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Colonel
Jonathan Clark came to Christian County as early as 1803, and was
long a Justice of the Peace and Sheriff. The following
extract is taken
from the 'People's Press' of 1851:
"Jonathan Clark was born on the 20th day of May
in Bedford (later Campbell)
County, Virginia. In the year 1773 he removed
to Stokes County, North
Carolina. In the Spring of 1776 he volunteered
as a minute man in Capt.
James Shepherd's company of North Carolina militia,
was elected Lieutenant,
and attached to Col. Martin Armstrong's regiment.
During this year he was
mostly engaged in keeping in subjection Cols.
Bryan and Roberts, whose
loyalty induced them to raise two regiments of
Tories, with whom he had
several engagements on the Yadkin and Catawba
Rivers, and although not in
the battle of King's Mountain with Cols. Cleaveland,
Campbell, and Shelby,
was on duty near at hand and joined them after
the battle.
Lieut. Clark rendered signal service in an engagement
with Col. Wright, a
Tory, at the Shallow ford of the Yadkin. He was
then attached to Gen.
Perkin's division, and was in two skirmishes
with the troops under the
command of Lord Cornwallis. Before the battle
of Guilford, in the year
1781, he was attached to Col. Smith's regiment
of cavalry, and had several
engagements with Col. Bryan, Cunningham and other
Tory commanders, who
mostly occupied the hills and would not give
general battle, but would
sally out in small parties and commit depredations
upon the Whigs, requiring
the united Whig force to keep them in subjection.
In the year 1784 he
removed to Pendleton District, S.C., and in 1803
to Christian County, KY.
Here he filled the office of Justice of the Peace
and became Sheriff.
He was a man of sterling virtues, of more than
ordinary intelligence, and
for the unwavering integrity of this character
and goodness of heart was
held in the highest estimation by his friends
and neighbors. He died at his
residence on March 12, 1851, aged ninety-one
years nine months and twenty
days.
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Jerry
"Duck" Brewer was also a veteran of the Continental Army, and
settled in the eastern part of the county, where
he reared a family, and left a
large number of descendants.
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William
Dupuy, familiarly known as "Uncle Billy", served through the war
and
came to this county at an early day. He died
at his residence near Hopkinsville
September 11, 1851, at the ripe old age of eighty
six years.
The 'Kentucky Rifle' of September 13, 1851, says
of him:
"He was one of the oldest citizens of this county,
and was universally
respected as one of those noble old patriots
who fought over the cradle of
the young Republic, dealing the stalwart blows
of freemen to the minions of
royalty.
We loved to see him lingering here to enjoy the
surprising contrast between
those days and these, and to suggest to all who
saw him moving about, like
one whose whole being belonged to the past, instructive
reflections of the
times that saw the first faint hope that at last
Liberty had determined to
found an empire and consecrate a home. But he
has been gathered to his
fathers, and sleeps well beneath the soil which
he loved with that warm and
peculiar devotion which forms one of the most
characteristic traits of the
broad and manly nature of the early settler.
He was buried with military
honors under the direction of Major General Hays."
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Captain
William Gray was also an officer in the patriot army, lived for
many
years in the neighborhood of Mr. Lod Dulin, father
of Rice Dulin, Esq., and
was highly esteemed for his probity of character
and general intelligence by
all who knew him. But little is know of the part
he took in the thrilling
drama of those times, but that little is creditable
alike to his courage and
patriotism. |
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The
following application for pension, February 4, 1822, which appears in
the County Court Records, is about all that is known
of the war record of
Samuel Johnson:
To the Honorable, the Secretary of the Department
of War of the United
States of America,
The declaration of the undersigned respectfully
showeth that in the Autumn
of the year 1775, in the County of Greenbrier,
State of Virginia, he
enlisted as a private soldier, in the company
of Capt. Mathew Arbuckle.
That the company of Capt. Arbuckle belonged to
the regiment of the
Continental line, commanded by Col. John Neville,
that he joined his company
at Lewisburg, in the month of March 1775, and
marched from thence to Fort
Pitt; from thence he marched with the company
of Capt. Arbuckle to the
mouth of the Great Kanawha, and remained with
his company at the place
until about the month of October, 1778, at which
time the station was
abandoned and the troops stationed there discharged
from the service of
their country. That some few months after he
entered the service, he became
a sergeant, and for the last year of his continuance
in service, he acted as
Orderly Sergeant, and was discharged in good
credit, that he now is a
resident of the County of Christian, in the State
of Kentucky, that he is
now upwards of sixty-six years of age, and is
by reason of his reduced
circumstances in need of assistance from his
country for support, he
therefore prays that he may be placed on the
pension list.
Signed: Samuel Johnson. |
John
Knight was an old soldier; fought through the entire war and drew
a
pension from the Government. He left a large family
in the northern part of
the county, and was much respected for his many
kindly qualities of mind and
heart, and his character as a good citizen.
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Knight
Knight was a most knightly knight from the Palmetto State. He
enlisted in Capt. Buchanan's company, Sixth Regiment,
Col. Henderson, and
served two years. He was at the battle of Sullivan's
Island, Savannah,
Stono, and during the siege of Charleston was
captured by the British, from
whom he afterward escaped. He did not re-enter
the army, but removed to
Christian County, where afterward he appears
on the records as an applicant
for a pension.
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Several
families of Tories also came to the county, but did not meet with
much sympathy or countenance from the citizens at
large. Among the number
was Nicholas Pyle, who was the
son of Col. Pyle of the British Army. He was much depressed by the unfriendliness
of his neighbors and lived a life of
comparative retirement. On the breaking out of
the war of 1812 he was of
the first to volunteer in the defense of that
country against which he had
before fought.
He was with Jackson at the battle of New Orleans,
and deported himself so
gallantly as to compel the admiration of all
who knew him. Afterward his
old neighbors took him into their favor, and
were wont to say: "Nick Pyle is
a gallant fellow, and has redeemed himself".
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Dudley
Redd was another Tory, but claimed to have been a soldier in the
Continental Army. He had a deep scar on his forehead,
which he claimed to
have received in an encounter with the British.
But an old negro man, the
property of Lod Dulin, and who had formerly been
a servant of Col. Hillion,
of the British Army, said he knew Redd well when
he was a soldier under his
master. The negro's account, and which was probably
true, was that Redd was
a Tory, and received the saber cut on his forehead
at Kettle Creek, at the
hands of a patriot soldier, who left him on the
field for dead. |
James
Robinson, one of the earliest settlers of the county, served through
the entire struggle for liberty, and came to Christian
County in about 1786.
It is not improbable that he was here next after
Davis and Montgomery. He
was from North Caroline, and was a revolutionary
soldier; entered the army
at the beginning of the struggle and carried
his musket--and used it
too--until the sons of Liberty conquered a peace
before the walls of
Yorktown. He returned home to find his wife dead,
and his family scattered,
and ever after may be termed a wanderer in the
wilderness. The dark and
bloody ground, as Kentucky was even then known,
was attracting attention,
and he wandered hither. He spend some time in
the fort at Boonesboro, but,
ever restless, he resumed his wanderings, and
came to what is now Christian
County, and built a cabin the present precinct
of Wilson. Here he remained
about a year, and returned to North Carolina,
gathered up the scattered
members of his family, and brought them to Kentucky.
His sons who came here were Abner, James, and
Green. The first died in
Wilson Precinct, where he settled; James commanded
a regiment under Gen.
Jackson in the battle of New Orleans, was the
Captain of the Regulators, and
also died in Wilson Precinct. Green, the youngest
of the brothers, was
killed in the Black Hawk war. No braver and more
valiant soldiers ever
fought for their country than the old revolutionary
hero, James Robinson,
and his sons.
Some years after he brought his family here, he
went to Tennessee, and
eventually died at Port Royal. They were all
men of note and their
footprints may still be seen in the community
where they lived, and where
descendants still perpetuate a name that should
not be forgotten.
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Pensions-
The following application for pension is found on the county
records:
This day Robert Warner came into open court and
made oath that he is one of
the Revolutionary soldiers, that he is now in
the sixty-third year of his
age, that he entered in the Continental service
as a militia man, or a
soldier in the militia service, in the year ______
in a company commanded by
Capt. Robert Cravens, In a regiment commanded
by Col. Benjamin Harrison, and that he served two tours of duty of three
months each in said service, and
was duly and regularly discharged, but he had
lost his discharge papers, and
that in the year 1778, as he believes, he enlisted
in the Continental
service under the command of Capt. Wallis, in
a regiment commanded by Col.
Richard Campbell, and in the Continental Army
under the command of Gen.
Nathaniel Greene, that he served from that time
during the war, and that
after the war he was duly and regularly discharged
by Capt. Anderson, to
whom he was transferred after the death of Capt..
Wallis, who was killed at
the battle of Guilford, and which said discharge
he has lost. He states
that he has never received anything, either land
or money, from the United
States of America for any of said services, and
is now old, infirm and
afflicted with palsy.
Signed and Sealed the fifth day of March, 1822.
Signed Robert Warner by his "X"
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| Samuel Younglove,
Joseph
Meacham, and Joseph Casky (the original founder of
Casky Precinct) were Revolutionary soldiers, and moved to the county at
an early day. There were doubtless many others who came about the same
time; but their names have not been obtained. |
