Biography of Mathew Robertson

Mathew Robertson stated that he arrived at Paint Lick Creek (now) in Garrard County, Kentucky, eight days before Christmas in 1779 from Eastern Tennessee. The first settler activity in the Paint Lick Creek area was by William Miller who made a survey there in 1776 as did Peter Wooley on Fall Lick Road and Peter Wooley is credited with raising a crop of corn the same year. This was just a year after William Miller, John Kennedy, Arabia Brown and a few others helped Daniel Boone cut a trail from Cumberland Gap to Boonesborough. The name Paint Lick was due to the painted trees in the area and the lick nearby. Later in life Mathew stated under oath he arrived at Paint Lick Creek eight days before Christmas in 1779. This would have been about the same time James Robertson (no relation), was leading the first settlers of Nashville through Kentucky as they arrived at present Nashville on Christmas day 1779. These first settlers of Nashville, upon reaching their destination, drove their livestock across the frozen Cumberland river as this was known as the hard winter. At Boonesborugh on Christmas day the Kentucky river was frozen to a depth of two feet. The entire area was nearly paralyzed from mid-November until late February. The smaller streams were frozen solid, sap in maple trees frozen their beds, buffaloes starved to death, turkeys froze to death and fell out of trees as considerable wildlife did not survive the extreme cold.
In the spring of 1780, Mathew Robertson volunteered as a private soldier in the Revolutionary War in Captain John Kennedy's Company and Benjiman Logan's Regiment. He assisted in building Kennedy's Station, a military headquarters for activities in what is now eastern Garrard County, Kentucky. After the death of Captain John Kennedy, Captain John Martin was chosen his successor and under his and Colonel Logan's command, Mathew was with the group to assist in the Battle of Blue Licks, but met the defeated group returning. In the fall of 1872, he served under the same leadership in a tour under General George Rogers Clark into present Ohio against the Indians. The Indians were totally defeated, their towns burned and their crops ready for harvest destroyed which generally relieved the Kentucky settlers from further Indian activity. However, his primary duty as a soldier was that of an Indian spy keeping account of Indian activity in the area and when the Indians did take property or prisoners, he followed them and recovered the same. After the tour with General Clark, Matthew Robertson again took his post at Kennedy's Station and remained there in service until after 1783 when peace was realized. Joseph Wray, under oath, stated that in 1781 the area's Station's, Maxwell's had two men, Paint Lick five men, Bell's three men, Kennedy's six or seven and he did not know the number in Craig's. The activity of these men was minimized in 1781 and 1782 because of their weakness and constant threat of Indians and kept concealed as much as possible until the Fall of 1782 when large numbers of people started arriving in Kentucky. In 1784, Mathew left Kennedy's Station with his father William and went to clearing land and farming.
In 1822, John Boyle, under oath, stated "he came to Kentucky in 1779 Where he now lives in the Fall of 1781 at Slolmon Carperner's improvement and the Best's, Robertson's and others ran their horses to the forks of Back Creek to conceal them from the Indians; that it the year of Estill's defeat and of Blue Lick's in 1782, and the people stayed close because of the Indians in the country, and the region was a very caney country and hard to get through.
After living at Kennedy's Station since arriving in Kentucky in 1779, serving as a soldier out of the Station for 4 years contributing to the Revolutionary War effort and towards relieving what is now Kentucky of Indian activity, Mathew Robertson was ready to pursue farming. In 1785, he along with Alexander Robertson, James Robertson, James Robertson Jr., John Robertson, William Robertson and others signed a petition to create Mercer and Madison counties out of Lincoln which was done in 1786. From 1787 when he first listed in Madison County, Kentucky tax records with three horses and three cattle, he is listed in the 1790, 1791, 1792, 1794, 1795 and 1797 with 100 acres of land on Paint Lick Creek, and last on May 22, 1799.
The Green County Kentucky tax records list Mattew Robertson on June 25, 1800 with six horses. He is listed in the 1802 Adair County, Kentucky tax records with 700 acres of land on Russell Creek and on through 1825 with up to 1900 acres of land on Russell, Greasy, Roaring Lily, and Goose creeks. He lived in an area of Green County that became Adair County in 1802 and then Russell County in 1826.
In April 1807 he was appointed the surveyor of the road from Campbell's Ferry to Standord. On May 6, 1811, the Adair County court granted him permission to build a water grist mill. Then on June 20, 1826, the Russell County Court appointed him the surveyor of the precinct of the public highway that was his responsibility while in the County of Adair on the road from Columbia to Somerset and the same hands were to assist him who did so while in Adair County. In September 1826, he made the motion in the Russell County Court that Thomas Shaw, Shadrach Phelps, Walter Janes, and John Lane or any three of them vie the nearest and best route for a road from Jamestown in a direction to Liberty in Casey County and report back the conveniences and inconveniences to both the public and individuals in opening the road. This was realized to the east of his property. Then later Highway 127 was constructed and its route is by the cemetery where Mathew Robertson and members of his family are buried in the Humble Community about two miles north of Russell Springs, Kentucky.
On April 29, 1833, Mathew made application for a pension as Revolutionary War soldier and was granted pension # S-31338, at a rate of $80 per annum. Over 100 years after his death, the U.S. government installed an appropriate grave marker. The inscription reads as follows:
Matthew Robertson
Kentucky Pvt.
J. Kennedy's Co.
Logan's Regiment
Rev. War

Contributed by Roger Robertson.