A Brief History

Ephraim January, was born in Pennsylvania, the grandson of a French Huguenot. Ephraim January married Sarah McConnell, near McConnelstown, Pa., while they were both very young. In 1780 they emigrated to Kentucky, and, passing down the Ohio river with several other families, in small flat boats fitted up to resist the attacks of the Indians, landed safely at Louisville in the spring. They took their little few possessions to a small fort called Spring Station, six miles from Louisville, and remained there six months. They then removed to the fort at Harrodsburg, Ky., where they lived twelve months, and afterward to the fort at Lexington, and remained there till the fall of 1783. Such was the unsettled condition of the country at that period, and the character of the savage warfare waged by the Indians, that a family was only safe when inside of a fortification.

Ephraim January settled in Jessamine County, Kentucky in 1783 on his 1,000-acre bounty land grant. His brother, Peter January, and his family settled nearby. Ephraim built a small log cabin in the midst of the forest for his wife and two young children. His family grew to eleven children, five sons and six daughters, which was an asset to their farming lifestyle.