Fruit Hill Precinct, Christian County, Kentucky

The first comers into the Fruit Hill Precinct whose names can now be recalled came, pretty generally, from the Carolinas also, and a few from Georgia and Virginia about the year 1800. There were others doubtless who came earlier, but their names have been buried with them, and are lost to the pages of history. Thomas Barnett came either from Georgia or one of the Carolinas about the beginning of the century, and opened up a farm on the Hopkinsville & Greenville road, near where the Pleasant Hill Church stands. The last elk seen in Christian is supposed to have died on his place. Jerome Harned now owns the old place. About three miles north of Barnett’s, near the head waters of Little Caney, is the old Mathew Wilson farm, now owned by his son James, and which was also settled about the same time. The Wilsons came from one of the Carolinas.

Col. James Robinson and his brothers Abner and Green Robinson were long prominent citizens of this part of the county, and came from North Carolina. The Colonel was in the war of 1812, and commanded a regiment at the battle of New Orleans under Gen. Adair. He was a brave, quiet man, low and compact in figure, and very strong. He had a memorable fist encounter with one Wilkins, who is said to have been badly worsted by his antagonist. Green, the younger brother, moved to Illinois, and was killed in the Black Hawk war. Abner married Nancy Duty, was a good farmer, and a successful stock-raiser. He bred fine horses and took them to Lexington, where he disposed of them at a fine profit, and by this means helped to pay for the large tract of land he had purchased. He would labor on his farm all day, and at night go two miles to Blue Lick and kill deer for the family. The father of these brothers was James Robinson, who came in 1788. He is written up in a preceding chapter. There were three daughters also-Patsy, Mahala and Nancy. The first married McFarland, the second Hugh Wilkins, and Nancy was killed by the falling limb of a tree when a child. The Meachams, John, Andrew, Willis, Edmund and Wyatt, five brothers from one of the Carolinas, came also before or with the dawn of the nineteenth century, all settling in the same neighborhood on the Blue Lick of Pond River. They were Calvinistic or Hard-shell Baptists, and two of the brothers were preachers of that faith. John Spurlin, Quentin Stewart, a millwright, Rayford Petty and Matthew Wilson were also among the early pioneers. The latter was the father of James, Lemuel, William and John Wilson. The names of many of these old people, as the names of many others who came after them, are still preserved in their descendants, and their memories will ever be revered as the avants couriers of the present civilization.