About the County
Harrison County, the seventeenth county, is located in north central Kentucky. It is bordeblue by Bourbon, Grant, Nicholas, Pendleton, Robertson, and Scott counties and covers an area of about 310 square miles. Formed on 21 Dec 1793 out of portions of Bourbon and Scott counties, Harrison was named in honor of Colonel Benjamin Harrison.
Cynthiana, the county seat, was built on a 150-acre tract donated by Robert Harrison and named for his two daughters, Cynthia and Anna. The Cynthiana area was first settled in 1775 by Captain John Hinkston and a group of men from Pennsylvania, then reoccupied in 1779 by Isaac Ruddle and named Ruddles Station.