By Gaye Holman, Lexington
I think back centuries ago whenever I wander along the shady paths of McConnell Springs in Lexington. I imagine Charles LeCompte, my fifth-great-grandfather, kneeling at the spring to get water or lying down at night on the ground nearby to sleep.
McConnell Springs is a 26-acre park preserved in the midst of Lexington’s industrial area. The spot marks the heart of early Lexington history. Sometime between April and June 1775, a group of early explorers, surveyors and land-grabbers were camped near the artesian springs, when news arrived from the East of our new country’s victory over the British at Lexington and Concord. The group was elated by the report of the win and the successful beginning of the country’s fight for independence. The area around them had been attracting a significant number of people interested in the land. In honor of Lexington, Massachusetts, the men named the encampments Lexington.
The land surrounding where they were camped had been claimed by William McConnell, so the area became known as McConnell Springs. At the time, there were reportedly eight men traveling together: William, Francis and Andrew McConnell; William, Alexander and John McClelland; David Perry; and LeCompte.
I feel the men other than William McConnell have been overlooked in the McConnell Springs history. At least one of them lost his life to the American Revolutionary War and another to a Native attack. Almost all of them settled in the Central Kentucky area, where various streams and locations were given their names. I set out to learn more about my ancestor LeCompte. In the process, I learned new things about the settling of our land.
In my readings, I have been amazed at how many men were traipsing through the area even in those earliest years. In 1775, supposedly there were several hundred men in small groups, following buffalo traces and waterways, constantly wary of the increasing dangers from the American Indians whose lands were being invaded.
Their motivations were varied, with the desire for land, money and adventure being the main ones. Some were accompanied by surveyors and backed by financial companies; others were on their own. LeCompte apparently was one of the surveyors while he was on the search for his own land.
There are accounts of William McConnell (said to have had a “restless spirit”) exploring the area as early as 1773, but two years later, more explorers arrived. Many started their adventures in Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania. There, I read of LeCompte leaving Fort Pitt (present-day Pittsburgh) by canoe with 19-20 other adventurous souls. The McConnells and McClellands were in the group.
Apparently, the groups entering the new areas were fluid, as men left one group to join others going in different directions. LeCompte and William McConnell were together much of the time. In the early spring of 1775, according to a later deposition by LeCompte, they headed down the Ohio River. LeCompte and a few others stopped and traveled up Lawrence Creek, where they built two cabins near present-day Washington (Mason County) to claim the land for several men. According to Carolyn Murray Wooley’s book, The Founding of Lexington 1775-1776, cabins used for the purpose of claiming land were only several logs high—not actual structures in which to live. Another requirement for claiming land was planting a crop. These land-hungry hunters planted corn between the trees, then girdled the trees, killing them. As the trees died, sunlight was let in to the growing corn,
Soon, joining McConnell and others again, the group continued down the Ohio, stopping at the Big Bone salt lick. LeCompte told of the danger from the Natives as they wandered their land.
From there, McConnell and LeCompte’s group headed out again. They camped at the confluence of the Ohio and Kentucky Rivers (today’s Carrollton). They then traveled together up the Kentucky River, stopping at various points to plant crops and build a semblance of a house for each one as they found land they wanted to claim. Nearby streams became known by each claimant’s name. LeCompte’s Run was in the area of his original 1,400-acre claim, which ran from Stamping Ground to Owenton. In fact, Stamping Ground used to be referred to as LeCompte’s Stamping Ground.
The group continued to move southeastward, claiming land for each as they traveled until they came to the site formerly claimed by McConnell. There, they made history as they camped and celebrated the colonists’ win at Lexington and Concord. Soon after getting the news of the victory and the beginning of the war, the group split up as they headed back to Fort Pitt—some going by land and others by river. They returned East to fight for the freedom of the country, serving a number of stints of in the military in the following years.
The attraction of present-day Kentucky and the land they had earlier claimed drew the men, and some families, back to the area the following spring in 1776, where they built more substantial small forts. Our group of interest seemed to remain friends and helpers. For example, all the men who had been at McConnell Springs in 1775 moved to McClelland’s Station (present-day Georgetown), which they defended in December 1776 against a strong American Indian attack that killed John McClelland. They fled to Boonesborough, where they played important roles in the development of the early fort.
William McClelland was a leader and a surveyor. His earlier claimed lands served as a meeting hub for the early explorers. But each of the men who crisscrossed Central and Northern Kentucky deserves recognition for their contributions to the formation of our Commonwealth.
We should not elevate them to heroes, however. Some, including LeCompte, became slave owners and advertised trading land for slaves. They killed and ousted the Native Americans from their homelands. They argued and fought one another in court over their land rights. It was not all pretty.
Today, when we gaze upon the huge burr oak tree on the McConnell property that was said to be living at the time of the naming of Lexington, we are awed. The past reaches out a branch to tie us to our founders, and it is peaceful and good.
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Credit must be given to Carolyn Murray Wooley, who wrote a thorough and well-documented book The Founding of Lexington 1775–1776, copyright 1975 and reprinted in 2015. It can be purchased at McConnell Springs.
My cousin, Carla Batts Gerding, earns the credit for an incredibly deep genealogical dive into the LeCompte family. In our jointly authored book The Duncan Saga (2013), she tracks the LeCompte family in detail from when they arrived in Maryland in 1655 from Calais, France, to the present. A variety of historical documents also add to the discussion.