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Elizabethtown, Kentucky
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==History== Established in 1793, Hardin County was named for Colonel [[John Hardin]], an Indian fighter who worked with tribes in the local area. In a few years, professional men and tradesmen came to live in the area. In 1793, Colonel [[Andrew Hynes]] had {{convert|30|acre|ha}} (until then known as the "Severn's Valley Settlement"<ref>Commonwealth of Kentucky. Office of the Secretary of State. Land Office. "Elizabethtown, Kentucky". Retrieved July 25, 2013.</ref>) surveyed and laid off into lots and streets to establish Elizabethtown. Named in honor of his wife, Elizabethtown was legally established in 1797.<ref>{{cite book | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=3Lac2FUSj_oC&q=cannon+ky&pg=PA90 | title=Kentucky Place Names | publisher=University Press of Kentucky | year=1987 | access-date=April 28, 2013 | author=Rennick, Robert M. | page=90 | isbn=0813126312 | archive-date=May 21, 2024 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240521035350/https://books.google.com/books?id=3Lac2FUSj_oC&q=cannon+ky&pg=PA90#v=snippet&q=cannon%20ky&f=false | url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite book | url=https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_9V1IAAAAMAAJ | title=The Origin of Certain Place Names in the United States | publisher=Govt. Print. Off. | author=Gannett, Henry | year=1905 | page=[https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_9V1IAAAAMAAJ/page/n114 116]}}</ref> [[Thomas Lincoln]] helped Samuel Haycraft build a [[sluice|millrace]] at Haycraft's mill on Valley Creek. After Lincoln married [[Nancy Hanks]] in 1806, they lived in a log cabin built in Elizabethtown. Their daughter, [[Sarah Lincoln Grigsby|Sarah]], was born there in 1807. Soon after, they moved to the Sinking Spring Farm, where [[Abraham Lincoln]] was born in 1809. Thomas Lincoln took his family to [[Indiana]] in 1816. After his wife died in 1818, he returned to Elizabethtown and married [[Sarah Bush Johnston]], widowed since 1816. She and her three children accompanied Thomas back to Indiana, where Sarah was stepmother to Thomas' two children.{{citation needed|date=November 2022}} On March 5, 1850, the Commonwealth of Kentucky granted a charter to the [[Louisville and Nashville Railroad]] Company authorizing it to raise funds and built a railroad from Louisville to the [[Tennessee]] state line in the direction of [[Nashville]]. [[John L. Helm]], the grandson of Capt. Thomas Helm, became the president of the railroad in October 1854; he directed construction of the main stem of the rail line through Elizabethtown. The rail line was completed to Elizabethtown in 1858, with the first train arriving on June 15, 1858. The opening of the railroad brought economic growth to Elizabethtown, which became an important trade center along the railroad and a strategic point during the [[American Civil War|Civil War]].{{citation needed|date=November 2022}} On December 27, 1862, [[Confederate States Army|Confederate]] General [[John Hunt Morgan]] and his 3,000-man cavalry attacked Elizabethtown. During the battle, more than 100 cannonballs were fired into the town. Although he successfully captured Elizabethtown, Morgan's chief goal was to disrupt the railroad and northern transportation. He proceeded north along the railroad, burning trestles and destroying sections of the track. After the battle, one cannonball was found lodged in the side of a building on the public square. After the building burned in 1887 and was rebuilt, the cannonball was replaced in the side wall, as close to its original site as possible, where it remains in the present day. It is located in the Joey Lee building, which is located on the historic town square. The building is currently owned and houses the office of attorney Roger T. Rigney, it also features a plaquard noting the cannonball and the history behind it out front.{{citation needed|date=November 2022}} From 1871 to 1873 during the [[Reconstruction Era]], the [[7th Cavalry Regiment|Seventh Cavalry]] and a battalion of the Fourth Infantry, led by General [[George Armstrong Custer]], were stationed in Elizabethtown. The military were assigned to suppress the local [[Ku Klux Klan]] under the [[Enforcement Acts]], as their members had been attacking [[freedmen]] and other Republicans. They also broke up illegal distilleries, which began to flourish in the South after the Civil War. General Custer and his wife [[Elizabeth Bacon Custer|Elizabeth]] lived in a small cottage behind Aunt Beck Hill's boarding house, now known as the Brown-Pusey House.{{citation needed|date=November 2022}} <gallery> Brown Pusey House Community Center.jpg|The [[Brown Pusey House Community Center|Brown Pusey House]] Samuel B. Thomas House.jpg|The Samuel B. Thomas House Elizabethtown KY.jpg|A banner remembers [[John Hunt Morgan]]'s role in the history of Elizabethtown, KY. A Confederate cannonball is embedded in the blue building at left (the ball is visible just below and to the left of the nearest second-story window). </gallery>
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