{"id":4614,"date":"2013-11-16T17:41:50","date_gmt":"2013-11-17T01:41:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blackenedroots.com\/blog\/?p=4614"},"modified":"2013-11-22T22:09:18","modified_gmt":"2013-11-23T06:09:18","slug":"the-mcmurrys-head-to-kentucky","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blackenedroots.com\/blog\/the-mcmurrys-head-to-kentucky\/","title":{"rendered":"The McMurrys head to Kentucky"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"cumberland-gap-tennesse\"<\/a>My recent post<\/a> about the reconstructed migration route of the McMurrys from Kentucky to Indiana (Armchair Highway Archaeology<\/a>) got me thinking\u2014how might the McMurry family have gotten to Kentucky in the first place?<\/p>\n

The five surviving children of my 6th-great-grandparents, William McMurry (ca 1725\u20131798) and Agnes(?) (1730\u2013after 1772), were said to have travelled to Kentucky together around 1787\u20131788: John (1752\u20131832), James (1760\u20131832), Thomas (1765\u20131829), Jane (1767\u20131835), and Robert (1772\u20131812). What would have been the most direct available route from the McMurry’s home(s) in Fincastle, Augusta (now Botetourt) County, Virginia, to their new homes in central and southern Kentucky?\u00a0Kentucky in the late 1700s had far fewer choices in terms of routes, so I decided to start there and work my way back to Virginia.<\/p>\n

The Wilderness Road<\/a> was the primary means of entry into Kentucky. As a result of his pioneering exploration of central Kentucky beginning in 1769, Daniel Boone had determined the best route into Kentucky. This route started at the Anderson Blockhouse<\/a>\u00a0(see photo below)\u00a0on the Holston River, just east of Big Moccasin Gap. The Wilderness Road\u00a0crossed into southern Kentucky through the Cumberland Gap<\/a>, a mountain pass through the Cumberland Mountains region of the Appalachian Mountains.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\"John<\/a>

Photo of the reconstructed John Anderson Blockhouse, by Jerry Leeper<\/p><\/div>\n

On March 10, 1775, Daniel Boone set out from the Anderson Blockhouse with a team of 35 axmen to turn this route into a passable road that would make the settlement of Kentucky easier. Two weeks later, on March 24, 1775, Daniel Boone and his team had blazed about 180 miles of trail and were just 15 miles from their intended endpoint when they were attacked by Shawnee indians. This attack proved to be the first of many over the next two decades.<\/p>\n

Daniel Boone had been hired by the Transylvania Company<\/a> to build a road into Kentucky to spur settlement of the land.\u00a0The Transylvania Company had purchased Kentucky from the Cherokee<\/a> and Iroquois<\/a> nations, who, along with the Shawnee, had signed a treaty in October, 1774, agreeing to no longer lay claim to the land or hunt in Kentucky. The Shawnee were joined by the Lower Cherokee<\/a> (also known as the Chickamauga) in 1776, who not only resented the treaty, but also sided with the British in the Revolutionary War. This alliance led to the\u00a0Chickamauga wars<\/a>,\u00a0a series of ambushes, raids, campaigns and outright battles waged on the settlers who travelled the Wilderness Road.<\/p>\n

The hostilities continued for 18 years, until 1794. So for the first two decades of its existence, the Wilderness Road had to be travelled cautiously and defensively, in large and well-armed groups, often relying on fortified wooden structures called “stations” that had been built along the Wilderness Road. Adding to the difficulty of traveling the Wilderness Road was the fact that it wasn’t passable by wagons until 1792; before then, the road could only be traversed on foot or by horseback.<\/p>\n

A great overview of the road can be found in William Allen Pusey’s 1921 book, The Wilderness Road to Kentucky: Its location and features<\/a>.\u00a0<\/em>William Pusey was the great-grandson of the pioneer Alfred Brown, who travelled the Wilderness Road in 1782 and kept a journal of his experiences on the road, which William Pusey inherited.<\/p>\n

Family lore places the date of the McMurry migration to Kentucky at around 1787\u20131788, which would have been when the Chickamauga wars were in full swing. While purely speculative, it’s possible that their experience traveling to Kentucky at this time was at least part of the reason why the McMurrys appear to have done much of their subsequent relocating en masse over the next half-century. If a travel date of 1787\u20131788 is correct, then at the time of their travel to Kentucky, the ages of the McMurry siblings would have been:<\/p>\n