Place:Kentucky, United States


NameKentucky
Alt namesCommonwealth of Kentuckysource: Wikipedia
KYsource: Webster's Geographical Dictionary (1988) p 1256
Ken
TypeState
Coordinates37°N 85°W
Located inUnited States     (1792 - )
Contained Places
County
Adair ( 1802 - )
Allen ( 1815 - )
Anderson ( 1827 - )
Ballard ( 1842 - )
Barren ( 1799 - )
Bath ( 1811 - )
Bell ( 1867 - )
Boone ( 1799 - )
Bourbon ( 1792 - present )
Boyd ( 1860 - )
Boyle ( 1842 - )
Bracken ( 1797 - )
Breathitt ( 1839 - )
Breckinridge ( 1800 - )
Bullitt ( 1797 - )
Butler ( 1810 - )
Caldwell ( 1809 - )
Calloway ( 1821 - )
Campbell ( 1795 - )
Carlisle ( 1886 - )
Carroll ( 1838 - )
Carter ( 1838 - )
Casey ( 1807 - )
Christian ( 1797 - )
Clark ( 1793 - )
Clay ( 1807 - )
Clinton ( 1836 - )
Crittenden ( 1842 - )
Cumberland ( 1799 - )
Daviess ( 1815 - )
Edmonson ( 1825 - )
Elliott ( 1869 - )
Estill ( 1808 - )
Fayette ( 1792 - )
Fleming ( 1798 - )
Floyd ( 1800 - )
Franklin ( 1795 - )
Fulton ( 1845 - )
Gallatin ( 1799 - )
Garrard ( 1797 - )
Grant ( 1820 - )
Graves ( 1824 - )
Grayson ( 1810 - )
Green ( 1793 - )
Greenup ( 1804 - )
Hancock ( 1829 - )
Hardin ( 1793 - )
Harlan ( 1819 - )
Harrison ( 1794 - )
Hart ( 1819 - )
Henderson ( 1799 - )
Henry ( 1799 - )
Hickman ( 1821 - )
Hopkins ( 1807 - )
Jackson ( 1858 - )
Jefferson ( 1792 - )
Jessamine ( 1799 - )
Johnson ( 1843 - )
Kenton ( 1840 - )
Knott ( 1884 - )
Knox ( 1800 - )
LaRue ( 1843 - )
Laurel ( 1826 - )
Lawrence ( 1822 - )
Lee ( 1870 - )
Leslie ( 1878 - )
Letcher ( 1842 - )
Lewis ( 1807 - )
Lincoln ( 1792 - )
Livingston ( 1798 - )
Logan ( 1792 - )
Lyon ( 1854 - )
Madison ( 1786 - )
Magoffin ( 1860 - )
Marion ( 1834 - )
Marshall ( 1842 - )
Martin ( 1870 - )
Mason ( 1789 - )
McCracken ( 1825 - )
McCreary ( 1912 - )
McLean ( 1854 - )
Meade ( 1824 - )
Menifee ( 1869 - )
Mercer ( 1786 - )
Metcalfe ( 1860 - )
Monroe ( 1820 - )
Montgomery ( 1797 - )
Morgan ( 1823 - )
Muhlenberg ( 1799 - )
Nelson ( 1785 - )
Nicholas ( 1800 - )
Ohio ( 1799 - )
Oldham ( 1824 - )
Owen ( 1819 - )
Owsley ( 1843 - )
Pendleton ( 1799 - )
Perry ( 1821 - )
Pike ( 1822 - )
Powell ( 1852 - )
Pulaski ( 1799 - )
Robertson ( 1867 - )
Rockcastle ( 1810 - )
Rowan ( 1856 - )
Russell ( 1826 - )
Scott ( 1792 - )
Shelby ( 1792 - )
Simpson ( 1819 - )
Spencer ( 1824 - )
Taylor ( 1848 - )
Todd ( 1820 - )
Trigg ( 1820 - )
Trimble ( 1837 - )
Union ( 1811 - )
Warren ( 1797 - )
Washington ( 1792 - )
Wayne ( 1801 - )
Webster ( 1860 - )
Whitley ( 1818 - )
Wolfe ( 1860 - )
Woodford ( 1789 - )
Former county
Kentucky ( 1792 - )
Inhabited place
Crossland
Mannington
Unknown
Hart Co. ( 1819 - )

Contents

Sources

source: Getty Thesaurus of Geographic Names
source: Family History Library Catalog


Kentucky Gazetteer of Place Names

Summary

the text in this section is copied from an article in Wikipedia

Kentucky, officially the Commonwealth of Kentucky, is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States and one of the states of the Upper South. Kentucky borders Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio to the north; West Virginia and Virginia to the east; Tennessee to the south; and Missouri to the west. The Commonwealth's northern border is defined by the Ohio River. Its capital is Frankfort, and its two largest cities are Louisville and Lexington. The state's population in 2020 was approximately 4.5 million.

Kentucky was admitted into the Union as the 15th state on June 1, 1792, splitting from Virginia in the process. It is known as the "Bluegrass State", a nickname based on Kentucky bluegrass, a species of grass found in many of its pastures, which has supported the thoroughbred horse industry in the center of the state. Historically, it was known for excellent farming conditions for this reason and the development of large tobacco plantations akin to those in Virginia and North Carolina in the central and western parts of the state with the use of enslaved labor during the Antebellum South and Civil War period. Kentucky ranks 5th nationally in goat farming, 8th in beef cattle production, and 14th in corn production. Kentucky has also been a long-standing major center of the tobacco industry. Today, Kentucky's economy has expanded to importance in non-agricuIturaI sectors, including auto manufacturing, energy fuel production, and medical facilities. The state ranks 4th among US states in the number of automobiles and trucks assembled.

The state is home to the world's longest cave system in Mammoth Cave National Park, as well as the greatest length of navigable waterways and streams in the contiguous United States and the two largest man-made lakes east of the Mississippi River. Kentucky is also known for its culture, which includes horse racing, bourbon, moonshine, coal, "My Old Kentucky Home" historic state park, automobile manufacturing, tobacco, bluegrass music, college basketball, Louisville Slugger baseball bats, Kentucky Fried Chicken, and the Kentucky colonel.

Derivation of Name

The name "Kentucky" is said (Source:Skinner, 1921:95) to be derived from "Ken-ta-ke". an Iroquois word meaning "the place of old fields."

History

the text in this section is copied from an article in Wikipedia

Native American settlement

It is not known exactly when the first humans arrived in what is now Kentucky. Based on the evidence in other regions, humans were likely living in Kentucky prior to 10,000 BCE, but "archaeological evidence of their occupation has yet to be documented". Around 1800 BCE, a gradual transition began from a hunter-gatherer economy to agriculturalism. Around 900 CE, a Mississippian culture took root in western and central Kentucky; by contrast, a Fort Ancient culture appeared in eastern Kentucky. While the two had many similarities, the distinctive ceremonial earthwork mounds constructed in the former's centers were not part of the culture of the latter.

In about the 10th century, the Kentucky native people's variety of corn became highly productive, supplanting the Eastern Agricultural Complex, and replaced it with a maize-based agriculture in the Mississippian era. French explorers in the 17th century documented numerous tribes living in Kentucky until the Beaver Wars in the 1670s; however, by the time that European colonial explorers and settlers began entering Kentucky in greater numbers in the mid-18th century, there were no major Native American settlements in the region.

As of the 16th century, the area known as Kentucky was home to tribes from five different culture groupsIroquoian, Sioux, Algonquian, Muskogean and Yuchi. Around the Bluestone River was the Siouan Tutelo. North of the Tennessee River was the Yuchi and south of it was the Cherokee. Much of the interior of the state was controlled by the Algonquian Cisca; the confluence region of the Mississippi and Ohio was home to the Chickasaw. During a period known as the Beaver Wars, 1640–1680, another Algonquian tribe called the Maumee, or Mascouten was chased out of southern Michigan. The vast majority of them moved to Kentucky, pushing the Kispoko east and war broke out with the Tutelo that pushed them deeper into Appalachia, where they merged with the Saponi and Moneton. The Maumee were closely related to the Miami of Indiana. Later, the Kispoko merged with the Shawnee (who broke off from the Powhatan on the east coast) and the Thawikila of Ohio to form the larger Shawnee nation which inhabited the Ohio River Valley into the 19th century.

The Cherokee from the south and Shawnee from the northeast also sent parties into the area regularly for hunting.

European settlement

In 1774 James Harrod founded the first permanent European settlement in Kentucky at the site of present-day Harrodsburg.

County of Kentucky and statehood

On December 31, 1776, by an act of the Virginia General Assembly, the portion of Fincastle County west of the Appalachians extending to the Mississippi River, previously known as Kentucky (or Kentucke) territory, was split off into its own county of Kentucky. Harrod's Town (Oldtown as it was known at the time) was named the county seat. The county was subdivided into Jefferson, Lincoln and Fayette Counties in 1780, but continued to be administered as the District of Kentucky even as new counties were split off.

On several occasions the region's residents petitioned the General Assembly and the Confederation Congress for separation from Virginia and statehood. Ten constitutional conventions were held in Danville between 1784 and 1792. One petition, which had Virginia's assent, came before the Confederation Congress in early July 1788. Unfortunately, its consideration came up a day after word of New Hampshire's all-important ninth ratification of the proposed Constitution, thus establishing it as the new framework of governance for the United States. In light of this development, Congress thought that it would be "unadvisable" to admit Kentucky into the Union, as it could do so "under the Articles of Confederation" only, but not "under the Constitution", and so declined to take action.

On December 18, 1789, Virginia again gave its consent to Kentucky statehood. The United States Congress gave its approval on February 4, 1791. (This occurred two weeks before Congress approved Vermont's petition for statehood.) Kentucky officially became the fifteenth state in the Union on June 1, 1792. Isaac Shelby, a military veteran from Virginia, was elected its first Governor.

Relationship Between Native Americans and European Settlers

A 1790 U.S. government report states that 1,500Kentucky settlers had been killed by Native Americans since the end of the Revolutionary War. As more settlers entered the area, warfare broke out with the Native Americans over their traditional hunting grounds. Historian Susan Sleeper-Smith documents the role of Kentucky settlers in displacing Native American communities living in the northern Ohio River Valley during the late 18th century.

19th century

Central Kentucky, the bluegrass region, as well as Western Kentucky, were the areas of the state with the most slave owners. Planters cultivated tobacco and hemp (see Hemp in Kentucky) on plantations with the use of enslaved labor, and were noted for their quality livestock. During the 19th century, Kentucky slaveholders began to sell unneeded slaves to the Deep South, with Louisville becoming a major slave market and departure port for slaves being transported downriver.

Kentucky was one of the border states during the American Civil War, and it remained neutral within the Union. Despite this, representatives from 68 of 110 counties met at Russellville calling themselves the "Convention of the People of Kentucky" and passed an Ordinance of Secession on November 20, 1861. They established a Confederate government of Kentucky with its capital in Bowling Green. The Confederate shadow government was never popularly elected statewide, though 116 delegates were sent representing 68 Kentucky counties which at the time made up a little over half the territory of the Commonwealth to the Russellville Convention in 1861, and were occupied and governed by the Confederacy at some point in the duration of the war, and Kentucky had full representation within the Confederate Government. Although Confederate forces briefly controlled Frankfort, they were expelled by Union forces before a Confederate government could be installed in the state capital. After the expulsion of Confederate forces after the Battle of Perrysville, this government operated in-exile. Though it existed throughout the war, Kentucky's provisional government only had governing authority in areas of Kentucky under direct Confederate control and had very little effect on the events in the Commonwealth or in the war once they were driven out of the state.

Kentucky remained officially "neutral" throughout the war due to the Southern Unionists sympathies of a majority of the Commonwealth's citizens who were split between the struggle of Kentucky's sister Southern States fully in the Confederate States of America and a continued loyalty to the Unionist cause that was also prevalent in other areas of the South such as in East Tennessee, West Virginia, Western North Carolina, and others. Despite this, some 21st-century Kentuckians observe Confederate Memorial Day on Confederate leader Jefferson Davis' birthday, June 3, and participate in Confederate battle re-enactments. Both Davis and U.S. president Abraham Lincoln were born in Kentucky. John C. Breckinridge, the 14th and youngest-ever Vice President was born in Lexington, Kentucky at Cabell's Dale Farm. Breckenridge was expelled from the U. S. Senate for his support of the Confederacy.

On January 30, 1900, Governor William Goebel, flanked by two bodyguards, was mortally wounded by an assassin while walking to the State Capitol in downtown Frankfort. Goebel was contesting the Kentucky gubernatorial election of 1899, which William S. Taylor was initially believed to have won. For several months, J. C. W. Beckham, Goebel's running mate, and Taylor fought over who was the legal governor until the Supreme Court of the United States ruled in May in favor of Beckham. After fleeing to Indiana, Taylor was indicted as a co-conspirator in Goebel's assassination. Goebel is the only governor of a U.S. state to have been assassinated while in office.

20th century

The Black Patch Tobacco Wars, a vigilante action, occurred in Western Kentucky in the early 20th century. As a result of the tobacco industry monopoly, tobacco farmers in the area were forced to sell their crops at prices that were too low. Many local farmers and activists united in a refusal to sell their crops to the major tobacco companies.

An Association meeting occurred in downtown Guthrie, where a vigilante wing of "Night Riders", formed. The riders terrorized farmers who sold their tobacco at the low prices demanded by the tobacco corporations. They burned several tobacco warehouses throughout the area, stretching as far west as Hopkinsville to Princeton. In the later period of their operation, they were known to physically assault farmers who broke the boycott. Governor Augustus E. Willson declared martial law and deployed the Kentucky National Guard to end the wars.

On October 15, 1959, a B-52 carrying two nuclear weapons collided in midair with a KC-135 tanker near Hardinsburg, Kentucky. One of the nuclear bombs was damaged by fire but both weapons were recovered.

Timeline

YearEventSource
1784Beginning of ten Constitutional Conventions held in the Constitution Square Courthouse in DavilleSource:Wikipedia
1790Kentucky's first censusSource:Population of States and Counties of the United States
1792Kentucky becomes 15th StateSource:Wikipedia
1862Battle of PerryvilleSource:Wikipedia

Population History

source: Source:Population of States and Counties of the United States: 1790-1990
Census Year Population
1790 73,677
1800 220,955
1810 406,511
1820 564,317
1830 687,917
1840 779,828
1850 982,405
1860 1,155,684
1870 1,321,011
1880 1,648,690
1890 1,858,635
1900 2,147,174
1910 2,289,905
1920 2,416,630
1930 2,614,589
1940 2,845,627
1950 2,944,806
1960 3,038,156
1970 3,218,706
1980 3,660,777
1990 3,685,296

Note: Kentucky was part of Virginia prior to its admission as a State on June 1, 1792. It had essentially its present boundaries, except that because of erroneous surveys portions of the Kentucky- Tennessee boundary were in dispute for many years until finally resurveyed in 1859. Kentucky was reported separately from Virginia in 1790; the county boundaries at that time corresponded to the present-day State lines between Kentucky and Virginia-West Virginia. Census coverage in 1790 included much of the State's territory, but the area west of the Tennessee River (the Jackson Purchase) was first enumerated in 1820.. Total for 1790 is for the counties of Virginia that comprised the present State of Kentucky.

Resources

Births, Marriages, and Deaths

Ancestry.com has a number of vital record collections for Kentucky including:

FamilySearch.org has a variety of collections available for free online:

Death record availability from 1852 to 1910 is spotty. [1]. Ancestry.com has made available returns searchable with this source. The state has made available an index of deaths from 1911 to 2000 that is widely available.

Research Guides

Finding Aids: Kentucky Genealogy, Facts and Records Resources#extinct formerly familyhistory101.com. This site has links to all Kentucky counties.

Outstanding guide to Kentucky family history and genealogy (FamilySearch Research Wiki). Birth, marriage, and death records, wills, deeds, county records, archives, Bible records, cemeteries, churches, censuses, directories, immigration lists, naturalizations, maps, history, newspapers, and societies.


This page uses content from the English Wikipedia. The original content was at Kentucky. The list of authors can be seen in the page history. As with WeRelate, the content of Wikipedia is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.