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Boyd County was the 107th of 120 counties formed
in Kentucky and was established in 1860 from
parts of surrounding Greenup, Carter, and
Lawrence Counties. It was named for Linn Boyd of
Paducah, former U.S. congressman, speaker of the
United States House of Representatives, who died
in 1859 soon after being elected lieutenant
governor of Kentucky.
The earliest evidence of human habitation in
Boyd County exists in the forms of numerous
earthen mounds containing human skeletons and
burial goods, giving evidence that prehistoric
Native Americans inhabited the area. A 1973
archeological find revealed a serpent-shaped
mound built of rocks dating to 2000 BC and
stretching for 900 feet (270 m) along a ridge
parallel to the Big Sandy River south of
Catlettsburg.
One of the early settlers in what is now Boyd
County was Charles ("One-handed Charley") Smith,
from Virginia. A veteran of the French and
Indian War who had served under Col. George
Washington in 1754, Smith received for that
service roughly 400 acres (1.6 km2) around
Chadwicks Creek, where he built a cabin in 1774.
Smith died in 1776, and in 1797, this land
passed to Alexander Catlett for whom the town of
Catlettsburg is named.
The Poage family arrived from Staunton,
Virginia, in October 1799 and formed Poage's
Landing, later renamed the city of Ashland.
The first courthouse built in 1861 was replaced
in 1912.
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