Person:John Hedges (22)

... John married Kate Troutman, and by her had the following children, viz: Peter, Silas, James, Nancy, Fannie, Lucinda, Mary and Scytha; all lived to be grown, and settled in this county ...

... Catherine [Troutman] married John Hedges. ... And Rebecca [Troutman] married John Hutsel and John Hedges, the husband of her deceased sister, Catherine.[41]

[41] Will book, Fayette County, Kentucky, E, p. 287.

TRANSCRIBED FOR PUBLICATION
By OTTO A. ROTHERT
Louisville, Kentucky

INTRODUCTION: Every year during the past thirteen years, with one or two exceptions, THE FILSON CLUB HISTORY QUARTERLY has published one of Reverend John D. Shane's interviews. Shane was born in 1812 and died in 1864. He spent much of his time interviewing Kentucky pioneers and sons and daughters of pioneers. His notes on his several hundred interviews are preserved: some in the Wisconsin State Historical Society, Madison, and some in the Presbyterian Historical Society, Philadelphia. Photostat copies of all the notes on Shane's interviews now in the Wisconsin Society are in the archives of The Filson Club. A sixteen-page biography, "Shane the Western Collector," by Otto A. Rothert, appears in the January, 1930, number of the HISTORY QUARTERLY.

The Shane interview with pioneer John Hedge is of interest, although in places it is somewhat trivial. It covers so much ground that it requires a little more explanation than given in the notes here inserted in Shane's text. Therefore some additional facts are presented in this Introduction:

Many descendants of pioneer Hedge still survive in Bourbon, Clark and Montgomery counties. Hedge's Station is, even to this day, a well-known point in eastern Clark County.

The McClelland's Station referred to is clearly not the station of the same name which grew into Georgetown. The cabins mentioned as being built "that winter" in Winchester were doubtless the cabins known as Crossthwaites' Station. They stood about a half-mile east of the present Winchester, and were erected before 1791, which is the only suggested date for "that winter." There were no houses built until 1793 in what became Winchester. See "John D. Shane's Interview with Benjamin Allen of Clark County" (11CC67-79), by Lucien Beckner, in THE FILSON CLUB HISTORY QUARTERLY, April, 1931.

The story of Smith's Station, the settlement of Mt. Sterling and the sack of Morgan's Station, based entirely on Shane interviews, were given by Lucien Beckner before The Filson Club,

(p. 177)

November 2, 1937, in a scholarly address entitled "John D. Shane and What He Has Done for Kentucky."

Details regarding John Constant's Station, Major Andrew Hood's Station, and the Indian captivity of James Beath are presented in John D. Shane's Interview with Pioneer William Clinkenbeard (11CC54-66), transcribed by Lucien Beckner and printed in the HISTORY QUARTERLY, April, 1928.

The Shane interview here published was selected somewhat at random. In A Calendar of The Kentucky Papers of the Draper Collection of Manuscripts it is designated 11CC19-23. Shane does not give the time of this interview; it probably occurred before 1850. In the following transcription no changes were made other than spelling out abbreviated words and inserting, in brackets, some attempted elucidations; the headings, here in italics, are Shane's.

SHANE'S INTERVIEW WITH HEDGE

John Hedges. John Hedges lives at the crossing of the Paris and Winchester, and Iron Works, or Clintonville and Middletown roads. - Diagonally across from Stony Point meeting-house.

Settling Lands. It was for some time a prevalent custom for persons to take a lease on lands in the more central parts, free from probable incursions of the Indians, till they could either go out to lands of their own in safety, or have opportunity and the means of getting land of their own. The lease was to secure their privileges, and the lessor thus got his lands cleared. But all did not take these precautions to secure themselves, or to do justice to others. Many squatted down on lands, not knowing or caring whose they were. And some who had leased, enchanted with the abundance of the cane and the ease of raising cattle, fell too readily from their original purpose of settling themselves, and by attempting to follow up the range, which thus soon ran out, reduced themselves to poverty, and some of them thus lost some of the finest lands in the country. Improvidence, once scaxcely to be practiced, when the face of things changed, was then the ruin of thousands.

Currency. The currency of the country then was cows and calves, and horses. More current than our bank notes now. Have heard a horse cried off in Paris at so many cows and calves.

Settlers. Irish mostly from Pennsylvania country and South Carolina. Were called Cohies. Mostly Presbyterians.

(p. 178)

Virginians were called Tuckahoes. You could tell where a man was from, on first seeing him.

John Hedge, was here in 1791, November 3d, Monday. Morgan's Station was taken in 1793. (Monday, November 3d?) [April 1, 1793] On Slate, near the Iron Works.

Mayslick. Mayslick [settled in 1784] was then a station [when we came to Kentucky in 17891. There was no settlement from there to Blue Licks.

Ready-Money Jack. About 5 or 6 miles from there, one Ready--Money Jack (an Irishman] had some cabins. Five or six miles this side of the Blue Licks, where one Holyday since kept a tavern, within a few hundred yards. Ready-Money Jack was from Monongahela country. Was less afraid of Indians. The people in that country were more accustomed to them. He kept a kind of tavern there [five or six miles from Blue Licks] and gave himself that name. People were afraid to encamp out of the settlements, after leaving Mayslick.

Irish Station. Higher up, about two miles of Millersburgh, was the Irish Station.

McClelland's Station. Had been a station what was [earlier] called McClelland's Station. But the people were just settling out. Pretty much dispersed at that time. Between Paris and Millersburgh was settled pretty thickly.

Wilmot's Station. Wilmot's Station was on the heads of Huston, nine or ten miles from Paris, between Paris and Lexington. But at that time (they) were settled out pretty much in (a) little neighborhood. The neighborhood still retaining the name Wilmot's Station. You might see a dozen little cabins, say, at a time.

Hood's Station. [Andrew] Hood's Station was up by Winchester (three miles north] and Stroud's. That winter [1791] they were beginning to build some cabins at Winchester [at Crossthwaite's Station, one-half mile east of the present town].

Constant's Station. [John] Constant's Station was opened two or three miles [only one-half mile] this side of Stroud's, on a road that had been opened to Maysville from Boonsborough, and intercepting that one from Lexington, about this Ready-Money Jack's. This road was cut for Stroud to move up on, and for others to get salt, &c. (John] Stroud moved -up about two years after he first came out here at all. That was the only road at all through heie then. They went on from Paxis on the road that was about that time made to Hornbach's Mill [about four miles

(p. 179)

north of Strode's] till it intersected the one leading to Stroud's. They went up it to Stroud's, and then on by Hood's, and soon the old trace on the ridge to go to Mount Sterling.

Seven or eight years before some mischief had been done at this Constant's. His was the first Station built out of Strode's. Hood and Constant were both in existence when I came [in 1789] to the country.

Stroud's Station. Stroud's Station was the most prominent point in all that section. Was on the head of Stroud's Fork of Stoner. [Strode's was less than a mile from Constant's. Shane spells pioneer John Strode's name both "Stroud" and "Strode." The correct spelling always has been Strode. The Strode family is still prominent in Clark and neighboring counties.]

Shull's Station. Shull's Station was on Stoner, near the head. [Joseph Schull was a son-in-law of Daniel Boone. This place, in Clarke County, is now Schollsville, but locally the name is pronounced Shellsville.]

Buffaloe. When I first came here, the buffaloe bones covered all the grounds. Said that men used to come down from Stroud's (and) the interior, when the buffaloe were poor, and kill them for sport, and leave them lie. The trace that passed on to the upper and lower Blue Licks led through here, and they would- kill them on it. It went from Strode's Station. There was very little cane through here. Mostly covered with wild-rye and pea-vines.

Salt Spring Trace. The trace that was a buffaloe trace from Strode's Trace to Harrod's Lick, on Stoner, was called the Salt Spring Trace. And the trace made by Stroud avoided crossing Stoner so often. The buffaloe took a strait course.

Stoner's Trace. [Michael] Stoner's Deposition in the case of Payne versus Strode, &c. at Paris. In 1778 Stoner was out to kill and hunt, under the Virginia government, and was passing from Boonsborough to Blue Licks in 1776 and lost his horses, and marked his way back so as to find his baggage, and it was from that called Stoner's Trace for some time.

Moses Thomas, Enoch Smith, Testimonies.

Settling Lands. Would take a lease for five years, clear as much as they pleased, and enjoy the range till it was gone, and then move. Most of the people when I came were on leased lands, till times became more safe.

Mrs. Young. Morgan's Station. 1793. A Mrs. Young, at Morgan's Station, was taken with her child. Her child was killed on the Ohio River, and she exchanged at Wayne's treaty.

(p. 180)

A young woman, that was scalped on the road, and was left, got well again, and came in. Young, that husband, escaped from that station.

A man took off his wife and two children. Was pursued by two Indians. She waded Slate [Creek]. It was pretty deep. After they crossed, her clothes were in her way, and he took out his knife and trimmed them off. She led along the little boy, and he took the child and his gun in his arms, treeing whenever the Indians came too near, thus keeping them at bay, and brought off the only woman and children that escaped. Harry Martin?

Smith's Station. [Enoch] Smith's Station was not far from Mount Sterling. It was Mount Sterling that was settled that spring of 1792. Winchester wasn't thought of then. Some of the people I was moving that winter, 1791-2, and one or two of the company, went aside to a father-in-law's, at Smith's Station, about one and one-half miles from the road. Troutman and his wife we were moving. A Tanner, going up on to the peeled-oak fork of Slate to live. Spurgen was going on with a cabin at that time, and there were one or two others going on. Mount Sterling was on the trace that led from Lexington and Stroud's Station to the Slate Iron works [in Bath County]. Moved Troutman there, fall 1791. Some Negroes were killed afterwards from his same neighborhood.

Coming Out. Fare. Wind was a great-deal against us, and we had turkey-pot-pie till I got so tired I never wanted to eat any more as long as I lived. At this Ready-Money Jack's we got some hot corn cake and milk, which ate admirable. Our pot-pie had been made of flour ground on horse mills, in Monongahela country. That winter we got hog and hominy, good and abundance of it. I travelled a great deal that winter, and off from the public roads the people were ready to thank me for my company.

Wolves. Wolves beset me when I stopped all night near Mount Sterling.

Salt Licks. Fall of 1792, I went to Bullitt's Licks, by Lexington, Danville, Bairdstown, &c. Fall of 1793 I went to Mann's Lick twice. [Both licks are a few miles south of Louisville.] Same rout. Only road. Crossed Kentucky [River] at the mouth of Hickman. After peace was made, they got to make salt upon Sandy, Salt-Lick, on the Ohio, about the same time. Blue Lick had been used. But was not used but for making a

(p. 181)

very little salt, the year after I came. The year of Wayne's army, salt was as high as $4 per bushel, and pork got up to the same price.

Wolves. August, 1793, at Mann's Lick, wolves came around the wagons again. They were mighty bad in them days in Kentucky, on young cattle, horses, and calves.

James Beath Captured. James Beath helped to settle Stroud's Station in 1779. Went to Grassy Lick with two others (Swearingen, one, I think he got clear.) They were watching the Lick. Beath was shot through the shoulder. He and the other were taken. His wounds were not dressed till he got in, and the flies blowed him [swelled due to infection by flies]. Packed him several days, and this the month of August! Was taken to Detroit and kept about three years. Sold there, and released at the close of the British War. Had a wife and five children. Mrs. Beath had a sister, Mrs. Douglass, whose husband had been killed [in the Blue Licks campaign] and left her with three children. She [Mrs. Douglass] afterwards married Raph. Morgan [at Strode's Station]. Another sister married a weaver, Irishman, named Howard, and during this time he had the charge of all three of the families. Beath was a very interesting, conversible man. After all his scuffles, and got back to his family, and he had settled down on a part of this land and made considerable improvements, he was likely to lose his land through conflicting claims, and got chagrined, and sold out, and moved over to Ohio, and died in less than twelve months.

Strode's Station. He [Beath] and old Tom Kennedy, Jesse Kennedy's father, within three miles of Paris, were with the first settlers of Strode's Station.

James Beath's treatment by Indians. Somewhere where Chillicothe now stands, they had been a day or two without any thing to eat, and killing an old dog, divided it equally with him. He tasted a piece, but it was so unpleasant, he threw it down, and couldn't eat it. One morning the flies had blown him so, and he felt so sore, and tired, the Indians, when they got ready to start, said ho! as usual, and hod! to the pack, meaning for him to take it. He felt so indignant, and was so angry, he thought he would rather just die, than carry it any farther. He went on, they taking it after some pow-wowing. When he had run the gauntlet, an old Indian took him and dressed his wound, and he was afterwards sold to a British officer.

... John, born in 1771, of fine business ability, accumulated a large estate ...