Jesse Oldham & First Kentucky Corn Crop
This information has been compiled from county records and
information taken from the National Geographic.
"The peace of home eluded Boone after the
Revoluntary War, even as settlers poured unto Kentucky. Working
as a surveyor and land agent, he amassed thousands of acreas, but
inadequate record keeping, conflicting land claims, and
Kentucky's change from a county of Virginia, to a state cost him
most of his property. Confusion over land engendered ill will and
financial claims against Boone by settlers whose lands he had
surveyed. Early surveys' overlapping claims gave the name to
"shingled maps." The map below shows the conflicting
boundaries claimed by Boone and other in Madison County,
Kentucky." December 1985 National Geographic
Following is a disposition taken from county records in
Madison County. Jesse OLDHAM is a Great Great Great Great
Grandfather of mine. The map shows an N. Hart? Is this the
Nathaniel Hart of this disposition? I have also seen other
references to the fact that this may have been the first
"recorded" corn crop in Kentucky.
Volume 1..Page 187 & 188..Deposition of JESSE OLDHAM, aged
72 years (taken at an improvement of Nathaniel Hart, deceased, in
Madison County, on March 3, 1802, before Robert Caldwell):
Deponent came to KY from NC in the year 1775 [Note by Staples:
one of the five brothers in 
Battle
of Guilford Court House; he was also in Twitty's Fort when
Indians attacked same] at which time he passed by the blue licks
and from thence near the improvement to Twitty's Fort and the
trace he travelled was then called and known by the name of
Boone's Trace. In the year 1775 he together with Nathaniel Hart
and others planted a crop of corn at Boonesborough. He came out
to KY again in the spring of 1779 at which time he together with
Nathaniel Hart and others raised a crop of corn at Boonesborough
and in the same year raised a crop of corn at this improvement
and also at the deponent's improvement which lies near to this
place on the creek. He has never known or heard this improvement
called by any other name than Nathaniel Hart's improvement.
Question by complainant: Have you not always understood that
Nathaniel Hart obtained his settlement and improvement by virtue of the
improvement?
Answer: Yes I did; I was not here when the Commissioners sat and never saw
the certificate until today.
Question by defendant: Did Nathaniel Hart and you raise the crop of corn in
partnership?
Answer: No, his corn for himself and mine for myself.
Question by same: Was not there a contract between you and Nathaniel Hart,
that if you never came to the county he was to claim both claims?
Answer: Yes, he was.
Question by the complainant: Was not Nathaniel Hart to clear out your claim
on the halves and if you never came to KY he was to have all of it?
Answer: He was so. My claim and Nathaniel Hart's claim were two separate
and distinct claims. I did not expect to get more than 400 acres of land
and that for raising corn in 1779.
Question by defendant: What do you suppose is the distance between
Nathaniel's Hart's improvement and yours?
Answer: I suppose it may be about a mile.
Question by same: Was there any improvements at this place when you
first came to KY in 1775?
Answer: Not as I know of.
Question by plaintiff: Did not Nathaniel Hart leave his negroes at
Boonesborough in 1775 to make his crop of corn?
Answer: I cannot tell.
Volume 1..Page 191 & 192..Desposition of JESSE OLDHAM (taken at his
own house in Madison County on January 7, 1805, before John Wilkerson, a
single magistrate): That Silver Creek and Hart's Fork of Silver Creek,
Boone's old trace, Squire Boone's stockfield tract, and Nathaniel Hart's
improvement on Boone's old trace were places of great notoriety and well
known in KY in the year 1779. That Boone's old trace was marked out in the
year 1775 and was the road leading from Boonesborough and the uppe r parts
of KY through the Wilderness, which was generally travelled. That Nathaniel
Hart's improvement was within sight of Boone's old trace and must have been
well known to every person travelling or passing along that trace as there
was a considerable quantity of corn made at it in the summer of 1779.
Volume 1..Page 257..Deposition of JESSE OLDHAM (taken December 1,
1810): States that Nathaniel Hart and I married sisters. Boone's old trace
was marked out in year 1775 and was the road leading from Boonesborough and
upper part of KY through the wilderness and it was then generally traveled.
Volume 1..Page 261..Deposition of EDWARD WILLIAMS (taken at house of
Nicholas Anderson in Montgomery County, on May 14, 1804): He set out from
Boonesborough in the month of June 1779 to go to VA and encamped the first
night on waters of Silver Creek in company with a number of others and that
Nathaniel Hart and JESSE OLDHAM set out at same time for the settlements
but were obliged to go out of their way for a horse that was bit by a snake
and did not join the company until that evening. That whe n the said Hart
and OLDHAM set out from Boonesborough they appointed to meet the company
at said JESSE OLDHAM's improvement at the creek. That they all set out
together the next morning and passed by Nathaniel Hart's improvement and
said Hart informed deponent and company that it was his improvement and
there was a present at Boonesborough when Nathaniel Hart laid in his claim
before the Commissioner's for his settlement and preemption, and the said
Hart informed this deponent that he had obtained his certificate for this
improvement on Silver Creek.
Article compiled by Michael
Brown