Two hundred years ago several Indian tribes moved in hunting parties across this land on a seasonal basis in search of wild game and then returned to their homes, both to the north and to the south of present-day Kentucky.  The Delaware and Shawnee Indians, who lived north of the Ohio River, and the Cherokee and Creek Indians, who lived south of Kentucky, traveled in the area of Christian County.

The first permanent settlement in the county was made by James Davis and John Montgomery, natives of Augusta County, Virginia.  Around 1784, they brought their families by flatboat down the Ohio River and then up the Cumberland River to settle on Montgomery Creek two miles southeast of present-day Pembroke.  Here the settlers built a log blockhouse on land where they hunted and farmed.

Several years later Montgomery was killed by Indians while making a survey in Lyon County.  Until his death in March, 1797, Davis and his family lived on the farm they had settled.  His grave is the oldest one marked in the county, and his will was the first to be recorded in the county will books.

Across two decades following the arrival of Davis and Montgomery, settlement was concentrated in North Christian and was completed by 1810.  This area afforded a greater abundance of fresh water, wild game, and timber for building and firewood.  Poor road conditions, the struggle for existence, and the valley settlements created isolated social life.

The level fertile land in South Christian was settled in the first quarter of the 19th Century.  Rich clay soil with a foundation of limestone was well suited for crop, especially dark tobacco.  Most of the land was barren of trees and was covered in prairie grass with a few springs located along Little River and West Fork of Red River.  Both sections of the county were fully settled by 1830, when the population reached 12,684. 

Christian County’s Seat, Hopkinsville 

Hopkinsville, the county seat, was founded by an American Revolution veteran and wandering  pioneer, Bartholomew Wood, known as “Bat Wood” among friends, wandered into southern Kentucky from Jonesborough, Tennessee, in 1796, possibly with a group of other settlers.

While camping near the Little River, Wood found a spring and eventually built a log cabin nearby near Seventh and Bethel Streets.  Wood and his family settled on 1000 acres, actually five land grants of 200 acres each.  On five acres of prime hunting and farm land, Bartholomew Wood donated the site of Christian County’s first court which was established in 1797.   A log courthouse, jail and a pen for stray animals were built on the public square with the establishment of Christian Court House.

Two years later, Wood donated another 30 acres of his 1000 acre homestead so surveyors could plat the town of Elizabeth.  The name was in honor of Wood’s oldest daughter.  The town’s name was changed by the General Assembly in 1804 because it was too similar to Elizabethtown.  The state selected the name of Hopkinsville, in honor of General Samuel Hopkins, a colonel in the American Revolution who settled in Kentucky in 1797.

Hopkinsville’s original boundaries were the present-day Fourth Street to the north, 14th Street to the south, Virginia Street on the east and Bethel Street on the west.

In 1800, Hopkinsville’s population was estimated at just 25 people, many of whom would have been member of Wood’s large family.  The town’s census was listed at 131 in 1810 and 700 in 1820.  The population did not exceed 10,000 until 1930.

The creation of Camp Campbell, now Fort Campbell, in the early 1940s was the most important development in Christian County’s history, according to William T. Turner, local historian.  He notes that 100,000 troops were stationed at the military post in 1943.   Today, about 23,225  troops are stationed at Ft. Campbell and about 4,250 civilians are employed on the post.  The annual payroll for military personnel exceeds $648 million.

Second on Turner’s list of historic events is the “Night Rider War,” a revolt of western Kentucky tobacco farmers over a buyer’s monopoly that drove down leaf prices.  The rebellion reached its climax with the burning of tobacco warehouses in Hopkinsville in 1907.

Hopkinsville’s role in the Civil War was the third most significant event in local history, said Turner.  The town, like the state, was divided in sympathies for the Union and the Confederacy.  Hopkinsville was occupied by each side no less than a dozen times.  The first Christian County courthouse built in 1797, was one of 22 Kentucky courthouses burned by Rebel troops during the Civil War.  The present courthouse was built in 1869.