Grant County was the 67th county formed in Kentucky.  The law enacting Grant County was passed on February 12, 1820 and the county was formed on April 1, 1820 from a part of Pendleton County. Its boundaries are unchanged since February 9, 1876. It has an area of 259.9 square miles, making it the 79th largest of Kentucky's 120 counties.

Temple Perrin moves his farm from Campbell to Grant County.

Discover the highest point in the county.

Chicago's Newberry Library has posted online a complete set of maps of American counties formations. They start with the date of county formation, and trace every little change to the boundaries after that. Grant County has had 6 such changes, and you can see the Grant maps here (pdf). To see the counties from which the county was formed, you'll have to download the entire Kentucky state pdf. There's also a feature that you can use to import all this data into Google maps. Good stuff!

Grant County was formed in 1820, from parts of Pendleton County, and was named after “either Col. John Grant (1754-1826), pioneer salt producer in the Licking Valley; his brother Samuel (1762-1833), a surveyor who was killed by Indians; or another brother, Squire (1764-1833), a surveyor and large land owner in Campbell County, which he served in the State Senate (1801-06) and as sheriff (1810); or perhaps all three” according to Robert M. Rennick's Kentucky Place Names.

The Grant County portion of Kentucky Roots Web is here.

In 1876, the Centennial of the US, the Congress asked local officials to write down the history of their
 respective localities to be read on July 4, 1876. Here is what Grant County came up with.

“The Webster family forms an eighth of the population of Grant County.”
From the Covington Journal, March 30, 1872

“LARGE FAMILY. —Chalk Webster, aged 74 years, who resides at Stevens Creek, in Grant county. Ky., is the father of 45 children. His grandchildren number 80, and his great-grand-children 27. He is now living with his fourth wife, who is a sister of the wife of one of his own sons. Father and son thus stand in the relation of brother-in-law to each other.” Marysville Daily Appeal, August 25, 1865

In 1922, the Grant County News takes a stand on Darwin's Theory of Evolution, here. The 19th Amendment (Wikipedia) to the U.S. Constitution, allowing women to vote, was ratified on August 18, 1920.  The Grant County News was not a supporter.  You can read their objections here. The News published this one without further comment.

Does this image belong to the ad below? Don't know.
From Facebook posts by the Grant County Ky Historical Society

 

Ringling Brothers Circus Comes to Williamstown
. . . and a good time was had by all.

“The Maysville Commonweal says the circus fakirs in the wake of Wallace & Co's circus fleeced more than fifty people at Williamstown out of sums ranging from $5 to $500.  Matt Lawrence, a farmer, gave up to $400 to learn the mysteries of three-card monte.”  Courier-Journal, April 30, 1891

The Marshall Hotel in Corinth			Della Jones: A Grant County Treasure			Bruce's Grocery: A Grant County Gem
These three articles are reprinted from the Grant County Historical Society Newsletter. They are all pdf's.

“A meteorite, weighing sixty-eight pounds, fell in Northern Kentucky, this one
being found by A. E. Ashcraft in 1892 on his farm three miles north of Williamstown.”
Louisville Courier Journal,  September 1, 1940

An analysis of the 1892 meteorite

You can see parts of it today at either the Field Museum
in Chicago, or the American Museum of Natural History in New York.

Goodness Gracious, a Great Ball of Fire, 1898

Above is a page from William D. Ehmann's Space Visitors in Kentucky: Meteorites and Meteorite Impact Sites in Kentucky on a Williamstown meteorite.  It's dated 1892, and also discusses a meteorite that hit Independence, or, you can find the entire publication on line here.   It's a 53 page long pdf.

This is Ms. Hazel Ogden, who taught the Grant County High School’s 1963-64 American Literature Class below, and had the foresight to collect, save, and bind the essays below on the histories of various Grant County communities for future generations.

Blanchett, by Mary Ann O'Hara is here.		Cherry Grove, by Terry Edmondson is here.		Cordova, by Larry Bailey, is here.
Corinth, by Louise Browning is here.		Crittenden by Jerry Hurst is here.		Crittenden, by Terry Case is here.
Crittenden, by Louise Plunkett is here.		Crittenden, by Ronnie Lillard is here.		Dry Ridge, by Connie Curry is here.
Folsom, by Gary W. Webb is here.		The Old Stone House in Folsom by Darris Beach is here.		Gardnersville, by Linda Lou Mann is here.
Gold Valley, by Ruth Ann Kinman is here.		Hardscrabble, by Joe Souder is here.		Heekin, by Shirley Spegal, is here.
Keefer, by Mike Ellis is here.		Keefer by Dwight Colson is here.		Knoxville, by Rita Ruby is here.
The Lanter Farm, by Marylee Lanter is here.		Mt. Zion, by Virginia Wright is here.		Mt. Zion, by Charles Baird, is here.
Mason, by Patricia Mann is here.		Mason, by Marietta Hedges is here.		Mason, by Doris Henry is here.
Oak Ridge, by Harold Kells is here.		Screamersville, by Arnold Bolog is here.		Sherman, by Pat Spillman is here.
The Hanging at Sherman, by Barbara Arnold is here.		Sherman, by Karen Cummins is here.		The Second Oldest Home in Williamstown by Betty Jane Kinmon is here.
High Street, by Charles Scroggins is here.		John Wilkes Booth, by Bob Perry is here.		Williamstown,  by Janet Tebelman is here.
Crittenden, by Judy Holbrook is here.		Zion Station,  by Linda Beach is here.		Corinth, by Clarence Brewsaugh is here.

Grant County Board of Education bans married women.

“Judge O. P. Hogan [of Williamstown], in addition to his stage lines between Covington and Burlington and Walton and Williamstown, has started another line between the latter points, thus giving the people along that route a morning and evening line both ways.  He has also started a line between Williamstown and Georgetown three times a week.  The three latter lines all make close connections with trains at Walton.”  From the Covington Journal, May 31, 1873.

One of more famous, or infamous, episodes in Kentucky history was the Caleb Powers saga.  Powers was indicted for his alleged role in the William Goebbels assassination.  There were four trials, one of which was moved to Grant County as a change of venue. You can Google Caleb Powers and find lots more.  There's a brief version here.  The pics above are the Grant County jury, all 12 men are identified in the photo on the far right.  ID's and pics are from the Louisville Courier Journal of December 6,1907

Also worth a visit is the Grant County Black History Museum

There are 15 different Grant Counties in the USA. Here are the other 14.	Grant County, Arkansas	Grant County, Oklahoma
	Grant County, Indiana	Grant County, Oregon
	Grant County, Kansas	Grant County, South Dakota
	Grant County, Minnesota	Grant County, Washington
	Grant County, Nebraska	Grant County, West Virginia
	Grant County, New Mexico	Grant County, Wisconsin
	Grant County, North Dakota	Grant Parish, Louisiana

New Roads, aerials of the I-75 interchanges under construction, July 13. 1960
From a Facebook post by George Smed

Dry Ridge Fire Engine Saves Williamstown, 1922. Story here. . . . and the story prompts one subscriber to recall the fire of 1856, here.	A description of Grant County from 1854 is here.
1914, the Louisville Auto Club published directions on how to get to Cincinnati, via Georgetown. Note the number of times in Grant County where the road crosses the railroad.
Don't miss The Political Campaign of Caroline Gray, 1923, here.	Report from Grant County from The Handbook of Kentucky by the Kentucky Department of Agriculture, 1908, here. (pdf)
Chicago Packer, October 6, 1917
The Kentucky Department of Agriculture's assessment of agriculture in Grant County, in 1898-1899 can be found here. (pdf)	In 1919, there was a farm census, counting livestock, crops and farms.  Grant County's is here.
The Cincinnati Commercial reported, on January 30, 1869, there were 19 doctors practicing in Grant County.
In 1937 UK released surveys of known archaeological sites by county.  Grant County’s is here (pdf)	In 1936, the WPA compiled this information on some of the old churches of Grant County
In the 1930's the WPA produced at least two documents interesting to Grant Countians. The first was a history of Grant County Post Offices (pdf), and how they got their names, by Robert Rennick; and the second, a History of Grant County (pdf) by John Forsee.
“Grant Co - The prospects for wheat, rye, barley and oats are uncommonly good.  Timothy is also very good.  The corn crop looks promising, but very backward for the season” New York Times, July 15, 1857	On August 4, 1852, the Cincinnati Daily Gazette published the State  of Kentucky’s Hog Assessment – the number of hogs over 6 months  old per county.  The number in Grant County was 10,060.

Discussion of the Southern Railway route layout from 1874.

We hear a lot of people talk about how much worse crime is these days than in the past. To these folks, we dedicate a few news clippings.
Remus Gooch	Childers-Boor	Dias-Sechrist
Sarah Bull	Green-Jumps	Childers - Northcote
Osborne-Anderson	Dance-Rist	Clark-Lowe
Braden-DeJarnette	Lauter-Cunningham	Blessetts-Logsden
Burgess- McKinley	Glackner-O'Hara	Burgess-Johnson
Musselman-Tully	Highwater-Readenower	James-Hawkins
DeJarnette-Kinman	Green-Kells	Lucky-Hutcheson
Brock-Brock	Hopper-Woman	McClanahan-Hatcher
Goughe-Redenor	Lanter-Musselman	Jaspar McComas
Bailey-Henry	Joe Kells	Clay-Billiter
Baird-Steers	Blanchett-Jones	Jones-Jeffers
Walden-Brown	Wade-Wade	Turner-Judd
Mapp-Clements	Wainsott-Wilson	Turner-Judd 2
Jilson-Hogan	Rube Jones	Smith-Poland
Read-Little	Thompson-Roberts	Patrick Bannon
One of the Best	Ranson-Lantern	Elijah Coleman
Neal-Isaacs	Almon	Strand-Franks
Leary-Leary	Coombs-Merrill	Littell-Evans
Redd-Little	Romano-Cornbread	Long-Long
Sechrist-Porter	Standwich-Musselman	Tapp-Franks

The trial Raymond Webster, and the verdict.

from the Frankfort Daily Commonwealth, February 2, 1864
FYI, the Emancipation Proclamation was effective January 1, 1863.

	Four news clippings on Grant County Slavery, here.
1843 slavery incident in Grant County, here.	A piece on slavery in Grant County is here. (pdf)
It says here that Grant County was not a safe place for enslaved persons to travel in 1844.
“During Tuesday night twenty-three negroes owned in Grant and adjoining counties, left their masters' roofs, and escaped to the Licking River, where they lashed together several canoes, and in disguise, where they disembarked and made a circuitous route to the northern part of Cincinnati.  Early Wednesday morning they were run off on the road to Canada by the underground railroad.” from The Louisville Journal, June 16, 1854.
The burning of Rube Jones.	Harry Powers
Crittenden men behaving badly after the Civil War.	Enslaved confederate soldier joins the Union army in Williamstown.
The Freedman's Bureau reports on a post-Civil War Outrage in Grant County, here.	Grant County enslaved couple elect to die rather than return to slavery, here and here.
Enslaved person murders owner, here . . . . . . and here.	The Boone County Library has a web site detailing known slave escapes from Northern Kentucky. The Gallatin-Grant only list is here.
“In Grant County, Wm. Sleet, Eliza Sleet, Jesse Best, Edward Alexander, Mary Alexander, and Carter Rorst, were beaten in a most cruel and inhuman manner, their property destroyed, and they forbidden to return home, on pain of death. Carter Rorst was most terribly punished, gashes nearly six inches long being cut in his body and filled with salt. All of the above-named persons are reported as quiet, industrious black people.” National Anti-Slavery Standard. October 12, 1867

Cincinnati Commercial, February 14, 1866

Evansville Daily Journal, October 31, 1863	Louisville's Democratic Courier, August 8, 1850
Licking Valley Register, July 4, 1846	Licking Valley Register, August 10, 1844

An important figure in early Grant County church history is Elder
William Conrad. John B. Conrad's bio of him can be found here. (pdf)

 

The Old Baptist Church
It's roots trace back to 1791.

How old is 1791?

Evansville (IN) Journal, September 17, 1863

The Lawrence Raiders (Wikipedia) were a group of Civil War Guerrillas under one William Quantrill (Wikipedia) who massacred 150 unarmed men and boys in Lawrence, Kansas in 1863.

Cincinnati Daily Commercial, October 13, 1865

Cincinnati Daily Commercial, November 5, 1863	Cincinnati Daily Commercial, May 18, 1865
A Grant County man agrees to join the Union Army, but has one condition.	Murdering guerrillas in Civil War Grant County, more here.
In the Civil War, many rural Kentuckians had more fear of Guerillas than real troops. These self-appointed confederates' primary actions consisted of looting and thieving, as shown in this 1864 episode in Mt. Zion.
1864 military trial.	A bounty fund to encourage Civil War enlistment is authorized.
Civil War prisoners from Grant County, here.	Depredations of guerilla Mose Webster.

Cincinnati Daily Commercial, November 2, 1864

 

Boston Daily Advertiser, November 9, 1864

National Intelligencer, March 21, 1823

The few words on the history of aviation in Grant County, here.	A List of all 57 one-room schools in Grant County, in 1895, is here. The list from 1903 is here.	Oops. Way too many names discovered on the 1950 voter list, here.
Noah Readnower confesses to 50 year  old shooting, here.	Grant County sites placed on the National Places of Historical Places are at this site.	A history of Crittenden published in 1929 is here.
Some Grant Co Cemetery records are at this site.	Williamstown Homicide, 1872, here.	Daisy Carol King's History of Grant County is here. (pdf)
How Bullock Pen got its name, here.	The Legislature authorizes a road from Gallatin County's Napoleon to Monticello School House in Grant County. We can't tell you where the school was. Anybody?
Grant County Schools prepare for consolidation.	Notorious counterfeiters found in Grant County.	Grant County news from the Covington Journal, 1868, here.
Grant County's Historical Markers are listed at this site.	A status report from the Superintendent of Schools in Grant County from 1900 is here. The 1907 report is here.	Grant County news from the Daily Commonwealth, 1883, here.
Richard Collins, editor of the Maysville Eagle for a period, expanded his father Lewis Collins' History of Kentucky in 1874, and included this section (pdf) on the history of Grant County.
Grant County's 1942 referendum to prohibit alcohol prompted this article.	The 1925 bus schedule from Owenton to Covington went thru Williamstown.  It's here.	Legislature outlaws bird hunting in Grant County.
Grant officials scolded by Ky. Attorney General for speed trap. In 1930.  Here.	Grant County man murdered in Texas	Huge gold mine discovered in Grant County.
Lawyers of Grant County, 1872, here.	In 1906, the Courier-Journal published a list of out-of-state residents who would come home to Grant County.	Grant votes to allow or prohibit liquor in 1903. Precinct level results, here.
Can you name the eight banks in Grant County in 1922?  They're here.	The banks of Grant county, 1910, here.	“The ten banks of Grant county report $615,901.02 on deposit with loans of $789,470.05.” from the Owenton News-Herald, July 27, 1905
“N. H. Childers, Marshall of Williamstown, Ky., was mortally wounded yesterday while trying to preserve peace.  Jno. Boor was also mortally wounded at Crittenden yesterday in an election riot.”  Terre Haute (Ind) Gazette, August 3, 1870		Two women held in 1879 Mt. Zion bank robbery.
Courier-Journal's 1896 report on Grant Co Toll Roads, here.	A list of the first automobiles registered for Grant County, in 1910-11,  is here.	Grant County Officials & Merchants, 1847, here.
A contemporary brochure on the Arnold cabin is here. (pdf)	The McComas-Hutton feud played out in the streets of Downingsville in 1903, here.	In 1969, Edna Talbott Whitley compiled a list of Cabinetmakers in Kentucky.  The Grant County portion of that list is here.
Blind Tigers rampant in 1901.  Story here.	Blind Tigers still being fought in 1907	The Bouscarens of Grant County. (pdf)
Uh, what's a blind tiger? Clarity.	Accusations of running a blind tiger leads to shooting of a lawyer by a banker.	Grant County schools tops in state. In 1832.
Voting precinct locations were differently defined than what we're used to these days. Here are a pair of examples of how Grant County's precincts were defined.		1957 article from the Times-Star talks about the ridge towns of Grant County.
John Harris and bride on their Cincinnati honeymoon.	The contest: Poker vs. Preaching	Grant County man gets fleeced in the city.
Evening Star (Washington, DC), May 18, 1887
Jacob Sandusky remembered passing thru Williamstown on a bear hunt. In 1822. His recollections are here.	A short history of Grant Co from 1917 is here. (pdf)	C. 1928, the Kentucky Opportunities Department published a fact sheet about Grant County for potential businesses that might be interested.  You can read it here. (pdf)

The Grant County library has developed an interactive map showing all of the Grant County cemeteries.

 

Theodore O'Hara “Doc” Sechrist, born in Williamstown,  played for the New York Giants baseball team. A pitcher, he appeared in one game, on April 28, 1899. He faced two batters and walked both of them. Because they did not score and he did not record an out, he has no official ERA from his appearance.

“Jonesville, Ky, April 1 - The new Equity warehouse here is rapidly nearing completion, and it will be ready for use in two or three weeks.  When completed, it will be the largest tobacco warehouse in the county, and will have a capacity of a million pounds.  J. W. and W. T. Calender have been taking care of the pooled tobacco here and have received about a hundred thousand pounds.”  from the Owenton News-Herald, April 11, 1907.  For more information on The Equity, and the Kentucky Tobacco Wars of 1908, follow this link.

An additional incident in the Tobacco Wars of c. 1908 occurred in Mason, here.

And while the farmer above managed to raise and sell his crop, he afterward had to move to New Mexico to farm.

There was this incident in Elliston.

Grant County night rider murdered near Flingsville? Maybe. There was absolutely a real, old time shootout.

Grant County News encourages readers to not grow a 1908 crop.

Night Riders seen near Blanchette.

Twelve indicted; eight men found guilty in night riding.

The first mention of an automobile in a Grant County paper is from the Williamstown Courier of June 29, 1905: “Claude Jones is now the proud owner of an Oldsmobile and is learning to be an expert at operating the machine.” A week later we get this: “Claude Jones, the energetic and popular telephone man of Williamstown . . .has purchased an auto and skims over the country with the ease and swiftness of a locomotive.” from the Williamstown Courier , July 6, 1905

The Central Record (Lancaster, Ky), November 18, 1898

 

List of Grant County Turnpikes, 1895, here. 1897 was  watershed year for turnpikes, or as the Williamstown Courier called them “Turnpike Roads.” People did NOT like paying tolls, and destructive vigilantes were not uncommon.  There was an election on whether or not to “free” the pikes, that is, let the county raise taxes to assume all the costs, and give free passage. The election results are here.  An 1897 list of all of the turnpikes, and more data than you ever wanted to know about them is here. Two additional toll gates authorized in 1860. A list of the 18 gate houses subsequently put up for sale is here. (If you buy #18, get the flood insurance!) In May of 1922, Grant County voted on whether to approve higher taxes for the Dixie Highway, connecting Lexington and Covington.  There's no doubt about how they felt.  The vote is here.

This list of Grant County deaths from WWII is from  the National Archives.
There's a key to what the  various abbreviations mean here, and the actual list is here.

Grant County soldiers who died in WWI are listed here.

The Grant County School Teachers, 1906

Frank Turner hung by a mob, here.	Sam Eustis lynched. Later proven innocent. Here.
Earl Thompson is hung, sorta legally in Williamstown in 1910. Read the story here. (While hung for rape, there were rumors - and it may well be just wild gossip - that Thompson had been having an affair with the woman, and it was only when they were discovered that she cried rape.)
Liman Couch and Smith Maythe were lynched for their attack on John Utterback in 1841, here, and here.	Another take on Smith Maythe is here.
“At Williamstown, Tuesday morning, a mob took from the jail a prisoner charged with murder.  At this writing the fate of the man is unknown.” Boone County Recorder, September 20, 1877
A summary of a number hanging in Grant County are discussed in this item from the papers of Pendleton County historian E. E. Barton.

Grant County items from Lewis Collins' History of Kentucky, here.

In 1883-84, the R. L. Polk Company published a new edition of his Gazetteer, which included these Grant County communities:
Cordova	Corinth	Crittenden	Dry Ridge
Elliston	Gardnersville	Holbrook	Mason
New Eagle Mills	Sherman	Williamstown	Zion Station

An 1879 Gazetteer listing of Williamstown is here. (pdf)

	Membership lists of the Masonic Lodges of Grant County in 1890 are here:
	Stewartsville	Williamstown	Corinth	Jonesville	Mason

Membership lists of the Masonic Lodges of Grant County in 1911 are here:  (pdf's)
Williamstown	Corinth	Crittenden	Dry Ridge

For membership rolls of ALL Masonic Lodges in ALL cities in Kentucky,
from 1878 thru 1922, they're at the Hathi Trust Digital Library, by individual year.

From The History of Kentucky, 1929, published by S. J. Clarke.  This book, like many of the period, should not be considered to have a definitive list of important people in the county.  More likely, the book was financed by people who paid to have their name included, and wrote their own bio. ( pdf's)
Robert L. Northcutt	Albert L. Abbott

Jacob Theophilus Simon had his bio (pdf) in the Biographical Encyclopedia of Kentucky.

When the Boston Celtic's legendary Bill Russell was a rookie, who on the team did he look to for mentoring? That would be Williamstown’s Arnie Risen. Risen (Wikipedia) is in the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame. He was on two NBA championship teams, and is a four-time NBA All Star. He also led Ohio State to two NCAA Final Fours. Video at this site.

Georgetown (CO) Courier, October 2, 1879

 

 

Here's a curious collection of documents from the 1860-1940's, from the post office, with town names, maps, and name changes. You really should start here, and they might make more sense to you. All are pdf's.
Blanchett	Cherry Grove	Clarks Creek	Cordova	Corinth
Crittenden	Delia	Downingsville	Dry Ridge	Elliston
Flingsville	Folsom	Gold Valley	Gouge	Hanks
Heekin	Holbrook	Jonesville	Keefer	Lawrenceville
Leniton	Mason	Mt. Zion	New Eagle Mills	Sherman
Stately's Run	Stewartsville	Williamstown	Zion Station

“We haven't received a spring poem this year.  Thank the Lord.”
from the Williamstown Courier, April 6, 1893, Robert Westover, editor

Detailed Presidential voting statistics from Grant County are here.

A souvenir newspaper from the American Bicentennial had this page on Grant county.

Additional Links that apply to all of Northern Kentucky Views, and may or may not be
related to Grant County, are on the main Links & Miscellany page, here.