Town Spring
Somerset, Pulaski County, Kentucky
Marker Inscription
Near the site of this spring Somerset was established as the county seat in 1801 on forty acres given by William Dodson. The path to it became the town's most traveled street in order to drink from the Old Town Spring. Thus a saying became popular, "Whoev… transcription continues on the marker
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The Story
In 1801, when Kentucky was barely a decade into statehood and still a raw frontier, the new county of Pulaski needed a seat of government. William Dodson deeded forty acres for the purpose, and the fledgling town of Somerset took root beside a dependable spring. That water source was no small thing on the frontier, where a town lived or died by its access to it — the path settlers wore down walking to drink from the Old Town Spring became Somerset's busiest street.
Why it matters
It captures how the everyday need for fresh water shaped the very street plans of early American frontier towns, turning a humble spring into the literal center of a community's civic life.
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Related people
- · William Dodson
Related events
- · Founding of Somerset, Kentucky (1801)
Themes & tags
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