Husb. of Sarah (LaRue) Hodgen: From the Mather Papers, by Otis M. Mather:
Robert Hodgen, on whose land Hodgenville was later built, was a man of importance in his day. He was one of the first Justices of the Hardin County Court and later served as Sheriff of Hardin County and as a member of ther Legislature. He died in February 1810, leaving a large family.
His widow, Sarah LaRue Hodgen, continued to live on the home plantation and to operate the mill as well as the farm. On the 7th day of February 1818 she and her sons, Isaac and John Hodgen, filed a petition in the Hardin County Court for the establishment of a town "on the land of Robert Hodgen, deceased, agreeable to a plan submitted, to be called and known by the name of Hodgenville." Two days later, on February 9, 1818. the county court made the order for the establishment of the town, and appointing Joseph Kirkpatrick, William Brown, Willam Cessna, Samuel Hodgen and Abraham Enlow as the first Board of Trustees. Thus began the story of Hodgenville. But there is littel reason to suppose that there was really any village or town here for some time after the name was given on paper; practically, it was nothing but Hodgen's Mill for some years after 1818.
I am informed by the Post Office Department by letter of recent date that "Hodgenveile was first designated as a Post Office on Dec. 7, 1826. Before that time our fathers got their mail at Elizabethtown. As may be observed the post office was originally Hodgensville, and it so continued to be until just a few years ago, when it was changed to correspond with the name of the town - - Hodgenville.
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Robert Hodgen, the owner of the Plantation on which Hodgenville was laid out on the establishment of that town, in 1818, was a native of Pennsylvania. He mover from that colony to Virginia, and there married Sarah LaRue, a sister of John LaRue. These two men came to Kentucky in 1784. In 1783 Hodgen obtained from the Nelson County Court license to erect a mill on the Nolynn, where Hodgenville now stands, which was probably the first mill in this part of Kentucky. He took an active interest in public affairs, serving as Sheriff, Presiding Judge of County Court and as Representative of Hardin County in the General Assembly of Kentucky. At the june term of the Hardin County, Court, 1797, Robert Hodgen was granted license to Keep a tavern at his home on the Nolynn. If we may judge from the entry of the elder Michaux under date January 31, 1796, it may be inferred that Hodgen had an agreeable place of entertainment before this tavern license was granted. This writer says (Vol. 3, Twaites' Early Western Travels, page 88) - "Sunday the 31st passed by Huggins Mill on the Nolynn River (good logins). Robert Hodgen died in Feb. 1810."
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Hodgenville, Kentucky, seat of LaRue County, in one-half mile below the confluence of the three branches of Nolynn Creek. In 1789 Robert Hodgen erected a mill on his land. In addition to operating his mill and farm, he conducted a tavery or "ordinary," in which notable were entertained, including the French botanist Michaux, in January 1797, and the Royal travelers, exiled Prince Louis Phillipe and his brothers, in April 1797. Hodgen died in 1810 and soon afterward the settlement that sprung up near his tavern was named for him.
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Robert Hodgen was born is England on August 7, 1742, the only child of his parents, an English born father and Dutch Lineage mother. He emigrated with his parents to America in 1765 and settled in Chester, PA. He was a Millwright. In Chester, PA. he married Miss Susannah Adkins, by whom he had four children. Robert married at the age of 16 in Virginia, Susannah who married General John Thomas; Joseph who was killed by the Miami Indians in St. Clairs defeat in 1791 in what is now the State of Ohio, and William, who died young in Pennsylvania.
After the death of his wife Susannah Adkins Hodgen, Robert Hodgen moved from Chester, PA. to Virginia, where he married Sarah LaRue, daughter of Isaac LaRue, Sr. and Phebe Carman LaRue, date unknown. He, together with John LaRue and family came to LaRue County to Phillip Phillips Fort in 1784 and the next year settled on a farm there on Nolynn Creek, and built a residence on the hill overlooking the Gum Springs. Under authority of an order of the Nelson County Court, entered Dec. 9, 1788, he erected a mill. (Just where this first mill was erected is not known). Later he erected a new Mill near the Gum Springs and this site was used as a Mill for many years, but at the present time the Hodgenville City Hall is located on the site. By order of the same court entered March 13, 1790, Robert Hodgen, Jacob Van Meter and Patrick Brown were appointed - - - -
to located a road between Nolynn Station (Hodgenville) and the Valley Creek Station (Elizabethtown).
In December, 1788, he was made a deacon in the Severn Valley Baptist Chuirch and so continued for many years. Upon the formation of Hardin County, in 1792, he was appointed, by Gov. Shelby, one of the first Justices of the Peace of the Hardin County Court, and sat with John Vertrees, Patrick Brown and Blanden Ashby in the first session of the Court on July 22, 1793. This was the second Court that convened in the new County, the quarter sessions having held first at the the House of Isaac Hynes on Feb. 26, 1793.
Robert Hodgen represented Hardin County in the Legislature in 1795, and in August 1800, by virtue of being Senior Justice of the Hardin Co., Court he was appointed Sheriff of the County under Procursion of the New Constitution, effective Jine 1, 1795. He resigned as Justice of the County Court on Aug. 26, 1795, the two offices being incompatible.
By his second wife he had twelve children: Margaret, who married Joseph Vertress, son of Capt. John Vertrees; Phebe, who married Jacob LaRue; Isaac, who was a Baptist preacher; Sarah , who married William LaRue; John, a farmer and preacher; Rebecca, who after the death of her first husband, Jacob Keith, became the wife of Gerneral John Thomas; Elizabeth, who married Horation Gates Wintersmith, Sr.; Samuel L. was a merchant and prominent member of the Christian Church; Jacob, who married Francis Brown, the daughter of William Brown, (who was the brother of Patrick Brown); James, who went to the Northwest and settled in Illinois and Jabez, who died unmarried.
On the petition of his widow and one of the Executors of his will, (John Hodgen), the Hardin County Court entered an Order on Feb. 9, 1818, establishing the town of Hodgenville on land that was owned by Robert Hodgen, and it became the county seat of LaRue County in 1843.
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The following was written by Bessie Miller Elliot and printed in the LaRue County Historical Society Bulletin in Oct. 1967:
SESQUI-CENTENNIAL COMING UP.
"1818-1968 - One hundred fifty years. February 9, 1919, court recor in Hardin County: " A Town is established on the lands of Robert Hodgen, deceased, on Nolynn, agreeable to the said petition and plan which is to be entered on record, to be called and known by the name of Hodgenville.
Robert Hodgen's Mill and Inn had been there since 1788, and there were a few other homes. Eight years after his death, his widow and two of his sons and their neighbors thought they should have a name for their little settlement, and so petitioned the Court which granted their request. Their post office was established in 1826. Their railroad came in 1888.
Recently a Robert Hodge, a direct descendant of the first Robert Hodgen here, who lives in Tulsa, Oklahoma, visited in Hodgenville. It is hoped he and others of the clan will return next year. Of the sixteen children of Robert Hodgen the First, there should be a number of his descendants, and many withe the Hodgen name scattered all over."
And this from January, 1968:
According to Haycraft's History, two of his sons were preachers of the Gospel. His oldest son, Isaac Hodgen, was one of the best and most eloquent preachers of Kentucky. He was a man of large stature and according to his notion was one of the finest looking men in the state.
His fine commanding presence, the great compass of his voice, which although music itself, was so poweful as to be distinctly heard a great distance; which, joined with his eloquence and logical reasoning and persuasive style, made him almost irresistible, insomuch that his labors were sought for at great distances. He was the founder of a church in Nashville, Tennessee, and afterwards sent as a delegate to the Triennial Convention of Baptists in the city of Philadelphia.
He died in Green County in the full vigor of life and was supposed to have been poisoned.
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Robert Hodgen and his brother-in-law, John LaRue, after whom the town of Hodgenville and LaRue County were named, were both early member of the Severns Valley Church. John Hodgen, brother of the famous Isaac Hodgen, was baptised into the Severns Valley Church in 1802, and the following year helped constitute the Nolynn Church (Spencer's History). After several years he was licensed to preach by Nolynn Church. In 820 he was invited to preach at South Fork Church once a month. He moved his membership to South Fork, and his ordination was called for by that body but Nolynn Church refused her concurrence because of his different views and refused to commune with South Fork for seven years.
Biography contributed by Russell Perkins ([email protected])