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Page 72
Whether the foregoing remarks may be deemed by the reader a digression,
or otherwise, we have certainly felt ourself justified in making them;
from the fact, that our story is designed to be historical in all its
bearings; and because many months being supposed to elapse, ere our
characters are again brought upon the stage of action, it seemed
expedient to give a general view of what was taking place in the
interval. Having done so, we will now forthwith resume our narrative.
About five miles from Lexington, a little to the left of the present
road leading thence to Maysville, and on a gentle rise of the southern
bank of the Elkhorn, at the time of which we write, stood Bryan's
Station, to which we must now call the reader's attention. This station
was founded in the year 1779, by William Bryan, (a brother-in-law of
Daniel Boone,) who had, prior to the events we are now about to
describe, been surprised and killed by the Indians in the vicinity of a
stream called Cane Run.
This fort, at the period in question, was one of great importance to the
early settlers--standing as it did on what was considered at the time of
its erection, the extreme frontier, and, by this means, extending their
area of security. The station consisted of forty cabins, placed in
parallel lines, connected by strong pallisades, forming a parallelogram
of thirty rods by twenty, and enclosing something like four acres of
ground. Outside of the cabins and pallisades, to render the fort still
more secure, were planted heavy pickets, a foot in diameter, and some
twelve feet in height above the ground; so that it was impossible for an
enemy to scale them, or affect them in the least, with any thing short
of fire and cannon ball. To guard against the former, and prevent the
besiegers making a lodgment under the walls, at each of the four corners
or angles, was erected what was called a block-house--a building which
projected beyond the pickets, a few feet above the ground, and enabled
the besieged to pour a raking fire across the advanced party of the
assailants. Large folding gates, on huge, wooden hinges, in front and
rear, opened into the enclosure, through which men, wagons, horses, and
domestic cattle, had admittance and exit. In the center, as the reader
has doubtless already divined, was a broad space, into which the doors
of the cabins opened, and which served the purpose of a regular common,
where teams and cattle were oftentimes secured, where wrestling and
other athletic sports took place. The cabins were all well constructed,
with puncheon floors, the roofs of which sloped inward, to avoid as much
as possible their being set on fire by burning arrows, shot by the
Indians for the purpose, a practice by no means uncommon during a siege.
This fort, at the period referred to, was garrisoned by from forty to
fifty men; and though somewhat out of repair, in respect to a few of its
pallisades, was still in a condition to resist an overwhelming force,
unless taken wholly by surprise. There was one great error, however,
connected with its design--and one that seems to have been common
to most of the stations of that period--which was, that the spring,
supplying the inmates with water, had not been enclosed within the
pickets. The reader can at once imagine the misery that must have ensued
from this cause, in case of their being suddenly assaulted by a superior
enemy, and the siege protracted to any considerable length of time.
Within this fort, on their return from captivity, Mrs. Younker and Ella
had taken up their abode, to remain until another cabin should be
erected, or it should be thought safe for them to live again in a more
exposed manner. Isaac had straightway repaired to his father-in-law's,
to behold again the idol of his heart, and pour into her ear his grief
for the loss of his father and friend, and receive her sympathy for his
affliction in return. The disastrous affair which had called him and his
companions so suddenly from a scene of festivity to one of mourning--the
loss of so many valuable neighbors, and the result of the expedition
in pursuit of the enemy--created at the time no little excitement
throughout the frontiers, and caused some of the more timid to resort
to the nearest stations for security. But as time wore on, and as
nothing serious happened during the fall and winter, confidence and
courage gradually became restored; and the affair was almost forgotten,
save by the friends and relatives of the deceased and those particularly
concerned in it.
Spring, however, revived the alarm of the settlers, by the reappearance
of the enemy in all quarters, and the outrages they committed, as before
mentioned; so that but very few persons ventured to remain without the
walls of a fort; and these, such of them as were fortunate enough to
escape death or captivity, were fain to seek refuge therein before the
close of summer.
Immediately on the receipt of the alarming intelligence of Estill's
defeat, Isaac, his wife, and the family of his father-in-law, Wilson,
repaired to Bryan's Station, and joined Mrs. Younker and Ella, who had
meantime remained there in security.
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