Lexington was founded in June 1775 in Virginia, 17 years before Kentucky had become its own state. A party of frontiersmen, led by William McConnell, camped on the Middlefork of Elkhorn Creek (now called Town Branch and rerouted under Vine street) at the location known today as McConnell Springs. Upon hearing of the colonists' victory in the Battles of Lexington and Concord, on April 19th, 1775, they named their campsite Lexington after Lexington, Massachusetts.
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