Early History of Kentucky

Admitted June 1, 1792, Kentucky became the 15th state to enter the union. It ranks as the 37th largest state in size, and is currently ranked as 26th largest state in population. The capital of Kentucky is Frankfort. Its largest city is Louisville, population 1,245,920. The highest elevation in Kentucky is Black Mountain in Harlan County, 4,145 feet, and its lowest elevation is 257 feet along the Mississippi River in Fulton County.

Several Paleo-Indian societies existed in Kentucky prior to European settlement. These nomadic hunters roamed widely over what is now present-day Kentucky. Early Native Americans were well practiced in basket weaving, sophisticated stone tools, and later in horticulture, mound-building, and clay pottery. By the arrival of the first Europeans, Kentucky mostly served as an oft-disputed hunting ground for the indigenous Shawnee, Iroquois, Delaware, Cherokee, and Chickasaw.

Kentucky was most likely first explored by Europeans in the 1670s. In 1764, Gabriel Arthur explored territiory that was to become part of the Commonwealth. In 1750 Dr. Thomas Walker led the first surveying party into the state. In 1767 and 1769, Daniel Boone, arguably the most famous fronteirsman of his time, explored areas of Kentucky as a member of hunting parties. In 1774, James Harrod established Harrodstown, later Harrodsburg, the first permanent European settlement in the Commonwealth.

In 1775, Boone was hired by the Transylvania Company to blaze what became known as Boone’s Trace, a route from western Virginia, through the Cumberland Gap, and into central Kentucky. Boone’s Trace later became more famously known as the Wilderness Road. Boone established Fort Boonseborough at the northern terminus of the Wilderness Road, and it was to serve as the capital of the Transylvania Colony. However, in 1776 the Virginia General Assembly annexed Kentucky as a Virginia county, and the Transylvania Company’s claims in the future Commonwealth were voided.

During the American Revolution, British forces allied themselves with Native American nations and incited them to attack expanding settlements in Kentucky. After Lord Cornwallis’ surrender at Yorktown in 1781, the western frontier and Kentucky became the theater in which the last conflicts of the American Revolution played out. One of the last battles ever fought in the War was the Battle of Blue Licks on August 19, 1782. While the battle was an overwhelming victory for the British and Indians, it marked the last major incursion of Indians into the state.

After the American Revolution, settlers flocked to the region. Nine conventions were held in Danville from 1784 to 1790 on the matter of statehood and eventually led to the residents of Kentucky County, Virginia officially petitioning Congress for statehood. The state constitution was ratified in 1792, and June 1 of that year Kentucky entered the union, the first state admitted west of the Appalachians. Isaac Shelby was elected by the state electoral college as the first governor. Initially, Lexington temporarily served as the first capital, but less than a year later Frankfort was approved as the official capital city for the new Commonwealth.

Kentucky, a hotbed of fronteir independence and democracy, later approved a second constitution in 1800 that provided for election of the Governor and state officials by popular vote, eliminating the state electoral college. This model was later adopted by several other new states.

During the Civil War, Kentucky attempted to remain neutral. The citizens of the Commonwealth served in both sides of the conflict, and Kentucky was the birthplace of both the President of the Union, Abraham Lincoln, and the President of the Confederacy, Jefferson Davis. Attempts were made by a small group of Kentucky soldiers stationed in Russellville to secede from the Union and establish Bowling Green as the new capital of Kentucky.  Though this move was largely considered illegitimate, the Confederacy officially seated Kentucky in 1862, and the central star in the famous Confederate flag represents Kentucky.

Kentucky’s strategic importance was greatly recognized by the Union, and Lincoln himself said “to lose Kentucky is nearly the same as to lose the whole game.” Kentucky was the site of numerous skirmishes and battles, the bloodiest of these being the Battle of Perryville, fought October 8, 1862. The Confederate retreat from Perryville and subsequent withdrawal from the Commonwealth guaranteed the Union would retain control of the state.