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Stephen Trigg

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Stephen Trigg
Delegate, Virginia House of Burgesses (1775)
Delegate, Virginia House of Delegates (1778, 1780-81)
Personal details
Bornabt 1744
Virginia
Died19 August 1782
Blue Licks, Kentucky
SpouseMary Christian
ChildrenStephen, William Fleming, Mary, Elizabeth, William
Residence(s)Trigg's Station, Kentucky


Stephen Trigg (about 1744–August 19, 1782) was an American pioneer and soldier in Kentucky. Colonel Trigg was killed in the last battle of the Revolutionary War while leading the Lincoln County militia unit at the Battle of Blue Licks.

He was greatly beloved and very popular; and if he had lived, would have taken rank among the most distinguished men of his time
- Lewis and Richard Collins, "History of Kentucky"

Trigg was the son of William and Mary (Johns) Trigg of Virginia. The family was prominent on the Virginia frontier. His father served as a Judge of the Court of Chancery and the Bedford County Court.[1] He had four brothers (William, John, Abram and Daniel) who were all involved as soldiers in the Revolutionary War. Two of these brothers, John and Abram, would later represent Virginia in the U.S. Congress. Stephen married Mary Christian, daughter of another Virginia pioneer Israel Christian. Trigg lived the early part of his life in southwest Virginia, and ran a tavern in Botetourt County.[2]

Public service in Virginia

Trigg served as magistrate for Botetourt County, Virginia in 1770, as well as Justice of the Peace, Justice of the County Court in Chancery and a Justice of Oyer and Terminer for Botetourt County in 1770 and 1771.[3][4]

When the town of Fincastle, Virginia was forming in 1770, Trigg was instrumental in its formation, helping to sell lots, build a Court House (with his father-in-law Israel Christian) and the town's prison.[5] When Botetourt was split into two counties in 1772, the southwestern half was called Fincastle County, and Trigg was installed as one of its first Justices of the Peace and Justice of the County Court in Chancery and a Justice of Oyer and Terminer and also appointed Deputy Clerk and surveyor of the road from New River to the Sinking Spring.[6][7] Trigg also served as a delegate to the last session of the Virginia House of Burgesses in 1775, representing Fincastle County, but he absented himself to serve as Captain in Dumnore's War.[2][8]. Trigg also represented Fincastle at the first Revolutionary Convention in 1774 and was elected a delegate to the second convention in 1775, though he did not attend. He was elected to the third convention (July-August 1775), and did appear. He was also a dlegate to the Fourth Convention (December 1775-January 1776), but did not appear.[2][9]

When Fincastle County was split into three counties in 1776 (Montgomery, Washington and Kentucky), he continued his public service for Montgomery County, including serving in the Virginia House of Delegates in 1778.[10]

Early Kentucky pioneer

Trigg was appointed as one of the judges to the Virginia Land Court commission of 1779-80 charged with settling land disputes in Kentucky County, Virginia. The Virginia Land Act of 1779 had set up this court of four judges in order to examine the numerous land claims and to certify valid titles and essentially bring order out of chaos.[11] After these sessions ened, Trigg stayed and established his home at Trigg's Station about four miles north-west of Harrodsburg in Kentucky County, Virginia.[12]

This was the darkest and most critical period in the history of the early Kentucky settlements. It must be remembered that the settlement of Kentucky was much different from the settlement of most of the other places where the new colony joined the older settlements. Kentucky, instead of adjoining already settled districts, was like an island in the wilderness. There were more than two hundred miles of forest between the settlements of Kentucky and the settlements of the older states.[13]

When Kentucky County, Virginia was split into three counties in 1780, Trigg was made Lieutenant-Colonel for the new county of Lincoln.[14] He also continued his public service by serving as one of the first Justices of the Peace, was one of the trustees to lay out Louisville, and served in the Virginia House of Delegates representing Kentucky County in the 1780-1781 session.[15] It was during this session, that he, along with his fellow delegate John Todd, secured passage of the act that allowed the formation of Louisville.[16]

Stephen continued his service in the militia throughout this period. In 1781, he was made Colonel of the Lincoln County, Virginia milita.[17] In 1782, the four delegates to the Virginia Assembly from Kentucky pushed for Trigg's recommendation as one of the Assistant Judges to the newly-created Supreme Court for Kentucky, but his early death prevented him from performing this service.[18]

Revolutionary War

Meanwhile, events had moved from local agitations against the English crown to outright war. Early on, Trigg served in local militias, but he also took part in the Fincastle County Committee of Correspondence. The Virginia Committee of Correspondence was formed on March 12, 1773 and requested each county to do the same. The people of Fincastle met at the Lead Mines and elected their members. The drafted several letters and resolutions that articulated their stance against Britain. The British then engaged the Cherokees to fight on the British side, which meant the people living in that part of Virginia were facing British-armed Cherokees. The members met at Fort Chiswell on June 11, 1776, and drafted a letter to Oconostota and Atacullaculla, chiefs of the Cherokee Nations, to meet with them and come to terms of peace agreement. The letter mentions the colonists dissatisfaction with England:

It is true than an unhappy Difference hath subsisted between the people beyond the great water, and the Americans for som [sic] years, which was intirely [sic] Owing to some of the great Kings Servants who wanted to take Our money without Our Consent, and otherwise to treat us, not like Children, but Slaves, which the people of America will not submit to.[19]

Trigg was one of the signers of this letter.[20]

Daniel Boone

In 1777, he was tasked with making a list of men who swore allegiance to several militia companies.[21]

When the British staged an invasion of Kentucky in 1782, they secured the help of several Native American tribes (Shawnee, Wyandot, Huron and several others).[22] Trigg received word of their movements while he was commanding the fort at Harrodsburg, and assembled the local militia of 135 men and met up with Colonel Daniel Boone and Major Levi Todd and more militia at Bryant's Station.[23] When they approached Blue Licks, they suspected a trap and convened a war council, but unruly troops lost patience and descended into the valley.[23] The three leaders formed three columns, with Trigg commanding the right. When they met with the opposing force, Trigg's column was ambushed.[23] Trigg was killed and his men fell back after only five minutes of battle.[23] When troops returned to the scene of battle, Trigg's body was found quartered.[24]

He was buried nearby, somewhere in what is now Nicholas County, Kentucky. Kentucky later named Trigg County to honor him. His descendants continued the western expansion of the country. There is an historical marker in Cadiz, on the Courthouse lawn, US 68. His grandson and namesake Stephen Trigg Logan would serve in the Illinois state legislature, and was the law partner of Abraham Lincoln in Springfield.

Notes and references

  1. ^ Virkus, Frederick Adams, The Compendium of American Genealogy, First Families of America, VII, (Chicago: A.N. Marquis and Company, 1925-1942), 887.
  2. ^ a b c Virginia Independence Bicentennial Commission, Revolutionary Virginia: Road to Independence, III, 309.
  3. ^ Summers, Lewis Preston, History of Southwest Virginia 1746-1786, Washington County 1777-1870 (Baltimore, Md.: Regional Publishing Company, 1971, 3rd edition), 108-109.
  4. ^ Kegley, Frederick Bittle, Kegley's Virginia Frontier (Roanoke, Va.: The Southwest Virginia Historical Society, 1938), 385, 401.
  5. ^ Kegley, Frederick Bittle, Kegley's Virginia Frontier, 401-3.
  6. ^ Cook, Michael L., C.G. and Cummings, Bettie A. Cook, C.G., Fincastle and Kentucky Countys, Virginia. Kentucky Records and History Volume 1 (Evansville, IA: Cook Publications, 1987), 131, 290, 293.
  7. ^ Summers, History of Southwest Virginia, 130.
  8. ^ Leonard, Cynthia Miller, comp., The General Assembly of Virginia, July 30, 1619 - January 11, 1978 (Richmond, Va.: Virginia State Library, 1978), 105
  9. ^ Leonard, General Assembly of Virginia, 110, 112, 114, 117.
  10. ^ Summers, History of Southwest Virginia, 253; Kegley, Early Adventurers, I, 107; Swem, Earl G. and Williams, John W., A Register of the General Assembly of Virginia 1776-1918 and of the Constitutional Conventions (Richmond, Va: 1918), 439.
  11. ^ Stephenson, Martha, "Why the Mother Town?", Kentucky State Historical Society, XXIV, (1926), 273.
  12. ^ Virginia Magazine of History and Biography, Vol. 7, 253
  13. ^ Howard, Virginia Webb, Bryants Station Heroes and Heroines (1932), 31.
  14. ^ Cook, Fincastle and Kentucky Countys, Va, 19.
  15. ^ Leonard, General Assembly of Virginia, 138.
  16. ^ "Introduction to the Certificate book of the Virginia Land The Register of the Kentucky State Historical Society, XXI, (1923), 5-6
  17. ^ Cook, Michael L., Lincoln County, Kentucky Records (Evansville, IA: Cook Publications, 1987), II, 8.
  18. ^ Wilson, Samuel M., "The First Land Court of Kentucky 1779-1780," Address before the Kentucky State Bar Association at Covington, Kentucky, 6 July 1923 (Lexington, Ky: n.pub., 1923), 40.
  19. ^ Virginia Independence Bicentennial Commission, Revolutionary Virginia: Road to Independence, VII, 444-45.
  20. ^ Virginia Independence Bicentennial Commission, Revolutionary Virginia: Road to Independence, VII, 446.
  21. ^ http://www.angelfire.com/co3/Skaggs/War.html, accessed 11 June 2006.
  22. ^ Ranck, George W., Kentucky Locals: The Story of Bryan's Station, (Transylvania Printing Co., 1896), 26-28.
  23. ^ a b c d Talbert, Charles Gano, Benjamin Logan: Kentucky Frontiersman (n.p.: University of Kentucky Press, 1962), 156, 157, 158-159; Bakeless, John, Daniel Boone: Master of the Wilderness (Lincoln, NB: University of Nebraska Press, 1989 Rpt 1939), 297, 298
  24. ^ Calendar of Virginia State Papers, 281
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