Links and Other, Carrollton, Kentucky

Carroll County was the 87th county formed in Kentucky. The law enacting Carroll County was passed on February 9, 1838, and the county was formed on March 1, 1838 from parts of Gallatin, Henry and Trimble Counties. Its boundaries are unchanged since February 5, 1872. It has an area of 130 square miles, making it the 118th largest of Kentucky's 120 counties.

Charles Carroll
of Carrollton, Maryland, the man for whom Carrollton and Carroll County
are named, and, the only Roman Catholic signer of
the Declaration of Independence. You can read more about him here.

Can you name the nineteen town names in Carroll
County that have had US post offices? That list is here.

This list of Carroll County deaths from WWII is from
the National Archives. There's a key to what the
various abbreviations mean here, and the actual list is here.

From George W. Hawes’ Kentucky State Gazetteer and Business Directory,
for 1859 and 1860, comes this listing (pdf) for Carrollton.

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 Carroll County are these:
Bramlette	Carrollton	Eagle Station
Ghent	Locust	Prestonville
Sanders	Sandiferestore	Worthville

Carroll County sites placed on the National Places of Historical Places are here.

"Norwin Perry, hustling editor of the News-Democrat of Carrollton, Ky., spent a few minutes in Warsaw last Saturday with friends. After Norwin got through telling us of the good qualities of the citizens of Carrollton and Carroll county, he had us believing all the bad folks who had ever lived in that good county had died, moved away, were in jail, the penitentiary, or in the Kentucky Legislature. Now we, as a rule, have always believed everything Mr. Perry tells us, but Oscar Vest told us some time ago, that Perry Minor told him that Ed Seppenfield told him that George Lee said it was rumored by Emmett Orr that there was on some occasions when Mr. Perry resided in Owen county that his word for truth and veracity has been questioned." Gallatin County News, April 7, 1934

A status report from the Superintendent of Schools in Carroll County from 1900 is here.

The Kentuckiana Digital Library has a number of Carroll
County images. Quality is erratic, but it's worth a look, here.

The Kentucky Historical Society's Carroll County images can
be found here. Click on the Carroll box when you get there.

In 1930, Kentucky Progress Magazine ran a feature letting each of Kentucky's counties list their accomplishments for 1929. What Carroll County came up with is here. (pdf)

In 1890, the Carrollton Democrat reprinted its credentials from
the very first issue of the paper, some “23 years ago.” Read it here.

In 1914, here’s what the L&N’s Industrial Freight and Shipper’s Guide had to say about:

Carroll County's John Davis, of the 17th Indiana Mounted Cavalry, Company F, is a recipient of the US Medal of Honor in April of 1865 for his actions in in capturing the flag of the Worrill Grays (C.S.A.) in Culloden, Georgia. He died and is buried in what is now the ghost town of Cotopaxi, Colorado.

There are some early Acts of the Legislature in the Gallatin Co section of these pages that pertain to Carroll Co. when it was still a part of Gallatin County. Read them here.

Union troops shut down a pro-Confederate newspapers in Carrollton in 1862, here.

Information on the five covered bridges that used to serve in Carroll County are listed in the data base at web site of Kentucky Covered Bridges, here.

“’Who Was the First Man the ever settled in Carroll county?’ asked we, the other day, of Judge Cox, who knows as much of the county’s history s any other man. He replied: ‘There is a tradition in my family that a man named McCool, who settled at the mouth of McCool’s creek, was the first settler, and Green Owens says he received the same fact from his ancestors.’ This is no doubt true.” The Carrollton Democrat, April 5, 1884.

In 1969, Edna Talbott Whitley compiled a list of Cabinetmakers
in Kentucky. The Carroll County portion of that list is here.

The Interstate Commerce Commission moved part of Carroll County and Trimble County from the Central to the Eastern time zone at 2 a.m. on Sunday, July 23, 1961.

The Freeman, "An Illustrated Colored Newspaper," was published in
Indianapolis. Two items from it about Carrollton are here and here.

"The G.M.C. Oil and Gas Company brought in their fourth gas well Saturday. 2,000 feet from their No.3 well at a depth of 800 feet. This well is located in Carroll County on the Aggie Owens farm and shows 1,500,000 cubic feet." from the Maysville Daily Independent, July 6, 1931

There are a total of thirteen Carroll Counties in the USA. Here's a list of the other 12.

"The Indiana Liquor Law has caused a brisk business to spring up at several points in Kentucky along the Ohio River. The owner of the ferry at Milton is reaping a fortune, and several citizens of Madison talk of erecting taverns in Milton. At Ghent, the jug business is carried on extensively; the horse ferry boat will soon give place to steam - as our Hoosier neighbors, to get steam will put on steam. At Carrollton, the jug traffic is improving, but after all, it may only prove to be an increased appetite for molasses." - Carroll County Times, July 7, 1855

In 1919, there was a farm census, counting livestock, crops and farms. Carroll County's is here.

Timetable for the L&N, 1879, here, listing
Liberty (Sanders), Eagle, Worthville & Carrollton.

William Peachy was the recipient of a large land grant which covered a very large portion of what is now the Carrollton area. 613 acres on the point were acquired from Peachy by Benjamin Craig and James Hawkins, and they subsequently sold smaller parcels of the land. The Butler Park land was also a part of Peachy's original grant. And the name Port William? It's named after William Peachy.

It’s 1877, and the Carroll County Sheriff is on trial for murder. The story’s here and here.

"A couple from the other side of the Ohio river applied at the County Clerk's office for a marriage license Wednesday. The clerk, however, refused to issue the license and they departed, vowing to go to Vevay, Madison, or somewhere else, as they were determined to marry. The man appeared to be considerably under the influence if liquor, which probably accounts for his desire to give up liberty and single blessedness." Carrollton Democrat, September 10, 1870

You can get information on Carroll County ancestors by subscribing
to the mailing list created for that purpose. You'll get periodic
information, and can submit your own questions, all via email.
Sign up here for Carroll County.
Here is a list of all available lists on Kentucky.

An excerpt from Collins' History of Kentucky on
prehistoric Carroll County formations is here.

Three items on Captain George M. Jessee, who was
a Confederate raider in the Carroll County area in the
Civil War, here and here and here.

One of Ghent's more famous citizens is James Tandy Ellis.
Learn more about him here.

Citizens of Trimble County, Carroll County, and Madison,
Indiana meet in April of 1861 to avoid Civil War Hostilities.
Read the story here, and follow-up stories here.

My Grandfather told me that the road between Milton and Carrollton contained the longest stretch of continuously curved road in the state of Kentucky. It is, therefore, true.

In the late 1930's the WPA Writers Project interviewed a number
of ex-slaves. Peter Neal was from Carroll County, and his account is here. (pdf)

"A story of a man that had a nose so large the he couldn't blow it without the use of gunpowder is said to be a hoax." Carrollton's Daily Democrat, October 11, 1870

"At 2 places between Carrollton and Madison, the Confederate flag is displayed to every passing steamer, particularly those descending the Ohio loaded with troops. These rebel ensigns are unfurled and vaunted to the breeze by females who flatter themselves that their sex will protect them." Cincinnati Daily Enquirer, February 23, 1862

The Carrollton Democrat of the 1870’s took great delight in sticking it to Gallatin County,
and especially its newspaper, the Warsaw Record. An example: "The [Warsaw] Record
still persists in being “as independent as an iceberg” and explains itself thus: “It simply
means that no man or party can govern us no more than they can an iceberg.” By all
means let the Record stick to its iceberg and - to its grammar." From the Carrollton
Democrat, January 25, 1873.

"We learn that a free Negro has been prelying in about Carrollton, mouth of the Kentucky River, undertook a day or two since to run off a couple of slaves. He started with them in a skiff, and took his course down stream, when he was overhauled by parties in pursuit, and the slaves recaptured, but the free fellow escaped." from the Louisville Daily Courier, 8-24-1854

You can read the proposal to build the Covington, Big
Bone and Carrollton Railroad - going through Ghent - here.

This Geologic Map of Carroll County is from the late 1920's. The images are large. (I could have shrunk it down, and given you a single image, but I like the detail in large images.) There is some overlap between the images.

Additional Links that apply to all of Northern Kentucky Views, and may or may not
be related to Carroll County, are on the main Links & Miscellany page, here.

The 1878 Biographical Encyclopedia of Kentucky had these entries for folks with a Carroll County connection (all are pdf's)
Gen. Percival Butler	Gen. Wm. O. Butler	Richard Parker Butler
Thomas Langford Butler	Henry Giltner	L. W. Taylor
Lewis Sanders	Sam S. Scott	W. B. Winslow

Membership lists of the Masonic Lodges in Carroll County, from 1911: (pdf's)
Worthville	Carrollton
Ghent	English