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From: Donald Bowles< >
Subject: SMITH MANUSCRIPT-2
Date: Wed, 4 Feb 1998 08:45:20 -0500 (EST)


Written in 1896 by John C SMITH
I am unable to say,but it was at a very early date, for I have had
my mother say she was a very little girl at that time, so small
and so young that she could only remember a part of the insodents
that took place on the way.
She said at that time the people who moved from Virginia
to Kentucky did not move in wagons like they do now, for there
was no roads at that time that waggons could pass. They had to
move on pack horses and frequently the paths was so narrow that
it was with difficulty they could get along with there package.
But narrow paths was not all the difficultys they had to contend
with in their passage from Virginia to the rich and fertilizing
soil of Kentucky. Tes they had to pass over the steep mountains
and hills and deep rivers, illy prepared to with boats for their
safe conveyance.
Many times they would follow the windings of their path
up the mountains or hills untill they would become so steep or
so sideling that they tought it unsafe for their horses and
little ones to pass over. Sometimes a better and more safe
way would be sought out. But when this could not be done,they
would take off their packs and lead their horses over one by
one untill they was all over, then all hands would engage in
carrying over the b/plunder and again restoreing it upon the
backs of the beasts of burthen. But while they had these
difficultys to contend with, there was others of a more alarmin
and dangerous caractor. A great portion of the route from the
state of Virginia to thea Great Valley of the Mississippi
(of which Kentucky is a part), at that time was uningabited
by the white man. The nnbroken forest sprends its shade forty
miles or more in some places unmolested by the removal of a
single tree. The sound of an ax had never sounded upon none
of its hills or its valleys excupt to clear away a small
path or to cut a little wood to cook a morsel of food for the
hardy pioneers of this western country.
to be continued...

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