Pioneer Voices

This work focuses on the first-hand accounts of men and women who came to Clark County, Kentucky during the early settlement period, 1775-1800. The accounts are drawn from the interviews conducted by Rev. John D. Shane with aging pioneers in the 1840s and 50s. To make their stories accessible to modern readers, thirty-two interviews and one memoir were transcribed from microfilm and explanatory material was added. They describe their adventures coming out to this new country, America's first western frontier, and many recounted their clashes with Indians, often in graphic detail. Shane recorded their stories in plain language that includes a wealth of valuable information about everyday life in the wilderness that was then Kentucky.