Note 35 — JOURNAL OF ANDRÉ MICHAUX

There was no better-known character in the West, than Governor Shelby. Born in Maryland in 1750, the family were of pioneer stock, and early moved to Western Virginia, where young Shelby was sheriff (1771), and lieutenant under his father, Evan Shelby, at the Battle of Point Pleasant (1774). The next year he surveyed in Kentucky, and then returned to the Holston to engage in the Revolutionary struggles. To his forethought is attributed the success of the battle of King’s Mountain, after which he served in the North Carolina legislature. Removing to Kentucky in 1783, Shelby was welcomed as a hero by the new community, and made the first governor of the State. He served a second term during the War of 1812-15, reinforcing Harrison at a critical juncture for the Western division of the army. Refusing the portfolio of war, offered by Monroe in 1817, Shelby retired to his farm in Lincoln County, where he died in 1826. Michaux carried letters to Shelby; see American Historical Association Report, 1896, pp. 983, 984. On Shelby’s later attitude toward the expedition, see ibid., pp. 934, 1023, 1040, note.—​Ed.