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Historic Johnson County
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by
the original submitter and the Highland Echo.
Historic Johnson County
Some Early Dates And Events
PRE-HISTORY:
Mound Builders- Johnson COunty was inhabited by pre-historic people. Early settlers found mounds
along the west bank of the Louisa River, south of the mouth of Big Paint Creek.
1693 AND 1729:
French traders, possibly led by Arnold Vielo,
visited Northeast Kentucky, remained for a while in 1693 and returned in 1729.
1750:
Dr. Thomas Walker's Expedition for Loyal Land Company - spent June 7, 8, 9, 1750, in
Johnson County. Walker named the Louisa River at Paintsville June 7, 1750.
1755:
Matthias Harmon and other Germans established Hunter's Lodge below the mouth of John's Creek in
Johnson County.
1760-1769:
Over a ten year period John Swift and a band of men came into the Big Sandy region to mine and
coin silver. They were in Johnson County. Silver bars were found in Johnson County in the mid
1800's.
1763:
Daniel Boone made his first visit to Kentucky, accompanied by Thomas and Harmon Connelly,
James and Henry Skaggs, Matthias Harman and Walter Mankins.
1773-74 AND 1774-75:
Historian Willam Elsey Connelley stated that John Howe and other pioneers repeatedly said that
Simon Kenton occupied old cabins about the mouth of Big Paint Creek during parts of these
winters.
1787:
Jennie Wiley, wife of Thomas Wiley, captured in Bland County, Virginia, October 1787, spent time
from April 1788 to September, 1788 captive of Indians in Johnson County. Settled in Johnson
County in 1800. Died 1831 and is buried in Johnson County at River, Ky.
1787-1788:
Harman's Station established in the soputhern part of Johnson County, just below the mouth of
John's Creek, by Matthias Harman and Virginia frontiersmen, the oldest settlement in Eastern
Kentucky. It was on the site of Harman's Hunter's Lodge founded in 1755.
1790:
Paintsville established by Co. John Preston and Judge French as a trading station. They called
it paint Lick. Rev. Henry Dickson (Dixon) named the town Paintsville several years later.
The two oldest settelments in the Big Sandy Valley: Harman's Station(1787-88) and Paintsville
(1790) are both within the bounds of Johnson County.
1795:
Boone visited Harman's Station and hunted with Nathaniel Auxier, Sr. on Greasy Creek.
Boone was also in the Leslie Sttlement on John's Creek.
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