| In
1794, Carrollton was established and originally
named Port William.
Port William was the county seat for Gallatin
County. In
1838, the state legislature divided Gallatin County due
to the largeness of the county.
Port William was renamed Carrollton and became
the county seat of the newly formed Carroll County.
Explorer,
James McBride is recorded to be the first to set foot on
this land in 1754.
He was traveling down the Ohio River in October
1754 in a canoe on exploration.
Following
the end of the French and Indian War in 1760, Colonel
William Peachy of Virginia was given a land grant by the
British government for his loyal service.
This two thousand acre tract was located at the
point where the Kentucky River emptied into the Ohio
River.
Woodsman
Simon Kenton camped at the mouth of the Kentucky River
in 1771, James Harrod and a group of settlers camped in
this spot in May of 1774 before traveling further and
settling what is now known as Harrodsburg.
In 1784, a family named Elliot built a blockhouse
on this spot. It
was burned in 1785.
In 1787, a Captain Ellison built another
blockhouse, he left within two years.
In 1791, General Charles Scott completed a larger
blockhouse, elevated and fortified with picket
palisades, as a base for his Kentucky Volunteers.
This spot is marked at Point Park by a Historic
Road Marker.
In
1794, Benjamin Craig, Sr. and James Hawkins purchased
six hundred thirteen acres of land from the William
Peachy land grant.
In 1794, the area was incorporated as Port
William.
The
many of the settlers who came to the valley had ventured
down the Ohio River on keel boats from as far as
Pittsburgh. Others
traveled by foot and beast across the buffalo traces
from Virginia through the Cumberland Pass.
Carrollton
and Carroll County were named in honor of the last
surviving signer of the Declaration of Independence,
Charles Carroll of Carrollton, Maryland.
Charles Carroll was born in Annapolis, Maryland
on September 19, 1737.
Carroll’s grandfather, Charles Carroll the
Settler, an Irish
gentleman, emigrated from England to Maryland due to the
persecution of Catholics on October 1688.
As
a Roman Catholic, Carroll was barred from entering
politics, practicing law, and voting in colonial
America. He
became a prominent spokesman against the government of
England. He
was commissioned in 1776 with Benjamin Franklin, Samuel
Chase and his cousin the Reverend John Carroll to
approach Canada to assist the thirteen colonies in their
fight for Independence.
Through the establishment of the United States,
Carroll helped break the barrier that allowed Catholics
the same rights as Protestants.
After
the death of Jefferson and Adams on July 4, 1826, he was
the only surviving Signer of the Declaration of
Independence left in the country.
Carroll died on November 14, 1832. |
