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The Floyd Family I. Chapter XIII.
LETTERS written by Col. John Floyd to his chief, Col. William Preston,
county lieutenant and surveyor of Fincastle county, Va., present an exceptionally
fine picture of how Kentucky was wrested from the Indians and of the early
settling of Louisville and of the Central Kentucky towns, but are even
more interesting in the light they cast upon their author, John Floyd,
pioneer statesman and surveyor, and Kentucky's hero of heroes.
A Virginia gentleman of rare mental attainments, brave
as a lion, a true friend, of the warmest affections, Col. Floyd reveals
himself in his letters to Col. Preston and to Gen. George Rogers Clark,
letters written between 1774 and 1783, the best years and the last years
of his life, for at thirty-three Floyd was a victim of the Indians. While
comparatively little has been recorded in histories, Floyd's letters are
preserved in the Virginia Archives and the Draper MSS, making an authentic
memorial to his achievements.
John Floyd was born in 1750, in Amherst county, Va., a
son of Col. William Floyd and Abigail (or Abediah) Davis Floyd, and one
of a
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number of children who later emigrated to Kentucky to become founders
of Louisville families. Abigail Davis was a sister of Evan Davis, grandfather
of Jefferson Davis, according to a tradition in the family, and like her
husband was descended from Welsh emigrants to Virginia. In 1772, John Floyd
moved to Fincastle county, where he taught school, living in the home of
Col. William Preston, Two years later Preston made Floyd a deputy surveyor
and appointed him chief of a surveying party to Kentucky, then known as
a part of Fincastle county. The party set out on April 7 from Col. Preston's
home at 1 o'clock in the afternoon in high spirits, escorted three miles
by the surveyor, according to Hanson's Journal, kept by one of Floyd's
party, Thomas Hanson, a young gentleman who faithfully set down the traveling
experiences of the brave little band. He tells how they received news of
battles with the Indians; of meeting up with bands in the forest and having
a feast of bear meat; of overtaking Hancock Taylor at the head of another
surveying party, and of the men proceeding together in great harmony; of
Mr. Floyd laying off two thousand acres of land on Cole river for Col.
George Washington; of lands surveyed in Kentucky for Patrick Henry and
other prominent men of the time. Floyd's special mission on his first trip
was to make survey of the bounty
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lands offered to veterans of the French and Indian War. In that year
the activities of the hostile Indians led Dunmore to order the recall of
the Virginia surveyors, and Daniel Boone was sent by Preston to order Floyd
to bring in his men. On the 26th of August Floyd writes to Preston:
"You will hear by Capt. Russell of the death of Mr. Hancock Taylor and
one of the company, my poor brother sufferers whose deaths I hope to revenge
yet," showing that even this early in his work he had cast his lot with
the cause of Kentucky.
Floyd then joined the forces of Gen. Andrew Lewis. but
was not in time for the fighting at Point Pleasant. In January, 1775, he
was sent back to Kentucky by his chief to make a survey on soldier claims
and established the station of St. Asaph. In May he was on Dix River with
his party and met up with Lieut. John Henderson, of the Transylvania Company,
a settler at Boonesborough, who distrusted Floyd because he represented
Col. Preston, whose interests and Henderson's did not coincide. Regarding
Floyd, Henderson made the following entry in his journal on May 3, 1775:
"Capt. John Floyd arrived here conducted by one John Drake,
from a camp on the Dix river where he had left about thirty of his company
from Virginia. He said he was sent by them to
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know on what terms they might settle on our lands. This man appeared
to have a great share of modesty, an honest, open countenance and no small
share of good sense, and, petitioning in behalf of himself and his whole
company, among whom were one Mr. Dandridge (Alexander Spottswood Dandridge),
and one Mr. Todd, two gents of the law, in their own right, and several
other young gents of good family, we thought it advisable to secure them
to our interest if possible, and not show the least distrust of the intentions
of Capt. Floyd, on whom we intend to keep a strict watch." However, Floyd
effected an understanding with Henderson and did not participate in the
land fights that ensued.
In a letter from Boonesborough to Col. Preston, written
July 21, 1776, he describes the rescue of the Calloway girls and Daniel
Boone's daughter from the Indians, after they had been taken captives from
a canoe on the river. He cites this among the Indian depredations, and
concludes: "If the war becomes general, which there now is the greatest
appearance of, our situation is truly alarming. I want to return
as much as any person can do, but if I leave the country now, there is
scarcely one single man hereabouts but that will follow my example. When
I think of the deplorable conditions a few
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helpless families are likely to be in, I conclude to sell my life as
dear as I can, in their defense, rather than to make an ignominious escape."
"I do, at the request and in behalf of all the distressed
women and children, and other inhabitants of this place, implore the
aid of every leading man who has it in his power to give them any relief."
But the war was on in earnest and Capt. Floyd returned
to Virginia, where he was given charge of the privateer Phoenix, sent out
to prey upon British commerce. He sailed to the West Indies and found rich
soil, but was captured by the British off the Bahamas and taken to an English
prison. After a year as prisoner he escaped, aided by the jailer's wife,
made his way to France, where he secured aid of Benjamin Franklin and went
home to Virginia.
In 1779 Floyd with his wife, Jane Buchanan, a niece
of his friend, Col. Preston, started for Kentucky, making their way to
the Falls of Ohio, accompanied or followed by several of his brothers and
sisters. He built Floyd's Station, which stood on lands about a mile from
St. Matthews. Unfortunately for Floyd and his family, their year at the
Falls was one of pitiless cold, always spoken of in history as the 'hard
winter."
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In a letter to Preston, Floyd tells of the weather being
"violently hard," of there being no arrivals or news down the river in
some weeks. He congratulates Col. and Mrs. Preston on the arrival of their
sixth daughter. (Letitia Preston was the bride of John Floyd, Jr., who
became Governor of Virginia.) Floyd continues: "I can't buy a bushel of
corn for $50, and everything else seems nearly in proportion. Jenny and
myself often lament the want of our fine crop of corn the valley of Arcadia,
and we both seem to have a fondness yet for that country notwithstanding
all the advantages we expect in future. We sometimes laugh at our misfortune
with hopes of doing better in a few months, which will soon pass away."
In January, Floyd writes again to Col. Preston of the extremity of the
settlers at the Falls. "If anybody comes by water I wish we could get a
little flour brought down if it was as dear as gold dust. Since I wrote,
corn has been sold at the Falls for $165 a bushel. I have sent $600 by
Mr. Randolph, a friend of mine, which is for my brother Charles, to purchase
some cattle and drive out next spring. We have no prospect of getting any
linen. Jenny sends her best wishes and desires to know if it will be possible
for Charles to get anything to clothe her and the little boy." Later, May
31: "Do order Charles to bring the net profits of the
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crop in Arcadia in clothing or we shall be obliged to use fig leaves.
The Indians plan to make this neighborhood the seat of war this season.
Two men bring accounts that six hundred English with united enemy Indians
are now preparing to march against the Falls with artillery. Hardly one
week passes without someone being scalped between this and the Falls, and
I have almost got too cowardly to travel about the woods without company.
In this year of 1780, Floyd was appointed one of the original
trustees of the new city, Louisville, and it is generally supposed that
he was also a justice of the peace. His correspondence with Col. Preston
during the summer shows the pioneer life as arduous and full of anxiety.
In June he writes: "People this year seem generally to have lost their
health, but perhaps it is owing to the disagreeable way in which we are
obliged to live, crowded in forts, where the air seems to have lost all
its purity and sweetness. Our little boy has been exceedingly ill." A postscript
to the letter: "Uncle Davis and his son killed near Cumberland Mountains
five weeks ago going into settlement. There were four brothers, all of
whom have been murdered in seven or eight years. I hear nothing of Charles,
and fear if he comes with a small company he will share the fate his uncle
and son has done."
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In the following year Floyd assumes heavy responsibilities,
for in 1781 Gen. Clark Wrote Gov. Jefferson, of Virginia, asking him to
appoint Col. John Floyd to the position of county lieutenant, describing
Floyd as "a gentleman who would do honor to the position and known to be
the most capable in the county, a soldier, a gentleman, and a scholar,
whom the inhabitants, for his actions, have the greatest confidence in.
" Floyd was appointed county lieutenant and his letters from this time
until his death, to Preston and to Clark, deal with the defense of the
fort at the foot of Twelfth street, at Fort Nelson, of militia without
ammunition and with horses lost, of the defenseless position of the stations.
He writes that the reason that the country is not deserted is due to the
fact that the Ohio runs only one way, and that the miserable inhabitants
have lost their horses, that the Indians are continually pecking at the
settlers, forty-seven inhabitants killed or captured from January to May.
In September, Col. Floyd writes Gen. Clark that his company of twenty-seven
had been dispersed and cut to pieces, only nine men coming off the field.
"A party was defeated yesterday at the same place and many women and children
wounded. I want satisfaction; do send me one hundred men, which number
with what I can
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raise, will do. Militia has no good powder, do send some. I can't write—guess
at rest."
Col. Floyd appeals to Gen. Clark in May, 1782, in behalf
of the inhabitants of Spring Station, who had become so alarmed that they
feared to plant their corn without a small guard. They offer their services
for work on Ft. Nelson in exchange for a guard of Gen. Clarke's troops
for a week's planting. In the same letter he tells of planning to search
houses for hemp needed in equipping boats on the river to be employed in
fighting the savages, and writes Clark that he and his men have been making
rope from "poppaw bark." An earlier letter to Gen. Clark told of preparing
canoes ordered by the government, and stated that he, Floyd, was liable
for the price of most of them, about four thousand pounds. He writes: "People
have been so long amused with promises of paying off indebtedness long
incurred that the credit of the State is very little better here than in
Illinois." It is understood that Floyd and the other pioneers of means
were never remunerated for many of their expenditures of this nature, and
practically ruined themselves, giving funds, service, their all, to save
Kentucky.
A letter to Col. Preston, in March, 1783, informs
him of the death of Billy Buchanan, Mrs. Floyd's brother, at the hands
of the Indians. In
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this letter Floyd observes that he expected something like this to be
his own lot. Within a month his apprehension proved true, for on April
10, 1783, while riding to the salt works from his station on Beargrass,
Col. Floyd was fired upon by Indians and received a mortal wound. In company
with him was a brother, whose horse was shot from under him, and a third
person, who was killed outright. Col. Floyd was carried by his brother
to the salt works, where he died two days later. On April 24 a son was
born to Mrs. Floyd, named John, for his father. This John Floyd went back
to Virginia to become Governor of the State in 1830, and he was the father
of John Buchanan Floyd, elected Governor of Virginia in 1850, and the Secretary
of War in 1857 under President Buchanan.
Col. Floyd left two other sons besides his posthumous
child, William Preston Floyd, who took up his residence in Virginia, and
Capt. George Rogers Clark Floyd, who remained in Louisville to become an
Indian fighter like his father. Floyd county, Floyd's Fork, Floyd street,
in this city, are all named for the distinguished gentleman, John Floyd.
A drinking fountain on Main street between Third and Fourth was presented
to the city, several years ago, by Allen R. Carter through the Sons of
the Revolution, as a marker for Floyd's old blockhouse, which stood
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between Main and the River and Third and Fourth; a monument stands at
Eastwood, on the Shelbyville pike, erected a number of years ago to Col.
Floyd and his men.
(Copies of Col. John Floyd's letter preserved in the Draper
manuscripts and in the Virginia archives are in the library of Mr. Temple
Bodley.)
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