Welcome to Owenton Kentucky





Early Settlements In This Area Had Troubles
With Angry Indians From Across The Ohio River

The Indians saw that the white people were coming into all areas of Kentucky, including the general areas that is now Owen, Carroll, and Gallatin counties. Taking possession of everything and forcing them to stay on the other side of the Ohio river. The Indians of course, resented this intrusion of their territory.

1792, alarms became more frequent and the settlers were constantly fleeing to forts for protection and safety. One Sunday early in the fall, an alarm was sent out, and Jarrett Demint took his family to the nearest fort in Carroll county. He left them there and went to bring in a woman and two children whose husband was not at home. He gave the woman and children his horse to go on the road to the fort while he took a nearer way by foot across the fields. He had to pass through a cornfield.

Surrounded

When he got fairly in the field the Indians rose up all around him and took him prisoner. They tied a buffalo tug, a rope made of strips of rawhide, around his neck and led him to a sinkhole, where all the Indians stood over him with drawn tomahawks, threatening him with instant death. He was handsome and his gentle and nice looks must have softened the hearts of the savages. After a palaver of some time, they started on still leading him by the tug. They came to a house whence the settlers had fled for safety. In a short time, the house was in flames. It had been set on fire by them with the use of flints.

They traveled with him several days. He could not drink the water out of the rawhide bags they used themselves. They gave him water from a bell, a cowbell, they had with them. They dug up raw meat from under a log and offered it to him, but he could not eat any of it. He saw by the stars that they were going toward the Ohio river, and he feared that he would be taken across it.

Stop at River

They traveled all the time night and day and did not stop at all. It was Sunday afternoon when he was taken and Thursday night they came to the Ohio river near what is now the town of Ghent in Carroll county.

They were all so exhausted that the word of halt was given and they fell and stretched themselves on the ground. Mr. Demint feigned great fatigue and pretended to be asleep as soon as he lay down, but as he lay there he managed to get as much of the rope as possible under him. He did not move again until all were still. He was far from being asleep for if they had got him across the river he knew he faced torture and certain death.

Slipped Away

When they all and the sentinels, too, were asleep, he silently gnawed the rope, which was a long one, with either end stretched out and all the Indians lying down on it. When the knot was soft it became loose and slipped over his head, then he arose to his feet, stepped into the shadow of a tree and silently walked away.

He did not feel safe yet for he had a little dog which had remained with him all the time. He feared that they might put a bell on the dog and thus follow him. He heard a rustle in the leaves, then his dog licked his hand. He felt safe then and started for his home. He traveled by the stars and arrived there Friday afternoon. He had not eaten a morsel of food since the Sunday before.

His father-in-law had come and taken his wife and children home to live and had given Demint up as lost. His wife felt her widowhood although she never was a widow. The hard buffalo tug that was tied around Demint's neck made it very sore and the scar remained on his neck the rest of his life. He died in 1851 at more than 90 years of age.