Grayson County was established as the state’s 54th county in 1810 by the Kentucky General Assembly, named for Col. William Grayson, a Virginian statesman and Revolutionary War aide to General George Washington.

Indeed Washington once owned 5,000 acres in Grayson County. Northwest of Caneyville a little jewel dubbed the Old Porter Place bed and breakfast can be found. Washington purchased the land from Henry Lee (father of Robert E. Lee) by trading his favorite horse for it. Tours are available by appointment (270-879-4095).

Willis Green, a young lawyer acquired 200 acres on the Rough River in 1829 and his farm expanded to several thousand acres to become one of the largest in the state.

The Old Falls of Rough community was once home to hundreds, mostly Green family employees, and several thriving businesses. Today there remains a twenty-two room mansion, a general store, a grist mill, a wool carding mill building, a church and parsonage, and a single span arched iron bridge and the stone dam that backed up headwater for the mills.

Leitchfield, the county seat, was incorporated in 1866 and named for Major David Leitch, in whose honor his widow donated the land on which the town was built. It’s believed the settlement dates back to the 1700s and was once known as Shaw’s Station. In the mid 1800s Confederate forces burned the county courthouse and it burned again in 1896 destroying all records. The downtown area had been virtually destroyed by a huge fire the year before.

Several fires also led to the demise of the famous Grayson Springs near Clarkson. The site, with more than 20 mineral springs, was a popular health spa for about a century until the 1920s. While many hotels that were so popular with wealthy southern families are now gone, tours are available by appointment.

Clarkson was incorporated April 23, 1908 but the community actually began some fifty years before as Bray’s Station on the railroad line. In the interim it was known as Grayson Springs Station, named for the nearby resort, but was renamed Clarkson in the early 1930s, as was the station soon thereafter (in honor of M.P. Clarkson, owner of the Grayson Springs hotel). The depot closed in 1942. Clarkson’s early days were as a farming and trading center but by the early 1900s it was home to a bank, milling company and meat packing plant.

Caneyville began as a pioneer trading post and was chartered April 9, 1889 operating for years as a center for the shipment of goods down Caney Creek to the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers.

The Jack Thomas House in downtown Leitchfield bears evidence of life in early Grayson County. The Federal design brick home was built about 1810 with 14-inch thick walls, a beautiful stairway leading from the large receiving hall, and other features making it the first home of its kind in the area. The home is operated as a museum with weekday tours available.

Other developments leaving their mark on Grayson County have been the construction of the railroad through the county in 1869 and the completion of the progressive Western Kentucky Parkway through the county in 1963. Another landscape change that’s made our community a popular recreational site was the completion of the Rough River Lake and Nolin River Lake flood control projects in the early 1960s.