Online Resources for Research Using

W.H. Perrin's 1882 History of the Northern Bluegrass Region

Harrison County had only been in existence for eighty-nine years when History of Bourbon, Scott, Harrison, & Nicholas Counties, Kentucky, edited by William Henry Perrin (March 27, 1834 - September 14, 1891), was published.  The volume probably never would have qualified as a "best seller," and only a cattle- or dairyman could have had any interest in the fourth chapter of the Harrison County portion, but the residents of Bourbon, Scott, Harrison, and Nicholas Counties of the time took probably took notice and were anxiously awaiting it's arrival from the publisher's presses.  Few are the copies from the original run, but the book has been republished several times since for the sake of local historians and genealogists, with the last printing of about a hundred editions by Southern Historical Press occurring in 1999.

All twenty-five chapters of the history which focus on the history of Harrison County and its citizens have been transcribed and added to this website for those interested in the local history of Harrison County, as well as for those of you who are genealogists or family historians like myself.  For the purpose of making download times faster, the book has been broken down by chapter, with a web page devoted to a each individual chapter.  The first six chapters deal with Harrison County, Kentucky in general, with chapters seven through ten focusing on Cynthiana and its history.  The remainder of the Harrison County chapters were broken into two parts, one for the history of each of Harrison County's precincts along with an additional chapter devoted to biographical sketches of each precinct's residents, most of whom were living at the time of the book's publication (A few may be have been published posthumously).

Now all you have to do is pick a county from the links bar below, choose a chapter, click, read, learn, and enjoy!

Order Your Own Hardcopy

William A. Penn (pennwma@aol.com), editor of the Harrison County Historical Society's monthly newsletter, the Harrison Heritage News, and proprietor of the Historic Midway Museum Store, offers copies of the 1999 Southern Historical Press reprint for sale, which are hardbound and which include an every name index of approximately eight thousand names, for only $55 plus $5.00 shipping and handling.  To get your own copy contact him directly by e-mail or at the Historic Midway Museum Store, 124 East Railroad Street, Midway, Ky. 40347 (Phone:  (859) 846-4214).

Online Sites for Searching the Perrin History

Ancestry.com's History of Bourbon, Scott, Harrison, & Nicholas Counties, Kentucky offers a search option which focuses exclusively the contents of the 1882 history.  The company maintains a searchable database of the complete history, however, it may require a subscription to access it.  To view and/or read pages from actual images of the original volume just click on the link above.

You can also simply click on each of the chapter links above and perform a word search using your browser for the surname in which you are interested, which may be another helpful approach to finding the records you need in your research.

To view a list of biographies for anyone whose biographical sketch includes a reference to Harrison County, go to the home page of the Kentucky Biographies Project, the site established for the work done by Jeff Murphy (1947-2001) to collect and transcribe historical biographies published in histories of Kentucky.  which features a search form.  Leave the first name and surname boxes empty, and use the scroll box to bring up the name of Harrison County.  Click on the 'submit' button and nearly 450 entries will be listed, of which 300 focus on Harrisonians.

Harrison County, Kentucky Chapters

• Chapter I
  The settlement and establishment of the county (pp. 217-221)
   

• Chapter II
  Religion and education (pp. 221-227)
   

• Chapter III
  Roads, railroads, manufactures, and agriculture (pp. 227-231)
   

• Chapter IV
  Cattle and breeding (pp. 231-238)
   

• Chapter V
  The war history of the county, from the Revolution to the Civil War (pp. 239-242)
   

• Chapter VI
  A history of Cynthiana Precinct (pp. 243-247)
   

• Chapter VII
  A history of Cynthiana (pp. 247-263)
   

• Chapter VIII
  Mills, merchants, marriages, postmasters, physicians, industries, banks and city government (pp. 264-273)
   

• Chapter IX
  Secret and benevolent institutions, the press, and schools and teachers (pp. 273-282)
   

• Chapter X
  Cynthiana's early religious history, ministers, church organizations, African American churches, etc. (pp. 282-310)
   

• Chapter XI
  Sylvan Dell Precinct (pp. 311-312)
   

• Chapter XII
  Richland Precinct (pp. 313-317)
   

• Chapter XIII
  Berry Precinct (pp. 317-319)
   

• Chapter XIV
  Rutland Precinct (pp. 319-321)
   

• Chapter XV
  Unity Precinct (pp. 321-322)
   

• Chapter XVI
  Leesburg Precinct (pp. 324-327)
   

• Chapter XVII
  Claysville Precinct (pp. 327-328)
   

• Cynthiana and Cynthiana Precinct Biographies (pp. 643-690)

• Biographical Sketches of Sylvan Dell Precinct (pp. 691-694)

• Biographical Sketches of Richland Precinct (pp. 697-701)

• Biographical Sketches of Berry Precinct (pp. 702-704)

• Biographical Sketches of Rutland Precinct (pp. 707-714)

• Biographical Sketches of Unity Precinct (pp. 717-718)

• Biographical Sketches of Leesburg Precinct (pp. 719-724)

• Biographical Sketches of Claysville Precinct (pp. 727-730)

Nicholas County, Kentucky Chapters

At present, no chapters of the Perrin history focusing on the Nicholas County chapters have been published to the web.