Harrodsburg Sestercentennial - Welcome to Harrodsburg, the oldest English settlement west of the Allegheny Mountains, established in 1774. We will be celebrating our 250th anniversary with huge celebrations in 2024. Join us!
This is a long post, but after the George Rogers Clark Powder Run at Old Fort Harrod State Park I thought an explanation of the original powder run was in order.
By June 1776, James Harrod became an outspoken opponent of the Transylvania Company. He gained followers at the other stations, all wanting to separate Kentucky from Fincastle County. Jack Gabriel Jones was a lawyer and son of a prominent Virginia family. George Rogers Clark had a deep interest in Kentucky and also offered help.
Harrod called a gathering to elect delegates to represent them in the Virginia General Assembly and to ask for separation from Fincastle County. Harrod also wanted to stop Richard Henderson and his Cherokee land. Clark and Jones were elected as the delegates to appeal to Virginia to overthrow Transylvania and incorporate the country under her own government.
Harrod helped the men formulate the document as a defense of their land claims, based on bounty warrants granted by Governor Dunmore and on regular prior-occupancy laws of the colony. They also wanted their delegates to be recognized, claiming they had already elected a committee of 21 men to maintain the district.
When Clark and Jones arrived in Virginia, Clark visited the new Virginia governor, Patrick Henry, to secure his backing for the Harrodstown petition. Clark then appeared before the Council at Williamsburg with a letter from Governor Henry, making the executive council aware of Kentucky’s shaky position and officially informing them of Henry’s support.
Clark ran into opposition from several peers who did not approve of frontier expansion. After much debate and arguing that the western settlements could not survive without gunpowder, the proposal was accepted and Clark was granted five hundred pounds of gunpowder.
On August 23, 1776, the gunpowder was sent to Fort Pitt in Pittsburgh. Clark sent a letter to Harrod to tell him to send a party to Fort Pitt to bring the powder home. Little did Clark know, but Harrod never received the letter.
Months later, Clark and Jones finished their business in Virginia and prepared to return to Kentucky, but when a messenger from Fort Pitt reported that Harrod had not sent men to get the five hundred pounds of powder, their plans changed. Clark knew those twenty-five kegs of gun powder were vital to Kentucky’s defense, so they set out toward Pittsburg.
Once at Fort Pitt, they recruited a small group of men to assist them in transporting the black powder down the Ohio and then up the Kentucky River to Fort Harrod.
Unfortunately, Clark’s every move was being shrewdly watched and evaluated by British and Indian enemies, but he was not to be manipulated. Clark and his men slipped out of Fort Pitt in the middle of the night and silently started their long trip down the half-frozen Ohio River with five hundred pounds of high quality, rifle-grade gunpowder. They quickly made their way down the big river, with the success or failure of Kentucky resting squarely on their shoulders.
Clark and his companions were forced to move between numerous bands of angry Indian war parties. Unwilling to run the risk of losing his cargo, he buried the powder in several spots and continued downstream for a few miles before abandoning the boats and setting them adrift as a decoy.
Clark headed off to the nearest settlement, McClelland’s Station and sent a messenger to Harrodstown explaining what had happened and asking for a party to retrieve the gunpowder. Then Clark left to meet up with Harrod to recover the gunpowder.
James Harrod and about 20 others left Harrodsburg on the second of January 1777, to recover the powder. Within a short time and without incident, the men reclaimed the gunpowder and returned to Fort Harrod. The brave settlers of Fort Harrod come through to save the day, retrieving the gunpowder and bringing it safely back to the fort through miles and miles of unfriendly, Indian wilderness. Once at Fort Harrod, the powder was divided and quickly distributed to the many struggling Kentucky forts and stations. This important event saved the country because now the settlers could now defend the forts and hunt for food.
Here are some photos from the blizzard of 2022, which hit Harrodsburg on January 6, 2022.
From the Clay Lancaster Slide Collection (circa June 1979): I love this image - it screams Kentucky to me! Harrodsburg, Mercer County, Kentucky.
With cold weather and snow in the forecast, Devine’s Winter Funfest is hoping to make their own snow or for the natural stuff to fall so snow tubing can open! Please keep an eye on their FB page.
Here are some 2022 photos of Devine's shaping up the snow tubing site.
Photo from Old Fort Harrod State Park
The Dedman House was built in 1884 for Charles M. and Mollie Curry Dedman, is a Queen Anne-style house. The 2.5 story brick house has an undulating facade, with striking front gables, the smaller of which is distinguished by its pargeting detail. (Pargeting refers to the application of plasterwork to a facade of a building. Pargeting ranges from "simple geometric surface patterning to exuberant sculptural relief of figures, flowers and sea monsters, but it is only skin deep, applied onto masonry or a lathed, timber-framed wall." The technique is English in origin, and first started being employed in the 16th century.) Mrs. Dedman was very involved in the house planning - she chose the lot, the plans, and oversaw the construction of the house.
The New Providence Church in McAfee was established over 247 years ago.
Harrodsburg High School graduation 1950. Thank you, Kathy Darland Meredith.
This photo was taken in front of the old Rose Hill School before it was moved to its current location. The school was located on the first lane to the right once you pass the water tower going toward Rose Hill. This picture is of the Winfield and Mary Russell family standing in front of the old school. Shirleen Gullett provided the photo.
Burgin’s very own country music star Dillion Carmichael was in Harrodsburg last week to record the video for the title song of his newest album, “Son of A” at the Olde Bus Station Restaurant.
An illuminated evening at Shaker Village of Pleasant Hill, December 11, 2021. Photos by Keith Rightmyer.
Harrodsburg Christmas Parade of 1974, courtesy of the Boyle County Public Library Genealogy & Local History.
This photo was provided by the Olde Bus Station Restaurant. Did you know that the Olde Bus Station Restaurant was once a livery stable before Mr. Hopin purchased the building and opened the bus station? Bill Lester (the owner for over 40 years) told the owners these floors came from the old Brown hotel in Louisville in the late 30’s as it was being torn down.
The great Ohio flood happened in late January 1937. According to Wikipedia:
One resident recalled: "We were rowing down Broadway and was The Brown Hotel. The doors were open and the place was filled with water so we just rowed our boat in one door went through the lobby and rowed out another." A worker is recorded to have caught a two-pound fish in the lobby of the hotel.
The Mother Ann Lee Hydroelectric Station (on the far right near the cliffs) is a 2,040 Kilowatt run-of-river hydropower plant located at Lock and Dam 7 on the Kentucky River near Harrodsburg, KY. The plant was built in 1927 and includes 3 turbine generators. The plant was operated until 1999 by Kentucky Utilities Company (KU), when problems with the generating units left all three inoperable. In December 2005, Lock 7 Hydro Partners, LLC purchased the plant from KU, and began renovating the plant in March 2006.
Groundbreaking for the Old Fort Harrod Amphitheater, November 15, 1962.
Bacon College was chartered in 1837 in Georgetown, Kentucky. Its founder was Thornton F. Johnson, a member of the Disciples of Christ who resigned from Georgetown College in order to establish an institution independent of the Baptists who administered Georgetown. Bacon College moved to Harrodsburg, Kentucky in 1839 and graduated its first students two years later. Suffering from limited financial resources throughout its existence, the college closed in 1850 having granted only twenty-four degrees while in operation. The campus was used as a high school from 1850 to 1855. It was revived through the efforts of alumnus, John B. Bowman and was rechartered in 1858 as Kentucky University.
This is a photo we had never seen and Belinda S Kurtz shared this from another group. “Wasn’t Bob Martin that used to run the radio statio...
