Pioneer Voices II: Interviews with Early Settlers of Bourbon County, Kentucky

This work is a collection of first-hand accounts of men and women who came to Bourbon County during Kentucky's early settlement period, 1775-1800. Bourbon County became the fifth Kentucky county in 1785. The county was rich in timber, cane, limestone and fertile soils. Its many creeks and springs provided choice locations for rural settlers as well as commercial sites for mills, distilleries, taverns, warehouses and other businesses. The county seat at Paris (originally called Hopewell) was located at the confluence of Houston and Stoner Creeks. Other villages included Millersburg, North Middletown, Little Rock, Ruddles Mills and Clintonville. A valuable source of information about the early county and its people is available in the collection of interviews painstakingly recorded by Rev. John D. Shane. Shane sought out and interviewed numerous aging pioneers in Central Kentucky in the 1840s and 50s. He allowed his subjects to tell their stories about their own personal experiences. They told of their adventures coming out to this new country, America's first western frontier, and many recounted clashes with Native Americans, often in graphic detail. Shane recorded their stories in plain language that includes a wealth of information about everyday life in the wilderness that was then part of Virginia.