You are forgetting that Lincoln County was formed in 1780 from VA, and encompassed a good portion of the state until 1792. It was still fairly large from 1792 - 1799. There is a lot of names and history to be found in Lincoln County. If you will look at the maps by Wendell Rone of how KY evolved to what it is today, and how the counties formed, you will have a better idea of what I am talking about. They can be found online at: http://www.uky.edu/LCC/HIS/scraps/kymaps.html To get a better idea: In 1790 KY was about the same size it is today, but there were only 9 counties. In 1800 there were 42 counties, by 1810 - 54 counties. By 1970, KY had 120 counties. Of those 9 counties, Lincoln was the major part of KY.