Bedsole - NCGenWeb

Everybody constantly slid or fell into the river and stayed wet all night. Another big job which went with this
was spending two to three days hunting and collecting "Puppy dogs" (salamanders, or spring lizards), for
bait. They hid under logs and stumps and piles of wet leaves in the swamps, but only in the swamps, which
meant you had to slog through the muddy, nasty, swamp. This was the only bait which was free and which
the big "Channel cat" catfish would bite.
People couldn't afford to waste time and energy on anything fish would not bite. This exercise was to
produce food for starving families. It was not a side dish, nor something they picked up at the supermarket,
since there was no such thing then. They were fishing for their families to have food and for their very lives.
The next day, it usually took several people an entire day to skin and clean the catfish, cut them up and fry
them. At the table to eat, needless to say, was any neighbor crowd who had gotten the word.
. EARLY INDIAN PROBLEMS
Although indian attacks on white settlers and settlements, in Virginia are listed below, they are only
examples. Indians were just as adversarial and warlike in North Carolina too. For those Bedsoles who were
living here prior to 1800, indians were almost a constant problem and that was true for all states which were
initially "Settled" by pioneers. On top of all the day to day hardships our ancestors were already suffering,
they were frequently savagely attacked and murdered by indians. The examples listed further on, are also
listed in the unpublished manuscript, "Dunsmores Indian Massacres", in the Archives of the Virginia State
Library.
"The Indians are coming up the Sandy," was the first cry of many a Virginia border spy when he rushed into
one of the frontier forts. The report would bring hurried preparations for defense, and fleet runners would
rush off to warn the scattered pioneers to seek the security of the forts. Low gaps through the Cumberlands
were ingresses into Virginia for the dreaded Shawnee from the Scioto and other Ohio points. When the
heavy snows of their midcontinent climate melted and the first signs of spring appeared, the redskins stirred
from their lethargy of long inaction and turned toward the Sandy Passes into Virginia. Beyond the gaps of the
mountain wall were pioneer settlements and scattered cabin homes. To the indians, there was plunder and
many scalps to be taken. Virginians called the gaps "the Sandy Passes" and kept scouts patrolling beyond
them into a wilderness known as the Scouting Ground, in order to provide as much advance notice as
possible for preparation, prior to an impending attack. Some indians came through the gap at the head of the
" Dry Fork of Tug River", others through the passes at the head of the Tug.
For the frontier settlers, Scouts or spies as many called them, were selected from volunteers. They were
rugged, self-reliant, courageous, and dreaded little the loneliness of days on the march deep down Big
Sandy, Tug Fork or the Kentucky rivers. They went in two's or four's, carried food for the duration of their
journeys. They were forbidden to use their guns except in the direst emergencies, were forbidden even to
build a fire. Skulking Indians might hear or see and ambush them. Many a frontier settlements and cabins
went up in flames and its inhabitants carried off or massacreed because its protecting scouts were killed, or
did'nt detect an impending attack. Isolated cabins were the most vulnerable to attacks. Here are just a few
examples of the savage atrocities commited against these settlers. Many more and much worse, widespread
cases occurred to those who lived in the earlier "settlements" of 1605-1780, when and where there were no
army post to help protect the "Frontiers", of these increasing and expanding early settlements.
PAGE THIRTY
Jessee Adams, Russell County, Virginia. Him, his wife and ten children were massacred by the Indians on
Stock Creek in 1782. His two brothers are said to have also been killed by Indians near Fort Blackmore in
1790.