Carrollton from Port William

The town at the river mouth was first settled in 1792 and called Port William. Benjamin Craig, who had come to Kentucky with the Traveling Church led by his brother Lewis Craig, laid off the town on 613 acres that he and James Hawkins owned, and the legislature incorporated Port William in 1794; Craig had built the first brick house in the county in 1792.

When Gallatin County was formed on December 14, 1798, from parts of Franklin and Shelby counties, Port William served as its county seat. The first Gallatin County court met on May 14, 1799, at the brick home of Richard and Sarah Masterson—leading Methodists, and Richard an early trustee of Port William—which still stands on the east side of town.

In 1838 the Kentucky legislature formed Carroll County, partly out of Gallatin, and changed the town’s name to Carrollton, both in honor of Charles Carroll of Carrollton, the Maryland signer of the Declaration of Independence; Carrollton became the new county’s seat. The map pin marks Point Park at the confluence.