History of Christian County, Kentucky

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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 was divided by an act of the General Assembly of Virginia into three counties, viz.: Jefferson, Fayette and Lincoln. Jefferson embraced ” that part on the south side of Kentucky River which lies west and north of a line beginning at the mouth of Benson’s Big Creek, and running up the same and its main fork to the head; thence south to the nearest waters of Hammond’s Creek and down the same to its junction with the Town Fork of Salt River; thence south to Green River, and down the same to its junction with the Ohio.” Fayette embraced ” that part which lies north of the line beginning at the mouth of Kentucky River, and up the same to its middle fork to the head; and thence southeast to the Washington line.” (The present State of Tennessee was then known as the District of Washington,” and was represented by deputies chosen by the Colonial Assembly of North Carolina.) “Lincoln embraced the residue of the original county of Kentucky.”

By an act of the General Assembly of Virginia, passed in October 1784, Jefferson County was divided, and that portion south of Salt River was formed into an independent county, and called Nelson. An act passed May 1, 1785, divided Fayette, calling the northern part Bourbon, and another act passed August 1, of the same year sub-divided Lincoln, creating Mercer and Madison Counties. May 1, 1788, Mason County was formed out of a part of Bourbon, and Woodford out of a part of Fayette, thereby making four counties out of the original Fayette, two out of Jefferson and three out of Lincoln. These nine counties comprised the Commonwealth of Kentucky at the time of its admission into the Union as a State, June 1, 1792.

Washington was the first-born of the new State and was formed out of a part of Nelson the same year (1792) the State was admitted. Also, during the same year Scott was formed from a part of Woodford; Shelby from a part of Jefferson; Logan from a part of Lincoln; Clark from portions of Lincoln and Nelson; Harrison was formed in 1793 from portions of Bourbon and Scott; Franklin in 1794 from portions of Woodford, Mercer and Shelby, and Campbell from portions of Harrison, Scott and Mason. Bullitt was formed in 1796 from portions of Jefferson and Nelson, and the same year Christian was formed from a part of Logan, and was, therefore, the twenty-first county organized in the State. Christian traces her origin, ancestrally speaking, back to Lincoln, one of the three original counties, being a daughter of Logan, and a granddaughter of Lincoln.

Source

Perrin, William Henry, ed., Counties of Christian and Trigg, Kentucky, Historical and Biographical, Chicago : F. A. Battey Publishing Co., 1884.

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