From the Introduction...

Boone Countians traditionally have been a proud people. That we are celebrating in this year of 1973 our 175th anniversary as a County, gives us an opportunity to look back on our history and tradition and cause us to be aware of why we have the right to be proud.

Boone County had been visited by French explorers headed by Captain Charles de LeMoyne DeLonguiel in 1739. He came up the Big Bone Creek from the Ohio River. A Number of men from Virginia subsequently visited the "graveyard of the mammals," and thus Big Bone Lick, with its fossil remains of Ice-Age animals, became well known. Indians and whites made salt there.

Mary Ingles, captured by Indians in 1756, was brought to Big Bone. She escaped and finally made her way back home to Augusta County, Virginia.

John David Woolpert, of Pennsylvania, was given a grant of land on the Ohio River. It was on this land that the Rev. John Tanner established Tanners Station in 1789. On this location John J. Flourney established the town of Petersburg.

One of the most famous of Boone County Hotels was built in 1815 at Big Bone Springs. Called the Henry Clay Hotel, in honor of the famous Kentuckian, it was considered one of the best health resorts west of the Alleghenies. There were bath houses, a dance pavilion, and accommodations for horses and carriages. Guests came by boat or carriage and some families spent the entire summer in cottages provided.

Formal education in Boone County began in 1814 with an act authorizing the creation of an academy. The school, later known as Morgan Academy, was located in Burlington. Soon thereafter each community established a school for its children. By the middle of the century schools were flourishing, with grammar schools and writing schools predominant.

The first public high school in Florence opened in 1887, although there were no graduates until 1915. The first graded high school in Florence began operation in 1908.

Consolidation of schools began in 1907, with the establishment of the first consolidated high school at Burlington. Schools in the Hebron area consolidated in 1925; the Florence and New Haven consolidated schools opened in 1929. the Walton-Verona independent district consolidated in 1900.

In 1955, the first class was graduated from Boone County High School, a consolidation of the four district high schools. Heavy enrollment necessitated construction of Conner High School at Hebron which graduated its first class in 1972.

During the Civil War, great excitement was caused in Boone County when Gen. Kirby Smith marched his army in and around Lexington. Brig. Gen. Henry Heath with 5,000 veteran Confederate troops from Gen. Smith's army was camped at Corinth and several companies had reached Snow's Pond near Walton, thus threatening the three cities of Cincinnati, Covington and Newport.

Gen. Lew Wallace was in command of all the forces around Cincinnati, September 15, 1862; his pickets encountered the Confederate advance guard at Florence, where an engagement took place between these two forces and one man was killed. The Confederates fell back as far as Walton. A skirmish took place near here and one company of Union soldiers was captured and the regiment put to flight, retreating back to the entrenchments south of Covington.

• President's Letter
• Governor's Letter
• Introduction -- Judge Bruce Ferguson
• A Capsule History of Boone County
• Some Churches of Boone County
• Banks
• Grist Mills and Lumber Mills
• Industrial Park
• Boone County Hotels, Taverns and Motels
• Airport
• Latonia Race Way
• Boone County Census
• From Cincinnati Newspapers, 1813
• Boone County Firsts
• Petersburg First Industrial Settlement
• Boone County Fire Departments
• Maplewood Home
• Boone County Health Department
• Hospital
• Schools
• History of Boone County 4-H and Utopia Club Fair
• Boone County Farm Data
• History of Boone County Extension Service
• Parks and Recreation
• Civil War and Slavery
• Newspapers
• Boone County's Only Public Library
• People, Places and Things