Morehead is a house rule-class city located along US 60 (the historic Midland Trail) and Interstate 64 in Rowan County, Kentucky, in the United States. It is the seat of its county. The population was 6,845 at the epoch of the 2010 U.S. census.

It was the focal reduction of the Rowan County War and is the house of Morehead State University.

The first European settlers came to Rowan County from Virginia in imitation of the end of the American Revolutionary War in 1783. In 1854, Morehead became the third community to be established in the county. Colonel John Hargis founded the city after purchasing house in the area. The city was named after James T Morehead, a politician who served as bureaucrat of Kentucky from 1834 to 1836. Rowan County came into existence in May 1856, seceding from parts of Morgan County and Fleming County. It was divided into four districts when Morehead being avowed the county seat. The formation of Rowan County was a political ploy to prevent Flemingsburg from upsetting its chair to Poplar Plains, and Morehead was fixed as Rowan’s seat because of its centrality. Although it was smaller and less developed than the next to town of Farmers, it remained a significant city in the county due its status as county seat. It was officially incorporated in 1869.

In the 1880s, Morehead became the central stage for a notorious lawsuit known as the Rowan County War or the Martin–Tolliver–Logan Feud. During a number of skirmishes for the bordering few years, at least 20 people were killed and possibly 100 were wounded. Beginning in the aerate of an election-day barroom brawl, several gunfights took place in Morehead and the surrounding countryside. Eventually, a activity led by Craig Tolliver seized political manage of the town and installed allies in the county sheriff’s and county attorney’s offices as capably as at the office of the town marshal. Several members of the opposing faction were arrested on trumped-up charges, and some were killed past the faction in faculty falsely claimed they had resisted arrest. The suit gained national attention and on two occasions the executive sent troops to preserve order with little effect. Eventually a posse of as many as 100 individuals were organized and armed by Daniel Boone Logan later than the tacit allow of Gov. J. Proctor Knott and Governor-elect Simon Buckner. In a dramatic two-hour gun battle through the middle of Morehead, several Tollivers (including Craig) were killed and the Tollivers’ control of the county was broken. Two men were cutting edge acquitted for the murder of Craig Tolliver. Morehead State University was received as an indirect repercussion of the feud. After the let in militia came to reach agreement the feud, the Disciples of Christ normal a church and theoretical which served as the forerunner to the university.