History of Harrod's Town in Kentucky #history #genealogy #kentuckypioneers.com

Harrod's Town

The villages of the Cherokee, Chickasaw, Shawnee, Yuchi and Mosopelea Indians occupied the territory which would later be called Kentucky until 1750 when a scouting party led by Dr. Thomas Walker (and in 1751 by Christopher Gist for the Ohio Company) entered the territory. The French also claimed the land but were defeated by the British in the French and Indian War of 1763. Afterwards, the British purchased land from the Iroquois and signed the Treay of Fort Stanwix on November 5, 1768. By 1774, the town was established as the first white permanent settlement in Kentucky. This treaty prompted James Harrod to lead an expedition to survey the bounds of land promised by the British crown to soldiers who served in the French and Indian War into the territory. Harro departed from Fort Redstone with 37 men and traveled down the Monongahela and Ohio Rivers to the mouth of the Kentucky River, eventually crossing Salt River into what is today is known as Mercer County. The men divied the land amongst themselves, thus creating the site of the first pioneer settlement in Kentucky. When the Shawnee attacked a small party of the Harrod men on July 8, 1774 in the Fontainbleau area, they killed two men. The others escaped back to camp, located about three miles away. Daniel Boone was then sent to remove the group from the frontier and enlist them into military service to fight certain bands of Shawnee and Mingo in the war of Lord Dunmore. Although the men enlisted in the militia, they arrived too late to participate in the only major battle of the war, viz: the Battle of Point Pleasant. They arrived at the battle site at midnight on October 10th, the day upon which the fighting ended. The Treaty of Camp Charlotte, signed by Shawnee Chief Cornstalk, which concluded the war of Lord Dunmore, ceded to Royal Virginia the Shawnee claims to all lands south of the Ohio River (Kentucky and West Virginia). The Shawnee were also obligated to return all white captives and stop attacking barges of immigrants traveling on the Ohio River. On March 8, 1775, Harrod led his group of settlers back to their homes in Harrodstown.

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