The 15th of November traveled through parts of very high Mountains in the midst of which we crossed Clinch river and slept at Houlston Station[1] in the house of one . . . 27 Miles.
The 16th followed the bank of the Houlston river and slept at the house of . . . Amis Esquire, three Miles from Hawkin Court house.[2] 26 Miles.
Sunday the 17th the Rain compelled me to remain in a a small Cabin near the North fork of Houlston 25 Miles. The 18th my horse was so tired owing to the rapidity of the journey and the bad roads across the Wilderness that I was obliged to stop after a Journey of only eleven Miles. 11 Miles.
The 19th started at daybreak. At the foot of the house where I lodged, the Kentuckey road divides,[3] the right one leads to Burke court house in North Carolina passing by the Mouth of Wataga river; the other leads to Abington court house, the first town of Virginia. As my horse was still tired, I made only 20 miles.
The 20th I made 15 Miles; arrived at Abington.[4]
The 21st I slept 22 Miles from Abington near Seven Miles Ford, the middle Branch of the Houlston.
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- ↑ The Clinch and Holston rivers are upper waters of the Tennessee, in southwestern Virginia and northeastern Tennessee. The settlements in these valleys were among the first on the west-flowing streams. See map in Turner, "State Making in the Revolutionary Era," in American Historical Review, i, p. 74.―Ed.
- ↑ Both of these stations are mentioned in an early journal; see Speed, Wilderness Road, p. 21. The first was the seat for Hawkins County, Tennessee.―Ed.
- ↑ The forks of the road was at the junction of the north and south forks of the Holston River, near the present town of Kingsport, Sullivan County, Tennessee.―Ed.
- ↑ Abingdon, originally known as Wolf Hills, was one of the earliest settle- ments in the Valley of Virginia, and the seat of Washington County. It was established as a town in 1778. It is still the county seat, and a station on the Norfolk & Western Railway.―Ed.
