Meet Harrodsburg’s Pioneers At History Underfoot Tour On Sept. 14
Photo: Keith Rightmyer
Jerry Sampson, president of the James Harrod Trust, takes part in the 2023 History Underfoot Tour at Spring Hill Cemetery. Sampson will play pioneer and Revolutionary War hero Mark McGohon at this year’s tour.
Robert Moore
Herald Staff
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The 19th Annual James Harrod Trust History Underfoot Cemetery Tour happens Saturday, Sept. 14, at Spring Hill Cemetery (529 North Greenville Street). Tours happen every half hour, starting at 6 p.m. and running through 8 p.m. During the tour, guides will escort visitors to graves where costumed interpreters explore the personal stories of the people who built Harrodsburg.
Jerry Sampson, president of the James Harrod Trust, which hosts the tours, said there will be four interpreters this year. None of the subjects are actually buried at Spring Hill, but Sampson said they were chosen because they were all pioneers.
“We did that in celebration of Harrodsburg’s 250th birthday,” Sampson said.
Sampson will portray Mark McGohon (1755-1848), who immigrated from Ulster, Ireland. McGohon’s mother and infant sibling died crossing the Atlantic, and McGohon and his little sister found themselves stranded in America, unable to contact their father, who’d immigrated earlier. McGohon would not reunite with his father until the Revolutionary War. After the war’s conclusion, McGohon and his wife, Elizabeth Dunn, relocated to Fort Harrod. McGohon took part in a journey to recover their horses, which had been taken by the Shawnee. They found the horses tethered on the other side of the Ohio River, which was Shawnee territory. The resourceful McGohon climbed a Sycamore tree and called out to his wife’s little white mare, Nell, who broke her tether and led the other horses across the river.
The family made their home on a farm off Shakertown Road, and McGohon died at his daughter’s home near Mackville. In 1930, his family and the Jane McAfee Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution exhumed McGohon’s body and reinterred him in Memorial Acre at Old Fort Harrod.
Other subjects at the History Underfoot Cemetery Tour include:
• Jane Coomes is portrayed by Lisa Botner Goodrich. Coomes and her husband, William Coomes, were the first Catholic immigrants to Kentucky, arriving at Fort Harrod in June 1775. Coomes became the first schoolteacher in Kentucky and is credited with manufacturing the first salt at Drennon Springs. In addition, she delivered babies and rendered medical care, using hot grease to cauterize wounds and seal them against infection. Her husband William was with the Ray brothers when they were attacked at Shawnee Spring. William Coomes saved himself by crouching silently behind a fallen tree. After living nine years at Fort Harrod, the family moved to Nelson County.
• Gen. George Rogers Clark (1752-1818) is portrayed by Than Cutler. Clark, the elder brother of William Clark of the Lewis and Clark Expedition, was born in Albemarle County, Virginia. By 1775 Clark was surveying Central Kentucky and is credited with laying out Leesburg, near present-day Frankfort. In 1776 Clark traveled to Williamsburg, then the state capitol of Virginia, to petition for the creation of Kentucky County. Clark also secured 500 pounds of gunpowder for the defense of the settlements. He went on to become the highest-ranking American military officer in the Northwest Territory, where, among other deeds, he ordered a flotilla to shoot the Falls of the Ohio during a solar eclipse. In January 1779, British Governor Henry Hamilton surrendered at Vincennes, Indiana.
• Ann Kennedy Wilson Pogue Lindsay McGinty (1735-1815) is portrayed by Amalie Preston. Ann Kennedy was a first generation American whose parents immigrated from Ireland. She outlived four husbands—John Wilson, William Pogue, Joseph Lindsey and James McGinty. A hard-nosed businesswoman, she received her own landgrant of 800 acres and ran the first licensed tavern at Fort Harrod and is credited with bringing the first spinning wheel into Kentucky. She even outlived the original Fort Harrod. Even after the fort had been dismantled, she continued to live in the blockhouse until her demise.
Sampson called the cemetery tour “a wonderful dose of history.”
“It’s nothing scary,” he said. “It’s all about our history and our culture.”
Sampson said the tour tends to attract many of the same people year after year. “We want to get new people, too,” Sampson said.
The James Harrod Trust History has a mission to “protect, encourage and continue the preservation of cultural and historical places in Mercer County,” according to their website. In addition to the cemetery tour, the trust also offers self-guided walking and driving tours of Harrodsburg and Mercer County.
The Mercer County Land Patents book is still available for sale at $95.00. Call Sampson at 859-734-7829 to buy a copy. The trust also offers one-year memberships at $25 for individuals and $50 for families.
The 19th Annual James Harrod Trust History Underfoot Cemetery Tour happens Saturday, Sept. 14. Tours happen every half hour, starting at 6 p.m. and running through 8 p.m. For more information, call Sampson at 859-734-7829 or visit online at jamesharrodtrust.org.
