Hannah of Kentucky - James Otis |
Do you suppose we were long in making ready for the journey after father and Colonel Boone told us they had come to take both families into Kentucky? We children worked as we never had worked before in order that no time might be lost. It was about the first of September, 1775, when we set out, driving the cattle and sheep before us as we had done when leaving the Yadkin.
The second day's march ended at Powell's Valley, where we found Hugh McGarry, Richard Hogan, and Thomas Denton, with their wives and children, awaiting our coming that they might go with us over into what we believed to be the Land of Promise. There were thirty men, five women, and many children in the company when, after one day's rest, we pushed onward toward Cumberland Gap.
Now we had a drove of cattle indeed, and it was well for us that we were supplied with moccasins and shoe-packs, for running to and fro in search of the sheep, and striving to keep the cattle in an orderly line, was hard upon the feet.
After crossing Buffalo Creek, we arrived at Flat Lick, where we made a halt of two days that the men might get a larger store of meat before coming to a country where it was believed the savages would be troublesome.