Six Nights in a Block-House; Or, Sketches of Border Life

This historic book may have numerous typos, missing text or index. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. 1851. Not illustrated. Excerpt: ... Eflbrnttites of cajrttbes tafcen on the ©f)to. " Mr. John May, a gentleman of Virginia, had, at an early period, been appointed surveyor of the Ken tucky lands, and had become so extensively involved in business as to require the aid of a clerk. In 1789, he employed Mr. Charles Johnston, a young man scarcely twenty years of age, in that capacity. Johnston accompanied his employer to Kentucky in the summer of 1789, and returned to Virginia in the autumn of the same year, without any adventure worthy of n "tice; and in the month of February, Q 1790, it became necessary for them to return to Kentucky, in order to complete the business which had been left unfinished on the former trip. Heretofore, they had travelled by land, but on the present occasion, May determined to descend the Great Kenawha and Ohio by water. They accordingly travelled by the usual route to Green Brier court-house, where the town of Lewisburg has since been built, and from thence crossed the wilderness which lay between that point and the Great Kenawha. After suffering much from the weather, which was intensely cold, they at length reached Kelly's station upon the Kenawha, from which point May proposed to embark. Having purchased a boat, such as was then used for the navigation of the western waters, they embarked in company with Mr. Jacob Skyles, a gentleman of Virginia, who had, at that time, a stock of dry goods intended for Lexington, and, without any accident, in the course of a few days they arrived at Point Pleasant. Here there was an accession to their number of three persons, a man named Flinn, and two sisters of the name of Fleming. Flinn was a hardy borderer, accustomed from his youth to all the dangers of the frontiers, and the two Misses Fleming were women of low station. The...