About Rowan County
- Rowan County was formed in 1856 as Kentucky's 104th county from parts
of Morgan County
and Fleming County.
It was named for John Rowan, a Kentucky member of the U.S. House of Representatives
and Senate. Rowan County is located in the region that the Kentucky Atlas
calls the Eastern
Coal Fields, and the Kentucky Department of Tourism calls the Eastern Highlands.
The elevation in the county ranges from 625 to 1435 feet above sea level.
In 1990 the county population was 20,353 in a land area of 280 square miles,
an average of 72.7 people per square mile. The major industries are lumber
and clay.
- The county seat (and only sizeable town) is Morehead, situated on Triplett Creek, at the conjunction of I-64 and KY 32. Settlers arrived by the early part of the nineteenth century, and a post office opened there as Triplett in 1817. (At the time, the area was part of Bath Co.) The city of Morehead was founded in 1856, when Rowan county was formed, and named for James T. Morehead, a governor of Kentucky. The population in 1990 was 8,357. Smaller communities in Rowan County include Clearfield, Elliottville (formerly Hoggtown), Farmers and Haldeman. Much of the county is within the Daniel Boone National Forest.
- Rowan County is bordered on the northwest by Fleming County, on the north by Lewis County, on the northeast by Carter County, on the southeast by Elliott County and Morgan County, and on the southwest by Menifee County and Bath County.
- Morehead is the home of Morehead State University, known as "Kentucky's University of the mountains." The MSU library system is of special interest to local historians. The Special Collections room houses such items as rural school censuses, a series of Sanborn insurance maps from 1908, 1914, 1928 and 1941, photographic archives, and oral history interviews. The Government Documents collection has federal census microfilms (I haven't checked the exact holdings), as well as microfilms of over 60 early Kentucky newspapers, which are available through interlibrary loan.
Rowan County Highway Map (Warning: This is a large image, 425K, 37 inches square)
Rowan County Addresses
| Address | Hours | Holdings & Comments |
|---|---|---|
| Rowan County Public Library 129 Trumbo Road Morehead, KY 40351 (606) 784-7137 |
M, Th 10 am - 8 pm Tu, W, F 10 am - 5 pm Sat 9 am - 3 pm Closed Sunday |
microfilm copies of Morehead News from 1939 - present |
| Morehead News 722 W. 1st Street Morehead, KY 40351 (606) 784-4116 fax: (606) 874-7337 |
8 am - 5 pm weekdays | subscription rates (one year) Local*................ $26.50** Elsewhere in Ky....... $37.64** Elsewhere in the US... $35.50 * Rowan and all bordering counties |
| Rowan County Clerk Courthouse Morehead, KY 40351 (606) 784-5212 |
M-F 8:30 am - 4:30 pm Sat 9 am - 12 noon |
marriages, land, probate 1880's-present (Earlier records lost in courthouse fires.) |
| Rowan County Historical Society P. O. Box 60 Morehead, KY 40351 |
Meeting at County Library 7 pm first Thursday of each month. Dues $6 year. |
Newsletter published irregularly, about 8 pages several times a year. |
| Camden-Carroll Library Morehead State University Morehead, KY 40351 (606) 783-2251 Reference Desk (606) 783-2829 Special Collections (606) 783-5107 Interlibrary Loans (606) 783-2160 Gov't Documents |
Varies by school session; let them tell you. |
See description under About Rowan County, or visit their web page. |
The Rowan County Historical Society
The Rowan County Historical Society has for sale its 1999 Historical Calendar illustrated with historical photos of Morehead and Rowan County people, places, and businesses. Back issues of the 1998 calendar are also still available. The price is $5.00 each plus $2.00 postage. Send payment to:
Rowan County Historical Society
P. O. Box 60
Morehead, KY 40351
For 2000, instead of a calendar the Historical Society is compiling a new book, A Pictorial History of Rowan County, Kentucky. This large format hardcover book will be published by Rose Publishing Company of Humbolt, Tennessee. The pre-publication price is $29.95 plus $5.00 shipping.
The deadline for submitting photographs to be included in the book is August 30, 1999. Contact Helen Surmont at <ahsurmont@kih.net> for more details.
The Centennial Edition of The Rowan County News
In 1956, on the 100th anniversary of the birth of Rowan County, The
Rowan County News published a special edition focusing on the history
of Rowan County and its residents. This volume was 100 pages long, and has
been reissued in a softbound facimile edition by The Rowan County News's
successor paper, the Morehead News. The pages are typical newspaper
size, so it is a bit bulky. There are hundreds of sketches on area families.
Most of them are lean on dates, but they can be a help in outlining family
relationships, as well as providing the kind of colorful anecdotes you don't
get from a census listing or marriage register. The staff of the Camden-Carroll
Library at MSU has catalogued
the headlines and captions of many of the articles and pictures of historical
or genealogical interest. As is typical of a newspaper, there is no surname
index, so I cannot volunteer to do lookups, but it is well worth buying
your own copy.
The facimile edition can be ordered by mail or phone from the Morehead News at the address above, for $17.50, which includes $5.00 shipping.
(It can be picked up at the newspaper office for $12.50.) Kentucky residents
add state and local sales tax.
Family pages with Rowan County connections
To add your home page to this list, send me email with the URL and a list of the major Rowan County families included. Family association pages will only be listed if the surname has a high representation in the Rowan County area. If page entry is restricted to subscribers only, please mention that and include the email address to be contacted for subscription instructions.
Other Online Info about Rowan County
- This section contains miscellaneous links to Rowan county information at other web sites:
This page is designed and maintained by Teri Pettit. Please email me if any links are broken. Permission is granted to copy any information, images, or links from this page, so long as it is not used for commercial purposes.
Last updated on August 12, 1999.
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