Lincoln County Historical Society

06/02/2026

Reminder: The Lincoln County Historical Society meeting is at 6pm tonight at the Lincoln County Public Library. The program on Cemetery Symbolism will be presented by Johnna Walden, Tates Creek Public Library. Everyone is welcome.

06/01/2026

Attention, fans of Daniel Boone! Mark your calendars for Tuesday, June 9th, at 6:00 PM, when the Lincoln County Public Library will host "Boone: The Man, the Myth, the Legend," presented by the Kentucky Historical Society. This program is free and open to the public. Please share to get the word out!

04/30/2026

We invite you to join us this Thursday, April 30, 2026 @ 6 PM as LCPL hosts Cynthia Resor as Lettice Pierce Bryan. Everyone is invited. No registration required.

04/04/2026

03/31/2026

Tonight at the Lincoln County Public Library at 6:00 pm. Jessica Whitehead from the Kentucky Derby Museum will deliver a presentation on Jimmy Winkfield and Black Heritage in Racing. Notably, Jimmy Winkfield was the last Black jockey to win the Kentucky Derby. Free and everyone is welcome! Please share and help get the word out.

03/16/2026

With Sam Terry's Kentucky – I just got recognized as one of their top fans! 🎉

03/16/2026

March 7, 1789 - the Virginia General Assembly dropped the second “e” from Kentucke, having decided that the name was more properly ended with y. The origin of the name, credited to many locations, people, and circumstances, remains a mystery. The Iroquois, Cherokee, Wyandotte, Shawnee, Delaware, Catawba, and Algonquian tribes of native Americans all had various terms that could have been the origin.

The one thing that the word does not mean is “dark and bloody ground” as nearly everyone was taught for decades thanks to a reference in John Filson’s 1784 book, The Discovery, Settlement and Present State of Kentucke, in which he wrote “...now called Kentucke, but known to the Indians by the name of Dark and Bloody Ground….” In reality, the reference comes from Cherokee Chief Dragging Canoe, speaking at the Great Council at Sycamore Shoals in March 1775. The Chief was strongly opposed to the Treaty of Watauga and told the whites that there was a dark cloud over the land they were seeking to acquire, referencing opposition to settlement by whites. Another Cherokee Chief at the same council told the whites that the land was a Bloody Country, referencing conflicts between tribes claiming hunting grounds. In no instance is there an implication that the terms were a translation of the meaning of the name Kentucky.

02/27/2026

This is a reminder that the Lincoln County Historical Society will hold a rescheduled meeting due to the inclement weather in February. We will meet next Tuesday, March 3rd, at 6:00 PM at the Lincoln County Public Library. The Director’s meeting will commence at 5:30 PM. Our program for the evening is “Show & Tell,” so please bring an old item from the past and share its story. Refreshments will be served as usual. Please join us and bring a friend.