Elizabethtown, Kentucky

In 1793, Hardin County was formed and named after Colonel John Hardin, an Indian fighter killed in Ohio while on a peace mission. Thirty acres were surveyed and split into lots and streets. Elizabethtown was founded in Hardin County in 1797 and quickly became a thriving community. Samuel Haycraft built a millrace on Valley Creek.

The Haycrafts are actually related to the Waters family by marriage. Back in 1856, Sidner Smith "Sid" Reno (1829-1915), brother of Ellen Lovicy Waters Britton's grandfather, Christopher Columbus Reno, was born in Hardin County. Sid married Hannah Martha Haycraft (1838-1872). Hannah's 2nd great grandfather was a chimney sweep and privy cleaner in London, but was very poor. He and a friend resorted to robbery in 1744 while their wives stood watched. These men were arrested and taken to the notorious Newgate Prison and then transported in chains onto the ship Justitia. It was either that or be hung. Apparently, they were separated at this time, he being transported to America and she remaining in England. After James' 7 years of indentured servitude was completed in 1751 in Virginia he remarried, possibly to his original master's daughter.

James Haycraft's son, Samuel Haycraft Sr (1752-1823) crossed the mountains into Kentucky during the 1779 exodus, only 4 years after Daniel Boone, and settled in the vicinity of Elizabethtown. This Revolutionary War veteran owned a lot of land in Hardin County, eventually building one of the finer homes in the region. There he employed Abraham Lincoln's father to help build the first mill in the Severns Valley in 1797.  At various times in the early 1800s James was in the Kentucky House of Representatives, was a judge, an assistant judge, and a member of the state legislature. A slave owner himself, he voted against a bill outlawing the importation of slaves into Kentucky as merchandise. He died in Elizabethtown in 1823.

So, as you can see, the Waters family is related to one of the oldest settlers of Elizabethtown, though by marriage.

Additional information can be found in A History of Elizabethtown, Kentucky and its Surroundings ➚  by Samuel Haycraft.

Places

Kentucky

• Elizabethtown

Missouri

• Civil Bend
• Pattonsburg

Obituary of Christopher Columbus Reno

DEATH OF CHRISTOPHER RENO OF NEAR PATTONSBURG.

CC Reno (1834-1906)
Source - Ellen Lovicy Waters Britton

Christopher Reno was born Oct. 9, 1834, near Elizabethtown, Ky. His father's family moved to Macoupin county, Ill., in 1850. In 1852 he united with the Baptist Church. In 1853 he went to California and remained there four years, when he returned to Illinois he was united in marriage to Miss Tabitha Ellen Fitz-Jarrell, Jan. 19, 1860. To them were born twelve children, five boys and seven girls, eight of whom are living - five girls and three boys. They moved from Illinois to Daviess county, Mo., in 1866 and they have lived in this county ever since. Besides his wife and children now living, he leaves one brother and two sisters. Brother Reno became a Universalist in 1879. He had Rev. Erasmus Manford and Rev. Stephen Hull preach in his home and school houses and such churches were open to them in the late sixties and from that time on he took a great interest in having Universalist preaching in his neighborhood. He passed to higher life on Jan. 11, 1906, after much suffering from stomach trouble, being 71 years, 3 months and 2 days old. The funeral services were conducted at the M. E. Church at Civil Bend by Rev. G. E. Cunningham of La Plata, Mo., who is State Superintendent of Universalist churches in Missouri. He used as his text, 1 Cor. 15:44 and Eccl. 7:1. A large concourse of friends followed the remains to the Civil Bend cemetery where other members of the Reno family are buried. A worthy and generous man has passed to his reward.

[Notes - The photo was not included in the original obituary. Christopher Columbus "Kit" Reno was the grandfather of Ellen Lovicy Waters Britton (1912-1999). Above is mentioned that he went to California in 1853. The reason for this was the California Gold Rush. Though still recovering from a four year illness, and without a penny to his name, he and others walked from Kentucky to California. He soon realized that he could make more money earning high wages working for other miners, than by mining a claim himself. After doing so for several years, he traveled, partly by ship around the horn, to Illinois, where his parents had relocated. The gold dust he had earned, though nearly stolen when another passenger thought him asleep on deck, was enough to build up his own farm.]