Under a Wild Sky (58 page)

111
   
And a different version
Herrick,
Audubon the Naturalist
, vol. I, pages 224–25.

112
   
Wilson made drawings
Wilson to Alexander Lawson, May 18, 1810. In Hunter,
The Life and Letters of Alexander Wilson
, pages 358–70.

112
   
Wilson had wounded
Wilson to Alexander Lawson, April 4, 1810. Ibid., pages 326–39.

112
   
Wilson actually met a man
Wilson to Alexander Lawson, April 28, 1810. Ibid. A number of Wilson's very long and richly detailed letters from the frontier—such as this one of several thousand words—were published in Philadelphia in the journal
The Port Folio
, which had been recently purchased by Samuel Bradford.

112
   
In western Tennessee
Wilson to Alexander Lawson, May 18, 1810. Ibid.

112
   
At the end of April
Ibid.

113
   
I was advised by many
Ibid.

113
   
Eleven miles from Nashville
Ibid.

114
   
He later gave a full account
Ibid.

114
   
In the summer of 1811
Hunter,
The Life and Letters of Alexander Wilson
, page 105. Ord apparently got in touch with Wilson after reading Wilson's plea for information about birds from “gentlemen of leisure” who were interested in natural history, which he published in the Preface to the third volume of
American Ornithology
. Given the outlines of their lives, their seemingly instantaneous partnership,
the intensity with which Ord continued Wilson's work long after Wilson's death, and Ord's ferocious attacks on Audubon, it is not unreasonable to wonder about the extent of the intimacy between Ord and Wilson. Wilson's intermittent, frustrating connections with women don't tell us much, apart from the fact that he was unlucky in love. So was Ord, who was twice married. His first wife died and his second was confined to a mental hospital for most of her adult life. Ord had two children, a daughter who died in infancy and a son who became an artist. Ord apparently lived as a bachelor.

114
   
Two years later, Ord got
“Minutes of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia,” June 19, 1813. Although Wilson and his work are both intimately linked with the formative years of the academy, his election to membership came only two months before his death.

114
   
Say, a founder of the academy
Stroud,
Thomas Say
, page 40.

115
   
In the end, he colored most
Hunter,
The Life and Letters of Alexander Wilson
, pages 110–11.

115
   
The original run of two hundred copies
Cantwell,
Alexander Wilson
, page 234. The main problem with subscriptions was that Wilson, already overwhelmed with work on the engravings, could not find time to make collection trips. In the summer of 1812, just a year before he died, Wilson wrote to Sarah Miller—the sister of his friend Daniel—that Bradford was demanding payment and that if he could not make a trip soon to collect money he was owed, he faced “absolute ruin.” The confiding tone of this letter is evidence, according to Clark Hunter in
The Life and Times of Alexander Wilson
, that Wilson and Miller were in the early stages of a romance destined never to bloom.

115
   
Many of his early subscribers
Ibid., page 277.

115
   
Volumes five and six
Ibid., page 254.

115
   
Wilson had by then
Hunter,
The Life and Letters of Alexander Wilson
, pages 104–5.

115
   
The seventh volume was finished
Ibid., pages 112–13.

115
   
He was now owed by his subscribers
Cantwell,
Alexander Wilson
, pages 238, 253–54.

115
   
His physical condition
Hunter,
The Life and Letters of Alexander Wilson
, page 113.

115
   
George Ord, who'd been away
A copy of Wilson's will is in the archives at the American Philosophical Society in Philadelphia. The other coexecutor was Daniel Miller. Wilson left any and all other assets to Sarah Miller.

116
   
Wilson had crossed the Tennessee River
Wilson to Alexander Lawson, May 18, 1810. In Hunter,
The Life and Letters of Alexander Wilson
, pages 358–70.

9. AT THE RED BANKS

121
   
Ferdinand Rozier wanted to move
Herrick,
Audubon the Naturalist
, vol. I, page 236. Herrick says merely that the partners, discouraged by their failing business, decided to relocate. Alice Ford, perhaps closer to the truth in
John James Audubon
, speculates that Audubon, happily distracted by the woods and birds, barely realized the desperate situation at the store and only reluctantly agreed to the move.

121
   
Henderson's origins predated
Towles,
Henderson
, page 15.

121
   
In the years just before
Ibid., page 22.

121
   
Boone was one of the self-styled
Faragher,
Daniel Boone
, page 28. As the name implies, “long hunts” were extended shooting and trapping expeditions that lasted weeks and, often, many months at a time. Boone made his first long hunt in 1750, through the Blue Ridge Mountains along what later became the Virginia/North Carolina border, eventually making his way up to Philadelphia, where he sold pelts from the trip. In the winter of 1767–1768, Boone undertook his first hunting trip into Kentucky, where he was trapped in a blizzard but also killed his first buffalo. Faragher states that in 1769, perhaps already secretly employed by Richard Henderson, Boone departed on a hunting trip into Kentucky that lasted two years—during which he was captured by, and escaped from, Shawnee Indians.

121
   
In the summer of 1774
Towles,
Henderson
, pages 21–22.

122
   
Daniel Boone and thirty men
Ibid., pages 22–23.

122
   
These mainly dealt with courts and militia
Ibid., page 23.

122
   
In September of 1775
Ibid., pages 23–24.

122
   
Two years later the Virginia House
Ibid., page 25.

122
   
In the spring of 1797
Ibid., page 26.

122
   
There was a loop in the Ohio
Ibid., page 17.

122
   
The bluff on the Kentucky side
Ibid. Spring floods of the Ohio were a nearly annual occurrence, and because these could be mighty inundations, Henderson's elevation was a significant asset. For a time, the Henderson city slogan was “On the Ohio, not in it.”

123
   
There were 264 lots
Ibid., pages 26–27.

123
   
A general store operated for a while
Ibid., page 30.

123
   
When Henderson's first saloon
Ibid.

123
   
Concern for law and order was considerable
Adams,
John James Audubon
, page 113.

123
   
Currency was hard to come by
Towles,
Henderson
, page 32.

123
   
The people spread throughout
Ibid., page 29.

123
   
By the time Audubon and Rozier visited
Ibid.

123
   
Even at that, Audubon
Audubon, “Fishing in the Ohio,”
Ornithological Biography
, vol. III, pages 122–27.

124
   
Audubon, sidestepping the whole truth
Ibid.

124
   
The garden they planted
Ibid.

124
   
Lucy even had with her
DeLatte,
Lucy Audubon
, page 59.

124
   
Audubon and Rozier, meanwhile, invested
Towles,
Henderson
, page 31.

124
   
Pope was a dubious asset
Audubon, “Fishing in the Ohio,”
Ornithological Biography
, vol. III, pages 122–27.

124
   
Not long after they got to Henderson
Ford,
John James Audubon
, page 77.

124
   
Her father, Captain James Speed
Ibid.

124
   
Though it was no grand estate
John James Audubon State Park Museum, Henderson, Kentucky. The museum's photograph of Meadow Brook shows that it was a dark and rather loose-looking frame house—though by frontier standards it must have seemed luxurious. It was symmetrical, with stone chimneys on either end. Originally, the central entrance was an open hallway that bisected the first floor from one side to the other, so that you could see daylight clear through. The passage was large enough to admit a horse, and this style of home was locally known
as a “dog trot.” The Rankins eventually closed up the entrance and fitted it with a standard door and entryway.

124
   
Elizabeth, who was impressed
DeLatte,
Lucy Audubon
, pages 60–61.

125
   
He wanted to move still farther
Ibid., page 60.

125
   
Audubon didn't feel a similar impulse
Ford,
John James Audubon
, page 77.

125
   
In early December of 1810
Ibid., pages 77–78.

125
   
They went in a keelboat
Ibid., page 78.

125
   
The travelers were repeatedly delayed
Ibid., pages 78–79.

125
   
Audubon conceded later
Audubon, “Breaking Up of the Ice,”
Ornithological Biography
, vol. III, pages 408–10.

125
   
His bird drawings entertained them
Buchanan (ed.),
The Life and Adventures of John James Audubon
, page 30.

126
   
Audubon was fascinated by
Audubon, “Breaking Up of the Ice,”
Ornithological Biography
, vol. III, pages 408–10.

126
   
Audubon accepted some cash
Herrick,
Audubon the Naturalist
, vol. I, page 242.

126
   
When he arrived back at Meadow Brook
Ford,
John James Audubon
, page 81.

126
   
St. Genevieve had more than
Cramer,
The Navigator
, pages 170–71.

126
   
Ferdinand Rozier stayed there
Herrick,
Audubon the Naturalist
, pages 245–46.

126
   
But he claimed that the only
Audubon, “The Prairie,”
Ornithological Biography
, vol. I, pages 81–84.

126
   
He was alone, taking his time
Ibid. The record of Audubon's travels between St. Genevieve and Henderson is muddled, and the events that inspired this account could have occurred on a different trip. Since the entire episode is of dubious authenticity, it is doubly hard to say exactly when any of this might have taken place.

128
   
He located new space in town
Delatte,
Lucy Audubon
, pages 62–63.

128
   
The Audubons were invited to stay
Ibid.

129
   
Sometimes they would swim across the Ohio
Ford,
John James Audubon
, page 82.

129
   
Audubon bought the once-wild mustang
Audubon, “A Wild Horse,”
Ornithological Biography
, vol. III, pages 270–74.

129
   
Audubon rode him to Philadelphia
Ibid.

129
   
She asked Audubon to take her east
DeLatte,
Lucy Audubon
, page 63.

129
   
Audubon rigged a seat
Lucy to Euphemia Gifford, January 5, 1812 (Princeton University Library).