[4] It is believed that Rowan County was first explored by those of European descent in 1773 by a party of surveyors from Pennsylvania.

Its population rapidly increased due its fertile farming land and proximity to water sources.

Additional settlers came to Rowan County from Virginia in the late 18th century after being awarded land grants at the end of the American Revolutionary War.

Clearfield was the second settlement established in the county, being colonized by a Virginia aristocrat named Dixon Clack in the early 1800s.

Colonel John Hargis founded the city after purchasing land in the county, naming it after governor James Morehead.

[7] In 1896, a tax was levied on Morehead, sourcing it with the revenue needed to construct hard surface roads.

In summer 2015, Rowan County attracted national attention when County Clerk Kim Davis refused, on grounds of religion, to follow a court order requiring her to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples.

Both the unusually large portion of the population in the 18-to-24 range and the relatively low median age are mainly because of the presence of Morehead State University.

It voted Republican in 2000, 2012, 2016, 2020, and 2024 and Democratic in 2004 and 2008, but in most of those elections the winning candidate won by small margins.

[17] In June and July 2015, the Rowan county clerk, Kim Davis, refused several residents their right to marry, a right guaranteed by the ruling of the Supreme Court on June 26, 2015, that same-sex marriages are legal across the entirety of the United States.