Author: Jan Linwood Callaway
5X Great Grandfather, Colonel Richard Callaway He was born in Caroline Country, Virginia on June 14, 1717. Later he moved to Kentucky where he was a longhunter and early settler. He was sergeant, lieutenant and major of forces active in the French and Indian Wars. He was appointed one of the trustees of New London, KY and patented lands in Bedford, KY during the period 1762-70. In September 1775, he moved to Boonesborough with his own and other families. He was partners with Daniel Boone in 1775 where they marked the Wilderness Road into central Kentucky. He was also one of the founders of Boonesborough, Kentucky and he took part in organizing the short-lived colony of Transylvania, Ky. In 1776, two of his daughters, Elizabeth or "Betsy" and Frances, along with Boone's daughter Jemima, were kidnapped outside Boonesborough by Native Americans. He led one of parties in the rescue of the girls. His nephew Flanders, later married Jemima Boone. This is the basis for the fictional story told in the movie “Last of the Mohicans”. In April 1777, during the first ever election in Kentucky, he and John Todd were elected to the Virginia legislature as burgesses from Kentucky County, Virginia. In June 1778, he was appointed a justice of the peace and made colonel of the county's militia. He was a defender during the 1778 siege of Boonesborough. when it was attacked by Indian savages during September 1778 following Daniel Boone's capture. He did disagree with some of Boone's actions during this time and resented the younger man's popularity with the settlers. So much, that he later brought court martial charges against Boone. He was angry that the court acquitted and then promoted Boone instead of punishing him. He was a justice of the peace and colonel of the county and was appointed to a commission for opening a road over Cumberland Mountain to Kentucky in 1779. On the 8th of March, 1780, while he and several others were engaged in construction of a ferry boat, about one mile above the settlement, they were fired upon by a war party of Shawnee Indians where he was killed and scalped. Two days later his body was recovered and buried at a spot just back of the fort. Colonel Callaway left a widow (his 2nd wife), and children of both marriages. Callaway County, Kentucky is named for him. 12 years later Kentucky entered the Union. In a quote by R. Alexander Bate A.B., M.D, in an article published in The Filson Club History Quarterly [volume 29, no. 1, January 1955, Louisville, Kentucky] it was said that: "Probably no single man accomplished more than did Colonel Richard Callaway in laying the foundation that culminated in the admission of Kentucky into the Union on June 1, 1792".