Timeline story
Leestown
In 1773 the McAfee company and Hancock Taylor surveyed a buffalo crossing on the Kentucky River about a mile north of today's Frankfort.
Hancock and Willis Lee planted a village on the north bank in 1775, the first Anglo-American settlement north of the river. Virginia recognized it in 1776. Raids emptied it in 1777, then it came back as a tobacco-inspection warehouse (1783) and a shipping port for hemp, corn, and whiskey bound for New Orleans.
It even contended for the capital. In 1827 the limestone for the Old State House was quarried from the riverbank here.
Cite this story
Published . Last revised .
Chicago
Snowden, Shannon. "Leestown." Kentucky History Drive. Published September 12, 2026. Last revised September 12, 2026. https://kyhistorydrive.com/stories/leestown/.
MLA
Snowden, Shannon. "Leestown." Kentucky History Drive, published 12 Sept. 2026, last revised 12 Sept. 2026, https://kyhistorydrive.com/stories/leestown/.
