James Harrod (c. 1746 – c. 1792) was a pioneer, soldier, and hunter who helped explore and settle the area west of the Allegheny Mountains.

A contemporary of better known explorers, like Daniel Boone, George Rogers Clark, Benjamin Logan, and Simon Kenton, Harrod led many expeditions into the regions that are now a part of Kentucky and Illinois.

He and a band of almost forty men founded the first permanent settlement in Kentucky on June 16, 1774, although it had to be abandoned the same year.

While it is possible that he was killed by Indians or became ill and died of natural causes, some have suggested that he took a "wilderness divorce" from his wife,[1] while his family maintained that he was murdered by one of his companions while secretly searching for the fabled silver mine of Jonathan Swift.

When he volunteered as one of "Captain Cochran's Recruits" in June 1760, he listed his age at sixteen, but historian James C. Klotter notes that his listed height of 5 feet, 2 inches differed greatly from his adult height of over six feet and may suggest that he lied about his age in order to serve.

[2][5] James Harrod and his brother William served under John Forbes during the French and Indian War.

[1] In 1763, Harrod joined Henry Bouquet in his relief of Fort Pitt during Pontiac's Rebellion.

[2] In 1774, Harrod was ordered by Lord Dunmore to lead an expedition to survey the bounds of land promised by the British crown to soldiers who served in the French and Indian War.

[8] The men divided the land amongst them; Harrod chose an area about six miles (10 km) from the settlement proper, which he named Boiling Springs.

[2][8] McDonald also had a son from her previous marriage, James, who was captured by Indians in November 1787 and burned at the stake.

Harrod again served in the militia, and defended the settlement of Harrodstown from Indian attacks throughout the summer of 1777.

[2] As the settlement of Harrodstown grew, James Harrod became a wealthy farmer, owning more than 20,000 acres (80 km2) across Kentucky.

Another tradition holds that Harrod had been married in Pennsylvania before his pioneer days, and that he simply returned to his first family.

[1] It is not clear whether Ann had contact with Harrod following his disappearance or if she was simply seeking a means of escaping an undesirable marriage.

[1] Ann Harrod claimed that she had warned her husband that she feared that Bridges was planning to murder him because of a dispute over some property that the two had some years earlier.

Suddenly, Bridges rushed back to the camp, claiming that he heard a shot from Harrod's vicinity.

Soon after the expedition, Bridges went to Lexington where he sold some furs and some silver buttons engraved with the letter "H" at a local shop.

The bones were still tightly wrapped in sedge grass, which appeared to have been used to help transport the body to its present location.

[1] However, when Ann applied for Harrod's pension, she swore he had died in a hunting accident and that his clothes had been found in a nearby river.