Removal of the Remains of a Pioneer

www.nkyviews.com


At the last session of the Legislature of Kentucky an appropriation of $90 was voted to defray the expenses of moving the remains of Mr. Ellison Williams, one of the earliest of the Kentucky pioneers, to Frankfort, thereto be interred by the side of Daniel Boone. A Correspondent furnishes the following interesting sketch of this life:

Ellison Williams was born in North Carolina, April 19, 1766, and was brought to Kentucky by his father in 1775.  He was in the fort at Bryant Station in 1782 when it was besieged by Simon Girty and his savage army.  He was the companion of Daniel Boone in many hunting excursions in the neighborhood of the Blue Licks. He settled in Kenton County, on the Bank Lick, near where Dedman's tavern stands, in 1780.  He built the first house for the habitation in Covington, at the point of the Licking, and assisted in cutting out the first road for Washington to Lexington.

He died August 11, 1850, near the Hugraw Mill, in the neighborhood of Covington.  The last general assembly appropriated $90 to defray the expenses of his re-interment at Frankfort in the grounds devoted to pioneers near the grave of Boone.  His relatives here yielded to the Commonwealth, because they know it was the desire of his lifetime.  He was at Frankfort in 1845 when the remains of Boone were brought back from Missouri, and was one of the pall-bearers on the occasion; and he then expressed a desire to be deposited near his old leader and companion.

.

from the Cincinnati Daily Press, May 24, 1860