McAninch in Kentucky, 1797-1807, The First 10 Years

c1750

First Generation: Daniel McAninch, b.ca.1750 (1748-1752), in northern Ireland (probably

County Antrim), the journey across Pennsylvania (1776 marriage, 1790 census), south to

Greene County, eastern Tennessee (1796), then through the Cumberland Gap and down the

Wilderness Road to Lincoln County, Kentucky (1798), and then the family moves south to

Giles County, Tennessee (Daniel probably died there ca.1822). [Note DM]

bef.

William McAninch was born before 1765, probably in Colonial Pennsylvania or northern

1765

Ireland. William McAninch (b.bef.1765) and Daniel McAninch, b.ca.1750 (1748-1752),

are fellow travelers (related?, brothers?, cousins?), and (after 1790) went south together up

the Great Valley of the Shenandoah River into Greene County, eastern Tennessee, and then

through the Cumberland Gap and the Wilderness Road to Lincoln County, Kentucky. [Wm]

1770

Earlier parts of the McAninch story have been covered in numerous other articles -

-1797

Daniel McAninch in Pennsylvania 1770-1790, [Note DM]

Daniel McAninch and William McAninch in eastern Tennessee, 1796-1797. [Note GrnT]

1797

This article covers The First 10 Years in Kentucky, from William McAninch’s arrival in

-1807

Lincoln County in 1797 and Daniel McAninch’s arrival the next year (1798) to the creation

of the new Casey County, set off from Lincoln County, Kentucky, 1806-1807. [Casy]

Early Lincoln County History

1777

The Commonwealth of Virginia organized its land west of the Appalachians as one territory,

Kentucky County, Virginia, in 1777, but this Virginia county only lasted about four years.

Kentucky County, Virginia, was abolished in 1780, and divided into three new counties:

Fayette County, Virginia, Jefferson County, Virginia, and Lincoln County, Virginia.

1780

Lincoln County, Virginia, was created by the Virginia General Assembly in June 1780,

and named in honor of Revolutionary War general Benjamin Lincoln. Lincoln County,

Virginia, became Lincoln County, Kentucky, one of Kentucky's nine original counties.

1792

Twelve years later, on June 1, 1792, the Commonwealth of Kentucky was admitted to the

union as the fifteenth state, with Lincoln County now becoming Lincoln County, Kentucky.

c1796

At that time, Lincoln County, Kentucky, was very large, over a quarter of the area of the

present-day state, the Commonwealth of Kentucky. The main migration trail ran north-west

from eastern Tennessee through the Cumberland Gap all the way north to the Ohio River,

through Hazel Patch and Crab Orchard, across Dicks River to St. Asaph / Logan’s Fort

(present-day Stanford, Lincoln County seat), through Danville and Harrodsburg, continuing

northward to Fort Nelson (present-day Louisville, Kentucky) on the mighty Ohio River.

______________________________________________________________________

McAninch in Kentucky, 1797-1807, The First 10 Years

McAninch Family History Newsletter, v.XXXIV (34) n.1  / August 2026  /  p.2026-02

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