To compensate for this, the legislature took some more land from Gallatin County and gave it to Owen by act dated December 26, 1820.

Accordingly, on January 15, 1822, the county court ordered that the seat of justice be removed to land owned by Andrew Parker, James Hess, and William H. Forsee.

[6] In 1844, after Kentucky began to construct locks and dams on the Kentucky River, packet boats on regular trips between Frankfort and Louisville made stops in Owen County at Monterey, Moxley, Gratz, and other towns.

[6] In the 1870s, Owen County saw Deputy U.S. Marshall Willis Russell struggle to suppress the local Ku Klux Klan chapter, which was committing violence against former slaves in the years during Reconstruction.

It was housed in the front parlor of Elizabeth Holbrook Thomas's home on the same corner where the present library, built in 1973, now stands.

Among the services it provides are printing, fax sending, notaries, and access to a public meeting room.

Currently this library changed to a center for the elderly when the county build a new library on the outskirts of the city of Owenton Owen County serves as the opening setting in the 1992 Paul Russell novel Boys of Life where it is referred to simply as Owen.

Points of interest within Owen and nearby areas such as Christian County are mentioned and referenced throughout the story.