Mary Coburn Dewees

On September 27, 1787, Samuel and Mary Coburn Dewees left Philiadelphia bound for Lexington, Kentucky. According to the The Dewees Family: Genealogical Data, Biographical Facts and Historical Information, Mary was sister to “Judge Coburn of Kentucky,” so it can be inferred that, unlike many immigrants into Kentucky, she was headed toward a place prepared for her.

Much of the hardest travelling was endured in crossing Pennsylvania. The family was nearly three weeks getting to McKee’s Ferry (modern McKeesport, which is now part of the great Pittsburgh area) at the forks of the Monongahela and Youghiogheny Rivers. It was at this point that they picked up their boat, no doubt a Kentucky boat, a kind of flat boat with high sides and a cabin aft.

Here is Mary Dewees’s journal entry for October 5, 1787:

Octo 5 Left Hunters Town and proceeded to the Mountain, which we began to climb about 10 o’clock sometimes riding sometimes walking; find the roads much better in places than we expected, ‘tho in others excessive stony, the length which is ten miles renders it very tedious. Oblidgenly favoured with good weather. We have halted on the top of the Mountain to refresh ourselves and horses. this afternoon decended the west side find it much worse than the east side the road in places for a mile in length so very stony that you can scarce see the earth between. ‘Tho at other places beautifully watered by fine springs, took up our lodging at the foot of the Mountain, the people very civil the house right Kentucky.

6 Left the foot of the Mountain, crost the falling spring and proceeded to Chambersburgh a handsome little Town with some pretty stone and brick Buildings in it. After passing the Town we crost the falling spring again, one of the finest springs in this part of the world by which several Mills in this neighborhood are turned. Obliged to stop sooner than usual one of our horses being Lame, find the people a good deal shy, at first, but after a little while very sociable and obliging, treated with some very fine apples which begin to grow very scarce with us, I am much afraid we have be like the Children of Isreal. long for the Garlick ond Onions that your city abounds with.

7th Set off for the north mountain which we find so bad we are obliged to foot it up, and could compare oursleves to nothing but a parcel of goats climbing up some of the Welch Mountains that I have read of. . . .find this the most fatiguing days journey we have had, the roads so very bad and so very steep that the horses seem ready to fall backwards. In many places, you would be surprised to see the Children, Jumping and Skipping. Sometimes quite out of sight, sometimes on horseback sometimes in the waggon, so you see we have a variety, ‘though sometimes would very willingly dispense with some of it. Believe me my dear friends, the sight of a log house on these mountains after a fatiguing day’s Journey affords more real pleasure that all the magnificent buildings your city contains. took up our lodging at the foot of the Mountain and met with very good entertainment.

— text from Running Mad for Kentucky. Frontier Travel Accounts, ed. Ellen Eslinger (Univ Press of Kentucky, 2004), pp. 132-133

This sort of travelling was very hard on horses. Crossing the Cumberland Gap was so difficult that many settlers reported the way strewn with horses and other livestock dead and stinking. Once embarked, however, the danger of attack was so great that there was no stopping to rest. Anybody who fell behind was left behind.

On the afternoon of October 18, the Dewees launched their Kentucky boat, headed downriver to Pittsburgh, but the river was low, so that they did not reach that fort until the October 21. Low water was one of the greatest hazards of river travel into Kentucky because, in this case too, the party was left vulnerable to attack.

They laid over in Pittsburgh for four days, drinking teas with the local gentry. Although they embarked again on October 25, they had to tie up at McKee’s Island, three miles below Pittsburgh. Here they waited until November 18 for enough water to carry them downriver.

26th & 27th Staid at Mckees island waiting for water, which is too low to go down, took a walk up the hill from which we have a fine prospect on boath sides of the Island and saw an Indian grave with three others, on top of the hill, likewise the remains of an old intrenchment that was throw up ye last Indian war. Saw three boats full of troops going up to Pittsburgh. We suppose they are going for Provision for the Garison below.

28th Mr. Dewees & Mr. Shelby went up to Pitt. am in hopes they will bring some Intelligence of the warriors that went out against the Indians.

29th Still continue at the Island waiting for water, had the pleasure of two ladys Company from the Island, who gave us an Invitation to visit them. had a very stormy night and a Snow of two or three Inches.

30th The weather much in our favour it rained all day, sewing & reading and when the weather is fine walking are the amusements we enjoy. The Gentlemen pass their time in hunting of deer, Turkeys, ducks, and every other kind of wild fowl with which this Country abounds. A Beautifull doe had the Assurance the other day to come half way down the hill and give a peep at us, but our hunters being out escaped being taken. fishing make up part of their amusement.

. . .

Nov. 2nd Went over to the Island to see our new Acquaintance and they insisted on our repeating our visits. While we staid a man came in that was wounded by the Indians a few days ago. About 20 Miles from Pitt a party of Traders were surprized by them in the night but got off without any but a little Blood by one who had been wounded in the head by a Taumahawke. [Eslinger, pp 139-140]

Such an odd combination of the domestic and the violent in this journal. Perhaps because it is written by a woman. Women’s journals are rare. Many of the immigrant women, like Rebecca Boone, were illiterate. Those who were literate were often too busy minding children and keeping the camp to be bothered with refinements such as journalling.

The Dewees party passed the Yellow River on the 19th, reached Limestone (Maysville) on Novermber 26, and Bryan’s Station (essentially Lexington) on November 30.

It was not until January of 1788, however, that Mrs. Dewees reached her final destination. While waiting for her home to be prepared, she stayed with her brother in Lexington, which she describes as

a clever lilttle Town with a court house and Jail and some pretty good buildings in it Chief

And then the last entry on January 29, 1788:

29th I have this day reached south Elk horn, and am much pleased with it. tis a snug little Cabbin about 9 Mile from Lexington on a pretty Asscent surrounded by Sugar trees, a Beatifull pond a little distance from the house, with an excellent Spring not far from the door. I can assure you I have enjoyed more happiness the few days I have been here than I have experienced these four or five years past. I have my little family together. And am in full expectation of seeing better days. [Eslinger p. 145]

As a time reference, in 1787, the Constitutional Convention was going on in Philadelphia, and that is the year that Georgetown College was founded in Georgetown, Kentucky. In 1787, Daniel Boone was keeping a tavern in Limestone (modern Maysville). In that year, he was elected to the Virginia General Assembly and helped to negotiate a prisoner exchange between Kentucky settlers and the Shawnee. The last major attack into Kentucky from the Shawnee took place in Middletown in 1789. The Battle of Fallen Timbers, which essentially defeated the Native Americans in the east, was fought in 1794.

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