Franklin County

Franklin County, the eighteenth in order of formation, is located in central Kentucky in the Bluegrass region. The county is bordered by Anderson, Henry, Owen, Scott, Shelby, and Woodford counties and has an area of 212 square miles. Franklin County was formed from portions of Mercer, Shelby, and Woodford counties on December 7, 1794, and Frankfort, the state capital, is its seat of government. The county was named in honor of Benjamin Franklin, signer of the Declaration of Independence.

The topography of Franklin County is somewhat rolling to hilly. The soil is rich and deep in most portions, and tobacco, corn, hay, and vegetables are raised in abundance. The principal streams are the Kentucky River, the Elkhorn Creek and its north and south branches, and the Big and Little Benson and Flat creeks.

Indians hunted game in the forests of Franklin County and had settlements in the area; many Indian artifacts have been discovered in the Lower Benson and Flat creeks sections. Arrowheads, pottery shards, shell beads, and tomahawks, along with the skeletal remains of Native Americans, were uncovered in the Jett area near Frankfort. One of the Indian trails through Franklin County, the Alanant-O-Wamiowee, was originally an animal trace followed by large herds of buffalo and elk. This trail crossed the Kentucky River at Leestown and in some places was trampled one hundred feet wide by animals traveling toward salt licks.

Among the first explorers in the Franklin County region was Christopher Gist, who in 1751 was employed by the Ohio Land Company of Virginia. In the mid-1770s, explorers and hunters were joined by settlers such as Hancock Lee, who established the first settlement in 1775 in Leestown, on the Kentucky River one mile below the present site of Frankfort.

In 1780 Indians attacked a group of men from Bryan's Station near Lexington on their way to Mann's Salt Lick in Jefferson County. One member of the group, Stephen Frank, was killed at a site that was afterward called Frank's Ford (present-day Frankfort). Near the Kentucky River, Haydon's Station was founded in 1783, followed by Arnold's Station in 1784. Hamilton's Station was founded on trail to the Falls of the Ohio in 1785, and a number of Elkhorn Creek settlements were established, including John Major's Station (1783), Dry Run (ca. 1784), Goar's Station (ca. 1785), Cook's Station (1792), and Harry Innes's Station (1792). In 1788 John Major assembled a group of settlers and founded the Forks of Elkhorn Baptist Church near his settlement. The congregation was the first organized in the county and spurred the growth of the community that came to be known as Forks of Elkhorn. The Marquis de Lafayette visited Frankfort on May 14, 1825, during his triumphal tour of the United States.

During the 1830s and 1840s, steamboats such as the Argo, the Eagle, the Frankfort, and the John Armstrong were constructed especially for the Kentucky River trade. Agricultural goods from Franklin County farms and plantations went to market down the Ohio and Mississippi rivers on these vessels.

In the 1830s Franklin County manufacturers produced candles, stovepipes, and coaches. In 1833, E.H. and S. Steadman operated a paper mill about three miles from Frankfort on Elkhorn Creek. A horse-drawn railroad opened in Franklin County on October 23, 1831. By January 1, 1835, the railroad was locomotive-powered and operated between Frankfort and Lexington.

In 1833 an outbreak of Asiatic cholera struck Franklin County, causing the deaths of at least 150 people. Later, a smallpox epidemic was the cause of several deaths.

The location of the state capital made the county a target during the Civil War. Confederate troops commanded by Gen. Edmund Kirby-Smith occupied Frankfort from September 3, 1862, until October 7, 1862, when Union cavalry skirmished with a retreating Confederate rear guard. On June 10, 1864, a portion of Gen. John Hunt Morgan's Confederate cavalry unsuccessfully attacked Frankfort's Fort Hill, which was defended by the Peak's Mill militia. In late August 1864, guerrillas terrorized citizens in the Steadmantown vicinity. In January 1865 a guerrilla band robbed stores in the Bridgeport and Farmdale communities west of Frankfort. After the war, Ku Klux Klan violence focused on a small black community in the Bald Knob area.

The Civil War disrupted the Franklin County economy. Agricultural prices and production levels in 1870 were lower than those of 1850. The emancipation of slaves left Franklin County suffering a severe labor shortage. Between 1870 and 1880, the local economy improved as tobacco replaced hemp as the leading cash crop and the livestock industry prospered. Livestock and the distillery industry were markets for corn. By 1874 farmers organized to further their interests, and the Grange movement was popular.

Between 1900 and 1920, most of Franklin County's rural communities lost population as some moved to Frankfort and others left to seek industrial jobs. In 1919 prohibition effectively shut down the county's largest industry, forced the development of other industries, and resulted in significant gains in retail trade and tourism. The growth of state government helped to reverse the county's population drop. Population grew at established communities such as Forks of Elkhorn and Bridgeport and at newer places such as Swallowfield and Elmville. In other rural precincts, such as Bald Knob and Peaks Mill, population declined.

By 1935, after the repeal of prohibition, five distilleries had reopened or started up in the county: the George Stagg Company in Leestown, Old Crow and Old Taylor in Glen's Creek, Kennebec (later Ezra Brooks) in Benson Valley, and K. Taylor (later Old Grand Dad) at Forks of Elkhorn. In the years following World War II, the continued growth of state government promoted the growth of suburbs in the area surrounding Frankfort. Urbanization and scattered residential development contributed to the loss of nearly 14,000 acres of crop and grazing land between 1940 and 1970 in Franklin County. Although many farmers also had full-time employment in state government, farms in 1987 occupied 72 percent of the county area. Major employers outside Frankfort's city limits in 1990 were Union Underwear Company and National Distillers Products Company.

The population of Franklin County was 34,481 in 1970; 41,830 in 1980; 43,781 in 1990; and 47,687 in 2000.