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Lives of Great Adair Countians: WM Hurt, for Independence Day Stories in themselves within this magnificent biographical sketch:
See also related: Adair Revolutionary War Patriot Hurt honored Story and photos by Margaret Taylor By Mike Watson Adair County Historian INTRODUCTION: Independence Day should be one of the most important days of the year in America. In honor of our victory over Britain and the gain of independence, I offer the following biographical sketch of a true Revolutionary War veteran and pioneer of Adair County. This biography was penned by William Hurt's grandson, renowned jurist and attorney, Judge Rollin T. Hurt. Written circa 1900 and printed in his serialized History of Adair County in the Adair County News in 1918, the sketch is presented here as originally written, with no corrections but for some punctuation. Additional information in italic. WILLIAM HURT The man who first opened and lived upon a farm unprotected by a stockade or block house, upon the southern side of the Russell, in Adair County, was William Hurt. He was born in 1757 and during the Revolutionary War served as a soldier in the 10th and 14th regiments of infantry, Virginia line. He was with the Continental Army and with it spent the memorable winter which that army endured at Valley Forge, Pennsylvania. As a result of his exposure, his feet were severely frost bitten and he did not entirely recover from the effects of it during his entire life. He participated in several campaigns in Pennsylvania, New Jersey and New York. At the battle of Monmouth, his regiment was under the command of General Charles Lee and was a portion of the force with which that general attacked the enemy, and, without any apparent good reason for it, he ordered a retreat in the face of and under a heavy artillery and musketry fire of the enemy. In describing the incident in his old age, he said that General Washington came and countermanded the order to retreat, and, in detailing what took place in his presence of Washington and Lee, upon that occasion, [Hurt] said that "words of considerable warmth" were interchanged between them. William Hurt had imaginative euphenism for George Washington's profanity There was a tradition among the veterans of the Revolution in Adair County that, upon that occasion, the Father of our Country, in giving General Lee the benefit of his personal views in regard to his conduct, made use of very lurid language, which was copiously interspersed with righteous profanity; but William Hurt was too loyal to his general to admit that such was the fact, but contented himself with detailing the occurrence under oath with describing the language as "words of considerable warmth." His declaration for Revolutionary pension declared in 1832 William Hurt's declaration for Revolutionary pension was made before the Adair County Court in 1832 and is on record. The following is excerpted from this record: He enlisted in 1778 and was then a resident of Bedford County, Virginia. He was under the command of Captain Alexander Cummins in the 14th Regiment of the Virginia line; Colonels Davis and Buford or Bluford were the commanders of his regiment. They marched from Valley Forge to Monmouth and was in battle under General Lee. On Lee's retreat he was met by General Washington and "some words of considerable warmth ensued..." Marched about for a time in New Jersey and thence to Pennsylvania, and thence to White Plains, New York and encamped some time and from there to Bonbrook, New Jersey for winter quarters. In the spring of 1779 he was discharged from service. During a part of his service he was a sergeant. Came to Kentucky at expiration of term of enlistment By reason of the expiration of his term of enlistment, Hurt was discharged from the Continental Army on December 1, 1779; and it seems that he came at once to Kentucky, because in the month of March 1780 he was serving as a private soldier in a company commanded by Captain Charles Getterf, and which company had been ordered by Colonel John Bowman, the then military commandant in Kentucky, to defend Martin's Station in now Harrison County. Hurt was POW in Canada for year or more This place was a mere outpost in the wilderness and its defenses consisted of a block house and a stockade. In the month of June 1780, Colonel Bird of the British Army, with a force of 1,200 British regulars and Indians and six cannons, came from Canada, through the present state of Ohio, to attack the feeble outposts in Northern Kentucky. Coming up the Licking River to the site of the present city of Falmouth, he had embarked his men and artillery; and from there marched to and captured Ruddle's Station, and from there, to and captured Martin's Station. The defense of such feeble posts against such a force and artillery as Colonel Bird had was impossible. He [Hurt] was among the prisoners taken at Martin's Station. He was taken by his captors to Canada and there detained for a year or more, at the end of which time he returned to Kentucky and took up his residence in the present county of Bourbon, where he remained engaged in the occupation of farming and wheelwright until 1793, when he removed to Adair County. First Adair County Home was 2.5 miles south of Columbia He located himself upon the farm which is two and one-half miles south of Columbia, upon the west side of the Columbia and Crocus road and north of Tabor Church. He lived upon this farm thereafter, continuously, until his death in the year of 1842. Hurt purchased the land from one Robert Anderson, who was the patentee of it, and the deed to him for it was acknowledged by Anderson's agent before the Fayette County Court; but traditions say that Hurt occupied the land before he bought it or knew of its having an owner. At the time he took possession of the land, there were not any persons living on the south side of the Russell, except Colonel William Casey and associates, who were then residing at Casey's Station. First to settle on South Side of Russell Creek Hurt came in the autumn of the year and brought with him his step-son, John Field, who had then barely arrived at young manhood4, and two negroes, who were named respectively, Thomas and Rebecca. These are said to have been the first negroes at any place on the south side of the Russell. Thomas, on the day of their arrival upon the lands, cut firewood with which to make a fire for the night and to cook a meal, and the place of the cutting was between the burial ground upon the farm and the spring which supplies water for the residence. John Field, Sr. went bankrupt in the Panic of 1819; removed from Columbia and died near Glensfork John Field, step-son of William Hurt, was a son of John Field, Sr. and wife, Sarah White Field. The elder Field died early in 1778 in Bedford County, Virginia, a young man. He left a wife and two sons, John and Thomas. John was born in September 1777 in Bedford County; the birth date, place and later whereabouts of Thomas are unknown; it is theorized he died a child as no mention is ever found of him after the reference in the will. John Field, Jr. came to Adair County as a youth of barely sixteen years. He married Martisha Stapp, daughter of Joshua Stapp, Jr., in Green County on 29 July 1801. He was an early merchant in Columbia, owned a vast amount of land in Adair and other counties, was the first county jailer and first postmaster, and traveled widely. He went bankrupt in the 1820's as a result of less-than-careful business practices that overwhelmed him when the Panic of 1819 reached Kentucky. He died near Glensfork, where he lived after leaving Columbia in the 1820's, on 15 December 1857. Mrs. Jane Casey made house call, with Col. Casey, to repair William Hurt's pantaloons A clearing was made of a field which is situated between the line which enters the farm from the Columbia and Crocus road and proceeds to the dwelling and the top of the bluff, which is south of the Sinking Branch. There they also erected a cabin. Hurt left the fields and the county for his family. Toward the early springtime, Mrs. Jane Casey, wife of Colonel William Casey, reminded that during the winter Field had probably worn out or torn his clothing and was in need of mending, she took a needle, thread and cloth with which to patch and, accompanied by her husband with his rifle to guard against the dangers of the forests, walked through the forests, crossing the Pettit's [Fork] on the way to the cabin which Field was occupying. Sure enough, Field's pantaloons were badly worn at the knees and otherwise. The men of that day in Adair County were not superfluous, as a rule, to own more than one pair of pantaloons at a time. Hence, it became necessary for Field to retire to his bed and remain in it until Mrs. Casey could place patches upon the holes in his pantaloons. Field lived to a very great age and became very prominent as a merchant. He erected and resided in the large brick dwelling house in Columbia which was afterwards occupied by the Rev. George J. Reed. In his old age, Field would oftentimes relate the circumstances of Mrs. Casey's mending his pantaloons, and the memory of it, and the hardships of that period, so wrought upon him that the aged man would always moisten his story with tears. This beautiful home is now located at the corner of Fortune and Reed Streets in Columbia, KY. Constructed in 1812, this and two or three others were considered the finest in the region. Field spared no expense in obtaining the best furnishings, some of which he purchased in Philadelphia and shipped to Louisville by boat, then hauled overland. It was in this house that John Marshall Clemens rented a sleeping room and another room for his law office from John and Martisha Field. He and his new wife, Jane Lampton Clemens, honeymooned and lived here for about one year prior to moving to Tennessee and later Missouri where their celebrated son, Samuel L. Clemens, was born. This home is now owned by Mr. and Mrs. David Rigney. William Hurt had ox-drawn cart, the first wheeled vehicle ever used in Adair County In the spring of the year following the first visit of Hurt, he returned from Bourbon County, bringing his family, which consisted of a wife and one or two children, with him. In transporting them, he used his cart, which was drawn by a yoke of oxen. This was the first wheeled vehicle ever used or brought into the county. He came from Bourbon County to Greensburg and, thence, to his place of settlement and, in so doing, necessarily made use of a route through the present site of the town of Columbia, or very near to it. Several men accompanied him from Bourbon County to Greensburg to protect him and his family from the Indians and other dangers of the wilderness. Men along the way toward Green County cut road for Paris-bound cart; brought first whiskey to Green County At Greensburg, he was met by Captain John Butler, Samuel White and several others from the stations in Adair, who accompanied him from Greensburg to his destination and cut out a road for the cart where it was needful. When they arrived at the place where the lower road from Greensburg to Columbia crosses the Russell, they stopped for the night and pitched their camp. Hurt informed the company that in the bottom of the bed of the cart there was a keg of whiskey and a piece of bacon. The men who were accompanying him had not tasted bacon for several years and, doubtless, had not tasted whiskey for the same or a greater length of time, unloaded the cart with all dispatch, drank the whiskey and ate the bacon, uncooked. This was the first whiskey known to have been in the county. The men became very much intoxicated, and the circumstance was a great joke for many years among the pioneers and was always referred to by the older generation when whiskey or brandy was suggested. Warned by anxiety of animals, Hurt prepared for, and repelled, night time Indian attack During the first year of the residence of Hurt upon his farm, the Indians attacked his cabin by night. He was warned of some impending danger by the conduct of the owls in the forest surrounding his cabin. Before retiring for the night, he observed that the owls were stirring and hooting more than usual. The horses, likewise, appeared apprehensive of danger and were running and snorting in the enclosure in which they were kept. He divined at once that Indians were lurking nearby in the woods and immediately prepared to defend himself and family. And, when at a later hour of the night, the Indians made their attack, he was ready to receive them. With the assistance of John Field and the negro man Thomas, who was also a trained woodsman, the Indians were repulsed and driven away, but they succeeded in seizing and carrying away two horses. Recovered stolen horses from Indians at Rowena, in what is now Russell County When the morning came and his losses were discovered, he and Thomas, armed themselves with their rifles and other weapons of the frontier and then took the trail in pursuit of them. The following night they came upon the Indians, who were sleeping about a fire upon the banks of the Cumberland river, near Rowena, in what is now Russell County. They first, very silently, reconnoitered to find the location of the horses, and then, suddenly, attacked with a loud noise and outcry. The Indians, who were only five or six in number, were terrorized for the instant and fled into the forest and darkness. Including the horses taken from Hurt, the Indians had four mounts, and Hurt and his servant, Thomas, without loss of time, each seized two horses and fled upon them at full speed. They made good their escape before the Indians recovered from their panic or became aware of the meager numbers of the attacking force. The Indians, being left upon foot, could not make a pursuit which would avail anything, and were probably afraid to return to the scene of their depredations at that time. Thus, Hurt not only recovered his own horses, but increased his stock by two others. In 1822, Hurt erected brick house which was still standing circa 1900 About the year 1822, Hurt erected the brick residence, which is yet standing (circa 1900) and in good repair, upon the farm which was improved by him. Previous to the erection of the brick residence, he had erected for himself a hewed-log residence at the same place. His log house was sealed and weather-boarded with planks, which had been sawed from logs with a whipsaw and dressed by hand. The shingles were put on with pegs, and the nails used were wrought by hand. This house, it is related, was regarded as a very fine house by the pioneers at the time of its erection. It was torn down and removed in 1869. William Hurt gave formula for his wealth to young Cyrus Montgomery Hurt seemed to have a desire for the accumulation of property. During his life, he maintained upon his farm a blacksmith shop, a shoemaker's shop, a tannery, a distillery, and a grist mill. He accumulated a comparatively large number of slaves for one residing in that part of the country and was reputed to be wealthy, but, like most instances of reputed wealth in this country, the reputation far exceeded the accumulation. Captain Cyrus Montgomery, who was born in 1790 and died in 1878, was wont to relate that when a youth, he was deputed by his father to make a settlement with Hurt of several matters of account which were outstanding between Hurt and the elder Montgomery. He was very apprehensive of being cheated in the settlement as, like many others, he was inbued with the idea that one who had accumulated considerable property must necessarily be a rascal. When Hurt figured up the settlement and showed a balance against him greater than the youth claimed, he was much astonished and inquired of Hurt in what manner he had accumulated his riches. Hurt then gave him the following as the sum total of his financial philosophy. He sold everything which he could sell for money, which he never spent, except for two purposes. If he desired a thing and could exchange something in the way of property for it, he would acquire it, but if it required the expenditure of money for the thing desired, he would forego the desire for it and do without it. When he had accumulated enough money to purchase a tract of land, he would invest the money in one or the other of these things, but for nothing else would he spend money. William Hurt rode 23 miles to Greensburg in 1800 to vote in Presidential Election William Hurt was a very ardent Democrat in his political view and was one of the early supporters of Thomas Jefferson. He journeyed on horseback from his home to Greensburg, a distance of twenty-three miles, in 1800, to cast his vote in the interest of that statesman. This story was posted on 2013-07-04 04:16:47
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