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From the History of Muhlenburg:
 

A History of Muhlenberg County
I, General Muhlenberg
Muhlenberg County was so called in honor of General John Peter Gabriel Muhlenberg, an officer of high distinction and patriotism in the American Revolution.1  
General Muhlenberg made two trips to Kentucky in 1784, but did not see any part of that section which fourteen years later was formed into a county and named after him. It is more than probable that he did not visit any section of the Green River country. His life, however, is part of the history of Muhlenberg County, not only because the county is a namesake of his but also because many of its pioneers fought under him in the Revolution. General Muhlenberg's career is woven into the history of the Revolution and into the history of the nation during the first quarter of a century following that struggle. A volume entitled "The Life of Major-General Peter Muhlenberg, of the Revolutionary Army," was published in 1849 by Henry A. Muhlenberg, a nephew of the distinguished soldier. From this work I gather the following facts.  
Reverend Henry Melchoir Muhlenberg, the father of General Muhlenberg, emigrated to Pennsylvania from Hanover, Germany, in 1742. He founded the Lutheran Church in America, and died at Trappe, near Philadelphia, on October 1, 1787. His son, J. Peter G. Muhlenberg, was born at Trappe, Pennsylvania, on October 1, 1746. At the age of sixteen Peter was sent to Halle, Germany, to be educated. While in Europe he incidentally gained a little knowledge of military drills that was, in later life, of great advantage to him. In 1767 he returned to America and became a minister in the Lutheran Church, serving as a pastor to various congregations.  
Previous to the Revolution there was a union of Church and State in Virginia, where the Church of England was established by law; "and in order that the rector could enforce the payment of tithes, it was necessary that he should have been ordained by a Bishop of the English Church, in which case he came under the provision of the law, although not a member of the established church." To meet these difficulties Muhlenberg decided to be ordained in the official church. In 1772 he went to England, where he was "ordained by a Bishop of the English Church," and then returned to Virginia and preached at Woodstock until the Revolutionary War broke out. In the early part of 1776 he organized a regiment of soldiers, the Eighth Virginia, known as the "German Regiment." He participated in the fights at Charleston and Sullivan's Island. On February 21, 1777, he was made brigadier-general and took charge of the Virginia line under Washington, and was in chief command in Virginia in 1781 until the arrival of Baron Von Steuben. He was in the battles of Brandywine, Germantown, and Monmouth, and was also at the capture of Stony Point. He was second in command to LaFayette in resisting the invasion of the State by Cornwallis. He took part in the siege of Yorktown, and was present when Cornwallis surrendered on October 19, 1781. On September 30, 1783, he was promoted to the rank of major-general. A few months later the army was formally disbanded, and he returned to his family in Woodstock. In November he moved to Trappe and shortly afterward made Philadelphia his home.  
In 1784 he made two trips to the Falls of the Ohio, to superintend the distribution of lands in Kentucky granted to himself and other officers and soldiers of the Virginia army. His diary kept on these trips shows that he did not go down the Ohio below Louisville. In the fall of 1785 General Muhlenberg was elected Vice-President of Pennsylvania, Benjamin Franklin being at the same time chosen President. He was re?lected to that office every year until 1788, when he was chosen one of the members of the First Congress, to serve from March 4, 1789, to March 4, 1791. He also served in the Third Congress and in the Fourth Congress. His brother, Frederick Augustus, served as Speaker of the First Congress assembled under the Constitution. In February, 1801, General Muhlenberg was elected United States Senator from Pennsylvania. On the 30th of June, 1801, having been appointed Supervisor of Internal Revenue for Pennsylvania, he resigned his seat in the Senate. In July, 1802, he was appointed Collector of the Port of Philadelphia, which office he held up to the time of his death, October 1, 1807. He is buried at Trappe, Pennsylvania, where rest also the remains of his father.  
His biographer, commenting on the career of General Muhlenberg, says:  
He was one of those characters which in a revolution always find their level. He was by nature a soldier. ... He entered the church, doubtless, with as sincere and honest purposes as any of her ministry, but the agony of his country called him from the altar with a voice that touched every chord of his soul. The time for fighting had come--the time to try men's souls. His whole heart was with his country; rebellion against tyrants was obedience to God, and so feeling and so thinking, he went forth from the temple to the field. He was brave and generous to a fault, a proper brigadier to Greene, who loved him. Cool in danger, sound in judgment, indifferent to fame, zealous in duty: these were his distinguishing traits as a soldier. His virtues in private and political life were all cognate to these.  
Such, in brief, was the career of General Muhlenberg. Many interesting incidents occurred during his life, the details of a number of which are recorded Statue of General Muhlenberg. Philadelphia, Erected in 1910 in his biography. Among them is the dramatie event that took place at Woodstock, Virginia, in the early days of "'76." Times, as Muhlenberg was wont to remark, had been "troublesome," and the colonies were preparing to declare and fight for their independence. Muhlenberg was appointed colonel of the Eighth Regiment, which was then far from fully organized. His acceptance of this office necessitated his resignation as pastor of his churches. The scene that took place when this "fighting parson" delivered his farewell sermon is thus described by his biographer:  
Upon his arrival at Woodstock, his different congregations, widely scattered along the frontier, were notified that upon the following Sabbath their beloved pastor would deliver his farewell sermon. Of this event numerous traditionary accounts are still preserved in the vicinity in which it took place, all coinciding with the written evidence. The fact itself merits a prominent place in this sketch, for in addition to the light it sheds upon the feelings which actuated the American people in the commencement of the Revolutionary struggle, it also shows with what deep earnestness of purpose Mr. Muhlenberg entered upon his new career.  
The appointed day came. The rude country church was filled to overflowing with the hardy mountaineers of the frontier counties, among whom were collected one or more of the independent companies to which the forethought of the Convention had given birth. So great was the assemblage, that the quiet burial-place was filled with crowds of stern, excited men, who had gathered together, believing that something, they knew not what, would be done in behalf of their suffering country. We may well imagine that the feelings which actuated the assembly were of no ordinary kind. The disturbances of the country, the gatherings of armed men, the universal feeling that liberty or slavery for themselves and their children hung upon the decision the colonies then made, and the decided step taken by their pastor, all aroused the patriotic enthusiasm of the vast multitude, and rendered it a magazine of fiery passion, which needed but a spark to burst into an allconsuming flame.  
In this spirit the people awaited the arrival of him whom they were now to hear for the last time. He came, and ascended the pulpit, his tall form arrayed in full uniform, over which his gown, the symbol of his holy calling, was thrown. He was a plain, straightforward speaker, whose native eloquence was well suited to the people among whom he laboured. At all times capable of commanding the deepest attention, we may well conceive that upon this great occasion, when high, stern thoughts were burning for utterance, the people who heard him hung upon his fiery words with all the intensity of their souls. Of the matter of the sermon various accounts remain. All concur, however, in attributing to it great potency in arousing the military ardour of the people, and unite in deseribing its conclusion. After recapitulating, in words that aroused the coldest, the story of their sufferings and their wrongs, and telling them of the sacred character of the struggle in which he had unsheathed his sword, and for which he had left the altar he had vowed to serve, he said "that, in the language of Holy Writ, there was a time for all things, a time to preach and a time to pray, but these times had passed away"; and in a voice that re?choed through the church like a trumpet-blast, "that there was a time to fight, and that time had now come!"  
The sermon finished, he pronounced the benediction. A breathless stillness brooded over the congregation. Deliberately putting off the gown, which had thus far covered his martial figure, he stood before them a girded warrior; and descending from the pulpit, ordered the drums at the churchdoor to beat for recruits. Then followed a scene to which even the American Revolution, rich as it is in bright examples of the patriotic devotion of the people, affords no parallel. His audience, excited in the highest degree by the impassioned words which had fallen from his lips, flocked around him, eager to be ranked among his followers. Old men were seen bringing forward their children, wives their husbands, and widowed mothers their sons, sending them under his paternal care to fight the battles of their country. It must have been a noble sight, and the cause thus supported could not fail.  
Nearly three hundred men of the frontier churches that day enlisted under his banner; and the gown then thrown off was worn for the last time. Henceforth his footsteps were destined for a new career.Relief on the Pedestal of General Muhlenberg's Statue, Philadelphia  
This event occurred about the middle of January, 1776; and from that time until March, Colonel Muhlenberg seems to have been busily engaged in recruiting. After the great impulse already received, it is natural to suppose that his success was rapid; and such accordingly we find to be the fact. It was probably the first of the Virginia regiments ready for service, its ranks being full early in March. By the middle of that month he had already reported this fact to the Governor, and received orders to proceed with his command to Suffolk. On the 21st the regiment commenced its march for that place.  
A little less than a half century after the death of General Muhlenberg, and about five years after his biography was written, a poem, based on the incident that took place at the church in Woodstock, was published by Thomas Buchanan Read. This poem, "The Rising," is printed in McGuffey's old Fifth Reader, where most of us have read it, and from which I quote a few lines:2  
Out of the North the wild news came ... And swelled the discord of the hour. ...  
The pastor rose; the prayer was strong; The psalm was warrior David's song; The text, a few short words of might-- "The Lord of hosts shall arm the right!" ...  
When suddenly his mantle wide His hands impatient flung aside, And lo! he met their wondering eyes Complete in all a warrior's guise. ...  
The enlisting trumpet's sudden roar Rang through the chapel, o'er and o'er, ... And there the startling drum and fife Fired the living with fiercer life. ...  
"Who dares"--this was the patriot's cry, As striding from the desk he came-- "Come out with me, in Freedom's name, For her to live, for her to die?" A hundred hands flung up reply, A hundred voices answered "I!"  
General Muhlenberg was less than forty years of age when he left Virginia and returned to Pennsylvania, where he spent the last twenty-two years of his life in the upbuilding of his native State and the new nation. Pennsylvania has expressed her appreciation of his great work by placing a statue of him in Statuary Hall, Washington, D. C. His memorial stands in the southeast corner of the Hall, and although a graceful piece of work, the sculptor, Blanche Nevin, evidently was not familiar with the stature and physiognomy of her subject. Muhlenberg's biographer and other writers describe him as "tall in person," which statement is verified not only by paintings now extant but also by tradition. Nevertheless the sculptor represents Muhlenberg's height as not much more than five feet. His face, in this marble statue, looks more like that of a poet or musician, and not like that of a preacher and still less like that of a soldier. On the base of the statue is carved the name Muhlenberg; the pedestal is marked Pennsylvania.  
In October, 1910, the German Society of Pennsylvania erected a statue to General Muhlenberg in Philadelphia on the City Hall Plaza. It is a good likeness and a masterly piece of work by J. Otto Schweizer, of Philadelphia, one of the foremost sculptors in America. A portrait of this statue is here reproduced. Every detail of this fine work of art is true to its subject and is based on paintings and descriptions still preserved.  
The relief on the face of the pedestal of this statue is by the same artist, and is probably the best work of that character in the country. The elevations are so delicately balanced that the depth of the church with all pews and people comes within a thickness or height of only an inch and a half. The scene represents Muhlenberg in the act of finishing his farewell sermon. The church depicted is the old one in Trappe, near Philadelphia, which has been preserved unchanged since the middle of the Eighteenth Century, and is the same in which General Muhlenberg and his father often preached.  
In the Pennsylvania Capitol a large painting was recently finished by Edwin A. Abbey, symbolizing the "Apotheosis of Pennsylvania." Among the celebrities who appear in this large picture is General Muhlenberg.  
Such, as I here give it, is a glimpse of the life of the man after whom Muhlenberg County is named, and also a glimpse of the esteem in which he was and still is held. As already stated, General Muhlenberg probably never visited any part of the county that now helps perpetuate his name, nor even saw any part of the Green River country. Nevertheless, pioneer Henry Rhoads, in 1798, very fittingly procured for the entitlement of the county the name of the man who was a friend, pastor, and general to many of its earliest settlers.  
II, Some of the First-Comers
Statistics show that from the close of the Revolution to 1786 about 2,500 newcomers settled in Kentucky every year. After 1786 the army of emigrants gradually grew larger until 1795, when the inflow increased to about 25,000 annually and continued at that rate for a number of years. In 1790 the population of Kentucky was 73,677. By 1800 it sprang to 222,955. It was during this big inflow of the last years of the Eighteenth Century that many of the homeseekers drifted into the Green River country and became its first permanent settlers.  
Under the heads of the various counties bordering on Muhlenberg I gather, from Collins' History of Kentucky, the data here given relative to their first settlements. About a half-dozen stations were established between 1780 and 1784 in what is now Logan County. Among them was one that, later, became Russellville. In Ohio County the first settlements were Hartford and Barnett's Station, both of which were settled "before 1790." As early as 1794 a trading-post had been established at Berry's Lick, in Butler County. "Hopkinsville was laid out in 1799." The beginning of Madisonville, Morgantown, and Elkton dates back to the first years of the Nineteenth Century. Under the head of McLean County, Collins says: "The first fort or station was built, where Calhoon now stands, in 1788, by Solomon Rhoads, and called Vienna. In 1790 James Inman built Pond station, a few miles southeast of Calhoon." That Caney Station was what might be regarded as the first settlement in what is now Muhlenberg County is only parenthetically stated by Collins, and without the date of its beginning, which tradition says was about 1795: "One mile north of Greenville, near old Caney Station--which was the first settlement in the county--are several mounds."  
From the foregoing statements it will be seen that a few settlements were made in this part of the State as early as 1780, and that most of the places which became permanent settlements were begun during the last few years of the Eighteenth or the first of the Nineteenth Century.  
Tradition does not say who were the first white people to come into what is now Muhlenberg County. It is, however, probable that the first men who made this locality their home were Revolutionary soldiers who wandered westward immediately after that war. Tradition goes no further back than about 1784, to which time a few of the families in the county can trace the arrival of their ancestors.  
After Pond Station had been started and after Henry Rhoads began inducing more German-Americans to locate near that station and in other sections of the country, and while Caney Station was being built by Virginians, the inflow of newcomers began to increase rapidly. A number of pioneers from North Carolina and Virginia settled along Pond River. John Dennis and a few other North Carolinians, some of whom probably came as early as 1785, settled in the Pond Creek country. Kincheloe's Bluff or Lewisburg, on Green River, was settled and made a "port of entry" before the close of the Eighteenth Century. It was there that Thomas Irvin and his party of stone-cutters landed about 1797 and helped open up the Nelson Creek country. Stum's Landing, now Paradise, was also a well-known river point as early as 1798. It was during this period of the country's history that the outlaw, Big Harpe, was killed near what has ever since been known as Harpe's Hill.A Survivor of "the Forest Primeval"  
Jesse McPherson was one of the earliest settlers in the Clifty Creek country. John Hunt and James Wood were among the influential first-comers in the Mud River country. Among the first to settle in the Long Creek country were the Drake, Duke, Welborn, and Wells families.  
A number of the pioneers, as already stated, were Revolutionary soldiers, but more of them were sons of such veterans. The names of the Revolutionary soldiers living in the United States in 1840 were compiled for the census of that year. Collins gives the seven reported from Muhlenberg County: John Bone, Joshua Elkins, Sihez Garriz, Andrew Glenn, William Hopkins, Benjamin Neal, and Britain Willis. The average age of these seven in 1840 was eighty years. They must therefore have been about twenty-one years old at the close of the war. Life insurance statisties show that about 18 per cent of men who reach the age of forty are likely to reach the age of eighty. At this rate, if seven Revolutionary soldiers aged eighty were still alive in 1840, they represent what were thirty-eight men, aged forty, in 1800. We may thus assume that there were thirty-eight Revolutionary soldiers in Muhlenberg in 1800, who at the close of that war were twenty-one years of age.  
On the supposition that the number of older soldiers who came here after the Revolution and who died before 1800 is equal to the number of younger soldiers who were still alive in 1800 and represented by thirty-eight men, we may infer that about seventy-six Revolutionary soldiers were among the first settlers of Muhlenberg. If we assume that each soldier was the father of five children, then there were 380 sons and daughters of Revolutionary soldiers in the county in 1800. These children (380) with their parents (twice 76) make a total of 532. According to Collins, the population of Muhlenberg in 1800 was 1,443. That being the fact, we may infer that about 5 per cent of the pioneers who settled in Muhlenberg in the Eighteenth Century saw service in the Revolutionary War, and furthermore, that about one fourth of the pioneers were children of such soldiers.  
Although these figures, based partially on statisties, may be wrong, and these conclusions be far from representing the actual but unrecorded facts, these estimates nevertheless are more likely to be nearer correct than any based on mere supposition or a groundless guess.  
The first of the early settlers of whom we have any tradition or history were Henry Rhoads and his brothers, who settled Rhoadsville, which later beeame Calhoun. Of the original party who began this station only a few remained permanently in the immediate neighborhood. Henry Rhoads was probably the first to leave it. After living a few years near what later became Hartford, Ohio County, he settled in the neighborhood of what is now Browder, Muhlenberg County. In 1790 James Inman left Rhoadsville and moved five miles south, where he built Pond Station in the territory which, in 1798, became a part of Muhlenberg County, and in 1854, when McLean County was organized, became in turn a part of that county.  
W. G. Strond, of Semiway, McLean County, in a letter written to me in 1912, says: "There is a tradition to the effect that at one time a party of Indians came to the fort at Pond Station when it was occupied by only one man and several women. The other men were out either hunting or at work. The Indians made an attack on the fort, but were successfully repulsed by the occupants. About the year 1850, when I was a boy of ten, Thomas Worthington told my father that his grandfather was an inmate of the fort and that he (Tom) when a small boy visited him there and saw fine corn growing on the site of the old pond. The pond from which the Station took its name was made by beavers closing a gap in a ridge with a dam, causing the water to cover about twenty-five acres of ground. Local tradition gives no dates, and I am not able to give you, even approximately, the time when Pond Station was discontinued as a fort or station."  
Pond Station was located on the east side of the Greenville and Rnmsey Road, on the lands now owned and occupied by J. W. West and R. D. H. Beasley. In 1840 the Baptists in that neighborhood organized a congregation and called their church Old Station Church, in honor of Pond Station. Many years later a new structure was erected by that organization on a site about a mile from the original, and since known as Station Church.  
About the year 1795--that is, about five years after Pond Station had been started and about two years after Henry Rhoads settled in Muhlenberg County--Caney Station was started, near the present site of Greenville. This forerunner of Greenville was established by Colonel and Mrs. William Campbell, who with William Bradford and a few others, together with a number of slaves, came from Lexington for the purpose of opening a settlement on General William Russell's and Colonel Campbell's military grants. John C. Russell and Samuel Russell, it seems, did not appear upon the scene until after Caney Station had been begun by their brother-in-law and sister.Site of Pond Station, McLean County  
Caney Station was located on a stretch of elevated and rolling ground, semicircled by Caney Creek. It was about a mile and a half northwest of where Greenville is now, and near what later became the Earles and Lower Madisonville Road. A few log houses were erected. According to one version of this tradition, a stockade was also built. However, this spot was not decided on for a permanent home or futnre town. So, when the place for the courthouse had been selected (June, 1799), the people of Caney Station were all more or less prepared to move to the new town site.  
A few years after Greenville was started Caney Station was entirely abandoned. In the course of time the few log houses began to tumble down, and finally all traces of the old buildings disappeared. The only thing left to mark this historic spot is an abandoned graveyard, which was used by a few of the pioneer families for over half a century. Its dozen or more fallen tombstones are almost hidden by briars and myrtle, running rampant under a few walnut trees and old cedars.  
The square selected for the courthouse and the lots facing it were presented to the county by Colonel William Campbell. John Dennis, it is said, offered to donate the same amount of ground if any of his survey (about three miles southeast of Caney Station) were chosen for the county seat. The pioneers objected to Caney Station as a town site because the locality was then considered as lying too low for such a purpose. The place selected for the county seat was chosen hecause it was high and therefore more healthful, and because near it were two good springs, and furthermore because two old trails intersected upon it or not far from it.Old Caney Station Graveyard, Near Greenville  
There is a vague tradition to the effect that an old trail ran from Hartford, crossed Green River at Benton's Ferry (or Rockport), and running about two miles south of what later became Central City, continued through or near Caney Station or Greenville and crossed Pond River above Harpe's Hill, at what is now called Free Henry Ford. At some point west of Greenville another trail branched off the main route and extended through the Murphy's Lake country to the southwest, and like the main trail connected with the trail that became the Highland Lick Road. Another old trail started from Owensboro, or Yellow Banks, went through Rhoadsville (Calhoun) and Pond Station to Caney Station or Greenville, and passing the John Dennis house, continued to Russellville. It is probable that these two main trails intersected near the spot where the courthouse was built, and that they were old trails used by the Indians up to the time they stopped passing through this section of the country.1  
General William Russell, to whom was granted the land on which Caney Station and Greenville were built, was an officer in the Revolution. His regiment formed part of General Muhlenberg's brigade, which at times was in General Greene's division. General Russell participated in the Brandywine, Monmouth, and other battles, and was present at the surrender of Yorktown. He also fought in the French and Indian War, and led several expeditions against the Indians. General Russell was born in 1735 and died in 1793. His first wife was Tabitha Adams; his second wife was Mrs. Elizabeth Henry Campbell, widow of General William Campbell and sister of Patrick Henry. General Russell was the father of sixteen children, many of whom came to Central Kentucky shortly after the Revolution. His second son was Colonel William Russell, after whom Russell County is named. Three of General Russell's children by his first wife, after a short stay in Fayette County, located, as already stated, in Muhlenberg: John C. and Samuel Russell and their sister Mrs. Tabitha A. R. Campbell.  
Tabitha Adams Russell Campbell was the wife of Colonel William Campbell, who was a son of Patrick Campbell and a cousin of General William Campbell. General William Campbell was the hero of King's Mountain, where he defeated the British on October 7, 1780, and fought what proved to be "the turning in the tide of success that terminated the Revolution." In the autumn of 1800, shortly after Greenville's first courthouse was completed and the new town started, Colonel William Campbell broke his leg and was obliged to ride in a saddle to Lexington for medical treatment. There, in the home of his friend, Colonel Robert Patterson, he died November 19, 1800, aged forty-one years. Distance and transportation facilities were such that the body could not be brought from Fayette County, and for that reason the Father of Greenville is not buried in Muhlenberg.  
After Colonel Campbell's death his family continued to live in Greenville. His widow, being a woman of education and means, was in a position to give their five children many advantages. She died in Greenville, July 26, 1806. Their only son, Samuel Campbell, married Cynthia Campbell, but had no children. Their daughter, Elizabeth, became the first wife of Elder Barton W. Stone, and up to the time of her death in 1810 traveled with her husband, who was then beginning his great evangelizing work in Western Kentucky. The other three daughters became the wives of some of Muhlenberg's most prominent men: Tabitha married Judge Alney McLean. Anna S. married Charles Fox Wing, and Mary married Ephraim M. Brank.Mrs. Samuel Russell, 1845  
John C. and Samuel Russell were identified with the upbuilding of Greenville and Muhlenberg County. John C. Russell, who married Anna Clay, died November 17, 1822; Samuel Russell, who married Lucy Roberts, died October 23, 1835.2 These two men were not represented in the county as long, nor as numerously, as the descendants of Colonel William Campbell. The name of John C. Russell, who in 1805 located three miles southeast of Greenville, in what is now the Pleasant Hill neighborhood, is still perpetuated in the traditions of the Russell Old Field. Samuel Russell, in connection with other business, conducted the Russell House, which after his death was continued by his widow, who was succeeded by their son, Robert S. Russell. This well-known tavern was run until 1861, a period of sixty-two years. It was a two-story log house, built in 1799, on Main Street, due west of the Public Square. Samuel Russell's eldest son, Robert S. Russell, was the last of the Russells to leave the county. He moved to Paris, Tennessee, in 1865.3  
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On the supposition that the number of older soldiers who came here after the Revolution and who died before 1800 is equal to the number of younger soldiers who were still alive in 1800 and represented by thirty-eight men, we may infer that about seventy-six Revolutionary soldiers were among the first settlers of Muhlenberg. If we assume that each soldier was the father of five children, then there were 380 sons and daughters of Revolutionary soldiers in the county in 1800. These children (380) with their parents (twice 76) make a total of 532. According to Collins, the population of Muhlenberg in 1800 was 1,443. That being the fact, we may infer that about 5 per cent of the pioneers who settled in Muhlenberg in the Eighteenth Century saw service in the Revolutionary War, and furthermore, that about one fourth of the pioneers were children of such soldiers.  
Although these figures, based partially on statisties, may be wrong, and these conclusions be far from representing the actual but unrecorded facts, these estimates nevertheless are more likely to be nearer correct than any based on mere supposition or a groundless guess.  
The first of the early settlers of whom we have any tradition or history were Henry Rhoads and his brothers, who settled Rhoadsville, which later beeame Calhoun. Of the original party who began this station only a few remained permanently in the immediate neighborhood. Henry Rhoads was probably the first to leave it. After living a few years near what later became Hartford, Ohio County, he settled in the neighborhood of what is now Browder, Muhlenberg County. In 1790 James Inman left Rhoadsville and moved five miles south, where he built Pond Station in the territory which, in 1798, became a part of Muhlenberg County, and in 1854, when McLean County was organized, became in turn a part of that county.  
W. G. Strond, of Semiway, McLean County, in a letter written to me in 1912, says: "There is a tradition to the effect that at one time a party of Indians came to the fort at Pond Station when it was occupied by only one man and several women. The other men were out either hunting or at work. The Indians made an attack on the fort, but were successfully repulsed by the occupants. About the year 1850, when I was a boy of ten, Thomas Worthington told my father that his grandfather was an inmate of the fort and that he (Tom) when a small boy visited him there and saw fine corn growing on the site of the old pond. The pond from which the Station took its name was made by beavers closing a gap in a ridge with a dam, causing the water to cover about twenty-five acres of ground. Local tradition gives no dates, and I am not able to give you, even approximately, the time when Pond Station was discontinued as a fort or station."  
Pond Station was located on the east side of the Greenville and Rnmsey Road, on the lands now owned and occupied by J. W. West and R. D. H. Beasley. In 1840 the Baptists in that neighborhood organized a congregation and called their church Old Station Church, in honor of Pond Station. Many years later a new structure was erected by that organization on a site about a mile from the original, and since known as Station Church.  
About the year 1795--that is, about five years after Pond Station had been started and about two years after Henry Rhoads settled in Muhlenberg County--Caney Station was started, near the present site of Greenville. This forerunner of Greenville was established by Colonel and Mrs. William Campbell, who with William Bradford and a few others, together with a number of slaves, came from Lexington for the purpose of opening a settlement on General William Russell's and Colonel Campbell's military grants. John C. Russell and Samuel Russell, it seems, did not appear upon the scene until after Caney Station had been begun by their brother-in-law and sister.Site of Pond Station, McLean County  
Caney Station was located on a stretch of elevated and rolling ground, semicircled by Caney Creek. It was about a mile and a half northwest of where Greenville is now, and near what later became the Earles and Lower Madisonville Road. A few log houses were erected. According to one version of this tradition, a stockade was also built. However, this spot was not decided on for a permanent home or futnre town. So, when the place for the courthouse had been selected (June, 1799), the people of Caney Station were all more or less prepared to move to the new town site.  
A few years after Greenville was started Caney Station was entirely abandoned. In the course of time the few log houses began to tumble down, and finally all traces of the old buildings disappeared. The only thing left to mark this historic spot is an abandoned graveyard, which was used by a few of the pioneer families for over half a century. Its dozen or more fallen tombstones are almost hidden by briars and myrtle, running rampant under a few walnut trees and old cedars.  
The square selected for the courthouse and the lots facing it were presented to the county by Colonel William Campbell. John Dennis, it is said, offered to donate the same amount of ground if any of his survey (about three miles southeast of Caney Station) were chosen for the county seat. The pioneers objected to Caney Station as a town site because the locality was then considered as lying too low for such a purpose. The place selected for the county seat was chosen hecause it was high and therefore more healthful, and because near it were two good springs, and furthermore because two old trails intersected upon it or not far from it.Old Caney Station Graveyard, Near Greenville  
There is a vague tradition to the effect that an old trail ran from Hartford, crossed Green River at Benton's Ferry (or Rockport), and running about two miles south of what later became Central City, continued through or near Caney Station or Greenville and crossed Pond River above Harpe's Hill, at what is now called Free Henry Ford. At some point west of Greenville another trail branched off the main route and extended through the Murphy's Lake country to the southwest, and like the main trail connected with the trail that became the Highland Lick Road. Another old trail started from Owensboro, or Yellow Banks, went through Rhoadsville (Calhoun) and Pond Station to Caney Station or Greenville, and passing the John Dennis house, continued to Russellville. It is probable that these two main trails intersected near the spot where the courthouse was built, and that they were old trails used by the Indians up to the time they stopped passing through this section of the country.1  
General William Russell, to whom was granted the land on which Caney Station and Greenville were built, was an officer in the Revolution. His regiment formed part of General Muhlenberg's brigade, which at times was in General Greene's division. General Russell participated in the Brandywine, Monmouth, and other battles, and was present at the surrender of Yorktown. He also fought in the French and Indian War, and led several expeditions against the Indians. General Russell was born in 1735 and died in 1793. His first wife was Tabitha Adams; his second wife was Mrs. Elizabeth Henry Campbell, widow of General William Campbell and sister of Patrick Henry. General Russell was the father of sixteen children, many of whom came to Central Kentucky shortly after the Revolution. His second son was Colonel William Russell, after whom Russell County is named. Three of General Russell's children by his first wife, after a short stay in Fayette County, located, as already stated, in Muhlenberg: John C. and Samuel Russell and their sister Mrs. Tabitha A. R. Campbell.  
Tabitha Adams Russell Campbell was the wife of Colonel William Campbell, who was a son of Patrick Campbell and a cousin of General William Campbell. General William Campbell was the hero of King's Mountain, where he defeated the British on October 7, 1780, and fought what proved to be "the turning in the tide of success that terminated the Revolution." In the autumn of 1800, shortly after Greenville's first courthouse was completed and the new town started, Colonel William Campbell broke his leg and was obliged to ride in a saddle to Lexington for medical treatment. There, in the home of his friend, Colonel Robert Patterson, he died November 19, 1800, aged forty-one years. Distance and transportation facilities were such that the body could not be brought from Fayette County, and for that reason the Father of Greenville is not buried in Muhlenberg.  
After Colonel Campbell's death his family continued to live in Greenville. His widow, being a woman of education and means, was in a position to give their five children many advantages. She died in Greenville, July 26, 1806. Their only son, Samuel Campbell, married Cynthia Campbell, but had no children. Their daughter, Elizabeth, became the first wife of Elder Barton W. Stone, and up to the time of her death in 1810 traveled with her husband, who was then beginning his great evangelizing work in Western Kentucky. The other three daughters became the wives of some of Muhlenberg's most prominent men: Tabitha married Judge Alney McLean. Anna S. married Charles Fox Wing, and Mary married Ephraim M. Brank.Mrs. Samuel Russell, 1845  
John C. and Samuel Russell were identified with the upbuilding of Greenville and Muhlenberg County. John C. Russell, who married Anna Clay, died November 17, 1822; Samuel Russell, who married Lucy Roberts, died October 23, 1835.2 These two men were not represented in the county as long, nor as numerously, as the descendants of Colonel William Campbell. The name of John C. Russell, who in 1805 located three miles southeast of Greenville, in what is now the Pleasant Hill neighborhood, is still perpetuated in the traditions of the Russell Old Field. Samuel Russell, in connection with other business, conducted the Russell House, which after his death was continued by his widow, who was succeeded by their son, Robert S. Russell. This well-known tavern was run until 1861, a period of sixty-two years. It was a two-story log house, built in 1799, on Main Street, due west of the Public Square. Samuel Russell's eldest son, Robert S. Russell, was the last of the Russells to leave the county. He moved to Paris, Tennessee, in 1865.3  
William Bradford, as already stated, accompanied Colonel William Campbell to the unsettled country that later became Muhlenberg County, and helped to build Caney Station. When Greenville was laid out, one of the streets was named after Bradford. He was one of the first captains in the local militia, and held various county offices in the early days, representing Muhlenberg in the Legislature in 1801, 1803, 1810, and 1811. It is more than probable that William Bradford was one of the most influential of the first-comers in the county. His name, like the names of many of the other pioneers, appears here and there on the pages of the old court records, and like the names of a number of his contemporaries is now seldom heard. As far as I am aware, he is forgotten by all the repeaters of local traditions except two--William A. Armstrong and Judge William H. Yost.Robert S. Russell, 1870  
William A. Armstrong told me that about the year 1855 Charles Fox Wing, speaking of local men who had died years before, referred to William Bradford as a man who had spent the last years of his life trying to better the laws of the State and improve the environment of the people of Muhlenberg. Captain Wing also told him a story to the effect that Bradford showed heroism in battle on one occasion. A bombshell had been thrown into a fort, and Bradford, while the fuse was still burning, picked the shell up and threw it on the enemy outside the fortification before it exploded, and thus saved the day for the Americans. Armstrong's recollection as to where Captain Wing stated that this took place was very vague. He, however, was of the opinion that it occurred during the second war with England, if not during the Revolution or during General Anthony Wayne's campaign in Ohio in 1794. I failed to find William Bradford's name on the roster of officers and privates who enlisted in Kentucky during the War of 1812. However, since that list is far from complete, he may nevertheless have served as a soldier from this State.  
Judge William H. Yost, in a letter sent to me recently, writes: "Some time between the years 1870 and 1875, while the clerk's office in Greenville was undergoing some repairs, Judge Charles Eaves and myself found in one of the old record books two copies of a printed circular, written by William Bradford and addressed to the voters of Muhlenberg County. It was headed 'In Prison Bounds.' It announced his candidacy for the Lower House of the General Assembly at the ensuing election. Judge Eaves told me Bradford was elected and his election took him out of 'Prison Bounds.' Judge Eaves also told me that the judgment fixed Bradford's 'Prison Bounds' to the limits of the Courthouse Square. I remember how, in his circular, he mercilessly flayed his creditors for confining him to 'Prison Bounds.' I was told that their action resulted in his election, and that during the rest of his life he did much toward repealing the old laws inflicting imprisonment for debt."  
The old laws according to which men were sentenced to the State prison or confined to local "prison bounds" for debt were modified during the years that Bradford was a member of the Legislature. All of these laws, with the exception of a few, were repealed by 1821, which in all probability was after his death.  
No one knows the place and time of William Bradford's birth or death. I find no trace of any descendants and therefore infer that he was a bachelor or a childless man. In his day he undoubtedly worked faithfully for the betterment of the life and laws of his fellow-men, and having done what he regarded as his duty, he probably was indifferent whether or not he would be remembered by posterity. Nevertheless, like many others who have gone to their reward, if he were to return to his earthly haunts he could but say, "How soon we are forgotten!"The "Cave Hut Cliff"  
Jesse McPherson was probably the first of the first-comers who settled in the southeastern part of the county. According to one tradition he arrived upon the scene before either Pond or Caney stations were started. It is said that during 1790, or before, he left his wife and two or three children in Virginia and came to Kentucky, and while looking for a place to settle selected a tract of land three miles from what later became the town of Cisney or Rosewood. He spent the winter and spring clearing two fields, one near the foot of a cliff facing a valley leading to Clifty Creek, and another on the top of the same cliff. In the meantime he lived in his "cave hut" near his bottom field. This improvised house was made by erecting two short walls of logs in front of a small cove at the foot of the cliff, and placed in such a way that the top of the concave opening in the cliff served as a roof and the rock wall of the cliff and the two log walls served as walls to the "cave hut." The following summer, after having set out a crop of corn in each of his fields, he returned to Virginia for his family. He brought them to Kentucky and they lived in the "cave hut" until a log cabin on the bluff was finished. A few years later, or about 1800, he began building the spacious house known as the Jesse McPherson house, now occupied by William H. Pearson and his wife, the latter a great-granddaughter of Jesse McPherson. The logs used in the construction of the "cave hut" have long ago disappeared, but the rock-roofed cove in "Cave Hut Cliff" has for more than a century been used as a hay bin.  
Jesse McPherson was one of Muhlenberg's best-known pioneers. When the county was organized he was appointed one of the justices of the peace. He ran a tanyard, horse mill, and distillery for many years. Tradition says that he feared nothing. On one occasion his neighbor Billings was attacked by a bear whose cub he had taken. McPherson, hearing the cry for help, rushed to the rescue and killed the animal with a hickory club. A few years later McPherson took a trip to Arkansas, and upon his return showed Billings some hickory nuts he had brought from that State. Billings suggested that they plant one of the nuts where McPherson had saved his life from the ferocious bear. This was done, and to-day a large hickory tree, standing near the "Cave Hut Cliff," marks the spot where, as one of the local oracles puts it, "Billings came near getting the stuffings squeezed out of him by a big bear."4The Jesse McPherson House, Near Dunmor  
Among other pioneers in the southeastern part of the county were John Hunt and James Wood. Hunt, a Revolutionary soldier, came to Muhlenberg from North Carolina about the year 1806 and settled in that part of the Mud River country known ever since as the Hunt Settlement. The house erected in 1825 near Gus by his son, Jonathan Hunt, was later occupied by the latter's son, Jefferson Hunt, and he in turn was succeeded by his son Amos L. Hunt, who now lives in this well-preserved landmark.  
About the year 1816 James Wood, also of North Carolina, settled a few miles above the Hunt Settlement, north of what is now Dunmor. Many of the descendants of John Hunt and James Wood still live in the Hunt Settlement and other parts of the Mud River country, where they are highly respected farmers.The Jonathan Hunt House, Near Gus  
Among the children of James Wood was Zillman Wood, who was born in 1814 and died in 1859, and who in his day was one of the most influential men in the Mud River country. One of the sons of Zillman Wood is James Willis Wood, a Federal soldier, who was born in 1841 and who all his life did much for the good of the county. Among the sons of J. W. Wood is Ed S. Wood, who was county clerk from 1898 to 1906.5  
Richard C. Dellium and James Forgy were among the pioneers of the Mud River country, in Butler County. Forgy's Mill on Mud River was among the first mills built along that stream. Dellium owned much land in Muhlenberg, and about 1815 built a large log house which, although no longer used as a residence, is still standing, one mile west of Gus. Collins, in his "History of Kentucky," under the head of Butler County, says: "Richard C. Dellium carried on a trading station at Berry's Lick, and James Forgy settled near there, about 1794. They had to go to Nashville to mill along a footpath through a solid canebrake."  
Judge William Worthington was one of the most influential firstcomers in that part of Muhlenberg which later became a part of McLean County. He owned a large tract of land on what, for more than a century, has been known as the "Island"--a territory of about eight square miles, surrounded during high water by back water from Green River, the Thoroughfare, Black Lake, and Cypress Creek. His home was about a half mile north of what is now the town of Island. The post-office for that section of the country was at his residence for many years, and bore the name of Worthington up to about 1860, when it was transferred to Point Pleasant on Green River. When the Owensboro & Russellville Railroad was built, a station was erected near the old Worthington place and a new post-office established. This was appropriately called Island Station, and formed the nucleus of the town now known as Island, which in 1910 had a population of 547. A more appropriate name, however, would have been the former name of Worthington, for no pioneer in Muhlenberg was more worthy of having his name perpetuated in that manner. Worthington's Chapel, three miles west of Island, called so in honor of his son Thomas, who gave the land on which this church is built, is now the only place that bears the name of this pioneer family.Zillman Wood, 1850  
William Worthington came to Muhlenberg about fourteen years before the county was organized. He took part in many of the early county court meetings and often presided over the court of quarter sessions and a number of the circuit court meetings. He was a member of the State Senate from 1814 to 1826. About the year 1830 his residence burned, and practically everything in it was destroyed. Among the few things saved was the cane presented to him a few years before by his fellow-members of the State Senate. This walking-stick is now owned by T. M. Worthington, of Dallas, Texas.  
About the year 1845 Judge Worthington moved to Point Worthington, a plantation in Mississippi owned by one of his sons, and a few years later died there. His body was packed in salt and shipped by boat to his old home in Kentucky, where he had spent more than sixty years of his life, and was there buried by the side of his wife. Two stone-walled graves, each covered with a marble slab, mark the last resting-place of the old judge and his wife. On one is carved, "Wm. Worthington, Died June 5, 1848, aged 87 years."--On the other, "Mary Worthington, Died August 25, 1827, aged 66 years."Graves of Judge and Mrs. William Worthington  
Judge and Mrs. Worthington were the parents of a number of children. Two of them lived and died in Muhlenberg or McLean counties, near Worthington's Chapel--Mrs. Elizabeth Kincheloe and Thomas Worthington. One daughter, Mrs. Polly Wickliffe, lived in the South.6  
The Kincheloes, like the Worthingtons, were among the most influential and highly educated first-comers in the Green River country. Local tradition, however, is very vague regarding the history and genealogy of this family, although the name of Kincheloe, like that of Worthington, is very familiar to those who are versed in local traditions. It is quite probable that Lewis Kincheloe, who lived at Kincheloe's Bluff for many years and who took part in the battle of the Thames, was a brother of Reverend William Kincheloe, who married a daughter of Judge William Worthington, and that he was also a brother of Thomas Kincheloe, whose son Jesse W., of Breckinridge County, was elected circuit judge in 1851 in the district then embracing Muhlenberg County. One of the pioneer Kincheloes, who lived in Muhlenberg, died, it is said, on his way to Tippecanoe in 1811. He was probably a brother of Lewis, Reverend William, and Thomas. One tradition has it that all the pioneer Kincheloes were soldiers in the War of 1812 and were sons of Lieutenant William Kincheloe, who fought in the Revolution and died in Western Kentucky about 1798.Kincheloe's Bluff, Green River  
Among the many other first-comers were Arington and Robert Wickliffe and their nephews, Colone Moses Wickliffe and J. W. I. Godman. Arington and Robert Wickliffe were sons of John Wickliffe, of Prince William County, Virginia. They settled in northeastern Muhlenberg about 1800, where Robert died in February, 1820. Both were influential pioneers.  
Arington Wickliffe was born in Virginia in 1750. He was an officer in the Revolutionary army, and took part in many of the battles. Shortly after the Revolution he married Catherine Davis, daughter of Captain Jesse Davis, of Virginia. In the winter of 1819-20 he rode from Muhlenberg to his old home in Virginia on horseback and returned a few weeks later; he died, as a result of the exposure, in March, 1820. He was the father of ten children, one of whom was William B. Wickliffe, who was born near South Carrollton February 15, 1808, and died in Greenville, July 12, 1892. William B. Wickliffe was at one time a large landowner and slave-holder. He was the father of William A. Wickliffe, of Greenville.  
Colonel Moses Wickliffe was born in Virginia in 1779 and settled in Muhlenberg about 1795. A few years later he made a trip to Virginia to report to some of his kinsmen and friends the condition and prospects of the Green River country. In 1799 or 1800 he came back to Muhlenberg accompanied by his two uncles, Arington and Robert, and their families. They brought with them J. W. I. Godman, then a child about a year old. Colonel Pioneer Moses Wickliffe Wickliffe did much toward encouraging not only some of his kinsmen, but many others, to settle in Muhlenberg. His integrity and his interest in the development of the community soon placed him among the best-known men in the county. Tradition says that during the War of 1812 and again during the Mexican War he organized a company of soldiers, but in each case, just as he was ready to leave with his men for the scene of action, he received news that peace had been declared. He often served as magistrate. He represented the county in the Legislature from 1816 to 1819 inclusive. He was always ready to lend a helping hand, and never hesitated to express his opinion when he thought that by so doing he could benefit any one. It is related of him that, although not a member of the Nelson Creek Baptist Church, he often presided over the business meetings held by that congregation. On one occasion he rebuked the members present, saying, "Unless you work in peace and harmony the devil will never let loose his hold on this church. I tell you the devil himself is in this church now, and right here in your own pulpit this very moment!" One of the members called the attention of the audience to the fact that Colonel Wickliffe himself was at that moment occupying the pulpit. The Colonel, nevertheless, finished his argument, and soon restored peace and harmony in the congregation.  
In 1814 Colonel Wickliffe married Nancy Young, of Muhlenberg. They were the parents of ten children, all of whom were well-known citizens of the county. He died in 1854 at his home near what is now known as Bevier.7  
J. W. I. Godman was not only a kinsman but a protege of Colonel Moses Wickliffe. Although an infant when brought from the old settlements by the Wickliffes, the Godman baby was nevertheless one of Muhlenberg's firstcomers. This baby boy was carried in the arms of one of the women of the party who, in 1799 or 1800, rode horseback from Virginia to Muhlenberg. It is an interesting fact that about fifty years later this infant first-comer became Muhlenberg's first elected county judge.  
Judge John Wickliffe Israel Godman was born in Virginia, December 8, 1798. He was the only child of John Allen Godman and his wife Susan (Wickliffe) Godman, both of whom died shortly after he was born. He was named for his two grandfathers, John Wickliffe and Israel Godman. When his mother's family moved to Muhlenberg he was reared by his grandparents and his cousin. Colonel Moses Wickliffe. Young Godman's early education was limited to such learning as the schools of his neighborhood then offered. This, however, he supplemented with extensive reading, and became one of the best read and most practical men in the county. He was universally regarded as a superior man. Among other things, he read law and medicine. At one time he intended to take up law as a profession. In the absence of lawyers and physicians he practiced, gratuitously, both professions among his neighbors. After his marriage he settled on a large tract of land in the northeastern part of the county, near Green River, where he spent most of his time farming and merchandising. Through these he accumulated a good estate. He made trips to Louisville to buy goods. and also to New Orleans to sell produce. Henry Clay, some time between 1825 and 1830, visited him in Muhlenberg, and engaged him to look after the Blackburn lands lying near the Godman farm and belonging to a ward of Clay's. In this way the two men became the best of friends and carried on an extensive correspondence. The letters received from Clay, although preserved by the family for many years, can not now be found.  
Godman was for long a justice of the peace, and being skilled in the writing of legal documents he was for many years the only man in his section on whom the people relied for the preparation of their most important papers. At the first general election held under the Constitution of 1850, which took place on the second Monday in May, 1851, he was elected county judge, and thus became the first man elected to that office in Muhlenberg. He was devoted to his family, and when attending court at Greenville, discharging his official duties, he made it a rule to ride home every night, a distance of fifteen miles. In this way, through exposure to inclement weather, he contracted a severe cold, from the effects of which he died December 23, 1852. He was buried in the private burying-ground near his home, where a large marble slab marks his grave. That Judge Godman was "the right man in the right place" is a statement made by those who are familiar with the lives of the county's most influential men, and is verified by his record as a citizen and judge. He left no portrait. He had one made a few years before he died, but permitted it to be erased in order that the plate might be used to make a portrait of one of his children.Mr. and Mrs. William J. Dean, in 1850  
Judge Godman married Elizabeth Nicholls, who was born in Muhlenberg December 2, 1801, and died February 6, 1891. She was a daughter of pioneer James Nicholls and his wife Margaret Randolph, a daughter of Captain John Randolph, who was a cousin of the celebrated John Randolph of Roanoke. Captain John Randolph was also the father of pioneers Robert8 and John Randolph, jr., and Mrs. John Reno. Judge and Mrs. Godman were the parents of three children: Sarah Jane, who married Edmund M. Blacklock9; Mary Eliza, who married William Johnson Dean10; and John Allen, who died in 1854.  
Andrew and Peter Shaver were among the prime movers in what was for many years called the "Dutch Settlement," now known as the Bremen country. These two pioneers did not appear upon the scene until about twenty years after the county had been organized. A number of German-Americans and other Virginians had already settled in the northern part of Muhlenberg. Among the pioneers who appeared during or before the coming of Andrew and Peter Shaver were Benjamin Coffman, Reverend Samuel Danner, Jacob Garst, the seven Gish brothers, John Gossett, Rudolph Kittinger, Jacob, Daniel, and Doctor John Noffsinger, Lot Stroud, the three Vincent brothers, and Jacob Whitmer.11Mr. and Mrs. John Noffsinger, About 1865  
Andrew and Peter Shaver were sons of Andrew Shaver, sr. (originally spelled Schaber), who was born in Bremen, Germany, came to America shortly after the Revolution, and died in Virginia from wounds received during the War of 1812, in which war he had fought, together with his son Peter. John, Jonathan, and David Shaver, sons of Andrew Shaver, sr., settled in Muhlenberg some time between 1820 and 1825, but left the county before 1840. Parthenia, who married John Kittinger, and Mary Magdalene, or Polly, who married Jacob Garst, were daughters of Andrew Shaver, sr., and like their brothers Andrew and Peter Shaver are to-day represented by many descendants in Muhlenberg. Mrs. Andrew Shaver, sr., died in Muhlenberg about 1840, and is buried near Shaver's Chapel.  
Andrew Shaver, jr., married Susan M. Bower in Virginia, and came to Muhlenberg about the year 1820. He was a successful farmer and did much toward encouraging others to settle in the "Dutch Settlement." His career, unfortunately, was a short one. One day two strangers, passing through the country, came to the Andrew Shaver home and asked for supper and lodging. They were admitted, for in the olden days strangers were welcomed in the homes of the pioneers, if for no other reason than for the news they might bring from the outside world. Although the wanderers complained of being ill, they nevertheless gladly told the news they had heard along the road. The next morning it was discovered, to the surprise of all, that one of the men had smallpox. His companion nursed him through the siege, and although every precaution was taken to prevent the disease from spreading, Andrew Shaver contracted smallpox and died. He was born November 5, 1793, and died June 13, 1837. His wife, Susan Shaver, was born February 14, 1791, and died May 8, 1874.12Mr. and Mrs. Peter Shaver, 1865  
Peter Shaver was born in Virginia January 18, 1790, and died November 17, 1866. His wife, Nancy Peters, daughter of pioneer Christian Peters, was born December 25, 1798, and died September 21, 1879. Peter Shaver came to Muhlenberg about 1815, and was regarded as one of the best educated men in the "Dutch Settlement." He did much toward the moral, educational, and industrial development of the northern part of the county. It was he who, in honor of his father's birthplace, had the post-office called Bremen, a name it still bears. He was a progressive farmer, and wielded the axe, the hammer, and the pen with equal grace. A letter written to his son, Benjamin J. Shaver, in 1861, is quoted elsewhere in this volume. The day he and his wife celebrated their golden wedding they had their portraits made. On the same day he recorded the following in their family Bible: "November 30, 1865; Peter Shaver was married to Nancy Peters November 30, 1815. We, the above-named Peter and Nancy Shaver, have through the blessing of God, lived fifty years in the state of matrimony and are this day in good health and able to take care of ourselves. God be praised for his mercy and goodness."13  
Such, as I have given it, is a glimpse at some of the first-comers. But there were many other prominent pioneers. The Muhlenberg men who fought in the War of 1812, the first settlers in the Pond River country, the Paradise country, and the Rhoads and the Weirs, were among the other first-comers. The part taken by these pioneers in the settling and upbuilding of the new county is recorded in some of the other chapters in this history. They, like the men and women referred to in this chapter, helped to make Muhlenberg what it is to-day.  
III, Henry Rhoads, "The Godfather of Muhlenberg"
Among the pioneers who first settled that section of the Green River country which is included in what is now the northern part of Muhlenberg County were some who had fought in the Revolution under General John Peter Gabriel Muhlenberg. Most of the first settlers in the central and southern sections of the county were Virginians and Carolinians, mainly of English, Scotch, and Irish extraction.  
Representatives of General Muhlenberg's army drifted to this part of the Green River country from Southern Pennsylvania and Northern Virginia. Most of General Muhlenberg's soldiers were born in America, but their fathers came from Germany and Holland long before the Revolution. Among these was Henry Rhoads, "the Godfather of Muhlenberg County," who not only procured the name of his general for the county but was also a prominent pioneer in Western Kentucky and identified with the early development of Muhlenberg and the entire western section of the Green River country.  
In Perrin's "History of Kentucky," page 997, a brief sketch of the life of Rhoads is incidentally introduced in a biography of Professor McHenry Rhoads, the well-known educator, who is a son of Absalom J. Rhoads, a grandson of Solomon Rhoads, and a great-grandson of Henry Rhoads.1 From this sketch I quote:  
Henry Rhoads was born in Germany in 1739 and died in Logan county in 1814. [He died in Muhlenberg County.] He and two of his brothers came to America about 1757 and settled in Bedford county, Pennsylvania. In 1760 he married Elizabeth Stoner of Maryland. He fought for his adopted country through the great struggle for Independence, under the leadership of General Muhlenberg. After the war for Liberty, having lost heavily in the cause, he, with his two brothers and their families, came to Kentucky. They stopped first at Bardstown where they left their wives and children, and then went out in the wilderness to find a site to build a town. The place selected was at the falls of Green river where they started a settlement and called it Rhoadsville. After three years of peaceable possession an action was entered in the Ohio circuit court, styled "John Hanley vs. Henry Rhoads and others," for the possession of the land on which the new town stood. The suit was gained by the plaintiff. Henry Rhoads and a few of his friends then removed to Barnett's Station, on Rough Creek, where he lived five years, during which time the present town of Hartford was laid out and a few houses built. He next moved to Logan county and settled ... where he owned 7,000 acres of military land. He represented the county [Logan and what became Muhlenberg] in the legislature of Kentucky in 1798, [and] on its formation [in December, 1798] as a county, named it in honor of General Muhlenberg.  
Collins, in his "History of Kentucky," under the head of McLean County, says that the first fort or station in McLean County was built where Calhoun now stands, in 1788, by Solomon Rhoads', and called Vienna, and that in 1790 James Inman built Pond Station, a few miles southeast of Calhoun.  
Other authorities and most traditions say that Henry Rhoads established a station some time between 1784 and 1788 where Calhoun now stands, and that he was assisted in this work by his brother Solomon Rhoads and another brother whose name is usually given as David. At any rate, a few years after Henry Rhoads established or helped to establish Rhoadsville or Fort Vienna, he lost the title to all his land in that vicinity, and after living for a while near Hartford he moved into what is now the Browder Mine neighborhood, in Muhlenberg County, which at that time was part of Logan County.The Henry Rhoads House, Near Browder  

From a letter written to me by Judge Lucius P. Little, of Owensboro, the highest authority on the history of the Green River country, I quote:  
"When Henry Rhoads came to this part of the Green River country he stopped at Barnett's Fort, on Rough River, above Hartford. He first located his claim for land at the site of the present town of Calhoun, and laid out a town in 1784 and called it Rhoadsville. When Rhoads was defeated by Captain John Hanley, agent for the Dorseys, of Maryland, the name of the town was changed to Vienna. Rhoads then went back to Barnett's Fort for a short time and soon after located in the bounds of the present county of Muhlenberg, five miles from Paradise on Green River and a mile from the present town of Browder on the Louisville & Nashville Railroad.  
"Simultaneously with the departure of the Germans to the south side of the river, they erected a fortification about five miles south from Rumsey for refuge in case of Indian attack. This was called 'Pond Station.' This was in Muhlenberg until the territory embracing it was made a part of McLean County. About the same time such of the residents of Fort Vienna as owned slaves quit the fort and opened up farms north of the river, where some of their descendants are still to be found.  
"As late as 1840 the settlement south of Cypress Creek and extending far enough south to embrace Sacramento and Bremen was commonly called 'The Dutch Settlement.' While these people were thrifty, yet few of them owned slaves."  
In 1798, a few years after settling in Logan County, Henry Rhoads became a member of the State Legislature and on December 14, 1798, an act was passed creating a new county out of parts of Christian and Logan. It was Henry Rhoads who proposed and secured the name of Muhlenberg for the new county. Ed Porter Thompson, in his "School History of Kentucky," page 162, says:  
General Muhlenberg was at no time a resident of Kentucky. His name and his deeds, however, are of interest to us because some of the gallant members of his church who followed him when he left his pulpit to fight for independence, had grants of land for military service, which they located on and below Green River, soon after the close of the Revolution, and made their homes in what are now Muhlenberg, McLean and Ohio counties. One of them, the Hon. Henry Rhoads, was a member of the legislature in 1798 when Muhlenberg county was established, and procured it to be named in honor of his pastor and general, ... Through the influence of one to whom General Muhlenberg had been a pastor in peace and a valiant captain in the fight for freedom, his ever enduring monument (a county's name) was erected, not in his own land, but in the wilderness of Kentucky.  
While faithfully and successfully serving the public, Henry Rhoads had, for a number of years, more or less trouble in establishing his claim to the land to which he was entitled and on which he lived after he moved into what later became a part of Muhlenberg. This land, of which he finally gained possession, lay in what was up to 1798 a part of Logan County. It was part of a grant of almost 7,000 acres which he had surveyed in 1793 for General Alexander McClanahan, with the understanding that he was to receive part of it. It is possible that 1793 was the year Henry Rhoads first settled in what is now Muhlenberg. In 1797 the State of Kentucky issued to McClanahan and Rhoads a patent for this survey. In October, 1801, a commission of six men was appointed to divide this tract between the two and issue a deed to each for his share. Order Book No. 1, page 1, gives the names of these commissioners, all of whom were prominent pioneers--John Dennis, Henry Keith, Matthew Adams, William Bell, Benjamin Tolbert, and Solomon Rhoads Deed Book No. 1, page 66, shows that they granted Henry Rhoads two thousand acres of the survey, for which he received a deed October 26, 1801. Thus, after a long and patient struggle, he held a title to land against which no priority of claim was ever brought. In 1798 he bought an adjoining survey of five hundred acres that had been granted to General George Matthews.Grave of the "Godfather of Muhlenberg County"  
It was on this 2,500-acre tract that he built his home, shortly after his arrival from Hartford. The original dwelling has undergone many changes, but is still standing, near the Greenville and Rochester Road about nine miles from Greenville. The farm on which this house stands has passed from father to son for more than a century, and is now owned by Professor McHenry Rhoads. Near this historic house is the old family graveyard. In it, among five generations of Rhoads buried there, is the grave of the "Godfather of Muhlenberg County," on which was placed, almost a century ago, a sandstone about two feet high and marked: "H. R., B. J. 5, 1739, D. M. 6, 1814."  
Henry Rhoads died on the 6th of March or May, 1814, aged seventyfive. His "last will and testament" was written April 15, 1812, witnessed by J. W. McConnell and Wm. Sumner." It was recorded in 1813 and probated in August, 1814, as attested by "C. F. Wing, Clerk," in Will Book No. 1, page 194:  
In the name of God, Amen. I, Henry Rhoads, of the county of Muhlenberg and State of Kentucky, being weak in body but of perfect mind and memory, do make and ordain this my last will and testament.  
First, I recommend my soul to the Almighty God, and as touching my worldly effects wherewith He has helped me, I give and dispose of them in the following manner.  
First, I give and bequeath to my beloved wife Barbay Rhoads all the property she brought with her after we were married, agreeable to contract, and one cow, a large heifer and one iron pot and the corner cupboard and chest and my large Bible, and the low posted bedstead, one large and one small wheel including all the furniture we have got since we were married. I also give and bequeath to my beloved wife Barbay all that is allowed to her agreeable to the courts of a bond on my son David Rhoads bearing date August 23, 1810.  
Secondly, I give and bequeath all my debts, dues and demands and all the property I own in this world except what is expressly mentioned in this my last will to my children, namely my sons, Jacob Rhoads, Daniel Rhoads, Henry Rhoads, Solomon Rhoads, David Rhoads, Susanah Nighmyoir and Caty Jackson, Elizabeth VanMeter and Hannah Jackson, all my daughters, to be equally divided among them, at the discretion of my executors at my decease.  
Lastly, I do hereby nominate and appoint my brother Daniel Rhoads and Solomon Rhoads and David Rhoads as executors of my last will and testament, hereby ratifying and confirming this and no other to be my last will and testament, hereby revoking all other wills by me made as witness and seal this 15th day of April in the year of our Lord 1812 and the presence of viz: Henry Rhoads. (Seal)2  
When Henry Rhoads settled on his tract of land Muhlenberg was practically an unbroken wilderness. Many wild animals, large and small, held sway. A number of stories are told about the game that roamed over these hills in olden times. I here repeat two of these stories, because they are characteristic of life in the wilderness and because they are incidents from the life of Muhlenberg's first great pioneer, handed down by local tradition.Henry Rhoads (Grandson of Pioneer Henry Rhoads), His Wife and Daughter, in 1854  
When Henry Rhoads was building his log house his neighbors were few and far between, but all came with a helping hand and a happy heart to take part in his "house-raising." These old-time house-raisings were attended as much for the sake of their social features as for the purpose of building a house.  
One afternoon, while the crowd was busily engaged on the roof of this building, a large bear leisurely wandered into sight. When the men saw the animal they stopped work and immediately started on a bear chase. Some ran after him with axes and others with guns. The women of the wilderness always lent a helping hand. In this instance one woman followed in the bear chase with a pitchfork. After an exciting time old Bruin was finally killed. That night a large bearskin was stretched on the new log wall and barbeeued bearmeat was served in abundance at all the other meals prepared for the house-raising party.  
But the noise made by the bear-chasers evidently did not scare all the wild animals out of the neighborhood. About a year after that event Henry Rhoads, while walking in his wood, which is still standing a short distance north of the old house, espied a large drove of wild turkeys. He slowly raised his flint-lock rifle for the purpose of shooting a fine gobbler strutting under a white oak within close range. When he was about ready to pull the trigger he heard a rustling in the dry leaves behind him. Rhoads looked around, and to his great surprise saw a huge panther preparing to spring upon him. Without stopping to take sure aim he fired at the threatening beast. Luckily, the bullet hit the animal between the eyes and killed it instantly. A half-hour later Rhoads walked back home with the panther skin on his arm and his trusty flint-lock on his shoulder.  
These old flint-locks were, as a rule, fine-sighted and unerring. They were slow but sure, although they did not kill every panther they were aimed at. Compared with modern rifles they were slow in all the operations that preceded and resulted in the discharge of the bullet.  
Most of the local traditions are subject to a variety of versions. The old panther story, as I have related it, has probably changed very little from the original since Henry Rhoads' day. However, another version of this incident has also crept into circulation, and shows to what extent some traditions are changed. This new version has it that when Henry Rhoads saw the wild turkey in the woods he took steady aim and then pulled the trigger of his flint-lock. He had no more than pulled the trigger when he heard the panther back of him. Rhoads turned, immediately swung his gun around and aimed at the panther, then in the very act of making a long leap from a limb down upon the hunter. But the old pioneer was quicker than the discharging powder or the charging panther, for he had the gun pointed at the animal before the bullet left the barrel, and thus killed the panther with the load that, a few seconds before, had been started toward the turkey! This same version continues with the statement that the animal did not drop to the ground after it was shot, but fell across the shoulder of the hunter, who then leisurely walked home and did not throw the panther down on the ground until he reached the front of his house. I do not adopt this version, but merely record it for its vivacity and novelty.  
Henry Rhoads, as already stated, was a member of the State Legislature from Logan County when, in 1798, Muhlenberg was formed, and he was the first man to represent the new county in the House of Representatives. He was sixty years of age when the county was organized. Although he declined various county offices offered to him, he nevertheless continued to work for the good of the community, and probably did as much for the county, if not more, than any of the other early pioneers. He helped draw the plans for the first courthouse and also did much toward promoting the interests of Greenville, the new county seat. He was bondsman and adviser to a number of the younger men whom he successfully recommended for office. Tradition says that many, and probably all, of the German-American pioneers in Muhlenberg came to the county through his direct or indirect influence.  
During his last years Henry Rhoads spent much of his time looking after his farm, tanyard, and other personal affairs, but nevertheless lost no opportunity to bring in new settlers and perform such acts as he thought would advance Muhlenberg County and its people. To-day a small sandstone is all that marks the spot where rest the bones of this influential pioneer. Some day his labors will be more fully recognized and appreciated and an appropriate memorial will then, I dare say, be erected over the grave of the Godfather of Muhlenberg County.3McHenry Rhoads, 1912  
IV, Beginning and Bounds of the County
Afew Days after the State Legislature began its regular session, November 5, 1798, the subject of forming a number of new counties was brought before the House. Henry Rhoads was then representing Logan County. Through his efforts the act establishing a new county out of parts of Christian and Logan was passed. It was he who proposed and procured the name of Muhlenberg for the new county. This act, passed at the first session of the Seventh General Assembly, creating Muhlenberg, reads as follows:  
An act for the erection of a new County, out of the Counties of Logan and Christian. Approved, December 14th, 1798.  
 1. Be it enacted by the General Assembly, that from and after the fifteenth day of May next, all that part of the counties of Logan and Christian included in the following bounds, to wit: Beginning at the mouth of Mud river, running up said river with its meanders within three miles of the mouth of Wolf Lick fork on a straight line; from thence with a straight line to the Christian county line, six miles below Benjamin Hardin's; from thence on a straight line so as to strike Pond river, two miles below Joel Downing's; from thence down Pond river with the meanders to the mouth; from thence up Green river to the beginning, shall be one distinet county, and called and known by the name of Muhlenberg. But the said county of Muhlenberg shall not be entitled to a separate representation until the number of free male inhabitants therein contained above the age of twenty-one years, shall entitle them to one representative, agreeable to the ratio that shall hereafter be established by law. After said division shall take place, the courts of the said county shall be held on the fourth Tuesday in every month, except those in which the courts of quarter sessions are hereby directed to be held. And the court of quarter sessions shall be held in the months of March, May, July and October, in such manner as is provided by law in respect to other counties in this state.  
 2. The justices named in the commission of the peace for said county of Muhlenberg, shall meet at the house of John Dennis, in the said county, on the first court day after the division shall take place, and having taken the oaths prescribed by law, and a sheriff being legally qualified to act, the court shall proceed to appoint and qualify their clerk, and fix on a place for the seat of justice for the said county, and proceed to erect the public buildings at such place. Provided always, that the permanent seat of justice shall not be fixed, nor a clerk be appointed (except pro tempore), unless a majority of the justices of the court concur therein, but shall be postponed until such majority can be had.  
 3. It shall be lawful for the sheriffs of the counties of Logan and Christian to make distress for any public dues or officers' fees unpaid by the inhabitants thereof at the time such division shall take place, and they shall be accountable in like manner as if this act had not passed.  
The courts of the counties of Logan and Christian shall have jurisdietion in all actions and suits depending therein at the time of said division. and they shall try and determine the same, issue process, and award execution thereon.Soction of J. Russell's "Map of the State of Kentucky with Adjoining Territories," published in 1794, showing extent of the original Logan County from 1762 to 1796. Among the orrors on this old map is the location of "Howards Sattlements," which were on Gasper River and not on Mud (or Muddy) River as here indicated.Section of Munnel's Map of Kentucky, published in 1836, thowing outline of Muhlenberg and adjoining counties up to 1856, when McLean County was formed  
The line that, before the formation of Muhlenberg, separated Logan from Christian and lay within the bounds of what became Muhlenberg, is described in the act creating Christian County as follows: "Beginning on Green river, eight miles below the mouth of Muddy river1; thence a straight line to one mile west of Benjamin Hardin's." In other words, this former dividing line ran in a southwesterly direction from a point on Green River eight miles below the mouth of Mud River to a point in the neighborhood of what later became the northwest corner of Todd County. That being the fact, about three fourths of the original area of Muhlenberg County, or about two thirds of the present area, was taken from Christian, and the remainder--the southeastern part of Muhlenberg--was taken from Logan County.Map of Muhienberg County compiled from six atlas sheets issued by the United States Geological Survey (1907-1912)  
I judge that after the southern line had been surveyed it was discovered that certain lands originally intended to fall within the bounds of Muhlenberg were, according to the "calls for running the county line," not included in the new county. At any rate, on December 4, 1800, the Legislature passed "An act to amend and explain an act, entitled 'an act for the division of Christian county,' " which I here quote in full:  
Whereas, it is represented to the present General Assembly that the act passed in December, 1798, for the division of Christian county is imperfect, and wants amending:  
Be it therefore enacted by the General Assembly, that so much of the act as calls for running the county line from six miles below Benjamin Hardin's, to strike Pond river two miles below Joel Downing's, be and the same is hereby repealed; and the line shall run from said six mile tree to Job Downing's on Pond river, so as to include said Downing's dwelling house in Muhlenberg. This act shall commence and be in force from and after its passage.  
An act to establish the county of McLean was approved by the Legislature on January 28, 1854, and set "the second Monday in May, 1854," as the time for the beginning of the new county. Muhlenberg, Ohio, and Daviess counties furnished the territory. Muhlenberg's part (about thirty-five square miles) was all the land that lay between Green and Pond rivers north of the line described thus in the acts of 1854: "... the mouth of the Thoroughfare branch; thence up the Thoroughfare branch to the mouth of Big creek; thence up Big creek to a point where the road from Rumsey to Greenville crosses the same; thence a straight line to the head of the island on Pond river, at the Horseshoe bend."2  
In 1890 a change was made in a part of the southeastern boundary of the county. An act passed April 30, 1888, provided for the appointment of commissioners "for the purpose of establishing the lines between Muhlenberg and Butler counties." An act approved May 22, 1890, briefly states: "That Mud river be, and the same is, made the line between Butler and Muhlenberg counties." This act added to Muhlenberg a triangular strip of land covering a few square miles touching on Mud River below the mouth of Wolf Lick Fork. It incidentally ended the occasionally disputed question as to which county the land really lay in, and therefore also settled the discussion as to which county governed it in the sale of liquor. It is said that this strip was, up to 1890, invariably "wet," regardless of whether Muhlenberg or Butler were "dry."  
V, Courts and Courthouses
Although Greenville is Muhlenberg County's first and only county seat, the first six county courts and first three meetings of the court of quarter sessions were held elsewhere, before the town was begun. These initial meetings took place at the home of pioneer John Dennis, about two miles southeast of Greenville on the Greenville and Russellville Road. The original Dennis house was a large threeroom log house put up about 1790 by John Dennis, who in 1810 built a twostory brick of four rooms adjoining it. Both houses were torn down in 1902 by W. I. Gragston, who erected a frame residence on the site of the old landmark.  
Back of the original log and brick residence were scattered a few slave cabins, a smoke-house and an ice-house; across the road stood a large log barn, a blacksmith shop, a horsepower corn mill, and several sheds, all of which gave the Dennis farm the appearance of a small town. But all these barns and other accessory buildings erected by John Dennis were torn down many years before the log and brick residence disappeared.  
The old Dennis house was one of the earliest "stopping-places" in the county, and in its day one of the most noted. Among the other early places of entertainment for man and beast were the Tyler Tavern at Kincheloe's Bluff and the Russell House in Greenville. The Dennis tavern was situated on a comparatively much-traveled public road leading from Nashville and Russellville to Owensboro and other towns. Stage coaches, loaded with passengers and their deerskin trunks and carpetbags, halted at this tavern in the olden days. All travelers over this route, whether in public conveyance, horseback, or afoot, or in their own sulkies, buckboards, wagons, or landslides, lingered here. Those who were on long trips made it a point to spend the night with the genial John and the members of his household. Circuit riders occasionally appeared on the scene and held services in the house or under an arbor near by.  
Before Greenville was started, the Dennis place was the principal headquarters for the pioneers who lived in the southern part of the county. On the stile-blocks and around the large open fire-places the local happenings were related by the pioneers, who came not only to discuss such affairs but also to trade in the store and to hear the latest news brought by the traveling public. But after Greenville became the county seat one patron after another changed his trading and meeting place to the new town, and long before 1822, when John Dennis died, the Dennis place had been relegated to the past. In the meantime, one after another, the pioneers died, and many of the stories of their adventures that had often been told by them were no longer heard, and so in the course of time most of the long-past events gradually ceased to be topics of conversation, slowly faded out of memory, and were finally lost forever. Only a few of these once-familiar facts were handed down for a generation or two, and are now but dimly remembered as traditions.1  
Written official records are required by law, and these, from the beginning down to the present, are still preserved and are now on file in the courthouse at Greenville. The first of the county court records I quote in full:  
May 28th, 1799. At the house of John Dennis, in the county of Muhlenberg, on Tuesday the 28th day of May 1799.  
Agreeably to an Act of Assembly entitled an Act for Forming a New County out of the Counties of Logan and Christian, a commission of the peace from his Excellency, James Garrard, Esquire, was produced, directed to James Craig, John Dennis, William Bell, Isaac Davis, John Russell, Robert Cisna, Richard Morton, John Adams and Jesse McPherson, appointing them justices of the peace in and for the county aforesaid, which being read, thereupon John Dennis, Esquire, administered the oath to support the Constitution of the United States, the oath of fidelity to this Commonwealth, and also the oath of a justice of the peace to James Craig, Isaac Davis and William Bell, whereupon the said James Craig administered the said several oaths to John Dennis, Esquire.  
And thereupon a court was held for said county. Present: James Craig, John Dennis, Isaac Davis, William Bell, Esquires.  
John Bradley, Esquire, produced a commission from his Excellency the Governor appointing him Sheriff in and for said county which being read, he, the said John, thereupon took the oath to support the Constitution of the United States, the oath of fidelity to this Commonwealth and also the oath of office of Sheriff, and together with Isaac Davis and William Worth ington, his securities, entered into and acknowledged their bond in the penalty of Three Thousand Dollars conditioned as the law directs.  
The court appointed Charles Fox Wing their clerk pro tempore who thereupon took the oath to support the Constitution of the United States, the oath of fidelity to this Commonwealth and also the oath of office, and together with Henry Rhoads, Sen., and William Campbell, his security, entered into bond in the penalty and conditioned as the law directs.  
Alney McLean, Esquire, produced a commission from his Excellency the Governor, appointing him surveyor in and for the county of Muhlenberg, whereupon he took the oath to support the Constitution of the United States, the oath of fidelity to this Commonwealth and also the oath of office, and together with Robert Ewing and Ephraim McLean, Sen., his securities, entered into and acknowledged their bond in the penalty of six hundred pounds conditioned as the law directs.  
On the recommendation of Alney McLean, Esquire, surveyor of the county, William Bradford, George Tennell and James Weir, Esquire, were Reduced Facsimile of Commission admitted as his deputies, who thereupon took the oath to support the Constitution of the United States and the oath of fidelity to this Commonwealth and also the oath of office as deputy surveyors.  
Peter Lyons' stockmark: two smooth crops and a nick under each ear. On his motion ordered to be recorded.  
Henry Davis' stockmark: a hole in each ear. On his motion is ordered to be recorded.  

 
The court appointed John Anderson constable for the county of Muhlenberg, who thereupon took the oath to support the Constitution of the United States, the oath of fidelity to this Commonwealth and also the oath of constable, and together with Richard Tyler, his security, entered into and acknowledged their bond in the penalty and conditioned as the law directs.  
On the motion of Richard Tyler leave is granted him to keep a tavern at his house in Lewisburg whereupon with Lewis Kincheloe, his security executed bond in the penalty and conditioned as the law directs.  
Ordered that the next court he held at John Dennises.  
Ordered that the court be adjourned until court in course.  
The minutes of these proceedings were signed by  
James Craig.  
The second meeting of the county court took place in the John Dennis house on Tuesday, June 25, 1799. The record covers about three times as many pages as the first, and is signed by John Dennis Charles Fox Wing was appointed county clerk "during good behavior." Evidently his behavior was considered good and his books well kept, for he held the office more than half a century.  
James Weir was appointed to compile a list of the taxable property in the county. The following oaths were administered: Robert Cisna and Richard Morton, justices of the peace; William Bradford, deputy sheriff; John Culbertson, coroner; Peter Boggess and Thomas Morton, constables.  
Sixteen men had their stock-marks recorded. Six roads were considered, and for each a committee was appointed to "view and mark the most convenient way." A number of "bargains and sales" were recorded. Ferries were established at Smith's Landing and Lewisburg, on Green River. John Dennis was granted license to keep a tavern at his house. Tavern rates and ferry charges were fixed. Among such items are:  
Dinner 1 shilling 6 pence.  
Breakfast or supper 1 shilling.  
Whisky, per half pint 9 pence.  
Peach brandy, per half pint 1 shilling.  
Corn, per gallon 6 pence.  
Stableage, 24 hours 4 pence.  
Ferry for a horse, single 4 1/2 pence.  
Ferry for a man, single 4 1/2 pence.  
The following is quoted from page 15 of the records of the same meeting of June 25, 1799:  
The court proceeded to vote for a place for the permanent seat of justice for the county of Muhlenberg. A majority of all the justices concurring, it is ordered that Colonel William Campbell's2 headright on Caney adjoining the lands of the heirs of William Russell, deceased, be and is hereby fixed upon as the place for the permanent seat of justice for said county, and that the public building be erected at said place.  
Henry Rhoads, Charles Lewis, and William Bell were appointed commissioners to prepare plans for a courthouse.  
The third county court took place on Tuesday, August 27, 1799, in the house of John Dennis. The minutes were signed by James Craig. The proceedings are similar to the earlier meetings, with the additional feature of the filing of several applications to establish grist mills. On page 28 the record reads:  
The persons appointed for the purpose of exhibiting into court a plan for building the public building, which being examined and approved of is ordered to be recorded: "A memorandum of the dimensions of the court house of Muhlenberg county, to be built of hewn logs seven inches thick, nine inches on the face or more, 26 feet by 18, seventeen feet high, a joint shingle roof put on with pegs, except the outside rows with nails, a joint plank floor and loft with a good staircase, the lower story twelve feet high with one door and three windows, a partition upstairs, a window in each room and shutters to each window, and a door, a judge's bench barred around, an attorney's bench barred around, also a sheriff's box, a clerk's table and seat. The cracks of the house to have shaved boards pegged in on the inside and daubbed in on the outside, and a sufficient number of jury benches.  
Another paragraph informs us that "The court appointed Isaac Davis Esquire to build a stray pen on the public square two and thirty feet square, five feet high, to be finished by the fourth Tuesday in September, next."  
An entry written at this meeting concludes with the statement: "Satisfactory proff being made to the court that the said Benjamin lost a part of his left ear by a bite from the accused Mathew in a fight, which is ordered to be recorded."  
The fourth meeting is dated Tuesday, September 24, 1799. The fifth meeting was the last held at the Dennis house and took place on November 26 and 27, 1799. The following is quoted from the proceedings of November 26, 1799, page 49 (here the word Greenville makes its first appearance on the court records):  
On the motion of William Campbell, and it appearing to the court that it will be advantageous to the public and it also appearing that legal notice having been given agreeably to law, it is ordered that a town be established on his land at the seat of justice in this county on Caney, including thirty acres of land to be called and known by the name of Greenville, whereupon the said William Campbell together with John Bradley and Charles Fox Wing, his securities, entered into and acknowledged their bond in the penalty of five hundred pounds, conditioned as the law directs. It is further ordered that the said town be vested in Samuel Russell, Alney McLean, Henry Rhoads, Charles Fox Wing, William Bradford and John Dennis, who are hereby nominated and appointed trustees of the said town of Greenville, agreeably to law.  
The fifth meeting ends with the statement that it is "Ordered that the next court be held at the town of Greenville, the Seat of Justice of this county."3  
The sixth begins as follows: "At a county court held for Muhlenberg county at the house of Samuel Russell in the town of Greenville on Tuesday the 24th day of December, 1799." Among its many items is one showing that Samuel Russell was granted license to keep a tavern at his house in Greenville.  
The seventh, dated Tuesday, January 28, 1800, also took place in the Russell house. One of the items, which is the first of its kind, reads: "On the motion of the Reverend William Nexon, who produced credentials of his ordination and of his being in regular communion with the German Baptist Church who thereupon took the oath prescribed by law and together with John Culbertson, his security, entered into and acknowledged their bond as the law directs, license is thereupon granted him to solemnize the rites of marriage."  
The eighth meeting was the first to be held in the new log temple of justice. Its record is headed: "At a county court held for Muhlenberg county at the court house on Tuesday the 25th day of February 1800." The new building, although occupied, had evidently not been completed, for the record of April 22, 1800, shows that "On the petition of the commissioners who were appointed to let the building of the court house of this county, ordered that leave be given the undertakers until the first day of August next to complete the same."  
At the meeting held on June 24, 1800, an entry was made relative to a jail: "Ordered that the sheriff pay Jacob Severs two hundred dollars for building the county jail, being a part of the price of said jail." On August 26, 1800, is recorded: "The court this day received the jail as built by Jacob Severs which is received and considered as the jail of the county. On the nomination of John Bradley, esquire, sheriff Samuell Russell was appointed jailor of this county."  
The twelfth meeting is dated Tuesday, September 23, 1800. "The court received the court house of the undertakers as being done agreeably to their bond and it is ordered that the bond entered into by the said undertakers be destroyed."  
On the same date "A plan of the town of Greenville was exhibited into court and ordered to be recorded." The plan is recorded on page 75 of Transcribed Deed Book No. 1. The surveying was done by Alney McLean He divided Colonel William Campbell's donation of thirty acres into fifty-six lots, all of which lay in the vicinity of the two-acre public square. The proceeds from the sale of these lots was used to help defray the expense of building the new courthouse. The map shows the public square at the southeast corner of streets designated as Main Street and Main Cross Street. Running parallel with and east of Main Street are McLean and Water alleys, and parallel with and west of Main Street are Wing and Bradford alleys. Parallel with and south of Main Cross Street are Campbell and Wood alleys, and parallel with and north of Main Cross Street are Thompkins and Russell alleys. Adjoining the thirty-acre plot is another map, designating ten lots of five acres each. From one of these lots two acres are cut off for a graveyard, and five of the ten are granted to Alney McLean, the surveyor.4Muhlenberg County's Second Courthouse  
The second courthouse was built in 1834; so, leaving the intervening county court records untouched, I quote from Record Book No. 4, page 135, under date of January 27, 1834:  
The persons appointed for that purpose report the situation of the court house of this county, at this court, upon the examination thereof, deem it inexpedient to make any repairs on the present building; that it would be greatly to the public's good to build a new house instead of repairing the old one, and a majority of all the justices in commission of the place being present and concurring therein, it is ordered that Edward Rumsey, Strother Jones, Charles Fox Wing, James Taggart and Wm. Hancock be and they are hereby appointed commissioners to draft a plan of a building for a new court house for the county and that they make a report thereof to the next county court.  
On page 139, under the date of March 31, 1834, the subject is continued as follows:  
The commissioners appointed for that purpose reported that they had drafted a plan for a new court house for this county, which being examined and accepted of by the court, it is therefore ordered that Ephraim M. Brank, Wm. Martin, Coroner R. D. McLean and Charles Fox Wing or any three of them be and they are hereby appointed commissioners to let to the lowest bidder the building or erecting of said house upon the ground whereon the present building stands, after giving due notice by advertising the same, which building is to be completed on or before the first day of August, 1835, to be paid for by installments, that is to say, $500 to be paid as soon as the building shall be covered in, and the balance to be paid in two annual installments, payable out of the county levy, in such money as the said levy may be collected in, taking bond with approved security for the faithful performance of the work on said house with the said plan annexed.  
I did not find the plans annexed to this document. However, I will state that according to my memory the old brick courthouse was about thirty-two feet square and two stories high. The court room took up the entire lower floor, while the second was divided into three small rooms, reached by steps erected on the outside of the building against the south wall.  
The contractor, after having almost finished a certain part of his work, was obliged to tear it down and rebuild it in order to comply with his agreement. This delayed matters, and the house was not finished "on or before the first day of August, 1835." An entry on page 239 notes that a commission was appointed "to examine the court house just finished by Wm. W. Hancock and receive the same if finished according to contract, and report to the next court."  
On November 28, 1836, it is recorded that the house was accepted. It may be well to add that the old log temple of justice stood a short distance north of the brick house, and was not torn down until after the second courthouse was occupied. The third or present structure stands on the site of the second.Muhlenberg County's Second Jail  
In Record Book No. 8, page 13, June 24, 1865, is a record to the effect that Alfred Johnson had completed the stone work on the jail satisfactorily and it was ordered to be paid for. This building was used until December, 1912. In this same volume, on page 78, is an entry showing that Finis M. Allison and Jesse H. Reno were awarded the contract for building a clerk's office on the site of the old one. This brick building was completed a few months later. The clerk's office was one story high and contained two rooms, each about eighteen feet square, with a hall six feet wide between them.  
The old brick courthouse and the clerk's office were torn down in 1906, and in their place now stands, not only a new courthouse, but one of the best and finest in the State. The first county court in the new building was held on "the last Monday" in September, 1907. Two metal tablets were placed in the front wall of the courthouse. One reads: "Erected A. D. 1907. R. O. Pace, County Judge. W. O. Belcher, County Attorney, Magistrates: R. T. Johns, J. W. Stuart, C. W. Cisney, Bryant Williams, O. T. Kittinger. Bailey & Koerner, Contractors." The other reads: "Erected A. D. 1907. Building Committee: T. J. Sparks, Chairman, T. B. Pannell, W. G. Duncan, J. W. Lam, W. A. Wickliffe. Architects, Kenneth McDonald and W. J. Dodd." A bench mark erected in 1911 by Charles W. Goodlove, of the United States Geological Survey, shows that the courthouse yard is 568 feet above sea level.5John Edmunds Reno, 1895  
As stated in the beginning of this chapter. the first three meetings of the court of quarter sessions were held at the residence of John Dennis. The first justices of this court were William Campbell, Henry Rhoads, and William Worthington, appointed by Governor James Garrard December 22, 1798, Charles Fox Wing was chosen clerk. The first meeting took place on May 28, 1799, and the third on October 22, 1799. The fourth and following meetings took place in the courthouse, William Worthington, John Dennis, and Charles Morgan usually presiding. The last session was held in the spring of 1803, and coincides with the establishing of the circuit court in the county.  
The first grand jury impaneled for the court of quarter sessions met on July 23, 1799, and was composed of: Isaac Davis, foreman; Henry Davis, William Cisna, Daniel Rhoads, jr., John Culbertson, Charles Lewis, Gilbert Vaught, Henry Keath, William Luce, George Brown, Benjamin Garris, Richard Nelson Alcock, William Hynes, John Cornwell, William McCommon, Thomas Bell, and Thomas Ward, They presented three indictments.  
The first petit jury of the court of quarter sessions was impaneled on March 25, 1800, and was composed of: Charles Lewis, David Rhoads, Dempsey Westbrook, David Robertson, John Cornwall, Isaac Rust, John Keath, John Culbertson, Jesse Littlepage, Matthew McLean, William Boggess, and Daniel Rhoads. Their first case was that of "Commonwealth against Andrew Hays." The judgment shows that Hays was charged with assaulting Richard Nelson Alcock, and was fined "twelve dollars besides cost."  
From the first day's record of the first meeting of the circuit court I quote:  
March Term. 1803: At the courthouse of Muhlenberg county on Monday the 21st day of March 1803.  
Pursuant to an Act of the Assembly passed the 20th day of December 1802 entitled an "Act to establish Cireuit Courts," and an Act to amend an Act entitled an "Act to establish Circuit Courts passed the 24th day of December 1802." A commission was produced from his Excellency the Governor directed to William Worthington and William Bell, Esquires, appointing them Assistant Judges in and for the Muhlenberg Circuit. And they also produced a certificate of their having taken the oath of office, they having heretofore taken the oath to support the Constitution of the United States and also the oath of fidelity to the Commonwealth, which certificate reads as follows, to wit:6 William H. Yost. 1912  
"Mnhlenberg County, Sct: I do hereby certify that William Worthington and William Bell this day came before me, one of the Justices of the peace for said County, and took the oath of Assistant Judges for the Muhlenberg Circuit, they having heretofore taken the oath to the United States and the oath of fidelity to the Commonwealth, March the 21st 1803.  
William Garrard."  
.
And thereupon a court was held for said Circuit.  
Present: The Honorable William Worthington and William Bell.  
The Court appointed Charles Fox Wing clerk pro tem to the Muhlenberg Circuit Court who thereupon took the Oath of Office, he having heretofore taken the oath to the United States and also the oath of fidelity to the Commonwealth and together with Sam'l Caldwell and Jesse Reno, his securities, executed bond in the penalty of One thousand pounds, conditioned as the law directs.Muhlenberg County's Third Courthouse  
The Court appointed Christopher Tompkins, Esquire, attorney for the Commonwealth in the Muhlenberg Circuit.  
Sam'l Caldwell, Sam'l Work, Henry Davidge, Robert Coleman, Matthew Lodge, Christopher Tompkins, Reason Davidge, John Davis, James H. McLaughlen and John A. Cape, Gentlemen, were on their motion admitted to practice as attorneys at law in this Court who produced a License as required by Law and thereupon they severally took the oath of office, they having heretofore taken the oath to support the Constitution of the United States and also the Oath of Fidelity to the Commonwealth.  
William Hynes, foreman, Charles Crouch, Jacob Studebaker, Thomas Dennis, Solomon Rhoads, Rob't Robertson, William Roark, William Baugus, Jacob Taylor, John Keath, John Cain, Sam'l Weir, John Cargle, Thomas Littlepage, Dempsey Westbrook, Jacob Severs, John Stom, Jesse Jackson and Edmund Owens were sworn a Grand Jury for the body of this Circuit, who after having received their charge retired from the bar to consult, &c., and after some time returned into Court & having nothing to present were discharged. ...  
Ordered that Court be adjourned until tomorrow morning 10 of the Clock.  
Wm. Worthington.  
The first petit jury impaneled for the circuit court served at the March term, 1803, and was composed of: Samuel Handley, John Dennis, David Casebier, David Robertson, Thomas Bell, Thomas Littlepage, Thomas Randolph, Henry Unsell, George Nott, Henry Davis, Jacob Anthony, and Philip Stom. The first case tried was that of "The Commonwealth against Peter Acre, sometimes called Acrefield." Peter Acrefield was charged with assault, and was fined "one penny besides costs."  
William Worthington or William Bell, with Christopher Greenup or Ninian Edwards, presided over the three sessions of the circuit court that followed. Judge Henry P. Broadnax, of Logan County, was next appointed circuit judge, and served from June, 1804, to March, 1819. Up to 1815 two associate judges in each county sat with the presiding judge, and William Worthington and William Bell usually acted in that capacity. Judge Broadnax was succeeded by Judge Benjamin Shackelford, who served from March, 1819, to September, 1821. He was succeeded by Judge Alney McLean, of Greenville, who served from 1821 to 1841, the time of his death. Judge John Calhoun served from 1842 until the new Constitution displaced him in 1851.7  
Prior to 1850 the circuit judges were appointed by the Governor. Since that time the following elected circuit judges have served: Judge Jesse W. Kincheloe, of Hardinsburg, 1851-1856; Judge George B. Cook, of Henderson, 1856; Judge Thomas C. Dabney, of Cadiz, 1857-1862; Judge R. T. Petree, of Hopkinsville, 1862-1868; Judge George C. Rogers, of Bowling Green, 1868-1870, Judge Robert C. Bowling, of Russellville, 1870-1880; Judge John R. Grace, of Cadiz, 1880-1892; Judge Willis L. Reeves, of Elkton, 1893-1897; Judge I. Herschel Goodnight, of Franklin. 1898-1901; Judge Samuel R. Crewdson, of Russellville, 1901-1903; Judge William P. Sandidge, of Russellville, from 1904.Muhlenberg County's Jail and Jailer's Residence  
The following have served as circuit clerks: Charles Fox Wing, 1851-1856; Jesse H. Reno, 1856-1868; Nat J. Harris, 1868-1880; Doctor George W. Townes, 1880-1892; Thomas E. Sumner, 1893-1903; Clayton S. Curd, from 1904.  
Prior to the adoption of the Third Constitution all county officers were appointed. Up to that time none of the officers of the State, with the exception of the Governor, Lieutenant-Governor, members of the Legislature, electors for President and Vice-President of the United States, and members of Congress were voted for by the people. The manner of filling offices in cities and towns was regulated by their charters. Trustees of towns were either appointed by the county courts or elected by the people. The Legislature controlled the subject, and the regulation of the subject was by no means uniform. The reader curious on this subject is referred to the State Constitution of 1799. From 1850 to 1890 the general elections for county and State officers were held on the first Monday in August. Since 1890 such elections have taken place on the first Tuesday after the first Monday in November. The following county judges, county attorneys, county clerks, jailers, and sheriffs have served Muhlenberg since 1850:  
County Judges, Attorneys, Clerks, and Jailers.  
Judges County Attorneys Clerks Jailers  
1851-54 J. W. I. Godman7 Joseph Ricketts Wm. H. C. Wing Sam H. Dempsey.  
1854-58 Wm. G. Jones B. E. Pittman Jesse H. Reno Sam H. Dempsey.  
1858-62 Wm. G. Jones B. E. Pittman Jesse H. Reno James Simpson.  
1862-66 Ben J. Shaver B. E. Pittman T. J. Jones John L. Williams.  
1866-70 S. P. Love B. E. Pittman Thomas Bruce W. D. Shelton.  
1870-74 S. P. Love Wm. H. Yost Thomas Bruce John M. Williams.  
1874-78 J. C. Thompson Eugene Eaves J. Ed Reno John S. Miller.  
1878-82 J. C. Thompson W. Briggs McCown J. Ed Reno John S. Miller.  
1882-86 John H. Morton W. A. Wickliffe W. T. Stiles John Coombs.  
1886-90 Q. B. Coleman W. Briggs McCown8 W. T. Stiles John Coombs.  
1890-94 D. J. Fleming M. J. Roark Joe G. Ellison R. H. Lyon.  
1895-97 D. J. Fleming M. J. Roark Joe G. Ellison R. H. Lyon.  
1898-01 T. J. Sparks J. L. Rogers Ed S. Wood Wm. T. Miller.  
1902-05 T. J. Sparks J. L. Rogers Ed S. Wood Wm. T. Miller.  
1906-09 R. O. Pace W. O. Belcher F. L. Lewis Geo. M. York.  
1910 Jas. J. Rice T. O. Jones H. L. Kirkpatrick Geo. M. York.  
County Sheriffs.  
1851-52 Wm. Harbin.  
1853-58 Ben J. Shaver.  
1859-60 H. D. Rothrock.  
1861-62 Moses Wickliffe9  
1863-66 J. P. McIntire.  
1867-68 Wm. Irvin.  
1869-70 Tom M. Morgan.  
1871-74 C. B. Wickliffe.  
1875-78 W. A. Mohorn.  
1879-82 Geo. O. Prowse.  
1883-86 Alex Tinsley.  
1887-90 T. B. Pannell.  
1891-93 M. L. Prowse.  
1894-97 D. T. Hill.  
1898-01 W. H. Welsh.  
1902-05 W. D. Blackwell.  
1906-09 J. A. Shaver.  
1910 T. L. Roll.  
.
VI, The Weirs
No Name is better known in Muhlenberg than that of Weir. James Weir, sr., was a pioneer merchant and the founder of a family whose history is closely interwoven with all the history of the county. James Weir, sr., was a son of William Weir, a Revolutionary soldier of Scotch-Irish descent. He was a surveyor by profession, and in 1798, at the age of twenty-one, came to Muhlenberg on horseback from his home at Fishing Creek, South Carolina. This trip was the first of his many long horseback journeys, and extended over a period of eight months.  
While on this expedition in search of a place to begin his career he spent some of his time writing sketches and poems bearing directly or indirectly on the places he visited. His account of this trip to Muhlenberg he himself styles "James Weir's Journal: Some of James Weir's travels and other things that might be of interest."  
The old journal is still preserved, and although it throws very little light on the history of Muhlenberg, his observations, made in the Green River country and elsewhere, show the character of a young man who, immediately after his arrival in the county, became one of its most influential citizens. He evidently idled away no time on this trip, and the same may also be said of his entire journey through life. His first entry in the journal begins: "March 3, 1798, I set out from South Carolina, the land of my nativity, with the intention to explore the western climes." He gives a graphic description of the country through which he passed on his way to Eastern Tennessee. Writing of his short stay in Knoxville, he says: "In the infant town of Knox the houses are irregular and interspersed. It was County day when I came, the town was confused with a promiscuous throng of every denomination. Some talked, some sang and mostly all did profanely swear. I stood aghast, my soul shrunk back to hear the horrid oaths and dreadful indignities offered to the Supreme Governor of the Universe, who, with one frown is able to shake them into non-existence. There was what I never did see before, viz., on Sunday dancing, singing and playing of cards, etc. ... It was said by a gentleman of the neighborhood that 'the Devil is grown so old that it renders him incapable of traveling, and that he has taken up in Knoxville and there hopes to spend the remaining part of his days in tranquillity, as he believes he is among his friends,' but as it is not a good principle to criticise the conduct of others, I shall decline it with this general reflection, that there are some men of good principles in all places, but often more bad ones to counterbalance them."  
These few lines show that although Mr. Weir thought the "infant town of Knox" was a very wicked place he, nevertheless, did not wholly condemn it. From Knoxville he rode to Nashville, where he remained a few months and where he "kept school at the house of Colonel Thomas Ingles, a gentleman of distinguished civility." Before leaving Tennessee he wrote:  
Thinks I, is this that promised land? Is this that noble Tennessee whose great fame has filled the mouths and fired the breaths of many through the different states? If so, I do not doubt your fame is more than you are in reality, which is commonly the case of new countries. ... I have now traveled six months in the state of Tennessee and have set out for Kentucky. ...  
On the 8th day of October, 1799, I crossed the Clinch River and there took to the Wilderness, which is 95 miles without a house or inhabitant. I met two gentlemen who proved very good company through this lonely wilderness. This wilderness land belongeth to the Indians, who will not suffer anybody to settle on it. The land is for the most part barren and mountainous. After three days' travel we arrived into Cumberland, a Country whose fertility of soil and pleasant situation I could not pass over, without particular attention. This country is well settled with people.Pioneer James Weir, About 1840  
Having tarried there a few days in a friend's house, I passed over into the state of Kentucky and travelled through some of the lower parts, viz., on Green River and Red River. This country is for the most part newly settled, their buildings and farms but small. Some live by hunting only, which explore the solitary retreats of the wild bear and buffalo. Others, being more industrious, cultivate the soil, though not as properly as they might for want of implements. The land yields exceedingly well, corn, wheat, cotton and all other grains and plants common to the southern states. The latitude is nearly the same as that of North Carolina.  
The range for cattle is good in the summer and for hogs I suppose it is equal to any in the world. There are low flats and marshes which overflow at certain seasons which after the water is departed make excellent range for hogs. I saw a gentleman here who from four of a stock raised 200 head in three years. These flats lie along on Green River and up some of the creeks that empty into it. They would produce rice or grass, I think, very well, and in some places corn, as she does not overflow in the summer season. It is thought that near to these flats it will be sickly on account of vapours and thick fogs which exhale from them and which also breed numbers of mosquitoes which infect the inhabitants even unto their houses. It is thought when the country is settled they will be done away.Mrs. Anna C. R. Weir  
Green River is navigable all seasons of the year for large boats, which may pass to and from Illinois and from thence to the Atlantic Ocean. It is thought that it will be a place of great trade in time to come.  
Here I made a stop again, and kept school six months in Muhlenberg county on this River, in a Dutch settlement. Some of them are of distinguished kindness. Their profession is Dunkards and Baptists. They appear to be very sincere, God only knows their hearts.  
The journal ends with this brief statement relative to his first six months in Muhlenberg. He evidently found the place that pleased him and therefore settled in Muhlenberg and closed his story of the trip he made in search of the promised land.  
Pioneer James Weir arrived in Muhlenberg County about the time the county was formed. He took an active part in the first county court meetings and also helped Alney McLean lay out the town of Greenville and did much toward the moral and commercial development of the community. He was instrumental in getting a number of people to settle in the county. His sister, Jane Weir, and her husband, pioneer Joseph Poag,1 and his brother, Samuel Weir,2 who lived and died near Paradise, were, like him, influential persons.  
He was the first merchant and banker in Greenville. His business increased very rapidly in the new town, and he soon established another store at Lewisburg or Kincheloe's Bluff. In the course of time he conducted mercantile houses in Henderson, Hopkinsville, Morganfield, Madisonville, and Russellville. He also had a store in Shawneetown, Illinois. But Greenville, from the time of its beginning, was his home and headquarters.  
James Weir bought practically all his merchandise in Philadelphia, to which place he made more than a dozen trips on horseback, accompanied by no one except his faithful body-servant Titus. Most of his goods were transported in wagons to Pittsburgh and thence by boat down the Ohio on their way to his various stores. The boxes intended for Muhlenberg County were sent up Green River, unloaded at Lewisburg, and then hauled on wagons to Greenville. These wagons were always at the river landing when the freight arrived, but the teamsters were often obliged to wait many days for the expected boats. Mr. and Mrs. Weir made a number of trips together to the Eastern market. On one occasion they bought some of the best furniture for sale in Philadelphia. They transported it to Pittsburgh and there unpacked it, furnished their own stateroom, and used it while traveling down the Ohio and up Green River to Lewisburg and then sent it to their home in Greenville.Edward R. Weir, Sr., 1875  
He made many trips down the Mississippi to New Orleans, from which place he returned to Greenville either via land or via ocean boat to Philadelphia, where after making his purchases he continued his journey by land and river. He wrote an account of a trip taken in 1803, giving his experience while traveling down the Mississippi, then via ocean and up the Delaware to Philadelphia. It is an interesting story and is quoted in full in an appendix to this history. One of the ledgers kept in his Greenville store about 1814 is still preserved and is described in the chapter on "Life in the Olden Days."  
James Weir was born in South Carolina in 1777 and died in Greenville on August 9, 1845. His first wife, Anna Cowman Rumsey, mother of his children, was born in 1792 and died in 1838. She was a daughter of Doctor Edward Rumsey (of Christian County), who was a brother of James Rumsey, the inventor. Doctor Edward Rumsey was the father of eight children, four of whom are identified with Muhlenberg history: the Honorable Edward Rumsey; Anna C. Rumsey, who married James Weir, sr.; Harriet Rumsey, who married Samuel Miller, and whose only child, Harriet R. Miller, married Edward R. Weir, sr.; and Emily Rumsey, who married Richard Elliott, of Hartford, Kentucky.  
James Weir was the father of five children:Mrs. Harriet R. Weir, 1900  
(1) Edward Rumsey Weir, sr., who, as just stated, married Harriet R. Miller. Mr. and Mrs. Edward R. Weir and their children are referred to in this and other chapters.  
(2) James Weir, jr., of Owensboro, who married Susan C. Green. He was a banker, lawyer, and well-known writer. Among his books is "Lonz Powers." A review of this work is given in another chapter, where also appears a biography of the author.  
(3) Sallie Ann Weir, who married Edward R. Elliott, a son of pioneer Richard Elliott, Mr. and Mrs. Edward R. Elliott moved to Jacksonville, Illinois, in 1851. They were the parents of Edward, Richard, Frank, J. Weir, and Henry Elliott, and Mrs. Anna R. (William S.) Devine.  
(4) Susan M. Weir, who married Professor William L. Green, Professor Green, as stated in the chapter on "Post-Primary Education," was one of the first promoters of higher education in Muhlenberg.  
(5) Emily Weir, who married Samuel M. Wing, son of Charles Fox Wing The names of their children are given in the chapter on "Charles Fox Wing."  
Of the elder James Weir's five children only one, Edward R. Weir, sr., lived in Greenville all his life. Edward R. Weir, sr., was born in Greenville on November 29, 1816, and died February 5, 1891. He was an influential merchant, lawyer, and politician, a slave-holder, an abolitionist, and a strong Union man. He was wealthy and charitable; always active in church work and in the elevation of his fellow-men. Nearly every act of his life was directed toward the moral and commercial good of Muhlenberg County. He represented the county in the State Legislature in 1841, 1842, and in 1863-65. In 1848 he built, on Caney Creek, a mile north of Greenville, the first steam saw and grist mill in the county.  
The large brick residence erected by Edward R. Weir, sr., about the year 1840, on South Main Street near the foot of Hopkinsville Street, was in its day one of the best-built homes in the county. It not only afforded him and his family every possible comfort, but stood as an example of what enterprise can do. He dug what is probably the most symmetrical stone-lined well ever made in Kentucky. The brick cabins built for his slaves, and the greenhouses and icehouse, have been torn down, but the solid old residence and hexagonshaped office near it still show that what Edward R. Weir, sr., did he did well.E. R. Weir (Colonel), in 1865  
He was also an author. Among the articles written by him are "A Visit to the Faith Doctor," published in the Western Magazine, of Cincinnati, in November, 1836, and "A Random Sketch by a Kentuckian, E. R. W." describing a deer hunt, which appeared in the March, 1839, issue of the Knickerbocker Magazine, and are here reviewed in one of the appendices. These sketches pertain to some of his experiences in Muhlenberg County. Some time during the '40s of the last century he wrote a short history of the Harpes, which it is said was published in the Saturday Evening Post of Philadelphia. Although I have tried to obtain a copy of this article, I have failed to do so. If printed, it probably appeared under some assumed name and under a heading other than "The Harpes."  
Harriet Rumsey (Miller) Weir, wife of Edward R. Weir, sr., was born in Christian County March 16, 1822. Mrs. Weir came to Greenville in early youth and lived there for three quarters of a century, when, after the death of her son Max Weir, she moved to Jacksonville, Illinois. Few Muhlenberg women were better known in their day than Mrs. Weir. She took an active interest in her husband's affairs, and always helped him in his business and in his various efforts to do good. During the last fifty years of her life she was generally referred to as Lady Weir, for all who knew her realized that she was a noble woman in every sense of the word. She died at the home of her son Miller Weir on February 16, 1913, and is buried at Greenville. The day after her funeral the Greenville Record said: "Her long life was an active one, spent in simpleness and goodness. She was a brilliant woman; in manner, ever kind and attentive. She was one of the most loved women in the whole county. Her religious activities were varied and effective, doing much in that line without show or ostentation."  
Five of the children born to Mr. and Mrs. Edward R. Weir, sr., reached maturity:  
(1) Edward Rumsey Weir, jr. (better known as Colonel E. R. Weir), was born August 13, 1839, and died March 30, 1906. After the close of the Civil War, Colonel Weir became a merchant in Greenville and later a leading lawyer. Eliza T. Johnson, daughter of Doctor John M. Johnson, was his first wife and the mother of his children, who were: Frank Weir, who was killed September 19, 1890, in Eastern Kentucky while in the revenue service; Jerome Weir, of the U. S. Army; Harry Weir, of Greenville, who married Ruth Grundy; Louise B. Weir, who married W. D. Reeves, and Anna C. Weir, who married Max Layne. Colonel Weir's second wife was Alice Culbertson, of the State of New York, to whom he was married in 1898.Max Weir, in 1900  
(2) Anna C. Weir, who married David W. Eaves, a son of Sanders Eaves. Their children are: Elliott, Lucian, Lucile, Harriet, Ruth, and Belle Eaves.  
(3) Miller Weir, who early in life settled in Jacksonville, Illinois. He is a banker and is identified with the politics of Illinois. He married Fannie Bancroft. Their only child, Fanita, married Edward P. Brockhouse, a banker and lawyer of Jacksonville.  
(4) Virginia Weir, who died at the age of sixteen.  
(5) Max Weir, who was born December 23, 1863, and died May 18, 1904. He was a bachelor, a popular merchant in Greenville, a devout Christian, and a local and State Y. M. C. A. worker. In 1899 he wrote "From the Father's Country," a pamphlet of a religious character, which was published shortly after his death.  
VII, Muhlenberg Men in the War of 1812
When on June 18, 1812, war against Great Britain was declared by the United States, no State responded to the call for volunteers more readily than did Kentucky. The second war with England lasted over two and a half years, during which time three companies that presented themselves for service were organized in Muhlenberg. Most of the men in these three organizations were citizens of the county. From the "Roster of Volunteer Officers and Soldiers from Kentucky in the War of 1812-15," compiled in 1891 by Samuel E. Hill, Adjutant-General of Kentucky, I copy the following list of officers and privates of these three companies and also the dates as there recorded. These names are here given as printed in the roster, although many of them are evidently misspelled. The only additions I have made to this record are the notes stating that Captain Kincheloe's company took part in the battle of the Thames, and that Captain McLean's company fought in the battle of New Orleans.  
Roll of Captain Alney McLean's Company.  
In First Regiment Kentucky Mounted Militia, commanded by Lieutenant-Colonel Samuel Caldwell.  
Enlisted September 18, 1812. Engaged to October 30, 1812.  
Alney McLean, Captain.  
Charles Campbell, Lieutenant.  
Jere S. Cravens, Ensign.  
William Oates, Sergeant.  
Parmenas Redman, Sergeant.  
Thomas Glenn, Sergeant.  
James Martin, Sergeant.  
John Ferguson, Corporal.  
John January, Corporal.  
Moses F. Glenn, Corporal.  
John C. Milligan, Corporal.  
John Earle, Trumpeter.  
.
.
Privates  
Ash, James  
Anthony, Jacob  
Bond, Cornelius  
Bennett, John  
Bower, Jacob  
Campbell, William, sr.  
Campbell, William, jr.  
Cummings, Moses  
Conditt, Moses P.  
Carter, William  
Cochran, Bryant  
Davis, William  
Dennis, Abraham  
Dudley, Robert  
Everton, Thomas  
Edmonds, George  
Everton, James  
Evans, John  
Foster, Thomas  
Good, John  
Gillingham, Jno. B. C.  
Hewlett, Alfred  
Hemman, George  
Hines, Isaac  
Houser, Christopher  
Harrison, Isaac  
Hunsinger, George  
Hill, William  
Jarvis, Simon  
Langley, John W.  
Luce, David  
Lynn, George  
Morton, William  
McFerson, John  
Maxwell, Robert  
Martin, Samuel  
Nunn, John  
Robertson, Robert  
Rice, Samuel  
Salsbury, Thomas  
Sanders, George  
Stroud, John  
Skillman, James  
Stanley, Mark  
Tyler, Charles  
Thompson, Philip  
Todd, William  
Vaught, Abraham  
Winlock, Joseph  
Wilkins, Bryant  
Young, Benjamin  
Roll of Captain Lewis Kincheloe's Company.  
In Kentucky Mounted Volunteer Militia, commanded by Colonel William Williams.  
Enlisted at Newport, Kentucky, September 11, 1813.  
(This company took part in the battle of the Thames, October 5, 1813.)  
Lewis Kincheloe, Captain.  
Charles F. Wing, Lieutenant.  
John Dobyns, Ensign.  
John W. Langley, Corporal.  
Privates.  
Baldwin, Herbert W.  
Brown, Frederick  
Butler, Samuel  
Culbertson, Robert W.  
Davis, Randolph  
Davis, William  
Drake, Mosly  
Graves, John C.  
Ham, David  
Harris, Richard  
Haws, John  
Hill, Asa  
Hill, John  
Hill, William  
McFerson, John  
Miller, George  
Murphy, Samuel  
Neff, Henry  
O'Neal, Spencer  
Pace, Daniel  
Pace, Joel  
Penrod, George  
Row, Henry  
Redman, Parmenas  
Roark, William  
Raco, Henry  
Segler, Jacob  
Shelton, John  
Smith, Hugh  
Uzzell, Thomas  
Wilcox, Thomas  
Worthington, Isaac  
Jones, Fielding  
Langley, James  
Roll of Captain Alney McLean's Company.  
In Kentucky Detached Militia, commanded by Lieutenant-Colonel William Mitchusson.  
Enlisted November 20, 1814. Engaged to May 20, 1815.  
(This company took part in the battle of New Orleans, January 8, 1815.)  
Alney McLean, Captain.  

 

After Alney McLean helped organize Lewis Kincheloe's company in the fall of 1813 he formed another of his own, drilled his men often and had them prepare, like the minute-men, to report on a moment's notice. At the head of his second company he took an active part in the battle of New Orleans. Judge Little, in his "Life of Ben Hardin," says:  
After the battle he was assigned to very arduous fatigue duty, of which he complained to General Jackson. He received an insulting rebuff, for which he never forgave his old commander.6 ...  
By change of districts Judge McLean, of Greenville, in 1822, succeeded Judge Broadnax in the Breckinridge district. He was always an active politician. His accession to the bench and twenty years service there did not diminish his interest in public affairs. He had served as a captain at New Orleans, and while not with the Kentucky troops, who, in the language of General Jackson, "ingloriously fled," yet he resented this stigma cast upon his State. He was ever an opponent of "Old Hickory." Naturally enough he was a friend of Henry Clay. He was, while judge, chosen a Clay elector in 1824 and again in 1832. His taste for and activity in polities shocked those of his constituents specially sensitive as to the proprieties of the bench.  
Under the head of McLean County, Collins, in his "History of Kentucky," publishes a brief biographical sketch of Judge McLean:  
Judge Alney McLean, in honor of whom McLean county was named, was a native of Burke county, North Carolina. He emigrated to Kentucky and began the practice of law at Greenville, Muhlenburg county, about 1805, but had little to do with polities before 1808. He was a representative from that county in the legislature, 1812-'13; a captain in the war of 1812, a representative in Congress for four years, 1815-'17 and 1819-'21; one of the electors for president in 1825, casting his vote and that of the state for Henry Clay; again in 1833 an elector for the state at large, when the vote of the state was cast a second time for the same distinguished citizen. He was appointed a circuit judge. and for many years adorned the bench. One of the oldest and ablest of Kentucky ex-judges, in a letter to the author, speaks of Judge McLean as "a model gentleman of the old school, of great courtesy and kindness to the junior members of the bar," an honored citizen and a just judge.Alney McLean, About 1820  
The following is copied from the record entered by the clerk of the Muhlenberg Circuit Court in Record Book No. 8, at the March term in 1842. It verifies not only some of the statements given above but adds other facts, and also shows the high esteem in which Judge McLean was held by his contemporaries:  
Thereupon, on motion of John H. McHenry, the Court suspended all further proceedings for the purpose of attending the following meeting.  
And thereupon Edward Rumsey, Esq., offered the following preamble and resolved statement, to wit: At a meeting of the members of the Muhlenberg Circuit Court, on Monday, the 21st day of March 1842, the Hon. John Calhoun was called to the chair, and the following statement and resolution being presented, were unanimously adopted:  
"The Honorable Alney McLean, late presiding judge of this Court, was born in the state of North Carolina, in May 1779. In June 1799 he removed to this county, and commenced the practice of law, which he successfully pursued, through a long series of years, securing by his integrity, ability and courtesy the confidence of the bench, the friendship of the bar, and the esteem of the public. In 1812 & 1813 he represented his county with fidelity and distinction in the General Assembly.  
"In 1813 and 1815 he aided in repelling the invaders of his country in the memorable battle of New Orleans, at the head of his company, acted the part of a gallant officer and devoted patriot. With honor and reputation he represented his district in the 16th and 18th Congresses. In 1821 he received the commission of Judge of the 14th District in which he presided with eminent impartiality, dignity, and ability, for more than twenty years. The 31st day of December, 1841 his active and useful life was suddenly terminated by a severe attack of bilious pneumonia. Regret and grief for his death, though great and general, may well be somewhat alleviated by the reflection that he lived not in vain, that he died after a long career of public and private usefulness--full of honor, high in the affection of his friends and the esteem of his countrymen, leaving a bright fame, a beloved memory behind."  
Alney McLean was the first county surveyor of Muhlenberg, and laid out the town of Greenville in 1799. He took an active interest in all movements that might help develop the county. His popularity is also shown by the great number of children named in his honor by their parents. Doctor Robert D. McLean, sr., of Greenville (born 1783, died 1875), in his day one of the best-known surgeons in Western Kentucky, was his brother.  
Judge McLean was a son of Ephraim McLean and Eliza (Davidson) McLean. His father, in 1820, at the age of ninety, removed from North Carolina to Greenville, and there died three years later. Judge McLean married Tabitha R. Campbell, daughter of Colonel William Campbell. She was born in Virginia January 25, 1785, and died in Greenville February 17, 1850. No one among the pioneers is more frequently and more creditably mentioned in local traditions than Judge McLean. In his day he was esteemed one of the greatest men in the Green River country, and as such his name will always be recorded in its history, much to the credit of Muhlenberg County.7  
Isaac Davis was an officer in Alney McLean's company, and was among the Muhlenberg men who took part in the battle of New Orleans. Tradition says he frequently referred to his military experience as "a tramp around with the boys." While camping at New Orleans, so runs the story, he, like the others, suffered many hardships. He was accustomed to fresh butter and sweet milk, and these he missed far more than any of the other things of which he was deprived. Before leaving New Orleans he vowed that upon his return to Muhlenberg he would not only build a comfortable house, but also dig a large cellar and keep it well supplied with butter and milk. Practically all the well-to-do pioneers used cellars, but none, according to this tradition, was better equipped and supplied than was the one dug by Isaac Davis. The old Isaac Davis house still stands--near Green River, east of Martwick--and although its cellar is no longer noted for its abundance of butter and milk, it is still pointed out as the "Isaac Davis milk cellar."The Isaac Davis House, Near Martwick  
Davis lived on a farm that in early days was regarded one of the best-managed places in the county. He owned many slaves and much stock, and raised large quantities of corn and wheat. He did not plant tobacco, for he considered tobacco injurious to the soil. It is said that he protected his ground so well and cultivated his corn so carefully that he never had a crop failure, and that even during the dryest years his ridge land never produced less than fifty bushels to the acre. His corncribs were always well filled. When his neighbors' crops failed he sold them corn for their immediate need at any price they cared to pay, even though that price was less than half the prevailing market price. If they were in poor circumstances and could pay nothing, he gave them the corn.  
In his earlier years he frequently taught school, for which he invariably declined pay. He instructed the rising generation "for the good of the community," as he expressed it, although in the meantime he had "more than enough to do at home."  
Isaac Davis was born in Virginia October 9, 1782, came to the Nelson Creek country while a boy, and died in Muhlenberg June 6, 1858. His wife, Mary, was a sister of pioneer Moses Wickliffe. She was born April 22, 1785, and died September 14, 1870.8  
Another of the well-known veterans of the War of 1812 was Joseph C. Reynolds, who was born in North Carolina May 17, 1793, and who while still a boy came to Muhlenberg, where he died January 13, 1868. While visiting in Tennessee he enlisted in a company organized in that State. He showed great bravery at the battle of New Orleans, where he experienced a number of narrow escapes. Tradition has it that General Andrew Jackson complimented him on his courage in battle.  
Joseph C. Reynolds was for fifty years one of the best-known men in the county. He was a successful farmer, and up to the time of the emancipation of the slaves was one of the largest slave-owners in Muhlenberg. He was a liberal man, and never hesitated to volunteer to help a neighbor or friend when he felt his help was needed. In January, 1820, he married Mary Fortney Reynolds, a daughter of pioneer Richard D. Reynolds, sr., a Revolutionary soldier. They were the parents of six children, all of whom were influential citizens. Mrs. Reynolds, like her husband, always had the good of Muhlenberg at heart and did much toward the moral advancement of the county. She came to Muhlenberg in her youth, and died near Greenville August 31, 1868.9Mr. and Mrs. Joseph C. Reynolds, 1867  
In addition to Akers, Drake, Wing, Brank, McLean, Davis, and Reynolds, there were many other Muhlenberg men in the War of 1812. Traditions regarding most of them are very vague. Even Michael Severs, who helped load the guns that Ephraim M. Brank shot while standing on the breastworks at New Orleans, and who in his day was one of the most picturesque characters in the county, is now almost forgotten.  
Severs lived in the Bevier neighborhood, where he died about the year 1850. He came to Muhlenberg some time before 1800. He was then, and ever after, a typical backwoodsman and a true representative of the pioneer days. Although manners and customs changed as he advanced in years, he nevertheless continued to wear the hunting-shirt and to use a flintlock rifle. During all his life he wore moccasins in winter and went barefooted in summer.  
He was a member of Alney McLean's company and, as already stated, took part in the battle of New Orleans. One story is to the effect that after the victory all the men in McLean's company rode back to Kentucky except Mike, and that although he walked he reached Greenville a few days before any of the others. One of the local traditions has it that he killed General Pakenham in the battle of New Orleans. Whether he is entitled to this distingtion can probably never be determined. At any rate he was highly esteamed, especially by the local men who took part in the War of 1812. Every time he came to Greenville such men as Alney McLean and Charles Fox Wing prevailed on him to be their guest while in town. Although clad in buckskin breeches and hunting-shirt, and often without shoes, he was always placed at the head of the table and given the best room in the house, regardless of other guests.  
The progress of the world and the making of money had no attractions for him. He was always interested in his immediate surroundings, and whatever he undertook he did with great enthusiasm. After the death of his second wife, which occurred many years before his own, he lived in a log cabin, but spent most of his days tramping around and hunting. When night overtook him, or when he cared to stop, he went to the most convenient house, walked in without knocking, presented his game, made himself at home, and remained until he was ready to start on another hunt. He was gladly received by every one who knew him. Every man considered it an honor to have Mike Severs enter his smoke-house or corn-crib and help himself. This he often did, for he realized that he was more than welcome to anything he wished to take. He made quantities of maple sugar every year, and distributed his entire "bilin'" among those who cared for "tree sugar."  
Severs was evidently a most interesting and unusual character. Very little regarding the story of his life is now remembered by those who heard of him in their youth. The bones of this old hunter rest in the Duke and Whitehouse burying-ground near Bevier, and his contented soul, in all probability, is now wandering around in the happy hunting-grounds of another world.  
Many years after his death some of the people in the Bevier neighborhood purposed to erect a shaft over his grave, but unfortunately their plans were never carried out. Severs Hill, overlooking lower Pond Creek, and the nearby Severs Ford, crossing the same stream, now perpetuate the name of Mike Severs, the old soldier and old-time backwoodsman.10  
VIII, Charles Fox Wing
No man in Muhlenberg ever came in closer touch with a larger number of the citizens of the county than Charles Fox Wing. No man living in the county was more highly esteemed by his contemporaries. From 1798, when he first came to Muhlenberg, to 1861, when he died in Greenville, he had the respect and confidence of every man with whom he came in contact.  
He was the youngest son of Barnabas Wing, who was for many years one of the wealthiest and most prominent men in New Bedford, Massachusetts, where he was extensively engaged in shipbuilding and various other enterprises. During the Revolution Barnabas Wing loaned money to the colony of Massachusetts Bay with which to carry on the War of Independence. During this struggle his home and all his other property was confiscated by the English, and at the close of the war he was a penniless man. It was during these trying times that Charles Fox Wing was born. About the year 1790 Barnabas Wing moved to Central Kentucky, and there, at the age of about fifty-seven, he began life anew. He and his wife had no desire to try to regain their lost fortune, but worked as best they could for the education of their younger children. They undoubtedly impressed upon their youngest son the sacredness and the cost of independence, for no man venerated the flag and its makers more than did Charles Fox Wing during all of his long life. Barnabas Wing moved to Greenville about 1809, and died there at the home of his son, October 4, 1815.  
Charles Fox Wing was born in Massachusetts, according to one record, on January 25, 1779, and according to another, on January 15, 1780. In either case he was less than twenty-one years of age when, on May 28, 1799, he was appointed county clerk. He had previous to this time served in the office of Thomas Allen, of Mercer County, and Thomas Todd, Clerk of the House of Representatives. The experience gained under these two men undoubtedly made him far more competent to fill the position of county clerk than many men who had reached the age required by law. He served as clerk of the court of quarter sessions, and in March, 1803, when the circuit court was established, he became its clerk. He continued as clerk of the circuit and county courts until the adoption of the Third Constitution in 1850. He was then more than seventy years of age, and had devoted more than a half century to the writing and preserving of official records. When the Constitution of 1850 was adopted the office of circuit clerk and all county offices became elective. Captain Wing, at the urgent solicitation of the citizens of the county, became the candidate for clerk of the circuit court, and was elected without opposition; his son, William H. C. Wing, who had assisted his father for many years, was elected county clerk.  
When, in 1812, war was declared against England, no Muhlenberg man responded to the call to arms with greater enthusiasm or with more patriotic feeling than did Charles Fox Wing. He and Captain Lewis Kincheloe organized a company and awaited orders from the Governor. In the early part of September, 1813, their company marched to Newport, and on October 5th of the same year took part in the battle of the Thames, Wing was the lieutenant of this company, but on Captain Kincheloe's death, which occurred before the battle, he was placed in command.Charles Fox Wing, 1850  
The details of Captain Wing's action in this short but decisive battle are, unfortunately, among the many other things that have passed away with the men and women who were familiar with them. The story of his connection with this battle has dwindled down to the statement that he was "a hero at Thames, and saw Tecumseh after he was slain." This brief statement is probably founded on some act of heroism, for tradition says that all the veterans of 1812 not only referred to him as "a hero at Thames" but always gave him the seat of honor at their soldiers' reunions. Those who knew him best declare that his recollections of the part he took in the second war with England were among the many things that, in old age, gave him the satisfaction of feeling that he at least had tried to do his duty toward his county and his country. No man in the county or State was more devoted to the American flag or regarded it with more sacred feeling. Every year, on the Fourth of July, from 1799 to 1861, he hoisted Old Glory on a pole in front of the courthouse and also in front of his own home. This fact is referred to by James Weir in his recollections of Greenville as published in "Lonz Powers" and quoted in this volume. The Louisville Daily Journal, shortly after Captain Wing's death, commenting on his devotion to the flag, says:Mrs Charles Fox Wing, About 1850  
His love for the American flag has been a marked feature of his whole life. His devotion to the Star-spangled Banner was proverbial in all this region. It amounted to a passion. It was the one form in which, throughout his declining years, the rich and intense loyalty of his nature sought full expression. Every Fourth of July for the last quarter of a century and upwards, as regularly as the glorious anniversary dawned, he had raised the Stars and Stripes in his humble dooryard, and had kept them flying proudly until the close of day. The sight of the starry banner of the Republic, though rendered dim by the cloud of age, was to him a solace and an inspiration, bringing tears of mingled pride and joy to his failing eyes and smiles of hope to his sunken lips and his withered cheeks. He had been born under the American flag; he had lived under it and fought under it; and, now that he was dying under it, he asked, as his last request on earth, that ere he should be consigned to the grave he might be wrapped in the folds of that worshipped banner--that it might be his shroud in death as it had been his canopy through life. He died with this prayer on his lips.  
This request was granted. His body was not only wrapped in the American flag, but in the very flag he had hoisted in front of the courthouse during the last ten or fifteen years of his life, and thus lowered into the grave. General Buekner and his army passed through Greenville September 26, 1861, the day after Captain Wing died. The General viewed the remains of his old and fatherly friend, commented on the befitting manner in which his body was wrapped in the Stars and Stripes, and then returned to the troops under his command. Such are the facts regarding this incident. I have verified this version by many men and women, among them General Buckner himself, who in August, 1912, fifty-one years after the incident occurred, still remembered all the circumstances connected with his call at the Wing home.  
One of the other versions has it that General Buckner offered to bury Captain Wing with military honors, his offer being declined; another has it that General Buckner, finding the body of Captain Wing wrapped in the Stars and Stripes, insisted on removing the Federal flag and burying the old patriot in the Confederate flag. A variety of other groundless statements can be traced to these two often heard but false stories.1  
On October 18, 1861, the Louisville Daily Journal published a brief sketch of Captain Wing, signed "T." From this I quote:  
It was his rare merit to be all that he seemed to be, a distinction seldom attained by those who have figured on the public stage of life or have received its highest honors. He was the chief supporter of the little Presbyterian Church of his preference, and with unfailing constancy his venerable form was seen and his earnest voice heard whenever two or three were convened to worship God. For thirty years, with untiring patience, he presided over and sustained the Sunday-school. His departure makes a great void. Who can fill it? A life of great beauty and excellence was closed by a most trinmphant faith in the joys beyond the grave.  
In 1806 Charles Fox Wing married Anna S., or "Nancy," Campbell, daughter of Colonel William Campbell and Tabitha A. (Russell) Campbell. Mrs. Wing was born March 13, 1788, came to Muhlenberg about eight years later, and died January 17, 1863. She was buried in Caney Station buryingground by the side of her husband. Captain Wing died in Greenville September 25, 1861, aged about eighty-one. The inscription on his tombstone, "Died September 15, 1861," is incorrect, and has been so recognized since the stone was erected in 1862.2  
The log residence built by Captain Wing shortly after he was married stood on the southeast corner of Main Cross and Cherry streets, Greenville. The building was later enlarged and covered with weatherboards. The Wing house was, for more than fifty years, Muhlenberg's center of hospitality and refinement. This famous old landmark was torn down in 1905 and a few years later a modern residence was erected on the site by J. L. Rogers.The Charles Fox Wing House, Greenville, in 1891  
Captain Wing's long service as clerk of county and circuit courts, his unselfish interest in the community and his usefulness as a citizen, are referred to in other chapters. He was in every respect an upright, intelligent, useful, and charitable man. He was worthy of the great respect he commanded, and his name is well deserving of the great esteem in which it is now held.  
IX, Edward Rumsey
Four Muhlenberg men while citizens of the county became members of Congress--Alney McLean, Edward Rumsey, Doctor A. D. James, and R. Y. Thomas. Edward Rumsey, the second to attain this distinction, came to Muhlenberg in his youth, shortly after the close of the second war with England, and made Greenville his home during the rest of his life--a period of fifty years. Citizens now living who knew Edward Rumsey in their younger days usually begin and end their talks regarding him, whether short or long, with a sentiment that is best expressed in a paraphrase of the familiar quotation:  
"None knew him but to love him, Nor named him but to praise."  
He was very modest and unassuming and usually a man of few words, but when addressing the public his speech became eloquent.  
Some have it that the town of Rumsey, in McLean County, was named after him. Others assert that the place was so called after his uncle, "James Rumsey, who built the first steamboat." However, the version generally accepted is that when, in 1839, the people proposed naming the new town after Edward Rumsey, he modestly declined the honor, and his friends then compromised with him and called the place Rumsey in memory of his uncle. Thus, although the town may have been named after James Rumsey, it was really so called after Edward Rumsey.  
The death of his two children, aged three and six, in the spring of 1838, was soon followed by the loss of all ambition on his part to climb the ladder of fame. His friends vainly urged him not to cast aside his many bright prospects of a public career. Although his interest in public affairs practically ceased when he was forty, no man in Muhlenberg was better known and more admired during his entire life than Edward Rumsey. He was a gentleman of the "old school." During the Civil War the Southern sympathizers looked upon him as their adviser. He married Jane M. Wing, daughter of Charles Fox Wing. She died October 15, 1868.  
Much could be written about Edward Rumsey based on the verbal reports of to-day, but such a chapter would probably be more of a eulogy than a biographical sketch. Ten years after his death an article on his life and character was printed in "The Biographical Encyclopedia of Kentuckians of the Nineteenth Century," which I here quote in full:  
Hon. Edward Rumsey, lawyer, was born in Botetourt county, Virginia, in 1800, and removed with his father, Dr. Edward Rumsey, to Christian county, Kentucky, when quite a boy.  
His uncle, James Rumsey, is claimed to be the first who applied steam to navigation in America, if not in England. It was also claimed that the evidence submitted before the National House of Representatives, in 1839, is conclusive as to his priority over John Fitch. A letter written by George Washington, in 1787, mentions that James Rumsey had communicated his steamboat invention to him in 1784, and that subsequently John Fitch had laid his claim to the invention before him, asking his assistance, he declining to give it, stating that James Rumsey had previously introduced the same idea to him.Edward Rumsey, About 1845  
It is certain that James Rumsey propelled a steamboat on the Potomac River, against the stream, at the rate of four miles an hour in 1784. He afterward went to England and procured patents for steam navigation from the British Government in 1788; constructed a boat of one hundred tons burden, with improved applications, covered by his patents, which were in advance of those of James Watt. He was on the eve of complete success when his sudden death from apoplexy, while discussing the principles of his invention before the Royal Society, terminated his career. His boat and machinery went to satisfy his creditors; and Robert Fulton, then in London, profited by his intimacy with the inventor.  
Edward Rumsey was educated in Hopkinsville by Daniel Barry, one of the famous classicists of Kentucky. He studied law with John J. Crittenden, who became his lifelong friend. He settled in Greenville and practiced in Muhlenberg and adjoining counties. His reputation for candor and thorough honesty, coupled with his clear sense of justice and wonderful faculty of expression, soon placed him at the head of the bar. With all his natural qualifications to shine in public life he was remarkably timid and modest, his diffidence at times becoming almost morbid. Owing to this fact, no doubt to a great extent, may be attributed the loss from public affairs of one of the most refined and brilliant men of the times.  
At the urgent solicitation of his county, he consented, in 1822, to represent its interests in the Legislature, where he immediately took rank as a leader, making a great impression by his earnestness, modesty and uncommon ability. In 1837 he was nominated for Congress, and was elected by an almost unanimous vote of his district. While in Congress he made the famous speech on the resolution recognizing his uncle's claim to the invention of the steamboat and bestowing on that uncle's blind and only surviving son a gold medal as a mark of such recognition.1  
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The olden days were the heroic age. What Judge Little has said in summing up the men of Kentucky and their life in the early days is particularly applicable to the men and women of Muhlenberg: "Existing conditions produced a type of men surpassed by no other time or country. ... Without contrasting them or measuring them by a common standard, it is conceded that the type of the pioneer differs from his descendant of the third and fourth and subsequent generations. The latter, with less daring, is more intelligent, with less vigor lives longer, with less fortitude is more patient, with less activity accomplishes more. To the pioneer belongs the warrior's laurel--to his descendant the moral and intellectual achievements of peace.  
"'Peace hath her victories no less renowned than war.'"  
XIII, The Story of "Lonz Powers"
An Epitaph we frequently find carved on old tombstones is "Gone but not forgotten." These words could also very appropriately be applied to "Lonz Powers, or The Regulators," a novel published by James Weir in 1850 and now obsolete.  
"Lonz Powers" is a historical story based on the actual operations of a number of outlaws, and of a class of citizens known as Regulators. These bands of Regulators, in the early history of many sections, felt themselves called on to enforce the law which was being violated by the outlaws, who had no regard for law, human or divine. Organizations like the Regulators, which took the law into their own hands, are not only found in the early history of many communities but also exist, to some extent and in one form or another, even to the present day. The Ku-Klux Klan had its rise and fall. Up to a few years ago White Cap raids, that took place in some sections of this and other States, were frequently reported. Unorganized bodies such as mobs and lynchers still occasionally take the law into their own hands.  
What might be called the reign of the Regulators did not begin in Muhlenberg until about a quarter of a century after the county was organized. Regulators here were, as a rule, composed of members of some of the best families. Most of them were sons of pioneers, and like their fathers were men of good standing. For a period of about ten years, beginning about 1820, there came into southern Muhlenberg and northern Todd and Christian counties some settlers who, through their dishonesty, became undesirable citizens. The fact that they either escaped the officials of the then slowacting law, or were ignored by them, resulted in the organization of the Regulators, whose reign lasted until about 1850.  
The outlaws or "Roughs," whose misdeeds form a part of Muhlenberg's traditions, were the Andersons, the Shepherds, and the Penningtons.  
Tom Anderson was a horse and slave thief, and lived on Long Creek near Lead Hill Church. The Regulators burned his home about 1837 and drove him and his gang out of Muhlenberg County. Jack Shepherd was a horse-thief, and lived in Todd County near New Harmony Church, where he was killed by William Welborn, who with others attempted to arrest him together with two of his brothers and Isom Sheffield. Alonzo, or "Lonz" as he was called, and Morton Pennington lived in Christian County. It is the career of these two Penningtons, and the movements of the Regulators who finally brought one of them to justice and ran the other out of the State, that form the plot of "Lonz Powers, or The Regulators." The situation is one frequently found in the early history of new and sparsely settled countries. Only a few of the scenes are laid in Muhlenberg County. The book is here reviewed more as a literary work by a Muhlenberg man than as a story bearing on Muhlenberg's local history. Before attempting to sketch a brief history and outline of "Lonz Powers," and before commenting on the theme of the book, I will give a few facts from the author's life.  
James Weir was born in Greenville, Kentucky, on June 16, 1821, and died in Owensboro January 31, 1906. He was the son of James Weir, sr., and Anna Cowman (Rumsey) Weir, daughter of Doctor Edward Rumsey, who was a brother of James Rumsey the inventor. James Weir was graduated from Centre College, Danville, in 1840, and the following year completed a course in the Lexington Law School. In 1842 he left Greenville and settled in Owensboro, where he began the practice of law and where for more than forty years (up to his retirement from the profession) he was a leading member of the local bar. He not only had the reputation of being a lawyer of the highest rank but was likewise well known as a scholarly author, a banker of ability, a man with a kind, generous heart, and always worthy of the distinction that "among his fellowcitizens he stood pre?minently as the first citizen of Owensboro."1 Many words of praise could be quoted regarding the life and career of James Weir, but since it is one of his literary works we are about to review I shall confine myself to a few paragraphs from "Kentucky Biographies" on the subject. In this we read that in 1850 he wrote "Lonz Powers, or The Regulators," and in 1852-53 "Simon Kenton, or The Scout's Revenge," and "Winter Lodge, or Vow Fulfilled," which novels were published by Lippincott of Philadelphia. From "Kentucky Biographies" I quote:James Weir, the Author, in 1850  
These three novels gave promise of a brilliant future, but since that time Mr. Weir has been too much engrossed in his profession and other business matters to devote much time to literature, and his work in that direction has been limited to an occasional sketch for the newspapers and magazines. The stories referred to were written in Owensboro before Mr. Weir was thirty years of age.   </