Washington County

Washington County was the first county formed by the first Assembly of Kentucky in 1792 and was named for Geo. Washington. Springfield, the county seat, was laid off in 1793 by Matthew Walton, a veteran of the War of Revolution and a legislator. The courthouse built in 1816 was the oldest still used as such in the state in 1965. The first settlers came to the area in 1776. Pres. Lincoln's grandfather came to this part of Ky. in 1782, and Lincoln's parents were married in the county in 1806. Col. John Hardin, a Revolutionary soldier, laid claim in the area in 1780 and settled there in 1786; while on a peace mission in Ohio in 1792, he was murdered by Indians. The first Dominican Priory in the U.S. was founded here in 1806, and Jefferson Davis went to school there in 1815-16. John Pope, U.S. Senator from 1807-13, came to Springfield in 1820; he later served as Governor of Arkansas Terr. from 1829-35 and in Congress from 1837-43, and his home and grave are in the city.

Kentucky · United States