Alexander Scott Bullitt - Settling in Kentucky

Settling in Kentucky

Bullitt settled first in an area that is now Shelby County but soon found the area too isolated, and subject to Indian attacks. His uncle Thomas had surveyed a town site in 1773 at the Falls of the Ohio, and in 1800 the Virginia legislature named in Louisville. Alexander bought 1000 acres (4 km²) about 9 miles (14 km) south of there and began his farm again. He named it Oxmoor, after the fictional farm in Tristram Shandy. In 1784 he made his first steps in Kentucky politics. He became an officer in the local militia, and met with others at Danville in a convention that first proposed a separation from Virginia.

In August 1785, his neighbor, Colonel William Christian, who had been developing a neighboring property, brought his wife Anne (née Henry) and family from Virginia. Two months later Alexander married their young daughter Priscilla. While this improved his political connections (her uncle was Patrick Henry), they were a devoted couple. They built Oxmoor, starting the main house in 1787, and there they grew tobacco, hemp, and corn. They raised a family of four: William Christian, Anne, Helen Scott, Cuthbert on the farm.

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