The Frontier Trailblazer: Elisha Wallen, Longhunter

Elisha Wallen was more than just a man of the frontier—he was a trailblazer who left an mark on the region's history. Today we tell the story of this legendary long hunter, a man who traveled alongside Daniel Boone through Southwest Virginia and into Eastern Kentucky.

From his beginnings in Prince George County, Maryland, to his adventures across the uncharted wilderness of the Appalachian frontier, Elisha Wallen's story is one of courage, exploration, and survival in the wilderness.

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#podcast #appalachia #frontier #longhunters #wallensridge #appalachianhistory #virginiahistory #appalachianstorytelling

[hatfieldmccoy]

I am an enrolled member of the Eastern Band of Cherokee, and born and raised in Southeastern Kentucky. My family had come through the Cumberland Gap, and after the Bloody 7s built the cabin my family has lived in since 1780. I am one of the Blevins. They say Southeastern Kentucky wasn't occupied but we have stories and proof of villages, not large villages in Southeastern of Cherokee, Choctaw, and Shawnee. My family had been removed from Tennessee and on the removal had gotten to Hopkinsville KY and realized once they crossed the Mississippi there was probably no coming back, so person by person they made their way into the woods until that left had snuck off and made theirs way back east to Southeastern Kentucky where those villages once stood. They met my other side of the family and started intermarrying and taking on the last name which is why there was an extra family group under that last name out of nowhere in the 1840s census. We are still in that holler almost 300 years later and there is still a group Cherokee Choctaw people there and are documented members paperwork and all.

[ronniewatkins]

Thanks, guys, for sharing another most interesting story! I look forward to Friday nights because of them! God bless!

[vwredsfan]

Great story. Y’all learned me on what a longhunter is. Thank you so much for sharing.

[davidharris]

Great story, I'd never known who Wallen Ridge was named after, but the Longhunters stories are the single most interesting to me of all American history, which along this line, the Mountain Men of the Rockies has dominated popular history, but really even more spectacular and courageous where these first Mountain Men, the Longhunters! And theres good stories of individuals unique to it seems all areas!

[Armaita]

There’s an ancestor in my family tree who was called Longhunter Pittman. He hunted from Virginia across the Appalachians. His given name was William Pittman.

[dustinfleenor]

My family ! My Great Grandmother lived in Dunganon “Miller Yard” along the river !

[JustinRahn-qd]

I need to check with my father but I believe this is one of my great grandfathers 9 generations back. He also had a family with a Cherokee woman he was never legally married too. She would be my great grandmother 8 or 9 generations back. His white and Cherokee families lived on the same farm but in seperate cabins. He would split the deer exactly in half for each family. Both women seemed perfectly fine with the arrangement. The legal battles over land involved land swindlers who stole a lot of his money. It ruined him financially. He ended life living on a small veteran's pension earned fighting in the Revolution and various small Indian wars. He was quite wealthy before getting swindled. I doubt it helped having Andrew Jackson for a judge. A dishonorable man known for his hatred of and unfair dealings with the southeastern tribes and anyone who was friendly with them or heaven forbid intermarried. If we had lived in the same era I would gladly have challenged Jackson to a duel. Not a fan of Jackson. Us hillbilly types have a long memory and live by the feud.