History

In 1818 Hodgenville was founded on 27 acres of land donated by the Hodgen family, two years after the Lincolns removed to Indiana. The land was filling up. Kentucky was losing its frontier flavor. In 1826, Hodgenville got its first post office, and people began saying Hodgenville should have its own county. The following year Ben Hardin, running for Congress, told a cheering crowd that Hodgenville should be not just a county seat, but also the nation's capital, because of its central location. It was not an idea whose time had come, but it hurt no one and probably got Ben a few votes. The next year, 1843, the state legislature formed a new county, the state's 98th, and named it LaRue. A lot of people wanted it named Lynn, for the frontier figure, but Gov. John Helm favored LaRue (a family name), and the people were not about to argue the point. LaRue became a smiling land of 288 square miles, with Hodgenville its county seat.

As a county, LaRue had to have a courthouse, and one was duly finished the next year. A year after that, Louisville distiller J. M. Atherton built a distillery on the Rollin Fork River on the eastern edge of the county, and later ran a rail spur to the village, naturally named Athertonville. Because they had a courthouse and a distillery, the town fathers thought it time to establish a school. In 1849 the LaRue Seminary was opened.