Locations of Campbell County Courts

The first courts of Campbell County met, by law, at Wilmington, on the Licking River, 22 miles from Newport, but the county seat was afterwards located at Newport.  In 1827, a law was passed fixing Visalia. a site supposed to be at the center of the county, near the present Canton Station, on the Kentucky Central Railroad [later the L&N]; and courts were held there this year.  Visalia, was not the center, and the courthouse was launched for Pond Creek, a little lower down on the Licking.

But by the shrewdness of interested parties, it landed at Newport and was made fast until 1840, when, on the erection of Kenton County out of that portion [of Campbell County] lying West of the Linking, the "center" idea again prevailed; and Alexandria became the permanent county seat.  At Newport, by a progressive series of legislative acts, are held the long terms of the circuit, criminal, and chancery courts.  Campbell, thusly, has practically two county seats.

from Collins' 1878 Historical Sketches of Kentucky