Henry Scaggs

Henry Scaggs (January 8, 1724 — 1810?) was an American hunter, explorer and pioneer, active primarily on the frontiers of Tennessee and Kentucky during the latter half of the 18th century. His career as an explorer began as early as 1761 as one of the so-called long hunters— men who undertook lengthy hunting expeditions into the Trans-Allegheny wilderness. In subsequent years, working as a land agent with Richard Henderson and Daniel Boone, he explored large parts of Middle Tennessee and Central Kentucky. Scaggs is credited with the rescue of noted kidnap victim Jenny Wiley in 1790, and led a failed attempt to apprehend the Harpe Brothers in 1799.

Long hunter

Scaggs was born in Maryland in 1724 to James Scaggs, a Scots-Irish immigrant, and Rachel Moredock, a native of Fincastle County, Virginia. James Scaggs and his sons were noted hunters and fur traders.[1]

In 1761, Scaggs joined an expedition led by Elisha Walden into Carter's Valley in present-day Hawkins County, Tennessee. This was followed by a 1763 trip deeper into Cumberland territory.[2]

In 1764, Scaggs led his first expedition through the Cumberland Gap, a mountain pass at the junction of Kentucky, Tennessee and Virginia. These early trips westward attracted the interest of famed explorer Daniel Boone. Boone used his existing relationship with North Carolina land speculator Richard Henderson to recruit Scaggs as an agent for Henderson's land company, Richard Henderson and Company. In 1765, Scaggs explored the lower Cumberland River region (upper Middle Tennessee) as an agent of Henderson and established his station near the present day Goodlettsville, Tennessee.[3]

In the Fall of 1769, Scaggs returned to the Cumberland with Kasper Mansker, Joseph Drake and Colonel James Knox. This expedition reached the Dix River in Kentucky, and pressed on to the Green River country. One day on this expedition, the group heard an eerie sound unlike anything they had ever heard before. Mansker pressed forward to investigate only to find the source of the mysterious noise to be Daniel Boone, sprawled on a deerskin singing. The Boones, Daniel and Squire, stayed with the expedition for a week or two, harvesting wild meat and rendering tallow.[4]

Part of the Wilderness Road, crossing Rockcastle County, Kentucky from Hazel Patch to Crab Orchard, was known as "Skaggs Trace," named after Henry Scaggs.

In June 1775, Scaggs, along with Valentine Harman, a member of the Transylvania Convention at Boonesborough in May, led Colonel Thomas Slaughter to the Green River country of Kentucky to explore that land on behalf of Richard Henderson's Transylvania Company, which had recently purchased the area along with a large portion of Central Kentucky.[5]

Kentucky pioneer

Scaggs permanently settled in Kentucky in 1789 on Pitman's Creek in Barren County. He is credited with the rescue of the kidnapped pioneer Jenny Wiley from a Native American raiding party at Harman's Station, Kentucky in 1790 by piloting a crude raft made from logs and vines to transport her across the river to the safety of the blockhouse.

In 1799, Scaggs led the pursuit of the notorious serial killers, the Harpe Brothers, in Western Kentucky. Several posses were formed to look for the escaped men, but the only one that found them became frightened and ran. Scaggs, enraged, tried to re-form the scattered party and pursue the Harpes, but to no avail. Undeterred, he pressed on alone, and an hour later encountered a crowd of some 20-30 settlers, jigging and drinking in the cabin of some newcomers at the close of a house-raising celebration. Scaggs told them his dire news. The men, already quite drunk, grabbed bottles and rifles indiscriminately and joined the hunt for the Harpes. Once in the forest, however, the posse's enthusiasm evaporated. Once again, Scaggs saw his followers disappear, and continued on alone.[6]

Scaggs came to the cabin of a pioneer named Colonel Daniel Trabue, an old Indian fighter. Trabue agreed to join the hunt for the Harpes as soon as his son returned from an errand to borrow some flour and beans from a neighbor. Unfortunately for Trabue, the famished Harpes found his son first. The son's blood-soaked dog returned to the cabin and led Trabue and Scaggs to the sinkhole where the Harpes had discarded the body. He had been brutally beaten and tomahawked, and his load of supplies was stolen. Scaggs and Trabue searched for days, but never found the Harpes.[7]

References

  1. ↑ Lyman C. Draper, Ted Belue (ed.), The Life of Daniel Boone. Cited at AppalachianAristocracy.com. Retrieved: 5 February 2011.
  2. ↑ Alderman, Pat (1986). The Overmountain Men. Overmountain Press. p. 12.
  3. ↑ Henderson, Archibald (1918). Isaac Shelby: Revolutionary Patriot and Border Hero. Vol. 1. North Carolina Society. Raleigh, North Carolina. p. 125.
  4. ↑ Belue, Ted Franklin (2003). The Hunters of Kentucky: A Narrative History of America's First Far West, 1750-1792. Stackpole Books. Mechanicsville, Pennsylvania. p. 71.
  5. ↑ Draper, Lyman Copeland (1998). The Life on Daniel Boone. Stackpole Books. Mechanicsville, Pennsylvania. pp. 269-271.
  6. ↑ Coates, Robert M. (1930). The Outlaw Years: The History of the Land Pirates of the Natchez Trace. The Macaulay Company. New York. p. 38.
  7. ↑ Coates, Robert M. (1930). The Outlaw Years: The History of the Land Pirates of the Natchez Trace. The Macaulay Company. New York. p. 39.

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