Read Online Death By Chocolate 6 (Mystery and Women Sleuths) (Josiah Reynolds Mysteries) by Abigail Keam - Free Book Online
Authors: Abigail Keam
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didn’t hold with slavery.
“When Julia was sixteen, Confederate soldiers came looking for her daddy. After interrogating Julia, they left . . . all but one soldier.
“A life and death struggle broke out between Julia and the soldier.
“Perhaps the soldier was trying to make Julia talk or maybe he was going to rape her. Who knows why the fight started, but he stabbed Julia in the eye with his bayonet.
“Wounded, she struck him with an ax. Still alive, the soldier managed to shoot one of her fingers off.
“It was then her father rushed in and killed the soldier. The family fled to Kentucky, where Julia lived out her life and died in Whitley County at the age of ninety-one in 1936. She was one of the few women who received a pension from the United States for having fought in the Civil War.”
I pointed to Ginny’s glass eye. “Sight issues for the women folk seem to run in your family.”
Ginny’s hand glanced over her bad eye. “I never connected the two since I lost my eye in a boating accident, but you’re right. It’s the same eye.”
“Interesting.”
“Anything else?”
“I think it’s time to visit Cumberland Falls.”
24
The Cumberland River was called Wasioto by Native Americans and Riviere Des Chaouanons (River of the Shawnee) by French traders.
In 1750, it was renamed by Dr. Thomas Walker for Prince William, Duke of Cumberland.
The Cumberland River is six hundred eighty-eight miles long, beginning in eastern Kentucky, dipping into Tennessee to Nashville and then snaking back through Kentucky to merge with the Ohio River near Paducah, just a few miles away from the great Mississippi River.
Its great claim to fame is the Cumberland Falls, which has the only Moonbeam Rainbow in the western hemisphere.
Cumberland Falls straddles both Whitley and McCreary Counties with a 125-foot curtain and falls 68 feet with the average flow of 3,600 cubic feet per second.
Much of the park is in Whitley County, which is named after William Whitley, a renowned frontiersman and Indian fighter, though he never lived in Whitley County. He is considered a war hero from the Battle of the Thames, a decisive battle of the War of 1812.
He built the first brick house in Kentucky and altered how horse racing was (and still is) run in America. He built a racecourse that had the horses run counter-clockwise, which was a snub at how the English raced theirs . . . clockwise.
He first came to Kentucky in 1775. He and his family journeyed through the Cumberland Gap to the current town of Stanford where Whitley planted ten acres of corn to stake his land claim.
That being done, Whitley moved his family to the safety of Fort Harrod in Harrodsburg, Kentucky. It was during this time that Whitley beheld a horrible sight, which twisted his mind for the remainder of his life.
He saw the body of William Ray, who had been mutilated by Native Americans, most probably the Shawnee. It was the first time that Whitley had seen a man scalped.
Unlike frontiersmen Daniel Boone and Simon Kenton, who respected the Indians, Whitley thought they were savages and spent a great deal of his life fighting them and removing their scalps as trophies.
He became so enamored of this bizarre custom that he requested of General William Henry Harrison that if Whitley should die under his command, Harrison was to return his scalp to his wife, Esther, along with his horse, Emperor.
Whitley led the charge against Tecumseh and was reported by many eyewitnesses to be the man who actually slew the great Shawnee chief rather than Richard Johnson, later the ninth Vice President of the United States, who took the credit.
It is not known who struck down Whitley during the battle. He was sixty-four years old.
Emperor had lost one eye and two teeth during the battle’s charge and was returned to Whitley’s family, along with Whitley’s powder horn, strap and rifle.
Most folks know little about the Battle of the Thames, which took place near Chatham,
“When Julia was sixteen, Confederate soldiers came looking for her daddy. After interrogating Julia, they left . . . all but one soldier.
“A life and death struggle broke out between Julia and the soldier.
“Perhaps the soldier was trying to make Julia talk or maybe he was going to rape her. Who knows why the fight started, but he stabbed Julia in the eye with his bayonet.
“Wounded, she struck him with an ax. Still alive, the soldier managed to shoot one of her fingers off.
“It was then her father rushed in and killed the soldier. The family fled to Kentucky, where Julia lived out her life and died in Whitley County at the age of ninety-one in 1936. She was one of the few women who received a pension from the United States for having fought in the Civil War.”
I pointed to Ginny’s glass eye. “Sight issues for the women folk seem to run in your family.”
Ginny’s hand glanced over her bad eye. “I never connected the two since I lost my eye in a boating accident, but you’re right. It’s the same eye.”
“Interesting.”
“Anything else?”
“I think it’s time to visit Cumberland Falls.”
24
The Cumberland River was called Wasioto by Native Americans and Riviere Des Chaouanons (River of the Shawnee) by French traders.
In 1750, it was renamed by Dr. Thomas Walker for Prince William, Duke of Cumberland.
The Cumberland River is six hundred eighty-eight miles long, beginning in eastern Kentucky, dipping into Tennessee to Nashville and then snaking back through Kentucky to merge with the Ohio River near Paducah, just a few miles away from the great Mississippi River.
Its great claim to fame is the Cumberland Falls, which has the only Moonbeam Rainbow in the western hemisphere.
Cumberland Falls straddles both Whitley and McCreary Counties with a 125-foot curtain and falls 68 feet with the average flow of 3,600 cubic feet per second.
Much of the park is in Whitley County, which is named after William Whitley, a renowned frontiersman and Indian fighter, though he never lived in Whitley County. He is considered a war hero from the Battle of the Thames, a decisive battle of the War of 1812.
He built the first brick house in Kentucky and altered how horse racing was (and still is) run in America. He built a racecourse that had the horses run counter-clockwise, which was a snub at how the English raced theirs . . . clockwise.
He first came to Kentucky in 1775. He and his family journeyed through the Cumberland Gap to the current town of Stanford where Whitley planted ten acres of corn to stake his land claim.
That being done, Whitley moved his family to the safety of Fort Harrod in Harrodsburg, Kentucky. It was during this time that Whitley beheld a horrible sight, which twisted his mind for the remainder of his life.
He saw the body of William Ray, who had been mutilated by Native Americans, most probably the Shawnee. It was the first time that Whitley had seen a man scalped.
Unlike frontiersmen Daniel Boone and Simon Kenton, who respected the Indians, Whitley thought they were savages and spent a great deal of his life fighting them and removing their scalps as trophies.
He became so enamored of this bizarre custom that he requested of General William Henry Harrison that if Whitley should die under his command, Harrison was to return his scalp to his wife, Esther, along with his horse, Emperor.
Whitley led the charge against Tecumseh and was reported by many eyewitnesses to be the man who actually slew the great Shawnee chief rather than Richard Johnson, later the ninth Vice President of the United States, who took the credit.
It is not known who struck down Whitley during the battle. He was sixty-four years old.
Emperor had lost one eye and two teeth during the battle’s charge and was returned to Whitley’s family, along with Whitley’s powder horn, strap and rifle.
Most folks know little about the Battle of the Thames, which took place near Chatham,
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