I65198: Goodman BETHEA (2 Jul 1793

Notes

Fought in the Revolutionary War, retired from Army Feb 1781 with rank of LTC. Moved to Beargrass Creek, near Louisville, VA (KY after 1792). Was collector of Internal Revenues 1785 in Louisville.Member Kentucky State Legislature, Presidential Elector 1812-24.

See also, Hughes American Ancestry Vol 9, p. 116.

TIP #477 - THE EARLY INHABITANTS OF KENTUCKY, PART 2
Date: Feb 5, 2004
This is a continuation of an abstraction from Collins' History of Kentucky,
Volume 1 in which he is quoting from the writings of Hon. John A McClung in 1846. All references to the early inhabitants of Kentucky are, of course, referring to the white men, not the Native Americans.

By 1783, the hostilities between Great Britain and America had ceased and Indian hostilities had been at least temporarily, suspended. This brought in another wave of emigrants, but due to difficulties in executing the treaty, it was going to get worse! The treaty had stated that England was bound to carry away no slaves and they were to surrender the northwestern posts within the US boundaries. Congress, on the other hand, stipulated that no legal impediments should be opposed to the collection by British merchants, of the debts due them from the citizens of the US. Neither was really executed. Slaves that had been taken during the war were removed by the British. Virginia was furious and retaliated by passing a law which banned the collection of British debts. England refused to deliver up the western posts and the law was repealed. Congress also had great difficulty in controlling the states.

1783 passed by however with little Indian hostilities allowing the settlements to grow in rapid numbers. Simon Kenton erected a block house in 1784 where Maysville now stands. Kentucky this year was erected into a district with a court of criminal law. The court held its first session in Harrodsburg in 1783 with John Floyd and Samuel M'Dowell as judges; John May the clerk, and Walker Daniel the prosecuting attorney. The first meeting brought in charges for 17 "culprits" - nine for keeping tippling houses and eight for fornication. During the summer of 1783 the first log courthouse and jail were built where Danville KY now stands; a retail dry goods store was opened in Louisville.

1784 marked the arrival of General James Wilkinson who settled in Lexington. He was known for his distinguished position in early civil conflicts of Kentucky. Congress had promoted him to Brigadier-General. He soon became involved in very fierce political conflicts of the day. Also this year, the Indians again brought terror to the settlers, and news traveled to Colonel Benjamin Logan of impending attacks. After rallying everyone to protect themselves, the attack failed to materialize.

Kentuckians felt that they needed to be independent of Virginia. The first step was the Assembly publishing a recommendation (with nothing to back it up) that each militia company in the district of Kentucky should on a particular day, elect one delegate and the delegates should meet in Danville on 27 Dec 1784. Samuel M'Dowell was elected president and Thomas Todd, clerk. A long debate followed, primarily orderly, about the need to separate from Virginia. The majority favored a petition to the legislature of Virginia, passage of an act in which Kentucky would become an independent member of the confederacy. They decided to send 25 delegates to a convention in Danville in May 1785 to determine what should be done. This second convention did met on the 23rd of May and adopted five resolutions.
In brief, they decided that separation from Virginia was expedient, that a petition should be written, and that an address to the people of Kentucky should be printed and distributed. They decided that more delegates be elected in July and they would meet again in Danville in August. Despite varied opinions and a lot of confusion, they did meet in August for a third convention.

Indian hostilities increased during this time period, and the Kentuckians were becoming increasingly frustrated. The letter to Kentuckians was prepared with the clerk having to write out each copy by hand - no printing presses existed. The Chief Justice of the District Court, George Muter, and the attorney general, Harry Innes, were chosen to present the petition to the Virginia legislature. In January 1786, the legislature passed an act but there were some problems. Again Kentucky held a fourth convention in Danville in Sept 1786 to determine if Kentucky was to become an independent state of the Confederacy. If they decided for total separation, they were required to pick a date after the first of Sept. 1787 when Virginia's control over Kentucky would cease. But, they also had to have the consent of the Congress of the US so Kentucky would be received into the Union.

At first, the citizens of Kentucky were in fairly well total agreement with the separation from Virginia. However, things don't always go as anticipated. The first glitch was the inability of the Congress to protect them from the north-western Indian tribes. The second, the representatives from the seven north-eastern states, had shown disposition to yield for 20 years, the right to navigate the Mississippi to the ocean. Although hostilities had ceased with Britain, there was a general hatred between the two countries; the Indian posts were still being allowed to operate but the eastern states were totally safe. Congress was unable to keep the Indians from violating their treaties even though General Henry Lee of Virginia made repeated efforts to obtain 700 men, even 300, to guard the western frontier.

Kentucky was still in the position of being scourged by Indian warfare, it had no home government, and the government to the east was totally unprepared to help.

Before continuing with the series, below is a list of the delegates to the various conventions above shown.

1st convention held 23 May 1785:
Samuel McDowell (President), George Muter, Christopher Greenup, James
Speed, Robert Todd, James Baird, Matthew Walton, James Trotter, Ebenezer
Brooks, Caleb Wallace, Richard Terrell, Robert Clarke, Robert Johnson, John
Martin, Benjamin Logan, Willis Green, Harry Innis, Levi Todd, Isaac Cox,
*Richard Taylor, Richard Steele, Isaac Morrison, James Garrard, John Edwards, George Wilson, Edward Payne, James Rogers and a Kincheloe.

2nd convention Aug 1785:
Samuel McDowell (President), George Muter, Christopher Irvine, William Kennedy, Benjamin Logan, Caleb Wallace, John Coburn, James Carter, Richard Terrell, George Wilson, Isaac Cox, Andrew Hynes, James Rogers, Henry Innes, John Edwards, James Speed, James Wilkinson, James Garrard, Levi Todd, John Craig, Robert Patterson, Benjamin Sebastian, Philip Barbour, Isaac Morrison, Matthew Walton and James Trotter.

3rd convention 1787:
Jefferson Co: Richard Easton, Alexander Breckinridge, Michael Lckasang, Benjamin Sebastian and James Merriwether.
Nelson Co: Joseph Lewis, William McClung, John Caldwell, Isaac Cox and Matthew Walton
Bourbon Co: James Garrard, John Edwards, Benjamin Harrison, Edward Lyne, Henry Lee.
Lincoln Co: Benjamin Logan, John Logan, Isaac Shelby, William Montgomery, Walker Baylor
Madison Co: William Irvine, John Miller, Higgason Grubbs, Robert Rodes, David Crews.
Mercer Co: Samuel McDowell, Harry Innis, George Muter, William Kenney, James Speed

4th convention 1788:
Jefferson Co: *Richard Taylor, Richard C Anderson, Alexander S Bullitt, Abraham Hite, Benjamin Sebastian
Nelson Co: Isaac Morrison, John Caldwell, Phillip Phillips, Joseph Burnett, James Baird.
Fayette Co: James Wilkinson, Caleb Wallace, Thomas Marshall, William Ward, John Allen
Bourbon Co: James Garrard, John Edwards, Benjamin Harrison, John Grant, John Miller
Lincoln Co: Benjamin Logan, Isaac Shelby, William Montgomery, Nathan Huston, Willis Green
Madison Co: William Irvine, George Adams,James French, Aaron Lewis, Higgason Grubbs
Mercer Co: Samuel McDowell, John Brown, Harry Innes, John Jouett, Christopher Greenup

To be continued.

(c) Copyright 5 Feb 2004, Sandra K. Gorin
Colonel Sandi Gorin
SCKY Links: http://www.public.asu.edu/~moore/Gorin.html
SCKY surname registry sites: https://sites.rootsweb.com/~kyclinto/reg.html
https://sites.rootsweb.com/~kyclinto/forms/SCKYreg.html
Gorin Publishing: http://ggpublishing.tripod.com/

"The decade opening with the year 1765 is the epoch of bold and ever bolder exploration--the more adventurous frontiersmen of the border pushing deep into the wilderness in search of game, lured on by the excitements of the chase and the profit to be derived from the sale of peltries. In midsummer, 1766, Captain James Smith, Joshua Horton, Uriah Stone, William Baker, and a young mulatto slave passed through Cumberland Gap, hunted through the country south of the Cherokee and along the Cumberland and Tennessee rivers, and as Smith reports "found no vestige of any white man."

During the same year a party of five hunters from South Carolina, led by Isaac Lindsey, penetrated the Kentucky wilderness to the tributary of the Cumberland, named Stone's River by the former party, for one of their number. Here they encountered two men, who were among the greatest of the western pioneers, and were destined to leave their names in historic
association with the early settlement of Kentucky, James Harrod and Michael Stoner, a German, both of whom had descended the Ohio from Fort Pitt. With the year 1769 began those longer and more extended excursions into the interior which were to result in conveying at last to the outside world graphic and detailed information concerning "the wonderful new country of Cantucky."

In the late spring of this year Hancock and Richard Taylor (the latter the father of President Zachary Taylor), Abraham Hempinstall, and one Barbour, all true-blue frontiersmen, left their homes in Orange County, Virginia, and hunted extensively in Kentucky and Arkansas. Two of the party traveled through Georgia and East and West Florida; while the other two hunted on the Washita during the winter of 1770-1."
From: Conquest of the Old Southwest, C VIII "The Long Hunters In The Twilight Zone" http://www.worldwideschool.org/library/books/lit/historical/TheCo nquestoftheOldSouthwest/chap8.html

^[S554]

My Southern Family

Goodman BETHEA

2 Jul 1793 - 22 Sep 1863

ID Number: I65198

Notes

Sources

Lizzie CROCKETT

ABT 1880 - ____

ID Number: I11528

Sources

Frances HASTY

18 Sep 1829 - 4 Aug 1859

ID Number: I34303

Sources

Sarah HOLLADAY

ABT 1718 - 15 Feb 1788

ID Number: I25020

Notes

Sources

Susan M. KIMBROUGH

3 Sep 1801 - BEF 1850

ID Number: I50224

Sources

Rebecca F. SANDIDGE

24 Sep 1839 - 31 Jan 1916

ID Number: I27390

Notes

Sources

Abraham SOUTHER

8 Aug 1776 - 10 Sep 1843

ID Number: I61877

Sources

Mitchell Reese TAYLOR

Col. Richard TAYLOR

3 Apr 1744 - 19 Jan 1829

ID Number: I4234

Notes

Sources

Sally TULLOS

ABT 1895 - ____

ID Number: I36673

Sources

LUDOVICO VISCONTI

1354 - 1404

ID Number: I52594

Notes

Sources