The Boone Academy is renamed the Morgan Academy in honor of Allan Morgan, whose slaves and property are transferred to the Academy.

The Burlington Baptist Church is organized.

The first Methodist church is organized in Boone County.

Ballard, Boyle, Crittenden, Letcher and Marshall counties are formed.

U.S. Army Lieutenant John Charles Fremont maps out the Oregon Trail, opening the west to wagon trains.

The Supreme Court rules that slave-owners may do anything to recapture fugitives, but that state officials are not obliged to help track runaways. This interpretation will become obsolete in 1850, when Henry Clay proposes a new fugitive slave law that will incorporate direct federal involvement.

Boone County Tax Lists, 1842: District 1, District 2.