Marshall County (Kentucky)

Marshall County is a county located in the U.S. state of Kentucky. As of the 2010 census, the population was 31,448. Its county seat is Benton. It was a dry county until July 28, 2015, when residents voted for the county to go "wet". It is the only Purchase Area county to not border another state.Marshall County was named Kentucky's "Best County to Live In" ten years in a row, from 1999 to 2009.HistoryMarshall County was created by the Kentucky legislature in 1842 from part of Calloway County. The first settlers arrived in about 1818, shortly after the area was bought from the Chickasaw Indians as part of the Jackson Purchase. The Chickasaws then moved to new lands west of the Mississippi River. Marshall County was named in honor of Chief Justice John Marshall, who had died shortly before the county's creation. Like most of the Jackson Purchase, Marshall County was strongly pro-Confederate during the American Civil War, with many local men serving in the famous Kentucky Orphan Brigade. On March 23, 1864, detachments of Gen. Nathan Bedford Forrest's Confederate cavalry clashed with Union cavalry near Benton, when each side scouring the countryside for needed cavalry remounts. A state historical marker stands at the site.