Christian county, Kentucky was formed in the year 1796, and named in honor of Colonel William Christian. It lies in the south-western part of the State, adjoining the Tennessee line: Bounded on the north by Hopkins and Muhlenburg; east by Todd; south by the State of Tennessee, and west by Trigg.
According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the county has a total area of 1,875 km² (724 mi²). 1,868 km² (721 mi²) of it is land and 7 km² (3 mi²) of it is water. The total area is 0.37% water.
This county is twenty-two miles wide and thirty-two long, containing an area of seven hundred and four miles, and is the eleventh county in the State in point of wealth. The southern division of the county is generally composed of rich, fertile, level bottoms, and produces fine crops of tobacco, corn, wheat, rye, oats, and grass. The northern division is broken, and in some portions almost mountainous, with a soil less fertile, but sufficiently rich to sustain a large population-finely timbered, well watered, and abounding in inexhaustible beds of coal and iron ore. The general basis of the soil is a red clay, founded on cavernous limestone; and like most of the southern counties, abounds in sinks, caves and caverns. The situation of the county is elevated, and the surface of the country has a descending inclination in all directions from the centre, as it contains the head waters of Pond, Trade Water, Little, and the west fork of Red rivers : The first emptying into Green river, the second into the Ohio, and the two last into Cumberland river. Mineral and Sulphur springs abound, and many invalids visit them during the watering season. The staple products are corn, wheat, oats and tobacco-not less than 6,500 hogsheads of the latter article being exported annually ; while coal from the mines, in large quantities, finds its way to market.
There are eleven Towns in Christian county. Hopkinsville, the county seat, was laid out in 1799, on the lands of Bartholomew Wood, and called Elizabethtown-by which name it was known for several years. In 1804, it was incorporated by its present name, in honor of Gen. Samuel Hopkins. It is now an incorporated city, with a population in 1870 of 3,136, and on Jan. 1, 1873, of about 3,600. It has 4 warehouses engaged in the inspection and sale of tobacco, and 1 rehandling establishment; is the most important station on the Evansville, Henderson, and Nashville railroad; and the seat of one of the great charities of the state, the Western Lunatic Asylum. Petersburg, 18 miles w. of Hopkinsville, on the Henderson and Madisonville railroad, population about 100. Fairview, 12 miles E., population about 250, is partly in Christian and partly in Todd county ; in the latter part, the house now occupied by Andrew J. Kenner, is pointed out as that in which ex-President Jefferson Davis was born. Pembroke, 10 miles s. E., population in 1870, 278. Oakgrove, 13 miles s. E., on the Clarksville road. Longview, 8 miles s., on the turnpike to Clarksville, population about 100. Garretsburgh, 16 miles s., near the Tennessee line, population about 125. Bennetttown, 12 miles s. w., population about 125. St. Elmo, on Tennessee state line, 12 miles from Hopkinsville, population about 40. Belleview, 8 miles s. w., population about 140. Lafayette, 20 miles s. w., near the Tennessee line, population in 1870, 215. Crofton, 16 miles N. W., on E., H. and N. railroad, population about 150.
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Recent Christian County Kentucky Genealogy
History of Christian County, Kentucky Roads
No doubt when John Montgomery and James Davis, the avant-couriers of the present civilization of Christian County, first stood upon the wooded heights and looked out on the broad expanse of barren or prairie land that spread out to the east and south at their feet, they were so entranced by its quiet loveliness as then and there to decide upon its adoption as their future home. A vast plain rising and falling in gentle undulations, and covered with a luxuriant growth of grass, stretched out on either hand, reaching into the dim distance till lost in the blue haze…
History of Christian County, Kentucky
It seems almost incredible to us now that little more than a hundred years ago Kentucky, with her 37,680 square miles and her 117 counties, formed but a part of an individual county; yet such is a fact of history. In 1775, when the original thirteen colonies revolted, and cast off the yoke of the mother country, the territory now embraced in the State of Kentucky constituted a part of Fincastle County, Va., which, on the 31st of December 1776, was divided into three counties, and of which Kentucky formed one county of the Old Dominion. In 1781, Kentucky County…
History of Christian County
This science is the great source of our prosperity, and is a subject in which we are all interested. It is the parent of all other industries, and as such claims precedence. From it have gone forth the brawn and brain that have subdued the earth, built cities, chained the lightning, linked the continents, and made all mankind akin. All thriving interests, all prosperous industries, and all trades and professions, receive their means of support either directly or indirectly from agriculture. It is there-fore by right of primogeniture and paramount importance the most indispensable of all other industries. Its progress…
History of Christian County, Kentucky Education
No question is of such vital importance to the people as that of education. Nothing for which the State pays money yields so large a dividend upon the cost as the revenue expended upon the schools. From the humble scene of the teacher’s labors there are shot into the heart of society the great influences that kindle its ardors for activity, which light civilization on its widening way, and which hold the dearest interest of humanity in its hand. The statistics are the smallest exponents of our schools; there are values that cannot be expressed in dollars and cents. In…
History of Casky, Pembroke, and Longview Churches
Among the early adventurers into the wilds of south Christian, doubtless, came many who were professed followers of the meek and lowly Nazarene. and who, before leaving their homes in Virginia, North and South Carolina, and elsewhere, had attached themselves to one or other of the Evangelical churches. It is impossible now to tell which came first, or which at first preponderated, but probably the Baptists were first-that is, the Hard-shells, as there is a tradition of a church of that sect near James Davis’ very early, which is noticed in a preceding chapter. One of the earlier organizations of…
Early Bar of Christian County
At the time of the organization of the county there were no resident lawyers here. The legal machinery had all been put in working order and fully set in motion, before even the legal ” circuit riders ” came to gladden the hearts of the people with their plug hats and store clothes. But courts were a necessary evil, justice had to be administered, quarrels adjudicated, rows settled, men punished for swearing by God ” (as the quaint old records have it), and many other little things that could only be performed by this august body, and the judiciary, therefore,…
I’m researching Boyds in Christian County, KY in the early 1800s. Several family trees on Ancestry have posted an image of one page (p. 50) from a book of family histories of Christian County. Unfortunately, no specifics about the title, author, or publisher of this book have been provided. The page image has an overview of the Boyds who settled in Christian County followed by biographies of Aaron Boyd and Archibald Boyd (partial). it would appear that other biographies follow. Some of the entries reference the 1986 Christian County Family History Book, so this source must have been published after 1986. Any help identifying and locating this source would be appreciated. Thank you!
Bruce, the FamilySearch card catalog is always your friend:
https://www.familysearch.org/search/catalog/555342
Did you try to get in touch with the Christian County Historical society? They may know the book you are talking about. Several of the Boyd family were in Christian County as early as 1805. There are even more books to look through and known about with the Christian County Historical Society.
Some of the families of Boyd are found in Old District 96 of South Carolina, census 1779 and a lot of these people moved across Tennessee by the Cumberland River and up into Christian County, Kentucky. In 1811-12 the Madrid fault caused a great earthquake and the people in Christian County move out of their dirt floor cabins to sleep outside.
Boyd Hugh
Boyd James Glasgos
Boyd John
Boyd Tobert Glen
Boyd William
Some of the Boyd family names are found in the early Pennsylvania of William Penn area. I think James, John, Joseph, and William Boyd. The book; “The Johns Connection” by: Helen Sides Dye have some info on the Boyd family name. If you make a connection to the early Boyds of Pennsylvania or Delaware let me know as that is the way my Jones came over in 1710, David John, (Jones later) and wife Easther Morgan, Jones. Good luck!
Is the original Pollards Grocery store still standing in Hopkinsville, Kentucky?
I am researching the Kirkmans of Christian and Hopkins Counties, in particular the descendants of George Jackson Kirkman and Josephine Ellen Winders Kirkman. I have discovered that one of their sons, Dewey Kirkman, is my paternal grandfather, and was living in eastern Kentucky under the alias of Bill Jones when he met and married my grandmother. Dewey was born 1901 or 1902, and was murdered in 1937 in Ligon, Floyd Co, Kentucky while working in the mines. I would love to find a photo of him or any of his brothers, to see the family resemblance. I have collected some information on him during the time he was evading the law in western Kentucky, but from 1928 to 1937 until his death, I can find little information after he “disappeared” from western KY. On the 1930 census his first wife, Mattie Murray Kirkman, was living with family and stated she was a widow. However, Dewey was very much alive and in fact, she brought their son Jimmy to attend his funeral. At his death, he was married to his third wife, and was no longer with my grandmother. Their relationship only lasted a couple of years, and no one in my family knew anything about him until the discoveries I recently made. My father knew nothing about him.
Looking for information or stories of Dr John Reuben Moore. He was a Doctor in Christian County Ky. Was told he was Dr for the poor house. Can’t find anything on him. He was born 1840 and died 1912
There were many new people that came to Christian County, Kentucky from South Carolina after the Rev. War, 1776 to 1778. My Jones line came to Christian County, Kentucky by 1797, 1798, & 1799 and they came through Tennessee by way of the Cumberland River then up into Christian County, Kentucky. The three brothers were John Jones, William Jones, and Thomas Jones all the sons of Thomas Jones died 1779 in Old 96th District of South Carolina, the son of John Jones & Ann James, Jones who left Delaware in 1737-1738 to start a new life on land given to the Welsh people of the Baptist faith. They called their Church; “The Welsh Neck Baptist Church” and it was located on the east side of the PeeDee River in South Carolina. You can find out more from the book; “The Johns Connection”, by: Helen Sides Dye.