Boyd County, Kentucky
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Boyd County is a
county A county () is a geographic region of a country used for administrative or other purposesL. Brookes (ed.) '' Chambers Dictionary''. Edinburgh: Chambers Harrap Publishers Ltd, 2005. in some nations. The term is derived from the Old French denoti ...
located in the U.S. Commonwealth of
Kentucky Kentucky (, ), officially the Commonwealth of Kentucky, is a landlocked U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. It borders Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio to the north, West Virginia to the ...
. As of the 2020 census, its population was 48,261. The
county seat A county seat is an administrative center, seat of government, or capital city of a county or parish (administrative division), civil parish. The term is in use in five countries: Canada, China, Hungary, Romania, and the United States. An equiva ...
is Catlettsburg, and its largest city is Ashland. The county was formed in 1860. The county spans , and is found at the northeastern edge of the state, near the
Ohio River The Ohio River () is a river in the United States. It is located at the boundary of the Midwestern and Southern United States, flowing in a southwesterly direction from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, to its river mouth, mouth on the Mississippi Riv ...
and Big Sandy River and situated in mountainous
Appalachia Appalachia ( ) is a geographic region located in the Appalachian Mountains#Regions, central and southern sections of the Appalachian Mountains in the east of North America. In the north, its boundaries stretch from the western Catskill Mountai ...
. Boyd County is in the Huntington-Ashland, WV-KY-OH metropolitan statistical area.


History

Boyd County was the 107th of 120 counties formed in Kentucky and was established in 1860 from parts of surrounding Greenup, Carter, and Lawrence Counties. It was named for
Linn Boyd Linn Boyd (November 22, 1800 – December 17, 1859) (also spelled "Lynn") was a prominent US politician of the 1840s and 1850s, and served as Speaker of the United States House of Representatives from 1851 to 1855. Boyd was elected to the Hou ...
of Paducah, former U.S. congressman, speaker of the
United States House of Representatives The United States House of Representatives is a chamber of the Bicameralism, bicameral United States Congress; it is the lower house, with the U.S. Senate being the upper house. Together, the House and Senate have the authority under Artic ...
, who died in 1859 soon after being elected lieutenant governor of Kentucky. The earliest evidence of human habitation in Boyd County exists in the forms of numerous earthen mounds containing human skeletons and burial goods, giving evidence that prehistoric Native Americans inhabited the area. A 1973 archeological find revealed a serpent-shaped mound built of rocks dating to 2000 BC and stretching for along a ridge parallel to the Big Sandy River south of Catlettsburg. One of the early settlers in what is now Boyd County was Charles ("One-handed Charley") Smith, from Virginia. A veteran of the
French and Indian War The French and Indian War, 1754 to 1763, was a colonial conflict in North America between Kingdom of Great Britain, Great Britain and Kingdom of France, France, along with their respective Native Americans in the United States, Native American ...
who had served under Col.
George Washington George Washington (, 1799) was a Founding Fathers of the United States, Founding Father and the first president of the United States, serving from 1789 to 1797. As commander of the Continental Army, Washington led Patriot (American Revoluti ...
in 1754, Smith received for that service roughly around Chadwicks Creek, where he built a cabin in 1774. Smith died in 1776, and in 1797, this land passed to Alexander Catlett for whom the town of Catlettsburg is named. The Poage family arrived from
Staunton, Virginia Staunton ( ) is an independent city (United States), independent city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), U.S. Commonwealth of Virginia. As of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, the population was 25,750. In Virginia, independent cities a ...
, in October 1799 and formed Poage's Landing, later renamed the city of Ashland.''A history of Ashland, Kentucky, 1854–2004.'' Ashland Bicentennial Committee. 2004. August 11, 2014. The first courthouse built in 1861 was replaced in 1912.


Industry

Members of the Poage family built the steam-powered Clinton iron furnace in 1832, the earliest industry in present-day Boyd County. A total of 29 charcoal-fueled iron furnaces operated on the Kentucky side of the Ohio River, seven of them in present-day Boyd County. The Kentucky Iron, Coal and Manufacturing Company was incorporated on March 8, 1854, and it laid out the town of Ashland, then within Greenup County. The company purchased thousands of acres of coal, timber, and ore lands throughout the county. It invested
US$ The United States dollar (Currency symbol, symbol: Dollar sign, $; ISO 4217, currency code: USD) is the official currency of the United States and International use of the U.S. dollar, several other countries. The Coinage Act of 1792 introdu ...
210,000 in bonds of the Lexington & Big Sandy River Railroad Company, with the stipulation that the eastern division of that line extend into Ashland instead of ending, as originally planned, in Catlettsburg. The early presence of the railroad in Ashland was largely responsible for this city becoming the dominant municipality of the county. Ashland furnace was sold to American Rolling Mill Company in 1921, which developed into Armco Steel Corporation. In 1963, Armco constructed the Amanda furnace, one of the largest blast furnaces in the world. Armco later merged with Kawasaki Steel, becoming AK Steel; in 2020 Cleveland-Cliffs acquired AK Steel. The industry remains a major employer in northeastern Kentucky. Ashland Oil, Inc., at one time the largest corporation headquartered in Kentucky, was started in 1924 at Leach Station, south of Catlettsburg, by Paul G. Blazer. Best known for their Valvoline Oil products, Ashland Oil relocated to
Covington, Kentucky Covington is a list of cities in Kentucky, home rule-class city in Kenton County, Kentucky, United States. It is located at the confluence of the Ohio River, Ohio and Licking River (Kentucky), Licking rivers, across from Cincinnati to the north ...
, in 1999, merged with
Marathon Oil Marathon Oil Corporation was an American company engaged in hydrocarbon exploration. In November 2024, it was acquired by ConocoPhillips and absorbed into the company. Marathon was founded in Lima, Ohio, as the Ohio Oil Company. In 1899, the ...
, and sold its remaining petroleum shares to Marathon in 2005, dissolving their petroleum division. The original oil refinery, located in Catlettsburg, is still in operation today and is currently owned by Marathon Petroleum Corporation. Calgon Carbon constructed the Big Sandy Plant in 1961 and it has since become the world's largest producer of granular activated carbon. The facility produces in excess of 100 million pounds of granular activated carbon annually.


Alcohol sales

On November 3, 2020, residents voted in favor of allowing full retail sales of alcohol countywide. Prior to November 2020, Boyd County only allowed alcohol sales in restaurants that seated over 100 people and derived at least 70% of their income from food sales. The one exception was three election precincts within the city of Ashland, covering the downtown area, where all retail alcohol sales were permitted.


Geography

According to the
United States Census Bureau The United States Census Bureau, officially the Bureau of the Census, is a principal agency of the Federal statistical system, U.S. federal statistical system, responsible for producing data about the American people and American economy, econ ...
, the county has a total area of , of which (1.3%) are covered by water.


Adjacent counties

* Greenup County (northwest) * Lawrence County,
Ohio Ohio ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. It borders Lake Erie to the north, Pennsylvania to the east, West Virginia to the southeast, Kentucky to the southwest, Indiana to the ...
(northeast) * Wayne County,
West Virginia West Virginia is a mountainous U.S. state, state in the Southern United States, Southern and Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States.The United States Census Bureau, Census Bureau and the Association of American ...
(east) * Lawrence County (south) * Carter County (west) Boyd County is one of the few counties in the US to border two counties of the same name in different states (Lawrence County in Kentucky and Ohio). - -


Demographics

As of the
census A census (from Latin ''censere'', 'to assess') is the procedure of systematically acquiring, recording, and calculating population information about the members of a given Statistical population, population, usually displayed in the form of stati ...
of 2000, 49,752 people, 20,010 households, and 14,107 families were residing in the county. The
population density Population density (in agriculture: Standing stock (disambiguation), standing stock or plant density) is a measurement of population per unit land area. It is mostly applied to humans, but sometimes to other living organisms too. It is a key geog ...
was . The 21,976 housing units had an average density of . The racial makeup of the county was 95.97% White, 2.55% African American, 0.16% Native American, 0.30% Asian, 0.14% from other races, and 0.88% from two or more races. About 1.12% of the population were Hispanics or Latinos of any race. Of the 20,010 households, 28.9% had children under 18 living with them, 55.7% were married couples living together, 11.6% had a female householder with no husband present, and 29.5% were not families. About 26.5% of all households were made up of individuals, and 12.2% had someone living alone who was 65 or older. The average household size was 2.38, and the average family size was 2.86. The age distribution was 21.80% under 18, 8.30% from 18 to 24, 28.70% from 25 to 44, 25.60% from 45 to 64, and 15.60% who were 65 or older. The median age was 40 years. For every 100 females, there were 96.00 males. For every 100 females 18 and over, there were 93.1 males. The median income for a household in the county was $32,749, and for a family was $41,125. Males had a median income of $35,728 versus $22,591 for females. The
per capita income Per capita income (PCI) or average income measures the average income earned per person in a given area (city, region, country, etc.) in a specified year. In many countries, per capita income is determined using regular population surveys, such ...
for the county was $18,212. About 11.5% of families and 15.5% of the population were below the
poverty line The poverty threshold, poverty limit, poverty line, or breadline is the minimum level of income deemed adequate in a particular country. The poverty line is usually calculated by estimating the total cost of one year's worth of necessities for ...
, including 22.4% of those under 18 and 12.10% of those 65 or over.


Infrastructure

The
Federal Bureau of Prisons The Federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP) is a Federal law enforcement in the United States, federal law enforcement agency of the United States Department of Justice that is responsible for all List of United States federal prisons, federal prisons ...
operates the Federal Correctional Institution, Ashland in
Summit A summit is a point on a surface that is higher in elevation than all points immediately adjacent to it. The topographic terms acme, apex, peak (mountain peak), and zenith are synonymous. The term (mountain top) is generally used only for ...
, unincorporated Boyd County,Admissions & Orientation (A&O) Handbook
" Federal Correctional Institution, Ashland. 1 (1/51). Retrieved on February 1, 2011. "The Federal Correctional Institution of Ashland, Kentucky, is located five miles southwest of Ashland in Summit, Kentucky."
southwest of Ashland. Kentucky State Police Post 14 is located on U.S. 60 in Summit, next to Armco Park. In addition to Boyd County, troopers from Post 14 serve Carter, Greenup, and Lawrence Counties.


Politics

Similar to many other Eastern Kentucky counties, Boyd County voted primarily for Democratic candidates at the presidential level before shifting hard to the right in the 2000s. However, local Democratic support remains strong, as Democrat
Andy Beshear Andrew Graham Beshear ( ; born November 29, 1977) is an American attorney and politician serving as the 63rd governor of Kentucky since 2019. A member of the Democratic Party (United States), Democratic Party, he served as the 50th attorney gen ...
won the county by about 6 points over incumbent Republican Matt Bevin in the 2019 gubernatorial election.


Elected officials


State and Federal


County


Judicial


Voter registration


Education


Colleges

Ashland Community and Technical College, in Ashland, is one of 16 two-year, open-admissions colleges of the Kentucky Community and Technical College System.
Morehead State University Morehead State University (MSU) is a public university in Morehead, Kentucky, United States. The university began as Morehead Normal School, which opened its doors in 1887. The Craft Academy for Excellence in Science and Mathematics, a two-yea ...
also has a satellite campus located in Ashland.


Public school districts

The county has these school districts:
Text list
- For more detailed boundaries of the independent school districts see:
* Boyd County Public School District serves the city of Catlettsburg and the surrounding county communities outside the city of Ashland and Westwood
census-designated place A census-designated place (CDP) is a Place (United States Census Bureau), concentration of population defined by the United States Census Bureau for statistical purposes only. CDPs have been used in each decennial census since 1980 as the counte ...
, as well as portions of Ashland and portions of Westwood. * Ashland Independent School District serves most of the city of Ashland and some unincorporated areas. * Fairview Independent School District serves most of the census-designated place of Westwood and a portion of Ashland.


Private schools


Holy Family School
is affiliated with the Holy Family Catholic Church and currently offers K-12 education.
Rose Hill Christian
is affiliated with the Rose Hill Baptist Church and also offers K-12 education.
Calvary Christian School
was housed at Grassland Community Church until it closed in August 2012. A group of parents and teachers continued the school immediately following the closure, formed a new board, and renamed it Faith Christian Academy, which continued for an additional three school years in grades K4 - 8 and was affiliated with the Holy Family Collegiate High School for grades 9 - 12. It formally closed in fall 2016.


Other schools


Ramey-Estep High School


Communities


Cities

* Ashland * Catlettsburg (county seat)


Census-designated places

* Cannonsburg * Ironville * Westwood


Unincorporated communities

* Burnaugh * Coalton * Durbin * Kavanaugh * Kilgore * Lockwood *
Meads Meads is an area of the town of Eastbourne in the England, English county of East Sussex. It is at the westerly end of the town below the South Downs. Boundaries The local government ward of Meads is extensive, stretching from Birling Gap in ...
* Normal *
Princess Princess is a title used by a female member of a regnant monarch's family or by a female ruler of a principality. The male equivalent is a prince (from Latin '' princeps'', meaning principal citizen). Most often, the term has been used for ...
* Rockdale * Rush *
Summit A summit is a point on a surface that is higher in elevation than all points immediately adjacent to it. The topographic terms acme, apex, peak (mountain peak), and zenith are synonymous. The term (mountain top) is generally used only for ...
* Unity * Westwood * Winslow


See also

* Ashland Commercial Historic District * Catlett House * National Register of Historic Places listings in Boyd County, Kentucky


References


External links


The Kentucky Highlands Project
{{authority control Kentucky counties on the Ohio River 1860 establishments in Kentucky Populated places established in 1860