During the Revolutionary War, and immediately after, a mighty impulse stirred the people of the Atlantic Coast region---an impulse to cross the mountain barrier that impeded their progress to the West. A vast wilderness lay across these mountains and beyond toward the Pacific Coast. It was an unknown country, a new country to be discovered and occupied. Its vagueness and vastness intrigued their imaginations. From time to time hunting parties penetrated eastern Kentucky through Cumberland Gap and gradually learned of the possibilities of the new country. Immigration began to flow into the region and the movement to settle the West had begun. Bell County stood at the very gateway to this movement and passed the moving hosts on into the mountain region of Kentucky, into the bluegrass, and on into the West.

      Speed says of this movement: "Less than two hundred miles inland, and parallel with the Atlantic Coast, were the mountains. Beyond these lay a wilderness of unknown extent, the occupation of which presented obstacles scarcely less formidable than those which attended the first planting of the colonies."

      "With the accomplishment of independence, however, the time came for passing the western barriers; the section of occupied territory was to widen from a narrow ribbon along the coast line to the whole extent of the continent. Space was to be cleared for the gigantic growth to the new Republic, and the coming wonders of railway and steam navigation.

      "It was in the far-distant region of Kentucky that the permanent occupation of the West began. In the heart of that region, full five hundred miles as the crow flies from the sea--coast, and more than three hundred miles beyond the crests of the mountains, population suddenly gathered and civilization suddenly bloomed.

      "It was not an adventure of bold men alone, but a movement of men, women and children. It is equally wonderful that from the first they were imbued with the idea of permanent settlement and residence in the far-west country. It was to be their home; return was not thought of. They carried with them all their possessions, and as the alter-fire for the distant colony they carried with them a clear perception of the prime necessity of stable government, of obedience to law, and the observance of order." From, Captain Imlay we get a very distinct statement of the two routes of travel: the one, down the Ohio River, which was made perilous on account of the number of fighting Indian tribes; the other, through the great wilderness by way of Cumberland Gap, which was freer from Indian warfare.

      William Brown, on his route to Kentucky in 1782, says: "From thence (from Cumberland Gap) until you pass Rockcastle River there is very little good road; this tract of country is very mountainous, and badly watered along the trace, especially for springs. There is some good land on the water-courses, and just on this side Cumberland River appears to be a good trace, and within a few years I expect to have a settlement on it. Some parts of the road is very miry in rainy weather. The fords of Cumberland and Rockcastle are both good unless the waters be too high."

      Bell County's line joints that of Virginia and Tennessee along the top of Cumberland Mountain and includes part of the Gap itself and the land on the side of Cumberland Mountain facing Middlesborough. The march of the pioneers, crossing through the Gap, trod the soil of Bell County in their movement into Kentucky and the West. Bell County was the first to receive these hosts and send them on to create an Empire of the West. Some tarried within her confines, settled and built homes. Thus was the territory of Bell County the earliest to feel the tread of these pioneers and the first to open the gates to the oncoming hosts of a new civilization, a civilization that was to people the new country from the mountains on the east to the Golden Gate on the west.

      Dr. Thomas Walker, Daniel Boone, Finlay and others were the advance guards of the new movement. Walker in 1750 came through the Gap and descended into the Yellow Creek Valley. There on a beech tree Ambrose Powell, one of Walker's party, carved his name and the date, "A. Powell 1750." This record became the cornerstone of the history of Bell County and of the Commonwealth of Kentucky. Walker's Journal, which will be found in more detail in the chapter on "Cumberland Gap in the History of the State, "details his route through Bell County along the present highway between Middlesborough and Pineville and out of the county near Flat Lick. Walker camped on the Rufus Moss farm near the mouth of Clear Creek, went down the creek to where it empties into Cumberland River, saw Cumberland River for the first time and gave it the name Cumberland from the "Bloody Duke" of Cumberland in England. Walker tells in his Journal why he camped on the Moss farm. His moccasins had worn out and he made a new pair there. He named Clear Creek, "Clover Creek," because of the presence of so much wild clover growing there.

      Following Walker, came Daniel Boone in 1769, whose imagination had been fired by the accounts of Kentucky from Findlay who had preceded him. Later, in 1775, Boone, with others, had opened up the Wilderness Road, which passed through the Gap, down Yellow Creek, through the gap in Little Log Mountain, through Ferndale, up Moore's Branch, through the gap in Big Log Mountain, through the "Narrows" south of Pineville, through Cumberland Ford in Pineville, and down Cumberland River to Flat Lick, and on to Boonesborough.  

      Very little is known of Findlay, who soon disappears after the pioneer

movement began. He had been a trader with the Indians, and, in this way, had

became acquainted with the Kentucky wilderness.

      Cumberland Ford is one of the important landmarks in the early history of Bell County and the state of Kentucky. An account of the Cumberland Ford Settlement will be found in a chapter under this title further on in this history. As a small boy, before the days of bridges in this county, I was familiar with this Ford, and it was in use some time after I was a grown man. In the fall of the year, when the water in the smaller streams was low, I was accustomed to leave our home on Little Clear Creek and go to Pogue's gristmill near Flat Lick in Knox County to get corn ground into meal. I passed through this Ford on these occasions. The town of Pineville was thus early known as Cumberland Ford.

      Probably the first white men to come to and through the Gap were some roving bands of hunters. They came in, no doubt, before 1750, the date of Doctor Walker's visit, or exploring expedition. Then came Doctor Walker's in 1750. He was followed by Swift in 1761, 1762, 1763, and in 1767. After the Treaty of Watauga, between Henderson and the Indians, in 1775; after our Independence had been declared in 1776;and after the break-up of the State of Franklin, under Sevier and others, in 1788, the influx of pioneers into southeastern Kentucky began in earnest. It was about this time that Bell County was settled.

      Thomas Fuson, the Kentucky pioneer of the family, came into this section with different hunting parties just before and just after 1800. His son John Fuson, under the name of John Fuston or Funston (which spelling was probably due to the enlistment officer who got the name wrong) was in the War of 1812 from Kentucky. This would indicate that Thomas Fuson and this son were in Kentucky at that time. Later, in 1826, Thomas Fuson settled near Chenoa, lived and died there. It is known that Thomas Fuson lived at the mouth of Brush Creek, opposite Artemus, Kentucky, prior to 1826, where he and his sons, in that pioneer day, raised a thousand bushels of corn with hand-made plows and shopmade hoes. It is barely possible that he was living here at the time John Fuson, his oldest son, joined the army.

      A large number of people had settled in Bell County prior to 1800. Abraham Buford took up the land at Cumberland Ford, now Pineville, on a Virginia Treasury Warrant, in 1781, and it is said that shortly thereafter he built a log house on the land near where the Indian Mound was located, on which, years afterwards, Dr. W. J. Hodges built his house. Thus Cumberland Ford, in all probability, was the first occupied land by whites in what is now Bell County.

      At a later date, June 28, 1799, it seems that Evan Shelby, father of Governor Isaac Shelby, took up some of this same land under a Military Warrant, and, shortly thereafter, built a brick house on the property at the Ford, or the house was built by his son Isaac Shelby. This brick house was the first brick house erected in the present limits of Bell County, and was the first brick house erected in Southeastern Kentucky. Governor Shelby had some difficulties with the title of his father to this land, and cleared the title up by purchases from Abraham Buford in 1814 and James Johnson in 1816. Mr. Elmer Decker, of Barbourville, Kentucky, in delving in the old records of Knox County, has this to say, quoting from these old records in regard to this Shelby house:

      "Governor Shelby early acquired title to one hundred acres 'lying at the Ford of Cumberland, on the south side of said river, where the Wilderness Road crosses the same.' It was patented 'under a Military Warrant,' June 28, 1799, to Evan Shelby, father of the Governor. On December 16, 1816, Governor Shelby, in order to clear up a cloud on his title, bought the same tract from James Johnson 'for and in consideration of two likely negroes, a man and a woman, of the value of one thousand dollars, paid to him by the said Isaac Shelby on the 4th day of February, one thousand eight hundred, and for the further sum of one hundred and fifty dollars.'

      "Sometime between the date of the above patent and July 11, 1811, when 'Joseph Eve, assee of the County Court of Boone,' entered 'four acres of land in the County of Knox (now Bell) on Cumberland River to begin 6 1/2 poles north of the door of Shelby's brick house between the state road and said river.' The Governor erected the first brick house in southeastern Kentucky near the old Ford within the present city limits of Pineville.

      "I added the information about Morgan moving the house during the Civil War to the Gap, giving you credit for that information. I know the above land was said to have been patented by Buford much earlier. However, the date I give is taken from our deed and surveyor's books here." From these quotations from Mr. Decker, based upon these early Knox County

records, we know that Shelby's brick house was there at the Ford in 1811, because the four acres taken up by Joseph Eve, between the road and the river, calls for Shelby's brick house; but, as to when it was built, it must have been some time between 1800 and 1811.

      This brick house was built upon the site of the present J. J. Gibson house there at the Ford. This brick house passed to the Renfros and then to the Gibsons, and was torn down during the Civil War by Gen. George W. Morgan, who used it as headquarters while stationed there at Pineville, and taken to Cumberland Gap, where the brick was used in building fortifications, when Morgan occupied the Gap with the Union forces.

      Thus it will be seen that Pineville was settled, in the name of Cumberland Ford, about 1781, and the names of Abraham Buford, Evan Shelby, Governor Isaac Shelby, son of Evan Shelby, James Johnson, Joseph Eve, and the Renfros were connected, in one way or another, in this early settlement. For a long time after the settlement, it went by the name of Cumberland Ford, but, sometime prior to the establishment of the County of Bell, in 1867, the name of the place had been changed to Pineville, and has been known as Pineville ever since. Pineville was confined to the Narrows in the early days, and the entire town was lodged on either side of the road in the Narrows until about 1888, when the Louisville and Nashville Railroad reached Pineville. Then Fred Hull, as President of the Pineville Land & Lumber Company, purchased the bottom where Pineville is now located from J. J. Gibson, and the town was built around the square now occupied by the courthouse This part of the town then was known locally as new Pineville and that part of it in the Narrows was known as old Pineville. Pineville was designated as the county seat of Bell County upon its formation and has remained the county seat since, although in recent years Middlesborough shares a part of the Circuit Court term.                                                         

        Middlesborough is the largest town in the county and is known as a new town. The foundations of the city of Middlesborough were laid around 1889 to 1890. An English company, headed by Arthur, laid out the town and promoted the building of it. In the chapter in this book on "Middlesborough," the founding and development of this town will be found adequately treated.

      The main points of historical interest for Bell County, aside from the people who compose the County itself, are: Cumberland Gap, because of it being the gateway for the early pioneers into Kentucky and the west; Cumberland Ford, which includes the history of Pineville, because it was one of the principal points on the Wilderness Road and the first place settled in the county; Middlesborough, because it is the largest town in the county and is directly connected with the industrial development of the county and grew out of that industrial development. These three points of interest, because of their significance, are adequately treated in this book, a chapter having been assigned to each of them.

      The settlement of the Yellow Creek Valley, in and around Middlesborough, was begun shortly after 1780, as was also the Cannon Creek region around Ferndale. Settlements began along the Wilderness Road in Bell County shortly after this road was built in 1775.

      The second brick house in the county was that of Rev. John C. Colson, Middlesborough. This house stands on the main highway leading into Middlesborough and near the bridge that spans the railroad tracks, just before you reach the grounds of the old iron furnace. The house is still standing. Rev. John C. Colson was father of D. G. Colson, who afterwards went to Congress from the old Eleventh District of Kentucky.

      The farming period of Bell County took its rise between 1780 and 1820, and was continued with increased force and efficiency until 1889, when the industrial period began. Farming has been carried on, more or less, in the county from the earliest pioneer day to the present, but, after 1889, it was carried on to a less extent than before that period, because many men left the farms, after this industrial era began, to work in the mines or around the mines. The greatest period of farming in the county was from 1840 to 1889. During that period the inhabitants depended almost entirely upon farming, with occasional logging jobs thrown in.

      The logging industry started up after the Civil War ended in 1865, and continued up into the industrial era of the county, to about the year 1900. Of course, the lumber industry is still going on. Mills are located in different parts of the county and are getting out a limited amount of lumber, but the most active years of the industry were between the years of 1865 and 1900.

      At first, logs were floated down the streams to the mills at Williamsburg, Kentucky. The Jones Lumber Company and the Kentucky Lumber Company held the logs with log-boams across Cumberland River, there to await their turn to be sawed into lumber. Most of the best poplar timber was taken out in this way.

      But, in the early '90's T. J. Asher and Sons erected a large sawmill on their property at Wasioto, and carried on a large lumber business until after 1900,  when the firm went out of the lumber business and went into the coal business. This mill was the largest that ever operated in the county.

      Then came the coal business after 1888. This was brought about when the Louisville and Nashville Railroad Company entered Bell County in that year. This railroad entered Bell County just south of Flat Lick and followed up Cumberland River, through Pineville, to a point just above Wasioto, where it left the river and went up Patterson's Branch to Ferndale, and from Fernadale, through the tunnel at Little Log Mountain, to Yellow Creek and up Yellow Creek and up Yellow Creek to Middlesborough and Cumberland Gap. Since that time, the Louisville and Nashville Railroad Company have built spur lines from, this main line to different points in the county. One branch extends up Four Mile Creek from Four Mile Station; another up Greasy Creek from just below the mouth of Four Mile Creek; another up Straight Creek from Pineville, which road divides at old Straight Creek Mines, one branch extending up the left Fork of Straight Creek and the other up the Right Fork of Straight Creek; another branch road leaves the main line just above Wasioto and goes up Big Clear Creek to Chenoa; another one extends up Yellow Creek, leaving the main line at the mouth of Yellow Creek; another extends up Pucketts Creek; another branches off to Cardinal near the Harlan County line; another line leaves the main line in Middlesborough and extends up Bennetts Fork, and, where Bennett's Fork and Stony Fork join, this road divides, one branch extending up Stony Fork. The Southern Railroad Campany has a Short line in Bell County on Clear Fork River across the mountain from Middlesborough, and the Southern enters Middlesborough, from the direction of Knoxville, through the Cumberland Gap Tunnel. This net of railroads have contributed more to the industrial development of Bell County than any other agency.

      Mines opened, after 1889, with the coming of the L & N Railroad, in the following fields: on lower Greasy Creek in the Dean coal; on Four Mile Creek in the Straight Creek seam; on the two Straight Creeks in the Straight Creek seam; in the Chenoa field on Big Clear Creek; on Bennett's Fork and Stony Fork in the Middlesborough area; and later on Cumberland River between Pineville and the Harlan County line. Bell County reached its highest development in the coal

business around 1915, and since that time, it has declined in output of coal.

      A few years ago, a new line of railroad was built up the Left Fork of Straight Creek, which opens up a new coal field. This will give a new impetus to the coal business in the county, and will tend to bring the output back to a higher level.

      Today, the inhabitants of Bell County depend for a livelihood upon a small amount of farming, and to a greater extend the coal and lumber business. County, state and governnent road work furnishes occupation for some of the inhabitants. The coal industry still furnishes more employment for the inhabitants of the county than any other one industry.