an affectionate and final farewell, and offer fervent prayers for their safe journey and prosperous life, never expecting to see them again this side of the great eternity, neither expecting to hear from them by letter except at long intervals, as the mail facilities in that day were scarcely established at all to the district of Kentucky and the Mississippi Territory, the destination of these emigrants.

Busy must have been the scene and many the sobs and tears as the sorrowful throng mingled in disorder and confusion during the brief hours that sad morning, before the final start was made. At Length the final moment came, when Joseph and Clement gave the word to start. As the wagons moved slowly away, the long pent-up grief and sorrow burst forth afresh, and seemed not to abate until the wagons were lost sight of beyond the hills and forest, toward the west. the progress was necessarily slow, as there were no well-improved roads in that early day and the great part of the route lay through a rough and mountainous country; they usually camped at night in some valley near good water and where fuel was convenient, to prepare their night and morning meals. sometimes they slept in the wagons, and at others on improvised beds or pallets on the ground.

There were no towns or cities of any size through which they passed until reaching Pittsburgh, Pa. Here the tedious and rough rode of traveling was changed from the wagon to the equally tedious keel-boat, on the Ohio river, which was only a large and rough flatboat that had no motive or propelling power, just simply floated with the current and was guided by long poles used by hand and pushed down to the bottom of the river. When Maysville, Ky., was reached, there came another separation, Joseph and perhaps wife continuing on down the river to the Mississippi Territory.

Clement and his family landed at Maysville, and moved on by wagon again about eighty or one hundred miles southwesterly, and arrived near Cynthiana, Harrison Co., July 4, some seven or eight weeks after leaving the old land and home. Here Clement Hearne rented a house and bought one hundred acres of land for two and one-half dollars per acre and bought sixty acres just over the line in Bourbon Co., near Leesburg that now is, though there was not a sign of house or civilization there at that time, as I have often heard my uncles William and Burton say that they laid the foundation

[Continued on page 281]

Thanks to Candy Hearn for transcribing this page.