This region of rolling hills and bottomlands, formed by glaciers at the end of the Ice Age, was first inhabited by Indians whose encampments ranged along the rivers. It was not until the early Nineteenth Century that the last tribes disappeared across the Ohio into the Northwest Territory, and their mounds and burial sites are still a feature of the countryside.

The area first entered American history as a part of Fincastle County, Virginia; but in 1776 after the people along the Kentucky River sent emissaries to Williamsburg to ask for powder, they were recognized as Kentucky County. Five years later, as the settlements grew, the area was divided into Jefferson, Fayette, and Lincoln counties and became the District of Kentucky with its own court.

When Kentucky became a state in 1792, the eastern side of the Kentucky River basin became Woodford County, and in 1799 a later division formed Gallatin County with Port William (now Carrollton) as the county seat. In 1838 Carroll County, named for Charles Carroll of Maryland, one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence, was formed from the western section of Gallatin, Port William became Carrollton after Charles Carroll’s home in Maryland and was chosen as the county seat of the new county.

At first the towns of the area were dependent on river traffic and transportation. Carrollton and Prestonville were connected by ferry, and a road followed the shoreline of the Ohio. English, named after Captain James Wharton English (War of 1812) who owned most of the land on which the town was built, and Worthville, known as Coonskin until its name was changed to honor General William Worth (Mexican War), were accessible to the Kentucky River; but the cattle raising section around Sanders and Eagle Station used overland trails until the coming of the railroad in 1867.

FIRSTS IN PORT WILLIAM AND COUNTY

December 13, 1794, first trustees of the new town met at the home of Richard Masterson and in their first official business named Percival Richard Butler, father of William O. Butler, as first town clerk. May 17, 1799, the first court of the newly established Gallatin County met at the same site. John Van Pelt, with a commission from his Excellency, James Garrard, Governor of Kentucky, took the oath of office as the county’s first sheriff. Percival Butler was sworn in as the first county clerk. The first wedding recorded in the county was that of Nicholas Lantz and Mary Pickett. Henry Ogburn, first resident minister, performed the ceremony on July 18, 1799.

A pair of stocks for the punishment of gossip and slander was erected July 9, 1799, on Water Street, opposite the site of the present Courthouse. The first jail, built of logs in 1800, stood on the same site.

The first church, also of logs, was built on Henry Ogburn’s land in 1810. Before this, church services were held in homes of the members.

The census in 1810 showed Port William with a population of 120. The census of 1838, the year Carroll County was established, showed a population of 600.

In 1838, when Carroll County was formed, Levi Abbott became the first sheriff. Richard Butler was the first county clerk; Garland Bullock was the first county judge; and William Winslow, the first county attorney.

Port William, with its name changed to Carrollton, became the county seat of the new county.

The first newspaper – The Carrollton Eagle – with G.W. Hopkins as editor and owner – began publication May 17, 1848.

EARLY HISTORY OF CARROLLTON

The first white man to visit the mouth of the Kentucky River was James McBride, who in 1754 came down the Ohio River with a canoeing party from Pittsburgh. Twenty years later, the area was surveyed by Hancock Taylor of Virginia, and two thousand acres were awarded to Colonel William Peachy for his services in the French and Indian Wars.

Two subsequent attempts at settlement were made: in 1784 by a man named Elliott, who was killed by Indians, and later by a Captain Ellison, who was driven away. These were followed in 1790 by General Charles Scott, who built a blockhouse as a base for his Kentucky Volunteers, a militia organized as a defense against the Indians. With this protection, settlers began to arrive, and in 1792 Colonel Peachy sold the site of 613 acres to Benjamin Craig and James Hawkins, who laid-out the town of Port William and sold lots for building.

The Kentucky General Assembly passed the Act of Incorporation in December, 1799 and named a group of residents as the first town trustees. These first trustees who completed the organization of the new town were Dave Johnson, Thomas Montague, Jeremiah Craig, Richard Masterson, John Van pelt, and Simon Adams. A few other names from the rolls of the early townspeople were Bailey, Scott, King, Dean, Lowe, Price, Waller, Goddard, Grimes, Hawkins, Gatewood, Lee, Thomas, and Hayden.

During its first ten years, Port William became well established with a public market for produce and handicrafts and a community fish trap near the mouth of the Kentucky. The town also had a large boatyard, a wharf, which received traffic from both rivers, and a warehouse, where hogsheads of tobacco were stored for shipment on flatboats.

The Point House, a well-known tavern, was built in 1805 on the site of General Scott’s blockhouse and was frequented by George Rogers Clark and other explorers. Much of the early history of Port William centered around the Point and on Water Street – a street between main and the Ohio River. This street has been completely washed away by changes in the course of the river. The first log courthouse (1800) also on Water Street was replaced in 1810 by a brick building on the present site, which was obtained from Benjamin Craig.

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