John Hardin (1753-1792) was a Continental Army officer in the American Revolutionary War and a Kentucky militia commander in the Northwest Indian War. He was killed while serving as an emissary in the latter war.
Born in Fauquier County, Virginia, he was a noted marksman and hunter. In 1774, he was made an ensign in the militia and served in Dunmore's War. In the Revolution, he was a lieutenant in the 8th Pennsylvania Regiment and was wounded at Saratoga while serving under Colonel Daniel Morgan.
After the war, he settled in Washington County, Kentucky in 1786. He was promoted to colonel and engaged Indians north of the Ohio River. His defeat in 1790 began a long succession of American losses to Miami Chief Little Turtle.
In April 1792, President George Washington sent him to negotiate a peace with the Shawnee Indians. In what is now Shelby County, Ohio he met with some of the Shawnee, who offered to escort him to their village; but that night they killed him. Also killed was a servant of Hardin's named Freeman. A guide named John Flinn-who had lived among the Indians after being captuered while a boy-survived and later settled in Miami County, Ohio.
The town of Hardin, Shelby County, Ohio; Hardin County, Ohio; Hardin County, Kentucky and Hardin County, Illinois are named for him. In 2001 Hardin County, Kentucky's school district opened John Hardin High School in Elizabethtown, Kentucky, also named after him.
It is alleged that the site of the town of Hardin in (Shelby County, Ohio) stands on the very section where Colonel Hardin was killed.
