History of Gallatin County, Part 17
Folks down Warsaw way, including Ed Lamkin, editor of The Gallatin County News, want it known that at one time their county was at one time among the largest in the state. The territory embracing Gallatin County was so attractive that parts were taken from it to form other counties. Despite the fact that Gallatin county is now one of the smallest counties in Kentucky, let it also be known that it always has been self-supporting, and there is a credit on the State Treasury ledger in favor of this county, which pays in more than it checks out.
Gallatin County is running a neck-and-neck race with Robertson County for the distinction of being the smallest in area of the 120 counties in the State. It is related that at one point where Grant county reaches northward toward a bend in the Ohio, an airplane could negotiate the scant two miles across the county in a fraction of a minute. But the Gallatin folks stick to the story that their county was at one time as large as any in the State. Owen, Trimble and Carroll counties absorbed some of Gallatin and the process naturally reduced the Gallatin area in an appreciable extent.
Gallatin county enjoys the enviable positing of lying midway between Cincinnati and Louisville, and is situated on the lower end of the "great bend" in the Ohio River. When the highway along the river between Cincinnati and Louisville is completed, Warsaw, the county seat, will come into her own.
The county of Gallatin is an agricultural section where corn is raised in abundance. The Gallatinites produce, annually, more then $500,000 worth of crops, and they make hay while the sun shines. The county was formed in 1798 and the historian tells us that the county was the thirty-third to be organized in Kentucky.
Willard R. Jillson. the State Geologist, sys the principal resource of Gallatin County is limestone, and Kentuckians want no better authority than the directory of the Kentucky Geological Survey. Eagle Creek, a tributary of the Kentucky River, forms the southern boundary of the county, with the Ohio River passing the entire northern border line.
It is asserted that vacant houses are scarce in Warsaw, the county seat, a thriving community, with banks, a newspaper, many churches, an electric power plant, and, Allah be praised, some well kept streets.
There are some furniture factories in Warsaw where skilled employees are engaged. Then there is Glencoe and Sparta, good Kentucky towns, whose inhabitants are genuine Kentuckians and proud of it.
Land in Gallatin County offers exceptional opportunity for the cultivation of corn and tobacco. Sheep raising and dairying are industries on an upward trend in Gallatin and the pure bred poultry industry is being encouraged. Twenty-five miles of state road runs through the county along the Ohio River. This highway is known as "Carver's Trail" and very properly it was so designated in honor of C. B. Carver, of Sparta, who was one of the popular members of the General Assembly of 1928. From Owenton to Warsaw there are nine miles of State road and the Gallatin folks will never cease their efforts to convert the many miles of dirt road into hard surfaced highways. The little county of Gallatin belongs to the Sixth Congressional District and no gerrymandering is going to take this county away from this district.
There are splendid schools in this county, which is rich in its romance of the past. Many distinguished citizens have ventured from dear old Gallatin to gain prominence in the realm of statesmanship and the various other professions.
Many abandoned grist mills, especially along Eagle Creek, are reminders of the period long ago past.
The county was named for Albert Gallatin, who was born in Switzerland and who later became Secretary of the Treasury under President of Thomas Jefferson. Of its approximately 70,000 acres, 85 per cent of it is in farms. Warsaw stands 500 feet above sea level.
The wharf at Warsaw was the objective of many merchants in the old days who received goods from Eastern and Southern ports. Traffic in the old days from Georgetown and way points was heavy, and the highway was laid out as a State road as far back as 1819.
There is a fine spirit of hospitality in Gallatin and her sister counties of Trimble, Owen, and Carroll.
Kentuckians abound in that section. Not one-half of one percent of the population is foreign born.
Gallatin county joins with the other counties in the State in the exploitation of this historic Commonwealth and her citizens have yanked the latch-string off the portals and the visitor is welcome on any of the 365 days in the year.
July 7, 1929 from the Gallatin County News. The above is not by Mrs. Gullion. See the next article - #18.