Our History

Tanner’s Station was the first formal settlement in what would shortly become Boone County. The community’s name was changed to Petersburg in 1814, and in 1794 seven people founded the Bullittsburg Baptist Church in the North Bend Bottoms area upriver from Tanner’s Station. Bullittsburg Baptist Church is the longest continuously active church in the county, still holding worship services in their 1819 sanctuary.

Boone County was officially established in 1799 (having been created by the Kentucky Legislature in 1798 with a population of approximately 1500. On June 17, 1799, the first county court, held at the William Cave home in North Bend Bottoms, decided to locate the county seat on a seventy-four acre site donated by Robert Johnson and John Hawkins Craig in the north-central part of the county.

The town, originally known as Craig’s Camp, was initially named Wilmington and, at the request of the Post Office, renamed Burlington in 1816. In its earliest days, Boone County prospered primarily because of the Ohio River that forms its northern and western boundaries. The c. 1817 Anderson Ferry at Constance, along the county’s northern river edge, has been in continuous year-round operation for almost two hundred years and is today one of only three full-time ferry operations remaining along the entire stretch of Ohio.

With the completion of the first rail lines through the county in 1869, the town of Walton held great promise as the county’s primary railroad community. By the late nineteenth century, it was Boone County’s largest city with a population of 538. Walton has the positive distinction of being home to the first county high school, established in 1901.

In the late 1880s, the town of Erlanger was established across the county line from Florence. The railroad promoted the sale of land near its right-of-way, and Florence’s population fell 24 percent at the turn of the century and remained so until 1930. With the advent of automobile, long, tiresome journeys to the city, over the river road through Constance or the Dixie Highway through Florence, became short and enjoyable. It became possible to work in the city and live in Boone County.

It was the beginning of a new era.

The county has grown significantly. With the construction of Interstates 71 and 75 in the late 1960s, Boone County became one of the fastest-growing counties in the nation. Based on the 2020 census figures, Boone County is the fourth largest county in the Commonwealth of Kentucky. The last half of the twentieth century has been a time of tremendous change for Boone County.

There are three incorporated cities, Florence, Union and Walton, but much of the county is unincorporated, including the county seat of Burlington. The population has increased from 57,589 in 1980 to more than 135,000 in 2022. Industry and commercial development is flourishing. The twenty-first century will be an exciting time for Boone County. The county’s geographical diversity provides an excellent quality of life, and every indication is that Boone County will continue to grow and prosper.