Florence Timeline

1788 - Filson overland route from Lexington to Cincinnati

1790 - keep road in good repair from Kennedy's ferry to Georgetown

1795 - road from Kennedy's Ferry to Dry Ridge opened as a wagon road.

1816 – “Squirrel Hollow School,” established

1816 to 1823 - called Crossroads

1817 – Abner Gaines stage coach from Cincinnati to Lexington.

1821 - Thomas Madden is granted a tavern license Maddentown

1826 - Madden left named Connersville for the Conner family who owned large amount of land

1830 – Florence was incorporated by an act of the state legislature with a population of 63. Pitman Cloudas was first chairman of the Town's Board of Trustees and the first postmaster.

1834 – Woolen and Carding factory at end of Banklick St.

1836 – The Covington-Lexington Turnpike was completed and Florence became the first stagecoach stop south of Covington.

1851 – Town Hall, also used as a school, was erected on a site on Main Street (the site is now occupied by an attorney's office).

1855 – The first agricultural fair in the county was held in Florence. Closed 1881 on J. Barton land near present day Kentaboo road.

1862 – An advance guard of the Confederate Army under the command of Brig. Gen. Henry Heath, whose main force had camped at Corinth and Snow's Pond near Walton, encountered Union pickets in the area around the Christian Church. One man was killed, 18 wounded and the Yankees were routed by veteran Confederate troops who were part of a unit known as “Morgan's Raiders.”

1869 – International Order of Odd Fellows built a lodge hall on Main Street. The first floor was leased to various commercial entities over the years.

1872 – Greenwood Lake (Erlanger) got a railroad station and took some of the traffic from Florence.

1896 – Northern Agricultural Fair Association was organized to hold a four-day fair every fall in Florence. The area bounded by U.S. 42, U.S. 25, Gibbons Street and Fair Street was known as the old Fairgrounds.

1900 – John Uri Lloyd immortalizes Florence with his best selling novel, Stringtown on the Pike.

1907 – John Meeks, recently fired from his position of Town Marshal, shot and killed his replacement, James Albert Clutterbuck, during an altercation on Main Street.

1917 – Electricity was installed.

1926 – Gas lines were constructed.

1931 – A three-story brick building was erected on Center Street for Florence School.

1933 – Water lines were constructed.

1934 – Albert Hue began organizing a volunteer fire department. He paid $75 for the city's first fire truck, a 1913 Ahrens-Fox pumper.

1941 – “Bypass” was built to reroute traffic off Main Street.

1959 – Thoroughbreds began racing at Latonia Race Track, which became Turfway Park in 1985.

1963 – I-75 was completed between Cincinnati and Knoxville.