[citation needed] General William Russell was given a 2,000-acre (810 ha) grant here for his military service during the American Revolution.

He donated part of this property, in 1795, as a platted section for the county seat, known as Logan Court House.

[8] During the Civil War, the Kentucky General Assembly declared its neutrality and declined to secede with the rest of the South.

Kentucky was a slave state and Confederate sentiment was strong in the Bluegrass region and the west, but the residents of the mountainous eastern section were mainly small farmers and pro-Union.

A gang made up of the former Confederate guerrillas Cole Younger, George Shepard, and Oliver Shepard, along with Confederate veterans John Jarrett and Arthur McCoy, robbed the Nimrod Long Bank[8] or the Southern Deposit Bank[citation needed] in Russellville on March 20, 1868.

Brothers Frank and Jesse James, who later had their own outlaw gang based in western Missouri, may have taken part.

A Russellville bank on the city square displays a large mural painted depicting the robbery.

A reenactment (called a "play on horseback") is performed annually during the city's Tobacco and Heritage Festival.

Several downtown homes have been listed on the National Register of Historic Places including the Victorian Mansion at 224 Cornelius Avenue, a house that boasted the state's first indoor bathroom.

The climate in this area is characterized by hot, humid summers and generally mild to cool winters.

Amid a largely agricultural area, Russellville is home to manufacturers of a number of products from pet food to plastics.