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Mary Bledsoe ~ Kentucky
One of the earliest pioneers of the
colonial history of Kentucky. In 1758, Colonel Burd, of the
British Army, established Fort Chissel, in Wythe County,
Virginia, to protect the frontiers, and advancing into what is
now Sullivan County, Tennessee, built a fort near Long Island on
the Holston. There was not then a single white man living in the
borders of Tennessee. At irregular intervals from 1765 to 1769,
pioneer parties came from Virginia and North Carolina, forming
settlements and stations. The country was one vast wilderness,
its only inhabitants being buffaloes and all kinds of wild game,
with the savage Indians making frequent raids, but the newcomers
were not daunted by the situation, and here erected cabins, and
constructed stockade forts against the attacks by the Indians.
In 1769, at Fort Chissel, we find two Bledsoe brothers.
Englishmen by birth. They soon pushed farther on into the valley
of the Holston.
This portion of the county, now Sullivan
County, was supposed to be, at that time, within the limits of
Virginia. The Bledsoes with the Shelbys settled themselves here
in this mountainous region. They suffered the severest privation
and the greatest hardships in exploring the regions and
establishing their little homes. During the first year not more
than fifty families crossed the mountains, but others afterward
came until the little settlement swelled to hundreds, and during
the Revolutionary struggle, that region became the refuge of
many patriots, driven by British invasion from Virginia, the
Carolinas, and Georgia, some of their best families seeking
homes there.
Colonel Anthony Burd, an excellent
surveyor, was appointed clerk to the commissioners who ran the
line dividing Virginia and North Carolina. In June, 1776, he was
chosen to command the militia of the county to repel the
invasions and attacks of the savages and defend the frontier.
The battle of Long Island, fought a few miles below Bledsoe
Station, was one of the earliest and hardest fought battles in
the history of Tennessee in those times.
In 1779, Sullivan County was recognized
as a part of North Carolina, and Anthony Bledsoe was appointed
Colonel, and Isaac Shelby Lieutenant-Colonel of its military
forces. Colonel Isaac Shelby, of whom we have spoken heretofore
as the surveyor employed by the Henderson-Hart Company, and who
was betrothed to Miss
Susan Hart, a celebrated belle of Kentucky, was the
Lieutenant-Colonel chosen to aid Bledsoe in these military
operations. Colonel Ferguson of the British army was at that
time giving the settlement great trouble, sweeping the country
near the frontier, gathering in all the loyalists under his
standard. When the troops went out against the British under
Colonel Ferguson, it was necessary that one of the colonial
officers remain behind to protect the inhabitants against the
Indians, and as Shelby had no family, he was chosen to lead the
forces, and Bledsoe to remain and protect the people against the
Indians.
Shelby took command of the gallant
mountaineers, and gave battle at King's Mountain, on the 7th of
October, 1780, considered one of the greatest victories of the
frontier army. Colonel Bledsoe, with his brother and kinsman,
was almost incessantly engaged with the Indians in his laborious
efforts to subdue the forests and convert the wilds into fields
of plenty.
Mary Bledsoe, the Colonel's wife, was a
remarkable woman, filled with knowledge and noted for
independence of thought and action, of remarkable courage and
never hesitating to expose herself to the greatest dangers. At
the dose of 1779, Colonel Bledsoe and his brothers crossed the
Cumberland Mountains and were so delighted with the beautiful
country and the delightful climate that, on their return, they
induced their friends and neighbors, of east Tennessee, to seek
new homes in the Cumberland Valley. Although Colonel Bledsoe did
not remove his own family there for three years, he was the
originator of the first expedition which established the first
colony in that part of the country. The labors of Colonel
Bledsoe and his brother were indefatigable in protecting this
little colony, and Mrs. Bledsoe was always a constant and able
assistant to her husband.
On the night of the 20th of July, 1788,
their home was attacked by Indians, and Colonel Anthony Bledsoe
was killed. This sad loss was followed by the death of both of
her sons at the hands of the Indians, her brother-in-law, a
cousin, as well as many friends and earnest supporters of her
husband in his work. Bereft of every male relative, almost, and
her devoted friends, Mrs. Bledsoe was obliged to undertake the
care and education of her little family and the charge of her
husband's estate. Her mind was one of almost masculine strength,
and she discharged these duties with remarkable ability. Her
death came in 1808, but her life of privation, hardship, and
Christian courage has placed her among the pioneer mothers and
distinguished women of America.
Women of
America
Source: The Part Taken by Women in
American History, By Mrs. John A. Logan, Published by The Perry-Nalle
Publishing Company, Wilmington, Delaware, 1912.
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