John Holder made his mark as one of the heroic defenders of Boonesborough. After Daniel Boone left Kentucky, Holder became commander of the fort. Holder married Fanny Callaway, a daughter of Col. Richard Callaway, one of the founders of Boonesborough. Fanny, along with her sister Betsy, and Jemima Boone were captured by the Shawnee in 1776-one of the signature events on the Kentucky frontier. The self-taught Holder established himself as a man of property, acquiring well over 100,000 acres of Kentucky land. He was a commercial-industrial innovator involved in farsighted business enterprises. Under Holder's leadership, the settlement he established about a mile downstream from Boonesborough grew to include a store, tavern, boatyard, ferry, warehouse and mill. His landing on the Kentucky River became a major departure point for flatboats bound for New Orleans with Kentucky produce. Holder's enterprises led to other factories locating in the valley and resulted in Lower Howard's Creek becoming one of the first industrial areas of Kentucky. Much of the area is now enclosed in the Lower Howard's Creek Nature and Heritage Preserve, which will receive all the royalties from the sale of this book.

Throughout the Revolutionary War, Fort Boonesborough was one of the most important and defensively crucial sites on the western frontier. It served not only as a stronghold against the British but also as a sanctuary, land office, and a potential seat of government. Originally meant to be the capital of a new American colony, Fort Boonesborough was thrust into a defensive role by the onset of the Revolutionary War. Post-Revolutionary attempts to develop a town failed and the site was abandoned. Yet Fort Boonesborough lived on in local memory. Boonesborough Unearthed: Frontier Archaeology at a Revolutionary Fort is the result of more than thirty years of research by archaeologist Nancy O'Malley. This groundbreaking book presents new information and fresh insights about Fort Boonesborough and life in frontier Kentucky. O'Malley examines the story of this historical landmark from its founding during a time of war into the nineteenth century. O'Malley also delves into the lives of the settlers who lived there, and explores the Transylvania Company's dashed hopes of forming a fourteenth colony at the fort. This insightful and informative work is a fascinating exploration into Kentucky's frontier past.

The purpose of this study is to chronicle the lives of African Americans who were at Fort Boonesborough. We limited the scope of our narrative to the years the fort stood, 1775 and 1784. Fort Boonesborough is one of Kentucky's most historic places. It was the wilderness outpost of Richard Henderson's Transylvania Company and, for a few years, was home to Daniel Boone. Due to Boone's involvement, few places in early Kentucky have been so well documented and written about. It will surprise no one to learn that the early records and subsequent historical accounts mainly involve the white males who settled there. There are biographical sketches for Monk Estill, the "black Indian" Pompey, Frederick Hart, John Sidebottom, and others less well known. Our work identifies only a fraction of the pioneer African Americans of Kentucky. Many more deserve to be remembered and commemorated.

Fort Boonesborough is one of Kentucky's most historic places and, although seldom mentioned in popular accounts, women were there from the very beginning. This work includes 195 women whose presence at the fort can be reasonably documented by historical evidence. The time period was limited to the years between 1775, when the fort was established, and 1784, when the threat of Indian attack at Boonesborough had subsided and the fort's stockade walls had been taken down. The names of the female children these pioneer women brought to the fort are also included, as they shared the risks and hardships of frontier life. The work includes a Historical Sketch describing the women's experiences at the fort and a Biographical Section that gives a brief personal history of each woman. 174 pp., illus., indexed, paper.

No one played a more important role in the settlement of Clark County than Capt. William "Billy" Bush. Born in Orange County, Virginia, Billy came out with Daniel Boone in 1775, resided for a time at Fort Boonesborough, then spent the rest of his life living a few miles from the fort. He thus became one of the first permanent settlers in Kentucky. Billy was also a key figure in establishing Providence Baptist Church, the first church in Clark County. Their place of worship-the Old Stone Church-is now the oldest church on Kentucky soil. Billy Bush laid claim to thousands of acres of land between Winchester and the Kentucky River, and Daniel Boone ran the surveys for him. This land became the foundation of the Bush Settlement.

Kentucky's landscape is punctuated by landmark structures that signpost bourbon's venerable story: distilleries long-standing, relict, razed, and brand new, the grand nineteenth-century homes of renowned distillers, villages and neighborhoods where distillery laborers lived, Whiskey Row storage warehouses, river landings and railroad yards, and factories where copper distilling vessels and charred white oak barrels are made. During the nineteenth century, distilling changed from an artisanal craft practiced by farmers and millers to a large-scale mechanized industry that practiced increasingly refined production techniques. Distillers often operated at comparatively remote sites—along the "backroads"—to take advantage of water sources or river or turnpike transport access. As time passed, steam power and mechanization freed the industry from its reliance on waterpower and permitted distillers to relocate to urban and rural rail-side sites. This shift also allowed distillers to perfect their production techniques, increase their capacity, and refine their marketing strategies. The historic progression produced the "fine" Kentucky bourbons that are available to present day consumers. Yet, distillers have not abandoned their cultural roots and traditions; their iconic products embrace the modern while also engaging their history and geography. Blending several topics—inventions and innovations in distilling and transport technologies, tax policy, geography, landscapes, and architecture—this primer and geographical guide presents an accessible and detailed history of the development of Kentucky's distilling industry and explains how the industry continues to thrive.

John Martin was a pioneer of Clark County, Kentucky, where he lived on Lower Howard's Creek. John had been a blacksmith in Goochland County, Virginia, where he married Rachel Pace. He owned a small farm there before moving to Ballenger Creek in what is now Fluvanna County. John and Rachel were the parents of thirteen children. In the late 1780s, the parents and children moved to Kentucky. John settled on a hillside farm in an area then known as the Bush Settlement. John now has descendants too numerous to count, some still in Clark County, the others spread all over. Our John Martin has been confused with a number of other men of the same name, and their deeds have been conflated to create a mythical man. One goal of this work is to provide a fully documented history of the life of John Martin of Lower Howard's Creek. Illustrated, indexed.