Crittenden, Kentucky: Pin Hook to Stagecoach Stop

Crittenden started life with the colorful name Pin Hook, a common frontier nickname for a small crossroads trading post. The settlement anchored the northern end of Grant County on the road between Covington and Lexington, where travelers are said to have rested and swapped horses. In eighteen thirty-four the town was renamed Crittenden, in honor of John J.

Crittenden, a Kentucky statesman who served as a United States Senator, as governor of the state, and as attorney general under three different presidents. Today Crittenden is a small city in Grant County, still sitting on the corridor that connects the Ohio River to the interior of the Bluegrass State.