HistoricSiteMarkers
Early Republic

Jack Thomas House

Leitchfield, Grayson County, Kentucky

Marker Inscription

Jack Thomas House. First story, east wing of house, was the earliest brick residence in Grayson County. It was built ca. 1810 by Jack Thomas, first county and circuit court clerk. He added two-story brick wing on north, Federal style. Despite alterations of the 1870s-80s, original walls remain. A striking feature of construction is uniform log joists supporting first floor.

Erected by Kentucky Historical Society

The Story

The first-story east wing of this house, built around 1810 by Jack Thomas — Grayson County's first county and circuit court clerk — was the earliest brick residence in the county. Thomas added a two-story Federal-style brick wing to the north, and though alterations in the 1870s and 1880s reshaped the house, its original walls survive along with uniform log joists supporting the first floor.

Why it matters

As the county's first brick home, it marks the moment a raw frontier settlement began building the permanent, refined architecture of a settled community.

Own a business near here? Add it to the map.

Related people

  • · Jack Thomas

Themes & tags

Westward ExpansionFrontier HistoryHome

Nearby & related markers

Morgantown & Daniel Morgan

Morgantown, KY

Founded as Funkhouser Hill, this Butler County seat was renamed Morgan Town in December 1810 to honor Daniel Morgan, one of the American Revolution's most gifted battlefield tacticians. The settlement grew from a nucleus of Revolutionary War veterans granted land for their service, mingling with pioneers streaming westward across early Kentucky. Morgan himself, born around 1735, rose from a French and Indian War teamster to the general whose double-envelopment of Banastre Tarleton at Cowpens in 1781 earned him a gold medal from Congress.

Last Recorded Indian Raid

Hart County, KY

In October 1792 — the very year Kentucky entered the Union — a party of travelers was ambushed at Oven Spring, leaving several settlers dead or carried off and their pack horses seized. Such raids were the grim punctuation of a decades-long struggle over the Ohio Valley, where Native nations fought to hold ground against the flood of settlers pouring through the Cumberland Gap. This marker records what local memory held to be the last such attack in the county, closing the violent frontier chapter of the region's early history.

Barren County

Glasgow, KY

Formed in 1798 from Green and Warren counties, Barren County took its name from the open 'barrens,' or prairies, that drew early explorers and settlers. During the Civil War the area saw hard use: the first two of Morgan's Raids passed through in 1862, the same year General Braxton Bragg's Confederate army entered Kentucky here.

First Presbyterian Church of Glasgow

Glasgow, KY

This Barren County congregation formed around 1802, when member Isaac Robertson donated a lot for a log meeting house and the Reverend John Howe served as first minister. The present Gothic Revival sanctuary, built about 1853, features Tudor-arched windows and doors and brick pilasters, and the town's oldest cemetery lies behind it. The church has anchored the same site for more than two centuries.