David Glenn

David Glenn was of Scotch-Irish descent and was born around 1753 either in Pennsylvania, Virginia or North Carolina. He was one of the early settlers of Kentucky having accompanied James Harrod in founding Harrodstown in 1774, along with his older brother, Thomas. Today, Harrodsburg is considered the oldest permanent white settlement in Kentucky, being it was settled almost a full year before Boonesborough.

Throughout the Revolutionary War, David Glenn served as a hunter and soldier under General George Rogers Clark, accompanying him on his extraordinary expeditions to Kaskaskia and Vincennes during Clark's Illinois Campaigns in 1778–79. He was responsible for procuring supplies for Harrodsburg, maintaining a small cabin to store meat and provisions about 50 miles south of the fort on Russell Creek. This area eventually bore Glenn's name, originally called Glennsville and later known as Glens Fork, and it became a thriving town until suffering hard times and near-abandonment during the Civil War. He later moved west to Yellow Banks (present-day Owensboro) where he was instrumental in setting up then-Ohio County, serving as Trustee of Hartford Academy and Justice of the Peace. In 1815, when Daviess County was formed from Ohio County, David Glenn was appointed as one of the commissioners and later died in 1816 on his homestead. These two men were Daniel Boone and Michael Stoner and they are said to have completed the round trip of 800 miles in just 64 days. When Boone arrived at Harrodstown, he stayed long enough to build himself a cabin and then went off to continue relaying Dunmore's message to the other surveyors in the area.

Harrod's company still remained at Fort Harrod until July 10 when one of their men was killed, at which point, they set out through the Cumberland Gap for the Holston Valley where they found recruiting for the Fincastle County Battalion. While other battalions marched on to meet the Indians in battle, like General Lewis, who left on September 12, Colonel Christian's men stayed at Camp Union to guard the remaining provisions until the packhorses at Elk Creek could return. Christian's Battalion moved quicker than any of the others, leaving Camp Union on September 27 with supplies and covering 103 miles over eight days, arriving at the mouth of Elk River (now Charleston) on the 8th, 25 miles from the site of the battle. and making other improvements from Frankfort down to Russell Springs. However, at the close of 1776, Colonel John Todd had attempted to retrieve some gunpowder at Three Islands (near present-day Manchester) to resupply the Kentucky settlers, but was unsuccessful. In response, Harrod took his small company, which included David Glenn, and on January 2, 1777, they secured the powder and returned to Harrodsburg under the guidance of Simon Kenton, taking the Ohio River down to a hidden buffalo road to avoid conflict with the natives. Had the powder not been delivered to the settlers, they would have been left defenseless and vulnerable to the very frequent Indian attacks.

Glenn proved to be an effective hunter, being tasked with gathering provisions for Harrodsburg's population of ~200 people for quite some time, probably upwards to two years. As part of Captain John Montgomery's company, he was one of the 175 men who captured Kaskaskia on the night of July 4, 1778 and one of the 170 volunteers who retook Vincennes the following February.

Personal life

Prior to the close of the American Revolution, in 1780, David Glenn claimed lands on behalf of his nephews belonging to his brother, Thomas, who was killed at the Siege of Fort Henry in 1777. Years later, he did the same for his old friend, William Stewart, who had died at the Battle of Blue Licks.

By 1784 David had married Nancy Brooks in Nelson County and had his first son, moving further west to Yellow Banks in 1797 where he bought 1,200 acres of land close to Glenn's Bridge.

While established in Yellow Banks, David befriended Bill Smothers and continued spending a good amount of his time hunting.

David Glenn's descendants are the namesake of Glenville in McLean County.