City of Dayton, Kentucky

It may be hard to conceive the City of Dayton divided into two communities, but today's Dayton Kentucky is the result of a merger between the communities of Brooklyn and Jamestown that took place in 1867.

Jamestown was incorporated March 1st, 1848. According to the state charter, the founding fathers were James Berry, James McArthur & Henry Walker. Berry was a grandson of James Taylor, founder of Newport.

The plat for the community of Brooklyn was filed with the county clerk on Nov. 9th of 1848. The man behind Brooklyn was a real estate trader named Burton Hazen. The town of Brooklyn that was laid out in 1848 was the west side of Dayton. The western border was Berry Street, the eastern border was McKinney Street and the only north-south border was Main.

In Jamestown a ferry operated at the foot of what's no Dayton Street, and laws were passed prohibiting nude swimming in the Ohio River during daylight hours, and prohibiting dogs from running loose. Violators of the nude swimming law faced a penalty of a $1.00 fine for the first offense, and could go as high as $5.00 for subsequent offenses. People also had the right to shoot dogs that were running loose in the city, and bill the owners for carcass removal.

A vote for the merger of the communities was a landslide with the community Brooklyn voting 51-6 in favor, and Jamestown voting 97-5 in favor also. Suggested names for the new city included Crescent, Berryville, North Point & Campbleton among others. A newspaper account in 1866 stated the name selected was "Dayton" after Dayton, OH that was founded in 1803.