Three Forks of the Kentucky River Historical Association

The Kentucky Encyclopedia

John E. Kleber, Editor in Chief
Transcribed by Michelle Williams Cole

OWSLEY COUNTY. Owsley County, the ninety-sixth county in order of formation is located in eastern Kentucky on the Cumberland Plateau. Bordered by Breathitt, Clay, Jackson, Lee, and Perry counties, Owsley has an area of 198 square miles. It was created from parts of Breathitt, Clay, and Estill counties in 1843 and was named for Gov. William Owsley (1844-48). The county seat is Booneville. The South Fork of the Kentucky River roughly bisects the county, flowing south to north. Despite the rugged terrain, much of the county’s acreage is farmland.

A large boulder near the mouth of Exton Creek in the southern part of the county is known locally as Boone’s Rock because it was noted as a landmark by Daniel Boone on a 1784 survey of land for James Moore and Col. John Donelson. Early permanent settlers of the area included James Moore and his family, who established Moore’s Station, also known as Boone’s Station, at Boone’s old campsite. John Renty Baker and John Abner arrived by boat in the 1790s and settled near Cortland in the southeastern part of the county. The population of the area grew steadily. Parts of Owsley County went to form Jackson County in 1858 and Wolfe County in 1860.

During the Civil War, most Owsley Countians were pro-Union, although there were 112 slaves in the county in 1860. Owsley County led all Kentucky counties in the percentage of 1860 votes who enrolled in the Union army: slightly over 13 percent. Many men from the county enlisted in Company A of the 7th Kentucky Infantry Regiment, which was organized by Elisha B. Treadway at Congleton Springs (now in Lee County). Several times during the conflict, armies passed through the county, among them the Union command of Gen. George W. Morgan as it retreated from the Cumberland Gap to Greenup, Kentucky, in the late summer of 1862. Bands of lawless men rode into the county and in reprisal Owsley County men led similar raids into Wolfe and Breathitt counties. After the war, the county became identified with Republican politics, and because the Democratic party controlled state government during Readjustment, Owsley County reaped few benefits. Part of the county was split off in 1870 to form Lee County.

As it had scant mineral reserves, the county did not attract significant railroad transportation. A narrow-gauge line, the K & P Lumber Company Railroad, was built from Tallega in Lee County to a lumber mill at Lerose in the northeastern part of Owsley County in 1905. By 1909 most of the large timer near the line had been hauled out and the line was abandoned. The iron rails were taken up for scrap in World War I. A standard gauge line, the Kentucky, Rockcastle, & Cumberland Railroad, which crossed the northwestern corner of the county along Wild Dog Creek, was abandoned by 1930.

By 1930 most of the timer had been removed and with it the economic lifeblood of the county. Mills closed, and after 1940 migration started to depopulate the county. Unrestricted clearing of steep slopes led to erosion of farmland. Extensive federal and state aid helped to maintain the standard of living in the county. Often unemployed county youth joined the military, and the rural county furnished large numbers of men to the Korean and Vietnam wars.

By 1989 Owsley County had the lowest per capita income in the state; 53 percent of the population were below the poverty line, In 1989 most employed residences worked in service occupations, government positions, or agriculture. The populations of the rural mountain county was 5,023 in 1970; 5709 in 1980; and 5.036 in 1990.

See Joyce Wilson, This was Yesterday (Ashland, Ky., 1977)

Morris M. Garrett

BOONEVILLE. Booneville, the seat of Owsley County in eastern Kentucky, is located in the north-central part of the county at the junction of KY 30 and KY 11, on the South Fork of the Kentucky River. The town was named to honor Daniel Boone, who is said to have camped by a spring the present site of the courthouse in Booneville while on a surveying trip in 1780-81. The early settlement that grew up there was alternately known as Boone’s Station and Moore’s Station, after James Moore, Sr., who in the 1790s was one of the first permanent settlers. When Owsley County was formed on May 20, 1844, the town was known as Owsley Court House; two years later it was incorporated as Booneville.

In 1843 Elias Moore, son of James Moore, Sr., donated an acre of land on which to build the first courthouse. A log house served as a temporary court building until a permanent structure, probably of brick, was built. A large brick courthouse built in 1887 was destroyed by fire on January 29, 1929. A Colonial Revival-style brick courthouse completed in 1931 was consumed by fire on January 5, 1967. It was replaced in 1974 by a modern brick courthouse completed with a federal grant. Booneville has been the site of several fires, which destroyed a brickyard, the Booneville Hotel, a telephone exchange, and numerous homes.

During the Civil War most Booneville residents supported the Union, and many young men enlisted in the 7th Kentucky Infantry Regiment. On September 21, 1862, Gen. George W. Morgan’s Union army retreated through the town on its way from the Cumberland Gap to Ohio, and on June 17, 1864, Col. C.H. Hanson and three hundred Union troops stopped there while pursuing Gen. John Hunt Morgan’s Confederate soldiers. A more serious menace to the pro-Union citizens of Owsley County was pro-South guerrillas from neighboring counties who threatened their lives and property. On April 14, 1864, the Three Forks Battalion, a Home Guard unit of forty local citizens, drove off a force of seventy-five Southern guerrillas at Booneville.

Industries in Booneville around 1900 included a tanyard, a mill, and a brickyard. Hiram Hogg, Jr., built the tanyard, which operated from the early 1880s until around 1917. One of the largest mills in the country, build around 1900 by Charlie Minter, was operated after 1907 by Pleas Abshear. A few years after Abshear’s death in 1957 the mill was destroyed in a flood. A brickyard processed locally dug clay around 1850; a large brickyard was destroyed by fire in 1905.

In the early 1900s, Court Day, the first Monday of each month, was a festive occasion for trading and swapping. Chatauguas, religious and social gatherings, and shooting matches were popular summer activities.

Booneville’s city limits have never been enlarged. Most residents who are employed are service workers or are employed by the state or local government. The population of the sixth-class city was 126 in 1970; 191 in 1980; and 232 in 1990.

Morris M. Garrett