The History of Louisville, from the Earliest Settlement till the Year 1852Casseday, Ben
History
The History of Louisville, from the Earliest Settlement till the Year 1852
Casseday, Ben
Louisville (Ky.) -- Description and travel; Louisville (Ky.) -- History
Early in April of the year now spoken of, Louisville received an accession
to the number of her citizens in the person of the renowned Major Quirey.
This man's immense muscular power; his daring and activity have made him a
scarcely less remarkable personage than was the celebrated Peter
Francisco, of Virginia. Arriving here at a period when physical power was
far more appreciated, and held in far higher reverence than mental
capacity, Quirey soon gained a strong hold on the affections of the people
around him. He was a native of Pennsylvania, but married at nineteen years
of age, and soon thereafter removed to Kentucky. He was six feet and two
inches in height, and weighed 250 pounds; he had no inclination to
embonpoint but was muscular and robust. The palm of his enormous hand
would easily have served a modern fine lady for a
writing-desk.--Physiologists may feel inclined to doubt the truth of the
assertion, but it is nevertheless confidently believed that his breast was
a solid plate of bone, no appearance of the usual separation of the ribs
being discernable, even after his death. Like all the men of his day,
Quirey was a good hater alike of Indians and of cowards. A proof of this
latter aversion occurred as he was descending the Ohio to Louisville. The
Indians had recently been very successful in their battles with the
emigrant boats, and were emboldened to attack all within their reach.
Accordingly, Quirey's boat, containing beside himself and his family, only
a single individual, whose name is not remembered, came in for its share
of the hostility. A large party of Indians made an attack upon them
somewhere above the present site of Maysville. Quirey fought bravely, but
the other man became dreadfully alarmed, and running into the boat,
concealed himself among the cargo. Quirey, still standing upon his boat,
received the guns as they were loaded by his wife, and handed to him, and
fired on either not missing his comrade or supposing him dead. After the
engagement, in which, despite the fearful odds, Quirey was victorious,
they found their trembling and cowardly companion who was slowly sneaking
from his place of concealment. With an impulse quick as thought, Quirey
seized him with one hand around the waist, and bearing him above his head,
would in another moment have dashed him into the waves, but the tears and
entreaties of Mrs. Quirey saved him for the time. With so cowardly a
disposition, however, it might have spared the poor wretch much agony had
he perished then; for Quirey set him ashore in the forest near Limestone,
pointing him the way to the fort and there left him, surrounded on every
side by objects to him of terror, there to "do or die." History is silent
as to his fate.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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