Low Dutch Station was established in 1780 on the middle fork of Beargrass Creek in Kentucky. This station was settled by

Dutch Dutch commonly refers to: * Something of, from, or related to the Netherlands * Dutch people () * Dutch language () Dutch may also refer to: Places * Dutch, West Virginia, a community in the United States * Pennsylvania Dutch Country People E ...

pioneers from

Pennsylvania Pennsylvania (; ( Pennsylvania Dutch: )), officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a state spanning the Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes regions of the United States. It borders Delaware to its southeast, ...

and was also known as New Holland Station. The station was one of a group of seven forts established on Beargrass Creek during this period in this area that is now a part of

Louisville Louisville ( , , ) is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Kentucky and the 28th most-populous city in the United States. Louisville is the historical seat and, since 2003, the nominal seat of Jefferson County, on the Indiana border. ...

. The leader of the group was Hendrick Banta. The group of settlers were a part of the " Low Dutch Company" and had their own bylaws, a formal charter, and accounting procedures. The group had as its purpose the preservation of the language, culture and religion of the Dutch. The Dutch traveled from a settlement near

Harrodsburg Harrodsburg is a home rule-class city in Mercer County, Kentucky, United States. It is the seat of its county. The population was 9,064 at the 2020 census. Although Harrodsburg was formally established by the House of Burgesses after Boonesbo ...

to Low Dutch Station. There is no connection between Low Dutch Station or its settlers and the nearby road known as Dutchmans Lane in St. Matthews. The aforementioned Dutchmans Lane was originally named Deutschman's Lane, taking its name from the fact that it was the access road from Taylorsville Road to the farm owned and operated by Louis J. Hollenbach Sr., a prominent German-American businessman in early 20th-century Louisville. Anti-German sentiment in Louisville during

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

prompted the shortening of the name from Deutschman (lit. "German man") to Dutchman. The bronze plaque historical marker for Low Dutch Station is located on the south side of Kresge Way, about 200 ft. east/northeast of the traffic light intersection where Browns Lane & Baptist Hospital East Emergency Entrance crosses Kresge Way. It could also be described as being 200 ft. east of the northwest corner of Browns Park, and the marker actually is at the edge of Browns Park, next to the road and sidewalk right-of-way. This marker and its post had been missing for some time, and has since been replaced with a new marker with a slightly different wording, counting it as one of "seven" pioneer forts along Beargrass Creek instead of the previously-worded "six". The new marker also eliminated references to "Indians" and the Dutch settlers moving to Henry and Shelby Counties and buying land there from Squire Boone. The text of the new marker reads as follows: ''In 1780 Hendrick Banta led a large group of Dutch settlers down the Ohio River to the Falls of the Ohio from Pennsylvania. They rented land from John Floyd and built Low Dutch (New Holland) Station, one of seven forts on Beargrass Creek. In 1810, leading agriculturalist James Brown of Maryland, acquired the property.''

References

{{coord, 38, 14, 29, N, 85, 38, 08, W, type:landmark_region:US-KY, display=title Former buildings and structures in Louisville, Kentucky Fortified houses Forts in Kentucky History of Louisville, Kentucky Pre-statehood history of Kentucky

See also

References