iver. It was composed principally of families from York county,
Pennsylvania--orderly, respectable people, and the men good soldiers. But
they were unaccustomed to Indian warfare, and the consequence was,
that of some ten or twelve men, all were killed but two or three. During
this period, Peter Duree, the elder, the principal man of the connection,
determined to settle a new fort between Estill's station and the mouth of
Muddy Creek, directly on the trace between the Cherokee and Shawnese
towns. Having erected a cabin, his son-in-law, John Bullock and his
family, and his son Peter Duree, his wife and two children, removed to
it, taking a pair of hand mill stones with them. They remained for two or
three days shut up in their cabin, but their corn meal being exhausted,
they were compelled to venture out to cut a hollow tree in order to
adjust their hand mill. They were attacked by Indians--Bullock, after
running a short distance, fell. Duree reached the cabin, and threw himself
upon the bed. Mrs. Bullock ran to the door to ascertain the fate of her
husband--received a shot in the breast, and fell across the door sill.
Mrs. Duree, not knowing whether her husband had been shot or had
fainted, caught her by the feet, pulled her into the house and barred
the door. She grasped a rifle and told her husband, she would help him to
fight. He replied that he had been wounded and was dying. She then
presented the gun through several port holes in quick succession--then
calmly sat by her husband and closed his eyes in death. You would
conclude that the scene ought to end here--but after waiting several
hours, and seeing nothing more of the Indians, she sallied out in
desperation to make her way to the White Oak Spring, with her infant in
her arms, and a son, three or four years of age, following her. Afraid to
pursue the trace, she entered the woods, and after running till she
was nearly exhausted she came at length to the trace. She determined
to follow it at all hazards, and having advanced a few miles further,
she met the elder Mr. Duree, with his wife, and youngest son, with
their baggage, on their way to the new station. The melancholy tidings
induced them, of course, to return. They led their horses into an
adjoining canebrake, unloaded them, and regained the White Oak Spring
fort before daylight.

It is impossible at this day to make a just impression of the sufferings
of the pioneers about the period spoken of. The White Oak