From The Kentucky Encyclopedia
In 1777 Fincastle County, Virginia's General Assembly divided Fincastle County into three parts and created Washington, Montgomery, and Kentucky Counties. The act creating these counties described Kentucky County as being "to the south and westward of a line beginning on the Ohio at the mouth of Great Sandy creek and running up the same and the main, or northeasterly, branch thereof to the Great Laurel Ridge of Cumberland Mountain, then south westerly along the said mountain to the line of North Carolina.
In 1780, Kentucky County was divided into three counties Jefferson, Fayette, and Lincoln. Within just a few years, six more counties had been carved out of those three. Between 1784 and 1792, people living in those counties held ten conventions on the question of statehood; on 18 December 1789 Virginia's General Assembly passed an act allowing Kentucky to apply for statehood and on 1 June 1792, those nine counties became a state, with the full consent of Virginia.
1792 Kentucky County Map
Click on thumbnail for a larger image.
1818 Kentucky County Map
Click on thumbnail for a larger image.
1855 Kentucky County Map
Click on thumbnail for a larger image.
