With the upcoming 250th anniversary of the founding of Harrodsburg in 2024, the author hopes to raise the profile of James Harrod. He was the founder of the oldest European heritage town west of the Allegheny Mountains, the birthplace of Kentucky.
Most people are familiar with the frontiersman Daniel Boone, but many do not recognize the name James Harrod. While Boone is famous for settling land in Kentucky during the mid- to late 1700s and founding Fort Boonesborough, Harrod was the founder of Harrodsburg, the oldest permanent European heritage settlement west of the Allegheny Mountains. Establishing Harrodsburg was a symbolic act declaring the Kentucky frontier open for settlement. These lands were no longer the exclusive hunting ground of the Native Americans nor the unexplored wilderness of early pioneers.
It is hard to discuss early pioneer life without mentioning Boone, but Harrod opened Kentucky for many new settlers and their families. While Boone is famous and has had numerous narratives published of his early experiences, Harrod, with little fanfare, was just as important in the early settlement process. Harrod was essential in early land surveys, the emerging court system, and leading Kentucky on to statehood.
Boone was born on Oct. 22, 1734, but historians debate the birth year of Harrod. The closest guess is between 1742 and 1746, with the latter being the date used by most historians, making an approximate 12-year age difference between Boone and Harrod.
Harrod was born in Bedford County, Pennsylvania. One historical source states that he was 12 when his father died in 1754, but other historians state he was not quite 10. Kentucky historian James Klotter recorded that Harrod was around 14 when he fought in several battles of the French and Indian War before it ended in 1763. Klotter also noted that when Harrod volunteered as one of Capt. Gavin Cochran’s recruits in June 1760, he listed his age at 16 and his height at 5 feet, 2½ inches. This discrepancy from his adult height of more than 6 feet may show that he lied on his recruitment records.
Boone was known for extensive hunting excursions during the 1760s and ’70s. At one time, he went for nearly two years without seeing another White person except for his brother. He spent the winter of 1769-70 in a small cave at Shawnee Springs in Kentucky, about 3 miles from the future Harrod’s Town settlement.
Beginning in the late 1760s, Harrod made short hunting and surveying excursions into Kentucky. It was on a surveying expedition in 1773 when Harrod first discovered the “Great Meadow,” the Native Americans’ name for the Bluegrass region. Harrod returned to Kentucky in 1774 and established Harrod’s Town. This first stay was brief, due in part to the Battle of Point Pleasant and numerous Native American attacks. Harrod returned to Kentucky to stay in 1775.
As Harrod built his new town in Kentucky, a fresh American nation emerged. The country wanted a hero who represented the “common man,” and Boone became the symbol, standing for those who had risked their lives to settle in Kentucky. In this way, his fame extended to all of them.
John Filson told Boone’s story in the first book written about Kentucky: The Discovery, Settlement, and Present State of Kentucke (1784). It made Boone world famous, while leaders such as Harrod, Simon Kenton and Benjamin Logan received little attention. Later, people used Filson’s book to write their own accounts of Boone’s life, and much later, motion pictures and a television series added to his fame.
According to Filson, Boone was born into a Quaker family in Pennsylvania. Although the Quakers believed people should live in peace, Boone would end up playing a big part in a violent time in history. He never went to school, but his son said Boone could “read, spell and write a little.” He was well versed in the lessons of the woods. When Boone was 21, he married 17-year-old Rebecca Bryan. No likenesses of her exist, but people described her as tall and buxom, with jet-black hair and dark eyes. She had four children by the age of 20 and 10 overall.
When Boone left on his long hunting trips, Rebecca tended the crops and kept the family going. She probably never learned to read or write. Her efforts allowed Boone to travel to Kentucky to hunt and procure furs. He wore his long hair in American Indian-style braids and dressed much like the Native Americans did. Once, in the 1760s, he spent months alone in Kentucky, perhaps the only person of European descent in the whole area. When a friend asked him if he had ever gotten lost, Boone answered that he had not but admitted that he had once been “pretty confused” for several days. Another time, some so-called long hunters in search of furs heard a strange sound and, when they investigated, found Boone lying on his back in the middle of a field, singing loudly. Boone loved nature and the openness of Kentucky.
By 1754, Harrod, already a skilled woodsman, was adept at hunting, trapping and fishing. His skill with a rifle was particularly noteworthy. He began his long military career by serving as a ranger and guard and then as a commissioned officer. Harrod was an excellent marksman and had a love for hunting. He also had a reputation as a great backwoodsman and frontiersman.
In mid-February 1778, Harrod married the widow Ann Coburn McDaniel and became the stepfather of 2-year-old James McDaniel. Unlike Rebecca Boone, Ann was seemingly too cultured to fit into the rough environment in which she lived. She was dainty, beautiful and educated. She came to Kentucky in 1776 with her first husband, James McDaniel, who was killed by Indians the same year at Drennon’s Lick. In late 1777, Ann’s father, with whom she lived at Logan’s Station, also was killed and scalped by natives while picking corn between Logan’s and Harrod’s forts.
Boone and Harrod both started forts in Kentucky in 1775. Each originally chose building sites that were inadequate and had to choose different sites for their forts. Harrod’s original site in 1774 was not technically a fort and was built within yards of the Big Spring. When his company returned in 1775 after Dunmore’s War, the huts and land had been flooded. Harrod chose a new site on higher ground that would become known as Old Fort Hill.
Harrod’s first building site in 1774 was only five or six log huts built below the Big Spring and enclosed with large “hoop poles” or sapling trees. They were sharpened at the top, and the base was firmly set in a trench that was opened around the cabins. The poles were securely fastened together with hickory bark woven between the poles, making a stockade 7-8 feet high. This frail protection afforded the men minimal security against prowling bears and Native Americans. When Harrod’s company returned in 1775, they built more cabins about 285 feet from the Big Spring on present-day East Street in Harrodsburg, where they lived while the fort was built.
Boone and his men reached the banks of the Kentucky River on April 1, 1775, and lost no time in clearing the land in anticipation of erecting a fort. It would be only 22 miles from Harrod’s Town, as the crow flies. Boone built his cabin on the west bank of a little stream that flows into the Kentucky about a half-mile below Otter Creek. However, Boone’s partner, Richard Henderson, found this site undefendable, and they decided to build a fort farther to the east, some 300 yards away. By April 22, the fort was under way, and building lots had been laid off for the men.
Boone decided to build the town in the narrow valley that lay along the banks of the Kentucky River. On the north side ran the narrow current of the stream, which had high cliff palisades on the northern banks. Settlers soon realized that from these summits, a rifleman could control any point in the valley across the river. Both banks of the river were thickly screened by trees, and these were never cut, even though they provided an easy approach to the fort. On the south side, lofty hills ascended close to the fort, making for a security risk. On all sides, the fort lay exposed to any enemy of determination and skill.
Both Boone and Harrod spent time among the natives, but there was a big difference. Boone was held prisoner by them several different times, and, although he grew to know his captors and become accepted as a friend, he was still a captive. Harrod, on the other hand, showed kindness and was helpful to the Native Americans. He freely spent time with them, learning their customs and becoming their friend. In 1772, during his earlier incursions into the new frontier, Harrod followed the north bank of the Ohio River and became acquainted with the Delaware. He shared their huts and food when on hunting trips into Kentucky.
Boone was wounded sometime after the siege of Boonesborough in 1778 and captured by Chief Blackfish. He survived his wounds, and later, the Shawnee chief would adopt Boone as a son. Harrod never had a serious injury from a Native American attack, but he suffered broken legs at two separate times, attributed to the fact he liked to hunt on horseback.
One of the saddest comparisons between Harrod and Boone is their children. While Boone had many children, Harrod had only one daughter and a stepson whom he loved as his own. Boone lost a son, Jamie, to a Native American attack when the boy was in his late teens. Harrod lost his stepson, James, to an Indian attack. The boy was only 12 when the natives burned him alive near Harrod’s Station at Boiling Springs.
One of the most controversial comparisons between Harrod and Boone also concerns their children. There have been questions about the paternity of Margaret Harrod, James Harrod’s only biological child. Some believed she was not his child. The manager of Harrod’s Station often was seen around the cabin. The man’s name was Mahon, and he had red hair, just like Margaret. Harrod’s hair was black. One pioneer, Col. Nathaniel Hart, said Ann had acknowledged to him that James was not Margaret’s father. However, Harrod never made mention of this. He was as devoted to her as he was to his stepson.
Robert Morgan’s biography of Boone states that, according to legend, Boone was away from home for two years, and during that time, Rebecca gave birth to a daughter, Jemima. Historian Lyman Draper said that Rebecca, “believing Boone was dead, had a relationship with his brother, Edward ‘Ned’ Boone, and her husband accepted the daughter as if she were his.”
In February 1792, Harrod mysteriously disappeared while on a hunting trip. He was declared dead after a year, and his will probated in favor of his widow and daughter. Although there are several theories as to Harrod’s disappearance, we will never know with 100 percent certainty. The most common theory is that Harrod was killed by his hunting mate, a man named Bridges, who was facing a lawsuit, with Harrod as his opponent.
Not long after Harrod vanished, Boone left Kentucky for the frontier of Missouri. He continued to be an American frontiersman for almost 30 years after Harrod’s death. He was a legend in his own lifetime. After his death, Boone frequently was the subject of heroic folklore and works of fiction. His adventures, both real and legendary, were influential in creating the archetypal frontier hero of American mythology. In popular culture, he is remembered as one of the foremost early frontiersmen.
Comparing the available historical data on Harrod and Boone, it is easy to see all of their accomplishments. The problem is that there is so much more written about Boone and little emphasis on Harrod. I hope that will change.