ove the rapids and
another plying between points below the rapids. Men for unloading and
loading were kept always on the ground. This little settlement became
permanent, and is now the largest town in the State--Louisville.

How the Pioneers Lived and Fought

[Illustration: First Stockade and Cabins at the Falls of Ohio, now
Louisville. Built by George Rogers Clark in 1776.]

After the wives of the settlers in the various forts came to Kentucky,
home life took on the appearance of a settled community. Homes were built
outside the stockades, nearly every man of family had a farm of his own,
land was cleared, fruit trees were set out, attention was given to the
raising of hogs, sheep, cattle and horses, and a little Empire of the West
began to appear. The women were busy with spinning, weaving and general
housework. The men cleared and fenced their land. The fortifications were
kept only as a refuge in time of an attack by the Indians--which, however,
was not infrequent, because the French in the North coveted the rich lands
beyond the Alleghenies, and incited the Indians to warfare against the
white people who were settling there. It was the sturdy pioneers of
Kentucky, acting in the name of Virginia, who held the frontier against
the encroachments of the French, as the property of the English crown.

The notorious renegade, Simon Girty, a white man who for certain reasons
forsook civilized society and associated himself with the Indians of
Northern Ohio, was willing at all times to harass the settlers on the
frontier at the suggestion of the French military commanders. This man
cared not for spilling the blood of his own race, and frequently would
lead his hostile bands in attacks against the unprotected settlements. His
favorite time for attack seemed to be in the spring of the year, when the
men were at work in the fields and offered the least resistance by a
speedy rally of forces.

We have noticed that all these forts were built near a spring of unfailing
water. The pioneers seem always to have left the spring outside the
inclosure, however, and since this worked a great hardship in time of
siege, it seems to have been bad judgment. Girty's Indians attacked
Logan's Fort. The supply of water inside the fort was exhausted, and the
suffering was intense. After this siege, General Logan decided never again
to be subjected to such an extremity. He could not bring the spring to the
fo