Hodgenville: from Hodgen’s Mill to a county seat

The county’s first settlement was Phillips Fort, built in 1780 on the North Fork of the Nolin River by surveyor Philip Phillips and a company of settlers from Pennsylvania; it served as a refuge from Indian raids until about 1786, when it was safe enough to build homes, and it was then abandoned and taken down. Robert Hodgen, a Pennsylvania-born tavern keeper who bought land in the area, built a gristmill on the Nolin in 1789 within the protection of the fort.

After his death, his widow and children petitioned for a town, and in February 1818 the Hardin County Court established Hodgenville on 27 acres of Hodgen land. The post office opened in 1826 (spelled Hodgensville until 1904), the town incorporated in 1839, and when LaRue County was formed from Hardin County on March 1, 1843, Hodgenville became its seat.

In between, on Feb. 12, 1809, Abraham Lincoln was born in a cabin on Sinking Spring Farm a few miles south. For the centennial of his birth, Adolph Weinman’s bronze seated Lincoln was dedicated on the town square on May 31, 1909, with Robert Todd Lincoln in the crowd of more than 10,000. The map pin marks the KHS Hodgenville marker (#1096) in town.