MAY 15, 1814

200 years ago today, Thomas Hopper was planting crops on his 2 quarter sections which were located where the road from the Falls of the Ohio to Vincennes crossed Lick Creek which was a tributary of the Patoka River. Hopper had moved northwest up the Vincennes Road from his first place of settlement which was where Sinking Creek crossed this pioneer trail. This is where Hardinsburg is now located. Once Washington County had been established, Hopper could boast that at that location he was the first settler in the county. Hopper had come from North Carolina in 1803 and settled on land that was not yet controlled by the Federal Government. Hopper stayed at this remote location while the Grouseland Treaty was negotiated and while the subsequent surveys were done so that the land could be officially opened up for settlement. Hopper registered his claim to his first home in the Indiana Territory and then assigned it to Robert Hollowell after relocating. Hopper’s 2d residence would become the site of Paoli which was founded in 1816. Preferring not to be near any town, Hopper then moved west again to Lafayette County, Missouri where he would amass a large landholding of over a 1000 acres.