Bridging The Gap

From The Kentuckians by Janet Holt Giles, exploration of the Cumberland Gap area (and further) from character David Cooper's point of view...:

 Near The Cumberland Gap

I first set foot in the Green River country in the spring of 1769.  Jim Knox, from the Wolf Hills settlement on the Holston, led a party of us into Kentucky to hunt.  Folks called us the Long Hunters because we stayed gone such a time.


I didn't know Ben Logan* too good, but he was from the same Wolf Hills settlement as Jim [Knox] and they'd always been friendly.  Ben was a Scotch-Irish Presbyterian like nearly all the rest of the folks over in that settlement....   

Note: *Benjamin Logan and my ancestor, Christopher Acklin (see a picture of Acklin's  tavern), were mentioned in the same paragraph here in the book the History of Southwest Virginia, 1746.... .


I came up to Martin's Station in the Powell Valley the evening of the fourth day.  This was Joe Martin's place.  It was little more than a clearing, squatting in the shadows of the high cliffs that barred the way to Kentucky, but it was the farthest west of any settlement.

About four miles yon side the Gap we met a party of some fifteen men heading back to the settlements.  They were hurrying fearfully and their fright showed in their faces. ...The Indians are rampaging...