In 1778 the first permanent settler arrived in the person of a hunter named Spencer, who spent the following winter entirely alone in this remote wilderness, living in a hollow sycamore-tree.

Spencer was a giant in his day, a man huge in body and limb, all whose life had been spent in the wilderness.

He came to the bend of the Cumberland from Kentucky in the early spring, being in search of good land on which to settle.

Other hunters were with him, and they stayed some time.

A creole trapper from the Wabash was then living in a cabin on the south side of the river.