History of Bourbon, Scott, Harrison and Nicholas Counties, Kentucky, ed.
by William Henry Perrin,  O. L. Baskin & Co., Chicago, 1882.  p. 657.
[Harrison County]   [Cynthiana City and Precinct]

CAPTAIN JOHN HAMILTON, farmer, P. O. Cynthiana.  Capt. Hamilton was born
near Gettysburg, in York County, Penn., in 1766, and died in 1863.  His
father, Wm. Hamilton, was born in County Tyrone Ireland, and emigrated to
America several years prior to the Revolution, and settled at the place
now called Ginger Hill, in Washington County, Penn.  It was then called a
frontier settlement.  He married Mollie Bitener, also of County Tyrone,
Ireland.  She died about the year 1814.  The fruits of this marriage were
eight children, but one of which died under eighty years of age.  His
educational advantages were very limited, only having an opportunity to
attend school about three months.  He afterward learned to write his name
on the head of a whiskey barrel while distilling.  His first business was
in clearing up the forest and watching the Indians.  Capt. H. [sic] was
married in Bourbon County in 1795, to Rachel Cook, who was born in Virginia
about 1770, and died in 1813.  Her parents were John and Peggy (Blair)
Cook, both of Virginia birth.  Subject was a Captain in the war of 1812.
Commanded a company of volunteers, mounted riflemen, under Gen. Hopkins.
His first march was to Fort Harrison, commanded by Maj. Zachary Taylor.
Being but ten years of age when Independence was declared, he was too
young to take any part in the Revolution, except, toward the close, he
carried dispatches.  He had born to him two sons, (Septimus, born 1805,
and John in 1808), and five daughters (Peggy, born 1796; Polly, 1798;
Sally, 1800; Nancy, 1803; and Caroline in 1810).  Capt. H. [sic] came to
Kentucky in 1785, then in his nineteenth year.  He and a few companions
took a large canoe and came down the Ohio River to the mouth of Limestone
Creek, now Maysville; from that they went to Ruddel's Station by way of the
Buffalo trace.  He remained in Kentucky till [sic] the whiskey insurrection
broke out in Western Pennsylvania, at which time he returned there by the
wilderness route, and, arriving, found an army camped on his brother's farm,
to put down the insurrection.  His brother refused to pay the tax on his
still, and hid to prevent being arrested, and had made up his mind to allow
his still to be confiscated.  At this juncture our subject went after dark,
took the still out of the furnace and carried it to the Monongahela,
which was some three miles distant, concealed it there, returned and
secured the cap and worm, which he took to the same place, until he was
ready to start.  A few days later our subject, in company with a Mr.
McCoons procured a large canoe, loaded their distilling apparatus and
brought the same down the Ohio to Limestone; they again hid it, and made
their way to Ruddel's Station, where they got an auger and axe and made a
rough log sled, to which they hitched a horse, and returned to Limestone
and hauled their still, etc., to the Station.  The following year they
raised some corn and rye and manufactured the same into whiskey, which was
perhaps the first of that article ever made in the county, although the
credit has been claimed by other parties.  He only doubled once a week, and
the men would come in every Saturday from the neighboring stations and
drink as much as they could, and carry the balance home with them to supply
their wants till [sic] the next Saturday.  His yield was from six to
eight gallons per week.  He voted for George Washington at his second
election to the Presidency of the United States, and voted at every
Presidential election afterward to the time of Abraham Lincoln's election.
He also voted for a delegate to represent Kentucky in Virginia.

Hamilton Bitener Blair Cook McCoons
=
Bourbon-KY York-PA Washington-PA Ireland VA

http://www.rootsweb.com/~kygenweb/kybiog/harrison/hamilton.j.txt