John Littlejohn, born in England in 1756, came to America in 1767 and became a Methodist preacher at age 20, riding circuits in Maryland, Virginia, and Kentucky. He came to Louisville from Leesburg, Virginia, in 1818, moved to Warren County, Kentucky, and then in 1822 settled 7 miles south of Russellville. He died in 1836 after 60 years as a minister, and his journals from 1772 to 1832 are preserved by the Methodist Church. During the War of 1812, President James Madison entrusted him with the Declaration of Independence and other state papers; as the British advanced on Washington in August 1814, the national archives were loaded onto a wagon and sent about 35 miles to Littlejohn, then a Methodist preacher in Leesburg and sheriff of Loudoun County, Virginia.