John Floyd

Colonel James John Floyd (1750 – 10 April 1783) was an American military officer. An early settler of St. Matthews, Kentucky, he helped lay out Louisville. In Kentucky, he served as a Colonel of the Kentucky Militia in which he participated in raids with George Rogers Clark and later became one of the first judges of Kentucky.

Biography

Virginia

Floyd was born in 1750 in Amherst County, Virginia, to William and Abadiah (Davis) Floyd, descendants of Welsh immigrants. Family legend was that his mother was a descendant of the Powhatan chieftain Opchanacanough. Another family tradition maintains that her brother was Evan Davis, the grandfather of Jefferson Davis. and agreed to serve on board the Massachusetts schooner Phoenix. The syndicate members included Robert Morris, Carter Braxton, Michael Gratz, Dr. Thomas Walker, Edmund Pendleton, and others.

Floyd placed a notice in a Williamsburg newspaper on December 26, 1776, that he intended to leave the colony of Virginia for a few months. Carter Braxton's instructions to Phoenix captain Joseph Cunningham of Boston indicated the schooner was to sail from Yorktown, Virginia to the West Indies for a three-month voyage.

While in Paris, Floyd "obtained his wedding Clothes, a rich and beautiful pair of brilliant shoe buckles for his intended bride, a Scarlet Coat for himself." Floyd returned to Virginia from Paris arriving in February 1778. After months of recuperating from his illnesses, Floyd married Jane Buchanan, a ward of Col. Preston's, on November 2, 1778. They built a cabin near 3rd and Main Street in present-day Louisville for a temporary shelter for the women and children The area was regularly being raided by Native Americans and dozens of settlers had been killed. Floyd wrote two letters to Thomas Jefferson pleading for support. but Floyd narrowly managed to escape. This became known as Floyds Defeat.

In 1783, Virginia organized the government of Kentucky and Floyd was appointed to be one of the first two judges of Kentucky. He is also credited as the namesake of Floyd County, Indiana, although it has been argued that this county was actually named for Davis Floyd. Floyd's Station Springhouse still stands today. The Floyds Fork river is named after him as well, which when it meets with the Salt River is near the location where he was mortally wounded. Floyd Street, that runs North to South from downtown Louisville through the University of Louisville was named after him as well.