Hugh McGary's Encounters With Famous People

Excerpts from THE DEVIL'S BACKBONE The Story of the Natchez Trace, by Nathan Daniels:

1763 Map Of Louisiana, Natchez, And The Missippi River (LOC)

(After they were married, Andrew and Rachel Jackson traveled in a large group from Bayou Pierre in Sept 1791) "Yet only the names of three of its members (of the traveling party) are known: Andrew and Rachel, and a dangerous, swashbuckling, Virginia-born Kentuckian, one Hugh McGary."  "The Jacksons had no reason to fear him."  "McGary's brother [Martin] had married Jackson's cousin [Bettie Crawford]."

"...Marquis James described McGary as a famous 'frontier soldier and Indian fighter." (Jackson's biographer)

Displayed At Harrodstown, Kentucky

"Nine years before he rode up the[Natchez] Trace with the Jacksons, McGary had a similar argument with Daniel Boone about an Indian fight in Kentucky."  Then Kentuckians were pursuing a body of Indians and Canadians who had struck at Bryant's Station.....  (McGary challenged Boone and the reluctant settlers to follow him)  "Many did."  "And in the Battle of Blue Licks, August 19, 1782, one of the bloodiest battles ever fought on the frontier, many died, too..."

Plaque (Partial) At Harrodstown, Kentucky

"Even before that McGary had quarrled with James Harrod over an Indian attack."