Raywick

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Historical Marker #1673 commemorates the town of Raywick in Marion County, Kentucky.

The mass of early settlers to this area emigrated from Virginia and Maryland. Those who came from Virginia were mostly Presbyterians, while many of the Maryland settlers were Catholic. As early as 1778, James and John Ray and Henry Prather settled in the western part of the county on Prather's Creek, which is the present-day location of Raywick.

The community of Raywick got its name from the surnames of two pioneer families, the Rays and Wickliffes, when Lloyd Ray and Nancy Wickliffe were married in 1811. The community was officially established by the state legislature in 1837.

James Proctor Knott, son of Joseph Percy and Maria Knott, was born nearby on August 29, 1830. His grandfather, Thomas P. Knott, came to this area in 1796 and taught at the first school here, and his father was a surveyor of Marion County. After a local education, Knott became professor of natural science at the Lebanon Seminary. He practiced law in Lebanon and Missouri and was a delegate to the Democratic National Convention in 1860. He was elected to the Missouri legislature and was attorney general of that state during the Civil War. He returned to Lebanon and was a member of Congress from that district for twelve years before becoming governor of Kentucky, 1883-1887. He later became Dean of the Law department at Centre College in Danville. He retired in 1902 to Lebanon County and died in 1911.

In the 2000 census, the town of Raywick was less the one square mile and had a population of 144 people.