History of Kentucky

North American Review
No. LXXVI, Pg. 1-18, July, 1832

The history of Kentucky is replete with interest for those, who contemplate with a philosophical eye the gradual but incessant advances of human improvement, and the final triumph of human intelligence over the obstacles presented by rude nature and savage men. It may be asserted, with strict regard to truth, that the annals of no country afford more convincing testimony of the courage, the patience and the inflexible perseverance with which its primitive inhabitants have met and surmounted all the difficulties by which they were opposed, in their attempts to secure for themselves and their posterity a permanent resting-place upon the soil. From the first effort which was made to effect a settlement in Kentucky, until within a comparatively short period, the emigrant was beset by dangers and subjected to sufferings and privations, sufficient to appal any heart, that had not been taught by long and painful trials, to encounter whatever might resist the accomplishment of its determined purpose. The wild face of nature was the least powerful enemy of the enterprising settler. He was compelled to contend in almost unremitted combat with the savage, against whose vengeance and insidious plans for itsgratification, it required all his vigilance and intrepidity to guard.

We have the authority of Filson for the fact, that James Mc Bride was the first white man who visited, or, as that writer declares, 'discovered' Kentucky. This visit or discovery was made in 1754. It is asserted by Filson, that Mc Bride, in that year, descended the Ohio accompanied by some other individuals, in canoes, 'landed at the mouth of Kentucky river,and there marked a tree with the first letters of his name and the date, which remain to this day.'

To continue reading: Click Here.