A Talk To Be Given

The Boyle Co. Library will host a talk...by me!  This display is on their doors.  August 7, 6 pm is the date.  The Community Room at the library is the place.  The naming of Danville is the subject.  Come and join the fun.

Danville 1784

The first representation of the city of Danville can be found on the map printed in Philadelphia 1784 for John Filson.  An enlargement of this area is shown below.

In the explanation section on the map it explains the symbols which have been drawn to show "Danville".  There are six "Dwelling-houfes & Mills" forming a c-shaped area around a "Stations or Forts". [Would be Crow's Station, but not listed so on this map.]  One single road is shown coming from "Clark's" station.   The road then heads NW to "Low Dutch" station which has six roads radiating out of center.

A little wider view is shown next.

Clark's Run is the dark line running just below the town.

Hum...six dwelling houses and a station in 1784 is shown on this map.  There was much more to come.

Brothers

It was the summer of 1779 that the "Illinois Campaign" had help neutralize the British forces north of the Ohio River.  A fellow who had been involved in this campaign was named Walker Daniel.  Along with his younger brother Thomas, he explored and surveyed land on the south side of the Ohio.  On May 20, 1780 he files a land entry for 960 acres on "Holders Creek", and for an additional 960 acres on May 25, 1780 on "Holders Creek". [To become Jefferson Co.]   His younger brother explored further south recording 400 acres on "Stoners Fork" and 2000 acres on "Green River".  This was the beginning of the Walker's family involvement in this new land that was to contain the city of Danville.

The records can be found in "Land Entry Book No. A", Cook, M.I., Cook, B.A., Fincastle & Kentucky County VA - KY, Records and History, Vol. I, p. 141, Cook Publications, EvansvilIe, IN, 1987.

The whole story can be found in the book (cover shown below):

Three New Counties

The years between 1776 and 1780 were very difficult for those gathered in the three forts outlined in the last post.  George Rogers Clark had made things a little more stable after his military activity into the  "North West Territory", and by 1780 the legislature of the "Commonwealth of Virginia" past a law creating three new counties in this part of Virginia called "Kentucky County".

On June 30, 1780;  Jefferson, Fayette, and Lincoln counties were formed.  Jefferson County was named after Thomas Jefferson, who happened to write the Declaration of Independence.  Fayette County was named after a 23 year old Frenchman who was helping the cause of American independence.  Lincoln County was named after General Benjamin Lincoln who was one George Washington's chief lieutenants. 

Louisville became the county seat of Jefferson.  Lexington became the center of the new Fayette County.  St. Asaph (Stanford) was the county seat of Lincoln.  It was out of the county of Lincoln that the city of Danville would be formed.

Events 1776 - 1777

Events that were happening in this newly formed "Kentucky County" during December 1776 and early 1777, lead to the folks joining together within three forts.  A general geographic relatioship of these forts are shown in the figure below.  It is traced from John Filson's map of 1784, but only the three forts are drawn.

What was to become the town lands of Danville was roughly ten miles NNW above Fort Logan and along the trail to Fort Harrod.  According to Ann Bolton Bevins, the Indian attack on McClelland's fort Dec. 29, 1776, resulted in  "...the Kentuckians' decision to hover together in three forts rather than four."  She states that there were forty men at Boonesborough, twenty men at St. Asaph's (Fort Logan), and seventy or eighty at Harrodsburg.   Poor Boonesborough was not an easy trip between these forts.  Henderson's Transylvania Company was centered here, and these folks were from NC.   Folks from PA and VA had moved into the area south of the Dick's River.  Interesting that the lands halfway between the PA and VA groups would be later selected as the Town lands of Danville.

Reference is: The Royal Spring of Georgetown, Kentucky by Ann Bolton Bevins, Scott County Historical Society, Georgetown, KY, 1970.

A Long, Long History

As noted in the last post, before Kentucky was a "state", it was a "county" of Virginia.  From 1776 to 1780, it was called "Kentucky County".   It certainly has a long, long history.

"Chickacoan" was the "Indian District" which it belonged prior to 1648.  It became "Northumberland" (VA) in 1648 having received many folks from the English Civil War.   In 1651 it became "Lancaster Co."... then "(Old) Rappahannock Co." in 1656... then "Essex Co." in 1692... then "Spotsylvania Co." in 1720... then "Orange Co." in 1734...then "Betetourt Co." in 1770...leading to "Fincastle Co." in 1772.  It was out of Fincastle Co. that Kentucky County was formed 1776, lasting until 1780.  The years between 1776 to 1780 were a difficult time for the folks in this new county of Virginia. 

Kentucky Co. VA 1776

The humble petition of Junes 1776 (see previous eight posts!) was acted upon fairly quickly by those folks in Virginia.  The Bill that created Kentucky Co. [also Washington and Montgomery Co.s] was introduced into the General Assembly of the Commonwealth of Virginia by a fellow named Thomas Jefferson.  The date was October 26, 1776, and it would have been only four months after the folks from Harrodsburg had put their pen to the petition.   The Bill was approved on December 7, and was signed into law by the then governor of Virginia, Patrick Henry. [Another fellow not very well known!]

The Bill was to become effective on December 31, 1776.   Fincastle County was no longer after this date. [Fincastle Co. was in existence from December 1, 1772 until December 31, 1776.]  For the genealogist, this is the earliest records of what was to become the State of Kentucky...this new county of Virginia called "Kentucky County".