Barrows

excerpt from Journal of Rev. David Barrows

Heavy showers of rain this P.M. It is astonishing what amazing bodies of rich lands, uninhabited, skirt the borders of this beautiful river. It abounds w. multitudes of excellent fish of various kinds. There are abundance of fine Perch, very large and every P.M. & night, they are to be heard in great nos., makg, a curious noise nearly like the mewg, or singg, of a cat.
30th Saturday morning, When day light smiled upon us, we found ourselves within about 6 ms. Of Limestone, & at half an hour after 6 o’clock A.M., we landed at L, much fatigues, & exhausted for want of sleep & fresh provisions. A good understanding had reigned among us during our passage. The Lord be praised for all his mercies, ---- Jesus --- our Lord! From Siotah to this place some say 45. At abt. 2 o’clock, we left this place to penetrate into the country, but after riding a few miles, I was taken w. an ague, and a high fever ensued. I had a very sick night of it. Brethren Bennet & Watts still in Co. We put up at Mr. Abraham Drake’s in May’s Station, Mason Co. (A little before we came here, we passed thru a town called Washington, fr, Linestone.) I went to bed immediately. The people rfinding I was a preacher, requested I sho’d have meeting at their mtg,h, next day, to whih, I agree, if I sho’d be able. From Linestone, 12 or 15.
31st Sunday morning, I found myself revived. The meeting being appointed at 10 o’clock in the A.M., I preached fr, Ps 89:15. We dined w. a bro., after which we pursued our journey towds Lexington. Passed the Blue Lick, where they make salt. This is on the main branch of a r. called Licking. (Here I saw 3 of the largest teeth, I ever saw in my life, 2 tusks and a grinder. They were dug out of the earth in openg, a spring. They appeared to me to have belonged to a grazing animal, and I suppose, wt, all doubt, it must have been an Elephant.)

came. He then got over the Ohio, and came down till he met some—

from the Draper Papers, 12CC166

Lyman C. Draper (1815-1891) collected information on America’s first frontier and its notable figures and events, such as Daniel Boone, George Rogers Clarke, and The Battle of King’s Mountain. Draper’s papers include a treasure trove of information on the frontier settlers of the Carolinas, Virginia, Kentucky, Georgia, Alabama, Tennessee, and Pennsylvania.

The original papers are held at the Wisconsin Historical Society. They include thousands of handwritten letters of correspondence comprising nearly 500 volumes of information not available anywhere else about the pioneer settlers of the trans-Allegheny West.

As far as the elephant, civilization had yet to conceive of the idea of extermination, so any mammoth bones were thought to be elephants, even tho no one was actually seeing any live elephants. It was the subject of much scientific debate.