George Rogers Clark’s younger sister, Lucy was born in Virginia in 1765, the second daughter of John and Ann Rogers Clark. In 1785 she and her family made the dangerous journey to the Kentucky Territory after George Rogers Clark convinced their father that the rich Kentucky soil was the future of Virginia.
She met William Croghan through his connection with her brothers, and they were married on July 14, 1789, in Louisville.
Croghan purchased most of the land that would become Locust Grove the following year and used enslaved workers and hired hands to begin building their home. The house was under construction and the land was cleared for farming during the period 1792-1795.
After the birth of their first two sons, William and Lucy moved to Locust Grove, where over the years they had six more children.
William Croghan died in 1822. Lucy Croghan spent much of the years following her husband’s death living in Washington D.C. with her daughter, Ann Jesup. She returned to Locust Grove permanently in 1834 after the death of her daughter Eliza Croghan Hancock, and died four years later.