The Founding: June 16, 1774
Harrodsburg’s origins are tied to the first major push of colonial pioneers into the “West.”
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- James Harrod: In the spring of 1774, James Harrod led a company of 31 men down the Monongahela and Ohio Rivers from Pennsylvania. They traveled up the Kentucky River and established a settlement at a site they called Harrod’s Town (later Harrodstown).
- The Cabins: On June 16, 1774, the men laid out the town and began building cabins. Although they briefly abandoned the site later that year to fight in Lord Dunmore’s War (a colonial conflict with the Shawnee), they returned in 1775 to fortify the settlement, building Fort…