Follow
Please add profiles of those who were born, lived or died in Marshall County, Kentucky.
Official Website
History
Following population increase in the area, Marshall County was created by the Kentucky legislature in 1842. The first European-American settlers had arrived in about 1818, shortly after the area was bought from the Chickasaw Indians as part of the Jackson Purchase by Gen. Andrew Jackson and Kentucky Gov. Isaac Shelby. The Chickasaw were forced under Indian Removal to move to what became known as Indian Territory, new and much less fertile lands west of the Mississippi River.
Marshall County was named in honor of Chief Justice John Marshall of the United States Supreme Court, who had died in 1835.
Like most of the Jackson Purchase, and reflecting its geographic and family connections to the South, during the American Civil War, Marshall County was strongly pro-Confederate, although the state was neutral. Many local men served in the famous Kentucky Orphan Brigade. On March 23, 1864, detachments of Gen. Nathan Bedford Forrest's Confederate cavalry clashed with Union cavalry near Benton, when each side was scouring the countryside for needed cavalry remounts. A state historical marker stands at the site.
From its settlement until the 1930s, Marshall County was developed primarily for agriculture. In the 1940s, however, the Tennessee Valley Authority created Kentucky Lake as part of its flood control and rural electrification projects initiated by President Franklin D. Roosevelt. The lake established tourism as part of the county's economy, and lakeshore resorts were developed to exploit sports fishing.
Kentucky Dam's cheap and plentiful electricity also attracted chemical and manufacturing plants, mainly in the Calvert City area.
The lake's impoundment resulted in flooding two historic Marshall County towns: Birmingham, six miles north of Fairdealing, and Gilbertsville, at the dam's site, both of which were evacuated. Gilbertsville was relocated west of its original location, but Birmingham residents had to find new homes elsewhere. Gilbertsville was an incorporated town until the 1970s, when its charter was dissolved by public vote. Kentucky Lake (created on the Tennessee River) and Lake Barkley (created on the Cumberland River) were connected by a canal. Together they make up one of the largest man-made bodies of water in the world.
Adjacent Counties
Cities & Communities
- Aurora
- Benton (County Seat)
- Big Bear Area
- Brewers
- Briensburg
- Calvert City
- Draffenville
- Fairdealing
- Gilbertsville
- Hardin
- Harvey
- Moors Camp Area
- Oak Level
- Olive
- Palma
- Possum Trot
- Sharpe
- Tatumsville
Links