POND RIVER COUNTRY
Sunday, July 9, 2006, 12:46 PM - Muhlenberg County

X, The Pond River Country
The Pond River country of Muhlenberg is a section of the county that offers the arch‘ologist, geologist, botanist, and local historian a very interesting field of research. Murphy's Lake and all the other so-called lakes of the Pond River country are now, as in days gone by, frequented by many fishermen. Few localities are better known to local Nimrods than the Pond River bottoms and the Pond River hills. In olden times deer and turkeys were more numerous in this part of the county than in any other. The last deer was shot about the year 1890. 1 No wild turkeys have been seen during the past few years. None of the old pigeon-roosts have been visited by wild pigeons since about the year 1860. The 'coon, 'possum, and fox hunters or those looking for squirrels or birds still find this a good field for game. It is also a good field for those who are interested in local traditions. Some of the county's most prominent pioneers settled near Murphy's Lake and in other parts of the Pond River country, and many of them are still represented there by descendants.
Murphy's Lake is twelve miles southwest of Greenville. There are many interesting places between the courthouse and the lake. The first of these along the road from Greenvilie is Fair View Farm, where, beginning in 1885 and continuing for about eight years, the Muhlenberg County Fair was held. A few miles farther on is Sharon Baptist Church, and near it, under a concave bluff of sandstone, is the well-known Rock Spring. Where the Murphy's Lake road turns off from the Lower Hopkinsville road is Mount Pisgah Church, built in 1851 and abandoned a few years ago. Less than a half mile from Mount Pisgah are the ruins of Old Liberty, and beyond this famous landmark--in what, years ago, was sometimes called "The Hoe-Cake Country"--are Olive Branch and Green's chapels. Of these five churches Old Liberty is by far the oldest and most historic.
Old Liberty is now a ruin--four tottering log walls, each about twenty-five feet long, enclosing a sunken floor and a caved-in roof, mingled with broken benches and a weatherbeaten pulpit. The hewed logs, partly shaded by a large white oak, show that they at one time were well chinked with wood and pointed with sand and lime. Its four window- and two door-frames will soon collapse; with them will fall the walls, and so, bye-and-bye, no part of this old landmark will be left to mark the site of the once famous church. Near the ruins is the Old Liberty burying-ground. In it are the myrtle-covered and stone-marked graves of many a Martin, Lovell, Eades, Shelton, Allison, Brothers, Luckett, and Jameson, all of whom were among the old families of this community.
More people have ancestors buried at Old Liberty than in any other country graveyard in the county. Tradition says the original church was built about 1816, and was then called New Liberty. In the course of time the first log house was replaced by a second, which was abandoned about 1851. Some years later the third or last house was erected, and was used until about 1890. 2 Michael Lovell's Old Place, Near Old Liberty, in 1900.
Among the well-known first-comers who lived in the Old Liberty neighborhood and the Murphy's Lake country were: Samuel Allison and his son, John Adair; John S. Atkison, sr., John Bone, Divinity Grace, N. Green, William and Jacob Imbler, pioneer Jarroll or Joiles (perhaps Jerrold), Jesse Kirby, Michael Lovell, the Martins, Jesse Murphy, Jacob Oglesby, John and Edmund Owen, George O. Prowse, Miles Putnam, Joseph C. and Richard D. Reynolds, William Rice, John Richardson, Newton B. Riddick, Richard Thompson, and Reverend Samuel M. Wilkins. One of the earliest of these settlers was Michael Lovell, who in his time was, and to this day still is, referred to as "the Man from Maryland." 3
Most of the other pioneers of the Old Liberty neighborhood were Carolinians and Virginians. Among the North Carolinians were pioneer Samuel Allison and his wife Margaret Dickson, both of whom were born in the province of Ulster, Ireland. They came to Logan County about 1796, and a few years later settled in what became known as the Friendship neighborhood. Samuel Allison was famous for his wit and as being the best rifle-shot in his end of the county. He was born about 1767 and died January 20, 1827. His wife was born about 1773 and died December 24, 1834. Both are buried near Friendship Church. Mr. and Mrs. Allison were well educated, and so were their children. Their daughter, Nancy R., married Samuel Jackson. Their sons were Charles McLean, William Dickson, Young Ewing, John Adair, and Samuel Henley. Michael Lovell, about 1865.
Charles McLean Allison, who was among the first to enlist in Alney McLean's company, died in camp at New Orleans of swamp fever, three weeks after the battle was fought in 1815.
John Adair Allison was the only one of the five sons who lived and died in Muhlenberg. He was born February 3, 1803, and during his day was one of the most prominent citizens in the Pond River country. He died near Old Liberty, April 2, 1875. He and his wife, Frances Watkins, were the parents of five children, among whom was Finis McLean Allison, who, as stated in the chapter entitled "In 1870," was a State Senator and one of the best-known men in the county. 4
The other three sons of Samuel Allison removed to Henderson County in early manhood. William Dickson Allison was deputy clerk of Muhlenberg under Charles Fox Wing. He went to Henderson in 1822 to become deputy clerk there. In 1824 Judge Alney McLean appointed him clerk, and he held that office without interruption until his death in 1860. Young Ewing Allison went to Henderson in 1824 to become his brother's deputy, became presiding justice and afterward county judge, succeeded his brother as clerk, and was in office fifty years. Samuel Henley Allison was sheriff of Henderson County for one term--the three brothers holding office at the same time.John Adair Allison Old Place, West of Greenville, in 1900.
As Charles Fox Wing in Muhlenberg trained and equipped young men for public service, so the Allisons did in Henderson, and a large number of successful men of affairs were started from the Henderson courthouse under them. The Allisons were all men of strong personality, and their wit and humorous exploits were quoted widely. In James Weir's "Lonz Powers" Samuel Allison and three of his sons are sketched under the disguise of "Allston and the Allston boys." But they were also men of great usefulness and influence.
Among those who during the first years of the Eighteenth Century settled in the neighborhood of Old Liberty was Mrs. Susannah Walker Martin, widow of Thomas Martin of Virginia, who was a Revolutionary soldier. She moved to Muhlenberg in 1805. Her three daughters, Betsy, Mary, and Nancy, remained only a short time. Her son, Dabney Amos, who had located in Georgia in 1800, later moved to Alabama, where he died in 1850. Of her six children two settled in the county--William Martin and Hutson Martin. These two are the forefathers of all the Martins in Muhlenberg except the few who are descendants of Jefferson Martin and another William Martin, who were brothers of Hugh Martin. William Martin, son of Thomas, was the pioneer of the plug-tobacco manufacturing business in Muhlenberg. Hutson Martin was a successful farmer near Old Liberty, and one of the foremost men in the county. His wife, Anna Lockridge Martin, treated many of the sick in the neighborhood with her own preparations, made of native herbs, and up to the time of her death, which occurred in her eighty-second year, was known as "Mother Martin." 5 John Adair Allison, 1874.
Among the well-known first-comers who settled in the Pond River country above Old Liberty and Murphy's Lake was Micajah Wells, who came from North Carolina before the county was organized, settling in the lower Long Creek country, where he and his three brothers did much toward opening up that section. He became a candidate for the Legislature in 1810, and remained one for sixteen successive years, when, in 1826, he was finally chosen. Although he wanted the office "just once for the fun of it," as he expressed it, he nevertheless did much, tradition says, "for the good of the county his whole life long." He served as a justice of the peace for many years, and also filled various other county offices. 6 Hutson Martin Old Place
One of Micajah Well's neighbors was Strother Jones, who lived near Long Creek, in the southern part of what is known as the Lead Hill country. Strother Jones, About 1845 Strother Jones was in his day one of the most polished citizens in the southwestern part of the county. He was born September 20, 1781, came to Muhlenberg in 1822, and died on his farm February 17, 1859. His eldest son and only child by his first wife was Judge William G. Jones, who served as county judge from 1854 to 1862. Judge Jones was born June 4, 1813, and died August 6, 1891. Strother Jones' second wife was Elizabeth Ann Hancock. Three children were born of this second marriage: Thomas J. Jones, who was county clerk during the Civil War, and who at the time of his death (February 22, 1904) was running a store he had established in Greenville about fifty years before; John M. Jones, a Confederate soldier, and James M. Jones. The two last were "Forty-niners."
A story Strother Jones heard relative to a small band of Indians which, a number of years before his arrival in the county, had passed through the neighborhood in which he settled, is still told by a few of his descendants, and runs as follows:
One day at noon a man named Walker returned to his cabin from his work in the field. He sent one of his children, a girl nine years of age, to a spring some two hundred yards away to get some fresh water. While the girl was at the spring she heard screaming at the house, and a moment later saw some Indians set the place on fire. Being frightened, she concealed herself in some bushes. After the house had burned almost to the ground, there being nothing to indicate that the Indians were still about, she walked to the ruins and discovered that her parents and the five other children had been murdered and their bodies thrown in a pile near the burning house. She immediately notified the nearest neighbor. A pursuing party was at once organized. They trailed the Indians to the Pond River bottoms, but there all trace of the murderers was lost. Upon their return the pursuers buried the Walkers near the ruins of the cabin, which stood within two hundred yards of the spot where Strother Jones' house was later erected.
The Clarks, who were among the pioneers living below Murphy's Lake, are no longer represented in the county, but their name is perpetuated in the name of Clark's Ferry Bridge, built across Pond River where, for many years, the Clarks ran a ferry and grist mill. For a while the place was called Pond River Mills. The first bridge built here was a wooden bridge placed on stone abutments, erected by Alfred Johnson about 1858. In December, 1861, this bridge was burned by Confederates under Forrest. In 1862 the ferry was re‰stablished and operated until 1890, when the New Clark's Ferry Bridge was erected on the old but solid stone abutments. In this same neighborhood stood the wellknown David Clark sugar camp. About the year 1880 Fobel & Krauth, of Louisville, attempted to establish a small colony of Germans and German-Americans on the site that had been abandoned by the Clarks and their associates. Although the few German-Americans who moved there remained but a short time, since then this region has been known as the "Dutch Farm."Clark's Ferry Bridge, Pond River
A mile below Clark's Ferry Bridge is Harpe's Hill, overlooking the Pond River bottoms and also overlooking an "arm" or "bay" of "second bottom," which extends far beyond the river bottoms and is semicircled by Harpe's Hill and other high and picturesque hills. Crops never fail in this fertile area of well-drained farms. In biblical days people used to go down into Egypt to buy corn. Harpe's Hill valley is, therefore, frequently referred to as "Egypt." When their own crops fall short many of the farmers of Muhlenberg and Hopkins counties go to this never-failing region, where they can be supplied with corn and other agricultural products that are not only as good as the best, but usually "a little bit better." Near the foot of one of the hills overlooking the level and slightly rolling floor of this gigantic amphitheater is the home of William A. Armstrong, a mathematician and student of the classics, who before his retirement was one of the best-known surveyors in the county.
Major Jesse Oates was the first of the prominent pioneers who settled in the Harpe's Hill country. He was a Revolutionary soldier, having fought under Francis Marion in South Carolina. He came to Muhlenberg about 1795 or shortly thereafter. He opened up what was for many years considered one of the best farms in the Pond River country. He owned thirty or more slaves, all of whom were employed on his plantation. Although he never held any of the high county offices, few men of his time did more to promote public interests than Major Oates. He died August 10, 1831, at the age of seventy-five years. The So-Called Harpe's "House" on Harpe's Hill, near Pond River.
Major Jesse Oates was born in North Carolina about the year 1756. He was a son of Jesse Oates, sr., who although not a soldier in the Revolution did much toward promoting the war. Jesse Oates, jr., however, much to the satisfaction of his father, took an active part in the struggle. After the Revolution Jesse Oates, sr., gave his son Jesse practically all his estate, to the exclusion of his son-in-law Coghill, who it is said was either not in sympathy with the American colonies or was an outright Tory. Having received none of the expected fortune, Coghill's feeling toward his brother-in-law was anything but friendly.
In those days every man was obliged to attend the militia musters, which took place once a month. Coghill and Oates were members of the same company, and on nearly every drilling day a fight would take place between the two. Coghill was large and strong, Oates was small; the consequence was that Oates got the worst of the fight every time. Matters went on in this way for several years, when one day Oates notified his brother-in-law that if he attacked him at the next muster he would kill him. The day arrived and Coghill, according to his custom, gave Oates his usual whipping. Oates had his flintlock with him and threatened to shoot, and would have done so had Coghill not begged him to give him a chance for his life. Oates agreed to let Coghill go home--a distance of two miles--to get the gun he said he preferred to use in this duel instead of the one he had with him. The two men and some of their friends then mounted their horses and started for Coghill's farm. When the crowd arrived at the end of the short lane leading up to the house, Coghill put spurs to his horse and told Oates to shoot. Coghill evidently felt confident that Oates would miss him, and that his gun being loaded he could kill Oates before Oates could reload. Oates fired and killed Coghill instantly.
Oates rode home, procured some money and a pocket compass, bade his family good-bye, mounted his horse, and with his flintlock lying across his saddle started west. He rode through Tennessee into Mississippi. While at Natchez, stopping at a tavern, he picked up a newspaper and there read an advertisement giving a full description of him and also offering a reward for his capture. That same day he started for Kentucky and shortly afterward landed in the Pond River country, procured some land, notified his family of his whereabouts, and had his oldest son, William Oates--who was then a young man--move the family, slaves, and personal property to the new home he had provided for them. His friends in North Carolina advised him not to return, for although he would not be prosecuted he would in all probability be killed by some of Coghill's friends. During the course of a number of years advice was frequently sent him to be on his guard, for some of the friends of Coghill were coming to kill him. Although he for a while feared he would be shot from ambush, no attempt to kill or arrest him was ever made.
Major Jesse Oates and his family lived happily and prospered in their new home. After the death of his first wife, who was the mother of his five oldest children, he married again and became the father of twelve more. All of his children except one, Mrs. Campbell, settled in Muhlenberg, where most of them are now represented by many descendants. 7 His oldest son, William, married Elizabeth Earle, who was a daughter of pioneer Bayless Earle, a Revolutionary soldier. Her husband was a soldier in the War of 1812. Her brother, Richard Bayless Earle, was a Mexican War soldier. She was the grandmother of four Federal soldiers, William Oates Randolph, Lieutenant Ed M. Randolph, George Oates, and Wallace W. Oates, and of one Confederate soldier (who fought on the side with which she sympathized), Charles R. Oates. Her eldest son, Bayless Earle Oates, was the father of J. Wallace Oates, who was one of the most progressive farmers and stock-men in the county. Mrs. Elizabeth Earle Oates was one of the best-known and most highly esteemed women of the Pond River country. She was born in 1790 and died in 1884. 8
Another well-known woman in the Harpe's Hill country was Mrs. Clara Garris Stanley. She was probably the last of the pioneers to pass away who had seen the headless body of Big Harpe lying near Harpe's Hill. 9
John S. Eaves, in 1805, settled in the valley near the foot of Harpe's Hill, not far from the Jesse Oates plantation. He became one of the most influential men in Muhlenberg, representing the county in the Legislature in 1834. He died in Greenville in 1867. He was the father of seven children, all of whom were wellknown people. No man ever born in Muhlenberg County was more highly esteemed than his youngest son, Charles Eaves, who long before 1857, when at the age of thirty-two he was elected to the Legislature, had won the love of his fellow-citizens. John S. Eaves' fourth son, John S. Eaves, jr., was for many years a merchant and farmer near Clark's Ferry. John S., jr., was in turn succeeded in his business by his son George W. Eaves, jr., who until his removal to Greenville was identified with the development of the Harpe's Hill country, Mrs. Elizabeth Earle Oates, 1870.
Members of the Legislature are, as a rule, among the best-known citizens in their counties, and because of this their lives are discussed by a greater number of people and for a longer time than are those of other citizens, who are seldom heard of in tradition outside their own neighborhood, regardless of the good they may have done in their vicinity. The lives of the members of the Legislature who lived in the Pond River country are therefore, as a rule, more widely discussed in the oral history of the earlier days than are the lives of some of its other one-time prominent men.
The first man living in the Pond River country to represent Muhlenberg County in the Legislature was John Morgan. Micajah Wells, as already stated, was a member of the Legislature in 1826. In 1828, and during the eight years following, Muhlenberg was represented in the Legislature by men who lived in the lower Pond River country. Most of the members who served from 1838 to 1853 came from the Pond River country, and many of those who were elected during a later period were born and reared in that same section of the county. Among the well-known first-comers who settled in the Pond River country below Harpe's Hill were the McNarys, Shorts, and Morgans.
The McNarys lived about six miles below Harpe's Hill near the edge of Pond River bottom, on the lower Greenville and Madisonville Road. William McNary was the forefather of this well-known family. He was born in Scotland, and shortly after his arrival in America settled near Lexington, where he lived for more than twenty years, doing much toward promoting the interests of the Presbyterian church. In 1812 he settled on what has ever since been called the McNary place, or Ellwood. McNary Station, although some distance from the old home, was so called in honor of his son, Hugh W. William McNary was the father of three sons, Hugh W., William C., and Doctor Thomas L.; the latter lived and died near Princeton. Mrs. Clara G. Stanley, 1855.
William C. lived near the place first settled by his father, where he died in 1871 at the age of seventy four. He represented the county in the Legislature five times between the years 1830 and 1853. He was a member of the State Senate from 1846 to 1850. None of his four children made Muhlenberg their home.
Hugh W. McNary was born in Fayette County, Kentucky, November 25, 1790, and came to Muhlenberg at the age of twenty-two. In 1816 he went to South Carolina, where for ten years he dealt in groceries and speculated in cotton. In 1822 he married Miss Sarah A. Scott, one of the most highly accomplished young ladies of Columbia, South Carolina. In 1826 he returned to Muhlenberg with his wife, reinvested the money he had made in the South, and soon accumulated a fortune. He was at one time one of the wealthiest men in Muhlenberg County. He owned a number of slaves, ran a large farm, bought and sold livestock, operated a large still, and found a market not only for his own products but for those of most of the people living in the lower Pond River country. None of his local contemporaries were more generous, better read, or more refined than he. In 1850 he erected a frame residence which, up to 1879 (when the McNary family moved to Greenville), was considered one of the best built and most artistically furnished homes in the county. The mantels and many of the door-and window-frames were hand carved. The front porch was torn away a few years ago, and owing to its removal and to a lack of paint and repairs the building has lost much of its former beauty; nevertheless, the most casual observer can not fail to see that it must have been an exceptionally beautiful residence in its day. It was in this house that Hugh W. McNary died, October 7, 1872, at the age of eighty-two. 10
David Short came to Muhlenberg County from Virginia some time during the first ten years of the Eighteenth Century and settled on a tract of Hugh W. McNary House, Lower Pond River Country land bordering on Pond River, about a mile above what is now the McLean County line. The house he erected--"The David Short Old Brick," as it is called--was when it was first built, and is now, one of the largest and most substantial brick residences in Muhlenberg. An inscription painted in the arch of the door-frame reads, "D. 1821 S." This, although it has evidently been repainted since first recorded there, undoubtedly indicates the year the house was built. David Short devoted most of his time to the cultivation of his large farms and to the promotion of better laws. His well-built house proclaims the fact that he was a man of means. He was a member of the Legislature in 1828, 1829, and 1832. His son William T. Short filled the same office in 1847, and his son George W. Short filled it in 1849. David Short was born January 19, 1779, and died December 30, 1845. He was the father of ten children, all of whom were influential citizens.
Among others who settled in Muhlenberg about the same time as David Short were Jacob Short and Jacob Jagoe, whose wife, Susan (Short) Jagoe, was a sister of David Short. Samuel Short, another brother, after living in this neighborhood awhile moved to Illinois and later returned to Sacramento, where he died. The family name, it is said, was originally spelled Schartz. One tradition has it that the Shorts were born in Germany and came to Virginia in their youth, while according to another they were born in Virginia. 11 Hugh W. McNary, 1871.
John Morgan, who represented the county in the State Legislature in 1806, was one of the early settlers in the Pond River country. None of the pioneers took more interest in saddle-horses or owned better ones than he. Every winter, for more than fifty years, he wore a cap made from the fur of white foxes he occasionally caught in the hills near his home. He and his brothers Willis and Charles Morgan, who were also well-known early settlers, ran a grist mill at old Millport for many years. John Morgan was a dignified and scholarly man, a wealthy farmer and an extensive slave-owner, and was also one of the most liberal men of his day. He was born in Virginia March 17, 1779, and died at his home north of Earles September 25, 1858. His wife, Jane Morgan, was born in 1783 and died in 1844. 12
A few years ago David W. Whitmer, while cutting down a beech tree on his farm on the edge of Pond River bottoms, near old Millport, unearthed a slab of sandstone on which was carved "Daniel Boone, May 22, 1772." This rock was covered with a few inches of soil, and one end of it was partly overgrown by a large root. Conditions indicated that it had lain there about fifty years. The fact that Daniel Boone's name and an old date appear on it caused many to declare that the carving was done by no other than Daniel Boone. Although Boone made his first trip to Kentucky in 1769, and may have been in the State in 1772, he evidently did not cut his name on this rock. The lettering is like that found on many of the old grave-stones in the southern part of the county, and it is therefore quite likely that this slab was taken to Millport many years ago by some experienced stone-cutter to serve as a sample of his work. The fact that pioneer John Morgan had a son named Daniel Boone Morgan, who lived in this locality for many years and was a well-known physician, may have influenced the stone-cutter to select the name of the great scout on which to show his skill. This stone weighs eighteen pounds, is three inches thick, and its face measures about nine by twelve inches. The So-Called Daniel Boone Rock.
Murphy's Lake, 13 as stated in the beginning of this chapter, is in the Pond River country, about twelve miles southwest of Greenville. This socalled lake is about three miles long, but its width is by no means in proportion to its length, for it is only from forty to fifty feet wide. It is part of the old Pond River bed and meanders for some three miles in Pond River bottom, at a distance of about half a mile from the river itself. The lake proper consists of two long, deep bends of the old river, connected by a number of smaller and shallower crooks. In places above and below these two lagoons the old bed is nothing more than a filled-up or marshy slough. The upper of these two bodies of water is known as Fisherman's Bend or Big Bend, and the lower is called Green's Bend. The Murphy's Lake bridge crosses one of the shallow links that help unite the two bends. During the dry season practically all the water disappears from these shallow intervening crooks, and at such times they show that they are nothing more than a chain of brush-grown sloughs, more or less filled with logs and snags. These various sloughs are by no means picturesque. However, Murphy's Lake proper offers many attractive views. Varieties of aquatic plants flourish in the lake and on its banks. Among such vegetation are great clusters of a species of lily known as Bonnets or Spatterdock. In many places the two large bends are gracefully lined down to the very water's edge with small willows and other shrublike growths. On the shore stand majestic old oaks, beech and gum, shading here and there a growth of short cane. Some of these trees, draped with wild grapevine, bend over the banks of the lake and in many places form unbroken arches with those leaning from the other side.
The territory lying between the present bed of Pond River and Murphy's Lake, with its inlet, sloughs, outlet, and "scatters," comprises some three thousand acres, all of which with the exception of about two hundred acres is rich bottom land. In fact, the richest soil in the county is found in the Pond River bottoms. Most of it, however, is subject to floods, and therefore comparatively little of it is as yet under cultivation. Much of it probably never will be redeemed until certain parts of the river's channel are straightened out and the many sloughs properly drained.
Isaac Bard recognized the superior quality of this soil, and in 1853 made an attempt to give the three thousand acres around Murphy's Lake better drainage. He dug a straight ditch from the head of the "scatters" of Murphy's Lake to Martin's Creek. He abandoned the ditch, however--not because his work was ridiculed by many of the people, but because his time was taken up with other affairs. No attempt has since been made to restore Bard's Ditch, and the land in that vicinity is still awaiting better drainage.
Lakes of this character, originating from disappearing streams, are found in a number of places in the Pond River bottoms. Above Murphy's Lake is Atkinson's Little Lake, or as it is frequently called, "The Little Lake at Fish Pond Hill." This lake is about three hundred yards long. Old Lake, a quarter of a mile below Clark's Ferry Bridge, is a crescent-shaped lagoon with its two points coming up to Pond River. Boat Yard Creek or White Ash Pond, near Harpe's Hill, is another lake of this character, but receives most of its water from the small streams that drain the valley near it. All these lakes, including Murphy's Lake, have an inlet and an outlet, which are as a rule simply long, narrow, winding swags. In these places, where the outlets are very shallow, occur the so-called "scatters," which during an overflow permit the water to run in any and every direction until it finds its way to the main channel of the river.
The lagoon known as Boat Yard Creek is so called from the fact that in the early days, and down to as late as 1860, flat-boats were built on its banks. Richard Aycock was one of the best-known boat-builders at this place. Some of the flat-boats made here were loaded with hoop-poles cut in the Pond River country and shipped to New Orleans, while others were sent down to Green River and there sold to men who used them for various purposes. John S. Eaves sent tobacco, pork, and lard from this neighborhood to New Orleans as early as 1818. William Oates built a number of flat-boats here and shipped many loads of hides and produce to the South. 14
The west bank of Big Bend, or Fisherman's Bend, of Murphy's Lake has for almost a century been a favorite camping-place for fishing parties. The "David Short Old Brick" One of these is well remembered locally because it terminated in the drowning of J. Lindsey Spurlin and Ellington Eades. This tragedy occurred on the 5th of July, 1866. J. Lindsey Spurlin was a man of about forty-four years and Ellington Eades was a boy of nineteen, a son of R. W. Eades and a grandson of pioneer Barnett Eades. Besides the two who were drowned the party consisted of Theodore Spurlin (son of J. Lindsey Spurlin), K. L. Terry, John Luckett, and Alfred Luckett. Their nets having become entangled, Ellington Eades waded into the water to straighten them out. While thus engaged a cramp caused him to lose all control of himself. J. Lindsey Spurlin jumped into the lake to help his sinking friend, but in his attempt both sank to the bottom. 15
About twenty years before J. Lindsey Spurlin was drowned he had participated in a hunt that took place in this same part of the Pond River country. Wild turkeys and squirrels were in such abundance in the olden times that corn was more or less subject to destruction by these "pests" from the time it was planted to the day it was gathered. In 1845 the people living near Old Liberty and Murphy's Lake declared war on the wild turkeys and squirrels, for during that year they had become unusually troublesome. Thomas Murphy and Joseph C. Reynolds were selected as captains to fight a prolonged battle against these foes of the farmer. Each leader chose an equal number of men and boys for his company. It was agreed that after sixty days of bombardment the two captains and their hunters were to return to a designated camp between Murphy's Lake and Old Liberty. The company bringing the smaller number of scalps (that is, tails) was to prepare a barbecue for the entire neighborhood. When the fight began, those who could procure no shotguns or rifles marched along depending on sticks and stones for their ammunition. For two months the old muzzle-loaders scattered lead in every direction, and everything small that could be picked up and thrown was "fired" at the corn-field enemy. Reports differ as to how many squirrels and turkeys were slaughtered in this great battle. One enthusiastic fisherman, whose grandfather was then a mere boy, declares that "Grandpa kept a horse and landslide busy every day and most every night for two months carrying tails to Murphy's headquarters, and the Lord only knows how many others were kept busy on the same job." Facts usually undergo some changes in the hands of tradition, and it has therefore been supposed by some that the tails referred to by this grandson were in reality tales, or daily reports carried to Tom Murphy's camp to keep that captain informed in regard to the movements of his own and his rival's progress. At any rate, all versions agree that "there was a terrible sight of fur and feather tails" displayed at the barbecue, and that Tom Murphy and his crowd, having brought in the larger number of "scalps," were that day crowned the kings of the killing. The next year, so the story runs, and for many years after, every farmer in the neighborhood raised more corn than Carter had oats--"except when the crows were bad."
Tradition takes us further back than the "Tale of the Tails," for in the legend of Lew Allen Hill we are carried to the days of the roving Indians. The much-talked-of Lew Allen (or Lewellyn) Hill is located in Pond River bottom, about two miles south of Murphy's Lake. The size of this hill is not at all in proportion to its fame. It is an elevation of only about twenty feet, and has the general form of a broad low cone with a more or less ovalshaped base. It is surrounded in every direction by the level bottom land of Pond River for a distance of half a mile or more. Its area, including its sloping sides, is about one acre. It is covered with beech and sugar trees of various sizes. On the top, near the center, is the stump of a recently cut black oak tree three and one half feet in diameter.Murphy's Lake.
The legend of Lew Allen Hill is an old and likewise vague tale. In fact, there are two versions of it. One is to the effect that shortly after the Revolution a Captain Knight and his associates settled somewhere on Pond River between what later became the site of the Jesse H. Reno mill (which was built in the early '50s and stood near Prowse's Bridge) and Grace's Fish Trap Ford farther down the river and opposite the picturesque Grace's Bluff. There, it is said, these pioneers built a strong block cabin and fort. Captain Knight was a trapper and Indian fighter and seemingly the Daniel Boone of the upper Pond River country. Tradition does not tell how many men were connected with his little station. The probabilities, however, are that there were only a few. Among the Captain's companions was one Lew Allen, or Lewellyn, who--so the story runs--while out looking after some bear traps wandered from the camp to this little hill, a distance of about two miles. He was standing on the moundlike elevation, trying to locate a favorable spot for another trap, when suddenly he was attacked and killed by a number of Indians. Knowing that his friends would be likely to search the woods for him, the red men dug a hole on top of the hill, threw the corpse in, and then made an effort to conceal the hiding-place. The following morning, after a diligent hunt, Captain Knight's men discovered Lew Allen's body, and reburied it in its original Indian-made grave. The few small pieces of sand rock now scattered over this knoll are said to have served at one time as the murdered man's tombstone. Pond River.
According to the other version, Lew Allen and another prospector came to this neighborhood from what is now Hartford, in Ohio County, which was then one of the few settlements in Western Kentucky. These two men, having been caught in a heavy rain near Pond River, built a fire and put up a wigwam of brush on the top of the hillock, for this purpose more suitable than the wet bottom land surrounding it. They removed all their drenched clothes except their buckskin hunting-shirts. While engaged in drying their wearing apparel and preparing a meal they found themselves, without a moment's warning, attacked by three or four Indians. Some say the Indians rushed upon the two white men simply for the fun of scaring them. At any rate, a few shots were exchanged and Lew Allen was killed. His frightened companion, however, made his escape through the woods and found his way back to Hartford, where he arrived clad in nothing but his badly tattered hunting-shirt.
The hunting-shirt of the early pioneer, it might be well to add, was a long buckskin garment that served the double purpose of a coat and a shirt. It encireled the body down to about eight inches above the knees, and could be worn either with the lower part hanging loose over the breeches or stuffed in them, as desired. In pattern it somewhat resembled the modern woolen military coat-shirt.
Such are the two versions of the legend of Lew Allen Hill. Each has its enthusiastic upholders and its equally enthusiastic deniers. The same may also be said concerning the two theories regarding the origin of the hill. On one hand are those who have come to the conclusion that it is nothing more or less than a natural hill like many of the other hills, large and small, scattered over Pond River bottom; on the other hand are those who believe that it is artificial, the work of the Mound Builders, evidence of whose former existence can still be found in the Pond River country and other parts of Muhlenberg. 16
Mounds and other signs of the prehistoric men of the Pond River country are rapidly disappearing, and the same may also be said of the few remaining landmarks erected by its pioneers. The primeval forests have long since given way to new farms, and many of the long-abandoned fields are now being redeemed. Modern buildings are taking the places of old-time houses. After better roads shall have been built, Pond River straightened out, and the bottoms properly drained, the Pond River country will rank--as it did in the olden days--second to none in Muhlenberg.



1. Up to the year 1867 deer were plentiful in the Pond River country. The high water of that year forced them to the hills, where a great number were slaughtered. In 1884 they were again driven to the hills by high water and practically all of them were shot.

2. A chapter on "Old Liberty Church," by R. T. Martin, appears elsewhere in this volume.

3. John Bone was a Revolutionary soldier, one of the early settlers near what is now the Webster McCown farm (south of Bancroft), and who died there about 1841. He was the father of Mark, Thomas, John, Mrs. Louisa (Peter) Duvall, Mrs. James Green, Mrs. Wyatt Collins, and Mrs. George Barnett. Nathaniel Green came to Muhlenberg in 1816, where he died about 1850. He was the only son of Joseph Green and his wife, who was a Miss Eaves. He was born in Virginia, where he married Lucy Richardson, daughter of Thomas Richardson, and in 1815 came to Kentucky. They were the parents of James, William Joseph, Thomas M., Samuel, Miss Polly, and Mrs. Martha (Doctor) Lowe, all of whom, like their parents, were well-known Pond River people. Michael Lovell's first wife was Mary Ingram. To them were born Joseph, John, Sarah Ann, and Mrs. Mary E. (William K.) Morgan. His second wife was Rachel Eades. To them were born Charles W., Sam B., Lewis H., Miss Frankie, Leander W., Michael, jr., and Thomas J. His third wife was a daughter of John Reno. To them was born one child, James Lovell. Michael Lovell died near Old Liberty on February 26, 1874, aged about one hundred years. William Rice, a Revolutionary soldier and army blacksmith, settled in Muhlenberg about 1800 and died near Bancroft March 16, 1824. Among his fourteen sons and four daughters were William, jr., Jesse, Larkin, Matthew, Claborn, T. Jefferson, James Benjamin, and Ezekiel Rice. Ezekiel Rice was born in 1774, married Ann Watkins, daughter of pioneer James Watkins, and died in 1847. Among Ezekiel Rice's children was Moses M. Rice (born 1817, died 1894), who married Sarah Amandaville Drake, and among whose children is Judge James J. Rice.

4. John Adair Allison was the father of James Watkins, Finis McLean, Samuel Henley, and William Young Allison, and Mrs. Ann Luro (W. Britton) Davis.

5. William Martin was born in Virginia December 23, 1776, and died in Muhlenberg County November 5, 1851. His wife, Jane (Campbell) Martin, was born in Virginia October 22, 1776, and died near Old Liberty in August, 1851. Mr. and Mrs. Martin were the parents of eight children: (1) Thomas Lawrence, among whose eight children (as stated in the chapter on Tobacco) is Richard T. Martin; (2) William Campbell, who married America Niblack, their two sons being Hugh Niblack and Thomas Hutson Martin; (3) Mrs. Eliza Ann (Reverend Samuel M.) Wilkins; (4). Mrs. Susannah W. (James) Hancock; (5) Dabney A., who married Lizzie Britt, their only child, Jennie, marrying Hanson Browder, of Clinton, Kentucky; (6) Charles C., who married Nancy Y. Reynolds; (7) David; (8) Ellington Walker, who married Emily Elliott, daughter of Richard Elliott. Hutson Martin was born in Virginia May 27, 1781, and died in Muhlenberg July 7, 1838. His wife died January 29, 1869, aged eighty-one years. Mr. and Mrs. Hutson Martin were the parents of twelve children: (1) Andrew L., who married Fannie Rice; (2) Mrs. Mary (George) Ingram; (3) Mrs. Jane (Jackson) Rice; (4) Lucrecia; (5) William W., who married Mary Ann Lovelace; (6) Mrs. Susan (James) Rice; (7) John; (8) Mrs. Ellen (John) Grigsby; (9) James, who married Elizabeth Bell; (10) Felix J., who married Caroline Eaves; (11) Mrs. Laura Ann (James W.) Allison, who is the mother of Mrs. Anna Allison Holmes and Professor B. Frank Allison and who, after the death of her first husband, married Azel M. Terry; (12) Miss Luro Martin.

6. Micajah Wells was born January 1, 1772, and died October 19, 1851. He and his brothers John, Frank, and Wyatt Wells were among the pioneers in the upper Pond River and Long Creek country. Micajah Wells was the father of six children: (1) Mosley P.; (2) Mrs. Lourana S. (Mosley Collins) Drake; (3) Mrs. Sally Grissom; (4) Mrs. Patsy (Reverend Silas) Drake; (5) Mrs. Anna (Edmond) Drake; (6) Joseph J., who was drowned in Pond River February 12, 1832. His sons-in-law Mosley Collins, Reverend Silas, and Edmond Drake, jr., were sons of pioneer Albritton Drake.

7. The first wife of Major Jesse Oates was, according to a vague family tradition, a Miss Caraway, sister of a Captain John Caraway. His second wife was Zilpah Mason, to whom he was married April 13, 1798, and who died October 1, 1849. Major Jesse Oates was the father of (1) William, (2) Jethro, (3) Mrs. Nancy (Charles) Campbell; (4) David; (5) Bryant; (6) John Mason; (7) Mrs. Betsy (V. L.) Dillingham; (8) Jesse; (9) Richard M.; (10) Rachael (Mrs. Lemuel Boggess, later Mrs. Wickliffe); (11) Mariah; (12) Mrs. Zilpah (Edmond) Dunn, (13) Matthew Mason; (14) Harriet (Mrs. Gough, Mrs. Robert Wickliffe, jr., Mrs. Williams); (15) Oliver Hayes (bachelor); (16) Wyatt, (17) Charles Campbell Oates.

8. William Oates and his wife Elizabeth Earl Oates were the parents of nine children: Bayless Earle, Mrs. Geraldine M. (Ashford D. Randolph, Thomas, Charles, Jethro, William W., Martha, Jesse, and James Wilson Oates.

9. Mrs. Clara Garris Stanley, wife of James Stanley, was in her day one of the most accomplished women in Western Muhlenberg. It is said she was one of the best-informed women on the early history of the Pond River country. She lived near Harpe's Hill when Big Harpe was killed, and continued to make that locality her home until shortly before her death in 1864. She had read Judge Hall's story of the Harpes and also T. Marshall Smith's version, and often remarked that both were in the main correct. Mr. and Mrs. James Stanley were the parents of Russell, Alfred, Wickliffe, David, and Gilbert Stanley and Mrs. Elizabeth (William) Dillinder and Mrs. Matilda (Henry) Thomas.

10. Hugh W. McNary and his wife Sarah A. McNary (who was born December 16, 1806, and died October 15, 1868) were the parents of six children: W. Scott, Samuel F., John A, Miss Anna, Mrs. Sally (George W., jr.) Eaves, and Miss Mattie McNary, who is and long has been one of the most highly esteemed women in the county.

11. David Short and his wife Jane Scott Short, of Virginia, were the parents of: (1) Mrs Sarah (David) Evans, who later married A. M. Spurlin; (2) George Washington Short; (3) Joseph Poague Short; (4) David T. Short, who first married Martha Henry, next Elizabeth Arnold, (5) Mrs. Jane P. (Sanders) Eaves, (6) William T., who married Elizabeth Greu; (7) Miss Elizabeth, (8) Jacob L., who married Emma Mitchell and who later moved to Texas; (9) Jonathan Short, who married Lucy Wing; (10) Mrs. Susan Ann (William) Harbin. Jacob Short was born August 20, 1772, and died October 26, 1858. His wife, Isabelle Scott Short, was born August 18, 1787, and died October 19, 1860. They were the parents of: (1) Mrs. Mary (or Polly) (Samuel) Whitmer, (2) Mrs. Eva (Louis) Phillips; (3) Jacob (bachelor); (4) Samuel, who married Sarah Garst; (5) William who married Nancy Miller, daughter of Captain Isaac Miller. Jacob Short's children lived in the lower part of Muhlenberg and in southern McLean County, where all of them were well-known people. Jacob Jagoe was the father of three sons, Abraham G., Benjamin, and William Jagoe. These three brothers in their day were among the best-known farmers in the lower Pond River country.

12. John Morgan and his wife Jane Irvin Morgan were the parents of eight children, Charles, John, Doctor Daniel Boone, Doctor James Robert, William K., Mrs. Susan Lovin, Mrs. Margaret Lovin, and Mrs. Jane (William) Eades. William K. Morgan and his wife, Mary E. Lovell Morgan, were among the bestknown people in the Pond River country, where they lived on a farm and where they reared eight sons and four daughters, most of whom live in the county and are among Muhlenberg's most progressive citizens.

13. Murphy's Lake was so called after Jesse Murphy, who was born in 1781, settled near the banks of the lake about the year 1805, and who lived there until his death in 1846. Jesse Murphy was the father of Thomas Murphy, who was born in 1825 and died in 1862. Thomas Murphy was the father of James R., W. Jesse, and Samuel W. Murphy and Mrs. Mary (Julian) Wicks.

14. Bridge Lake, near the mouth of Mud River, may at one time have been a channel of Green River or Mud River. It is now more of a bayou or back-water slough than a lagoon of the character of those in the Pond River bottoms. During high water Bridge Lake becomes a channel and flows into Green River below the mouth of Mud River. Abram, Campfield, Horseshoe and other small lakes above it on the Muhlenberg side are probably old channels of Mud River. Black Lake, located in the extreme northern part of the county, is a long, narrow lagoon, the origin and nature of which is a matter of speculation. An arm of Green River may have run, ages ago, from the mouth of Thoroughfare branch to the region of Black Lake and then continued down Cypress Creek, or down some other course, back into Green River. Near Pond Creek occur a few small, narrow ponds known as "old sloughs." Above the old Jack Ford, near the Greenville and Elkton Road, is one which, previous to about 1860, formed part of the Pond Creek main channel.

15. J. Lindsey Spurlin was a son of John Spurlin, an Englishman who settled in Christian County about 1800, where he married Rebecca N. Utley. The Reverend James Utley Spurlin, who died in 1909 aged eighty-two and who for more than fifty years preached in Muhlenberg and some of the adjoining counties, was also a son of John Spurlin. J. Lindsey Spurlin came to Muhlenberg about 1845. When he was drowned he left a widow with eight small children, all of whom have since become well-known citizens: Theodore, Miss Rebecca, Mrs. Mary (Jacob) Colley, Mrs. Elizabeth F. (Hiram W.) Lee, Mrs. Prince (Douglass) Laswell, Miss Luro, James T., and J. Lindsey Spurlin, jr.

16. A Superficial investigation with a pick and shovel strengthened my opinion that Lew Allen Hill is not the work of man. To me it looked like an accumulation deposited by some of the sediment-laden currents in the big floods that prevailed during some of the great overflows in prehistoric times, when the hills of this section were formed by the intervening valleys being washed out. If Lew Allen Hill showed a formation consisting of stratified rocks, such as occur in the hills bordering upon Pond River bottom, then we could conclude that it is the remains of one of the many hills that once existed here, but which were eroded and removed when Pond River was making its wide bottom. I presume the isolation of Lew Allen Hill and its shape, combined with the fact that a number of prehistoric mounds exist throughout this and other parts of the upper Pond River country, suggested the possibility of its being an artificial mound. The fact that a number of arrow-heads and stone axes have been found not only on this small elevation but also on the nearby Reynold's Turkey Hill and Owen's Island, is considered by some as further evidence that Lew Allen Hill is an artificial mound. Such relics indicate nothing more than the presence at some time of prehistoric men.
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