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The Magazine of History with Notes and Queries (v. 23)
The Magazine of History with Notes and Queries - v. 23 Author:William Abbatt Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: IT is said that when an Indian story-teller relates the history and the folk-lore legends of his tribe, he always begins by saying: "This is what my grandfather ... more »told me when I was a little boy." Now, I am not an Indian nor much of a story-teller, but I am going to write a few homely incidents of pioneer life and I am going to begin just as though I were a Cherokee Indian historian, and will say before I begin that the incidents of which I write were related to me, from his own personal knowledge, by my grandfather, as we sat before the wood fire in the wide old fire-place, years and years ago. "This is what my grandfather told me when I was a little boy." His father came, with his wife and one child, from Buncombe county, North Carolina, in the early years of the nineteenth century (1810?). They came, with other settlers, by way of the old Indian trace (warrior's trace), a footpath used by the Indians, leading from the mountains of the southern states to the wilderness and Great Lakes of the north. The journey was made on horseback, the few household goods packed on one horse, the wife and child on another, while the husband and father walked alongside, with his trusty rifle ready for immediate business. The little company settled in the western part of Jefferson county, along Neil's creek and my grandfather was born in a block-house where the village of Kent now stands, and which was then called Dobbinsville. Neil's creek was named for a man of that name who was lost in the woods while hunting cattle, and having no means of kindling a fire, crept into a hollow log to spend the night and was frozen to death. The settlement was soon cleared, the land was new and strong and good crops were almost a certainty. But the settlers were compelled, much against their will, t...« less