Appalachian Figures
Silas Harlan’s short life sits at the crossroads of early Kentucky settlement, George Rogers Clark’s western campaigns, and the last major battle of the Revolution in the Ohio Valley. Harlan helped build a Salt River station, scouted for Clark, wrote home about a plan to fortify the “Iron Banks” on the Mississippi, and fell at Blue Licks in 1782. In 1819, the legislature created Harlan County and named it for him.
From Harrod’s party to Harlan’s Station
Contemporary and near-contemporary records place Silas Harlan among the young men who came west with James Harrod in the 1770s and soon pushed out to the Salt River country. Federal nomination papers for the “Harlan’s Station” site summarize the early sequence this way: a log station raised in 1778 by Silas with help from his brother James, followed by James’s stone house about 1785 on or near the same spot above the Salt River.
The Harrodsburg land court’s certificate book records many Salt River claims taken in 1779 to 1780, the same window in which the Harlans secured their settlement and pre-emption rights. Although the original Harrodsburg court records were lost, the 1923 Register transcript preserves the text of the commissioners’ certificates.
A November 1779 letter from Harrodsburgh
One of the clearest primary glimpses of Harlan comes from a letter he signed at Harrodsburgh on November 1, 1779, addressed to Col. George Rogers Clark. The finding aid for the Clark Family Papers describes it directly: “Silas Harland, Harrodsburgh, to George Rogers Clark. Regarding design of setting at Iron Banks, approval by commissioners and assembly.” The digitized image survives via the Digital Public Library of America and Wikimedia Commons. The “Iron Banks” were the river bluffs near the mouth of the Ohio that Clark eyed for a Mississippi post.
Within months the plan became reality. Clark’s Fort Jefferson rose at the Iron Banks in spring 1780, on high ground just south of present-day Wickliffe. State markers and later scholarship document the brief life of the post and its evacuation in 1781 after heavy pressure from Chickasaw forces.
Clark’s papers and a land warrant in Harlan’s name
Harlan’s service under Clark shows up in the documentary record that survives from the Illinois Regiment and the Western Department. The Library of Virginia’s APA 204 collection includes the ledgers, vouchers, rolls, and correspondence that name and pay the men who supplied and scouted for Clark. The published George Rogers Clark Papers, 1781-1784 offers authoritative transcriptions for researchers using these years.
A separate document ties Harlan to land earned during the wartime efforts. On 29 January 1780 Clark received a land office treasury warrant. In March 1781 he assigned it to Silas Harlan. The Bullitt County History Museum reproduces both sides of the original instrument along with the later survey and grant to Harlan’s devisee, James Harlan.
“We are all slaughtered men”: Blue Licks, 19 August 1782
Harlan died leading the advance at the Battle of Blue Licks on 19 August 1782. The state battlefield and its monument preserve the memory of the fallen from that day, long remembered as the last major fight of the Revolution in Kentucky. Early scholarly treatment of the monument and later syntheses place Harlan among the officers killed alongside John Todd and Stephen Trigg.
Why the county bears his name
The General Assembly created Harlan County in 1819 and named it in honor of Silas Harlan. The session laws for that year record the county’s establishment. Place-name authorities and the Kentucky encyclopedia repeat and standardize the attribution.
Where to find the paper trail
Researchers can follow Harlan through several rich primary collections. The Library of Virginia’s APA 204 index covers vouchers, payrolls, and returns for Clark’s western command. The Draper Manuscripts’ Kentucky Papers gather nineteenth-century interviews and copied papers from Harlan’s circle and other pioneers. Kentucky’s Land Office maintains a searchable database with color scans of settlement certificates and pre-emption warrants, including Salt River entries from the Harrodsburg court.
Sources and further reading
Silas Harland to George Rogers Clark, 1 Nov. 1779. Clark Family Papers, Missouri Historical Society. Finding aid entry and digitized image via DPLA and Wikimedia Commons. YUMPU+1
George Rogers Clark Papers. Library of Virginia, APA 204, vouchers, rolls, and correspondence for the Illinois Regiment and Western Department. Virginia EAD
George Rogers Clark Papers, 1781-1784. Ed. James Alton James. Illinois State Historical Library, 1926. Internet Archive edition. ia801309.us.archive.org
Certificate Book of the Virginia Land Commission, 1779-1780. Harrodsburg court transcripts printed in the Register of the Kentucky Historical Society (1923). JSTOR+1
Land-warrant assignment to Silas Harlan, March 1781. Bullitt County History Museum, images of Clark’s warrant and its endorsement to Harlan, and subsequent survey and grant. Bullitt County History Museum
Kentucky Secretary of State Land Office. Certificates of Settlement and Pre-emption Warrants database and researcher’s guide. Secretary of State+1
Blue Licks Battlefield. State park and monument information summarizing the 19 August 1782 action. Wikipedia
Collins, Lewis and Richard H. Collins, Historical Sketches of Kentucky (var. eds., 1874-1878). Early narrative history widely used by later writers. Internet Archive+1
Rennick, Robert M., Kentucky Place Names. University Press of Kentucky, 1984. Standard reference for county name origins. Google Books
The Kentucky Encyclopedia. University Press of Kentucky, entries on Harlan County and Blue Licks. Google Books
National Park Service NPGallery. Harlan’s Station nomination data sheet with concise, sourced notes on the station and the Harlan family. npgallery.nps.gov
Acts of the General Assembly of Kentucky, 1819. Session laws establishing Harlan County and naming it for Silas Harlan. Google Books record. Google Books
Kentucky Historical Society Markers. Fort Jefferson site and related markers documenting Clark’s 1780 post at the Iron Banks. Kentucky History+1
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