"...If someone demanded to know my favorite newspaper, it would not be the New York Times, Washington Post Chicago Tribune, Lexington Herald, St. Petersburg Times [...] It is the Bracken County News."
-Nick Clooney


Welcome!

Welcome to online home of The Bracken County News, the newspaper of record in the Bracken County seat of Brooksville, Kentucky. The Bracken County News was founded in 1927, and we are proud to have served the wonderful people of our community for all these years. We hope to continue doing so for many years to come.

Bracken County History

Bracken County was organized as Kentucky's 23rd county in 1796 from parts of Mason and Campbell counties. It is named in honor of William Bracken, an early pioneer and surveyor, who first came to the area in 1773. The county originally extended to southern Nicholas County, north to the Ohio River, west to the Licking River and east to Dover, Kentucky. [1]

Several early settlers were veterans of the American Revolutionary War. Among them was Capt. Abner Howell; he and his family came from Pennsylvania. He died in Bracken County in 1797.

The county government moved from Augusta to Woodward's Crossing (now Brooksville) in 1833.

Bracken was the birthplace on Sept. 9, 1816 of John Gregg Fee, founder of Berea College and Kentucky'`s most noted abolitionist. He was a graduate of Augusta College and Lane Theological Seminary. In 1822 it was also the site of Augusta College first Methodist College in the world.

Bracken County played a major role in the movement known as the Underground Railroad. There are several Underground Railroad Sites in the Augusta, Kentucky area. A network of citizens sympathetic to escaping slaves helped them cross the Ohio River to nearby Ripley, Ohio and other points north.[2]

Bracken County's economy was largely agricultural; its chief crops before the American Civil War were tobacco and corn. White burley tobacco, a light, adaptable leaf that revolutionized the industry, was first produced in 1867 from Bracken County seed.[3]

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

This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article Bracken County, Kentucky".
The Bracken County News | P.O. Box 68 | 216 Frankfort Street | Brooksville, KY 41004 | (606) 735-2198