Some Safe Place

At the first "Supreme Court" meeting (1783) of this new District of Kentucky, the court instructed the Attorney General (Walker Daniel) and the Clerk (John May) to fix on some safe place near Crow's station for holding the court.  They were likewise authorized to contract for building a jail of hewed or sawed logs, at least nine inches thick.   This arrangement ultimately gave rise to the town of Danville.

In case the said Daniel and May at their own expense to be built a log house large enough for a courtroom in one end, and two jury rooms in the other on the same floor, together with a jail, "...they would adjourn to the place so to be fixed on, and promised a conditional re-imbursement, in case they removed to any other place, either out of the funds allowed for the support of the court, if sufficient, if not, by using their influence with the legislature to have them paid."

What a deal.  You built it and they will come.

Abstracted from : Valley of the Ohio, by Mann Butler, Published by Kentucky Historical Society, 1971, p. 191.

The District of Kentucky

In March 1783, an improvement of the judiciary in this distant (western) part of Virginia was directed by the  legislature (of Virginia).  This legislature united the three counties (Jefferson, Fayette, and Lincoln) into one judicial district.  This was to be called the District of Kentucky.  This new judiciary was to contain a court of common law and chancery jurisdiction coextensive with its limits.  It was also to have criminal jurisdiction.  The court first meet at Harrodsburg, March 3, 1783 as the new, improved court. (A county court had been meeting for Lincoln county at Harrodsburg since January, 16, 1781.)  Apparently there was no house at Harrodsburg that could conveniently accommodate the court; and it was adjourned to a meeting house near the Dutch station, six miles from its initial place of meeting.  John May was was appointed the first clerk, and Walker Daniel was appointed by the Governor of Virginia Attorney General for the District of Kentucky.

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.