Pendleton County Links, Pendleton County, Kentucky

Pendleton County was the 28th county formed in Kentucky. The law enacting Pendleton County was passed on December 13, 1798 and the county was formed on May 10, 1799 from parts of Bracken and Campbell Counties. Its boundaries are unchanged since April 22, 1882. It has an area of 280.5 square miles, making it the 74th largest of Kentucky's 120 counties.

For a textual history of various Pendleton county Communities, you'll want to go here, to
"The First 200 Years of Pendleton County" by Mildred Bowen Belew

Pendleton County was formed from Campbell and Bracken Counties; it
was created on December 13, 1798. It was Kentucky's 28th county, and
named after Edmond Pendleton. There's a bio of him 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 Pendleton County are these:

Boston Station	Butler	Catawba
DeMossville	Falmouth	Gardnersville
Knoxville	Levengood	Morgan
Motier		Peach Grove

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, but only has detail on these two towns:

From the papers of E. E. Barton, comes this paper (pdf) covering
The History of Pendleton County Schools;
The Medical Profession and its practitioners; and
A History of the Judiciary and the Bar.

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

Mrs. Louis Woolery wrote on "Some Old Homes of Pendleton County," from 1940, here. (pdf)

In 1908, the Falmouth Outlook published a selection of letters to Santa. Some are here.

Emma McClanahan noted in 1934 that Pendleton County, in 1910, had 3,108
colonies of bees, and that by 1927 that number had grown to 20,000, with
annual honey shipments amounting to 2,000,000 pounds.

The results of a 1799 vendue (auction) in Pendleton County. That's so far back the prices realized are in pounds and shillings. Item listing and buyers here.

This list of Pendleton 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.

Information on the six covered bridges that used to serve in Pendleton County are listed in the data base at web site of Kentucky Covered Bridges, here. Several have pictures, too.

“Slaveholders Convention – Emancipation in Kentucky. It has been proposed to us, by several gentlemen who own slaves in Kentucky, that they (the slaveholders) hold a convention on Frankfort to adopt some plan for the Abolition of Slavery, and that we so announce it; and that the Hon. W. H. Luke, of Pendleton County, a Slaveholder, be appointed by the friends of the convention, as one in his part of the state to draw up a proposition for its gradual abolition. – Newport (Ky.) News” Reprinted in the New York Times of September 15, 1855.

"The force dispatched Wednesday night down the Lexington road, reached Falmouth safely at 3 a. m. yesterday. No rebels were there, and all the bridges between that point and Covington were saved. Additional forces from Gen. Heintzelman’s Department were received by Gen. Hobson, and dispatched down the road. The One-Hundred and Sixty-Eighth Ohio (hundred day men) went down to Falmouth at 1 o’clock yesterday afternoon. The bridges of the Kentucky Central Railroad, with the exception of that at Townsend [5.5 miles n, of Paris, near what is now Shawhan], can be easily repaired, and even that can be put in running order in five days. The abutments and piers for a new bridge were nearly completed, and the timber prepared for the superstructure. The company have everything in readiness to complete a new and more permanent structure at Townsend than that destroyed." From the New York Times, June 12, 1864.

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

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

The Falmouth Outlook is on line here.

You can buy their Forks of the Licking Bicentennial Edition history and picture book of Pendleton County by calling them at (859) 654-3332, or mailing a check to them at 210 Main St. in Falmouth. Only $25.45, and that includes postage. Recommended.

The 1878 Biographical Encyclopedia of Kentucky had these entries for folks with a Pendleton County connection (all are pdf's)
G. C. Lightfoot	G. R. Rule
J. H. Fryer	James Wilson
Joseph Desha Pickett	T. G. Hall
W. J. Perrin	W. W. Ireland
Jacob Theophilus Simon

Every county in America was supposed to write its history for America's
Centennial in 1876. Some did; some didn't. Pendleton County did. It's here.

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

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

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

"Falmouth, Pendleton County, is one of the old towns, dating from 1790, and claims something like two thousand people. Pendleton is called 'the county which came back,' as some years ago, on account of the worn-out condition of the soil, about a third of the population moved away. Then sweet clover was planted, the bees came and founded a great honey-making colony, dairying developed, and the county and county seat were reinstated on the map." from Samuel Wilson's History of Kentucky.

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

More about Pendleton County's Dr. Phillip Sharp, Northern
Kentucky's only winner of the Nobel Prize, here.

The First Annual Report of the Banking Commissioner of Kentucky listed
Statements as of June 04, 1913 for:

On March 23, 1826, a Kentucky representative, Mr. James Johnson, submitted
a resolution that the military build an armory at Horse Shoe Bend, in Pendleton
County, Kentucky. Read it, and read about it, here.

A 87 year old man pays $3 alimony, and, a lamb with 8 legs:
both in the 1909 society column, here.

The number of one room schools in Pendleton County for
the 1909-1910 school year? 45. There's a complete list, here.

James Bradley, once a slave in Pendleton County, wrote an account,
in 1834, of how he worked to buy himself out of slavery. Read it here.

Members of the Free & Accepted Masons (F. & A.M. )
Lodges in Pendleton County, in 1885 are here:

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

On August 4, 1852, the Cincinnati Daily Gazette published the State
of Kentucky’s Hog Assessment – the number of hogs over 6 months
old per county. The number in Pendleton County was 5,430.

We've got seven short 19th century Pendleton County articles from the New York Times. Too short to justify a whole page; too long to put them here, so you can read all seven by going here.

Falmouth's Frank Browning played for the Detroit
Tigers in 1910. His record is here.

In 1955, Mrs. Warren Shonert wrote about the story of W. F. Corbin and Jefferson McGraw, two Confederate soldiers from Peach Grove who, as prisoners of war, were executed by a firin g squad. Read it here. (pdf)

There are a number of good links to historical
Pendleton County on their Roots Web site, here.

You can get information on Pendleton 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 Pendleton County.
Here is a list of all available lists on Kentucky.

Can you name the fifty-five (55!) town names in Pendleton
County that have had US post offices? That list is here.

This Pendleton County Map is from 1931, and these are
very large, but very detailed images. In four parts.

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

The Farmers Bank of Morgan	The Citizens Bank of Falmouth
The Butler Deposit Bank	The Pendleton Bank [Falmouth]

Membership Lists from the Masonic Lodges in 1911: (pdf's)
Demossville	Falmouth
Peach Grove	Butler