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Wayne
County KYGenWeb Offering Free Access to Online Genealogy Resources |
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Wayne
County, the forty-third county in order of formation, is located in the
south central section of Kentucky along the state border with Tennessee.
Created in 1800 from parts of Pulaski and Cumberland counties, it was named
in honor of General Anthony Wayne, a Revolutionary War hero. The 446 square
mile county is bordered by Clinton, Russell, Pulaski, and McCreary Counties.
The county seat is Monticello.
The county is divided into three distinct physical regions: the Cumberland Plateau, the level plain in the southeastern part of the county; the Knobs, rolling plains that run through the center of the county; and the Pennyroyal or Mississippi Plateau, the northwestern part of the county. Pioneer Long Hunters visited what was to become Wayne County in 1770 and established a camp near Mill Springs, a few miles north of Monticello. In 1775 Benjamin Price built a cabin and established a camp near Mill Springs. Price's Station was one of Kentucky's first permanent settlements. Many settlers in the county had participated in the Revolutionary War. Joshua Jones, one of the most prominent early settlers, came in 1794; Jonathan and James Ingram in 1796; Cornelius Phillips in 1798; and Isaac West, James Simpson, Nicholas Lloyd, and Henry Garner in 1799. Between 1800 and 1810 a large number of families arrived in Wayne County.
The first means of transportation was the Cumberland River. In 1880 a turnpike was built from Monticello to Burnside. In 1881 toll roads were first used in Wayne County; the last of them, the Shearer Valley Pike, closed in 1927. The last stagecoach to operate in Kentucky connected Monticello and Burnside until 1915. |
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