About Lawrence County:

 

Lawrence County is the sixty-ninth county of Kentucky and its existence dates back to 1821.  It is comprised of 272,000 acres originally taken from parts of Greenup County and Floyd County.  It lies in the extreme eastern part of the commonwealth along the Kentucky-West Virginia border.
 

In 1767, George Washington surveyed the land that later became Lawrence County.  Many things had to occur first before Lawrence County was created.  A gentleman by the name of Charles Vancouver of London, England was issued a patent for a 2,000-acre tract of land, which contained the present site of Louisa, the county seat, by the British government in 1772.  In 1789, Vancouver traveled to the newly formed United States and settled at the forks of the Big Sandy River.  He erected a fort, built cabins, and farmed the land.  Unfortunately for Vancouver, several tribes of Native Americans used this area as hunting grounds.  Vancouver had to abandon the land.
 

In 1815, Frederic Moore migrated west to present day Lawrence County and established a trading center at what later became known as Louisa.  Shortly afterwards, the framework for a community became to take shape.  Lawrence County was formed and named after James Lawrence, a distinguished American Naval officer of the Tripolitan War.  In 1822, Louisa was established.  The city was named for the Louisa (Levisa) Fork of the Big Sandy River, which had been named by Dr. Thomas Walker in honor of the wife of the Duke of Cumberland.

The historical significance of this area does not end with its creation.  Many important Lawrence Countians have had an impact for this area, the Commonwealth of Kentucky, and the nation.  Former Chief Justice of the United States Supreme Court Fred M. Vinson was born in Louisa.  He served as Chief Justice of the Supreme Court from 1946 until his death in 1953.  The honorable Paul E. Patton, the 59^th and current governor of Kentucky, was born and raised in Fallsburg, a small town in Lawrence County.  Ricky Skaggs, a popular award winning country music entertainer, is a native of the Lawrence County town of Cordell.  Ricky's career has roots in the traditional Bluegrass and Country Music.  Lawrence County is also the home of Grammy nominated songwriter Larry Cordle.  Both of these men have streets named in their honor in the city of Louisa.