The area presently bounded by Kentucky state lines was a part of the U.S. State of Virginia, known as Kentucky County when the British colonies separated themselves in the American Revolutionary War. In 1780, the Virginia legislature divided the previous Kentucky County into three smaller units: Fayette, Jefferson, and Lincoln. In 1791, this area was separated into the State of Kentucky; it became effective on June 1, 1792. From that time, the original three counties were divided several times. A portion of Jefferson County was split off as Nelson County in 1784; a portion of Nelson was split off as Hardin County in 1792; the present Breckinridge County was split off from Hardin in 1799. In August 1779, Sinclair Hardin (first cousin of Captain
William Hardin, the founder of
Hardin's Fort), was killed by
Shawnee Indians while taking a drink at
Big Springs. He was the first white settler in Breckinridge County to be killed by
Native Americans. The Indian threat continued for several years. However, the only sizable expedition against the Native Americans that Breckinridge County settlers took part in culminated in the Battle of Saline Creek in August 1786, in Illinois. During the
American Civil War, raiding Kentucky
Confederate cavalry burned the courthouse, as it was being used by Union troops as a barracks, though most of the records were saved. On March 12, 1865,
Jerome Clarke, a well known Confederate
guerrilla, claimed by some to have been
Sue Munday, was captured near the Breckinridge–Meade County line. He was hanged three days later in
Louisville. Afterward, his trial drew heavy criticism. During the nineteenth century, the Victoria Coal Mines, named in honor of British
Queen Victoria, were the first to produce
coal oil, and Cloverport exported it to
Great Britain, where it was used to light
Buckingham Palace. United States Supreme Court Justice
Wiley Blount Rutledge Jr., who served on the High Court from 1943 to 1949, was born at Tar Springs in 1894, when his father was pastor of Cloverport Baptist Church. On June 6, 1932, at
Hardinsburg, Sam Jennings became the penultimate person to be publicly executed in the United States. In the 1950s,
Rough River Dam State Resort Park was developed at the southern border of the county. A third courthouse fire nearly destroyed county records in 1958. Breckinridge County High School won the 1965 and 1995
Kentucky High School Athletic Association's Boys' Basketball tournaments. The Breckinridge County Archives, formed in 1984, was the first state-funded archival repository in the history of the United States and is known across the nation as an excellent resource for genealogical and historical research. ==Geography==