Big Spring Chapter

GEORGETOWN

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CHAPTER ORGANIZED MARCH 6, 1912

Big Spring Chapter, located in Kentucky at Georgetown, organized on March 6, 1912, by Miss Katherine Stout Bradley, chapter organizing regent. The chapter was named for the Big Spring which Colonel John Floyd discovered on July 9, 1774. Colonel Floyd was a surveyor assigned the duty of mapping the part of "Kaintuckee," which lay north of the Kentucky River. He described the spring as "Royal." The spring was first called Floyd's Spring in his honor. Records show that it received the name "Royal Spring" on April 29, 1780.

News of adequate water supply traveled fast in pioneer days; and in October, 1775, John McClelland, his family, Colonel Robert Patterson and six other frontiersmen left Pittsburg to settle in Kentucky near the spring. Early in 1776 they had erected a fort near the site of Royal Spring; this was the first fortified station north of the Kentucky River, and the first settlement of more than one family in that section, now Scott County. This fort, called McClelland's Station, was a stop-over station for pioneers passing to and from larger settlements south of the Kentucky River.

Late in 1776, the fort was destroyed by Indians; John McClelland was mortally wounded and died January 6, 1777. Following this attack, the fort was abandoned for almost ten years. Then came settlers from 'back East,' among whom was Elijah Craig, a Baptist minister, who left Virginia with family and friends to escape religious persecution. Craig built his home on the "Big Spring" branch, not far from the old fort site. The new settlement was called Lebanon's Station; but in 1790 the name was changed from Lebanon's Station to George Town in honor of George Washington.

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