mouth of Swift Creek, and returned to his home in Roane County with no intention of ever settling in the region now known as Hardin County himself, but only selected this land for his children.

Col. Hardin served as colonel through the Revolutionary War, for which service he received a land warrant calling for two thousand acres, which he laid in Hardin County.

This old man, after whom Hardin County was named, had seven sons-James, Gipson, Amos, Benjamin, Robert, Second Ben, and Second Bob -and one daughter-Margaret-who was married to Ninnean Steele before he came to this county.

The First Ben and Bob were killed by the Indians when they were quite young. Afterward two more sons were born, and were named Second Ben and Second Bob, after their brothers that were killed. The First Ben and Bob were out playing in the woods when the Indians came on them. Ben was taken prisoner, but Bob outran the Indian, and was shot dead. Soon after Col. Hardin bought Ben back from the Indians, and he stayed at home about two years and ran away, and

as he was never heard of, he was supposd to have been killed by the Indians.

Let us now turn to the next chapter, and see the first move made to establish a colony in

Hardin County by the Hardins, Brazeltons, and Goodens.

CHAPTER II.

THE DEPARTURE-ON THE BOAT.

COMPANY of four families, numbering twenty-six men, women, and children, began preparing to leave for a better land in the spring of 1816. Part of the company was to travel through by land, while a

few were to go down the river on a boat, and take their goods and provisions to last them for one year.

About the 7th of June the little boat moved out, having on board Solomon Brazelton, Miss Sally Brazelton, Joseph Gooden, and his wife. They proceeded down the river until they arrived at the Muscle Shoals, where they hired an Indian to pilot the boat through. This they were obliged to do, for no one but the red man knew the dangers in this rocky channel. They passed over safely, and continued their voyage for nearly three weeks down a stream where the white man's boat had never floated before, whose banks were not lined

with towns, villages, and fine farms, as now, but all was silent as the grave, except in the nighttime, when their rest was disturbed by the howl of the wolf on the distant hills, or the scream of the panther prowling through the dense forest. Day after day they traveled on, looking at the mouth of every creek they saw for the tree with Joseph Hardin's name on it, where they were to land and wait for the company that were traveling by land; but from some cause they failed to see the mouth of Swift Creek, and so went on down till they came to the mouth of Hardin's Creek. Here they decided that they had gone far enough, and ran their boat a short distance up the creek, and landed at a place where Benjamin Johnson's mill once stood. As soon as the boat struck the bank Miss Sarah Brazelton jumped ashore and said, "I am going to be the first white woman to make a track in this wild country!"

CHAPTER III.

THE TRIP BY LAND.

HE company that came through by land left Roane County about two weeks before the boat did. They were John Brazelton and his family-with the excep

tion of Solomon and Sarah, who went on the boat-James Hardin and family, Joseph Hardin, jr., and family, and Mrs. Elender Thacker and family-in all twenty-two persons.

They proceeded on, with their horses and cattle, until they reached Warren County. Here they were obliged to wait four weeks for John Brazelton and James Hardin to attend an Indian treaty near the Muscle Shoals. After this they journeyed on through a roadless country, until they arrived on the head-waters of Hardin's Creek, where the cane was so dense that it seemed almost impossible to get through; but these new settlers were not to be stopped, and so took time to cut out a road, and traveled on down the creek until on Monday,