In 1779, Boon, whose daring soul was undismayed by the fate that had befallen his companions, and reckless to the hardships he himself had suffered, (hardships which many a “gayer crest” would scarcely have ventured to encounter,) with all his family, and forty men from Powell’s Valley, again braved the terrors of the wilderness, penetrated the banks of the Kentucky River, and erected thereupon some cabins, naming the place Boonesborough.

In the spring of 1778 general George Rogers Clark acting on authority of the Legislature of Virginia descended the Ohio with a detachment of 300 men, a military force destined to the reduction of Kaskaskia, Cahokia and Vincennes, the then British possessions. In order to deceive the enemy, the general landed his troops at an island opposite the present town of Louisville and had the ground cleared, in order to enable 6 families, who accompanied the expedition, to plant corn thereon, which they did, in the same year; thus with a feigned view of settling the country, allaying any suspicion that may have arisen in the minds of the enemy, with respect to his ultimate object. see footnote

The detachment, headed by its enterprising leader, then proceeded on its march, leaving behind them the aforesaid families, who, in the fall of 1778, removed to the main land, immediately opposite the island, at a place now called White Home, where they erected their cabins. An addition was made to their numbers in the spring of 1779, by the arrival of a few emigrants from Virginia, who seated themselves adjoining and a little below them.

In the fall of the year 1779, the government of Virginia opened an office for the sale of her lands situated on the western waters south-east of the Ohio and north of the Green Rivers, confirming the military surveys, made previously to 1778, on warrants granted by virtue of the Britannic Majesty’s proclamation of 1763, also granting settlements and pre-emptions for lands, selling the remainder of that which was vacant, at forty pounds per hundred, receiving in payment her paper money, which was not worth more than one schilling specie in the pound. This occasioned a very considerable influx of adventurers who settled throughout the country, in stations and in forts, so called from their being compelled to arrange their cabins in such a way as would serve the purposes of defence, in case of an attack from the Indians.

At this period there were but two avenues to Kentucky; the one led through the wilderness, the other down the Ohio. Those persons who came by the first road, seated themselves in the vicinity of Logan’s Station, Harrodsburg, Boonesborough, and Lexington, and many of those who descended the river, landed at Limestone, and pursued their way to Lexington; others, however, not intimidated by the reports of sickness prevalent at Louisville, and of the murders committed on its settlers, continued on to that place. In the fall of 1779 and spring of 1780, seven different stations were settled on Beargrass, and during the latter year Boon’s Station, near Shelbyville, was formed, with several others on the interior, and, thus was laid the foundation of this at present great and flourishing Entrepot of the west.

PROPRIETORS

TWO thousand acres of the plain before mentioned, on which Louisville is built, including the sites of Portland and Shippingport, situated in the county of Fincastle, were patented on the 16th of December, 1773, in the name of John Connelly, a surgeon’s mate, in the general hospital of the royal forces, by virtue of the Britannic Majesty’s proclamation of 1763.

In 1775, Connelly conveyed an undivided moiety of this tract, to colonel John Campbell and pursuant to the aforesaid proclamation, two thousand acres, adjoining and below Connelly’s were patented the 16th of December, 1773, in the name of Charles de Warrenstaff, or Warrensdorff, an ensign in the (royal) Pennsylvania regiment.

In 1774, Warrenstaff conveyed the tract to Connelly and Campbell, by whom four thousand acres were partitioned in such a way, that the upper and lower thousand fell to the share of Connelly, when, in 1780, owing to the latter having previously joined the cause of his royal master, the upper thousand acres were escheated, and Louisville established thereon, by an act of the legislature of Virginia. In 1778, Connelly conveyed his lower thousand acres to John Campbell, who devised all his land within five miles of Beargrass, to Allen Campbell.

PLAN

Louisville was first laid out in 1780, by William Pope. A new survey was subsequently made by William Peyton, assisted by Daniel Sullivan, who plotted the out lots; none of these surveys, however, or any papers belonging to them are to be found at this day, owing to some unaccountable negligence or sinister intentions, they have been destroyed, a circumstance that has been productive of much dispute and litigation with respect to boundaries."