They met a flatboat in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and floated the Ohio River down to Maysville. The women and children were left behind at the fortified Goodwin’s station while the men traveled overland to place their claims on the lands at Pottinger’s Creek. Now eight years later, most of the settlers flourished in the new land. Nelson County became part of the new state of Kentucky, but for Earnest, nothing was left of the optimistic man he once was. The hopes and dreams he