The Haycraft Family
The Haycraft Family
James Haycraft, Jr. |
Samuel Haycraft, Sr.
SAMUEL HAYCRAFT, Sr. (1752-1823)
From The Biographical Encyclopedia of Kentucky of the Dead and Living Men of the Nineteenth Century (Cincinnati, Ohio: J. M. Armstrong & Company, 1878), 222:
HAYCRAFT, JUDGE SAMUEL. Pioneer and Farmer, was born September 11, 1752, in Virginia, and was the son of James Haycraft, an English Sailor, who belonged to the British Navy. His father's ship touched some American harbor, probably on the coast of Virginia, about 1740, and, for some cause, he remained in this country. [This information is untrue; James Haycraft was a transported convict. See preceding sketch.] He married in Virginia, and himself and wife both died, leaving three sons-James, Samuel, and Joshua-who were raised by Col. John Nevill, a wealthy Virginian. Samuel Haycraft received a good common-school education, and remained with Col. Nevill until he was of age, when, with a letter of recommendation, he started out to shift for himself in the world. He entered the army as a common soldier, and served his time out, in the war of the Revolution. While in his soldier's uniform, he was married to Margaret Van Meter, at Pittsburg, Pennsylvania; in the Fall of 1779, emigrated, with the whole Van Meter family, to Kentucky; in the Spring of 1780, settled at Cave Spring, in what is now Hardin County; built a fort, in which he long resided with his family; shared in all the trials and dangers of the early settlement; kept pace with the growth of the country; served as sheriff of his county; was one of the Judges of the Court of Quarter Sessions; was one of the Assistant Judges of the first Circuit Court organized at Elizabethtown; represented his county in the Legislature, in 1801 and 1809; was one of the first who built a house in Elizabethtown; was characteristically I hospitable, his house being one of the popular resorts during the sessions of the early courts; was a man of great honor and probity of character, and was one of the most useful and highly esteemed of the old pioneer farmers of Kentucky. He died October 15, 1823. One of his children, at least, still survives him. (See sketch of Hon. Samuel Haycraft, Jr.)
The Haycraft Family
James Haycraft, Jr. |
Samuel Haycraft, Sr.
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