"Bridge Over Pleasant Run Beyond Erlanger, ca. 1900-1915"
Hand-tinted lantern slide, Elmer L. Foote Lantern Slide Collection, Kentuckiana Digital Library
"High School Track Team, Covington High School, 1921"
Louis Edward Nollau Nitrate Photographic Print Collection (1866-1958), Kentuckiana Digital Library
"Kenton County, Kentucky. The Ohio River at Covington"
C. Frank Dunn Photographic Collection, Kentuckiana Digital Library
C. Frank Dunn Photographic Collection, Kentuckiana Digital Library
"Carneal Home"
The area at the confluence of the Licking and Ohio rivers was known as the Point, which was a popular rendezvous place for explorers and pioneers, as well as being a marshalling place for expeditions north of the Ohio River to attack Indian settlements.
One hundred and fifty acres of this area was developed into a city named Covington, in honor of Gen. Leonard Wales Covington, of Maryland, who had been mortally wounded at the Battle of Chrysler's Field in the War of 1812.
Built by Thomas Carneal, the Carneal Home was the first house built in Covington (1815). It is said that Lafayette, Andrew Jackson, Daniel Webster, Henry Clay as well as other great notables were entertained at the mansion.
Simon Kenton
For a brief period of time, Simon Kenton changed his name to Butler after a fight with a rival in a love affair in Virginia. Kenton thought he had killed his rival in a fight and fled from Virginia to Kentucky.
Folk lore says that Kenton was the only man to see Daniel Boone fall in combat. In a fight with the Indians at Boonesboro, Boone had fallen wounded and was about to be tomahawked. Kenton fired, killing the Indian, and then pulled Boone into the fort.
Kenton County Websites
County of the Month: Kenton County, Kentucky
In 1840, Kenton became Kentucky's 19th county. Formed from neighboring Campbell county, Kenton occupies 163 square miles in northen Kentucky, with one border being the Ohio River. The county's name is in honor of Kentucky pioneer, Simon Kenton.
Kenton County has two county seats: Independence and Covington. When the county was established, an act required that the county seat be near the geographical center of a new county. To meet this demand, a town was incorporated in 1842 and named Independence to celebrate the county's separation from Campbell County. Residents of the more populous northern part of the county found it inconvenient to transact county business in Independence and began using the old Covington city hall as their courthouse. All main county offices were soon located in the Covington courthouse, with the one in Independence maintaining only branch offices.
Another lasting dispute from the creation of Kenton County was the defining of its borders with neighboring Boone County. When the county was established the legislature assumed that the border on the west, which was formerly the Campbell County border would be inherited by the newly formed "child" county of Kenton. However, citizens objected and the situation was taken to court.
The dispute centered around the different property tax rates; some property owners flopped back and forth year after year, claiming residence in the county with the lowest tax rate at the time.
Court-appointed committees resurveyed the line, and placed "heavy monument" markers every half mile. On each side of the markers was demarcated "B" or "K" to indicate which side corresponded with the proper county orientation. By the end of the project, it was found that Kenton county was larger than first thought.
Source: Kentucky Encyclopedia
Kenton County Trivia
Frank Duveneck
Called the "greatest genius of the American brush" by John Singer Sargent, Frank Duveneck was born in Covington, Kentucky on on October 9, 1848. His early art training came from the Benedictine brothers who ran the Institute of Catholic Art in his hometown. The institute distributed pieces of artwork for religious institutions nationwide.
On his 21st birthday, Duveneck was sent to Munich to study at the Royal Academy. During his first year, he was able to obtain every prize and/or award given by the institution.His style is defined by bold brushwork, rich color, and forceful presentation of personality; showing the influence of Rembrandt and Eduoard Manet. Typical paintings by Duveneck show a strongly modeled head or figure emerging from a dark, often not fully painted background, with few light or bright highlights. During his early period, young boys or older men from working class neighborhoods were among the artists' favorite subjects. Later, the artist focussed upon sweet girls in bright sunlight.
Author Henry James praised Duveneck's work in critical essays appearing in The Galaxy and The Nation in 1875. Duveneck's wife, Elizabeth Boott Duveneck was a model for one of the characters, Pansy, in "Portrait of a Lady" (1881), "The Golden Bowl" (1904) and several other novels and stories by Henry James, who found her infinitely "civilized and produced . . . educated, cultivated, accomplished, toned above all, as from steeping in a rich old medium" (Duveneck Papers).
Elizabeth caught a chill in the cold Parisian winter which rapidly developed into pneumonia, and four days later she died, leaving Duveneck alone with their twenty-month old son. At the insistence of father-in-law, Francis Boott, the child was sent to relatives in Boston who could ensure his proper upbringing.
In 1889, Duveneck returned to the United States to set up a studio in Cincinnati. He soon became one of the faculty at the Cincinnati Art Academy. Among his students were William Chase and Paul Sawyier. He was one of the founders of the Cincinnati Art Club, where he gave painting demonstrations. In 1915 Duveneck won a gold medal at the Panama-Pacific Exposition in San Francisco. He was awarded an honorable mention in sculpture in the Paris Salon of 1895, and as a printmaker, he ranked with James McNeil Abbott Whistler.
Following Duveneck's death in January 3, 1919, in Cincinnati, his works were acquired by most major museums in the Unites States and Europe. The largest collections of his paintings, sculptures, and prints are at the Cincinnati Art Museum and the Frank Duveneck Memorial Gallery in Covington, Kentucky.
Sources: Kentucky Encyclopedia, Artencyclopedia.com, Traditional Fine Art Online (www.tfaoi.com), AskArt.com
Family History and Kenton County Research Resources
Below are some resources available at KDLA for genealogists and researchers interested in the Kenton County area.
County Clerk records
- Agency history
- Administrator’s bonds books – 1867-1965
- Executor’s bonds books – 1877-1965
- Guardian’s bonds books – 1852-1954
- Constable bonds books – 1840-1877
- Miscellaneous bonds books – 1841-1859
- Public official’s bonds book (indexed) – 1879-1910
- Sheriff’s bonds books – 1841-1859
- Tavern keepers bonds book (indexed) – 1897-1913
- General cross indexes to deeds – 1840-1846, 1860-1900
- Deed books – 1840-1904
- Commissioner’s deed book – 1877-1881
- General index to inventory, appraisement and sale bill books – 1858-1939
- Inventory, appraisement and sale bill books – 1858-1939
- Marriage bond books – 1840-1876, 1907-1912
- Marriage books (indexed) – 1909-1910, 1930-1943
- Marriage certificates – 1840-1930
- Marriage licenses – 1860-1967
- Marriage registers – 1863-1887
- Mortgage books – 1855-1901
- General index to order books – 1858-1939
- Order books – 1858-1939
- Minute/order books – 1869-1882
- Road orders books – 1853-1879
- General indexes to recorded instruments – 1901-1982
- Tax assessment books – 1840-1875, 1879-1892
- General index to wills – 1858-1939
- Will books – 1840-1970
Circuit Court records
- Agency history
- General index to civil cases – 1840-1977
- General index to criminal cases – 1840-1977
- General index to civil and criminal cases – 1978-1981
- Case files – 1850-1894
- Civil case files – 1850-1912, 1930-1955, 1964-1985
- Equity case files – 1840-1939
- Criminal case files – 1851-1924
- Lunacy inquest books (indexed) – 1915-1918, 1924-1938
- Mental inquests – 1920-1977
- Order books (indexed) – 1848-1931, 1938-1977
- Civil order books (indexed) – 1931-1938
Chancery Court records
- Case files – 1855-1892
- Order books – 1871-1887
Criminal Court records
- Order books – 1866-1888
Quarterly Court records
- Order books – 1872-1899, 1902-1932, 1936-1941