By: Benjamine F. VanMeter, Pub. 1901, reprinted 2023, 186 pages, Index soft cover, ISBN #978-1-63914-151-7. This book is a series of biographical sketches of families from 17th and 18th century Virginia and Kentucky. The author compiled these sketches from published sources, original records and interviews with the oldest living members of a number of the families. These sketches are a balanced mixture of genealogy and biography, which makes for interesting reading while covering as many as six generations of family members. Surnames of these pioneers are: Allan, Bigelow, Bruce, Campbell, Clay, Cunningham, Field, Garrard, Hall, Hamilton, Hanna, Harness, Harrison, Hockaday, Holloway, Hull, Johnson, Johnston, Kleiser, Lewis, McNeill, Moore, Nicholas, Payne, Petit, Prewitt, Rodes, Smith, Stonestreet, Swoope, Van Meter, West, Wetherill, Williams, Willis, Wright, and Yerkes.