CHAPTER 7 JAMES AND JOHN FINNEY: MAKING KENTUCKY 1784-1785

Spring 1784 The James Finney family arrived in the South Elkhorn area of Fayette County in early spring. They, along with Gibbs, Smithey, Martin and Falconer, settled at Benjamin Craig’s Station, and stayed in the fortified abode while new houses were built to accommodate the new settlers (Appendix 40). A lone family in the Kentucky frontier did not have much chance to defend his family alone. In every neighborhood, there was a fort or station within a mile where all could gather for mutual defense. Indians seldom attacked forts, as they were easy to defend by settlers. It is unknown as to the exact location of Benjamin’s Station but it was certainly in the South Elkhorn Creek region in Fayette County. Benjamin Craig came into ownership of some or all of the land that was originally owned by Abraham Haptenstall, 1,000 acres south of the South Elkhorn Creek (Appendix 41). Haptenstall would officially receive the grant from the state of Virginia in 1785 but apparently, the deed had already been or would be shortly deeded to Benjamin Craig. Craig would allow new settlers to live on this land with the intent to sell it to them at a later date.

The area around the South Fork of Elkhorn Creek in 1784

Who was Benjamin Craig?

Benjamin was the son of Toliver Craig and was born 1751 in what would soon be Culpeper County, Virginia. He came to Kentucky with his brother Lewis and many other kinsmen and friends in what was known as the Traveling Church, leaving Orange County in 1781. Brother Lewis was responsible for creating the early church in Kentucky. In 1783 Lewis came to Fayette County (later Woodford) and started a church on the South Elkhorn Creek, south of Lexington. He preached in the area for the next nine years and helped organize churches at Great Crossings, Town Branch and Bryant’s Station, all in the Elkhorn Association. Craig’s Station was in this area. Benjamin Craig would move to Carroll County, Kentucky on the Ohio River and erected the first brick home there in 1792. His father Toliver stayed and lived on Clear Creek in Woodford County.

Who was Abraham Haptenstall?

Haptenstall, born about 1735 in Copenhagen, Denmark, immigrated to and settled in Orange County, New York. Haptenstall was among the first to voyage past the Falls of the Ohio River, along with Richard and Hancock Taylor and a Barbour. They left Pittsburgh and reached New Orleans in 1769. He was surveying land in 1773 for Lord Dunmore on the Ohio River when Hancock Taylor was shot by Indians. “Abe” held Taylor up to sip water and so he could sign surveys to make them legal before he died. Haptenstall fought in Dunmore’s War in 1774 and was a Virginia revolutionary soldier in 1778. He remained long-time friends with the Taylor family and in his 1814 will in Shelby County, Kentucky, left money to Rachel Taylor Finney, widow of John Finney. The land James and John Finney lived on in Woodford County originally belonged to Abraham.

To build a home for a settler, the men would leave the station to cut down trees, usually about 70 to 80 trees, each being ten inches thick. Once the trees had been felled, the men would take about three days to finish. On the first day they cut the logs into the correct size and shape, they pulled them to the home site and shaped the foundation. On the second day, the men notched the ends and “rolled up” the cabin walls and shaped the roof. On the third day, the specialists in the group finished the cabin (e.g., doors, furniture, attic floor) and chinking the cabin walls was left to the other men. The normal festivities associated with a “log raisin’” were certainly not undertaken in 1784 Kentucky as danger was certainly a constant reality.

The Finney family built a cabin (left) and chinked the walls (right) for protection from harsh weather

At some point soon after their arrival, the Finney family was in their new home and had begun to crop their land, which included corn and flax, on a small run south of the South Elkhorn Creek in Fayette County, Virginia, known most informally as Kentucke. Elizabeth bore a son on 14 February 1784 soon after their settlement. The proud parents chose to name their child in memory of their first born son back in 1775 who had only lived for one month, John Finney.

A man’s family was the main reason most settlers, and certainly James Finney, came to Kentucky. One pioneer said “the prospect of seeing all his children settled comfortably in one neighborhood, their arms open at any time to receive and assist was a greater degree of happiness than any other situation.” John Finney may have been born at their cabin or even at a nearby fort or station. At the first rumor of trouble, messengers were sent to warn every cabin and the settlers went right away to the nearest fortification, leaving all of their possessions to be potentially taken or destroyed by roving Indians. Usually these alarms were in the spring and summer, unfortunately, when the families most needed to be working their corn patches.

Kentucky, though dangerous, was a grand site for Elizabeth Finney and her children. They had heard James talk so much of this place. This area around Lexington was known as the inner Bluegrass Region of Kentucky. A Pennsylvanian, after a visit, said Kentucky “… is equal in beauty and fertility to anything the imagination can paint.” Another reported “poetry cannot paint groves more beautiful or fields more luxuriant.” James Finney saw buffalo in herds numbering over 1,000 and when the beasts were on the move, the woods reportedly roared with their tramping, almost as loud as thunder. Turkeys were seen in roosts of 100 and they were so fat that when they fell from a gunshot, the fat would split open on their backs.

James Finney’s powder horn and leather ammo sack

Though the land was beautiful, fertile, and abundant with game, it was hard for Elizabeth Finney to leave parents, siblings, other relatives, old friends, and neighbors. Culpeper County was where she had spent her entire life until now. She was leaving a structured daily routine for a new structure dominated by uncertainty. Times would be hard and there were many sacrifices to be made. Throughout history no group of people was ever so cut off from any base of supply. Settlers were on their own and relied on each other as resources.

Everything was different, including their diet. Hunting was the only sure source of food and was certainly a large part of their first years here. The crops were smaller and often nonexistent since new arrivals had not cleared the land completely. Making things worse, threatening Indian hunting parties kept families away from the fields and in forts. Indians often burnt newly planted fields and livestock were killed for spite. As a result of such threats, offensive excursions to display bravado pulled them away from farm work. Luckily the deer and buffalo population was denser than anywhere east of the Mississippi River. Wild game skins, mainly deerskins, furnished hunters from the backcountry with money to buy land, pay taxes, and procure imported supplies unobtainable through local networks of exchange. A hunter could get 60 to 80 skins in a good season and 400 to 500 in a great season. Deerskins were the most profitable to the hunter but buffalo hunting was most admired by men and boys.

27 March 1784 At some time before this date, John Finney had bought a 200-acre military warrant from Edward Franklin for his service in the French and Indian War.[i] Edward Franklin was from Culpeper County and lived near the Finney Farm, marrying a daughter of Nathaniel Underwood. John Finney used the warrant to claim 200 acres on the south branch of the Gauley River, called the Cherry Tree River, and on a section of the river called Cherry Tree Bottom (Appendix 42). This location today can be found near Richmond, Nicholas County, West Virginia. On 27 March 1784, John was in Greenbrier County, Virginia. He sold the rights to this 200-acre tract and the 400 acres adjoining it, totaling 600 acres, to James and Joseph Mays of Greenbrier County, Virginia.[ii] In the assignment, John claimed to be “…of Culpeper County.” James and Joseph Mays also claimed 900 additional acres on Cherry Tree River. From these and other related deeds, other men living or owning land in the same location were James Edgar, James Watts, Julius Christy (as an assignee of John Williams), Patrick Lockhart, Abraham Haptenstall, and Robert Anderson. (see Appendix 42 for more on Greenbrier County land)

June 1784 James Finney and Julius Gibbs traveled to Lincoln County to talk with Christopher Irvine, a deputy surveyor of Lincoln County, Virginia, about their Tates Creek land and the possibility of having it surveyed. They had probably seen Irvine some time before and had made arrangements to meet at his home, Irvine’s Station, on Tates Creek in June. Settlers who had recorded entries for land only had three years to get their land surveyed. The quicker the better because men knew entries were vague and they had already heard about overlapping entries and surveys. As the travel paths would take them, from South Elkhorn Creek they would have stopped for safe refuge in Boonesborough Fort. Here they would for a rest and talk to settlers and old friends about news in the area and back east. The trip to Boonesborough from their home on South Elkhorn was about 24 miles and from there, it would be another 14 miles to Irvine’s Station. Each leg of their journey would be about one days travel.

30 June 1784 James and Julius were at Irvine’s Station on 29 June. The next day, they left early in the morning with Christopher Irvine and another settler in the Tate’s Creek area, Stephen Hancock. They would help hold the survey chains for Mr. Irvine as they set out to survey the lands that the Finneys, Quinns, and Gibbs entered in 1780. On 30 June, they surveying gang would survey three plats of land closest to Irvine’s Station; Benjamin Quinn’s 1,000 acres, John Finney’s 100 acres, and James Quinn’s 50 acres (Appendix 43). The land they were surveying was on a southern branch of the South Fork of Tate’s Creek, now called Finney Fork. Rivers and creeks were sometimes named for someone who was killed at that location. Could it be that a Finney may have died at this place?

July 1784 The surveys the gang originally set out to complete were not finished until the end of July. Maybe there were signs of Indians in the area, or maybe Christopher Irvine had other business that he needed to involve himself with. On July 29, Christopher Irvine, Stephen Hancock, James Finney, and Julius Gibbs were once again surveying in the area of the South Fork of Tate’s Creek. On this day they surveyed the next two plats of land to the west of Benjamin Quinn: John Finney’s 500 acres and James Finney’s 805 acres. The day following, they surveyed another two plats again to the west: James Quinn’s 1,027 acres and Thomas Quinn’s 1,028 acres. Finally on July 31, the men made their last survey of Julius Gibbs’ 800 acres (Appendix 44).

James Finney and Julius Gibbs join Irvine and Hancock during the survey of Tate’s Creek tracts

James Finney and Julius Gibbs were anxious to return to their families to the northwest in Fayette County. If they had stayed at Irvine’s Station between the survey dates, they would have been there for over a month. If they had indeed returned home after the first surveys and then returned, they would have been tired after nearly a week with the journey and the difficult survey work. Whatever the scenario, they returned quickly as they had surely left their families at Benjamin Craig’s Station or another station nearby for safety while they were away.

Back in Virginia, John Finney had been hard at work on the Finney farm. He was much busier since his brother, his family, and their slaves had left for the Kentucky country. John paid taxes this year in Culpeper County and listed his tithables and taxable property. John was left to pay his brother James’ taxable property as James was living in Kentucky. Ms. Finney, James’ and John’s mother, was also gone now, having moved to Rockingham County, Virginia to live with her daughter Mary and her husband John Rice. Her youngest daughter, Elizabeth Finney, now in her early 20s followed her mother west.[iii] John Rice was probably responsible for transportation to their new home over the Blue Ridge Mountains.

In Virginia, a tithable was a member of the potential productive labor force: a free white male age sixteen or older plus “all negroes imported whether male or female, and Indian servants male or female however procured, being sixteen years of age.” Slaves and servants did not pay their own taxes: their owners or masters were therefore tithable for themselves and for the taxes of their servants and slaves. Lists of tithables for households did not enumerate anyone under the age of sixteen or any adult white women unless they were heads of households.

John Finney was also trying to find a buyer for their land in Culpeper County. He wanted to lead his family to the Kentucky country to join his brother as soon as possible. James Finney had procured land for him in Fayette County and James surely wrote of the success they were having hunting plentiful game and farming the rich soil. John also heard (e.g., from passersby, neighbors, and in local taverns) and read (e.g., in the Virginia Gazette and posters) of the Indian dangers that continued to plague the Kentucky people. John Finney was anxious to offer his service as a protector of the Kentucky people.

1784 John Finney brought his family to Kentucky later in the year, maybe sometime in the fall season. James Finney was thrilled to see his brother and relieved to see them safe after the long trip through the dangerous Indian country. At once they and their neighbors set to work to build an adequate home for the John Finney family. The house was built on the land James had found for the close siblings. The brothers land shared a common border and somewhere along this border, the Finney homes sat close for protection: in a place where his family could be moved quickly to a safe place. In case of an emergency, the Finney patriarchs would need to be able to get their families to another home or a nearby station as strength would be in numbers.

John was a welcome addition to the Kentucky militia. He had been an active contributor during the Revolutionary War, taking part in a variety of different participatory conditions. Men were expected to lend their service assist in the protection of the Kentucky lands from the attacking Indians. James Finney had become a member of the militia when he had arrived earlier in the year. With the number of small Indian raids still occurring, the militia remained ready at a moment’s notice. Notable Indian fighters were regarded as local heroes. Daniel Boone and Simon Kenton were among those that received high fame and attention with regard to their experiences with Indians. Since every man could claim to be an Indian fighter in some way, most men swaggered as heroes.

The militia at this time consisted of all free males ages 18 through 50, according to Virginia law. Kentucky citizens were adamant that all eligible citizens participate in the militia. Each militia company contained from about 40 to 64 citizen soldiers and was commanded by a captain and his subordinates: a lieutenant, an ensign, three sergeants, three corporals, a fifer, and a drummer. When a company was not on field service, they would muster, or meet, five times a year. Officers had to inform their privates about musters at least five days in advance and the meeting time was usually 11 o’clock in the morning. Every private had to furnish himself with a rifle or musket, a half-pound of powder, and a half-pound of lead. The Kentucky rifle was the most popular choice of firearm. It was a long gun that held the hickory ramrod underneath the barrel. The gun was difficult to shoot but deadly accurate. To ready the gun to fire, the steps included: measuring charge from powder horn, funneling it into the muzzle, placing of the leather patch with bullet on it over muzzle, using the ramrod to shove it to the bottom of the bore, priming it with a little powder and closing the pan, then cocking the lock. Powder was carried in a powder horn slung over the shoulder. Men made theses powder horns from cattle horns after boiling out the cores - decorating and etching them with art, maps, bible verses or mottoes. Musters were accompanied by horseplay, drinking and socializing. But as long as Kentucky was subject to violent Indian raids, the mustering day surely included serious military training as well.

Militia leaders normally waged a defensive type of warfare. The typical Virginian was no match for the red man of the forest, however, the early settlers of Kentucky were tough hardened individuals with good frontier skills. It was impossible for Kentucky to maintain surveillance over such a distant enemy who used a substantial wilderness to screen their approach. Even the most carefully conceived defensive measure rarely prevented Indian attacks on isolated farms and stations. There had been no help from the new Congress of the United States. Unbelievably, by June 1784, the entire American army consisted of only 80 men, 55 at West Point and 25 at Fort Pitt! Finally, reviewing again the requests by George Washington and Alexander Hamilton, Congress asked the states for 700 men to act as defense of the northwestern frontier of the United States. Colonel Josiah Harmar would lead these troops, of which only a small fraction of the 700 actually existed.

1784 James and John Finney read their families “The Adventures of Colonel Daniel Boon” by John Filson, describing the west’s “Garden of Eden” and Boone’s adventures hunting and fighting Indians. Published by John Filson on Boone's 50th birthday, the narrative describes in Boone's own words his exploits in the Kentucky wilderness from May 1769 to October of 1782. Filson portrayed Kentucky as a natural paradise, where peace, abundance, and security reigned. Of some significance is Filson’s recognition that the territory would be economically tied to the west, especially the river ports of Natchez and New Orleans, rather than the eastern seaboard. His reflections on the interests of the United States in acquiring and securing the western regions of North America predate the Louisiana Purchase by 18 years. Filson also published “Map of Kentucke” in the summer of 1784 which, for a $1.25, gave Americans their first look at Kentucky on paper.

November 1784 Kentucky citizens began to hear rumors that the Cherokee Indians were planning an invasion into their settlements. The true invasion never really occurred except for some murders on the Wilderness Trail. Kentucky representatives planned another meeting to discuss what could be done about the current state of danger present to the north, west, and south. On December 1784, Kentucky would attempt to devise some means of preserving their country from the immediate destruction that seemed imminent.

Also in November 1784, John Finney and Levi Lockhart had 500 acres surveyed in Greenbrier County, Virginia.[iv] This land was part of a 19,500 acre treasury warrant that John Finney purchased from the Virginia Land Office in November 1781. No records have been found to determine whether the remaining 19,000 acres was entered and surveyed for grants. Levi Lockhart, as with others in the Lockhart family, had ties to the Finney family, specifically John Finney. Levi was born around 1750 (claims are from 1747 to 1771) in Augusta County, Virginia and was living in Greenbrier County since well before 1780 with his brother Jacob Lockhart (both children of the elder Jacob Lockhart). They raised hemp near at the Elk River and the Kanawha River.[v]

May 1785 After the December 1784 meeting, another, now more officially called a convention, was held in Danville, Kentucky. This convention was attended by delegates from all three Kentucky District counties, Fayette, Lincoln and Jefferson, to make an application to the Virginia government for permission to become an independent state. Among other reasons, Kentucky counties were too far from Virginia for emergency relief. Kentucky needed to make its own immediate decisions when faced with danger. For example, Kentucky wanted the authority to call the militia to meet and organizing expeditions to fight the enemy. These delegates wrote a letter to the inhabitants of Kentucky of their intentions. James and John Finney were elated about the possibility that their new home would be safer for their families. The letters from the Kentucky delegates were posted at high traffic areas nearby. For certain this letter was posted at Cole’s Tavern, also known as Cole’s Bad Inn, which was less than a mile north on the Leestown Pike. There was another tavern and inn located on the crossroads of the Frankfort Pike and the Midway Pike, run by Major John Lee. The area around this crossroads was known at this time as Leesburg.

Who was Richard Cole?

Richard Cole was born in Pennsylvania about 1729 and came to Kentucky from Culpeper County, Virginia in 1782 or 1783. He assisted Humphrey Marshall in surveying the site for Frankfort, Kentucky. Richard was known as a prosperous and pain-staking farmer but more infamously as a tavern owner. His tavern on the Leestown Pike had a dubious reputation, similar to his own character as a bandit. He erected this large building to both house his family and operate as a tavern to accommodate travelers on what was one of the busiest routes in Kentucky. Famous men such as statesman Henry Clay and Governor John J. Crittendon often stopped for rest and refreshments. This tavern was also well known for the assemblage of politicians from Scott, Franklin, and Fayette counties to come together with the Woodford county men on the state of the union. His tavern burnt during the winter of 1811 and the following year his son Richard Jr. bought out his father’s competitor on the Midway Pike. Three years later Richard Cole Sr. was dead, buried in the Cole Cemetery on a hill overlooking the site of the original tavern. Interestingly, Richard Sr. was the great grandfather of Frank and Jesse James. Richard’s daughter married the son of James Finney.

The towns nearest the Finney farms were Lee’s Town, 10 miles to the west, and Lexington, 15 miles to the southeast. There were other mills and forts that would later become towns and villages like Frankfort (at this time described as a perfect forest with only two little cabins in it[vi]), 10 miles to the west, and Versailles, 10 miles to the south. Towns and villages that formed would have sprung up around a station, fort, mill, or crossing of two trails. These hubs of activity would likely have a meetinghouse, a store, and tavern. If the town became larger, there may have been a blacksmith, gunsmith, wheelwright, carpenter, tanner, cobbler, and/or cooper. Frankfort, Versailles, and Lexington would be the only incorporated towns near the Finneys and their neighbors for the next 50 years. If any of the men in this neighborhood needed to obtain supplies or sell their farm products, they went to one of these three towns. Closer to the Finneys were the smaller villages of Big Spring (later Spring Station) near Blackburn’s Station on Beal’s Run, and Midway, on Willis Lee’s Branch. Yet, these two locations were hardly villages, really no more than gristmills on popular crossroads. They were both less than three miles distance from the Finney farms. Additionally, Leesburg was about three or four miles to the southeast on Lee’s Branch. Closest to the Finneys was Woodford Village, also called Woodford shipping port, located about a mile and a half to the north at the mouth of Cole’s Branch on the South Elkhorn River.

The location of

The fort at Lexington in 1785

March 1785 George Washington had given up his title as commander in chief and returned to his home in Virginia during 1783. Henry Knox became the next commander in chief of the continental army and in March 1785 became the secretary of war for the United States. Knox took responsibility of a very small army of ill-trained troops that was expected to defend the western frontier, protect settlers, and above all maintain honor of the United States by just and humane dealings with the Indian tribes.

August 1785 James heard of another convention in Danville through another posted letter. The meeting was held to report to Virginia why Kentucky should be a state. He and all other Kentucky inhabitants were made well informed of the meeting proceedings and the reasons for wanting statehood. The Finneys were, of course, supportive of the committees’ decisions for the well being of their new home where their families and land were in constant danger.

August 1785 Frequent intelligence from around the Kentucky border regions reported war-like preparations by the Indians. On August 8, at a meeting where militia captains from each colony had been ordered to attend to adopt a plan for protection, an expedition was set into place. This action was against all orders submitted by their home state of Virginia and from the United States government. The Kentucky counties decided to attack the Wabash Indians in the northwest, who were considered the most troublesome tribe at the time. Command of the march was given to George Rogers Clark and 1,000 men were raised for him and were to rendezvous at the Falls of the Ohio River. It is possible that James and John Finney were members of this large militia sent to protect Kentucky peace. The force began to march toward Indian towns but within two days, lack of provisions and other problems caused the men to become mutinous and Clark decided to return home.

What was Fort Finney?

In September 1785, a Captain Walter Finney led a company of regular enlisted troops from Pennsylvania down the Ohio River to the mouth of the Miami River. Here they built a fort and called it Fort Finney. They were responsible for trying to defend the northern border, including making treaties with hostile Indians. In August 1786, they evacuated this fort and moved down river a few miles below Louisville and built a new Fort Finney on the north bank of the Ohio River about 3/4-mile above the rapids. This fort remained until 1789 when it was renamed Fort Steuben. Walter Finney was no relation to the Finney family from Culpeper County. Walter Finney was from Chester County, Pennsylvania, born in 1748, and led an illustrious career as a patriot throughout the Revolution. He settled in Cincinnati and died there in 1820.

September 1785 Through the first part of 1785 when Kentucky inhabitants feared invasion of an Indian army, all was pretty peaceful. However, during the month of September, more Indian attacks began to occur. Treaties were attempted but to no avail. The people of Kentucky were growing more worried as they heard of attacks in the area. In October, several families were passing through the wilderness and were ambushed at Skaggs Creek - six killed and one adult and one child taken prisoner. Later that month, a party of men was overwhelmed near Raccoon Creek, nine killed. In November, two men were killed in an assault at Salt River. These were just a sampling of the atrocities that occurred in the fall of 1785.

3 September 1785 James and John Finney were in Culpeper County, Virginia by September 1785. They signed a deed selling what was left of the land they had inherited from their father in Culpeper County. The deed combined a 326-acre parcel and a 200-acre parcel into one larger tract; their childhood home located on the 200-acre parcel (Appendix 45). The 526 acres were sold to Turner Richardson (who later would be in Kentucky) of Hanover County, Virginia for 250 pounds Virginia money.

Their families were surely left at Benjamin Craig’s Station or at George Blackburn’s Station or Fort. It actually appears that by 1785, there were about six stations in this western region of the South Elkhorn: Haydon’s Station on the Kentucky River just south of Frankfort, Gore’s Station just north of Leestown, Innes’ Fort on the Main Elkhorn to the North, Anthony Thomson’s Stone Castle about five miles to the southwest, John Major’s Station near the fork of the Elkhorn, and of course George Blackburn’s Station in close proximity to the Finneys. There was never another mention of Benjamin Craig’s Station after 1784, and it may have even been what was now known as Blackburn’s Fort. Settlers who did not live in a large fort often made their homes in a defensive station, described by one historian as “forts in miniature.” Located near permanent freshwater springs, and often on well traveled trails, stations housed several families and usually had some kind of defensive construction such as a stockade or barricadable doors and windows.

The location of stations and forts in the South Fork of Elkhorn Creek neighborhood

Who was George Blackburn?

George Blackburn was born at best estimate around 1746 and probably in Culpeper County, Virginia. He was the son of a Mr. Blackburn and his wife Ms. Christy. His father died when he was very young and he was sent, along with his brother Julius, to live with his uncle Julius Christy, also of Culpeper County, Virginia. He would grow up with Julius Christy and learn the trade of carpentry from him. He was a childhood acquaintance of James and John Finney, living just south of the Finney farm. James Finney also married George’s cousin, Elizabeth. Upon his move to Kentucky with his brother in-law-Richard Bohannon in about 1784, Blackburn settled near the present location of Spring Station in Woodford County and built a fort or station around the spring on his land. Neighbors and family reportedly used the defensive structure often in times of alarm throughout the early years of Kentucky settlement. John Finney and George Blackburn had close political ties in Woodford County.

During the Finneys stay in Culpeper County, a foray was surely made into Rockingham County to visit their mother and sisters (Mary Finney-Rice and Elizabeth Finney, set to wed Spencer Breeding in less than a year). The young men would tell their family of the recent events in Kentucky and about their growing families. The Finneys would also continue to gather the latest news on the formation of the American government. Since the Finneys had traveled north toward Pennsylvania to visit Rockingham County on the way home, they climbed aboard a flat boat or floating ark working its way down the Ohio River from Fort Pitt. The plan was to stop in Limestone and arrange for James Finney to have a survey made of land on the Main Licking Creek. This would have been an easier trip and one made in much less time, but equally as dangerous. For the return trip, they would have picked up supplies that could not be found in Kentucky or were generally less expensive in Virginia. However, space was limited to what could be carried on the backs of their horses. The two made great haste on their return trip for the fate of their families, as they certainly thought, depended on it.

The Finneys and their horses drifted down the Ohio River on a flatboat

October 1785 The Finneys unloaded at Limestone (shortly known as Maysville) and found their way to the local surveyor, the legendary Daniel Boone. Boone had moved to the small town on the Ohio River in 1783 to operate a tavern and to survey and speculate land. Now a Deputy Surveyor in Fayette County, Kentucky, Boone was hired by James Finney to survey two 400-acre tracts of land he had purchased from Jacob and Michael Broyles in 1783 (see Appendix 46 for warrants and surveys). After the arrangement was made, the Finneys traveled southwest 60 miles by land toward the Finney farms between Lexington and Frankfort. Certainly they found their way home before the first frost set in. They were new to Kentucky living and yearned to help their families hunker down for the harsh winter they knew would be coming.

[i] The survey dated 24 October 1790 and grant dated 17 September 1792 had both been made in John Finney’s name and for 200 acres. No explanation for this can be made for this as it seems that John signed over the land in 1784.

[ii] It is unknown at this time where the additional 400 acres came from.

[iii] Elizabeth Finney married Spencer Breeding on 5 August 1786 in Harrisonburg, Rockingham County, Virginia. Most Breeding researchers agree that this Elizbaeth Finney was a child of James Finney and Elizabeth Turner. However, no real proof exists, only speculation. Their marriage contract was signed by a Thomas Finney/Finnell and because of that, many Breeding researchers state that Elizabeth’s father was James (Thomas) Finney. There is no evidence that those two names were ever attached. We must remember that Elizabeth was a small child when her father died and one must wonder if that may have caused the name to be placed in that format. It also could be possible that the name on the contract was someone that was alive, which may lead to speculation that the widow Elizabeth Turner-Finney remarried to a Thomas Finney or Finnell either just before or after the move to Rockingham. This would place a date on that marriage between 1784 (the last time Mrs. Finney was taxed) and 1786 (when Thomas Finney/Finnell was listed on the contract). Of course, another possibility exists…that this Elizabeth Finney was actually a daughter of a Thomas Finney/Finnell and she was not the daughter of James Finney, died 1764 Culpeper County.

[iv] John Finnie & Co. 500 acres Greenbrier Co., Edmund Randolph, Esquire, Governor of the Commonwealth of Virginia: To All to Whom these Presents shall Come, Greeting: Know Ye, That by virtue and in consideration of a Land Office Treasury Warrant No 9 439 Issued the 28th day of November 1781 There is granted by the said commonwealth unto John Finnie and Levi Lockhart a certain tract or parcel of land, containing 500 acres by survey bearing date the 17th day November 1784 Lying and being in the County of Greenbrier, joining land of Archer Matthew and John Arbuckle on the first large Creek emptying into the Great Kenhawa below the mount of Elk about four miles distant from the river and bounded as followeth to Wit. Beginning at two white oaks etc.
In Witness Whereof, The said Edmund Randolph, Esquire, Governor of the Commonwealth of Virginia, hath hereunto set his hand and caused the Lesser Seal of the said Commonwealth to be affixed, at Richmond, on the fourteenth day of January in the year of our Lord one thousand seven hundred and eighty seven and of the Commonwealth the 12^th. Signed E Randolph

[v] John Finney was known to have land at the mouth of the Elk River where the Elk empties into the Kanawha River

[vi] From the Forks of the Elkhorn book

Monday, June 17, 2019