The Journal (3)

The Journal continues:

"Tuesday the 3rd day of April 1792"

"The Convention met according to Adjournment."

"Sundry petitions from the County of Bourbon praying for certain principles to be engrafted into the Constitution were read and ordered to be referred to the Committee of the whole today."

Fayette County, one of the first three Kentucky counties formed in 1780, gave up its land in 1785 to form Bourbon County.  Just three years after the Revolution, the folks around here still recognized their indebtedness to the French royal house of Bourbon who provided men and monies in this struggle for independence.  [Fayette Co. named after Marquis d'Lafayette and Paris was to become the capital of this new county.]

"The Convention then resolved itself into a Committee of the whole Convention to take into consideration the matter to them referred.  Mr. Garrard was elected to the Chair, and after sometime the President resumed th Chair and the Chairman reported that the Committee of [the] whole had taken into consideration the matters to them referred and had made some progress therein, but not having time to go thro' the same had directed him to to move for leave to sit again Tomorrow which was granted."

"Resolved That this Convention will Tomorrow again resolve itself into a Committee of the whole to take into further consideration the matters to them referred."

Ten Pre-State Conventions (III.)

The third pre-state convention was held in Danville on Monday, August 8, 1775.  The same two folks were elected [Samuel McDowell as President and Thomas Todd as Clerk].  This would have only been about 4 months from the May meeting.  Following this meeting, a letter was sent to the Virginia "General Assembly" dated 23 September 1785.  According to James Robertson, the first action looking toward the creating of Kentucky into a separate State is found in an act entitled, "An Act concerning the erection of the district of Kentucky into an independent state". [Henings Statutes, Vol. 12, 37.]

Robertson records:

"Whereas it is represented to be the desire of the good people inhabiting the district known by the name of the Kentucky District that the same should be separated from this Commonwealth whereof it is a part and be formed into an independent member of the American Confederacy..."

Wow...here it is.  The first "...desire of the good people inhabiting the district..." which was part of the Commonwealth of Virginia.  Must be how we came to be called the "Commonwealth of Kentucky". 

Reference is taken from: "Petitions of The Early Inhabitants of Kentucky To The General Assembly of Virginia 1769 to 1792", by James Rood Robertson, John P. Morton & Co., 1914. [p 82]

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.]

Ten Pre-State Conventions

Between November 1784 and April 1792, there were ten pre-state conventions all held in Danville.

 The above shows the title page of the "Journal of the First Constitutional Convention of Kentucky" held in Danville, April 2 to April 19, 1792. [The final meeting of the prior conventions where the separation from Virginia was finally arranged.]

On page x of the pamphlet is outlined the dates and the names of some of the folks involved.  The next several posts will give this information.  The process to become a State took also ten years in the lives of those living in Danville.

Item 1:

     "An informal meeting of 'the principal men of the District' which resulted in the calling of the First Kentucky Convention was held on November 7 and 8, 1784.  Colonel William Fleming presided on the first day of the meeting and Colonel Isaac Shelby presided on the second day.  Christopher Greenup was chosen Clerk."

The participants of the battle of "Point Pleasant" made up many of the folks recorded among these pages.  Colonel William Fleming was seriously wounded in the battle which became a legend among the settlers of this area.  He also secured as many as 30,000 acres with some being in all three counties. [Jefferson, Fayette, Lincoln]

Isaac Shelby was considered the "hero" of "Point Pleasant" who lead a flanking attack to save the day. [He was to become the first Governor of the State.]

Christopher Greenup was one of the first Trustees of the town lots of Danville, and purchased lot #57 with George Nicholas and Thomas Barbie.  The year 1784 was to start things off.

The reference(s):

Journal of the First Constitutional Convention of Kentucky - Held in Danville, Kentucky, April 2 to 19, 1792.  Published in Commemoration of Kentucky's Sesquicentennial Anniversary, June 1, 1942, By the State Bar Association of Kentucky.  Lexington, Kentucky, 1942.

Certificate Book of  The Virginia Land Commission 1779-1780. By The Kentucky Historical Society, 1923. [Southern Historical Press, Inc., SC., 1981]

Jones, J.E., "KEN-TAH-THE", The Life and Times of Walker Daniel, Founder of the Town Lands of Danville, Kentucky, 18th Day of June 1784,  2009.