The site was founded in 1790 by
William Croghan and his wife
Lucy Clark Croghan. Croghan was a captain and a major in the Virginia Continental Line and postwar chief bounty land surveyor for veterans of the Virginia State Line. Lucy was the sister of Croghan's wartime comrade Jonathan Clark, Virginia State general George Rogers Clark, and western explorer William Clark of the Lewis & Clark expedition. The house and outbuildings were built by enslaved African Americans. Enslaved people also planted and harvested the crops, cooked the meals, made the family's clothing, washed their laundry, and were caregivers for the Croghan children. Lucy was the sister of
Brigadier General George Rogers Clark, former surveying partner of William Croghan and
William Clark of the
Lewis and Clark Expedition. At its peak, the Locust Grove estate was nearly in size, and a small fraction of Croghan's extensive landholdings, which exceeded at his death in 1822. Following the death of William Croghan, the estate passed to
John C. Croghan, notable for his purchase of
Mammoth Cave in 1838. In the winter of 1844, the enslaved
African-American Stephen Bishop produced a map of Mammoth Cave. His map was published in 1845 and remained the most complete and accurate map of the period until modern survey techniques were applied in 1908. A significant epilogue to Bishop's story occurred in 1972, when a long-sought route connecting the caves of Flint Ridge and Mammoth Cave Ridge was discovered in an area which Bishop had mapped, but which had in the interim been almost completely flooded by the construction of a
dam on the surface nearby: the area of the 20th Century connection route is shown on Bishop's 19th century map. It was declared a
National Historic Landmark in 1986, as one of the few surviving residences associated with George Rogers Clark. ==Gallery==