Maysville

History

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. 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. From 1795, after the conclusion of the Northwest Indian War reduced the likelihood of Indian attacks from across the Ohio,…

Geography

Maysville is located on the Ohio River at the mouth of Limestone Creek. It occupies the narrow river plain and the steep hills rising from it, giving the city the prospect of an Italian hill town. The city now extends inland to the former town of Washington, which was annexed by Maysville in 1990. The city has a total area of , of which are land and , or 11.13%, are water.

Race & ethnicity

Largest nearby schools

• Mason County High School
  High · Maysville · 841 students · 18.3:1 ratio
• Charles Straub Elementary School
  Elementary · Maysville · 642 students · 13.7:1 ratio
• Mason County Middle School
  Middle · Maysville · 585 students · 15:1 ratio
• Mason County Intermediate School
  Elementary · Maysville · 540 students · 15.4:1 ratio
• Mason County Career Magnet School
  High · Maysville