Permanent Settlement
April 19, 1775, a pioneer named William McConnell camped on the Middle Fork of Elkhorn Creek with a party of frontiersmen. Now a secret creek running under the downtown Vine Street named Town Branch is at the same site of McConnell’s camping. Then they named their campsite Lexington to celebrate the victory of the battle of Lexington, Massachusetts as the beginning of the American Revolution. However, the process of permanent settlement was delayed for four years due to the Indian’s defense towards pioneers’ incursion on their territory. After gotten a new name, Lexington was still a sprawling property of Virginia and only few people visited here for hunting, research and exploration. In 1779, a band of settlers came here to build their own houses and gradually evolve into a permanent settlement. In 1780, the Virginia Assembly [1] divided Kentucky into three counties. Lexington was made the seat of Virginia’s Fayette County.
April 19, 1775, a pioneer named William McConnell camped on the Middle Fork of Elkhorn Creek with a party of frontiersmen. Now a secret creek running under the downtown Vine Street named Town Branch is at the same site of McConnell’s camping. Then they named their campsite Lexington to celebrate the victory of the battle of Lexington, Massachusetts as the beginning of the American Revolution. However, the process of permanent settlement was delayed for four years due to the Indian’s defense towards pioneers’ incursion on their territory. After gotten a new name, Lexington was still a sprawling property of Virginia and only few people visited here for hunting, research and exploration. In 1779, a band of settlers came here to build their own houses and gradually evolve into a permanent settlement. In 1780, the Virginia Assembly [1] divided Kentucky into three counties. Lexington was made the seat of Virginia’s Fayette County.
The rich Bluegrass quickly became famous and induced settlers from outside of Kentucky. Lexington came into great prominence during the Hemp Industry and slave trading years because it was the gateway to the South and North for Slavery and Hemp. With eighteen hundreds citizens, Lexington was the largest city in western America and famous as an exchange center connecting the east to west and south to north. For example, eastern merchants through Lexington gateway traded homemade hides, skins, furs, linen, beef, ham, lard and lumber. In addition, the high production of whiskey, tobacco, and hemp also allowed Lexington thrive on export. Planters held slaves for use as field hands, laborers, artisans, and domestic servants. In the city, slaves worked primarily as domestic servants and artisans, although they also worked with merchants, shippers, and in a wide variety of trades. In 1850, one-fifth of the state’s population was slaves, and Lexington had the highest concentration of slaves in the state. [2] Now Lexington still enjoys the status of largest tobacco market in the world. During that time, it was much larger and richer than even Louisville, Kentucky.