Historical Data:
Boyd County, Kentucky was formed in 1860 [KY county #107] from parts of
Greenup,
Carter and Lawrence County, KY.
BOYD COUNTY. Boyd County, the 107th county in order of formation, is located
at the eastern edge of the state on the Ohio and Big Sandy rivers and totals
160 square miles. The county was created in 1860 from parts of Greenup, Carter,
and Lawrence counties and named for Linn Boyd of Paducah, former U.S.
congressman, who died in 1859 soon after being elected lieutenant governor of
Kentucky. The first county judge of Boyd was John D. Ross; the first sheriff,
William Williams; and the first clerk, J. W. Riely. The county seat is
CATLETTSBURG.
Along the broad river bottoms, numerous mounds containing human skeletons,
burial goods, and other artifacts give evidence that prehistoric Native
Americans inhabited the area. In 1973 archeologists discovered a serpent-shaped
mound built of rocks dating to 2000 B.C. It stretched for nine hundred feet
along the top of 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 Frederick County, Virginia. A veteran of the French and
Indian War who had served under Col. George Washington in 1754, Smith received
for that service some four hundred acres around Chadwicks Creek, where he built
a cabin in 1774. This land was known as the Savage grant because it was part of
28,627 acres at the Ohio and Big Sandy rivers that had been granted to Lt. John
Savage and his soldiers by Virginia Governor Dunmore on December 15, 1772.
Smith died in 1776 and his land eventually passed into the hands of Alexander
Catlett and his heirs, who came to the area in 1797 and for whom the town of
Catlettsburg was named. Settlers began to arrive in increasing numbers after
the Battle of Fallen Timbers in 1794, which had eased the danger of Indian
predation. The Poages came from Staunton, Virginia, in October 1799 and formed
Poage Settlement, now the city of ASHLAND. They founded the first church,
Bethesda (Presbyterian), in 1819. Col. William Grayson's heirs came to what is
now Carter County to claim his 70,000 acre grant, part of which helped form
Boyd County.
The Poages acquired most of the land above and below Ashland and many tracts
west of the city. George, William, Thomas, and Hugh Poage built the
steam-powered Clinton iron furnace in 1832, the earliest industry in
present-day Boyd County. In 1834 John C. and Jacob Kouns built Oakland furnace,
which closed in 1849. As part of the Hanging Rock iron ore region, this area
attracted German and Irish immigrant laborers, ironmasters from Pennsylvania,
and wealthy investors from the South and East. Buena Vista furnace was built in
1847, Sandy furnace in 1853, Ashland furnace in 1869, Norton furnace in 1873,
and Princess furnace in 1876. A total of twenty-nine charcoal-fueled iron
furnaces operated on the Kentucky side of the Ohio River, seven of them in what
is now Boyd County.
The Kentucky Iron, Coal and Manufacturing Company was incorporated on March 8,
1854, and it laid out the town of Ashland, then within Greenup County. The
company purchased thousands of acres of coal, timber, and ore lands throughout
the county. It invested $210,000 in bonds of the Lexington & Big Sandy River
Railroad Company, with the stipulation that the eastern division of that line
extend into Ashland instead of ending, as originally planned, in Catlettsburg.
By 1857 the first ten miles of track had been opened from Ashland to Princess.
The line was extended to Coalton in 1858 and to Rush in 1872. In 1880 the name
of the line was changed to Ashland Coal & Iron Railroad. Chattaroi Railway
Company was incorporated on March 11, 1873, and by 1882 its track reached up
the Sandy River to the Peach Orchard mines in Lawrence County. The Ohio & Big
Sandy Railroad was incorporated on August 20, 1889, and operated until 1892.
The Chesapeake & Ohio Railroad eventually purchased these rail lines.
On December 21, 1921, Ashland furnace was sold to American Rolling Mill Company
of Middletown. Ohio, which developed into Armco Steel Corporation, a major
business in eastern Kentucky. In 1969 Armco constructed the Amanda furnace, one
of the largest blast furnaces in the world.
Ashland Oil, Inc., the largest corporation headquartered in Kentucky, was
started in 1924 at a small refinery at Leach Station, south of
Catlettsburg.
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