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The first permanent settlements in the Kentucky mountains were made 
in the decade 1790 to 1800. Imlay’s map of Kentucky (17938), shows 
“Settlements” on Rockecastle River, the upper Louisa Fork, and a fork of 
Red River. By 1800 the population was 7,964, which was about four per 
cent. of the population of the State; it is now about 600,000, which is 
about twenty-five per cent. of Kentucky. Genealogical records of this 
people are utterly lacking. Their names and survivals in customs and Jan- 
guage point to English and Scotch-Irish ancestry in general, although a 
few German and Huguenot names are found. 
3etween 1800 and 1840 the mountain region was an integral part of 
the State, for various reasons. Four interstate, transmontaine routes tray- 
2. Anesample of the poorest highways in the mountains, near Pine Mountain Postoffice, Ky. 
ersed the plateau in leading from the Ohio and the Blue Grass countries 
on the west to the Big Sandy and Kanawha region on the east, and thus on 
to the tide water settlements. The plainsmen bought lean cattle in the 
Blue Grass and sent them in droves of from 200 to 800 through the moun- 
tains to the Potomac, where they were fattened and sold in Baltimore and 
Philadelphia. Large droves of hogs followed the same routes. The hog 
and cattle drivers bought corn at the homes of the mountain people and 
brought news from the outside world. The slender state appropriations for 
roads were impartial, the mountain counties being favored equally with the 
lowland. 
