The First Settlers

Harrodsburg is credited as being Kentucky's first permanent settlement. James Harrod, a Pennsylvanian, led 31 men into Kentucky in 1774. They traveled down the Ohio and Kentucky Rivers to present-day Mercer County. On June 16, 1774 they began constructing Harrodsburg. The settlers erected cabins and cleared land for crops, but fled the town during Indian attacks. The group returned a year later with more settlers and joined the McAfee family who had settled in the area during their absence.

Boonesborough was another early settlement, famous because of it's well-known frontiersman Daniel Boone. Judge Daniel Henderson, who went against government orders to negotiate a piece Kentucky land from the Cherokees, founded the town. Because of his considerable knowledge of the area, Henderson employed Daniel Boone to guide a group of settlers. In March of 1775, Boone left Virginia for Kentucky with 35 men, his wife Susannah, and a slave woman. Boone led the company, and hunted for food along the way. Boone and his entourage traveled through the Cumberland Gap and continued west, suffering attacks by Indians that took the lives of some of the men. Boone chose a site on the south bank of the Kentucky River to settle, and Henderson joined them soon after. Henderson was so pleased with Boone that he allotted him 5,000 acres and named the new settlement after him. Food was scarce in the beginning, but the town survived and attracted more settlers.

Early Kentucky Government

Later that year (1775), Henderson called for the creation of a government. By that time Kentucky had four settlements; Harrodsburg, Boonesborogh, Boiling Springs, and Logan's Station. A representative from each town met in Boonsborogh to draft a temporary government. They passed the necessary measures calling for courts, militia, debt collection, and punishment of criminals. The government was set to meet one year later but never did. A new resident, George Rogers Clark, called for an assembly at Harrodsburg, and convinced the men to travel to Virginia in hopes of convincing officials to make Kentucky a separate county and provide protection. Virginia donated gunpowder to the settlers, which served as recognition of Virginia's claim to Kentucky. That claim was substantiated in 1776 when Montgomery, Washington, and Kentucky counties were added to Virginia.

The American Revolution in Kentucky

By spring of 1776 the pioneer population of Kentucky numbered about 200, with most living in forts at Boonesborogh, Harrodsburg, and Logan's Station. The area north of the Kentucky River had been abandoned due to Indian and British attacks. The Kentuckians raised a militia led by George Rogers Clark. Boone, Harrod, Logan and John Todd served as captains. This militia protected the settlers from continued Indian attacks.

Clark realized that Kentucky could only be saved from the British and Indians if Virginia took the offensive, so Clark enlisted 150 men and marched towards Kaskaskia. Picking up more men along the way, he took Kaskaskia by surprise. He was successful in gaining French support as well as support from various Indian tribes. Clark, being warned of an oncoming British attack led by Hamilton, decided the only way to defeat them would be by surprise. Clark's surprise attack led to the surrender of Hamilton at Vincennes.

Clark was charged with protecting Illinois and Kentucky, but he had trouble raising troops in the west because the main theatre of the Revolution was in Virginia. When the fighting ended in 1781 with the surrender of Cornwallace at Yorktown, fighting continued in the west, and the British continued to occupy forts for years afterwards. The continuing British occupation of forts in the west was a causitive factor leading to the War of 1812.