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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." 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 grand-daughter of Lincoln.
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