The Foundation of Rowan County
Article by Cindy Leach
Early settlers came to the Rowan County area from Virginia via land grants received from their service in the Revolutionary War. Rowan was a stop-over on the way to the bluegrass and many saw the abundance of lumber, wildlife and ample supply of water and decided to stay here. There were no Indians in the area to worry about. In 1791, Virginians Jacob Powers and Barnette Simmons came to area, which was then Fleming County. Both were wealthy as were Major James M. Brain, who developed the first community in the area known as Crossroads, and Dixon Clack who founded the second community in the future Rowan County, known later as Clearfield. Morehead was the third community to be established in the county and grew around a sawmill, which was operated by Jake Wilson. The first resident of Morehead was Mrs. Abby Oxley and she lived near the center of what is now Morehead. She later sold the land for the town of Morehead and Judge Hargis first mapped out the town of Morehead, marking off the public square and then sold town lots. Early streets were mud and in rainy weather, ox carts were go up to their hubs. Colonel John Hargis was the first Postmaster and storekeeper; he built a home on the west end of the city. His first business was in the location of the Cozy building and housed an inn called the Gault House, store post office, and saloon. Many of the early buildings were taverns and inns due to a lot of travel through the area. It became the county seat when Rowan County was formed by the Kentucky General Assembly on January 19, 1856.
Rowan County was named for John Rowan (1773 – 1843) US Senator and later US Representative and the third Secretary of State of Kentucky. Morehead was named for the first native-born Kentuckian elected Governor, James T. Morehead (1797-1854). On May 1, 1856, Rowan was created from portions of Fleming and Morgan counties. September 18, 1861, Rowan gained a small area from Carter County to accommodate a local property owner. March 21, 1872, the boundary between Rowan and Elliott was redefined to accommodate a local property owner and Rowan gained more property from Carter County to accommodate another local property owner on April 15, 1882. The creation of a new county called Beckham caused Rowan, Carter, Lewis and Elliott to lose property on February 9, 1904, and then gained it back April 1904. Beckham County was overturned by court decision on constitutional grounds and is considered extinct since April 29, 1904.
In 1856, Richard Hawkins gave the county one-acre of to build a courthouse. The initial Rowan County courthouse was located along Main Street in Morehead, Kentucky. During the Civil War, it was burned and destroyed by a pro-Confederate guerrilla group. One of the most frequent sites targeted during the war were the various county courthouses located throughout Kentucky, as they housed historical records and stood as symbols of authority. Consequently, twenty-two courthouses were burned during the Civil War - nineteen of which were targeted during the last fifteen months of the war alone - at the behest of both Union and Confederate leaders alike. In addition to the leaders of these two opposing forces, the burning of courthouses was often carried out by pro-Confederate guerrilla groups. One such group was based in Morehead during the Civil War. On March 21, 1864, the guerrilla group carried out the burning of the Rowan County courthouse launching flaming torches at the building until it was wholly engulfed in flames. This burning marked the easternmost attack on an institution in the state of Kentucky during the war.
The courthouse was rebuilt, with construction being completed on the new building in 1866. The courthouse stood in place of the previous building in Morehead for nearly fourteen years until the events leading up to the Rowan County War. In 1880 the courthouse was once again burned during a fight between the county's two opposing factions. The wooden jail was also burned and the one inmate (Jim Pelfrey) escaped unharmed. After this, the courthouse was relocated to another building until it was eventually rebuilt again in 1899. As a result of each of the two burnings, all of the legal records housed in the courthouse prior to 1880 were destroyed, with no way to recover them.
Sources
Kentucky Courthouse Burnings. Accessed August 06, 2019. https://explorekyhistory.ky.gov/items/show/643.
Kentucky: Individual County Chronologies, Kentucky Atlas of Historical County Boundaries, 2007.
Laws of Kentucky
Papers of Bessie Birchfield, Juanita Blair, Fred Brown, Bess Cornette, Jack Ellis.
Rowan County Courthouse Burned. Accessed August 06, 2019. http://www.communitywalk.com/rowan_county/ky/rowan_county_historical_markers/map/539296#0004HVFM.
Smith , Miranda and Clio Admin. "Rowan County Courthouse Fire Historical Marker." Clio: Your Guide to History. August 11, 2019. Accessed January 12, 2021. https://www.theclio.com/tour/940/6/reverse
http://www.communitywalk.com/rowan_county/ky/rowan_county_historical_markers/map/539296#0004HVFM.