1776 - Kentucky at the time of the Revolution
Long before the first white man came to the Cumberland River Valley, the eastern American Indian nations had developed a trail system called Athawominee.[1] The major section, which ran northward through Kentucky from the Cumberland Gap, was called The Great Warrior’s Path, by the settlers, and later, the Wilderness Trail.
At the time of the American Revolution, the English government had prohibited settlement beyond the Appalachian Mountains but they gave little thought to enforcement, so on Dec. 31, 1776, a defiant Virginia legislature established Kentucky County. Two years after the first settlement at Harrodsburg, the Virginia Legislature divided all the territory west of the mountains. The act creating these counties described Kentucky County as being "to the south and westward of a line beginning on the Ohio at the mouth of Great Sandy creek and running up the same and the main, or northeasterly, branch thereof to the Great Laurel Ridge of Cumberland Mountain, then south westerly along the said mountain to the line of North Carolina." Kentucky County included the territory which essentially had the same boundary as the state does today. At the time, the new county was home to five communities: Boonesborough, Harrodsburg, St. Asaph (later called Logan's Station), McClelland's Station and Leestown. Harrodsburg was first the county seat of Kentucky County, Virginia. (See here.)
In 1780, Jefferson, Lincoln, and Fayette counties were formed.
The first permanent white settlers to enter Kentucky were a collection of Baptists from Spotsylvania, Virginia, called the Travelling Church. Reverend Lewis Craig brought a half-dozen (or so) Baptists congregations on an expedition through the Cumberland Gap where they dodged hostile American Indians, and fought the bitter elements. They were escaping religious persecution in Virginia. Craig also brought his slave, Peter Durrett (also known as "Uncle Peter" and "Old Captain" –very likely the first black man to preach a sermon on Kentucky soil and in 1790, established the First African American Baptist church in Lexington (the third African American church formed in America).
In those days, the Anglican Church was the “established” church in Virginia – which meant that citizens were subject to the church - and Baptists could not get a permit to preach. Craig’s younger brother Rev. Elijah Craig was being jailed regularly for “preaching without a license.” Once jailed, his congregation would take him a Bible and he would preach through the bars of the jail.
The name Elijah Craig might strike a chord with some, as he was not only a man of God - but a fine Kentucky bourbon distiller as well. Craig is credited, either by accident or design, with first use of charred oak barrels, which gives bourbon its character and color.
Well, the western flood gates were open, and thousands of independence-minded frontiersmen and women came. In 1800, the population of Lexington was 1800 (really 1,795). And a good number of these rugged individualists must have headed to Paris for the Great Revival of 1801, at Cane Ridge, where the Christian Church was born.
At the time of the American Revolution, the English government had prohibited settlement beyond the Appalachian Mountains but they gave little thought to enforcement, so on Dec. 31, 1776, a defiant Virginia legislature established Kentucky County. Two years after the first settlement at Harrodsburg, the Virginia Legislature divided all the territory west of the mountains. The act creating these counties described Kentucky County as being "to the south and westward of a line beginning on the Ohio at the mouth of Great Sandy creek and running up the same and the main, or northeasterly, branch thereof to the Great Laurel Ridge of Cumberland Mountain, then south westerly along the said mountain to the line of North Carolina." Kentucky County included the territory which essentially had the same boundary as the state does today. At the time, the new county was home to five communities: Boonesborough, Harrodsburg, St. Asaph (later called Logan's Station), McClelland's Station and Leestown. Harrodsburg was first the county seat of Kentucky County, Virginia. (See here.)
In 1780, Jefferson, Lincoln, and Fayette counties were formed.
The first permanent white settlers to enter Kentucky were a collection of Baptists from Spotsylvania, Virginia, called the Travelling Church. Reverend Lewis Craig brought a half-dozen (or so) Baptists congregations on an expedition through the Cumberland Gap where they dodged hostile American Indians, and fought the bitter elements. They were escaping religious persecution in Virginia. Craig also brought his slave, Peter Durrett (also known as "Uncle Peter" and "Old Captain" –very likely the first black man to preach a sermon on Kentucky soil and in 1790, established the First African American Baptist church in Lexington (the third African American church formed in America).
In those days, the Anglican Church was the “established” church in Virginia – which meant that citizens were subject to the church - and Baptists could not get a permit to preach. Craig’s younger brother Rev. Elijah Craig was being jailed regularly for “preaching without a license.” Once jailed, his congregation would take him a Bible and he would preach through the bars of the jail.
The name Elijah Craig might strike a chord with some, as he was not only a man of God - but a fine Kentucky bourbon distiller as well. Craig is credited, either by accident or design, with first use of charred oak barrels, which gives bourbon its character and color.
Well, the western flood gates were open, and thousands of independence-minded frontiersmen and women came. In 1800, the population of Lexington was 1800 (really 1,795). And a good number of these rugged individualists must have headed to Paris for the Great Revival of 1801, at Cane Ridge, where the Christian Church was born.