola, several seams underlying the surface of the ground. Walker does not indicate that he foresaw that coal would be by far the most valuable product of the region.”
27 Williams states that “Cumberland Gap; so named by Walker in a later year, 1760, when on a second journey into the Kentucky Country, in honor of William Augustus, Duke of Cumberland, son of the reigning monarch George II and Queen Caroline. The Duke commanded the English army in Flanders and at the battle of Culloden where he defeated the Highlanders of Scotland under Prince Charlie, the “Young Pretender.” Refusing quarter to the wounded of the enemy on that field of battle brought upon him Byron’s epithet, “The Butcher.” Walker also named for the Duke the Cumberland Mountains and the Cumberland River–three deathless memorials to an Unworthy who has been described by a British historian as one “to be remembered with a just loathing as a man by whom brutalities of all kind were displayed, almost to the point of madness.” No wonder that that stubborn Scotchman, Col. Arthur Campbell, persisted in writing the name of the mountains in the old form, “Ouasioto Mountains.” Ramsey and other historians are mistaken in saying that Walker named these mountains, the river and gap, while on the tour of 1750.”
28 Williams also notes that “Dr. Walker passed again through Cumberland Gap in 1779 when engaged in running the Virginia-North Carolina line. He told Isaac Shelby, who was in command of the Virginia escort or guard of militia, of his having carved his name on this tree in 1750. On going to the spot they found it as he had related.” (Ref: Bradford’s MSS., Durret Collection, University of Chicago Library)
29 Summers states that Flat Creek is “Present Yellow Creek, upon which, nearby, is now the site of Middlesborough. Coal abounds in this vicinity.”
30 Williams states that the Indian Road was “The war-path of the Cherokee and Shawnee Indians in their almost constant warfare. This war-trail is laid down on the Thomas Hutchins map with this legend: “The Path to the Cuttawa Country. It goes thro this Gap which is pointed out by the late Mr. Evans as a most important Pass. Walker gave assistance to Lewis Evans in his draft of a map of the region.” This is William’s last footnote to the last entry transcribed by him.
31 Summers identifies this as Clear (Clover) Creek that “empties into Cumberland River just above Pineville, where the River breaks through Pine Mountain, a range paralell to Cumberland Mountain, eight or ten miles distant. Yellow (Flat) Creek empties into it several miles above.”
32 Summers states that “This creek, now known as Swan Pond Creek, was named by Daniel Boone.”
33 Summers states that “The point at which Dr. Walker here reached Cumberland River is about twenty miles below that at which he crossed it on the 23rd. The creek which he called Rocky Creek is now called Patterson’s and the topography at its mouth conforms to his description.”
34 Summers identifies “ye Hunting Creek” as Station Camp Creek, “which empties into the Kentucky River just above Irvine, county-seat of Estill Co. At the mouth of the creek Daniel Boone lived alone in 1770, while his brother, Squire Boone, returned to N. Carolina for ammunition, and there they spent the following winter. The Indian trace up Station Creek was known as “Ouasiota Pass,” and when they reached the summit, they thought they were on top of Cumberland Mountains, the name “Ouasiota” Mountains being given to that range, together with all its elevated region eastwardly to the main chain…. “Ouasiota Pass” is laid down on Pownal’s Map, 1776, with routes converging to it from Big Bone Lick, near the Ohio, the lower Shawnee town at the mouth of the Scioto, and from the mouth of the Big Sandy, called Totteroy.”
35 According to Summers, Milley’s River was “the Kentucky River. No stream has been called by more names. The histories of Kentucky generally credited Dr. Walker with having given it the name of Louisa, but there is no foundation whatever for this assumption, as this journal fully shows [see below]. It is put down on Pownall’s and other of the early Maps as Milley’s River, and it was probably known to traders and hunters at the time of Dr. Walker’s expedition, from the Miami Indian name, which was “Millewakame.” Of the rivers named by Dr. Walker, he never leaves us in doubt always saying so in express terms when he names one. Other names by which the Kentucky River were known were Cuttawa, Cuttawba, Catawba, Chenoka, and Chenoa.”
36 Summers states that “Main Creek” was the Red River, “which in ordinary seasons is a small stream, but becomes very formidable after heavy rains on its headwaters.”
37 According to Summers, this Ridge was a watershed between the Licking and Big Sandy Rivers.
38 Summers states that this creek was “evidently Paint Creek, near the mouth of which is Paintsville, the County seat of Johnson Co. The valley of the upper Licking is much more elevated than that of the Big Sandy, and the descent to the latter is quite abrupt.” He adds that “soldier Dr. Walker” seems to have had “a great partiality” for the Duke of Cumberland and that “This river was named Louisa, after the sister of the Duke,” adding that “It has always been said that it was named for the wife of the Duke, but he was never married. The stream is known as the Louisa or Levisa Fork of the Big Sandy, and is joined by the Tug Fork, the northeast boundary between Virginia and Kentucky, at Louisa, C. H. seat of Lawrence Co., 40 miles north of Paintsville. The Indian name of the Big Sandy was Chattaroi or Chattarawha. It was also called Totteroi.” If, however, Walker named the Louisa, he apparently did so on an earlier trip since the 1751 Fry-Jefferson map also lists it by that name (assuming there was not more than one Louisa River).
39 Summers: “This was the dividing ridge between the two forks fo the Big Sandy. He was now travelling towards the southeast. having this day passed the divide between the waters of the Louisa and Tug Forks of the Big Sandy.”
40 Summers states that “This was the outcrop of the Pocahontas coal field in W. Virginia, now extensively mined, the Norfolk and Western Railroad penetrating that region and having been extended down the Tug Fork to the Ohio at Kenova, just above the mouth of the Big Sandy.”
41 Summers states that the “route of Dr. Walker from this point homeward needs but little comment. He followed substantially the present line of the Chespeake & Ohio R. R., crossing the Alleghaney divide on the 8th. of July, passing Hot Springs on the 9th, and reaching Augusta Court House (Staunton Va) on the 11th. Crossing the Shenandoah Valley and passing over the Blue Ridge at Rock Fish Gap, he completed the circle of his arduous expedition of four months and seven days by arriving at Castle hill on the 16th [sic] of July.”
Copyright 2000, 2001, TNGenNet, Inc.
Gifted year 2000 by Carole Hammett, including updates in 2001
To The Tennessee Genealogical Network, Inc. (TNGenNet/TNGenWeb)
A Tennessee Nonprofit Public Benefit Corporation
This Website Has Been Generously Hosted By USGenNet Since 1999
We Thank Them