The First Harrison . . .

It's a new dawn, it's a new day, it's a new life and I am feeling good.  Surprise! Surprise! Surprise!  I am bringing this blog to you from Albuquerque, New Mexico!  I decided to bring my lap-top with me as I drove up here in my truck.  Windy all the way after I  drove into New Mexico.  No problems though.

I went yesterday afternoon with my grand kids, Aaron and Jordan for their Drama rehearsal. It started raining on the way there, the temperature dropped, it turned to sleet, then snow.  It did not last long and the snow did not stick. Thank goodness, everything is back to normal this morning.  Although, I did get up to use the bathroom last night and stepped into water.  I woke Nathan up, he came into the living room and then figured out that the water softener recycled and the water backed up through the lowest drain in the house. After he done some snake work on the drain pipe, everything returned to normal.

I said I would be doing work on the relationship between my grandma Hardin and the King and Queen of Denmark, but that will have to be at a later date.  Sorry.  So, I will tell a short story about the first Harrison in what is now Jackson County, Kentucky.

I our neck of the woods, all of the school kids are taught about Daniel Boone discovering the Cumberland Gap and finding a new way into what is new southeastern Kentucky.  They are taught the before Daniel Boone the only white men in Kentucky were the 'long hunters' who came over the Cumberland Mountains.  Well, someone had to have shown Daniel the way.

There was a man who once kept a diary and that man was John Dickey.  He traveled up and down the new frontier, stopping at homes along the way and talking and writing up the stories of the families who lived there.  The following is an exert from John Dickey's Diary:

The first Harrison to permanently settle in what is today Jackson County, Kentucky was Elisha Harrison.  He came here on a hunting expedition with his father, John, somewhere in the middle of the 1700's.  John and Elisha Harrison are mentioned as two of the original eight 'long hunters' to explore Kentucky.  They were living on what is known today as Elisha's Branch Road, just north of McKee, when Daniel Boone made his first trip to Kentucky.  Daniel Boone stayed with Elisha and John for a while before continuing his journey into central Kentucky.  John went with Daniel and helped to build Fort Boonesborough in April of 1775.  They were also in the party that helped rescue Daniel Boone's daughter when she and a couple of her friends were captured by Indians.

Til next time, live large my friends.
jim