The name Mill Creek continues today in the name of the creek as well as the Mill Creek Baptist Church founded in 1782 as a community meeting house and served by circuit riding ministers of both the Methodist and Baptist. The original location of the old meeting house was the Mill Creek Lincoln Memorial Cemetery at Ft. Knox. The present congregation, active for over 225 years, worships today in a modern edifice on South Jones Street in Radcliff.
The area that we know as Radcliff today was once known as the Mill Creek area of Kentucky. The historical significance of the area is best shown by the first map of Kentucky published by John Filson in 1784. The first land surveys were made of this area in 1780 by Jacob Meyers, land grants were signed by Patrick Henry, the Governor of Virginia. Mill Creek is depicted on the map and drawn with detail and named indicating this early use of the place name. One of the contributors to Filson's map was one Col. Daniel Boone. Local histories record that both Daniel and his brother Squire Boone, who later settled in Corydon, Indiana, spent quite a bit of time in this area. This fact is attested to by the Boone family cemetery located on Fort Knox just a few short miles north of Radcliff.
Thomas Lincoln, father of the 16th President, purchased his first farm on Mill Creek in 1807 two years before the birth of Abraham Lincoln. Mill Creek has long been considered one of the possible birthplaces of the future president. Thomas kept possession and actively worked his Mill Creek farm until the family moved to Indiana. Thomas’s mother, Bathsheba Lincoln and sister spent their last days in the area. The Thomas Lincoln farm was located at the Southern Border of Radcliff with the family members buried in the historic Mill Creek Lincoln Memorial Cemetery on Fort Knox.
A tremendous earthquake started in New Madrid, Missouri was felt in this area on December 16, 1811. The quake was followed by thunder and then complete darkness at 2 o'clock in the afternoon. Superstitious folk along the river blamed the quake on a new steamboat, "New Orleans", built by Nicholas Roosevelt (great uncle of President Theodore Roosevelt), which had passed West Point, Ky. the day before on its maiden voyage to New Orleans.
The Louisville-Nashville Turnpike, now known as South Wilson Road, was one of Kentucky's first hard surface roads, began in 1829. The roadbed was constructed by cutting limestone rock to the shape similar to that of a railroad spike then hammered into the ground to form a base eight inches thick.
Thomas Lincoln and family, including Little Abe, passed through our area during 1814 on their way to Indiana. The Lincolns migration was by way of a road, known today in Radcliff as Spring Street. A marker denoting the passage was placed a few years ago in downtown Vine Grove through which the same road passed.
Coleman Lewis constructed the first section of Radcliff's oldest standing structure, the Haycraft Inn in 1814 which was located on the old L&N Turnpike. Daniel K. Haycraft operated the inn during the days of stage coach transportation.
Hezekiah Owen Stovall built a one room log cabin in 1836 on his farm to serve as a home for his new bride Eleanor Young Brashear. Today it is known as the Raine cabin.
John and Samuel Shelton, two brothers, served in the Civil War and were discharged at Munfordville. John sewed his final wages inside his suspenders and returned to purchase a large farm located in the area of today’s Captain D’s. Samuel Shelton is believed to have been robbed and murdered as he never returned home. He disappeared without a trace.
The outbreak of the Civil War caused Union soldiers from Michigan to construct Fort Duffield on Pearman’s Hill overlooking the city of West Point.
In September 1862 General Don Carlos Buell’s Union Army had approximately 60,000 soldiers passing through present-day Radcliff, on the Louisville and Nashville Turnpike, camping at Saunders Springs on Milton Stith’s farm for three days. Stith was never paid for the crops, animals and wood confiscated by the military. General John Hunt Morgan and his Confederate raiders passed through Bloomington on July 7, 1863 (now the Wilson Road area of Ft Knox) on their way to Brandenburg, Ky. Morgan used two steamboats to ferry troops across the Ohio River to Indiana.
Local residents tell of the exploits of Frank and Jesse James spending the night in the barn of John Finley Hobbs formerly located just south of the Haycraft Inn. Meanwhile, just north of the Inn, William Dyer purchased five acres of land from the Haycrafts for construction of a General Store and Blacksmith Shop. Known as Dyer's Crossing during the late 1800's, today it is the intersection of Hwy 1500 and South Wilson Road in the Rogersville area of southern Radcliff
Enter storyThe Saunders Springs Nature Preserve, as we know it today, started as the water supply for Ft Knox. When Water District 1 was established in the early 1950s, they purchased the site from the federal government. Eventually its capacity was determined inadequate, and the site was given to the city of Radcliff for use as a public park. Today, local residents can spend a peaceful time in a natural surrounding. info here
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