James Harrod, Another Kentucky Legend

Two years before Daniel Boone came to the bluegrass of central Kentucky, a 25 year old Pennsylvanian, James Harrod, explored the forests edging the Kentucky River.  This six footer followed wide buffalo traces and found a lake-sized spring and creek.  This site became Kentucky's first town.

Seven years later, he returned by canoe with 32 men down the Monongahela and Ohio River, and up the Kentucky River.  They cleared a wide path along the creek, called it Water Creek, lined it with 1/2 acre allotments and built five cabins along it with 27 more within 10 miles.  The men called it Harrodsburg, drew lots for land ownership and staked claims to all the springs within 20 square miles.  Harrod was to own 2818 acres and a farmhouse large enough to accommodate 65 guests at one time.

Indian threat came quickly, and Daniel Boone showed up to give them warning.  Harrod and his men left to take part in putting down a Shawnee uprising, but returned the following year to Harrodsburg.  Families and some slaves joined the settlement and they raised a fort for defense.

In 1777,  "The Year of the Bloody Sevens",  the Shawnee raids reached a peak.  So many whites died that the survivors left their crops and stations, crammed into the fort, hungry and short of gunpowder and lead for making bullets.  Harrod saved them all by sneaking past the Indian forces with 30 men to retrieve five large buried caches of gunpowder.

When it was practical, Harrod liked to disappear on long, lone hunting trips, surveying lands and spying on Indian camps.  He was superbly skilled at woodcraft, a rugged individual who was fond of food and drink and gambling as well.  Unlike most of his fellow wilderness men, he was literate.  He founded Harrods Latin School and was elected to the Virginia legislature in 1779 and 1784. 

In 1791, Harrod left home to search for silver mines but never returned.  His family thought he was killed by another settler over a land claim but more probable was that the Indians finally got him.  No one knows for sure so this legend's demise is indeed a "legend". 

Next time...The Western American Revolution
_____________________
Today in Pioneer History:  On September 28, 1542, the Spanish explorer Juan Rodriguez Cabrillo discovers San Diego Bay while searching for the Strait of Anian, a mythical all-water route across North America.

A Businessman He Wasn't

At the outbreak of the American Revolution, Daniel Boone was instrumental in organizing the defense of Kentucky's scattered settlements.  In 1778, he was captured by a band of Shawnee while
exploring salt at Blue Lick.  He persuaded the Indians to hold him and his men as hostages to postpone their planned raid on Boonesborough, thus saving defenseless women and children.


Boone was adopted into the Shawnee tribe and taken north of the Ohio River.  While pretending enthusiasm for the tribe, he squirreled away guns, ammunition and dried meat.  Waiting for the right moment, he slipped away, arriving in Boonesborough in time to defend it against a large Indian force sent by the British.

By the end of the Revolution, Boone owned title to 10,000 acres.  Much of it was lost to improper registration, the rest went to satisfy claims of creditors.  The legend, you see, was a very poor businessman.

In 1788 he left Kentucky and in 1799 he settled in Missouri where he was appointed district magistrate by the Spanish.  Once again, he was rewarded with a huge chunk of land and once again he lost it when the Louisiana Purchase became part of the US in 1803. 

Boone remained active and hardy, hunting and trapping well into his 80s.  Near the end of his life, he returned to Kentucky to pay off the last of his creditors..  He died in Missouri in 1820.  His body was later returned to Kentucky in 1845 and buried with full honors.

Next time...another Kentucky Legend
_______________________
Today in Pioneer History: On September 24, 1789, the Judiciary Act of 1789 is passed by Congress and signed by President George Washington, establishing the Supreme Court of the United States as a tribunal made up of six justices who were to serve on the court until death or retirement.