IN THE CURRENT OF THE 

 REVOLUTION 



(CONTINUED) 



CHAPTER IV 



GROWTH AND CIVIL ORGANIZATION OF KENTUCKY, 



1776 



BY the end of 1775 Kentucky had been occupied 

 by those who were permanently to hold it. 

 Stout-hearted men, able to keep what they had 

 grasped, moved in, and took with them their wives 

 and children. There was also of course a large 

 shifting element, composing, indeed, the bulk of the 

 population: hunters who came out for the season; 

 "cabinners," or men who merely came out to build 

 a cabin and partially clear a spot of ground, so as 

 to gain a right to it under the law; surveyors, and 

 those adventurers always to be found in a new coun- 

 try, who are too restless, or too timid, or too irreso- 

 lute to remain. 



The men with families and the young men who 

 intended to make permanent homes formed the 

 heart of the community, the only part worth taking 

 into account. There was a steady though thin stream 

 of such immigrants, and they rapidly built up 

 around them a life not very unlike that which they 

 had left behind with their old homes. Even in 1776 



VOL. VI. A 



