Longhunter
Encyclopedia
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
frontier wilderness for as much as six months at a time. Historian
Historian
A historian is a person who studies and writes about the past and is regarded as an authority on it. Historians are concerned with the continuous, methodical narrative and research of past events as relating to the human race; as well as the study of all history in time. If the individual is...
Emory Hamilton asserts that "The Long Hunter was peculiar to Southwest Virginia
Virginia
The Commonwealth of Virginia , is a U.S. state on the Atlantic Coast of the Southern United States. Virginia is nicknamed the "Old Dominion" and sometimes the "Mother of Presidents" after the eight U.S. presidents born there...
only, and nowhere else on any frontier did such hunts ever originate" although the term has been used loosely to describe any unofficial American explorer of the period. Most long hunts started in the Holston River
Holston River
The Holston River is a major river system of southwestern Virginia and east Tennessee. The three major forks of the Holston rise in southwestern Virginia and have their confluence near Kingsport, Tennessee. The North Fork flows southwest from Sharon Springs in Bland County, Virginia...
Valley near Chilhowie, Virginia
Chilhowie, Virginia
Chilhowie is a town in Smyth County, Virginia, United States.Chilhowie, pronounced Chil·´how·ee, the Cherokee word meaning “valley of many deer,” was adopted as the town’s name when the town became incorporated in 1913. The population was 1,781 at the 2010 census...
. The hunters came from there and the adjacent valley of the Clinch River
Clinch River
The Clinch River rises in Southwest Virginia near Tazewell, Virginia and flows southwest through the Great Appalachian Valley, gathering various tributaries including the Powell River before joining the Tennessee River in East Tennessee.-Course:...
, where they were land owners or residents. The parties of two or three men (and rarely more) usually started their hunts in October and ended toward the end of March or early in April.
The information gathered by longhunters in the 1760s and 1770s would prove critical to the early settlement of Tennessee
Tennessee
Tennessee is a U.S. state located in the Southeastern United States. It has a population of 6,346,105, making it the nation's 17th-largest state by population, and covers , making it the 36th-largest by total land area...
and Kentucky
Kentucky
The Commonwealth of Kentucky is a state located in the East Central United States of America. As classified by the United States Census Bureau, Kentucky is a Southern state, more specifically in the East South Central region. Kentucky is one of four U.S. states constituted as a commonwealth...
. Many longhunters were employed by land surveyors
Surveying
See Also: Public Land Survey SystemSurveying or land surveying is the technique, profession, and science of accurately determining the terrestrial or three-dimensional position of points and the distances and angles between them...
seeking to take advantage of the departure of the French
New France
New France was the area colonized by France in North America during a period beginning with the exploration of the Saint Lawrence River by Jacques Cartier in 1534 and ending with the cession of New France to Spain and Great Britain in 1763...
from the Ohio Valley at the end of the Seven Years War. Some later helped guide settlers to Middle Tennessee
Middle Tennessee
Middle Tennessee is a distinct portion of the state of Tennessee, delineated according to state law as the 41 counties in the Middle Grand Division of Tennessee....
and southeastern Kentucky.
The long hunters in Tennessee history
Appalachian Mountains
The Appalachian Mountains #Whether the stressed vowel is or ,#Whether the "ch" is pronounced as a fricative or an affricate , and#Whether the final vowel is the monophthong or the diphthong .), often called the Appalachians, are a system of mountains in eastern North America. The Appalachians...
in the early 18th century, game in the Piedmont
Piedmont (United States)
The Piedmont is a plateau region located in the eastern United States between the Atlantic Coastal Plain and the main Appalachian Mountains, stretching from New Jersey in the north to central Alabama in the south. The Piedmont province is a physiographic province of the larger Appalachian division...
region became more scarce. Merchants returning from trade missions to Overhill Cherokee
Overhill Cherokee
The term Overhill Cherokee refers to the former Cherokee settlements located in what is now Tennessee in the southeastern United States. The name was given by 18th century European traders and explorers who had to cross the Appalachian Mountains to reach these settlements when traveling from...
villages in the Tennessee Valley
Tennessee Valley
The Tennessee Valley is the drainage basin of the Tennessee River and is largely within the U.S. state of Tennessee. It stretches from southwest Kentucky to northwest Georgia and from northeast Mississippi to the mountains of Virginia and North Carolina...
brought back news of the abundance of game west of the range, and began taking hunters along on their trade expeditions. In 1748 and 1750, Thomas Walker
Thomas Walker (explorer)
Dr. Thomas Walker was a physician and explorer from Virginia who led an expedition to what is now the region beyond the Allegheny Mountains area of British North America in the mid-18th century...
crossed the mountains and explored the Holston River
Holston River
The Holston River is a major river system of southwestern Virginia and east Tennessee. The three major forks of the Holston rise in southwestern Virginia and have their confluence near Kingsport, Tennessee. The North Fork flows southwest from Sharon Springs in Bland County, Virginia...
valley, recording and widely publicizing the location of Cumberland Gap
Cumberland Gap
Cumberland Gap is a pass through the Cumberland Mountains region of the Appalachian Mountains, also known as the Cumberland Water Gap, at the juncture of the U.S. states of Tennessee, Kentucky, and Virginia...
— a pass near the modern border of Virginia, Kentucky, and Tennessee— which allowed relatively easy access to the headwaters of the Tennessee
Tennessee River
The Tennessee River is the largest tributary of the Ohio River. It is approximately 652 miles long and is located in the southeastern United States in the Tennessee Valley. The river was once popularly known as the Cherokee River, among other names...
and Cumberland
Cumberland River
The Cumberland River is a waterway in the Southern United States. It is long. It starts in Harlan County in far southeastern Kentucky between Pine and Cumberland mountains, flows through southern Kentucky, crosses into northern Tennessee, and then curves back up into western Kentucky before...
rivers.
In 1761, Elisha Walden (spelled variously "Wallen", "Wallin", and "Walling") led the first major recorded long hunt into what is now Tennessee. Walden set up a station camp in Lee County, Virginia
Lee County, Virginia
According to the census 2009 estimates, there were 25001 people, 11,587 households, and 6,852 families residing in the county. The population density was 54 people per square mile . There were 11,587 housing units at an average density of 25 per square mile...
, and trekked into the Clinch
Clinch River
The Clinch River rises in Southwest Virginia near Tazewell, Virginia and flows southwest through the Great Appalachian Valley, gathering various tributaries including the Powell River before joining the Tennessee River in East Tennessee.-Course:...
and Powell
Powell River (Virginia)
The Powell River in the United States rises in southwest Virginia and flows into East Tennessee.The river rises in rural Wise County, Virginia near the Laurel Grove community northwest of Norton and flows for several miles before the confluence with Roaring Fork in the Kent Junction community...
valleys in what is now Hawkins County, Tennessee
Hawkins County, Tennessee
Hawkins County is a county located in the U.S. state of Tennessee. As of 2010, the population was 56,833. Its county seat is Rogersville, Tennessee's second-oldest town....
. That same year, Colonel Adam Stephen
Adam Stephen
Adam Stephen was a Scottish-born doctor and military officer. He came to North America, where he served in the Virginia colonial militia under George Washington during the French and Indian War. He served under Washington again in the American Revolutionary War, rising to lead a division of the...
led a regiment of Virginia soldiers and militia to Long Island of the Holston, in what is now Sullivan County, Tennessee. The expedition, which was launched in retaliation for the Cherokee
Cherokee
The Cherokee are a Native American people historically settled in the Southeastern United States . Linguistically, they are part of the Iroquoian language family...
sacking of Fort Loudoun
Fort Loudoun (Tennessee)
Fort Loudoun was a British colonial fort in present-day Monroe County, Tennessee, near the towns of the Overhill Cherokee. The fort was reconstructed during the Great Depression and was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1965.-History:...
in 1760, forced the Cherokee to sign a peace treaty.
The end of the Seven Years War in 1763 removed French claims to lands east of the Mississippi River
Mississippi River
The Mississippi River is the largest river system in North America. Flowing entirely in the United States, this river rises in western Minnesota and meanders slowly southwards for to the Mississippi River Delta at the Gulf of Mexico. With its many tributaries, the Mississippi's watershed drains...
. With the Cherokee threat minimized, long hunters (some of whom may have been veterans of Stephen's expedition) began crossing into Tennessee and Kentucky in greater numbers. In 1764, Daniel Boone
Daniel Boone
Daniel Boone was an American pioneer, explorer, and frontiersman whose frontier exploits mad']'e him one of the first folk heroes of the United States. Boone is most famous for his exploration and settlement of what is now the Commonwealth of Kentucky, which was then beyond the western borders of...
and Richard Callaway
Richard Callaway
Richard Callaway was an early settler of Kentucky. Born in Caroline County, Virginia, Callaway joined Daniel Boone in 1775 in marking the Wilderness Road into central Kentucky, becoming one of the founders of Boonesborough, Kentucky...
explored the upper Holston Valley as agents for Richard Henderson
Richard Henderson (American pioneer)
Richard Henderson was an American pioneer and merchant who attempted to create a colony called Transylvania just as the American Revolutionary War was starting.-Early life:Henderson was born in Hanover County, Virginia...
, a land speculator who later played an important role in the early settlement of Tennessee. A camp used by Boone and Callaway would later become the home of Boone's friend William Bean
William Bean
William Bean born was a Longhunter and pioneer. He and his wife, Lydia Russell, were Tennessee's first permanent European-American settlers.Bean was a friend of Daniel Boone...
, Tennessee's first known permanent Euro-American settler. He built a cabin at the site around 1769.
Cumberland River
The Cumberland River is a waterway in the Southern United States. It is long. It starts in Harlan County in far southeastern Kentucky between Pine and Cumberland mountains, flows through southern Kentucky, crosses into northern Tennessee, and then curves back up into western Kentucky before...
all the way to its mouth. One member of the Smith expedition, Uriah Stone, was hunting along a tributary of the Cumberland when a French hunting companion stole all of his furs. The tributary was subsequently named Stones River
Stones River
The Stones River is a major stream of the eastern portion of Tennessee's Nashville Basin region.-Geography and hydrography:The Stones River is composed of three major forks: the West, Middle, and East forks. The West Fork, long, rises in southernmost Rutherford County near the Bedford County...
. Stone returned to the Cumberland valley in 1769 along with fellow hunters Kasper Mansker, Isaac and Abraham Bledsoe, Joseph Drake, and Robert Crockett. Although Crockett was killed, the various trails, salt lick
Salt lick
A mineral lick is a natural mineral deposit where animals in nutrient-poor ecosystems can obtain essential mineral nutrients...
s and camping areas identified by the 1766 and 1769 expeditions would later help guide the first English
English American
English Americans are citizens or residents of the United States whose ancestry originates wholly or partly in England....
settlers to the Middle Tennessee area.
A royal proclamation issued by King George III
George III of the United Kingdom
George III was King of Great Britain and King of Ireland from 25 October 1760 until the union of these two countries on 1 January 1801, after which he was King of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland until his death...
in 1763 made it illegal to procure pelts from Cherokee lands without a trading license, which essentially barred hunting west of the Appalachian range. Both the Cherokee and the British, however, had considerable difficulty enforcing this ban. In 1769, Cherokee Chief Oconastota complained to the British Superintendent of Indian Affairs that the entire Cherokee Nation was "filling with Hunters, and the guns rattling every way on the path." While some long hunters had their pelts confiscated by the Cherokee, and a rare few were even killed, most managed to avoid detection.
Legacy
Various geographical entities in Tennessee are named for long hunters. Walden RidgeWalden Ridge
Walden Ridge is a mountain ridge and escarpment located in Tennessee, in the United States. It marks the eastern edge of the Cumberland Plateau and is generally considered part of it. Walden Ridge is about long, running generally north-south...
, the eastern escarpment of the Cumberland Plateau
Cumberland Plateau
The Cumberland Plateau is the southern part of the Appalachian Plateau. It includes much of eastern Kentucky and western West Virginia, part of Tennessee, and a small portion of northern Alabama and northwest Georgia . The terms "Allegheny Plateau" and the "Cumberland Plateau" both refer to the...
in Tennessee, is named for Elisha Walden, one of the first English
English American
English Americans are citizens or residents of the United States whose ancestry originates wholly or partly in England....
Americans to observe it. A high school
Daniel Boone High School (Tennessee)
Daniel Boone High School is located in Gray, Tennessee. It is one of two high schools in the Washington County School System.Daniel Boone High School opened in 1971-1972 to serve the students of the northern half of Washington County. Its feeder schools are Boones Creek, Fall Branch, Gray,...
and dozens of geographical features in Tennessee have been named for Daniel Boone, whose exploits came to symbolize frontier life in Tennessee and Kentucky. Isaac Bledsoe gave his name to Bledsoe Creek in Sumner County, Tennessee
Sumner County, Tennessee
Sumner County is a county located in the U.S. state of Tennessee. As of 2000, the population was 130,449. Its county seat is Gallatin, but its largest town is Hendersonville...
, now the site of Bledsoe Creek State Park. Isaac's brother, Anthony, later became the namesake for Bledsoe County.
In 1780, Kasper Mansker built a frontier station in what is now Goodlettsville
Goodlettsville, Tennessee
Goodlettsville is a city in Davidson and Sumner counties in the U.S. state of Tennessee. Goodlettsville was incorporated as a city in 1958 with a population of just over 3,000 residents; at the 2000 census, the city had a total population of 13,780. Goodlettsville chose to remain autonomous in 1963...
, just north of Nashville
Nashville, Tennessee
Nashville is the capital of the U.S. state of Tennessee and the county seat of Davidson County. It is located on the Cumberland River in Davidson County, in the north-central part of the state. The city is a center for the health care, publishing, banking and transportation industries, and is home...
. In 1986, the city of Goodlettsville built a replica of Mansker Station (it is based on historic examples, as the fort's original layout is unknown), which is now open to the public. In the 1970s, the state of Tennessee established Long Hunter State Park
Long Hunter State Park
Long Hunter State Park is a state park in Davidson County and Rutherford County, Tennessee, located in the southeastern United States. The park is mostly situated along the eastern shores of Percy Priest Lake, an artificial lake created by an impoundment of the Stones River.Long Hunter State Park...
along the J. Percy Priest Lake impoundment of Stones River, in the area where Uriah Stone had his furs stolen more than 200 years earlier.
The long hunters in Kentucky history
King George's War
King George's War is the name given to the operations in North America that formed part of the War of the Austrian Succession . It was the third of the four French and Indian Wars. It took place primarily in the British provinces of New York, Massachusetts Bay, New Hampshire, and Nova Scotia...
in 1748 left control of the territory between the Appalachian Mountains and the Mississippi River in dispute. The French wanted the region to connect their holdings in Canada with New Orleans, and the British sought to establish a foothold in the Ohio Valley. The maneuvers of French commander Pierre-Joseph Celoron de Blainville in 1749 discouraged English trade west of the Appalachians, although English speculators remained interested in the region. Walker's 1750 expedition briefly explored what is now southeastern Kentucky, and explorer Christopher Gist
Christopher Gist
Christopher Gist was an accomplished American explorer, surveyor and frontiersman. He was one of the first white explorers of the Ohio Country . He is credited with providing the first detailed description of the Ohio Country to Great Britain and her colonists...
managed to reach the mouth of the Kentucky River
Kentucky River
The Kentucky River is a tributary of the Ohio River, long, in the U.S. state of Kentucky. The river and its tributaries drain much of the central region of the state, with its upper course passing through the coal-mining regions of the Cumberland Mountains, and its lower course passing through the...
in 1751. In the opening years of the French and Indian War, the French gained control of the Ohio Valley with the defeat of George Washington
George Washington
George Washington was the dominant military and political leader of the new United States of America from 1775 to 1799. He led the American victory over Great Britain in the American Revolutionary War as commander-in-chief of the Continental Army from 1775 to 1783, and presided over the writing of...
at Fort Necessity
Battle of the Great Meadows
The Battle of Fort Necessity, or the Battle of the Great Meadows took place on July 3, 1754 in what is now the mountaintop hamlet of Farmington in Fayette County, Pennsylvania. The engagement was one of the first battles of the French and Indian War and George Washington's only military surrender...
. With the fall of Fort Duquesne
Fort Duquesne
Fort Duquesne was a fort established by the French in 1754, at the junction of the Allegheny and Monongahela rivers in what is now downtown Pittsburgh in the state of Pennsylvania....
and the construction of Fort Pitt
Fort Pitt (Pennsylvania)
Fort Pitt was a fort built at the location of Pittsburgh, Allegheny County, Pennsylvania.-French and Indian War:The fort was built from 1759 to 1761 during the French and Indian War , next to the site of former Fort Duquesne, at the confluence the Allegheny River and the Monongahela River...
in 1758, however, the French were forced to evacuate the region. The French departure and a relative state of peace with the Cherokee during the same period opened up the region to English explorers and hunters.
John and Samuel Pringle, two deserters from Fort Pitt, spent much of the early 1760s hunting in the Tygart Valley
Tygart Valley River
The Tygart Valley River — also known as the Tygart River — is a principal tributary of the Monongahela River, approximately long, in east-central West Virginia, USA...
and likely ranged into what is now Kentucky. Part of Elisha Walden's 1761 party hunted along the Rockcastle River
Rockcastle River
The Rockcastle River is a river primarily in Rockcastle County, Kentucky. It is a tributary of the Cumberland River and therefore, via the Ohio River, part of the Mississippi River watershed. In 1750 it was discovered and named the Lawless River by Dr. Thomas Walker and his exploring party. It was...
from their station camp in southwestern Virginia. In 1767, an expedition led by James Harrod and Michael Holsteiner (Michael Stoner) crossed Kentucky from north-to-south, reaching the Nashville area several weeks after departing from the Illinois Country
Illinois Country
The Illinois Country , also known as Upper Louisiana, was a region in what is now the Midwestern United States that was explored and settled by the French during the 17th and 18th centuries. The terms referred to the entire Upper Mississippi River watershed, though settlement was concentrated in...
. Around the same time, an expedition led by Benjamin Cutbird crossed Cumberland Gap and pushed all the way to the Mississippi River, where they shipped the pelts they had collected down to New Orleans.
In 1768, an English explorer named John Finley passed through the Yadkin Valley
Yadkin River
The Yadkin River is one of the longest rivers in North Carolina, flowing . It rises in the northwestern portion of the state near the Blue Ridge Parkway's Thunder Hill Overlook. Several parts of the river are impounded by dams for water, power, and flood control. The river becomes the Pee Dee...
and visited Daniel Boone, with whom he had served in the French and Indian War. Finley told Boone of the natural splendor of Kentucky's Bluegrass region
Bluegrass region
The Bluegrass Region is a geographic region in the state of Kentucky, United States. It occupies the northern part of the state and since European settlement has contained a majority of the state's population and its largest cities....
, which he had visited as a merchant before the French and Indian War. The following year, the two led an expedition into Kentucky, traveling up the Rockcastle River and establishing a station camp at Red Lick Fork. While Boone and a companion named John Stuart were hunting along the Kentucky River, they were captured by the Shawnee
Shawnee
The Shawnee, Shaawanwaki, Shaawanooki and Shaawanowi lenaweeki, are an Algonquian-speaking people native to North America. Historically they inhabited the areas of Ohio, Virginia, West Virginia, Western Maryland, Kentucky, Indiana, and Pennsylvania...
, and their pelts were confiscated. They returned to their station camp to find it plundered, and learned that Finley and the rest of the expedition had returned to North Carolina. Undeterred, Boone and Stuart continued hunting in the region. Boone was later joined by his brother, Squire
Squire Boone
Squire Boone Jr. was an American pioneer and brother of Daniel Boone. In 1780, he founded the first settlement in Shelby County, Kentucky. The tenth of eleven children, Squire Boone was born to Nathan "Squire" Boone Sr. and his wife Sarah Boone in Berks County, Pennsylvania at the Daniel Boone...
, and the Boone brothers remained in the Kentucky wilderness until 1771. Although they again had their pelts confiscated when they were intercepted by the Cherokee at Cumberland Gap, the Boones were nevertheless eager to return to settle in the region. Daniel Boone's vivid accounts of his hunting exploits helped draw a flood of settlers to Kentucky in subsequent years.
Legacy
Numerous natural and political entities in Kentucky bear the names of long hunters, including Boone CountyBoone County, Kentucky
Boone County is a county located in the U.S. state of Kentucky. It was formed in 1798. The population was 118,811 in the 2010 Census. Its county seat is Burlington. The county is named for frontiersman Daniel Boone...
and Boonesborough
Boonesborough, Kentucky
Boonesborough is an unincorporated community in Madison County, Kentucky, United States. It lies in the central part of the state along the Kentucky River. Boonesborough is part of the Richmond–Berea Micropolitan Statistical Area....
, named for Daniel Boone, and Harrodsburg
Harrodsburg, Kentucky
Harrodsburg is a city in and the county seat of Mercer County, Kentucky, United States. The population was 8,014 at the 2000 census. It is the oldest city in Kentucky.-History:...
, named for James Harrod. Kenton County
Kenton County, Kentucky
Kenton County is a county located in the Commonwealth of Kentucky, United States. It was formed in 1840. In 2010, the population was 159,720. It is the third most populous county in Kentucky behind Jefferson County and Fayette County. Its county seats are Covington and Independence...
is named for Simon Kenton, who, believing he was a fugitive, spent the mid-1770s hunting in eastern Kentucky. Long hunter James Knox named the Dix River
Dix River
The Dix River is a tributary of the Kentucky River in central Kentucky in the United States.It begins in western Rockcastle County, about west of Mount Vernon. It flows generally northwest, in a tight meandering course, passing north of Stanford and east of Danville. Northwest of Danville it is...
after Cherokee leader Captain Dick, who gave Knox permission to hunt along the river in 1770. The U.S. government established Daniel Boone National Forest
Daniel Boone National Forest
Daniel Boone National Forest is the only national forest completely within the boundary of Kentucky. Established in 1937, it was originally named the Cumberland National Forest, after the core region called the Cumberland Purchase Unit...
in 1937 in the eastern part of the state.
Notable longhunters
- Daniel BooneDaniel BooneDaniel Boone was an American pioneer, explorer, and frontiersman whose frontier exploits mad']'e him one of the first folk heroes of the United States. Boone is most famous for his exploration and settlement of what is now the Commonwealth of Kentucky, which was then beyond the western borders of...
- Squire BooneSquire BooneSquire Boone Jr. was an American pioneer and brother of Daniel Boone. In 1780, he founded the first settlement in Shelby County, Kentucky. The tenth of eleven children, Squire Boone was born to Nathan "Squire" Boone Sr. and his wife Sarah Boone in Berks County, Pennsylvania at the Daniel Boone...
- Richard CallawayRichard CallawayRichard Callaway was an early settler of Kentucky. Born in Caroline County, Virginia, Callaway joined Daniel Boone in 1775 in marking the Wilderness Road into central Kentucky, becoming one of the founders of Boonesborough, Kentucky...
- John Finley
- James HarrodJames HarrodJames Harrod was a pioneer, soldier, and hunter who helped explore and settle the area west of the Allegheny Mountains. Little is known about Harrod's early life, including the exact date of his birth. He was possibly underage when he served in the French and Indian War, and later participated in...
- Simon KentonSimon KentonSimon Kenton was a famous United States frontiersman and friend of Daniel Boone, Simon Girty, Spencer Records and Isaac Shelby.-Family and early life:Simon Kenton was alive even before Ohio was a state...
- Kasper Mansker
- Joseph MartinJoseph Martin (general)Joseph Martin was a brigadier general in the Virginia militia during the American Revolutionary War, in which Martin's frontier diplomacy with the Cherokee people is credited with averting Indian attacks on the Scotch-Irish settlers who helped win the battles of Kings Mountain and Cowpens...
- Henry ScaggsHenry ScaggsHenry Scaggs was an American hunter, explorer and pioneer, active primarily on the frontiers of Tennessee and Kentucky during the latter half of the 18th century. His career as an explorer began as early as 1761 as one of the so-called long hunters— men who undertook lengthy hunting...
Further reading
- "The Long Hunter" Emory L. Hamilton, The Mountain Empire Genealogical Quarterly, danielboonetrail.com