goods upon one or two horses, pushed back fifty miles farther
southwest, into the trackless wilderness. Here he found, about ten
miles above the present site of Greenville, a fertile and beautiful
region. Upon the banks of a little brook, which furnished him with
an abundant supply of pure water, he reared another shanty, and took
possession of another four hundred acres of forest land. Some of his
boys were now old enough to furnish efficient help in the field and
in the chase.

How long John Crockett remained here we know not. Neither do we know
what induced him to make another move. But we soon find him pushing
still farther back into the wilderness, with his hapless family of
sons and daughters, dooming them, in all their ignorance, to the
society only of bears and wolves. He now established himself upon a
considerable stream, unknown to geography, called Cue Creek.

David Crockett was now about eight years old. During these years
emigration had been rapidly flowing from the Atlantic States into
this vast and beautiful valley south of the Ohio. With the
increasing emigration came an increasing demand for the comforts of
civilization. Framed houses began to rise here and there, and
lumber, in its various forms, was needed.

John Crockett, with another man by the name of Thomas Galbraith,
undertook to build a mill upon Cove Creek. They had nearly completed
it, having expended all their slender means in its construction,
when there came a terrible freshet, and all their works were swept
away. The flood even inundated Crockett's cabin, and the family was
compelled to fly to a neighboring eminence for safety.