Harlan, KY The Official Website

Harlan,Silas. A pioneer, was born on March 17, 1753 in Berkeley County, West Virginia. The son of George and Ann (Hurst) Harlan. Journeying to Kentucky with James Harrod in 1774, Harlan served as scout. hunter, and military leader of the rank of major. Harlan assisted Harrod's party in Harrodsburg to pick up gunpowder to be delivered to the Kentucky settlers to assist them against the British in the Revolutionary War.

Harlan built a log stockade with the help of his uncle Jacob and his brother James near Danville Known as "Harlan's Station." Harlan served under George Rodgers Clark in the Illinois campaign of 1778-79 against the British. He also commanded a company in John Bowman's raid on Old Chillicothe in 1779, and assisted Clark in establishing Fort Jefferson at the mouth of the Ohio River in 1780.

Silas Harlan died leading the advance party at the Battle of Blue Licks on August 19, 1782. At the time of his death Harlan was engaged to Sarah Caldwell, who later married his brother James and became the grandmother of U.S. Supreme Court Justice John Marshall Harlan. Harlan County was named in his honor.

source James S Greene III, Major Silas Harlan: His Life and Times(Baxter, Ky., 1963); Alpheus Hibben Harlan,History and Genealogy of the Harlan Family(Baltimore 1914)

Harlan county, Kentucky is named after Silas Harlan. It is located in the southeastern portion of the state on the border of Virginia. We are located in the Eastern Kentucky coal fields stretching along the Appalachian Mountains and the Cumberland Plateau. Harlan has several mountain systems. Black Mountain runs along the Kentucky -Virginia border. Big Black Mountain is the highest point in the state of Kentucky at 4,145 feet above sea level, near Lynch. Another system in Harlan is Pine Mountain which runs toward Cumberland. Stone Mountain is another mountain that isn't talked about much but has very beautiful views many times of the year. This mountain is located on the Harlan-Bell-Virginia borders. Another one of natures heavenly sites is Blanton Forest. This is by far the largest old-growth forest in Kentucky and one of the oldest in the United States. It covers 2,350 acres of Pine Mountain's south slope.

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