Carter County, KY
History
The area of Carter County was first surveyed in 1785... Parcels of land granted to Richard Grahm and Colonel William Grayson of Virginia for their war service made up a large portion of this area. In 1800, there were only about 500 families living in eastern Kentucky. The first post office in 1811 was known as Little Sandy Salt Works. Another early settlement was near Smokey Creek.As population grew in the northeastern area, a meeting was held in 1837 at the Crossroads Hotel, northwest of Grayson, to call for the creation of a new county. Largely through the efforts of Senator William Grayson Carter, the grandson of Colonel Grayson, the new county was chartered May 1, 1838, with Grayson as the county seat and named for Colonel Carter. Portions of Greenup and Lawrence were taken to form the new county, the state's 88th out of 120 counties. Portions of Carter would later be used to form Boyd and Elliott counties. The county at one time extended all the way to the Big Sandy River.
Source: http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~kycarter/journals/cartercohistory.pdf