Asa Lake (1764-1844) lived in Mason County, Kentucky around 1790 at the same time that Colonel Simon Kenton and Daniel Boone had established the community of Maysville, Kentucky.
Lake Family
The Lake family lived in and around Mason County, Kentucky until 1799 when they left Kentucky for Ohio near Scioto River, where they settled near the Scioto Salt Works. Joseph Conklin, a former resident of Mason County had gone there previously in 1795.
Page 74 details the Lake’s Family movements within Kentucky. The author wrote that Asa Lake and Chloe Abbot had been married Hampshire County, Virginia in 1788 and then in “1780 they went to Mason County, Kentukcy, where [Asa Lake] served with Daniel Boone and Colonel Simon Kenton in the many struggles with the Indians.” Based on the later birthdates of the children and the marriage date, it seems that 1780 is a typo, and that in fact, the family went to Mason County around 1790.
Lewis-Genealogy.org
On the Ohio River and within Mason County, is a town called Maysville which has connections to both Kenton and Boone.
“Limestone [Maysville] is considered the Landing place or Port of Kentucky. Goods are landed there for Danville, Lexington, etc. etc. A small town founded six years ago at a distance of 4 miles on the Lexington Road, is called Washington and is very flourishing being situate in very fertile land.”
From the journal of Andre Michaux as recorded in the History of Maysville and Mason County, p 117
Lord Dunmore’s War
In 1774, Euro-American trappers, traders, and speculators fought Shawnee and Mingo American Indian nations for land west of the Allegheny mountains in now West Virginia, Kentucky and Ohio. Militias were raised from Augusta, Botetourt, Fincastle, Bedford, Culpeper, Dunmore and Kentucky Counties.
Both Simon Kenton and Daniel Boone fought in the war before joining Patriot forces in the Revolutionary War.
Simon Kenton
At the end of Dunmore’s war, Kenton returned to the area around Mason County, Kentucky on the Ohio River in order to explore the land himself. He spent many years in this region exploring it during and after the Revolutionary War.
In 1784, Simon Kenton built a station, or frontier fort, near what would become Maysville, Kentucky, in Mason County. He had traveled by flat-boat down the Ohio River with other settlers. Kenton’s Station was intended to keep the Euro-American settlers safe from Native Americans. In 1785, even more stations were built as even more settlers came to the Kentucky frontier.
“They were one-storied, one roomed structures, with no widows ‘for pesky Indians to climb through’. Barring the doors at night was not enough for these isolated dwellings. In the morning, the head of house first climbed a ladder, always leaning against the left side of the door, and looked through the cracks for Indians.”
History of Maysville and Mason County, page 49 | Photo by Greg Hume
By the spring of 1789, great flatboats were arriving “at a rate of thirty” each day. Kenton remained in his role a guardian and protector of the Euro-American settlers. The settlement of the Ohio River Valley was daily warfare and conquest and today the battles are known as the Northwest Indian War, the Ohio War, and Little Turtle’s War.
Daniel Boone
In 1787, Daniel Boone acquired land and become vested in the town of Limestone, which became Maysville. He built a tavern and trading post. Many of his family came as well, including Jacob and Edward Boone. Some of his family settled in the nearby Bourbon County.
During this time Daniel Boone was trying his hand at land speculation. He invested in real estate, yet through careless record keeping and extra-legal deals, he was unable to profit from his ventures. By the late 1790s, he left Kentucky for Missouri.
Finding the Yellow Bricks 