2 - September 6, 2018 Your Hometown Newspaper News Outlook
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Heaven Is
A Lot Like
By Charles Mattox
"Issue the ordersir, and I
will storm Hell."
Continental Army
General "Mad" Anthony
Wayne; July 16, 1779, in re-
sponse to General George
Washington's order to take
Stony Point, New York, a
well defended British fort,
during the Revolutionary
War. General Wayne lead
the first column of troops
into the fiercely defended
fort and was shot in the
head, but it was a glancing
shot and resulted in no se-
rious injury.
I'm fascinated with what
Nicholas County native,
and American Civil War
Veteran, Lt. Lot Young,
used to call simply, "the vi-
cissitudes of war." Young
understood how luck and
chance were often the
dominant factors in sur-
vival, and how luck always
trumped skill, terrain,
strategy and weaponry.
Young was one of the
lucky few surviving Con-
federate Infantry Officers
of the Kentucky Orphan
Brigade, during the
American Civil war, and
was recognized with no
small amount of adulation
following the war. He had
survived where over 90
percent of his comrades
in arms had perished and
his storytelling and ora-
tory skills as well as his
philosophical and wise
counsel to his neighbors
near and far, was fre-
quently sought.
If you visit Lt. Young's
grave in the Carlisle
Cemetery, as I have often
done, and you later travel
a few miles toward Mill-
ersburg, you'll come upon
Miller's Station Road. The
road received its name
due to its close proximity
to two forts, or stations
as they were most apt to
be called, built around
1780 by two Miller broth-
ers: Major John Miller,
who built a fort one mile
northeast of Millersburg,
and his brother William,
who built a fort one mile
farther northeast.
In 1781 a fort named
Well's Station, located
southwest of the Miller
forts and 30 miles east of
Louisville, was attacked
with founding militia lead-
er Captain Wells being
killed and his son William,
(a cousin to one of Simon
Kenton's later scouts also
named William Wells)
was taken prisoner.
Two young relations of
Major John Miller, named
Henry Miller and Chris-
topher Miller, were taken
prisoner from Kentucky
at this same time and
knew William Wells, or
"Wild Carrot" as his Mi-
ami adoptive clan mem-
bers called him.
Henry Miller and Chris-
topher were adopted into
the Shawnee, who were
close relations to the Mi-
ami River clans.
Following the Black-
berry Campaign of 1791
and General Arthur St.
Claire's disastrous defeat
a year later, Wells and
Henry Miller had left their
adoptive Native American
families and joined the
Kentucky forces who later
served in 1793-1795 with
General Anthony Wayne.
Young Christopher
Wells, who had been
separated from his older
Brother Henry several
years before had not been
heard of in years.
Wells and Henry Miller
joined Robert McClelland
as General Wayne's favor-
ite spies.
Simon Kenton, Michael
Cassidy, Colonel William
Sudduth and other men
who lived in northeast-
ern Kentucky, were also
among Wayne's favorites.
In mid summer of 1794
General Wayne called
upon Captain William
Wells to take Henry Mill-
er and Robert McClelland
out into the forest and
bring him a Native Ameri-
can prisoner for the pur-
pose of interrogation.
Within a week's travel,
and several miles from
the Army encampment,
Wells, Miller and McClel-
land, who was the fleetest
soul in Wayne's Army,
happened upon a camp
occupied by three native
males. Captain Wells sug-
gested that he and Miller
shoot two of the warriors
and McClelland could
'run down" the third.
Two shots fired simul-
taneously and the war-
rior on the left crumbled
to the ground, as did the
one on the right. The war-
rior in the middle bolted
into the woods so quickly
it caught them off guard,
but soon Robert McClel-
land was chasing him
through the woods as
Miller and Wells reloaded
and then followed.
For over a mile the war-
rior ran, with McClelland
growing closer. Abruptly
the warrior noticed he
was coming to a steep
bluff overlooking the Mi-
ami River
The warrior never
broke stride and jumped
far into the air and down
several dozen feet before
landing in a soft mud bank
that ran along the side of
the river. McClelland was
soon jumping down on
top of him and there the
two remained in shoulder
deep mud when Wells and
Miller arrived.
With no small effort,
McClelland and the pris-
oner were hauled from
the mire. Captain Wells
thought it prudent to
clean McClelland and the
prisoner before beginning
the journey back to Gen-
eral Wayne's camp:
After the warrior was
cleaned it came as no
small shock to see he was
a white renegade. The
renegade spoke almost no
English,
In his native tongue,
Henry Miller asked the
prisoner if he knew of the
one called 'The Wild Car-
rot and introduced Cap-
tain Wells. The warrior
nodded his understand-
ing and speaking with an
Algonquian dialect asked
the frontiersmen if they
knew Henry Miller.
"Yes" Miller replied.
"We were captured to-
gether," The warrior ex-
plained. "I am his brother
Christopher."
Henry Miller embraced
his long-lost brother and
the trip back to General
Wayne's camp was a mer-
ry one. The complexity
of the situation was over-
whelming for all of them.
Christopher Miller was a
man in the middle, as to
a great degree was Henry
Miller and William Wells.
Wayne greeted the pris-
oner cordially and soon
Christopher Miller was
one of Wayne's scouts
serving on a special mis-
sion. In early August he
was sent alone to the
village of Chief Mih-sih-
kina-ahk-wa, or Chief
Little Turtle as the whites
called him, to discuss
peace terms between
the northern tribes and
WaynCs Army.
Little Turtle and Blue
Jacket had recently anni-
hilated US forces under
General Josiah Harmer
and Arthur St. Clair. The
defeat of St. Clair was
the worst lost ever sus-
tained by US Army forces
against Native American,
with over 600 US sol-
diers killed and several
hundred militia soldiers
killed.
Christopher Miller
knew many of the Native
Americans on a very per-
sonal level. He explained
this and his impending
concerns with Captain
Wells.
"I know Chief Little tur-
fie," he told Wells. "How
can I face him?" he asked.
Wells exhaled softly,
smiled and hugged Chris-
topher Miller closely, un-
derstanding all too well
his strange predicament
as a man caught between
two distinct, enemy cul-
tures.
"Do you know Chief Lit-
fie Turtle's sister?" Wells
asked Christopher. "Do
you know the one called
Sweet Breeze?'
Yes," Christopher said.
"Good," Wells said as
he turned and walked
away. 'q'ell her that her
husband, William Wells,
misses her dearly."
Such was the complex-
ity of the day between
many families on both
sides of the conflict.
They hoped peace
would be struck, but it
wasn't, and on August
20, 1794, the Battle of
the Fallen Timbers was
fought.
Perhaps we will join the
Miller brothers, the Wild
Carrot, Sweet Breeze and
Little Turtle in future col-
umns.
By Cecil Lawson
This summer I've had the
opportunity to travel to the
fringes of Central Kentucky
to places I've never really
visited before.
For those fortunate
enough, the experience of
travel is eye-opening and
educational, even if is only
a few miles down the road.
In the past I had never had
much need to drive through
Estill County, but this year
Lori and I, as Slate Creek
Creations, set up our table
at the Mountain Mushroom
Festival at the Agate and
Gem Show at the old high
school building on Main
Street in Irvine.
VIRTUAL
historical buildings.
Only in the last week ago
have I begun to do my pre-
The Festival itselfis alike liminary: researches into:
a litt :-M --s r-ling f)c tlr.t the Iocal history of both of
Day im o cntowa Ir ne
and rock h6unds from all
over travel to Agate show
to trade rocks and stories
about their searches for
the unique stone found in
creek beds and hillsides in
Estill County.
A few weeks ago we trav-
eled to Harrodsburg and
set up for three days at the
Pioneer Days Festival in at
the Old Fort Harrod State
Park downtown in the
sweltering humidity.
The landscape in and
around Harrodsburg was
a sharp departure from
the hills and valleys of this
region, consisting of rich,
rolling farmland and lots of
these places
Learning about the lo-
cal history of other places
helps to crack open a per-
son's provincialism and
limited perspective.
Each county in Kentucky
has its own history, its own
founders and heroes and
villains.
At the same time, with
120 counties in close prox-
imity to one another, there
is bound to be some over-
lap, and our roads and
byways are the nervous
system connecting these
communities.
Irvine, Kentucky, exists
at the intersection of KY
52, which runs from Bos-
ton, Ky. to Jackson, and KY
89, which runs from Liv-
ingston to McKee.
Harrodsbnrg is that
the intersection of US 127
(which,runs from Ten-
nessee to Cincinnati), US
68 (from Ohio to western
Kentucky), and KY 152
(from Loretto to Burgin).
I can't speak for others,
but I always look forward
to learning the context for
the places I've visited. It
puts my experiences into
proper perspective, and as
such, literally expands my
horizons.
To a certain degree it
troubles me that more peo-
ple don't take a very deep
interest in local history,
wherever they happen to
be.
Academics like to call
this condition "post-histo-
HISTORY
ry," in which people live
as if we have reached "the
end of history," and there
is "nothTmg under the
Sun, e,iw6/rld
achieved all ~at can pos-
sibly be achieved.
After all, what book,
what monument, what
anecdote about place and
people can compete today
with the power of a new
smart phone in the hands
of child or adult?
I suppose the advent of
the internet has meant the
end of one kind of world
and the birth of another,
and I can't complain since I
am a regular digital citizen,
like most other people my
age and younger.
The problem, for me,
is that technology and ac-
cess become ends in them-
selves, and nothing else
matters amidst the ongo-
ing distraction that is char-
acteristic of our age.
"Distracted driving"
threatens even our very
lives on the road, and the
sight of a family sitting in
a restaurant and all star-
ing at their phones and not
talking to one another face-
to-face is indicative of the
state of our relationships.
But like it or not, we al-
ready live in a quiet, virtual
stream, one of history and
previous residents' lives.
The internet is a valuable
tool to archive and share
this history, to be sure,
perhaps the most powerful
of all, but something is lost
in the sea of distraction it
creates.
I'll not be giving up my
history books.
Letter to the Editor
The quote of "Every
school district has to deter-
mine what is best for their
own students" and "we
have the safety and wel-
fare of our kids at the top"
seems to be lacking and
not at all true. All districts
no matter how big or small
should make safety #1 top
priority. In this county, the
priority is having a big "fan-
cy football field, a big nice
boat ramp, etc." The pass-
ing back and forth of the
"almighty dollar" between
all the officials to see who's
going to and not going to is
getting ridic, lous and stu-
pid.
It's a shame that our kids
have to worry about check-
ing to make sure they have
their "3 books to stop a bul-
let" in their backpack when
it could have possibly been
stopped at the doors with
walk-thru detectors (that
don't have to be trained).
More important, is on rais-
ing their arms to see if they
were showing skin, $45.00
t-shirts and how quickly
the football field dried out
to finish the game. All of
this "exploring, hiring and
planning" should have
been done before school
started back and months
before.
Hopefully some "new fac-
es' coming in on the school
board will get things done
a lot faster.
Patty Everman
Photo by Cecil Lawson
The Bath County Football Wildcats led the charge for their first home game of the season last Friday evening
on their new multi-purpose turf field.
Realty
Phone:859-234-0888
Imlmll A
I J'i]~ .~ Cell: 859-588-6906
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all faillE ~
Email: allisonsconcrete@hotmail.com
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