d
true to this early love, though her lover was only a private soldier. And
it may be well to record that, the gallant colonel who thus threatened
infidelity to his, did actually, notwithstanding his protestations, go to
Kentucky the following year, and was married to Miss Susan Hart, who made
him a faithful and excellent wife.

During the whole of the trying period that intervened between the first
settlement of east Tennessee and the close of the Revolutionary struggle,
Colonel Bledsoe, with his brother and kinsmen, was almost incessantly
engaged in the strife with their Indian foes, as well as in the laborious
enterprise of subduing the forest, and converting the tangled wilds into
the husbandman's fields of plenty. In these varied scenes of trouble and
trial, of toil and danger, the men were aided and encouraged by the women.
Mary Bledsoe, the colonel's wife, was a woman of remarkable energy, and
noted for her independence both of thought and action. She never hesitated
to expose herself to danger whenever she thought it her duty to brave it;
and when Indian hostilities were most fierce, when their homes were
frequently invaded by the murderous savage, and females struck down by the
tomahawk or carried into captivity, she was foremost in urging her husband
and friends to go forth and meet the foe, instead of striving to detain
them for the protection of her own household. During this time of peril and
watchfulness little attention could have been given to books, even had the
pioneers possessed them; but the Bible, the Confession of Faith, and a few
such works as Baxter's Call, Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress, etc., were
generally to be found in the library of every resident on the frontier.

About the close of the year 1779, Colonel Bledsoe and his brothers, with a
few friends, crossed the Cumberland Mountains, descended into the valley of
Cumberland River, and explored the beautiful region on its banks. Delighted
with its shady woods, its herds of buffaloes, its rich and genial soil, and
its salubrious climate, their report on their return induced many of the
inhabitants of East Tennessee to resolve on seeking a new home in the
Cumberland Valley. The Bledsoes did not remove their families thither until
three years afterwards; but the idea of settling the valley originated with
them; they were the first to explore it, and it was in consequence of their
report and advice that the expedition was fitted out, under the direc