Colonel John Holder

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Historical marker # 1048, located seven miles southwest of Winchester, commemorates Colonel John Holder and the industrial center that he established on Lower Howard’s Creek in the late eighteenth century.

John Holder was born on the Blue Ridge in Frederick County, Virginia in 1753. He was a military leader who had participated in the Revolutionary War in Virginia and, after moving to Kentucky, fought in numerous campaigns. He came to Kentucky in 1777 to serve as the lieutenant of Captain William B. Smith’s Company raised on the Yadkin River in North Carolina. Holder’s military service began in Lord Dunmore’s War in 1774 and continued until his death twenty-five years later. He was a trusted officer in the service of George Rogers Clark’s Illinois Campaign. The last six years of his life, Holder served as a regimental commander of the Clark County militia at the rank of lieutenant-colonel.

Holder was a man of property who claimed through military pensions more than one hundred thousand acres of land in Kentucky. His land business connected him to some of the most noted figures in early Kentucky, including Green Clay, John Breckinridge, Matthew Walton, George Nicholas, James Clark and Robert Trimble.

Holder was a commercial-industrial innovator who was involved in far sighted business enterprises. In 1782, he established Holder’s Station in the valley of Lower Howard’s Creek, about a mile downstream from Boonesborough on the north side of the Kentucky River. The area was then in Fayette County, Virginia, and later became part of Clark County, Kentucky. The settlement, which began with a small, fortified station, eventually grew under Holder’s leadership to include a store, tavern, boatyard, ferry, warehouse and mill. His landing on the Kentucky River became a major departure point of flatboats bound for New Orleans with Kentucky produce. His enterprises were connected by an extensive network of roads linking them to Winchester, Lexington, Richmond and Paris. Holder’s businesses led to other mills locating in the valley and resulted in Lower Howard’s Creek becoming one of the early industrial areas of Kentucky. Much of this area is now enclosed in the Lower Howard’s Creek Nature and Heritage Preserve.

Holder was one of Clark County’s first county justices, appointed to the court by Governor Isaac Shelby in 1793, and served in that capacity until his untimely death. He was an active participant in the court who was involved in all of the early decisions during the county’s formative years. He also served as a deputy county surveyor.

Holder married Frances “Fanny” Callaway, a daughter of Colonel Richard Callaway. Fanny, along with her sister Betsy, and Jemima Boone were captured by Shawnee men in 1776, one of the early significant encounters between Native Americans and white settlers in pre-statehood Kentucky. Holder and Fanny were buried on their land at the mouth of Lower Howard’s Creek, where he died on March 30, 1799. His cause of death is unknown.

The marker was originally dedicated in 1967. It was replaced with new language and rededicated in 2020.

Marker 1048 reads:

Colonel John Holder

John Holder commanded at Fort Boonesborough in 1779 and established Holder’s Station near the mouth of Lower Howard’s Creek in 1782. He led a garrison at Vincennes in George Roger Clark’s 1786 Wabash Campaign & was appointed a justice of Clark Co. and Lt. Col. of the 17th Regiment of the KY militia in 1792. Holder married Col. Richard Callaway’s daughter, Fanny.

Howard’s Creek Industrial Center

Holder had a plantation, ferry, boatyard, inspection warehouse, and store and operated a mill nearby. His enterprises led to one of Kentucky’s early industrial areas along Lower Howard’s Creek. The industrial center included water-powered mills, distilleries, blacksmith shops, rock quarries, tanneries, a stone shop, and a woolen factory.