James Garrard - Resettlement in Kentucky

Resettlement in Kentucky

Following the revolution, Garrard faced the dual challenges of a growing family and depleted personal wealth. Acting on favorable reports from his former neighbor, John Edwards, Garrard and Samuel Grant headed west into the recently created Kentucky County. By virtue of his military service, Garrard was entitled to claim any vacant land he surveyed and recorded at the state land office. Beginning in early 1783, Garrard made claims for family and friends, as well as 40,000 acres (160 km2) for himself. Later in 1783, he moved his family to the land he had surveyed in Fayette County, which had been created from Kentucky County since his last visit to the region. Three years later, he employed John Metcalfe, a noted stonemason and older half-brother of future Kentucky Governor Thomas Metcalfe, to build his estate, Mount Lebanon, on the Stoner Fork of the Licking River. There, he engaged in agriculture, opened a grist mill and a lumber mill, and distilled whiskey. In 1784, he enlisted in the Fayette County militia.

In 1785, Garrard was elected to represent Fayette County in the Virginia legislature. He was placed on a legislative committee with Benjamin Logan and Christopher Greenup to draft recommendations regarding the further division of Kentucky County. The committee recommended the creation of three new counties, including Madison, Mercer, and Garrard's county of residence, Bourbon. On his return from the legislature, Garrard was chosen county surveyor and justice of the peace for the newly formed county. At various times, he also served as magistrate and colonel of the county militia.

Although some historians have identified Garrard as a member of the Danville Political Club, a secret debating society that was active in Danville, Kentucky, from 1786 to 1790, his name is not found in the Club's official membership records. Garrard's biographer, H. E. Everman, concludes that these historians may have mistaken Garrard's membership in the Kentucky Society for the Promotion of Useful Knowledge for membership in the Danville Political Club. The groups had similar aims, were active at about the same time, and had several members in common. Other notable members of the Kentucky Society for the Promotion of Useful Knowledge included Isaac Shelby, Christopher Greenup, and Thomas Todd, all future Kentucky governors or gubernatorial candidates.

Garrard's Mount Lebanon estate was designated as the temporary county seat of Bourbon County; the county court first convened there on May 15, 1786, and continued to meet there for many years. In 1789, the Virginia legislature established a permanent county seat named Hopewell, and Garrard was part of the committee chosen to survey the area for the city. He and John Edwards were among the new settlement's first trustees. Upon Garrard's recommendation, the city's name was changed to Paris in 1790. Soon after, he resigned as county surveyor to focus on more pressing needs of defense for the fledgling settlement. At his behest, the Bourbon County Court expanded its militia from one battalion to two at its meeting in August 1790.