Ruth Austin (born Kelly)

!After Ruth Kelley Austin married David Passmore in 1808, the whole

family moved to Dickson Co., TN.

[v22t0162.FTW]

!After Ruth Kelley Austin married David Passmore in 1808, the whole

family moved to Dickson Co., TN.

After William died she moved to Burns, Dickson County, Tn. in 1803 and married David Passmore. She is buried in the Austin Cemetery in Burns also known as the `Lonesome` property.
After the Louisiana Purchase in 1803, and after the deathof her first husband William Austin, beginning probably in the early spring of1807, Ruth Kelley Austin Passmore and David Passmore (her 2nd husband) went withher children along with about 15 other pioneer families by wagon train to Knoxville, Tn. There they dismantled or sold the wagons and built or acquired rafts.By raft, the group of pioneer families floated down the Tennessee River, south into Alabama then west and then north through Tennessee into Kentucky where the Tennessee River flows into the Ohio River (modern day Paducah, Ky.) From there, they had to `pole` northeast upstream (to modern day Smithland, Ky.) to where theCumberland River flows into the Ohio River. Then they all had to continue poling upstream (about 75 miles) on the Cumberland River, South and East.
The pioneers continued poling upstream toward the Fort Nashborough area (now Nashville).From there they may have poled upstream (going south) via the Harpeth River, about 35 miles East of Nashville into the Dickson area. Their trip would have beenplanned so that they would arrive at their destination in time to prepare for the winter. (Some notes taken from `The Lonesome Story` by William Wyatt Austin Jr.)