1811 Kentucky Sheriff’s Revenue Bond, Connecting Hardin County's Most Prominent Settlers and the Personal Stakes of Early Administrative Processes
On offer is an original 1811 manuscript documenting the financial machinery of government in early Kentucky, and the involvement of some of the state’s most prominent pioneers. At the center of the document is William Withers, an early settler of strategically situated West Point and Hardin County sheriff from 1811 to 1812, entrusted with collecting and remitting the county’s public revenues to the Commonwealth. The document records the $10,000 state-revenue bond required of Withers upon becoming sheriff of Hardin County in 1811. Acknowledged in court on January 14, 1811, Withers and his seven sureties, all exceptionally prominent early settlers, jointly guaranteed that he or his deputy would properly collect, account for and remit every tax, interest payment and other sum owed to the Commonwealth during the year. Before professional bonding companies and centralized tax departments, Kentucky’s county sheriffs personally collected the taxes and other public money owed to the Commonwealth. To protect the state against loss, a sheriff was required to enter into a substantial bond supported by financially responsible local sureties. The sureties form a remarkable cross-section of early Kentucky’s frontier governing class. They include: Benjamin Helm, former sheriff and county clerk James Crutcher, Merchant, judge and legislator Samuel Stevenson, Legislator Christopher Miller and Adam Miller, brothers from a prominent pioneer family with Christopher a noted frontier scout who later served as magistrate, legislator and sheriff Daniel Waide, Elizabethtown innkeeper, postmaster, academy trustee and future state senator Christopher Bush, father of Sarah Bush Johnston Lincoln [Note: At the date of the bond, Sarah was still married to Daniel Johnston; eight years later, she married Thomas Lincoln and became Abraham Lincoln’s stepmother.] Biographical sketches of the sureties plus William Withers himself can be found at the conclusion of the listing. The document captures state administrative processes and the personal stakes of accepting prominent roles and responsibility in early 19th century America. These men were not merely endorsing Withers’s appointment but pledging their own estates to secure his handling of Kentucky’s public money. An excerpt from the document reads: “We bind our selves our heirs Executors and administrators Jointly & Severally firmly by these presents.” The recto is a contemporary clerk’s manuscript copy of the bond, including six of the subscription names and written indications “(Seal),” rather than six individual autograph signatures. The verso, however, bears the names Christopher Miller and Daniel Waide. The hands seem different than that of the recto, so it is possible that the names on the verso are signatures of Miller and Waide, though this is unconfirmed. The docket reads: William WithersTo } Shffs BondCommonwealth1811 January CourtackdCopied The docket records the bond’s acknowledgment in the January 1811 court and its entry into the official county records. Rather than an isolated financial instrument, the manuscript preserves both the administrative process and the personal network through which public revenue was secured in frontier Kentucky. Biographical Notes of Men Named in the Bond William Withers William Withers was Hardin County sheriff from 1811 through 1812 and was responsible for collecting and remitting the county’s public revenues. He belonged to the early West Point settlement at the confluence of the Ohio and Salt rivers. By 1800, two of his daughters had married Robert Bleakley and William Montgomery, Irish-born merchants who opened an Elizabethtown dry-goods store. Withers was thus connected by family to the commercial community whose members helped guarantee his bond. Benjamin Helm Benjamin Helm was one of early Elizabethtown’s principal administrators. He qualified as Hardin County’s first surveyor in 1793, became an original town trustee, served as sheriff in 1807 and was county clerk from about 1800 until 1817. He erected Elizabethtown’s first brick house, riding ninety miles to Lexington for its wrought nails, and later became the first president of the town’s independent bank. His clerk’s office recorded this bond, although a deputy may have prepared the copy. James Crutcher James Crutcher was a prominent merchant, cattle dealer, tavern proprietor, judge and legislator. Appointed one of Elizabethtown’s original trustees in 1796, he built a tavern beside the public square in 1798 and marked it with a sign bearing a lion rampant—the establishment later operated by Daniel Waide. Crutcher also served with Helm and Waide as a Hardin Academy trustee. Six weeks after this bond, Daniel and Sarah Bush Johnston conveyed a 730-acre tract to him. Samuel Stevenson Samuel Stevenson—also recorded as Stephenson—became the first teacher of Hardin Academy when its schoolhouse opened in 1806. The academy served an Elizabethtown community of only about 300 people, emphasizing how prominent its teacher would have been locally. Stevenson subsequently became a tavernkeeper, merchant and Kentucky legislator. In 1812 he again acted as a financial guarantor, joining John Canady as surety on William Vittitow’s $1,000 constable’s bond. Christopher Bush Christopher Bush belonged to the Bush family identified among the early settlers of Severns Valley by 1782. A landowner and Hardin County constable, he was remembered by Haycraft as an industrious man with a large family. His daughter Sarah Bush Johnston was then married to Daniel Johnston; in 1819 she married Thomas Lincoln and became Abraham Lincoln’s stepmother. Her February 1811 land transaction with James Crutcher directly connects the Bush family with another surety named in the bond. Adam Miller Adam Miller belonged to a pioneer family recorded among the Severns Valley settlers by 1782. He was a son of German-born settler Ernest Miller and a brother of Nicholas and fellow obligor Christopher Miller. According to Haycraft, Adam was captured in his youth and remained within an Indigenous community for approximately fourteen years. Unlike his politically prominent brothers, he apparently held no major public office and was remembered instead as a quiet, respected man and church member. Christopher Miller Captured by Shawnees as a youth, Christopher Miller lived among them for years and became fluent in their languages and customs. His knowledge later made him valuable to General Anthony Wayne as a messenger and scout, and in 1796 he accompanied a delegation of Indigenous leaders to Philadelphia. In 1819 the Kentucky legislature petitioned Congress to compensate Miller for this service, noting that he was then poor and supporting a large family. He later became a legislator, magistrate and Hardin County sheriff. Daniel Waide Daniel Waide was an Elizabethtown innkeeper, Hardin Academy trustee and postmaster. He operated the “Sign of the Lion” tavern built by James Crutcher in 1798 and helped develop the property into the later Eagle House. He served on the academy board with Crutcher and Benjamin Helm, while postal records identify him as Elizabethtown postmaster beginning January 1, 1811, thirteen days before this bond. Waide later entered the Kentucky Senate; tax rolls also record him as an enslaver. Sources Brown, Stephen A. “A Conversation with Abraham Lincoln.” Kentucky Humanities, Fall 2013, pp. 6–9. Hardin County Court. Order Book C, 1812, p. 2. Transcribed by Patricia O’Connor for Kentucky GenWeb. Hardin County Sheriff’s Office. “History of the Hardin County Sheriff’s Office.” Accessed August 2, 2026. “Hardin County, Kentucky.” American History and Genealogy Project. Accessed August 2, 2026. “Hardin County Kentucky Timeline of Events.” Genealogy Trails History Group. Accessed August 2, 2026. Haycraft, Samuel Jr. A History of Elizabethtown, Kentucky, and Its Surroundings. Written 1869. Elizabethtown, Kentucky: Woman’s Club of Elizabethtown, 1921. Hutton, Paul Andrew. “William Wells: Frontier Scout and Indian Agent.” Indiana Magazine of History 74, no. 3 (September 1978): 183–222. Kentucky: Counties & Towns: Elizabethtown—Haycraft’s History. Lincoln Financial Foundation Collection, undated. National Park Service. “Sarah Bush Johnston Lincoln.” U.S. Department of the Interior. Accessed August 2, 2026. Sweeney, Mary Angela. “Postal Communication in the South-West, 1789–1813.” Master’s thesis, University of Louisville, 1928. Warren, Louis A. Lincoln’s Youth: Indiana Years, Seven to Twenty-One, 1816–1830. New York: Appleton-Century-Crofts, 1959. Winstead, Mrs. Thomas Durham, comp. Chronicles of Hardin County, Kentucky, 1766–1974. 1974. “Hardin County Kentucky Timeline of Events,” transcribed by the Genealogy Trails Transcription Team.