John Fitch, the inventor who ran a working steamboat on the Delaware River in 1787 in front of delegates to the Constitutional Convention, died in Bardstown in 1798 and is buried under a memorial on Court Square. He first lay a block away in the Old Pioneer Cemetery, a small 1789 burial ground behind Jailer’s Inn with stone chest tombs still standing. Both are free, outdoors and five minutes’ walk apart, so you can see the whole story in half an hour between lunch and a distillery tour.
Who was John Fitch?
Fitch was born on January 21, 1743, in South Windsor, Connecticut, and his work as a surveyor brought him west. Around 1780 he surveyed land in what would become Nelson County, then still part of Virginia’s Kentucky frontier, and acquired three large tracts for himself.
His real obsession was steam. On August 22, 1787, his boat Perseverance made its first successful run on the Delaware River, “in the presence of delegates from the Constitutional Convention,” according to his biography. Picture it: the men drafting the United States Constitution taking a break to watch a boat move upriver without sails or oars. By the summer of 1790 his steamboat was carrying up to 30 paying passengers between Philadelphia and Burlington, New Jersey, at 6 to 8 miles per hour. It was a genuine working service.
It was also a financial failure. Fitch could not raise enough money to keep going, and the credit for American steam navigation went to others in later years. The name most schoolchildren learn is Robert Fulton, not John Fitch.
Why he came to Bardstown, and how he died
In 1797 Fitch moved to Bardstown. His plan was practical: sell the Nelson County land he had surveyed years earlier and use the money to build a steamboat for the western rivers. He lodged in town, and the Old Talbott Tavern lists him among its famous guests.
The plan never came together. Fitch died in Bardstown on July 2, 1798, at 55, of an overdose of opium pills in what may have been suicide. The Northern Kentucky Tribune’s history of Fitch describes it as opium combined with whiskey. It is a sad end, and the town has handled it with more kindness than most: he is remembered here as an inventor, not a cautionary tale.
The Old Pioneer Cemetery
Fitch was buried in the town’s first cemetery, today called the Old Pioneer Cemetery. It was formally established in 1789, the year George Washington took office, and burials stopped in the 1850s. The Bourbon Legends Tour’s history of the cemetery notes the above-ground chest tombs, many still legible after all these years.
What to look for
- The chest tombs: rectangular stone boxes set above the ground over the graves. Look at how the limestone has weathered differently on the sunny and shaded sides.
- The legible inscriptions. Early Bardstown settlers’ names and dates are still readable on many stones, especially in low side light.
- The roadside marker next to the cemetery honoring Fitch.
- The setting itself. The cemetery sits directly behind Jailer’s Inn, the old Nelson County jail, whose 1819 front building and 1874 back jail are built of heavy local stone.
Visiting tips
The cemetery is small, and you can see it all in 10 or 15 minutes. It is fragile, so stay on the grass, do not lean on or sit on the tombs, and skip gravestone rubbings, which damage old limestone. Go in the late afternoon for the best light for reading inscriptions and taking photos.
The Fitch Memorial on Court Square
For more than a century Fitch lay in the Pioneer Cemetery with little notice. That changed in 1927, when Mrs. Ben Johnson, wife of the longtime local congressman, persuaded Congress to appropriate $15,000 for a proper monument. Fitch’s remains were moved from the cemetery and reburied beneath the new memorial on Court Square, and about 1,000 people came to the unveiling.
The memorial includes a replica of his first steamboat, which is the detail most visitors miss. Walk all the way around it. Yelp and some map apps list it as the “Lt John Fitch Grave Memorial” near North Third Street; on the ground, just head for Court Square and look for the monument near the old courthouse.
Fitch’s name turns up elsewhere in town too. John Fitch Avenue is named for him, and one of the Colonel’s Cottage Inns rentals is the John Fitch Cottage, an 1830s house you can stay in (see historic inns and B&Bs).
How to find both, on foot
| Stop | Where | Time |
|---|---|---|
| Fitch Memorial | Court Square, near the courthouse | 10 minutes |
| Old Pioneer Cemetery | Behind Jailer’s Inn, 111 W. Stephen Foster Ave. | 10 to 15 minutes |
| Walk between them | About a block | 2 to 5 minutes |
Start on Court Square at the memorial, then walk west along Stephen Foster Avenue past the Old Talbott Tavern to Jailer’s Inn and find the cemetery behind it. Downtown parking is usually easy on side streets; the visitor center at 1 Court Square can point you the right way. Both stops are on any good self-guided walking tour of downtown, and they fit the historic district’s story of a town that was already a busy frontier crossroads when Fitch arrived.
When to go
Both sites are outdoors and open to anyone walking by, so you can fit them in at any hour of daylight. The best light for reading old inscriptions is low and from the side: early morning or the last hour or two before sunset. Midday summer sun flattens the carving and makes the stones hard to read, and July heat on Court Square is real, so carry water.
Fall is the favorite season here. The trees over the cemetery turn, the evenings come early and the whole block around Jailer’s Inn and the Talbott Tavern feels its age. December is lovely too, with Court Square dressed for the holidays around Fitch’s monument. In winter and early spring, when the leaves are down, the chest tombs are easier to see and photograph.
Plan 20 to 30 minutes for both stops. If you are staying downtown, an evening stroll past the memorial and the dark cemetery wall after dinner is one of the simplest pleasures in Bardstown.
History and legend tours
If you want someone to tell you the stories on site, local tour operators include the Pioneer Cemetery. The Bourbon Legends Tour runs a full-day bourbon-history and cemetery tour that stops here; it departs from Prospect, Kentucky, and is priced per person with a group minimum, so check details before booking. Jailer’s Inn next door offers daily tours of the jail, and Kentucky Tourism’s roundup of historic and spooky places in Bardstown puts both the jail and the cemetery on its list.
For the ghost stories, including the jail’s famous residents, see haunted Bardstown and ghost tours. The cemetery is at its most atmospheric around dusk in October, but it is a public burial ground first, so keep your visit quiet and respectful whatever time you come.
Where to eat nearby
You are standing a few steps from the Old Talbott Tavern, where Fitch himself is said to have stayed, so lunch there closes the loop neatly. The tavern’s burgoo is the order. For more choices within a short walk of Court Square, see the best restaurants in Bardstown.
