Marion Develops As Centralized Business Location

Most historians agree that their cities were not built with the expectation of any great number of permanent residents, but only as a center or gathering place for the people living in the territory for miles around.

Public buildings were established in these towns to house all agencies of the government of the established surrounding territory.

Markets of all types quickly sprang up around the public buildings to take advantage of the community gathering place.

So it was with the town of Marion during her first year and a half.  Crittenden was established from Livingston County in January of 1842.

The town had been established only for the purpose of a county seat or as a centralized location for the erection of public buildings to house the government and public records of the new Crittenden County. 

It's rapid growth into a mercantile and residential community was not planned or even visualized by most of the early Town Father's, many of whom were also early county officials.

There were a few log and frame cabins scattered throughout what is now downtown Marion and along the Fords Ferry Road and the Centerville Road (now Moore St. that runs behind Conrads Store).

In 1844 James M. Smith was appointed surveyor of the Fords Ferry and Belleville Roads beginning at the courthouse in Marion and extending one half mile each way. 

Smith was given privilege of calling on every able-bodied male resident along these roads to the extend of the town boundaries to assist in clearing, smoothing and cleaning all parts of those roads "so as to help confirm the plan of the town."

Despite the rumor that the town of Marion was first called "Oxford" before its incorporation as Marion, by an Act of the Kentucky Legislature, it was always referred to its official records by its proper name of Marion.

The rumor was based on the fact that early mail from Marion was postmarked "Oxford", but this was from the fact that since the new town was not yet on a main mailstage road until after its incorporation, it's mail was shuttled eastward to be mailed from the post office at Oxford Academy on the Flynns Ferry Road.