Trabue said, "Eight of us journeyed through the Cumberland gap and made it to Daniel Boone's Forte Boonsboro. Then 40 miles on to Forte Logan in Lincoln County. He said there is bread milk and butter, making life good at Ben Logan's forte.

"When I had to make hunting trips to help feed the large population at Logan's Forte, I got my first glimpse of Green River country where I would one day locate.

"I married Col. Robert Haskins daughter Mary. We moved to Fayette County, KY around 1790. It wasn't too long til it began to get crowded there. I remembered the Green River country and my family bought acreage along Skinhouse Branch.

"All was going good until two Harpes brothers, the murdering bloody Harpes, escaped jail -- they killed my little boy.

"In my work here, Green County is so large that it is to be divided. Gov. Garrard asked me to help lay off a new County - and that would become Adair County.

"I helped lay off the town, named the streets and form the new Adair County, KY. I was appointed as sheriff and served in many capacities before building the little brick house overlooking this town I'd helped create.

At age 67, I decided it was time to write down my life story. Several things I'd helped build began to fail and we lost our house to pay the taxes. I spent the last of my days with our daughter in Green County.

"Many years down the road the Adair Heritage Association saved my home from the wrecking ball -- what is today's historic Trabue Russell House.

"My journal, those notes I wrote, was discovered and published under the name, "Westward into Columbia and that is available today."