Mountain Trail Chapter

HARLAN

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CHAPTER ORGANIZED FEBRUARY 6, 1931

The Mountain Trail Chapter, Daughter of the American Revolution, was organized February 6, 1931, by Miss Mabel Green (later Mrs. S.J. Condon), the first regent, at the home of her mother, Mrs. George W. Green, Green Terrace, Harlan, Kentucky.

The county, situated in the heart of the towering Cumberland Mountains, is divided by the branches of three forks: Martins Fork, Clover Fork, and Poor Fork, which constitute the headwaters of the Cumberland River. These Cumberland Mountains were the favorite hunting grounds of the Quadrule and Cherokee Indians and were named by them, "Wasiota," meaning "the mountains of plenty of deer." The first white settlers found the Indians friendly as a rule and made use of their mountain trails through the dense growth to hunt for game, roots, and berries.

The area's first white settler, Samuel Howard, came to Harlan County in 1796. During the American Revolutionary War he had served in Captain Mayo Carrington's Company of the Virginia Line, was in a skirmish at Dismal Swamp, and served at Yorktown under General George Washington when Cornwallis surrendered.

On November 27, 1932, a memorial service was held at the grave of Samuel Howard by the newly organized Mountain Trail Chapter. Howard was born in Buckingham County, Virginia, in 1762, and died in Harlan County, 1840. The following year the chapter dedicated markers at the grave of two more Revolutionary War soldiers buried in the county - Lewis Green and Berry Cawood.

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