This is my interpretation of how the area might once have looked when still pristine,
this is the
South Fork of The Licking River near Morgan.
A SKETCH: GENERAL CLARK AND BUFFALO TRAILS, INDIAN
AND PIONEER WARPATHS
NEAR MORGAN, KY., COVINGTON and CINCINNATI
Revised 1978 by Ewing O. Cossaboom. Copied from the Falmouth
Outlook, 1984
Pendleton County Historical & Genealogical Society News
Letters
Volume II, Issue IV, December 1995
Volume III, Issue I, March 1996
Transcribed with permission by Bonnie Snow
Thanks so much to the Pendleton County Historical & Genealogical Society
& The Falmouth Outlook!
"I his book "Pioneer Kentucky", Willard R. Jillson, has described in a book of historical wonderment "the physical aspect of Kentucky" before the pioneers.
I was born at Millersburg, Kentucky on the Hinston fork of the South Licking River (near Blue Licks). I spent a good part of my life at Morgan, Kentucky in the beautiful South Licking River Valley, and practiced law with a law office in Cincinnati which overlooked the Licking River flowing into the Ohio at the Point. Little did I realize that prehistoric buffalo trails, Indian and Pioneer war paths had existed where I was now walking and looking, but thanks to Jillson, new vistas for lovers of history have now been opened.
I have tried to pinpoint a few specific localities for the modern day traveler that were referred to generally by Jillson in "Pioneer Kentucky".
Unfortunately, this great work is now out of print and very
difficult to locate in order to read. This is the reason that such long
quotations from Pioneer Kentucky are included."
- - Ewing O. Cossaboom
GENERAL CLARK and INDIAN and PIONEER WARPATHS
The beautiful and fertile Morgan and Boyd river valleys of the South Licking River were traversed by the Indian and pioneer warpaths. The Licking Route, which will be described herein-after, follows the main line of the Louisville and Nashville Railroad along the South Licking River, and through both Morgan and Boyd. The Big Bone Lick Trail, which also will be described herein-after, crossed the waters of the South Licking River in Southern Pendleton County near Morgan. It must be remembered that the prehistoric large-hoofed animals had beaten out well marked roads. "Both the buffalo first and the Indians later revealed the high and unobstructed ridges".
To the pioneers, the importance of the buffalo paths and Indian trails was the fact that these roads were ready and waiting for their use as existing roads through the thick and almost impenetrable forest primeval.
The deed between John Ewing and Joseph Cummins on the 21 of March 1801 uses the following point of beginning: "General Clark's first encampment after crossing the south fork of the Licking on his march to the Shawnee towns in the year 1782".
Part of the land was in Harrison County and part in Pendleton County, Kentucky. The land reserved by John Ewing (Deed Book A, page 214) was near Morgan. All of these facts lead to the conclusions that this encampment was in or near the valleys at Morgan and Boyd or in between. The best pioneer scouts were present, Colonel Daniel Boone, Colonel Logan; and they were led by the very best scout, Simon Kenton. These men certainly knew the best fords of the South Licking near Morgan and Boyd. The most shallow water is at the old ford about a mile south of Morgan near the big ravine of the John M. Ewing farm which is about 100 yards south of the Morgan Cemetery. In the fall, if dry, the water is not over a few inches deep even at the riffles on both sides of the river. The small intervening island is bone dry. There is also a very large spring near there. This would have been an ideal site for crossing and for encampment.
There is also very shallow water at Bird's Crossing about on mile south of Boyd and possibly one other in between these two. Jillson's Map also shows Filson as going near Williamstown in 1788 on his way to Cincinnati, where he was killed by Indians.
Jillson also refers to Littell's Station on Fork Lick, Pendleton County and distinguishes this from the one at Williamstown, settled before 1792. Fork Lick flows into the Licking at Morgan.
Jillson states that in his two year stay in Kentucky, Daniel Boone traveled every trail of importance in north central Kentucky.
In 1782, the Kentucky Pioneers had suffered a dreadful and horrible defeat on the Main Licking and on the Buffalo Trace at Blue Licks. Colonel John Todd, the commanding officer, Major Silas Harlan, Israel Boone and many pioneers were killed in this bloody Indian ambush. Levi Todd, the grandfather of Mary Todd Lincoln, served as Captain and was not killed. To avenge this loss, fought after Yorktown, and called the last battle of the American Revolution, Gen. George Rogers Clark assembled a force of 1050 mounted men. "Daniel Boone brought his own men overland to a rendezvous at Bryant's Station. Thence he and Benjamin Logan marched to the mouth of the Licking".
Their first encampment (after leaving Bryant's Station north of Lexington) is referred to in the John Ewing deed.
General Clark assembled his mounted force at the Point at the
confluence of the Licking and Ohio Rivers. This is just opposite the
present Riverfront Stadium. The historical marker there states as follows:
THE POINT
"Confluence of Ohio and Licking Rivers. Christopher Gist, agent of
The Ohio Company, was first white man known to set foot on the Point,
1751. Lt. of Kentucky Company of Virginia, Col. John Bowman, led
expedition from here against Shawnee Indians in Ohio, 1777. Governor Isaac
Shelby rendezvoused 4,000 Ky. troops here before his victory at the Thames,
1813.
PIONEER LEADERSHIP HERE
Many other pioneer leaders made the Point a base for military operations, among
them Benjamin Logan, Daniel Boone, Simon Kenton and George Rogers Clark.
In 1780 and 1782, Clark and his two regiments met here before crossing the Ohio
to attack the Shawnee. The second expedition was to avenge the Battle of
Blue Licks; five Indian towns were destroyed."
Morgan, Kentucky lies almost due south of Cincinnati and north of Lexington. The ancient buffalo trace from Big Bone in Boone County came out almost at the Point. This was called Alant-o-Wamiowee by the Indians. Thus the Morgan and Boyd valleys were the closest route from the Point at the mouth of the Licking to the inner Bluegrass such as Bryant's Station, which is between Boonesboro on the east, and Fort Harrod to the southwest. The encampment of Gen. Clark in the Morgan-Boyd valleys is not at all known presently in that area, but at Boyd, about one mile south on the South Licking River, the point of crossing is still called Bird's Crossing and is still known.
Captain Henry Bird in the early summer of 1780 was sent from
Detroit, ascended the Maumee down the Big Miami and up the Licking to Falmouth
in boats and canoes. This force crossed the South Licking at Bird's
Crossing about one mile south of Boyd. Tracing the exact route from
Falmouth to Boyd has proved vague. In the book "Lure of
Kentucky" by Maude Lafferty it is stated as follows:
"For the British and savage invaders crept along the South Fork of Licking
down the dry creek bed of Snake Lick where they effected a crossing at a
sweeping curve of the river near Boyd Station by building a temporary ford of
logs laid crosswise, then longwise across the river. Over this they hauled
their cannon and forded Raven Creek, Mill Creek and Gray Run (at
Cynthiana). They again crossed South Licking at Buffalo Ford near Lair and
crept cautiously up the steep embankment just at dawn and attacked Ruddle's Fort
on June 20, 1780 and a horrible massacre followed."
Captives were also taken to the Ohio Shawnee Towns. This was the first
Kentucky Fort to fall. Captain Bird had a three pound cannon, a six pound
cannon and French swivels.
Surrender was made after tow rounds of the three pounder Either would batter down the log palisades. A week later Martin's Station surrendered. Fortunately, Capt. Bird then went north of the Ohio with his Indians who had a deadly and deserved fear of Gen. George Rogers Clark, the conqueror of the northwest territory. If he had failed, Canada might have included Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan and Wisconsin.
Ruddle's Station was located on the South Licking about three miles below the junction of Stoner Creek and Hinkston Creek, near Lair Station and about seven miles from Paris.
Martin's Station was built by John Martin on Stoner Creek at a point five miles from Ruddles's Station and three miles below Paris. It was on the old Buffalo Path, (and just back of Runnymeade, the home of the late Zeke Clay.)
Capt. Henry Bird was accompanied by Simon Girty, Alex McKee, Indian Chief Logan, 200 British Regulars, 100 Canadians, and 700 Indians, including Shawnee, Mingoes, Delawares, Hurons, Ottawas, Tawas and Chippewas.
General Clark, in retaliation, began at the Point (in Covington) to assemble his first expedition against the Shawnees in Ohio. He had, at least, one six pounder field gun.
Col. Benjamin Logan, Simon Kenton and Daniel Boone brought a battalion to the Point. They may also have come by the Morgan Valley. This would have been the shortest route. Two hundred men came from Harrodsburg. A small fort was built in Ohio across the river from the Point, the mouth of the Licking River. They left the Point on Aug. 1780 with 998 men, many mounted. Four horses hauled their cannon. There was also a combat wagon. They proceeded to Old Chillicothe on the Little Miami about 3 miles north of Xenia, Ohio, but the Indians had fled. There was a brief battle at Piqua about 10 or 12 miles away where the Indians had a palisade and block house which was destroyed by the cannon.
BIG BONE-BLUE LICK TRAIL
The well known instinct of the buffalo to pass from one important spring or salt lick to another in Kentucky led to the development during the prehistoric period of a well defined, but rugged path from the Big Bone Lick, in what is now southwestern Boone County, to the Lower Blue Licks and subsequently the upper Blue Licks in Fleming and Nicholas Counties. The exact course of this trail, which was very infrequently used by the pioneers except when engaged in a hunting expedition, since it neither led to or from any important settlement, is today obscure. It is thought, however, due to a course laid out by Evans on his map of 1775, that it progressed southeastward from Big Bone Lick to Dry Ridge, following this pronounced surface feature southwardly to the vicinity of present day Williamstown. Here it turned eastwardly down Lick Creek and crossed the waters of the South Fork of the Licking in southern Pendleton County. Thence taking the divide between the south and the main forks of the Licking Rivers in Harrison County, it intersected the old Limestone Trace on the head of Crooked Creek, a little northwest of where Carlisle now is situated in Nicholas County. Once onto the Limestone Trace, both the Lower and the Upper Blue Licks were easily reached by both man and beast.
The Licking River was first shown on an early map, as named Great Salt Lick River. Lick Creek empties into the South Licking at Morgan. The contour of the ground and the ease of crossing may have led the buffalo to the most shallow ford on the South Licking River in this vicinity, one mile south of Morgan near the Big Ravine, then out of the river past the old Toll Gate then east at or near the present Morgan Hightower Road about two miles to the divide which Jillson refers to which runs north to southeast. At the present time there is a home of Rufus Jones at the intersection of the Rankin Mill Road and the Broadford which is Route #1053. This road runs on this divide almost on the same high elevation to Kelat.
This ridge is the highest point in Pendleton County. In the yard of Rufus Jones there is an official State Marker which gives the elevation as 992 feet above sea level. The old Hightower School is on Broadford Road, just a short distance away from this intersection to the northwest. The old school house has now been converted into a barn on the Marksberry property. Rufus Jones also related that the Rankin Mill Road, which follows the divide into Kelat, was originally called the Ten Foot Road, but the name was changed to Rankin Mill road by former Pendleton County Judge Early E. Cummins. Most of the descriptions of the buffalo paths give their width as from three to four yards wide, which bears a marked similarity to the width of Ten Foot Road.
Snake Lick itself begins in Harrison County about 2 1/2 miles south of the Rankin Mill Road, after passing the intersection of Rankin Mill Road and the Morgan Hightower Road. This is the divide between the South and the Main Licking Rivers. As you look to the land at the west the drainage goes to Snake Lick which empties into the South Licking south of Boyd and not far from Bird's Crossing. The land to the east drains into Blanket Creek which empties into the Main Licking River. This divide goes approximately 5 miles into Kelat and near there the road is called Petty Road. This Big Bone-Blue Lick Trail, passed through Morgan over the divide to Kelat, then continued on the divide southeastwardly to an area not far from the Main Licking and then to Blue Licks and is presently depicted on the map, in the historical trailer in front of F. Harrod at Harrodsburg, Kentucky.
The Buffalo Path was rugged but well defined. This gave the Indians and pioneers a ready made path through the forest which did not have to be cut. This Buffalo Path might or could have been used in part, by Capt. Bird and his Indians to haul the cannon over such a path from the Broadford to Snake Lick and then to Bird's Crossing near Boyd.
Even now at Blue Licks State Park, the Buffalo Path is still well defined, evident and wide enough for utility through the forest. In Nicholas County, near Headquarters there is a road still called Buffalo Trace.
Near the ford near the Big Ravine just south of Morgan is the Big Spring. A very experienced Indian Point hunter, Norman Hunt, found a large concentration of Indian arrowheads there. One reason could have been the close proximity of the Buffalo Path. Some of these were 7,000 years old.
THE LICKING ROUTE
"In northern Kentucky a route which was destined to be pre-empted by one branch of a great railroad-the Louisville and Nashville-is designated on Filson's map as extending in a northwest direction down the South Fork of the Licking River from Ruddles Station and the main fork of the Licking to the juncture of this stream and the Ohio where Covington now stands. This trail is denoted by Filson as Bird's War Road. It joined with Gen. Clark's route from Louisville and Big Bone Lick at the mouth of the Licking where both crossed the Ohio to Fort Harmar, later renamed Fort Washington, on the present townsite of Cincinnati. Here these warpaths divided, one following the waters of the Little Miami northward to old Chillicothe, the Pickaway town, and the other turning down stream along the Ohio towards the mouth of the Great Miami. This old and well-known Indian trail in Kentucky over much of its course was a buffalo path. The lower part of it was usually traveled by water in canoes. Among the settlers it was generally spoken of as "The Licking Route." It was not used to any considerable extent by the pioneers, but in pre-historic times, was an important avenue of intercourse for the Indians."
DRY RIDGE TRACE
For long distances this pioneer trace followed the great drainage divide-Dry Ridge-between the waters of Licking on the east and the springs falling into Elkhorn and Eagle Creeks, tributaries of the Kentucky River, on the west. Much of this route, particularly in what is now Kenton and Grant Counties, was part of the old Buffalo Trail from Big Bone Lick to the Lower Blue Licks. Buffalo paths made up other considerable portions of this route as in some parts of Scott County. Furthermore, it is reasonably certain that a well defined Indian hunting trail connected the more sharply marked animal courses, for the aboriginal savage liked best to travel the high unobstructed ridges, particularly if in so doing he could find the game he sought following their natural runways. This may be sure was the case along the great Dry Ridge divide.
Today this road thoroughly modernized with every convenience for the traveler is the Eastern Dixie U. S. 25, from Covington to Middlesboro. The greatest portion of the Dry Ridge Route was, some two generations ago, appropriated by the Queen and Crescent division of the Southern Railway, a lasting testimonial to the sagacity of the unknown pioneers who first blazed this route from the heart of the bluegrass region to the all important juncture of the Ohio and the Licking Rivers, where three great cities, Cincinnati, Covington and Newport were in later years to stand.
Jillson relates that in 1751, Col. Christopher Gist entered Kentucky at the mouth of Scioto (at Fullerton, Kentucky) went down the Ohio to Limestone Creek (Maysville), then taking the high ridge westwardly through Mason, Bracken, Pendleton, Grant and Owen Counties, at length came to Drennon's Lick in Henry County. The high ridge is easily recognized as Kentucky Route 22, running through Brooksville, Falmouth and Williamstown. The presumption is strong that KY. 22 from Williamstown east to the vicinity of Locust Grove near one branch of Fork Lick was also part of the Buffalo Road referred to by Jillson.
BIRD'S CROSSING
At a point about one mile and one half south of Boyd, Kentucky, on the gently flowing South Licking River, there is a memorable spot. The course of the river changes in a bend; the banks narrow and form a riffle of perhaps sixty feet wide. It was at this point that Capt. Bird and his large force of Indians crossed the river with cannons in 1780 in June. Local folklore still recounts the cannon that was lost in the river at this spot. (If all cannons had been lost, Ruddle's and Martin's Stations would not have fallen.)
As one stands on the east bank, totally covered by trees and undergrowth, it almost seems imaginable that a Shawnee could be behind every tree and that Bird's Crossing is just getting underway. Though unmarked by a historical marker, this is, indeed, a historical spot.
As has been previously stated it is very difficult to trace the exact route from Falmouth that Capt. Bird and his expedition took to Boyd. Filson in his famous map of 1784 shows Bird crossing Raven Creek, south of Berry, which is incorrect. One early historian briefly stated that Bird went from Falmouth "by land, the season being dry and the south fork dry."
CONCLUSION
Jillson mentioned that the Buffalo Path crossed the Ohio River opposite the Point to present day Cincinnati, and then branched off to the Little Miami River. In western Hamilton County, overlooking the Great Miami River valley, several miles north of Cleves, there is still a road, on a high ridge, called Buffalo Ridge Road.
Now Cincinnati is called the Gateway to the South, but the same "Point" also was equally important to the pioneers, because the Licking Route, the Dry Ridge Trace, the Buffalo Path from Big Bone Lick all converged at Cincinnati. The Licking River flows into the Ohio at this point and the history of the Kentucky settlements and Ohio Indian Wars are woven innertwineably with Cincinnati, the Licking River and General Clark.