Kentucky Historical Society markers around the county.
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Homesite and grave 1 mile west. Born Orange County, Virginia, 1740; died 1825. Forty years’ service to his country. Lieutenant at Fort Pitt, Dunmore’s War, 1774. Captain, Botetourt County militia, 1776. Northwest Campaign of George Rogers Clark, 1778. Came to Kentucky, 1781, and received a military land grant that year. Served in the War of 1812. Presented by Jane Craig Reichlein and Mrs. Birdie Givens Pickle.
Established near this site, 1780, by the brothers Adam, Conrad, and John Carpenter. All were Revolutionary soldiers, sons of George Carpenter, Sr., who died while serving with the First Virginia Regiment. One of the early stations through which the settlement of Kentucky was achieved. The Carpenters once owned 3,000 acres in the vicinity. Originally dedicated May 17, 1969.
His naval flights were the first official U.S. demonstrations using aeroplanes for scouting. Born in Stanford, 1885; attended school there and at Centre College. Graduated from the U.S. Naval Academy, 1908. Killed on an endurance flight in Florida, 1916.
Reverse: Awarded two Aviation Medals of Merit by the Aero Club of America — one for air service in a 1914 expedition, another for breaking the world’s altitude record twice in 1915. Saufley Field at Pensacola and a World War II destroyer were named for him.
CSA Gen. J. H. Morgan’s cavalry, returning from Cynthiana on the first Kentucky raid, burned the Dix River bridge above here and camped July 20, 1862. Burned 120 Union wagons here and at Somerset. After Perryville, October 8, 1862, Confederate forces retired to Bryantsville, then retreated toward Tennessee in two columns; one moved through here. Dedicated October 4, 1964.
Site of a popular watering place from 1827 until the early 1930s. Famed for the number and excellence of its mineral springs. Crab Orchard salts, a medical remedy, were produced here by evaporation.
On the night of December 12, 1966, residents of McKinney heard an explosion. Many gathered on this hill to find a fiery crater and the wreckage of an Air Force B-58. All three crew members perished. The official cause was never released to the public. Given by friends, family, and citizens of Lincoln County.
Reverse: Pilot Maj. Richard F. Blakeslee, navigator Maj. Floyd E. Acker, and defense systems operator Capt. C. Dale Lunt were returning from a training mission to Bunker Hill Air Force Base, Indiana. The B-58 was the first supersonic bomber and a vital Strategic Air Command weapons system.
Logan’s Station was established May 1, 1775. Also known as St. Asaph, the fort quickly became an important frontier settlement. In May 1775 residents sent representatives to Boonesborough to help form the proprietary government of Transylvania. Logan’s Fort later became Stanford. Dedicated June 25, 2005.
Reverse: Benjamin Logan left Boone’s Road April 15, 1775, following a trace that became the final segment of the Wilderness Road, from this area to Harrodsburg and the Falls of the Ohio. The junction with Boone’s Road was Hazel Patch, eight miles north of present-day London.
Colonel Benjamin Logan settled here after leaving Colonel Henderson’s party at Hazel Patch. Scene of Logan’s rescue of a fallen companion during an Indian attack in 1777.
Built by Archibald McKinney by 1792, this early trading post was an important stop on the Cumberland Trace. The settlement began as four log cabins and a stockade. Early settlers are buried in a cemetery on a knoll due south of this marker. In 1874 the name changed to McKinney Station. Presented by McKinney descendants and community. Dedicated July 28, 2001.
Daniel McCormack donated land for church, graveyard, and school in 1819, replacing a log Baptist church of about 1785. The building was used by several denominations. In 1830 most of the original members affiliated with the Disciples of Christ. It has served continuously as a Christian church since then. Presented by Friends of McCormack Christian Church.
Reverse: Bricks laid in Flemish bond on a stone foundation reflect Alexander Campbell’s belief in simplicity of design and worship. Galleries for enslaved worshippers were at each end. McCormack stipulated that the church be open to all denominations and people. Listed on the National Register of Historic Places, 1976.
A German-Swiss settlement four miles southeast, begun by immigrants in the early 1880s. Guided here by Joseph Ottenheimer “to this land of great opportunity,” they found wilderness. They built log cabins, cleared the land, and developed a productive agricultural community. By 1886 a Lutheran church and a Catholic church had been built.
Congressional Medal of Honor recipient, born near here July 7, 1930. Served with Company G, 3rd Battalion, First Marines, First Marine Division. Awarded the honor posthumously for gallantry en route from Koto-ri to Hagaru-ri, Korea. Presented by the Kentucky Marine Corps League, Kentucky chapter of the First Marine Division Association, and Kentucky Council of the Navy League.
Reverse: During a nighttime attack on a motorized column, a hostile grenade landed in his truck. He shouted a warning and threw himself on the missile, saving his comrades. He died November 29, 1950. Dedicated August 1, 1998.
Former home of Sophia K. Alcorn, born in Lincoln County in 1883. She invented the Tadoma method so deaf-blind students could speak by feeling sound vibrations from the lips and cheeks. Named for two students, Tad Chapman and Oma Simpson, the method is still used internationally. Presented by the Lincoln County Historical Society.
Reverse: She also devised written visual symbols to help develop speech in deaf children — the “Alcorn Symbols,” still used by teachers of the deaf. Educator at the Kentucky School for the Deaf in Danville; member of Stanford Presbyterian Church. Died 1967; buried in Buffalo Springs Cemetery. Dedicated March 27, 2004.
Whitley House. Built at Whitley’s Station by Col. William Whitley, pioneer and Indian fighter, born in Virginia in 1749, came to Kentucky in 1775, killed at the Battle of the Thames in 1813.
Site of one of the earliest circular racetracks. Spectators stood inside the half-mile track and could see the entire race. Built about 1780 by Col. William Whitley. A patriot, he used clay instead of turf and ran races counter-clockwise, opposite British custom. Racing here ended with the Civil War.
Reverse: Whitley House, 1785 — on the Wilderness Road, the first brick house in Kentucky, sited so the track was visible from the house. Fall meetings brought the region’s elite; after dawn races a lavish breakfast was served. Whitley County is named for him.
Benjamin Logan left Boone’s Road April 15, 1775, on a trace that became the final segment of the Wilderness Road, toward Harrodsburg and the Falls of the Ohio. The junction was Hazel Patch, eight miles north of present-day London.
Reverse: Logan’s Station, also called St. Asaph, established May 1, 1775. Residents sent representatives to Boonesborough that May. The fort later became Stanford. Dedicated June 25, 2005.
Chiefs Oconostota, Attacullaculla, and Sewanooko signed the Treaty of Sycamore Shoals in 1775, relinquishing Cherokee claims to most of present-day Kentucky. It was the largest land cession on the frontier to that time and led to the settlement of Forts Harrod, Boonesborough, and Logan’s Station.
Reverse: Chief Doublehead (Chiqualataque) attacked the Wilderness Trail and Kentucky settlements in the 1700s. William Whitley, Benjamin Logan, and Isaac Shelby fought those raids. He also negotiated land and peace treaties and was a guest of Presidents Washington, Adams, and Jefferson. Dedicated October 19, 2013.
A stagecoach stop near the Wilderness Road, built in 1815 by Capt. John Bright. The original inn was log; in 1820 a two-story limestone addition served travelers from Lexington to Cumberland Gap. Visitors included Isaac Shelby, George Rogers Clark, and Henry Clay. Dedicated October 28, 2014.
Incorporated as Stanford Female Seminary February 26, 1869; renamed Stanford Female College in 1871. The original brick structure opened in the fall of 1872; an addition the next year housed students in the first building.
Reverse: Organized by Stanford citizens to give their daughters a collegiate education. Eighty-three graduates. Closed in 1907, unable to compete with tax-supported public schools. Stanford Elementary School occupied the building into the 1930s. Dedicated April 25, 2015.
Completed in 1881 as Lincoln Mills. S. H. Baughman bought it in 1892; with brothers Jim and John and brother-in-law Walter McKinney it became J. H. Baughman & Co. The mill ground flour, meal, and livestock feed until John Baughman, Jr., retired in 1969.
Reverse: Contains logs from Buffalo Mill, about 1848, Kentucky’s first steam mill. Its whistle carried for miles and marked mealtime for workers, farmers, and townspeople. Dedicated December 2, 2016.
Built in 1853 by Dr. Thomas Montgomery, son of Judge and Congressman James Montgomery. His wife, Evaline Whitley, was a niece of Gen. Benjamin Logan and a granddaughter of Col. William Whitley. Dr. Montgomery was a physician, farmer, and politician.
Reverse: Greek Revival brick house, among the early brick houses in the area. Wired doorbell; second home in the county with a bathroom. A one-story brick dwelling behind the house originally served as slave quarters. National Register of Historic Places, 1978. Dedicated December 2, 2016.