Daniel Hardin (1790-1850)

Daniel Hardin (1790-1850)

When Daniel Hardin (our 3^rd great grandfather) was born in 1790 in Kentucky, his father, Benjamin was 37 and his mother, Nancy, was 24.  He married Rebecca Kelly on June 9, 1812, in Henry County, Kentucky.  They had four children in 25 years.  At the age of 23 he joined the Kentucky Militia Volunteers in the War of 1812 and fought in the Battle of the Thames.  He died after 1850 in Owen County, Kentucky, at the age of 60.

Frontier life in early Kentucky

The Hardin Family came to Kentucky in the early 1750’s from Virginia. Daniel Hardin’s grandfather, named Mark, settled in Kettle Run, Kentucky. Other Hardins settled in the vicinity of Henry and Owen Counties. The Hardin family was of French Huguenot and Scottish decent.  Settlers of English, Scottish, Scotch-Irish, Irish, Welsh, and German descent were the primary ethnic groups migrating to Kentucky. There were also French settlers in lesser numbers. Daniel’s ancestor Jean Hardewyn (1625-1721) immigrated to America in the mid-17th century, settling in New York. Jean’s grandson Marcus Hardin (1681-1735) moved from New York to Virginia. His great grandson was Daniel (1790-1850).

The Hardins were no strangers to the frontier. Whether it was New York in 1650, Virginia in 1740, they had often been part of that leading edge of settlement ever pushing westward. But the Kentucky to which the Hardins moved was still in the midst of a war between pioneers and Native Americans.

The loss of a family member to Indian attack, accident, or illness was not unusual in pioneer Kentucky. Thousands of settlers died from these causes. The threat of Indian raids into Kentucky continued until the American victory at Fallen Timbers in 1794. Outbreaks of illness could decimate entire families and settlements. But births and the migration rate into Kentucky far out-paced the mortality rate.

The dawning of the 19th century saw a population of almost 224,000 in Kentucky. The state’s population had more than tripled since the 1790 census. And, ten years later, the 1810 census recorded Kentucky’s official population at 406,511. Settlers were moving into and also moving out of Kentucky at ever increasing rates. As Indian lands opened up to settlement to the north in Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois; to the south in Tennessee, Louisiana, Alabama, and Mississippi; and to the west in Missouri and Arkansas, people living in Kentucky often moved on in search of a better life. They might have been born and raised in Kentucky or have lived there for years. Others were simply passing through, maybe only staying a year or two before moving on. The Ohio River and the Cumberland Gap served as the major transportation routes into Kentucky. A variety of roads and rivers facilitated travel through the state.

There were two major routes into pioneer Kentucky – the Cumberland Gap and the Ohio River. Countless settlers walked and rode horse and wagon into Kentucky through the Gap. Flatboats, also called Kentucky boats for their destination, were a major means of moving family and possessions – including livestock – downriver to the settlers’ new western home.http://filsonhistorical.org/

Battle of the Thames

The Battle of the Thames was a pivotal American victory during the War of 1812. On October 5, 1813, General William Henry Harrison, who also was the governor of the Indiana Territory and a future president of the United States of America, led an army of 3,500 American troops against a combined force of eight hundred British soldiers and five hundred Native American warriors at Moraviantown, along the Thames River in Ontario, Canada. The British troops were under the command of Colonel Henry Procter. Tecumseh, a Shawnee Native American chief, commanded many of the Native American warriors. The British army was retreating from Fort Malden, Ontario after Oliver Hazard Perry's victory in the Battle of Lake Erie in September 1813. Tecumseh convinced Colonel Procter to make a stand at Moraviantown.

The American army won a total victory. As soon as the American troops advanced, the British soldiers fled or surrendered. The Native Americans fought fiercely, but lost heart and scattered after Tecumseh died on the battlefield. The identity of the person who killed Tecumseh is still vigorously debated.

The Battle of the Thames was an important land battle of the War of 1812 in the American Northwest. Since the early 1800s, Tecumseh had sought to form a confederacy of Native American tribes to stop white Americans from seizing Native American land. Tecumseh's death and General Harrison's victory marked the end of Tecumseh's Confederacy, as the natives now lacked a strong, unifying leader. Over the next three decades, Native Americans in the old Northwest signed treaties, forsaking claims to the land in this region.

http://www.ohiohistorycentral.org/w/Battle_of_the_Thames?rec=481

Daniel Hardin * (1790 - 1850)

is our 3rd great grandfather

Martin V Hardin (1834 - 1881)

son of Daniel Hardin *

Nancy Wilson Hardin * (1858 - 1933)

daughter of Martin V Hardin

Walter Scott Bramblett * (1882 - 1978)

son of Nancy Wilson Hardin *

Margaret May Belle Bramblett * (1911 - 1988)

daughter of Walter Scott Bramblett *