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Ashland, Lexington, Kentucky: Indians

Until his death at the battle of the Thames in 1813 Whitley was one of the chief defenders of the settlers THROUGH THE SUNNY SOUTH against the Indians. On his powder horn he cut the lines:

William Whitley, I am your horne, The truth I love, a lie I scorne, Fill me with the best of powder, I'll make your rifle crack the louder.

See how the dread, terrifick ball Makes Indians blench at Toreys fall, You with powder I'll supply For to defend your liberty.

One day in 1785 a messenger came to Whitley's Fort with the tidings that Indians had captured a mother and her babe, after killing three older children. Mr. Whitley was not at home, but Mrs. Whitley sent for him. In the meantime she collected a company of twenty rescuers. On his return Whitley placed himself at their head, pursued the Indians, and rescued the prisoners. The title Colonel was given to Whitley in 1794, when he commanded the Nickerjack expedition against the Tennessee Indians, who had been conducting foraging expeditions into Kentucky. The march was conducted with such secrecy and despatch that the enemy were taken by surprise, and were completely routed.

The last of his campaigns took place in Canada against the British, French, and Indians in 1813. Many claim that before he received his mortal wound in the battle of the Thames, he fired the shot that killed Tecumseh, the chief who had given so much trouble to the settlers of Kentucky and Indiana. Others say that the shot was fired by a Colonel Johnson.

The body of the Indian fighter rests in an unknown grave hundreds of miles from the territory he helped to wrest from the Indians, but the brick house he built near Crab Orchard is still one of the historic buildings of Kentucky.