Captain William Hardin (c. 1745 – July 22, 1821) was an American soldier, farmer, and founder of Hardinsburg, Kentucky.
She was born in 1752 in Prince William County, Virginia to parents Johann Heinrich "Henry" Holtzclaw and Anne "Nancy" Hardin.
Among their children was William Hardin Jr., born in 1781, who was a member of the legislature of Kentucky and postmaster in Frankfort for many years.
Hardin and his men headed toward the safety of Hines' Fort, the site of present-day Elizabethtown, Kentucky.
[4] In 1786, at the outset of the Northwest Indian War, Hardin led an expedition of about eighty men against Shawnees on the Saline River in present-day Illinois.
When Hardin and his men found a Shawnee encampment guarded by only three warriors, they opened fire and killed them.
Hardin was shot through both thighs at the outset of the skirmish, but he sat on a log and continued to direct his men.