Editing Bracken County, Kentucky (section)

==History==
Bracken County was organized as Kentucky's 23rd county in 1796 from parts of [[Mason County, Kentucky|Mason]] and [[Campbell County, Kentucky|Campbell]] counties.<ref>{{cite book | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=gZFQAQAAIAAJ&pg=PA26 | title=Collins' Historical Sketches of Kentucky: History of Kentucky, Volume 2 | publisher=Collins & Company | author=Collins, Lewis | year=1882 | pages=26}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://kyenc.msudev.com/entry/b/BRACK02.html|archive-url=https://archive.today/20140821025617/http://kyenc.msudev.com/entry/b/BRACK02.html|url-status=dead|archive-date=August 21, 2014|title=Bracken County|year=2000|publisher=The Kentucky Encyclopedia|access-date=August 20, 2014}}</ref> It was named after two creeks, the Big and Little Bracken, which in turn were named for [[William Bracken]], an 18th-century explorer and surveyor who visited the area in 1773.<ref>{{cite book | url=https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_luoxAQAAMAAJ | title=The Register of the Kentucky State Historical Society, Volume 1 | publisher=Kentucky State Historical Society | year=1903 | pages=[https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_luoxAQAAMAAJ/page/n115 34]}}</ref> He was later killed by Indians during the [[Northwest Indian War]]. The county originally extended to southern [[Nicholas County, Kentucky|Nicholas County]], north to the [[Ohio River]], west to the [[Licking River (Kentucky)|Licking River]] and east to Dover, Kentucky.<ref>[http://kentucky.gov/kyhs/hmdb/MarkerSearch.aspx?mode=County&county=12 "Bracken County History"], Kentucky Historical Society</ref>

Several early [[settlers]] were veterans of the [[American Revolutionary War]], including Captain Abner Howell, who brought his family from [[Pennsylvania]]. He died in Bracken County in 1797.

The county government moved from Augusta to '''Woodward's Crossing''' (now [[Brooksville, Kentucky|Brooksville]]) in 1833.

Bracken was the birthplace of [[John Gregg Fee]], founder of [[Berea College]] and Kentucky's most noted [[Abolitionism in the United States|abolitionist]]. He was a graduate of Augusta College and [[Lane Theological Seminary]]. In 1822 [[Augusta College (Kentucky)|Augusta College]] was founded as the first [[Methodist]] college in the world.

Anti-slavery activists in Bracken County played a major role in the movement known as the [[Underground Railroad]]. There are several Underground Railroad sites in the [[Augusta, Kentucky|Augusta]] area. A network of citizens sympathetic to escaping slaves helped them cross the [[Ohio River]] to nearby [[Ripley, Ohio]] and other points north.<ref>[http://www.augustaky.com/articles/page.asp?articleid=5559 "Underground Railroad"] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060921041627/http://www.augustaky.com/articles/page.asp?articleid=5559 |date=September 21, 2006 }}, Augusta, Kentucky Website</ref>

[[File:George W. Barkley Farm fields.jpg|thumb|left|Fields at the George Barkley Farm in Bracken County, Kentucky, where Webb and Fore obtained the first white burley seed]]
Bracken County's economy was largely agricultural. Its chief crops before the [[American Civil War|Civil War]] were [[tobacco]] and corn. White [[burley tobacco]], a light, adaptable leaf that revolutionized the industry, was first sold at the 1867 [[St. Louis]] Fair by the farmer Mr. Webb from [[Higginsport, Ohio]]. He had produced it in 1864 from Bracken County seed and developed the type.<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=JZBMAAAAMAAJ J.M. Stoddart, ''Encyclopædia Britannica. American Supplement''] (Stoddart's Encyclopaedia Americana: A Dictionary of Arts, Sciences, and General Literature, and Companion to the Encyclopædia Britannica. (9th ed.) and to All Other Encyclopaedias, Volume 1), 1883, pp. 120–123, accessed February 5, 2011</ref> It became a major product of central Kentucky and central Tennessee.

Agriculture remains vital to the economy, with farms occupying 83.8 percent of the land area in 1982. Commodities include wheat, hay, and milk. Burley tobacco production in 1988 amounted to 5,406,000 pounds. Agricultural receipts in 1986 totaled $19,158,000 (~${{Format price|{{Inflation|index=US-GDP|value=19158000|start_year=1986}}}} in {{Inflation/year|US-GDP}}).<ref>[http://www.genealogyinc.com/kentucky/bracken-county/ "Bracken County, KY"], Genealogy Inc</ref>

===Historic schools===
Augusta:
* [[Bracken Academy]]
* [[Augusta Methodist College]]

[[Brooksville, KY|Brooksville]]:
* [[Saint James Elementary and High School]]

[[Germantown, KY|Germantown]]:
* [[Germantown College]]

[[Milford, KY|Milford]]:
* [[Milford Graded and High School]]