Early settlement Buffalo once forded the Ohio here, beating a broad path into the interior of Kentucky in search of
salt licks. For thousands of years, various cultures of
indigenous peoples inhabited the area, hunting the buffalo and other game. In the 17th century, the powerful
Iroquois Confederacy, based in present-day
New York state, drove out other tribes to hold the Ohio Valley as a hunting ground.
European-American settlers traveling down the Ohio in the 18th century and early 19th century found a natural harbor at Limestone Creek. The buffalo trace, also a well-used trail traveled for centuries by
Native Americans, was a natural path into the bluegrass region, extending all the way to
Lexington, Kentucky. Frontiersman
Simon Kenton made the first settlement in the area in 1775, but temporarily abandoned that to fight in the
western battles of the American Revolution. Returning in 1784, Kenton built a
blockhouse at the site of Maysville and founded Kenton's Station (frontier fort) at a site inland. Kenton met new settlers at Limestone, as the landing place was called, and escorted them inland to his station. In 1786 the village which grew up near Kenton's Station was established by act of the
Virginia General Assembly as the town of
Washington. By this time, John May had acquired the land at Limestone and
Daniel Boone established a
trading post and tavern there. In 1787 the little settlement was
incorporated as Maysville, though the name "Limestone" persisted well into the 19th century.
Growth In 1788, when
Mason County was organized and Washington was named its county seat, Maysville was still a primitive site of warehouses and wharves, with few dwellings. In 1795, the conclusion of the
Northwest Indian War reduced the likelihood of
Indian attacks from across the Ohio. Maysville began to flourish. By 1807, Maysville was one of two principal ports in Kentucky; it was still mostly a place through which goods and people passed, having only about sixty dwellings. In 1811, the first
steamboat came down the Ohio from
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, passing Maysville on its way to
New Orleans. With the coming of the steamboat, Maysville's population and area expanded rapidly.
Maysville Road Southwest from Maysville, the road followed the former buffalo trace and Native American trail to Lexington. It was called both the Maysville Road and the Limestone Road. It was maintained by the various counties through which it passed with local labor from the county levies. The road was rough and during certain seasons practically impassable. In 1829, the
Kentucky legislature authorized the Maysville, Washington, Paris, and Lexington
Turnpike Road Company to construct a modern roadway along the route of the old Limestone Road. Users would be charged fees for maintenance and paying off the debt to
shareholders. The act set aside blocks of shares for purchase by the
federal government.
Henry Clay, an influential Kentucky politician and proponent of the
American System, argued for the Maysville Road and other infrastructure, noting it would be part of a longer road terminating in
New Orleans, Louisiana, and proper for federal funding. In 1830,
Congress passed a bill authorizing the federal government to purchase shares in the turnpike company. President
Andrew Jackson, a bitter rival of Clay,
vetoed the bill, arguing that the project was of purely local benefit. The
Maysville Road veto was one of Jackson's first acts in aligning the federal government with his principles of
Jacksonian democracy. An attempt to
override Jackson's veto failed, but the controversy over the Maysville Road veto continued for some time. The turnpike was completed in 1835 with funding from local entities and private investment. It was the first
macadamized road in the state. Today it is
U.S. Route 68. Washington, the county seat, had dwindled in importance after a fire in 1825 and a series of deadly
cholera epidemics. In 1850, the
Maysville & Lexington Railroad began operation, but it failed within the decade. Successor companies maintained the connection until 1921 when they were bought out by the
L&N. Today, the Maysville & Lexington's former routes and rights-of-way are owned by
CSX Transportation. ==Landmarks==