Ten Pre-State Conventions (II.)

"II.  The Second Convention was begun to be held on Monday, May 23, 1785.  Judge Samuel McDowell was elected President, and Thomas Todd, Clerk."

By 1785, the McDowel and Todd family had started their rolls in the settlement of Danville and the future state of Kentucky.

The Todd family had established Toddsbury, VA, 1653. [a namesake Thomas Todd was the founder.]

 It was 1737 when the McDowell family arrived to the colonies among the 100 families joining the "Burden Grant" of 500,000 acres.  [Scotch and Irish immigration of course.]  It was 1772 that Samuel McDowell appears as a member of the Burgesses of Augusta County, VA.  He became actively involved in the conventions of 1775 and 1776 prior the Revolutionary War.  His first land grant in what was to become Kentucky is found July 11, 1775 for 2000 acres surveyed by John Floyd on the waters of Elk Horn.

References are:

"Twelve Virginia Counties, Where the Western Migration Began" by John H. Gwathmey which was first published 1937.  Discussion of Augusta County starts p. 361.  [Samuel McDowell p. 374]

"Historic Families of Kentucky", by Thomas Marshall Green, first published 1889.  The McDowell family begins the book starting p. 1 to p. 116!

"Kentucky Land Warrants, for the French, Indian, & Revolutionary Wars", by Samuel M. Wilson, first published 1913.  [Samuel McDowell served as a private in the French and Indian War.]