Tanner’s Station was the first settlement in Boone County. Reverend John Tanner built a blockhouse there, and the town began on 2000 acres that he and John Taylor owned. Shawnees captured Tanner’s 9-year-old son there and held him until he was grown. An ardent Baptist, Tanner preached in the Carolinas and Virginia, came to Kentucky in 1781, moved to Missouri in 1798, and died there in 1812 at about age 80. The town was named Petersburg in 1818.