History

The Founding of Scott County

Almost from its beginning the small town of Georgetown in Scott County, Kentucky has been a center of commerce, transportation, religious activity and education. Scott County was created in 1792 and named in honor of General Charles Scott, a Revolutionary War hero from Virginia. Scott served as the Governor of Kentucky from 1808 to 1812 when he became Commander of Kentucky troops in the War of 1812. Early settlers were attracted to the Bluegrass area by the good soil and grasslands suitable for farming.

But the most important attraction to the Georgetown Area was the Royal Spring, discovered in 1774. It offered a steady and substantial source of water year 'round. The spring flowed into the North Elkhorn Creek that in turn meandered into the nearby Kentucky River.

The First Settlement

MeClelland's Station, the forerunner of Georgetown was one of the first settlements built north of the Kentucky River around 1775.

The first permanent settlers came to the Royal Spring under the leadership of Rev. Elijah Craig, a Baptist minister who led his church members out of Orange County, Virginia, because of religious persecution. Craig was an accomplished businessman as well as an independent-minded minister. He laid out a new town with broad streets, built a fulling mill (a place to make fabric) and a distilling apparatus.

The Founding of Georgetown

Elijah Craig soon changed the name of the little community of Lebanon Station, Virginia, to George Town, (in 1790) in honor of President George Washington. In 1792, it became George Town, Kentucky when Kentucky became a state of the Union.

The town grew slowly as rough roads were cut into nearby rapidly growing communities such as Louisville, Lexington, and Cincinnati. Wagons and horses carried hemp rope, paper, bourbon whiskey, tobacco and other farm items to be exchanged for manufactured products. Craig and his friends organized a new school called the Rittenhouse Academy in 1798 as part of a statewide program of education on the frontier centering on Transylvania University in Lexington.

Georgetown College

Intense religious activity came to the area with the formation of the Christian Church. Barton Stone, one of the leaders of the Cane Ridge Revival in adjoining Bourbon County, lived and taught in Georgetown for a time. The Baptists of the state responded by organizing a college and placing it in Georgetown because of a generous local offer of money and the defunct Rittenhouse Academy.

The new college floundered in the religious tension of the day until young teachers arrived from the East. Rockwood Giddings got the school on its feet. His successor, Howard Malcolm of Philadelphia, firmly established its curriculum and reputation down the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers to New Orleans. In January 15, 1829, Georgetown College became the first Baptist College west of the Appalachian Mountains, and one of the first in the South to grant degrees to women. The college and town prospered in the 1840's and 1850's, but the Civil War disrupted everything in 1861.

The War Between the States

Local people generally supported the South, but there were a few who supported the Union. George Johnson of Scott County was named Provisional Confederate Governor for a brief period of time, while James F. Robinson of Cardome, just north of the city limits of Georgetown, was selected as the Acting Union Governor in Frankfort. Fortunately, with the exception of two brief Calvary visits by Confederates under John Hunt Morgan, there was little fighting in the area. The end of the war in 1865 saw a breakup of large farms as former slaves moved to nearby cities.

The Late 1800's

The slowing economy stabilized as citizens floated a bond issue to get the Cincinnati Southern Railroad to build its main route south from Cincinnati through Georgetown to Chattanooga in the late 1870's. Three smaller railroads crossed the county in an east-west direction, thus the community had excellent railway services by 1890 to all parts of the United States.

The Prosperous 1900's

The Scott County area prospered in the time around the turn of the century as stately mansions were built up and down the main streets of Georgetown. The college drew students from across the nation and from overseas. In turn, several of them went to England as Rhodes Scholars. New church buildings for all major denominations were built along with a new Opera House for vaudeville and other types of entertainment.

The Scott County Courthouse was constructed in 1876 using the Victorian architectural style with a mansard roof and high bell tower, while the City Hall behind it was built 25 years later in the more conservative, sturdy style of the early 1900's.

Scott County contributed its fair share of young men to the war effort in 1917, and the college became a training ground for a brief period of time. The short agricultural recession of the early 1920's was followed by the world economic depression of 1929. The New Deal Program of President Roosevelt brought the WPA to Georgetown to build new concrete streets and the NYA to help college students to stay in school.

World War II came in 1941 and many young men joined the armed forces to fight around the world. The town went wild on V-E and V-J days, as bells rang out to celebrate the end of the war. Hundreds of young veterans descended on the college to get an education under the GI Bill.

Nearby Lexington began to grow with the coming of the IBM Corporation to a location not far from the Scott County line. Hundreds of Scott Countians began to commute the 12 miles or so to work there and at other institutions such as the Veteran's hospital, the Avon Army Depot, the University of Kentucky, and businesses in the downtown area. Others commuted to jobs in the nearby state capitol of Frankfort.

A major change of the 60's was the building of two interstate highways that crossed just south of the small town of Georgetown and its approximately 7,000 inhabitants. I-75 ran north and south from Michigan to Florida, while I-64 ran east to west. The commercial center of Georgetown began to move some of its operations to the interstate interchange just east of town because of the nearness to the interstate highway.

The town began to grow as employees of those companies chose to live in a small city while taking advantage of things such as shopping malls in Lexington and professional sports in Cincinnati. The community increased in size to about 11,500 people in a county of about 26,000 by 1986.

Also in 1986, Toyota Motor Corporation chose to locate a major automobile manufacturing facility in Georgetown. Toyota manufactures the Camry, the Solara and the Avalon. TMM currently employs over 7,800. Supplier firms began to spring up in the region to funnel parts to the Toyota plant.

The decade of the 1990's has seen the community trying to balance its long heritage in agriculture, education, religion and commerce with the challenges of serving a major multi-national corporation.

Horse Farms

The Bluegrass region of Central Kentucky boasts the world's highest concentration of thoroughbred horse farms. The six-county area in and around Lexington (including Scott County) is often referred to as the "Horse Capital of the World".

Farms devoted to producing the finest American Saddlebred show horses and Standardbred trotters and pacers also figure prominently in Scott County's equine hierarchy.

Other farms are devoted to the Tennessee Walker, American Quarter Horse, Arabian, Appaloosa, Morgan and Rocky Mountain horses. Scott County has produced three Kentucky Derby Winners-Kingman, Venetian Way and Winning Colors.

Fences

As one travels the serene back roads of Scott County and Central Kentucky, a recurring element that may catch your eyes is the abundance of unique, historic and beautiful fences.

The white and black plank fences are particularly characteristic of central Kentucky.

The aesthetic viewing pleasure, visitors and residents alike enjoy, is a mere by-product, as the fences were erected as a protective measure for temperamental thoroughbreds.

Another distinctive fence is the historic fieldstone fence that is misnamed "slave fence". Irish immigrants constructed them for two reasons: to enclose livestock and to clear the fields of loose stone. Though it's almost inconceivable, no mortar of any kind was ever used. The absolute skill of the craftsmen held and still holds these fences together.

Tobacco

Tobacco is Kentucky's chief cash crop, accounting for more than a fourth of all cash farm receipts. Top on the list is burley, a type of tobacco rarely grown anywhere else in the world. The high phosphate content of the limestone soil of the central Bluegrass region is particularly conducive to this type of tobacco. Tobacco is also one of Scott County's major cash crops. You'll see acres and acres of this crop from May to September gracing the gently rolling fields of Georgetown and Scott County.

Bourbon

The reputed creator of Kentucky bourbon was the Reverend Elijah Craig, the Baptist minister who founded the city of Georgetown. In 1789, he is said to have produced a new taste in whiskey by using corn, rye, and barley malt--the same ingredients that are used today- and letting it age in charred oak barrels. Bourbon is no longer produced in Scott County, but it is produced in several other counties in the central Kentucky region.

Eighty-seven percent of the bourbon manufactured in the United States is produced in Kentucky, primarily because of the purity of Kentucky spring water.