Preface 9 



lution; dealing for the most part with Lord Dun- 

 more's war, the Cherokee wars, the battle of King's 

 Mountain, land speculations, etc. They are in the 

 possession of Mr. Lemuel R. Campbell, who most 

 kindly had copies of all the important ones sent me, 

 at great personal trouble. 



Some of the Sevier and Jackson papers, the origi- 

 nal MS. diaries of Donelson on the famous voyage 

 down the Tennessee and up the Cumberland, and 

 of Benj. Hawkins while surveying the Tennessee 

 boundary, memoranda of Thos. Washington, Over- 

 ton, and Dunham, the earliest files of the Knoxville 

 Gazette, from 1791 to 1795, etc. These are all in 

 the library of the Tennessee Historical Society. 



For original matter connected with Kentucky, I 

 am greatly indebted to Col. Reuben T. Durrett, of 

 Louisville, the founder of the "Filson Club," which 

 has done such admirable historical work of late 

 years. He allowed me to work at my leisure in his 

 library, the most complete in the world on all sub- 

 jects connected with Kentucky history. Among 

 other matter, he possesses the Shelby MSS., contain- 

 ing a number of letters to and from, and a dictated 

 autobiography of, Isaac Shelby; MS. journals of 

 Rev. James Smith, during two tours in the western 

 country in 1785 and '95; early files of the "Ken- 

 tucke Gazette" ; books owned by the early settlers; 

 papers of Boone, and George Rogers Clark; MS. 

 notes on Kentucky by George Bradford, who set- 

 tled there in 1779; MS. copy of the record book of 

 Col. John Todd, the first governor of the Illinois 



