CHAPTER V 

 KENTUCKY'S STRUGGLE FOR STATEHOOD, 1784-1790 



WHILE the social condition of the communi 

 ties on the Cumberland and the Tennessee 

 had changed very slowly, in Kentucky the changes 

 had been rapid. 



Col. William Fleming, one of the heroes of the 

 battle of the Great Kanawha, and a man of note 

 on the border, visited Kentucky on surveying busi 

 ness in the winter of 1779-80. His journal shows 

 the state of the new settlements as seen by an un 

 usually competent observer; for he was an intelli 

 gent, well-bred, thinking man. Away from the 

 immediate neighborhood of the few scattered log 

 hamlets, he found the wilderness absolutely virgin. 

 The easiest way to penetrate the forest was to fol 

 low the "buffalo paths," which the settlers usually 

 adopted for their own bridle trails, and finally cut 

 out and made into roads. Game swarmed. There 

 were multitudes of swans, geese, and ducks on the 

 river; turkeys and the small furred beasts, such as 

 coons, abounded. Big game was almost as plentiful. 

 Colonel Fleming shot, for the subsistence of him 

 self and his party, many buffalo, bear, and deer, 

 and some elk. His attention was drawn by the 

 great flocks of paroquets, which appeared even 

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