On or near this date, the expedition passes or stops at an Ohio River settlement near present Uniontown, Kentucky. One week ahead of the expedition, fellow river traveler Thomas Rodney describes the area’s harbor, white settlers, and Native deer hunters.[1]No daily record of expedition’s travel between Louisville and Fort Massac is known to exist. Locating them near Uniontown, Kentucky on this date is an estimate based on information from travelers … Continue reading
Ohio River near Uniontown, 1920
Kentucky Geological Survey Photographs, Courtesy Kentucky Historical Society, https://www.kyhistory.com/cdm/compoundobject/collection/PH/id/7711/rec/131.
Good Harbor
[G]ot to the settlement where we found the best and nicest harbor we have met with in the Ohio. Two muscle bars of sand and pebbles crossed a small part of the cove of the river with a gap to go in and 6 ft. water over the bason inclosed by them.
—Thomas Rodney[2]28 October 1803. Dwight L. Smith and Ray Swick, ed., A Journey Through the West: Thomas Rodney’s 1803 Journal from Delaware to the Mississippi Territory (Athens: Ohio University Press, 1997), … Continue reading
Rodney’s settlement is likely Francisburg which later joined with Locust Port to become Uniontown.[3]Ibid., 239n4.
Settlers
I went on shore and bought three cabages and went to Mr. Johnsons to git other things. There is 5 families at this place. Mr. Johnson is the principa[l] settler here and has 9 children and 2 step children.
—Thomas Rodney[4]Ibid., 144.
Good Hunting
The Indians are near and supply them with venison. Here I saw venison as fat as mutton but our people tire of fresh provision.
—Thomas Rodney[5]Ibid.
Poor Fishing
[T]he cove we are now in being full of catfish as we discoverd by their swiming with fins above water, we cast ankor to fish awhile . . . . but could not git a bite tho the cats were playing around us.
—Thomas Rodney[6]Ibid., 143–144.
Notes
| ↑1 | No daily record of expedition’s travel between Louisville and Fort Massac is known to exist. Locating them near Uniontown, Kentucky on this date is an estimate based on information from travelers of the period and Cramer’s 1802 river guide, The Navigator. |
|---|---|
| ↑2 | 28 October 1803. Dwight L. Smith and Ray Swick, ed., A Journey Through the West: Thomas Rodney’s 1803 Journal from Delaware to the Mississippi Territory (Athens: Ohio University Press, 1997), 144. |
| ↑3 | Ibid., 239n4. |
| ↑4 | Ibid., 144. |
| ↑5 | Ibid. |
| ↑6 | Ibid., 143–144. |
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- The Lewis and Clark Expedition: Day by Day by Gary E. Moulton (University of Nebraska Press, 2018). The story in prose, 14 May 1804–23 September 1806.
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Unless otherwise noted, journal excerpts are from The Journals of the Lewis and Clark Expedition, edited by Gary E. Moulton, 13 vols. (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1983-2001).