Workspace for Appalachia Project - Kentucky

Date: [unknown] [unknown]
Location: [unknown]

Project: Appalachia | Central Appalachia Team | Kentucky Appalachians^[1]

This Appalachia Project workspace page for Kentucky was created as a reference for Appalachia county space pages (for categories, see Counties of Appalachia). All 54 of Kentucky's Appalachia counties^[2] are in the Central Appalachia Region, which is covered by the project's Central Appalachia Team (Team Leader is Pam Fraley).

Timeline in Brief

In 1780, Kentucky County, Virginia was divided into Fayette, Jefferson, & Lincoln Counties, Virginia and Kentucky County ceased to exist. In 1792, nine counties separated from Virginia and became the state of Kentucky (Bourbon, Fayette, Jefferson, Lincoln, Madison, Mason, Mercer, Nelson, & Woodford).^[3] See more below. See also the Kentucky Project's Time Line.

For all of Kentucky's current counties, see Category: Kentucky.

Historic Counties: Extinct counties?

Geographic: WikiTree guidelines are to "use their convention, not ours", meaning the place where someone lived may be in Kentucky today but was not prior to 1792 (when they would have been Virginia Appalachians). When Kentucky was admitted into the Union on 1 June 1792, it consisted of nine counties. Today it consists of 120 counties,^[4] 54 of which are in Appalachia.^[2] The information on this Workspace page is intended to help determine the correct category for profiles of Kentucky Appalachians (prior to 1792, see Virginia's Workspace).

Kentucky Appalachia Counties

Today's Appalachia includes 54 of Kentucky's 120 counties: Adair, Bath, Bell, Boyd, Breathitt, Carter, Casey, Clark, Clay, Clinton, Cumberland, Edmonson, Elliott, Estill, Fleming, Floyd, Garrard, Green, Greenup, Harlan, Hart, Jackson, Johnson, Knott, Knox, Laurel, Lawrence, Lee, Leslie, Letcher, Lewis, Lincoln, McCreary, Madison, Magoffin, Martin, Menifee, Metcalfe, Monroe, Montgomery, Morgan, Nicholas, Owsley, Perry, Pike, Powell, Pulaski, Robertson, Rockcastle, Rowan, Russell, Wayne, Whitley, and Wolfe.^[2]

54 Kentucky County Space Pages
Adair	Bath	Bell	Boyd	Breathitt	Carter
Casey	Clark	Clay	Clinton	Cumberland	Edmonson
Elliott	Estill	Fleming	Floyd	Garrard	Green
Greenup	Harlan	Hart	Jackson	Johnson	Knott
Knox	Laurel	Lawrence	Lee	Leslie	Letcher
Lewis	Lincoln	Madison	Magoffin	Martin	McCreary
Menifee	Metcalfe	Monroe	Montgomery	Morgan	Nicholas
Owsley	Perry	Pike	Powell	Pulaski	Robertson
Rockcastle	Rowan	Russell	Wayne	Whitley	Wolfe

Counties: Virginia -> Kentucky -> Today

The easiest way to "follow the land" to determine "what it was called when" is by using the animated formation maps of Virginia and Kentucky.^[5][3]

The intent is to have the space pages for today's Kentucky counties include a timeline specific to that county, but work on that is still in progress.

Following is a timeline for the land that would become Kentucky in 1792, which is followed by a "County Cautions" section that covers some of the more problematic locations (also still a work in progress).

1776-7: Kentucky County, Virginia was formed from Fincastle County, Virginia (Fincastle had been created from Botetourt County in 1772 and ceased to exist when it was split into Kentucky County, Montgomery County, and Washington County in 1776-7. Only the land that was Kentucky County would eventually be part of Kentucky.^[3]

1780: Kentucky County ceased to exist when it was split into Fayette County, Jefferson County, and Lincoln County (still Virginia counties).^[3]

1784-5: Nelson County was formed from Jefferson County^[5]

1785-1786:

• Bourbon County was formed from Fayette County^[5]
• Madison County was formed from Lincoln County^[5]
• Mercer County was formed from from Lincoln County

1788-1789:

• Mason County was formed from Bourbon County^[5]
• Woodford County was formed from Fayette County^[5]

1792, 1 June:^[4] Nine counties separated from Virginia^[6] and were admitted to the Union as the State of Kentucky^[4] (later Commonwealth of Kentucky):

1. Bourbon County^[6]
2. Fayette County^[6]
3. Jefferson County^[6]
4. Lincoln County^[6]
5. Madison County^[6]
6. Mason County^[6]
7. Mercer County^[6]
8. Nelson County^[6]
9. Woodford County^[6]

County Cautions

Fayette County...

Lincoln County...

Logan County: Logan County, Kentucky was formed from Lincoln County the same year that Kentucky was admitted to the union, so while the Logan County, Kentucky created in 1792 is on land that was once in Virginia,^[5] it is in a different location than the Logan County, Virginia formed in 1824. The Virginia Logan County was one of the 50 Virginia counties that became West Virginia in 1863. In 1867, Lincoln County, West Virginia was created, in part, from Logan County, West Virginia.^[3] The only Logan County among today's Appalachian counties is Logan, West Virginia.^[2]

Montgomery County: The Virginia county of Montgomery, created from Fincastle County in 1776-7,^[3] is in a different location than the Kentucky county of Montgomery, created in 1796-97 from Clark County, Kentucky, which had been created in 1792-93 from Bourbon County and Fayette County.^[5] Much of the land that was Montgomery County in 1777 would become West Virginia in 1863, but the still extant remnant of that Montgomery County is today in Virginia.^[3] Both Montgomery County, Virginia and Montgomery County, Kentucky are among today's counties of Appalachia.^[2]

See also the Appalachia Project's WikiTree space page, Counties of Appalachia, which has by-state tables with links to the county category pages.

Footnotes

1. ↑ Category: Kentucky Appalachians is the "landing-level" category (for people profiles). "Kentucky Appalachians" is a project category. People profiles should also be categorized by location, which this Workspace page is intended to facilitate. For space pages about Kentucky Appalachians, see Category: Central Appalachia Team.
2. ↑ ^{2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4} As listed by the Appalachian Regional Commission (here) as of 6 July 2022.
3. ↑ ^{3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 3.4 3.5 3.6} Virginia Formation Maps (accessed 30 June 2022).
4. ↑ ^{4.0 4.1 4.2} Wikipedia: Kentucky (accessed 14 August 2022).
5. ↑ ^{5.0 5.1 5.2 5.3 5.4 5.5 5.6 5.7} Kentucky County Formation Maps (accessed 14 August 2022).
6. ↑ ^{6.0 6.1 6.2 6.3 6.4 6.5 6.6 6.7 6.8 6.9}