Qualify Now to be Listed as a Member of the Cultural Class of Kentucky Colonels.
Celebrating the Official Recognition of the Founding of America's 1st Free Colonial Democracy by the Kentucky Colonel with the 250th Anniversary of the Traditional Office of Civilian Colonelcy from 1775-2025 at Boonesborough on the Kentucky River. Semiquincentennial of the Kentucke Magna Charta!
It has been almost 250 years since the 1st Kentucky Colonel debuted on the American landscape when Col. Judge Richard Henderson of the Transylvania Company commissioned Daniel Boone his officer to build the Wilderness Road with over 100 settlers from the Cumberland Gap Passage to Boonesborough after making the Treaty of Watauga in Sycamore Shoals with the Cherokee.
The story of the First Kentucky Colonel being Daniel Boone is factually and historically correct, and if anyone else can be credited with the creation and origin of the pioneer government of Can-tuck-ee, Colonel Boone is right there as one of its 13 colonels and delegates drafting what has become known as the "Kentucke Magna Charta" (Transylvania Constitution) in 1775! However, Boone is not recognized by the Commonwealth of Kentucky as its founding statesman, that title would go to Col. Isaac Shelby who worked for Col. Daniel Boone 15 years earlier as a surveyor for the Transylvania Colony started by Boone, before returning to Kentucky from North Carolina after becoming a colonel himself. Shelby fought in the Revolution and returned with a huge land bounty, plus the guarantee he had from the Transylvania survey work (in trade), engaging in politics later creating the Commonwealth of Kentucky with more than a 12 other colonels who made him their first governor. What we can say about Col. Daniel Boone is that he was the First Colonel to be commissioned under the Patriot Law which was enacted on January 1, 1775, we also know he commissioned many other colonels.
Col. Daniel Boone is actually credited as the motivator of the founder of the Transylvania Company. Col. Judge Richard Henderson who commissioned him a Colonel of the company that built the Wilderness Road and Boonesborough. It would be almost two years before one of Boone's lieutenants, John Bowman is sent to Williamsburg to meet with Governor Patrick Henry to make the Transylvania Colony part of Virginia. The Governor made Transylvania Lt. Col. John Bowman into Commonwealth Colonel John Bowman of Kentucky County. When Col. Bowman returned to Transylvania he commissioned Daniel Boone a colonel as well as many others. After that little is known of John Bowman except that he continued to commission new colonels until 1783.
Interested in helping us write new articles? How did you become a colonel? That in itself must be newsworthy or at least it should be if you are a real Kentucky Colonel that deserves the honorable title. If you cannot write well, ask someone to write something for you in the third-person, if it is interesting and newsworthy we will publish it to our news feed starting in February.
What happened to the Kentucky Colonel?
How to use the Title: Kentucky Colonel for fundraising.
How to use the Title: Kentucky Colonel as a brand name for products made or grown in Kentucky.
How to use the Title: Kentucky Goodwill Ambassador with "Colonel" to promote tourism and tourist destinations in Kentucky.
What are the Sovereign Powers of a Kentucky Colonel?
How can I adopt the Classic Kentucky Colonel Style?
What does a person need to know about Colonelcy?
What jobs can only a Kentucky Colonel do?
Should all 'Colonels' from other places that live and work in Kentucky be considered a "Kentucky Colonel"?
Since 1895 only a Kentucky Colonel (or someone close to the governor) could nominate another to be commissioned with the honorable title (that was the tradition until 2019), now since February of 2020 nearly anyone with an email, phone number, a street address, living anywhere that uses their real name can recommend that a person receive a Kentucky Colonel Commission. The applications are screened and commissions are issued, sometimes over 100 per day; likewise there are probably many that are also turned down. Only the most forthcoming, sincere and well-elaborated applications are screened.
The act, which is letters patent, bestows the honorable title holder a Kentucky Colonel Commission which is a civilian officership as a goodwill ambassador for the state. A Kentucky Colonel can use the title to start a business, an association, an organization, a company or a civilian militia; a colonial colonel could also designate who the justices of the peace, schoolmasters, sheriffs, coroners, doctors, firemen, merchants and lieutenants were in their colonies. The main duty of the colonel was to organize the colony by establishing a civil government honorably for his commissioner. Colonels also performed weddings and officiated civil order perhaps they still can?
Slowly but surely the colonel replaced themselves with the governments they created; the US Military adopted the title as a rank in 1802, but for civilians the title remained as it was applied to the heads of land companies, large plantations, distilleries, and other companies before the corporation was created in the 1850s. By 1895, Colonel William O'Connell Bradley had recognized more than 100 of his closest friends and fellow attorneys as Colonel when he became governor, most of them had not fought in the Civil War. By the time Governor Bradley left office he had a personal staff of Kentucky colonels, a ceremonial honor guard, a mounted cavalry for parades, had many more friends who were colonels and started bestowing the title upon others as a civilian honor for great deeds that warrant the attention of his office.
Kentucky Colonelcy is the greatest, oldest and most widely recognized honorary American civil officer commission. To be recognized today as a Kentucky Colonel, a civilian is granted letters patent under "Kentucky Common Law and Customs", it is a legal status, standing to conduct oneself as a colonel and invitation to adopt the honorable title as a prefix to their name. It was recently discovered based on research in 2021 that "colonels" were the most important figures in the Commonwealth's founding history dating back to 1775, not the others that came with money from 1780 forward; but the origin of colonelcy in America dates back to 1651, the Colonial Act, the adoption of English Common Law in 1776 and the founding of the United States. Most of the US states were founded or settled by early civilian, company and militia colonels, many from Kentucky.
Today there are more than 250,000 Kentucky colonels living in over 70 countries, many organizations have been formed since the turn of the 20th century to promote their activities, fraternity and social prosperity. While colonels today have no official responsibilities mandated, they are legally recognized as state's "ambassadors of good-will" due to their dedication to community service, contributions to the welfare of the state, and for improving the lives of others to make the world a better place for everyone.
The honorary title is warranted through letters patent which grants them the title "Colonel" recognizing them as "Honorable" through a commission as an officer on the governor's staff. Colonels optional duties are de facto and extra officio responsibilities of promoting tourism, economic development, participation in community service, fostering the general prosperity of the Commonwealth and projecting Kentucky's image abroad on behalf of the State and the Governor.
Colonels are in a great part responsible for more than 10 billion dollars per year to the Commonwealth's economy by boosting tourism and economic development. The Kentucky colonel began becoming recognized as the state's icon outside of Kentucky as early as 1875, there is no doubt at least one of the two men in the Kentucky State Seal and the Coat of Arms is a Kentucky Colonel, don't speculate, why would they not be? The Coat of Arms or State Seal is the official image for the Kentucky Colonel.
The foundational values of the Kentucky Colonel are goodwill, authenticity, integrity, trust and honor. Traditionally before a person could be designated a colonel they needed to be considered capable of taking on the office.
These guys really dressed the part, straw hat, string tie, split tail coat with all the senior members with moustaches and goatees. Considering when this group of gentlemen started in 1917, maybe the name "Honorable Order of Kentucky Colonels" started in 1933 comes from the Honorable Order of the Blue Goose (Established in 1903). These guys certainly do look very cool!
In deed, the award is the highest form of recognition bestowed to individuals by the Commonwealth of Kentucky. Kentucky colonelcy can only be granted by the Governor and the Secretary of State based upon being nominated by another colonel, being recommended by a third party, or being individually recognized by the state's governor for a noteworthy act that commands the governor's attention. Historically there have been cases where the governor has recognized noteworthy individuals as Kentucky colonels based on formal written suggestions by citizens and other officials of the Commonwealth. Nominations for the title of Kentucky Colonel must be made by an independent third party, it is not recommended that family members living at the same address make nominations because they may be rejected.
Recommendations can be made on the Governor's Website.
Kentucky Colonel is the highest and most prestigious civilian title of honor bestowed by the Commonwealth of Kentucky. Commissions for Kentucky colonels are given by the Governor and the Secretary of State to individuals in recognition of noteworthy accomplishments, personal achievements, individual deeds and outstanding service in a person's community, state, or nation.
The Governor of Kentucky bestows the "Honorable" title upon someone with an honorary colonelcy commission through the issuance of letters patent. The commission is a legal act of the Office of the Governor and lifetime appointment as an honorary officer of the Commonwealth of Kentucky. The practice of naming civilians as Kentucky colonels began in 1895 with Governor "Colonel" William O'Connell Bradley who himself was known as a Kentucky Colonel since his adolescence, so perhaps the practice of making colonels has much deeper roots?
This is not where Kentucky Colonelcy began, long before Governor Bradley came to office Kentucky was full of colonels, in Colonial Virginia being a colonel meant a person was recognized as the "head of the colony"; the same common law colonelcy exists today as it did in 1775, when the colonies turned to states the colonels had done their job and the title remained an honorary one for civilian use.
We are discovering more everyday in the US Library of Congress and the Internet Archive!
Col. Daniel Boone
Col. John Bowman
Col. James Harrod
Col. Richard Henderson
Col. Benjamin Logan
Col. James Calloway
Col. Isaac Shelby
Col. Percival Pierce Butler
Col. Richard M. Johnson
Col. Chas. S. Todd
Col. John Marshall Harlan
Col. Bennett H. Young
Col. William O. Bradley
Col. George M. Chinn
Col. James Pepper
Col. Harland Sanders
There are many, many more.
Few people knew, but the Kentucky Colonel Commission (Kentucky Colonelcy) actually has its roots in the Commonwealth of Virginia, not in Kentucky. It has also been asked how Col. Daniel Boone made new colonels if not with a commission; this would be by taking the Colonel Oath which in 1775 was an honorable order and a strong bond between these first settlers. There is also ample evidence that suggests the common-law tradition and custom used by the governor today is the same civilian colonelcy which continued from 1775 until 1850 when a colonel could make another colonel.
Kentucky Colonelcy 🇺🇸
