National Register Listing

Trabue, Daniel, House

299 Jamestown St., Columbia, KY

Adair County is in the southern part of the Commonwealth of Kentucky. Columbia, the county seat, was the home of Daniel Trabue, an early settler and pioneer of the State. He kept a diary of his journey to Kentucky and the events that took place during his first years in the State. Trabue's account of his activities and observations during his early years was used by Lyman Draper in the famous Draper Manuscript collection preserved at the University of Wisconsin.

Trabue was born in Virginia where his grandfather, a religious dissenter, had settled after coming from France via Holland. Trabue and his brother James came with a group of settlers through the Cumberland Gap to Kentucky. James, who headed the group, had heard of Kentucky while he was serving in the British army during Lord Dunsmore's War. Shortly after crossing the Gap the settlers had a brief skirmish with a band of Indians.

Upon arriving at Fort Boonesborough two of the Trabue group left with the Boonesborough salt-making party that was later captured and taken to Detroit. Daniel and James Trabue soon left Boonesborough for Logan's Fort. Daniel Trabue noted in his diary that the supplies at the Logan Fort were more plentiful than they had been at Boonesborough.

Upon the arrival of the Trabues in Kentucky, James Trabue was named commissioner of four garrisons: Boonesborough, Harrodsburg, Logan's Fort, and Lewisburg. Daniel Trabue was named deputy commissioner at Logan's Fort.

In Daniel Trabue's diary, he recounts the siege of Boonesborough and the fears aroused at Logan's Fort by the reported capture of Boonesborough (although this report proved to be false).

Local significance of the building:
Architecture; Social History

Listed in National Register of Historic Places in 1974.

The National Register of Historic Places is the official list of the Nation’s historic places worthy of preservation. Authorized by the National Historic Preservation Act of 1966, the National Park Service’s National Register of Historic Places is part of a national program to coordinate and support public and private efforts to identify, evaluate, and protect America’s historic and archeological resources.