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Kentucky  History  Tidbits

The great church camp meeting at Cane Ridge in Bourbon County was attended by more than 20,000 people in 1801.

The First Baptist Church west of the Allegheny Mountains was formed at Elizabethtown in the year 1779.

Philip Mulkey and a group of Baptists from North and South Carolina settled in Southern Kentucky (Monroe County) in 1773. A new house of worship was constructed in 1798 to be dubbed the MULKEY MEETING HOUSE.  Daniel Boone's sister, Hannah, is buried in the cemetery next to the church.

Some of the men who helped Oliver Hazard Perry win the Naval Battle of Lake Erie in 

the War Of 1812, later founded Hazard in

Perry County.


Famed 18th century portrait artist Chester Hardin walked 100 miles in 1819 to paint the portrait of the trailblazer Daniel Boone.

Kentucky is one of only four commonwealths in the United States

Kentucky was the first state to be completely mapped topographically

Kentucky was the first state to draft its own CONSTITUTION original from beginning to end, even though it was the 15th state to join the Union.

Kentucky is one of the very few states to be born out of another state. The area was actually a part of Virginia before becoming a state, whereby most states were territories of the U.S., but not actually a part of any state. Virginia gave up Kentucky and later West Virginia.

Kentucky is one of the very few states to have ever experienced the assassination of a state governor. Governor William Goebel was shot by an assassin on January 30, 1900. He died on February 3, 1900

The parents of Jesse James , and his brother Frank, was born in Kentucky, and Jesse married a Kentucky girl. The first bank they are known to have robbed was a Kentucky bank 

( Southern Bank at Russellville )

Kentucky is one of the few states in the country to hold election for state-wide offices in the uneven numbered years.

Kentucky experienced four different governors in less than three months time, between early December of 1899 and early February of 1900.

Kentucky's 120 counties are all named for people except the following ten counties:  Bourbon, Cumberland, Barren, Jessamine, Ohio, Rockcastle, Bath, Laurel, Union and Bracken.

Kentucky was the 8th most populated state in the nation in the 1850 census. There were 982,405 citizens listed.

The cardinal was adopted as Kentucky's state bird and the goldenrod as the state flower in 1926

Big Black Mountain in Harlan County is Kentucky's highest point in elevation, 4125 feet above sea level.

Kentucky's first newspaper the Gazette began publication 5 years before statehood. John Bradford started the paper in Lexington, August 11, 1787.

Daniel Boone's last home in Kentucky was   5 miles north of present day Carlisle in Nicholas County. Boone and his family moved to the Louisiana Territory                     ( Missouri ) in 1799.

Daniel Boone first saw the far distant Bluegrass atop Pilot Knob, now in Powell County. The recorded date is June 7, 1769.

Kentucky's Floral Clock is unique in all the world. Situated directly behind the state Capitol in Frankfort, it whiles away the time high in the air over a pool of water. The face is a planter that weighs 100 tons.

It takes 20,000 plants to decorate Kentucky's Floral Clock. The clock was dedicated May 4, 1961 by Governor         Bert T. Combs.

McCreary County, the last to be created of Kentucky's 120 counties, was formed in 1912.  It is the only one formed in the 20th century.

On July 4, 1794, Col. William Price, Revolutionary War veteran, held the first Independence Day celebration in the West, in Jessamine County.

In 1921 the law passed making it legal for women to serve on juries.

Daniel Boone lived in Kentucky for some 3 years      ( 1769-1771 ) in a cave in what is now Mercer County
Upper Spottsvania Baptist Church Left In 1791     For Floyd County, Kentucky From Virginia    Leading the Wagon train was Rev. Lewis Craig    and Capt. William Ellis.

Allen,  Elly, Price,  Asher,  Estin  Robinson and wife, Bledsoe,  Garrard,  Ramsy,  Bowman,  Goodloe, Rucker,  Barrow,  Hunt,  Shackleford,  Burbridge, Hart,  Shipp,  Buckner,  Hickman,  Shotwell,  Toliver Craig and wife,  Hickerson,  Singleton,  Lewis Craig, Martin,  Smith,  Joseph Craig,  Moore,  Sanders, William Cave,  Morton,  Stuart,  Curd,  Marshall, Todd,  Carr,  Morris,  Thompson,  Creath,  Mitchum, Walton,  Dudly,  Noel,  Woolfolk,  Dupuy,  Payne, Watkins,  Darnaby,  Parrish,  Timothy,  Waller, Dedman,  Parrish, James,  Ware,  Ellis,  William, Pitman,  Woolridge,  Ellis' family of 5,  Preston, Young.  There were also other members

From "Kentucky Genealogy Records & Abstracts Volume 2: 1796 - 1839", by Sherida K. Eddlemon... pgs.64 -65

The last legal public hanging in Kentucky took place August 14, 1936 in Owensboro. Florence Thompson was the first female sheriff in Davis County History. She was in charge of Kentucky's last legal hanging.

The longest siege in United States frontier history was the thirteen-day siege of Fort Boonesborough in September 1778.

The bloodiest Civil War Battle to be fought on Kentucky soil was the Battle of  Perryville, Oct. 8, 1862.

Columbus was known during the Civil War as the " Gibraltar of the West". It was the key to the lower Mississippi River defense.

Guerilla activity during the Civil War destroyed more of Kentucky's covered bridges than any other force. And Kentucky was neutral ground, not officially supporting or protected by either side.

In the War of 1812 more than half of all the Americans killed in action were Kentuckians.

The first union recruiting camp to be set up in Kentucky during the Civil War was Camp Dick Robinson located near Lancaster.

Fort Jefferson, the first settlement in western Kentucky, was one of the first Kentucky positions occupied by Union Troops after the Confederates seized the area surrounding Columbus in September 1861.

The first major battle on Kentucky soil during the Civil War was fought near Prestonsburg, January 10, 1862