BOURBON COUNTY, KENTUCKY

Source: "Stockading Up" by Nancy O'Malley. Kentucky Heritage Council, University of Kentucky Program for Cultural Assessment, April 30, 1987, pp. 67-69.

Relatively little substantive information, including a precise location, was gathered on Kiser's Station. John Kiser, with his wife Margaret and five children, moved to Fayette County in 1780 (the 1770 and 1771 dates in the newspaper source are probably misprints) and to Bourbon County in 1781 (Kentuckian-Citizen 1944). Kiser and his party first built a defensive station then established his land ownership later. The station is said to have been erected about 200 yards from Kiser's later stone house on the north bank of Cooper's Run near its confluence with Stoner Creek. The house was reportedly built around 1790 (date again probably misprinted in Kentuckian-Citizen). It has been placed on the National Register of Historic Places. The late Mrs. Edna Whitley (1983: personal communication) reported that the station was on her property which borders the present tract on which the stone house stands. The location was reported to her by one of the Kiser descendants (who has since died). The precise location of this site was not determined. However, a probable general location is illustrated in Figure IV-15, based on the Whitley property lines and the locational details in the Kentuckian-Citizen reference. Mrs. Whitley's property on the south side of Cooper's Run was examined without result. A more likely location appears to be north of the run on the ridge-top. As this site was not precisely located, its preservation and potential significance was not determined.

The location of the site is made further difficult by the absence of any land grants in John Kiser's name. Both the Virginia and Old Kentucky grants indices were checked for the spellings Kiser, Kizer, Keizer and other variants. No grants for anyone of this name on Cooper's Run or Stoner Creek were found. The reported area of the station and the stone house are contained within a 400-acre grant entered by Samuel McMillan at the confluence of Hinkston Creek and Cooper's Run. (Hinkston was sometimes substituted for Stoner in early records.) Cooper's Run empties into Stoner and the connected plat clearly indicates that the Kiser Station area fits within this tract. McMillan entered his certificate of settlement on July 10, 1780; it was surveyed January 11, 1783 and the grant returned January 1, 1784. The survey indicates that the grant was issued April 1, 1785. A check of the Bourbon County deed records revealed that John Kizer of Bourbon County purchased 276 acres from Samuel and Easther McMillan of Harrison County on May 2, 1816. Kizer may have leased the land from McMillan prior to that time. This tract was described as being part of McMillan's settlement and preemption on Stoner Creek. The survey calls clearly indicate that the purchase included the land around the mouth of Cooper’s Run as well as that binding on Stoner. A plat reconstructed from the survey calls encompasses the site of the Kiser stone house.