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James Knox Was There Before Daniel Boone

8/19/2017

3 Comments

 
Picture8th Virginia Captain James Knox was one of the original "long hunters," the first white men to go deep into "Kentucky country" through Cumberland Gap.
​The adventures of 8th Virginia Captain James Knox have been unfairly overshadowed by those of Daniel Boone. This may be true generally, but it is definitely—and literally—true at the site of a memorial marker in Greene County, Kentucky.
 
The 8th Virginia’s recruitment area was vast—covering almost the entire Virginia frontier, which at that time stretched from Pittsburgh to the Cumberland Gap—a distance of 450 miles. Those two places were, at that time, the only practical access points to the “Kentucky Country”—all of which was, at the start of the war, part of Fincastle County, Virginia. To get there, you could float down the Ohio River from Pittsburgh, or you could travel overland through the Cumberland Gap. Few had taken the latter route, however, when James Knox led a hunting party that way in 1770.
 
Knox was one of the original “Long Hunters,” who entered Kentucky on months-long or even years-long hunting trips, intending to return with large quantities of pelts. Daniel Boone is by far the most famous of the long hunters, but that is partly because there is only room for one of these little-remembered adventurers in public memory.
 
In 1770, James Knox and his team established a hunting camp and pelt repository (a “skin house”)  by the north bank of a creek now known as Skinhouse Branch. Years later, a church was built on the same site. Today, the 187-year old nondenominational church sits at the intersection of Skinhouse Branch and Long Hunters Camp roads—neither of which carries enough traffic to warrant painted markings. It is surrounded by farms growing corn, tobacco, and soybeans. Two stone markers were put there long ago by local citizens to memorialize James Knox and the hunting expedition of 1770. In front of them, and closer to the road, is an official Kentucky state historic marker noting that Daniel Boone was also there—a year later.
 
Early in 1776, Knox recruited one of the 8th Virginia’s ten companies. His men were decimated by malaria during the South Carolina expedition of that summer and fall. By the spring of 1777, only a handful were left. Knox became a captain in Morgan’s Rifles and commanded a company at the victory at Saratoga. He took a few of his 8th Virginia men with him, and his 8th Virginia Regiment company ceased to exist. He was a prominent citizen of Kentucky in his later years, but has always been overshadowed by Daniel Boone.

Read More: "Searching for Captain Knox" (3/29/18)

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The Knox monument is upstaged by a marker celebrating Daniel Boone's presence at Camp Knox a year later.
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Knox's hunting companions are listed under a header that was probably intended to say "The Names of the Long Hunters."
3 Comments
john michael burton
9/9/2020 02:50:45 pm

Many of my ancestors were Hunters and Long Hunters. Looney,Pittman,Holston,Harman and Tate, One of my grand uncles was Stephen Holston who named the greatest by general William Green. He was hunting when Boone was a boy. You are right the Knox,Cox,Clinch and my folks were all hunting before Boone was famous

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Dr. Ken Carstens
8/30/2021 07:56:32 am

If it wasn't for John Filson writing his book in 1784 (and having it published throughout Europe), few would remember some guy named 'Boone'..........Filson made Boone popular; not Boone or his life....

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Larry lile
9/6/2022 02:05:37 am

The story is that Knox and his men came upon Boone singing in a log there at the campsite upon their arrival
There are only 16 names on the rock mentioning the group the site was a base camp
Others of the group were hunting different areas and not listed on the stone
Of those were the Lisle brothers, who were original long hunters that settled in what today is green county, upon their return to the area
William Lisle became a prosperous land speculator, his brother Daniel was a builder of the green county court house that still stands
There holdings were on greasy greek
The family name has morphed from Lisle, to Lile, and Lyle

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    Gabriel Neville

    is researching the history of the Revolutionary War's 8th Virginia Regiment. Its ten companies formed on the frontier, from the Cumberland Gap to Pittsburgh.

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