Bracken County Links


Bracken County, Kentucky, 1935 red lines are roads, black lines are railroads	Magisterial Districts, from 1940

Bracken County was the 24th county formed in Kentucky. The law enacting Bracken County was passed on December 14, 1796, and the county was formed on June 1, 1797 from Mason and Campbell Counties. Its boundaries are unchanged since April 22, 1882. It has an area of 203.2 square miles, making it the 100th largest of Kentucky's 120 counties.

The 1939 Brooksville Centennial Booklet featured a history of virtually every church and every town in Bracken County. Both are pdf's.

The church histories are here. The town histories are here.

In 1876, the R. L. Polk Company published The Kentucky State Gazetteer and Business Directory, which listed information about virtually every town in Kentucky. The listings from Bracken County are these:

“A large mastodon tooth, weighing 14 ½ pounds, was found on the farm of Jacob Fite, in Bracken county, some time ago. Other bones, evidently belonging to the ancient monster, have been found near where this tooth was discovered.”
From the Covington Journal, April 6, 1872

An earlier Gazetteer published in Louisville, was George W. Hawes’ Kentucky State Gazetteer and Business Directory, for 1859 and 1860. It's pre-Civil
War, and has detail on these four Bracken towns:

In 1911, there were these five Masonic
Lodges in Bracken County:

Augusta	Bridgeville
Brooksville	Santa Fe

Augusta	Brooksville
Foster	Germantown (pdf)
Milford

The 1878 Biographical Encyclopedia of Kentucky had these entries for folks with a Bracken County connection (all are pdf's).
J. J. Bradford	J. T. Bradford		John Boude
John Clarke	G. W. Macke	T. F. Marshall	B. G. Willis

“We are sorry to learn that the Bracken Record, a lively little sheet published in Brooksville, has suspended. The publisher says, “We have blowed all of the music out of this horn, but will perhaps, in the future, take up anther that will make better music than the one we have laid aside.” From the Commonwealth, December 2, 1877

"The trial of Wm. T. Marshall for killing a Negro named Dudley Hutcheson, at Augusta, in October last, has been in progress in the Criminal Court in Brooksville, Bracken county, for several days past. Charles Duncan, Commonwealth's Attorney, and Judge B. G. Wells are prosecuting the case, and the prisoner is defended by Hon. Joseph Doniphan, Hon. T. F. Marshall, Hon. Wm. E. Arthur, and Hon. W. H. Wadsworth. The general impression at Brooksville, when our informant left, was that Marshall would be acquitted" - from the Covington Journal, November 27, 1869.
The Kentuckiana Digital Library has a number of Bracken County images. Quality is erratic, but it's worth a look, here.	The Kentucky Historical Society's Bracken County images can be found here. Click on the Bracken Box when you get there.
"It is recorded in a Western paper that 'Henry S. Blades, a popular calliope manipulator during the war, afterward a Memphis and Vicksburg pilot, then a passenger agent at Memphis, and recently editor of the Bracken County Chronicle, has been chosen Mayor of the city of Augusta, Ky.' Calliope “manipulator,” pilot, passenger agent, editor, Mayor—it is a song of degrees that would have astonished King David." - The Galaxy, Volume 19, Issue 4, April 1875.
"Bracken County - The crop of wheat, rye, oats, corn, and tobacco are exceedingly promising. Should the weather prove favorable for twenty days, our county will yield 250,000 bushels of wheat." - NY Times, July 15, 1857	There's a story here about a giant cave being discovered in Bracken County. Is it true or is somebody from 1876 pulling our leg? If you know the cave exists, please drop me an email.
Here's a pair of older travel brochures, with historical and tourist sites identified, one for Bracken County, and one for Augusta. (pdf's)	The D.A.R. put together a listing of the members of the oldest Temperance Society in Kentucky, in Augusta, c. 1840. It's a long list of names, and you can read it here. (pdf)

"Near Berlin, Bracken County, last Saturday Worth Courts and George Smith, two farmers, got into a difficulty over a cow, Courts accusing Smith of shooting the animal. Smith denied the charge. Hot words ensued, and Courts drew a revolver killing Smith instantly. The affair has created a great stir in that part of the county, as both were respectable men." Cincinnati Enquirer, April 25, 1882.

Meetings in Orangeburg and Germantown create “organized mob” to run abolitionists,
including Berea College founder Rev. John Fee, out of Bracken County. Details here.

You can read the Rev. John Fee’s version of the events in a section of his autobiography. Pages relating to his Bracken County experience are excerpted here.

Fee’s Wikipedia page is here, and his entire autobiography is on line here.

Bracken County's Francis M. McMillen is Bracken County's only soldier to have received the US Medal of Honor. Born on March 25, 1832, he got his medal by capturing the enemy flag in a Civil War Battle in Petersburg, Virginia on April 2, 1865. He's buried in Washington Courthouse, Ohio.

The Library of Congress has three sets of Bracken County pictures on their website:
12 pictures of the Wayne Holton House, Salem Ridge Road & KY State Route 1159, Brooksville are here.	Five pictures of the Rock Spring House, South of Salem Road/Locust Creek on Route KY 1159, Brooksville, here.	North Fork Bridge, Spanning North Fork of Licking River, Milford vicinity, here.

This item appears in the Journal of the House of Representatives of the United States, 1843-1844, on Tuesday, April 9, 1844 "By Mr. Tibbatts: A petition of the heirs of Philip R. Rice, deceased, late of Bracken county, State of Kentucky, praying compensation for a vessel lost in the service of the United States in the war of the Revolution: which was referred to the Committee on Revolutionary Claims." Anybody know details??

"W. O. Blackerby, in the Brooksville Review, says: 'On Friday night about midnight about twenty-five riders went to Edward Johnson's, near Willow, and burned his old log barn containing about 3000 pounds of tobacco. The barn, we understand, belonged to his father, Noah Johnson, of this place.'"
from the Falmouth Outlook of October 22, 1909.

1909 makes this the work of Night Riders. More on them, is here.

If you have an interest in Slavery and the Underground Railroad in the Bracken County area, you absolutely want to find a book called Beyond the River, by Ann Hagedorn. It's the story of Ripley, Ohio's John Rankin, and has detailed information about slavery days in Bracken and Mason Counties. That's a handy link to Amazon for you to get a copy at the left.

Brooksville's Herbert Moford's
record is at this site.

Germantown's Carl Edward
Bouldin's record is at this site.

In October 1986, around the time PBS film producers were releasing The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, which was filmed in the area, the New York Times wrote a piece about Augusta, Maysville, and Washington called "Old Kentucky Towns" which provides a wealth of history about the area at t his site.

"The Ku-Klux in Bracken county took out two brothers (Tucker) for seducing two sisters, Vivian Bailey for knocking his wife down, John Watson and Duncan Strayler for laziness, Mr. Maybreier for keeping a house of ill repute, and Blevin Dixon for instituting a suit against one George Fowler for twenty five acres of land, and whipped each one soundly. Dixon's son was badly injured in an attempt to rescue his father" from Covington's The Ticket, 6-24-1876.

The Lynching of George Duncan in 1871, story here.	A list of people in many Bracken Co cemeteries is at this site.	Current Events in Bracken County are covered at this site.
At one time, Bracken Co had over 50 one-room schools - the list is here.	Powersville was first settled in 1783 by Captain Philip Buckner, a revolutionary war veteran who is buried in the western edge of town.	"Licenses to vend spirituous or malt liquors in this the Augusta precinct, expired with both our saloons last Saturday. We are now a temperance city now." from Covington's The Ticket, April 21, 1877.
The Metcalfe - Casto Duel, May 8, 1862, here.	An 1857 Tornado hits Augusta & Higginsport, read about it here and here.	A few words on the old Augusta Court House are here.
In 1969, Edna Talbott Whitley compiled a list of Cabinetmakers in Kentucky. The Bracken County portion of that list is here.	Burley tobacco was first discovered in Bracken County, or maybe Brown County, Ohio. Read about it here, here (pdf), and here. (pdf)	In 1930, Kentucky Progress Magazine ran a feature letting each of Kentucky's counties list their accomplishments for 1929. What Bracken County came up with is here. (pdf)
Col. Duffy, of Higginsport, O., accompanied by his heard of buffalos, passed through this place last Wednesday evening en route to the Germantown fair." The Augusta Bulletin Republican, Oct.11, 1884	Bracken County places on the National Places of Historical Places are at this site.	What traveling companies were told about Augusta's Russell Opera House, in 1901, is here.
A list of Bracken officials, merchants, doctors and attorneys, from 1847, is here.	Ed Mofford, a slave, escapes from Brooksville, here.	Civil War prisoners from Bracken County, here.
There's only one Bracken County in the entire USA.	The C&O Railroad, forerunner to CSX, has an on-line historical society, here.	Seventy-year old Bracken man sentenced to be hung, here. (pdf)
The news from Fairview, in 1879, is here.	A site dedicated to the bridges of Bracken County is here.	The Bracken Circuit Court deals with men helping slaves escape, in 1853, here.
The Bracken County Roots Web site is here, and the Bracken Gen Web site is here.	Unclaimed items in the 1833 Augusta Post Office, here.	A List of Bracken County's Historical Markers is at this site.
A list of the first automobiles registered in Bracken County is here.	Foster's J. B. Hiles wrote a history of Bracken Co. in 1917, here. (pdf)	In 1919, there was a farm census, counting livestock, crops and farms. Bracken County's is here.
Mob frees accused murderer from Bracken jail; man later found in Ripley. The story is here, the follow up is here.	C. 1928, the Kentucky Opportunities Department published a fact sheet about Bracken County for potential businesses that might be interested. You can read it here. (pdf)	A status report from the Superintendent of Schools in Bracken County from 1900 is here.
Who went to the penitentiary from Bracken County from 1808 t0 1830, and why? There's a list, here.	Pickpockets do well at the 1897 Augusta Centennial, story here.	The Kentucky Department of Agriculture's assessment of agriculture in Bracken County, in 1898-1899 can be found here. (pdf)
Read about Bridgeville's Uncle Tommy Kenton's 99th Birthday party, in 1886, here.	The Bodmann House, 1870	TV star Don Galloway was born in Brooksville. A list of all of his roles is here.
Detailed Presidential voting statistics from Bracken County are here.	Obituary of Mrs. Susan Lloyd, here.	Buffalo killed on Bracken Creek in 1775. Read about it here.

"To the Editors of the Enquirer: The Cincinnati Gazette of the 27th of July contains a letter purporting to have been written at Brookville [sic], Ky., which charges us with endeavoring to incite a mob against General Carey, whilst he was addressing our fellow-citizens of Bracken. The writer does not give his name, therefore he can not be reached except through the public press, that his statement is a falsehood, from beginning to end, and that the author is a slanderer and a dog. W. C. Marshall, T. F. Marshall, Jos. Doniphan, J. H. Bonde." Cincinnati Enquirer, August 5, 1865

from a January, 1900 Augusta Chronicle: "Perry McDowell, of the Disher neighborhood, some three miles above Bridgeville on the North Fork, caught an otter last week in a steel trap. The animal weighed 23 pounds and measured three feet and ten inches. This is the first one caught or killed in this section for years, as they have become a rare specimen of animal."

"A case of white capping is reported from Augusta, Ky. George McDowell and his paramour, who is the wife of his brother, have been white capped. The home of the McDowells is at Oklahoma, in the southern portion of Bracken county. They were visited at midnight by fifty masked men, who dragged them from their room and gave the man and woman fifty lashes with heavy whips, until their backs were cut and bleeding."
The Hillsboro, Ohio News-Herald, February 1, 1894

Somewhere in my roaming I picked up this stack of fliers, all of which pertain to the lives of slaves and roles of slavery in early Bracken and Mason Counties. Some of these are credited to the Bracken County Tourism Office, and many aren't, but I assume they published all of them. All I have are posted here; the ones that are Mason-specific I've also cross posted over on the Mason County pages. Enjoy.

Juliet Miles, Fugitive Slave Mother	Augusta College, 1822-1849	Battle of Augusta, Sept. 27, 1862	Sarah Thomas, 1832	Willow Grove Slave Escape

"Doctor" Perkins	Arnold Gragston	Slave Escape, Aug. 8, 1848	Peter Stokes, Fugitive	The Escape of Ed Mofford

Rev. Elisha Green	Blacks Play an Important Role in Bracken	Aunt Ann Bass	Private, Formal Education in Bracken	John Fairfield

Red Oak Church	The Isaac Hensley Kidnapping	Slave Gives Up Freedom	Arthur Thome	Addressed to Theophilus

Weimer and Gibbons, Slave Catchers	Last Will of Thurston Thomas	John W. Anderson, Slave Trader	Phillips Folly	Violence of Slave Hunters


Slavery Days in Mason County	Eliza Jane Johnson	Abolition Outrage	James Sroufe	Slave Enticers

Colporteur William Haines	Oberlin-Wellington Rescue of Price	Col Charles Young	The Will of James Savage	Negro Traders

		Bierbower House