Person:William Whitley (8)

Pioneers of Kentucky

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Contents 1 Overview 2 Personal Data 3 Disambiguation

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Overview

From Wikipedia:William Whitley

William Whitley (August 4, 1749 – October 5, 1813), was an early American pioneer born in what was then Augusta County, Virginia, the son of Solomon and Elizabeth Whitley. He was important to the early settlement of Kentucky and fought in both the Indian wars and the War of 1812.

In early 1775, he married Esther Fullen, and by the spring he set out on an expedition with his brother in law, George Clark, to explore what is now known as Kentucky. They chose a spot for a settlement near the Cedar Creek branch of the Dix River, and returned to Virginia to bring back settlers to establish a community. Returning in November of that year with his family and supplies, he planted 10 acres of corn and began to settle the area, but quickly moved to the newly built fort several miles away at St. Asaph's Creek, also known as Logan's Fort (now Stanford, Kentucky).

By the 1790s, as the settlement at St. Asaph's began to expand beyond a simple fortification and into the town of Stanford, William Whitley and his family built a large brick house outside town, near what would later become Crab Orchard, Kentucky. The estate was named Sportsman's Hill, it was the first brick house built in Kentucky, and still stands to this day, where it is preserved as the "William Whitley House" state historic site. The house includes a secret passage for escape and survival during raids by native americans, and originally included a horse racetrack. This racetrack set many traditions and trends for horse racing in the United States, being the first clay (instead of turf) track in the United States, as well as racing horses counterclockwise (instead of clockwise, as was the British tradition). These differences are attributed to Whitley's hatred of all things British, an attitude stemming from the American Revolutionary War.

In 1792, Isaac Shelby, the first Governor of the new Commonwealth of Kentucky, commissioned Whitley as a Major in the Kentucky Militia (6th Regiment). He was promptly promoted to Lieutenant Colonel the next year. In 1794, aggravated by continuing raids from the Chickamaugua tribe, he led 200 militiamen to destroy the village of the Chickamaugua's. Upon his return to Stanford, he threw a party to celebrate the victory, which also doubled as a celebration of the completion of his house.

In 1797 he was elected to the Kentucky General Assembly in the Kentucky House of Representatives, and served one term. He also served as a commissioner of the Kentucky River Company in 1801. In 1813, at the age of 61, he volunteered in the Kentucky Mounted Infantry as part of the War of 1812. In the Battle of the Thames, on October 5, 1813, he led the charge against Tecumseh's forces. Both Tecumseh and William Whitley were killed in the battle. He was buried near the battleground, in Chatham, Ontario. He left behind three sons and eight daughters. In 1818, Whitley County, Kentucky was named for him. In 1838, Whitley County, Indiana was named after him.

Personal Data

Disambiguation

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1. ↑ ^{1.0 1.1 1.2} .

   Source: http://wilsonlewisfamily.com/pafg36.htm#876 [dead link in 2021]
   
   Col. William Whitley was born on 14 Aug 1749 in Rockbridge (then Augusta) Co., VA. He died on 5 Oct 1813 in Battle of The Thames, Canada. The cause of death was Killed while exchanging gunfire with Tecumseh. He married Esther Gill Fuller.
   
   Col. William Whitley (1749 - 1813) built the first brick house west of the Alleghanies and it still stands today. It is owned and preserved by the State of KY (since 1938) as a historical site and can be viewed by the public. It is just a few miles from where Louisa Bell and her family grew up and where she and Edmund Wilson lived when in KY.
   The son of Irish immigrants, William Whitley made his first trip to Kentucky in 1775 accompanied by his brother-in-law, George Clark. They established a station on land near St. Asaph, now known as Stanford. Whitley returned to Virginia for his wife Esther, and two daughters (eventually their offspring would number eleven). Often the terrain was so rough that they had to take their goods off the pack animals and carry them by hand. The Whitleys built their homestead away from a walled fort because attacks by the native Americans were few. They planted 10 acres of corn, thus staking their claim to the land.
   
   He also built the first racetrack in Kentucky but insisted that the horses race in the opposite direction that they did in England. This tradition is still carried on today.
   However, attacks from the natives increased and the Whitleys fled, first to Logan's Fort, then to Fort Harrod. After a year, the family returned to their station. Its position on the Wilderness Road led to persons gathering there to increase their numbers before crossing the wilderness back to Virginia. Whitley advised the travelers and sold them supplies. He became well-known as an "Indian fighter" because his station was often the first stop for travelers who had been attacked on the way to Kentucky. He or his wife Esther would raise the Kentucky Militia to pursue the attackers. Whitley was recommended to the rank of captain in the Militia.
   
   Whitley's fame as a defender of the frontier caused his acceptance as a volunteer at the age of 64 in the War of 1812. He was killed in the Battle of the Thames it is reputed while being among the small group of men that had cornered Chief Tecumseh, and in the exchange of gunfire, both Whitley and Tecumseh were killed.

2. ↑ ^{2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3} English, William Hayden. Conquest of the country northwest of the river Ohio, 1778-1783, and life of Gen. George Rogers Clark: with numerous sketches of men who served under Clark, and full list of those allotted lands in Clark's Grant for service in the campaigns against the British posts, showing exact land allotted each. (Indianapolis, Indiana: Bowen-Merrill Co., 1896)
   2:952.
   Col William Whitley. 1785 signature.
3. ↑ Snodgrass, Mary Ellen. Frontier Women and Their Art: A Chronological Encyclopedia
   2.

   ... A Virginian from Augusta County, Esther [Gill Fullen] was born on May 10, 1755, to Jean Elizabeth Gill and Irishman William Francis Fullen, a veteran of the American Revolution. Already well educated, she married in 1775 at age sixteen. With her husband, Colonel William Chapman "Billy" Whitley, a farmer and Indian Scout, and toddler daughters Elizabeth and Isabella, in November 1775, Esther traveled on horseback along the 120-mile Boone Trace. The expedition, which included here sister-in-law Margaret Whitley, wife and surveyor and militiaman George Rogers Clark, met with snow and hail on the thirty-three-day ride to Boonesborough, Kentucky.

4. ↑ L83Z-FH8, in FamilySearch Family Tree
   [includes sources], last accessed Apr 2021.