STATEHOOD

On the 18th of December 1789, the General Assembly of Virginia passed an act allowing Kentucky to apply for statehood, and on 1 June 1792, Kentucky's nine counties became a state. Formerly part of Virginia, Kentucky is bounded to the west, north and east by three rivers; the Mississippi, Ohio, and Big Sandy Rivers. The southern boundaries are formed where Kentucky meets the states of Tennessee and Virginia. Louisville is the largest city, and the capital of Kentucky is Frankfort.Hazel Green Academy

WOLFE COUNTY HISTORY

 

Mountain Laurel

The first European settlers arrived in the late 18th century, with the establishment of the area's first post office in 1821. Wolfe County, the 110th county in order of formation, is located in eastern Kentucky. It is bounded by Powell, Menifee, Morgan, Magoffin, Breathitt, and Lee counties and has an area of 223 square miles. The county was formed in 1860 from portions of Breathitt, Owsley, and Powell counties. The county was named after Nathaniel Wolfe, an early settler and Revolutionary War veteran. and an eloquent criminal lawyer who represented Jefferson County in the Kentucky legislature (1853-55, 1859-63). The seat of Wolfe County is Campton. The topography of Wolfe County is hilly and broken terrain. About 14,317 acres in the northwestern part are included in the Daniel Boone National Forest, an area known for its natural sandstone arches and precipitous cliffs. Farms and commercial timberlands make up most of the county. Major products are tobacco, hay, corn, and livestock. Natural resources include timber, oil, and small amounts of coal. Waterways include the Red River and its tributaries and the tributaries of the North Fork of the Kentucky River, which touches Wolfe County's southern boundary in several locations. Abundant prehistoric remains found under rock ledges give evidence that aboriginal people occupied the area in great numbers. The legendary Jonathan Swift and his "lost silver mine" in the 1760s gave the name to Swift Camp Creek, which flows south to north, through the county. Early settlers, many from Lee and Tazewell counties in Virginia, included the Elkins, Days, Richmonds, Cecils, Camples, and Roses. Around 1800, Michael O'Hair and his large family settled at what later became Hazel Green. At about the same time John Lacy settled on Lacy Creek in the same vicinity. In 1810, the county's first water mill, three miles below Hazel Green, was operated by the Cox brothers. Campton was settled at an unknown date by Nim Wills, whom named it after an old camp found there. Hazel Green was incorporated in 1856 as the first city in Wolfe County. When the county was established in 1860, the more centrally located community of Campton was made county seat.

When the Civil War broke out in 1861, Kentucky was torn apart by conflicting loyalties. Although Kentucky declared itself a neutral state, both the Union and Confederate governments recognized its strategic potential, and both sides recruited openly. This often led to brother fighting against brother. Ironically, south-central Kentucky was the birthplace of both the Union president, Abraham Lincoln, and the Confederate president, Jefferson Davis. These two great men were born in log cabins within one year and 100 miles of each other. Kentucky's most violent Civil War battle took place near Perryville in 1862 and ended the Confederacy's advance into Kentucky. On Oct 23rd 1861, Union forces led by General William Nelson drives Confederates from Hazel Green. General Nelson established his headquarters at the home of William Trimble. Oct 25th, 1861, Henry Chapman Swango is appointed Captain of a company of Confederate volunteers at Prestonburg. The comapny became Company 1, of the 5th Kentucky Infantry. During the Civil War, the provisional Confederate government of Kentucky tried unsuccessfully to change Wolfe County's name to honor the late Gen. Felix K. Zollicoffer, who died in battle at Mill Springs on January 19, 1862. The retreating army of Union Gen. George Morgan camped in Hazel Green on September 23, 1862. On June 7, 1864, Gen. John Hunt Morgan's Confederate cavalry passed near Hazel Green.

After the Civil War, there was a tremendous increase in tobacco production in Kentucky due to the decline of the hemp industry and the development of burley tobacco. Burley tobacco won acclaim for holding the sweeteners popular in plug tobacco at the time. Plug tobacco was the most popular tobacco product until World War I, when blended cigarettes took its place. Fortunately for Kentucky tobacco farmers, burley was an important ingredient in both products. Kentucky to this day remains one of the nation's major burley-producing states. Wolfe County remained an isolated scattering of agricultural communities for most of the nineteenth century. Pine Ridge, established in 1856, later became a logging center. The pace of timbering picked up in 1898 after the Swan-Day Lumber Company acquired territory in Wolfe and Powell counties.

To work the forests in the Red River region, the Mountain Central, a narrow-gauge railroad, was built in 1907 from the Lexington & Eastern in Powell County eastward along Pine Ridge to Campton. With the depletion of the timber, the railroad lingered as a freight and passenger hauler, then ceased operations in 1928. The town of Eastin was established by Swan-Day five miles west of Campton. Eastin flourished as a logging town and by 1900 had thirty-five homes and two hundred people, but when the timber gave out, it rapidly became a ghost town. Wolfe County was known for its resort hotels in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. The El Park Hotel was built between 1890 and 1896 at Torrent, six miles west of Campton. It flourished until the Great Depression and was destroyed by fire in 1935. At Swango Springs near Hazel Green, three hotels and several boarding houses were in operation by 1895 for those who came to take the mineral waters. Fire destroyed the largest hotel in 1910, but mineral water was bottled and shipped from there until 1943. Because of Wolfe County's isolation and apparent poverty, several Christian mission societies founded schools there. Hazel Green Academy was founded in 1880 by J.H. Day, G.B. Swango, and W.O. Mize as a college preparatory school. In 1888 the school was taken over by the  National Christian Board of Missions. In 1896 Kentucky Wesleyan Academy established a branch of its Winchester campus in Campton, but the school was discontinued in 1912. The Alvan Drew school was started as a Methodist institution in 1913 at Pine Ridge by missionary Mrs. M.O. Everett. The school closed after a 1947 fire, and the property was taken over in 1950 by the Dessie Scott Children's Home. The U.S. Forest Service acquired 14,178 acres of Wolfe County between 1933 and 1948 for what is now the Daniel Boone National Forest. Small amounts of mining and logging continued there, but by the early 1960's the isolated county was one of Kentucky's poorest.

The 20th century brought significant changes to Wolfe County. The May 1963 completion of the Mountain Parkway helped to attract some new industry to Campton, and tourists to the Red River Gorge area and Natural Bridge State Resort Park.. Since 1969 the county's largest manufacturing employer has been Campton Electronic, and in 1989 Whiting Manufacturing announced plans to build a bedding supply plant in eastern Wolfe County. The population of the rural county was 5,669 in 1970; 6,698 in 1980; and 6,503 in 1990. 

Natural Bridge State Resort Park

Red River Gorge

       
Little Bloody Creek Falls

The Blood of the Wolfe Falls

Wolfe County

Eastern Kentucky and the Civil War

(in the rebel army or in arms with the rebels)
G. B. Swango
James Cox
Edmund Little
Fielder (Fielding) Cox
James M. Kash

(rumored to be in arms with the rebels and most of them in the rebel army)
Calvin Swango
John Cox
Frank Coldiron
A. B. Landrum
William A. Beaver
William Brewer
Thomas Asberry

(known rebel soldiers)
John Bush
J. G. Spencer
E. Wells
G. N. Wells
Levi Gilly
Jefferson Brewer
G. B. Swango
Calvin Swango
James Cox
John Cox
Frank Coldion
A. B. Landrum
Thomas Asburry
Fielding Cox

Tobacco farm, Wolfe County, Ky

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