Welcome!  I am Jean Hounshell Peppers 

So Glad You Stopped By!

Some of my surnames are: Bagley/Castle/Cox/Daniels/Gearheart/Graham//Hagaman
Heffner/Hounshell/Howard/Martin/Mayo/Messersmith/Morgan/VanHoose 

Most of my ancestors are of Scott/Irish and Dutch/German Descent, 
hard working Farmers & Coal Miners. The following account of the first 
settlers of S/E Kentucky is from the book, by William C Kozee 
"Pioneer Families of Eastern and Southeastern Kentucky"
(I have underlined surnames of my family ties) 

Pioneer Settlers ,From Whence
 And How They Came

                           
As soon as the treaty of peace between England and America was signed 1783 there was a great inrush of new-comers into Kentucky. They came over the Wilderness Road, they came down the Ohio River, they tramped over the Cumberlands-population flowing in at a rate estimated at 8,000 to 10,000 a year. They were Ango-Saxon stock, they were of English descent, descendants of Huguenots from France, from Germans from the Palatinate, of Scotch-Irish from Ulster, Northern Ireland, they were youths fresh from the Revolutionary War to whom land grants had been given, they came from Pennsylvania, Maryland, and the Carolinas, and an important quota came from Connecticut, New York and New Jersey.
    The early settlers of the mountains of Kentucky were principally an overflow from the great stream of immigration westward bound from the seaboard towns of Pennsylvania, New York, New Jersey and Maryland and the plantations of Virginia and the Carolinas. These people were for the most part home-seekers. Making their way & up the great Valley of Virginia with the Blue Ridge to the East and the Alleghanies to the West, the most of these pioneers passed from the Shenandoah onto the headwaters of the New River, and thence to the Holston, the Clinch and Powell Rivers. From this point the principal trail led most of them through the Cumberland Gap into Kentucky over the Wilderness Road. Some keeping on, however, followed down the Clinch and the Holston and made their way over into Central Tennessee, while others continued to push even further into the Southwest.
           During the height of this great transmontane migration from 1785 to 1810 a few of the pioneers, annually,  turned  northward  into the  New River Valley and others left the trail for the North at Fort Chiswell  (in  present  day Wythe County, Virginia).  These  were  principally Virginian and Carolinian, home-seekers, who were attracted by the reports of the rich bottom lands in the river valleys. They made their way over the heads of the Kentucky, the Tug and the Levisa forks. Others particularly those from New Jersey, New York and New England, continued westwardly to Pittsburg and from thence they came down the Ohio River in flatboats.

 The First Settlers

    There was no record of any white men having permanently settled in the mountain region of Kentucky prior to 1789. About this time emigrants began coming to the Big Sandy Valley from Virginia and Maryland. In that year the Leslies attempted to form a settlement at the  mouth of Pond Creek on the Tug River, but were driven out by the vigilance of the Indians.They returned however, in 1791; but instead of locating at the mouth of Pond Creek, they crossed over to Johns Creek and formed what was later known as the LeslieSettlement. About this time came the Damrons, Harmons, Auxiers, Grahams, Browns, Marcums, Johns, Hammonds, Weddingtons, Morgans, Harrises, Pinsons, Walkers, Williamsons, Marrs, Mayos, Lackeys, Laynes, Prestons, Borderses, and many others. Following these closely came the Clarks, Belchers, Brewers, Bevins, Dixons, Cecils, Goffs, Ganards, Hatchers, Meades, McGuires, McDowells, Millards, Fulkersons, Hatfields, Porters, Runyons, Friends, Ratliffs, Osborns, Staffords, Strattons, Robinsons, Stumps.

While these pioneer families were immigrating to the Big Sandy Valley the Adames, Campbells, Mays, Finleys, Martins, Hayes, Blackburns, Andersons, Saylers, Days Smiths, Taylors, Combses, Stallards, Lewises, Collinses, Webbs, Wrights, Kellys, Caudills, Crafts and Hammonds were settling on the head-waters of the Cumberland and Kentucky Rivers. Many of these families also came to the Big Sandy. Peace having been restored along the frontier settlements by the terms of the Treaty of Greenville (1795) after the defeat of he Indians by General Mad Anthony Wayne at the Fallens Timbers (1794) and no futher dangers being apprehended from the Indians, there was a great rush ;to the most desirable parts of the New River Valley and westward by the people from eastern Virginia and western North Carolina. The middle New River settled rapidly. Coincident with this increase in immigration a vast throng of people from the New River settlements and the Ohio and settled on the Big Sandy, the Guyandotte and the Coal waters, even reaching the Ohio. Among those pioneer settlers were the McCommases, Chapmans, Lucases, Smiths, Coopers, Naipers, Hunters, Adkinses, Accords, Allens, Fryes,Dingesses, Lusks,Shannons, Baileys, Jarrells, Egglestons, Fergusons, Marcums, Hatfields, Bromfields, Haldeons, Lamberts, Pauleys, Lawsons, Workmans, Prices, Cookes, Clays, Godbeys, Huffs, McDonalds, Whites, Farleys, Keezees, Perdues, Ballards, Barretts, Toneys,Conleys, Stallings, Strattons, Buchanans, Deskins, Bryans, Van Hooses and many others who largely peopled the section and left honored descendants thoughout it. A great number of these families finally settled on the Kentucky side of the Tug Fork and the Big Sandy River.
Near the forks of the Big Sandy, Samuel Short reared his cabin (near Cassville) about 1796 followed by others in 1798 and subsequent years. On the upper waters of Twelve Pole the first settlers arrived in 1799. The present territory of Cabell County was settled at a comparatively later date. The earliest settlements in the territory were on the Savage Grant, made in 1775, to Captin John Savage and his company of soldiers of the French Indian War.