Settlement of Louisville by George Rogers Clark
- When
- 1778
- Where
- Corn Island at the Falls of the Ohio, vicinity of modern Louisville
- Episodes
- 1
In 1778, during the Revolutionary War, Colonel George Rogers Clark established a settlement on Corn Island in the Ohio River at the falls; the settlement left there grew into Louisville, Kentucky, which Clark is credited with founding. The supplied passages confirm the 1778 founding year and Clark's role but do not state the figure of 13 families or a 1 January date.
Episodes
Background and detail
Background. By 1777 the Revolutionary War had intensified in Kentucky, then part of Virginia, and Clark served as a leader of the Kentucky County militia, defending settlements against Indian raiders. In December 1777 he presented Governor Patrick Henry a plan for a secret expedition against British-held villages in the Illinois Country, receiving secret orders dated January 2, 1778.
Founding Settlement. The first European settlement in the vicinity of modern-day Louisville was made on Corn Island in 1778 by Clark's party. The settlement left behind on Corn Island led to the founding of Louisville, named after King Louis XVI of France, making it one of the oldest cities west of the Appalachians. Clark is credited as the city's founder.
People involved
- George Rogers Clark · Founder and leader of the settling party; Virginia militia officer
Sources
- George Rogers Clark Wikipedia, revision of 2026-09-30
- Louisville, Kentucky Wikipedia, revision of 2026-09-24
Machine-drafted from the cited Wikipedia passages and checked by a reviewing model, not by a human editor. Every passage cites the revision it was written from; dates and places follow those passages.