Adair County, Kentucky Genealogical Records Information

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Adair County History and Information

Adair County Facts

Click HERE to see D.O.T. County Map

Adair was the 44th Kentucky county formed, created from Green County on December 11, 1801 and named for General John Adair. It is located in the eastern Pennyrile region and western Appalachian areas of the state. The elevation in the county ranges from 585 to 1120 feet above sea level. The main waterway is the Green River and its tributary Russell Creek. This county runs along the Cumberland and Great Lakes Trail. Adair County's nearest neighbors are, Casey County, Cumberland County, Green County, Metcalfe County, Russell County & Taylor County. In 1990, the county population was 15,360 in a land area of 406 square miles, an average of 37.8 people per square mile. The county seat is Columbia. The Official County Website is located at ? . See Extended History for More information.

The County is bordered by Taylor County (north), Casey County (northeast), Russell County (east), Cumberland County (south), Metcalfe County (southwest), Green County (northwest). Cities, Towns and Communities include Columbia

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Adair County Court Records

See Also Kentucky Land Records, Marriage Records, Court & Probate Records

PLEASE READ!! Please call the clerk's department to confirm hours, mailing address, fees and other specifics before visiting or requesting information because of sometimes changing contact information.

Adair County Clerk has Marriage Records from 1802 and Land Records from 1801 and is located at 424 Public Square, Suite 2, Columbia, KY 42728-1493; (270) 384-2801, FAX: (270) 384-4805 .
The duties of the county clerk are numerous and varied, falling into the general categories of clerical duties of the fiscal court, issuing and registering, recording and keeping records of various legal instruments, election duties, tax duties, transfers, and titling, and issuance of marriage licenses and much more. One of the most important responsibilities of the County Clerk's office is the recording of land records. The most common documents recorded are deeds, mortgages, and assignments and mortgage releases. The other is Marriage Liscenses

Adair County Clerk of the Circuit Court has Probate Records from 1804 and Court Records from 1802 and is located at Courthouse, 500 Public Square, Ste 6, Columbia Ky 42728; 270-384-2626 .
The Circuit Clerk's office is responsible for maintaining the records of the circuit court. Divorces, civil litigation, criminal crimes, probate, wills , estates and various other functions.

There are a few online databases for Court, Land and Probate Records which include: Kentucky Marriages, 1802-1850; Kentucky Marriages, 1851-1900; Kentucky Marriage Index, 1973-1999; Kentucky Land Grants; Kentucky Will Index, vol. 1 & 2 and Kentucky Will Index, Vol. 2,

Click Here to Search Kentucky Court, Land, Wills & Financial Records! - Researchers often overlook the importance of court records, probate records, and land records as a source of family history information.

Below is a list of online resources for Adair County Court Records. Email us with websites containing Adair County Court Records by clicking the link below:

Adair County, Kentucky Court Books at Amazon.com
Kentucky Immigration & Emigration Records - Immigration records help the family historian to understand the movements of their ancestry as they relocated to different parts of the world.

Adair County Vital Records

See Also Research In Tax Records

One of the most valuable sources for early Kentucky until 1892 is its tax records. Most counties have yearly tax records from the date of organization. Some early tax schedules list watercourse, value and acreage of real estate, men over twenty-one, young men between sixteen and twenty-one, slaves, and horses. Extant county tax schedules from the date of organization of the county through 1892 have been microfilmed for most counties and are available from the Kentucky Department for Libraries and Archives and the FHL. Numerous original tax records from 1892 are available at the Kentucky Department for Libraries and Archives. The Kentucky Historical Society has tax records to 1875.
Kentucky tax lists are arranged by county and date. Within the counties, residents within its districts are grouped together and names usually arranged under the beginning letter of the surname, although these are not in strict alphabetical order. Some early tax records have been published and are available in research libraries.

Below is a list of online resources for Adair County Tax Records. Email us with websites containing Adair County Tax Records by clicking the link below:

Adair County, Kentucky Tax Books at Amazon.com

Adair County Genealogical Addresses

See Also Other Kentucky Genealogical Addresses

The Repositories in this section are Archives, Libraries, Museums, Genealogical and Historical Societies. Many County Historical and Genealogical Societies publish magazines and/or news letters on a monthly, quarterly, bi-annual or annual basis. Contacting the local societies should not be over looked. State Archives and Societies are usually much larger and better organized with much larger archived materials than their smaller county cousins but they can be more generalized and over look the smaller details that local societies tend to have. Libraries can also be a good place to look for local information. Some libraries have a genealogy section and may have some resources that are not located at archives or societies. Also, take a special look at any museums in the area. They sometimes have photos and items from years gone by as well as information of a genealogical interest. All these places are vitally important to the family genealogist and must not be passed over.

Below is a list of online resources for Adair County Genealogical Addresses. Email us with websites containing Adair County Genealogical Addresses by clicking the link below:

Adair County Genealogical Society, P.O. Box 613, Columbia, KY 42728
Adair County Genealogical Society meets the first Monday night of each month at 7p.m. central time at the Public Library.
Adair County Public Library, 307 Greensburg Street, Columbia, KY 42728
Local Kentucky Researchers, Find a local researcher or become a local researcher.
The Kentucky Historical Society, 100 W. Broadway, Frankfort, KY 40601; 877-444-7867,[EMAIL]
The Kentucky Genealogical Society, PO Box 153, Frankfort, KY 40602-0153 [EMAIL]
Kentucky Newspapers & Periodicals Records - Newspapers and periodicals are the diaries of local communities. They are excellent sources of family history details - often recorded nowhere else. Look for obituaries, marriages, legal notices, and more found in our Historical Newspaper Archives.
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Adair County Church & Cemeteries

Click Here to Search Kentucky Obituary Records! - This database is a compilation of obituaries published in U.S. newspapers, collected from various online sources. Obituaries can vary in the amount of information they contain, but many of them are genealogical goldmines, including information such as names, dates, places of birth and death, marriage information, and family relationships.

There are many churches and cemeteries in Adair County. Some transcriptions are online. A great site is the Adair County Tombstone Transcription Project.

Church membership of early Kentuckians include Baptist, Church of Christ, Episcopal, Lutheran, Methodist, Presbyterian, and Roman Catholic. Some church records were published, others were microfilmed, some are housed in church repositories, but many remain in the local church. Church records and histories may be found in periodicals pertaining to Kentucky. Repositories include the DAR Library, the FHL, Kentucky Historical Society, University of Kentucky Library, and Filson Club Library.

Many collections of cemetery records are available for Kentucky. In 1977 the Kentucky Historical Society began computerizing extant cemetery records for the state. Cemetery tombstone transcriptions are included in the Ardery collection. Kentucky regional libraries and some other large genealogical libraries outside the state have collections of Kentucky cemetery transcriptions. In addition, publications pertaining to Kentucky and Kentuckians frequently contain cemetery records for the state.

Below is a list of online resources for Adair County Cemetery & Church Records. Email us with websites containing Adair County Cemetery & Church Records by clicking the link below:

Presbyterian Historical Society, 425 Lombard Street, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19147
Adair County, Kentucky Cemetery Books at Amazon.com
Adair County, Kentucky Church Books at Amazon.com

Family Trees & Genealogy Tidbits

Click Here to Search Kentucky Family Tree Records! - The use of published genealogies, electronic files containing genealogical lineage, and other compiled sources can be of tremendous value to a researcher.

When view family trees online or not, be sure to only take the info at face value and always follow up with your own sources or verify the ones they provide. Below is a list of online resources for Adair County Family Trees, web forums and other family type information . Email us with websites containing Adair County Family Trees, web forums and other family type information by clicking the link below:

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Adair County, Kentucky Family Books at Amazon.com

County History

Pre-historic people occupied this land with its abundance of game and water. They left mounds and artifacts. Later, Native Americans had no permanent settlements but came to hunt and fish. Their trails followed the animals' trails. This was part of a vast expanse of unexplored land considered the western portion of Virginia when Virginia was still a colony of England. When early frontiersmen poured through the Cumberland Gap, Native Americans fought to save their hunting grounds. England claimed land as did France--both countries, at times, inciting Native Americans to attack forts of the settlers.

In 1770, Long Hunters from Virginia and North Carolina, led by Col. James Knox came to this area to explore, hunt, and stay from home for a long time. This frontier land offered abundant game, timber for building, fresh water springs, and waterways. Daniel Boone probably was in this area, too. They stored animal furs and skins in a temporary shelter called the "skin house" beside a stream still called the Skin House Branch. It flows into Russell Creek named for a Long Hunter named Russell. A church now occupies the site of the Long Hunters' camp.

In 1789, Col. William Casey and his wife, Jane (Montgomery), with their family and about 30 other families established the Casey/Butler Fort--the first permanent settlement in what is now Adair County. They came from Logan's larger fort at Stanford, Kentucky, and crossed the Green River at Plum Point. In 1793, the Caseys bought land away from the fort and developed a large farm. Their 1816 house, indicted by a historic marker, is on KY Highway West 80.

In 1792, Kentucky became the 15th state and Green County, including land that is now Adair County, was formed. One of the Caseys' great-grandsons was Mark Twain. Twain's parents, Jane Lampton and John Marshall Clemens, were married in Columbia in 1823. A year later, they moved to Tennessee and later, Missouri where Twain, their sixth child, was born in 1835. As a young girl, Jane lived in a house no longer standing near the public square.

In 1794, frontiersmen defeated Native Americans in the Battle of Fallen Timbers in Ohio. The same year men from this area went to Tennessee and destroyed Native American villages. These two events stopped further attacks by Native Americans in this part of Kentucky. The influx of settlers, some bringing slaves, greatly increased. Many came to claim land that Virginia had set aside between the Green and Cumberland Rivers as payment to men who fought in the Revolutionary War.

Early settlers followed trails made by bison between water and mineral licks. These trails became many of our major roadbeds. In 1801, Adair County--Kentucky's 44th county--was formed from Green County. It was named for General Adair, who never lived here, but served with Col. William Casey in early Kentucky government. Adair was Speaker of the House in Kentucky at that time. Casey's name was given to a county five years later. He is the only Adair County resident to have a county namesake.

A place of crossing trails called for trading posts and taverns or inns for people and stables for their horses. It meant the need for food supplies, builders, teachers, blacksmiths, and many service providers. Three men with vision--William Caldwell, Col. Daniel Trabue, and Creed Haskins--bought 50 acres where the crossing trails caused a settlement to begin. They speculated that their acreage would be a fitting place for a county seat. An influential land owner, James Walker, who also wanted the county seat to be near his property, donated 20 acres adjacent to the 50. Governor Garrard then appointed men to the first Adair County government with a settlement called Columbia as the county seat. Elections for county officials were not held in Kentucky until 1851.

Frontier people loved their new county. Choosing a name, Columbia, which means the United States, seemed fitting. That word was in common usage in 1800 as having that meaning. Hail Columbia was the national anthem. (Not until 1931 was the present national anthem adopted.)

Col. Daniel Trabue, one of Columbia's founders, wrote a first-hand account of his many adventures in frontier Kentucky. Now in book form, Westward into Kentucky by Chester Young, tells about his many experiences: delivering a message from LaFayette in the Revolutionary War, supplying the forts, bringing his family on a flat boat down the Ohio River, and being a part of early Columbia.

Early Buildings and Businesses are Still Part of Columbia's Landscape
(*indicates National Register status)
1790's spring house, now fenced in back of Lynn's Service Station
1809; Diddle tavern, now a private residence
*1812; Federal-style house, now a private residence
1812; Creel general store (oldest building on the Square), now a store
1812; Columbia Academy, now a private residence
*1816; Col. William and Jane Casey house, now an antique shop
*1816; Gaither house, now offices for Appalachian Research & Defense
1818; Creel residence, now Grissom Funeral Home
*1823; Trabue/Russell House
1856; Union Presbyterian Church
1857; Columbia's 3rd jail, now Stotts Phelps McQueary Funeral Home
1884; Barn at the Fairgrounds, built when the yearly fairs began, is still in use during the county fair as the Old Floral Hall

*The Adair County Courthouse was built 1884--1887 in the middle of the Public Square as the original deed dictated for the seat of justice. It replaced the first 1806 court house hat was renovated in1847. The McDonald brothers, famed courthouse architects, designed seven courthouses that were built in Kentucky. Columbia's is one of the only two remaining.

*1880; The Zion Baptist Church and school building have been renovated to serve as the offices of Gaddie Shamrock Stone Company.
*The log home of late authors Henry and Janice Holt Giles is located in the community of Knifley. They co-authored four books. Janice wrote 20 books which are based on historical situations and people. Their log home is being restored as a possible writers' retreat. Janice Holt Giles Home

Three institutions have a history of at least 100 years: Bank of Columbia (1866), First National Bank (1904), and Lindsey Wilson College (1903). Jeffries Hardware has been a business since 1898, although at one period under the name of Davis Hardware.

Churches and Schools were an Important Need for Early Settlers
Settlers in the early 1800's were mostly Baptists, Methodists, and Presbyterians. Col. Casey donated land on his farm for the 1804 Shiloh Presbyterian--the beginning of Columbia's Union Presbyterian Church. Rev. and Mrs. Tucker were Methodists stationed near the Casey/Butler Fort in 1793. They were killed by Native Americans and their congregation relocated to build the first church building in Columbia.
Daniel Trabue, pioneer founder of Columbia, was active before 1800 in the Russell Creek Baptist Association; he helped organize the 1827 congregation in Columbia with the help of the established congregation of Zion Baptist. The Columbia Christian Church has its beginning in 1868. Numerous small "meetin' houses" of various congregations were built throughout the county providing places of worship in communities isolated by the lack of roads. Many major Christian denominations are not located in Adair County.

Columbia Academy, a school for boys, was built in 1812; it closed in the 1850's. Girls were taught in the Methodist Church building the change to include both boys and girls--was built in Columbia. These schools required fees to attend. There were small, one room schools throughout the county. In 1909, Columbia's first public school was built, requiring no fees. It was only for white children. There were numerous small one room schools throughout the county.

There were a few schools for African American children in contrast to most Kentucky counties that had none. In 1925, Jackman School for African American children was built with help from community donations and the county school system. It became a senior high school in 1934. Students from surrounding counties attended also. When it burned in the 1950's, Earl Willis, a parent, pursued the matter of integration, taking the case to court in Louisville. This was the first Kentucky county to file suit for desegregation. Integration here went well following the court case.

From the time the Louisville Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church decided on Columbia as a location for the college, the town began to take on new life. In 1904, Methodist-affiliated Lindsey Wilson Training School opened as a place to train preachers and teachers. Its dedication speech was given by Adair Countian, Judge James Garnett, whose son was Kentucky's attorney general in 1913. In 1923, a college department raised the standards to a junior college. In 1986, a four-year baccalaureate program was implemented. In 1994, a masters program in counseling and human services began. The John Begley Chapel, designed by world-renowned architect E. Fay Jones, was added in 1997.

Columbia is on the John Hunt Morgan Civil War Trail

In July 1863, Confederate General John Hunt Morgan, with 2400 cavalry, thundered through Columbia at the beginning of Morgan's longest raid. Residents were ever vigilant because Columbia lay on a route to Lebanon with the nearest railroad and warehouse full of supplies for the Union. Morgan's and his troop's purpose was to disrupt the supply lines and divert the Union army by destroying bridges, warehouses, and rail lines while living off the land for their food and fresh houses to ride. (Photo right.)

Union Col. Frank Wolford from here, recruited soldiers in the summer of 1861 at Camp Nelson. He organized the 1st Kentucky Cavalry that fought in numerous battles, guarded supply wagons, and procured food for the troops. Wolford and his "Wild Riders" chased Morgan and the Raiders during Morgan's longest raid and capture in Ohio. Before being sent to the Ohio State Penitentiary, Morgan gave Wolford, a fellow Kentuckian, his silver spurs. (Photo left.)

Col. Thomas Bramlett lived in Columbia and led the 3rd Kentucky Volunteer Infantry. He had been U.S. District Attorney before the war. He declined promotion to general and instead ran for governor and was elected to serve 1863--1867. Union Captain James Hindman of the 13th Kentucky Infantry was elected Lieutenant Governor 1883--1887. The Knott County seat was named for him. Union Camp Boyle, later called Camp Gilbert, in Columbia and Camp Billy Williams on the Dunnville Road were two Civil War camps.

War-time killing and pillaging continued as the lifestyle of some after the war ended--Champ Ferguson and Jesse James were two who continued killing and robbing. James robbed the Bank of Columbia. He murdered a teller and wounded a witness before escaping with a large sum of money.

Those Who Contributed Through the Years
Adair Countians have participated in the Revolutionary War, the War of 1812, the Mexican War, the Civil War, the Spanish-American War, World Wars I and II, Korea, Vietnam, and Desert Storm. The local VFW has a marker at the Fairground's entrance and in front of the Courthouse Annex. A still-active VFW was chartered in 1946. They own the fairgrounds and hope to make it into a community memorial park honoring all veterans.
Two Adair County men have lent their names to buildings because of their past achievements--Ed Diddle to the Diddle Arena at Western Kentucky University and Dr. James Salato to the Salato Education Center in Frankfort. Columbia native Paul Hughes, a respected journalist, has no building with his name: his legacy is the fleet of 110 bookmobiles that were made a reality in 1954 through his tireless efforts statewide to provide books to rural Kentuckians.

Not Exactly Like the Long Hunters Found It
Two major changes in the landscape were the completion of Green River Dam in 1969 and the opening of the Nunn/Cumberland Parkway in 1973. the dam created the Green River Lake for flood control and to expand outdoor recreation opportunities. The parkway provided a safe and efficient route connecting Somerset and Bowling Green with an entrance and exit for Columbia. Other major roadways have been straightened and a bypass is in the planning stages.

Two hundred years have brought many changes--but this area still retains the natural beauty and resources that Native Americans, Long Hunters, and persons today consider a special place.

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