330                 HISTORY OF CLAY COUNTY

in Bardstown, Nelson county, Kentucky, January 11, 1846, his birthplace
being one of the historic points of the south and especially identified with
the early founding of the Catholic church in that section of the country.
In the earlier portion of the nineteenth century Bardstown had acquired
such a standing as a center of education and culture as to he christened
by Henry Clay the “Athens of the West.” In 1774 Bardstown was first
settled as Salem, but when it was incorporated by the Virginia legislature
four years later it adopted its present name. Its original settlers were
English Catholics, and one explanation of its name is that among the
earliest and most prominent were the Bairds. Later came the Jesuit
missionaries, and the Sisters of Nazareth founded a seminary for the
higher education of gentlemen’s daughters.” The town also became a
large manufacturing center, and its importance as a center of industry and
culture induced the pope to create it an episcopal see, the first west of
the Alleghany mountains. This, however, was transferred to Louisville in
1841, the Jesuits abandoned their college, and Bardstown commenced
to wane. Although still a picturesque place, it is mainly noted for its past.
It is a village of 1,800 people and the county seat of Nelson county.
    The parents of Isaac S Harger trgcr were Samuel Preston and Margaret
Elizabeth (Taylor) Harger The father was a native of Deerfield, Ohio,
and he died of cholera in St Louis Missouri, in 1851, his wife, who was
born in Nelson county, Kentucky passing away in 1853. They were mar-
ried in Kentucky, and the two of the four children who are living are as
follows: Isaac and Samuel P., the latter being a resident of Haywards,
California, The father was a shoemaker by trade and after locating in
Nelson county engaged in the manufacture and sale of boots and shoes.
He employed ten or fifteen men in the manufacturing department, de-
veloped a good business and died in St. Louis, while on a western pros-
pecting tour looking for a larger and more favorable field. At an early
day he was a member of the state militia of Kentucky and gave his politi-
cal allegiance to the Whig party.
    Isaac S. Harger spent his boyhood days in Owen county, Indiana,
whither the family removed after the marriage of the widowed mother
to Henry Townsend. As the son was only six years of age when he lost
his father and eight years old when his mother died, he returned to Ken-
tucky and made his home with his uncle, Arthur Taylor. When ten years
of age he again became a resident of Owen county and was bound out to
William Phillips, whom he was to serve until he was twenty-one years of
age. At seventeen he enlisted for service in the Civil war, becoming a
member of Company K, Fifth Indiana Cavalry, on the 15th of November,
1864, and later being connected with the Sixth Indiana Cavalry. After
participating in the battle of Franklin, Tennessee, the regiment was de-
tached to collect government supplies and to establish martial law at
Eastport, Mississippi, and Florence, Lebanon and Gallatin, Tennessee.
From the last named point the troops crossed the Cumberland mountains
to Murfreesboro, where they were discharged, being formally and honora-
bly mustered out of the service at Indianapolis, on the 15th of Septem-
ber, 1865. Mr. Harger then returned to Owen county and continued his
work for Mr. Phillips until he was twenty years of age, when he became
identified with mercantile interests in Vandalia, Indiana. Afterward he
established himself in business at Spencer, Owen county, where he re-
mained until 1872, when he sold his store and became a collector for Dr.
Bruell for about a year. In 1873 he located at Cory, Indiana, building the